possible punishment of stripping these officials of their security clearances. now, the pretrump tradition is that all former cia, nsa, fbi and dni directors hold a security clearance for the purpose of strengthening the collective wisdom and expertise of the u.s. government and the american president who heads it. it's an alarming move to deprive the federal government of institutional knowledge on the graveest threats facing the country. they helped capture osama bin lauden and terrorist groups shall and they know better than anyone the nation's adversaries including putin. the list includes former cia director john brennan our colleague at nbc news, former fbi director james comey, michael hayden, susan rice, former acting director of the fbi andrew mccabe, and former director of national intelligence james clapper.

a former senior intelligence officially spoke to today following the white house threat called today's announcement a watershed moment of the trump presidency and said, quote, if we have come to a point when we use the stripping of security clearances to deny free speech, we have crossed an american line and people need to act. he also said of the individuals named by the white house today who he knows well, quote, the danger here is that while traditionally former directors have not entered the political debate, they have been called nazis by this president and these guys feel there is a need to protect the community because trump has crossed lines that create danger. this former official added, quote, the standard for stripping clearances is the disclosure of classified information and none of these individuals have disclosed classified information. they're doing no more than exercising their first amendment right to criticize a sitting president. here to discuss the day's developments, some of our favorite reporters and friends. from the white house associated

press reporter jill colvin, frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence, spokesman for the justice department, and john heilman, nbc news and national affairs analyst. jill, let me start with you because you're at the white house. this looked like a question that sarah huckabee sanders was ready for, prepared for and had that list in front of her, knew exactly who the white house wanted to target for this punishment of stripping security clearances. >> absolutely. and this very much looks like an enemy's list, people of the president, the administration feel have been criticizing him unfairly. this all started actually with a tweet from senator paul. he was at the white house earlier today and he tweeted that he was going to be discussing the idea of stripping brennan's security clearance. that followed as we all know brennan was deeply critical of the president's sit down with vladimir putin. he described that press conference in helsinki as, quote, treasonous and paul's suggestion was his clearance be stripped for allegedly using his

clearance to make money and for improper means. the president sat down with paul and then you had sarah coming out to the podium not very long after and adding these other five officials to that list of people that they'd like to punish. it's notable so far we've heard reactions from two of those people, including the former fbi director whose spokesman says, in fact, his clearance was already stripped when he was terminated from his job as deputy fbi director and kind of poking at the white house saying, you think maybe they would have done their research before coming out here and announcing this. >> frank figliuzzi, they never do their research. they also never fail to recognize the obvious, which is that at least when it comes to former fbi director jim comey, general michael hayden, andrew mccabe, at least half of the individuals on this list are republicans. so the idea that they're targeting i think everyone on this list also with the exception of perhaps susan rice has served democratic and

republican presidents. so the idea that they're now turning post-partisan into something with an entirely new meaning, it's sort of post republican democratic president, this really is this loyalty strand or streak that jim comey writes about, that you and i have talked about. what do you see when you hear an announcement like today? >> i think that -- >> i'm sorry, jill, this was for frank. i apologize. >> i apologize. >> nicolle, while this is really disturbing, what we're seeing is not surprising because it's the next troubling step on this downward spiral toward weaponizing and politicizing intelligence for political purposes. once again, the president is putting his personal interests over the national interests. but we shouldn't be shocked by this because the gop and congress members and intel committee members have been slowly but surely doing this over the last several months. they've been demanding the names of sources and methods. they've been releasing memos and

classified information that they selectively release. and now we're seeing the president, against his political enemies, deciding to pull clearances. but what your viewers need to understand is as you just said, these former directors and executives routinely keep their clearance for at least a year, sometimes more. when i retired from the fbi's head of counter intelligence, i kept my fbi clearance for about a year. there is a reason for that. you're consulted on things that happen during your tenure. if a question or clarification is needed, you're called in and you're told, here's the current situation. what had you done about that and why are our allies doing this or enemies doing this? by pulling these clearances, he actually is weakening our national security. >> and, john heilman, if you can weigh in both on the names on the list as well as the tactic itself, it seems once again to reveal a president who only views the american presidency as the coverage of himself. >> some of the names on the list

are republicans. many of the names on the list are people who have no known partisan affiliation who have served both democrat and republican and in -- brennan, served republican administrations alike. frank said the most important thing just now. there is nothing surprising about this. this is a president who has repeatedly over and over again to the point where we now don't really notice, talks about the press as the ends am i of temy people. in an tangible way has threatened to pull network broadcast licenses, threaten to draw white house reporters credentials. it's the same thing. he is beginning to, as he feels more threatened, as he feels more imperiled, he is beginning to draw up this enemy list. the enemies are the people who speak out against him and have power. it's not -- the rabble doesn't bother him. the fact there are democrats in the country doesn't bother him. it's the fact this came at the

end of the last week. it's the way in which -- we talked about this on friday -- the way in which you could hear the collective bipartisan national security and intelligence establishment going oh, my god, what did we just see this week? and now on this monday that he would turn against them in a way that obviously disrespects civil liberties, disrespects free press, is an autocratic kind of move. the kind of thing you'd see in a banana republic. it is not surprising in the least. i find it horrifying obviously. but that it happened on this monday after what happened last week does not surprise me at all. >> and this former intelligence official who does not step into the fray -- i spoke to immediately after this happened, he worked alongside all of the individuals on this list -- said what you just said, that this is a big step toward realizing the autocratic fantasies of this president. >> by the time we get to the end of the week he's going to want to pull dan coats' security clearance. >> exactly. >> there will be people in his administration who will say

things that bother him, who laugh at him in someplace he thinks is offensive. he'll turn to them effectively, fire dan coats. i'm pronot predicting anything. dan coats, i'm telling you, we all know this is true, dan coats and john brennan and jim clapper and jim comey -- >> general hayden. >> general hayden and george ten en, anybody who has ever touched national security intelligence in this country all basically had the same point of view about a lot of things that are going on with donald trump. >> and they all have the same point of view about the threat that vladimir putin faces or represents to our democracy. they all see, you know when they look up, he they see the sky, when they look down they see the ground. donald trump is in denial the sky is up and the ground is down. it's not a coincidence the enemy's list is introduced on a monday after a week of withering commentary from tray gowdy about the president's actions in

helsinki. >> it's not after the week where he is accused by both parties of selling out the country. if you look at what happened after the meeting. you don't have to look hard to see a direct parallel to what the president is trying to do now. look at what vladimir putin propose ed in that meeting. he proposed using the armsz of government to retaliate against critics of him. bill broader and mike mcfaul. the kind of thing you expect to see from vladimir putin. the kind of thing you expect to see from erdogan in turkey. the kind of thing you never expect to see in liberal democracies. that's what the president is trying to do here. >> jill, let me ask you. the spin i heard from dan coats on one senior security official and one senior advisor outside the president trump white house was the same. coats has lost a step. they tried to present coats as someone with an attled mind. is this all they have left? are they at the politics of personal destruction to malign

the credibility and character of people within the administration who dare to speak the truth about the nature of the russian president? >> look, we've definitely seen a pattern where the president is angry about people he lodges personal insults, personal attacks against them. also seen a pattern where the white house tries to develop distance between themselves and the person who is alleged to be offending. but what coats did there was pretty extraordinary. we have not seen that kind of criticism by a sitting member of the administration. and i think a lot of people -- dan coats has had a very low profile in this administration. one way not to purse off the president, to hang low, not be a distraction, take media attention away from the boss. this is really i think the first time a lot of us have really paid much attention to him publicly, stepping out on the public stage in this decision to criticize the president. and from our sources at the a.p., the president was furious at that performance, that

interview, adding it to a long list of other people he's infuriated with right now from reporters to members of his own party in congress. he feels have not been nearly strong enough in coming to his defense. and so at this point the president is in a very difficult position in his tenure and is really unhappy. >> frank figliuzzi, can you weigh in on the optics of having someone like jared kushner and rob porter in possession of a security clearance when they shouldn't have been, and then trying to strip clearances from the men and women who have all of the information that this administration lacks, all of the institutional knowledge that this administration could rather desperately benefit from if they had the sort of confidence and bigness to reach out to these men and women? >> i think it makes it more transparent what's motivating things here. when someone who is accused of beating women, beating their wives, or significant others, when someone has been under investigation like jared kushner

and maintains the clearance, we see what's going on here. the rules don't apply and i make the rules up as i go along depending on who i like and don't like. and what that does within the government, nicolle, is it makes it extremely hard for business as usual and to enforce rules against the rank and file and any agency who are debating their clearance, they're disputing their pulled clearance. you can't possibly appeal this properly in this current setting where you can yank someone's clearance or maintain someone's clearance under these conditions. >> frank, let me ask you one more. i had general hayden on brian williams' program in january before the president was inaugurated. that was the time donald trump was tweeting things like this. intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to leak into the public. one last shot at me. are we living in nazi germany? his hot war against the intelligence community has been

eclipsed in some way on his hot war against the fbi and robert mueller. but the war and the distrust of the intelligence community is very much ongoing. we've had a lot of conversation biz how that manifests itself, that people, allies and frenemies may not want to share intelligence with us and it's the most valuable kind of intelligence we get. can you talk about what that looks like from the perspective of someone investigating possible collusion between an american adversary and an american president? >> yeah. so, collusion, conspiracy, all of that goes toward mind-set. so if you're sitting in mueller's seat, for example, and you're watching all of this play out on a daily basis, all of this is fair game for further evidence, further pieces of the puzzle that goes toward establishing the president's mind-set. so, the president clearly is not being well served by advisors or he's not listening to them

because each of these retributive steps, attempts to lash out at political enemies show a mind-set of i need to protect myself. i need to -- it's essentially an obstruction mind-set, right? and with regard to our allies, the business of sharing sensitive intelligence with us gets eroded every time they view our white house as some entity that can't be trusted with intelligence or will politicize and weaponize that intelligence. >> we're going to hear a lot -- twitter is already lit up with it and jill talked about it a second ago -- the notion of an enemies list. the person at the top was daniel els berg. daniel els berg now venerated by the left was a guy who came up through the marine corps, had worked in the defense demps or bob mcnamara, had seen the vietnam war up close, understood what it was about, came out and worked for rand, not rand paul,

but the rand corporation. was a person the left despised. the person who leaked the pentagon papers and helped bring it down. that's the kind of guy who is brennan, clapper, comey. >> truth tellers. >> and people who know the stuff that's at issue from the inside, and they become more powerful voices because they know it from the inside, because they're not -- >> and they're not partisan. >> they're not partisan. that was the truth of els berg. remember in 1973 was charged with espionage act and faced 115 years in prison. that's where we're headed. a lot of the per ills of watergate are misguided. we are in that moment right now and this is the beginning of a conversation that is going to go very quickly i think to that kind of draconian kind of retribution this president is going to bring against people who threaten him. >> i want to bring steve schmidt into the conversation. i wrant to re-set for our viewers, the white house

releasing a list of former national security officials for whom they have now publicly stated they have under consideration the punishment of stripping these men and women of their security clearances. these men former cia directorrs, former fbi security director, all maintain security clearances for giving their expertise, giving their institutional knowledge to a president and the executive branch of government after they leave. joining us now steve schmidt. go, steve. >> hi, nicolle. good to be with you. >> i didn't think you needed a set up. >> what is the question for steve? >> this is a, this is a very dangerous day for american democracy. this is the move of an autocrat, not an american president. we don't strip security clearances for political reasons from members of the opposition party who have served all of their careers, all of their lives in defense of the country,

have sworn oaths to the constitution, not to a party, not to the leader, but, you know, this is part and parcel. trump began politicizing the intelligence services from hour one of his administration when he went to the cia memorial wall and talked about his inaugural crowds. this is just a culmination of his increasingly erratic behavior. and, of course, this occurs a week after he stood up next to the russian president and took the russian president's side in a dispute with america's intelligence agencies. and, of course, then forced his national director dan coats to kowtow, publicly apologize, and essentially humiliate himself at the feet of the leader. so this is, again, this president's continuing abuse of power, his, his, his authoritarian instinct at full use here. it is alarming to say the least. >> steve, let me play for you

the president's recent attacks. this seems like something that was building up in him and really just came spilling out today. let's watch the president with jeff glor of cbs news ticking off people he was mad about. >> do you think any intelligence agencies, u.s. intelligence agencies are out to get you? >> well, certainly in the past. it's been terrible. you look at brennan. you look at clapper. you look at hayden. you look at comey. i have no confidence in a guy like brennan. i think he's a total low life. i have no confidence in clapper. you know, clapper wrote me a beautiful letter when i first went to office and it was really nice, and then all of a sudden he's gone hey wire because they got to him and they probably got him to say things that maybe he doesn't even mean. but no, i certainly don't have confidence in past people. you look at what's happened. take a look at all of the shenanigans that have gone on, very hard to have confidence in that group. >> steve schmidt, two more

poeses of information to throw at you and then take it away. during the most controversial and really devastating periods politically after the iraq war took some of its, you know, most botched turns, there was never an effort -- i talked to three former -- of our former colleagues. no one was ever stripped of their security clearances of being harsh critics of the iraq war. no critics take away security clearances of the one that preceded it, no matter how harsh the political debate comes. and i heard the president say something there that struck me. somebody got to them. well, i've heard from people inside the president's inner circle who are saying, i think maybe somebody got to him. i mean, there are people who have always been skeptical of the collusion question when it comes to donald trump, but have always thought, well, he might have obstructed justice because he's sloppy and messy and used to family mom and pop business operations. they are now openly wondering, not in front of television cameras, but in conversations,

whether there might be something there on this collusion question. your thoughts? >> well, when you diagram the president's rantings right there, what jumps out, of course, is his allegation of nefarious conspiracy. they got to him. like an episode from the x-files. this is not the musings of a sound mind. this is the rantings of somebody who seems unhinged frankly. but the allegation of conspiracy which fuses together with his scapegoating of minority populations and, of course, his victimization of his supporters, that they are all being victimized together by this hidden conspiracy that works for the purposes of the elites against the victim class, that is supported by minority populations, the invading hoards of guatemala children, for example. this is all part of his schtick

that he repeats over and over again to his mass rallies. no doubt on fox news there will be all manner of allegations of conspiracy that will contextual ize the they got to him and make it make sense to 40% of the country for whom trump has stripped away any ability that they have to see objective truth and fact. and, of course, that's alarming in a democracy. >> all right. nobody is going anywhere on a day like today. we're losing jill colvin. thank you so much for starting us off with your reporting. when we come back, the president's weekend long twitter tirade after one of the wos worst weeks of his presidency? what has him triggered the most? russia or the michael cohen tapes? it believed the russian government's efforts were being coordinated with former trump security advisor carter page and

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xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. triggered, that's best way to describe the american president this hour. his 22-tweet weekend paints the picture of a president tsuing in his juices over the devastating fallout from his helsinki gaffs. the ongoing mueller investigation, the leak of a tape in which he discusses a payment to a former play boy play mate, and the trial of his former campaign chairman paul manafort who is in court today. a federal judge has just made

public the identity of five witnesses who have been granted immunity to testify against manafort. the request from the special counsel's office for immunity was news we shared with you here last week and the judge's announcement today makes clear that the special counsel's request was indeed granted. the judge in manafort's case also granted the delay of his trial. it's now set to begin a week from tomorrow. it is against this backdrop of bruising criticism even from the president's closest allies in congress and questions from among the president's outside advisors that perhaps there is something there when it comes to donald trump's financial or personal ties to putin as one close ally suggested to me. and more witnesses coming forward in the special counsel investigation that donald trump seemed to unravel over the weekend revealing his fears over the ongoing probe into collusion and obstruction of justice. the president tweeting, quote, so president obama knew about russia before the election. why didn't he do something about it? why didn't he tell our campaign? because it is all a big hoax,

that's why. joining us at the table, elise jordan former aide in the george w. bush white house and state department and now msnbc analyst. and mara gay, member of the towed y-- editorial board. frank figliuzzi is still with us. elise, to you first. the spectacle of the president unwinding and letting it all hang out over the weekend was disturbing even if you're a critic. >> yes, looking at all the tweets lined up together, it keeps going and going and going. it's not normal behavior for really anyone to tweet with that velocity and any friend or family member who did so, i would naturally be concerned about. >> say something. >> i do think it's always interesting that donald trump manages to go back and some of his tweets to a strain of truth that is undeniable. he's asking the question, why didn't obama say anything? why didn't obama do anything? and it's a fair question to be

asked. >> well, but obama did -- i mean, they did put out a statement in october. it was overshadowed by the access hollywood tape, but they did say something. on the question of doing something, they did sanction the russians before obama left office. so i guess the point is the tweets are increasingly disconnected from facts. they've never been truthful. but now they're almost a projection of the opposite of reality. >> last week was a dangerous week for the president. here's why. he ended up the week in the place that he cannot afford to be politically, and that's admitting that russian meddling happened, that russian interference happened. the minute he admits that russian interference happened as he was force today do last week, two days later, three days later, it means that the special prosecutor who has indicted 25 russians is not conducting a witch hunt. he can't -- president can't live in that space pli kelley because if means when he moves on next to roger stone, jared kushner or the president himself it means it's a prosecutor with legitimacy. you se saw regular service

return when the president was dragged into admitting that in fact it was the russian whose were responsible, you saw him again calling it a hoax. i'm sure that within a few days we'll see him surfacing conspiracy theories about the dnc server. >> last week in helsinki. >> another way of saying it wasn't the russians, it was somebody else. he cannot afford to be in the place that he was in this week because he doesn't know what's coming next in the manafort probe. that's why you see him returning to these conspiracy theories about what he thinks is going on. >> do we know anything about the five new witnesses in the manafort trial? >> we know they're not some of the bold faced names there have been speculation about. there was speculation it would be political consultants from both parties manafort used on behalf of the party of regents in ukraine. it's not. it's names we don't recognize. probably people who helped him, i would suspect, with some of the money laundering aspects. one of the stores that he frequented. i think we'll find out. when you have a trial like this, you have facts you have to put on in evidence and clearly some

of the people the government wants to call weren't willing to do it without immunity. >> frank, does it tell you anything about the way the mueller probe is running, that the request for immunity was granted or as matt said, you simply had to prove they had valuable testimony and that it was something, you know, fair trade-off? >> there's two things the judge would consider here. one is do they have valid substantive pertinent testimony in this case, evidence of criminality on manafort's part? and secondly, are they exposed themselves, that this merits immunity for them? and the judge obviously decided yes to both of those questions. so whenever i see five people who reportedly -- we need to flesh out exactly who they are, but earlier tom winter from msnbc was reporting they may have financial and/or banking connections. if that's the case, then we're talking about money laundering, bank fraud, mortgage fraud of some sort. and if they're exposed themselves, there's some

criminality on both sides there. >> someone described manafort and cohen as sort of two prongs getting stuck into the electrical socket. both of them can shock this president and he doesn't tweet about them a lot. doesn't tweet about cohen and manafort as much as he tweets attacks against the mueller probe and we don't hear as much from the podium about cohen or manafort, but that behind the scenes both men, cohen probably more than manafort, created a lot of potential legal peril, a lot of anxiety for this president. news today there are 12 more tapes, 12 more recordings in the hands of federal investigators from cohen. what do you make of the president's 22-tweet weekend as sort of unraveling and the fact that manafort and cohen are on their way into the electrical socket? >> i think it's remarkable. if the president was on message and he figured there wasn't anything to worry about, we wouldn't see a meltdown. i also think it's interesting frankly he's even willing to talk about this. really what would be the smartest thing for him is to talk about jobs, but he can't help himself because he's so

anxious about it. so i just think this kind of has snowballed and gets bigger and bigger. if you remember we go back to the papadopoulos episode, nobody had ever heard of his name either and that was one of the cleanest-cut examples of criminally at th criminality that has come so far. when you hear the five names, there's a lot we don't know and that has got to keep the president and the white house on their toes. >> i'm reminded, john, of the description someone gave of the mueller probe it's not an iceberg, it's an underground village. it's sprawling and there are parts you can't see anywhere of. >> when you talked in the intro about donald trump stewing in his own juices -- i'm having trouble with that. >> sorry about that. >> anyplace on television, anywhere, eww. so, i was on vacation. >> i know. >> what i --

>> we missed you. >> many people have commented about the importance of the indictments that were issued against the russians the other day. i don't think even now as big as what happened in helsinki was, as big as the things that happened since then, i don't think people appreciate -- i'm going to your metaphor here, just the consequence of what that meant and really -- i sat there on vacation agog at the detail, the detective work involved and the willingness of what mueller was doing there. not just with respect -- partly with respect to trump's -- the timing of it, trump in helsinki, but also going straight to vladimir putin and saying, we have the names, we have the forensics. >> the key stroke evidence. >> key stroke evidence. and the implication of that for donald trump is really unnerving because the reality is we don't know what bob mueller has. anybody objective recognizes the professionalism of the operation and how good this team is and how many indictments they

brought, how many guilty pleas they secured. but looking at that indictment, if you had any doubt, it was dispelled. the doubt, any doubt that if there was collusion, mueller is going to find it. if he found those, that key stroke evidence, donald trump or people around donald trump colluded with the russians which i think a lot of people you said people who were doubters for a long time are saying, hey, maybe this happened, mueller has got it. and that moment was to me just like, okay, we are -- if there's people to go down, they are going down. >> you're bursting. >> at the beginning of this investigation, you talked about an underground village. we knew there were several separate tracks. manafort had criminal liability, mike flynn had criminal liability, there were actions russians had taken, whether americans held and obstruction of justice. the first three are all done. mueller has taken care of manafort, gates and the russians. we don't know the questions about americans or the obstruction of justice. both of those involve donald trump. we are at the point of the

investigation where the only thing left for bob mueller to do, he hasn't packed up yet, is to take out trump. >> you wonder why he's triggered and stewing. >> after a quick break, donald trump goes all caps against iran. what's behind the president's late night threat against that country? might it be the president's failure with north korea? man 1: this is my body of proof. woman 1: proof of less joint pain... woman 2: ...and clearer skin. woman 3: this is my body of proof. man 2: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 4: ...with humira. woman 5: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. avo: humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened;

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our president will start a war with iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. he's weak and he's ineffective. we have a real problem in the white house. so i believe that he will attack iran sometime prior to the election because he thinks that's the only way he can get elected. isn't it pathetic? >> isn't it? right around the time president obama was running for reelection, that was an oft repeated thesis from president

trump that a leader in political peril will start a conflict with iran just to get reelected. so here's last night's tweet from the president in all caps. to iranian president rouhani, never, ever threat ebb the united states again or you will suffer consequence the likes of which few throughout history -- doesn't know anything about history, i don't like that line -- have ever suffered before. we will not stand for your demented words of violence and death. be cautious. that tweet was seemingly in response to trump playing with the lion's tail, adding iran is the mother of all peace and war with iran is the mother of all wars. so here, hyman. >> i liked your all-caps voice. that was good. >> what's this about? there was some back and forth in the briefing room. kristen welker asked sarah if this was about the president trying to change the subject from russia to iran? she said no, i think the president unlike the media has the ability to focus on more than one thing at a time. and we know the media is

obsessed with russia all the time but the president is focused on a lot ever things across the globe and iran is one of them. >> there was a moment when the all caps thing happened. on friday when the cohen tapes come out, we're going to get all caps this weekend. that was my first thought friday. when this thing came out, you woke up this morning, this is the shiny object. this is the thing we're 0 now -- let's move off russia, move off my sex life. move off play boy bunnies where i can look tough. he went off and started obsessing about russia again. he has the ability to focus on many things. they call it focus. he's just flinging spaghetti at the wall at this point, you know. again, this goes back really to the last block, him being triggered. i've said this before over the last 18 months at various times, but this sense of panic is more acute now. and if you look at all those tweets over the weekend and all the way up until this morning, the varied, and to us other his

word, demented nature of them and unfocusedness of them is a raw desperation to get people to talk not just about anything other than russia and his seconds life, but even to talk about russia because he's bringing that up again. but to somehow not talk about what we talked about last week. >> steve schmidt, our friend richard hawes made some of these comments. allied and adversaries and adversaries are friends. autocrat are preferred to democrats. unstructured summits with foes go more smoothly than organized summits with friends. a vague promise to get north korea's nuclear weapons is accept al acceptable while a specific agreement with iran is not. it's a great list. your thoughts about maybe some of the things that end up being covered at 4:41 instead of 4:01 what jeremy bash last week described as the most dramatic and u.s. shift in foreign policy in history.

>> absolutely it's the largest shift in u.s. policy in history. and it's also an inexorable pathway to retreat ainto declin and make the world more profoundly more dangerous. we've seen him attacking the prime minister of canada, attacking the prime minister of great britain. attacking the chancellor of germany. attacking nato. questioning the necessity of the european union. the importance of the u.s.-led liberal global order. all the while he gets on his knees and submits himself to the russian autocrat, vladimir putin. of course, when he then tries to change the subject by attacking the nfl and nfl players again, that doesn't work. he reaches into his bag of tricks and he does the all caps iran tweet. what leaders are seeing on the world stage is a fool. what they're seeing on the world stage is someone who is utterly weak, who is unprepared. so that is causing great

concern, anxiety, worry and maybe even panic amongst our allies and great glee and delight amongst our adversaries, two of whom are rouhani, the president of iran and the russian president who would love nothing more than to see the retreat and decline of american power throughout the world, which donald trump is doing an excellent job of delivering for him. >> elise, let's add one more to steve's list, and that would be kim jong-un who is now seemingly, to build off steve's point, seemingly to enjoy embarrassing secretary of state mike pompeo. the washington post reports, it has put a bright spotlight on pompeo trying to wring concessions from his counterpart. low point from the perspective of u.s. officials came on the third visit to pyongyang when he pressed for details of their plans to return the remains of u.s. soldiers killed during the korean war. when pompeo arrived in pyongyang the north koreans insisted they

were not ready to commit to specifics. john brennan said on this program donald trump had been duped by the north koreans. it looks like pompeo's follow-up efforts that is the case. >> duped or you could say he declared victory and he wasn't concentrating on any details and any firm commitments. -- >> so there was no victory. >> the north koreans think we can get away with whatever we want. why should we give up anything when this guy is going to declare victory no matter what? back to the contrast with the behavior regarding iran and north korea where donald trump just seemed so desperate for a deal, he doesn't seem to demand denuclearization at all. but the iranians, we are no longer part of the jcpoa any more because e. thhe felt they not abiding by the agreement, which they were. that said, what rouhani said is what i've been hearing from military leaders for years. that if we did go to war in iran, it would be the mother of

all wars and it would make iraq, the war in iraq look like child's play considering the devastation and destruction that would be wrought if we did go into iran. >> mara, it seems to, with the failure in north korea which so far is a failure, with the president's submission to the russian leader which is now on the world stage and people can replay that all they want when other countries, intelligence al agencies try to figure out donald trump, say his hands are big and you undermine the intelligence community. we seem to be in a weaker place with iran than we've been in a generation. >> that's true. pulling back for a moment, at the same time all this is going on, the president's poll numbers which are being buoyed by his base, he's seeing from the beginning, his base is the only chance that he has at continuing to be president, at continuing to hold onto congress. and so he will follow his base off of a cliff.

damned the consequence for our country. he's acting like a caged animal in some ways, but half the country is seeing one thing and -- >> 40%. >> republicans are not seeing the same thing. >> two-thirds of the country according to abc news. two-thirds of the country didn't like his performance and three quarters of the country don't like him attacking the intelligence agencies. i agree with you about his instincts which are base, base, base, base. a political sign of desperation. i'll say this again. you've been on this for a while and i appreciate you have been. we focus on the trump base a lot, talk about the trump voters. to the extent trump is obsessed with it as a survival strategy, we should focus on it, talk about it. right now on these big issues, the vast majority of the country is against him. against him on helsinki, even more so on attacking the intelligence agency. look at that poll this morning. this is before he tried to withdraw the security clearances, his attacks on the intelligence community right now are opposed by 77, 78% of the

country. >> talk about triggered. trump's base was too small for trump to have written a victory speech. he did not think his base would deliver the presidency to him. so the idea we obsess over his voters to what end? nixon had the same base when he resigned. this idea that the intelligence, in spite of the intelligence community is one he can win, it is wrong. it is wrong, mr. president. when we come back, be careful what you wish for. after the republicans spent months, months pushing for the release of classified documents, this week they got their wish and it appears to drive a hole right into their arguments, the ones they made to discredit the mueller investigation. that story is next.

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this weekend the trump administration did something that's never, ever, ever, ever been done before. they released an application for a wiretap on carter page. trump is claiming that it vindicates his attacks on the mueller probe. he tweeted so we now find out

that it was indeed the unverified and fake dirty dossier -- sorry. dirty donald, that was paid for by crooked hillary clinton and the dnc that was knowingly and falsely submitted to fisa and which was responsible for starting the totally conflicted and discredited mueller witch hunt. but that tweet along with several others from this weekend is full of lies. imagine that. in fact the application and three renewals for it undermine every temple of trump's argument against the mueller probe. let's go through them. first, trump's claim that the documents confirm that the department of justice and fbi failed to disclose that one of the sources of intelligence, christopher steele, was paid by democrats. now, the reality, the application clearly states that steele was hired to conduct research regarding donald trump's ties to rubrussia and t people who likely conducted it were likely looking for information to discredit trump's campaign. that's on the application.

next, the claim trump tweeted this weekend. this is so bad they should be looking at the judges who signed off on this stuff. all right, mr. president. we looked at the signatures of the four judges on the application and the renewals. they're all republicans. >> four out of four? >> four out of four, heilemann. >> wow! >> and finally, his oft-repeated claim, no collusion. the fbi believes the russian efforts are coordinated with page and perhaps other individuals associated with trump's campaign. frank, i remember talking with officials who said if it weren't for the national security considerations and the desire and the mission to protect sources and methods, we should put this out. this shows, this show cases the incorruptible nature of the fisa court. if donald trump knows what fisa stands for i'll send him a big

thing for his presidency. even amid the unprecedented release of sensitive classified information, it rebukes the president the way his attacks and attack dogs never could. >> i never thought i'd say this, but i'm actually pleased that this release occurred. boy, i cringe even as i say that, but it clearly shows that the system worked here. it is a strong affidavit. and the renewals are even stronger, as you see them growing in size each time they're renewed and each judge signing off on them. an it refutes everything that devin nunes has been saying about the dossier being the majority of the probable cause. or the failure to tell the judges that there are issues with christopher steele. all of that has been refuted. i can't imagine how devin nunes can look in a camera and speak that he's vindicated today, but he's doing it inanyway. >> and it does lay bare the case for collusion.

we know there was collusion between the russian government and carter page. don't take the deep state's word for it, take carter page's word for it. >> he referred to himself at one point as advisor to the kremlin. i think this has been a useful exercise seeing this memo. it was pretty clear back when in february when the two versions of the memo was released, the democratic version and republican version. who was telling the truth about what the warrant application said and who wasn't. now anyone can look at this application and see devin nunes was flat-out lying. the fbi told the court it was someone who likely wanted to discredit donald trump's campaign who was spreading this information. i say it's a useful exercise because we've seen the president lie to the american people a lot. >> why is devin nunes lying to the american people and why doesn't paul ryan do anything? >> we can see conservative writers, members of congress who now can look at this application and know and see they have the american people look at it and know that they are flat-out lying about what it says.

and the only reason they would be doing it is to protect donald trump. >> steve schmidt, why is devin nunes getting away with lying to the american people with the fbi? why is the republican party now foresmearing the fbi with lies? >> because paul ryan, the speaker of house, is allowing it to happen, full stop, period. >> why? >> he is the weakless, most spineless speaker that the country has ever seen. for whatever reason, what malfunction has occurred in paul ryan's brain, he has forgotten that his oath is to the constitution of the united states, that the speakership is a trust. he is the third in line to the office of president of the united states and he sits at the dais of the people's house under the capitol dome that abraham lincoln insisted be constructed during civil war so that government of the people, by the people, for the people, reconsecrated would have a place

to gather and to meet. the smallness of paul ryan for this big moment in time can't be overstated. what he's allowing devin nunes to do beyond degrading the intelligence committee, destroying its functionality, is doing extreme harm to the country and it is in his power to stop it five minutes ago as it is in his power to stop it five minutes from now. hopefully he will redeem himself on some date at some hour that is yet certain. >> heilemann? >> he might not be getting away with it and here's why. do you know how much devin nunes won by in 2016? 35 points. do you know how much devin nunes is ahead of his challenger right now? 8. he's under 50% and he's a republican incumbent chairman of the house committee. he's in danger and he could lose his seat with all of this. >> and with his hometown newspaper writing editorials saying why isn't devin nunes

delivering for his district as he's wrapped up in all of this, i think he has problems. >> voters can save their souls. we'll be right back. it's pretty amazing out there. the world is full of more possibilities than ever before. and american express has your back every step of the way- whether it's the comfort of knowing help is just a call away with global assist. or getting financing to fund your business. no one has your back like american express. so where ever you go. we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it.

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i wish i could keep talking to these friends. i thank steve, frank, elise, margay and john. "mtp daily" starts right now with the fabulous katy tur in for chuck. >> not for a long shot. nicolle wallace, thank you very much. if it's monday, it's a perfect legal storm for the white house. tonight, from the page fisa release to manafort in courts and the cohen tape. we're tracking the growing legal fallout for the president's inner circle. plus, all caps locked and loaded. what's behind the president's new war of words with iran? >> the president's been, i think, pretty strong since day one in his language towards iran. >> and