andrea mitchell. right now an andrea mitchell reports, commander in chaos. president trump calling into fox news and unloading on everything from robert mueller to kanye west in a free flowing interview just minutes after his doctor drops out of running for v.a. secretary. amid growing allegations of misconduct. >> there's no proof of this. he has a perfect record. he's got this beautiful record. unbl unblemished. >> saying for the first time his lawyer representing him in the stormy daniels case. >> michael would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented he. only hours before mike pompeo is to be confirmed as secretary of state the president revealing the cia director had no prior intelligence he was about to meet kim jong-un until the dictator walked in.

>> he wasn'ted suppose to meet with kim jong-un but he did. >> i just think that every indication we have is you should resign. >> i'm concerned you have no idea what's going on within your agency. stunni inning comments abou relationship with personal attorney michael cohen. >> michael is in business. he's really a businessman. fairly big business. i don't know his business. he also practices law. i would say probably the big

thing is his wbusiness. >> how much of your legal work was handled wi michael cohen in. >> a tiny fraction. he would represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he did absolutely nothing wrong. there were no campaign funds. >> why is he pleading the fifth? >> because he's got other things. >> joining me now is nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, ashley parker. white house reporter for the washington post. these comments would become an issue where he is prepared to say he wants to take the fifth amendment. what's the legal implication of

what president trump said about michael cohen's role as a lawyer. >> reporter: the entire reason the parties are here in court today is because michael cohen is making the argument that a large number of the documents and records seized during a raise raid of his offices and home may be privileged. now you have president trump saying he's a businessman and not an attorney and number two that he handled a tiny amount of legal matters for president trump. those two statements alone undercut the entire point of michael cohen and president

trump's own attorneys here today who are arguing that there are terabytes worth of information and records that may be privileged and the attorneys for cohen and trump should be the first to look at, review and determine whether or not these documents are privileged. it's hard to make that argument today. >> the president offered saying he has enough time to do this. what's the implication of the fifth amendment? what does that tell you about michael cohen and his

representation of the president? >> reporter: he's filed a document indicating in a civil matter he would take the fifth amendment which is a prudent decision by cohen and his legal team. he may possibly answer questions which the government or prosecutors will certainly use against him in the criminal matter. i want to ask owe about ronnie jackson but the president on air force one in april.

let's play what he said when asked about michael cohen and the payment to stormy daniels. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? why did michael cohen -- >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney. you'll have to ask michael. >> he was saying and it's hard to hear. we put the words up there for those listening on radio, he was saying you'll have to ask michael cohen. he's the attorney. kristen, where do we stand with this about the president's knowledge or lack of knowledge about what's going on with stormny daniels in a relationship he's denied. >> that clip you just played under scores the political problem for the president. you heard him there on air force one say you have to ask michael cohen about that.

now michael cohen is pleading the fifth. that was contradicted by the president's own words when he said he was representing him on this deal. not waying in on the payment. the very first time we heard the president. really highlights the fact this is a political problem for the president. not to mention when the president was out on the campaign trail as a candidate taking very sharp aim at clinton staffers who pled the fifth in relation to her e ha-mail investigation. in one instance saying only people with the mob plead the fifth. he stressed today he doesn't think michael cohen did anything wrong. michael avenatti said the fact

he's pled the fifth is like a gift from heaven. >> you have ronnie jackson, ashley parker jump in here. the back story on ronnie jackson and the exit strategy just before 8:00 this morning east coast time when the president was about to go on with fox and friends. we get this statement finally withdrawing. it was anticipated for many hours. >> there wasn't a real exit strategy. you had the president first in that press conference with french president macron undermining ronnie jackson saying about the man that he nominated to go through this process. if i were him, i wouldn't do it.

the two of them met and the president changed tones and wanted to fight. everyone in the white house understood this was a doomed nomination and he would not get through the gauntlet of capitol hill. you saw the entire press apparatus going out and pushing for this nominee who they in their heart of hearts knew would go down and this morning this out come happened but with a lot of unnecessary steps. it looked wad f eed bad for the house, ronnie jackson and weren't gratifying for anyone. >> who takes the hit for this with the lack of vetting? all these months after they failed to vet the national security advisor. once again an impulsive nomination and no background check. >> that's exactly right. i mean this was someone who sort of chosen unilaterally by the president for a couple of

reasons. he spends a lot of time with the president. the president said he saw dr. jackson every single day and got to know him and got to like him. as we have seen in a number of picks, not just this one, what matters more is personal chemistry. the president defended him. this sort of shows the pitfalls of not just thoroughlily vetting someone but barely vetting them at all. >> who among us would not want to be told you could live to 200 years. thank you very much. good to have all of you starting us off today. by the way and intelligence committee and everybody else

found no collusion. there's no collusion with me and the russians. nobody has been tougher to russia than i am. you can ask president putin about that. nobody's been close to as tough as me. we hear this nonsense. there's no collusion. they have this witch hunt going on with people in the justice department that shouldn't be there. they have a witch hunt against the president of the united states going on. >> a lot of chew on here. the implication of what the president said on fox and friends this morning. >> the president wads giving one marching order for his interview this morning. you need to say michael cohen was your lawyer. we need that because you have contradicted that. michael cohen has said neither one of you discussed it. he wasn't in communication about it.

we need you to do that. in true fashion he's not disciplined and has very little adherence to fact. he said cohen only did this tiny fraction of work for him and he was mostly a businessman. the government said of all has to documents the president is saying only a tiny fraction deal with any legal issue cohen was representing the president on. >> the president also spoke about james comey's memos were about me. he didn't write those accurately. i went to russia for day or so because i own the miss universe pageant. everybody knows the planes are there. he said i didn't stay there. of course i stayed there.

i stayed there very short period of time. his memo said i left immediately. i never said that. i never said i left immediately. >> so comey has written a memo and testified to that under oath. there's an argument whether the president said i didn't say i didn't stay overnight. >> the president has no credibility on these issues. he's been shown time and time again to misrepresent things. i was intrigued by the quote of the president saying ask putin. well, apparently he did ask putin. did you guys interfere in our election and putin said no? >> that was at the g-20, i think. >> exactly. >> comey's testimony has been very consistent.

there's little question this is an accurate reflection. the president is responding to received that he did spend the night in russia. he's trying to clean up what he misrepresented to james comey. >> the other part is the continuous attack from the president and others against comey saying the memos were leaked and they were classified. can you clear that up? is there any merit to that since they were upgraded to confidential which is a classification after the fact but at the time he gave them to a new york times person or colleague. they were not classified. >> that's my understanding. we were able to release them. i think that's right. this is part of what the president does.

he attacks people. >> the original cambridge analytica. he laid out many more connections between cambridge analytica, steve bannon and others. >> that's correct. we asked for mr. wiley's permission to share some of the con tent. there were connections between wikileaks, julian assange, they shared the same lawyer.

>> the russian actors, bad actors. one of the key facts on the issue of collusion which the president continues to deny but there's significant evidence is right a of that meeting of trump tower where the president's son and son-in-law and campaign manager made it clear they were interested in russian help. they were disappointed with what they got at the meeting. they really wanted the dirt on hillary clinton. we know on tuesday he met with robert mueller and team. are they dangling the possibility of trump meeting with mueller and team.

do you think that's a facade? >> i don't know. >> i think it's intense. he was the subject of investigation that he previewed the october surprise. he has much said it was coming. after he made the revelation, rudy giuliani said i told you about this. he would later walk that back.

they may implicate whether he notice from fbi agents in new york or other information about that development. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, the heat is on. epa chief scott pruitt confronted wi congress members about his growing list of controversies. so, what's new? we just switched to geico and got more. more? they've been saving folks money for over 75 years. a company you can trust. geico even helped us with homeowners insurance. more sounds great. gotta love more... right, honey? yeah! geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. so let's promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels.com like this. earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring.

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epa chief scott pruitt facing tough questions today on capitol hill. even some signals from the white house that he may not be long for the cabinet. pruitt's future appears to be hanging by a thread, his performance could be for an audience of one. his boss, the president. >> facts are facts. fiction is fiction. a lie doesn't become truth just was a it appears in the front page of newspaper. those who attack the epa and me want to attack and derail the president's agenda and undermine this administration's priorities. i'm simply not going to let that happen. >> it's great to see you. >> hi. >> we have so much to dig here. there's been not enough attention paid to what he's

doing in terms of science deregulation. real effects on clean air, clean water and other things. the money he's spent, the people he's brought around him. the whole extravagant surround and his involvement with lobbyists. >> this hearing today was supposed to be about the proposed budget for the epa which the president wants to cut it by 30%. that really has taken a backseat to two things. first of all, as you said, the administrator is performing for an audience of one, president trump and from that angle he's doing a very good job. he has tied himself to the president talking about the accomplishments that the epa has made under president trump in reducing regulations in trying to tamp down government over reach. in the questioning you have more heat than like. the republicans are praising that effort to take back the

government overreach where the demonstrates are using yes and no questions to get to some of those very issues you mentioned. the $43,000 sou'00" sound proof. the first class luxury travel. the extended security that exists around administrator pruitt. one of the funniest moments came today with congress joe bar ton who is a republican for texas. he took a panl out of democrat's hand book and asked if flying first class was illegal. he said no and i've made some changes. he couldn't even get to that. >> i want to play retaliation against employee who is have

been whistle blowers. >> i think your actions are an embarrassment to president trump and distract if the epa's ability to carry out the mission. if i were the president, i wouldn't want your help. i would get rid you have. it's been roreported that five a employees were demoted or retaliated against after they raised concerns about your spending. is that correct? yes or no. >> i don't recall a conversation to that end. >> i'll take that as a question. >> there you see the strategy. >> that makes your point. among the things that have come out is that he claimed he never talked to the lobbyists/landlord of the low rate condo while he was living there. that's not the case. when he went to morocco he spent the weekend in paris not in

morocco to talk about liquefied national gas exports and lobbyists represented the only lng exporter and it's not in the mandate of the epa. it's the energy department. >> there are other instances as well. administrator pruitt wads asked about that today if he thought that created any kinds of conflict of interest and he tried to dodge that question saying that's been approved and he wouldn't -- they couldn't pin him down. he wouldn't be pinned down on that issue. when you look at the way the epa has been administered it's the democrats and many critics say

it's an abusive power and waste of taxpayer money. that's what they are trying to get to today. >> great to see you. thanks so much. coming up, the perfect storm. why michael avenatti, stormy daniels lawyer is loving president trump's admission this morning about his client. ♪ a wealth of information. a wealth of perspective. ♪ a wealth of opportunities. that's the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management.

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we have breaking news. the federal judge overseeing the case involving the evidence seized from the president's personal lawyer has announced she's appointing robert jones to be the special master of the case. she's the federal judge joining me now lisa green. danny, first to you. this the former federal judge who will be looking through the various documents seized to determine what is impressive lenled, what is not. do i have that right? >> yes, you have that right. barbara jones is substantial experience not only as a federal judge but in white collar

investigations and in prosecution. she is as judge wood said specially suited to handle this job of reviewing a large number of documents and determining issues of privilege. >> i want to play more of what we had this morning on fox and friends from the president talking about michael cohen and his representation. let me play it for you and ask you about it on the other side. >> but michael would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this cra crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me. from what i see he did nothing wrong. there were no campaign funds going. >> why is he pleading the fifth? >> he's got other things. he's got businesses. from what i understand they are looking at his businesses. >> looking at his businesses. one of his businesses was working for the trump organization. >> as danny has seen downtown this made the government's job a

lot easier in the argument they want to quickly go through the documents. the attorney-client privilege may not be as big of a factor as one thought. if the president is saying very little work done for me that reduces the number of documents, the number of messages, phone texts and whatever that might be considered privilege. >> michael avenatti jumped on this. >> cohen pleading the fifth, does it matter in. >> i think it matters. it matters in the criminal case and i think it should matter to the american people. this is nothing short of a stunning development. >> can you give us -- >> why should it matter in. >> you give us insights why he would be doing this right now in. >> well, i think it's clear he's going it was a he has a lot to

hide and there a lot of potential criminal liability he's facing over this transaction. >> that is from a lawyer who got a vested interest in the case. your take away about him taking the fifth? >> michael cohen filed a statement he will only take the fifth in the california civil allegation. michael cohen is facing a civil case and simultaneously criminal investigation. you do not want your client participating in a civil matter in depositions, answering interrogatories while there's a potential criminal investigation. the government can and will use those words especially those words under oath in the civil matter against him this the

criminal investigation. >> thank you both so much on a busy day here. coming up, ready for take off. the plane is ready to fly the next secretary of state to his first assignment. first assignment. he's got to be sworn in but that

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. breaking news right now. you see the senate floor having final votes on the expected confirmation of a new secretary of state. mike pompeo getting the support of five democrats. once won firmed he would have to be sworn in. we expect that shortly. he's going to rush off to a nato summit meeting in brussels. joining me is garrett and former ambassador to nato. garrett, first to you. seems to me from the procedural vote which was 57-42 with john mccain absent. more of the democrats shifted over. is that a tell of some kind? >> that's correct. pompeo will be confirmed

comfortably with that margin. this is an all politics is local kind of moment. you saw five democratics from the state that the president won in 2016. also bill nelson of florida who have been keeping their cards close to the vest decided they would vote in favor of confirmation. one surprising no vote, mark warner of virginia voting against pompeo. these two worked together quite a bit. he said i have some concerns about him as secretary of state. he hopes to keep working with him again.

we see how this plays out now looking like he will be confirmed quite comfortably here. >> really interesting dynamics there as well. we expect that swearing could take place privately at the white house. we've been watching that. the plane is on the runway at andrews air force wasilla. he's going to his first nato meeting as soon as he becomes secretary of state. he had no idea that kim jong-un was going to walk into the room. let me play the president's comments from this morning. >> this is a much more dangerous ball game now. i will tell you it's going very well. mike pompeo did go there. he wasn't supposed to meet with kim jong-un wu he did.

they arranged while he was there to say hello. we have incredible pictures of the two talking and meeting which i would love to release. >> it was just a hello? >> it was more than hello. they were with each other for more than an hour. >> maybe that explains why the president the other day in his meeting with president macron described kim jong-un as hon thoroughab -- honorable. it's hard to explain. >> it's hard to understand why he called kim jong-un hon thoroughable. of course he wants to set up a successful meeting. you want to show a certain amount of respect but you don't want to be untruthful. we need to are realistic about how we talk about him. he'll have to deal with the iran nuclear deal. all the european allies want the u.s. to stay in the deal.

this is what president macron has been working on. syria's on the agenda. can the united states have a concerted russia strategy and north korea full agenda for the new secretary of state who will be the new secretary of state in a couple of hours. he said he expects from the dynamics of his meeting that president trump will wraek out on may 12th p. macron expects there will be unrest as a result of this. that's at the same time there's a critical vote in iran and iranian influence. he said his mission was to try to contain the damage, the fall out by getting the president's interest and other europeans in billing on the iran nuclear

deal. adding ballistic missiles as the president wants and creating a new political diplomatic track with russia and turkey as critical members to it, not chie that. russia and turkey. the united states, germany, uk and france trying to negotiate some sort of end getting iran under control this syria and out of there. >> i think he's the key leader. he has this raelationship with the president. the jcpoa should stand. it's in the interest of the united states to stay in it. it will be a great mistake for the president to pull out. if macron and merkle will say we'll be wetter a you have staying in a deal by agreeing to

these additional measures to shine a brighter light, very aggressive actions in yemen, syria and lebanon. i think we have the makings of a comprehensive policy so i think macron is right to do this. the state department has worked with the europeans faithfully. i think they see eye to eye. the only question is will mike pompeo and jim mattis be able to convince president trump to do do the right thing. stay in a deal and agree to these additional measures. >> the last man in the room with the president may be john bolton. >> that's right. he's on record of saying he opposes this. he's a strong character in this whole debate. don't discount jim mattis and mike pompeo. if the u.s. walks out of iran

deal, a lot of people think that will make the robprobability of some agreement with north korean much less certain. they will have to wonder about the trustworthiness of the united states. whether when we say we'll do something we keep our word. our country committed to the iran deal. it was president obama. if president trump leaves it there's a big price to pay in american credibility. there may be new tensions. even raised prospects for conflict with iran. we'll have a big crisis with our european allies. this will not be smart for america if the president makes this decision. >> at this very moment it's about 47-31 to mike pompeo. we'll take a quick break but he will be our next secretary of state. we'll be right back.

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. president trump's off the cuff morning television interview on fox punctuating the chaos that's been shrouding this white house. the continuing turmoil doesn't even rank on the president's personal report card. >> how would you grade yourself now? >> i would give myself an

a-plus. nobody has done what i've been able to do and i did it despite the fact that i have a phony cloud over my head that doesn't exist. >> let's get the inside scoop from patrick ryder keefe. and jeff mason, reuters white house correspondent. welcome both. jeff, first, the a-plus grade in a week when scott pruitt is taking fire on the hill, ronny jackson has had to pull out after not having been properly vetted and we've got michael cohen being damaged, you know, legally by the president's own comments on "fox & friends" today in that filing in the southern district of new york for starters. >> indeed. i don't think a lot of people would agree with that grade but i'm not surprised that's the grade the president gave himself. he's optimistic about what his administration has been able to accomplish and it's fair to also

point out that he likes chaos, you know, and that chaos has sort of stayed around him during his first year in office and into the first few months of this year and continues. >> and let's talk about your incredible mcmaster profile. patrick, you have the first insight from all the rumblings we've all heard. what are your big takeaways about the way mcmaster was treated and was able to function within the white house? >> the first thing would be just the challenge of being the national security adviser to donald trump. how do you advise someone who's impervious to advice, someone who takes pride in not following the advice of his closest counselors? and then the other aspect of mcmaster that's interesting is one of the issues we've seen this week is the challenge of getting what trump calls good people around him. he's had difficulty finding kind of career republicans who haven't either spoken out about him which would disqualify them or who wanted to take the jobs but mcmaster was a military man and i think this is actually

part of the reason trump has surrounded himself with generals is there's a real ethic of duty and when asked by the president to serve, people like mcmaster are not going to say no. >> was it a mistake for him to remain on active duty? did it create an inherent conflict? >> it's a fascinating question. i know he was advised by a number of people he should take the uniform off. he didn't have a close relationship with trump who found mcmaster kind of annoying and didn't like the long briefings that he delivered. found them boring. but he also didn't have a close relationship with jim mattis, rex tillerson. part of the rub with mattis was mattis was a retired four star general and mcmaster was an active three star so he was kind of outranked by mattis in that respect. also as secretary of defense, mattis was still in some sense his boss. in meetings, mcmaster would refer to nikki haley as nikki and rex tillerson as rex but he

called mcmaster sir. >> that is certainly indicative. you've been covering the white house for so many years and know all these dynamics. mcmaster, it seemed, tried to ingratiate himself on a number of points, but now what we've seen from his last speech, most recent speech, he's unleashed in terms of the substance of the job. >> they really were different in terms of where they saw the world going, in terms of foreign policy, russia, some clearly major differences there and you saw that in mcmaster's remarks as he was leaving the white house. i thought it was interesting in that terrific new york article that -- the discussions about briefings and having to reduce all of the briefing to a small card. i remember speaking to an official last year who said that one way to get president trump to pay attention to their briefings was to ensure that his name was mentioned several times. so clearly it's zblounot just mcmaster but others at the white house who are looking at ways to get through and to get messages

through to the president even if he doesn't necessarily heed that advice. >> that was a fascinating point of your profile, patrick. what does that tell us about pompeo who does the presidential daily brief every day as the cia director and has really become so close to the president? what does it tell us about the way he's adjusted those cia briefings? >> well, what came through in my reporting is the only way really to get through to donald trump and to brief him in a way he wants you to come back and brief him the next day is to reduce, reduce, reduce. that people, you know, started out with these five-page memos, boiled down to one, then down to a card. they were asked if they could show things pick torally. i think the challenge for any appointee working with trump is on some level it's irresponsible to boil down a complex issue of pressing national security beyond the point that it should be but if you want to have a close relationship with the president and really get through to him, that's what you need to do in order to brief him. >> patrick, extraordinary

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and thanks for being with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show onl e online. chris jansing is next on msnbc. >> we're watching breaking news

on the u.s. senate floor. the vote now under way on whether to confirm president trump's choice for secretary of state, mike pompeo. msnbc's garrett haake is on capitol hill for us. tell us what's going on right now. >> chris, we're looking at the final vote here for mike pompeo on the floor. they've just cleared a procedural vote and we expect the count will be the same once all the votes are counted. in the procedural vote, pompeo got 57 votes for his confirmation. a slightly more comfortable margin then had been predicted. he got the support of five democrats in red states. folks like joe manchin in west virginia, heidi heitkamp in north dakota. and claire mccaskill of missouri,ed wmissouri who had been keeping her cards close to the vest as to whether or not she would support pompeo. doug jones of alabama. all voting in favor. to me one