early last month. the constituent assembly came to power last sunday in an election that many people boycotted entirely and the two well known opposition leaders reportedly taken from their homes at gunpoint. i'm about to wrap up. before i do let's have a quick check on the markets after another record day on the dow. 22,084 is where we're closing. up 58 points. that's it for me. let's take it over to "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00. donald trump is officially on vacation as of this hour. a 17 day stay at his golf club in bedminster, new jersey. but he is still slugging away at his favorite enemies the russian investigation leakers and protectors in the media. john kelly took over his freewheeling west wing one week ago today. he fired his potty mouthed

communications director, and has according to west wing sources been doing his best to give hr mcmaster political cover from critics. while kelly has brought new order to the white house staff he hasn't put a dent in the president's penchant for raging against the russia investigation. >> have you seen any russians in west virginia or ohio or pennsylvania? are there any russians here tonight? any russians? the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics. that's all it is. >> president trump left it to his top intelligence official and his attorney general and deputy attorney general to crack down on leaks. after that embarrassing transcript of his calls with the president of mexico and the prime minister of australia leaked. showing him to be obsessed with his campaign promises and not particularly well versed in the

issues that drive some of america's closest alliances. >> the department of justice is open for business and i have this warning for would-be leakers. don't do it. >> but with the special counsel investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election entering a new phase, we don't expect the president to be completely off the grid for the duration of his vacation. let's get to our reporters covering all these developments. nbc's peter alexander joins us from the white house lawn. along with nbc national security reporter ken dilanian and tamara keith. peter, you have been doing double and triple and quadruple duty and thank you for being there for us. if you take this performance from the president last night in west virginia where he threw out red meat by the bushel, it wasn't a coincidence in my estimation that that side of

trump, that russia rage that's always sort of at a low boil came out on the die that it became -- on the day that it became public that two grand juries were now at work in the mueller probe. >> i think that's right. what was striking obviously is we have been reporting out all week how there's this sort of new discipline and order here at the white house given the arrival of general kelly. as the chief of staff. while he has done a good job as now being reported cutting off rambling advisers as they speak to the president, vetting the information that's being put before him and literally being a gatekeeper outside the oval office right now there's one thing he cannot control and that is what the president says. when the president went out there in front of that crowd in west virginia, who loves him as much as any, that's the state that his support is second highest in the country right now. this was his chance to just sort of vent about all these things, especially given this latest round of headlines right now. what's striking here as i speak to you from the west wing is there's all these moving trucks

literally outside the white house. >> i can hear them. >> they're moving out everybody's gear from their offices as they prepare to do some renovations in the west wing. so there's a sense of a new beginning as it was described to me by some people here in the west wing. the one thing that doesn't change and will not change is the president true to form speaking exactly what's on his mind. >> peter, i'm so glad you made that point because i heard what i'm sure you heard, that the staff welcomes the addition and sort of the implementation of order. one person said he's bringing more honor to our staff. i'm sure that's a little bit of spin but the order really was welcome. you hear that from all the wings but one place where there's still a lot of heat and a lot of friction is sort of between that bannon wing and the establishment folks. do you still pick that up? >> yes. i think that's definitely fair to say. there have been so many rumors over the last months about the

status of bannon, but when the president is communicating to his supporters in places like west virginia, how strong the bannon wing remains as we heard from the legal immigration pitch that he made this week. it was stephen miller speaking but it was vintage miller/bannon wing, so there's significant throughout there. the president left a short time ago, joining him as he went off to marine one, his son-in-law jared kushner and john kelly. there's been no sort of simmering down of the disputes that still exists within the west wing. but there has been as you said and we can't repeat this enough, this new sense of order that i think more than anything has made the people who work here feel finally a sense of comfort in their role. finally seven months in. >> real quickly, i noticed that he was reading from a teleprompter last night. you mentioned presidential aide stephen miller. do you have any idea who wrote the speech that was loaded into the teleprompter full of all that red meat last night?

>> that's a question i haven't got an an yet but likely it came from miller and folks. that struck me a lot. while everything is so structured this was clearly structured as well. this was a chance to say within parameters as it's in teleprompter we'll let you rail. >> we used to call that strategiry in the bush white house. tamara, i want to ask you about this sort of white house in the new phase. you have got -- when a special counsel impanels the grand jury, it doesn't necessarily suggest any sort of indictment is near but it does suggest that nerves could be more frayed, that witnesses could be marched before a grand jury, that more documents could be in front of him. what do you pick up in terms of the effect that might have on this white house? >> certainly what it says is that it is a serious investigation which is something we knew all along. but this is sort of a big,

blaring sign saying serious investigation under way. that can affect the president's mood, though it didn't show up in the twitter feed really. and it didn't show up particularly in that speech last night. i was in west virginia and he stayed on prompter. you know, even as the crowd was chanting lock her up, everything he was saying was coming off of the teleprompter. he didn't -- you didn't sense that he was doing what he has normally done in these sort of rally speeches. where he freelances. there wasn't a lot of freelancing from the president. what he said was planned. and what he concluded that section with is that he hopes that it is resolved fairly. which is sort of an interesting and a new thing to say and, you know, the other argument that he's making is that this investigation is being pushed by people that wanted to deprive the voters of the leadership that they want. >> tamara, i want to ask you about that, because if you take jared kushner's statement on the

front driveway of the white house where he came -- we're watching the president board air force one and wave good-bye at joint base andrews as he makes that short flight to new jersey. if you take jared kushner's statement, which was very similar to what you just described, that it's basically -- that the russia investigation somehow ridicules trump's voters. donald trump last night saying that the russia probe is trying to take something away from them. the russia probe is making sure that americans determine the outcomes of elections not russians. is this all about president trump thinking a legitimate investigation into whether or not an adversary was involved in our election somehow takes away the legitimacy of his own election? >> well, that term, ridicule, you're right. had an echo from what jared kushner said last week and what the president said last night. and here's the thing.

president trump -- everyone else in his administration has acknowledged in a serious way that russia meddled in the election. now, they don't say that russia changed the outcome but a foreign adversary interfered in the presidential election and tried to mess around with it. president trump has never fully said that. he has always sort of couched it as, it could be russia, it could be china, it could be somebody else. oh, here's this idea that somebody told me that maybe -- if it was russia we wouldn't have known about it. like president trump continually has sort of found a way to not fully embrace the idea that russia was involved in the election. and this is also a president who talks a lot about his election victory. again and again and again. it seems like he really has a hard time squaring his victory that he sees as historic with this idea that russia was meddling. >> ken dilanian, let's turn to the investigation because bob mueller surely has no problems

separating out the two. and i understand that your latest reporting is that he's focusing in on collusion. >> well, it's so interesting to hear peter and tamara talk about a new beginning at the white house because in a sense, the mueller investigation is turning a new page as well with this grand jury in washington. we had known that they were using a grand jury in alexandria, that was in many ways related to mike flynn whose company was headquartered in alexandria. now he's using a grand jury in washington which legal experts suggest he's looking at conduct in washington. and yes, my understanding is that they think that the collusion investigation is bearing some fruit. but that can mean a lot of different things, right? i mean, obviously we have seen this donald trump meeting and the e-mail laying out a promise of help from the russian government and an acceptance by the trump campaign at the time. that raises a whole host of questions about what other meetings there were and the fbi

is looking at that but they're looking at financial relationships between trump associates and russia and whether that in any way compromised the trump team. but then of course there's a separate track. there's the obstruction of justice investigation. the white house keeps saying we're not aware that the president is under investigation. to remind folks it's been well established an reported that bob mueller's investigating the president of the united states whether he obstructed justice in the way he talked to james comey and the firing of james comey. comey said that and others reported that mueller requested interviews with dan coats, and mike rogers, the head of the nsa because of conversations trump had with them, asking them to say they had seen no evidence of collusion. that's a very serious line of inquiry, nicolle. >> let me take you back in time 24 hours because we spent a whole lot of time yesterday with the new reporting that a washington, d.c. based grand jury was now also involved in bob mueller's work.

and ken, i want to ask you, what kinds of things the two grand juries that are now i guess being used for mueller's investigation, what kinds of things they could get? i get asked all the time, if they would be the ones that could finally see donald trump's tax returns. is that the kind of thing that one of these grand juries would be able to subpoena? >> you know, i'm not a lawyer and this is a little outside my lane but i believe that when its comes to content, like tax returns, you need a court order. a judge's order as opposed to the grand jury subpoena. but i'll take that question, nicolle, and get back to you on that. >> you know what, you don't have to. actually, you're going to stay with me. you're stuck with me. i'm holding hostage. this is an august friday you're stuck with me for the duration. let me bring in a couple of lawyers that are going to help us wade through this. i want to introduce rog day from the national security council agency and former assistant attorney general and a vice president from third ways, a former staffer for the house

intel committee and a friend of the show. rog, let me ask you that question. we know that special counsel mueller is working with at least two grand juries. one that's been impaneled in virginia for a while that i understand was listening to things or was involved in the investigation into what flynn's role might have been or paul manafort and another that was impaneled that has been impaneled for a while and is now available to mueller's team to listen to testimony or to seek documents. i wonder if either one of them would be able to subpoena donald trump's tax records? >> thanks, nicolle. well this is an interesting development. it's unclear what to make of it. it could be a prablgtd cal step. in other words, most of the investigation team is consolidated in washington or it could be a sign of an expanding investigation. but really this is an important reminder that the investigation is grinding away as they tend to out of the spotlight. and we're going to see subpoenas

flying for information, records, from all sorts of parties and importantly, while the prosecutors are sworn to secrecy and the grand jurors are sworn to secrecy, potential witnesses don't have a legal obligation to keep secret. so it wouldn't surprise me if we start to hear more about the types of information being requested. >> mika, let me play for you something that jay sekulow said about his understanding, which isn't always the latest information available. we learned when he talked about donald trump not having anything to do with the crafting of don jr.'s statement about that meeting between russians and don jr. and other campaign advisers, but we're going to play what he understands to be the current state of the president's legal status. >> with respect to the impaneling of the grand jury we have no reason to believe that the president is under investigation here. >> mika, is that all that we know to be true or is it possible that they seem to be

hanging their hat on that belief based on what jim comey told the president three times before he was fired for the handling of the russian investigation? do we know that jay sekulow has the latest and best information? >> no, he probably doesn't. grand juries typically don't notify their targets so the president wouldn't know for sure whether or not he was a target of the investigation. we do know that fbi -- senior fbi officials who were part of james comey's inner circle at the fbi have been told they should prepare to be witnesses in front of the grand jury as part of an obstruction of justice investigation. which suggests that perhaps the president is in fact under investigation. but neither mueller or the grand jury are going to necessarily tell the president or his lawyers that. >> let me play you both something that newt gingrich said about how concerned the white house should be. >> yeah. of course the white house should be concerned. first of all, anybody who has

any doubts about corruption in the justice department ought to read sidney powell's book "license to lie." which is a tremendous study both senator stephens being destroyed by the justice department and the whole enron arthur anderson case. both of which were basically corrupt. i worry about the government having the kind of power and notice what mueller is doing. he's changing the targets. he was supposedly going to look into russian collusion. and the articles say that russian collusion is hard to prove maybe because it didn't happen. >> i wonder what you make of the fact that one of the closest outside advisers to the president is talking about corrupt investigations. he's pointing out that the scope may be outside what is appropriate. while at the same time, republicans in congress have joined democrats to introduce legislation to protect bob mueller and his russia probe.

>> well, the oldest play in any playbook is to attack those looking at you. it's hard to think of any other individual other than mueller who has the respect on both sides of the aisle. despite comments by surrogates and out there it's hard to imagine an investigation with more integrity being led by someone like mueller and the justice department isn't perfect. but it has a good track record of not allowing partisan politics to slip into everyday investigations. >> mika, let me get you to weigh in on the same development. actually, yesterday, the same day that we leb -- learned about the grand juries hard at work, legislation was introduced to protect bob mueller and his team. >> yeah. i think that you see a reassertion of congressional power here. they're saying to the president we're going to draw some lines in the sand and they respect mueller. you have to remember that mueller was an appointee in the bush administration and he was asked by president obama to stay on two additional years past his

original ten year term. there's no one who has helped the country more in terms of terrorism. he is above reproach and the attacks on the character of him and he team is an attempt to undermine the rule of law. >> all right. thank you very much for spending time with us. ken and mika are sticking around. the expression used to be when america sneezes the world catches a cold and now it's when america cringes the world does a belly laugh. we'll tell you why. also, is trump's security adviser's job in trouble? we'll explain why he's looking over his shoulder. ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected.

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i want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies. which are leaking like -- rarely have they ever leaked before at a very important level. i told you before i'm very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. time will tell. >> that was president trump just over a week ago publicly criticizing his attorney general jeff sessions for ongoing leaks plaguing the white house and the rebuke followed attacks against sessions where he called his own attorney general beleaguered an weak on investigating on clinton's e-mails and leaks out of the attorney general. in a new show of force, he

answered it against one of the top adversaries. i want to bring in the panel, philip -- >> rogue, anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country. >> that was a little bit of sound from the press conference. joining me today is philip bump, the reverend al sharpton, host of politics nation here on msnbc and president of the national action network. with us from washington, "usa today's" senior political reporter and msnbc analyst heidi pres bella. philip, i was bursting with curiosity to hear what you think about not just the prosecution of leaks and sort of the dang eof leaks because to be fair, every president hates them. obama ended -- president obama's administration ended up prosecuting more leaks than the president before him, the one i worked for. if this becomes part of their

show of force it's in line with the more disturbing lines of trumpism. >> that's right. and president obama has used the espionage act. >> i think we can put that up. i think we have a list of the prosecutions under president obama. >> right. so he cracked down hard. this is a guy they subpoenaed phone records from the associated press to find out who had been leaking to the a.p. they took a hard line. i think what has drawn a lot of attention here is the fact that president trump over the course of the campaign spent a lot of time really bad-mouthing the press in a way that we are not used to hearing and we always have presidents who complain about leakers. presidents try and stymie leakers. but trump talked about literally rolling back the first amendment and so when we hear jeff sessions say something as he did today about how he wants to actually rethink about how the justice department interrelates with the media that's different situation i think than with obama. i think it's important to note too when we talk about leak,

there's leaks and gossip. a lot of gossip comes ott of the white house. saying things about what donald trump are doing, what's very embarrassing to donald trump. the leaks are obviously happening in a way that's unusual as well, the things like these phone calls from yesterday. those are the sorts of things that sessions can go after. the gossip not much you can do about. >> the point is a good one because president obama used his last press conferences of one of his last days in office, he went to the press briefing room to sort of urge the protection of a free media. george w. bush who was on an unrelated book tour, he talked about the importance of a free press. he caused -- it caused alarm among past presidents. >> a lot of presidents will pay lip service to the constitutional ideals while they try to undercut them or undermine them. that's not unusual but president trump doesn't pay the lip service most of the time. it was striking to see him at the rally in west virginia we love and want to protect the

constitution which is him paying lip service to the constitution and while at the same time seeking to actively trying to undercut the first amendment. that's what i think makes this different. >> rev, we have talked week after week after -- about jeff sessions went from becoming one of the left's boogie men to someone who -- people like elizabeth warren calling for poor jeff sessions not to be targeted by the cyber bully that's his boss, president trump. it looks like today that jeff sessions is doing a little bit of dancing for his dinner. >> two thoughts came to mind when i saw sessions' press conference. one was he's dancing for his dinner. two, was he affirming i'm not going anywhere or a little of both? what was clear today because he came out so strong about we're going after leakers, is that he is in charge. he's not going anywhere. and this president is going to depend on him at least putting up this kind of posture.

the real problem is that i think -- and i think he alluded to it, the problem is not just the leakers. it's the lip and the tweets of the president. i mean, he has said things that has contradicted other things that has contradicted other things. >> we can map that out for you. >> we're acting like the leaks have revealed the inconsistencies. it's their own statements and his tweets and changing from one day to the next. their version of what they did in the meeting and who was in the meeting. that's been the problem. nobody leaked different stories of donald jr. nobody leaked different versions of the president tweeting about this and about the same issue. that's the problem that sessions is going to have. unless somebody can get ahold of what the president is doing and have a narrative that is consistent. they can go all they want, you know it's again the three card

monty. lack at this while the -- look at this while the real problem is over here. >> i have talked about the story as the shiny ball that the white house wants us to focus on but talk about the many layers that john kelly encounters as a new white house chief of staff. one of the first calls was to jeff sessions to say, hey, don't worry, your job is safe. he's in there trying to protect hr mcmaster from critics within to put it mildly. and he's got president trump who is just letting it rip in front of those friendly crowds and what was a teleprompter speech. he wasn't going off the cuff. but he was throwing them sort of classic trump red meat. >> this is different in many way, nicolle, having worked in the white house. you know this. he is coming in to essentially impose structure on this white house. to play a very managerial top down role to kind of organize the staff. some of the first steps we know he's taken have been

establishing for example that the children that ivanka and jared and kelly ann will report to him. that was unclear in the immediate aftermath of the naming. so he's trying to also control access to the president in his words apparently, access to bad information. so that even if he can't control the president for example at the rally like in west virginia, like we saw him kind of going off on russia, he can try and tighten the circle of information around him. but nicolle, you know, when you look at history, and who have been kind of the models of some of the best chiefs of staff, like james baker or like podesta, they have played a different kind of role. they haven't been there to impose discipline and structure on the white house. they have been -- people who kind of understand the pulse of washington who understand politics. who understand the legislative process and how the symbiosis

between the media and the legislative branch. right now kelly is there to impose structure and put out fires and see if we get to step two. >> when we come back, the fighting words with intensifying with the media and he goes back to what he does best. >> they can continue their obsession with the russian hoax or they can serve the interests of the american people. (bell rings) with my moderate to severe crohn's disease,... ...i kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i was doing okay... then it hit me... ...managing was all i was doing. when i told my doctor,... ...i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease... ...even after trying other medications. in clinical studies,... the majority of people on humira... saw significant symptom relief... ...and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability... ...to fight infections, including tuberculosis.

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can't beat us at the voting booths, so they're trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want. they're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most

importantly, demeaning to our country and demeaning to our constitution. >> that was president trump in west virginia last night calling the investigation into whether or not a foreign adversary may have meddled in our democracy somehow cheating. i don't know, rev, what do you think? >> mine, i think that when you look at that and he's the president of the united states, it's chilling. i mean, because -- >> really is. >> what are you really saying? to -- >> what is he saying? can we get to the bottom of it? so they can't beat us at the voting booth -- she did with the popular vote. >> by 2.8 million votes. >> he got the electoral win. so they're trying to cheat you out of the future and the future you want. how are they cheating anyone out of the future? why isn't he for this, why isn't he for the russian probe? the attorneys want him to be.

why can't he be for getting to the bottom of whether or not russia meddled in our democracy? >> what does it mean he's not for it? >> what do you think? >> really saying in effect that we don't even want to know whatever the results may be. we don't want to protect voters. we don't want to protect the sacred democratic principle of voting because it's -- because it's all of them after me. i think that's a dangerous precedent to question we cast -- we cast aside people believe in the vote of what america stands for. i think that's dangerous for any president and any ruler because it becomes very close to dictatorship and it's megalomania with steroids. >> wow. that sounds dangerous. megalomania with steroids. heidi, let me ask you about the economy because one of the things that this white house -- i know they're frustrated by is that the good headlines don't get as much attention as they'd like, but as the rev was saying

what he's tacking about when he say -- talking about when he says a russian investigation into our elections threatens us. he keeps stepping on his own good headlines. >> you know what this is, nicolle, this is the 2017 equivalent of rigged election. do you remember when donald trump amped up that talk was when the polls started to show that ted cruz was moving up in the polls. he sensed a threat. just as he senses a threat today. so he turns it around on the people and he says, they're coming after me which means that they're coming after me, they're coming after you. and i think that some would say that it even borders on insightment because this is the same kind of language we saw when he was threatened in the election. when it seemed like he would pull it off, that died down. i think that's what we're seeing today. it's intentional. yeah, it does not allow him to get out the message for example

about the jobs report or about his tweet as he likes to tweet. about the stock market. we'll see how that works out. he likes to take credit when it's up. but yeah, it absolutely steps on his message and i think that's what's behind it though. this is 201 version of rigged election. >> mika, let me bring you in on this and ask you about another "i" word. in the announcement today about going after leakers i heard a little bit of intimidation. i wonder if there's any legal analysis about anything you saw today in the press conference about the methods and the language they're using to go after leaks. >> yeah. i mean, it's very clear that the president has said to sessions that the condition of your keeping your job is that you go aggressively after leaks and you're going to have to come back with some scalps regardless of those are the most consequential leakers or people will get caught up in some things. people will have their lives turned upside down as sessions goes on this witch-hunt to try and find some leakers.

in many cases we know those leakers are in the west wing itself. they're part of the trump white house. so it's a real challenge there but one of the things that got overlooked in that press conference was sessions and coats, was when dan coats says there are ways to get the information out without retaliation. and that's in going to their members of congress. it's not just the intelligence committees. coats said you could go to your own member of congress and be protected from retaliation. >> amazing to here an dni talking about these things and laying this out. i want to bring you back to where we started though. one of the things that donald trump said that i think is imprinted on the -- in the hard drive of anyone who covered the 2016 election was when he said he could go out on fifth avenue and shoot somebody and his base would still be with him. do you think the economy could come roaring back, that the market could keep setting new reports. unemployment could tick down. i think we had a 200,000 jobs

added last month. his poll numbers are at 33%. maybe he's right. he could shoot somebody. but maybe the people who are alarmed by him by president are not available to him even as the economy does improve. >> i think there's a large segment that falls into that category. the shooting somebody on fifth avenue argument, there's a base that says there's strong support had declined for first time. and he's actually losing some of that support. without having to shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue. i think the opposite is true. if he did start doing really fantastic job that the numbers of people who strongly disapprove more than half of the country which is astonishing strongly disapprove. if he does a better job those numbers will come down too. however the challenge he's got as he's put all his eggs in the economy basket it's like having great weather day after day. eventually it stops becoming news. yeah, the stock market is high.

and yes, the jobs numbers are good. but the problem is they have been good so it's not really as newsworthy as something like what he said last night. >> and we're get -- and they were getting better under his predecessors. it's unclear who deserves credit. up next, it was exactly a week ago. only one week ago that reince priebus left the white house. now another key member of president trump's team has reportedly taken the spot as his most vulnerable player. ♪ (music plays throughout) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ come on dad!

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on the world strag. robert tray ham, i want to read this to you. it says in a disorderly west wing in which decisions are evaluated not by ideology on the trump brand, mcmaster has struggled to become a dominant foreign policy force. mcmaster's biggest asset is the respect he commands from the washington foreign policy establishment that has grave doubts about donald trump. that would seem enough to make mcmaster golden and precious. but in this white house, there's still people taking cheap shots. i'm told by senior national security officials, senior west wing staffers that not just with donald trump, but with the addition of general kelly, his job is secure and safe. he is going nowhere. but the fact -- i can't even imagi imagine condoleeza rice or

others who held, i can't imagine them being suspected to attacks in the media like what we're seeing about mcmaster. >> i think the reason why is twofold. one, you have a white house that's very insecure with themselves but also -- we though that. that's just obvious. the second thing is there is no ideological thought from a policy standpoint. there is from a political standpoint that's what steve bannon is for. but the general has some strong opinions. he has a world view. he as a conservative political thought. and he's -- >> general mcmaster. >> right. of course. >> which should be in line with the president. >> well, one would think so. but the president is not an ideological thinker. >> is he a thinker on foreign policy? >> can you give me one policy that -- original foreign policy uttered from the president? >> to be fair i think he has an instinct to disengage from the world. >> i think his only thing that he feels very passionate about which is not a foreign policy issue for the president. it another an economic issue is the wall and trade and protectionism. but there is no trump doctrine. i don't know what he thinks on

north korea or on russian when it comes to sanctions. i'm not sure where he is engaging in china or south america and the general is struggling with that. because he has his own thoughts about that and he's trying to guide the president's thinking on this. look, i think we should do this and here are the reasons why. but if you have an insecure person meaning the president of the united states in the senior staff who's jealous by leaks coming out of the white house, who's jealous when you have an original thought, who's jealous when you come on the front page of "the washington post" you're on the line. >> heidi, i see this as potentially a red line for general kelly. i mean, you have an hr mcmaster, just the good soldier. a picture of mcmaster has to come up. he's someone who has put his own -- tom ricks wrote about it months ago. this man put his credibility on the line to represent around the world a president that i think grave doubts puts it mildly the way that "the washington post"

is reporting this. and i understand that mcmaster's model -- there are lots of different models for the national security advisers but his model is truly as an honest broker and that he seeks to elevate folks like general mattis and the secretary of state where appropriate. >> well, what you are seeing may be ultimately a losing battle for sure. the reason they're happening and the reason he's being attacked is because he has been empowered by kelly coming in. the first things that have happened is that the nsc staff, the so-called flint stones who are loyal to mike flynn -- >> is that what they're called? i never heard that. wow. thank you. >> yes. i did read that. i think in "the washington post." >> that's amazing. >> they're being cleaned it of the nsc and that's being done with the cover of kelly because he's come in and he's empowered mcmaster to do this. so the bannonites are reacting to that. if you see those first -- let's distinguish here between medias because they are not all the same. and the media that is putting

these stories out are the breitbart news organization which as you know is where bannon used to be the head of that. a lot of that's being put out and it's being fanned by allies like people like sean hannity and miker is know vich who are putting it all over twitter. that doesn't mean they'll be successful and it's probably a reaction to the fact that mcmaster has been empowered. >> philip, is bannon stupid or is he brazen? >> i think he's brazen. i mean, this is a fascinating moment because this is a real ts test of whether he can leverage the far right conservative media against who they want to see out in the white house. they know that donald trump is going to spend the next 17 days on twitter watching fox news. they know they can get to him at any time of day by doing that. and what we saw yesterday i think one of the most revealing things that happened this week, is that mcmaster cleared susan rice of any wrongdoing in this

unmasking. >> that's what made them mad. >> right. that came up on hannity last night. >> of course. in the breitbart wing. >> rev, i have to say quickly, i think that if hr mcmaster leaves under any circumstances i think the bottom falls out of this white house. >> i think the bottom falls out, agree -- i agree with that. i think what raymond is saying is important. you're not dealing with ideologue. i have lived in new york all any life, so has trump. most people that have his kind of income and we'll see what his tax returns say, but most of them have been involved in some foreign affairs if it's not charity. i can't remember him involved in anything. he does not have that kind of mind. he deals with instincts, which means ideologues like a bannon can influence him in an overly way. because it's not like he's committed to something. >> right. >> he's going by his gut, not his world view. his world view is let's make a

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are you ready for this. quote, he's the opposite of teddy roosevelt. he speaks loudly and carries a small stick. that's apparently what an official to mexico's most senior foreign policy arm said about

president trump in a new report. so this robert trainer was in response to the leaked transcripts and goes without saying that the leaking of classified documents shouldn't be tolerated and every person, as we've been talking about all hour accident has a right and obligation to crack down on that. but if you read those transcripts, as i did, i said yesterday, it reminded me of a script between tony sew prano and doctor mel if i. the walls is the least important thing that we're talking about. politically it's the most important i need it i promised it. talk about what we know from this president from those transcripts. >> it's interesting. i'm getting a ph.d. right now in president alhistory. >> congratulations. >> thank you. and so i've listened to a lot of presidential transcripts over the years and stuff that's been released. to my knowledge, a president has never spoken like this before. what you hear and what you read is a president that's raw, that's emotional, that's a little bit of a thugish type

thing. somebody with small handle. someone that clearly is not in command of his faculties when it comes to representing the presidency of the united states and the dignity of -- and me and you and your parents and our uncles and people that look like us around the country, who look at that white house and say this is my president, this is my country. and i'm respectful of the officement when you read those transcripts, it is the worst of who we are as a country. and to think that our president would talk to anyone like that, let alone another head of state is embarrassing. >> rev, what i thought was this was just me, me, he many, me. i need, i need, i promised. there was not a single passage where he asked any of the leaders what we, the shining city on the hill, could do for them. >> you know, robert says he's going for a ph.d. in presidential. >> history. >> history. i have at least a masters gree in donald trump because i've talked to him a lot on the phone

and it sounds just like the donald trump i've talked to on the phone down through the years, including when he called me after he won the election. that's how he talks. he's a deal maker. he's a raw, regular guy, and that's how he relates to the guys that come to his rallies. what is surprising is you would think he would grow in being the president and say, wait a minute, i'm speaking for the nation. i'm speaking for the free world. this is not me cutting a deal selling a condo on madison avenue. this is dealing with the future health care climate change or whatever it is. the it's amazing to me that he is the same donald trump that i met 35 years ago. >> amazing but maybe not so much, right? >> could be not so much. >> we have to sneak in a quick break. we'll be right back. there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel, i want someone who 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.

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no, please, please, oh! ♪ we are watching marine one, air force one has just handed in new jersey and marine one will likely shuttle president donald trump and his family to

bedminster, new jersey, where he'll spend 17 days in august on summer vacation. note to msnbc management, everyone is doing it. my thanks to robert train. that does it for this hour. nicole wallace, "mtp daily" starts right now. my, chuck. >> hi, but as you know as well as anybody when you're president, don't assume august will be nice to you. >> that's right. >> august can be very cruel to sitting presidents. thank you. happy friday. well, if it's friday, it's the best of times, it's the worst of times. and actually, just depends on who you ask. tonight, president trump throws out red meat in a red state. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics. >> but while the base cheers, the president is facing push back from his own party's le