trump implying he did know his former national security adviser michael flynn had lied in a january interview with the fbi. flynn pled guilty to one count of giving false information in the detailed court filing friday. also agreeing to cooperate with special prosecutor robert mueller's investigation. then a new report from "new york times" just out citing e-mails from trump transition officials regarding russian sanctions. in one of the reported e-mails which nbc has not independently verified, trump adviser k.t. mcfarland says sanctions would strain trump's relationship with russia which she wrote had just thrown the usa election to him. despite increasing momentum of the mueller investigation, they told white house kronlt jeff bennett he was not concerned about collusion. >> thank you all very much. thank you very much. thank you.

>> by phone, sharon is joining us by phone, reporter for "new york times." as you look through the article, i'll read the title, says e-mails dispute white house claims that flynn acted independently on russia. then sharon won asks who else might be involved in the process. >> reporter: what we learned is that the narrative has changed, right? what the white house had been saying was that flynn talked to the russian ambassador about u.s. sanctions against russia and that the other transition official on the trump team didn't know about it but in fact the e-mails coupled with michael

flynn showed that others did know he was talking to the russian ambassador and that kt macfarland's e-mail with another transition official were forwarded to six trump transition officials, including reince priebus, shaean spicer a steve bannon. >> you add those names to the list of potential people that knew this, what does that mean, sharon? >> what does that mean. good question. as the white house points out, there's really nothing wrong that we know of with flynn talking to the russian ambassador about sanctions. the obama administration had asked the trump transition team not to do that, not to send

confusion with contradictory things with foreign governments about what policy was, but as far as we know, there was nothing illegal about doing that. so what does it add up to. we don't really know. it does raise questions about why, why was flynn lying about this later to the fbi and again, jun underscores the question about why did president trump fire the fbi director when he was investigating flynn. >> a change in narrative from sharon lafraniere. again, some e-mails obtained by "new york times" showing that the white house claims that flynn acted independently on russia dispute that, the

information you got. sharon, thank you for your reporting. want to bring in jeff bennett, barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney for michigan. jack rice, and former cia officer. jeff, new information on this saturday afternoon. what more would you add to this? >> new information that backs up what nbc news reported, that's that flynn was consulting with senior trump officials, trump transition officials when he was having these contacts with the then russian ambassador, sergei kislyak. one resolution about israeli settlements, he was ordered by jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser to reach out to the russians and other foreign officials to try to influence the outcome there. then we also know as relates to another conversation that flynn had in december of 2016 that he called a bunch of senior trump campaign officials in mar-a-lago

and spoke with a former trump adviser, kt mcfar land. so that undercuts the trump administration line that only michael flynn knew what michael flynn was doing with the russians, richard. >> barbara sha, the question wee been asking. is there increased legal jeopardy for the white house, for the president and any of his inner circle? >> the key statement that strikes me in this e-mail is the statement that russia just threw the election to trump. i don't know what that means but it could mean that we have trump officials aware of russian interference in the election. that could be an incredibly significant find if that's what that means. i think that mueller probably knows far more than we do, and if he doesn't railroad will be finding out more as he interviews michael flynn and others about the significance of e-mails. >> barbara, part of that, going

to read from the "new york times" reporting, it says it is not clear whether miss macfarland was saying she believed the election had in fact been thrown. a white house lawyer said on friday that she meant only that the democrats were portraying it in that way. jack rice, as we do look at that very discussion, goes on to say in the reporting that the reason behind this is merely the questions that will continue to bubble up in an early presidency for donald trump if this continued, this very debate that we're talking about. what do you take away from this revelation here about the considerations, the appearance of being thrown. again, white house lawyer is saying the democrats would use it that way. >> richard, it is astounding if you think about this. the argument from the beginning from the trump administration was that flynn went rogue, that he was the one reaching out to the russians and nobody else

knew about this. now we know there's at least six that we are talking about. maybe the president is involved at this point, he hasn't been mentioned, but we'll see. that is one piece of this. the other part is after everybody seems to know about this, they roll out the vice president in the middle of january and say lie to the american people. now we have trump's tweet from himself today where he says i fired flynn because he lied to the vice president and because he lied to the fbi. we follow that up with four months later where he tells comey to drop the investigation. there's potential for obstruction right there, that one little piece from the president because of the tweet we saw today. this is astounding stuff. >> thank you for laying it out for me, my friend, and jack rice. that's the first bit of news that we are following here on this saturday at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. but then there's a second piece here, jeff. let's allude to this tweet. general flynn, again, going to

the tweet from donald trump. i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the new pooes of information we are getting, and the fbi, jeff. >> we at the white house have been combing through transcripts, combing through tweets. it appears, richard, that this is the first instance where the president ties the firing of michael flynn to michael flynn's lying to the fbi. my colleague hallie jackson reached out to president trump's attorney, john dowd. he told her president trump was more or less paraphrasing ty cobb's statement saying that the lies that michael flynn told to the special counsel mirror -- rather the lies michael flynn told the fbi mirror the lies he told to white house official. pressed him again, asked for clarity about when president trump knew michael flynn had lied to the fbi. still waiting for an answer. >> it is not consistent.

barbara, to you, obstruction of justice comes to mind. 30 seconds, barbara. >> i think this is additional evidence and pretty powerful evidence on what is on donald trump's mind at the time he makes the statement to comey to ask him to let it go. prosecutors have to prove corrupt purpose. i think this bolsters that evidence. >> thank you. appreciate it. coming up, fallout from president trump's tweet regarding former national security adviser michael flynn, the one we were just showing you. opening up a new wave of questions and speculation in the russia investigation. more on that next.

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welcome back. president trump raising a new set of questions with that tweet, a single tweet about four or five hours ago. he was tweeting about michael flynn. he wrote i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and then these three words, very important, and the fbi. and that is what came out in the tweet from president trump today. therefore, because of that some questions about what did he know and when did he know it, and why are we hearing this potentially for the first time, according to the white house unit, this definitely appears to be a new piece of information, if the president meant to put that in his tweet. bring in capitol hill reporter for usa today, kevin certificate i will ee, and eugene scott,

political reporter for "the washington post." eliza, when you saw this come out and you were looking through the words as i think many of us did, you had to read it two or three times. when you got to it the third time, you went okay, this is real. what do you make of him putting the word fbi into this? >> could be two things. could be as the white house said is just repeating what the guilty plea was. he lied to the fbi, that's what president trump is saying. if that's not the case and if it is what the tweet says, that he fired him because he lied to the vice president and fbi, that raises a whole set of questions. remember, after he was fired then the infamous meeting with president trump and james comey in the white house happened where comey said trump asked him to go easy on flynn, comey said he refused and then was fired. it changes the time line frankly and raises a lot of questions. >> kevin, john dowd, saying it

just par aphrases what ty cobb said yesterday, and that's not true. >> what's interesting is for the past couple of weeks we have been reporting how general flynn and his attorneys have cut ties with their relationship with the president and their attorneys. what we haven't been saying is that the president has perhaps done the same. really i think that's what's gripping the legal team surrounding the president, they're pushing back against general flynn and this notion that general flynn would somehow be able to just work with bob mueller's investigation, which is very much on-going. they're going to push back against general flynn. the gloves are off. if you're watching, gloves are off between legal teams general flynn and president trump. >> what we may take away from this, three of you know better, you're there watching this in front of you, the fren et sichl.

they were surprised when the deal happened, this flynn flip, right, this tip of the iceberg, this papadopoulos special, means we have something big underneath the iceberg, eugene, and that is potentially effecting the tone there at the white house and therefore the president coming out with a tweet today on a saturday. what do you know about how surprised they were coming down the pike the last 24 hours? >> it seemed from reporting that the white house just expected mike flynn to be as loyal as he had been in the past and continuing his narrative that he did nothing wrong and that there was no one at the top levels of the trump administration who instructed him to do anything that was against the law, but when it became more clear that flynn was working with special counsel in terms of the investigation and talking and

being willing to cooperate, i think the confidence that the white house had in him and his loyalty to them became questionable and they were willing to for all intents and purposes to throw him under the bus, did everything within the lines of the law and that they didn't violate anything. >> eliza, as you know so well when these deals are put together, it is to get somebody higher up on the hierarchy, not farther down. who higher up on the hierarchy are they looking at, jared kushner now according to nbc reporting, known to be that senior adviser that asked michael flynn again to reach out and that potentially is one of those individuals now in the cross hairs. >> exactly. jared kushner is the name we keep hearing over and over, but similar to the way the white house didn't necessarily know this was coming yesterday, special counsel has been very quiet about who they're looking at. so we really don't know exactly

which individuals. it is a small charge for michael flynn. that is assumed that means he is willing to leak or talk about someone higher up. and the circle keeps getting smaller. there aren't a ton of other people with the same level of access. we know it is zeroing in. >> kevin, pardon? >> look, i don't want to speculate. look, bob mueller is not messing around. i think this is going to be something that this administration has to deal with. take a look at the calendar. you have court dates coming up for paul manafort spring of next year, this is something they have to deal with. look, the republican senate late last night passed a tax plan, regardless of whether or not you support the tax plan or don't. this republican controlled congress will have to keep moving, getting stuff done, even in the midst of all of this noise from bob mueller's

investigation. i think the american people want to know what happened and don't want it to happen again, and that stretches far beyond president trump's inner circle. has the culture surrounding democratic and old guard of democratic leadership as well as the business community in silicon valley. >> eugene. >> what's important, you talk about the american people wanting to get to the bottom of, the trump supporters in core groups that back him, don't believe he had anything to do with collusion between rushds and the campaign. >> there's no proof of collusion now. >> he is still in good favor with the people. this is not the end of all things for trump and the white house. as of yet. >> thank you. >> thank you. now that the senate passed the gop controversial tax plan, growing concerns how it may hurt middle class taxpayers. we will dig into that. ♪

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businesses so they will compete for workers, they'll raise salaries, the business will be happy, the workers are going to be happy, and the country is going to be a happy place. >> president trump in mostly sunny wednesday night, touting the gop tax reform plan as benefitting american workers. the senate version of that plan, different than the one the president was talking about on that wednesday. a lot of changes were made to it, then they passed it in the chamber early this morning. 51-49. despite president's claims, a look at what the bill projects for americans less than ten years from now. the top 40% earners still see tax cuts. a glance at the salary of working class americans makes it clear they are clearly among those hit with a larger tax bill. that's without even touching on the process under which the bill was passed. democrats are complaining about

not having enough time to read the bill. senator jon tester said in a video that he only had 25 minutes to read 479 pages. the bill also looked like this with last minute changes. notice the right side of that legislation is handwritten with a black pen in this case. some senators said they couldn't read it. for more on this, bring in former u.s. deputy labor secretary. you also worked the white house as cabinet secretary. you have been part of trying to put together legislation, sir. and chris, have you seen that before, something of such magnitude and you could see the scribbles on the right side, it is true, some words you cannot read. >> people try to make the comparison to passage of the affordable care act. it went through hundreds of hours of congressional hearings, dozens of sessions to discuss

the bill. thousands of amendments were considered. i cannot recall in a time, i spent 12 years on capitol hill, 8 years in obama administration, seeing something like this happen, particularly on a piece of legislation like this that will effect so many people's lives. it is frankly irresponsible. >> also took longer as you remember, chris. january or february, march that obamacare was finally moved through. this is not popular. i'll show some of the polling on the senate tax bill historically. just not what folks like. 1981, the type is small. an approval has always been pretty much torn on a yes and no. is this a no win either way and they're going to just move it through? >> it is stunning to me, that chart shows this tax cut polls

worse than the 1990 bush 41 tax increase or 1993 clinton tax increase. when your tax cut is polling worse than a tax increase, that doesn't bode well for members that voted for this, have to stand for re-election in 2018. >> you made a point about this being worst when you look at the polling itself. who does this help and hurt. you can look at the average tax in 2019 by income group, compare it to 2027, gives you a sense by early estimations, we don't have the full latest numbers. they made a lot of adjustments overnight. who do you think this will help? >> helps the super wealthy. there are a bunch of tax breaks in there, we haven't fully digested, something in there for private jet owners, something for owners of wineries and golf courses which i would point out donald trump owns all three of those, and the losers are the

american people, earning less than $75,000, seeing a tax increase because of changes to the affordable care act. potentially 13 million people lose their health care. consider this. 1.4 trillion that they're adding to the federal deficit will necessitate spending cuts down the road, whether an important program like education, medicare, medicaid. that's going to effect everyone across the board. losers are the american people. >> there are promises made in the late night deals that were made. senator collins, murkowski have promises made to them by the president, this is reflective of the individual mandate which will be it appears removed because of this legislation. also a promise as well to jeff flake of arizona. are these promises ever going to happen, chris? >> you know, for donald trump the art of the deal has been reneging on deals, whether

that's at president or as business leader. just go back a couple of months ago, pelosi and schumer thought they had a deal on daca, leaving the oval office. apparently now the president has backed away from that. if i am senators murkowski, collins, flake, any of these people, i would not be depending too much on assurances they received because i don't think they'll be able to follow through. >> it is not going to be in this bill, at least not right now. thank you, chris. appreciate your time. >> thank you. coming up, we are diving back into the russian investigation. the president insists there was no collusion with russia. could michael flynn's guilty plea make more problems for the president and done junior's meeting, that's when, this wednesday. it's open enrollment. time to open the laptop... ...and compare medicare health plans. why? because plans change, so can your health needs. so, be open-minded.

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did you direct michael flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador. >> no, i didn't. >> prior to your inauguration. >> no, i didn't. >> why did you fire him if information hnlt leaked out. >> i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. >> the president tweeting i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the fbi. the new part there, the fbi. also today, "new york times" reporting, i will read a portion of it. this on who may have known, new e-mails obtained by "new york times," and headline reading e-mails dispute white house claims that flynn acted independently on russia.

and reads on december 29, a transition adviser to mr. trump kt macfarland wrote in an e-mail to a colleague that sanctions announced hours before by the obama administration in retaliation were aimed at discrediting mr. trump's victory. sanctions could make it harder for mr. trump to ease tensions with russia which has just thrown the u.s. election to him, she wrote in e-mails obtained by the times. it is not clear whether mismacfarland was saying she believed the election had in fact been thrown. a white house lawyer said on friday that she meant only that the democrats were portraying it that way. that democrats were portraying it that way. let's go to national and security reporter, former ambassador to the russian federation. ken, you know more than just about anybody out there. tell us what is new in this

reporting, is it the e-mails, and flush it out for us. >> sure, richard. this story lays out some new e-mails that "new york times" have obtained. but it essentially cements what we learned yesterday, contrary to the impression that michael flynn was acting on his own in this secret outreach to sergei kislyak during transition, it is clear senior members of the trump team were read into this. it is not clear they into what he was saying to mr. kislyak, but e-mails show they were all sort of talking to one another about the obama administration decision to impose sanctions as punishment for russia's election interference and how they would outreach to russia to tell them not to react too strongly to that because they were concerned. don't forget, the team had a stated policy of improving relations with russia. it raises the question, don't forget, michael flynn lied to pence about what he said to kislyak, said he didn't talk about sanctions. all of this reporting raised the

question of who else in the trump inner circle and did trump himself know what michael flynn was saying to sergei kislyak. the context suggests other people were thinking in the same lines. >> thanks for laying that out for us, ken. mike, what is your reaction to the new pieces of information within the last 24 hours, it is not just michael flynn, right? it could be more. reince priebus is in the discussion according to "new york times" reporting. as ken is saying, did the president know, did the president-elect know. what point was what known. your reaction? >> well, i want to be clear some of us, including ken and i for months have been suspicious of this idea that general flynn was some kind of rogue actor making up foreign policy on his own. think about the context. they're in the transition. they're trying to figure out who is who on the team. this is a major piece of

diplomacy he is going to do. i always found it inconceivable he would do that without some coordination with the people he is about to join in the white house. i worked on the transition in 2008 with president-elect obama and you were always looping in more and more people to do tiny little things because you were trying to figure out who had what responsibility. and what we learned today is just more evidence to that fact. what we don't know is exactly who is looped in, was it the vice president. remember, he was the head of the transition. or was it the president-elect himself. >> ken, if you're a sunday football watcher, monday quarterback. look at this and say the president since the election consistent potentially with this. he doesn't like to lose. he is going back to the three million votes, one of the headlines. in this case, if this reporting is true, the president would not like to see his win questioned after he has already won based

on this very headline of well, it is because of the russians so he deputy win. this would be consistent potentially with that very idea. >> absolutely. donald trump was the most pro-russian candidate in modern history, was clear about that, even when it became controversial. he has yet to say a bad word about vladimir putin and has repudiated findings of the intelligence community that russia interfered in the election and helped him get elected. that's where we start from. it is clear his team was trying to assuage the rugs as the obama administration was trying to sanction the russians for interfering in the election. now with this report and yesterday's court documents show the context of that. >> while the president has not said a bad word about vladimir putin, the russian government has said a bad word about you, ambassador. i understand you were black listed. what's happened, how did you get to this point?

>> that happened long ago. i was put on the sanctions list in retaliation for what the obama administration, the list that they put together in response to russia's an ex-agency of ukraine. i don't think i deserve to be on the list but i understand the tit for tat process in that exchange. >> still to this day you're black listed? >> yes, to the best of my knowledge. i hosted the new ambassador yesterday, and i think he made it clear, i won't get off that list until a number of senior russians get off that list. >> all right. thank you so much. appreciate it. coming up, global outrage grows after president trump retweets a series of anti-muslim videos. british government firing back with harsh words as the white house comes to his defense. more on that.

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to sew discord in our communities. >> action is needed now. not a slap on the wrist. can sell the state visit. >> united in outrage, rare show of solidarity at british parliament. lawmakers call for a ban on president trump after he shared these anti-muslim videos posted by ultra nationalist far right group called britain first. theresa may, usually an ally of trump's also with some criticism. >> the fact that we work together does not mean that we are afraid to say when we think the united states have got it wrong and to be very clear with them, and i am very clear that retweeting from britain first was the wrong thing to do. >> the transatlantic spat threatening to spill into full blown diplomatic crisis. bring in matthew magregor with

precision strategies, christopher dickey, world news editor for the daily beast. matthew, on this widely called videos the president retweeted as not being real, as being fake, yet they have been put out. the dutch embassy in d.c. fact checked it, uk officials fact checked it as well. videos are factually incorrect. yet this president still is retweeting them, the white house defending the tweets. >> this is what happens when you shoot from the tweet. these are organizations that deliberately put out misleading, inflammatory videos. britain first is a fascist organization, fringe of the fringe. this is what they do. any president operating in a thought through, structured approach to diplomacy would have been warned about that. he has kind of thrown these things out there, there are real consequences as you saw with lawmakers in the uk parliament. >> christopher dickey, i know we have a bit of delay.

if you can, what's the temperature based on what we played. seems it is a little warm. >> i think it is warm. i also think that moment of white hot heat is passing. in brings and and in the rest of the world, just because the news cycle turns over so fast. i think people should know that despite all of this controversy, president trump has not taken the tweets down. even though people like piers morgan, one of 45 accounts that trump follows, piers morgan news man, guess we call him that in great britain, even he said that these were -- these tweets were about vile muslim hating scum bags, but trump kept them up. i think this is not going to go away in terms of trump but it is going away as a news item because the news cycle moves on so quickly and we have had flynn

and tax bills and everything else going on. >> matthew, there's also the issue of twitter themselves, right, and they have posted this on friday saying these videos are not being kept up because they are newsworthy or for public interest, rather, these videos are permitted on twitter based on our current media policy. there have been other tweets taken down. some saying why not these. they're not correct, they have been called fake, and they're anti-muslim. >> and incredibly inflammatory. these videos have real consequences. britain first has mastered getting videos to go viral. they have hundreds of thousands of views on facebook as well as on twitter. they have consequences. hate crimes are rocketing in britain and other european countries. britain first is celebrating, they're ecstatic about donald trump giving them additional oxygen and publicity. these platforms are already

providing that platform. they need to do more to choke off that oxygen of publicity. these videos are having consequences on the ground, in the streets for muslims who are under attack. >> and christopher dickey, you're standing there in paris. you were there during the bat clan attacks, you talk about the muslim parisian community. the complexity there. how is this messaging from the president resonating in paris and other places in europe? >> reporter: well, you know, i think that people in europe generally believe that donald trump is a rationale actor but plays on fear and hatred above all other emotions. i think they don't want that here. i think president macron has been good fighting against that here. ironically, at the same time he

courted trump by playing to his ego. these tweets don't make trump worse than before, they already thought he was pretty bad. >> christopher dickey, the possibility here of that state visit called off? >> it looks like there would be a working visit, not state visit to open the new u.s. embassy in london. that's pushed into the deeper weeds and no date set for a state visit. people are hoping it will all blow over. we'll see. if trump does show up in great britain, and matthew can say better than i, i think there would be huge protests. that would put all of this on the front burner again. >> matt? >> i think the protests would be unprecedented, larger than george w. bush experienced. i think the tweets cross a line for many people in britain.

british people follow american politics closely. they are outraged by things donald trump has said and done. this effects people in britain. there have been terror attacks, tensions are high. i think these crossed a line fo for many people and the news cycle we move on, anytime donald trump even, the idea of him coming to visit the uk, protests will absolutely explode. >> matthew mcgregor, thank you. christopher dickie there in paris. thank you. coming up, we continue to follow new developments in the russia investigation following michael flynn's guilty plea and the big question now. did flynn act independently with the russians, or was he instructed to do so? i want to hide a while behind your smile ah, but i may as well try and catch the wind♪ our mission is to make off-shore wind one of the principle new sources of energy.

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more now on the president's response to former national security adviser michael flynn's guilty plea. today appears to be the first time the president directly puts blame on flynn lying to the fbi, as part of the reason the president decided to fire him. meanwhile, the "new york times" coming out with a report today. that report pointing to e-mails that they had access to that dispute white house claims that flynn acted independently on russia. there were others in the very same circle of power that were involved according to this reporting. joining me, deputy campaign manager for martin o'malley and senior adviser to george w. b h

bush. >> liz, according to our white house unit we do not see in the archives according to hallie jackson, let us know, no evidence of that as of yet? >> evidence of -- >> of, again, the president saying the reason he fired michael flynn is because he lied to the fbi. not seeing it in the archives. >> everyone day, a different version of events. this is problematic for them on so many different levels, because bringing flynn into this brings us a step closer to president trump. you know, he can't pull the, play the my ra mariah carey car. you can't claim distance between him and donald trump. also, there are myriad issues, as you said, with the lying and with the fact that this is a guy

in the room and he can temperature people what was being said in very sensitive conversations. you've got to think that all of the folks on the trump campaign are going back thinking, wow. what is it that i said around michael flynn in private during the course of the campaign? >> those watching, robert, will say, okay. who are the others involved? right? according to the "new york times" report. because these e-mails showing that it wasn't just flynn involved. the other question coming out -- is this obstruction of justice now? because of what, again, former fbi director comey saying, well, you know what? the president approached me, said, hey can you take a step away from flynn for me, please? that would be great. >> that's step one. step two, allegedly the president went up to some united states senators and said, please stop this investigation. look at the facts. the facts are, that general flynn was a close person and then candidate donald trump's inner circle. there are hundreds if not maybe even thousands of minutes of

tape where then donald trump is praising general flynn and vise versus sa. in fact, i was at the republican convention in ohio where general flynn is on record saying, quoting him directly, if i did 1/10 of what hillary clinton would have done i would have been locked up and went on to egg the audience on saying, "lock her up." the other reality he lied to then vice president pence and lied to the fbi also. why? why did he lie? why did he think he needed to cover something up? then lastly, throughout theviou flynn was very much in the loop. nerve are worked at that level of government, common sense tells me, richard, anytime you do anything as relates to reaching out to another foreign power you do so with other people in the loop. you don't do it alone. you keep whomever around the inner circle in the loop and probably are doing it in concert with what they're telling you to do. i do not think that general flynn acted alone. i do think general flynn kept

people in the loop and we'll see. >> just to add on to that, what we just learned from the "new york times" in the last hour is that this wasn't a rogue act. he was directed by k.t. mcfarland to do it on a day where michael flynn had meetings with numerous trump senior officials and building a little more off what robert said, this is not -- trump cannot say he was hoodwinked by this. he was warned early on by chris christie, president obama, that michael flynn was a problematic dude and still brought him into the administration. all the warning signs were there and donald trump still decided to move ahead with him. >> part of the why, liz, to you robert on this, according to reporting from the "new york times" it could give you some idea behind it. they were worried the very idea, the connection of russia with the trump campaign would invalidate or forever haunt them, if you will, in a young administration, that that question, was the election real? part of the reporting here. >> no doubt about it that this is a very sensitive issue with

the administration. you recognize that donald trump would never criticize vladimir putin. we know that when the russian babied was in the oval office, only their translator in the room, not ours. it doesn't add up. there is so many red flags here where this is just not normal, and that they are being very submissive to vladimir putin and to russia. the question is, why? it seems like mr. mueller is getting, inching closer to that based on systematic facts. not about emotion. all about the integrity and sovereignty of the united states and, a., whether or not russia meddled in our elections and, two, why, and three, why does the administration continue to play footsies with the russian administration underneath the table? >> the muleer team is moving along. liz smith, robert traynham have a good saturday. that wraps up up for this hour on msnbc. i'm richard lui. stay with us for breaking news.

find me on stain graham, facebook and twitter. let me know what you think. stick around. "a.m. joy" is next. have a great time. lock him up! lock him up! the man who led the charge of "lock her up" at the gop convention, former national security advisers michael flynn now a convicted felon. spectators shouting "lock him up" leaves the courthouse friday after lying about his contacts with russia. he's agreed to cooperate with mueller's investigation. the plea agreement stems from phone conversations the disgraced three-star general had with russian ambassador sergey