hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc in new york. it's day 129 of the trump administration. and new this morning on "msnbc live," president trump is back at the white house. fresh off of his first overseas trip. arriving late last night amid reports of jared kushner's alleged conversations with russian officials. sources telling "the washington post" that president trump's son-in-law and senior adviser is staying put at least for the time being. now some white house aides have discreetly discussed among themselves whether he should play a lesser role or take a

leave of absence until the russian related issues calm down. people who have spoken to him say that he's increasingly weary of the nonstop frenzy. president trump firing off a series of tweets in the last hour and here is an example of one of them. whenever you see the words sources say in the fake news media and they don't mention names, it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by the fake news writers. fake news is the enemy and then here's the president's youngest son eric trump in an interview last night. >> my father has had a lot of success, but the media keeps on harping on russia, russia, russia, what's he going to do neutralize that? >> it's a witch hunt it's insane. i think syria indicated there wasn't nirg with it. look, they got beaten badly by a person who came out of nowhere.

i think they'd rather see this country fail than see him succeed. >> the russian thing is a total -- >> it's made up. >> but there were some interesting sound bites from eric. meanwhile, defense secretary-general mattis on whether it was appropriate for trump to tell the nato leaders to increase their financial contributions. here's a clip from an interview airing later this morning. >> this is a consistent message that we have be given the nato nations. they get the best defense in the world, the nato countries. we have all got to be willing to deal with it like a bank. if you want to take something out of it, you have to put something into it. >> all right, so let's be to the white house. hans wickals is there for us. so the president returned embroiled with the negative headlines. what's the step of the first strategy? >> well, it appears to be a defense of the white house in general. not jared kushner in specific, via twitter. we woke up this morning or at least i did to a variety of tweets from president trump.

some of them quite critical about the general leaking. here's one -- you read one as well. but here's one that captures what the president is trying to say. and that is, it's my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the white house are fabricated lies made up by the fake news media. thomas, that's an indication that the president is -- defense of his son-in-law is going to be offense. they're going to be attacking members of the media. it's something he's used before. it seems like what's digging in on that -- like he's digging in on that strategy. separate and apart from this, there's more personal lawyers coming here to the white house. the president's personal lawyer will play a bigger role. to the extent that we see the lawyer's names comes up, that's one focus to focus on. the president not answering specific charges but making general attacks on the media. via twitter.

thomas? >> speaking to a source in washington and also i read about this, about the insight of jared and ivanka going to the white house counsel to get their guidance and then being punted, getting the separate advice. >> there are a set of rules of what the white house counsel can offer you in terms of legal advice. a lot of times the -- a lot of pro forma questions, hey, i'm thinking of leaving, when can i start interviewing for jobs? i have this issue with my financial disclosures. i didn't have any independent cooperation of that that it was indeed the counsel saying you need to go to private outside lowers on that. that gives you an indication this is more serious and could potentially escalate. >> we know that the president is on offense this week about these headlines. what is on the agenda, constructive things to tackle? >> there's talks that he

cancelled the trip to iowa to talk about his infrastructure and budget. when you look at the capitol hill calendar it gets compressed because at the end of august that's when -- because the reconciliation, the vehicle they're using for what would be health care and tax reform, that closes. that window closes in august. so you'll potentially have a lot of capitol hill conversations, you have some debt ceiling conversations there as well. normally, on a friday night at a white house you get what's called the week ahead. they read out what's going to happen next week. we didn't get that week. i wouldn't read too much into that. they may be a little bit behind on their paperwork and informing us what's going to happen. >> you know, friday nights are typically either document dumps, big headlines and other things. hans, great to see you, sir. so i want to bring in republican congressman scott taylor of virginia, a former u.s. navy s.e.a.l. great to have you with me. i want to get your take on this. national security adviser hr

mcmaster told reporters during an off camera briefing last night his feeling about whether this is true, it's not really a big deal. >> we have back channel communications in a number -- with a number of countries. so generally speaking about back channel communicationing what that allows you to do is to communicate in a discreet manner. so it doesn't predispose you toward any content of the conversation or anything. so, no i would not be concerned about it. >> sir, do you think that's intellectually honest? because mcmaster got his job because they fired flynn for secret back channel conversations that he then lied about that involved the lifting of sanctions that were imposed by the obama administration once trump was in office. do you think that hr mcmaster is putting his credibility on the line with statements like that? >> well, i think what he said is intellectually honest. of course, there's no question

that the country has had back channels and we do consistently do even today. i think it's important to understand what happened and there are investigations that are out there. your last segment was speaking about lawyers being involved and that's important because if this is a serious investigation, so it's good that they are taking that step. but i think that, you know, whether he should have been doing it or not, sure, that's up for debate. whether it should have been someone who was more seasoned if you will on international relations. but what mcmaster said there is intellectually honest for sure. >> when it comes to how espionage or treason terms are being tossed around about an incoming presidency, the senior member going to the russian ambassador to suggest setting up a secret communication line, one that would not be picked up by our intelligence agencies, isn't that a major concern that one

administration would try to undermine another while they were laying in wait, especially since the current government was imposing new sanctions on russia at the very same time. >> do i think that's a concern, yeah, it's of concern for certain. i think that some of the terms that are being thrown around, treason, while they're certainly political, i think that trying people and convicting them in public in something that's a serious thing you're throwing out that. i think that's irresponsible for people out there doing that for sure. >> what's treason? what's your definition of treason? >> well, obviously going against this nation and certainly going on a way that harms this nation with a foreign entity. no question about that. but does this rise to that level? i don't know all the facts and i know you don't either and most folks don't. i think that would be irresponsible to say this guy committed treason or not. >> most of the facts remain classified at this point. >> i think that's fair to say, sure. there is a serious investigation right now. there are two intel

investigations, one in the house, one in the senate, a special prosecutor as well too. and an fbi investigation. so look, i think it's important to let -- i have heard you say it actually. let the facts lie where they may. >> correct. >> that's important. if there's something that was done criminally speaking here, it will be found out and people will be held accountable and they should be for sure. i think -- but that goes both ways as well too. there are folks that are currently leaking at of things to the press and in my opinion that some of the folks maybe they don't agree with the president's agenda politically or not. that's not being a patriot, that's being a criminal and they should be held to account as well. >> i think there are folks on the both sides of the aisle and certain media outlets that would have a predetermined conclusion or answer that they're seeking to fill in the equation prior to that answer. i'd much rather follow the facts and see where they lead us. i know that there are many investigations taking place -- in the case of robert mueller now appointed as special

prosecutor. >> sure, a good point though. but i have een some reporting -- i have seen some reporting with "the new york times," with comey seeking more resources and that was pretty damning, except it was false. the attorney general said that he has no knowledge of that whatsoever taking place and neither does anybody else. i haven't seen any retractions or statements to the contrary that's false. i think we have to be careful out here. these are serious charges being thrown around and serious investigations so let them take place. >> sir, you have big work to do. work for the american people. so i want to talk about the legislative matters that are before congress. notably the budget, health care overhaul. mark sanford told mulvaney that the budget is based on the economy growing at a 3% rate would be a lie. so when you consider this and other criticisms, is this budget feasible? >> i think that if you look historically speaking there

hasn't been a president's budget that has been passed in the history of this nation. so yeah, the president does that. but it's our job as in the legislative branch to come up with the budget and pass it and then send it to the president. i think that, you know, the president's agenda is obviously very clear with the budget and there are -- i agree with some things in there and some things i don't agree with. i think it will be reworked and sent to him in a different form. >> so some things you do agree with, what could be saved in your opinion? >> well, i think there is -- let's say for example there are departments there that have a very heavy bureaucratic layers. the department of interior for example. there is a huge amount of bureaucracy there. and they have a shortage of people who are on -- in the field. that's wrong. i mean, you have to -- there are some belt tightening that should take place. on the opposite side i don't agree on the cuts to the coast guard budget for example. i think they're an integral part of the national security apparatus. they do bang for the buck a great job for us.

i disagree with him there. i think that, you know, lawmakers across the spectrum will have that. they agree with some things, disagree with some things. i think the end product that gets sent to the president will not be the same as sent to us. >> the cbo score over the health care bill predicting that 23 million will lose their coverage also it would weaken protections for pre-existing conditions, how can everybody come to a consensus on how obviously obamacare -- people like it, they want to see it be better and more effective. how does that get done? >> well, i think there's two things on there. number one, i can tell you the majority in my district does not like it. that they're paying crazy amounts of premiums and having to make tough decisions in their families to pay for the rising premiums and less coverage of course. we had two insurers drop out of the virginia market as well. it's helped some people and there are some things that are good in there. but it's fundamentally flawed it, when you can't fix it, it's fundamentally failing, 94 out of

99 counties in iowa won't have an insurer next year. >> but a majority of the american penal want -- american people like and want obamacare more than they like president trump. >> well, that's -- that is a -- >> -- along with the clarification. >> that's not true. >> what the americans want. >> that's true. >> no, it's not true. >> based on the latest public polling -- obamacare isore popular than president tru's approval rating in the white house. >> i'm not disagreeing about the polls but i'm disagreeing with you when you say there are more success stories than not. i can tell you that is not the case in my district at all. so that's not true. i'm not questioning the polling which is a snapshot in time. we do those throughout the year and many different things. but when you spoke to the cbo score, you know, look, i don't have a bone to pick with the cbo. i'm not saying, you know, they're disingenuous or they're bad. they don't have the totality of the data. they just don't. further more they also predicted

that there would be 24 million people who sign up for obamacare. there are actually only ten. that's a huge disparity. if you intellectually say they're definitely 100% right they're way off in their prediction, aren't they? so i wouldn't lean on the cbo by itself to deal with obamacare or the replacement thereof. i can tell you that across this nation the republicans were put in office to deal specifically with this bill that -- excuse me with the aca which is failing. there are success stories. i don't say that there are not. there are good things in there that should be there, but i think it's fundamentally flawed and i think the american people spoke pretty clearly when they say they want changes there. >> congressman taylor of virginia. thanks for joining me. i hope you get to go back and enjoy a holiday weekend. happy memorial day. another big story, weather. missouri taking the brunt of some severe and violent storms that produced heavy rain,

damaging winds. at least one tornado. this is how it looked about 20 miles south of st. louis. the storm took down trees, knocking out power to 2,700 customers last night. winds gusting up to 80 miles an hour in certain parts of missouri. look at this, the size of hailstones that fell near kansas city. one the size of a softball. nasty weather is moving east. bonnie schneider is tracking all of it. >> good morning. we had strong storms in atlanta and 38 million people at risk in america today. large hail and damaging wind, not as baed as what we saw -- bad as what we saw yesterday. let's break it down in terms of the holiday weekend. severe storms, the best chance from texas to ohio. that's for today. as we look towards memorial day if you're out and about, keep in mind we could see storms in a a areas to the east and the southeast. on monday, 18 million people at

risk for severe weather. you can see that's across much of the carolinas. temperatures really depends on where you are. cooler up to the northeast. very hot across much of the south especially in texas where we have seen highs yesterday in the 90s. now the heat will start to build for a beach day. even though it will be stormy out there. the temperatures will be warm enough for the myrtle beach area. staying cool in buffalo right at 65. up to do bar harbor in boston, cooler temperatures for the memorial day. we're looking stormy across much of the mid-atlantic and at least we're getting a beautiful day for today. >> bonnie, thank you for the update. so coming up, jared kushner's future in the white house, could he be searching for an easy way out or doubling down, staying put at the right hand side of the president? we'll talk about this next. break through your allergies.

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one motive that would -- it doesn't make sense on policy grounds but it might make sense in terms of explaining what they were trying to do is avoid being detected by the american detection services. why a campaign would be more trusting of the russian government and its intelligence services than of the american government and its intelligence services. >> so there was former chief of staff for john kerry, secretary of state, weighing in on the washington reports -- "washington post" report saying that president trump's son-in-law and senior aide discussed opening a line for secret channel communications with the russian ambassador sergei kislyak back in december. so they said they'd like a secret line to the kremlin. joining me is caitlin huey-burns and jane timm. the president is back now state side. all of the different headlines

he has to face. so jane, nbc news learned before this came out about kushner coming under scrutiny for this information leading to sergei kislyak. there you can see the different people. it's like where's waldo. kislyak is waldo and then everybody around is around him. how is this all going to play out into the already existing probe or is this something most likely that robert mueller and other folks have already been sitting on, they knew this? >> they may have known this. but this is a big billow of smoke as the post called it themselves. here is the biggest headline, that there was a desire to talk? this, without american intelligence knowing it. if you're doing nothing wrong, why dow -- why do you worry about your allies, your own countrymen knowing what's going on? continually when you say over and over again as the campaign said we didn't have anything to do can russia, we don't care about russia, whatever happens happens, then we see this, it questions what were you saying you before.

what did you before we have nothing to do with russia? i don't think we can understate how close kushner is to the president. he's arguably one of his most trusted advisers. this is the closest time we have seen russia come to the president. easy for him to say i don't know carter page, that was the first trump adviser who had been tied to russia. but kushner, he knows kushner. >> but the other issue with jared kushner, the fact that he omitted meetings and conversations with sergei kislyak on the security clearance form. so his credibility is demeaned, and meanwhile we're supposed to believe kislyak and the fact that we intercepted this russian communique? >> right, exactly. >> who's the honest broker? >> and remember too, he did not disclose his meetings with the russian state bank during the transition too. to put this kind of in context here, this was as we knew that russia was meddling in the 2016 election, so knowing their

intentions and their, you know, bad intentions for the government also this came during the transition as the president was really pointing fingers at the intelligence community, really criticizing them in that regard. so to jane's point which i agree with, it raises a lot of alarm bells about why they were doing this in secret or why they were talking about forming this in secret. another thing about kushner too, remember he is the closest person to the president and he is not a confirmed appointee, right? so he wasn't under the same kind of public scrutiny. so this ensures there will be more to come, linger on, creating another cloud within the white house and this is the closest person to the president. >> all right. so taking goddard on political wire who i love and i look at his stuff every did. he had up a exclusive piece he wrote, idea the that they were colluding with the russian officials to rig the campaign

seemed far-fetched. it may turn up some things. it was clear that they were undermying the legitimacy and more likely the trump team's contacts with russia were all about money. jane, do you think that's really what this is going to lead back to because winning the white house was not really plan "a" for the trump folks. right? it was about building the brand, extending the brand. we know the russians have invested in the trump organization in the past. we would know it better if we had the taxes but is this a clean-up effort. we won, we need to clean things up, how do we do it and do it so that the intelligence agencies of the u.s. don't know during our transition time? >> you know, we just don't know. over and over again we're seeing drip drip drip. and that was what we saw continually discredit the hillary clinton campaign. now we have a president who continues to have this drip drip drip of the story that comes out

over and over again. we don't know what it is. we don't know if it's money, we don't know if it's power or politics. we don't know if it's completely innocent. because they keep denying any wrongdoing. refusing to talk about it. refusing to show us the evidence. and saying, it's all the fake news media. it's the fake news media that's done all of this. we're really the victims in this story. so the more we talk about it the more it continues to shed this cloud. why doesn't the press want to talk about our priorities, why don't they want to talk about extremism or tax cuts? because we're trying to figure out what the heck is going on there. >> i saw you were trying to say something else there. they didn't give our reporters overseas or american reporters access to talk about the issues. they did not do any on camera briefings. kelly o'connell reported yesterday if you went to the briefing, they said no pictures. they would put out their own propaganda pictures of the press conference. none of the reporters were

allowed to do that. quickly though, caitlyn, on the last part about jared's future. this article out that some says white house aides have discre discreetly discussed if jared should take a lesser role. but they have been reluctant to discuss that with kushner and his allies has rallied behind him. most likely they're going to double down. certainly president trump on his son-in-law and keep him close. >> right. well, also keep in mind that kushner's portfolio within the white house is really expansion. i mean, from everything from middle east peace to this, you know, small businesses. >> american innovation projects. >> american innovation project. other things. >> china patterns. >> who knows? >> china, his portfolio is everything. >> it's everything. and, you know, so this -- you know, having this cloud over him without -- with a big question mark as to how long this will go

on. remember, he's also people on capitol hill are very interested in hearing from him as well. he and his team have said that they will comply with all of the questions and that they -- you know, his lawyers have said they'll comply. but to have this lingering over while the president returns from this and wants -- if he wants to focus on other things that remains a big question mark. we see the president already tweeting about other things this morning. coming back from that trip. so it just guarantees to be a lingering kind of thing. >> wi-fi is working. wi-fi works now. jane and caitlyn, thank you so much. so later we'll dig deeper into the topic of who the jared kushner and whether he's a true believer in the president's brand of politics. break through your allergies.

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what we're watching for you, more reaction from the trump administration pushing back on reports of jared kushner's alleged contacts with russia during the transition time. here's the department of homeland security secretary john kelly just moments ago. >> any channel of communication back otherwise with a country like russia is a good thing. i mean, multiple ways to communicate back and forth is a good thing with any critic and particularly a country that's like russia. so it doesn't bother me. as they begin to build relationships, there's nothing wrong with that. as they begin to build their own situational aware witness russia in this case i don't see an issue here. >> also new reaction just moments ago from republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina. >> he got the ambassador of russia reporting back to moscow on an open channel. hey, jared kushner's going to move into the embassy.

i don't trust this story as far as i can throw it. >> in what way, why don't you trust it? >> i think it makes no sense that the russian ambassador would report back to moscow in a channel that he most likely knows we're monitoring. i have never been more suspicious of all things russia than right now. >> who is jared kushner? we'll speak to a journalist who wrote an in depth profile on the man coming up. that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise

happening right now in manchester, thousands of unrunner -- runners have taken over the street and they're paying tribute to the victims of monday's deadly concert bombing at the same time. remarkable resilience shown there. and lucy cavanaugh is joining us from manchester. obviously the city is staying on course with planned activities, but also recognizing what they

lost. >> reporter: hey, thomas, i do apologize for speaking quietly, but the mood here is actually one of somber recognition of those 22 victims of the attacks. this is a moment of silence, a minute of silence in honor of those victims. but if there's one word to summarize the atmosphere in the streets today it is defiance. nearly 40,000 people running to raise money for various causes. but a range of emotions understandably out in the streets this morning from the folks we have spoken to. take a listen. >> i'm crying. it's so sad. >> this is obviously bringing up a lot of emotion for you. can you tell me what's going through your mind right now? >> i just think there are so many children here, and doing this for manchester -- i can hardly talk here.

>> we definitely thought we should come, and we were devastated by what happened on monday. it's the right thing to do, to show solidarity for manchester. >> reporter: now, thomas police last night releasing fresh images of the attackers, salman abedi moments before they carried out the attack. they believe they located the apartment where he assembled the device. this is is still a live investigation and that's not stopped the people in manchester from turning out and showing their support for the city. one that clearly does not cave in the face of terror. thomas? >> lucy cavanaugh, thank you very much. thank you for doing that respectfully. i know that's not easy to do during a moment of silence and you need to do your hit at the same time. thank you, my friend. i appreciate it. so joining me right now is robin -- a national security expert, nice to see you this morning. we know one of the big headlines has been that there was a break in intelligence sharing between

the u.s. and the uk. british authorities complaining that u.s. officials were leaking details they weren't ready to make public. how unusual is something like this? >> yeah, it is very unusual, actually. the u.s. and uk have about as close an intelligence sharing relationship that exists out there, so the fact that the home secretary spoke about it, the prime minister mentioned she was going to talk about this with president trump was a sign of how serious this was and just actually how set the british were the leaks were coming from the u.s. side. they believe rightfully impacting the course of the investigation. >> so when we think of the culture of covering news and how different it is in the u.s. and certainly how different we just witnessed what happened with the president's overseas trip, but the decision to publish the name of the suspect and the photographs of the crime scene was the leak malicious or naivete from the new administration? >> i would tend toward naivete.

i think the main -- the name coming out before the british authorities was ready was especially important because at that point they hadn't made the arrest they wanted to. they were closing in on abedi and his network around him. by that name coming out around them, they feared the associates would scatter essentially. go to ground. they feared they may then forward some of that plans and carry out an attack. so it could have had serious consequences and obviously we hope it doesn't. >> so when we think of the other times we have seen some issues with classified information, whether it's president trump in the oval office divulging classified information to the russians concerning our allies in israel, what's more egregious at this point? the fact that the president has shared intelligence with that many or we learned about this in such a public and damning way

towards this administration? >> i don't want to make the mistakes, but they were mistakes. i think it's important to remember this is the law of physics when it comes to intelligence work. if intelligence is passed on from one country to another, it's done so with a very clear expectation that that will remain secret. and as soon as that law is -- as soon as that unwritten law that principle is broken then of course the country passes on the -- passing on the intelligence is reluctant to do so again in future. >> robin, thank you. a lot of folks are asking -- who is the real jared kushner? we'll speak to a writer who profiled him. and why melania and ivanka trump got so much love from the saudi press. is there an ugly truth behind it? that's at the top of the hour.

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and it's also a story mail aabout people 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 so we have new questions about jared kushner today all of

which are from a report surfacing that say the president's son-in-law and senior adviser allegedly tried to open up a secret communications channel with russia back in december during the presidential transition. despite scrutiny friends say the 36-year-old has no plans to leave the white house role and is instead digging in for what could be a protracted legal and political batter. i want to bring in the writer and talk of the town editor. you profiled ivanka and jared back in august. >> yeah. >> so this would have been before that. >> yes. >> how does what you learned -- what you saw from their interactions kind of fit into what would be so naive or considered nefarious on the part of jared? does it come across that way? >> i think -- -- you know, i think he -- it sounds a lot like what what i learned about him in the course of my reporting. one, i just heard you mention this word that he's digging in for a protracted battle. that is something that -- his

friends told me about his personality, that he's the kind of person, kind of based on his life experience who a lot like donald trump tends to dig in and double down on -- >> never surrender attitude. >> never surrender, yeah. he's from a realess tate family that's a lot like the trump family in many ways and he's -- it's a third generation real estate business and his sort of formative experience in his life was his dad being sent to jail. and i think that that experience was -- had a lot of echoes with what's happening right now. >> that was a lot of dynasty interior drama for that family and what his father did to the brother and the sister and it was all about money. >> dynasty. >> but really heart breaking stuff. chris christie was the prosecutor in new jersey at the time and -- >> right.

>> we all witnessed and covered there's no love lost there between those two men. but kushner would have to be extremely naive or crazy to establish a back channel with the russians. does he come across as a kind of crafty character or smart, sa y savvy, owner of the observer, married to ivanka trump? i mean, would he be that crafty and nefarious? >> i think that he -- he's definitely willing to sort of bend the rules and to take, you know, to take -- >> to ask forgiveness and not permission? >> exactly. to, you know, make aggressive moves and to kind of go out on a limb in the way that -- in the way that he seems to have done with this. >> we know former acting cia director john mclaughlin responded to the reports saying this alleged report setting up the secret lines between the

trump transition team and the kremlin, he said if these reports are true this will be considered espionage. i don't want to overstate this because obviously there is a lot that we don't know. but i can't keep out of my mind the thought that an american intelligence officer had done this, we'd consider it's espionage. and the other report, ivanka and jared will review every six months whether to stay in the administration or go back to the private life. how do you think they were preparing for the public life? at that time hillary clinton was leading in the polls? >> the way i watched them handle this campaign on one hand they're behind the scenes and keeping a low profile. on the other hand, they seem to be putting a certain message out there when they're -- when it's going well. they're more prominent. when it's going badly they seem to put the message out, well, maybe, you know, we're stepping back from it.

we weren't involved in this part that went badly. >> when you got that opportunity to see them in august, obviously we lived by that point over a year with the trump campaign and the crazy wild ride of the trump train. what's kushner's relationship like with the president? does he believe in the brand of politic that was delivered can. >> he believes in his father-in-law. i think that that is -- that's a thread that we can see running through the trump family relationship to politics and his own. that the loyalty is to family and to individuals. a lot more than it is to general principles or -- >> republican party. >> or the republican party platform. his family was -- they were huge donors to democratic politicians going back many years before this. and i think a lot of people have inferred from that that means that he's liberal or that he's a big endorser of democratic ideas

but many of the real estate people told me, don't read too much into that. if you're in new jersey and on the east coast and you want to have influence in government, democrats are in charge so that's who you donate to. and i think donald trump has the similar relationship with political parties and with -- >> correct. you hedge your bets on both sides to make sure that you can cash in at a later date. >> right. so i think he describes himself like ivanka as they will say, well, i'm not partisan, but they stand by their family and they stand by the man. so that's -- >> it will be interesting to see how it all pans out because they have a lot of different headlines to answer for when they come back. we'll follow it fact by fact. thank you for come inning in. inside the minds of the republican rank and file and if they think the russian investigation is a witch-hunt.

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there was a policical party everybody gave no chance to, outspent us 7:1, he won and there's disappointed people out there. they want a further narrative for their own commitical agenda. i believe they'd rather see this country fail than see him succeed. >> it's a hoax? >> a total hoax. >> president's second son defending his father from inside a golf cart at his bedminister golf property in new jersey. good to have you with me. crystal, i watched this piece. i will admit it, i was watching "waters world" and saw the whole piece and it was a big commercial for the property, golf tease in the towels, trump branded and eric caddies for

him, carries, caddies for waters, right. carriesyies waters' water but t trump statement the democrats would rather see the country fail than their father succeed, is he right about that? at ts point, democrats are seething. >> no, he's not right about that. if you had to pick a side that was putting party over country right now, it's pretty clear who it is, and it's not the democrats. we think about this now the new reports about jared kushner and every week a new bombshell that makes it harder and harder to deny there's nom there there with trump and russia and more and more folks floating the idea of impeachment. we would be better off with trump in the presidency than mike pence. pence is likely to be more effective. he's probably more competent and probably going to push and have

success in pushing a much more conservative agenda than what donald trump has been able to manage to do so far. what we are so concerned about is the erosion of our democracy, the erosion of our freedoms in this country, the attacks on the press, and trying to sleep at night knowing that donald trump has the nuclear codes. >> when the son uses the phrase witch hunt, scott, the fact that there are informed republicans in washington who have access to classified information, they're not so fast to throw out that word, that term. >> well, look, i think the democrats are not worried about erosion of the country. they're worried about the erosion. their own party because they lost an election and they're embarrassed about it and rageful about it. they are embarrassed they can't find a cohesive message that communicates to a large chunk of the country and they're grasping for anything to tear down this presidency. you know, the first narrative was they're cluding during the

campaign with rauussia. that didn't pan out. oh we have discussions going on during the transition. if this stuff was going on during the transition, din does that blow a hole in the concept of collusion during the campaign? >> no, because they had an investigation we didn't know about during the sumer and it went into -- you wait. comey had an open investigation into trump in collusion in the summer. we did not know about it. there say ton of classified information we still don't know due to the fact there are six different investigative teas on the hill looking into this and a special prosecutor and robert mueller and you think the democrats are freaking out because they're losing place in politics. no, we've lost our place to russia, scott. aren't you worried? >> no. i am not worried. i think a lot of carts are in front of horses on this. lot of people jumped to a lot of conclusions and i also think we have anonymous leaks coming out

of the government that need to be investigated. if this happened during the obama investigation they'd have tommy lee jones and a pack of bloodhounds looking for the folks leaking this information. >> crystal, i love you but i have to jump, joy comes up next and they'll kill me. see you back here at noon. that we find a cure? i think how much i can do to help change people's lives. i may not benefit from those breakthroughs, but i'm sure going to... i'm bringing forward a treatment for alzheimer's disease, yes, in my lifetime, i will make sure. oscar mawe went back toig the drawing board... and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of hot dogs. brtry new flonase sensimists. allergy relief

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