the special counsel's investigation into whether the president obstructed justice. the news was first reported by the "washington post" and has been confirmed by nbc news. we're going to start with the best reports on the beat. nbc's hans nichols at the white house. nbc news national security reporter ken dilanian. nbc chief legal correspondent, ari melber. ken, i want to start with you with, i know we overuse this word, but this did feel like a bombshell in a legal sense, this development that in the days after the firing of jim comey, even before bob mueller had been appointed, the president did, himself, potentially become someone that we'd want to learn more about in terms of obstruction of justice. can you explain to us how that happened? >> well, nicolle, if it wasn't the actual firing of comey by the president, you can bet the fbi investigators perked up when they heard donald trump two days later tell lester holt that he fired trump with -- sorry, he fired comey with russia on his mind. after an explanation had been

put out that it had nothing to do with russia, that it was really about comey's performance at the fbi. so that may have started the fbi looking. now, at not point, mueller hadn't been appointed. of course, the firing of comey and the subsequent revelations of the memos he wrote led to the appointment of mueller and now we have this information about other intelligence officials being asked by donald trump to say that they hadn't seen evidence of collusion and we still don't know what else is out there. don't forget that episode with ezra watnik of the national security council and devin nunes and looking for information about unmasking. so there's a lot of information swirling around that trump was seeking to tamp down this investigation, to get people to say there's nothing there and now we know that the special counsel is looking at that. >> ken, just to hone in on this narrow question after the actual development, so what we understand now to be the case is that it is possible that totally unrelated to the investigation into potential ties between trump's campaign orbit or

universe, and russia, they are now looking at whether or not the president of the united states obstructed justice. >> that's right. the evidence for that is the special counsel has sought interviews with the director of national intelligence, dan coats, and the head of the nsa, mike rogers, about this thing that we already reported where donald trump went to them separately and asked them to say publicly that they had seen no evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia. and they both said we can't say that. they both found it to be inappropriate. one of them, rogers, found it inappropriate enough that he asked his deputy to write a memo about that. and now my source tells me that neither of these men believed that they were being asked to do something illegal at that time, but they found -- they were concerned enough about it that they wanted to document it, told other people about it and fully expected to be asked about it by investigators and now they are. >> all right. hans nichols, the president isn't taking any of this laying down. tweeting just before we came on the air, this is a donald trump tweet, "crooked h." i guess that

means hillary "destroyed homes with hammer, bleached i ma eed and had husband meet with a.g. days before she was cleared and they talk about obstruction?" mv minutes before that, president trump tweeting "why is it that hillary clinton's family and dems' dealings aren't looked at but mine are?" if we wanted to know where the white house is in terms of head space, we is it from the tweets of the leader of the free world. >> reporter: it's clear, nicolle, donald trump is inhabiting a pre-bob mueller world. the russia investigation, how he was cleared, how they believe that to be true. that he's no longer under investigation for the russia part of it. they don't quite seem to have grasped that this investigation is now in a new stage. and it's a stage where robert mueller, the man who president trump interviewed as the white house confirmed today to be his next director of the fbi, so mueller certainly has a good sense of what trump's mental capacity is, what his mens rea

was, what he was looking for. mueller has that interview. the next day he's appointed special counsel. that's the reality we're inhabiting now. the two tweets from president trump, one is the pre-mueller reality, the other talking about hillary clinton seems to go to the pre-november reality. we're now living in june 15th, this is a different set of circumstances and donald trump from his tweets, in his defense, doesn't quite seem to recognize that. nicolle? >> hans, i got a sense at the beginning of the week the white house was trying to walk back any notion that he might consider firing mueller. i talked two to stoources and understand that firing him is still not at the top of the menu of choices, but they view him as fair game for political combat. are you picking that up? >> reporter: yeah, when you look at some of the verbiage, some of the hedges we've heard from white house officials today on the record, saying that does the president still have faith in mueller? i believe so. i mean, there are several i believe that to be the case, and to my knowledge.

so they're clearly preserving the president's ability to do something if the president so decides. you know, this whole conversation the last couple days on attorney general sessions preserving executive privilege, in some ways white house officials are preserving presidential movement and the president's ability to fire anyone that he may vrun afoul o. they seem to be creating space for him to do what he may decide to do one way or the other. >> ari, you called today's news an inflection point on the "today" show, "morning joe," everywhere you've been. you've been cheating on me all day. everywhere else you've been today. talk about the significance of this development. >> the president of the united states is under criminal investigation for his conduct in office. not for what other people did and not for what happened in the campaign or before he was elected, but for his conduct as president. so, everything has changed. if donald trump is listening, he needs to hear sooner or later from someone he trusts, mr.

president, this is the first day of the rest of your life. your life as a person, of interest or potentially more, in a criminal inquiry. and everything that came before, from your riches to your power to your authority, to your ability to move these people that get excited about a tweet about hillary clinton, none of that's going to matter anymore. and as one other historical context, we can put it up on the screen, in the other cases where this has occurred, where the department of justice has looked at the conduct in office, not other things -- >> right. >> -- of presidents. we saw in the example of richard nixon, it took 1,580 days into his administration for that to happen. for bill clinton, 1,835 days. for donald trump here, a tenth of that. we are only 145 days in and this is the situation he faces and all history shows everything changes from this day forward when your conduct is office is under review. >> let me ask you, i understand -- i don't defend,

condone or appreciate the conduct toward bob mueller. i think i've described him as an american treasure, he is one of the good guys in a town full of people who don't live by the same kind of codes of service that bob mueller lives by. but i have heard that their political strategy is to go at mueller the way they went at comey in terms of motive and grandstanding and showboating. is that going to work in a legal sense? >> well, it is certainly allowed. it is lawful to voice your opinion of the other side, the prosecution, the doj, et cetera. so they can do that and in prior examples, certainly in the clinton example, there was tremendous democratic criticism of the way ken starr did his job. that is fair game. what is different, and what i don't believe has occurred in the bush or clinton examples when there were special prosecutors, is a direct statement from people very close to the president, also, again, backed up or restated in "the

new york times" that they think they can confirm a unitary or unlawful firing of the prosecutor. the fact is that the president doesn't have that authority. he has a lot of authority. he can fire the defense secretary, he can fire the labor sec taretary but the way the ru work today right now, the rules require only the decision can be made by the attorney general or acting attorney general in the case of recusarecusal. so when the president says he wants to do it, you mentioned a reality show presidency. watch "the apprentice," he says "you're fired" and everything else happens. all the president can lawfully do under the rules today is call up rod rosenstein, ask him to fire mueller and rosenstein has to look at rules that have a requirement for that. good cause and a few other things. >> yeah. >> or he can try to change the rules which would be a lengthy process. that's important. we interviewed this morning on msnbc senator john thune, republican, and many others who said, yeah, presidency doesn't have that power. >> yeah, hans, are you still with us? >> reporter: yep, yep. >> hans, what does the white house say about the fact that by in large, every republican with constituents, so that would be

every republican in congress and everything i've seen from republican elected officials is to defend the integrity of bob mueller and the only people out toeing the president's line are either paid spokespeople for his legal team or former campaign surrogates like newt gingrich. >> reporter: yeah, they've not directly responded on that why you see this big yawning gap between what republicans are going to have to face voters in 18 months and what their own campaigns are saying. you know, to ari eexst'ari's po the white house could do it and rod rosenstein is the bullwork there. eventually, you can find -- they can always fire rod rosenstein and find someone who would not find charge. it's not impossible to think that clever lawyers here at the white house, there are many, in any administration there are, could figure out a way to do this. i take ari's legal point and the

process point, but if there's one thing we learned about the trump presidency, 145 days into it, is that process isn't precedent to them. and that they can take actions that they see fit and the president sees fit either through deliberation or on a whim. >> all right, hans, i know you have a busy rest of your afternoon. thanks for spending part of it with us. everyone else is staying with me. i'm going to bring in my panel now. mika, slayer of governors, also vice president for thirdway's national security program and former staffer on the house intel committee. former democratic congresswoman of maryland, donna edwards. happy to have you on set with us. "washington post" political reporter phillip bump. with us from washington, my friend, republican strategist alex conan, former rnc spokesman and former senior adviser to marco rubio. alex, i'm going to put you on the spot. what does marco rubio think about bob mueller? is he a man of honor and integrity is. >> yeah, he doesn't have any reason to question bob mueller's integrity at this point. certainly.

he said today -- marco rubio sits on the senate intelligence committee, doing a really important and so far excellent job investigating how russia tried to interfere with our elections last year. that is not a witch hunt. when donald trump tweets out that it's a witch hunt to look into what russia did to the u.s. elections, he's absolutely wrong about that because it's republicans like marco rubio, like the chairman of the committee, richard burr, who are leading that investigation here on the hill, and the buildings behind me, and they're doing an glen job on it. there's also the investigation that the fbi is doing and now obviously that trump is trying to interfere with, or is alleged to have tried to interfere with and that's spawning all these new investigations. so, to answer your question, no, i don't think any member of congress has any serious issue with bob mueller. in fact, most of them were very applaud toir when he was appointed to be special prosecutor. it's the proappropriate thing to so we can get to the bottom of what's going on.

>> has senator rubio developed a close enough rapport with the president to pick up the phone, call him, say, the reason you're now -- as ari said, under criminal investigation, mr. president, is because of the way you're conducting yourself in office. you know, pull back. i mean, get off twitter. about to call it the twitter. my old boss used to call google "the google" once. get off twitter, focus on an agenda and let us handle the investigation. does he have -- do you have a sense that senator rubio or any of his peers on that committee have the ability to call the president and tell him that he is making legal trouble for himself? >> certainly can't speak to what marco may or may not have told president trump. they do have a good working relationship. tomorrow you're going to see marco and president trump appearing together in miami where reportedly they're going to be announcing some new cuba policies. something that marco's been working on with the president for a really, really long time for months going back to before he was even in office. i can't speak to what sort of

advice members of congress might be giving trump. i think it's clear he's not listening to a lot of people's advice right now, if you look at those tweets which i don't think help him politically. i don't think they help him legally. i don't think they do anything to sort of shroud the questions that are hanging over the administration. >> i can't wait to see the two of them together with all their history. let me bring you in on this, phillip. what is the price that the white house is going to pay in the long run of bringing -- trying to bring the republican party along for character assassination, first against comey, and potentially now against mueller if that's the path -- i understand them to be standing at the fork in the road. if that's the path -- they're attacking mueller's investigators, people with conflicts, i think the president called them bad people this morning on twitter. what is the political fallout of pulling the republican party along for that journey? >> i think it remains to be seen. first of all, there's the short term, what happens between now and 2018 when everyone in the house is up for re-election and there's the longer term what happens to the matter. i think right now most republican leaders and most

republicans on capitol hill are betting that the fact that republicans as voters are still standing with trump, he still has approval ratings of over 80% with republicans, themselves, that since that base is still standing with trump, since they're all worried about what's going to happen with primaries early next year, they're not going to rock the boat. that said, you asked the question what happens if trump starts going harder after mueller? i don't know there's a lot of value for those republicans to keep -- to stand with trump in that regard in the same way there hasn't been a lot of value for republicans to stand with trump in all the other times he's attacked all the other people. there have been questions raised about comey but different than the character assassination we're starting to see against bob mueller. i don't know if that pays political dividends. >> it's a stunning development. people that he's attacked and maligned and mocked still carrying his water for some reason. all right. no one is going anywhere. when we come back, as the russia investigation picks up steam, the president and his advisers sharpen their political attacks against mueller and his

attendants as we've been discussing. also, someone in washington is getting tough on putin. sanctions to punish russia. we'll get an update on the condition of steve scalise who remains in critical condition after yesterday's tragic shooting. over here! over here! no! (dog barking) whoever threw it has to go get it. not me! somebody will get it... ♪ (dog barking) anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. from the b-2 to the upcoming b-21, northrop grumman stealth bombers give america an advantage in a turbulent world. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us. i am totally blind. i lost my sight in afghanistan. if you're totally blind, you may also be struggling with non-24. calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com.

it's just a burst pipe, i co(laugh) it. no. with claim rateguard your rates won't go up just because of a claim. i totally could've - no! switching to allstate is worth it. hey you've gotta see this. cno.n. alright, see you down there. mmm, fine. okay, what do we got? okay, watch this. do the thing we talked about. what do we say? it's going to be great. watch. remember what we were just saying?

go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. senator, is bob mueller a man of integrity, has he done anything so far in the conduct of the investigation that leads you to believe he's conducting a witch hunt? >> no, he is a man of integrity, mark, and he needs to be able to do his work, and i think it's

better for all of us if that work continues. and it's -- obviously he's going to get to the bottom and he's going to find the facts and i think that's -- that's his role. and i think we ought to let him continue to do that. >> so not a witch hunt. >> it's not a witch hunt, no. i think that he's got a job to do. we all understand that. >> donna, i want to ask you if it's a peculiar situation for m democrats to find themselves in in they're the ones more comfortable defending men like jim comey and bob mueller who were appointees of republican presidents to run big law enforcement agencies than obviously i don't want to suggest that senator thune was uncomfortable, but as philip was saying before the break, this could become uncomfortable for republic chance if the white house does a full-throated attack on the character of the men investigating his white house. i wonder if it's a weird situation for democrats to find themselves in to be these men's defenders. >> well, i mean it's

complicated, right? surely there was not a lot of great feeling about comey when he was going after hillary clinton so significantly. at the same tile, thereme, ther question about what the rule of law is. many democrats are saying we need to stand for the rule of law because years down the line we could have the same shoe on the other foot. i think for republicans it's always tough to defend or to weigh defending your sitting president in the white house. and i think that's where they find themselves. but you will notice that in the wake of the latest headlines, most republicans stood by mueller and they stood by his integrity and his independence and i think that you're going to see more of that going down the line and if the president of the united states continues to attack bob mueller, he's going to separate himself even more from the party. >> i want to ask you, mieke, if there's a legal parallel to the picture that donna paints. i mean, marc kasowitz, the

president's private attorney, obviously hatched a strategy with his spokesperson, a veteran of republican legal combat, someone who's pretty good at it, if that's your game, to attack bob mueller as the tip of the spear of the deep state. i think that's now newt gingrich described him. do people in laurmtw enforcemen do they hear that or does that roll right off them in the context of pursues a legal criminal investigation? >> i think you have to let it roll right off you. the ad homonym attacks, they might have attacked ideas but didn't see them attack people and their characters the same bap i think you get used to letting that kind of thing roll off. mueller and comey stick to the facts and stick to the facts and whether or not the requirements of the law are met when they present their findings. >> ari, i had a spirited debate with a trump ally today who said

bob mueller is like comey, he likes the praise of the media, he cares about how he's seen, he's absolutely political. i said, are you kidding me? this man saved lives after 9/11, serve the george w. bush, instrumental in sewing the fbi and cia back together, the intel collapse that led to 9/11. what are sort of the -- lay out the liabilities and the land mines for going after bob mueller. >> well, i think facts are one liability, and i think some people care about that and some people don't, but if bob mueller is so in love with the press, ask your friend, when's the last time you saw him do a tv interview? it isn't true. there are people who go to washington and go on to be on tv. you and i know there's nothing wrong with that. maybe we like to hear ourselves. i don't think it means you can't be honest and have integrity. in this case, for him, it's not true. newt gingrich turned a government career into a big television career. that's not bob mueller. never been bob mueller.

doesn't bake any sensmake any s. republican appointee. a law enforcement person. more importantly, it's the first inning, literally the first day this has been publicly documented. i don't know if anyone has any idea where it goes. it could ultimately help donald trump if a respectable person clears him of charges and say it's time to move on or could hurt him in other ways. either way, this is a guy who ran on law and order and supporting the cops. ma what do you think the fbi is? federal cops. they are the people who enforce the laws and risk their lives. we're here coming off a day when we talked about the capitol police, the lives they risk. that's what we're talking about. if you believe the woest woet repo blank blank woe "washington post" paper. started looking as obstruction as a factual matter before bob mueller came in the room. at a certain point, yes, he is fair game in the sense that it's lawful to talk about it. and i fully expect the president's lawyers to do that. but if you talk about the wider ambit, is this the road you want

to go down, attacking what every cop and law enforcement person and federal agent is doing? because at a certain point, you look ridiculous or worse, you look guilty. >> i mean, i was just -- as you were talking, one of the things i think is worth highlighting here is that what donald trump right now is doing is so bizarre from a political standpoint as well. right? i mean, he could -- most people, even if they're guilty are going to pay lip service to, yes, let's see what's happening with this russia thing, we need to have that investigated, need to have that flushed out. that's never been what donald trump has done. even if he's innocent, done nothing at all whatsoever, he's making it look like he doesn't want this investigation into russia. >> right. i can't decide -- >> it's bizarre. >> i can't decide if the behavior is weirder if he's innocent or weirder if he's guilty. >> totally. >> not even thinking about that. i mean, he's really just such a loose handle, he's not paying attention to the political advice. he's not paying attention to the legal advice. i wouldn't want to be his lawyer. >> would you take the case, though? >> not a chance. >> what about jared kushner?

jared kushner's name came up because i think -- do we still have ken dilanian here? ken, there was a line in the "washington post" story about how mueller now has people on his team who are expert in investigating financial crimes. and i wonder what that means. >> well, you know, as we said before on the show, the fbi is not going to ignore any financial crime that comes across in the course of this investigation. and we already know that paul manafort and mike flynn are under scrutiny in connection not necessarily with russia collusion,s but wi but with oth financial activities. flynn lobbying for turkey. manafort for various real estate deals. so it stands to reason, and now we have the jared kushner situation, the meeting with the bank we talked about before. of course, the fbi's going to look at that. and nobody wants to be in the cross hairs of an fbi investigation. and now multiple people are and who knows where it's going to go, nicolle. >> ari, let's talk about just building off what ken said, if someone looking at financial

crimes, what -- what are financial crimes? does that mean doing personal business under the sort of us a po sis of a government official? were laws broken? >> you don't care how dry this gets? >> you scared me. we're going to a commercial break. you freaked me out. also ahead, the president's attacks against -- ari threatened to give me a lecture on tax law. it came 24 hours after his solemn call for unity. up next, the look at the damaging political pattern that this president engages in that undernine undermines his own few precious good press cycles. garfunkel (instrumental) [ snoring ]

[ deep sleep snoring ] the all-new volkswagen atlas. seats seven, sleeps six. life's as big as you make it. are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® it's starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®.

it's the simple things in life that mean the most. boost® simply complete™. no artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners, plus 10 grams of protein and 25 vitamins & minerals. it doesn't get better than this. boost® simply complete™.

all right. before we went to break, i abruptly cut ari off when he threatened a legal tutorial, but

on a serious question, some of the news coming out of the special counsel's investigation is they have staffed up and they now have expertise to investigate and prosecute i guess if they find something, financial crimes. what constitutes a financial crime? what kind of person can commit a financial crime? >> any person. foreigner or an american. although i think mueller is going to care a lot more about anything that comes close to the campaign satellites, to use the -- >> right. the president's word. >> favorite term of the president, according to jim comey's testimony. i would point to two laws on the money there, the anti-money laundering act there basically looks at felony convictions for misuse or hiding funds, which could be for a very good reason or might have hid them because you were just sloppy. if you have the right criminal mentality about it, and the other thing is that federal election law bars foreigners. if you're moving money around in some way that then touches a campaign, you could be in a lot of trouble. >> so that could have nothing to do with collusion, with russia or any foreign government in the context of the outcome of the election.

it could simply be illegal behavior that as you keep saying, you uncover because you start turning over rocks. >> that's right. you can ask people in both parties, governor bob mcdonnell, republican, john edwards, a democrat. >> scooter libby. >> scooter libby on leaking. i was going to say the other two kam examples are finance related, right? mcdonnell ultimately had his conviction overturned by the supreme court. but in both those cases, again, for donald trump who's, it's new to him. there are times when he seems like he has a little bit of a christopher columbus complex, he's like look what i discovered. you go, people live here, man. >> right. >> and, you know, he discovered the fact there are aggressive prosecutors in washington that can interfere with your agenda if you're not careful or have legal exposure, yeah. that's why a lot of politicians and former congressmen and others can speak to this, are very careful with campaign finance issues. >> absolutely, they are. and, i mean, what is staggering is he actually did have some people around him who understood that. the question is whether he paid any attention to it at all. >> right. >> we're learning that he probably didn't.

but i think that here, you know, it's not unlike any other investigation that people are familiar with in their own, you know, hometowns where, you know, a prosecutor is looking at one thing, and in the course of looking at those things, discovers something else. and i think that's what we're going to find here. >> all right. i want to turn back to another big story in the news because president trump managed to stay above the fray yesterday after the shooting in alexandria that injured republican whip steve scali scalise. we'll update you on his condition later in the show. as watchers of the white house, we were struck by how quickly the president returned to his favorite method of kmu communicating, twitter, to step on his unity message. here he was yesterday. >> we may have our differences, but we do well in times like these to remember that everyone who serves in our nation's capitol is here, because above all, they love our country. >> moments before we came on the air, he tweeted this. "why is it that hillary

clinton's family and democratic de dealings are russia aren't looked at but mine are?" on other occasions like when he took to the floor of congress, and delivered a speech that was very well received by both sides of the aisle. think we have a little bit of that. oh, i'm sorry. we're going to go to his nomination of neil gorsuch. supreme court nomination which was also very well received. let's take a look. >> today i am keeping another promise to the american people by nominating judge neil gorsuch of the united states supreme court. >> so instead of enjoying the by in large favorable coverage he got from the nomination, he engaged in a diplomatic twitter fight with the leader of australia. and defended his now unconstitutional travel ban by saying, tweeting, "everybody is arguing whether or not it is a ban. call it what you want. it's about keeping bad people, with bad intentions out of the country." and "do you believe it? the obama administration agreed

to take thousands of illegal immigrants from australia. why? i will study this dumb deal." finally there was his first ever address to congress, sought to project more of a unifying message than normal. >> i am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart. >> now, that was followed by his now infamous tweet accusing obama of wiretapping him. "terrible! i just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. nothing found. this is mccarthyism!" philip, i wanted to relive some of that because i was among those who was impressed by yesterday's approach. i sent a couple notes to friends and colleagues in the white house and i said, i thought the president struck the right tone. but now in a morning twitter and an afternoon twitter storm, he just can't let himself stay in what is good for him, which is anything resembling anything remotely presidential. >> so i would say there are two

things at play here. the first is, you're right that we used to see on the campaign trail, there were times where he'd be riffing during the campaign appearance, sometimes he'd read off the teleprompter. all the thing you cited were teleprompter moments, reading a speech someone had written for him, helped someone right. on twitter, he's campaign mode trump. the second thing, trump has consistently talked about unity and done nothing to back up the talk. from the outset, as soon as he won the election, thanksgiving day message, everyone must unite, move the country forward, et cetera, et cetera. he's always viewed that unity as people coming and agreeing with him. he's never done anything to reach out to the other side, never did anything to reach out to the other side during the general election. everyone expected he's going to pivot, reach out to democrats and independents. he views unity as people rallying around hip. >> alex, let me bring you in and put you on the spot again. he had a pretty harsh back and forth with your old boss and your friend, marco rubio. got down to conversations about the size of each man's hands.

and now they seem to have smoothed things over. i wonder what it is about trump in combat that is so visceral and so harsh that he seems to, he, himself, sort of forget all about when he wants to present a different image. do you think that he sort of exists in both realities or do you think he intends one and is faking the other? and if so, which is real? >> no, i mean, look, i think his comments yesterday after the shooting, i agree with you, they were very good. i think it's the best speech he's delivered as president. i think that, you know, he must have been so frustrated when he gives us his speech in the monkmonk morning, very well received, there's leaks in the afternoon about the comey/mueller investigation, so by this morning, none of the talk shows are talking about his good remarks yesterday. they're talking about the "washington post" report yesterday afternoon and takes to twitter to vent that frustration

and try to respond to the story. >> my 5-year-old learned how to manage his frustration and doesn't have an outburst eight hours later if things aren't going the way he wants because he got a certificate for preschool graduation. that's a ridiculous standard. >> the news cycles move so fast right now. >> he fuels them. >> and he needs -- that's right. he fuels them. that's the mistake he makes. i don't think that he appreciates the power of the bully pulpit. how if he had gotten up this morning, tweeted about something else not responding to the "washington post" story, i'm not totally sure that we would be talking about it this afternoon. we certainly wouldn't be talking about his bizarre tweets this morning on the show this afternoon. so he does have a habit of stepping on his own message. but in his defense, he -- there are also leakers in the city, leakers involved in the investigation that leak out news about the investigation any time this white house seems to catch a break and so they just -- they're constantly on defense and he keeps taking the bait when the leakers put stuff out about him. >> all right. we need to get to a break. i'm going to let mieke get the

last word. she's bursting. >> he's a staffer's nightmare, the idea your boss can't control yourself. you set up a good series of events for them, put together a great speech and come back around and step on their own message. it really leads to this question, why bother hiring all the best people if you're not going to listen to them? and this is why you have really great lawyers all over this country refusing to represent donald trump. and leaving him with these guys who just don't know what they're doing. >> all right. up next, the u.s. senate takes matters into their own hands.

the senate attempting to box in the white house this afternoon when it comes to russia sanctions. and almost unanimous vote passing in the last few hours imposing new russian sanctions and limiting the president's power to remove them in the future. ca kasie hunt joins us from capitol hill. kasie, i know the administration put rex tillerson on the record to say he needed flexibility and

that was their concern, but that fell on deaf ears when it came to the senate, right? >> reporter: that's right, nicolle. look, this was the first -- this really is the first time that the senate is on the record sticking it to the president quite a bit, to be perfectly honest with you. i mean, this is something wherein we spent a lot of time talking about how these russia hawks have been critical of the president over time, but this really forces him into a corner here with these sanctions. and i think it tells you a lot about where those republicans who haven't been as willing to be vocal in opposing the president or being critical of him actually do stand. specifically, mitch mcconnell and the leadership around hypo, this, when i was first talking to my sources about this bill this week, there were democrats saying, hey, look, this is something we want to force republicans to do. as it turned out, they didn't have trouble getting this added which tells you this never would have happened without mitch mcconnell being explicitly

onboard, and willing to send a pretty strong message to the white house. so i think, i don't know if i necessarily want to call it a shot across the bow, but this is one area where congress is able to exercise some power, and they used it and i think -- i think it really sets a much different tone for those members. lindsey graham and john mccain have been willing to talk about this very vocally all the way along. others have been less vocal but i think the legislation speaks for itself in that regard. >> i was thinking about how quiet republicans were when the images of sergey kislyak and sergey lavrov in the oval office came out. they were reluctant -- most of them were reluctant to criticize the president. so just to follow up what you're saying, it seems like their vote is their response to those images. >> reporter: i think it is. i mean, look, the reality is, you know, i feel like we've talked about this quite a bit on your show so far, these republicans are nervous about president trump's voter base, and they're nervous about being attacked personally by the

president. they're nervous about having this kind of online -- we've been talking about this in the context of the recent events as well, the vitreal, the way the conversation has evolved. if the president turns a tweet on you or, you know, something along those lines, it can have real ramifications. i think there's a lot of nervousness around being a face in front of a television camera saying negative things about the president because, you knows, that's how a lot of these members get their information. they go on tv then they get a phone call from somebody in the white house, sometimes from the president, himself. they don't necessarily want to be that person, but they can take a vote on this and go home and defend it really easily. >> because they have a lot of cover. the vote was 98-2. i wonder if you have insight into the two. rand paul and bernie sanders. are they going to hatch a twitter strategy and stand together against donald trump? what's their plan? >> reporter: i don't know about that. i think, you know, bernie sanders put out a statement in the wake of this saying essentially this would jeopardize the iran deal that president obama made in the

waning months of his presidency and, you know, senator paul has had his own reasons for opposing things like this all the way along. i'm not sure they're exactly on the same plane. >> probably a good guess. thank you for spending time with us, kasie. amazing reporting all day yesterday, too. thank you. donna, i wonder if this is one of those rare unintended but welcomed consequences where democrats and republicans can be aligned on foreign policy again because of the trump administration's posture on russia. >> well, i think what it did was it validated the overwhelming view of the intelligence community that russia meddled in our elections. and that was a strong rebuke, i think, to the president. and even if they're not willing to openly criticize him in other ways, they certainly did that with their vote. >> mieke, what is the -- obviously, russia has a lot of sort of outsized influence in the political conversation, but it is not a thriving economy. talk about the impact of these

sanctions. >> so it is a really big impact on russia. it undermines their standing on the world stage. you saw tremendous protests in moscow the other day. but the other thing we heard from the intelligence community, this was not a one-off. they are coming back again. this is an important piece of legislation to punish russia for what's been done. there's more to do to prevent russia in interfering in our elections going forward. evelyn farkas and i put together steps, to make it difficult for russia to interfere in our elections going forward. >> still one of the most haunts lines from jim comey's testimony was "they're coming for us." up next, the latest on steve scalise's condition following yesterday's shooting. rom capita. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line.

what's in your wallet? 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. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. woman: for some, lyrica can significantly relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve function, so i feel better. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash,

hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can be more active. ask your doctor about lyrica. i can be more active. i just want to find a used car start at the new carfax.com show me used trucks with one owner. pretty cool. [laughs] ah... ahem... show me the carfax. start your used car search at the all-new carfax.com. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. your vacation is very important.

that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. visit booking.com now to find out why we're booking.yeah!

i'd like to take a moment to again send our thoughts and prayers to my friend and the friend of most of us in this room, steve scalise and his great family as he continues his very brave fight. it's been much more difficult than people even thought at the time. he's in some trouble. >> that was president trump earlier today, stressing the severity of congressman steve scalise's condition. nbc's kelly o'donnell at med star washington hospital where he is being treated. kelly, what do we know at this hour? >> reporter: we were told that a third surgery was taking place today but we have not been given

any guidance on if that has already occurred or the outcome of that surgery, but the significance of the injuries to steve scalise are really considerable. it was one gunshot wound but that did a lot of damage, entering around the left hip, cutting through his body. severe blood loss, damage to organs, broken bones. we are told to expect even more procedures likely in his recovery. two yesterday. we're told a third surgery was expected. again, we don't have a timing on that yet. so it is a long recovery ahead. certainly we respect the privacy of the family. they have not commented today. the hospital had put out a full report on sort of the overall status of his prognosis, but nothing separate yet. he did have visits of the vice president today, last night the president, and a handful of his colleagues, democrats and republicans came in early today to wish him well.

>> i know you pointed out in your reports, the vice president is a former house mecmber himself, this is a circle of friends keeping a close eye on scalise. kelly, come back if you learn anything new before the end of our hour. you told me you were sworn in a month apart from whip scalise. you know him. >> that's right. we both came in in a special election in 2008. we weren't great friends but it really is a family, i thought the tone yesterday struck by speaker ryan and leader pelosi was exactly the right one and it's the only time in the time i have not been in congress that i miss being there because you could really see them standing up to a moment. it is a tough time. >> why do you think we see so little of that, the humanity and compassion. congressman barton talked about his sons were on the field in that baseball game, i can't

imagine the terror of having your kids there when something like that happened. he said something i thought about all night last night, it was like they had 25 dads, all my colleagues in the house were there, i knew they would protect them like their own kids. why do we see so little of that? >> i think that's true among democrats and republicans. look, what we see are the fisty cuffs that happen at the high level on major policy issues. we don't see the day to day working and humanity of members of congress. look, they're playing a baseball game tonight. bipartisan show of spirit and support. i played on the softball team, the football team with republicans and democrats and i think it would do the nation well to see more of that, of us, because in some ways i think people think our lives are so different and so remote from theirs when in fact these are moms and dads and parents and colleagues in a workplace just like you find in any other workplace.

>> want you show you what some of your other colleagues said today. >> i looked at the mayor and said that's not the right tone. i myself am going to try to tone down some of my rhetoric, i invite my democrat friends and they are friends to do likewise. >> i'm a little bit pessimistic that anything much is going to change. i got a call after this happened to my congressional office praising what had happened, hoping donald trump was next. one of my colleagues got an e-mail saying one down, 217 to go. >> i would argue that the president has unleash partially, not in any way totally, but partially to blame for demons that have been unleash. >> is this the right time for this conversation? it makes me uncomfortable to see that, but if that's the climate in which we live, is this a teachable moment to borrow an obamaism? >> it is not the right climate to have this conversation right now. what i will say is that i remember living through that

summer of the tea party and some of the most outrageous calls coming into our congressional offices, people coming in angry. it was really a scary moment. and i think each one of us has a public responsibility to call the public to a higher good. i mean, that's not going to control everybody who's out there who decides they want to take it upon themselves to exercise a political message in a violent way, but each one of us has a responsibility. look, i'm glad chris collins apologized for his earlier comment. i know chris. i think we don't do enough things like traveling together, work together, i say we like a member of the family, i'm still a member of the family. but i think we don't do enough of those things that would enable both the public to see us in a different light and members of congress to see themselves as colleagues in a different way. >> more on the game that donna

edwards is talking about on the other side of this break. ready or not, here i come.ek.) ♪ anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us.

♪

everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox. when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. "america" by simon and is that good?strumental) yeah it's perfect. bees! bees! go! go! go! [ girl catching her breath } [ bees buzzing inside vehicle ] the all-new volkswagen atlas. with easy-access 3rd row. life's as big as you make it.

that's the field on which tonight's charity baseball game is being played, not a softball game. i want to read a piece from ben terrace, he writes about the game. the game is about a childhood fantasy, members readily admit it is about more than charity, chance to live out a childhood fantasy of playing on a major league field, not to mention a chance for people to match an unadulterated victory. >> ben is a great writer. this is a moment when congress gets to be people.

we don't see that often. we think of them as representative so and so. these are people playing a game. good way to view how our government works. >> probably worked better if we did more of this. sounds like everyone is in agreement on that point. thank you so much to my panel. that does it for our hour. i am nicole wallace. hi, nicole. >> there's a parade in oakland now. >> a parade. glad to see it is in oakland. sorry they don't like oakland so well they want to move to san francisco. >> you know, you're not a good loser is all i'm saying. >> i'm a terrible loser. >> it is a guy thing. >> fair enough. it is mueller time. tonight, investigating for possible obstruction of justice as we learn more about mr.