good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here at msnbc world headquarters in new york at the half hour. here's what we're watching for you. just moments ago the president tweetings, quote, the "new york times" and a third-rate reporter are going out of their way to destroy the relationship with me in a hope that he will flip. they use nonexistent sources and drunk drugged up loser who mates michael a fine person with a wonderful family. michael is a businessman for his own account lawyer who i have

always liked and respected. most people will flip if the government lets them out of trouble even if. to which we saw wow. joining us to discuss is natasha bertrand. this just came out moments ago. what is your reaction to these tweets, natasha? >> it seems like he is very worried. michael cohen is someone who has been really loyal to trump for well over a decade. and trump in return has treated him like garbage. he has taken him for granted and not appreciated michael cohen in a way that he has wanted to be appreciated. if you walk into michael cohen's office in 30 rock he has paraphernalia from the inauguration. he never got a place from the administration and was disappointed that he never got a place on the campaign and the president never gave him one.

so so this is something where he could be signaling, for example, that stay strong, michael. we may pardon you if you don't flip and don't start talking to the authorities. or it could be as simple as he has been talking to michael cohen and cohen has reassured him he will stay strong. regardless this is clearly something that the president is very, very sensitive about. we saw last week he was furious when he got news that cohen's office had been raided. he called it an attack on the country. this is something that he and his advisers feel is actually a greater threat to him than even the mueller investigation. >> i want to pick up on another quote which clearly the president was referencing in his tweet. mr. trump has long felt he had leverage on over mr. cohen, but people who have worked for the president said the raid has changed all that. that raid that happened april 9. what would be the nature of a flip with michael cohen were to do it? what all is there?

>> well, the fbi agents who raided cohen's office were reportedly looking for evidence of these payoffs to women, as well as evidence of cohen's past financial dealings that may not have been completely above board. in terms of the payments to the women, cohen could have a lot to say about what trump -- how much trump was involved in that. he could tell prosecutors that, you know, trump actually knew about the stormy daniels payment, for example. he could answer their questions about the extent to which he tried to cover up these affairs. in terms of everything that michael cohen knows about trump's business deals, again he has been there well over a decade, that could be valuable to prosecutors. as we saw, trump's name was actually on the search warrant. so this is clearly something that prosecutors want more information about in terms of the president and there are about five paragraphs in that

search warrant that had to do with the president himself according to michael cohen's attorney, which he revealed in court early last week. so this is something obviously very, very close to the president. and it reveals a lot about why he's concerned. >> but i want to ask you kind of what you think the top aspect of this is. you write about this in the atlantic and the article of the michael cohen case, a definitive guide to key players. the subhead is the criminal investigation brings together the president of the united states and an adult film performer, several reporters and a combative fox news host. what is the most combustible for the president? >> it is going to be most likely his role in the payments to stormy daniels, karen mcdougal. it will be perhaps his deals with the trump organization and his real estate dealings. but i think that there is clearly a here why he was so upset about the raid. whether or not there are recordings, for example, of his

conversations with michael cohen. cohen has been known to do that. the judge alluded on monday to the idea that there were tape-recordings of trump and cohen. so this is all kind of -- if there's anything to be known about the president, michael cohen knows it. >> another big headline is the post saying stormy daniels is co- lawyer is cooperateng. >> he was the lawyer for the "playboy" model karen mcdougal, and stormy daniels's former lawyer. his role was to take the payments and sign the nondisclosure agreements. he worked closely with michael cohen. and he probably has a lot to say, again, about the extent to which the president himself was involved in the payments, whether or not michael cohen was acting directly on the direction of trump, or, you know, just the

basic question of whether or not campaign finance violations were committed during the election. he would have had a firsthand look into what went into the payment for stormy and, again, whether or not the president was involved. >> internal watch dog launching into the classification of e-mails. does comey have something to worry about here? >> experts tell me there may be a reason for comey to be concerned. but, again, he had original classification authority. so is is if he decided to give these memos to his associates and determined they did not contain classified information that, carry a great deal of weight for the justice department. one of the memos that he did give to his friend at columbia law school and pass to the "new york times" reporter, it contained no redacted information. in that instance, he has nothing to worry about. but, again, this all has to do

with the extent to which he was able to present a picture of trump's state of mind before he was fired, and that will be valuable to, for example, special counsel robert mueller as he tries to figure out whether trump did obstruct justice. >> he classified all of these notes as personal notes. all right. we'll we'll take it from there. thank you so much. thank you. north korea announces a dramatic step that could draining the relation with the u.s. it could be interpreted as good news and bad news. we'll get reaction next. 9:00 a.m. hour, courtroom drama over stormy daniels's fight toened the nondisclosure agreement.

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we're a long way from denuclearization. if donald trump thinks he's going to the summit and come back with kim jong-un's miss

also, he's wrong. >> joining me right now is victor khau, former white house director for asian affairs under president bush. victor, welcome to you, sir. is he ready to hand over nukes to president trump? >> no, alex, not just yet. the statement was a formal reaffirmation of what they promised already. they are not going to test anymore. which is a good thing. what the statement did not say, they didn't say they weren't going to develop anymore weapons. they didn't say they were willing to roll back their weapons program. it's a good first step, but we are a long way from denuclearization. >> might he be not testing these missiles any longer because he's satisfied with what he's found. he thinks they're successful. >> that's what he said in the statement. we are now a nuclear weapons

state so we don't need to test anymore. he made points about they're not going to transfer anything, which is also a good thing to hear from the north koreans. to commit not to transferring means you're keeping your weapons. it doesn't mean you're giving them up. >> right. so of course the north did a flurry of tests last year. let's listen to global affairs wendy sherman's take on all of this. here it is. >> they haven't been testing. and i think kim jong-un is playing his hand extremely well. he is starting out this negotiation by saying i've made a concession. i've done an incredible thing. i have stopped testing of missed weapons because i don't need to anymore, by the way. and i'm not going to use this test site anymore. a test site we think during the last test began to collapse and probably might not have been functional in the future anyway. >> so do you agree? is this a big concession, or is it the sanctions squeezing kim and that's what is forcing him

to the negotiating table? >> well, i think that's right. the sanctions clearly are squeezing him. i think he's also concerned that the trump administration might carry out a military attack. and this promise not to test anymore, that's more of a concession to the chinese. that test site is right on the border with china. when they did the last hydrogen bomb test, the ground on the chinese side was shaking. they are quite upset with that. that is probably their concession to the chinese. >> in terms of sanctions, victor, what has changed for life in north korea. we have had sanctions there for quite some time. what's different now? >> so the sanctions, i do believe, are having an impact. when i was in government, we had one u.n. security council resolution and one treasury authority. the trump administration has 10 resolutions, six treasury authorities. it is having an effect on the

price of gas, the price of rice. some say the supermarket shelves are stocked. that is largely because stuff they would trade on the outside is being funneled back into the state because they can't sell it to china or any other u.n. member state who are implying with sanctions. so sanctions are having is an impact. >> all right. there are north korean experts who argue that what kim done now, this is a show of strength, and he has increased the cost considerably for trump of backing out of a summit. do you agree with that? >> yes. i do. this is the beginning of a negotiation rather than at the end. the stakes are incredibly high. if it fails, you have no place else to go after a summit. after a summit fails, there is no diplomat is seu left. so it is a high stakes gamble that the president is takeing >> so the president's tweet about kim's pledge, saying progress is made for all. is he right about progress? should trump take this as a win?

>> i think if the north koreans formally announced they are not going to test anymore, that's a good thing for even. good thing for us. it doesn't tell us enough about are they going to stop development, are they going to roll back their weapons. none of these things have been promised. trump will walk in with the expectation that he will get those things. but if he doesn't, be it's a failure. and then we have no place else to go. >> i'm curious how much you see this as being now bringing kim jong-un to the big boys table, if you will. he is being recognized by coming to a summit with the countries and partners around him. how much is about kim jong-un and how do you see this playing out? >> oh, it's very much about that for him. the north koreans have been waiting for this meeting for 45 years. to shake hands with the u.s. president as a nuclear weapons state. they have been waiting for this. and these pledges they have made about no transfer, no first use, no testing, these are also

things that they would argue a responsible nuclear weapons state would do. so the subtext is there trying to get at the table and get recognized as a nuclear weapons state and member of the international community. >> and how this ends, victor, how do you see it? >> it's hard to say. the first big indicator will be the interkorean summit next friday. that will give us a good sense of how serious is the north koreans are. and i think the south korean president will tell president trump whether he thinks this is a green light, we should go ahead or whether we need to delay or pause. >> victk cha, thank you so much. giuliani joins the trump legal team with hopes of ending the mueller probe in two weeks. how likely is that, next. why did we re-engineer america's #1 detergent?

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the republicans wanted desperately for the memos to

come their their possession so they could use them as a weapon. they then i think leaked them immediately, and it sort of blew in their faces. i think it underscores comey's you know being straight shooter accurate. >> i think jim comey outrt smad himself of he thought he was clever leaking them through a professor. he thought he was going on a book tour to demolish president trump. all this is blowing up in his face. >> jackie speier and peter king with their takes on fired fbi director james comey's memos. let's bring in the director of progressive programming for sirius xm. joe walker, and rick tyler. hi guys. >> good morning. >> rirk i'm going the start with

you here and this charge that the pressure on the justice department to release these memo is backfiring on republicans. do you think there was a miscalculation politically for republicans here. for sure. i don't know what strategic advantage they expected to get out of these memos. i think comey came out much better from the memos because these are contemporaneous accounts of his conversations only with donald trump. and it made donald trump look bad. he looks classless. he will be like he is self absorbed. he is obviously self absorbed with the whole russia investigation. i really don't know what the calculation was for releasing these memos to help trump. it certainly is not helping had im. >> what about peter king's take that it's blowing up in trump's face. >> these memos are contemporaneous, which means that comey was not fired at the time he wrote these memos.

they were written immediately after these conversations with the president at the time. he had no ven deada against the white house because he was still fbi director and thought at the time he was going to continue in that job for the ten-year term. i think that's a credible account of what was going on at the time. i think there is also important details in them, right? keith schiller testified that donald trump did stay overnight in russia. the memos say trump said he didn't stay overnigt. he is contradicting item that keith schiller told the congress. i think there are problems in terms of the facts laid out in this memo. and i don't think that director comey is crashing and burning with these memos. i think he looks credible. >> what do you think is the most important takeaway from these memos, joe? >> i just think that it paints a picture of the president which is very different from past president inside terms of how he operates, how he takes, what's on his mind, what he's consumed

with. i'm surprised that people forget who james comey is. he is an accomplished lawyer. before being director of the fbi he was us attorney i think for the southern district in new york. after that he was deputy attorney general of the united states. i mean, this is a very, very well-known and well thought of lawyer a very thorough lawyer, and some who isn't prone to make sophomoric mistakes. so he is very, very credible. and i think the memos are going to show that. >> rick, how do you think history going to judge james comey. >> i think very well. i have now read most of james comey's book. and i do find him very believable. he is a bit cloiing, i disagree with the decision but he walks lieu in the book where he made the announcement about reopening the investigation on hillary clinton. he has a squlusks for it.

the pucksu juxtaposition between donald trump and james comey is stark. >> i have got say, i was having a conversation with a dear friend who is an ardent hillary clinton supporter. to say that comey and an honorable guy, she the not see it that way at all. in general, hillary clinton supporters, how do they view him? >> i think it's complicated. i credit james comey with impacting the outcome of the election. now he's not the only reason why hillary clinton lost the electoral college in the election but he is the most significant factor if you look at all of the independent analysis. so it's complicated right. i believe james comey's account of his conversations with the president pause he has no reason to lie about those conversations particularly because he is accounting for them at the time. but he also made a very big mistake in the late stages of the campaign and cost hillary clinton the election. so i think that he has to live with, and we all have to live

with the outcome this election and i think he will go down in history as somebody who changed the course of that history. >> let's get to rudy giuliani joe with you here, the former new york mayor is joining the president's legal team. he told the new york post he thinks he canened negotiate an end to the investigation quickly. he said i don't know what's outstanding but i don't think it's going to take more than a week or two to get a resolution. is that spin? what do you think he plans to do in a week or two if that probe is still hanging over the president. >> i think giuliani is a smart guy but i am not convinced that there is any way that anybody can bring this will thing to a resolution in a week or two. i think that this investigation is being handled the proper way at all deliberate speed and it thats the unfold as it unfolds. and this is not a matter of -- this is not a transaction. this is not a deal. from that standpoint -- rudy giuliani by the way is a great deal maker. he certainly has a strong record

as a two-term mayor of new york. a very successful mayor of new york. but i'm not confident he is going to be able to get this thing closed out in one or two weeks. >> what's your idea of rudy giuliani being broughtan board rick. >> there is no possible way this is going the close in two weeks. he hired giuliani to be the pr face this campaign. yule jewel is a smart guy but hasn't really practiced criminal law in quite some time. the president likes people to go on tv and defend him. that's what i think he was really hired for. >> do you agree with that. >> absolutely. >> the public face. >> absolutely. i don't think rudy giuliani. particularly because he is potentially a witness in this probe -- i think we all forget that he was on tv right before james comey came out with his late-stage announcement and he essentially talked as if he knew that james comey was going to reopen the investigation based on leaks from the fbi.

giuliani is potentially more in the mix in terms of the russia probe and becoming an actual witness than we know. he is going to be the pr face on tv. donald trump loves people who can defend him on tv but he is not going to end this probe in two weeks. that's a ridiculous claim. >> the first thing that yule jewel should do is get the president to stop tweeting. this morning he talked about wanting cohen to flip, right? now, when the president says that cohen is going to flip, that indicates donald trump has done something wrong himself. what would he flip against. >> look, if giuliani can get the president to stop tweeting i think we all deserve to pay him for doing so. another conversation. always good to see you three. thank you so much. coming up, the delay tactic used against stormy daniels and her lawsuit. why a federal judge might not let president trump and michael cohen get away with it. met regularly with our ameriprise advisor. we plan for everything from retirement to college savings.

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