investigation for possible obstruction of justice as the white house staff worries their boss is obsessed. mrs. breaking news tonight, the special counsel is investigating jared kushner's business dealings. and amid all this, the president back at it on twitter, and back to attacking hillary clinton. we have all of it as the "the 11th hour" gets underway. it's another busy one. good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. day 147 of the trump administration. and now the vice president has hired a lawyer. mike pence has hired richard cullen, form u.s. attorney, colleague of james comey, who also happens to be godfather to one of the comey children. and there is this tonight from the "washington post," quote, special counsel is investigating jared kushner's business dealings. the report notes that kushner now joins a list that already

includes michael flynn, paul manafort, and carter page. all of whom under scrutiny. mueller's team is also scrutinizing kushner's december meetings with two prominent russians, ambassador sergei kislyak, and a prominent and putin-connected russian banker gore could have been. the president up and at it early this morning on twitter this morning. 6:55 a.m., quote, they made up a phony collusion with the russian story. found zero proof, now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. nice. 62 minutes later, you are witnessing the single greatest witch-hunt in american political history led by some very bad and conflicted people. make america great again. this afternoon, two more that reach backed to campaign and the clintons. they came before a story in politico headlined white house aides upset over feds russia probe obsession. president has sometimes injected i'm not under investigation into conversations with associates

and allies. he has watch hours of tv coverage every day, sometimes even storing morning news shows on his tivo to watch in a the evening and complain non-stochl it is a basically all he talks about on the phone said one adviser. about those reports earlier this week that the president was considering firing robert mueller. quote, he is totally in a box now, one friend said. and it might make him want to fire mueller more. while we have have more on this later couldn't was the big kong baseball game in wsh. with steve scalise remaining in critical condition there was much talk about lowering the rhetoric, bipartisan shp then this e-mail from the trump/pence team, they have sparked protests in the streets and used the media to spew vicious rhetoric against the president.

it goes on to borrow a phrase from nixon asserting that trump's followers are the silent majority. we also have breaking news tonight. let's first bring in tonight's starting panel. news and finance writer at yahoo news, briana goal riga. and vivian salaamo. welcome to you all. and i hold in my hand the breaking news. this is a press release that came out in the last hour from the justice department. social media, where attention spans go to die is, losing its collective head. they are standing on a ledge with this. this is the associate attorney general rod rosenstein, americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous officials particularly when they do not identify the country let alone the branch or

agency of government with which the alleged sources are supposedly affiliated. americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. the department of justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations. michael, you are going to get the first crack at this. again, the theorizing tonight on social media ranged from is this a cry for help by the number two guy at justice, or has doj been hacked? >> well, it's an extraordinary statement, brian, it's kind of trumpian in its tone, which is not what ultimate expect from high levels of the justice department. very political. very combative. doesn't have that sort of lawyerly cool we associate with the justice department. and i would say in substance, brian, you know, this is a recurring theme that these stories that have anonymous or sources should be treated

skeptically. but the record of these stories has been very, very good. americans should turn a skeptical eye to all the information they receive. but the "washington post" is a highly professional, credible news outlet. i just think this is kind of a weak attack to say that a story that is based on anonymous sources or background quotes is inherently not trustworthy, likely to be wrong. the track record does not bear that out. time and time again the work of these papers that are breaking these big stories has been substantiated and is extremely credible. so i think it's a very odd statement on multiple levels. >> michael, you are right. and to underscore that, we have had your colleagues on from publications like the times, the post, in stories where they have quoted 20 to 30 source, sourcing by the dozen the likes of which

we had never seen. obviously people should be cautious with anonymous sources. vivian, you cover this crowd. and michael went there. it sounded to a lot of people, the statement did, like it was somehow dictated. >> i mean there is no real way to tell if it was dictated or to the. but there has definitely been a major pushback by the administration, rod rosenstein not being unique here in terms of trying to push back against any of these stories that are making allegations against the administration. you know, anonymous sources are never ideal. it's not something that we choose to practice. we do it to protect source. my know my colleagues do, this i know i do it where we take extreme caution and only use anonymous sources when we obviously have to. and obviously we have to also raise the case that the white house also uses anonymous sources. >> sure.

>> they choose to speak anonymously very often and there isr this is something we have to deal with as well where we have to quote white house first that don't want to go on record. they make an excellent point that anonymous sources should be scrutinized by the public that is true, but we use extreme caution and don't take out lightly. >> beiana, it questions the country the stories are coming from. >> beyond reports here in the u.s., you start questioning countries. the only country that has been in question when it comes to spreading false news in the united states and all 17 intelligence agencies have said they believe russia spreads false information. it's ironic that this administration is sort of the last one standing has not come out and said the russians are

behind the spreading of false information. now to use country as a sort of backdrop as a warning from rosenstein does raise a few eyebrows to say the least. >> michael, the wording and tone, especially of today's twitter performance by the president, there is a siege mentality. we are hearing that and seeing that even from some surrogates. the -- one of the talking points has been to call this a witch-hunt. some victimization. some persecution. and that's -- that's becoming increasingly prevalent in the last couple of days. >> yeah. you know, brian, i think if you are president trump there are two kind of tracks that this is happening on. there is the legal track and then there is the political track. it may be that the strategy he and the who is are pursuing is effective in the sense of speaking to his base and feeling

like he's got to hold that republican base together and make sure that members of congress kin to more or less defend him. they are not doing it with very much enthusiasm but basically republicans are on trump's side. and i think he recognizes that and is playing a political strategy of keeping the base together. that's part of it. it's not always consistent with the smart legal track. and i think that's what is upsetting white house aides and laws who are trying to help trump out who feel like he is not paying attention to the legal track. he is ten points above about george bush was when he was at rock bottom in the gallup poll. he is in the high 30s, maybe 40. you get a picture of a guy who is completely consumed by this. we had a story in politico. it is a stark contrast. bill clinton when he was going through impeachment did a good job keeping his cool and compartmentalizing and it looked

like he was doing the business of the united states and it doesn't feel that way from this president right now. >> vivian, i want to quote from the politico piece that says aides fear the tweets have -- chief strategist steve bannon has told others that he believes the fbi is now out to get the trump administration. vivian, we've seen bannon come in and out of favor. that now, in looking glass effect blames what the president is sing, a threawe've had before, for the leaks. >> that's right. steve bannon has come in and out of favor, as you said, as have a number of other aides. it seems to be this whole palace intrigue that we've seen play out since this administration has come to office.

but there is something really important that we have to observe here. that is that a couple of weeks ago president trump gave his blessing into this russia investigation. he said i have nothing to hide. i have been told i'm not under investigation. and so i -- i welcome them to go ahead and see -- carry this investigation out, see whatever they fine. then for him to backtrack and call it a witch-hunt and really lash out -- whether or not he is hiding anything. of course it's too early in the investigation to know, it doesn't look good. it makes it seem like he's getting paranoid. you know, these very early morning tweets, you know, show that he is possibly alarmed and reacting in haste and emotionally reacting to what he is seeing. this is something that's going to be playing out for many, many months. possibly for years to come it is a long and bulky investigation. for president trump to have to kind of find his inner peace, inner accident and go with this

if he really, truly believes that there is nothing to hide and that this investigation will vindicate him as he said numerous times. >> beiana in an anonymously sourced piece last night we heard the first reference of money laundering. then we have the investigation into kushner's finances in the "washington post." kushner's attorney has responded tonight, quote, we do not know what this report refers to. it would be standard practice for the special counsel to examine financial records to look for anything related to russia. mr. kushner previously volunteered to share with congress what he knows about russia related matters. he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. this aspect, though, this tranche s where it gets very complex. >> this goes back to that questionable meeting between kushner and the ceo of the sanked bank along with the russian ambassador, why would kushner have met with these two men, why would he not disclose

it. >> explain why that would be a big deal? >> because this is a sanctioned bank. he would have no legitimate reason for meeting with this banker, sanked by obama administration. even more shocking is that he would have this meeting and not disclose it publicly. then when asked about it, the russian bank and jared kushner had two different answers and two different reasons for having meeting. kushner said it was about administrative decision possibly related to syria. the banker said no, this had to do with personal financialish would you say the kushner family and their business. can't get a square answer out of the two of them. but of course the summation being why did we not know about this and and something about it just isn't kosher. >> and this is all happening while mueller hires experts in various fields, financial, legal, and so on. >> which raises the question about this statement coming from rod rosenstein tonight.

why issue it tonight. it's coming on the backdrop of rod rosenstein being the one who can decide the fate of basketball mueller. he said listen, it falls on me as to whether he stays. one has to wonder how much if any pressure he is feeling from the administration right now and why out of all nights to issue the statement tonight. >> thanks to our lead-off panel, thanks to, along with birthday wishes to beiana goal riga, michael crowley and vivian salmano. thank you. come up, the donald trump a nightmare client? are his troubles of his own making? is he making new troubles every day on twitter?

as a defense lawyer, he is your nightmare client, because he is saying all the wrong things. he is contradicting every defense that he had. all of his tweets are terrible. his attack on mueller saying these are bad people. these are not helpful to the defense at all. >> that was a former watergate assistant prosecutor weighing in on just how tough it might be to represent this president in this investigation. we have two very capable lawyers with us here tonight in the studio to weigh in. richard painter, who was the chief ethics lawyer for the bush 43 white house. and mika owe yang is back with us as well an attorney and former staffer on the house intel and house armed services committee. counsellors, welcome to you. richard, to jill's point, is this the nightmare client?

and in light the vp lawyering up, is this going to end up costing so many people some real money? >> oh, yes. this administration is creating a lot of jobs in one industry for sure, that's criminal defense attorneys in washington, d.c. a lot of people are lawyering up. there's -- this investigation is going to a lot of different areas. it started with russian interference in the election. and who was assisting the russians. but there's now clear evidence of obstruction of justice by the president and perhaps others in the administration. this is going to be a very serious investigation. the problem is the president can't put his twitter away. he can't keep his mouth shut with respect to the investigation. he is president of the united states. he should be focusing on health care, on jobs, on the international crises around the world.

let it alone. ifu he would let the whole russia investigation alone, he probably wouldn't be anywhere near as much trouble as he's in now. so it's very unfortunate. he's becoming obsessed with it. now his son-in-law is wrapped up in it. the other thin is they won't be transparent about their finances. if the trump organization were to disclose where they are borrowing their money, the president were to disclose their tax returns, if we had more transparency there would be more confidence in this administration, but they won't do it. they are buckling down, they are not disclosing what they need to disclose and they are calling it a witch-hunt. it's not a witch hunt. it is an attempt to find out who was assisting a foreign country in attacking the united states and our system of democracy. >> mika our colleague are medical better said today on the air, mr. president, today begins the first day of the rest of your life because starting today, if these reports are to

be believed, and his morning tweet was kind of a tacit confirmation, he is under federal investigation. tell our audience what happens to your life no matter who you are when you come under the glare of a federal prosecutor. >> so when you are under a federal prosecutor's glare like this what happens is everything that you do is unt scrutiny. they can get warrants to listen to your communications, they can look at all of your documents. politically it makes it very difficult to get any of your agenda done because no one wants to work with you for fear of working with someone who is going to be under criminal investigation. it really makes his life very difficult. >> the wording of these tweets, not just tempting fate but already trying to criminalize robert mutualer. >> -- mueller. >> hess reputation for integrity and professionalism is unmatched on either side of the aisle. it is really a mistake to go at him this way. but it's really all that the

president has left because you can't argue the facts thim. >> richard fisyou are mike pence what worries you enough to hire a personalawyer? how does this get splesh splashed up against him? >> well it's absolutely critical for to have a good personal lawyer, to talk with that lawyer about what he may have known about what was going on with respect to russia during the campaign. if he did know. we don't know what he knew at the time. but also to get good advice, to distance himself from the president with respect to the president's tweets, the president's communications about this investigation. the president is making all of the wrong choices for someone who is under criminal investigation. and the vice president needs to steer clear of that and make absolutely sure he focuses on the agenda, he focuses on getting bills through congress and on policy issues and stays

away from the russia investigation. no comment should be his approach to this investigation. that should be the approach of the president. >> yeah, deflect every time when asked. mika, as i said loose night, deliberative is a word independent could of attached to robert mueller. he's designate anified, he's taciturn. he's earned his reputation over the years. are you surprised that they are talking about bringing into mueller's office, admiral rogers, dni coats as early as next week? is that not faster than normal? >> i don't think so.

this might not be the last time he talks to those individuals. but given their testimony before congress the other week it's important he actually speaks with them and find out what they know and what the president said to them. which they said they would cooperate with the special prosecutor's office. >> how do you sit down if you try to get them to shut down parts of this. >> your colleague and mine, micolle wallace speaks with great affection about how tough you were in the bush white house and how many receipts she had to bring to you to prove every purchase and prove she hadn't accepted a cup of coffee from anyone. if you were appointed, the off chance that you were appointed ethics lawyer in house in this

white house what would you want to get done. >> a better relationship with the office of government ethics. i'm tired of hearing the white house bad-mouth the government of ethics. they work well with the bush administration as they did with the obama administration. and the white house needs to listen to experienced ethics lawyers about what the ethics laws required. i will want the president to divest himself of financial holdings and stop taking payments from foreign governments. and i would want the president to stop talking about the russia investigation and let bob mueller do his job. this is not a witch-hunt. this is about the security of our country, protecting our country from foreign interference in our elections.

it's not a partisan issue. it is a republican and democrat issue. the president has a lot of work to do and that's what he should be focusing on. that's what i would like to see out of this white house. >> next time i see you i'll ask what you would do on your second day on the job. thanks to two wonderful attorneys joining us here. rcht painter and mika owe yang. coming up, the trump tweets and the danger they may posey when "the 11th hour" continues. welcome back to "the 11th

welcome back to "the 11th hour." it's been 220 days since election night. but the president is trying to use his 2016 election foe to get out from under the scandal that has plagued his presidency thus far. president trump wrote on twitter just today, why is it that hillary clinton's family and dems dealing with russians are not looked at but my non-dealings are. and crooked h destroyed phones with a hammer bleached e-mails and had her husband meet with the attorney general days before she was cleared and they talk about obstruction? joining our conversation, reitzers correspond end jeff mason. we welcome him to the broadcast. pulitzer prize winning columnist for the "washington post," eugene robinson and washington columnist for the boston globe, indira. jeff i'll begin with you. relitigating what happened 220

days ago, the amateur psychiatrists which we have all been forced to become. we've all kind of decided this is a man who needs an opponent. >> well, i'm certainly not an amateur psychologist ms. >> give it a whirl. >> i guess white house koeshd correspondents like myself and my colleagues certainly have gotten used to tweets like this. and i think you are right in terms of the fact that or the idea that he needs an opponent. he likes to continue to talk about hillary clinton. he likes to frame his situation in contrast to or in relationship to her. i think it's worth noting in the context this story as well that secretary clinton has said go ahead, tweet about me, if that keeps you from tweeting about other things like foreign policy. >> eugene, let's just say this is not quite the way fdr did it. i have a graphic and i'm going to read a list of some of the people he has called out by name

on twitter since becoming president. bumenthal, clinton, clinton, comy, cuban, graham, jordan, khan, labrador, manning, mccain, medos, obama, rice, schumer, schwarzenegger, yes, sir, the democrats. i left off donor and blitzen. eugene it is a way of operating. >> it is a way of operating. maybe he thinks he is going what fdr did. maybe he thinks twitter is his version of fireside chat i guess and his way of connecting with the public. you know, the problem is of course that these tweets, and really, they are statements by the president of the united states that have to be read, that have to be on some level taken seriously even if they are not serious. they keep getting him deeper into trouble.

he tweeted out of existence his travel ban basically by blowing the cover story and saying that, actual lesion it's a travel ban. and i don't think he is ever going the get it back. and that's the example of the kind of thing you can do. but the stakes are much higher now for him personally because he's under -- he's under investigation by robert mueller and the fbi. and as he continues these tweets, these obsessive tweets, he can get himself into much more trouble than he's in now. >> indira, maggie haberman at the "new york times" today took the president's most over the top tweet about hillary clinton and just add'd the words comfort level tweet, and everyone kind of got what she was talking about. >> of course it's his confident level. in fact a lot of that language about the so-called bleaching of the e-mails and using a hammer on the telephones was actually recycled word for word from one of his campaign speeches back in september. >> i remember, yeah.

>> right. so this is his comfort zone. he needs an enemy. he seemed like he was happiest on the campaign trail. we know that in the 220 days since he was elected president, we keep hearing about the size of his inaugural crowds, the size of his electoral college win, there are framed electoral maps that have been seen carried into the white house, he handed out toll reporters, copies of his electoral map victory. he is obsessed with this. it's also part his deflection strategy. if somebody is going to point the finger at you this is a good way to say no don't look at me, look at her, look at somebody else. i think the problem with this, and this is where the whole conversation began, is this twitter habit that he has going to get him in trouble is even if there wasn't collusion with russia in the first place, let's leave that aside, for the investigators to figure out. the appearance of a cover up, appearance of obstruction of justice, saying can't you please seem to let it go, with michael flynn, and then firing the fbi director over this, that's what has now got him in trouble with this obstruction of justice investigation, which he otherwise wouldn't have had had

he not gotten himself in trouble. it is not a witch hunt. it is a self-inflicted wound where the witch says hello i am a witch, hunt me. that's different. >> jeff, in addition to skytry, we also need to know mathematics. chris matthews says he takes the bottom number in the polls and defines it as the current size of the trump base which is overall the samplesides size for the outflow of tweets. can you concur it's migrating between 36, 38, something like that? >> i would definitely say the tweets are aimed very much at that base. i think chris is certainly right if that's what he said. and i think that president trump and many of his closest advisors

are really focusing on that. and that said, though, i think there are also others in the white house who would be very happy to see him put his phone away and not distract from some of the issues they are trying to focus on, infrastructure, health care, on some of the policy issues that are not sort of tied up in this russia investigation that even when he ises complaining about it, he seems to bring attention back to it because of his twitter habit. >> eugene, some serious people tonight looked at that rosenstein statement and thought the fix was in, thought it might be a hoax of some sort. >> it's really kind of bizarre. the really sort of off key part of that tweet is not knowing what country the officials are from. >> yeah. >> you know, as if we are writing about rwandan officials or something like that or using them as anonymous sources about the white house. that was kind of odd.

i don't quite know what to make of it, frankly. it is vaguely trumpian. it came from rosenstein, would rosenstein put out a statement at the direction the white house or at the direct of the president? who knows? i'm -- it's rank speculation because i really have no idea what that was supposed to mean. >> i wondered if when he was talking about the country, if he is referring to not saying u.s. first in front of -- or u.s. official in frontan an anonymous source. and i think it's really interesting and this point has been made before that this administration is talking about anonymous sources and casting doubt on anonymous sources when it is a tool that they use repeatedly at the white house and elsewhere in theed a straying when speaking to reporters. >> and with a government communication, frankly, we shouldn't be forced to wonder what the reference to country is in a department of justice statement.

it should be clearer, i think. indira, finally, some people kind of ascribed a last-ditch nature to the president's tweets today. they were really aggressive. and we're nowhere near that point. we are under 150 days. >> there's nothing last-ditch about this. this is like you know we've got many, many more ditches to go through, folk. buckle up, this is not your last-ditch. believe me. but i mean i think that the thing about these tweets is when he says -- he points a finger at bill clinton and says he shouldn't have met with loretta lynch, the former attorney general. okay, maybe he has a point. except the problem is trump completely lacks self awareness here. he's president now. when he points that out he's maybe not remembering that he's the president and he met with the fbi director and said please don't pay attention to, or let go away the probe you have into my, you know, my national security adviser. when he is pointing a finger at bill clinton, that same i think

finger turns around and points at himself. when he says why are you not investigating hillary clinton for her ties and collusions with russia, every is scratching their heads and reminds them of john mccain in the hearing with jim comey last week when everyone was wondering what was mccain talking about when he was saying why are you not investigate hillary clinton. i don't think anyone suspects hillary clinton's campaign clued to hack democrats e-mails to make the democrats look bad and make hillary clinton look bad. that's not real. >> it is a too long a walk. >> stepped a little bit too far out there of a conspiracy for anybody. >> great thanks tonight to three premiere journalists, we so appreciate you coming on. thank you so much. when we come back, what will happen within the gop as the days go by? that and more when we continue.

i think the best advice

i think the best advice would be to let robert mueller do his job. >> is mueller's job a witch-hunt? >> i don't view it that way. >> he's going to stay there, he's going to get his job done, and he's got the support of republicans and democrats to get to the bottom of this. >> a sampling there of a few of the republicans who expressed support for special counsel robert mueller, the widely respected lawyer, decorated combat veteran in vietnam, a man who was the second-hng longest serving fbi director after j. edgar hoover. but we've also seen an effort to discredit mueller led by president trump in fact what calls the probe a witch-hunt that is led by bad conflicted people. a complete 360 from just atlantic month when he called him a superb choice.

and the media piling on raising the question will the russia probe divide the republican party? willw us on the, two former ems in of congress both of whom are in recovery still, haroldford jr. from tennessee and jared jolly. congressman jolly, you are the republican, you get the first question. that is, is support of mueller going to be an increasingly visible dividing line in the republican party? and when do you expect to see some movement, some migration? >> i think it will be a dividing line with the base. right? the base is going to follow this president. they love the president because he is a fighter not because of his policy chops. and when gingrich and others kind of lose their credibility over this issue it will still work with the base. but the hill is a very different question.

if the president were to do something that led to the dismissal of mueller i think you would say republicans on the hill begin to break. the hill is staying there with trump until something gets too weird. that could be firing mueller but it could be this rosenstein statement. this may be -- this is a guy that screams of keeping his job. this is a guy who admitted to the senate he wrote the memo to justify a decision the president already made to fire comey. is he now carrying water for the president depend? we'll find out. maybe it is just a message to his pliees, but something with the president will lead to the hill republicans breaking even though his base stays with him. >> a few of us thought is this real? that's how bad rod rosenstein's statement was. >> think about where we've come from, you had a president who had his vice president, deputy attorney general and attorney

not necessarily the best place

to be if you're the so-called leader of the caliphate targeted a high-level meeting of isis leaders. united states and coalition partners have not independently verified this. as lucy was mentioning, there have been previous claims before that the isis leader has been killed. this would certainly be a significant development if, in fact, the russian claim is verified and true. we'll have a lot more on this throughout the day as it develops. stay with us right here on mbs. we'll be right back.

still with us, two former members of congress, democrat

harold ford in new york, david jolly in tampa. david, not that you can speak for all republicans but this effort at a new health care bill happening in virtual silence and secret in the senate. here's the question, what about what you guys call deliverables. especially republican members of congress going to go home at the july 4th break and say to folks, look what i brought you? >> obamacare created winners and losers. for some it made health care for accessible, more affordable and for others it increased costs. they had to change doctors. the winners won a lot more than losers lost. i don't think republicans have realized that. you also have a lot of republicans who came in in 2010 under a repeal plan. now obamacare is more embraced and voting in 2017 like it's 2013. the opportunity for somebody to lead and inc. it can come from a democrat is to offer a real

repair and replace plan. democrats say we're happy to work with republicans. offer something that acknowledges the reduction in care in some states, increase in prices because that's what the american people want. the secret deliberations in the senate are ultimately going to come back and hit republicans in the face. it's not going to work. >> i've seen you be brilliant in 30 seconds, harold ford. what does it mean that the vice president has lawyered up? >> his lawyer will be part of the pence election team if something bad happens to this president. all questions go back to what nicolle wallace said, michael flynn. flynn was the reason pence had reservations about this administration when he was lied to early on. it could be flynn very well that could undo this presidency and push pence and his lawyer and campaign team into the white house. it will be interesting to watch. >> our thanks to former congressman ford and jolly.

up next, the ball game that was much more than a ball game tonight in washington. we're back right after this. whuuuuuat?rtgage offer from the bank today. you never just get one offer. go to lendingtree.com and shop multiple loan offers for free! free? yeah. could save thousands. you should probably buy me dinner. no. go to lendingtree.com for a new home loan or refinance. receive up to five free offers and choose the loan that's right for you. our average customer could lower their

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last thing before we go tonight, 55th annual congressional baseball game went on as planned at nationals park in d.c. with the largest attendance in the game's storied history. almost 25,000 people bought tickets, raising $1.5 million for charity. that's a great thing. an emotional surprise for the crowd at the start of the evening as the first pitch was

thrown out by capitol hill police officer david daley, who was wounded in that shootout just yesterday. while the game was in a major league park, the baseball was, shall we say, congressional quality. the democrats won 11-2, led by the man widely considered the best player on either team, louisiana democrat cedric richmond, who played for morehouse college, fits the distance tonight. he's been 5-1 as a starting pitcher despite shoulder surgery a couple years back. on the field, an emotional and bipartisan night to be sure. >> in washington, we have our disagreements, but we all agree that we are here to serve this nation we love. and the people who call it home. ♪ god bless america land that i love ♪

♪ stand beside her and guide her ♪ ♪ from the mountains to the prairies ♪ ♪ to the oceans white with foam ♪ ♪ god bless america my home sweet home ♪ ♪ god bless america my home sweet home ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, let's play ball. >> in the history of this congressional game, first played in 1909, there have been some years without a game. the democrats now lead this

overall series 40 games to 39 with one tie. that is our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from new york. breaking overnight. the russian defense ministry is investigating whether an air strike may have killed isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi, u.s.-led coalition cannot confirm the news. a rare display of unity just one day after a gunman open fire at a gop baseball practice, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle come together to play ball. and president trump lashes out over the russia probe as vice president mike pence lawyers up. we're following the latest on robert mueller's investigation. good morning, everyone. it's friday, june 16 the. i'm ayman mohyeldin