conference. big headlines coming out of it, the president wants to reach a deal of some kind on the korean peninsula and he says bob mueller and rob rhoden stein, the rumors of them being fired he says "they're still here." "hardball" with chris matthews starts right now. >> what's he afraid of? let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. from the confines of his florida retreat at mar-a-lago tonight, president trump is touting his missile strike on syria and raising expectations for his sum plit with kim jong-un of north korea which he says will happen in the coming weeks. he's also lashing out at the russia investigation calling it again a democratic hoax. here's how he answered a question just minutes ago about whether he'll attempt top fire special counsel robert mueller

or deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. this was really a hoax created largely by the democrats. there has been no collusion. they won't find any collusion. it doesn't exist. >> well. >> the two gentlemen you told me about, they've been saying i'm going to get rid of them for the last three months. four months, five months. and they're still herer. >> recent reporting suggests that amid all of this, the president is preoccupied as you can tell from that with the threat posed by the fbi' raid on michael cohen. "the washington post" is now reporting that the raid "deeply rattled the president and has distracted him from the responsibilities of his office." "trump was so upset in fact he had trouble concentrating on plans that were laid out for him that day by his national security team about potential options for targeted missile strikes on syria." as nbc news revealed last week,

that raid has diminished the prospect that the president will undergo questioning by mueller. "the washington post" further reports that's right trump has become convinced that "mueller's team was operating in bad faith." he's now taking out his frustrations on his lawyers according to a source, trump has grown increasingly agitated railing against members of his beleaguered is legal team. another says that trump is upset he hasn't been able to attract topnotch lawyers. he's looking to attract new legal talent. joining me, ashley parker from "the washington post." jill wine-banks, a former watergate prosecutor and msnbc contributor, jonathan lemire from the "associated press" and nick confessore with the "new york times" and analyst. i want to start with ashley and your paper's reporting. the president seems to be, according to reporting tonight, and i accept the reporting, really worried what might come out of that bag of tricks in the hands of michael cohen.

i'm wondering, can you target his concern? is it possible are there women issues, settlements, whatever, anything liking that? what do you think, what, do you think in your reporting he's worried about? >> i think it's important for us to separate the president from sort of people in his orbit and people in the west wing. people in the west wing in his orbit are incredibly what they don't know with cohen. they know he's sort of a shady guy who fixes problems for the president and known to record conversations with associates. they're very worried about what might come out from him. the president our understanding was yes, he was worried but he was more sort of frustrated and angry with this idea that mueller's team was operating in bad faith. he felt like as you just said in that press conference, he had been cooperating with them. when the raid happened, he felt he had no idea where the investigation was headed. again, they had sort of breached this trust. his was more anger at mueller's team but in his orbit, there's a lot of concern what michael

cohen may have his fingers in. >> i want to stay with you on a question. in baseball terminology, mike cohen was a utility infielder. he had some role in his business interests in russia, he had a lot of role in covering up for fairs in relationships with women, we know that. what -- it seems to me there's a number of areas of pressure points and fire in the fear of trump. if it comes out this was a pattern and practice with stormy daniels and with karen mcdougal and there's lots of them out there, that's certainly going to be an embarrassment to him and his marriage and everything else. if there's a russia overlay between his business interests and getting the miss universe contest going over there and his developing presidential campaign and to the extent they're interlocked and they would be interlocked in the case of michael cohen's work. as i said, he's the utility infielder. he covers all of this stuff. can you narrow down what he's worried about or we have to

speculate at this point? >> it's a little bit of both. we know that investigators are specifically looking into the role michael cohen played in paying some of these women hoip had come forward with allegations about affairs with the president to stay silent. so that's a fact. they're looking at that and gathering stuff on that. but what you said, utility infielder, he's sort of like the trash man. he makes bad things, shady things things you don't want in your house go away. there is speculation what eshe might have been involved in as an outside adviser said to me the other day, the big concern is we don't know what other sort of stupid stuff michael cohen may have been up to that brings in other people. >> let's take a look now what the president said minutes ago about the russia probe. here he is. >> on the mueller probe, have you concluded that it's not worth the political fallout to the remove either special counsel mueller or deputy attorney general rosenstein? >> jennifer, i can say this.

there was no collusion, that's been so found as you know by the house intelligence committee. there's no collusion. there was no collusion with russia other than by the democrats. it was a really a hoax created largely by the democrats as a way of softening the blow of a loss. as far as the two the gentlemen you told me about, they've been saying i'm going to get rid of them for the last three months. four months, five months. and they're still here. >> nick confessore, so is the rivalry between "the washington post" and "new york times." what have you got on the reasons he is shaken? according to the post, why is he more worried apparently what cohen has in his box of stuff, his tapes, perhaps tapes of conversations with trump, all kinds of things, lists of cases he's had to work on dealing with these women situations an, by the way, they all turned out to be true. trump never said -- nobody believes when he said it didn't

happen. >> the problem right now for trump is that the mueller probe is now essentially a cat skachb trump's personal life and his business empire and the kushner business empire. the reason it's a cat san of his personal life is because part of his personal life involved having affairs and paying off women he was having affairs to him. that's tremendously embarrassing. michael cohen was central to each of the elements we've seen that the president is now under investigation for. he was a conduit for bringing money from the former soviet union into the trump business empire, involved in hush payments and his involvement in setting is sup those payments is meaningful in a campaign finance context. if he was act is as an agent of the trump campaign, those contributions are illegal. >> because they're more than $2700. >> correct. >> or else they're gifts can of some kind. let me go to jonathan. what do you think is going on? i keep getting the sense this is

bothering him? is it the unknown or the known? because he knows he had michael cohen dealing with russia for him, his business enterprises over there. he also knows -- he tends to entangle things, trump. it seems to be part of one enterprise. what benefits trump. >> there's great overlap in the trump network. we've reported on this week too, there's a great fear of the increasing level of exposure not only that the president now faces but his inner circle and his adult children who worked side by side with michael cohen at the trump organization who did having business dealings in shadowy foreign capitals involved with catch and kill payments, with "national enquirer" to try to squish embarrassing stories about the president's espersonal life. and the idea that robert mueller's probe went past the mere idea of russia collusion and now ventured into his business dealings and personal life. he feels that's greatly

overstepped. >> jill request, does anybody go in the courtroom and says i can't take it anymore? there's too many things coming at me. i can't take it anymore. i'm getting out of the ring. if they've got the women, god knows what n number of them there are, then you go onto the question the russian connection, the money he's trying to make over there maybe thinking he wouldn't win the election but turn a profit out of it. who knows. now they've got michael cohen. they're not squeezing him with just potential imprisonment. they've got all his documents, not just his word it play with. they've got a lot of stuff in that treasure trove they pulled out of his office including tapes where they can really squeeze this guy. it seems to me he has to talk or go away for a long time. >> there's no question that he's in severe legal jeopardy. and that it's turned into a really interesting case. and you're right. people are saying there's so much, it's hard to follow.

and all of this is happening is very publicly. i'm sure it's very embarrassing to the president. he settled the lawsuit with karen mcdougal, the playboy model today. and that is a major compromise on his part. he doesn't want that going public anymore. so he didn't want to have to be deposed. and he probably didn't want his lawyer to have to be deposed, michael cohen. so that one is very quietly now out of the picture. >> but isn't she. >> she's free to talk. >> she's free to talk. just spilt beans. karen mcdougal will be on the cover of every weekly glossy magazine. every time you go to safeway you'll read about her as a little side story. all she has to do is pay back about 70k to ami for it and she's free to talk and sell. sthael she'll be on "60 minutes," and that's a pretty good story. that's a long-term affair. that's not a one-night stand relationship. >> i agree with that completely.

she doesn't even have to pay back the money. it's only if she makes a profit going forward she will have to share the profits. she keeps the $150,000. so it's a brilliant settlement. it's a very good deal. it's everything she wanted. she proceeded quietly behind the scenes and got exactly what she wanted and we'll have to find out what the other women may have gotten paid off when we find out what's in the documents that were seized from michael cohen's office. >> jill, she's already a favorite of the new york tabs. they'll have her picture all over tomorrow, the "new york daily news" which tends to go democrat and the other paper, is the "post" is going to crazy with this stuff, as well. as jill mentioned, "the new york times" reports the parent company of the national enquirer," american media incorporated released her from the contract that barred her from discussing her alleged affair with the president. a lawyer for the former playboy model tells the "times" it's a total win. we got everything we were fighting for. this settlement comes just after

federal investigators seized materials from michael cohen which "included information about american media and the mcdougal suit." ashley, is this another tributary of news coming out of this? people will be following that as a sidebar at least, probably top of the fold tomorrow. these things metastasized. you have to really devote yourself to keeping can up on all these fronts. your thoughts? >> well, the reason some of these stories have taken on a life of their own in the media is because you know, karen mcdougal and stormy daniels and certainly her lawyer are incredibly media savvy. they're savvy generally but media savvy in a way that rivals the president himself. on a different track, you're seeing thatting with james comey and his book tour and the stuff that problems a problem for this president is the stuff that can compete with him in terms of social media savvy, television

savvy and suck up some of the oxygen he's capable of using to kill other things oftentimes with this president, there's four or five issues and scandals going on at once and only the bandwidth to cover one or two. what these women have done and now that she's freed from the terms and what comey has done has been able to use media to get covered in the same way the president does. >> jill, the way they pulled off that raid of michael cohen's office, were the agents able to take a peek and see what they got there? i know all the law they're not supposed to. did they get a pretty good sense of what they had in their hands? >> they would know that they were getting documents that fit within the search warrant. so if there was a certain category of evidence that they were looking for, all electronic recording devices they would take all of those. they haven't listened to them yet. i understand some of them are encrypted and the fbi will have to unencrypt them in order to

listen to them. documents they wouldn't have really looked at, they would pick out a file that says russia, it's not going to be labeled russia collusion. >> on the top of the file. it says russia. how about names of women we haven't heard their names before in the file? it seems like any reasonably conscious agent, i'm sure they're all conscious would see the pattern in that drawer because he only had apparently three clients, one of them hannity and this other guy that paid off for the abortion and everything and everything else is trump in that drawer. >> there is no attorney/client privilege for anyone else. so if he only has those three clients, then anything that deals with them and when i say three, that's assuming shah sean hannity is a client which he may or may not be. >> he says he is. >> he says he is, but he may -- anyway, but giving him that, there's only three. so there's a lot of other files i'm sure that will involve other

people. and donald trump is innocent and if he has nothing to worry about, why doesn't he just waive the privilege and get this over with? richard nixon waived the privilege for john dean to testify. he wrote a letter saying he was free to talk about any conversations they had had. so that's something that there's a precedent for. if richard nixon can do it, then so can the president. let president trump waive the privilege and let's get this whole investigation over with. if he wants it to happen faster, he should stop obstructing it. he should stop interfering and stop complaining about it. >> nick the likelihood of that zero to ten. >> i'll give it a five because he could get into a box. what happened with karen mcdougal, he got into a box. it was worst to keep -- >> he will not be able to deny karen mcdougal. >> the importance that have settlement though of her being free to talk is that the catch and kill practice with the "national enquirer" was one of the walls around his personal affairs. and she is just showing that

that wall is going to crumble. if there are other people like her we don't know about, it will embolden hem to say how about my story. >> there's asus pigs the am ty buckled today, john, because of the break-in or the raid into michael cohen's office. they've got the stuff. they don't want to stretch this out anymore. >> these two events may it be linked. probably a coincidence this comes a week after the cohen raid. as karen mcdug it will decides her strategy, stormy daniels and her attorney today finally got a rise out of donald trump. he other than that one question or two questions he took on air force one about stormy daniels has avoided this topic. today on twitter he responded to the sketch that the avenatti. >> we'll get to that. i want a final question to ashley amazing at this stuff. ashley, how close is he to just throwing up his hands and saying no mas, i can't take all this legal exposure.

so many things coming at me. can i trade this office to get out of here? how close is he to breaking up? you guys have said this guy is really on edge. how close to not being able to take it? >> our understanding and this does not just apply to this moment but the president was short of shocked to find out at least initially being president is not actually like being king. and there are a lot of aspects of the job he finds sort of greeting and tiresome and he doesn't enjoy. that said he is a fighter. the more you see him under assault the more you see him hitting back. i would be skeptical he would throw his hands up and give up. a more likely option is another tweet, for instance. >> yeah. everybody better keep their sense of humor about this situation. thank you, ashley. great reporting for "the post" again. jill, thanks for your expertise. it's amazing how watergate is such a ruseful reference point. jonathan thank you, and nick confesso

confessore. coming up, sean hannity's ties to president trump run much deeper than we thought. they talk early in the morning and late at night what the trump should tweet and trump's frustration with the mueller investigation. they're so close some white house aides call han at this time trump's unofficial chief of staff. that's ahead. plus trump confirms his director met with kim jong-un and says he'll meet with the north korean dictatener the coming weeks. what will they demand in exchange for cutting back on their nuclear program? to leave the 38th parallel? i'm waiting for that baby. and trump's u.n. ambassador nikki haley is in a public fight with his lawrence kudlow over the russian sanctions and proving she's no trump toldie. is he worried is he she will run against her in 2020. she looks like political competition. finally a word about the bushes, george and barbara. this is "hardball" where the action is. eo. i know i'm late.

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ef up here in manhattan, there's a legal battle over who oversee the material seized in last week's raid on michael cohen's office. in all this the president tweeted on that on stormy dams for the first time today. it comes after her attorney released a sketch of the man they allege threatened daniels in 2011, a move she says was intended to keep her quiet. this morning the president tweeted a sketch years later about a nonexistent man, a total con job playing the fake news media for fools but they know it. we'll be right back after this. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. that's it? everybody two seconds! "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college.

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you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. crime family. of course, we are now on day 329 of the muellerer witch hunt. and there's still zero evidence of collusion. imagine that. remember this whole witch hunt

started when james comey leaked his personal potentially classified notes during his tenure at the fbi. we all know about the special treatment that hillary clinton received from the bureau. knowing what we now know about what is obvious deep state crime families trying to take down the president. aren't you now glad that trump fired comey. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was fox news host sean hannity spinning conspiracy theories on his show last week arguing clinton, mueller and comey crime families are out to get president trump. before this segment aired, the president tweeted was promoting what sean was about to say. on monday it was revealed trump and michael cohen share a lawyer at least in case of trump a fixer. robert costa reports that the revelation the two men share an attorney is how hannity is intertwined with trump's world and offers the president a

sympathetic ear and shared grievances. some white house aides dubbed hannity the unofficial chief of staff. the author of that article is robert costa, from "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst and damon jolly, former republican congressman everyone florida. i don't want to be a media critic. i try to avoid that. it's like a baseball player complaining about another player. what i do focus is on is the possible extra hannity might have on the president. how would you describe it how it's all a plot by bureaucrats and the federal agencies to get this particular president and he's not echoing the president? he may be forcing the president to echo him which is a thought i want you to dwell on for a second. robert? >> it's an understandable story for a long time watchers of president trump, sean hannity, a new yorker, brash, conservative, relishes his anti-establishment

persona. as the president returns to his roots in a sense during this presidency, ignoring at times the advice of his traditional advisers, he's turning to people like sean hannity and often sean hannity to give him counsel informally, phone calls late at night, sometimes early in the morning as they think through their lives and the president's agenda. >> let me give logic to david jolly. if you're on the air three hours a day, i think that sean is, it takes a talent to be on the air in talk radio. you really have to have a good ear for the audience. you begin to develop a conversation with your regular audience, the one who's tune in every day that give you the big bucks and big audience. is that what he's checking on like a polling operation, calling up sean, is the president saying is this working, is that working? what should i be pushing? where is the action? how are the people reacting to

this? is that what he's using it for? if so what's wrong with that if he's using him. >> if it's measuring the pulse of the body politic, perhaps there's nothing wrong with that. this feeds into a bigger suspicion. there's a difference between lack of experience and lack of credibility. most presidents come to the job without the experience necessary to be commander in chief on day one. there feeds into the lack of credibility a lot of americans have when it comes to donald trump. the fact is sean hannity is not a subject matter expert. bush 43 came in, he was young. the legitimacy of the election was questioned. he surrounded had himself by seasoned advisers, colin powell, condi rice, runnells feld. you knew he was in trusted hands. in this case, sean hannity is not seen as a trusted hand, a subject matter expert who never graduated from college is giving policy advice to the president of the united states and i think that's the concern and anxiety this story that robert so ably

reported on creates within the american people. >> is that the overlay, the day, red line here, robert, as you report it? not that he's giving him political advice which sean would be good at. he does have his ear to the ground. he's on four hours a day. he knows what's working with the conservative base. the poll, the right wing poll but he's not an expert on regional studies with china or studies with the middle east. is he getting policy advice or political advice from sean hannity? >> the way it's described to me by friends of the president is that it's feedback. that hannity to the president represents that base, that base conservative voter who listens to talk radio, 0 who may have voted for president trump. he's not looking to hannity for policy advice. but he trusts his own instincts but also someone who has a mass audience has to cater to a mass audience. he sees hannity as someone in a similar position in that respect. trying to play to that base and keep that audience.

>> talk about the way it worked the other day when in the courtroom, all of a sudden, the word came out, i forget exactly how, that he was sharing a lawyer with the president. he was the third man as they say in the movies, the third man. what was the -- what alarm bells did that put off in your newsroom, robert, as to the wrongness or okayness or my god, what's going on here thing? it was a holy cow to put it lightly moment. why so? >> it was holy cow for some, but not really. michael cohen, the president's long time personal lawyer has been a guest on hannity's show. hannity has insisted that his conversations were mostly about real estate on his program. we really don't have details about the actual relationship at all. what we see from that is a development of the trump inner circle being full of people not just government officials or gop donors, they're friends, media personalities. that's who surrounds this president.

>> we're getting more break is news. the wall street journal is reporting one of the president's long-time legal advisers says he warned trump a phone call this past friday that michael cohen trump's lawyer and fixer, would turn against the president and cooperate with federal prosecutors if faced with criminal charges. that adviser jay goldberg represented trump in the 1990s and early towels and says cohen cannot be trusted to protect the president. let's bring back jill wine-banks. this is the operative question if you're trump. will this guy squeal? >> well, we only can say that he said he would take a bullet for the president. and the last person who said that was gordon liddy in the watergate case. >> he did. >> and gordon liddy never said anything until he became a radio host. that was the first time i ever heard his voice. >> i knew gordon decently well. you've got to be in politics to like this. loyalty is exempting some other

values and allowing for values, loyalty is a good thing. he once said i'll be on the street corner you want me on. you can kill me. he was trying to arranging this sort of dashing elf immolation. i'll be on the corner of 17th and whatever and you can kill me there at the time i'll be there. that's how far he went. he wasn't kidding. >> he wasn't. and we don't know the. i've heard people who know cohen that he has a family and that he won't stick to his guns about taking a bullet for the president, that heal cave. we don't know the but his documents may give everything that you need without his testimony. >> robert costa for "the washington post," you now speak for your fantastic newspaper to win so many prizes. here's the question. this is why trump is worried. >> michael cohen is -- he's the roy cohn of this new generation of president trump's inner circle. he's the fixer, the lawyer. the person the president counts on to deal with personal matters.

of course, there's concern in the white house about cohen because of his penchant for audio recordings, for having meetings he doesn't always disclose with people beyond president trump. and so they say with michael cohen, he's not just a risk, he's a question mark. they don't know what they don't know inside of the west wing. >> it was a taping system that will brought down nixon. here we have a lawyer with a taping system. anyway, it's a frankenstein's monster. robert costa, robert jolly, jill, thanks for coming back. pompeo made a secret to meet with kim jong-un. what will the north koreans demand? what's the ask? for us to get off the 38th parallel? what is it? we'll talk about that. this is "hardball" where the action is.

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i like always remaining flexible. and will remain flexible here. i've gotten it to this point. president moon of south korea was generous when he said if it weren't for donald trump, the olympics would have been a total failure. it was my involvement and the involvement of our great country that made the olympics a very successful olympics. we've gotten us here and i think we're going to be successful. but if for any reason i feel we're not, we end. >> welcome back to "hardball." travis president trump a short

time ago on his planned upcoming meeting with north korea leader kim jong-un. president trump was asked what the united states would demand from the meeting. here's this. >> we've never been in a position like there with that regime whether it's father, grandfather or son. and i hope to have a very successful meeting. if we don't think it's going to be successful, mark, we won't have it. we won't have it. if i think that it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we're not going to go. if the meeting when i'm there is not fruitful, i will respectfully leave the meeting. and we'll continue what we're doing or whatever it is that we'll continue but something will happen. >> early today, president trump confirmed reports of a secret meeting an between cia director mike pompeo and kim jong-un over the easter weekend. is he trump's nominee for secretary of state. the west first broke news of the

meeting which took place over easter weekend. i'm joined by analyst bobby ghosh. bobby, if i were to write a biography or a profile in realtime of trump, i would call it "shoot the moon." every time he does anything, he bets against the market. everybody else is discarding their cards, their spades, an he goes for them. he wants them all. everybody says you can't deal with kim jong-un. he's going to keep his weapons. what's the good that can come out of a meeting? what's the bad that can come out of a meeting whether in singapore or geneva? >> that's the preserve. he's saying if he feels he's not going to be successful, he's going to leave the meeting. he has not defined what success looks like. >> stopping their nuclear development. >> they're not going to stop. >> will they limit it to ten weapons they're can't use? >> they're not. the only reason they have a shot at a conversation directly with the american president and not facing american gunships on their waters is because they have the nukes. the nukes keeps that regime

alive. they're not backing away. they will use this opportunity to have a conversation. it makes them look good, makes them look like the great superpower of the world. it buys them more time to continue their nuclear program. they're looking for time. they're not looking to make any concessions. >> prime minister abe. he may speak at some moment. but not now. this is a picture taking thing. fine. i want to know, how great, let's talk, you're at the table and you have to advise the president. what's he want? he wants to continue to be this little guy having fun. he's the boss of the country. the king basically. but his country's never going to get better or richer, never going to be a great country. he's never going to reunite with the south. the programs aren't going to reunite the south. he'll be older, probably die young like his parents and grandparents. why do you think he wants to pursue, isn't there a better

line for him to say i played the nuclear card. diminishing returns from here on. i'll make a deal. because we're up for a deal i think. >> there's no indication that he or the regime cares for anything more than their own survival. making his country richer, making his people better off, there's no indication they care about that. it's all about preserving that regime. this is a her mit kingdom -- >> that's all they want to be. >> their idea of what the world is and their place in it is very, very different from what you and i or any. >> it's very different than east germany where you can watch on television and see how well the west germans are doing. they don't see how south koreans live. >> no, they don't they've been told constantly on television and radio we're the greatest. this is the greatest country in the world. the super power is on its knees. the american president wants to talk to us. you know who's just as likely to walk away from the meeting if they don't feel they're getting

a good deal? kim jong-un, he walks away, he looks good. >> we'll see. still him. we're still us. thank you, bobby. ambassador nikki haley once again separates herself from the rest of the trump cabinet hitting back after a white house official said she was confused about russian sanctions. unlike other trump officials. she won't toadie or say -- i love the way she said it, i don't get confused. that's tough talk to the president. you're watching "hardball." i no longer live with the uncertainties of hep c. wondering, "what if?" i let go of all those feelings. because i am cured with harvoni. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who've have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if you've ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems

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welcome back to lb. donald trump famously said when it comes to washington, alone can fix the city. now the president has put that to the test pushing back against a top cabinet member. according to "the new york times," the president was fuming this weekend when he watched nikki haley announce new sanctions against russia. the "times" reports the president erupted and yelled at the television because he had decided not such thing. ultimately despite her

announcement, no new sanctions were unveiled against russia. no surprise from trump. the mixed messages set up a strange back and forth between the president's economic adviser larry kudlow and haley. asked why the sanctions were never rolled out, kudlow told reporters she got ahead of the curb. she's done a great job, a very effective ambassador. there might have been momentary confusion. haley fired back with all due respect, i don't get confused. anyway, according to the "associated press" mrs. kudlow quickly called to apologize in an attempt to mend fences. up next, new reporting what might be the real reason president trump is upset with ambassador haley. we'll be back with the "hardball" roundtable raring to go. is the president afraid of nikki haley? could be. and butch. and tank. and tiny. and this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace. laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but she's not much on "articles of organization." articles of what? so, she turned to legalzoom.

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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. well, franklin roosevelt said there's nothing i like like a good fight. the "new york times" is reporting today this isn't the only time trump has lashed out following something haley has said. he was upset by the ambassador's tough talk on russia over its incursion into ukraine. he's grown suspicious of her am basing convinced she was angling for mr. tillerson's position and wondered whether she wants his own job. trump's worried about her jumping for his job. while the united nations had

meetings, she told reporters her relationship with the president was perfect. i'm joined by steve israel former congressman from new york and author of the newly released "big guns." mara gray and gabe is national correspondent for new york magazine. this is a great fight. everybody in the media loves a good fight. it's between two heavyweight people. nikki haley has the touch of a great political figure. she took down the confederate flag in south carolina. she's done a great job politically at the u.n. is trump worried she's running for 2020 or not 2024 or 2028 but she wants it now? is that what he's afraid of? >> maybe he should be. you're right. she has great political instincts i was on the ground as a reporter in south carolina when the flag came down. and you know, nikki haley had great instincts. and you know, right now what

you're seeing is the same thing. there are a lot of people in general who are going to enjoy seeing someone stand up to that white house. >> gabe, isn't the ball in the air? if the president gets in trouble with the house next year, if it goes democratic and they impeach him and vote all the first spring with nothing but impeachment hearings and vote in the summer, it's going to be a miserable first term. he may say no mas. that brings pence up. pence needs a running mate. pence may be beatable in the primaries. >> if we're going to look forward to the 2020 race. >> if you're nikki haley, you're looking forward. >> certainly forward to something else. no one thinks this will be her final job in politics. one of the things she's done very well is skate under the radar of a lot of drama in washington. she's up here in new york. she every day have to get in front of the president and disagree with him. this moment touched two of the

president's points that he doesn't like. one he doesn't like it when he sees people that have potential political ambition that might run up against his and two, he doesn't like when people disagree with him particularly within his administration about russia. 0 for 2 on this one for her. >> she wanted to get tougher on russia. we wonder what his motives are for not wanting to do it. he's a hawk. >> she's someone who always say the same america first stuff that trump does but has been out there as the u.n. ambassador. >> i want to go to a great novelist. your last book was spectacular. >> not so great a member of congress but a great novelist. >> i watch people. i watch the way she sits behind microphone in the u.n. she knows how to do it. there's something historical in the way she addresses that body. if you look at the way she looks at notes, then looks up, there's something about her stature that's for real. we've seen it with adlai

stevenson, henry cabot lodge, pat moynihan. it is a fantastic launching pad if you know how to play the media. >> she plays to the camera. it's ironic she's outplaying donald trump in this administration. >> she looks grown-up. >> with that statement. >> serious and desizive. that's the politics. let's talk about the gravity of this. we are in. >> did you say let's not talk about just the politics? >> we're in a dangerous convergence of a lack of any kind of foreign policy that is coherent and down to three adults in the room in the white house, nikki haley. >> mad dog. >> general dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the secretary of defense. >> who said we should have gone to the u.n. before we bombed. >> they have to focus on the volatility and uncertainty of the world. instead they're focusing on the volatility of their boss. that gets dangerous. >> you're like james schlessinger when he said don't follow an order from the president to go to war. >> i think they have 15 minutes

of fame each. i think they're going to use that hopefully to the benefit of the country. >> these grown-ups. >> the grown-ups for sure. i think in general part of the problem with what we're seeing and this is not a sleight on haley, there are a lot of people in the white house, it's like musical claire's. if you know you have 15 minutes to make it count. >> would he dare fire her? >> you know, sure. why not. >> because she looks really strong and it would look like he's afraid of her because she's stronger than he is. >> it's russian roulette. >> what's the lead editorial tomorrow. >> i can't tell you. >> you're right. roundtable is sticking with us. you're watching "hardball." your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands... commanded armies... yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests.

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would go to my district, people would say why doesn't congress do thing. this books answer the questions in the best way i know how to write, through snark, satire and from the inside. >> you are one great writer. i'm telling you, i'm talking about writing ability and story telling. steve israel, mar rare gay, and gabe debenedetti. a word about the bushes, george and barbara. we just lost braush. you're watching "hardball."

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word about the bushes. george and barbara. back in 1989, their first year in the white house they invited kathleen and i to come for dinner and a movie. since my parents were in town, i asked if i could bring them along. it was an unforgettable evening because of it being the white house and because it was the bushes. i never voted for him before or after, i was tough on him journalistically, they were the most thoughtful hosts you could imagine. barbara led one tour which included kathy and me. george took my parents on another. nothing was off limits for him. he wanted mom and dad to see everything, his bathroom, his closets the works. whatever the explanation this pair was whatever else they were who they were. as comfortable in the white house as if they were born there. i once asked mrs. bush about her view of abortion rights.

that's what everybody asks, she began. and i said they all want to know what you think. isn't that fun. she parried. of course, i have opinion buzz i'm not going to share them on that. i made one last try. mrs. bush, everyone assumes you're pro-choice, well everybody's not always right she answered. not, of course, really answering but again letting the truth linger in the silence. she let out the truth by the simple act of refusing to cover it up. to think they've been married 70 plus years with all the public discipline that deeply shared truth between them. it was something. we know how proud george must have been all these years knowing he had a tough strong honest barbara sharing the ride with him. i want to thank both of them for hosting my parents and i that night and kathleen. thank them for bringing quite honor around the honor of their marriage to the tack of leading our country. here's tonight to the life and legacy of barbara pierce bush.

and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. all in with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> this is a hoax. >> as trump ramps up attacks on the special counsel, republican leaders stonewall a bill to protect mueller. >> we'll not be having this on the floor of the senate. >> i don't think it's necessary. >> tonight a handful of republicans are standing with democrats. senator cory booker joins me on his bipartisan bill to defend mueller. >> there will come a time when you will be tested. >> then. >> mike cohen is a very talented lawyer. a good lawyer in my firm. >> the history of shady deals done by trump's fixer and why it may have the white house worried. >> i want to tell you about the real donald trump. >> plus, why trump pulled the plug on new russia sanctions. >> does everybody like nikki? otherwise she can easily be replaced. >> why more republicans are headed towards the exits. >> there's a big wave coming.