it's 4:00 in new york. buckle up. we come on the air with breaking news about the president's fixer and lawyer michael cohen, and that search warrant for his home and offices that led to the fbi raid on monday. "the new york times" breaking the story just over an hour ago that the access hollywood tape and possible efforts to suppress, quote, damaging information about mr. trump are under scrutiny by federal investigators. from that new york times report, the, quote, fbi agents who raided the office and hotel of president trump's lawyer on monday were seeking all records related to the access hollywood tape in which mr. trump was heard making vulgar comments about women. according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant. the times adds, it's not clear what role, if any, mr. cohen played regarding the tape which was made public a month before the election, but the fact that the agents were seeking documents related to the tape reveals a new front in the investigation into mr. cohen

that is being led by the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan. one more detail from this extraordinary new report before we bring in the reporter who broke that news. quote, people close to mr. trump and mr. cohen regard the warrant as an attempt by the special counsel robert s. mueller to pry into mr. trump's personal life, using other prosecutors as his proxy. mike schmidt, one of the reporters who broke this news joins us now. take us through this report and help us understand how it builds on the reporting that you've done and your colleagues have done this week about the raid of mr. cohen's home and offices. what are they looking for >> so, they were looking for a wide range of things, stuff related to stormy daniels, but stuff related to other women who had reached these nondisclosure agreements, these secret ways that michael cohen was paying people in exchange for their silence. they are asking for stuff related to the parent company of the national inquirer, what role was the national inquirer

playing in that. and they are also asking these sort of curious questions about the access hollywood video which we're not totally sure about. but it's sort of looking at a larger issue which is was michael cohen trying to suppress information on behalf of the president. was he paying people to do that. now, in a campaign that is problematic because it's using funds to help a candidate, not through the campaign finance system. >> let me ask you about that last party read, that people close to mr. trump and mr. cohen regard the warrant as an attempt by special counsel robert mueller to pry into mr. trump's personal life using other prosecutors as his proxy. that's a little nuts. i mean, if there is evidence of a crime and they've referred it to another office, that has nothing to do with some grand strategy by mr. mueller. where do you think that sentiment is coming from? is that the president's point of view about the cohen raid? >> yeah, from our reporting and

even folks that i was just talking to today, to the president this is just mueller extending his handsome where else. and if you look at the way the president sees things, deep state, you know, conspiracies, those type of things, you can see why he would think that. he's deeply distrustful of the justice department. he does not like rod rosenstein. he does not like jeff sessions so he sees this happen. he has no trust in them. and he assumes the worst possible thing. now, there's no indication to us there is any tie to this back to russia and it seems like because it was not related to russia, it was sent to new york and out of mueller's hands. >> so, you broke the news last night that the president had come close to wanting to fire bob mueller again in december. it's the second time i think that you've reported that there was a desire or an order given to fire mueller. this seems like the kind of revelation that prosecutors are

circling in, focusing on cover up efforts that mr. cohen may have been involved in. and the fact that this is what the president described as an attack on our country, a raid on his personal lawyer, his personal fixer's offices. can you just sort of address the macro, the fact that a special counsel was appointed to investigate potential collusion with an american adversary and the micro, the guy that paid off women that had sex with the president has now had his offices raided? >> yeah, but the thing we have to understand is that the raid on the offices, based on everything that we know, is separate from mueller. so, it's not mueller that crossed this red line into the president's personal matters. it was the justice department itself. and that's why a lot of the anger is being pointed at rod rosenstein, who is the one that approved this. why is it that rosenstein let this go ahead, because this is not -- this is not something that falls under mueller's

jurisdiction. if you read the four corners of the document that mueller has, it's stuff related to the collusion and anything that may arise out of this. so, the difference here is that it's his own justice department, his own prosecutors that went ahead and did this. why did rosenstein do this? why not keep it with mueller under one roof? well, if the president fires mueller and ends mueller's investigation, does this allow something else on the president to continue on because it is at the u.s. attorney in new york the president can't shut down? >> let me ask you about the access hollywood tape which was a flash point in the presidential campaign, something that even people closest to then candidate trump thought might not be survivable. i believe then rnc chairman reince priebus advised him at the time to drop out and let mike pence take the top of the ticket. if you look at all of the stories that we've been covering on a parallel track, the mcdougal payment from the national inquirer, the stormy daniels payment from michael

cohen, your report today that the search warrant seemed to have included or permitted them to look for documents around access hollywood, what does it look like the investigators and the prosecutors are looking for in terms of crimes? >> it looks like what was michael cohen doing to try and keep these things out of the press, what was he doing -- they call catch and kill, find they'd things and make sure they didn't come out. how was he doing that? where was he getting the money? was he lying about how he was getting the money? was he setting up corporations that couldn't be traced back to folks? was there wire frauds, were there transfers that should not have happened? that is what it looks like they're examining. now, the problem is this is in the context of a presidential campaign where all the money that is spent in relation to the candidate has a larger impact and there are more laws that govern that. and, you know, as we know, the trump campaign sort of was different than your typical campaign. it wasn't run nearly as

strictly. it was a little more willy-nilly and, you know, there are now questions about that. the way that the finances sort of lined up with that. >> you did a lot of reporting on the struggle to find lawyers. let me ask you about a lawyer whose name is being whispered about today. mark kasowitz is back in the news. he was the personal lawyer at the time some of these transgressions might have occurred. i think steve bannon says in "fire and fury" kasowitz got him out of all kinds of trouble. do you have any reporting that suggests he's back in the inner circle helping the president deal with this crisis? >> he's back, but he never left. last summer kasowitz was fired as trump's lead lawyer on the russia -- mueller investigation. he went with washington lawyers john dowd taking a more conciliatory approach to the special counsel. but the thing, like everyone in trump world, you're never really

gone and kasowitz continued to remain in the picture. he continued to represent the president in the civil matters that he has and has had an increasingly larger role in the recent months as other lawyers have fallen out. and now he is working with jay sekulow, the president's washington lawyer down here, and they are -- you know, he's back in helping the president deal with the special counsel's investigation. the important thing to know about kasowitz and to see going forward is he wanted to take an adversarial approach to mueller. does that mean that the president will do that as well. what we've heard today is that the president does not want to sit down any more for an interview with mueller. he really wanted to do that. but at this point he has -- he's even more angry with him, even more distrustful of this and he is listening to his lawyers on this. his lawyers being the ones who did not want him to do the interview. >> lawyers in real life and on television. let's bring friends into this conversation. jill colvin, associated press,

white house reporter. harry lit man, former u.s. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general. former republican congressman of florida david jolly. with us at the table, a.p. reporter jonathan lemire, donny deutsche is here. eli stokols joins us. maximum well, former clinton campaign advisor former xm. any reporting you're hearing, any reaction from the white house? >> this is the white house that remains unnerved and uneasy footing on all of this. the president has said this is an intrusion into his personal life and business. michael said this is crossing the red line between the russia probe and now this. >> the business is with the red lines. access hollywood and karen mcdougal and stormy daniels are different color line. >> sure. these are things often linked in his mind. his tweets this morning are illustrative to that.

he linked the mueller probe to bad ties we currently have with russia, the dispute overseer i can't. in his mind, this is a general sort of -- he's seeing conspiracies and the controversies and they are all sort of linked and he feels because this is happening at home, it's impacting him abroad. and the fact that we are now having this potentially very dangerous standoff with russia and syria, the president says that's because of what happened at trump tower. >> you've got some extraordinary insights there all over the internet. i'll let you share them if you want. >> i spent some time with michael today. first the warrant was very broad. it from his point of view and michael's question of where they could go, his take was they weren't going anywhere day one. the warrants were broad enough that basically any business dealings, anything that's happened over the last year since he's been working for trump are in play. it's clearly, clearly, clearly -- if anybody thinks that donald trump is not going for michael cohen -- this is me now.

anybody that thinks donald trump is not going to not fire mueller or not not fire -- i don't think they understand this man. donald trump can't not let what's happening happen, the rock turning over. he cannot let this process go forward, i don't care what anybody says. >> what's under the rock? >> 20 years of donald trump being donald trump. we can go from a business point of view, personal point of view. he raided his personal lawyer's office. his quote-unquote fixer. michael's words to me, he's loyal. he says i'd rather jump out of a building than turn on donald trump. he's fiercely -- that might change over time, but he has this fierce, fierce -- fierce loyalty that's almost inexplicable at this point. >> and where does he place telling the truth to federal prosecutors? is that somewhere between jumping out a window? >> michael's point of view is he has not done anything wrong. he's been a lawyer. he's also a smart enough guy to know that in this world even if you haven't done things wrong in

your own perception, he understands the fire he's under. he's not a fool. he understands he's in a very difficult position here. but as of now, he is fiercely loyal to trump. i personally don't understand it to tell you the truth for all the obvious reasons. maybe time will change there. what's interesting, i spent some time in a restaurant with him today. people are coming over the table kissing his ring. when people get into a little hard time, people are awkward, it was a fascinating new york moment to watch people reacting. >> it's very trumpian. he was with the president at mar-a-lago. has he talked to the president since the raid? >> i did not ask him that. i would assume, but i do not know that. >> has he hired a lawyer since the raid? he a he's doing everything he noods to do to protect himself. he described the situation where they come knocking on the door and they literally rip the phone out of his hand. they spent eight hours there, going through drawers. it's not just let's get the computer drive. let's go into into the underwear

drawers. he's holding strong. he's pottive, bsitive, but in a difficult position. >> do you know anything about the access hollywood tape? >> that didn't come up. >> let's watch this again. you talked about 20 years of trump being trump. let's remind everyone of what that looked like. >> take that just in case i start kissing her. i'm automatically attracted -- i just start kissing them. it's like a magnet, just kiss. and when you're a star, they let you do it. you can do whatever you want. >> whatever you want. >> grab them by the [ bleep ]. do anything. >> remind our viewers that was an nbc universal product and program. jill colvin, let me bring you in. i have talked to enough folks in and around the white house this week to know the only thing that could make their week worse was seeing that on a loop again. >> that as well as seeing jim comey all over the television, which is the couple of days that we are about to get into right now. as comey is promoting his book and doing a full media blitz. it looks like he sat down for a

lengthy interview that will be airing this sunday night. that's what the president is going to be seeing. that on a loop as well as more talk for michael cohen about what other evidence they were looking for as they went through his office and his hotel room. >> let's see how sarah huckabee sanders responded to questions on these topics moments ago. >> i have an unrelated question. on the cohen raids the other day, it now looks as though prosecutors were looking for some sort of documentation that might have been connected with the access hollywood tape that as you know came out during the campaign which you were a part of. that is an effort to connect the dots between subsequent payments that were made to keep people quiet, which may constitute some sort of fec violation for illegal campaign contribution. if the mueller investigation has now morphed from looking at russian collusion to an illegal campaign contribution by the president's personal attorney, would the president consider that to be the mueller

investigation has strayed outside its initial mandate? >> the president has certainly been clear he has very deep concern about the direction that the special counsel and other investigations have taken. this investigation started off as russia collusion, of which there was none. that has been very clear that nothing has come up over the last year and the president has spoken at length on this topic. while the media continues to focus on this despite there being no evidence, we're going to continue to stay focused on the issues. >> your story addresses the question in that you report the fact that agents were seeking documents related to the tape reveals a new front in the investigation into mr. cohen that is being led by the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan. has nothing to do with the mueller probe. is it your sense that is by design to protect the special counsel from that sort of mission creep critique? >> well, it's a really interesting choice because they could have kept it with mueller and sort of said, look, everything related to trump will

be handled by him. that may have left mueller open to criticisms of, look, this is a witch hunt. he is looking at all these different things. it's more than just russian collusion. this is mission creep. so, by doing this, they sort of insulate mueller from that. the other thing is that mueller may have said, i don't want this, let's get this out of here. it's too much of a distraction. i have too much on my hands. let's give it to a u.s. attorney's office that has deep experience and send it up to new york. so, that's the real question here. why did rod, rod rosenstein, do this. >> do you want to take a stab at that? >> generally if you talk to people around rod rosenstein, around the justice department, they say they do things because they see evidence and they see a reason to get these warrants signed, to put evidence in front of a judge and get a search warrant for michael cohen's offices. so, that is probably the reason that they did it. but the political terms of this, obviously it does come back and it does take maybe some of the focus off of mueller but it puts that target on the back of rod rosenstein and rod rosenstein as we all know is the person at the

justice department with sessions recused. he's the one who is protecting the mueller investigation and with him out of the way, trump could put somebody in there who could potentially limit the scope of the investigation. or fire mueller. we don't know if it's going to happen that way, but obviously as donny said, all these other things, the president is triggered by all sorts of things, jim comey on tv, sure, on down the line, access hollywood tape. the raid on monday was something different because, yes, michael cohen is an attorney, but for years he has really been more of a henchman for donald trump. he knows figuratively speaking where the bodies are buried. to bring all of that out of his office into the fbi, the freak out that is happening inside the oval office right now is almost 1900% because of that. it's not other triggers. >> do you want to add to that? >> without question. the things that michael cohen did for donald trump, i remember a few years ago when trump first came out with the birther thing and i was very out against it. michael called me up and said,

donald is really upset. can you makeup with donald? he thought you were his friend. it was that level of relationship. he's not a guy just doing affidavits and filing contracts. he was his personal ombudsman in a lot of ways. he has a real emotional connection to donald. it is a complicated relationship. >> there is a question about the caliber of lawyer he is. michael avenatti was on "the 11th hour" last night talking about in some ways, i hear your point on loyalty, but that the lawyering got the president into some of these jams. let's watch that. >> he is going to have to withstand a lot of heat and a lot of pressure. let me comment on one thing. you said that, you know, whether he would be willing to take a bullet. it's one thing to tell somebody you're going to take a bullet for them. it's another thing when the bullet is actually in the chamber. >> talking about jumping off a building, talking about bullets, i certainly hope someone with kids doesn't consider any of those things in a legal conversation, everybody using euphemisms. let me assert that. let me ask you about

avenatti's charge that, you know, he's really being outlawyered on these ndaed that they weren't signed by the president, the original case stormy daniels was making seems to be enduring as well as the campaign finance violation case. >> right. >> at least some of what they were looking for in the raids, their reporting from monday, tuesday and now today all seems to support that they are looking for payoffs that happened -- the stormy daniels payment happened i believe in october. >> right. >> access hollywood tape came out in october. karen mcdougal i believe was compensated by the national inquirer in july. it looks like a very clear pattern of payments were made to people with potentially damaging things to say about the president. >> michael cohen's official explanation for this the entire time has been, i paid with my own money and i did not tell donald trump. so, as a lawyer, that's not allowed. that actually violates the rules of professional responsibility and so his license is actually

threatened by that behavior if it turns out that the lawyers in new york decide that he should be disbarred. but i think that michael avenatti outmaneuvered michael cohen because he was able to i think trigger the president to admit that he didn't know anything about the payment, which set up the raid for monday because based on reporting, it's those comments the president made late last week that triggered the raid on monday. >> we don't know what triggered the raid -- >> based on reporting. >> mueller's investigation is for a year now. there's probably things we don't -- haven't even talked about or considered that triggered the raid is my prediction. >> it can't be overstated how precarious this moment is. eli's point is different. we talked to dozens of people in and around the president. this is the angry est he's been since he took the job, about this moment. he feels like -- they feel like he is talking publicly on twitter, he called out mueller and rosenstein by name. rosenstein behind the scenes he is telling people he is

considering firing him. >> the kinds of people that used to say, oh, he'd never fire mueller when you call them privately are now saying -- >> it's on the table. >> -- i don't know. i want to come back to your reporting last night, mike schmidt. everyone has been using the word triggered around the table. in december, by news accounts that deutsche bank was -- had been subpoenaed, that walked up to the red line that the president articulated in an interview with you and peter baker and maggie haberman. this seems way over a different color line. this is the access hollywood tape, his sexual relationships with porn stars and others. so, if the deutsche bank news accounts turned out to be false had him calling in the firing of bob mueller, what do you think the effect of your reporting today and the reporting on the cohen raid is having on conversations about mueller and rosenstein's job security? >> well, that's the thing. i mean, the president isn't always someone who keeps his word. so, even though he said, don't

do this, don't go there, we haven't seen him do anything. look, the president has fired a fair amount of people in his cabinet, but he has left the justice department aside from comey alone, even though he has talked and thought so much about getting rid of sessions, rosenstein and mueller. so, that's a real question here. who is he angry at? does he think this is mueller's hand? apparently he does. is it really rosenstein? and what does he do? the whole thing is that if he brought in a new attorney general, that person would be over rosenstein and they would likely not be recused from anything related to the election. so, they could do stuff related to the mueller investigation. the question is that i don't think congress would go for that. i'm pretty sure they do not want -- if he got rid of sessions, they would be extremely upset about that and they would want to protect sessions. they see sessions as someone, one of their own, a former senator. >> make no mistake, donald trump is going to go to war against

the justice department. make no mistake. >> isn't he already at war -- >> when i say -- you know, fire up. you just have so study the man to understand what's happening here. it's not a question, it's not an if, it's a when. i believe that. >> he feels more vulnerable since this raid than he has at any point since the investigation began. >> do you agree with that? >> yes. >> we need to sneak in a break. mike schmidt, congrats on the scoop. when we come back, the president who described that raid on monday as an attack on the country woke up hopping mad. we'll show you his twitter tantrum and take you inside some of the most volatile days yet of this presidency. and is ousted fbi director jim comey gets ready for a book tour, rachel maddow says he has a high-level witness who can attest to his veracity of the interactions with the president. it is a time for choosing of the republicans. are you on the side of the rule of law or are you not? how mueller is forcing republicans to pick.

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we're back. we're covering the breaking news from "the new york times" this afternoon that the raid on trump's lawyer sought records on the access hollywood tape. remember that? "the new york times" reporting that fbi agents who raided the office and hotel of president trump's lawyer on monday were seeking all records related to the access hollywood tape in which mr. trump was heard making vulgar comments about women. the warrant sought evidence on whether the lawyer michael d. cohen tried to suppress damaging information about mr. trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. i'm going to come to you, harry litman, for your legal

analysis, your sense on what this tells us about the investigation and really your thoughts about the prosecutorial strategy here. bob mueller's special counsel investigation had nothing to do with this. this was referred to a different office, the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district. if you could just help our viewers untderstand the distinction there. >> sure. it had something to do with it in the first instance, nicolle. he would have been the one who came across the evidence. he would have come and presented it to rosenstein, and rosenstein would have made the call what to do with it. this is, for instance, as ken starr did when he came to janet reno and said, hey, i've got some new information about this monica lewinsky person. you keep it, starr. but rosenstein here said, you bring it to the southern district of new york. the first thing it tells us, by the way, is cohen's involved. that's news to us. remember, this search warrant has to be about cohen and not about trump. the second thing it tells us is

cohen is in a world of hurt because if not mueller, at least rosenstein is going to be worried about some of the overall political consequence of where mueller goes. not so, the southern district of new york. they famously take no quarter, and cohen is now in their clutches. he's there for the long run. it's not going away even if mueller were to be fired tomorrow. that investigation now sits with them and stays with them. >> david jolly, i'd like you to pull back the lens a little bit and just tell me what it tells you about this president, that when sitting with his war cabinet ostensibly to discuss an american reaction to the atrocities in syria, he described the attack on our country as a raid of his personal attorney and fixer's files. he has talked about being at war with bob mueller, someone who earned a purple heart for combat

valor. he has been at constant war with his own political appointees at the justice department, at the fbi. anyone who covers the justice department and fbi knows that that has had an effect on morale, the constant barrage of harassment on twitter. now we are having a round the clock conversation about whether he will or will not fire mueller, whether he will or will not fire rod rosenstein. not over any difference in policy, not over any divide about how or whether to prosecute someone who threatened america, but about the guy who paid money to the porn stars he slept with. >> that's right. nicolle, look, this is a president who is increasingly behaving like a guilty man as well as an increasingly unstable man. and i think the reason why is his attorneys have pointed something out to him that harry just mentioned and we can't overlook this piece. mueller and rosenstein may have just pulled the greatest end around donald trump in this investigation that nobody saw coming and it's this.

by referring this matter to the southern district of new york, it ensures that this legal exposure and culpability between trump and cohen survives the dismissal of mueller and survives the dismissal of rosenstein. and why that matters is an impeachable event does not have to arise out of an investigation by the special counsel. if you take the bill clinton standard where it was perjury in a civil case, obstruction in a civil case, the mueller probe can be shutdown, but because trump and cohen are now involved in this legal exposure in the southern district of new york, if trump is found to be legally culpable, that can still be an impeachable matter for the u.s. congress. >> harry litman, let you respond to that. >> i think he's exactly right. but even more than that, it puts maximum pressure on cohen and really puts to the test his vow over these many months he would take a bullet for trump. he is not just mr. fix-it. he boasts himself that he's

considered trump's 6th child or his tom hagen, referring to the godfather. that he would jump out of a building. well, we'll see because when the southern district of new york begins to pile up charges and really puts him at risk of decades in prison, that's going to really test his loyalty and mettle. >> to harry's point, i think michael understands there's a lot coming at him. i do think he understands he's going to be presented with that, that level of hurt, if you will. so, time will tell. >> i want to put up -- david jolly talked about how the president is acting and i want to put up a tweet i think illustrates -- there is a lot of debate in the media whether you cover the president's tweets. we pay attention to them because for the most part they look like they come interest straight from the true trump. here's what he put out this morning. he typed, much of the bad blood

with russia is caused by the corrupt russia investigation. fact check that. the russia investigation came well after russia was known to have meddle in the election. a cause forbad blood. that yielded guilty pleas from the former deputy campaign advisor, and a charge against his campaign chairman. the tweet continued. headed up by democratic loyalists or people who worked for obama. fact check, not really, sir. your attorney general recused himself because he lied to congress about his contacts with russians, so your deputy attorney general who you also appointed, rod rosenstein, appointed george w. bush's fbi director, a guy who was so good obama changed the law and kept him on. then the raid on mr. cohen's office, that came from u.s. attorney's office from your designated candidate don mcgahn's friend jeff berman. the people who worked for obama, most of those people are gone. you fired sally yates, jim

comey, andy mccabe and most of the other people who worked in the obama department reassigned. wrong again. the most conflicted of all. close to 80% of americans think he should be allowed to finish his job. and even rush limbaugh today warned you against firing him. the tweet ends like this. you conclude, except rosenstein, who signed fisa and comey letter, no collusion, so they go crazy. rosenstein is functioning as any deputy attorney general for the united states of america would function and the only person going crazy is you. did i miss anything? >> no, that's right. >> any time trump goes with the parentheses on twitter, parentheses are the best part. >> you missed one thing. >> tell me. jump in. >> you missed one thing. that last charge is so brazen because he's the one that essentially forced rosenstein to write the comey letter. he basically put him to it. >> that we know was a lie

because he confessed to lester holt, like within a 24-hour window that he was going to fire comey all along because he hated the job he was doing on the russia investigation. >> right. >> the president doesn't separate it, these things. that's why the tweet is so illustrative. he's always believing there is a deep state that is working to undermine him. >> but he is the deep state now. >> but he believes the deep state predated him. he doesn't think that's him. >> he got rid of them all. >> there are some career officials -- >> he interviewed jeff berman, the attorney for the southern district. >> talk to him about it. >> he lives in an alternate reality and so do people who report him. they are not watching your fact check on the show right now. what we are heading to in terms of this possible constitutional crisis we may arrive at, we will find out whether or not we live in a true constitutional democracy with checks and balances, or if we're going to live in donald trump's alternative reality because i don't know that we can live in both. and his -- he's testing his own

ability to redefine the events and to tell people that the factual information that is laid out before the public is actually not as it appears. >> the thing that's different is the new mueller survey where even republicans say he should finish. >> 79%. >> that's a big number. things are shifting a bit under his feet. >> david jolly, let me bring you back in. most of the people i talk to are fire breathing conservatives who are galled -- actually, more than galled. they're gutted. they're gutted by what they see donald trump doing to the office of the presidency. many of them who are high-level justice department officials are galled that there aren't more voices in the republican party standing up and saying, we are a country of laws. why do you think that's the case? >> that's right. look, this is a president to whom truth is inconsequential and corruption is commonplace. and i think the concern among many of us who are watching the republican party stand idly by

is not over the policy differences, right. that's 9 contest of ideas that goes back two centuries, we can agree or disagree on the policies of this president. but it is a president who is tearing down not just the integrity of the party, but the integrity of the country on the world stage. and it should be on the shoulders of the paul ryans and the mitch mcconnells and republican leaders on capitol hill and throughout the party to stand up to that. but they are staying silent and they are staying silent because donald trump has fully high-jacked this party. this is donald trump's party. he owns it and controls it. it was the mastery of what he did in november of '16. >> there is something happening. i called out last week on the show, the cowardice of the republicans. they are smelling the opposite of blood, it may be safe to come up from, what was the movie, is it safe yet. >> marathon man. >> i think you're going to start to see that change a bit. >> your hope. >> marathon man.

>> up next, donald trump accused jim comey of lying and yet it turns out another person is corroborating his story. that's next. [burke] vengeful vermin.

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in june of last year when fired fbi director jim comey appeared before congress, one of the most scrutinized parts of his testimony had to do with a phone call he got that past march from the president. on that call, comey said trump described the russia investigation as a, quote, cloud that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country. but one big question that kept coming up, how could comey prove this happened in the way he described. now we know, our colleague rachel maddow obtained internal justice departments that back up comey's account. they're handwritten notes taken by dana bente who was then the acting attorney deputy general detailing his conversation with comey right around the time the call happened. see if you recognize some of this language. quote, what can i do to relieve the cloud? quote, kept coming back to it, makes it hard to do business for

the country. we will do the work well. comey, bente, the justice department and the february february all declined to comment. by the way, bente is now the g.c. for the fbi, the general counsel for the fbi. jonathan lemire, let me just ask you, what about rachel's incredible reporting, and two, about the fact that when you go to war with the justice department and you're a chronic habitual liar and you take on people whose entire code of conduct requires them to be polygraphed to even get in the building, and their entire methodology for investigating criminals is to write -- you never lose the habit of writing a police report the way somebody does when we get robbed of a laptop and you call, i need a police report to put in an insurance claim. talk about how trump may have on a factual level, politically it seems we decide can he survive.

on a factual level he may have met his match now with the justice department. >> he could lose on facts and certainly on credibility. you're right, it is standard practice to take notes, contemporaneous notes. comey himself took them. conversations he had with his aides, we learn they are taking them, too. this is often used as evidence in proceedings. and this is a president who does not take notes that we're aware of. he certainly doesn't, we believe he doesn't read all that much as well. but he's someone as you just -- >> a 20-year friend in all the time he's known him, he's never known him to read a book. he struggled to answer that question on the campaign. >> he is someone who routinely has a very shaky relationship with the truth. to put it mildly, outright lies. his credibility is going to be put up against james comey's credibility. many people in this country, republicans may not like everybody everything about james comey, how he conducted things during the campaign, people

believe he grandstands now and then, he's about to launch a robust publicity tour. his credibility among most people remains strong. on that tour, remember, the president was supposed to be out of the country this weekend. he was going to latin america and there were aides who told us privately they were relieved he wasn't going to be around when the comey book blitz started. instead he is going to be here and the odds are he'll be watching. >> he's going to be wi-fi enabled. eli, there was a story in politico about how the president was -- i don't want to overstate it, but kpexasperated a rapid response plan wasn't drafted for the comey book. a white house aide acknowledged he was just going to tweet away his reaction. there was somebody else who said, we don't want to punch down. we once put a wall up behind us everyone the president attacked on twitter. it was a concern of people in this white house. we've been talking about what we've learned from the

president's past that is under scrutiny from the prosecutors. what do you think is ahead for the president on the comey tour? >> i think a lot of agitation. this is a guy who always blames the communications department, the press secretary -- >> is there anyone -- >> and the people who survive in those jobs. the longest are the ones who say the president is his own best spokesperson. >> right. >> and everybody knows there are no putting words in donald trump's mouth. he's going to say and tweet whatever is on his mind. and sometimes it doesn't take much, it doesn't take a raid on his attorney's office to get him going. it can be something as simple as a statement that he sees on fox and friends in the morning or media saturation by the fbi director that he fired. it is going to get under his skin. and sometimes in these situations, the president doesn't just sort of punch down or clap back or whatever the term is. he actually says more things that hurt himself, his own legal case. he inadvertently admits -- >> i want to go with you. jim comey has testified before bob mueller.

andy mccabe has been before bob mueller. i imagine anyone who took notes about the president's directives about how to handle the russia investigation or mike flynn or any aspect has now testified. they are all witnesses. >> right. >> in the obstruction of justice, in the collusion investigation being carried out by bob mueller. >> right. and andrew mccabe, again, was someone jim comey talked to in the higher echelons of the fbi contemporaneously to writing memos and taking notes. so i think it's donald trump's word up against all of the leadership at the fbi at the time. and so i think that's an easy one, right. donald trump is someone who lies constantly about little things and big things. so, when you put that up against people like jim comey who certainly as a former clinton staffer, he's not my favorite person, but i wouldn't question his integrity. i think that certainly i can question some of the tactics he used, but the reason behind trying to be completely transparent goes to i think a level of integrity that doesn't

pair well with donald trump. >> henry, let me give you the last word. the comey tour in the intersection of the mueller investigation, we know bob mueller is interested in the circumstances around comey's firing. that's one of the flash points, one of the places there were questions about obstruction of justice. your thoughts? >> i think we've always understood comey's account will bear out and have contemporaneous support. i would say i take a little bit different view from the panelist. the deputy attorney general and the head of the fbi are not in the habit of generally taking notes all day. they don't carry around pens. they're the big shots. they knew and dana knew when he heard this, this was going to be important and he specifically wrote it down for that reason. and you know, when you actually see it on paper, this is the trial lawyer in me. there is something a little thrilling about actually seeing the kind of evidence that is going to be presented. on this basic point of who is right and who is wrong, i

think we've always understood that trump's credibility -- remember he said hope there better not be tapes -- was going to be threaded and the question is whether anybody is going to care because i think people have already understood comey was telling the truth and trump was lying about this critical encounter. >> i read the documents and had the same thought. i thought these are going to end up in the smithsonian some day. harry, thank you so much for spending time with us. when we come back, a big name announces his resignation and the republicans are forced to choose whether they want to support the rule of law or donald trump. patrick woke up with a sore back.

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(gasp) (singsong) budget meeting! sweet. if you compare last quarter to this quarter... various: mmm. it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. for republicans, it's officially a time for choosing. commit to protecting robert mueller or hang him out to dry. another way to phrase that, we're about to find out who is for the rule of law and who is against it. it's a by father choice for some prospective look at a

new political ad for the aptly named group republicans for the rule of law that aired this morning on donald trump's favorite show, fox and friend. >> in vietnam, robert mueller res youed fallen marines under enemy fire is was awarded a bronze star for valor. as a prosecutor he went after corruption financial fraud andism trchlt as the head of the fbi under bush mueller has been trusted to put americans first. >> you are either for that person or you are for this one. >> why don't i just fire mueller? well, i think it is a disgrace what's going on. we'll see what happens. but i think it's really a sad situation when you look at what happened. and many people have said, you should fire him. >> senate judiciary chairman chuck grassley says the committee could hold a vote tomorrow on a new bill designed to protect mueller, while other lawmakers are being forced the make a choice, paul ryan won't have to. he announced today he won't be

running for re-election. how did you stumble into this news and tell us what you have learned citizens news broke. >> i won't tell you how i found out about that. >> sources and methods. we get it. >> he told a small group of confidants last night. it was very tightly held. he was planning to tell his staff 8:45 broadly this morning. we got out a little bit of ahead of that. yeah, look, it was widely expected. he was very uncomfortable with the job. never really enjoyed the job, certainly never sought the job and they are facing down potentially leading the house this year. minority leader paul ryan, not as attractive a role. and his friends say he was genuinely missing his family and

that that was a genuine consideration for him. >> i believe that, but i also have to say that paul ryan as speaker under donald trump was like you know, jamming a size 7 foot into a size 4 stiletto. i mean it was a horrific fit. can you talk about how the trump presidency has strained and robbed him of every last drop of credibility. and really, if he was looked at as one of the big thinkers in the apparent he was looked at one time as a moral leader in the party. he is not looked at that way by too many people anymore. >> look, paul ryan made a decision when he -- when donald trump won the presidency that he was going to basically avoid criticizing trump as much as he could at all -- basically, in any situation unless it was completely he just sort of beyond the pale had to come out with some sort of statement. he made the decision he is going

to focus on trying to get tax reform done at the expense of potentially being more of that moral voice in the party in the way that jeff flake and others have positioned themselves. so he made that decision. and he said today that he is grateful to the president for allowing him to get some of these long-held priorities passed. >> david, he made a deal with the devil. can you talk about the future of the republican party and who you see leading it out of the rubble, basically, that donald trump has left, any sort of conservative policy or conservative principles in by the way that he just sort of thrashes through norm after norm. >> yes, look, i think paul ryan is due a lot of credit from republicans, but legitimately a lot of criticisms as well. we are hearing that today. what we see in this announcement are a couple of things. first this is the bottom dropping out of republican party.

they are looking at november knowing there is no way the survive the wave that's coming. paul ryan knows that. secondly, you are also struggling with whose party is this? right? the reality is for a lot of the members of congress it is a miserable job. they are not sympathetic employers. but they have been miserable under the donald trump presidency. i think serious talks of impeachment are likely going to be inevitable in the next ten to 12 months and there are a lot of republicans saying this might not be a time to be in congress to be a part of those conversations. >> jonathan, is that a widely held view in your reporting that republicans in the house are sure they are going to lose their majority averages lot of them are very, very worried. and i would say they were probably slightly more worried when there was a plus 12 on the ballot, which means that voters were telling pollsters they were going to vote for democrats and they had a plus 12% margin.

now it's plus .6% the last time i looked at it. that's still enough to lose the house according to the cook political report. they are very worried. they are also worried that the republican members have gotten lazy. they are not raising much money. they have become complacent in their seats. and they are going to have competition like they have never had above because the left is energize asked the democratic base is energized. and they are energized against this president. they are excited to turn out and republican voters are nowhere near as excited to turn out. it is a dangerous moment for a lot of these members. >> i think that ryan paul made a decision. he was either going to quit or sink with the ship. now he is quitting. paul ryan has raised a lot of money. he got $500,000 of a the tax

reform bill passed. so i think that he made a decision that he was going to hold his nose in terms of all of the terrible things donald trump has done for the past year and all the terrible things he said and people he attacked gold star families and other individuals that are not deserving. >> let me ask somebody else. i think devin nunes has done a lot to hurt the republican brand as well. last night on fox. >> what are the chance you are going to hold him in contempt of congress right now. >> i can tell you we are to the going to hold just in contempt. we will hold in contempt and impeach. >> impeach christopher ray. >> absolutely. >> rod rosenstein. >> we are not messing around here. >> do you know who christopher wray is. >> the new fbi director. >> he is donald trump's hand picked appointee to run the fbi under christopher wray all the people that the president

tweeted against are gone or reassigned. what was that. >> part of trump's legacy, too. allowing nunes to make a mockery of the agency and the i don't have sight process. >> if you went the jeff flake route you had the moral come pass yet you lost a job. if you were sitting it through it is a blemish for the rest of your time. you can't win as a republican. >> fitting that the ryan departure comes on the same day that the access hollywood tape is back in the news. when that first came out, he said i'm not going to actively support him anymore. here we are the republican party has been bent to donald trump's will. ryan lost, trump won. >> that's changing in the next couple of weeks. >> i'm going with your optimism. jonathan swan, congrats on your scoop today. thanks to the rest of you, too,

for being here, we're grateful for having all of you here. i'm micolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. it is a rare day that i'm on time. >> a little bit early. do you want to keep going. david jo jolly got one more thing to say. throw him a quick five seconds. happy wednesday. i guess this is wednesday. it's just another chaotic day in our lives. if it's wednesday, republicans are reeling after ryan's retirement. >> tonight, the fight for the soul of the republican party. >> look you all know me i didn't take this job to get the gavel in the first place. how speaker ryan's retirement signals the president's victory over the party's past. plus, why the michael cohen fbi raid still has the president so fired up. and who may be in the line of fire next. and what would that president trump -- >> militarily i don't like to say where i'm going and what i'm doing. >> --