peter strzok who served briefly on special counsel robert mueller's team was described today by "the new york times" as one of the fbi's most experienced counter intelligence agents. he landed in the president's crosshairs after it was revealed that he expressed disapproval of donald trump in text messages to a colleague. many of strzok's most widely criticized anti-trump messages were sent in the days after trump's war of words with a gold star family. it's worth noting that strzok also criticized hillary clinton, bernie sanders, and eric holder, among others, in text messages to the same colleague. strzok attempted to defend himself against his harshest critics in congress last month. >> let me be clear. unequivocally and under oath, not once in my 26 years of defending our nation did my personal opinions impact any official action i took. this is true for the clinton

e-mail investigation. for the investigation into russian interference. and for every other investigation i've worked on. it is not who i am and it is not something i would ever do. >> in spite of that strzok was fired today in a reversal of a previous decision by the fbi to keep him on staff according to his attorney. president trump has already seized on strzok's dismissal as ammunition in his latest attack on robert mueller's russia investigation tweeting this morning, quote, based on the fact that strzok was in charge of the witch hunt, will it be dropped? the firing of strzok and adrenaline hit to a president who desperately needs one in that now sprawling investigation into his conduct, his family, and his campaign and white house staff's. his lawyer rudy giuliani now publicly debating himself on the question of exactly how the president will perjure himself. >> i just want to be clear exactly what happened in that conversation with comey about michael flynn? what exactly did president trump

say? >> there was no conversation about michael flynn. >> so you're saying that president trump and james comey never discussed michael flynn? >> that is what he will testify to if he's asked that question. they already know that. so why are they asking us for him to repeat what they already know under oath? >> it's a direct contradiction of giuliani's earlier account of the very same meeting. >> how is he a good witness for the president if he's saying that the president was asking, directing him, in his words, to let the michael flynn investigation go? >> he didn't direct him to do that. what he said to him was, can you -- >> comey said he took it as direction. >> there are more than a few problems with the new-new trump didn't obstruct justice defense including this important one. jim comey shared contemporaneous memos with colleagues about the details of the meeting and te >> this is the president speaking. i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to

letting flynn go. he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go. now, those are his exact words. is that correct? >> correct. >> and you them here and you put them in quotes. >> so why the hell marry the comey meeting? why lie? he doesn't plan to be interviewed face to face, and, well, it might be all they've got. joining me phil rucker, harry litman former us attorney deputy assistant attorney general, frank figliuzzi former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence, betsy woodruff, politics editor for the daily beast. at the table jason johnson politics editor at the root. i have to start with you, frank. the idea now that the obstruction of justice defense lies in rudy saying, that didn't constitute obstruction of justice because a president can't obstruct justice. that was one of the original incarnations of that defense, is now that meeting never happened.

it seems to me a whole lot of people including his own sitting attorney general jeff sessions testified the room was indeed cleared and he was indeed asked to leave and he left jim comey and donald trump alone in that room together. there are a whole lot of people that can corroborate a whole lot of pieces of jim comey's story. >> the first thing that jumps out at me, nicolle, as someone who has interviewed probably thousands of people and looked for deception is giuliani, in response to a question of, so the meeting never occurred? flynn was never brought up in this meeting, right? answer, that's what the president is prepared to testify to. so, that's called deception. that's not a direct response to the question. it's not that it didn't happen. it's rather that the president is going to testify to a certain set of facts that he's come up with. so my money is on the former altar boy, jim comey who wrote notes right after the meeting. but this new defense, in fact, changes almost daily is actually going more and more toward

having rudy giuliani be a fact witness in that he said on abc news that the flynn was discussed, right? and that the president asked comey if he could give flynn a break. so i'd like to ask rudy first, where did you get that from? because his credibility is shot. >> and i want to ask you, harry litman, how all this plays into what appears to be a charade around the idea of a presidential interview. presidential advisors and people close to the president have told me that -- over the dead bodies of emmet flood, don mcgahn, rudy giuliani and the attorneys working from florida who are the ones interacting with the special counsel's office, will donald trump sit for a face to face in-person interview with mueller's investigators. here's what rudy said to "wall street journal" over the weekend, i believe. giuliani said the president is open to talking to mr. mueller under limited conditions, but in a new development said mr. trump wouldn't sit for an interview after september 1st because that

could interfere with the midterm elections. do you think any of this is real or is this just side show? >> i mean, side show, but it's worse than a side show. it's a charade on a really important question. you know, what is the president saying, as frank says, this latest account by giuliani is preposterous after a year, oh, but the meeting never happened. you know, it's a stunning fact. and, of course, that's why you put somebody in a grand jury and get them to testify when there's another witness, credible altar boy who has contemporaneous notes. it's clear that that's the exact kind of thing that trump could never afford to let happen. and it just underscores that the whole thing really has been, i think, a kind of political side show by which trump is hoping that the political cost of not interviewing gets imposed, in part, on mueller at least with

his base. he's been, i think, trying to avoid it for a year. >> betsy woodruff, it seems if he had comfort in what harry litman described, if his base cares about what him sitting or not, he wouldn't be so deranged on twitter. there were six separate attacks by the president of the united states on twitter. i believe there were four or more from rudy giuliani, with really the harshest, most biting attacks yet. we know that the special counsel's office is knitting together the president's tweets with his public statements, with the things they have learned from witnesses in and out of the white house and campaign staffs about the president's conduct, about his interactions with other witnesses, about the questions he's asked them after they've been before robert mueller, about his desire to fire mueller, to fire sessions. what do you think the -- i don't want to use the word guardrails because it's obvious there aren't any.

what do you think a reaction between the weekend like this, the president, rudy giuliani all smearing the mueller probe? >> what it shows is that as the probe has continued, the president's rhetoric and clearly the president's actual felt anxiety is dramatically escalating. we're hearing simultaneously rudy giuliani give a variety of potential defenses for not sitting down with an interview with mueller, wildly rapidly changing goal posts as to what they would and wouldn't be willing to answer, when they might be willing to sit down, when they might know whether or not they're willing to sit down. giuliani has been all over the map on all of those matters and that parallels the extent to which president trump has tried to zero in on undermining the credibility of the mueller probe. it's a project that's been underway for him since last may when mueller was first put in place as special counsel. but it's really reached a fever pitch in the last couple weeks. and i think it's likely only to escalate because there aren't good indications whatsoever that the mueller probe is going to be

wrapped up by september. eventually the question is going to be how long can this president and this white house sustain this sort of fevered emotion about an investigation that doesn't show signs of going anywhere. >> phil rucker, you're here as both journalist extraordinaer and trigger of the weekend. you and your colleague ashley parker writing a piece about don junior. and you elicited i think one of the first responses from the president about his understanding of this meeting that we've seen in a long time. i want to read it and have you talk us through your reporting around don junior's current status in the investigation. you guys report, quote, don has received notoriety for a brief meeting that many politicians would have taken but most importantly and to the best of my knowledge nothing happened after the meeting concluded. that was the statement from the president to you and your colleagues. >> yeah, nicolle, the important words there, the best of my knowledge. that feels like something that clearly others, perhaps lawyers took a look at before the

president sent us that statement for our reporting and it seems to give himself a little bit of wiggle room, perhaps some distance from his son. now, he's trying to make clear that he's not concerned about any legal jeopardy that don junior may face, although we know from our previous reporting earlier this month that the president has been fretting to confidants, to friends, to associates that he worries about what could happen to don junior because of that trump tower meeting. this reporting, by the way, over the weekend was in the context of sort of interesting political taking shape on the midterm campaign trail which is donald tru trump, jr. with all of this russia baggage would be a pariah or toxic in the mid terms. and, in fact, he's a really in demand celebrity surrogate for republican candidates. they're trying to get him out on the trail. he's going to be stepping up his campaigning this fall because he's becoming sort of a hero to the trump base because he is seen, thanks to his father the president and what he's been saying on twitter, to be

unfairly targeted by mueller, to be unfairly attacked by the media, and so forth. >> i feel like he and arpaio have a road show coming. let me ask you, harry litman, to ask you what you hear and weigh in on that. it seems short on paternal courage to say, to the best of my knowledge, nothing happened. >> phil is dead-on. have you ever heard trump in all his career have that kind of caveat? it clearly was lawyered and it's intriguing because we don't exactly know to date about the supposed aftermath of the meeting. all we've heard is that it fizzled, but obviously people on team trump think that there is something concrete that's going to emerge about dirt having been possibly produced. that's the reason that one assumes that trump himself is trying to distance himself. and you're certainly right, it's not a great -- you know,

endorsement. and, by the way, as phil says, he's much sought after on the campaign trail, but he may well be a target. he may well be indicted soon. and he's got to think carefully about going out there and saying things that would then be clear admissions. there's no issue about trump junior's being subject to criminal process, and he might really risk things if he tries to throw red meat to the base on the campaign trail. >> frank figliuzzi, i want to bring up something else the president has been tweeting a lot about seemingly at his own peril. he upped the volume on his attacks on the attorney general, not new, but certainly the most sort of ferocious attacks on sessions since we've learned that both the effort to get sessions to unrecuse himself are under investigation in the obstruction inquiry and that everything the president tweets is being stitched together with those actions behind the scenes.

here's what he tweeted. this is from the president of the united states about his own attorney general. our a.g. is scared stiff and missing in action. it is all starting to be revealed -- not pretty. i.g. report soon? witch hunt. and then rudy giuliani piled on a little one-two here. a.g. sessions should appoint an independent counsel to investigate the investigator starting with the fraudulent steele dossier and including comey's leaking perjury and his own obstruction of justice. time to restore justice to the department of -- >> this department of justice is run by donald trump's appointees. what do these look like to investigators? >> this is a scorched earth policy. he's gone from calling the media the enemy of the people to now referring to the attorney general as implying he's the enemy of the white house. but on a deeper level, nicolle, a couple of things. first, this is going to get worse before it gets better. as we approach what is inevitably a report from bob

mueller, you are going to see an outright assault on the attorney general, on rosenstein in an attempt to get them out or at least taint them so badly in the public's perception that they can't carry out their functions. it's going to have lasting repercussions. but on a deeper level, we're talking about assaulting the rule of law, the way we do things in a democratic society, and lashing out at your own attorney general knowing that you're handcuffed. you can't fire him right now because of public perception. it will backfire on you. so let's just taint him and bully him every single day, expect more of this as we got closer to a mueller conclusion. >> i expect the president, as you said, to continue to darken in his own mood, jason. pli politico, manafort this, manafort that. the russia story has dominated, according to close confidants. every day you wake up it's manafort this, manafort that. how do you get away with it? maybe not hire manafort who offers to work for free and has

a dirty book of business? >> that would save him some trouble. a lot of it is manafort. it's the manafort trial. there have been some small fish mueller has bng able to grab and flip. cohen and manafort are the beginning of trump being exposed. he can't hide from these men because they worked with him very closely. he can't claim he didn't know them when cohen says i've got tapes. that's where a lot of this anger comes from and it's going to ratchet up not just because the investigation continues, but as we look at the possibility of democrats retaking the house and all of this turning into an impeachment proceeding maybe in the fall of 2019, that is what this president truly fears. he's afraid that the political consequence. you can tell from giuliani they apparently don't think they're going to be in any legal trouble. they come up with a new explanation every five minutes. politically he's concerned about th this. phil rucker, if you can tway tie this for us, if he were comforted they have a plan to avoid impeachment, they have his lemmings in congress, whatever, nunes and gowdy and all the guys

who scream at rosenstein without any shame, they've got this strategy to avoid conviction in the senate, even if they should lose the house. why are they so out of their mind? it doesn't seem that brings the president any comfort. >> well, it shouldn't bring the president any comfort because if democrats retake the house, devin nunes isn't going to be very helpful to trump in avoiding the impeachment proceedings. it's not just impeachment, the risk of impeachment, it's the oversight committees that will be in oversight committees digging into this administration wherever they can, digging into the president's businesses digging into the ethical conflicts and violations and the various agencies, digging into the trump hotel. you name it, they're going to be digging. the same way that darrell issa, the republican congressman did after the midterms under obama. so there is some concern in the white house, but frankly i'm not sure the president is thinking that far ahead. i think he's sort of trying to put out fires every day and keep

up this defensive with mueller and sort of survive to the next week, the week after that and the week after that. he's more of a short-term thinker when it comes to this strategy here. >> phil rucker, your piece made me think of the fact that the president only looks at this in terms of his own exposure. do you think he has any awareness that he may smear mueller to the point that he could survive impeachment, but not his staff, not his family. if they're indicted and charged, they'll be prosecuted. >> well, i think he's concerned very much so about his family. it's one of the reasons why he's been worried to some friends about donald trump, jr. i think when you get outside the family circle he's a little less concerned. >> bannon is on his own. >> bannon is on his own, i think. omarosa is on her own. look, he's not so much worried about paul manafort's fate as he is about this trial playing out and what it means for him personally for trump, the sort of reputation, the image, the

headlines, the media coverage. that's when the president is thinking about. i don't think he really is that invested in the personal stakes for a lot 6 of his staff members. >> i think that's the title of michael cohen's new book, it's you, not me. phil rucker, thank you for your reporting, thank you for spending time with us. everyone else is stinging around. donald trump has may have lost his favorite punching bag at the fbi, but the fbi may have just lost one of its best assets in the war against russian meddling. i will tell you the weirdest thing about omarosa being fired in the sit room. it isn't that she recorded a conversation with chief of staff john kelly when he fired her. ever wonder what happened when you click a stopwatch and ask a staffer to name one african-american west wing staffer? we'll show you.

my mom washes the dishes... ...before she puts them in the dishwasher. so what does the dishwasher do? new cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuck-on foods, the first time. wow, that's clean! new cascade platinum.

i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get.

this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's.

the suggestion that i and some dark chamber somewhere in the fbi would somehow cast aside all of these procedures, all of these safeguards and somehow be able to do this is astounding to me. it simply couldn't happen. and the proposition that that is going on, that it might occur anywhere in the fbi deeply corrodes what the fbi is in american society, the effectiveness in their mission and it is deeply destructive. [ applause ] >> that was peter strzok, the now former fbi agent who served the bureau for more than two decades. now three high ranking fbi officials who were involved in the clinton e-mail and russia investigations including the director of the fbi, deputy director and peter strzok have been fired. join trump's efforts to hollow out the agency. strzok's attorney said his firing departed from typical

bureau practice and wrote in a statement, quote, in his decades of service, special agent strzok has proved himself to be one of the country's top counter intelligence officers, leading to only one conclusion -- the decision to terminate was taken in response to political pressure, and to punish special agent strzok for political speech protected bid the first amendment, not on a fair and independent examination of the facts. today strzok found an interesting defender, the son of one of his loud effort congressional adversaries, goodlatte. his son tweeted this. i'm deeply embarrassed peter strzok's career was ruined by my father's political grandstanding. that committee was a low point for congress. thank you for your service, sir. you are a patriot. if you recall, congressman goodlatte chaired the mooting last month. >> mr. chairman, i object. we have a problem with this policy, we should take it up with the fbi, not badger mr. strzok. >> the gentleman's point of

order is not well taken. >> it's right on point. >> no, it's not. >> it is not a valid point of order. >> i have a point of order before he answers the question. >> the point of order is not well taken until -- >> you don't know what the point of order is. you can't say it's not well taken. >> the congressman should call home. harry, frank and jason are still here. you predicted this would be the outcome. tell us why. >> look, it is a painful decision that had to be 345made the highest levels. i've been in that chair in my career. i led a disciplinary of adjudications in the fbi. i have to tell you, this is not a firing because of any finding that peter strzok's biases or actions impacted the investigation. let's make that clear. but what it is about is how the fbi polices itself. and the judgment and conduct of a senior executive in the fbi

that did grave damage to the fbi's reputation in the public eye, back in the fbi category in your earlyest days, it is ingrained to you above all things, never embarrass the bureau, and that's what pete did. yes, he was a great counter intelligence agent, but the damage he did to the incredible perception of the bureau which has to remain apolitical can't be recovered from and his effectiveness was gone. that's why he's out of the bureau today. >> and i heard similar things from democratic and republican alumni and current officials of this justice department of the fbi, even one while i was reading that introduction. let me ask you a question, though. do you think he would have been fired in the political pressure would have -- i guess two questions. do you think the political pressure would have been exerted from the white house if on this list of people he criticized in text messages to a woman with whom he was having an affair didn't include donald trump? here are the other people he

attacked. hillary clinton, bernie sanders, eric holder martino m o'malley,d cruz, donald trump. if donald trump wasn't on that list, do you think the white house still would have exerted pressure? do you think sean hannity still would have made him a political punching bag? >> no, absolutely not. let's remember, donald trump is a subject of this incredible investigation, virtually unprecedented in fbi history. strzok was a leader of that investigation. you can't be doing that as a senior executive. that's why he was fired. >> so, i guess one more for you, frank. i guess my larger point is i understand that he didn't live up to the ideals of the fbi, but you also can separate the fact he was targeted and turned into a pinata for media purposes, for political purposes for debasing the mueller investigation because among the list of people he criticized was donald trump. >> no question. and by the way, that whole process -- and the hearing from which you just played a clip was

a travesty, and should never happen again and became highly politicized. and the white house should have nothing to do with the internal personnel decisions at the fbi. but that's what happened. >> and would you put andy mccabe in the same bucket, do you think he engaged in conduct that was detrimental to the bureau as a whole? >> i do. i think his judgment was poor and i think that the d.o.j. report showed that he had issues with regard to veracity, credibility and truth telling. that's a problem for the fbi. >> so, harry litman, talk about what it's like to sort of function in this parallel universe where you have a president who just obliterates norm after norm, there are seemingly no consequence. he may be found to object instruct justice and conspire with the russians. let's put that aside because that's mueller's work load. you have the department of justice like the fbi trying to live to a far different standard. how do you operate where there is no margin forrer error and y

have a president who maligns chief? >> it is really rough, and you have people in the fbi and d.o.j. not simply at the highest lev levels, but the rank and file levels trying to figure that out. the real point, and he made it as well, there is no doubt there was no operational significance to what strzok did. it was an imprudent expression of views. this would be fodder should the democrats take the house, a documented deep and visceral hatred for hillary clinton and probably a profusion of anti-hillary e-mails by the same people. but there's no, no cause for -- no possible room for error now. any sort of stray statement,

joke, whatever could wind up as the subject of a probe before the house. and it's just completely unfair that some of these -- that the bureau and the department have been demonized in this way and made to seem as the deep state. it's ironic. how do you try to get past it and do your job? you know, i don't think we've really figured it out, except at the levels of the department that don't -- and the bureau that don't concern the trump probe. but we've seen rod rosenstein kind of push on things. we've seen others have to make compromises, and we haven't worked it out yet. >> betsy, where do you think this leaves donald trump? i'm a big fan of batman movies. without joker batman doesn't know who he is. who is donald trump without pete strzok to beat up on? >> he can still go after lisa page. i'm sure he'll find targets.

the reality, of course, is strzok has been extremely useful to the president. he's been useful to the president's defenders on fox news. he's become sort of the figure head or the embodiment of the quote-unquote, deep state. and to that extent he has provided, you know, a pinata for the president and his allies to go after. without strzok it's going to be harder to point to any particular villain in the fbi or the d.o.j. especially given now that comey and mccabe are also gone. so the president's not going to have as many targets over at the justice department and that's something that could potentially make his attacks on the deep state hit a little bit less hard. but i don't think we should expect to see him change his behavior. the reality is the president is skeptical of the fbi as an institution, of the intelligence community as a collection of institutions and just because this one particular individual is no longer there isn't going to change the president's abiding distrust for these institutions. >> truer words have not been spoken all hour.

betsy woodruff and frank figliuzzi, thank you. low life, racist that's the road thrown around the ugly separation in full view of the public. what the feud between donald trump and omarosa is telling us about the bizarre and inner workings of this white house. rs, here's something you should know. there's a serious virus out there that 1 in 30 boomers has, yet most don't even know it. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. hep c can hide in the body for years without symptoms. left untreated it can lead to liver damage, even liver cancer. the only way to know if you have hep c is to ask your healthcare provider for the simple blood test. if you have hep c, it can be cured. for us, it's time to get tested. it's the only way to know for sure.

ayep, and my teeth are yellow.? get tested. time for whitestrips. crest glamorous white whitestrips are the only ada-accepted whitening strips proven to be safe and effective. and they whiten 25x better than a leading whitening toothpaste. crest. healthy, beautiful smiles for life.

we have one to two fires a day and when you respond together and you put your lives on the line, you do have to surround yourself with experts. and for us the expert in gas and electric is pg&e. we run about 2,500/2,800 fire calls a year and on almost every one of those calls pg&e is responding to that call as well. and so when we show up to a fire and pg&e shows up with us it makes a tremendous team during a moment of crisis. i rely on them, the firefighters in this department rely on them, and so we have to practice safety everyday. utilizing pg&e's talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned.

the things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harm's way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldn't ask for a better partner. he was being prepped by hope hicks and the coms team to say the d.o.j. came up with this memo so they could justify the firing of comey. >> he has -- >> that was definitely hope hicks' press secretary kind of thing. but i was really, really surprised that he would implicate himself. that's when you know someone is mentally challenged when they would even jeopardize their own livelihood by saying things that are just insane at times. >> so, if the coms team prepped the president to lie to lester

holt -- >> they prep him to lie every day. >> what? we have to get to some more -- harry, what, they prep him to lie every day? hope hicks prepped him to tell a lie? what was that? >> oh, my god. >> i mean, she was a white house staffer. is she saying she saw the white house team -- isn't he being investigated for potentially object instructing justice? this is like staring at the mirrors and the mirrors of the reflection fun house reflections. that didn't seem like a very smart thing to say -- some people want to get involved in the special counsel investigation. i've actually seen a little bit of that. but she basically came out and accused the press and com officials of prepping the president to lie. have you ever heard that before? >> well, i mean, boy is this getting down in the muck. i think you're exactly right. she said, oh, please, bob mueller, come and interview me. but, of course, maybe that is what she wants.

but, yeah, she's really throwing around stuff and suggesting that she has tapes and the whole m.o. of the white house is about lying. of course, we have daily lies coming from the white house, the staff must know it. and they must in some way make some allowance for their less than forthright commander in chief. >> right. maybe it bought a little credibility. it's part of the all-out-war between the white house and former staffer/apprentice contestant omarosa. she's out for blood ahead of the release of her book unhinged. as part of her publicity tour, she's releasing secret audio recordings she made at the end the tail of her white house tenure. here's one of the tapes john kelly firing her in the situation room. >> but i think it's important to understand that if we make this a friendly departure, we can all be, you know, you can look at your time here in the white house as a year of service to

the nation. and then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation. >> and omarosa released another recording earlier today, this one of a phone call between herself and the president shortly after her firing. >> omarosa, what's going on? i university just saw on the news that you're thinking about leaving. what happened? >> general kelly, general kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave. >> no, i -- nobody even told me about it. >> wow. >> you know they run a big operation, but i didn't know it. i didn't know that. dam it. i don't love you leaving at all. >> it's so big, i'm busy tweeting and watching tv, i don't have any idea what is going on. nbc news has not been able to listen to the full recording to know what was said before or after what we just heard. joining us now from the washington post white house reporter ashley parker and joining jason and me at the table rev al sharpton, president of the action network. host of politics nation here at

msnbc. harry litman is still here obviously. ashley parker, you made me laugh for hours friday with your munn frp, munch, the president allegedly chewing a piece of paper. omarosa said yes. michael cohen said no. he may already be in the process of flipping on him. this story makes for sprang bed fellows. what do you make of the roll out of the omarosa/trump experience? >> well, it's just, again, i think it is outset it's worth remembering the problem here is i think the other day you put it as two tarantulas fighting. nobody has credibility. amoroso does not have a ton of credibility, although again she does have these recordings which my colleague josh has lived to some of them and they do back up some of the quotes in her book. she was able to produce that nondisclosure form that the campaign sent her for $15,000 a month in basically hush money.

the white house also has no credibility because they have a record of lying and being mistruthful. and the president himself kind of said today, omarosa, someone who by all accounts -- this was something i'm hearing, i'm sure you were hearing in real-time, was getting quite poor reviews by just about everyone in the white house. to stay in that white house, basically because, again, as trump tweeted, she was saying nice things about him. >> here was the president's response. he said in response to a question from maggie haberman this week that she was a low life. he tweeted this. wacky omarosa, who likes to be called wacky? it's a retread. omarosa got fired three times on the apprentice -- why did he fire her? now got fired for the last time. i doubt that. she never made it. never will. she begged me for a job, tears in her eyes. i said okay. this is like a play. i said, okay. people in the white house hated her. she was vicious, but not smart.

i don't know if i can read the rest of this. i would rarely see her, but heard really bad things. nasty to people and the constantly missed meetings and work. when general kelly came on board he told me she was a loser and nothing but problems. i told him to try working it out if possible because she only said great things about me. is this real? control room, is this real? okay, this is real. while i know it's not presidential to take on a lowlife like omarosa, while i would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication and i know the fake news media will be working to make her look -- here's the problem, he made omarosa look legitimate as possible, not us, by hiring her and putting her on the white house staff. >> you have to look at the whole context of first -- >> i'm putting this on my wall. this is unbelievable. this is our president. >> i think you've got to look at the fact -- look at who he has

in the white house. omarosa, who i disagreed with vehemently, i think she put it in the book about going with trump, did used to work in the white house before she worked in the apprentice. so, if you're comparing her credibility to others that he brought in the white house, she's probably a little more credible in terms of white house background than them. it was a low-level position, but you're talking about bannon who was an anarchist. look at the guys we have listened to about with this white house. the thing i would question when she says they prepped him to lie, those of us in new york that know donald trump knows no one has to prep him to lie. they might have had to prep him on which lie. but i think that what is really not being discussed here, what was her job? and her basic job was to be a liaison to reach out to the black community. it was not like she had to get in line to get that job and that he was choosing her over others. it was a job very few people

wanted. >> right. >> it was a job she did try to do, and many of us gave her a very difficult time because she tried to get me to meet with him and others, and we wouldn't. so -- and who has she been replaced with? kellyanne conway can't even think of a name who is in the white house. so as much as all of us look at at omarosa with some disdain, she was in a position that a position not anyone really wanted to be in and she tried to make it work, because like he said, she spoke highly of him. >> the larger question about omarosa isn't how she left the white house. it's how she got into the white house to begin with. i mean, that's really what we ought to be -- >> why are his kids there? that questions goes to everybody. why is hope hicks there? >> i have a counter intuitive theory which is that omarosa is actually continuing to serve the

president's purposes with this book because she -- i mean, there is only one person, maybe other than rudy giuliani, who has less credibility than the president. so, for someone with that little credibility then to attack the president somewhat enhances his standing. it creates the soap opera type of dramas, the play as you said, on which trump thrives. if she becomes a witness for mueller, she's a tainted witness. she's a dubious witness. so all of this in a sense serves in a kind of medicine served the president's purposes of creating a soap opera-like distraction from what really ought to be concerning us, which is the state of the country and america's relationship with the rest of the world. >> we know trump doesn't care about that. what i find so of intriguing about her recording with kelly isn't that she recorded it. people have been -- of course you don't take phones into the sit room, no one does. obviously they do. they seem to do everything other than -- >> you don't fire anybody in the sit room. >> that's what i was going to

say. you don't go to the sit room for some personnel meeting. the chief of staff, one, has the biggest office in the west wing other than the vice-president's office. it might be about the same size. biggest seating airline i can't, biggest conference table is in the chief of staff room because they have the most amount of seating in the chief of staff office. in the white house where north korea represents an existential threat, the sit room is a busy place and the president is there and national security. no one was in the sit room because it was open for john kelly to go down there with omarosa to fire her. that to me is the most stunning thing about kelly firing omarosa in the sit room. >> and the idea that, like, it's almost like he was flexing. i'm going to take you here. i'm going to take you -- >> down in the dungeon. >> and then i'm going to fire you and everyone -- it's kind of petty nonsense, this high school slam book tweet that trump sends out, that's the other thing. that's the other thing that concerns me. this is -- even when we go to the fbi or this white house, this is why we can't get the

best people because when you leave this white house, you're personally attacked by this president. they try and push you out of your job. they try and destroy anything you've accomplished. i've had just as many disagreements with omarosa. i was on a panel with her last year. it was a big old mess. i asked her directly what's your job? she's gotten a lot of criticism. in this particular instance with the way this white house has treated her since she left, she is right. she is one of many people who left this white house and have been attacked unfairly and unreasonably. it doesn't run like aaren office, it doesn't run like the office of the president, it runs like a thiefdom. >> he is mentally unfit, that is something i heard david brooks write, quoting some unnamed senators saying donald trump sounded liked someone in early stage alzheimer's because of the pace with which he repeated himself. you don't hear a lot of this. people who know him have speculated, but it's dangerous

business to be diagnosing somebody on television, which is why we don't see him. but when people see him in and out of the white house raise questions about fitness, it reminds me of the ronny jackson chapter of this never dull presidency where he stood out and sort of held up a mental exam given in the early stages of diagnosies, any sort of dementia, we all know ronny jackson didn't last very long. what is the reaction to the president's inner circle for someone who saw him and known him a long time, pointing out and making sharp critiques about a decline in the president's mental sharpness? >> you're right. it is dangerous for anyone other than the president's doctor who has actually done a real physical rigorous, thorough physical examination. >> which we don't know ronny jackson did, to be fair. >> to make any of these claims, so i don't think anyone in the president's inner circle is treating this from omarosa who is not a medical doctor and who

is certainly in this moment on the outs with the white house as, you know, as a damaging medical diagnosis. they are basically incredibly frustrated with her and i have to say with the exception of the president, most of these people who are now coming public with their criticisms about her were just as scathing in private. she's someone who is not particularly well liked in that white house other than for a time being protected by the president from just about the day she got in there. so they're frustrated and there also again, we know excerpts and bits and pieces of the book. we don't know all the recordings. the book seisn't entirely out y. they know it's a p.r. nightmare because they don't have much credibility. and about themselves, what did she write about them? as with this white house, there is an element of self-interest and preservation. >> a little in-house penny with her recording. i want to talk about kellyanne

conway. behind me it's raining in washington. let's watch kellyanne. >> kellyanne, the omarosa was the most prominent high-level african-american serving in the west wing on president trump's staff. who now is that person? who is the most prominent high-level advisor to the president on the west wing staff right now? >> african-american? >> yes. >> i would say that -- well, first of all, you're totally not covering the fact that our secretary of housing and urban development and world renowned -- >> i'm asking you about the white house staff, the people the president is with every day. >> that he's -- the president works with secretary carson every day. he's trying to break the -- >> who on the white house staff right now? >> we have jeron who has done a fabulous job and very involved with -- he's been very involved with jared kushner and president trump on prison reform. at the beginning, he's been there from the beginning he worked with omarosa and others of us -- >> does he have an office in the

west wing? >> he has an office in the eopf, executive office -- >> not in the west wing -- >> jeron, if you have a last name, you're invite today come tell us what you do and where you sit. i wanted to send her a life line. that was the sad est thing i've ever seen. >> that's my point. we can dgo through the donald trump/omarosa tabloids. the fact is on the anniversary of charlottesville, to sit on national television and not be able to name a black in the west wing and for the president to say his thoughts about black america, his liaison is somebody wacky -- >> and a low life. >> depth know what they were doing. >> and a low life, but i hired her to be a liaison because she said nice things. do you know how insulting that should be to americans? how did she get there in the first place? either you thought she was credible, or either you were saying, we don't matter, i'm going to have a wacky low life

handle you. you can't have it both ways. it was confirmed by kellyanne. all of those in charlottesville, can't come up with a black name on the west wing. that's what we should be dealing with rather than all this comical stuff. >> so, we did actually find jeron. but i think ultimately i agree with rev but this is the perpetual hostility we see when it comes to any discussions of race. when we have an anniversary of a terrorist attack on a college town and the president is more hostile and more prolific and talking about professional athletes than he is to terrorists who are marching in lafayette square right outside of the white house. that is what makes this a dangerous problematic administration. >> go ahead, harry. >> one more african-american calling not smart, one of a

series. i'm sorry, go ahead. >> frederica wilson, maxine waters. >> lebron james. >> lebron james. not nice to steph curry and now omarosa. harry litman, thanks, we're grateful. coming up a stunning snub from the president this afternoon blowing up on social media. we'll tell you about it. that's next. this is the ocean. just listen.

(vo) there's so much we want to show her. we needed a car that would last long enough to see it all. (avo) subaru outback. 98% are still on the road after 10 years. come on mom, let's go! (avo) right now, get 0% apr financing on the 2018 subaru outback. today's senior living communities have never been better, with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family

we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. you may be learning about, medicare and supplemental insurance. medicare is great, but it doesn't cover everything ...only about 80% of your part b medicare costs. a medicare supplement insurance plan may help cover some of the rest. learn how an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company might be the right choice for you. a free decision guide is a great place to start. call today to request yours. so what makes an aarp medicare supplement plan unique? these are the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp because they meet aarp's high standards of quality and service. you're also getting the great features that any medicare supplement plan provides. you may choose any doctor that accepts medicare patients. you can even visit a specialist. with this type of plan there are no networks or referrals needed. also, a medicare supplement plan... ...goes with you when you travel anywhere in the u.s.

call today for a free guide. the president's history of attacks on republican senator and war hero john mccain is well established, but this chilling snub today might take the cake. at an event intended to honor senator mccain's legacy, trump appearing at appear event to sign a bill named after him in which trump didn't mention the senator's name even once, didn't say john mccain. none of his guest speakers did either. trump even dropped mccain's name from the title of the bill. bret? >> well, it's stunning. but once again as with everything with this president, stunning but not at all surprising.

>> it is surprising, though. don't sign the bill. why sign the bill? >> this was a bill that was named by mccain's friends -- >> sign it in your pajamas watching "fox & friends". >> it's just a reminder of what a shameful presidency we have that he can't honor an american senate and american hero who is dying of a deadly cancer. >> it's petty. >> it is the absence of grace even in moments that require and define who this president is and everything he is not and how ill he represents what america is and ought to be at its best. even his own party. >> but it's petty, anicolle. i keep saying he's too small to be in this big position. you ought to my now be looking at the impact and effect of the bill. so what if it's named after someone i disagree with. when does he grow up and become president? >> he never grows up.

ashley parker, it also explains why kelly sadler wasn't fired for saying mccain will be dead soon. he sets the tone in this white house. his disparagement of john mccain has infected and rotted the mouths and minds of his white house staff. >> the president does set the tone and we don't know everything about this snub yet. it's hard to know if it was bad staff work, if the staff had it in there and the president chose not to say it, if the president ordered the staff to make sure he didn't have to utter senator mccain's name. either way as you point out, this is something that is coming from the top. this is something the president has done all along. it's something he has paid very little political price for and it's not entirely surprising that we saw it again today. >> it's not surprising but still depressing and worthy of our stopping and noting the moment. we're going to sneak in a break. we'll be right back. we do whatever it takes to fight cancer.

these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com

you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed?m let's get someone to say it with a really low voice. carl? lowest price guaranteed. what about the world's lowest limbo stick? how low can you go? nice one, carl. hey i've got an idea. just say, badda book. badda boom. badda book. badda boom. nice. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com jason, i'll give you the last word on the president signing the mccain bill and not mentioning mccain. >> he can try to cut mccain's

name out but in 20 years he'll be seen as a flawed hero and donald trump will be someone who sold out to the russians and couldn't keep his house in order. >> that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts with the fabulous katy tur in for chuck. >> your son is wandering around the studio. he's so cute. i almost squeezed him. nicolle wallace, thank you very much. if it's monday, it's firings and few fury. tonight unhinged and unplugged. >> when he talks that way, the way he did on this tape, it confirmed that he is truly a racist. >> the president's former tv apprentice turned top white house aide flips script on her former boss. >> do you have more recordings? >> absolutely. >> plus the president claims a victory in the russia investigation, as the fbi fires peter strzok in the wake of his

anti-trump tex