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. >> -- this of this president

trump's warning shot on a future syria strike. >> we are maintaining that we have a number of options. >> this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. ♪ good evening, welcome to "mtp daily" i'm chuck todd here in washington where republicans control all levers of government. but who controls the party? the fight for the soul of the republican party has been waged since mr. trump came down that escalator and announced his candidacy. at this point his takeover of the republican party is nearly complete. house speaker paul ryan's announcement today that he won't run for re-election is sign that trumpism and president trump is winning control of the party. ryan ended months of will he or won he speculation and possibly cleared the way for a handful of more house retirements before

the spring ends. >> you all know i did not seek this job. i took it reluctantly. but i have given this job everything that i have and i have no regrets whatsoever for having accepted this responsibility. i really do not believe whether i stay or go in 2019 is going to affect a person's individual race for congress. i really don't think a person's race for congress is going to hinge on whether paul ryan is speaker or not. >> it will affect one race for congress, the race he is vey kagt. anyway, ryan says he wants to spend more time with his family. you have got ask yourself this question. would speaker rooib want to say if marco rubio was this the white house or jeb bush? the reality is that his speakership has been marked by dealing with trump controversy after trump controversy. their relationship was frequently strained. they didn't always see eye to eye on policy. there is a lot the speaker didn't sign up for when he took this job.

and ryan is far from the only house republican deciding to call it quits this year. in fact, for a party that controls the white house and congress an awful lot of its members aren't interested in sticking around. ryan's departure is perhaps the bige blow yet. john cornan of texas acknowledged to rotters today that ryan's retirement creates another element of urn sent in the leadup to the 2019 election. while some republicans are walking aig away completely there are indications that those sticking around are trying to set red lines. mr. mueller's investigation is one of them. top officials say they don't believe mr. trump would fire mr. mueller because it would be disastrous for his presidency. yet there was a bill introduced today that would indeed attempt to protect mueller. even senate judicial year

committee chairman chuck grassley says he wants to move on this bill as soon as tomorrow. president trump is once again testing his adoptive party's limits. who will prevail in this case? joining me now senator ron johnson from wisconsin. welcome back. >> chuck, how are you doing? >> i think a week ago you and i chatted. i think the last question i asked you was do you think speaker ryan is going to run for re-election or not. you didn't know at the time. are you surprised by today's announcement? >> i'm really not. paul called the republican delegation from wisconsin early this morning and gave us the heads up. you know paul. he's exactly who you think he is. very straightforward. and you also realize paul is such a great family man. he misses his kids. he wants to spend more time with them. they are growing up. he realizes time is running out where they are going to be in the house. i really think that is the main reason he decided to call it quits. he wants to be a full-time dad. >> do you understand why many people think that if he saw more eye to eye with this president,

if they had the same vision for the republican party and the republican agenda on some things that perhaps he would stay if this was jeb bush or marco rubio somewhere he wasser mo of a kindred spirit with on policy. >> i would think if we had a filibuster-proof senate of republicans, 60, and he knew that the good legislation they could pass in the house would actually be passed in the senate and signed to law that might tempt him a little bit. but again, i really -- you have to believe what paul tells you. he is a person of integrity. and you know he has longed to be a full-time dad. his kids have never known him other than as weekend dad. and he knows time is running out for that. that really is at the heart of his decision. >> who is the definer of the party? is trumpism now sort of now part of the republican party? i say it this way, what the party was, the romney and ryan vision. you have trump's vision. i look at you and i feel like

you are somebody that's tried to stadle sort of both wings of -- straddle both wings of those visions. >> i look at it more in terms of really what are we trying to accomplish? we want a safe and secure and prosperous nation. those are areas of agreement not only with republicans but also democrats. it's unfortunate that we allow divisive partisanship from getting in the way of those shared goals and purposes. to me that's what unifies the republican party. it ought to unify all of us as americans we all want a safe prosperous secure america. >> i look at an issue like trade. tariffs. it's never something a paul ryan would ever want to utter. >> listen, i don't agree with anybody 100% of the time. i think you are well aware of the fact that i'm not really in favor of president trump's trade policies at this point in time. but i tell you having gotten back from china he has got their

attention. if this is what it takes to get them to really adhere by the rules of the world trade organization it maybe a pretty good negotiating ploy. but in the end we have got to engage in free and fair and reciprocal trade. that's a term he uses. i totally agree with it. we can't join tpp soon enough. that puts us in the best position to discipline china. >> let me ask you about the politics of wisconsin. scott wagner, the governor there says he fear as blue wave is coming. obviously this decision by paul ryan to not run puts his seat in play there as well. how do you assess the political situation in your home state? >> first of all, scott has done a fabulous job governing the state. made wisconsin more competitive and attractive to business creation. our unemployment rate is unbelievably he lo. manufacturers can't hire enough people can't find enough workers

to hire. the state of wisconsin is in great shape. if people evaluate scott on his record he ought to win by a land slide. but we are a purple state. we have had a couple of elections that give you some real concern, no doubt about it. but you know, six or seven months is a hivetime in politics. >> people wrote you off -- people wrote you off a lot -- too soon. >> you think so. >> -- about two years ago. i think you proved them among. i'm well aware of where your head is at on some of these election prost knost indications. let me ask you about robert mueller. grassley wants to bring that bill, bipartisan bill essentially to try to protect mueller's status, protect the special counsel. where are you on this idea? >> again, i don't see any gain in trying to fire robert mueller. but i would like him to conclude his investigation and bring closure to this thing. you know, you can take a look at the raiding of the president's

lawyer about stormy daniels. what does that have to do with russian interference in our election? it's always my concern about special counsels, we have enormous challenges facing this nation. >> we don't know everything behind the raid of michael cohen. >> you are exactly right but there are a awful lot of leaks that indicate that. all i'm saying is we need to get this behind us so we can address north korea, russia, syria, trade -- i mean we have serious issues facing this nation. >> if this bill make to it floor, which means it would have had republican support in the senate judiciary committee do you vote on this bill on mueller. >> i'll look at it when that time comes. >> fair enough. let me ask you about syria. the president indicated that something is coming. number one, do you think that that was a good idea, to send a warning tweet to russia and syria that we are about to bomb them? >> i'm not a fan of diplomacy in

tweet. what i am encouraged by is that the president is talking to our nato partners. i think we should take multilateral action. i think it's very good that we are trying to work through the eu and to expose russian's complicity here. go ahead. >> should you have to vote on this first, though? should congress give him permission on this, give him the authority? >> when it comes to use of chem with weapons i think working with our partners, i think the president by precedent probably has the ability to act, and i would hope it would be done with our nato partners. >> you would like to see him act? that's pretty clear? >> only once we verify and we really have a high degree of confidence of exactly what happened. right now, time has already lapsed. i know syria is probably scattering their military assets. i don't want to strike just for show. i don't want to strike where it can't be effective. i don't want to strike before we

absolutely know, with a high degree of confidence what happened. and i really don't want to strike without our partners being totally in agreement with it. >> okay. fair enough. senator ron johnson i will leave it there. thanks for coming on today and sharing your views. >> have a great night. >> let me bring in carol lee. josh -- and michael steele, former rnc chairman and also an msnbc political analyst. michael i am going to start with you. your party here. >> we are having fun, around we. >> paul ryan walks away. >> yeah. >> look, we know -- anybody that spends time with paul ryan knows he hated this job. >> quau. >> i think there is a lot of truth to that. but this -- but he -- the republican party is not paul ryan's party anymore. >> it's not. >> that to me seems to be the bigger story. >> it is the bigger story. and it is partly why ryan walks

away. because as have some 40 other members of the house, how do you leave the majority. >> that's the he request. you are in the majority. you have the white house, the senate, and the house. how do you have 40-plus members when you know there is a 24-seat swing between the democrats and you keeping or losing that majority, how do you do that? well they are looking down the road. they see the mood of the country beneath the surface, beneath the economy, beneath all the high stuff that's coming out of washington. they know with a is closer to the ground at home. it's not good. you look attin radio's district. even in his home district there are some questions about how he survives in this sort of new purple environment. >> it's hard to believe he walks away perhaps if the house were more in play for the republicans, if he thought the republicans had a better than 50/50 chance of holding it. >> if he thought he would for sure be a speaker for another two years i think he would stick around. as you were talking to senator johnson, it is a not whether or

not he would remain in this position if president rubio or president bush or someone else with his republican governing philosophy was calling the shots in the oval office, i was wondering if he would stay if president clinton were calling the shots in the oval office. in some ways he would have more influence and power as opposed to constantly trying to react to what president trump has said and trying to figure out how not to completely contradict him. >> this is an opportunity for donald trump to essentially -- to have another position that is more loyal to him. you have ken mccarthy, he has a personal relationship with the president. steve scalise. we are not sure about their interpersonal relationship. i don't know if it's the same. but donald trump could decide which one of those guys becomes the next house republican leader if he wants to. it is an opportunity to shape the party. >> yeah, absolutely.

i think for paul ryan it wasn't fun. now it looked a lot less fun head down the road and they are of the not going to get -- >> they would have a smaller majority no matter what. >> if the majority is not fun the minority is definitely not fun. for president trump, totally it's absolutely an opportunity of i think that's how they see it. he likes to work with people that he feels are his allies who are loyal to him. to the extent he can put his thumb on the scale in terms of leadership of the house he absolutely is he going to do try to do that. maybe not publicly. >> phil cline in the washington examiners this afternoon notes that paul ryan is sort of leaving with his legacy unfulfilled. when you think about why he came here and what he wanted, he wanted to be the guy who solved our entitlement issues and our so-called entitlement crisis. here it is ryan is giving up his

job before fulfilling his aim of political life, the one that brought him to national stardom, overhauling our entitlement system. and he actually leaves walking away with trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye could see. this is paul ryan. >> he noted that that was a disappointment that he was not able to do the big thing, what you just referenced but also on the money side leaving deb for future generations. there is that frustration which gets back to the central question, why are you leaving? why you are leave is it is untenable to be in that situation when the white house is every day bombarding you with things not related to policy. all the questions about stormy daniels and the polls and the roll erls. ryan is a walk. he wants to sit in a room, he wants to roll out numbers, work the policy, he wants a white house that picks it up and sends to it the senate. that's the old-fashioned way.

it hasn't happened that way. >> instead he is having to pick up the phone and say why did you tweet you are going the veto the bill that we just -- and then manage the white house. it's not how the job is supposed to be. >> the other thing i have been thinking about today i remember being in the oval office with president obama after his conversation with speaker boehner when he announced he was resigning. and they had a discussion they described as cleaning out the barn. there were things he wanted to do before he left. raise the debt ceiling and pass the budget agreement. and he did get some of those things done before he left. it raises questions of how speaker ryan uses his time before he leaves office. right now his legacy is not good and the deficit picture has gotten worse since he has been speaker. the question now does he try to strengthen that by taking some stronger stands against president trump than he has been willing to to thus far. >> and support the house

republican conference to support those policies. >> no. >> what do you want him to be thor is of the democratic congress. >> he has more freedom now that he is not on the ballot and he doesn't have to go to those people and ask them to continue to support him as the per. >> does this put more pressure on nancy pelosi to save her future? >> i think it probable pea might. >> the conversations come up, in an individual race, does that suddenly -- well you know you are going get new republican leadership. what is happening over here? >> it certainly will not reduce the pressure on rank and file member of congress who are being asked in districts around the country who they are going to support this the leadership race. >> in nancy's respect, someone needs to step up and show they can take her on and take her out. if she wants the job they are in for a to. that's how those baltimore ladies roll. >> they can't do that before election time. >> pause here.

stick around. up ahead, what is the president thinking about when it comes to robert mueller and rod rosenstein? could they really be fired. attorney allen dershowitz just met with the president a short time ago. he joins me next. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase.

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sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. terms, one endangered democratic is very cleverly trying to play her own trump card. heidi hide camp is running for re-election as a democrat in one of the reddest of red states, the trumpest of red states, full. and she says president trump once asked her if she would become a republican. when i visited with him in trump tower before he was sworn in he asked me if i would change parties. she is being ribbed of being

conservative for a democrat. what did she say? i laugh, as for the prospect of defecting i think he knows it's not going to happen. mr. trump won by 36 points in north dakota. congress kevin kramer is a trump ally. this is an interesting way for hide camp to out the trump credentials without risking alienating democrats too much. north dakota is a state with more republicans than democrats. we'll be right back. to develop a single medication. and only 1 in 10,000 ever make it to market. but what if ai could find connections faster. to help this researcher discover new treatments. that's why she's working with watson. it's a smart way to find new hope, which really can't wait. ♪ ♪ with exciting new dishes like lobdueling lobster tails.r.

and lobster truffle mac & cheese. classics like lobster lover's dream are here too. so enjoy these 10 lobsterlicious dishes now. because lobsterfest ends april 22nd. ♪♪ i'm 85 and i wanna lifego home ♪savannah ♪ [ding] [boxing bell ding] [applause] welcome back. after the fbi raid this week on his long time lawyer michael cohen president trump said he is not ruling out firing the special counsel robert mueller but his job isn't the only job that may be in jeopardy. the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein's job may be in jep kyi as well. he authorized the raid on cohen and is overseeing the specific counsel probe.

>> donald trump tweeted saying mueller is the most conflicted of all, except rosenstein who signed fisa and comey letter. moments ago this is what white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders had to say. >> the president has been clear that he has a deep concern about direction that the special counsel and other investigations have taken. this investigation started off as russian collusion, of which there was none. >> joining me now, allan dershowitz, professor emeritus and author of trump up. professor dershowitz, welcome back to the show. >> thank you. >> no there w there is a lot in ether what the president may or may not do with robert mueller and roz rosenstein. you spent a lot of time with the president in the last 24 hours. i know it was mostly about middle east politics. let me ask you this, why do you believe he is not going to fire mueller or rosenstein?

>> it would not be in his interests or in the interests of the country to do that. there is a distinction between mueller on the one hand who he definitely shouldn't fire and rosenstein. i think it might be appropriate, and i have said this before, to make a motion to recuse rosenstein from any involvement in the obstruction of justice investigation that concerns the firing of comey because he's a witness. he wrote the memo. and the first witness that any good lawyer for president trump would call to be rod rosenstein. didn't you write the memo? did you think you were obstructing jest justice when you wrote the memo? would you ever help the president obstruct justice by giving him a justification for firing comey. i don't see how you can be a prosecutor and a witness at the same time. >> you think on that narrow aspect of this investigation of supervising mueller that rod rosenstein should recuse himself? do you think somebodying if to make him? i mean, who would ask him to do that? is there a formal way that should be done. >> he should recuse himself,

number un. number two, president trump and his lawyers would have the ability to make a motion for him to recuse himself or make a motion if he participated in any way in a process adverse to the interests of president trump. but there is a big difference between firing somebody, which he might have a constitutional right to arrange, he might have to do it indirectly. >> right. >> but making a legal motion to recuse, which is something that every potential subject of an investigation has the right to do. >> now you told slate that your advice to the president would be don't fire, don't pardon, don't tweet, and don't testify. >> right. >> as you know, the president doesn't take some of that advice. he obviously doesn't take the advice on tweeting. and he auto know many members of his legal team have asked him not to say certain things and he says them anyway. when you have a client that doesn't take your advice, how long do you keep that client? >> well, most of my clients over time have refused to take some

of my advice. they are independent people it's their liberty that's at stake. it is a very rare case that a lawyer would resign from a case because the client wouldn't take his advice. i want to be clear, i never gave the president any legal advice, i never give legal advice to anybody unless i'm their lawyer and my legal advice is subject to client confidentiality. by the way client confidentiality suffered a low the other day when the lawyer for donald trump's home and office were raided and all of his information was put in front of a taint team. >> let me ask you about that. you are highly critical about that as you know, there is -- there is a much higher bar to do something like that at the justice department than it is to just go and seize records of just an average citizen, a non-lawyer. the pocket that it went through the southern district of new

york, the fact that it went through a federal judge, the fact that it went through rod rosenstein, does that not make you say to yourself well there may be something there, they must have had some evidence or some concern that michael cohen wouldn't comply with a simple subpoena. >> it's possible. and that would maybe justify searching records of michael cohen although you could subpoena a lot of that stuff through bank record and other things. but what justification is there for then seizing client information, lawyer/client privileges, information of the client and then giving that to fbi agents to read? remember the fourth and sixth amendments are different than the fifth amendment. the fifth says you can't use it in criminal case. the taint team's work. the fourth and sixth say you shouldn't read it. imagine this was confession to a preece or medical confidential information. >> what if they have evidence

that the lawyer participated in the crime? >> well, that would be enough to subpoena material from the lawyer but not material that affected adversely the client. and you should always use raid of a lawyer's office as an absolute last resort. i don't see this as last resort and only for serious crimes. apparently they are investigating stormy daniels. i just don't think that rises to the level of when you should raid a lawyer's office. i think those are usually used for mafia cases, organized crime cases, terrorist cases, major corporate fraud cases it's rare to have a lawyer's office raided because of payments to a porn star or even potential violations of campaigning laws or bank crimes. those don't justify the extraordinary act of raiding a lawyer's office and reading material that might very well be

covered by confidentiality despite the fact their some exceptions. >> the last time you and i spoke you were not a fan of having him speak to robert mueller unless under some sort of negotiated circumstance. do you feel as strongly about that today? >> even more strongly, because they were in the process of negotiating and cooperating. and now you find a nuclear option used by the other side. so it seems to me negotiations haven't paid off very well. look, no person who is a subject of an investigation should ever voluntarily speak to the prosecutor. prosecutors aren't there to help you. they are there to get you to hurt yourself. he may have to make a negotiated appearance because otherwise he could be subpoenaed in front of a grand jury. if he has the choice not to talk at all, of course any subject would be advised by his client to customer size that choice not to testify. >> does a president have enough people on his legal team? does he have a strong enough heel team in your view? >> nobody ever has a strong enough legal team. i think the president has some

very, very good lawyers on his team. jay sack low is a terrific lawyer, ty cobb is a very good lawyer. he lost a good lawyer in john dodd. he has a good legal team. he may need new lawyers now that there is an open investigation in the southern district of, no. he may need new york lawyers on his team as well. >> professor dershowitz we will leave it there. thank you. up ahead, how likely is it that democrats take the house now that ryan has lost hope? we will be back in a moment.

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welcome back. some developing news right now out of missouri, where just moments ago the embattled republican governor eric griton says he's not going anywhere ahead of a state house report on his alleged misconduct. if you recall, he is the governor who is charged with a felony invasion of privacy. he awaits a trial next month. he is accused of taking a non-consensual photo of a woman with whom head had an affair while she was partially nude. you will hear some familiar language in here. >> the report being released tonight will include lice and falsehoods. i wa -- include lies and falsehoods. i want to say again what i saided from the beginning, this is a political witch-hunt. >> heard that phrase before.

he mentioned the term five times in less than ten minutes. we do know that republicans control the legislature, a republican leads the committee investigating the goner and his alleged witch-hunt. we will be watching this case as it unfolds in missouri and we'll be back with more "mtp daily" in just a moment. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ♪ but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember.

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republican party is some say it may be reeling in many respects after speaker ryan announced his decision to retire after his term end. and here's the thing. the retirements haven't ended there yet. there was another one today. florida congressman dennis ross announced he is not running again of the it didn't get quite the same attention as the the speaker. these 19 states where the filing deadline has not yet passed. if you are looking out for any other members that might take off along with ryan the first place to look might be folks in these areas. the good news for the

republicans, most of the states' filing deadlines have passed. let's bring in the person responsible for getting house republicans elected and perhaps keeping the majority. congressman stivers, welcome back. >> hey chuck. >> let me start with something john corna said today, i don't begrudge his decision although i think it creates another layer of uncertain in the lead up to the 2018 election. fair statement? >> i think that's fair. it creates uncertainty. but i can say just like i'm from columbus ohio just like our ohio state buckeyes don't have to rebuild. they just reload, that's going is going to happen here. we have two other incredible leaders willing to step up. until then there is not going to be a race, paul ryan whether continue to do his job and people will support him. we will see how it goes but i think it's going to work out.

>> sitting speaker of the house is an important fund-raiser. suddenly donors are thinking -- you know the way these money guys work. and you know, think well you have nothing to offer me, you are not going to be there, why should i go to your fund-raiser? does this set you back financially? >> paul ryan raised $40 million of our $115 million we have raised so far. but paul ryan hasn't been selling himself. he has been selling a vision, an agenda. and the people that believed in that agenda yesterday believe in it today and they will believe in it tomorrow and i believe they will keep supporting our team and we have got our leader kevin mccarthy and our whip steve scalise who i think are willing to pick up the slack and continue to support the team. >> are they basically now your chief national fund-raisers together? is that sort of how this is going the work going forward?

>> i think they will both pick up some slack and other meps will pick up slack. paul ryan told me in a private meeting today he is going to continue to work every day, including raising money. i believe there are a lot of people that will continue to give paul ryan money whether he is speaker or just somebody who they believe in and they believe in our agenda. i think we will make up the difference and it will all work out. >> congressman dennis ross today said -- announcing his retirement he said i was going to serve ten years but now he cut it down to eight. let me ask you this, the conversations that you probably have had and may be having with other members who are on the fence, and now the speaker is leaving, what is that conversation like now? if you have got somebody on the fence like i need to you run, we have an easier time holding this seat if you run for re-election and this is important. then they say well the speaker is not running and that seat is now more in play, what do you say? >> it's true if our candidates

one we have a better chance to win. the speaker made a decision about his family, it wasn't about washington, d.c. it was about wisconsin and his kid. that's okay. everybody is in a different place. they have to do what works for them. i never push back too super hard because people are going to make the choices they want to make anyway but i try to make sure that they understand that they are part of a very important team that 300 million people around this can unare depending on them to help us move this country in the right direction. most people have decided to run for re-election and there are a few who decided to do something else. but i am convinced that there won't be a lot of other retirements coming, chuck. >> okay, but you don't rule out that more may come, but you think you will keep it under ten? >> i think so for sure. you know, i thought there would be potentially two more. i know about dennis.

he and i have been talking since january. he was on my list. unfortunately, before i got a chance to talk to him today he texted me and said he was going to make his announcement today. and then i had three other people i talked to and all three told me they are running for re-election. i can say people have told me that and later announced they are not. >> costello being the most prominent. >> you never know until they file, yes. you never know. >> let me ask you about what to run on. three months ago you were convinced you are going to be able to run on this tax cut. in some ways the news environment, the issue environment has shifted. in some ways the president has helped shift it with the tariff conferring. but also the news that we now have trillion dollar df sits for if foreseeable future. you and a lot of other republican incumbents ran on the deb. now you are having to run for re-election with a trillion dollar deficit going forward. that's a tough thing to sell

voters on. how do you explain that? >> we are going to be talking about economic growth and the tax reform package is about economic growth. i think economic growth can make some of that up. we also need to be good fiscal stewards. that's why we are having oat vote on the balanced budget amendment. i have been an advocate of the balanced budget amendment for a long time and i will be until we get it in the constitution no matter whether it happens through the congress or through the states. and i think what happens in washington are the things that have to happen. until today -- >> very quickly -- >> yes. >> do you think it is a good idea if republicans in the house have to vote again on whether to rescind some of the spending they voted for just two months ago? >> i think lots of presidents have season rescissions back to congress. president obama did not do it very often. neither did george w. bush. but george h.w. bush and bill clinton did hundreds of them. and some of the rescissions may

not even have been things that were in the bill we just passed but they are money that are sitting in accounts that have been appropriated that maybe we should take away. so, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean it is a direct change from what we've just passed but there is money sitting there. it is a not going to be used or it doesn't make sense or we think we shouldn't do it, i think rescissions are an important part of what we can do. >> sounds like it is a tough vote to explain, though. >> maybe. but it's -- i don't think it will be when we actually have the actual rescissions because we will be talking about what those items are and why didn't doe want to spend on them. >> steve stivers, nrcc chair republican from ohio thank you for coming on. >> thank you. coming up, trump fires an intercontinental ballistic tweet. but did he just shoot himself in the foot? be right back. do you think it's going to surprise your daughter? absolutely. wait, is mom here yet? where's mom? she's in this car. what the heck?

whoa. yo, whose car is this? this is the all-new chevy traverse. this is beautiful. it has apple carplay compatibility. do those apps look familiar? ohhhhh. do you want to hit this button? there's a hidden compartment. uhh, whoa. mom, when i'm older can you buy me this car? i wanna buy me this car.

welcome back. on the i'm obsessed with president trump's military strategy. right now, the syrian government must be wondering what kind of response president trump has in mind to its suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians. president trump, lips are sealed. if there is one thing he has made clear is the key to a successful military strike is not letting the enemy know what you are thinking. why do we know this? he told us so himself many, many times. >> my administration will not

telegraph exactly military plans. i don't want to tell you. i don't want to tell you. why do we have to announce it? i have plans that are so good, but you know what, the day i announce it, it's worthless. we have to be more unpredictable. you have got to be unpredictable. unpredictable. unpredictable. you don't want to give the answer because you are giving away everything. they say what we are going to do, how we are going to do it. i'm not going to tell you anything about what response we do. i don't talk about military response. militarily i don't like to say where i'm going and what i'm doing. >> got that. don't tell the other side what you are thinking. all of which makes president trump's tweet this morning really confusing. quote, russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles over syria. get ready russia, they will be coming, nice, and new, and smart, you shouldn't be partners with a gas killing animal.

maybe president trump ought to follow that advice. we aut to send him that tape after all he is his best adviser. he says that himself as well. maybe president trump ought to

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ask about the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists. humira & go. first of all, is this separate from the mueller probe or do you think we are possibly misreading this cohen raid? it seecms to be more material t what mueller is doing. >> it is something that's happened off and there could be elements that relate to what mueller is doing. >> why would the access hollywood tape be part of this? that considering it coincides

seems to be in the mueller. >> if the subpoenas or the w warrant was to get information and communications about this tape. so if there's another effort to suppress some sort of damaging information for candidate what did that look like? that's where the tape would potentially come into play. >> this is a reminder that's lot that we don't know. i want to pick up on something that will be following us at 6:00 has already been circulating what he said to me. he thinks it's an intriguing new line of attack. it is this idea that rosenstein, you could make a legal argument he could recuse himself. >> right. you could make any argument you want. the question is will a judge buy it and will it withstand public

scrutiny. >> i think it gets consumed by the effort by the president which has been telegraphed. it is telegraphed since the very beginning. he wants everybody out that is touching this probe. that's the poisonous fruit. i don't think a judge is going to buy it. no it won't be -- >> by the way, if rosensitein hd to recuse himself it would go to the solicitor general. >> that's the point i was going to make. so many of trump's legal theories seem to be more in line with checkers than chess. they are constantly managing this day-to-day. there was no plan in place for what to do after that.

since thin there has been step after step after step taken. a journey by a thousand miles taking one step at a time. that is not a good way to manage a wide ranging investigation that's lasted more than a year. >> what does the president want? he wants the investigation to go away. do you give him pieces that satisfy him for a coupleover weeks? >> it makes him go longer. it keeps it going. you a white house where the people and the president are trying to manage this and manage him. he is infuriated by this. when he gets in that way they say you need to find a way to let off some steam. what it will look like we don't know yet. >> i say this is also the worst possible outcome for them. it is really bad for people that are on the ballot. >> i think they do. i think that effort --

>> he didn't look like the guy that wanted to vote for him. >> i think they know what they are doing. they know what's happening right now. >> all right. what a wednesday. >> thank you very much. >> up i head, john boehner turns over a new leaf, literally. well, like most of you, i just bought a house. -oh! -very nice. now i'm turning into my dad. i text in full sentences. i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers

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when speaker paul ryan announced he was planning to leave congress he did not have a spring in his step or a song in his heart unlike some people. >> what a wonderful day. >> when the last speaker of the house left he seemed downright giddy. he was exstatcstatic about leav. mr. boehner is going to help sell marijuana of course. really? boehner joined the advise i have board of acreage holdings. he announced he is officially a convert to cannabis. he said over the last 10 or 15 years the american people's attitudes have changed

dramatically. i find myself in that same situation. see, speaker ryan. we didn't have to look hard to find pictures of boehner looking miserable. he is high on life. you don't need alcohol infused wine when you have marijuana infused wine. say good time speaker boehner. we'll be back tomorrow. good evening. >> i lrned two things watching meet the press. in the news you broke some news with a lawyer very close to donald trump out dchs lining a new way to rosenstein. on a lighter note i learned you think john boehner is blunt. >> you like knowing that? we are just going to roll away here. >> roll it up and r