day can i give you a goodeason for what happened in the markets. midday they started to go down. look what happened in the last hour. some of this is the federal reserve raising rates as expected, but also saying that there is going to extra interest rate hike this year and some comments were not asish ons what you're seeing here. a give up of about half a percent on the dow, 115 points. that's it for me. "deadline white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. >> hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. is trump's fixer thinking about flipping? that's the question of the hour after news broke today that michael cohen is parting ways with the lawyers representing him and what "the new york times" describes as a potentially damaging and wide ranging federal investigation in his business dealings. the times also writes that mr. cohen has not yet been contacted by the prosecutors who are conducting the inquiry. but as the investigation widens and with mr. cohen's legal team in turmoil, the chances increase

that mr. cohen could cooperate with prosecutors. abc's george stephanopoulous takes it one step further reporting, quote, cohen is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors in new york. this development which is believed to be imminent will likely hit the white house, ly members, staffers and councils hard. it all comes on the heels of new reporting about cohen's grim legal reality. from gabe sherman of vanity fair. quote, cohen has told friends he expects to be arrested any day now. though the report notes, reach for comment, cohen wrote in a text message, quote,our alleged source is wrong. the story goes on. the spectre of cohen flipping has trump advisors on edge. trump should be super worried about michael cohen, a former white house official said. if anyone can blow up trump, it's him. let's get right into today's developments with some of our favorite reporters and friends. former u.s. attorney harry lit man, also former deputy assistant attorney general. and with us at the table emily jane fox, vanity fair senior

reporter, msnbc contributor out with brand-new reporting of your own we're going to get to. jonathan swan made it to new york at the table, national immediate why columnist for the times is here. and lydia, editor in chief of the huff post is harry, let me start with you on the cohen freak out. we were i believe together if not the day of -- the week of the raid while donald trump was discussing national sec called the raid on cohen's office an attack on our country, he really sort of lost it for several days afterward. cohen's possessions, the items that were seized, really freak out the president. why? >> they're everything. they're the whole treasure trove. we're talking about a dozen cell phones, possible taped recordings, whatever documents and, of course, the real treasure trove that's in cohen's head about the different deals that he's had to -- dirty

dealings for trump for the last maybe ten years. plus, the sort of overture to moscow that started some of the whole speculation about collusion in 2015 with the miss universe pageant. that said, nicolle, i think e several steps away from any actual cooperation. cohen is going to have to get new lawyers, discuss with them which way he should go, and start what would be a fairly methodical process with the that hasn't begun yet before cooperation could be in the cards. at most he might be thinking more that way, but i think there are several steps between here and there. >> let me ask you about one thing that he or his allies put out today, this idea that he hasn't even been contacted it's my understanding that if you're a target of an investigation, you're often not contacted until you're actually charged with a crime. >> yeah, that's -- or on the verge of being charged. you're given a chance to sort of

tell your story. and then there is a little dance that sometimes takes place where your lawyers might contact the prosecutors to try to test the waters for whether cooperation would be possible. we're right now at a discrete stage in front of judge wood where a special master is deciding what of cohen's seized documents are privileged. that's going to happen, probably happen by the end of week. then it will be stage two. and as i say, cooperation wouldn't happen overnight. it would really be a minuet they would initiate. >> a person close to cohen says he hasn't flipped yet. he's sending up a smoke signal to trump, i need help. this goes with reporting that you've done and others have done, a disagreement overpayment, how much the trump organization was expected to foot on cohen's behalf according to sourcesith knowledge of the dispute. what's your understanding of the

current dynamic between the men personally? is trump trying to tell him to stay strong the way he wanted flynn to stay strong and not flip in the mueller investigation? is there any offer to cover legal fees or are these two at a -- >> the last time i communicated with michael was probably a week-and-a-half ago and we did not discuss this. he has been not responding to me today so i can't speak to exactly what's going or the likelihood with which he'll flip. they seem to be very speculative and conflicting reporting out there. as for his relationship with trump, it was never as close -- and maggie haberman has written very well about this. it was never as warm and cozy. at some p trump treats everyone pretty badly. nobody thinks that trump is, you know, going to be really loyal to anyone frankly. you put family maybe in a slightly different position. and so when you work for donald trump -- god nosy spent my whole life talking to people who

worked for donald trump -- you don't feel a reciprocal loyalty. i don't see any reason why michael cohen will fee some higher obligation. i don't think he would believe it would be reciprocal based on everyone else around trump that speak to that that seems to be aommon >> you maggie. she tweeted today, mr. trump's lawyers have resigned themselves to the strong possibility this igation could lead him to cooperate with prosecutors. and that seems to have manifested itself in his friend speaking a little more openly about the kinds of things that cohen took care of for him, that they thought it was a known unknown how many other stormy daniels were out there. they suggested the president might not even know the extent to which cohen can do him damage. >> i find that last bit hard to believe. the president tends to know where every s dlar and cent he disburses. if you look at his career and people who engage him in

business, he keeps a close eye on his money. >> you're hawkish on him knowing exactlat was seized. >> give me a break. if there are large pots of money going to women, i findt hard to believe -- i don't know anything. >> he's a deal maker. she doesn't need 130. do her for 110. let me in on don quixote. this was in your piece. cohen said, i feel like don qu people close to him. it's ruining my children's lives. it's ruining my wife's life. it's worse than a pit in your stob stomach. i bet. >> this has been going on how many months now? so, the pressure is definitely ratcheting up. we have a pivotal moment this week where the materials that were seized from his office are going to kind of get -- assuming all goes according to schedule, they're going to get their hands on this stuff. and it's not just cohen who is worried. it's people around cohen because people who are iis orbit who could also be useful for the prosecution are in a position they don't know what cohen may have, right, because we're

talking about r0rdings that were done surreptitiously. this is an inflection point all r after all of months. >> have you talked to michael >> i spoke to him briefly today . he was actually meeting with his civil lawyers with stormy daniels. his attention was turned elsewhere today. was in a meeting with his lawyers when the story broke. i got hold of him quickly. he wasn't very communicative about anything that was going on today. but i will say to what the president knows, you have to understand they're in a process where they are sharing with the president's attorneys in this case what michael cohen had in his office. that's part of the -- >> that is an indication he hasn't flipped. we knew michael cohen had flipped when that arrangement ceased to be the casee lawyers they're still -- >> yes, but the president knows what was in that office because his lawyers have what was in that office that's related to him. so, there are people who are familiar with this case and what is going on in this case who say that perhaps some of the more

erratic behavior that has been going on in the last couple of weeks from the president is because he knows what michael cohen has and had in his office or home or hoteloom. >> i meant michael flynn, of course. i want to ask you something you report about the anguish. can you just talk about the innocent bystanders? i keep thinking about donald trump and all the carnage. obviously michael cohen made his bad choices. if he committed crimes he's going to be prosecuted for them. what's the family dynamic like? >> look, michael cohen as you said is an adult who made decision biz what he wanted to do in his business and professional life. so whatever will lap happen is d on those decisions he made -- >> he keeps bringing his family into t. >> he has two children who are old enough to completely understand what is going on. they're essentially adults. he has a wife. he has two parents. everyone in his life has been brought into this and is affected by it rightly or wrongly, and i guess we will see once the court of law plays out or doe>> i want to go back to hw

michael cohen has been implicated by the president, by what we know mueller has been interested -- mueller has been following the money on russian collusion as harry litman alluded tothe beginning. rudy giuliani was the one who hung a lantern around how they operationalizey outs to las with.ald trump had sexual let's watch that. giving you fact now you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they funneled it through a law firm? >> funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh, i didn't know -- he did. >> i still got a reward for anyone who can get me a shot of hannity's face "i didn't know that." can you speak to how the people, as jonathan wswan was saying, n one has tried to insulate michael cohen from anything that

has come his way. no has sug moment that he wasn't doing dirty work for the president or his family. so, it sounds like this freak out, this careful watching of what he's going to do moment to moment is justified. >> michael cohen has made a career of being involved with criminals, and i'm not talking about defending them as a lawyer, you know, whethert' his fathlaw, variousbusiness as ars. this is a guy who has done lots of dirty business for many, many years. so, it should surprise no one that the president and those around him are freak being out at the idea that whatever is in those files, whatever is in those recordings, whatever is in his office is going to be very embarrassing for a lot of people. so, i'm not surprised that there's no insion between michael cohen and everyone else because he's never insulated himself. this is who he is. >> a quick addition to what lydia just said. we are learning that a very small verg, surprisingly small percentage of the documents

seized were privileged. 95% plus don't have to do with legal dealings by cohen. as lydia said, just straight out nasty business. >> we're ready you, harry 162 were privileged. i want to take you back to where you started on this question of collusion and why michael cohen a lot of people to cover the trump white house may not have been aware of his role during the campaign. i don't know how they could have missed them, what polls, all of them. if anyone missed that, he came into the headlines in the muvestigation when he was of interest to robert mueller and that investigation where they were following the money and the interest in developing real esta moscow and other business dealings. so, talk about how michael cohen may have already served a key purpose in the mueller probe. >> right. remember, i think when we first heard about him is when he was showing his passport around and declaring he had never been to prague. >> which turned out to be a lie. >> yes. so, what that was about is his

efforts with a childhood friend, felix saider, a colorful figure with ties to russian officials, trying to realize trump's long-standing dream of the trump in moscow. that dovetailed with the whole missverse pagea episode at the end of 2015 which really ve rise to the famous steele dossier. so, cohen is definitely on the scene in an as yet unplumed story that mht be the genesis of when, in some ways of looking at it, the russian government first kind of gets its hooks into then candidate trump. >> let me come bac to trump on this. you reported that the president's outbursts may be connected to what he's learning as they share with him what's being turned over and what's being returned to them. maggie also tweet this had morning trump has been fuming about cohen in private, blaming him for the messy stormy daniels

situation. he's also fearful of making that public because of chances it further pushes cohen toward the southern district. i understand the game that's being played with the mueller probe, painting the fbi as crooked. you think they're running the same play with the southern district? do you think that is sort of a one size fits all, smear the investigator strategy? >> i think that will put it under the broad umbrella of the quote-unquote deep state. and i think that probably god knows between 30 and 40% of the populati probably buy that based on trp's polling. rudy giuliani, it cannot be emphasized enough, his entire purpose in life is to turn this into a red ask bluish yu and smear mueller. make the end of this process -- he's not doing anyve legal work to be clear. the husband and wife team -- apparently very competent i'm toll by lawyers who know them we and emmet flood is obviously a good lawyer internally. rudy is out there attacking, attacking, attacking.

trump loves that. he's made some miss steps, but if at the end of this process what they're betting on is mueller comes out with a document and that that document immediately becomes a political document. republicans rally around trump, democrats call for impeachment or whatever they do. if that is the outcome, if that is the outcome, if there is not something that pulls over more republicans, that is a giant victory for donald trump. >> and that's been aided and ab congress. >> 100%. >> playing out with the gop in ngress where they are absolutely playing into that narrative. >> and going against trump's own -- these are trump's appointees that run the fbi and d.o.j. you have republican house members going against chris wray's concerns. >> there's been calls to impeach christopher wray. trump chose him literally hand picked -- >> look, you have a meeting where gop staffers claim they are going to be -- that rod rosenstein is accusing him --

accusing them of all kinds of things and that he's going to investigate them. devin nu that meeting republican in charg of the investigation. but that very night rod roads enstein, by the way, a lifelong republican chosen donald trump, goeo dinner with devin nunes. so, this is a farce. this is really a farce. >> real quick. >> this investigation is a little bit different. this one is abouttormy daniels and secondarily we believe karen mcdoal. that's two women. but he's not attacking them, not coming after this one in the same way. come out with anything that somehow damages trump, it's the deep state. storm team stormy is going to join the deep state. >> avenatti will be the deep state by the end of the month. you talked to cohen today. can you look into your crystal ball and predict anything in terms of timing, some reporting from your publication and others that an arrest could be imminent or stephanopoulous reporting all this is about to happen, did you

get that sense from your conversation with him today? >> i think it is hard when yo have people on one hand saying he's flipping and he's going to be arrested. both can't be true. usually if you cooperate, you do that before you are arrested. and from my indication, from my reporting just around people close to cohen, it is headed more towards that direction than perhaps an arrest. towards cooperation. >> towards cooperation. >> i do not know i he has sat down with prosecutors. they are ten steps before anyone would have a conversation, but from people around him -- people around him are urging him to go in that direction. >> all right. >> he might be charged im he isn't arrested. >> never be sorry. pop out there in that beautiful spot. they're going to descend on you. emily jane fox, thank you for your reporting. when we come back, donald trump is sharpening his knives for a fresh round of attacks against the mueller

investigation many expect to be the harshest yet with the release of the inspector general's report for fbi conduct during the campaign. also bob corker has been hitting the t serum again and speaks inconvenient truths nald trump and his supporters as cult members. donald trump returns to his favorite foil calling the american press the biggest enemy. it can grow out of control, disrupting business and taking on a life of its own.

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as donald trump's lawyers worry about the threat posed by michael cohen in the mueller probe, trump appears to be gearing up for an all-out assault on the investigation and his likely weapon of choice, a

report coming tomorrow from the department of justice inspector geral over hillary clinton's e-mails from the washington post today, quote, trump is widely expected to use the inspector general findings to launch fresh political attacks against the law enforcement officials behind robert r's rus probe. for instance, some of mueller's key witnesses in the obstructi of justice case, james comey and andrew mccabe. with us now from "the new york times," justice reporter matt apuzzo. matt apuzzo, we've talked a little already about the strategy of smearing bob mueller and his investigators smearing the trump appointee-led justice department and fbi. but that will not stop or slow down anyone tomorrow if this i.g. report is critical of the last regime. will it? >> we mean, and it will be critical. 28 be critic it will be critical of the fbi in many of its steps during the investigation of hillary clinton and her use of a private e-mail server.

it's not going to directly weigh in on the question of the russia investigation, so trump is sort of playing this like a bank shot. i mean, the same investigators who led the clinton investigation also led the russia investigation. so, if you can kind of say they made mistakes on the one, that they shouldn't be believed in the other. that seems to be the play. what i think is really important is the president has put forward a theory of the case, that there is this kabal inside the fbi that worked to clear hillary clinton of wrongdoing and so this nefarious story about russian meddling, in order to help hillary and hurt donald trump. and i think if he doesn't get that tomorrow, it's really going to hurt that conspiracy theory. but i do think the report overall will be highly critical of the fbi, especially jim comey. >> well, let me just follow-up with two questions.

your great piece about cross fire hurricane, you debunked it with the fact that the investigators who were on the hillary clinton e-mail case were the same ones who argued to keep secret the trump campaign couninvest it's already been debunked. so whatever he does with it tomorrow is sort of been prebutted by the facts. but i have a second question for you. what of the fact that everyone that stands to be maligned in tomorrow's report is already gone? >> yeah, i do think, i do think that if you're the presidt, if you can say this whole thing began a mess, that ultimately helps you i guess politically. practically speaking, i'm not sure that it changes anything. you know, andrew mccabe, former deputy director, has been fired over, you know, allegations that he was not candid with the internal investigation, but again, he wasn't, he wasn't not

candid in a way that hurt trump. it was in a way that h hillary. but you don't get that from the president's tweets. all you get is, andy mccabe is a , 's not to be d. he was involved i my investigation, so thus don't trust my investigation. so you're going to see i think a lot of bank shots by the president here. but at the same time, i do think this is an important investigative document, an important historical document. it's going to book end jim comey's directorship of the fbi. and i think he's going to come in for some serious criticisms about that press conference in july of 2016 and that decision to send a letter in octob of 2016, you know, saying, yeah, we're looking once again at hillary clinton's e-mails. >> does your reporting bear out, jonathan, that the realsion is to indict jim comey's credibility as a witness in the obstruction of justice inquiry into donald trump? >> it's actually much broader and bigger than that. i mean, trump's talent is knowing what a large section of the public -- how they absorb

information and news. people aren't following it the way we are. most people wouldn't know andrew mccabe has left the justice department. >> they're long gone. >> asterisk andrew mccabe. p's goal is to make the whole institution at the top look crooked and corrupt. >> he runs it. >> again, you're inserting details and facts -- >> you need a pan to hit me on the head with. his people run these agencies. he's going toar tomorrow. >> again, trump doesn't care. it's all tactical. he doesn't care about these fact check asterisks. he doesn't care how many politifact documents come out. there is corruption at the highest level to help my opponent and harm me. the corruption spreads across and inconvenient facts like the fact that none of these people work there any more, the fact that they kept it secret the trump investigation. he will just burn through all of them like a bulldozer and talk

to his people. the fact that we here will be fact checking him in mainstream media, he understands that a lot of his people really don't care about that and that the republicans on the hill who will ultimately vote in an impeachment don't care either, they're listening to the same people he does. >> harry litman, i understand from a frequent contact with the president and his legal team on the mueller side understand that impeachment is a tremendous opportunity for this president. that they've talked about bill clinton's approval ratings during his impeachment process, they wup in the 60s. they've talked to him about really trying to indict this original sin that jonathan swan is talking about, that the original investigation was, was started by a group of leaders at the fbi who were corrupt. and that if they can draw into question sort of the original sin, that's what they've called it in conversations i've had with them, they can protect the

president from conviction in the senate and this whole thing is a win for them. what do you make of that sort of debasement of the justice system and the entire process? >> yeah, it's so demoralizing. there is a big irony here. i think everything john and others said, it is a bank shot. there is no fine consistency at all. it will be an attempt to basically smear comey. here's the biggest contradiction of all. as of tomorrow, this i.g. report is going to be -- to have, you know, biblical import for trump. this is an institution within the department of justice that exists because the department of justice is committed to impartial law enforcement and ferreting out of facts. that's who jonathan horowitz is about. he'll be good enough for trump to invoke tomorrow even though he should be part of the whole deep state and swamp. as for the general strategy, yeah, i think that's right. it's a political play and it's

just about this original sin, as they like to say, that from the start everything was just dirty. and there is a good audience out there as long asecially t house of representatives stays republican, for that to be enough and to stave off at a minimum conviction in the senate. probably even impeachment unless there is a change. >> real quick. >> i think the democrats have been pretty disciplined in avoiding the "i" question. i think they know that they're in the cat bird seat now with the mid terms. and the last thing that they need is to draw attention to themselves by overplaying the impeachment hand i think they're staying million miles away from it. issues.lly focusing on the you go out there and you talk to voters, they want to talk about health care, they want to talk about the economy. i agree with jonathan, people aren't paying attention to the mueller investigation. >> i think it all is going to depend on what mueller shows at the end of the day when the

cards are on the table. maybe all the optics, everything we're talking about now will be moot. who knows, we are really in the dark until we know where this ends up. >> only fools prejudge what mueller is going to end up with. matt a and harry litman, thank you for spending time with us. grateful to have you. when we come back gop senator bob corker calls out republicans are acting more like a cult than a politicarty. (indistinguishable muttering) that was awful. why are you so good at this? had a coach in high school. really helped me up my game. i had a coach. math. ooh. so, why don't traders have coaches? who says they don't? coach mcadoo! you know, at td ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum- just to help you improve boom! mad skills. education to take your trading to the next level. only with td ameritrade.

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any lingering doubt that the republican party now belongs to donald trump vanished last night in south carolina. less than three hours before polls closed in that state's congressional primaries, the president tweeted air one, quote, mark sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to maga. he is m.i.a. and nothing but trouble. he's better off in argentina. and then voila, sanford involved a political affair, disappearing

for an entire week lost. so, six minutes after air force one touched down the president tweed this. representatives didn't want me involved in th sanford primary thinking sanford would easily win. with a few hours left, i felt that katie was such a good candidate and sanford was so bad, i had to give it a shot. congrats to katie errin. with us eugene robinson from the washington post and charlie sykes, host of the daily standard pot cast and author of how the right lost its mine. both are msnbc contributors. charlie and i share the bills on our therapy. let me start with you, charlie sykes. let me show you bob corker on trump's base as a cult. >> we're in a strange place. i mean, it's almost, you know, it's becoming a cultish thing, isn't it? and it's not a good place for any party to end up with a

cult-like situation as it relates to a president that happens to be purportedly of the same>> he chose his words v carefully. i got cult loud and clear. a pretty good way to it, isn't it? >> yeah, but only if he had been warned about all this. bob corker, i'm glad he's speaking out. it would have been nice if he would have spoken out earlier and more consistently instead of flip-flopping back and forth. here we're at a moment where every week or so the trump as the president takes somebody out and hangs them from a lamp post and says, okay, who wants to be the next critic? what other republican wants to break with maga? i think we have martha roby forced into a runoff. you've ended mark sanford's political career. jeff flake is on the way out the door. a lot of republicans are looking around and going, okay, i'm not going to criticize the

president. right now, think about what it means to be a president -- what it means to be a republican in a primary. you can be a birther. you can be associated with alt-right bigots and survive and win the primary. but if you criticize trump, that's suicide and that is the dynamic right now in the republican party. >> i understand that to be the electoral dynamic, charlie sykes. but where are their souls? >> well, in deep storage, at least for a while. but right now we're in an election year. and this is a party that's shown itself to be both tribal and cultish, but also transactional. the transactionalism is basically, look, as long as we keep our mouth shut or we laud the president, kiss up to the president, we get what we want. the problem is the price tag keeps going up and they keep having to ask themselves, was that worth it? obviously bob corker reached the breaking point, but again, he's on the way out the door. he's not running for reelection.

>> eugene, i want to play you a little more corker talking about the primaries, the dynamic that charlie raises. let's watch. >> i heard senator, senator from texas, the senior senator from texas saying the day, well, gosh, we might upset the president. we might upset the president of the united states. before the mid terms. but, no, no, no, gosh, we might poke the bear is the language i've been hearing in the hallways. we might poke the bear, the president might get upset with us as united states senators if we vote on the corker amendment. so, we're going to do everything we can to block it. >> eugene, that makes me want to just poke the bear. what's wrong with them? why isn't anyone fired up about that? i am. i'm ready to go poke him, poke him. whatyou think? >> you hear these brave words from porker, you hear them from jeff flake. gee, if only they were in a position actually do something

to actually, you know, take votes and introduce legislation and rally support for it and actually show people by action what donald trump really is. so, i would love to see more action and hear fewerwords, especi the republicans who will say off the record in private -- >> right. >> -- what you say, what charlie says in basically the same language. and then who in public are, you know, just as slaveishly devoted to the cult leader as everybody else. just one thing about charlie's remarks. keep in mind mark sanford's political career has been ended at least twice before. so, i'm not utterly convinced that in my home state of south carolina where all sorts of weird political things happen, mark sanford doesn't yet have another comeback in him. >> maybe he can replace pruitt

if he ever goes. let me ask you about this dynamic. we all talk to republicans who privately say hideous things about donald trump. they call him stupid. they call him unprepared, they call him unethical. they don't have nice things to say about jared and ivanka being in the west wing. they're happy he's watching tv and tweeting and not messing up the minimal amount of policy work. we've all heard from the people but they don't show their faces. the people in charlottesville show their faces in the light of day with this president. >> we've laid it out five different ways but it comes down to electoral math. they're all scared of him. if you compare - bes george w. bush after 9/11, the second most popular president in his presidency in modern political history. >> there it is. >> you take someone like mitch

mcconnell, he's 23, 25%. if you're mcconnell, you know every time, pick your republican member of congress who is deeply unpopular in the 20%s. every time i stick my head up and talkut trump i am sacrificing who knows how many thousands of folks. that's how they think. that's what they're thinking about. >> kit errington said we are party of that's what the republican party is right now. i think you see it in incredibly pernicious ways. yesterday you saw representative steve king, a very conservative member of congress, strong supporter of donald trump. he retweeted a person who calls himself a neo-nazi, british neo-nazi supportive of hitler. and no one has censured him. he's not responded to it. we've been following his tweets on his time line. a reporter chris mathai as. a mainstream supporter is retweeting neo-nazis and no one says boo. this is a point we've reached in

modern society this is the soul and face of the gop. >> i think we have that candidate standing next to a confederate flag. do we have that pick fewer? there he is. -- picture? there he is. donald trump's america. supportive of confederate memorials. after nikki haley sort of rose to political prominence in what feels like another lifetime by taking them down. >> taking mark sanford's seat, by the way. >> right. >> mark sanford, i just want to walk the appalachian trail back there for one second. >> identify me and charlie as we go on longer. he has seen everything there is to see in politics, right? so, he comes out of this -- >> how do you know it's true? >> right. he's in his daze, i can't believe it. people's allegiance to a person. the funny about mark sanford is he was one of the original rebels of the party.

>> right. they cared about fiscal conservatism. charlie, let me give you the last word on jim's point. >> think about mark sanford leaving asideis personal oble pale next to donald trump's and rudy giuliani's. mark sanford was what conservatives claim to want. small government, fiscal conservative constitutional republican. and so, you know, how many times we say this, though, donald trump is who we thought he was going to be. but the pivot, the transformation, the willingness of the republican party to transform itself to accommodate donald trump continues to be an extraordinary story, but it is becoming an old one. anybody that expects that the republican party is going to break with donald trump any time soon i think is somewhat naive. and i want people to realize if republicans hold control of both houses of congress, it is not going to be a continuation of the status quo because that house and that senateill be dramatically more trumpist than they have right now. imagine a senate without corker,

without flake, without john mccain. imagine a house of representatives, a republican majority without all of those moderate reasonable centrists who have been either purged or have decided to retire. it would be a very different political environment. >> i see that you're in my hometown. after that, go get a whiskey at the buena vista. one for you, one for me. charlie sykes, daily depression dose. on the heels of the summit of one of the world's most repressive dictators, donald trump returns to the states with a fresh battery of attacks on the free press, calling the media the biggest enemy.

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where we're changing withs? contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. fresh off his summit with the north korean dictator, donald trump wasted no time in taking to twitter and renewing his vows with the american media as public enemy number one. writing, quote, so funny to watch the fake news, especially nbc and cnn.

they are fighting hard to downplay the deal with north korea. 500 days ago they would have begged for this deal. looked like war would break out. our country's biggest enemy is the fake news so easily promulgated by fools. the media, thasz' who we have to worry about according to the president, not the foreign hostile actor who threatened the u.s. and our allies with nuclear weapons. trump sahat threat is over now. everybody can feel much safer than the day i took office. there is no longer a nuclear threat from north rea, but, eugene, they have the exact same number. i watched that parade every year. my son thinks it's make believe. we watched the nukes. they have all their nukes still. it's really not a mission accomplished moment. i know how those end. >> well, yes, you do. no, i mean, the north korean nuclear threat is still there. what has changed is that these

two erratic and egotistical, ego maniacal leaders are invested in a process which is ostensibly a peace process, a negotiation. and i still think that's a good thing because i think it makes it much less likely that they blunder cat catastrophe kell-- catastrophically into war. it was a possibility a year ago than it is right now. >> didn't we all cover it as such? you and i were on the air together. it was covered as such. so, i guess my point is, you go from -- he has such withdrawal when he departs a meeting with a dictator. i remember he sent some sad tweets after he met duterte. >> yeah. >> i'm so busy, all i do is read documents. he comes back from dictators, that w be so awesome. comes back and here with the free press, he can't control everything that's written about

him. that's what i detected in those tweets this morning. >> well, that is absolutely true. you know how he is about his image and how he'srtrayed, especially when he thinks he's, you know, theyught to be building statues and putting them -- getting ready to put h on mount rushmore. and also you know about the sort of very deliberate attempt that he keeps making to dee legitimatize and discredit the media because ultimately we write the truth about him and he doesn't like that. i will say one thing. the use of that word, promulgated, made me wonder if that was a dance cavino tweet than a trump tweet. >> i want to come to both of you for two reasons. one, you cover the white house, you taple in it. if what we reported was true, they wouldn't call us back every day. so, do you think he knows that people in the building are the

ones that give us what we report about them? >> he would not be asking people who they think is the leaker, which is his -- >> not leaking, but just to cover him. all of us talk to people in the building. >> i'm just trying to explain. . he has said publicly, the leak is a fake they don't exist, et cetera, et cetera. at the same time he is saying that he is asking people who they think the leakers are. so like -- just to be clear. >> you have troves of information that you get from the people that work for him that i read all day long. i mean none of it is fake. do you think he has any -- is this all a show to him? >> of course. and he know -- you know, i reported a scene a couple weeks ago, someone said it was like out of death of stalin. it was like in the oval office. >> at his desk, radio it. >> at his desk of one staffer was accusing the other of leaguing. an amazing scene. trump knows that happened, because he was there. >> so ridiculous.

>> to be clear. >> as a media columnist, the real of all of this, and he says this in interviews with some of your colleagues i believ believes he is good for business. he thinks these attacks don't at the end of the day hurt us. but they could. i was in the whitese on 9/11. you need to be able to speak to more than 40% of the american population. that's about all that he speaks to right now. >> also, you need to speak to the world. i was in moss kpou when we sent cruise mifs into syria because of the chemical weapons attack. and russia doubted the commentary coming through the press because the press is fake. the remark is some after a summit with a brutal dictator. summits -- i don't want to age myself but i was around during the -- summit. these summits, going behind the iron curtain with north korea is

time to show what america is all about. >> that's a good point. i think at least the last three presidents, have on foreign thips d i think for the obama white house it was in china. i remember a couple of trips that bush took maybe to pakistan -- the broader point is that it is the job for the maybe president to have access in countries where that's not normal. what he is normalizing is something that perhaps we take for granted. >> i have been a reporter in places like zimbabwe, sudan, darfur, places where freedom of the press is not taken for on the i'm old enough to remember in 2009 when two american reporters were held by the north koreans government and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. >> yeah. >> i remember seeing the photographs of them coming down plane, and you know, sobbing as they are reunited with their families. it required the -- >> so -- >> you remember this, right. >> yeah. >> the idea that an american --

it took bill clinton going there by the way and negotiating that release. he was then former presi bill clinton. the idea that the current american president is bashing the president while standing next to the dictator of a country that did that to american citizens is chilling. >> up next, is the tide finally turning on scott pruitt. >> we'll see. these zebra and an. they're wearing iot sensors, connected to the ibm cloud. when poachers enter the area, the anals run fo. which alerts rangers, who can track their motions and help stop them before any harm is done. it's a smart way to help increase the rhino population. and turn the poachers into the endangered species. ♪ ♪

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maybe, maybe, maybe this one will mean something. that has been the one about the soundproof phone booth, the $50 a night condo deal, luxury world travel. taxpayer money spent on a hunt around town for a trump h mattress, for ritz-carlton body lotion. he tried to get his wife a chick-fil-a franchise. we could go on. today the post is reporting that the expa administrator enlisted a top aide and republican donors to help find his wife another job. this headline might be the step too far for some republicans. laura ingraham tweeting quote, pruitt bad judgment, hurting potus, gotta go. is this the last straw? >> it's bad. when you lose laura iraham you are in trouble. and the senator of oklahoma effectively agreed with ingraham. he said this is -- listen to his quote. this is -- understand,s that guy who is an ally of pruitt's from

the same state who supports his agenda 1,000%. whose former staff has been populating pruitt's office. he is now saying i don't know if i can keep supporting this guy. and allies of his it's the same thing, they can't understand what they describe as rampant narcissism, and sort of a propensity to put his friends in uncomfortable positions. imagine calling up your friends, you are the epaed a trar and saying can you get my wife a job? >> how about sending your aide out to get lotion? the whole thing is weird. what is wrong with him? >> i'm not a psychiatrist. >> but the conduct. >> i don't know. what do you want from me. >> you cover politics. >> i am not a shrink. >> do you want to take a stab at this? >> i don't know. who is going to get the lotion? that's all -- but i do think that the president has refusaled in digging in behind pruitt. it's sort of -- you know, i

won't use the words here on television but it's kind of saying i can do what i want and i'm sticking by my guy and the heck with all of you. but this is a new political front that's going to have to deal with. >> until it gets inconvenient. at that point, easy to chuck him overboard. >> tther dynamic is it's going to be almost impossible to replace him. mike pompeo was scandal free, overwhelmingly confirmed as cia direct and it was the hardest vote. they had to wait for every last vote. can you imagine replacing scott prui pruitt? and mcconnell doesn't want to give up senate floor time. there are other dynamic at play. eugene? >> i think he is going to keep pruitt, screw you. >> buy him lotion, find him a mattress and move him into the residence. hate tweet laura i think a ram. >> he would rather that pruitt had preferred the lotion from the trump international hotel but other than that inhe is fine with pruitt. he like him. he seems to be a fairly close

adviser, actually. apparently, he calls him up and they talk. >> in this instance i'm rooting for laura i think a ram. my thanks to you panel. that does it for our hour. i'll nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" star now. for once i'm on time. hi, chuck. >> hi. tell mr. swan put the lot in the et. pution in the basket. >> no. we were playing silence of the lambs. i would play it for you but then it would be late. it puts lotion on its body or it gets the hose. >> just put it in the basket. if it's wednesday, ain't no party like a donald trump party. >> tonight, trumping the gop. is the president taking ultimate corol over his party? >> it's becoming a cultish thing, isn't it? plus, is the president's fixer in a fix? while michael cohen is uncoupling with his current counsel. >>and late with immigration votes now set for next week, is the republican