thank you for being here with us and good night from msnbc news headquarters here in new york. good evening. the president begins his 17 day vacation tonight at his golf club in new jersey. but he can't get away from the expanding shadow of the russian probe. bob muellers professionals are looking at the links connecting trump to everything illegal. he's making use of active grand juries in multiple districts including washington d.c. and northern virginia and last night in a campaign-style rally in

west virginia president trump tried to rally his base against mueller's investigation. let's watch. >> they can't beat us 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. i just hope the final did he recall nation is a truly honest one which is what millions of people that gave us our big win in november will deserve. testimony cat lawmakers will have to decide. they can continue their obsession with the russian hoax or they can serve the interests of the american people. >> the president also mocked the investigation itself.

>> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for greatest loss in the history of american politics. that's all there is. most people know there were no russians in our campaign. there never were. we didn't win because of russia. we won because of you. have you seen any russians in west virginia or ohio or pennsylvania? are there any russians here tonight? any russians? >> well, russians might not have been in west virginia but they were in trump tower last summer meeting with the president's son and son-in-law after promising dirt on hillary clinton. they concluded that moscow developed a clear reference to he elect donald trump and even president trump's own director of national intelligence said

recently there's no inside intelligence agencies about what russia did. the president can continue to dismiss the investigation as a coax or witch hunt but robert mueller isn't listening to it at all. congressman, do you think trump wants an honest investigation. he said so right there to his crowd. >> so he can mislead or whatever he wants in front of his fans or press podium for that matter. he cannot lie to the fbi or the grand jury. nor can his lawyers. nor can his associates. attend of the day what he says in his tweets and public utterances are irrelevant. this is about matters of law. that's what bob mueller is about

and the house intelligence committee is about and what he said in these settings is irrelevant. >> what do you make of his decision to not just deny his personal guilt in terms of collusion or some financial entanglement he got involved with but denying the fact that the russians had anything to do with the election. any attempt to involve themselves in any meetings. that's all in the public record testified to by his own people. >> we're back to the 3-d movie, deception, deflection and distraction. it's not going to work. he has done everything he can to try to intimidate bob mueller. he has threatened to fire jeff sessions or suggested he should leave at the end of the day bob mueller is a highly decorated marine and then spent his career in law enforcement going after truly bad guys.

guess what mr. president, bob mueller does not intimidate. >> do you think the white house should be concerned about this grand jury? >> of course. i worry about the government having the kind of power. notice what he is doing. he's changing the targets. he was supposedly going to look into russian collusion. the articles this morning say it looks like it's going to be hard to prove. maybe because it didn't happen. >> the president said it's a witch hunt. it's fake. last night i believe he called it a fabrication and we know that the nature of these types of investigations become fishing expeditions where you're showing gel up against the wall and hoping something will stick. >> the problem with that anlage is they throw the gel against the wall because some of the gel

stic sticks. it's particularly tricky if he expands his investigation beyond russia and the last thing they want to happen is for investigators to be looking into the financial dealings. >> they are apparently looking according to our records at money transfers or business relationship between all the trump gang, and result russians they have been dealing with. they're probably looking back. >> that's where i think it gets to more dangerous ground and that's where you see this has really gotten under trump's skin. he is the one that keeps bringing this up over and over and over again so it's just something that he is just not really letting go and he senses some danger there.

>> we talked about how it's not just the fbi director comey who met with the president and felt that the president was trying to obstruct justice in all of those cases but he kept records and shared his accounts of his meetings and telephone calls with the president with his top deputies. it's all on the record. there's a lot of information there and now i'm looking at what president was trying to do. first it was trying to destroy comey personally. now he's trying to go after mueller personally. i get the feeling mueller is leading an army. i think trump has a problem with trying to defame one person when a very professional army of attorneys are coming after him. >> absolutely, you chris. director mueller just hired greg to join the small army of people he has made up of top notch lawyers and professionals. the fact is that he can

presumably only be a highly lucrative legal practice was enticed to come back into former service. he's a former high ranking investigator on the basis that he thinks there's something substantive that makes it worth his while in service to the nation to return to the department of justice. >> that's exactly my thinking because jonathan, i keep looking at these guys, just the appearance of these attorneys. they're all incredibly professional. mueller is always carrying that case along with him. it always looks like that. not a hair out of place. the suit coats are always buttoned. their game faces are on. not a look of a smile. not a look of sympathy. neutral professionalism. it's so neutral, so unsympathetic. they're out there to get a job done and if i were trump i would be looking at the regular people applauding me, i wish it were the lawyers applauding me.

>> donald trump's legal team. >> which one. >> i mean had to leave after going after insane kind of e-mail rant. >> that's a tv lawyer he's got. he's always on television. does he ever practice law? >> one of the problems that people advisers to the white house close to trump have had is he hasn't hired the best lawyers. he hasn't. he doesn't have the best people defending him and he is up against as you said a very formidable legal team. >> he has a bad track record of paying his lawyers. >> you're so boston. >> if you got bad business practices behind you why do you think they're going to end here. trump does not have good relationship with the people that he owes. if you don't pay them they're not your good friends anymore and trump is notorious in this regard. >> one of the most bizarre

things here is mainly comparing and contrasting the two legal teams. it's not of course just president trump's legal team, it's the legal team of all the people around him. they all lawyered up now and when you compare that to bob mueller and the team he assembled and ask yourself this question, if you were in the legal circumstance where you needed legal representation which of those teams would you hire? which would you pay? no brainer, you'd pick the bob mueller team because they're the pros. the campaign style rally last night, president trump revisited some of his old standards including his call for prosecutors to go after, i'm not going to say it but it's yesterday's news. the audience even broke up in a chant lock her up again just like the old days. let's watch. >> the reason why democrats only talk about the totally made up russia story is because they have no message, no agenda, and

no vision. it just makes them feel better when they have nothing else to talk about. what the prosecutors should be looking at are hillary clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. >> okay. what i like about this is he says we shouldn't have witch hunts and then he says let's go see if there's anything in there. that's called a fishing expe expedition. >> exactly. they were leaked. but i actually think this is one of the more insidious things donald trump does. in this country we do not lockup our political poents. >> we do in third world countries. >> they hang them.

>> yes, but here we just defeat them and then they go off and sit on the beach somewhere. >> they teach at a good college. >> have good colleges. >> that's a very strong point. congressman you're an elected official and we respect elected officials here more than anybody and the simple fact is because you are he elected and you carrie with you the decision of the people you represen and there's trump saying this isn't about truth or justice or guilt or innocence it's about revisiting the election last year. i never heard anybody and i deal with a lot of progressives with militants around here and i never heard anybody say hillary clinton lost this he election because of the russians. the question is whether they messed with our process and tried to embarrass us and bring us down to their level of corrupt elections. he's turning it into their screwed our people. you people in the audience in west virginia, you're the ones that lost here. that's not the way it's prayed

even on the hardest left i come across. >> here's the deal, chris, he only has one play in his play book and it's this deception-deflection thing. think about what we just went through on health care in the debate about the affordable care act and whether to repeal it or fix and repair it is. all he had was talking points. he never put anything of substance on the table. he thought it was all about spin. it was all about appealing to people and sometimes frankly there were basic instincts. and by anlage in this circumstance, he is not dealing with the substance of what's going on here. it's a single play and bob muller doesn't care what he says at a rally in west virginia. he cares about the law and he's going to get to the truth

irrespective of what the president says on the campaign trail. >> now that we have a grand jury, two or three, maybe more grand juries have been involved in this case. once you reach the stage of seeking subpoenas from grand juries are you at a stage where if the president were to fire the special council, find somebody to get rid of him would that be obstruction at that point because there's a case underway. >> it would be a constitutional crisis if he were to take that step. i don't think he will but if he does it will indus a constitutional crisis. part of all of this talk and rumor is stirring up this discussion is because he's trying to intimidate bob mueller and i already said my piece on that. good luck on that mr. president. >> he doesn't look very confused. that man has the best resume i

have ever seen. he is not afraid of donald trump. anyway, thank you. >> thank you. coming up, the news this week, the special council is making use of a grand jury in washington d.c. could mean the investigation is foe cousin on possible crimes that happened on 1600 pennsylvania avenue which is here in d.c. things like obstruction of justice and that should have trump and his top aids in the white house, if they're sane, very nervous. plus trumps left for summer vacation. he's leaving this afternoon. the senate left yesterday and after six months of total republican they have no major accomplishments to show for it. who's to blame for that? and general kelly's first week on the job as washington chief of stachlt he hasn't stopped the leaks. he can't stop the tweeting.

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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. the fact that he has now gone to a grand jury means he now needs the power of co compulsion to compel witnesses to testify. that's a necessary step to move

forward. it doesn't mean that he will prosecute. but this is part of the investigation moving forward. news that a washington grand jury and others are working with connection with the special councils unfolding trump-russia investigation. grand juries give prosecutors the ability to subpoena documents and compel testimony from witnesses under the penalty of perjury. in the end they would decide whether there's probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and whether indictments have been issued. you go before a grand jury you don't bring a lawyer in the room with you. you come in alone. you either tell the truth which

could get you in big trouble. you lie, you perjure yourself or what. >> take the fifth. >> take the fifth. >> which is what targets are advised to do. so people ask what if the president of the united states is subpoenaed. that's when he has this difficult political versus legal decision. politically he has to testify and legally anybody that's the target takes the fifth. prosecutors like me love the grand jury because the defense attorney is not there. sits outside of the room. big classroom, 23 people. as a prosecutor you run the show. >> and taking the fifth doesn't mean much to a person that's schooled in that and knows that that's what all lawyers tell you to do, if you're not running for office again but to the average person they hear you take the fifth they say what are you hiding. >> you look guilty although you're not. >> your thoughts about that.

whatever they were doing with the russians they were meeting with them. what does it tell you that they're going to a grand jury, a series of grand juries. according to the reporting i'm getting other locales as well for grand juries? >> it's exactly as paul said. it's a discovery tool where you can bring in witnesses who have to testify who might not have cooperated with the fbi or other federal agencies, the irs, whoever is investigating the special crimes. it's also a way to get documents that people wouldn't voluntarily produce and eventually the grand jury evaluates what evidence they have and determine whether the crime has been committed and who the person is that committed that crime. it doesn't mean there will be indictments but it certainly is a step toward an indictment so it is something that people would worry about. theoretically if anybody takes the fifth amendment because what happens in the grand jury room is secret, no one would know. on the other hand, things seem

to have a way of being found out. so whereon. but it shouldn't ever be disclosed that someone took the fifth. >> if i walk into the room and i'm bob mueller, he's an impressive looking fella with that case he carries around like a machine gun. he walks into a jury of regular people and he says i am going to look into the business dealings of this president of the united states and somehow identifies the people as public officials and i want to find out what deals they may have had with russia and the only way i can do that is to see their tax returns for the next five years. do you think a grand jury would be likely to say whatever you need counselor? what would they normally do? >> i would say they absolutely would and he has very valid reasons for doing that. it can provide the motive for any conduct in this case. there's obviously a close and loyal relationship between president trump and the russian government and why is that? what is the connection?

did it start during the miss universe contest? is there public funding from the russian government of any trump projects? we need more than his tax returns. we probably need to see all of his bank records and find out a lot more about him to get to the bottom of what the motive for his conduct is and it may be evidence of criminal conduct in and of itself. maybe there's money laundering. we don't know what's going on. >> i can understand why the president and his people around him including his attorneys are worried about a fishing expedition because that's the very thing i think he'll be involved in meaning how do we know who trump oes money to? he may have borrowed 5 or 10 million here to cover a deal and all of a sudden the person that owns that paper on him else is it to somebody and they own him for 10 murder in the second degree. this dirty world of russia where it's all moving around. it's all kind of gangstery. we don't know who owns this

president if he's borrowed any money from russia. >> that's why the special council has assembled this team of 16 of the best prosecutors in the country with the help of some of the best investigators. they're very good at following the money which is paper trails so they'll subpoena e-mails, bank transactions, corporate records. if there's something to be found i'm confident that the special council will find it. >> what would be the crime. just imagine what i just said is true. people tell me about new york real estate. it's backed up by russian money. there's not a lot of people in the united states hah haven't been frisked for money in terms of capital investments. they're all clean. there's a lot because of trade relations. what happens if he does owe money in russia? is that impeachable? is thatten indictable? the fact that the president of the united states is owned by some extent to someone over there? is that criminal? >> it's not necessarily criminal but it could be. it's depends on if there's a

quid pro quo expected and it's also politically devastating so we have a president whose tax returns we have never seen. whose financial obligations we have no knowledge of and he doesn't want to disclose for political reasons, maybe legal reasons too but certainly for political so you have to keep in mind that there's not just a legal question here. we need to look at the political consequences of this. >> we're looking at this and trying to figure it out from what we know. what we noah cording to nbc report chg is very sound, they dug up the fact that there's a d.c. jury here. why wasn't it enough to go to a northern virginia jury. what is a prosecutor or investigator get by coming into the district of columbia. >> where the potential crime koured the white house is in the district of columbia. the fbi building is in the district of columbia. prosecutors also use the grand

jury to try a potential criminal case. so you want them if there's a prosecution. so these d.c. jurors will hear the evidence. >> this say tough town on public officials. you don't want to go before a d.c. jury. >> in front of this grand jury. many times they ask top question. it's much more casual than a regular jury. they talk among themselves and they can ask questions of the witnesses. >> tell me what you think it means. paul says it has to do with the nature of the crime being investigated. if the location of it was the white house, for example, something to do with obstruction of swrjustice once the presiden took office, it would be in d.c. or if it had something to do with the fbi. some people say it's the traffic jam. it's ten miles of bad traffic and that's why mr. mueller wants to have a grand jury here. could bit that basic and convenient that he would do something hike this? >> i don't think it's for the

convenience of process cue tors but it's also true that they'll take the evidence where ever it goes so although they started out with one investigation which is collusion with the russian government it quickly grew to obstruction of justice in the white house but now it's grown to obstruction of justice or taking something of value from a foreign national in new york and i think the same grand jury could investigate all of those things but it maybe that the alexandria grand jury is expiring and they need a new grand jury. >> could bit that you have white house witnesses being called in just for their convenience? they could walk across the street or down pennsylvania avenue and be at the federal building and they can't complain about their time being misused. that could be it too. >> it could be. it could be yes. >> let's get to the serious stuff here. donald trump acts like there's a red line like there is with chemical weapons in syria that

he's going to hold mueller too. he can only do russia stuff but if you read the mandate it's anything that arises, any matter that has arisen or does arise so it does include that thing that goes out. he is getting audited. >> so there's always these special council investigations. >> the jell-o sticks. >> clinton start out with a failed white water real estate transaction and ended up with a stained blue dress. these are secret processes but i bet he doesn't mind this leak.

trump has a funny way. >> thank you for coming on. up next, president trump promised to drain this swamp and get things done in d.c. here. but what do you have to show? they don't have much to show. they got rid of the filibuster. of course they got him in. this is hard ball.

>> it's his first known request to the white house for records. attorney general jeff sessions is seeking prosecution against government leeks.

the number of probes has tripled since president trump took office. the president has begun his 17 day stay at his golf club in new jersey. he's spent almost a third of his presidency at a trump property. now back to hard ball. president trump left the white house for a 17 day quote working vacation at trump national golf club in new jersey. they say the president spent about 30% or 59 days of his 196 days in office. on the campaign trail we criticized president obama for taking vacations. let's watch that action. >> i'm going to fight for every american in every last part of this nation.

we have who doesn't fight. >> i love working. i'm not a vacation guy. like obama. he plays golf in hawaii, flies in a 747. >> if you're in the white house who wants to take a vacation. you're in the white house. what's better than the white house? why these vacations? >> i promise you will not be taking very long vacations if i take them at all. there's no time for vacation. >> i can't stop laughing. we have been through this so many times. the difference between his notion of reality before he was electened and his motion of reality now. explain what trump doing nothing is going to do to his situation. they can run but they can't

hide. >> given what has happened to his popularity and the lack of success that he's had so far i'm not sure it can hurt him to get uptown for awhile. the more he has been on the screen, the more he's been an issue, the more he's been on twitter, the more his overall approval has gone down. he's still solid with the 32% of the american public that adores anything he does and they like him personally but with everybody else, all the independents. he lost the independents and may as well go away for awhile. >> i thought that his true north was better than his day-to-day. in other words if he didn't get in the news he would do better. >> that's what i'm saying. because generally he emphasizes the contentiousness of his approach to everything. his problem has been from the moment he stepped on the stage here officially which was his inaugural, he has been at war with everybody here.

and while that's great for his base it's not good for the rest of the country and not good for getting things done around here. >> let's talk about this vacation thing. do presidents, they all go on vacation and they all play golf. maybe with the exception jimmy carter and he didn't get benefit from anybody. his people, they're regular people making regular incomes, make 40,000 a year or whatever. they make regular incomes. maybe a bit more. they identify with people and trump is a billionaire of some kind. does that bother them? it seems like they like it. >> he's their billionaire. that's what they think. >> we'll see. >> and having attended many, many trump rallies and having spent years covering people in parts of the country. >> looking at the lavish life his supporters think he's a rich billionaire but he's our billionaire and he's going to

use all of his wiles and all of his skills and deliberate business selfishness on our behalf. will they ever catch up with the fact that even though, for example there were 200,000 jobs created in the last month that real wages, especially in the mines and factories have not gone up. those wages have not gone up at all? but that particular fact is not effecting their overall view of donald trump. >> when will that catch up with them? >> i don't know. as long as the economy stays strong i'm not sure that it will. but right now they're all living the fantasy life through him. >> by the way, the members of the golf clubs in the united states are all better off than when he got elected. >> they have done fantastically but even the work class people that voted for trump are with him right now. >> thank you. >> up next, general john kelly has been tasked and asked to

bring discipline to the white house but he hasn't reigned in the president just yet. trump still tweeting and the leaking goes on and still calling the russian investigation a hoax. the round table is going to weigh in on this. does this guy kelly have any control over trump or the people that keep leaking on him?

touting his new chief of staff john kelly. tasked with reigning in the general confusion that everyone knows plagues this white house. he faces the challenge of bringing military discipline to the white house and also the president himself the commander in chief. that said the new york times reports that kelly will not try to change mr. trump's twitter.

he wants to limit the people urging mr. trump to tweet. something they feel passionately about. he acknowledged he can't control the president. so far he hahn stopped the leak. we know that. the president's twitter habits continue and now there's word of possible upheaval at the white house. h.r.mcmaster may soon find himself on the chopping block. everything the president wants to do mcmaster opposes. i know that the president isn't a big fan of what mcmaster is doing. i don't understand why he is allowing him to remain in place. so i want you to get this started. let's start with the stuff that really matters. leaks. let's start with that. the president goes crazy over

leaks. all presidents have. they all go nuts because they think that somebody in the white house is working for the other side. they're not sloppy, they're not lazy. they're putting out stuff that's going to hurt the guy that's smiling as he walks by in the west wing hallways. they're out to screw the president and he hasn't been able to stop that. >> and this week in particular we saw one of the most significant leaks with transcripts of calls between president trump and the leader of mexico and the leader of australia. >> have you ever seen a leak like that before? >> never the full transcript and we saw it. >> somebody has physically got the transcript and runs over to the post guy and gets out of the building somewhere with his papers i. >> the whole transcript for you sir and then hands them, the verbatim conversation between the australian prime minister and president of mexico in the most obnoxiously undermining way and he knows they're doing this and the president knows that

too. >> they know it will end up in the washington post and it shows the president negotiating over the wall with the mexican leader was basically saying it's all going to come out in the wash you're not going to have to pay that for the wall but just don't say that to the press. it shows that president trump is not quite the tough negotiator. >> most people are going if that's a political appointment the guy is a rat. he shouldn't be working for the president. if it's a civil servant the president must be looking for this guy right now. general kelly must be on the beat saying who had access to that paper, what was the custody trail. how did that get approved and it had the stamp on it. how did guilty or innocent from there. i want to know everybody that had their fingers on it and i want to start interrogate them. isn't that going on now. >> i think what's going on. >> sessions skoecolded everyone

about this. but i can't imagine things are going to change. people knew yesterday that leaking this was against the law but politically people are so motivated by this president to disclose things. you've never seen the amount of laex. >> what's the motivation. >> people are very unnerved by the president and they're willing to take the risk to put the things out there. >> why? >> i think because they believe there needs to be more sunlight. they believe the disclosures about flynn. el the disclosures about sessions that lead to him being recused. >> why is that important? why is it important that we know that the president hung up on the prime minister of australia? why does it help the republic. >> i don't think it's our job to say like no we shouldn't go with this information. unless we're harming national security our thought is if we have information. >> the guy put it out and you report it.

why would a person think it's their swrjob to screw the president. >> i'm not going to try to get into their motivations. my sense is that people -- >> i'm amazed. >> if you're on the nsc and you're an obama hold over. >> you're doing what everyone has done for me. every time i raise the question of trade craft, how are you getting this stuff? is there less of a traffic flow. you're laughing so whatever is going on in this crazy titanic the waters are pouring in. >> i just want to say -- >> there's no limit to how much can get leaked out there. >> people think it's a lot easier than it is. it's never easy at least for me as it looks or may look in the paper. >> why am i looking at you and the washington post every day there's a great story on the white house that's leaked. >> we're putting an enormous amount of resources in covering this story. >> but also the people doing the leaking thinking that they're

it's a higher calling for them. >> but their higher calling was to go work for this guy. >> but he's probably in there because of some story. >> i don't get it. >> there's always a line when you leave a white house. >> i'm all for the truth getting out. sometimes you like to get something done but you don't like the person that did it. >> this white house salsthere's lot of leaking. undermining your opponent within the administration sometimes leaking something that will make someone else within the administration look bad and maybe allow you to get a leg up. >> the round table is sticking with me.

more than a million jobs have been added to the u.s. economy during his time in office. just six months. we'll be right back.

we're back with a hardball roundtable. margaret, take your time. tell me something i don't know. we have some time today. >> so, chris, you remember the movie "the butler," enough to make you cry? >> oh, yeah. >> such a sacred duty being an

usher in the white house. you work your way up. a lot of military people hold the job. trump fired the chief usher of the white house and has put in place the clerk at the trump hotel here in washington as the chief usher. >> he is allowed to do that? >> yes. well, you know, you are president, you are allowed to -- >> i thought those jobs were protected. >> no, they're not civil service jobs. there are people who hold civil service jobs where, zoo this person had the dignity of the office because those guys are always dig need. >> which the clerk -- no, no. i'm thinking -- i mean, you oversee about 100 people. >> i know. >> it's a big job. >> brand people. >> despite the speculation about mcmaster, the breitbart story and stuff, he is not going anywhere for the short -- at least for the short-term. >> does trump despise him. >> i think the president may think he may talk too much and go on too long for his briefings. he is not going anywhere for now. >> trump won the election

because of one thing. he said we're going to get rid of stupid wars. that was a big part of his sales pitch. the generals say, yeah, we can deal with a situation by sending in more troops, but the answer is never how to end it. we have to keep sending in in pe perpetuity. that's why -- >> for 15 years in, and it's interesting. afghanistan may give trump an opportunity for a foreign policy if he can actually figure it out, but i don't know if the answer is -- >> the generals always say more troops. go ahead. >> one way we would get to know more about president trump's afghanistan policy is if he were to do a press conference. it's been 169 days since his last press conference. he thought he was going to do one today before going on vacation. he didn't. he is far behind president obama who had done five press conferences. >> you media people. just an amazing statistic. >> you'll know general kelly is successful if mcmaster stays. >> interesting.

profound comment there. when we return, let me finish tonight with trump watch. you're going to like it. you're watching "hardball." chances are, the last time you got a home loan,

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appreciate an august vacation and certainly won't hold it against their hero. they are not the key figures in the story now. the key figures are those attorneys working at the u.s. justice department under bob mueller. those attorneys with a mandate to look at any matter that might arise in this investigation. pay attention to the look on those people doing the investigating. compare them to those west virginia folks hooting and hollering and cheering up a storm at the trump event last night. caught up themselves in the hooplah. now look at the folks coming at trump right now. ties tightened, suits buttoned. game faces on. not a hint of a smile, of any emotion. neutrally unsympathetic. look out, donald. i have a sense that these are not just professionals, but the best of the breed. if they can find a case, they're going to make it and make it solid. they didn't take up the matter to see it dribble off into the last paragraphs of the history books. trump can tell his people this is all fake, but this is not a phony war. it's the real thing. he can drop all the confetti he can buy, hold rally after rally from west virginia to wyoming, and in the end what will count

is not the cleverness of his name-calling or the wildness of his charges, but whether along the way through all the deals and all the meetings, broke the law that rules me, you and donald j. trump. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in on chris hayes" starts right now. >> are there any russians here tonight? >> the counter offensive begins. >> they're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story. >> tonight new details on the mueller investigation, as the white house attacks leakers and the president and his allies undercut the special prosecutor. >> i think mr. mueller is hurting his reputation. >> congresswoman maxine waters joins me for the latest. >> then behind the line. >> to look at a real estate deal from ten years ago, we would object to that. >> what we know about investigators following trump's money and about those transcripts. >> what's t