the oval office. president trump lashes out at robert mueller by name, drawing rebuke from his own party. plus, fall yot from the firing of andrew mccabe. now a number of democratic lawmakers are offering him employment. and in austin, texas, two men injured after a bomb went off and police say it may have been triggered by a tripwire. it's the fourth explosion this month. good morning, everyone. it's monday, march 19th.

we begin at the white house where last night the white house faulted the media for questioning whether president trump will fire special counsel robert mueller. now, after the president and one of his top lawyers offered unprompted criticism of mueller this weekend, amid a number of tweets about andrew mccabe, a potential witness in the mueller probe just hours before his full pension eligibility, president trump issued his first tweet specifically attacking mueller by name. quote, the mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. it was based on fraudulent activities and a fake dossier paid for by crooked hillary and the d this c and improperly used in fisa court for surveillance of my campaign. witch-hunt. why does the mueller team have 13 hardened democrats, some big crooked hillary supporters and zero republicans. another dem recently added, does

anyone in this is fair? but the president falsely claimed that there was no crime, falsely claimed there are zero republicans on mueller's team. among other falsehoods and exaggerations leveled just this weekend. now, in a statement, the president's special counsel ty cobb said in response to media speculation and related questions being posed to the administration, the white house yet again confirms that the president is not considering or discussing the firing of the special counsel robert mueller. >> a little too late. who knows. >> you trigger the incident and then you turn around and say, nothing is there. >> this is new pressure on the president and his lawyers appear to have led to these attacks. the president's tweets came as mueller is said to have sent letters to trump's legal team and after reports that mueller subpoenaed the trump organization demanding documents about russia, on saturday, trump's outside counsel, john

dowd, told "the daily baste" i pray that acting ag rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the fbi office of professional responsibility and attorney general jeff sessions and bring an end to the alleged russia collusion investigation manufactured by mccabe's boss, jim comey, based upon a frad ewe lieutenant and corrupt dossier. when asking if dowd was speaking on behalf of the president, he said yes, but then he said later he was speak in his personal capacity and not on the president's behalf. >> if you have an innocent client, mr. dowd,@a act like it. if you believe, as we found, there's no evidence of collusion, you should want special counsel mueller to take all the time and have all the independence he needs to do his

job. >> there has been relative silence from republican leadership on the issue. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's office said they are not issuing a statement, but pointed to earlier support for mueller. and it took house speaker paul ryan nearly a day and a half to issue a statement through you a spokesperson that mueller and his team should be able to do their job. on saturday morning, the vice chair of the senate intelligence committee, democrat mark warner, called on every member of congress to speak up in defense of the special counsel now. from arizona republican john mccain, he tweeted out saying special counsel mueller has served our country with honesty and integrity. it's critical he be allowed to complete thorough investigation into russia's interference in the 2016 elections unimpeded. while other republicans sounded the alarm or denied the president would go there. >> well, as i said before, if he tried to do that, that would be the beginning and the end of his presidency because we're a rule of law nation. when it comes to mr. mueller, he is following the evidence where

it takes him and i think it's very important he be allowed to do his job without interference and there are many republicans who share my view. >> i remain confident that the special counsel is going to conduct a probe that is fair and thorough and is going to arrive at the truth and is not going to go down rabbit holes that are not places that we need to be going. >> talking to my colleagues all along, it was, you know, once he goes after mueller. then we'll take action. i think that people see that as a massive red line that can't be crossed. >> i don't see the president firing him. i think the white house said ten times, maybe more, that they're not going to fire robert mueller. they want to finish the investigation. what i read yesterday was what a typical attorney puts out at every stage saying this is wrapped up, we should be done. >> so in the wake of andrew mccabe's firing, president trump is raising doubts about whether

mccabe kept person notes about their oval office meetings. two people familiar with the case told "the washington post" that mccabe memorialized his interactions with the president in memos, which if true could become key issues in mueller's meeting. president trump lashed out saying this, i spent very little time with andrew mccabe, but he never took notes when he was with me. i don't believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. we will not be respond to go each childish, defamatory, disgusting and false tweet by the president. the whole truth will come out in due court. but the tweets confirm that hes has corrupted the entire process that led to mr. mccabe's termination and has rendered it

illegitimate. before his firing, mccabe told politico that his work on the fbi's russia probe is what sparked a smear campaign against him. he said, quote, i firmly believe this is an ongoing effort to undermine my credibility because of the work that i did on the russia case. because of the investigations that i oversaw and impacted that target this administration. he went on to say this. they have every reason to believe that i could end up being a significant witness in whatever the special counsel comes up with. so they are trying to create this counternarrative that i am not someone who can be believed or trusted. >> and the president trump's approval has experienced a slight bump since january, according to the latest nbc news "wall street journal" poll. 43% of americans now say they approve of trump's job performance up four points since the beginning of the year. 53% disa approve, that's down four. however, only one in four americans said they strongly approve of trump. 43% say they strongly

disapprove. and with both republicans and democrats gearing up for the midterm thes, democrats hold a double digit lead over republicans among voters. half of registered voters say they want democrats to control congress. that's up 1 point since january. 40% said they would want republicans to retain control. that's down three points. joining us now, steve nelson. steve, great to have you with us this morning on what was a very busy weekend. let's start by talking about the white house for a moment. do you think at all that the white house was surprised by how strongly fellow republicans rushed to defend bob mueller, lindsey graham even going so far as to say this is the end of the -- or the beginning of the end of the presidency if he were, in fact, going to fire robert mule snerp is it enough to deter the president hearing criticism from his own party about that decision? >> there's been running tension for months and months between republicans in congress who have a general sense that there is no

collusion and trump needs to wait with out this mueller probe. and the patient, who is very impatient for the probe to be over quickly. it's a tension that is not going away at least until the investigation is over. i don't think that they were surprised and i don't think that's -- i don't think that's -- they are going to be necessarily making up their mind based on what republicans in congress say, but i think they make a pretty strong case to the president that he should wait it out. >> i'm wondering if that is why ty cobb did release that statement last night. let's turn to the firing of andrew mccabe. he was immediately met with condemnation from both sides of the aisle. but yesterday, things changed a little bit. we saw democrat adam schiff acknowledge that the firing of andrew mccabe may have been justified given the fbi disciplinary office recommending his firing. are you seeing reactions to his dismissal softening a bit now? >> soite not public the exact

reasons why he was fired. what we know is there was an inspector general report, which is a nonpartisan office, and that's the fbi's office of professional responsibility and other nonpartisan office recommended the firing. then jeff sessions, after considering the case, made the rather last-minute decision to actually fire him. we don't know what the alleged lying to investigators looks like. it could be pretty damning, but mccabe said it's not. this is certain to come out, the exact details going forward. what will be interesting is how this affects mccabe's ability to air his views on the russia investigation. there are other former officials routinely called upon by tv stations and news outlets. but this could be a cloud that hangs over mccabe for years to come if the lies are actually lies. similar to james clapper.

that's a five year statute of limitations for lying to investigators. so this is something that could impeach his credibility for a while. let's switch gears and talk a little bit about the white house, the staffing there, the cabinet. all of it is in turmoil. i know you have some recent reporting on va secretary david schulkin. is he the next to go, do you think, and who else is on your short list of most likely to be fired by the president? >> not something you want in a year book, most likely to be fired by the the president. >> shulkin appears to be one of the first to go of the cabinet. he and ben carson for different reasons, slightly different scandals involving the use of money. they aren't giving good headlines to president trump and their peripheral members of his team, anyhow. so the guessing is that those two are probably next out the door. there's significant talk, of course, about hr mcmaster, the national security adviser. he seemed to tease the press with a couple appearances

outside the west wing on friday afternoon indicating that he was still here. but those three are the ones to watch going forward. >> all right, steve nelson for us. we'll talk to you again. thanks. turning now to texas in a string of bombings in austin, two people were injured yesterday after a package bomb exploded as they were passing on bicycles. it's the fourth explosion to hit austin this month and the police say they are working under the assumption that all are related. police say yesterday's explosion was slightly different than others and that it was possibly triggered by a tripwire whereas in the other three victims, they tried to pick up packages that had been left at their homes. two people had died and several others have been wounded in the sdmroegzs. the austin police chief says the bombings were meant to send a message without elaborating what that message is. still ahead, it was a cliffhanger in russia. vladimir putin wins his sixth

term as russian president amid heightened tensions over the poisoning of another spy. and later, another government shutdown looming at the end of the week. lawmakers are expected to unveil a spending plan, but will it pass? people would stare.

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you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. welcome back, everybody. in a result bound to surprise absolutely nobody, vladimir putin has won the election in russia. preliminary results show voters elected putin to a fourth six-year term with more than 75% of the vote. >> it was a lot closer than what the ballots suggested. >> the victory extends putin's hold on power to 24 years longer than any russian leader since joseph stalin.

putin's main opponent alexi novalny was barred from actually even running. the election comes at a time of heightened tensions between russia and the west after russia attempted to assassinate russian spy sergei skripal using an extremely toxic nerve agent. yesterday, british minister boris johnson said the uk has evidence russia has been manufacturing and stockpiling the nerve agent in recent years. >> joking aside, he is pretty popular in russia even though the election itself may not have been close. >> they actually say if he had gotten less than 70% support, that would have shown a waning -- >> tone. >> popularity. >> then senator jeff sessions may not have been as opposed to the trump campaign meeting with russian officials as he previously testified. this is according to a new

reuters report. you may recall that last november attorney general jeff sessions told congress that he, quote, pushed back against a proposal by former campaign adviser he george pop top husband to meet with the russians. that proposal came during a march 16 meeting of the trump campaign's foreign policy team. and three people who attended that meeting tell reuters that sessions did not object or push back against the idea. instead, one source says sessions said something to the effect of quote, okay, interesting. .another source said it was almost like, well, thank you. and let's move on to the next person. all three say she have spoken to robert mueller or congressional committees about the matter. bill, you're tracking some severe weather in the south and we could be in for another nor'easter come wednesday. >> yeah. no one wants to hear from me. back to you, louis. severe weather you expect in

march, it's that time of year in the south. but now it looks like we're dealing with another nor'easter on wednesday and snow in some areas, even heavy snow. let's get to the severe weather threat first. the storm is now spinning over the top of oklahoma. we've had snow overnight in denver. roads are covered. there's lightning in thunderstorms and areas of southern kansas. later on today, the this line of storms makes its way to northern alabama. it's going to be in the 80s today. so plenty warm enough for severe storms. nashville to birmingham and tupelo, then towards atlanta, that's the greatest chance for a tornado. and then on tuesday, those storms go through early in the morning. then the sun comes out. then we do it all over again as we go throughout tuesday afternoon. as far as the snow goes, we're okay through monday. but the northern portion of this snow begins in the mountains of virginia and also merit. by the time we get to tuesday

afternoon, we start to see the snow breaking out from d.c. towards philadelphia. here is unfortunately the snowfall forecast. it looks like the worst of it tuesday into wednesday. this pink area here, guys, north of d.c. towards philadelphia, that's 4 to 8 inches. i know. even new york city, borderline from about 2 to 3. but pavement will be just fine, wet, mostly on the grass. >> hopefully not a lot of accumulation. >> just on those suburbs would be the worst of it. >> still reeling. thanks a lot, bill. still ahead, bracket busted yet. i'm pretty sure there can't possibly be anyone who still has a sole on lid bracket. >> i do. >> march madden is surely living up to its name. six national title favorite picks are already done dancing, believe it or not. yasmin still has a bracket. >> i do. wait, what's a bracket? >> we'll show you who is still standing in the sweet 16. stay with us. across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks,

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>> let's see if there's a catch and foul. butler down by three. for the tie. and it's over. boiler up. purdue is headed to the sweet 16. >> what an unbelievable tournament so far. purdue, the highest seeded advancing to the tournament yesterday. once down by a 22 point deficit, nevada rallied back to stun number two seeded cincinnati, claiming their first lead in the game with seconds to go. the bear cats were unable to score fighting for a loose ball as time expired. it was the second largest comeback in tournament history behind byu's rally in the 2012 first four. then syracuse advance to the sweet 16 after defeating michigan state 55-53. what a game that was. a play in game starting the

tournament and it looks like former president obama's bracket is busted along with the rest of the country, but not yasmin's. florida state upsets xavier, 75-70. finally, the reigning champions, the north carolina tar heels followed suit with most of the other top seeded in the tournament following to texas, a&m 86-65. the tar heels shot just 33%. with those upsets, the sweet 16 is set with a few goliaths remaining. villanova remains with duke. the lowest team to advance this year is loyola chicago. the madness continues this thursday. all right. let's turn now to the final round of golf's around ald

palmer invitational in orlando. rory mcilroy returns to the inner circle in his first pga victory since 2016 while tiger woods came within a stroke of the lead on the back nine. but mcilroy would birdie five of the last six to pull away and secure the win. but tiger, his second tournament in a row where he's showing his stuff like he's making a comeback. >> a lot of people are excited about his performance, hoping that he gets closer to that record for the most pga titles. >> and i'm interested to see yasmin's bracket. >> we've asked her to show it to us, but she won't. she said only when the tournament is over. >> i don't want to spill the secrets, my friend. i want to keep it going. still ahead, another controversy for facebook. a new investigation has revealed that cambridge analytica harvests information from millions of facebook accounts without their permission. plus, president trump's lawyers are now seeking millions

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welcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. the data firm tapped by president trump's 2016 campaign is refuting new report that it used private information from more than 50 million facebook profiles to influence voters.

according to a joint investigation by the new york time and the guardian, cambridge analytica harvested millions of profiles from the social media network used the data to build a powerful software program to predict and influence voters when it came time to cast their ballots. the report directly quote whistleblower cambridge analytica employee christopher wiley. he says gsr obtained facebook data that prompted users to take a temperature va. wiley, wsaid that the app captured profile users information as well as their friends and contacts data. >> cambridge reportedly got a huge financial boost.

the breach allowed the company to exploit the private social media activity of a huge swath of americans and particularly the electorate developing techniques that help lay the groundwork for president trump's campaign in 016. >> amazing. >> so meanwhile, cambridge analytica founder knicks is following an alleged that he may have misled parliament over the data gathered from users and its contacts with russia. itn channel 4 news, nicks told the panel late last month that his company had a partnership with the group in 2014 claiminging that cambridge analytica did not use the data from gsr because it proved to be fruitless.

but inews 4 got a memo that appears to contradict that claim. >> nicks said his company never worked with russia, but the times said nicks' business did have dealings with russia interests citing company documents and interviews. cambridge analytica is an offshoot of scl group where nicks is a director. the paper says that scl employees had contact in 2014 and 2015 from the russian oil giant luc oil. >> so facebook has suspended facebook analytica cambridge and wiley. cambridge analytica has denied the reporting by andrew wiley calling it a malicious attempt to hurt the company adding it is clear that he has a grudge to bear and appears set on trying

to damage the company. switching gears, several democrat ek lawmakers are coming forward with offers to hire andrew mccabe after his firing occurred just before his retirement. believe it or not, the idea came from nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell who tweeted out on friday night one suggestion from a mccabe supporter. if a friendly member of congress hired him for a week, he could possibly qualify for pension benefits by extending his service the extra days. well, wisconsin congressman mark poken tweeted out, andrew, call me. i could use a good two-day report on the biggest crime families in washington, d.c. and luis gut air rierrez tweete andrew mccabe, if you need a federal job, call me on monday. i am serious.

we have to stand up to bullies like donald trump. politico reporting that white house chief of staff john kelly told aides their discussion about finding a new role for john mcatee before he was abruptly let go. the reason for mcatee's dismissal remains unclear, "the washington post" reported on friday that it had to do with an investigation into a gambling addiction. mcatee was immediately hired autos an adviser to the trump re-election campaign. upon his departure, though, discussions about hiring him appear to be in the early stages. joining us now, white house reporter for the washington examiner steve nalsa. good to see you again. is there a role inside of the administration in which mcatee's potential security issues as is being reported would not be a

concern or would they be disregarded, do you think, and are there others, besides jared kushner, with similar security issues? >> so mcentee is apparently a well liked guy. conceivably, he could come back. john kelly had a group of us reporters in his office a few weeksing ago for an off-the-record discussion. part of it he put on the record, including talk about security clearances and he told us that there was a young woman in the white house who apparently had credit card issues, significant debt, that that held up her security clearance, but ultimately it worked out. conceivably, this could be worked out. i don't know the particulars about his gambling and how much it was and how much of a vul ner blth it would be for him. but certainly, it's conceivable that he would be brought on if this wasn't quite so bad. >> steve, let's switch gears for a moment and talk about this

investigative reporting whiches has entangled cambridge ant lyt analytica and how prominent it has become. do you anticipate regulators, lawmakers trying to propose any kind of congressional hearings to address this issue to try to get to the bottom line of what cambridge analytic -- >> what happened again? >> to get to the bottom line of what cambridge analytica is about? >> i think the reaction right now is just wow. i think everyone knew there was a potential to misuse facebook data, but the allegation that more than 50 million profiles have had their likes aggregated and made usable by essentially surveillance companies, i think that that is pretty shocking and certainly going to be something that lawmakers probe and consider regulating. of course, they've already spoken a lot about russian trolls, so regulations seem to be on their way and this is something what there are going to be hearings about and a lot

more discussion on capitol hill. >> if you think about the magnitude of this thing, 50 million users potentially affected by this. either you or someone you know was affected by this. you have to feel duped at the end of the day. >> when you consider how many voters went to the polls in the u.s. as a significant number. steve nelson, thanks for joining. >> thank you. today, lawmakers are expected to unveil their six-month, $100 trillion spending bill to avoid another shutdown. congress approved and president trump signed a two-year spending bill in february. but the upcoming bill decides how the money will be spent. the bill is expected to keep the government funded at the ramped up levels agreed to in february until the end of september. the negotiations between the republicans and democrats have hit a number of speed bumps, including fights over immigration and funding for trump's southern border wall. trump has urged republicans to exclude $900 billion in funding for a new rail tunnel connecting

new york and new jersey. a number of senators are expected to vote against the bill. lawmakers must approve the spending by by midnight friday to avoid another shutdown. still ahead, the latest on the president's legal battle with stormy daniels and the high price tag she is on the hook for violating a nondisclosure agreement. plus, if you thought we were safe from any cold weather, think again. bill karins is back with more on the weather. i'm not a bigwig.

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stephanie clifford. she's suing trump for the right to share her story about an alleged affair when the president denies. clifford's lawyer tweeted, quote, how can president trump seek damages against my client bayed on an agreement that he and mr. cohen claim mr. trump never was a party to and knew nothing about? friday's filing moved the case from state court in california to federal court, a maneuver that experts claim is aimed at moving the case to ooarbitratio and out of the public eye. >> they want to have this adjudicated or decided in a conference room if in a locked secured building outside the purview of the public so that the public cannot view the evidence and the facts and learn about what really happened here. they are trying to hide the facts and the truth from the public. it is clear as day. it is part of the process by which they want to muzzle my

client. >> now, other revelations in friday's legal filing, the president has a new attorney on the case, charles harder, the same lawyer who won the $140 million verdict for hulk hogan against gawker he. and for the first time, trump acknowledged that he is, in fact, david dennison, the alias used in the nondisclosure agreement. bill, a lot of bad news coming from you these the days. >> the groundhog, remember that guy? we thought we were having an early spring and there is no sign of it. it looks like we will go through probably the end of this month on the east coast. below-average temperatures and this threat coming up maybe another one next weekend. the concern today, severe weather. we have our storm system coming across the middle of the country and the northern side of it is cold enough for snow. south side, severe weather. 19 million people at risk today.

chattanooga, nashville, keep an eye on things late this afternoon, maybe a few tornados. tomorrow into tuesday, new storms will redevelop. charles, savannah, daytona beach down to orlando. again, 11 million people tomorrow. a mini severe weather outbreak the next two days. here is how we look at the week ahead. we're going to take this mess along the mid-atlantic and southern portions of new england. central new england, northern new england, this does not look to be your storm. you get a break from this one. so this is wednesday. then this mess leaves us on thursday. then on friday, it's quiet along the east coast. so when it's all said and done, it will be two pieces of snow tuesday and then wednesday. the areas that mountains of west virginia, northern virginia, the high elevations in maryland could get up to 8 inches of snow. d.c., i think it would be about two to three inches of snow mostly on the grass. philadelphia could be the biggest city that gets the highest totals. right now, we have you somewhere close to 6 inches of snow.

the trend is going higher for new york city over the weekend it didn't look like much. now it looks like about 1 to 3 inches. >> i don't understand why we do all this scientific work with the groundhog only for it -- >> neither do i. >> very predictable stuff. >> it's good tv. >> only to turn out and be completely falgs. >> you never know. it could drop. >> i thought he predicted a longer winter. >> i depends on which one you're going with. >> i want to ask the question. you said there might be another storm? >> yeah, we don't have enough time for that. still ahead, russia's vladimir putin will be in power for another six years. >> and we'll go live for more on the election and what it means for the increased hostility.

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welcome back. in a highly expected out outcome, russian president vladimir putin has won the presidential election. voters elected putin to a fourth presidential term with more than 75% of the vote. this extends putin's hold on power, 14 years longer than any russian leader since joseph stalin. >> richard engle, great you have to with us. not a lot of surprise in the outcome of this election, but what does this mean for russia for the next six years and in particular with its relationship with the united states and perhaps europe?

>> so good morning. it's good to join you bright and early. so the outcome was a foregone conclusion here. both putin's critics and opponents knew he was going to win. the only one would be the margi. and he won by a very large margin. it was a shutout practically. according to preliminary results, he had 67 -- excuse me, 76% of the vote with a 67% turnout. that would make him the most popularly elected russian president since russian presidents were elected in this country. winning by the widest margin ever. critics say this wasn't an election at all, this was a sham. that the candidates were hand picked, hand approved that a leading opposition candidate wasn't allowed to run. there have been some videos showing voter irregularities, people appearing to use multiple ballots, stuffing ballot boxes.

the electoral commission says there were minor reports of irregularities but fewer than in previous elections. what it means? six more years in putin. putin who is increasingly confident and putin believes this is the team to reassert russian nationalism while the united states is in political turmoil. back to you. >> thank you, richard. coming up, everybody, less than three minutes away from mike allen and a look at this morning's one big thing. plus, coming up on "morning joe" president trump's weekend on the attack. >> lashing out at special counsel robert mueller's russia probe. plus, more on the fallout over the firing of fbi director deputy director andrew mccabe. jim himes reacts to the move and mccabe's reported memos on president trump. "morning joe," everyone, live from washington, d.c. is just moments away.

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welcome back, everybody. new graphics and all. >> and the jingle, it's exciting. >> we have a very exciting new partnership that we are excited to talk about. i just said that twice. joining us now from washington, the co-founder of axios mike allen. thanks so much for joining us. >> happy monday and thanks to "first look" and msnbc. >> talk to us about the one big thing this morning, mike. >> yeah. we have first for "first look" a big indication of what mueller's end game may be, a little sneak peek at where he's headed. we're told that in conversation with the trump lawyers that mueller is much more interested in what happened after the election than before. so he's very interested in the firing of james comey. he's very interested in the firing of the national security adviser michael flynn. so what does that suggest?

that suggests he's looking more at obstruction of justice, things that might have happened in office than he is at collusion, maybe something that happened during the campaign. of course both of those stories have a real russia thread through them, as your viewers know. the president himself has talked about how the russia investigation fueled his feelings about comey, causing him to fire the fbi director. and of course michael flynn, when he pleaded guilty to the fbi, what was he lying about? he was lying about his contacts with the russian ambassador during the transition right before the president took the big job. >> mike, let me ask you real quickly about the president's tweet storm over the weekend. he spent a lot of time criticizing mueller personally, even the investigation. but then you had the white house lawyer ty cobb trying to play clean up with his statements saying that trump is not considering or discussing firing mueller. is cobb's statement a little too late? >> that is perfectly put. over the weekend, the war

between mueller and the white house got more personal, it got more vocal. you had the president using the special counsel's name on twitter as he attacked him. you had the president's lawyer over the weekend suggesting the investigation should be shut down on the merits. then, sunday night, as more and more speculation came about is the president trying to discredit the findings of mueller in advance? yes, he is. is he trying to lay the predicate for firing mueller? could well be. as that speculation heated up, the white house put out that statement you mentioned when they say, no, i don't know what you're thinking about. that's crazy. we're not thinking about discussing firing mueller. the point of this is and why it matters is that the trump lawyers have tried to have a cooperative approach with mueller. they've given him documents. they were trying to lower the temperature. their client just quite hasn't been on that same play book.

>> that's what's interesting about the ty cobb statement, where ever would you hear this from that we're thinking about firing someone like bob mueller, of course all those tweets suggested just that. let's talk about the firing of andrew mccabe here, mike. it was so close to his retirement, just a couple hours before he was set to retire. what are you learning about how much of his pension he'll actually be eligible for. >> this is another first for "first look" andrew mccabe will get some pension but he's getting really mixed signals from the government about exactly what it will be. as you suggested 26 hours from when he would have been eligible for his full pension the former fbi deputy director and he was fired which means that he will get less pension. we're told it won't be zero but could be delayed tr years. what we have is a big fight ahead for the mccabe team versus the government. >> 20 years of service. >> let me ask you this, mike. we know that mccabe was very

diligent. what has axios learned about the content of the memos. >> those memos have been given to mueller and also we learned that andrew mccabe met with mueller. and he says that in his three or four interactions with the president that the president made reference to his wife's failing bid for virginia state senate. so, asking what it was like for his wife to lose? he used that word. or asking him what it was like to lose? the white house says it has eyewitnesss to those exchanges who dispute that. >> thank you on this debut episode of axios's one big thing. >> thanks, mike. >> thank you, "first look," have a great week. >> that does it for us on this monday morning. "morning joe," everybody, starts

right now. good morning. it's monday, march 19th. so here is 30 seconds worth of headlines from the the last 72 hours. trump fired mccabe, just hours before his retirement. mueller interviewed mccabe about comey's firing. mccabe gave mueller memos that he kept about his interactions with trump. trump started attacking mueller by name on twitter. what does that mean? most republicans stayed silent, a firm used private information from facebook without users permission. the president ramped up his legal fight with a porn star stormy daniels and vladimir putin won re-election. can you believe it? he could not lose. he could not lose that race. got all that? welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we have columnist and associate editor for the washington post david ignatius, former white house press secretary to president obama and now nbc news political analyst joshne