york. ♪ this morning republican congressman chris collins is out on bail and facing federal charges of insider trading. the new york lawmaker is vowing to clear his name and says he will continue his campaign for reelection. plus, new back and forth in the russia probe. president trump and his legal team appear to be playing hardball with robert mueller over a possible interview. and three weeks after the one-on-one meeting between president trump and president putin, the u.s. announces new sanctions on russia over the poisoning of a former spy in britain. ♪

good morning. it is thursday, august 9th. i'm david gura. ayman and yasmin have the morning off. republican congressman chris collins is vowing to continue his campaign for reelection after being charged with insider trading. federal prosecutors filed the charges yesterday against collins who represents the state's 27th district, alleging the congressman worked with his son to the avoid significant losses on an investment in an australian biotechnology company. prosecutors say collins, who was the first member of congress to endorse donald trump for president back in 2016, was at a congressional picnic at the white house last year when he learned that the company received bad news about an important drug trial for the company's only product. congressman collins served on innate's board for three years until 2017 and remains one of its biggest shareholders, owning nearly 17% of the company stock.

prosecutors say the congressman frantically attempted to reach his son cameron, whom he tipped off to the confidential corporation information days before it was made public. they claim that cameron collins and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses. on june 26th, news of the failed drug trial was made public and the shares of the company plummeted. the allegations of insider trading against collins now complicate what was expected to be an easy reelection for him. the three-term congressman will face democrat nate mcmurray in november's election in the deeply red district. speaking yesterday after being charged, collins, who has pleaded not guilty, refuted the allegations against had him. >> the charges that have been levied against me are meritless and i will mount a vigorous defense in court to clear my name. i look forward to being fully vindicated and exonerated,

ending any and all questions relating to my affiliation with innate. as i fight to clear my name, rest assured i will continue to work hard for the people and constituents of the 27th congressional district of new york, and i will remain on the ballot, running for reelection this november. >> in an interview last night, president trump's lawyers said special counsel robert mueller will personally have a lot to answer for, just hours after they rejected his latest offer to get a sit-down interview. trump's legal team said they made a counter offer for access to the president for russia interference in the 2016 election. president trump's attorneys publicly voiced their desire for the probe to end within the next three weeks and suggested robert mueller would be violating doj policies if it does not. >> we don't have an internal deadline. we are moving -- i use the phrase expeditiously.

mayor, i know you have said and i have said we want to see this come to closure soon here. mayor. >> yeah, we do. it is about time that it ends. i also think and i hope the special counsel is sensitive to it as we are, we do not want to run into the november elections. so back up from that, this should be over with by september 1st. >> if it oent by september, then we have a very, very serious violation of the justice department rules that you shouldn't be conducting one of these investigations in the 60-day period. >> what rudy guilliani claims would be a serious violation is in fact a distortion, as the justice department general recent wrote that the 60-day rule is not written or described in any department policy or regulation, adding it is generalized, unwritten guidance that prosecutors do not indict political candidates or use overt investigative methods in the week of an election, not to

terminate. guilliani went on to challenge the special counsel's motive in seeking an interview and suggested he would be under scrutiny. >> we offered him an opportunity to do a form of questioning, he can say yes or no and we can do it. if he doesn't want to do it, he knows the answers to every question he wants to ask. he's going to ask him, did you tell comey to go easy on flynn. the president is going to say, no, i didn't. hey, bob, you know it. why do you want to get him under oath? you think we're fools? you want to get him under oath because you want to trap him into perjury, but we're not going to let you do that. i have never been involved in an investigation on either side that's more illegitimate than this one, that is so obviously more illegitimate, and i wonder where's the sense of justice on the part of mueller, on the part of the justice department. the real story here is not that this case isn't going to fizzle. it is going to blow up on them. the real question is what we talked about before.

there's a lot more to what they did that nobody knows about yet, and mueller is going to have a lot to answer for and in ohio's congressional special election the race is tighter after a late addition to voting tallies. officials in franklin county announced yesterday an additional 588 previously uncounted votes had been found in a columbus suburb. the result has given democrat danny o'connor a net gain of 190 votes. he and republican troy balder s son are separated down from yesterday. balderson declared victory tuesday night, but o'connor is waiting for all votes to be counted. whatever the outcome, these two will go head-to-head again in november when they compete for a full term in congress. >> the trump administration is hitting russia with new sanctions, punishing vladimir putin's government for the poisoning of a former russian

spy in britain earlier this year. nbc news national correspondent peter alexander has the details. >> reporter: from president trump, a stiff punishment. new sanctions for russia's poisoning of an ex spy and his daughter in britain last march. following fierce criticism of the president's embrace of vladimir putin in helsinki and his relentliless attacks on what he has branded -- >> the russian witch-hunt. >> reporter: it could fortify the argument his administration cracked down on moscow. >> i have been far tougher on russia than any president in many, many years, maybe ever. >> reporter: the new sanctions likely to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in exports of sensitive national security equipment to russia. according to a senior state department, a second, more painful wave, could ground russia's national airline from entering the u.s. if the kremlin doesn't demonstrate it won't use chemical weapons again.

russia has denied any involvement in the uk poisonings. the president, facing political pressure, to unleash the penalties. all of it coming as mr. trump lawyers formally rejected special counsel mueller's request for an interview, pushing for a narrow range of questions in the russia investigation. rudy guilliani telling nbc news there's room to negotiate while calling for the inquiry to end. >> we do not want to run into the november elections. so back up from that, this should be over with by september 1st. >> reporter: rudy guilliani tells nbc news that his position remains questioning the president about possible obstruction of justice is off limits. among the questions now, is robert mueller open to more negotiations or will it subpoena the president. david. >> my thanks to peter alexander for that report. joining us from washington is daniel lippman. i want to ask you first of all

here, how are the latest sanctions imposed on russia going to affect president trump's budding relationship with his russian counter part? >> it is not going to help, but trump seems to have his own personal foreign policy with russia and then his administration has a totally different one that's much tougher. so trump is right in the sense that they have pursued sanctions and other aggressive actions to hold russia accountable, but he has not done that in -- with his -- you know, his voice and trying to hold putin to account for his actions, you know, in his press conferences. so it seems like trump continues to buddy up to putin even though his state department says, you know, that they push back on these sanctions. >> daniel lippman, i want to go to the other story involving robert mueller, the back and forth that the white house and president trump's lawyers have had with bob mueller and his team over the prospects of an interview with president trump. how large does the specter of a

subpoena loom at this point? >> if you talk to people who worked with mueller in the past, they say he's likely to pursue one of those things because he needs to get that interview with trump. and if you -- you know, if you listen to what he said earlier, rudy guilliani, you know, trump should only just answer the questions truthfully, but that almost could implicate him. so he's caught in a no-win scenario. i think mueller is waiting to find out whether he can basically tell the public that rudy and trump's other lawyers, they're stonewalling, that we have to go to a subpoena. >> does this time feel any different? this has been going on for about eight months now, this back and forth. does the timing feel different this time around? does it feel like we're getting closer to the end of this debate? >> it feels like -- it does feel like a finale, you know. there's a famous play, "waiting for godo," that, you know, i

think about when talking about this. remember, last year in august they were saying that the investigation would wrap up by thanksgiving. so all of these missed deadlines because they just keep finding more information to charge more people, and so i think mueller has a real decision to make about if he really wants this interview and whether he thinks courts would up hold it. you might -- he might subpoena, and then before it gets to the supreme court trump might have to give in to an interview. >> with that samuel beck reference here on this morning. good to talk to you. >> thank you. we are following breaking news out of indonesia where other strong earthquake has hit the country's lombok island. >> yes, it hit midday. this quake comes less than a week after a 6.9 quake hit the island. for more, let's go to nbc news chapman bell in london.

what is the latest? obviously this new quake compounding damage from the quake that just hit a few days ago. terrible situation for the people there. >> reporter: it is, louis. as you were saying, sending people fleeing into the streets. take a look at this video, this latest earthquake on lombok causing panic as villagers are seen fleeing. they're jumping out of cars, running for their lives. others, you can hear praying when the earth began to shake once again. one indonesia official describing it as more trauma for the island. buildings still standing from the previous quakes weakened, others collapsing. today's earthquake measuring at magnitude 6.2 by the country's geological agency as they described it as shallow and powerful but causing no concern for tsunami. the u.s. geological survey measuring at 5.9. whatever the magnitude, it will create more difficulty for authorities due to additional damage from the after shock.

this is just days after a quake with a magnitude of 7.0 that was later revised to 6.9 hit the island on sunday. the chief of the provisional search and rescue agency saying the death toll from this earthquake now stands at 227. it is likely to climb though, this number. some figures have topped 300 deaths in some reports, but more than 150,000 people have been made homeless since sunday's quake, thousands of homes destroyed or damaged as people seek refuge under tents. louis. >> chapman, obviously an extremely critical situation. we hope people get the help they need. thank you for your reporting. still ahead, a ruling affecting parents and children separated at the u.s./mexico border under the trump administration zero policy. we will have those details. plus a warning from bill nelson. he says some russians have

penetrated voting, but his claims have not been agreed to. those stories and more when we come back. ♪ this is a story about mail and packages. and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business

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it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. welcome back. in day seven of the trial of paul manafort, an irs agent testified that the former trump campaign chairman had at least $16 million in unreported income from ukraine, which manafort allegedly spent between 2010 and 2014, just a few years before he sought an unpaid role leading the president's campaign. after the conclusion of testimony by manafort's deputy, rick gates, there was a tense moment between special counsel prosecutors and judge t.s. ellis iii when ellis discovered an expert witness had watched the entire proceedings. as "the washington post" describes it, ellis erupted, saying he typically bars all witnesses, save the case agent, from observing the proceedings

and thought he had done so in this case. u.s. attorney said he believed the transcript would back him up, saying ellis had allowed both the case agent and the expert to remain. ellis snapped, quote, i don't care what the transcript said. maybe i made a mistake. don't do it again. well, a federal judge is continuing the freeze on deportations of reunited families. the judge overseeing the reunification of migrant families separated at the u.s./mexico border decided yesterday to keep in place his order temporarily barring the trump administration from deporting parents and children. justice department lawyers argued that continuing the freeze hinders the work of immigrations and custom -- immigration and custom enforcement. the u.s. district judge halted deportations on july 16th after the aclu asked reunited families be given seven days to determine how they want to proceed with their immigration or asylum

claims. a vulnerable red state democrat is siding with president trump in the upcoming fight on the border wall funding. indiana senator donnelly says that trump should get more than the 1.6 billion said aside for the border wall. he tells "politico" he, quote, does not want under any circumstances a government shutdown, a move the president has threatened should he not receive enough funds to fulfill his campaign promise. while the moderate democrat supported trump's immigration bill and other related legislation, his support puts increased focus on other red state democrats ahead of november midterms. for now the funding fight is put on hold as the gop works on passing less controversial spending bills and keeping the congressional majority. republicans plan to take on trump's border wall after the midterm elections. let's switch gears and get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, a hot day for the entire country, but actually the pacific northwest.

>> yes, it is probably the hottest day of the summer for many people and close to record highs in boise in the next two days could approach their all-time hottest temperature ever recorded. here we are with excessive heat warning from boise to yakima, also portland and areas of northern montana, which by the way there are excessive heat warning from death valley to los angeles. if you talk to anyone from northern california, san francisco, napa north wards rg all are complaining about the air quality because of all of the fires, and this big dome of high pressure is sitting overhead. when you get the heat domes the air is not flowing. all of that smoke is trapped here in the valley areas. it is horrible for anyone with respiratory problems. we need to get this trough off the west coast on shore to change the weather pattern, and it will happen in the next couple of days but not yet. today, interior of washington, 106. redding, near the carr fire, 103.

very hot, very dangerous fire conditions continue. it is not this weekend until the northwest drops down but fresno doesn't get this. so central california into the south, not so lucky. if you need the umbrella it is in the southeast, also dallas to new orleans, after overnight storms dry a nice day. very summer like from new york, baltimore to d.c. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. still ahead, come for the baseball, stay for the theater. an epic response to ejection in the independent league. details next in sports. (harmonica interrupts) ...and told people about geico... (harmonica interrupts) how they could save 15% or more by... (harmonica interrupts) ...by just calling or going online to geico.com. (harmonica interrupts) (sighs and chuckles) sorry, are you gonna... (harmonica interrupts) everytime. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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welcome back. the time now for sports. we begin with college hoops where the ncaa rule book has received a face look following a multi--year investigation into corruption in the sporgs. among the biggest changes, elite players may be represented by ncaa certified agents and any underclassman that declare for the nba draft will be eligible to return to school. all right. let's go to major league baseball. we will start with the indians hosting the twins. game tied in the bottom of the ninth. cleveland with runners on the corners. >> lindor, swings and drives it! deep right field. gone! >> francisco lender slugs a three-run homer out to deep right field, walking the indians off with a 5-2 win.

good night. in milwaukee, the brewers have a bash in first inning against the padres with aguilar, shaw and ames hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs. they beat san diego in this one 8-4 as well. an independent league in fargo, north dakota we'll go to and another colorful response to an ejection. one day after a home team player put a trash can behind home plate in place of the umpire, that same umpire tossed an opposing manager for arguing his call at third base. the manager speaks his mind on the field but doesn't leave without taking third base with him, a little souvenir there. he gave it away to a fan on the sideline. i like the way this one ends better than the other one, david. at least he gives it to a kid. >> tough week for that umpire. >> yeah. >> louis, thank you very much. still ahead, president trump once again touting the red wave, claiming a victory streak for republicans. we will see what critics have to say about that. plus, could the president be warming up to deputy attorney

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♪ welcome back. i'm david gura alongside louis bergdorf. ayman and yasmin are off today. it is the bottom of the hour. the top stories, the trump administration is hitting russia with new sanctions following the poisoning of a former russian spy in britain earlier this year. u.s. officials tell nbc news

secretary of state mike pompeo has signed off on a determination that russia violated international law by poisoning sergei skripal and his daughter back in march. the senior state department official says the new sanctions could cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in future exports to russia. a second, more painful round of sanctions, could kick in three months later unless russia provides reliable assurances it won't use chemical weapons in the future and agrees to on-site inspections by the u.n. n, conditions that are unlikely to be met. russia has denied any involvement in the uk poisonings. russian hackers allegedly penetrated some of florida's voter registration systems ahead of the upcoming elections. at a campaign event yesterday, senator bill nelson told ""the tampa bay times"" they've penetrated certain counties in the state and have free rein to move about. he refused to elaborate on

similar comments he made earlier in the day, telling the newspaper, that is classified. florida's department of state says it has received zero information supporting the senator the's claims, and governor rick scott who is challenging nelson for the u.s. senate seat said they're not aware of the allegations. marco rubio made a similar reference in orlando back in may. president trump is seemingly changing his tune on his frequent twitter target in deputy attorney general rosenstein. according to sources that spoke with the "wall street journal", the two have a budding relationship and in recent months their relationship improved. the two men talked once or twice a week, and mr. trump calls mr. rosenstein on his cellphone to discuss issues such as immigration. mr. rosenstein consistently prepares the president's team ahead of major news and he visits the white house as often as three times a week, meeting with the president or white

house chief of staff john kelly. he has regular lunch with white house general counsel don mcgahn. when asked for a quote about his rapport with rosenstein trump said, quote, it is fantastic, we have great relationship. the deputy attorney general is an integral part of the ongoing russia investigation, a source of president trump's ire. there is also a mounting effort by some gop lawmakers to impeach rosenstein. one of the first republican lawmakers to back donald trump in his bid for the white house is now facing a major legal battle after being charged with insider trading. congressman chris collins of new york is vowing to fight the charges and continue his campaign for reelection. nbc news' stephanie goss has more. >> reporter: the u.s. attorney laid out timelines and phone records, proof he says that republican congressman christopher collins of new york is guilty of insider trading and lying to the fbi. >> congressman collins acted as

if the law didn't apply to him. >> reporter: collins, his son cameron and his son's future father-in-law face 13 krim ncri counts all together. the crimes revolve around the australian pharmaceutical company innate. according to the indictment, on june 22nd of last year, innate's ceo informed his board of directors, including collins, that the company's critical drug trial had failed, news that was not yet public. congressman collins was at a picnic at the white house, and minutes after getting the news, according to prosecutors, collins called his son to tell him, breaking federal law. cameron collins moved quickly to save his money. >> he sold stock based on that inside information, and he also took that illegal inside information and tipped others. >> reporter: days later, the stock would plummet.

according to the indictment, "the insider" trading allegedly saved the defendants and others over three-quarters of a million dollars. all three pleaded not guilty today. while the congressman's attorneys pointed out in a statement that their client did not benefit financially. >> i thank stephanie goss for that report. kansas gubernatorial primary remains in a dead heat over questions that swirl that the man holding the lead may oversee the count. the results do not include provisional ballots or mail-in ballots. there are no automatic recount rules, but if one is requested kobach would be the one to

oversee it unless he recuseded himself. he made widespread claims of illegal voting in the 2016 voting, and he says he has no plans to recuse himself. he says counting would take place at the county level. no law requires him to recuse himself, but legal and political experts said he should do so to maintain trust in the election. and the white house says president trump spent yesterday at his new jersey golf club, working the phones and holding a fundraising dinner for house republicans. the president tweeted, as long as i campaign and/or support senate and house candidates within reason, they will win. i love the people and they certainly seem to like the job i'm doing. if i find the time in between china, iran, the economy and much more, which i must, we will have a giant red wave. emphasizing his point later, quote, red wave. trump touted his r0rd in special elections. quote, the republicans have won eight out of nine house seats.

yet if you listen to the fake news media you would think we are being clobbered. why can't they play it straight? so unfair to the republican party and in particular your favorite president. while the president's tweet ignores losses in virginia, new jersey and at the state and local level, the results in special elections show a significant shift toward the democratic party. joining us from washington is "politico's" daniel lippman. he is the coauthor of "political playbook." let's start with what president trump has said on twitter. he says tuesday night's election was a major win for the gop and himself. what are we hearing from the president's critics about what happened on tuesday? >> they would take a lot of issue with what he is saying, because if you look at the vote totals it is a much narrower margin than in past elections in that district. so this is supposed to be a district that republicans don't have to worry about. it has been held for two decades by a solid republican

congressman. and so the fact that they have to spend millions of dollars to protect this seat, you know, it reminds me of how -- what happened in 2006 when george w. bush was in office. remember, he had to say he took a thumping in the mid terms, and so i bet people are going to read back trump's tweets and say, you know, if democrats take control of the house in november, i thought you were saying we were going to have a red wave. what happened to that. >> more than a wave perhaps when you look at how small some of the margins are. let me ask you about what is happening in kansas. i mentioned what is being called by some a conflict of interest, that kobach is the one overseeing the recount there. what are you hearing from those watching this closely about the conflict of interest? >> i think people are saying he should recuse himself immediately, because for him to be in that position as secretary of state in kansas and be in

charge does not seem very ethical, and people already say that he didn't -- hasn't done a great job in terms of making sure it is easy for people to vote in kansas. that's the job of a secretary of state. and, you know, he took a lot of flack, we should remember, when he was in charge of president trump's voter fraud commission, which really did not find much. and so, you know, he's trying to be governor, but you shouldn't mortgage your integrity and weigh the scales of justice if you have that job as secretary of state too. >> again, that race seeming to hinge on fewer than 200 votes. daniel lippman with "politico." thank you very much. >> thank you. the governor of virginia has issued a state of emergency in charlottesville and parts of northern virginia due to possible unrest on the one-year anniversary of a white supremacist rally where 32-year-old heather heyer was

killed. the unite the right rally, organized by neo-nazi groups to remove a statue of robert e. lee from a downtown park drew strong counterprotests. the rally broke into violence, prompting officials to declare the event illegal. the declaration will be in effect through the weekend and police officials say more than 700 state police will be activated to prevent any incidents like last year. and the republican nominee for the u.s. senate in virginia, corey stewart, is responding to the surfacing of video from his 2017 virginia governor campaign in which he praised the confederacy for rebelling against the union. take a listen. >> this is the state of george washington, thomas jefferson, james madison and james monroe. it is a state that the founders -- it is a state of the declaration of independence and the constitution, but it is also the state of robert e. lee and

stonewall jackson and j.e.b. stuart. >> that's right! >> because at the base of it, virginians, we think for ourselves. >> yes. >> and if the established order is wrong, we rebel. >> amen. >> we did that in the revolution. we did it in the civil war, and we're doing it today. >> stewart, who grew up in minnesota and moved to virginia in his late 20s is facing incumbent democrat tim kaine this november. stewart responded to the video telling cnn, unlike wimpy tim kaine, republicans have a warrior spirit. newman's new tell-all, the reported secret recordings she made during her time working with president trump, what they allegedly reveal. plus, bill karins is back with another check on the forecast when we return. ♪ ♪

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welcome back. reality tv star and former white house staffer omarosa has recorded things in the west wing. she secretly recorded conversations with president trump and leveraged the recordings while shopping her upcoming tell-all book. one person confirmed they heard at least one recording featuring the president. multiple sources familiar with the tapes describe the conversation between trump and manigault as everyday chatter but said it seemed to feature his voice over phone or in person. manigault did not respond with a comment. simon & schuster said, without commenting on the specific contents of "unhinged" we are confident that omarosa can

substantiate life inside the white house. let's get a check on the weather with bill karins. >> overnight thunderstorms over a lot of people, new york city and connecticut included, those are ended with a few leftover over boston. we had had overnight storms in areas of texas, getting it pretty good in the west portion of texas. dallas area has been dodging but to the north there were hit-and-miss showers. south of little rook a flash flood was issued. this front is triggering the showers and storms, it is sagging to the south. this is at 8:00 p.m. this evening. hit and-hadn't miss showers through mississippi. the northeast should be dry. the cold front will go through during the morning and we get a dryer forecast. i say a little dryer because it has been so humid for so long it continues over the south.

this area of yellow is kind of a steamy forecast today. just kind of plain, old summer mugginess. for chicago, typical summer weather, feeling like 4 with the heat index. tulsa, 96. you get the bad humidity from orlando, mobile to houston. you expect it this time of year. it is very hot, but it will be a little more enjoyable than the last couple of days. to friday, we will get a little relief. k4r50e68d looks really nice at 81 to 79. unfortunately for the east coast this weekend, the humidity surges saturday and it looks like a rainy forecast on and off saturday afternoon and all day sunday from the mid atlantic to southern new england. china fires the latest shot in the back-and and forth trade war with the united states. the actions being taken against uber and lyft and the other stories driving your business day. about mail

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welcome back. china has moved to impose an additional tariff of 25% on $16 billion worth of suflt gou.. joining us from london with more, vilm marks. over 300 goods will have tariffs on them. >> reporter: yes, 333 to be exact. that includes large passenger

cars, motor bikes, coal, vast lien, asphalt, even fiber optic cables. the newest issued by u.s. will take fegt in five weeks of time. the chinese commerce said it must take these to defend the nation's deignuty. now, a separate for new york city companies like uber and lyft voted regulation to limit the total number of cars over the next 12 months while they look at the impact these companies are having on new york city. the tl, will make drivers be paid 15 bucks as a minimum wage. that will be a challenge for some of these companies in terms of their margins. supporters of the move say this will help support congestion and help life difficult for drivers,

especially in the outer boroughs. >> the failing "new york times" reported $24 million in second-quarter profits yesterday. what more can you tell us. obviously, the president loves to target them and say that failing new york ti"new york ti" >> "new york times" is failing at failing. which is pretty witty. subscriber base keeps growing but now 2.9 million digital only subscribers. that hit 99 million euros in this quarter. on a total revenue of $415 million, so, not a terrible margin. but both print and digital ed advertisers have seen a decline and share closed down more than 6.5%. >> always great to have you with us. jonathan swann has a look at

this morning's "one big thing." turning down the counsel's offer and the bid in access to president trump and the timeline they're putting on wrapping up the russia prose. richard blumenthol weighs in. and rashida tlaib joins the conversation to discuss her campaign and the potential of becoming the first muslim woman elected too eed to congress. "morning joe" just moments away.

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prevagen. healthier brain. better life. a look at axios am jonathan swann. what is the one big thing that you're looking at this morning? >> the president's lawyer rudy giuliani is setting up unbeatable expectations for robert mueller. he's doing this partly as an insurance policy for the base, but we saw now he's saying that he has to wrap up the

investigation by september. that's not going to happen. it's going to drive republican rage all the way through to november. he's also denying mueller the two key things he wants to ask obstruction of justice. >> jonathan, this has been going on for the better part of eight months the back and forth betweb between the counsel and his team and you spoke to rudy giuliani what could lead to the sit-down interview that robert mueller wants. >> on hannity last night mueller said he wasn't going to talk about what they said back to mueller but rudy told me the day before. i don't know what happened in the interim. just before they sent the response to mueller and i spoke to rudy giuliani and they didn't want trump to answer questions about what he told james comey in terms of investigating

michael flynn. rudy giuliani said they were minor details, not important. they saw him in public. the essential questions that mueller would need to ask to ascertain whether the president obstructed justice. >> there were a handful of tv appearances yesterday and radio appearance, as well. rudy giuliani's co-counsel has a show. what did we learn between that interview yesterday? >> again, a continuation of a strategy. it's interesting. you know, there's a lot of sort of late-night comedy jokes about giuliani and et cetera, fine. you can sneer all you want. politically, it's been a devi devastatingly effective issue. all they want is for the republican party to entirely coalesce around the president when robert mueller puts out this report. they want to make it entirely

partisan and smear robert mueller and throw mud over the investigation. and if you look at the polling and town hall and what republican voters in realtime lines that giuliani and trump are saying you cannot as an objective observer say this is effective. >> you mentioned polling. walk us through the headlines of the latest poll. >> we have, it's an amazing graphic, which, in axios am this morning which shows political polarization in terms of presidents since 1953, since eisenhower. and you just see this, it's just incredible the way it drifts apart and now we're at a situation where, i mean, look at this for a statistic. you have near unanimous approval among republicans for this president and three and four democrats want to impeach him. just think about that.

unanimous approval. >> your take on the elections on tuesday. very narrow margins in kansas and ohio, as well. help us understand the level of concern? >> it is similar to their level of concern beforehand. it is very high. nothing in those results that fundamentally changed what we saw beforehand which is that this is going to be a very difficult task for republicans to keep the house, definitely a path for them to do that. the political report have some polling that shows their own analysis that shows democrats are outperforming by about 8.5 percentage points in each of these special elections and dave wassermann who is, you know, i put on the mountaintop as oracle of wisdom, he said they only need four or five to win the house. >> jonathan, thank you very much

on this thursday morning. we'll be reading axios am in just a little while. you can sign up at signup@axios.com. "morning joe" starts right now. >> i have the honor of honoring the nomination of donald j. trump as the president of the united states of america. that is congressman chris collins just over two years ago at the republican national convention. today he joins this list of people charged with or pleading to crimes. trump's second campaign manager, trump's deputy campaign manager, trump's campaign