about what are going to be the dynamic around the g7 table. rudy off the rails. donald trump's lawyer gets nasty about storm mirrny daniels in pl way. >> when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump and look at his three wives. beautiful women, classy women. women of great substance. stormy daniels. mirror image as the president does, well, so does mike pence. leading to a viral video sensation and lots of washington chatter. good day, everyone. president trump before his

face-to-face with kim jong-un next week, has to get through this weekend, a meeting at the g7 summit in canada. he's angered all of them with his new tariffs. president trump is not happy about the weekend in quebec. joining me is kristen welker and phil rutger. welcome both. kristen, you're awaiting now the arrival of the japanese prime minister. you see the soldiers who are ready on guard, the flags are out. the president will come out on the west wing door right there. shinzo abe coming because he's worried about the kim jong-un summit. kneels left out. they will get through theg 7 and the president does not want to go. >> that's right. the president had a lot of concerns about going for a couple of reasons. there's going to be a number of tensions. he's not afraid of the tensions as much as the optics heading

into the criminal summit. it's real allies on the issue of trade pulling out of iran nuclear deal. recent days there's been some difficult phone conversations with those leaders who will be there. it's not going to be necessarily positive headlines for the president may not even come to an agreement on a final joint statement known as a commitment. that still very much up in the air and that can sort of set the stage. the prime minister of japan here at the white house set to arrive any moment now and he is going to be pushing president trump to make sure that the regional

interest and security taken into consideration. >> phil, there's so much detail now about what the president is about to do with kim jong-un. let's go back to canada and this quebec summit and what canadian broadcasters is reporting in a very nasty phone conversation with prime minister trudeau, the president accused canada of having burned down the white house in the war of 1812. you take it from there, phil. >> reporter: it was the brits who burned down the white house in the war of 1812. the bigger picture is there's rising tension between trump and trudeau. we have been reporting that president trump privately, at the white house, has been complaining a lot object prime minister trudeau. he's taking great offense to some of the public statements that the canadian prime minister

has been making including on meet the press last weekend. he doesn't want to go to canada. he knows he has to. he's still planning to make the trip. he doesn't like to sit around a table with other world leaders positioned as equals. he doesn't like to be lectured to, in his view, by the lights of chancellor merkle. prime minister may of the uk. he would rather be at home preparing for the summit with kim jong-un. knee these sorts of global summits are not his cup of tea. >> what about kristen, maybe you can take the question about whether he wants to play golf with cokim jong-un and invite h to mar-a-lago. you'll recall that was the first

location they met when they discussed the issue of north korea's nuclear problem. that would certainly be something that would be under consideration. the president very much sees the importance of relationship building. that speaks to the potential golf game that may be on the table. look, the stakes are very high. there's concern that the president very eager for that photo outer loop. the political win. will not secure what the region and the world really wants. all of our reporting has signalled that north korea has no plans to denuclearize any time soon and that frankly, the two have very different ideas about what that word even means. >> phil, before we let you go, you're reporting there could be one more departure from the top ranks of the white house. a veteran who has been helping prepare the singapore summit and he might be leaving after this

is over. >> that's right. a number of officials familiar with the planning at the white house told us that joe hagen, who is the deputy chief of staff, is in charge ofrt operati -- of the operations. he's really considered the adult in the room. when the summit is over this summer, he plans to leave the white house. he's eyeing a job add the deputy director over at the cia. he's a veteran government figure. served in the bush administration and seen as a stabilizing force inside the west wing. >> he's considered one of the really good guys. really competent guys. >> thank you so much. we're beginning to hear the guards taking their position. we're about to see the car with shinzo abe. he is feeling quite left out according to all of our reporting of these approaching

summit between president trump and kim jong-un. while we wait for this car to roll up and for the president to come out, i'm joined by two senators. we'll be seeing the arrival of abe momentarily. the president expects to get a fairly chilly reception in quebec. what about bob corker's attempt to try to stop the president using the national security exception as he is in this case against canada on tariffs so it doesn't have to go through congress. corker has been pushing that. where do you stand on it? >> i don't support the amendment as is currently proposed. i think there is some structural issues with it being retro active and whether or not it can be a privilege motion that would only require 51 votes. i think it's a good discussion

to have but i also think with the g7, the north korea negotiations, the potential tariffs imposed against china, the timing of it i don't think is very good. i wouldn't support it. >> we're seeing now the president greeting shinzo abe that started off with a warm relationship with the president. one of the first visitors to mar-a-lago. a game of golf and the things alike. things have not been going on. we will see more in the oval office shortly. you took exception to our new m ambassador to germany who is a former john bolton aide. he's only been there 30 days. in an interview with breitbart he talked about empowering other con seservatives to rise up agat elites. he's speaking about

nationalists, very tough issue in germany and elsewhere in europe right now. you said that you thought if he doesn't stop talking about politics, he should be recalled because it's caused a fire storm in berlin. i can tell you from talking to diplomats from there. there's fury over rick speaking out publicly. he's been defended by the state department, i should say. >> he did something that we don't want ambassadors to do and that's to get involved in domestic politics in the country where they are serving. unfortunate unfortunately, this was his history. these were some of the concerns that were expressed about him hen he was nominated. we've seen him now on a couple of occasions make statements that have upset his host country and that have been of concern. the ambassador should be doing everything possible to smooth relations with the country involved, to express the

concerns of the united states, about the relationship to promote values, shared values and unfortunately what he had to say not only upset the administration of chancellor merkle but it really flies in face of the position that the united states has taken with respect to some of these far right organizations that are turning politics in europe upside down. >> i want to ask you about a north carolinan who has been in jail two years now in turkey. he's been held. we don't understand why. they are tryi ining to get an

exchange. >> i want to thank senator sheehan because this is an example of bipartisanship that happens every day here. he's been in prison since october of 2016. i went to a turkish courtroom. i sat through that hearing for almost 12 hours. it's truly a kangaroo court. it's time to release him. we did get an amendment in the national defense authorization which is to really take a look at a variety of issues. how pastor brunson and others in turkey are being treated. this is a nato ally since 1952. we also have the joint strike fighter. we think all that has to be looked at before we move ahead

with that transaction. needs to be released. suggesting he would trade a pastor for a pastor, immediately made him a hostage. we want him released and be happy as an ally to consider an extradition if they have the evidence that he fits our high standards for extradition. >> in fact, the pastor in pennsylvania, the administration's officials from top to bottom said they are not turning him over without any real evidence he was involved in this attempt. >> well, what we don't need is a policy of appeasement with turkey. turkey is supposed to be our ally. allies don't arrest american citizens with no reason. allies don't buy weapon systems from our aggressor nations which is what turkey is looking at doing. we need to make a clear -- send to tke a clear message and a

clear message that's not behavior that we expect or corn do condone in the united states and slowing down the sale of the f-35s to turkey is something we worked hard and had bipartisan support in the armed services committee for the to let them know that we think what they are doing should not be what we expect from an ally of the united states. this mystery illness now in china where american dip employee mats are being brought back. they and their families is the same kind of -- seems to have a lot of similarities with the brain damage experience by our diplomats in cuba that led to such a downgrading of our re relations with cuba. now in china the same thing being experienced. it's not cubans doing this in a

remote facility. what do we think is happening? i understand there's an intelligence investigation as to whether it's the russians or the chinese or a new weapon. are you on foreign relations looking into this or either the senators? >> i had a chance to question secretary pompeo about that when he was before the foreign relations economycommittee a co weeks ago. he said the state department has a broad investigation under way. we're not clear if this was a new weapon that our aggressors are using against us or exactly what's going on. it's affecting our state department personnel and we need to get to the bottom of this. we need to have an all hands on deck moment where we get not just the intelligence community but the state department and dod all working together to address this. >> i agree. >> let me ask you about going into this korean summit.

all how do you feel about this? are we moving a little too quickly here? >> if you consider how long it's taken to get to this point, we've got to catch up for a lot of lost time. whether that was a democratic administration or republican administration, i think people need to judge the outcome, not the process. the fact this president has got people talking is extraordinary and something i'm willing to support. i'm not going to judge a golf game or chess match to build a safer korean peninsula. the ultimate goal is to denuclearize what is dangerous nation. i'm going to leave it to the administration, the one that got the dialogue started to figure out how to make that come about. >> thank you both so much. it's great to see bipartisan on capitol hill. thanks for joining us today. >> thank you. coming up next, how rudy

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president trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, is being widely criticized today for comments he made in israel disparaging stormy daniels. >> she knows it's not true.

i don't think it's slight suspicion it's not true when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump and -- >> let's respect her. >> look at his three wives. beautiful women, classy women. women of great substance. stormy daniels. i respect all human beings. i have to respect criminals. i'm sorry. i don't respect a porn star the way i respect a career woman or woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and as a person that isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitat n exploitation. stormy, you want to bring a case, let me cross examine you. >> when reached today by hallie jackson, rudy giuliani did not back down defending his remarks.

to ruth, i have to ask you what you think rudy giuliani is trying to accomplish here. >> i think that's a good question and i ask myself that. he's trying to muddy the waters and trying to diminish the credibility of stormy daniels but people have adequate to make their decision about who is more credible and the allegation that stormy daniels that she had an fair with donald trump or donald trump and his denials. i don't know what he's doing except for getting a lot of women like me a little bit upset about the way he talks about women. >> senator warren was on morning joe reacting as well. >> it's every aspect of what he had to say. it's the slurs he throws at stormy daniels that somehow suggest that donald trump has good looking wives that means he

wouldn't be a serial abuser of woman. every part of that is wrong. >> that was senator gardener of colorado. there's also a new lawsuit from stormy daniels attorney claiming there was collusion between michael cohen and the lawyer originally representing stormy daniels. i don't know how that fits into anything else but this could be an attempt by rudy giuliani to go after stormy daniels just as another issue is being raised in the courts. >> it's a risky move because as rudy giuliani is primarily trump's lawyer in so far as he's defending him against a mueller inve investigation there's no real reason for rudy giuliani to throw his hat into the fray or the ring on the stormy daniels issue. if nothing else, you may whip up a hornets nest in the personage

of michael avenatti. the last thing you want is more attention from michael avenatti in a case that rudy giuliani doesn't need to comment on. the reason rudy has put himself out there as his role. he's donald trump's attorney for tv as it relates to the mueller investigati investigation. if anything, you would want to separate the image of the stormy daniels matter from the mueller investigati investigation, not combine them and lash out against a plaintiff in a civil action, in some civil actions that don't involve your client like the one that was filed two days ago or three days ago. it doesn't seem to be a risk averse solution. as lawyers, in my ways, much of our job is risk avoidance. rudy giuliani is throwing a -- raising a new issue and addressing a new issue that he doesn't need to here. you have to wonder why.

>> one reason, according to some political experts, might be to try to distract from the mueller investigation and add so much to it to keep talking about stormy daniels in these other issues because in a way it takes away from, no matter what you think, of her case from some of constitutional issues that are being raised in the mueller case. >> it was just the other day that rudy giuliani was talking about and this was just extraordinary to me, about robert mueller framing the president, attempting to frame the president, which is an extraordinary thing for a former associate attorney general. the number three at the justice department, a former u.s. attorney to be accusing of former colleague. that is, at least as extraordinary as this assault on stormy daniels. >> danny, when we look at these e-mails that have been put into this lawsuit about this alleged relationship, collusion between the two, the former attorney for

stormy daniels and michael cohen representing the president. when you see phrases like 100% thanks pal. this guy responding to cohen and cohen say the wise men all think it's dying. don't think it's smart to do any interviews. does that indicate a cozy relationship between these two men who were involved in other cases involving women without allegations against then citizen donald trump? >> the duty of loyalty that attorneys like me you to our clients is maybe one of the most important in the judicial process and it can undermine the entire appearance of the competence that we have in the judicial process if that's violated. that being said, it's not uncommon for adversaries and attorneys to have a collegial relationship and you said the word cozy. there's a point at which cozy bb

becomes a violation of that duty of loyalty. whether there's been a disclosure of secret information that only the client and attorney have communicated. it's only when it krosdss that line that it should be actionable. if you look at the four corners of avenatti complaint, it's not certain that he's crossed that line just by his allegations alone. he may end up proving that at trial but i can assure you that defense first move will be to try to dismiss this case for failure to state a claim and arguing that while this may have been a cozy relationship, it did not cross the attorney-client privilege line. >> two lawyers and just a humble correspondent here. thank you both for the legal advice and your wisdom. coming up, water gate. awkward moment involving the president, vice president and two water bottles at fema. chris matthews joining us next. stay with us.

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journal poll showing a wide margin of voters saying they would vote for a congressional candidate who promise to serve as a check on president trump. the president's approval rate is 44%. the president is doing well for this president and his base is holding strong for him. in the midterms as we look at the election results from california and elsewhere, we with see that people, candidates who say they would be a check on trump are strongly favored. 25 point gap over those who say that they would support. >> you love history. there's a powerful pendulum in

american politics. people always want to check the power of the president. maybe something will radically change under trump. i hope it doesn't. i love the fact we're always skeptical of power. we always believe it's good to pull him back a bit after his first year or two. i would expect we will see the pattern begin this year. people may say trump is going better, the unemployment rate is low but let's give this guy a little rein in here. i think they will get the 23% they need. 23 seats they need to change. it's going to probably be low 30s. you look at the democratics and who has an economic message. who has a message to reach disaffected voters. we have so many candidates or hopeful, senators, governors. i can think of one mayor from new orleans and a few others as well. terry was here this week.

he's not ruling it out. eric holder was in new hampshire. >> i think it's going to be a challenge. delaney is out there making noise on the more conservative side. bernie always looks like he's running again. in the middle there's a lot of c cargo there. i go give me a little more.

not a lot has been put out there yet. >> joe biden. >> i don't think he runs up front. he's never ran well up front. iowa has not been his happy hunting ground. i don't see him running early. he'll be a draft thing where the kids aren't doing too well and call him in. i think it's going to be somebody in their 40s. that's why mitch landru is dresing. >> the president does this weird thing with water. we have seen water moments. >> what is it about us and water? >> you see mike pence imitating him. >> it's so embarrassing.

>> the president doing it to clear the stage for the picture, taking a photo op. >> pence is not a stupid guy. i watch pence. reused to talk about the nancy reagan gaze. i thought it was for real. his is a diagonal look at the back of the neck. he wants all stills the show him. clearly he's a vice president in waiting. they wait for their turn. somebody once said he has the soul of a vice president. that's a sad statement. >> in fact, we've seen some very strong vice presidents and relationships joe biden, walter mo mondale.

at the end of the campaign he dumped all over clinton. it's a good economic record to run on. i don't know why he did it backwards. >> we look at the democrats potentially retaking the house and it's really early to be talking about this. if they do, how do they resoevr their own internal dispute over whether it's time for a new generation of leader? >> there's a hot washington issue. nancy pelosi has earned her way to the leadership. she's been leader forever. the story is the personal rivalry is real. she'll take it. she's not going to walk away from it. she'll be the most important

democrat in the country. she's earned it. should hold it. stay with me as we watch thewel. >> the willingness to get things done. this isn't a question of preparation. it's a question of whether or not people want it to happen and we'll know that very quickly. >> what will you tell the critics? >> it will be much more than a photo op. i think it's not a one meeting deal. they have been doing this for a long time. there's a lot of enemies out there.

this will not just be a photo op. at a minimum we will start with a good relationship. that's something that's very important toward the ultimate making of the deal. they have the denuke. if they don't denuclearize that will not be acceptable. we cannot take sanctions off. they are extraordinarily powerful. i could add a lot more but i've chosen not to do that at this time. that may happen. with iran we're adding tremendously powerful sanctions. you get the side benefit that iran is a different place. we'll see what happens and maybe

something will happen with iran. i think it will be a fruitful meeting. i think it will be exciting. i think we'll get to kw a lot of people thank you very much. >> let's go. >> thaunk you very much. >> right now at the white house north lawn, nbc peter alexander in the oval office. we couldn't hear the question

but the president said he primed and ready and doesn't need much preparation. >> reporter: he said he's been prepared for this for a long time. he said it's about attitude. part of the q and a you saw there, the president opened his remarks with the prime minister abe and said things are moving along well for the summit to take place as planned. he said it's ready to go for next tuesday. he said everything is always subject to change. he had to leave that little loose end out there just in case. he spoke about the idea of a good relationship between kim jong-un and himself. he said if nothing else it will start to build that relationship up going forward. at the end of that q and a, i know there's a lot of noise from some of the white house aides in the room as they try to shoo us out. i asked the president how long is he going to stay there. he said one, two, maybe three days. as i was literally getting pushed out the door, i asked about abe, whether the japanese prime minister or others will be invited to that face-to-face

with kim jong-un. he said no. they will not. this will just be the president and a man who is represented the country. none of america's other allies expected to attend. >> that's sbretsing flfgs if it's going to be more than a one day summit. did anyone ask about golf? >> he was not asked about golf but he initiated that conversation. he talked about the fact played multiple times before including when they were in japan. he spoke about the name of the legendary golfer in japan. he was asked as we were leaving whether he was hoping to play golf while in north korea. i guess the asusumption was he would be playing with kim jong-un. he said that's not in his plans for this trip.

>> fascinating that he doesn't seem to prepare. he seems confident going into this. he's gone from nuclear buttons to praising kim jong-un and getting a sit down, granting a sit down that no other president has been willing to grant. >> i always compare him -- it's like he's playing a game of hearts. he always shoots the moon. he always does the opposite of what the game is about. this meeting in itself is a big gamble. yet, i think he's winning so far. i think the fact it's better to jaw jaw than war war. a meeting is always better than a bombing raid. i think kim jong-un is signaling to the south he wants to be their friend. if he's never going to attack the south, we are have not much to worry about. if he's not going after south korea, we don't have to engage in the 38th parallel or nuclear

capacity. i'm capable of hope. >> and always willing to get new information. thank you. chris matthews. be sure to tune in for hardball tonight with chris matthews tonight at 7:00. let's bring in associated press white house reporter and nbc political analyst. scott pruitt seeming to get a vote of confidence for the president at the fema meeting. still holding up despite the criticism despite 12 or 15 separate investigations.

new reporting from politico that he's an unwelcome guest. how do you upset the navy stewards at the white house? >> he's decided to dine there too often and they don't much appreciate that. it's remarkable how pruitt seems to be bullet proof with the president. he lost the faith of most in the west wing long time ago. they have advocated for his removal. yes he's getting your agenda done but coming with so many distractions. this is not good for you. now that his deputy has been confirmed, you can move pruitt out and move someone in that position getting done what you want to see happen. the president had dug in his heels. every cabinet member got some degree of praise except for jeff

sessions. sessions got a hey, jeff. good to see you. while everyone else got praise from the president. >> he got praise. thank you scott. epa is doing really, really well. people are really impressed with the job being done. he likes the deregulation at epa. how do you ignore all of these investigations into personal dealing, into lobbying. directing an aids to buy you a mattress. a used mattress from the trump hotel, help find you housing and what we were reporting yesterday is the outreach to chick-fil-a to find a franchise for his wife. >> perhaps the play for a used mattre mattress, the president takes as a compliment because that speaks to the quality of the mattresses at his hotel. it is remarkable. the spring of bad headlines that

pruitt has generated for months now. least to this point he's hanging onto his job. we all know this could change at a moment's notice. he could decide spin on a dime and make a move to ask pruitt. the reporting i've done, who we talked to in the west wing even though trump is getting near constant counsel from white house officials, from outside allies to move pruitt out of this post, he's digging in his heels. sort of making a point, not wanting to see like he's giving into the pressure around him to oust p rurruitt but to let him many that job. because he feels like he's doing such a good job with this deregulation agenda that the president has so prizes. >> thank you so much. coming up, vladmir putin's grave warnings about the end of civilization. senator mark warner next. (anna) show me the movies.

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while fielding questions on a call-in show, putin dismisses the idea that russia meddled in the u.s. elections. joining me is senator mark warner. senator, great to see you. is it a joke? >> absolutely not. matter of fact, the trump intelligence officials across the board reconfirmed the finding of the obama intelligence officials, the fbi, the cia, the nsa, others, trump or russians massively interscreinte intervened. and they used social media for misinformation, disinformation in an unprecedented way, and most importantly, they will be back in this election cycle and in 2020 and we're not fully prepared. >> importantly, the speaker paul ryan said today there is no evidence that there was anyone in the trump campaign colluding

with the russians on this. let me play that for you. >> let me say one more point. in all of this. in any of this. there have been no evidence that there's any collusion between the trump campaign and the president and russia. there's no evidence of collusion. this is about russia and what they did and making sure they don't do it again. >> is there no evidence? has that been definitively proved by your investigation? >> not at all. and i respectfully disagree very much with the speaker. let's just know what is already out in the public domain. russians reached out to a trump official, trump foreign policy official, mr. papadopoulos, trump russian officials reached out in a, now almost two years ago i think today, meeting in trump tower that included the president's son, the president's son-in-law, the president's campaign manager, where they expected to get dirt from clinton. within a week of that meeting,

the president is out publicly calling for the russians to go after the clinton e-mails and release them to everyone. strangely enough, that happened later. and we have the president, frankly, dictating what appears to be not an accurate reflection of what actually happened in that meeting. so i'm going to reserve final judgment until we get witnesses in and we want to see some of those figures back before the committee like trump jr. and kushner and michael cohen. but clearly, there was intent to call le collude. >> the intelligence committee did not call any of these witnesses so they would not have developed the evidence. do you have agreement still with your republican chair that these witnesses will be actually questioned and that you will come up with a real report? >> many of those witnesses have already been questioned by our

staff. we want to bring many of them back. that will be a process i'm working through with the chairman. we have come together for a year and a half on this investigation. we're going to hang together through its conclusion. and i believe we will resolve all the outstanding issues. we may not reach the exact same conclusions at the end but it's still my hope that we will. >> there's a report that ivanka trump during the campaign was involved in conversations about a trump tower in moscow with russian officials. >> i'm not going to comment on specific members of the trump family's interactions with russianings. but these are all things that are being looked into. >> and wilber ross cutting a deal in china with zte which is a company that produces cell

phones, bare minimum, not to be used by military personnel because of back doors and they can be used by chinese intelligence. >> this effort by ross and this commerce department is a huge mistake. we have the head of the cia saying we shouldn't use this equipment. we've got the pentagon banning the use of these phones. we've got every member of the intelligence community saying this is a national security threat. what ross and trump may have done is they may have created the one time of near unanimous agreement in the senate from our republican colleagues to our democratic colleagues that we should not allow zte, which is a national security threat, to be used as a trading chip in trump's current trade war. it is wrong. we will act in the senate to reverse that action. we've already put in legislation that will be considered in the defense authorization bill. but there's other conversations about how we bring this to a

halt. it is dangerous what this administration is doing. frankly, from a president that said he wanted a, you know, protect american jobs and the first pushback he got from the chinese, he's out tweeting about protecting chinese jobs. >> thank you so much, senator, thank you very much. still to come, freedom. craig melvin talks to one of the attorneys who handled alice johnson's clemency petition. it took guts to start my business. but as it grew bigger and bigger, it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything. and that 2% cash back adds up to thousands of dollars each year... so i can keep growing my business in big leaps! what's in your wallet? welcome to holiday inn! thank you! ♪ ♪

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thanks for being with us. follow me @mitchellreports. craig melvin takes over right now in new york. >> good afternoon to you. craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york. piece of trash. that's what an epa spokesman called a reporter when she asked for comment on one of two staff resignations from scandal ridden scott pruitt's office. it's just latest in a drama filled week for pruitt. is this what draining the swamp looks like? no respect from rudy jewel yagi. the president's lawyer standing by those blistering comments he made about stormy daniels. he told the crowd he doesn't respect a porn star the way he respects a career woman. and burning down the house. president trump adding insult to injury by asking if canada burned down the white house af