i've got to say one more thing tonight. it has been a year, right? not alone in that. tomorrow i have my concluding 2017 comment on the year that's been, and it's about humphrey bogart. that's our show. "hardball" is up next. plan of attack. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm steve kein for chris matthe. michael flynn has been a wild card in the ongoing probe ever since he pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi, legal experts have said that the leniency of that single charge indicates that flynn may have offered significant information to the

prosecutors. tonight the washington post now reporting that president trump is ready to throw his national former security adviser under the bus according to three people familiar with the president's legal strategy, quote, president trump's legal team plans to cast former national security adviser michael flynn as a liar seeking to protect himself if he accuses the president or his senior aids of any wrongdoing. according to the post, the administration has been strategizing how to neutralize him in case the former national security adviser does make any claims. however, trump's attorneys are confident that flynn does not have any evidence that would be damaging to the president. the new strategy marks a reversal for president trump who up until now has praised his national security adviser in his public statements. michael flynn, general flynn, is a wonderful man. i think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media. >> i do feel badly for him. he served the country. he was a general. this man has served for many

years. he's a general. he's a -- in my opinion a very good person. >> well, i feel badly for general flynn. i feel very badly. he's led a very strong life and i feel very badly. >> i'm joined now on the phone by the author of that new report carol leonnig. carol, thank you for joining us. let me key in on these words, this perspective strategy of painting flynn as a liar is contingent apparently on whether, you say here, he accuses the president or his senior aides of any wrongdoing. is trump's legal team getting some indication here that that's where this is going? >> i don't think that there's any way anyone knows exactly where this is going. the mueller investigation is very much a black box, but everyone has a contingency plan for things break bad, and in this case the lawyers for the president, the lawyers for other senior trump administration aides are eyeing what happens if

flynn's cooperation agreement includes information that accuses them of something untoward and criminal, and if that's the case, my understanding from talking to multiple sources familiar with this is the plan is to cast flynn as a person who's not credible, a person who's lying to save his own skin, to seal his cooperation agreement and do as prosecutors asked him to do to avoid multiple criminal charges he could have faced that he was not charged with. >> yeah. and i think that's what i'm trying to figure out here. i think probably a lot of people are as well. if what you're describing here really is sort of basic lawyering 101, you prepare for a contingen contingency, you prepare for a worst case possible scenario or if there is some sense here that may have changed on the part of trump's legal team, some sort of indication maybe not from mueller himself but other

sources they may have, some specific reason why they're now talking this way. >> any lawyer who's watching this case, even from the outside, not reviewing the internal e-mails and records, anybody watching from the outside looks at the deal that michael flynn, the president's former national security adviser received and secured and wonders, wow, what kind of great dirt does he have? because he could have been charged reasonably with four or five counts of lying and misleading, defrauding the u.s. there were many, many instances in which the prosecutors could have gone harder on him and could have conceivably, although it might have been hard to do, could have conceivably charged his son. flynn's son was his chief of staff in many of his business consulting arrangements, was a person who filed some of the information that turned out to be inaccurate about michael flynn's business dealings, that later had to be amended and

corrected in which he didn't discuss all the work he did on behalf of foreign governments. he was paid by an institute that was essentially funded by the russian government. he was paid to do something at the behest of turkish ministers and he worked with turkish ministers directly and his son was familiar with that. so anybody watching this, how do you get a deal in which you're going to be charged with one count of lying, one felony count and you are facing a recommended prison sentence of zero to 6 months, and they presume, every single person i've spoken to presumes that michael flynn has quite a bounty of information to provide to bob mueller and his prosecution team. what is it? so it makes sense that if you're a good lawyer, and certainly there are many in this team of defense lawyers, you are eyeing what's the worst thing that can happen. and they don't know what the worst thing is yet, but they're preparing for it. >> and, again, in terms of what

trump's lawyers are saying, what you're hearing from them, they're saying, look, he would have nothing to offer. anything he says to implicate the president would be a lie. has there been any shift even at a subtle level in the way they've talked about that where they concede, maybe there's something that could be open to interpretation? maybe he'd say it this way, we'd defend it that way or is this steadfast them saying, no, he's got nothing. >> so, steve, such a good question. i love the way you phrased it. i'm going to be careful in the way i answer it and just say it's clear to me there's a plan b if things go badly in terms of what michael flynn might say about the trump administration and about the president himself. it doesn't mean that anything's changed in terms of the information they have at their disposal. in fact, they say they're quite confident based on the records that there's nothing to corroborate or suggest a

conspiracy on the part of any senior transition or campaign officials including donald trump himself, but that doesn't mean you don't consider what could be asserted and what could be claimed. remember two of the major things that are still a mystery in this investigation are did anyone in the trump transition -- i'm sorry, trump campaign team coordinate at all with wikileaks? that's a big open question. those e-mails from the dnc were hacked. some people say that was a crime. some people say the russian government did that and provided them to wikileaks and then wikileaks provided them to the benefit of the trump campaign. did anybody in the trump campaign coordinate or know about that or arrange that? that's a big unknown. the second big unknown is why did michael flynn lie to the fbi about his communications with a russian ambassador about sanctions? did the president know? did the president ask?

did the president suggest to michael flynn that he have that conversation with the ambassador? and that's also a question mark we don't know the answer. >> okay. carol leonnig, writing that story that has all of the political world talking now. carol, thank you for taking a few minutes, bringing us up to speed in that. joining me is chris bus kirkirk. he publishes "american greatness." let me get your reaction. i think you heard carol spelling out there why this particular angle is being watched so quickly. i know you have the plea to the lying charge post election. the plea from flynn. she said, look, one felony count of lying. recommended sentence of zero to six months. a lot of people saying this is leniency and there's reason for trump to be nervous about what flynn might say. how do you feel about that? >> well, the same way i feel about the mueller investigation in general, which is that there's this -- there's sort of this predetermined conclusion

and then all of the facts around it are kind of force fit together in order to -- in order to support a conclusion that everybody who sort of dislikes the president has already come to. that's the issue with this bit of reporting. it's great reporting, but it's also -- and carol said this, it's also not a surprise. if the president's going to maintain and his legal team is going to maintain they did nothing wrong, then if michael flynn makes allegations against him, of course they're going to say he lied. that's part of it. i think the other part of the story that's really interesting here though, steve, is this. is that we have on the one hand we've got the president saying in public on a number of occasions i support michael flynn, i think he's gotten a raw deal. all of these things that are sort of publicly reported. that's the carrot. this is a reminder to michael flynn the president has the power to pardon. in this reporting we see that there's a stick, too, which is to say that if you make false allegations then your reputation is at risk too.

>> does it give you pause, we're all doing this from a bit of distance. we don't know exactly what's going on inside of that mueller investigation. we do know it's a pretty serious deal. you have some pretty serious pleas and charges that we've seen out there already. does it give you a pause as a supporter of the president that somebody he selected as a national security adviser, somebody in that role albeit for a short time has pleaded guilty of lying to the fbi? does it give you pause when you look at the apparent leniency here of what the prosecutors are looking for? does it give you concern that he might have knowledge that would change our understanding a bit of this administration? >> well, it's -- look, there's always the known unknowns and there's the unknown unknowns. of course, we don't know the unknown unknowns so that is always a cause for a bit of concern. i can tell you my top 100 things to worry about, it just isn't there. one of the things that people don't seem to think about when they look at the michael flynn

plea deal is number one there is the possibility they didn't charge him with other things because they didn't think they could prove them. that never factors in. that's another possibility. the other element with flynn is that this is somebody that was not part of the administration that long and i think the legal team around the president understands exactly what they have to deal with on the defense side and they feel like they can go the distance on this. >> you mentioned that prospect there that everybody has been chattering about. does this or any other phase or aspect of this investigation ultimately end with the president issuing some kind of pardon? two weeks ago the president refused to rule out the pardon for flynn. let's watch that. >> about michael flynn, would you consider a pardon for michael flynn? >> i don't want to talk about pardons for michael flynn yet. we'll see what happens. >> that was two weeks ago. now flynn's brother, joseph flynn, is making a public appeal to the president in a tweet yesterday which he later deleted

flynn's brother wrote, about time you pardon general flynn who's taking the biggest fall for you all. he later took a more conciliatory approach. writing to the president, i personally believe that a pardon is due to general flynn. thank you and keep up the good work. chris, you raised this sort of interpretation game when the president's talked the way he did two weeks ago, people are wondering is this going to lead to a change. i wonder in terms of the president's credibility on this issue, if he were to issue a pardon to general flynn here and sort of cut off flynn's involvement in this investigation, what would that do to trump's credibility on this question? >> that is a great question. that's the calculus and calculation they need to be going through. that's not so much a legal question but a political

question. there's a political aspect that affects whether to do it or not do it. i think the president needs to be careful about when he does it -- obviously i have no information to say whether he would or not, but i think if he's going to, you need to be very careful when and how he did so and structure it in such a way that he was doing the right thing. then he'd have to make the case to the american people. these are things that get decided politically. >> chris buskirk, thank you for joining us. coming up, former president obama sits down for a wide ranging interview with brittain's prince harry of all people. he seems to issue a stark warning. seems like obama is calling out president trump although not by name. a twist in the race that could decide control of the virginia house of delegates.

they have postponed a tie breaking draw. the democrat has filed a motion asking to be declared a winner. and the fight for the soul of the republican party. will 2018 bring with it another round of up start right wing candidates wreaking havoc against the establishment? out in utah, keep an eye on this. is mitt romney going to challenge orrin hatch. finally, the "hardball" roundtable is here where the action is. ♪

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welcome back to "hardball." it's been nearly a year since barack obama left the white house. since then he's remained mostly out of the public eye. today we got a glimpse at post presidency thinking. he gave his first interview to of all people brittain's prince harry. it aired today for the first time on bbc radio. >> can i take you back to the 20th of january 2017. you're sat in marine one, presidential helicopter flying

over washington. you sat through the inauguration with your game face on without giving much emotion away as we all saw. what's going -- what's going through your mind? >> the first thing that went through my mind was sitting across from michelle how thankful i was that she had been my partner through that whole process. the sense that there was a completion and that we had done the work in a way that preserved our integrity and left us whole and that we hadn't fundamentally changed i think was a satisfying feeling. now that was mixed with all the work that was still undone and concerns about how the country moves forward, but over all there was a serenity there more than i would have expected. >> obama never mentioned donald trump by name, but there was this warning about the dangers of social media and the internet

that could apply to trump arguably, a prolific user of twitter after all. >> all of us in leadership have to find ways in which we can recreate a common space on the internet. one of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. they can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases. >> and for more now i'm joined by sam stein, politics for the daily bees, shannon pettypiece and jonathan capehart. sam stein, we'll start with you. prince harry getting the big scoop. by the way, that should be a rule. the first interview, go to domestic and do the britts second. >> you know how to score an obama sitdown. >> heir to the throne. that's the key. what do you make on the message on social media. is that a general warning of our

culture or his way of getting at trump? >> it was obviously directed at donald trump, right? although there are broader cultural lessons to be learned from over using and abuse of social media which we should all take to heart and i do, too. it's just remarkable how delicate the entire interview was. if that is his extent of criticism of donald trump, he is clearly going out of his way not to anger donald trump. despite this respect for the office that obama seems to have and clearly does demonstrate, how much donald trump is driven by what seems to be a very clear and clean hatred for obama's legacy. you have these two people, one of which is incredibly respe respectful and the other one who doesn't care. >> what do you make of that dynamic that's been here for the last year? there's always this awkward

dance between the president and his immediate predecessor but with trump he's going out of his way to invoke obama more than past presidents have. is he trying to bait obama? what do you think of that? >> obama is taking the traditional approach, one president at a time. step back and let the next guy do his skbrjob, do it his way. trump is taking the unpresidential approach. completely off the normal script. i feel like one consistency of this past year despite what's really seemed chaotic at times, an administration trying to find its way, has been the undoing of obama's legacy. if there's something that the obama administration did from a small regulation to a trade deal to a climate agreement, this administration has consistently, consistently, consistently undone that.

so when you look at this year and what the trump doctrine is, you can say america first but you can say undo obama. >> jonathan, what do you think the calculation from obama's standpoint, is it that, hey, if i take a more active role, if i'm addressing trump's actions, trump's criticism, his references to me, if i'm addressing that more directly, is the calculation not that that's just a break with past tradition but is it also a calculation that that would be playing into trump's hands strategically? does he think he actually weakens trump by not engaging? >> look, president obama is taking the traditional route. second, i think the president, if he were to comment on everything that president -- if president obama were to comment on everything that president trump has said, tweeted, done, things that he's done to try to erase president obama's name from everything he wouldn't get anything done and then sort of this movement that's out there

around the country, particularly among democrats and the progressive left about opposing everything president trump is doing, would look to president obama to be their leader. i think president obama and folks around the president are very cautious about putting him out there if for the sole treren to have people understand that they can't turn to barack obama to help lead, help solve the problem. they have to look within themselves to help oppose things coming from this administration. >> sam, what do you think barack obama's role is going to be in this debate that's going to play out in the democratic party that's already started? they need a new face. a nominee in 2020, in their minds the next president of the united states. is there going to be a public role? is he going to try to influence this privately? is he going to stand back? what do you think his role is going to be? >> when you talk to people around barack obama and people who still work with him and talk with him, it seems to me that

they're still trying to find out what their role is in the current political climate. i remember during the height of the efforts to repeal obama care i was fascinated by the fact that he was not weighing in at all. this is his legislation. i talk to people about it and just as they felt that they engaged too strongly, became a trump versus obama dynamic. all of this good work would dissipate because people would say, oh, it's barack obama. there's a hesitation they have on waying in. that changes when you're talking about a democratic primary. he could with his finger on the scale really tilt it to one candidate or another. i don't think it's in his interest or his demeanor to weigh in. there is a sense talking to people around barack obama that he has to allow a new crop of leaders emerge. if he were to do an explicit or implicit endorsement he would

hurt the party. >> that's interesting when you look back at 2016. i wonder what barack obama thinks about that. the vice president would use it to run if he wants to. if he wanted to, president obama never gave him the public i'm with you if you're in. that kind of shut down the process there. if that affects his thinking and how to approach it in 2020 at all? >> well, there are certainly a lot of issues going on with vice president biden at that time, too, so who knows what the conversations were like behind the scenes but, of course, here we are again three years out from the next election and everyone is talking about will biden run? is he too old? is he going to run? that does get to the bigger problem of the democratic party, who is the leader of the democratic party? that is something democrats are trying to figure out. is it barack obama? is it bernie sanders?

is it elizabeth warren? who is the leader and there is a risk. the idea being that the american public, the people, they may have moved forward. you might need to find and move forward. >> we want to show you this from this feature of any interview with prince harry is the lightning round. barack obama was subjected to that. take a listen to that. >> what do you miss the most, the cinema or the bowling alley? >> cinema. we called it a movie theater but that's fine. >> boxers or briefs. >> sorry, we don't answer those questions. >> lebron james or michael jordan. >> jordan. i love lebron but i'm a chicago guy. >> aretha franklin or tina turner. >> aretha is the best. >> kim or chloe? >> this one. >> harry or william? >> william. >> suits or the good wife? >> suits obviously. >> great answer.

cigarettes or gum? >> gum now, baby. >> gum. white house or buckingham palace? >> white house just because buckingham palace looks like it would take a really long time to mow. >> okay. fair enough. >> a lot of upkeep. >> queen or the queen? >> the queen. >> good answer again. >> all righty. this misses the cinema. interesting lightning round there. we thought we would show you that interesting glimpse into president obama in his post presidency. thank you to our guests. up next, that pivotal race for the virginia house of delegates. it was supposed to be decided today by a random drawing but the democrat in that race isn't leaving it all to chance. she's taking it to court. she's asking to be declared the winner now. we're talking to her next. this is "hardball" where the action is next. talk to your doctor,

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i'm melissa rehberger. forecasters wore warning of dangerous weather. it's expected to last through the end of the week. russian officials say ten people were hurt when an explosive device detonated at a supermarket in st. petersburg. the i.r.s. is upgrading the rules regarding the prepayments on their taxes. they will only be allowed under, quote, certain circumstances. back to "hardball."

welcome back to "hardball." political control of the virginia house of delegates is up in the air, this after a tie-breaking vote was postponed. a random draw was supposed to settle the race. they represent a district made up of newport news, virginia. it showed simons winning by a single vote. the stakes here are high. a victory for simons would shift republic republican's control to an even 50-50 split. that would force a power sharing gift. they've already flipped 15 republican held seats in the house of delegates. at issue is this single ballot in which a voter selected both the democrat and the republican candidate. originally it was tossed.

a three-panel judge allowed it to be counted though for jantzy. there was a cross in the bubble for simons. she's asking for that vote to be thrown out. they did not follow the rules. for the latest on this i'm joined by the democratic candidate, shelly simons. thank you for taking a few minutes. the stakes here are high. the democratic governor coming in. if you win this race, democrats have a piece of this legislature and they can move an agenda. if you don't win this race, you could be looking at gridlock. those are the stakes. the republican argument and the one that the three-judge panel accepted is okay there's a crossout of your name. there's a crossout through the bubble. that's the voter saying, nah, i didn't mean to fill that one in. count the republican. what do you say of that? >> i think that ballot should not be counted at all because there's no consistent pattern

there. there's an x and a bubble, just a bubble, the slash. some people say that's a check mark. so i think it's really a classic example of an over vote which should not be counted. >> so where does this go for you if this is -- because the initial ruling from these judges, that's it, that's a republican vote, we have to have a random drawing. if you're not able to get this ballot tossed, do you go to a random draw or do you go and try to find some ballots? >> well, i think the options before us include what we've already done, which is asking the judges to reconsider their decision. there are a lot of reasons for them to reconsider this. we feel the integrity of the entire recount system is at stake because what we're going to end up with is this downward spiral of challenging every single ballot up to judges. i think the citizens should be

the one deciding on these ballots not just giving everything over to the judges to decide. >> if you're not successful, if this goes to a random drawing, are you ultimately satisfied that that would be fair? i'm trying to think. it seems a strange way to suit somebody. if you have a tie, something that's declared a tie, how else do you break it? >> i would have been fine with the random drawing if it had really been a tie. i won the recount fair and square. i played by the rules. the rules in virginia are very clear but my opponent made an end run around those rules. yes, if we have to go to random drawing i think it will be a very saddened to our story in virginia. >> tell me about the stakes of this. you have ralph northam who won. one of the issues that's paralyzed the state is about

obamacare. the democratic governor warned it, couldn't get it. if you get a piece of the legislature with you being seated, does that partial control, does that power sharing agreement allow you to expand medicaid. >> possibly. i hope so. i really think that it will be a positive thing for virginia to have power sharing. it means that we're going to have to compromise and work together to get them some things done quickly. in virginia many good ideas have died in these subcommittees that are controlled by the republicans so we're going to be able to get things out of subcommittee that have never been voted on in the house. i'll give you an example. the equal rights amendment has been stuck. we'll have a full and fair vote on that. the equal rights amendment, my grandmother was working on in the 1920s.

the stakes are very high for all of us in virginia. >> shelly simonds sweating out one of the biggest recounts of all time. >> you're welcome. in the wake of roy moore are we going to see more upstart candidates taking on the establishment and republican primaries. and in utah will mitt romney move to challenge orrin hatch. we're going to get to all of that. you are watching "hardball." across a full lineup of ford cars, trucks and suvs. so hurry and save big on america's best-selling brand. it's the final days of the ford year end sales event with zero percent financing for seventy-two months plus an extra one-thousand cash back! see your ford dealer before jan 2nd and save.

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and welcome back to "hardball." after big losses for republicans in the virginia governor's race and the alabama special election, the mid terms could shape up to be a battle for the soul of the gop. washington post says an intraparty clash could be taking shape in mississippi. if state senator chris mcdaniel, the hard right's top recruit for the see the decides to challenge u.s. senator roger wicker he

will be up against president trump. it will pit president trump against his former chief strategist steve bannon who has encouraged mcdaniel to run. another intraparty battle could be in the works in utah. there is a scathing editorial urging orrin hatch to call it a career if not, quote, the voters should end it for him. mitt romney is reporting to weigh a senate bid but only if he steps aside. earlier this most politico said president trump is quietly urging orrin to run to keep romney out. we have a panel joining us now. emily, let me start with you on this question of mississippi and i think it could be bigger than mississippi where you have the potential dynamic of donald trump and does he defend these

establishment republican senators like a wicker in mississippi, like a strange in alabama and bannon and the guys in the grassroots trying to get the insurrections started. is that a dynamic we'll see? >> absolutely. when i think of president trump's world view he sees it as winners and losers. he never wants to be associated with losers. everything is a win or a loss. after what happened in alabama, he wants to be careful about who he's going to support and how much weight he throws behind it. he doesn't want to come out as a loser again. >> in this battle as a democrat, that senate match six months ago was supposed to be -- you are defending ten seats in trump's state. it looked like there were one or two vulnerable republican seats. we saw this in alabama, do they nominate a series of candidates who pose electoral challenges

for them? >> no. i think what's going to be difficult for the republicans going forward in this case is they're going to have to, as everyone eluded to, walk the fine line of whether or not they adhere to strict conservative ideology or do they become the defenders of donald trump. as a democrat, even if he is supporting different candidates, i get to paint a republican candidate with a very broad brush. the challenge for democrats after alabama, you've seen the number of african-american votes that came out. the challenge is are these states going to be posing restrictions for a lot of african-american voters that are going to come out to the polls because you have a motivated democratic electorate. >> inside the democratic party before there was a roy moore

standoff. it seemed to me what was powering more is a big challenge to the republican establishment and that is the republican base, if you had any link to ryan, any of the people at the party, there is a huge opening in this party whether it's in alabama or someone else. i want to fight them. they don't want me. that's something that could cause all sorts of problems across the map in 2018. >> that has been the civil war going on in the republican party in the past several years. we saw it come out in 2010. we want the tea party like candidates who want to fight and never establish. >> it hasn't died down. >> it hasn't died down. they would say we need to have a true conservative run for these races. when ed gilles pea lost there was a lot of mumbling and grumbling, he wasn't a true conservative.

then we ran meeting that true conservative minus the accusations of him being a child predator. when he lost they said, well, it was rigged. way past two weeks later and he still hasn't conceded. there's a mind set in the republican party with the base. you need to get rid of anything and everything that is remotely establishment. >> that's the recipe for taking a candidate that didn't look like they would be in play. we talked about in the interim of mitt romney, of orrin hatch who has been in the senate 42 years next year, he'll be 84 years ole. it sounds like he may want to run again. he's forged an alliance with donald trump. mitt romney and/or r orrin hatc. would romney try to push him out. would hatch try to fight him off.

>> i think whether mitt romney runs in that, he's still going to speak out very vociferously against the president. utah is unique in that it's a red state and they went for trump in 2016. a third party candidate was picked. it's not trump country. >> that's right. it has to be the most anti-republican state. >> the last of the northeast moderate republicans -- >> you guys were talking about it in 2012. >> why would i? >> because my man obama was in the race. but he's the last of the rockefeller republicans. for the democrats, yeah, we work with mitt romney. the question is with the poll thing that voters don't want on

it, there was a challenge on to primary. >> the polling out there for hatch, that's his poison so far. roundtable staying with us. we'll take a look at a trump sweep that hasn't necessarily aged well. you're watching "hardball."

president trump has made a point of saying the new republican tax bill he signed essentially does away with obamacare and according to a

brand new economist poll, 31% of americans believe trump has repealed the affordable care act. to be clear, that new tax bill does do away with a key piece of the law. obamacare is very much in effect right now. we will see in the repeal will affect the longer term stability and we'll be right back. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424.

welcome back to "hardball." president trump spent part of his morning at his international golf club in west palm beach. today marked his 86th day at one of his golf properties. 341 so far in office. trump spent years attacking president obama. tweeting in 2014, can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the u.s. president obama spent a day playing gov. worse than carter.

>> i'm going to fight for every american in every last part of this nation. we have a president who doesn't fight. he goes out and plays golf. >> i love work. i'm not a vacation guy. like obama. flies in a 747. >> i promise you i will not be taking any long vacations if i take any at all. there's no time for vacations. we're not going to be big on vacations. >> i mean, it's tough not to say he didn't walk into any criticism he's getting now. >> he's in the rough as they say. at the same time i don't think it was wrong for president obama to be going out and playing golf. it is the most stressful job on the planet. i think if anything democrats should be happy when president trump plays golf because that means he's not working and doing everything they hate about his agenda. what's the complaint?

>> the complaint is hypocrisyhy. basil, trump's forced the issue here. it is a good idea for any leader, whether it's trump, obama, whoever comes next to be able to carve out some space. >> i hated having to defend president obama. going and taking an actual vacation because the man could do two things at once. the same argument is the argument i would make for republicans. donald trump, just liked the "w." if he just wants to win, tell the republicans to send him to play golf. >> be happy he's on the golf course. >> let him go play. >> the white house and trump's space. whether you're barack obama or donald trump, if you're gofg,

it's not a popular vibe. you're not with coal miners. it's not for the people. >> all right. roundtable is staying with us. up next, three scoops. one from each of these reporters or pundants you'll be talking about tomorrow. you're watching "hardball." ♪ ♪ the 2018 cadillac xt5. beauty, greater than the sum of its parts.

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all right. we're back with "hardball" roundtable. tell me something i don't know.

>> everybody is talking about how president trump is trying to clear a path to fire robert mueller. everything isn't about firing robert mueller, it's giving congress permission to defund him. >> potential infrastructure legislation and policy. you had a great story with a deeper dive about why it will be difficult. 3/4 of the funding comes from cities and states. with the tax bill it makes it harder for states and municipalities to promote municipal funds to pay for the infrastructure funds they want. >> 2018, we'll see what's done. emily? >> this primary coverage area of long island, you have two republicans who are polar opposites. they've had a headline fund-raiser that produced an eye popping amount of money. we have others who have

vociferously rejected him. >> going back 20 years with him. newt gingrich in the '90s, watch him. very extreme to watch him in action. thank you to our panel. thanks for being here. i'm steve filling in for chris matthews who's on vacation. that is "hardball." thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. >> tonight on "all in" -- >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> the mueller investigation gains scheme. >> tonight yahoo's michael ithaca on the new leads, new witnesses and new evidence in the mueller probe. plus, the flynn family appeal for a pardon as the trump team readies an attack on michael flynn. then the new koch brothers plan to sell america on president trump's tax law. >> that tax bill is something. >> 13 days in july. white house shakeup