eastern for the 11th hour. right now "deadline white house" with ka ty in for nicolle wallace. >> i'm katy tur in for nicolle wallace. any pretense the president is less than consumed by legal pressure that's been building around him for nearly two weeks has shattered. the president appears to be really worried about something. he began the day with an hour's long ten tweet tirade laying bare his concerns when it comes to the multiple investigations into his business, campaign, and presidency. and potentially miring himself further in obstruction of justice. take this tweet on white house counsel don mcgahn, a central witness in the mueller investigation whose ouster trump announced yesterday in a tweet that came as a surprise even to mcgahn. trump today writing, quote, the rigged russia witch-hunt did not come into play, even a little

bit, with respect to my decision on don mcgahn. my decision, that's new. is it an add myths that trump himself pushed mcgahn out for trump getting rid of a mueller witness could take the obstruction of justice case against him from bad to worse. and that was just one tweet. the president also hit a host of other flash points in mueller's investigation, including his reported attempts to fire robert mueller and jeff sessions. james comey's to rob mueller and the lester holt interview when he admitted russia was on his mind when he fired comey. some of the things he's ranting about like comey's testimony and the lester holt interview aren't even in the news right now, which raises the question, what's really triggering trump this time? some point to this tweet for a possible answer. i just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the media is. truth doesn't matter to them,

they only have their hatred and agenda. this includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. enemy of the people. it could be another hint that another damaging story or damaging book is coming soon. and the timing couldn't be worse for trump. allies and advisors to the president warned the washington post, he's unprepared for the legal challenges that lie ahead. winter is coming, one aide told the post. and at the top of their minds, impeachment. rudy giuliani even admitting, quote, we've talked a lot about impeachment at different times. joining us now from the washington post white house reporter ashley parker, paul butler former federal prosecutor, now georgetown university law professor. matt miller former chief spokesman for the justice department, nick, "the new york times" political reporter and jonathan lemire, white house

reporter for the associated press. jonathan, i'm curious. the president has gone on this ten-tweet tirade today. it seems like he's worried about something. the legal cloud is definitely darkening. it's closing in. what's happening right now? >> according to the aides we talked to, people close to the president, it's a succession of things. it's not long since he had a one, two, three, four punch manafort, cohen, pleading guilty. you hinted about a book. bob woodward's book is coming soon in the next couple of weeks. >> has he had acsnes >> they've been cagey about the reveal. he talked to people around the president and who work in the white house. certainly the comey and lester holt pieces of his tweet storm this morning, those both would connect seemingly to the obstruction of justice part of this so it's possible in conversations with his lawyers that is something that the president is particularly concerned about.

it is all at once, and it's also -- let's remember, donald trump isn't doing that much. there is no policy he's rolling out. there is no agenda he's trying to push. right now he is campaigning for the mid terms and he is in the white house in this cycle of feedback with cable television. and we know how he sees things on tv, he reacts to them, tv reacts to him and it goes on and on and on. we saw steam let out in the remarkable tweet time. >> a lot of executive time? >> yes. >> ashley parker, don mcgahn in the other tweet he sent out this morning saying it was his decision. let's put it up on screen. the rigged russia witch-hunt did not come into play even a little bit with respect to my decision on don mcgahn. the white house saying, my decision on don mcgahn refers to the president's decision to accept the terms of the white house counsel's planned departure this fall. the official confirms mcgahn was not ousted and is leaving by choice. does that lineup with the

reporting you're doing? >> yes and no. so, everybody sort of knew when pieces got written every several weeks don mcgahn was likely on his way out sniometime this fal likely after kavanagh's confirmation went through. but we also know that the president has long clashed with don mcgahn. he was deeply unhappy by news reports a week or tua wo ago th mcgahn spent hours with mueller, trump didn't fully realize that until he learned it from the news. he's frustrated with his handling of some parts of the russia investigation. he doesn't think mcgahn has sufficiently protected him. he said the president agreed to accept don mcgahn's resignation, but let's not forget that this resignation came as a surprise even to mr. mcgahn himself who learned about it in the tweet. and that was described to me by people close to the president as the president kind of forcing his hand and saying, you know what, i've done with you, we're ready to part ways. i'm going to put this out

publicly in a slightly humiliating fashion so you're not going to have wiggle room to stay on should you change your mind. >> is it because he wants to be seen at all times as he's the one making the decisions? >> it's a couple things. he likes to be the decider. he doesn't like feeling like he is forced into anything. as you know oftentimes, the media reports he's going to do something, it's an accurate report, he'll not do it or delay doing it just so it doesn't seem like he's doing what people claim he's going to do. and he and don mcgahn have clashed. he was kind of ready for him to be gone and he saw this as a way to publicly ensure that that does, in fact, happen. >> paul, how does someone like special counsel robert mueller see a tweet like that where he says, my decision? >> yeah, you know, you just put it in the pile with the rest. for a prosecutor who is thinking about an obstruction of justice case, donald trump is kind of a dream defendant because he constantly makes incriminating

admissions in his tweets, in his interviews, and his statements. what he said today, it's not quite as bad as when he said to comey, can you give me a loyalty pledge, or when he wrote that memo about the meeting with the russian lawyer, that was a complete lie. but this is yet more corroboration of his intent, his criminal intent, i'd say. he is running scared in this investigation and he's doing everything he can to try to impede it. >> matt, do you think it's that simple that a tweet like this, or many tweets of this nature, are enough to lead robert mueller into an obstruction case, or does he need more than that? >> i think with every action the president has taken, you look at a few that are the big actions that would form the heart of an obstruction case, the firing of jim comey, going to the intelligence community and asking them to get comey to back off the flynn investigation, but then there are a bunch of other series of actions you would put together that collectively look

like obstruction of justice and collectively show his intent. with respect to his tweet this morning i think it would depend on what he was trying to accomplish. is it true that he fired him because he was a witness in this case? or is it just the end of their natural tenure? at the minimum, the president was so reckless with his tweet because what he has done is given the special counsel a reason now to call white house witnesses that he may have been done with back in and say, what's happened over the last few weeks? did the president tell you that he was going to fire don mcgahn because he came in and talked to me for 30 hours? did he express anger about that? so whether or not that's what he did, he opened a new avenue of inquiry yet again. >> what about the other tweets, particularly this one where he says i'm excited about the person who will be taking place of don mcgahn as white house counsel. he was not responsible for me -- is this him confirming that he

did consider or did try to fire bob mueller or jeff sessions and mcgahn wasn't the one who stopped him orkts or is he saying he never tried to do these things? can you make sense that of? >> it's hard to know. it looks a bit like an admission that he did it. it doesn't matter whether he admits it or not. we know that he did and the special counsel knows he did. the special counsel has interviewed all of the people that will were in the room. he's spent 30 hours with don mcgahn. he's interviewed reince priebus. he interviewed everyone that worked in the white house when the president did take these actions. i think one of the interesting things about don mcgahn, if you look at that tweet, the president has figured out that don mcgahn has been trying to build a get out of jail free card at donald trump's expense. don mcgahn was at the center of some of the early troubling actions. he was the one that talked to sally yates and said, why would the justice department care if mike flynn lied to the vice-president about his contact with sergey kislyak? he was the one who went to jeff sessions at the president's request, would you consider not recusing yourself in this case? i think he figured out early on he had legal exposure and he

spent a lot of time talking to the special counsel to make sure he got out of any legal jeopardy and making clear everyone in the world knew about it by a series of well-timed leaks to "the new york times." >> and the reporting has been out there because he had exposure and because he felt that donald trump and his legal team was going to throw him under the bus, he needed to be as transparent as possible. now it's very clear the white house doesn't know exactly what mcgahn said. there is other reporting from your paper, nick, that came out a few months ago. i think it's worth bringing up again. this is the president asking don mcgahn to fire mueller and then when "the new york times" found out about it, he told mcgahn to deny it and mcgahn had to say this. in one episode the president told me the white house counsel don mcgahn should issue a statement denying the firing in january. he told investigators the president once asked him to fire the special counsel robert mueller. mr. mcgahn never released the statement and later had to remind the president that he had indeed asked mr. mcgahn to see that mr. mueller was dismissed, the people said. >> look, this is a president who

is incapable of keeping a story straight for more than a day. he changes his story and changes his motivations and actions all the time. i think more broadly, just look at the tool kit with which donald trump constructed success in business and politics. he used payoffs. he used fixers. he used ndas, secrecy, right? these are all the tools he used. they are all crumbling around him. he can't enforce the ndas. his lawyers and fixers are testifying or cooperating against him. and he can't buy his way into cooperation with some of the people who are against him. and his own inability to show loyalty to his own people is coming back to haunt him. they're all turning on him. that's a terrible place for him to be. i'm not surprised he's firing off a machine gun of tweets all the time on ten different topics. >> if he's just trying to fire people or talking about firing people, is that enough, paul, to make it obstruction? i mean, does it need to be more

than that? where is the legal line? >> so, again, it's all about his intent, what his -- whether he's doing it in order to call off the investigation or to try to stop it. and so with mcgahn, since he's firing mcgahn after the fact -- again, the damage as far as trump is concerned with mcgahn has been done. he went in a room with robert mueller and spilled the beans for 30 hours. so, again, trump may be upset about that. if he's firing mcgahn because of that, it's not obstruction. it's evidence that he's scared but that in itself wouldn't be a crime. >> ashley, i hear winter is coming, not just winter as in the season, but winter for the president in terms of his legal worries. you write today, one source of growing anxiety among trump allies is the worry that the president and some senior white house officials are notages

enou -- are not anxious enough. he gets mad that the "i" word is raised according to his associates. winter is coming, said one trump ally, in close communication with the white house. assuming democrats win the house, which we all believe is a very strong likelihood, the white house will be under siege. but it's like tumble weeds rolling down the halls over there. nobody's prepared for war. ashley. >> yeah, there is a sort of funny nuance there as we started reporting. i started reporting because we had heard the president and his team was getting worried about impeachment, which is true. for instance, we've heard he's talking about maybe bringing abby lowell who is his son-in-law's jared kushner's attorney fights with congress, possible impeachment proceedings, investigations, stuff like that. as we continued reporting, it's as we wrote that a lot of people in trump's orbit are nervous that no one is more -- people are not sufficiently nervous.

there is nervousness about the lack of nervousness and the gist seems to be that this is a white house who, you know, can't distribute talking points to willing surrogates right now. and what will they actually do if democrats take the house in november. they have no sort of infrastructure. they are just utterly unprepared for that sort of onslaught from subpoenas, from calls to testify, from all of the investigations that this white house would face. >> john, why are they worried? why is the president worried? does he actually believe that republicans are going to win in november? because when i see him tweet about all the rigged elections and google being rigged, what i see as an echo in 2016 donald trump worried he's going to lose and he's trying to place the blame elsewhere. >> laying the groundwork for the excuses why he lost. there is a lot that is true in this scenario as well. part of it is not just nervousness. as ashley said, a lack of preparation, a lack of staffing. this is a white house from day one that has had trouble

bringing in qualified people, some of whom perhaps offered their services but were told no because they were not trumpers. others he tlitried to recruit b they think this is a sinking ship, would add to their exposure if they walk in the door. more or less putting down your resume, that's a great setup up going forward. this white house not necessarily. >> it's a president who never listens to legal advice unless it's rudy giuliani and rudy giuliani is a loose cannon on television. >> they ought to be worried about their legal team. this from the beginning this, has been like a match up of a pop warner football team against the new england patriots. you look at the legal team going back to summer when it was mark kasowitz, a criminal defense attorney, john dowd completely out of his league, now rudy giuliani who goes on tv all the time and says incriminating things about his client. on top of that you have the white house counsel's office.

hemorrhaging staff. the only serious lawyer they have in front of them is emmet flood. it's not just impeachment. if the democrats take back congress, look at all the scandals that have plagued the administration. they aren't ready to respond -- >> the amount of subpoenas that would doing dobog down the whou. rob importanter was considered for white house counsel. alma that goes to matt's point. if you're looking for your stat secretary to take over the job of white house counsel, you probably haven't got a lot of other options. who would choose to join the white house counsel's office at this moment? you would have to be a maniac of a death wish. you're asking for legal bills to be pulled into a situation where your client isn't going to back you up, is going to make life very difficult. his lawyers right now are mostly people who enjoy being on tv. and this is a great white house if you're that kind of lawyer. >> good point. nick, thank you very much. you're staying with us. ashley parker and paul butler, we are going to say good-bye to

you. the rest of the table will remain. coming up, decades of dirt on donald trump and what we are learning about a new plan by trump and michael cohen to buy it all up. plus it's increasingly clear the days are numbered for jeff sessions. and a new report suggests donald trump is trying to convince republican senators to help push him out. and a public rebuke of the president as senator john mccain gets the last word. we'll be right back. to most, he's phil mickelson, pro golfer. to me, he's, well, dad.

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together catalog much of the president's troubled controversial past. it would, of course, be the holy grail to anyone trying to ruin him. now ask yourself, what would the former no nonsense businessman do to secure it? as it turns out, the trump file isn't really a hypothetical. it's or something like it, exists, or at least once did. a new reporting today from "the new york times" details the steps trump was willing to take before the 2016 election to keep it in the right hands. quote, trump and his lawyer at the time, michael d. cohen, devised a plan to buy up all the dirt on mr. trump that the national enquirer and its parent company had collected on him dating back to the 1980s. according to several of mr. trump's associates. that report breathing new life into that secret trump audio recording cohen released last month. at what point did two men hint at a plan? >> i need to open up a company

for the transfer of all that of info regarding our friend david, you know, so that -- i'm going to do that right away. >> give it to me. >> and i've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding -- yes. and it's all the stuff, all the stuff because you never know where that company -- >> gets hit by -- >> correct. i'm all over that. and i spoke to allen about it when it comes time for the financing which will be -- >> listen, what financing? >> well, i have to pay -- >> joining us at the table, jennifer palmeri, former communications director for the obama white house and the clinton campaign. janet, starting with you. what would you have done to debt your hands on the trump file? >> oh, yeah, that would have been worth spending some donor money. i have a lot of experience in

dealing with the national enquirer because i worked for the edwards campaign, sorry to say. sorry to say i have a lot of experience. and those people are no joke. they spend a lot of money. they pay sources. they stay with the story for a really long time and they hang in there. so if they have a file on trump going back to the '80s, it's probably something they've invested a lot of investigatory resources in. and i suspect it's about, you know, i suspect it has to do a lot with women. >> and you believe a lot of it would be true given that you worked on the edwards campaign. that was true. >> that was the thing with the "national enquirer." they will right up to the line -- they will exaggerate, but they're surprisingly careful about crossing a line and printing something that's demonstrably false, at least things they could possibly get sued over. they're very careful in that. and they pay a lot of sources. this is why they get things.

pro tip every one in the beverley hills hilton is on the enquirer payroll for real, just flag, be careful. if someone invites you to a meeting at the beverley hills hilton, you should be suspicious. >> good to know a. he if they have a treasure trove of research on you, it's relatively bullet proof and damaging. >> this was broken by jim and maggie at the times. people with knowledge of american media's op ralgss who would speak only on condition of anonymity describe the files on mr. trump as mostly older "national enquirer" stories about mr. trump's marital woes and lawsuits, related story notes, and lists of sensitive sources, some tips about alleged affairs, and minutiae like allegations of unscrupulous golfing. i imagine the unscrupulous golfing, jonathan, might an early donald trump the most. >> that would be considered sort of a blow to his ego. the affair with the porn star

and supermodel maybe not. the associated press last week is reporting about the vault, secret safe the enquirer had on trump. some which perhaps they collected on their own, some working in tandem abowith micha cohen to keep it from the public eye. opposition research or someone trying to ruin him -- >> a lot of this stuff did come out before the election. there were allegations from women that he harassed them or did worse. groped them. he denied all of those. there were always stories about affairs out there. there were legal filings from his ex-wife ivana saying he raped her, donald trump denied that and she later pulled it back. but all of this information was out there, so why would this be so concerning that donald trump and michael cohen would want to keep it buried? >> it's true. he'd win anyway. perhaps there's stuff we don't know about, stuff that would

cross the line of the litany of things you just listed. depending when the transactions were, it could open up campaign finance violations. if that was last year it would be a legal front, something they'd look at. the relationship between the enquirer, ami and donald trump is ever evolving. i don't think this is the last story we've read about it. >> mag he says in a tweet, what is getting lost is the "national enquirer" and trump dirt went back 20 years. long predating cohen working for trump. this is trump's concern about controlling information. the tape indicates this was not some idea that cohen came up with, but was an expected part of his job. he was a fixer, after all. >> i want to point out for a second here, katy. we're talking about a literal safe filled with trump dirt that his supposed friend kept in his office and that his other supposed friend taped a conversation of him and the now

president talking about how -- >> the former advisor taping conversations. >> why he's so nervous, this is why he's so nervous. what a world, what friends to have. what allies to have. tas' crazy. >> i know we're laughing about it but it does speak volumes about the people he surrounds himself with, and the way he operates and the way people feel they need to protect themselves from donald trump. >> that's right. look, i am skeptical there is anything in this file that would prove that surprising as it relates to donald trump. >> so why does he want to buy it up? >> probably because he's worried about it coming out before the election. what would it be, he had sex with a porn star after watching shark week after his son was born? that wouldn't surprise me. the question is money, how are they going to pay for it, would this be out of his pocket, which would be legal, or use corporate money or michael cohen's money that was unreported as a campaign action. that would be interesting.

>> does -- have these files? >> i don't know. >> pecker has gotten immunity. wouldn't it stand to reason if there are these files, a vault did exist, even if he this were moved, the s.d.n.y. would say we need those files if we're going to give you immunity? >> it would he depend if it was relevant to the case. they would ask michael cohen about them. if there was anything that went to their -- the case they have been working on, i think they would definitely want to see f. it was just gossip from 20 years ago, maybe not. >> honestly i think he was worried about his golf. >> yeah. >> this is a man who went up to me after a debate and showed me his hands and said, look at these powerful hands. i can hit a golf ball 285 yards. >> he's very proud of his ability to drive a ball. >> his butler had to correct him. remember that? >> his driving a golf cart over a green. >> it's not against the law yet. >> okay, guys, this has gone off the rails. nick, thank you very much. when we come back, donald trump's latest push to force out

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i think he wants an attorney general that he has a better working relationship with. and to those in my business who say you're stuck with jeff sessions, i like jeff sessions, but how smart do you have to be to understand this is not working? >> it is definitely not working. according to new reporting by politico, quote, if sessions recusal was his original sin, trump has come to resent him for other reasons. griping to aides and lawmakers the attorney general doesn't have the ivy league pedigree the president prefers. that he can't stand his southern accent, and that sessions isn't a capable defender of the president on television. in part because he talks like he has marbles in his mouth. the president has told aides.

the beast also details how trump is now venting his anger to every republican senator who will listen. joining the table, charlie sykes, contributing editor for the weekly standard, host of the daily standard podcast and an msnbc contributor. charlie, i find this so interesting, not least -- mostly because sessions was such a vehement supporter of donald trump during the campaign. he came out, he put that make america great again hat on, and mobile, alabama in 2015, in 2015, before most lawmakers would go anywhere near him, certainly before any senators would go near him, he didn't endorse him in that moment, but he did so pretty soon after that. he was on the campaign plane, donald trump's plane day in and day out. he was always close to the president and for him to be so thoroughly thrown under the bus by donald trump, it shouldn't be so surprising. >> as a member of the cabinet he's the trumpyest.

if this is about poll city and ideology, i think it's extraordinary these reports that donald trump is mocking him for his academic pedigree and for his accent. now, imagine for a moment that barack obama was mocking somebody because they didn't go to harvard or yale, mocking somebody because they had a southern accent. this whole campaign about the elites versus the populist, isn't it revealing that this is where donald trump goes. >> the hypocrisy he has a vocabulary of ten words. i know i'm slightly exaggerating here. analysis done in the way he speaks puts him at a 4th grade level. at one point during the campaign it was a second grade level. >> but he's a stable genius. >> very stable genius. >> very stable. >> john, is this going to happen? >> it's not going to happen imminently. to your point, it shows, hearken back to our previous conversation about trump and loyalty, this is why he showed he demands loyalty from others and returns none.

it can't be overstated. the alabama rally was for many people, hey, we have something here. >> it was huge. >> sessions played a big part. >> there were 20,000 people who showed up to this rally, this is right after he went after john mccain. his campaign is totally dead. we showed up at this rally, 20,000 people were there, it was raining, really hot. we didn't know this was going to happen. jeff sessions gets on stage and puts on this happen. donald trump's whole immigration plan was based around jeff sessions' ideas on immigration and stephen miller who was jeff sessions' aid who went on to work in the white house and donald trump's campaign. apparently donald trump has weighed in on this. let's go to hans nichols who jumped in front of a camera for us. hans, what have you heard? >> the president told bloomberg news in an interview sessions is safe until the midterm elections in november. i'm going to speak a little loudly here because that's marine one i believe taking off. we're here, the president did not stop and talk to reporters, but according to bloomberg, i

just had an interview, sessions safe until november. i suspect that will give you some things to chew about. unless you want to talk about the other news which is he's threatening to withdraw from the w.t.o. i don't think that's quite your mood this afternoon. >> we can get to that at some point, hans. let's stick to sessions another moment. this is what lindsey graham was saying he's going to get rid of him after the mid terms. >> that's the talking point. this is one of the few issues republicans were willing to defy the president. he's doing a good job, he's our long-time colleague. we're not going to hold a confirmation hearing, don't fire him. and others like rudy giuliani counseled the president to say, look, you don't want to fire him now in the midst of the mueller probe. that looks bad. it could play into the obstruction of justice window in all of this. it seems like graham's comments have soften the earth and have done the snowball effect and is going to lead to sessions being out after the mid terms, consequence be damned. >> there could be legal issues, let's take this from the washington post. an open question whether the president could contemporarily

replace a cabinet official he has fired as opposed to one he resigned. if sessions forces trump to fire him there could be a legal battle over trump's authority to pick a temporary replacement who could outrank rosenstein. rosenstein would effectively take over. so there's no guarantee of a success for trump there. if trump was able to pick a temporary replacement, it couldn't just be anybody. it would have to be someone who has already been confirmed by the senate or at least likely a justice department employee with a high enough rank. the former would seem to afford more of a chance of inserting a loyalist. matt? >> yeah, those issues, there is another issue, a d.o.j. succession statue and a legal question whether that takes precedent. that statue says rosenstein would become the acting a.g.. the bottom line is the president will do what he wants to do. he gets to decide. there is a question whether you would sue after the fact. jeff sessions is the only person who would have standing to sue in that case. if he wants to move someone in from outside the government he will probably do that. that's the thing i worry most

about. i won't shed any tears if jeff sessions is gone. i think he's done very little to stand up for the rule of law. his recusal was not a discretionary act, it was required by the rules. he literally had no other rules. the next attorney general would have to go through a confirmation hearing, they would have to pledge to not interfere with the investigation as the attorney general and deputy attorney general nominees did during watergate, i wouldn't be that concerned. if he moved someone in from elsewhere in the government, i think that is a dleer sign he's trying to shut down this investigation. >> couldn't he just do a recess appointment? does he need a confirmation hearing? >> it could be anybody from the government, right? anyone who is senate confirmed. an assistant secretary of labor, right? it doesn't even have to be somebody at justice. he could put anybody there. >> what are the political implications -- there are all these red lines folks talk about. if he crosses them, then voters will really say hey, listen, what are you trying to hide? would this be one of those red

lines? do we keep seeing that red line being pushed back? >> there are no red lines any more, i don't think. you know, i'm used to disappointment as a conservative. i'm used to disappointment. still, when lindsey graham flip-flopped on this at the exact moment the senate republicans should have been drawing a red line, should have been signalling, don't go in this direction, that was really a disappointing. also to do it in the week that john mccain was passing away. it's another one of those signs that republicans are not willing to do it. again, part of this -- i keep thinking about, imagine that we didn't know all the things that donald trump was doing and saying. it all came out in mueller's report, all the attempts he is making to obstruct this investigation or part of this is it is an obstruction of justice that's been playing out in real-time in public on twitter. and this entire scenario is, of course, going to the question of will he try to shut down the

investigation into himself, his cro cronies and members of the family. if that is not a red line, there are no red lines any more. >> that's a danger with linde i graham. he probably has his heart in the right place. if he's taking a move saying it's okay to fire sessions, he's doing it because of some greater good. he's trying to protect mueller. he's trying to do something else. that's what happens when you try to game this out as opposed to playing it straight up. there aren't going to be any red lines until the republicans in congress decide -- >> in which case they will all be replaced, come into a democratic house, possibly democratic senate and they'll see what real accountability looks like. >> if there is no red line, the house doesn't turnover the way you say it will, frank figliuzzi suggested yesterday on the air there is a contingency plan. he would send off parts of his investigations to s.d.n.y. or the attorney's office in d.c. or various other u.s. attorney's

offices around the country where they could continue it and donald trump could not stop that investigation. but who knows, guys. just watch. something will happen i'm sure. hans nichols, thank you very much. jonathan lemire, thank you as well. still ahead, remembering john mccain, some of his closest friends including joe biden paid tribute and deliver an implicit rebuke of donald trump. your mornings were made for better things, than psoriatic arthritis. as you and your rheumatologist consider treatments,

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don't let another morning go by without with the new chase ink business unlimited card i get unlimited 1.5% cash back. it's so simple, i don't even have to think about it. so i think about mouthfeel. introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase. senator john mccain was eulogized by friends and family in phoenix this afternoon. it was the final service in his home state. his casket has now left arizona for the last time. in a couple of hours it will arrive in washington where the late senator will lie in state inside the capital. today's funeral stood in stark contrast to the current political climate and the man who dominates it. among those honoring mccain, his

democratic friend and former rival vice-president joe biden. >> john's story is the american story. that's not hyperbole. it sounds like it. it's the american story. grounded in respect, in decency, basic fairness, the intolerance through the abuse of power. >> joining us now is jonathan cape heart, washington post opinion writer and msnbc contributor. it was an emotional ceremony, jonathan. the speakers were emotional. i was struck by how each one of the speakers seemed to rebuke a different aspect of the man who is currently in the white house. >> yeah, and it's easy to do. i mean, the president is a target-rich environment. just personally, morally, professionally. and john mccain, for all his greatness and all his faults as

the vice-president biden said, it's an american story. and i think his passing sort of brings into high relief just how tragic and dangerous this period we're in in this country, that we have a chief executive who has seemingly no respect or reverence for the office he holds or the constitution he swore to uphold. and we have a congress that is not fulfilling its constitutional duty to be a check and balance on the executive. senator mccain was one of those, was one of those people, was one of those men who was an institutionalist. he believed in the senate, he believed in the power of the legislative branch. i was in brussels for the german marshals forum. senator mccain was there, he did

a one on one with our friend steve clemens. for the europeans in the room dealing with the first months of the trump administration, having senator mccain there was a reassuring thing because he was the person with the institutional knowledge. he was the person they had relationships with. he was america to them. the man in the white house was not america to them. senator mccain was, and having him there and doing the bilats i know he did while he was there, and sitting there in public and speaking as a representative of america was reassuring. and that is something with his passing we no longer have. >> that's what that funeral was, it was reassuring, reminding america what we are and what we can be again. not this country that's divided and screaming at each other, but a country who can come together to get things done, a country who can vehemently disagree with each other on policy but that would not devolve into personal attacks. >> this is an excellent exercise

for the country to see the alternative vision of what our politics could be like, also a m meditation of what we want in our political leaders, what john mccain represents, that tradition of service and sacrifice, of principle. the contrast is unavoidable whether it's explicit or implicit with the narcissist in the white house. you know, watching this, you go, this is an -- it didn't have to be the way it is now. there were alternatives out there. so, i think it as this week goe on, hopefully there will be a little bit of shaming of some of the republicans in the senate who have to ask themselves how do they want to be remembered, what do they want their career to be about? do they want to make emulate someone like john mccain? or do they want to go into the history books as constitutional potted plants, rubber stamps of the president. >> worried about their next election. interesting today, andrea mitchell interviewed h.r.

mcmaster, the first interview he's done since he was fired from the white house, also a good friend of senator mccain. and he called him a unifying force. let's listen to that. >> i think what senator mccain has become and will remain in our memory and in his legacy is a unifying force for the country. what the senator lamented in his last years, and he was very eloquent about this, is this polarization of american society. and really the opportunity that presents for russians and others who are trying to undermine our democracy, undermine our confidence in who we are as a people and our values and our democratic processes and institutions. what john mccain did across his life is brought people together. >> this man is only a few months out of the white house. >> right. imagine, imagine what it was like in those months that he was, that he was inside there. and, you know, i wish we had seen more of that, mcmaster, while he was in office.

what i think about the reaction that mccain is getting, it's inspiring in that it shows the difference that one individual can make if they are willing an the hunger that you can get for that and the hunger that there is in the country. i wish i could believe that would turn republican senators around. i think it's too late for that. they're too worried about their own primaries. but it should be inspiring for the american people to see one leader can make that kind of -- that can make that kind of change. i hope that as we start looking towards 2020 you see somebody like that emerge on the democratic side. >> it is a commentary on our paolitics that republican voter have chosen donald trump over what john mccain represented. at least right now, think about this, that overwhelmingly republican primary voters think that donald trump is what they're looking for in a leader, not what john mccain represented.

>> they didn't choose arpaio or kelli ward but that's because they both cancelled each other out in that republican primary to take senator flake's seat, not john mccain's seat. up next, donald trump calls the press the enemy of the people and now a man is using that same language in threats to kill reporters. the fbi's latest arrest when we come back. ♪ let your perfect drive come together during the final days of the lincoln summer invitation event get 0% apr on select 2018 lincoln models plus one thousand dollars bonus cash. billions of problems. sore gums? bleeding gums? painful flossing? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath healthy gums oral rinse

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the fbi today arrested a 68-year-old man in california who's now charged with threatening to kill reporters at the "boston globe." there were 14 calls over 12 days, all of them earlier this month. the threats started right after "the globe" announced it would publish coordinated responses with other newspapers around the country aimed at countering attacks on the free press and the first amendment. some of those were recorded and detailed in the affidavit. here's a portion of one of them. you're the enemy of the people, and we're going to kill every f'ing one of you. then he ends the call with i'm going to shoot you in the f'ing head later today at 4:00. good-bye. federal documents reveal the man owns several firearms, including a new 9 millimeter carbine rifle purchased earlier this year.

by the way, at the same time we learned about this arrest, trump was still tweeting the press is the enemy of the people. deep breath. i don't like to do a lot of these stories, because i don't like doing too much stories about ourselves, but this has now crossed a real line into the president saying it on twitter or saying it in interviews or rallies to a man repeating it and threatening a group of reporters with death. 30 seconds. >> sometimes you have to be careful when you see overinterpretings in these cases. in this one it's pretty clear. these are the president's own words being used by someone who threatened a reporter. look who busted this up. the fbi. the president has been attacking the press as the enemy of the people. he's compared the fbi's investigations into what happens in nazi germany. his attorney, rudy giuliani, has called them storm troopers. two important institutions doing great work to hold people accountable. both enemies of the president of the united states. >> certainly glad the fbi got this man. we'll be right back. is man th

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again, it's been a pleasure being here filling in for nicolle. my thanks to all of you guys, it has been a memorable one. that will do it for this hour. i'm katy tur again in for nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now with chuck todd. >> katy tur, how are you? see, that's what pete does to me. by the way, next time if pete williams does a katherine on you, just call him lewis. >> i had someone online say i was surprised to find out katherine was your full name. i said really? >> is it that hard to figure out? oh, you're a charles? yeah, most chucks are. >> what are you going to do. >> thank you, katy. if it's thursday, it's the eye of the tweetstorm.