show @velshiruhle. we don't want to sully andrea's show. >> not just the pants part. both levels. thank you. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," tale of the tape. the president's reaction today following the release of a recording secretly taped by his lawyer michael cohen, of the two men talking two weeks before the election about hush money, trying to silence a former playboy playmate who alleges a ten-month affair with mr. trump. >> so i'm all over that. and i spoke to allen about it. when it comes time for the financing -- >> what financing? >> well, we'll have to pay. >> we now have the leader of the free world on tape, two months before election day, really enmeshed in the details of the payment of hush money to a woman they wanted to keep quiet. diplomatic insecurity. the former american ambassador to moscow heads to the white house.

state and justice departments. trying to get the administration to tell vladimir putin not to dare prosecute former officials on trumped-up criminal charges. >> if that happens, then we all have to worry about, when we travel abroad for a red notice to be put out by interpol asking for us to be arrested and sent to russia. and remote control. new reports president trump keeps an iron fist on that tv remote aboard air force one. when he discovered the first lady was watching cnn instead of fox news. >> don't believe the crap you see from these people. the fake news. ♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump is lashing out at michael cohen, his former lawyer, for secretly taping a conversation with mr. trump just before election and releasing it now to cnn. it captures donald trump talking to his personal attorney about how they could buy the rights to

kill a story from playboy model karen mcdougal after an alleged long-running affair with mr. trump. the discussion is believed to be one of as many as 12 separately recorded conversations by mr. cohen now in the hands of prosecutors. what you are about to hear has been authenticated by nbc news but we're not aware of if there has been editing or altering to the original recording. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david so that i'm going to do that right away. i've spoken to weisselberg about how to set it up with funding. all the stuff, all the stuff. you never know what company -- >> maybe he gets hit by a -- >> correct. so i'm all over that. i spoke to allen about it. when it comes time for the financing -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay.

>> cash. >> no, no. >> allen is a long time accountant for the trump organization. this morning the pretty tweeted, what kind of a lawyer would tape a client? so sad. is this a first? never heard of it before. why was the tape so abruptly terminated, cut, before i was presumably saying positive things? i hear there are other clients and reporters who are taped. can this be so? too bad. joining me now, nbc's peter alexander. peter, what a mess, frankly. the cohen tape, this is clearly a strong signal from michael cohen that he is now in a different place vis-à-vis his client donald trump, and the tweet today showing anger in different directions, the vulnerability the president may feel about what could happen. what do we know about this tape? they were clearly speaking one on one, in person, in trump

tower. this was a meeting, not on the phone. it's not illegal but it is clearly raising ethical questions as well. >> reporter: yeah, the president trying to raise some of those ethical questions. new york is a one-party state, that's why it would not be illegal. but obviously the release of this audio recording, as you note, just months before the 2016 election, escalates the dispute here. it's significant for a series of reasons. for one, the president appears to have knowledge about this hush money payment that was initially made by ami, the parent company of "national inquirer," to that woman on your screen, karen mcdougal, former playboy playmate model. an aide to then-candidate donald trump said they had no knowledge of this. michael cohen's attorney says this is effectively them hitting the reset button, that michael cohen wants to tell the truth, let the chips fall as they may. in recent conversations with reporters, lanny davis,

representing michael cohen, said he's a free man now, this is his independence day, he's going to say everything he has to say about this. rudy giuliani, representing the president, says this is all effectively outrageous, he says the bottom line is this only vindicates my client. the president is surprised, guiliani insists, by this conversation about a hush money payment. he says it's the president who wanted the payment to be made by check and not cash, that that would effectively memorialize it. but what's significant there is, if this payment were made, and giuliani says the payment was never made, whether or not it was cash or check, either way it would be a campaign finance violation. perhaps as important as anything here, andrea, is what we heard from lanny davis speaking to nbc news overnight, effectively comparing this case to the john edwards case. the reason that's important is that it suggests that his client, that michael cohen would potentially be willing to testify that the proposed payment and possibly others were

discussed in an effort to try to help the president's election, andrea. >> but -- and this was only two weeks before, and it was involving trying to buy the rights to a story that had already been held by a friend of the president's, who was the publisher of this tabloid. so it was this catch and kill practice by this tabloid to even preclear stories involving donald trump with him. that was their regular practice, david pecker. that said, we don't really know if this is analogous to the john edwards -- and john edwards was clear of it. the edwards case was through an intermediary, it wasn't direct, and it was months and months before the election. so not two weeks before the election. it's not that easy to make the case that this is a campaign contribution. this is all notional. >> reporter: i think you're exactly right, that's the point that rudy giuliani and the

president's team is making. the president, you remember, just a couple of days ago tweeting, the good news is your favorite president has done nothing wrong here. but the reason it's important, as i indicated at the start, it really does escalate this. indications there are other recordings that are out there, as many have suggested, if you tape one conversation, who knows what other conversations have been taped. this is more fuel to a fire that's been burning at the feet of, frankly, this white house, this president, that he's tried to stomp out for weeks, for months, frankly for a couple of years now, dating back to the initial reporting about this just before the election. and at this point so far he has not yet succeeded. >> peter alexander at the white house today, thank you so much for starting us off. virginia senator tim kaine serves on the foreign relations committee. he was the vice presidential nominee for the democratic party in 2016. i want to talk about the meeting this afternoon with secretary

pompeo. first, you were a candidate in this race and on the ticket. and now learning that two weeks before the election, there was r reaction?tion. >> well, look, i don't care about the president's personal life. but i think the issue that matters is his truthfulness. he's denied the relationship. he's denied knowing anything about any hush money payment or anything like that. but the tape demonstrates that they were at least worried enough about this story that they were trying to figure out how to get money to the particular woman making the claim. so it looks like the statement of the white house, the campaign spokespeople right before the campaign, that the president didn't know anything about this, it looks like that was a lie. then the truthfulness issue, andrea, obviously compounds itself with a whole series of other things that are going on and that have been going on during this presidency. >> hope hicks was quoted in "the wall street journal" back in november 2016 saying we have no knowledge of any of this.

so there have been consistent denials all long. this does raise a question, what the campaign was covering up. do you think that there is -- you're a lawyer, you're former attorney general in virginia. does this raise the question of a campaign finance violation if it turns out it was not properly disclosed, whether it was cash or check, if it's not there on the fec rolls, is there a possible legal case? >> you gave me an extra job. i was lieutenant governor, not attorney general. >> sorry about that. >> but i am an attorney. if there was a payment that was made to try to kill this story, i think that would definitely be a payment to advance a campaign and it should have been disclosed. whether it was even a legal payment or not, whether a payment of that kind could have been made or not is one thing. but certainly if it was, at the closing phase of a campaign, it should have been disclosed. i think you have to get to the bottom of the story, was the payment actually made. it looks like it certainly

killed the story that "the national inquirer" had. i think the next question will be for election officials to look at, whether that was a clear violation of campaign finance laws. >> i want to ask you about russia, because the president tweeted yesterday, "i'm very concerned that russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming election, based on the fact that no president has been tougher on russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the democrats, they definitely don't want trump." your reaction to that? >> andrea, i think the whole world saw vladimir putin stand on a stage last week and say, of course we wanted president trump to be elected president. i mean, he is being very blunt in telling the world that what they wanted was president trump to be president. so what you now have is the combined weight of the u.s. intelligence community and vladimir putin all saying, yeah, you're right, we wanted trump to be president. so this tweet yesterday suggesting that he's been tough on russia?

give me a break. that russia will help the democrats? he's getting very, very nervous about something. it might be the mueller investigation. it might be the notion that the midterms will go badly for him. but this is a president who is panicking about something right now. and that's what that tweet should tell us. >> senator, you said the whole world heard vladimir putin say that. actually the white house says that the reason why that was left out of its transcript and the video release that's posted online which is for now the official white house record is that the translator's audio covered up the question to vladimir putin. this happens to be, to my knowledge, the only part of that news conference that is not properly transcribed on the white house record. it's the only question that was left out. and in fact, it goes to the heart of what has clearly been the president's anger, going back to that

clapper/brennan/comey briefing in january of 2017, the suggestion that the russians were helping him, not just meddling. so the white house says it was just an error. should they now correct the record, the official archive? >> well, i think that the record needs to be corrected. if it's wrong, it needs to be corrected. you're right, andrea, there is a pattern of behavior here that before the president was in office, he was briefed on the intelligence community's combined assessment that russia hacked the election, not just to sow chaos. they hacked the election to help him get election, which he had stood on stage in july of 2016 and asked them to do, help me win this election. he said that in public. and that was covered as well. so he said it in public. vladimir putin has said they wanted trump to win, and our entire intelligence community says hacking was done to achieve that end. that's why this president, probably one of the reasons this president is now behaving in such a panicked manner.

>> senator, what do you want to hear from mike pompeo today about the two hours and ten minutes that vladimir putin and the president spent alone together? because the kremlin is putting out there were agreements on syria, agreements on potentially a referendum in ukraine, crimea. >> well, two things, andrea. remember, first, the president met with kim jong-un june 12th. they have not briefed the armed services foreign relations or intel committees about that meeting. we still have no idea what was discussed then. so we're going to talk about north korea. but yeah, more to the point, we're going to talk about helsinki. it's fascinating that russian media and russian government is reporting that there were agreements reached, even military agreements reached. general votel, the head of the u.s. central command overseeing activities in the mid-dle east including syria, said he was not aware of any agreement. when he was asked about the idea

of cooperating with russia on syria, he said that would be hard to do. the russian media and russian government are now attacking general votel, saying he's undercutting the president. he's not undercutting the president if the president never asked his advice or told him what was discussed. one of the questions we'll be asking today is did the president go into this meeting and cut deals without asking the military for their advice about what he should do. >> and it's my understanding that not only was dan coats blindsided by that invitation to vladimir putin, whether or not putin accepts it, but that others, including the secretary of state, were not told by john bolton that -- the president told -- you know, john bolton tells to invite putin and bolton tells sarah sanders tweeted out. should the national security adviser be consulting with the national security cabinet before something like this is decided? >> absolutely. and your questioning of dni

coats and his, you know, perfect phrase, well, that will be special, and his eye roll, it was one of the best moments of live tv i've ever seen. you should not be doing things like this without serious consultation. and i would especially say, andrea, to you, there wasn't a great positive reaction up here on the hill by the republican house or senate majorities with the notion that the president was going to bring vladimir putin over here maybe right before the midterm elections. so i don't think he really talked about it with much of anybody. and that's not the way -- that's not the way you need to interact with the leader of the nation that joe dunford, the head of our joint chiefs of staff, says is the most significant adversary to the united states in the world right now. i've said this president will pick awe fight with theresa may, justin trudeau, and angela merkel, but he still acts like he's vladimir putin's personal defense lawyer, and there's something weird about that. >> it's going to be quite a

hearing this afternoon. thank you. we'll all be there. thank you, senator, appreciate it. coming up, checkmate. how the president and michael cohen wanted to bankroll the hush money. does it matter for the president's legal strategy going forward? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us right here on msnbc. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia.

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michael cohen's recording of president trump provides the first evidence that the president was at least aware in real time of a plan to try to

silence former playboy model karen mcdougal two weeks before the election and was discussing it as a normal transaction. could that revelation become a legal problem or is this just politically and personally embarrassing? joining me now, peter baker, "new york times" correspondent, harry litman, former deputy assistant attorney general during the clinton administration, and msnbc's katy tur who spoke with michael cohen's lawyer lanny davis. katy, let me go to you first. what is lanny davis saying to you about this and how does he explain the ethical questions about clearly michael cohen secretly taping a conversation with a then-client in person? it wasn't a phone conversation. i know it's a one-consent state, new york, so it's not a legal issue, but it's an ethical issue, isn't it chemical. >> here's what i know about how this recording was made.

michael cohen went into doesn't's offidoesn'nald trump's office, they had a number of issues to discuss regarding the campaign. lanny davis cannot say anything -- or cannot speak to the ethical problems that arise with michael cohen recording his client. but those close to michael cohen have told me that this is just what he did. he made it a habit to record all of the meetings he had for record-taking purposes, for note-taking purposes, and to a degree, to cover his own behind, when he needed to. this speaks to the way things were done in the trump organization, andrea. there is also folks out there in the trump world who will say donald trump recorded conversations as well. it clearly was a bit of a sleazy office atmosphere, where people were not trusting of one another. the second part of the question, what are they saying regarding the tapes themselves, rudy giuliani is coming out and arguing that donald trump is saying "cash" -- or saying

"check" and michael cohen is saying "cash" and there's argument about the words "cash" and "check." lanny davis will say that is immaterial to this case, it's immaterial to what is important about this tape which shows that donald trump, according to him, knew about the karen mcdougal payment before the election. he knew that it was something that would damage him or could damage him in the election. and that's why they were having a discussion about buying the tape from david pecker, from "the national inquirer." it shows that donald trump was lying about what he did and did not know. i asked him, does he think this could be a campaign finance violation. and lanny davis' response was, it certainly sounds like a john edwards case. as you know, andrea, and as our viewers know, john edwards went to trial for wealthy benefactors paying off his mistress.

he was ultimately acquitted but there are legal analysts and federal prosecutors who will tell you that the case against donald trump with this could potentially be a lot stronger than what john edwards dealt with. >> if my recollection is correct, john edwards wasn't putting up the money, his benefactor was putting up the money, this is less of a personal involvement. >> yes, and there's also questions -- sorry to interrupt -- whether donald trump actually paid this money. lanny davis said the corporation was set up, the money wasn't actually paid. that could work to the president's advantage but it doesn't discount what david pecker might have been promising in return for -- or promising to keep that tape quiet before the election if he was making those assurances to the president whether that would be an illegal contribution in itself. >> and rudy giuliani today is tweeting, if cohen is telling the truth, why are he and lanny davis misrepresenting the language by president trump, "do not pay by cash -- check," so

much for ethics. harry, let me ask you, the leaking of privileged information, does rudy have a point there? >> not really. he probably doesn't have -- he may have an ethical point but it's all very secondary in terms of the legal point. from the legal standpoint, andrea, whether it was cash or check or the mud wrestling between the cohen camp and the trump team, really don't matter. what matters -- the first thing that matters, the anchoring point is, these two are obviously in it together. that's the first thing that emerges from the tape. they're in cahoots in a scheme that preceded the starting of the tape, meaning whatever liability cohen has, trump has, and vice-versa, they're joined at the hip. in terms of what liability that would be, there are several. but starting with the federal

election law violations. look, the question becomes, it sounds sort of arcane, but the question reduces to, was the objective here to advance trump's political fortunes. in the edwards case there was some reason to think it was really just to sort of shield the payments from his wife. but here you have a conversation in trump's own voice and words making clear that the focus is the campaign, other issues with the campaign, trying to get past the campaign. a jury will determine it. but we are in the shadow of the campaign, as you say. the argument seems pretty strong that the joint objective of these two men is to get past the campaign in order to further his electoral fortunes and not, for example, to shield melania from difficult news. >> and peter baker, lanny davis was on camera last night on cnn, appealing directly to the american people, looking directly into the camera, and,

you know, saying what do you hear, i'm looking at mr. and mrs. trump in red america, what are you hearing. is this basically a public relations campaign by michael cohen, maybe preliminary to an offer to cooperate with prosecutors, either state or if it turns out -- i mean, federal in new york, or perhaps mueller. but politically, how does this impact the president, in that the "access hollywood" tape was right before the election and that didn't seem to turn off the hard-core support that the president had. so if there's no legal issue, is it really politically important? >> yeah, it's a great question. the most important thing to take out of this is what harry just said when he used the phrase the trump camp and the cohen camp. the fact that there is a trump camp and a cohen camp is what seems to me to be the most important thing to take out of this.

cohen is clearly off the reservation, no longer willing to take a bullet for the president as he once said he was. he has a dozen other tapes, now in the hands of prosecutors, what might be on those tapes that we don't know about yet? that would seem to be the larger issue that's worrying the white house today. i think you're right about this specific tape and specific incident, it kind of confirms things people already knew about president trump, certainly they had every reason to suspect about president trump before the election in terms of his interactions with women, his possible philandering and so forth. so i think the larger question is where are donald trump and michael cohen heading now as a former -- as former friends. >> from what we know, there are not only perhaps a dozen tapes that involve the president that may not be as interesting or, you know, controversial as this one, but there's so much else, peter, that was taken from michael cohen's home, hotel, offices. >> absolutely. michael cohen was the heart of

all these things happening before the election. during his business career he was a fixer, not just a lawyer. if you're the president of the united states right now, you're looking at that and thinking what are your possible exposures. >> peter baker, harry litman, katy tur, thanks for joining us today. coming up, red notice. why a former ambassador to russia now fears he and other americans could be arrested and sent to moscow if they travel overseas because of the way president trump responded to a threat from vladimir putin. ambassador michael mcfaul, right here, next. stay with us. i don't keep track of regrets. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on is boost®. delicious boost® high protein nuritional drink now has 33% more protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals boost® high protein. be up for life.

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former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul says he is worried about being arrested by interpol and sent to russia if he travels overseas after vladimir putin suggested what sounded like a swap of mcfaul and 11 other americans including former officials for the 12 russian intelligence officials who had just been indicted by robert mueller. at that joint news conference in helsinki, president trump called it an incredible offer. the white house leader indicated

it was considering it seriously despite state department objections. it later rejected it, three or four days later. still, in a statement praising putin for his, quote, sincere offer. what's going on here? joining us, former ambassador michael mcfaul, and the author of the new book "from cold war to hot peace." could not be more aptly named. >> it was a coincidence. >> we've known each other a long time. to see you being targeted this way, that was not a casual reference by vladimir putin, the former kgb guy. >> no. >> it was very clear that this president, not well-briefed, not well-prepared for the one on one, we can talk about whether that should even have happened for two hours, didn't pick up on it, at the news conference. it took them so long to reject it out of hand. >> yes.

well, we were watching it live in helsinki, and when president putin began to explain the treaty, the mlat treaty, i knew that president trump didn't know what he was talking about, that's a pretty obscure thing. is disappointed he called it a great idea. >> incredible. >> an incredible idea to offer up us to be interrogated by russian officials, creating a false equivalency between an indictment of gru military offers and 11 american officials like myself who have done nothing wrong. they did have ia chance to correct the record. they didn't correct it the second time. the third time, they called it a sincere gesture and that shows they don't understand the game vladimir putin is playing right now. >> what do you want from the administration? what has to be said to make it clear to vladimir putin that he

cannot send out a red notice to interpol to have you picked up someplace? >> well, first, i'm glad that we're not -- the mlat treaty and all that is behind us, right? by the way, the state department made a terrific statement, let's be clear about that, i wish the white house would have joined it. but that i think is -- that threat is next to zero. but the other part that people don't understand is that they can indict me and convict me of a crime, and my colleagues. remember, it's several people, not just me. and then after i've been convicted of some crime, alleged crime, cockamamie scheme that putin comes up with, they can then use interpol to stop us through a red notice when we're traveling in third countries. and you don't have to have a, you know, imagination to do it. just read bill browder's book, it's called "red notice," and it talks about how they do that and the multiple times they've gone after him. >> bill browder of course is the entrepreneur and when a lot of

past involvement with putin and oligarchs and russian money, but it was his lawyer, magnitsky, who was murdered and tortured and died in prison and they named the magnitsky act for him. >> falsely arrested and died while in pretrial detention. they don't like that, vladimir putin, of all the things in the world chose to talk about that in helsinki for his press conference, underscores how much they don't like that. but the magnitsky act and those affiliated with it. but then they added me to the list several hours later when they revealed it to the press. so to answer your question, i didn't answer your question, what i want my president, my commander in chief, to do is to state on the record that under no circumstances should the russian government indict and convict former american officials when they were doing their job. and to do so will have grave consequences including reciprocity to russian government officials if they do

that. and i want to underscore, it's not just about me and those 11 people that were named. it's about every diplomat in the world, every soldier serving overseas today, every intelligence officer out there right now. we have to protect our own people against autocratic dictators who are using these laws and then abusing interpol to harass people like me. >> and it's very clear that according to widely-held belief, the russians are playing hard, they're playing to kill. look what happened in the uk. >> yes. >> you don't mess with the russians when they think that they can get away with something. >> that's a great point. you know, i keep saying, is it -- i think it's a very low probability event that the russians will indict and prosecute some crime against me in absentia, right? it's a low probability event. and then for them to abuse interpol, even lower probability event. but let's remember, i also thought, and i think most of the world thought it was a low

probability event that russia would annex cry mimea, that rus would -- whatever happened in the uk, it's still being investigated. >> or shoot down a civilian airliner. >> or violate our sovereignty in the 2016 presidential elections. the point is putin is in an aggressive, offensive position and we need to push back on him. i can't do it, i'm just a citizen right now, i live in palo alto. i need the president of the united states to do it because if he doesn't, it's going to look like a sign of weakness. >> mike mcfaul, thank you so much, good to see you. breaking news, let's go to nbc news justice correspondent pete williams with new developments just in. >> andrea, this involves a lawsuit that the state of maryland and the district of columbia filed against president trump, arguing that he has violated a section of the constitution that bars what are known as emoluments. and the question before this is

what does that mean. that's a key case, a key question in this lawsuit. so the state and the district of columbia claim that the president's ownership of the trump hotel has given him certain benefits because foreign dignitaries stay there, a lot of business goes there, it's hurting the district, it's hurting maryland. they say that his lease agreement with the general services administration, other foreign governments putting business there to try to curry favor with the president, all of these violate the emoluments clause. so the question is what does that mean, what does emoluments mean. that's been a threshold question on whether this lawsuit can go forward. the president's lawyers say it's pretty clear that emoluments simply means favors or payments given to the president for his official duties while in office. so they say his ownership of the trump hotel has nothing to do with that. but today in a 52-page opinion that has just come out, the judge in maryland, peter massat,

says no, that's not what emoluments means. he says emoluments means any kind of profit, gain, or advantage that a president gets, whether it has to do with official duties or not. so what does this mean? what this means is the lawsuit can now go forward. this isn't a decision about whether or not maryland and the district of columbia win. it just means that the government, the president's lawyers at this point lose their request to have this lawsuit thrown out. and i think this may be the first time that any federal judge has ever ruled on what emoluments means. and the reason for that is we haven't just had much litigation over this relatively dusty clause in the constitution. and so, you know, this was one of the reasons why this was an important question here. it's not like you could look to any other definitions in previous court rulings, certainly nothing in the supreme court, on what emoluments means

when it refers to the president of the u.s. so it's a blow to trump's lawyers, but the game is by no means over, andrea. >> pete, thanks so much. of course what's so unusual is that it's one of the few times certainly in modern history where you have a businessman, not only a businessman elected president, but someone who doesn't put his holdings into a blind trust. pete, thank you so very much. "the new york times" reporting that plump is increasingly isolated, reinforcing his own reality only through the echo chamber of fox news. according to "the times," on his flight to helsinki, the president blew up when he found the first lady watching cnn instead of fox on air force one. the president reportedly raged at his staff, according to "the times," for violating a rule that the airplane's televisions should be tuned to fox. first to you, it's "the new york times"' story. tell me about this whole fight over the remote control.

i'm sure it happens in many families, but i'm not sure about the first family, on air force one. >> well, you know, this is just another example, andrea, of how trump creates his own reality. this is a man who built a penthouse for himself in the sky on fifth antenvenue, a buildingt he named after himself. he doesn't like anything that really challenges his perception of things, his world view, and fox news speaks directly to that, offering him daily affirmations. and i think this all goes back to or is really underscored by a rather astonishing comment the president made yesterday in his speech when he said to the audience, "what you're reading and what you're hearing is not what's really happening." he's in effect there saying, look, i'm the only one who speaks the truth here, i'm the only one you can believe. and that's a pretty startling thing to hear from president of

the united states. now, of course, we've heard him say things like that before. but it just kind of reinforces this post-truth political world that he has really ushered in. >> shades of george orwell and "1984" as well. in one of the e-mails obtained by "the times," amy stoddard, there's this quote saying that the president also called for the ordering of two additional televisions to support beam, a tivo-like streaming device to make sure the president and first lady could both watch tv in their separate hotel rooms when they travel. >> yes, what's interesting is actually a cnn reporter asked the spokesperson for the first lady today about this. and was met with a response that said something like this is the number of kids that are afraid to go to school every day because they get bullied and it seems really silly to be focused on what people are watching on tv or what channel the tv is

tuned to. we know that the first lady and the president have separate quarters and sometimes go days without seeing each other, they have totally separate schedules. i think they watch separate tv stations. it's very interesting, the details that came out in the piece. >> and in fact in that statement from stephanie grisham, i believe, the first lady's spokesperson, it continued to say, it seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on tv, any channel she wants by the way. so there's pushback of her independence in terms of her viewing habits. >> i think it's really impressive, the lengths that melania trump goes to, to assert herself, in not-so-subtle ways. she's making the best of her fist-lady-hood and trying to create distance between controversies that her husband creates or doesn't create and her policy work that she wants to focus on, children and women. what's interesting also about

this story is that we know the president watches a ton of msnbc and nbc and cnn and other stations. he might want to start the day watching fox, but he actually spends way too much time as a president and a commander in chief watching television. and he watches all of these stations and then tweets about them. he referenced a msnbc story at the vfw the other day and said it was fake. fox is his favorite channel but it's not the only channel he watches. he's obsessively concerned about monitoring television coverage on him, even if it he says he doesn't. >> jeremy, briefly, there's also a statement from the vfw after that, they said, we were disappointed to hear some of our members boo the press. we rely on the media to help spread the vfw's message, cnn, nbc, abc, fox, cbs, and others were our invited guests and we

were happy to have them, a kind statement by the vfw. is there any connection between his "don't believe what you see or hear" and his knowledge that guiliani was already working to push back against the anticipated release of the michael cohen audio tape later in the day? >> we know they had been listening to those tapes and trying to figure out what was on them for quite a while, andrea. i think that, yes, contributed to it. look, this is just how trump sees the world. he sees enemies almost everywhere he looks, whenever he is under threat, he lashes out, and often utters falsehoods to push back on his perceived enemies and threats. it's no accident that he spends most of his time watching fox, and reinforces this world view of his, this false world view that there is this deep-state-led conspiracy out to undermine him. >> jeremy peters, amy stoddard, thank you both for being with us today. coming up, foreign aid. why most republican leaders are

not on board with the president's farm bailout. republican senator pat toomey joins us next. stay with us. hey there people eligible for medicare.

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>> our nearest neighbors and closest friends and best allies of mexico and canada does not make no sense at all on any lef levels. i got companies all across pennsylvania from one corner to another that have already come to my office and explained how their business is jeopardized. their products are no longer competitive with the tax that they have to pay on the stealing aluminum. >> this is originally floated

and aimed at western pennsylvania and propping up the steal industry. >> yeah, i guess. in reality, of course, far more pennsylvania work with steel than make steel and in other case, the government should not be deciding which sectors the government should be winning or imposing these policies that distort things. the president is meeting today ahead of the e.u., he's actually referred to the e.u. as a foe and not a friend. the e.u. have cut deals with japan. they're a huge market and they are going elsewhere. this is the danger. whether the country is pacific and the e.u. launching these agreements and mexico and canada is apart of t.t.p. >> the world is going to trade with each other. unfortunately, if we don't change the direction we are in, we are heading then the u.s. won't be leading that process as

we historically have the last seven years. i hear senator grassley and you and senator johnson and kennedy from louisiana, what are republicans in the senate are going to say to the president. >> well, i have explained why i think this is a mistake and why i think we should not pursue this issue. i think that's the chinese government systematic attempts sometimes successful to steal american technology. that's not acceptable. that's what we ought to be focusing on. and not the fact that we have a lot of future trade with mexican and canada. >> and when we see china moving and they're anywhere. they are in founding markets. >> ttp needs modifications.

it is a very important opportunities to open up markets for america and establish norms in developing country. take vietnam, a pretty large country and growing rapidly and moving into the direction of capitalism and a market economy and they're not there yet. thanksgiving day ma they're making progress. do we want them to be under chinese leadership and design to be a major trading partner for china or with us. i don't think it is a close call. >> our wall street journal polls by 2-1 that people don't like these tariffs. do you think it will be an argument point at elections? >> i certainly expect it could. the rest of the world knows when you need to retaliate against the united states, you do it first and not only certainlying a and of course, we have a lot of competitive races and heavy districts and states.

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thanks for being with us on another busy news day. that's it for "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online and on twitter and instagram. craig melvin is back right here on msnbc.

>> good afternoon. at msnbc headquarters in new york city. turning on trump. president trump lashing out after michael cohen's lawyer released the tape. it would seem that cohen have in fact flipped. so what now? also, spy games, a day in court for maria butina. she's accused of a spy and a russian agent. what we learn from her and how her love for russia raise red flag while a student at a american university. >> plus, a game changing discovery made on mars, scientists have found water, a lot of water. what it means for life on the red planet. we'll get all that later. we start with the silence, the trump/cohen tape.