>> chris matthews supplying the last word for our broadcast on this wednesday night. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. new overnight, the justice department announces two separate briefings on documents detailing whether an fbi informant was embedded in the trump campaign. this comes an initial outcry. and debate over the national anthem protests. the nfl has announced that players on the field must stand during the national anthem or their team may get fined. north korea renews its threat to pull out of the summit with president trump and warns of a possible quote, nuclear showdown.

good morning, everybody. it is thursday, may 24th. yasmin vossoughian alongside louisberg dofr. >> a congressional leaders has been added on the se-katrina source but it will come after a republican only briefing for president's appointees and professional allies. the first meeting will include president trump's chief of staff, john kelly whom the white house early said would not attend. deputy a.g. rod rosenstein and devin nunes as well as fbi and doj staff. the second meeting scheduled for two hours later will have all of the same participants with the addition of congressman nunes' seven colleagues in the gang of eight including four democrats.

nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. earlier pelosi and schumer wrote that the briefing was improper in its proposed form calling it the de-sim nation at the director. and also multimately to the -- president trump described the meeting as a necessary exercise in transparency. >> i want them all to get together and i want them -- because everybody wants this solved, but a lot of bad things have happened. we now call it spy gate. you're calling it spy gate. a lot of bad things have happened. i want them all to get together. hopefully they'll be able to work it out among themselves. >> well, they're all going to be in the room tomorrow. we're going to see what happens. what i want is i want total

transparency. this issue soup seedsupersedes . so what i want from rod, from the fbi, from everybody, we want transparency and you know what? i think in their own way they are obstructionists but even the democrats, i really believe on this issue it supersedes. i think they want transparency too. >> and coming up the reaction from adam schiff there. >> president trump kicked off his wednesday morning by railing the criminal deep state with tweets about 9:30 yesterday. when pressed by reporters after noon he said he would wait for today's briefing. >> all you have to do is look at

the basics and you'll see. it looks like a very serious event, but we'll find out. when they look at the documents, i think people are going to see a lot of bad things happen. i hope it's not so, because if it is, there's never been anything like it in the history of our country. i hope -- i mean, if you look at clapper he sort of admitted he had spies in the campaign yesterday inadvertently but i hope it's not true, but it looks like it is. >> well, i don't want to get into it yet but i will tell you after we look at -- after we look at the proof, would he know? i would certainly hope not, but i think it's going to be pretty obvious after a while. >> well, there's certainly going to be a lot of developments throughout the day. so new court documents suggest an imminent development in bob mueller's investigation as well. a court filing from the special counsel's office yesterday asked to start the process of

preparing a presentencing report for former trump campaign foreign policy advisor george papadopoulus, a potential signal there were concerting russian efforts to support the campaign is nearing a conclusion. papadopoulus is cooperating in the probe. he pled guilty to lying to investigators about his contact ku concerning a kremlin linked professor. a federal judge in the d.c. area found skeptical of the evidence seized by mueller's team. lawyers for the indicted former campaign chair argued that the parent executed in july was really broad, but the judge who said prosecutors carefully separated materials asked, quote, where are his constitutional rights violated? meanwhile trump lawyer rudy giuliani continued to give conflicting comments about whether the president would do an interview with investigators and in comments to buzz feed and the washington post contradicted

himself when discussing how often he speaks with the president. >> now to the ongoing uncertainty regarding president trump's schedule'd june 12th summit. >> we're going to see what happens on singapore. we're going to see. and it could happen. it could very well happen, but whatever it is, we will know next week about singapore. and if we go i think it will be a great thing for north korea. some day a date will happen. it could very well be june 12th. some day a date will absolutely happen. it could very well be june 12th. we'll see. we'll know next week. >> the president's comments come as the white house has confirmed that teams are headed to singapore to continue the preparations. meanwhile north korea is responding to recent remarks made by mike pence with the vp implied the dprk could end up like libya if it count

denuclearize. in a statement carried on state media north korea's vice minister of foreign apairs called pence a political dummy and adding that if that's washington's stance then she would suggest to kim to reconsider participating in the summit with trump. the vice minister went on to say that the north is ready to face the u.s. in a meeting room or in a nuclear showdown. and the state department has issued a warning for u.s. citizens in china after an american government employee was diagnosed with brain injury after reporting a strange impression of sound and pressure. some permanently injured, secretary of state mike pompeo discussed the mystery yesterday. >> we had an incident that was -- that the medical

indications are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications that have taken place to americans working in cuba. we are working to figure out what took place, both in havana and in -- now in china as well. >> pompeo also says that a report on the investigation into the cuba incident is expected next week. let's get to the latest reporting on donald trump's personal lawyer and fixer michael cohen. the bbc is reporting that cohen was secretly paid at least $400,000 to set up talks between president trump and the president of ukraine, the broadcaster cites sources in ukraine's capital close to those involved but do not say whether they had any direct knowledge. ukranian president wanted a back channel to president trump. that's when an aide reportedly turned to a loyal ukranian lawmaker who used his personal contacts in a new york charity.

the bbc says that led to cohen who was not registered as a foreign agent as required by law. the president did meet with the ukranian president in the oval office last june. there is no suggestion that trump knew about the payment and cohen denies these allegations. nbc news has not confirmed any aspect of this report. trump's attorney though, rudy giuliani reportedly told business insider that he has no reason not to believe cohen saying quote, payments can be proved pretty easily so it would be silly to deny if it happened. giuliani reportedly added i have to assume maybe there was a discussion of doing this. joining us now eugene scott. thanks for joining us on this thursday morning. >> good morning. >> let's talk about the briefing with regards to spy gate as the president is calling it. now we're learning both republicans and democrats are going to be briefed by the justice department. at one point they said democrats

would be briefed a month from today but then overnight it seems like that changed and now the gang of eight will be meeting directly after nunes sits down with the justice department. what do you make of these recent developments. >> i think criticism coming from republicans that meeting without that democrats could make the party look as if something suspicious was happening and could bring questions about the integrity of the accusations that the president and his congressional allies were making to -- to forward speed against the american public perhaps led to the decision to change things. >> so now with regards to the special counsel investigation in bob mueller you have as i was talking about earlier you have the possible sentencing of george papadopoulus. then you have this reversal from rudy giuliani saying the president should sit down with bob mueller which was quite surprising to hear. do you think that these are signs that the investigation

could feasibly be wrapping up or wramp ramping up at this point? >> we have no reason to believe that things are wrapping up especially considering that the interview with the president himself has not yet happened which is something that top investigators have wanted for a while and the president has as well. we really don't have a clear idea of where the investigation is, but i would not guess that it's anywhere close to closing. >> and of course i want to talk about north korea while i have you. a lot of us anticipating this meeting with regards to kim jong un, the president once again touching on that and hinting at the status of his meeting with the north korean leader. talk to us about where we stand with this so far. >> right now we know that there are top trump aides heading to singapore to prepare for the meeting but the president is not clear whether it will happen. it could happen as early as june 12th. it may happen later but he's really confident that it will happen at some point. i think it's important to pay

attention to mike pompeo who said if it does happen it is ultimately up to kim. >> i want to talk to you again, thank you. >> sure. still ahead, a federal judge issues a ruling that could affect how president trump uses his favorite social media platform. that is twitter. and plus, the nfl issues a new policy about national anthem debates. and the players are weighing in. those stories and of course a check on your weather when we come back.

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federal pros cecutors have launched an investigation. one issue in the investigation is whether weinstein lured or induced any women to travel across state lines for the purpose of committing a sex

crime. weinstein's attorney told the paper he has met with federal prosecutors in manhattan in an attempt to dissuade them from proceeding. weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. let's turn to the nfl. some news, team owners have agreed to adopt a new policy regarding the national anthem. they're calling for an all league and team personnel to the field to stand during the playing of the star spangled banner, while no longer requiring them to actually be on the field while the anthem plays. a statement reads quote, this season, all league and team personnel shall stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem. personnel who choose not to stand for the anthem may stay in the locker room until after the anthem has been performed. now, the new policy also affords

teams the ability to set their own working rules regarding players who do not stand during the playing of the anthem. now, not all sides involved in the debate appear thrilled with the league's new policy. in a strongly worded statement the nfl players association said the league had not consulted the players union in creating the new protocol and accuse the leaders of hypocrisy. let's get a check on your weather now with bill karins. i think the big question on everyone's mind, are we going to get rain over the holiday weekend? you're tracking some stuff in the southeast. >> and how much rain and it will it completely watch things out now a 70% chance of development for this tropical disturbance so it's still spreading some clouds over south florida. not so much rain this morning but the odds keep going up. this could be a subtropical or tropical storm over the holiday weekend. here is the five-day development zone. it goes from the central gulf to

the central gulf. anywhere from new orleans to panama city, pensacola back down through tampa, this is the area that could get the enhanced rainfall from the system. the rainfall forecast through friday. this is not related to that. this is just your typical afternoon stu afternoon stuff. that's why we get 3 to 4 inches of rain possible here from north florida all the way through central georgia and the southern portion of florida could get 2 to 4 inches of rain and every in the southeast will get a good chance of rain especially sunday and monday. keep that in mind for your plans. saturday you may get a decent day in the southeast and then in the afternoon and evening it gets a lot worse. a beautiful day today. sunny and 82 in new york. d.c., sunny and 86. chicago at 84. so today looks nearly perfect for, you know, and getting towards the end of may.

>> sounds like ayman knew this forecast ahead of time and he called in. >> you think he actually listens? >> when you say it's 82 and sunny, but everything else he blocks out. hundreds of american workers have been left stunned after harley davidson is slashing jobs. the move is an effort to stay competitive despite expectations it will reap huge benefits from the new republican tax law. >> this is a road glide rear fender. >> he had worked for harley davidson for 17 years when he got the stunning news. >> disbelief. a lot of people, you can see it on everybody's faces they were just in shock. >> the company told workers in january it was shutting down this plant in kansas city, relocating hundreds of jobs to pennsylvania eliminating 350 jobs entirely. it's not the news he expected when president trump pitched

slashing corporate taxes. >> i think it's going to be a tremendous thing for our country. >> and house speaker paul ryan went to a harley plant in wisconsin. >> tax reform can put harley davidson on a platform and keep jobs here in america. >> a nearly $700 million spok buy back plan, but the buy back authorization and a separate decision to open a facility in thailand are unrelated and called the closing of the plant a tough decision. it was based on our need to address the excess capacity we have in the u.s. >> we got lost in the shuffle. they just threw us out on the streets. >> the tax law has brought benefits including companies announcing bonuses and raising their minimum wages but a survey found that only 10 companies say they have specific plans to use the savings to boost worker pay. >> corporate profits are much higher this year than they were last year. they're up about 25%. >> while some workers say they

feel left behind, tim says he still supports the president. >> i believe the company more than the president. >> but he's now looking for a new job. nbc news, kansas city, missouri. all right. thanks to gabe for that. still ahead, it may have taken 20 years but the capitals sure don't mind as they are headed back to the stanley cup finals and in boston the celtics push king james and company to the brink. details next in sports. i'm about to start the nature's bounty hair, skin and nails challenge. so my future self will thank me. thank you.

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time now for sports. the cavaliers travel to boston aiming to keep their momentum going after getting back into the series with two straight wins but for the celtics, gordon has been home sweet home throughout the playoffs. that continued again last night with tatum, leading the way with 24 points and with a great all around defensive effort, the celtics would win 96-83 putting lebron james and the cavs on the brink of elimination as game six heads back to cleveland on friday. exciting stuff. switching gears now to the nhl eastern conference finals and the stakes could not be higher than they were last night. game 7, the capitals squared off the lightning for a spot in the stanley cup final. if this year's script was written like it has been over the past to years the caps would have folded but they threw out that script last night lifting

the never could get it done stigma and ovechkin scoring in the first 60 seconds of the game. then two for the caps destroying any sense of hopes for the lightning to get back into the game. the capitals would go on to win 4-0 and advance to face off against the golden knights in the stanley cup final. congratulations to them. turning now to major league baseball where the twins hit a deep ball to centerfield. it gets wedged between the padding on the outfield wall. look at that. i've never seen that one before. it's a ground rule double. as for the game the tigers beat the twins 4-1. and in st. louis the cardinals left fielder tyler o'neal doing all he can to make a throw that actually bounces six times before reaching the catcher to nab the runner at home. he's out of there. despite that bullet, the royals beat the cards 5-2 in that one. >> i got to tell you, i don't know who counted those bounces

but i only counted five. can we get a replay? >> just have to take my word for it. >> okay. all right. still ahead, mike pompeo weighs in on what the administration is doing to counter any russian meddling ahead of the 2018 midterms. plus jared kushner gets his permanent security clearance after more than a year of working in the white house. those stories and much more coming up. ot to know the friends of our friends. and we found others just like us. and just like that we felt a little less alone. but then something happened. we had to deal with spam, fake news, and data misuse. that's going to change. from now on, facebook will do more to keep you safe and protect your privacy. because when this place does what it was built for, then we all get a little closer. i'm about to start the hair, skin and nails challenge. so my future self will thank me. thank you. i become a model? yes.

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside

louis burgdorf. it is the bottom of the hour. president trump started yesterday with a tweet storm of course besides other messages commenting on cable news and trade, he sent seven tweets dedicated to what he is calling quote, spy gate. he and his allies were turning the table on the criminal deep state but the president's top diplomat appeared to disagree with a broad anti trump government conspiracy. here's ted lue questioning mike pompeo at a hearing yesterday. watch this. >> do you believe there's a criminal deep state at the state department? >> i haven't seen the comments from the president. i -- i don't believe there's a deep state at the state department. >> thank you. you formerly served as cia director. do you believe your colleagues in cia are part of the criminal deep state? >> this term deep state has been thrown around. i'll say this. the employees that work for me at the cia nearly uniformly were aimed at achieving the

president's objectives and america's objectives. >> and that's your experience when you interacted with the fbi and department of justice as well? >> yes. i've never met an organization that didn't have bad actors. >> so during that hearing pompeo also discussed countering russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections. >> we will not tolerate russian interference in our 2018 elections. much work has been done. there's more to do. rest assured that we will take the appropriate counter measures in response to the continued russian efforts. there is a great deal more work to do. having said that i'm incredibly proud that the work that this administration has done in countering russia. it is light years better than was done in the previous administration. we have not been able to achieve effective deterrence of some of these efforts of the russians but this administration has taken enormous efforts to push back against russia that haven't

been done in an awfully long time either here in the united states or frankly from our partners who are more threatened by russia in europe and elsewhere. >> so rick scott has ordered his state to use $19 million in federal cyber security money for the 2018 election due to the high demand among county election officials for more assistance. and deputy ag rod rosenstein was at the bloomburg forum yesterday to discuss cooperation between law enforcement agencies and while he did not specifically mention the criticism he has faced from president over the last few months he did make a quip about his current predicament. >> when i announced this new policy here in new york a few weeks ago, i explained the term piling on refers to a football player jumping on a pile of other football players after the opponent is already tackled. i played football about 40 years ago so i like that metaphor.

but last night, i learned that the dictionary uses a different meaning. the dictionary defines piling on as joining other people in criticizing someone, usually in an unfair manner. i also have experience with that. so i am definitely against piling on no matter what definition you use. >> he's against piling on and president trump's son-in-law and senior advisor jared kushner has been granted a permanent security clearance. this is an indication that kushner may no longer be under scrutiny by the special counsel who had been investigating his foreign contacts and other activities. kushner recently met with robert mueller's team for a second time. a source tells nbc that the interview lasted more than six hours and focused on the campaign transition and some activities post inauguration including the firing of james comey. kushner worked with an interim security clearance for more than

a year in the administration. that clearance has -- was downgraded in february after procedures were revamped following the rob porter controversy. kushner's attorney said kushner's permanent security clearance went through the normal process. he went on to say quote, having completed these processes mr. kushner is looking forward to continuing the work the president has asked him to do. and a federal judge has ruled that president trump violated the constitution when he blocked his critics on twitter. the ruling rejects the administration's argument that the first amendment does not apply to trump in this case because he was kt aing as a private individual and that blocked users still had access to his tweets. the judge wrote quote, while we must recognize and are sensitive to the president's personal first amendment rights he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding first amendment rights of those who have criticized him. the judge did not order trump to

unblock his followers saying clarification of the law is sufficient to resolve the dispute and should the president choose to ignore the ruling analysts say future litigation could force twitter to unblock trump's followers unilaterally. the case was brought by the knight institute at columbia university which argue that trump's personal account is a public forum under the first amendment. so president trump says that his administration is designing a new plan to try and curb imgrants entering this country illegally. the president joined by rod rosenstein and homeland security secretary spoke yesterday in long island at an event focused on immigration and violence tied to the ms 13 gang. during this event, with holding aid to those that entered the u.s. illegally. listen to this. >> so we're going to work out something where every time somebody comes in from a certain country we're going to deduct a

rather large amount of money that we give them in aid. >> so this isn't the first time the president has floated an idea like this. last month he tweeted a threat to cut off aid from the honduras. and for a second day in a row, the epa is being accused of barring reporters from several news organizations from entering a national summit being held by the agency. according to politico, cnn and other news, those organizations say the epa said no reporters would be allowed to attend the summit claiming it was limited to state regulators and officials handling oversight. it's coming one day after the agency created controversy after letting only certain reporters to cover their event after reports began to surface that a journalist was forcibly ejected. they reversed course and let all

reporters in for afternoon events. the white house said it would look into the epa's decision to bar reporter from the event. the top democrat on the environment and public works committee said on twitter that the closure raises questions about epa's priorities writing in part, quote, it is clear that the epa is more concerned with protecting the epa chemical summit from the public than it is from protecting the public from harmful chemicals let's talk more about this. eugene, good to talk to you once again. >> good morning. >> what is your reaction to the epa's second day in a row of barring reporters here and do you think this is ultimately going to harm scott pruitt even more? >> certainly in the public opinion, i mean, scott pruitt is someone who has not received the best press over the last several months and it seems as if this could be a decision motivated by curtailing whether or not that's actually true or not, that's certainly the perception and

doesn't help get out a more positive narrative of what the epa is doing to help americans. in fact it just seems as if they have information in dealings that they want to keep from readers. >> so let's talk immigration here as well. president trump really doubling down, shall we say, on his plan to toughen up on immigration including as last month sending a national guard troop to the border, has his hard line approach worked so far from your perspective? >> well, it depends on the partisan sides you're speaking with. many of his supporters believe sending troops and much of the rhetoric double downs on the hard line immigration policies that he promoted on the campaign trail. but suggestions like removing funding from countries who perhaps do not meet the u.s. standards to addressing undocumented immigration could actually end up sending more of their citizens to the united states as they have fewer resources to tap into in their home countries to help them address the issues that they're looking to the u.s. government

to solve. >> and let's quickly talk about this new policy coming on to the nfl with regard to kneeling during the national anthem basically saying that you have to stand during the national anthem or the team will be docked. what are you hearing from washington? what is the reaction to this? i know there's a lot of mixed criticism with regard to this. >> well, the twitter account of the vice president immediately responded with winning and donald trump jr. also commented similarly suggesting that this was a victory for their side in the culture war. this is a highly splpoliticized issue. it will be interesting to see how the nfl players will respond this fall. >> that's really what it's going to come down to when we start hearing from the players that are being directly affected by this new policy change by the nfl. all right. still ahead, one of the world's biggest companies set to weigh

in on an environmental fight taking shape. why your next drink from mcdonald's may soon no longer come with a plastic straw. plus, bill karins is back with a check on your forecast including a preview of what's in store for your holiday weekend. we'll be right back. it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions

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straws which pollute the ocean. americans use an estimated 500 million drinking straws lady. that adds up to more than 6,000 school buses full of straws per year. new york city council is also considering a proposal that could fine restaurants for givering them out. plastic straws are already banned in some places. >> we can sip out of cups. >> the city of malibu voted to stop handing them out. starting on june 1st. >> it's polluting all of our oceans. it's affecting the people who go swim. >> mcdonald's is urging shareholders to vote against the study saying it's unnecessary and could hurt its existing plan for all packaging from coming from recycled materials. but mcdonald's is already testing new paper straws and moving them behind the counter. nbc news, los angeles. >> all right. getting rid of the plastic straws and getting environmental

initiative there and since we're talking about the environment let's bring in bill karins with a check on your forecast. bill, what do you got? >> we're talking about the tropics. a little bit of severe weather and then we'll get to the holiday weekend forecast which in some areas is going to be hot. right now they're saying a 10% chance this develops into a tracked tropical system. that could be a depression or subtropical storm or even a tropical storm. 10% the next two days u.'s near the yucatan. then it's going to drift north wards not until really saturday, maybe even into sunday. so today's forecast, i mentioned it's getting warm. 90 san antonio, 92 dallas. we're warm into chicago. beautiful st. louis. i say beautiful. it's a little hot. and the mid-atlantic looks good all the way through new york. notice boston at 66. you're a little bit cooler because you're getting the influence coming off the water. if you go inland a little bit

you'll be much warmer. today slight risk of severe storms kansas to nebraska, and then we could be some large hail, maybe some damaging wind. tornado threat looks pretty low. this holiday weekend forecast, on saturday we're still watching typical afternoon showers and storms in much of the southeast. this is not from the tropical system yet. on sunday, this is when that hoefier rain should arrive in areas of the southeast from our tropical system. looks like potential for a washout areas of florida and finally for memorial day it's cooler in new england with scattered showers. friday, saturday, your best bets there and there's that heavy rain. minneapolis looks to have three days in the 90s in a row over memorial day weekend. >> good for minneapolis. >> yeah. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, stocks here in the u.s. shed their losses following new comment from the federal reserve, plus, if you have a

habit of returning items that you have ordered from amazon it may come back to bite you. details on the company's new policy and other stories driving your business day coming up. i'm about to start the nature's bounty hair, skin and nails challenge. so my future self will thank me. thank you. i become a model? yes. no. start the challenge today. and try new tropical citrus flavor with collagen. nature's bounty.

welcome back. let's turn to business. according to minutes released from the latest meeting officials are considering raising rates. cnbc joins us live from london.

what would a rate hycomine for the average consumer? >> well, clearly a bit of debate going on inside the fed about its approach to inflation. it does seem that consensus view is they can allow it to run a a higher. while the u.s. economy continues to recover. in terms of a rate hike that might come as soon as june. that's about making sure the economy doesn't run too hot. for the average consumer, an increase in interest rates could mean slightly higher mortgage payments, potentially slightly higher credit card rates, but potentially slightly better returns in the stock market. the dow closed 50 points up yesterday and the nasdaq and the s&p 500 ending the day higher. looking like a mixed picture ahead of the u.s. open. something to watch out for today. >> a lot of consumers up in arms on the next story. amazon's era of consumer-friendliness may be

coming to an end as some customers had their account shut down because of their return history without warning or explanation. we know yasmine is definitely over the limit what can you tell us? and that begs the question, how many returns are too many? >> it's a good question and amazon has not given any clear answers on that. there's been a number of people complaining about the fact that their accounts have been terminated. in the returns policy that amazon puts out, there's nothing about that being a possibility. if you look at their terms and conditions generally, they do reserve the right to terminate accounts as and when they see fit. after a lot of recent complaints they put out a statement saying there are rare occasions when somebody abuses the service. they encourage any customers with problems with this to contact them directly that includes obviously yasmine. >> ganging up on me this morning. >> i will not buy you anything on amazon any more. >> willem marks live from london, thank you. coming up, axios's mike

allen has a look at this morning's one big thing. and president trump lashing out at the deep state. saying a spy was embedded in his campaign. top intel officials and lawmakers are preparing to meet on the informant and senators angus keen, james langford and jeanne shaheen will be here and new york city mayor bill de blasio joins the conversation. "morning joe" just moments away.

welcome back. joining us from washington with a look at axios a.m., the co-founder of axios, mike allen. talk to us about axios' one big thing today. >> it's president trump's torch it all strategy. wooer seeing on your air so many attacks, so many targets. so often that sometimes we forget to step back and look at what he's doing. what we have is presidential

whack-a-mole, any threat that comes up, any person or institution that might hold him accountable, he goes after. so we have the media, we have the intel community. we have the justice department. fbi, the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, special counsel robert mueller. mueller's prosecutors. the new york investigators and prosecutors, the intel committees on the hill. republican senators who go astray, all of these groups are getting the campaign treatment, that in 2016 secretary clinton and other republicans and marco rubio got from this president. >> i love the graphics we had up. can we bring that up, of the president walking out of the fiery pit. there we go, that is some good stuff, my graphics department. i was going to say we saw this from the very get-go when he

announced his intention to run for president. from the amazing axios visuals team which we're so grateful for. what we saw was the president would take the approach of belittling, exaggerating, using the sort of high-test belle language that we've rarely heard in politics, certainly not from a president. and it's effective. like we saw during the campaign, it does tend to get people to pull back and there are very few of these targets that we've walked through, that have really found a way to push back, senator john mccain has, a couple of senators. but by and large people talk about unpresidential behavior, but they don't find a way to push back in a way that with his own base, with his own republicans, doesn't let these sink in. >> how much is this part of who the president is and how he operated privately?

>> it's such a good point. you look at the decades he spent building his businesses. and this exactly reflects the way that he went. including his instinct for how to get a headline. his instinct for how to change a story from trouble for him, to trouble for someone else. >> i know that mike, you're also looking at the former intel official who is are warning against plans for the justice department to hold a gop-only briefing about the informant in the fbi's russia investigation. who exactly is on the list that made this appeal? >> this is a first look for "first look," you're hearing about this first on msnbc. as we head into "morning joe." five former intelligence officials, including one who worked for president bush president bush, others for president obama, these are some of the biggest names in intelligence, panetta, brennan, hayden, and what we're seeing is another way of people saying -- this isn't normal.

our viewers have been hearing about this, republican-only briefing, about the informant that the fbi used in 2016. now there's going to be a separate briefing with the traditional gang of eight that gets the intelligence briefing. but what these leaders are saying is don't politicize intelligence oversight. by having a separate republican briefing, you're bringing in the possibility that not only would there be a perception of politization, but it could actually affect the investigation. >> some major experience in that recommendation, former c.i.a. director john brennan is an msnbc contributor. to all of our ruers, you can sign up for the axios a.m. newsletter at axios.com. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf,

"morning joe" starts now. >> when i announced this new policy here in new york, i explained that the term "piling on" refers to a football player jumping on to a pile of other football players after the opponent is already tackled. i played football about 40 years ago so i like that metaphor. but last night, i learned the merriam webster dictionary uses a different meaning. it defines piling on as joining other people in criticizing someone usually in an unfair manner. i also have experience with that. so i am definitely against piling on, no matter which definition you use. >> that was of course deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, peeking there at the bloomberg leadership forum in new york. talking about cooperation between law enforcement agencies. now he didn't specifically mention the criticism that he's faced from the president, and