short trip, what's your sense what happens to steve bannon as result of this book? >> look, i think what was inevitable is they would all turn on each other. that's happening. who knows? is steve bannon going to be up in new hampshire running against donald trump in the breitbart primary? we'll wait and see. >> pop some popcorn. my thanks to all of you. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> hi, nicolle. you can't make it up. quite the season premiere. >> did you read it all? my eyes are burning. >> it's like i don't think "house of cards" could have concocted a better season premiere. anyway, if it's wednesday, is this any way to run a country? >> tonight -- the bannon betrayal. >> furious, disgusted would probably certainly fit when you matsch such outrageous claims. >> in a new book, president

trump is poor they'red as unserious and only semiliterate. and steve bannon accuses the president's son of treason. >> that is a ridiculous accusation. >> fighting back, president trump says bannon has lost his mind. plus -- the president's bigger button insult to kim jong-un is raising questions about mr. trump's judgment. >> it's a taunting tweet to say he has a larger nuclear button. >> but it's just a fact. >> and weapon of mass distraction. after the president's big button tweet we talked to about expert on the brain and language about what's really behind president trump's serial tweeting. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. real nonfiction washington, i

swear. welcome to "mtp daily" and welcome to a five-alarm dumpster fire for the white house. or should we call it bannon's rebellion? the russia investigation blown nope dramatic fashion. not by the fake news media. not by the deep state justice department, but by steve bannon. and in response, the president is now trying to destroy bannon. in a new book, bannon is quoted calling the trump campaign "treasonous," "unpatriotic" says jared kushner and trump jr. could face money laundering charges and no way the president didn't know about the infamous trump tower meeting, thought it was getting russian access dirt to incriminate hillary clinton. bannon said he told us the president to his face that his defense of that meeting was "insane." and bannon said, using words i can't say on live television i don't know if i can even say it on tape delay, and response, president trump went nuclear today on bannon in ways both jaw-dropping and laughable and

oddly, weirdly predictable as far as this president's concerned. in a statement the president said the following -- steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when fired he not only lost his job he lost his mind. steve doesn't represent my base. he's only in it for himself. guys, steve bannon was the president's chief political strategist and the trump campaign's chief executive. so it is beyond ludicrous to argue he has nothing to do with mr. trump or his presidency. but the white house made it clear again and again at this afternoon's briefing, that statement is their story and they're just simply going to stick to it. >> i think the president's statement is extremely clear what his position on mr. bannon is. >> once again i think the president's statement faulty addresses what his position and what his relationship with mr. bannon is. >> once again, i think the president and hit feelings towards mr. bannon are very clear. >> look, these are the president's words. i think they're very clear. there's not much to add bekbrond

th beyond that. >> and no legal authority either. and of all of the effort that this is a hoax or wouldn't find anything who could have predicted it would have been the guy who runs brbreitbart. even if you thought this was not treasonous or unpatriotic or bad you know what and i lap to think it's all of that, you should have called the fbi immediately. no one in the campaign did contact the fbi about it and bannon recounts a confrontation with the president. the president said to me everybody would take that don jr. meeting with the russians. i said, everybody would not take that meeting, i said. i'm a naval officer. i'm not going to take a meeting with russian nationals and do it in a headquarters had you [ muted ] in sane. i guess you can guess the expleti expletive. the chance don junior did not

walk these -- jumos up to his father's office on the 26 floth is zero. look up jumos. it's there. and this goes through paul manafort, don junior and jared kushner. goes through deutsche bank and all the kushner this, it's greasy, go right through. roll those two guys up and say, play me or trade me. wow. bring in tonight's panel. carol lee, national political reporter and michael steele and former rnc chairman and jennifer palmieri for both the obama white house and clinton campaign and is probably, can't believe she's going to find herself saying things like steve bannon is right. [ laughter ] >> so much.

never thought how wise steve bannon was? michael steele -- all right. there's a level of absurdity to this, but, wow, it's explosive. if you are dealing in the 30% of this country basically believes whatever the president says and whatever breitbart says and now the two parents are arguing, what happens? >> in large measure, trump has the upper hand relative to the base because they bought into him not bannon. and bannon was in many respects his, trump's muse. >> do you think bannon knows this? >> he does not know that. it was clear there's a separation here, but like every pot you put on the stove and turn the flame underneath it, even if there's no water in it, it can burn some stuff up. right? and that's what's happening here. all of the stuff inside this administration that has been reported over time, largely dismissed as fake news by the administration has been confirmed or is being confirmed by bannon. how that plays for the base, i

think depends how the president comes out. the first today in his retort, a way to hold the base in place. >> carol, you've done amgt lot reporting. back to the trump tower meeting to unpack things. do you get the sense steve bannon e knows something here? >> he knows a lot. he was ob usiously was there. >>io obviously there in the aftermath as this has come up. he's score settling. everyone knows how much he hates jared kushner. >> this is focused on that? right? >> in ways obsessed with him and continues to go after him and ivanka and parts of the book he talk, jared's like, what happened to steve? in the white house. and how he just had this kind of change. so, you know -- and the book,

though, as you were saying, fits with this narrative coming out of the white house the first year, and just underscores not just that there was an in-fighting but things people believe about the president. that he's distracted. can't focus in meetings and paints a picture of chaos at a level we don't fully understood when all covering it. >> it's -- i can't imagine how you feel looking and watching. >> well, a couple things occurred to me. one, i wonder how much bannon knows where mueller is going and trying to distance himself. >> explain? you mean, like something there? >> he wants to make sure he's like, hey -- >> everybody's about to go down and i have some distance since i didn't join the campaign in august and yada, yada, yada. >> and said i'm not getting a lawyer. i don't need to. >> and he's -- he's putting -- he's painting all of these things in a very negative, all of these activities in a really negative light and by distancing

himself from that it suggests to everyone i had no part in whatever happened. i see that. i see the president, i think this is probably why the president did a "new york times" interview. right? they probably knew, had a sense this book was coming. it will be bad. chris ruddy says talk to somebody else. get ahead of it. he says collusion. you know? however many dozen times. there's no collusion in the interview. that bob mueller will be fair to me in that interview. a very odd, surprising thing for him to say, and i suspect they had an inkling this book would start getting into this territory and hoped to lay down markers ahead of time, but i think bannon is trying to distance himself. >> michael, when we see the immediate pushback on donald trump, and i take your point here. i think the first statement was about keeping the face. >> sure. >> okay. let's try to separate bannon here. but it seems as if the other aspect here is the president, this is getting to him. and he is, his tweets are becoming more outrageous.

the kim jong-un tweet is obviously one that comes to mind with the button and all that craziness. are members of your party going to say enough is enough at some point? >> i hope they dornlg. >> n >>. >> this is no way to run a country that should be first and foremost in front of every republican on the hill, particularly in leadership, about that very question. how are we perceived running the country? because now that you have the house, the white house and the senate, it is all about governing, and what has happened over the last year has been, it's been anything but. what you see, i think, through the tweets is an escalation by the president that's more reactionary. partly because he knows what's coming down the pike. partly because he's blindsided by certain things and that's a moment for leadership to step in and sort of calm the waters down and get the president focused on the things that they call agenda. whether it's infrastructure or some other things. even though we no there are big

political fights there. mitch mcconnell especially to sort of move the conversation for the president in a better direction. >> i want to go to two places here. one is russia and one is that mitch mcconnell point. go with the russia point here. bannon toys with the idea that if he fires mueller it isn't going to protect him. there's an idea that says, well, you know, if he's going to do it he's going to do it and maybe it speeds things up to see where this is heading? an odd sort of -- that idea bannon likes to light things on fire. >> yeah. that's the thing. bannon if anything, is somebody who just wants to kind of blow things up. part of this he talks about he wanted to roll out the travel ban on that friday to create the maximum amount of chaos. >> he wanted chaos. >> when people were around the white house, whose brilliant idea was this? >> why do this on a friday? screw up airports. yes! >> the point. >> you're like, he embraced the idea. we kept saying he wants to burn

it down. he's a political anihilist. the question. >> what is his end game? what is this leading to? this is coming out in the separation. more of a divorce than two people fighting. >> oh, yeah. it's a divorce. >> happening after a series of blows to his political stature, that he would be this kingmaker and he's not. he's lost these elections. has that, then this. then donald trump on his own website, breitbart, leading with the president's statement saying that bannon not only lost his job he lost his mind. >> and by the way, buried in here is steve bannon for president. that isn't like -- bannon muses about it. look, i remember people laughing in 1991 when people floated pat buchan buchanan. noble quite believed it. anybody is possible. >> anything is possible because donald trump create add space for that to happen.

ban knows that and how he takes advantage is what we're seeing play out now. >> a lot to unpack on the book. spent most time on bannon and russia. more russia in a minute. much more on this including the bomb bombshell book and what it means going forward. you don't want to miss my next interview, after this. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't finding all of these germans in my tree. i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. the big surprise was we're not german at all. 52% of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com. looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits.

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welcome back. joining me now is virginia senator mark warner. of course, the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee. looking into the russia probe.

all right, senator let me dive into the bombshell allegation from steve bannon. he called the infamous trump tower meeting that included donald trump jr., treasonous, and unpatriotic. what say you? >> well i don't normally agree with steve bannon, and i wouldn't call him a reliable source, but he also said in light of that meeting the trump folks should have gone to the fbi, and on that account i fully agree with him. there was a report over the weekend from the "new york times" that said the trump associate mr. papadopolos, who is offering, knew about the russia i male e-mails, conveyeo the australian ambassador when they started to appear knew enough to report that information to the fbi. if the australians knew enough, i clearly think trump officials should have known enough as well to report that kind of meeting, where that same kind of proffer

of dirt on hillary clinton, they should have gone to the phish fib, if they were true patriots. >> you spent a lot of times questioning folks either aware of this meeting or in that meeting. steve bannon says, also said this -- the chance that don junior did not walk these jew mumos, a sla word he used, up to the 26th floor is zero. do you have evidence to support that allegation that everybody in that infamous meeting with donald trump jr., that one off more of those folks were taken to see donald trump himself? >> i'm not going to talk about what went on in terms of the testimony. iable going say, though, donald trump jr., jared kushner, michael cohen, there are a host of individuals that i believe we need to have back before the committee and if possible in public, where the members themselves get to ask the kind of follow-up questions that you just asked. >> so you just feel as if you

haven't had that kind of access to anybody from that meeting? >> listen, we have had, our staff has done a great job doing the first round of questions and i'm not making comment about what they learned or didn't learn in those interviews, but i've made clear from the outset and i think members on both sides of the aisle, before our investigation is finished, we need to see the principals as members and ask them questions. >> by were our account, we don't believe you have interviewed steve bannon. why not? if that's true, why not? and if so, should you? >> well, clearly, mr. bannon's comments are going to be subject to, i think, of interest from our committee. i'm sure from mr. mueller. how did he know all of these fax, if they're true. again, i don't usually call on steve bannon as a source, but some of his comments are pretty explosive and i think before this is all over, they're going to have to be proven or disproven. >> all right.

do you think steve bannon needs to come before your committee? >> i think that the comments that he's made in this book have to be proven or disproven. >> all right. that doesn't answer the question. can that be done without him or do you think he has to be -- has to be asks some questions? >> we'll follow the facts wherever this leads. the truth is, we have not just mr. bannon's comments, and he made comments about, for example, deutsche bank. there have been a series of other entities that raised questions about that. there are a host of individuals and questions. we still have to get answers to. as well as obviously a whole host of items that fall under the criminality bucket when i hope and believe bob mueller is pursuing. >> and moving to the opposition research firm hired by republican donor and major parts of the democratic party. the two principals wrote and

op-ed saying they would like to see the house committee release their testimony. your counterpart, the chair of the symbol -- senate intelligence committee richard burr indicated he'd be willing to have a public hearing with them. where are we on that? is that something that's coming soon? i assume he talked with you before he tweeted that? >> listen, i think that whether it's the folks from gps fusion coming back in a public setting or whether it's donald trump jr. or jared kushner or trump's lawyer michael cohen or a number's of our principals, the more we get it out into the public so the american public can then make their own judgment and i believe confirm the consensus of the intelligence community that the russians intervened and intervened with the effort to help trump and hurt clinton, i think the more we can get that into the public, the better off we'll be. not just in 2erterms of looking back but making sure we're better protected going into the next election psych the. >> what is this investigation at

this point? is it about russian laundering, steve bannon seems to independents kaindicate. what would you say? >> what happens in terms of what the russians did and how do we prevent it from happening in the future as well as what did that effort, vening in our election, include ka collusion or collaboration with any particular campaign? what we've seen we know they intervened. we know they used social media in a way unprecedented and seen those companies take action. we know we have to better guard our electoral systems and will have more recommendations there and we know there have been a host of contacts from the russians to officials in the trump campaign. many of those contacts were not related to the fbi. we know that a former british secret service agent, chris steele, showed this evidence as well. and we've got to decide where

that all leads. i'm not going to reach a final conclusion until i get all the evidence. this exposed a lot -- we've exposed a lot, though, and i think we still have more questions to get answered. >> is there a distinction in your mind between collusion and cooperation? >> i went to law school but never practiced law. i'm not going to find, you know -- >> but that does seem -- >> i think ends of the day if there's criminality, bob mueller will determine that. if russians intervened in a way to try to tip the scales of the election in a way that involved some level of collaboration or collusion and clearly we have evidence that at least offered so-called dirt on clinton, you know, i think the american public needs to see that and hear that and make sure, again, on 0 going-forward basis it never happens again. >> senator, leave it there. thank you very much and happy new year. >> thank you. >> thanks for coming out. joining me now for perspective other side of the

aisle, senator from north dakota. welcome back to the show. happy new year. >> to you as well. thanks for the opportunity. >> let me ask you this. you heard the bombshell about steve bannon calling the infamous donald trump jr. meeting a treasonous affair. what do you make of his description of that meeting and do you concur with it? >> i was curious whether or not he was in the meeting or not or whether or not it's second hand. most certainly, this is a surprise to a lot of us that mr. bannon would come out the way he has, and make these accusations. excuse me. but at the same time, they need to be followed up on now. >> right. >> and if he's going to make accusations like that, hopefully he'll be able to substantiate them. >> what did this do to this whole campaign seemed that was taking place on, with some of your colleagues on the house, amongst house republicans trying to diskrez it the investigation when the whole idea of the investigation is -- is it fair to say this blows up that narrative attempt?

>> i think in the senate, we've had the intelligence committee, they've been following this thing through. not trying to make lots of headlines. trying to do their work. and i think he just got a sample of that with the vice chairman warner making it clear that they're going to do their job. follow through. that's the same message we get on a consistent basis from chairman burr. that is, they're going to follow it through. they're not going to let things slip through the cracks. they're going to ask all the questions they can. try to get to everybody involved in it, because that's their job. what that allows the rest of us to do is our job, because they're taking care of following through on this investigation. >> i'm curious. look, you come from a state that supported the president in big numbers. in south dakota. is there a point where the president's temperament or behavior here starts to become a problem for your con stitch web constituents? in the last 24 hours, my button

is bigger than yours. this is the president of the united states in the last 48 hours. is this any way to run a presidency? >> within our state what most people will tell you is they disagree with some of the things he says, but they agree with the policies that he is promoting. they agree that the defense should be increased. they agreed we had to have tax policy. they wanted to see a supreme court justice in place who was a conservative. wanted to see conservative jumps. they're getting that. and they're very happy with that. judges. they are not happy with the tweeting. and in some cases think it's humorous but in other cases think it makes his job harder. what they want is more results in washington. so where it hurts his ability to get his job done they're not happy with it. at the same time, in terms of the policies he is promoting, they believe in those same

policies and believe they are getting results. they'd like to see more lawsuits. that's a results. >> where are you on his behavior? you talked about his constituents. at some point does this behavior trump -- no pun intended -- trump how he's performing in the office trump his ability, just trump the accomplishments that he's signing into law? in your mind? what does that happen? >> i think he could do more if he wasn't doing some of the behavior that he's into right now. i disagree with the tweeting. ip know he likes it, because he's got the opportunity to talk with the american people every single day. >> let me interrupt you. do you think he understands that you can make a case that one of the reasons he's so unpopular with a large majority of the country is his personal behavior in the office? >> i think -- i think he has a sense that there are people out there that are very loyal to him, because he's in constant communication with them.

and he thinks that they appreciate the fact that he's different and that he's a disrupter. and that he's not going through and having regular flus conferences where everything is interpreted. but i think, also, when he continues the way that he is right now with one message after another after another, some ofwich are not presidential in stature, i think that hurts his ability to get the job done. i think this man has got the right focus in terms of policies. i think the defense and the taxes and so forth, he's right on, but when it comes to using the twitter, i wish he'd quit. >> all right. but let's -- let's take what's happening with north korea. do you think that somehow the president's tweets have actually created distance between the united states and south korea? because here you have, he's in a playground taunt with kim jong-un. kim jong-un is the one playing diplomat here opening a channel of communication and the south koreans are saying, we're here to talk and the united states is left out in the cold.

do you worry, you're an arms services committee. the north korean issue is front and center. are you worried we're actually messes up our relationships with our biggest ally there because of these tweets? >> first of all, we have not had a relationship with north korea. with south korea i think our relationship is still very strong. with north korea opening a door, just a crack, i think is very fair for the folks, the diplomats in south korea to try to explore that possibility. even if they're not doing it, or if it looks like they're trying to do it without our support. if that's what north korea wants it to look like, that's fine. let them find out how far he'll go. i don't think very far. i think this-o is a north korea ploy that won't get far but i think south korea has to do everything to look like they're getting along with north korea at this stage of the game. they have to explore that

possibility. if north korea was involved in the games at south korea, i believe that's a positive for south korea. the relationship with the united states can't get much worse. >> i'm talking about with south korea. >> no. i don't. i think right now i think we've got a good working relationship with them. i don't know what the relationship is between the two leaders, but i can tell you within the military organizations and so forth, we have very good working relationships. we get along. we train together. we understand how serious it is there and the commitments are firm on both sides. >> all right, senator, thieve there. again, happy new year. thanks for coming on and sharing your views. appreciate it. >> thanks. up ahead, decoding the serious world of the trump twitter feed. there might be a lot more strategy behind them than you might think.i membered that my ex-ex-ex-boyfriend actually went to law school, so i called him.

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up ahead, dissecting the anatomy aft trump tweet, plus, the best words. the best montages, the best segments. they're all coming up. they're the very best. here's deidre bosa with the very best cnbc market wrap. >> you know it, chuck. thank you. stocks on wall street rising to all-time highs for a second straight session in 2018. technology stocks climbed and strong economic data also gave markets a boost. the dow adding 98 points.

s&p ended 17 points higher closing above 2,700 for the first time ever. the nasdaq didn't do too shabby either gaining 58 points. energy stocks surged after u.s. crude oil prices topped $61 a barrel. that's the highest level in 2.5 years. the federal reserve release add summary of its december meeting. the minutes showing the changes to the federal tax code push the central bank to raise. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. s. anna speaking... ♪ james r. and associates. anna. ♪ [phone ringing] baker architects. this is anna baker. this is what our version of financial planning looks like. tomorrow is important, but you're ready to bet on yourself today. spend your life living. find an advisor at northwesternmutual.com.

welcome back. plenty of people had plenty of things to say about the president's tweets. he aware a lot from you about it. and this man sees the tweets at as way to shape the news and have fallen into four buckets. pre-emptive framing, eflexion and diversion and traveling. diversion is one of the president's signature tactics such when president trump tweeted that many booed the nfl

players who kneeled yesterday, just as the graham cassidy bill was dying in the senate and the candidate he was backing was about to lose the alabama senate run jauch at the tilme. folks, president trump sent 16 tweets yesterday and another one today. one taking aim at the "most dishonest and corrupt media." and one taunting north korea that he has a much bigger and powerful nuclear button. joining me, the creator of a trump tweet taxotomy. a u.s. berkeley professor, mr. lakeoff. been a while. thanks for coming on. >> pleasure to be here, chuck. >> let me start with your taxotomy here and ask you sort of in light of, you put all of this out and kniss wthis was bee bannon explosion that took place later today. and now i look at this tweet storm that he went on overish the last 48 hours and i ask you, how do you -- what you don't

categoricat gore ricategorize, when the twe storm itself is actually one of the buckets. the fifth bucket. throw anything at the wall and see what sticks and diverts? >> that's the fourth. the trialable balloon. it's basically a diversion in many cases as it was in this case, but it's mainly his way to control the media. when the media talks about his tweets and repeats what's in hem over and over, he is controlling the media. whether it's by framing first and framing things his way, then the media repeats his frame, or by sending a diversion. then the media accepts the diversion and doesn't do what the real news is. >> you seem to axscribe a lot o strategy behind the tweets. many who know this man personally and his new book by michael wolff actually seems to confirm what a lot of us have

concluded in our dealings with him. there's never strategy. it's immediate, it's reactionary. that there is no grand strategy about it. are you, do you worry you're ascribing too much strategy here? >> not at all. he's a master salesman. been at it 50 years. everything he does is strategic to sell himself. to market himself, and this is one way that he markets himself by controlling the media. >> is there a way -- you can make an argument that his tweeting is actually why he's so unpopular. that the reason he's sitting in the low to mid-30s and not in the low to mid-40s or higher than that, due to this economy, shall we say, if you went by conventional metric, it is due to the tweets. so on one hand you seem to say he's controlling the narrative, but it also seems to be doing serious damage to his brand? >> not at all. his brand has never gone that high. his brand has been 37 plus or minus 2 the whole time which is

standard for a right-wing conservative since the -- >> even a neg negative brand? >> it's a brand really strong with 37 plus or minus 2 people and can pick up another 10 or 12 points with people who are partly of that view. it's what i call strict father morality and there are a lot of people in this country who have it. >> you -- you seem to think that he sort of has words that he knows how to sort of strike a cord with a certain part of that 37%, that they're trigger words. what are some examples? >> well, almost everything he talks about. winning is one example. putting down people who seem to be below him, or, you know, not doing what he sees as the right thing in the world. and there's a whole moral hierarchy he has that he shared

with, with his base. attacking immigrants, for example, is one of them. putting the wealthy above the poor is another, and so on. there are many, many triggers -- not just by words but ideas. >> and you seem to get into the debate here and, frankly, we have this debate every single day in our own newsroom which is how much coverage to get these tweets? you would like to see less coverage of the twitter feed. you have made that abundantly clear. how? how do you do that with the president? >> take it right now. right now president trump is in a noose. it's the money laundering noose that's tightening around his neck. it shows up not just in bannon's point about money laundering and also in the fusion point about money laundering and in the "new york times" op-ed today, but also in the fact that the main

money launderer, colleague, was at the trump junior meeting in trump tower. he's the eighth man there. he is the major person who has been responsible for money laundering from russia and other soviet countries, and in addition, he set up over 2,000, you know, phony shell corporations with bank accounts and helped use that money in the bank accounts for the people doing the money laundering from russia to get luxury apartments and luxury condos. the fact that he was invited by trump junior to that meeting indicates that trump junior knew him well. >> right. so what you're saying is on the tweet, not covering the tweets, so you wanted to take an example. you're saying you believe all of the tweet storm in the last two

days is all about providing air cover to distract from this money laundering news? >> the whole thing is distracting from money laundering, and from the fact that cavaloggia has been summoned by both committees. >> thanks for coming. on this side. coast. you're in hoya land here, but enjoying the west coast. thanks for coming on sharing your views. >> my pleasure. take care. up ahead, the biggest story better. it might be the best. it is certainly the greatest 90 seconds of your life. ♪ it's a lot easier to make decisions when you know what comes next. if you move your old 401(k) to a fidelity ira, we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. ♪ oh and at fidelity, you'll see

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if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. entyvio. relief and remission within reach. welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with something cable news and twitter was obsessed with all last night and this morning, before news of the michael wolff bic hook hit. president trump's tweet about his impressive size of his nuclear button. it's hardly the first time president trump has bragged about size or that something is the biggest, the best, the greatest, the whatever. so the staff of "mtp daily" did digging and here now are some of the president's greatest -- >> it will be the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. >> the biggest tax cut. >> biggest tax decrease.

>> the biggest tax cut. >> fastest growing economy. >> the fastest and the greatest -- >> highest and closest. >> the finest and bravest. >> the best and the brightest. >> my highest privilege and greatest honor. >> one of the great memories of all-time. >> greatest missiles, the greatest military equipment. >> the greatest planes in the worlds. >> the greatest infrastructure. >> the greatest forces. >> greatest defenders. >> greatest people. >> the greatest country. >> the greatest hope. >> the greatest parades. >> it's greatest legislation. >> the greatest political document in human history. >> if we did it without showing our hands? back in a moment with the great et segment ever. it's the best. and it's right after this incredible, smart and savvy commercial break.et for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.

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of the season' on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. does your bed do that? right now our queen c4 mattress is only $1199, save $400. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you. here's another bombshell. candidate trump never wanted to win. once he lost, trump would be

both insanely famous and a martyr to crooked hillary. his daughter ivanka and son-in-law would be international celebrities. steve bannon would be the de facto head of the tea party movement. losing would work out for everybody. losing was winning. the panel is back. i thought the most brilliant comparison that michael wolfe made here was when he compared it to the producers. the whole point, he wasn't supposed to succeed. he wasn't supposed to win. trump was busy plotting with ailes about starting a new network and now michael flynn was going, the russia thing isn't a big deal because we won't win. everybody had their november 9th plans lined up because they wouldn't win. >> and that would completely

change. but wasn't just them. everybody had their plans for trump not to win. but this is something that they're really pushing back on which is interesting. i was in that meeting that trump had with president obama in the oval office two days later. and you could see the look on his face. just the, almost like a deer in the headlights. it was a -- >> sean spicer cleaned it up. the 350 electoral votes that hillary clinton would carry less than 24 hours before the election. everybody in trumptown believed it. >> including the rnc. >> the point here is that the worst possible outcome for donald trump turned out to be winning. now his entire business thing has been exposed. now everybody has to find out his tax returns. now he has a special prosecutor lookinging at his business

dealings for 35 years. it was worst possible outcome personally for citizen trump. >> for all those people who got the short end of the donald trump stick, it is all coming around for them. all those deals are getting fully exposed from the university to the sexual harassments to the business deals to the whatever was going on with rush. all of that is getting played out. for donald trump, that is the worst possible time of exposure. it is exposure he can't control. >> i want to ask you about allowing this. when you were in the obama white house, you would have a report he or two that you would give special access to. never us in the regular press corps. i remember michael lewis traveled around. there's always a risk with that. michael wolfe got that kind of access for a while. when you make a decision like, that it's interesting.

it was talked about, how hard it was. it was supposed to be off the record and then he would hear it. how precarious is it when you make decision to let the reporter be the proverbial fly on the wall for a while? >> it's a scary thing on take responsibility for. in my job, you had to be the person to do that. >> my guess is donald trump himself probably approved michael wolfe. >> it's definitely something that goes to the top. we didn't do it often with president obama but michael lewis did. it has to be something that you have a lot of trust in and at the top, the big boss, the president himself. >> this book lit a fire. >> it's always someone you think will be friendly and do a positive portrait.

the president has made a number of decisions that have gotten in his own way and this could wind up being a really big one. >> like a lot of things, it probably wasn't thought through. in the obama white house, it would have taken months. >> the president sees the opportunity in the moment and what come can come out on the other side? >> what does your party do? you saw mike, he's trying to find the split. the agenda is there. >> what do you think? >> i still contend for a vast majority of the folks, the freedom caucus or the whole house or senate, they begin to get to where they can't stomach it and stand in front of a crowd of republicans and justify it. and at that moment, that's when

the caravan comes to the hill and the white house. >> guys, what a day. quite the season premier for season three. up ahead, three in one day. i work overtime when i can get it. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. so i asked about tresiba®. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ tresiba® is a once-daily, long-acting insulin that lasts even longer than 24 hours. i need to cut my a1c. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ tresiba® works like my body's insulin. releases slow and steady.

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in case you missed it, two new senators met three vice presidents on capitol hill. vice president pence was on the hill to do his job which is

swear in two new senators. former vice president mondale was there to escort. all three number twos chatted about before the swearing in ceremony. when nbc asked former vp mondale how it went, he said, they behaved. those were all guys that were well liked on capitol hill. it is a fun place for them to be back. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. i'm in for ari melber who has the night off and we start with the bomb shells that have shaken the white house and enraged donald trump. steve bannon quoted in a new book, ripping trump aides, calling the trump tower meeting with russians, quote, treasonous. a furious trump hitting back saying steve