has done nothing wrong. >> there's been no collusion. there's been no crime. and in theory, everybody tells me i'm not under investigation. maybe hillary is. i don't know, but i'm not. but there's been no collusion. there's been no crime. >> stable genius, fire and fury in the white house as steve bannon groundball tos and the author tells joann meeka there's something wrong in the oval office. >> every time you speak to him, you think this is a wing nut. there is something really alarming in ways that you cannot even begin to describe. and time's up. the me, too movement paints the red carpet black and this speech launches a new hashtag, oprah 2020. >> for too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men.

but their time is up. their time is up. >> and good day. i'm andrea mitch in washington with new reporting from nbc news on how president trump's lawyers are talking to investigators about whether the president would submit to an interview. and if so, under what conditions. joining me with the details of their reporting white house correspondent kristen welker and national political reporter carol lee as well as msnbc contributor chuck rosenberg, former federal prosecutor and chief of staff to james comey. kristin, set the stage here. what we're talking about is whether and how the president would actually be interviewed by people from the special counsel's office on the russia probe. >> reporter: that's right.

we spoke to three sources familiar with the matter who say the talks are preliminary and they are ongoing. with the president's legal team considering a range of options which include how the president would be interviewed directly by special counsel mueller or potentially his investigators, the legal standard for when a president could be interviewed, things like the location, the duration, potential topics and then this really caught our attention, potential compromises including written responses instead of a formal sitdown with one source even saying there are talks of submitting an affidavit. now, what does president trump have to say about all of this? we haven't asked him directly. one of his lawyers is responding, john dowd telling halle jackson the white house does not comment on kukss with the osc out of respect for the process. the white house is continuing its full cooperation with the osc in order to facilitate the earliest possible solution.

while he was at camp david, president trump was asked directly if he is still committed to meeting with robert mueller and his team if asked. the president said yeah, and reiterated there has been no collusion. it's not clear if that yeah was a definitive answer or an acknowledgement that a question had been asked. now in just a short time from now, president trump is going to depart for nashville where he will be speaking to a farming group. we will try to get some questions and some answers to all of this when he departs. >> and in fact, kristin, we've got that exchange from saturday at camp david. let's play a little bit of that and then talk on the other side. >> collusion now is dead because everyone found that after a year of study, there's been absolutely no collusion. >> if robert mueller asks you to come and speak with his committee personally, are you committed still to doing that. >> yeah, just so understand, just so you understand, there's been no collusion. there's been no crime.

and in theory, everybody tells me, i'm not under investigation. maybe hillary is. i don't know, but i'm not. >> carol lee, here with me, let's talk about what is involved here. i mean would you expect the president to be interviewed by someone from the special counsel's office at some point, or does that open up too many opportunities for him to get himself into legal trouble? >> you would expect that the special counsel would want to interview the president at some point. and that's partly where this is coming from. this is the president's lawyers anticipating that this ask will come. gaming it out themselves on how they might approach something like that, and then having these initial discussions with the special counsel's office about how this might work if this were to come to pass. but i think there are a couple things to point out here. one is experts will say that because the president's lawyer don't necessarily want him to sit down and have a face-to-face interview, that doesn't mean they think he's guilty of some

sort of wrongdoing. it just means that they think that's the best approach for their client. so there's that piece of things. then i think also it doesn't necessarily mean that the special counsel's investigation is wrapping up anytime soon. it just means they're having these initial discussions for something that may come to be further down the road. >> it seems to me this may have come up at what we were told were going to be meetings before end of the year between the mueller team and the president's personal lawyers. chuck rosenberg, what are the legal opportunities or perils of a meeting between the president? let's say he says i don't want to do this. they have very little they could compel it i suppose if he becomes a target. then he could, be questioned just as president clinton was. >> there's two different scenarios. if it's just an interview, he could politely decline to do so. there isn't anything the prosecutortive team can do about that. on the other hand, if they really want to speak with him

under any circumstance, they can issue a grand jury subpoena and compel his testimony. so negotiations make sense in the first camp. the interview camp. and you can't blame the president's lawyers for asking even if their ask is a long shot and it is. you can't blame them for asking. but if the prosecutor is absolutely positively needs to speak to him, they can issue a grand jury subpoena and do it under their terps and conditions. >> and. terms of an interview, he has the right to just say no, i don't want to do this unless he's actually a target unless it's a grand jury subpoena. what is the political impact of that? kristen welker, when you talk to people in the white house, do they want to keep him out of the hands of these investigators at all costs knowing how he talks at times grandiosely if that's a term and how he could get himself into further legal jeopardy? >> well, officials here at the

white house aren't commenting on the specifics of the legal proceedings. i can tell you broadly, and creeia, based on my conversations with the president's legal team and sources familiar with this matter, they are eager to get this wrapped up as quickly as possible. and so the president's legal team wants to be cooperative. so of course, the question becomes if in fact, this request is put forward, would the president be willing to grant it politically, what would the impact be? of course, based on his tweets and some of his comments, he can be unpredictable. what we know from the president himself is that he has said he would be 100% willing to answer questions before the special counsel. he was asked during the summerfeld be willing to testify on the record about his account, for example, of what happened between him and james comey. feld respond to some of the allegations that james comey put forward against him. we haven't gotten a recent answer though to that question, andrea. that's why we're so eager to ask

him some of these questions again. of course, it's important to underscore this one final point. based our reporting, these conversations are going on between the president's legal team and federal investigators. it's not clear that the president is engaged in this conversation at this point in any way. >> now, what we also saw over the weekend is how stung the president is by the "fire and fury" book referring to himself as a very stable genius. carol lee, you've followed this president for a long time. this gets to the core part of that narrative where there's been a lot of the picking at errors unintentional errors or problems on copy editing in the book. but the core mayortive of a president who at times seems disengaged and. >> right. >> -- and having trouble with even keeping up with his brief, that really is a stinging, issue

for him. >> we've seen the president reacting to the very kinds of personal things that are outlined in this book whether it's we saw obviously the attacks on his son and his son-in-law and his daughter and he reacted very viscerally to those. now he's reacting to this narrative he's not engaged, questions about his mental stability and whether he's fit for office. these are questions that go back to the campaign. he was dealing with them then. now he's taking them head-on, just an unusual wave engaging. he's saying i'm stable and i'm a genius and i went to the best college for college. and so he's getting down and engaging in this debate and this fight with this author and the things that he's saying instead of pivoting and trying to ignore it and hoping that it will go away. >> in fact, his overreaction if you will to the book is feeding

it. >> fueling it, yes into fuelling that whole point. what's also bubbling up at the end of the week was the republican efforts to undermine robert mueller by going after christopher steele, the author of the so-called dossier and also by going after the clinton foundation again. how much of this is a distraction? how much of it would be legally concerning to mueller and his team? >> well, distraction to whom, andrea? distraction to bob mueller, not a chance. i think they understand the investigators and prosecutors understand what this is. and it's intended to distract and intended to make political noise. but from a legal investigative standpoint, it's meaningless. another point. when i was a prosecutor and when i was at the fbi, you know, we often receive referrals about cases from the absolutely crazy to the quite credible. and everything in between.

so the notion that you get a referral from the hill, well, so what? and i don't mean to be flip. you look at it, you assess it. if there's something to it -- >> this is the jeff sessions justice department where jeff sessions seems to be leaning over backward to try to please the boss and perhaps get back in his good graces. >> i don't want to be polly annaish. but the political layer at the department of justice is quite thin. you know, really the people you should focus on are the folks there for years and years, the career prosecutors and agents and rely on them to make a thoughtful assessment about the value of this referral. if there's something there, so be it. more likely if there's nothing there, so be it, too. >> one other thing if we could get the picture up of the wide shot from camp david, it was extraordinary on a number of levels. you have all the senior cabinet officials, senior people from the administration and not the attorney general. the fact that he was not

invited. the other extraordinary thing is there's only one woman in the picture. that is amazing. it's the newly sworn in secretary of homeland security. but the fact that in this day and age, when you have the congressional leadership on the republican side as well as the top cabinet officials and there is one woman and nobody of color, it just says so much. something you would not have seen in the george w. bush, this is not republican versus democratic. you would not have seen this in any other white house or cabinet or republican leadership. so we have to leave it there. carol lee and chuck and kristin, thank you so much for all of your reporting. tomorrow, we will be speaking with "fire and fury" author michael wolff. the book jumping off the shelves right here. coming up, executive privilege. a new report says president trump's schedule is shrinking. is it to spend more time watching cable news, ie fox, and tweeting? you're watching "andrea mitchell

reports" only on msnbc. you always pay

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i went to the best colleges or college. i went to a -- i had a situation where i was a very excellent student, came out, made billions and billions of dollars, became one of the top business people. went to television and for ten years was a tremendous success as you probably have heard. ran for president one time and won.

and then i hear this guy that does not know me at all. by the way, did not interview me for three -- he said he interviewed me for three hours in the white house. it didn't exist, okay? it's in his imagination. >> president trump responding to a reporter's question at camp david on saturday about his early morning tweet that day defending his mental state. joining me now is the chief of staff for president bill clinton in the first term. mack, welcome. >> return your greetings. what a start we're having. >> fire and fury indeed. this is a president saying basically i am not out of it. >> i was referring to the championship game tonight. >> alabama, georgia, i know you were. >> no, this is unprecedented. it's a continuing telenovela. you would kind of think it was the last thing the president would want as he came off his tax reform win which at least gave him the basis for the new year.

now we've shifted to talk about this subject and his competence and so forth. >> talk about overreact package. if he had ignored the book and let the mainstream media point out errors or flaws in the book and done the work for him, i think it's resonating because it fits a narrative that people have had about this president, and now he's contributing to it with his tweets. i wanted to -- let's go through the tweet on saturday morning and then take a look at the whole question of what a chief of staff is supposed to do. this is mike wolfe on "morning joe" today. you've been a chief of staff. this was michael wolff being asked about john kelly and whether he could be the hall monitor to stop the president from tweeting. >> there was an interesting thing that happened i think on saturday morning when all that tweeting was starting and a reporter asked kelly if he knew -- what do you think of the tweets. he said i didn't see them.

that's absolutely not true. everybody sees the president's tweets, the whole white house goes into a spasm when he tweets. but john kelly is saying like everybody says, i have to look away. i have to somehow rationalize. how do i do this? i shut my eyes. >> imagine being the chief of staff, reince priebus never could control the tweeting. john kelly's not trying. >> well, thank goodness we didn't have tweeting during president clinton's time although he fully engaged and we had a semblance of that. i think you have a couple things here. number one, president trump clearly believes the best defense is a good offense. so he's taking on michael wolff, as you noted earlier and that shifts all the attention the book as opposed to the substantive agenda and some of the major international problems we're facing. as a chief of staff, you have to let the president be the

president. he ran for the office and so forth. but you have to have a certain amount of rapport and relationship and trust and understanding to be able to manage that effectively within the white house. i can't imagine even though there's always a shakeout from the campaign to governing, that's really what largely is happening here, is this presidency has not made the shift from the campaign, from the big rallies to serious governing and getting things done for the american people. but my point is, you have to have some integration in the white house. i can't imagine even in the shakeout period, having a reporter wandering around the white house. it might happen a day or two, but you're a reporter. you know what the protocol is. >> how could he have been sitting on a couch in the west wing lobby snagging people, talking to people for months and months. >> that's it. >> just with the fact that steve bannon had given him entree. >> well, apparently he had that kind of access. and i don't know the specifics

but it seems as if steve bannon who basically had a co-chief of staff position certainly had authority in the white house. >> had a position initially on the national security council staff with no, reason for that. >> exactly. apparently that was the access, but this really underscores, you know, the fitness for office. that's a whole other level and subject but what we're seeing here is a style and a temperament of the president. and it may be good for ratings and the president certainly understands ratings. it's not good for his poll numbers. it's not good for unifying the american people. it's not good for our standing on the world stage. >> what about the report from axios that he's got this executive time now by the into the schedule where he's starting the day a lot later, starting with his 11:00 intelligence national security briefing from mike pompeo from the cia and a much shortened day to have

"executive time" which ach yoes is reporting means watching fox news, tweeting, you know, caught up in this cable world but not reading any briefing papers. >> we know he's up early because we see his tweets from that period about 6:30 in the morning. >> staying in residence, not coming to the oval office. >> in fairness, every president has their rhythm of their schedule. every chief of staff and scheduler have to adjust to that rhythm. and that's fair and before you offer, before i offer any harsh criticism, i think that's a fair point to make. having said that, the real issue is, is this president really committed to seriously understanding the issues to seriously engaging with his cabinet and key advisers? and seriously doing this job and governing in a manner that. >> how do you answer that

question? >> i think the jury's out. i think there's serious concerns that the wolff book points out and it kind of frankly reinforces what had already been spec layed about him. >> mack mclarty who has seen it all over the years. until now. now we're seeing something unprecedented. >> yeah. >> thank you so much. coming up, the oprah effect. >> i'm especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories. each of us in this room are celebrated because of the stories that we tell. and this year, we became the story. but notes just a story. >> was oprah winfrey's riveting golden globes speech a prelude to something more? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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so i want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon!

and when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say me too again. >> oprah winfrey bringing people to their feet at the golden globes as the me, too movement dominated the annual celebration of hollywood. let's get the scoop from claire atkinson. sabrina sidique and sam stein, daily beast editor. welcome all. claire, your reaction to last night, was it a case of hollywood getting outside of

itself or was it all self-celebrity. >> i think it was amazing and extraordinarily memorable. award shows are normally about clothes and jewelry and talking about things that nobody really cares about. last night was about women talking about substance, talking about intelligent topics and allowed to do that. what was most interesting about oprah's speech is that it was incredibly uplifting. she's an amazing orator. you just saw from the clip there, she's one of those few women that men respect. they're looking at her with stars in their eyes almost. and it's no doubt that people are talking today about the possibility that she could run as a potential democratic candidate for president in 2020. >> well, i wanted to share with everybody a "hardball" moment in 1999. donald trump on "hardball" talking about exactly that. >> would you consider a woman for your running mate and if so, who?

>> well i would consider and as chris can tell you, i threw out the name of a friend of mine who i think the world of. she's great and some people thought it was an incredible idea. some people didn't. but oprah, i said oprah winfrey who is really great. and i think we would be a very formidable team. >> so sam stein, i mean, you're laughing but -- >> i'm not laughing. >> after the year and a half we have hadded, i would not discount anything, any level and this is a serious businesswoman, a billionaire, multibillionaire. celebrity matters. and the intelligence that has -- and the experience that she's had over the years just tapping into every aspect of american culture. >> i'm in the running to be the senior oprah correspondent for the daily beast. i'm not taking this in anything other than a serious manner. let's start here. donald trump has open the door for us to have to seriously consider these types of things. in the past, these were sort of dalliances and flirtations with

the presidential bid by people in the entertainment world but no one gave it much credence. donald trump has essentially moved that idea, that skepticism. oprah has all the intangibles that you can imagine as someone for a presidential campaign in addition to the fact that unlike trump she has a who are ray show al jer type story. history happens to show there are reactions to the current white house occupant. have you someone with a charismatic personality, a new timer followed by an old timer. there is some sort of friction there. oprah would be a very trumpian-like response. she would be an entertainment response to an entertainer. that's not necessarily how history works with these types of things. >> there's when's stedman graham said to the "l.a. times" when asked about a presidential run, it's up to the people. she would absolutely do it on the first indication we've will

of some interest in politics. >> i think to sam's point, trump has paved the way for unconventional candidates for people who do not have experience in public office or governance. but at the same time, potentially is showing now the ways in which that affects the government and its functionality. you are seeing the consequences of having someone who does not have experience in governance. it could be that americans decide they do want to revert back to a more conventional politician. i think where oprah's appeal would be, it's that she has sat in the living room of millions of americans and been prior to endorsing candidates veries a political. she cuts across race, class, gender and her whole appeal was in listening to people and their problems, asking questions without judgment and trying to find some sort of consensus. if that's the sort of message that people are striving for to finally shift back toward unity

away from this period of tribal yich, that would be where her strength would lie. what her platform would be outside of being anti-trump remains to be seen. >> you've hit directly what she brings to the table that it's hard to expect any senator or gerve in the democratic camp to brick to the table of listener in touch with americans of all walks of life. meryl streep, claire atkinson, was talking to "the washington post" last night about a potential oprah run, and she said she launched a rocket tonight. i want her to run for president. i don't think she had any intention of declaring but now she doesn't have a choice. claire? >> i think she's got some time before she decides to officially throw her hat in the ring. she's right now a "60 minutes" correspondent for cbs news. that would immediately put that job in jeopardy if it becomes real. so i think she's got a lot of this innings to think about, but it feels like she wants us to talk about this and she is

absolutely 100% thinking about it, the tea leaves are there. she gave an interview to bloomberg recently and was asked about it and you know, the interviewer said well, donald trump's president and she kind of reminded herself that maybe you don't need to know how government works and you know, there are people there that can help you. she also retweeted a columnist from the "new york post" who mentioned she would be the best candidate for the democrats just back in september. so it's clear she has it on the brain and i guess we'll see moving forward how that -- how the campaign begins. >> but clearly she has a very different attitude towards the press as indicated by part of her speech last night. >> we all know that the press is under siege these days. but we also know that it is the insatiable dedication to

uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice. to tyrants and victims and secrets and lies. i want to say that i value the press more than ever before. as we try to navigate these complicated times. >> complicated times indeed, sam. so i know this is hollywood and it is a very narrow slice of american culture. but it was very interesting to hear those words from that important podium. >> yes, but it's not that narrow. i mean what happened here if we're looking at it simplistically is a dedicated press corps led by "the new york times" and ronan farrow exposed a culture of disgustingness within hollywood. that thenner. iated into similar stories in a variety of different industries. yes, it is hollywood centric to a certain degree but it's

systemic and industrywide in multiple industries. thank you, oprah, for saying that the press does deserve some credit and support. the press does matter and it's nice to see a public person publicly praise the press in those instances. >> sam, thank you so much. sabrina and claire atkinson, as well. and coming up, mystery woman. a russian lawyer says she ran into a mystery woman at trump tower. who was it? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. and i couldn't wait to get my pie chart. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american. i had no idea. just to know this is what i'm made of, this is where my ancestors came from. and i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. it's opened up a whole new world for me. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com.

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and this breaking news from the department of homeland security. 200,000 salvadorans, many who have lived in the u.s. since 2001 are being told they have to leave the country by september 2019 or be deported. the salvadorans were granted temporary protected status after earthquakes devastated the country 17 years ago. joining me is national security and justice reporter julia ansley. thanks so much. this follows similar orders against hondurans anne hechions but this is the largest group, 200,000 people here for decades. >> yes, andrea. i think we talked about the time where they were focusing on the hondurans and predicting this move for the el salvadorans. the largest population of people with temporary protected status living in the united states. conservatives have said temporary protective status should be reserved for people escaping some kind of natural

disaster, other event that is temporary. and they say that these earthquakes that led them to come here have now -- they've rebuilt from that. the earthquake is no longer the condition. however, a lot of immigration advocates would say still poverty and violence from gangs persists in el salvador. it is inhumane to send hem back at this point. >> julia, thank you so much. i know you're going to be following up. the russian lawyer who met with donald trump jr. and paul manafort in june 2016 tells nbc news when she was waiting for the elevator, she briefly exchanged pleasantries with a woman. who was that woman? natalia vessel knitskaya says she was not introduced to the woman but she thinks it was ivanka trump. da lanian joins m. can she be sure it was ivanka? >> we've talked to another

source who was also familiar with this meeting who says it was her, definitely it was ivanka trump. and why is this important? one, it puts another member of the trump family in the loop on this meeting at least having knowledge of this meeting. it's important because robert mueller is interested in this encounter. what i find fascinating it's starting to emerge he's more interested in this meeting for what it says about potentially obstruction of justice rather than collusion. it turns out none of these russians can be connected at least that we've seen to the russian election interference effort. what we know is that donald trump way later in july 2017 crafted a misleading statement about this statement and said it was about the adoption of russian leader and mueller is trying to figure out why he did that, what he was trying to cover up and whether that amounts to obstruction. >> there's also the other aspects of donald trump saying you know, russia if you're listening, hack into hillary and wikileaks dump. there were a series of thing. there was a pattern of behavior.

if this was just pleasantries at the elevator, i guess the question would be wouldn't ivanka say to her father, i just ran into this russian woman. what was she doing there? it would indicate prior knowledge. >> that's a great point. we don't know, no evidence emerged when did donald trump learn about the meeting? didtis son tell him that day? >> didn't he say he didn't know about it before? >> he has said that. like so many things donald trump says, we don't know if we can rely on that. >> where is the mueller investigation going now in terms of how long this will take? they're not feeling under any kind of time pressure despite the assertions i should say from the personal lawyers or the president's personal lawyers. >> that's right. it's fairly clear to people reading the tea leaves this is going to go well into 2018. we've got paul manafort facing trial which we may need to know the outcome of. >> by the way, do you know

whether there's any serious consideration of another special counsel after that referral from lindsey graham and chuck grassley? >> we've seen jeff sessions going in the direction of reopening old matters involving hillary clinton but so far he said he's seen no reason to appoint a second special counsel. >> and we should point out that whole uranium issue stemmed from a steve bannon breitbart influenced book, the clinton cash book. >> that's right. >> and has been well fact checked by glen kesler and others. >> it sure has. >> thank you so much. great to see you. >> and coming up, frenemies. why are the president's republican critics standing by their man? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. i don't know why i didn't get screened a long time ago.

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we've been preparing for this day. over the years, paul and i have met regularly with our ameriprise advisor. we plan for everything from retirement to college savings. giving us the ability to add on for an important member of our family.

welcome home mom. with the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. i got to ask you something the president sort of joked with you the other day and he said, boy, lindsay used to be a great enemy of mine and now he's a great friend of mine. what's changed? a lot of your friends have been asking me, hey, ask the senator why he suddenly is cozying up to president trump. what would you say to them? >> because he's president of the united states. he's going to make a decision about immigration i've been

working on for a decade and i feel an obligation to help him where i can. enjoyed working with him. i don't think he's crazy. >> republican senator lindsey graham once one of president trump's biggest critics explaining has changed. republican senator bob corker is going to be flying with the president this afternoon 0 on air force one to tennessee. joining me now maya harris, and msnbc political and legal contributor rick tyler, republican strategist and political analyst and dave lawler, axios. welcome all. rick, first to you. a lot of people, mark salter, very close colleague of john mccain was tweeting on fied what's happened to lindsey graham. he was distressed as graham's for the support the president. is it enough to say i want to have an influence on this president. if i continue to criticize him, i won't be able to influence immigration policy. >> i think it's all about

immigration. he wants to solve this daca problem and move toward a rationale immigration policy overall which we don't have which has been the problem. but i think lindsay like the prt is probably closer to him on daca than he's not. and if he could help him get to making, you know, children of -- deferred action on children legal, that would be something for lindsey to accomplish. >> mya, when we think back to the tax vote and display of republican leaders on the south grounds of the white house with paul ryan calling the president's leadership exquisite, what does this tell you about the chances that anybody in the republican caucus in the next year looking towards midterm elections, is going to challenge this president, no matter what he does? >> i think the prospects for that are bleak, andrea. i mean, this is obviously kind of a pure political calculus

here in terms of, i think there's some fear of his base. we have a 2018 election cycle coming up. there's the policy priorities, which i agree. they're in this to get tax reform. you know, in the case of lindsey graham, maybe immigration and whatever else it is they want to push as priorities. what i think is disturbing is the extent to which it seems republicans are willing to go to appease this president. when you look at, for example, the russia investigation and they're seemingly to be perfectly willing to delegitimize mueller, who they all espoused to before he did the investigation. they're willing to delegitimize the fbi, independent institutions of government. we see four indictments of advisers of donald trump and, lo and behold, we're back talking about hillary clinton and the clinton foundation, uranium one. i think that is really disturbing. it's not surprising that the

congress wants to be able to work with the president to be able to advance a policy agenda. what is surprising is these extreme and unprecedented extents to which they're willing to go. >> and then the steve bannon factor. dave lawler, there's this nonapology, sorry/not sorry response. really what you could call groveling and claiming he was only talking about paul manafort when it was clear he was talking about don junior and also talks about don junior in disparaging terms. it's not been accepted. it hasn't won him back in favor. do you expect he'll be back in the inner circle at some time down the road, though? >> the context is interesting here. the day before the apology we reported donald trump was calling allies and saying, i want to bury steve bannon. i want you to cut ties with him, any links between trump people and bannon people need to be severed and you need to choose

sides. so, bannon left this hanging out there for five days. didn't backtrack from what he was saying, no apology. he comes around pretty late. i don't think it's being received warmly in the west wing. i will say that, you know, if bannon had never apologized, his prospects as a political influencer were pretty slim, right? i mean, he's tied to trump now in a way that, without trump, he's kind of a nonentity. >> and rick tyler, in the midterm elections, without rebecca mercer, without the mercer money funding some kind of challenges against incumbents, the big winner is mitch mcconnell and incumbents with bannon on the outs. >> i agree. i disagree a little with dave, yes, being attached to trump gives you the in, but if he had breitbart and the money, because we can put a lot of money into different elections and have a huge influence. but without that money, how will you have any influence?

>> wasn't it probably back channelling from the president to the breitbart board, you've got the mercer -- that he could even lose the breitbart job. >> that was a huge miscalculation to the degree that he was willing to criticize the president and his family, that the mercers, supporters of donald trump and financial supporters of donald trump, would be approached by trump and say, look, if bannon doesn't knock this off, they cut him off. >> with all this disarray on the republican side, what openings are there for democrats? there's a lot of people who are looking at candidacy in 2020 and looking at 2018 with opportunities on the house side. but we haven't seen anyone rise to the surface. >> i think when you look at what's happened just in the november election cycle in this past -- in this last year, there's quite a bit of momentum on the democratic side. there's an energized base turning out. turning out in places people wouldn't have expected people to turn out. we wanted a senate race in

alabama that no one would have ever imagined was possible. i think there's a lot of energy on the democratic side. there's also a lot of energy not just among the base but in terms of people who want to run for office, people who want to run newly for office, who haven't run in the past. lots of women running for office. i think there's going to be no shortage of excitement, energy and candidacies on the democratic side. but i do think that nothing can be taken for granted. democrats are going to have to, you know, really do the work that it takes to actually win in 2018. certainly looking forward to 2020, develop a message that's compelling and, you know, because people want to have something to vote for, not just against. i don't think the democrats can run on an anti-trump message. though, i do think the anti-trump sentiment will certainly help to propel the base forward. >> thank you very much. more ahead. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell

reports" on msnbc. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we're gonna hit our launch date! (scream) thank you! goodbye! let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open.

that's all for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow we'll speak with "fire and fury" author, michael wolf. first katy tur introduces michael wolf live on set. follow the show online on facebook and twitte twitter @mitchellreports. chris jansing is up next. hey, chris.

>> i'm feeling a lively conversation between katy and michael. >> yes. >> i'm chris jansing at msnbc headquarters in new york. a new report from nbc news says trump's legal team is preparing options for a quest they expect is coming. an interview with special counsel robert mueller. plus, bumpy ride. trump flying south with a man who once called the white house an adult day care center. a new report says his schedule is shrinking and spending more time watching television. and oprah 2020? her golden globe speech is getting a lot of attention. one of the people who knows her best says, when it comes to a run for the white house, she could be convinced. we start with that exclusive nbc news report. as the president leaves the white house to make two stops today, nashville, atlanta. talks are under way about a possible interview in