congratulations to her. a big thank to alex witt and hallie jackson for helping us out. we appreciate it. with that being said, "morning joe" starts right now. >> i didn't do the project. i decided nod to do the project. so i didn't do it. so we're not talking about doing a project. we're talking about not doing a project. that was a project that we didn't do. i didn't do. i decided ultimately not to do it. this was a deal that didn't happen. that was no deal. it was an option that i decided not to do. we had a position to possibly do a deal to build a building of some kind in moscow. i decided not to do it. >> the president's former fixer pleased guilty on a charge of lie to go congress about a plan for a trump tower in moscow. the president yesterday denying he did any deal in russia, but also saying there would be nothing wrong with pursuing overseas business as a candidate

for president if he had. we had new twitter reaction just this morning where he describes his behavior during the campaign as very legal and very cool. we'll explain that. we'll hear more from him live of from argentina at the g20 summit, as well. the president landing after abruptly canceling a meeting with vladimir putin citing russia's aggression towards ukraine. good morning, everybody. we have a great group to tackle both intertwining stories this morning. donn donnie deutsch, emily jane fox, matt miller and some of the best foreign policy experts out there, the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas, associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius and washington anchor for bbc world news america caddie kay. richard, you thought you were going to get yourself a g20, go

down, have a couple sideline meetings and get out of town. no such luck. >> three mine fields, the russian one, the saudi one with mbs, the crown prince trying to make believe that everything is normal, and what might ultimately and economic and policy terms be the most consequential, the meeting between president trump and xi jinping. >> we'll get into all that in a moment. but first, in federal court, michael cohen, former executive vice president of the trump organization and the personal attorney to president trump during his first year in office pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements to congress about the length and scope of contacts about a project to build a trump tower in moscow. identifying the president as individual one, the charging document says cohen discussed

the status and progress of the moscow progress with individual one on more than three occasions, more than the three he claimed to the senate intelligence committee and he briefed family members of individual one within the company about that project. reversing what he told congress, cohen admitted he agreed to travel to russia in connection to the moscow project and took steps in contemplation of trump's possible travel to russia. cohen admitted he had gotten response from the russian government when seeking assistance from the project including from the office of top putin aid dmeeimitry peskov. six months after cohen initially said discussions had ended. cohen will be sentenced next wednesday, december 12th. here is the tweet i referenced from the president this morning. he wrote this. while at the g20 in argentina. quote, oh, it. i'm a very good developer happily living my life when i see our country going in the

wrong direction, to put it mildly. against the odds, i decide to run for president and continue to run my business. very legal and very cool. talked about it on the campaign trail. he goes on, lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in russia, put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn't do the project. he finishes by saying witch-hunt. compare that to what the president said repeatedly during the campaign and in the early days of his presidency. >> i have nothing to do with russia. we're all over the world, but i'm not involved in russia. i don't deal there. i have no loans from russia. i have nothing to do with russia, folks, okay. i don't have any deals in russia. i have nothing to do with russia. i have no investments in russia, none whatsoever. i have no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia because we've

stayed away. >> what do i know about the russians? what do i know about the russians? then they said he borrows money from -- i don't borrow money from the russians. i promise you, i don't have any deals with russia. i had miss universe there a couple of years ago. other than that, no. >> so matt miller, the president now says, okay, i quote lightly looked at doing a building in moscow. maybe all those things i said in the early days of my presidency weren't true. we looked at it. there was no deal to be had. it fell apart. we didn't sign anything. we didn't do anything. so as you look the at this in sum total within the context of the mueller investigation, where the link between president trump and potential collusion, for example? >> so i think the president's right in one sense that it would be very legal for him to work on a real estate deal with russia. i'm not sure it would be cool to do it while you're running for president and while you're talking about changing american foreign policy and while you're lying to the american people about it. but where the link would come

back to the case that mueller is presenting, when you look at everything that was going on in the summer of 016, it wasn't just that the president was secretly negotiating a real estate deal. it's that he was doing it at a time his son and his campaign manager and his son-in-law were meeting with a russian intelligent intermediary. it was at the same time as he was changing the republican party platform to make it more friendly towards russia. it was at the same time as we found out this week his outside adviser, roger stone, was getting the heads up about the exact timing and content of the week wikileaks stump. so when you add all this up, there's always been this question, why was the president so friendly towards vladimir putin during the campaign? why was it he was praising vladimir putin and talking about re-orienting u.s. policy towards russia? now what you see is the beginning of a quid pro quo where the president might have

had two things he would get, one, financial returns helping his bottom line and two insight. >> there is a history of president trump doing business in russia. the problem would be, now you have somebody on the other side in vladimir putin who sees it in his own interest to put donald trump in the white house. >> what i found when i looked as carefullies as i could at this story is that donald trump has had a 30-year obsession with building a big project in moscow. it's been a passion. it goes from russian administration to administration. he's gone to moscow a number of times. on this reporting, i went to moscow on the very spot where he would have billed the office tower that he dreamed of. each of these deals kept calling through. but the pakz on trump's part remained and he transferred it in effect to his children who were very eager to do this

russian business dealing. to discovery that somebody who has kept saying i have nothing to do with russia, no russian was talking until june of the presidential campaign year with michael cohen about all the ongoing discussions and was getting word back from vladimir putin's spokesman, peshkov, about the russian side's willingness to enter into conversations really is quite striking. i think we're now at the beginning of the end game of the mueller investigation because we're finally with individual one, donald trump, at the center of what the story has been from the beginning. >> and cohen now saying those discussions with russia went into june of 2016 when president trump had well cinched the nomination to be the republican momny for president. donnie and emily. donnie, let's talk about michael cohen's side of this. a father figure was donald trump throughout his life to michael cohen.

>> this has always been about failed casinos where trump could no longer get money in anywhere from any bank. and for 25 years, i believe, it's also been talked about, but it's going to be the tip of the iceberg, his financial relationship, his financial dependency on russia. trying to end the meninski act. this is just the beginning. you're going to see a man with all kinds of nefarious ties, financially dependent, period. this is just the first tower. there will be maniel more towers -- many more towers to come. so committed to this man. obviously, we saw him arrested. we saw that turn with michael cohen. i have never seen michael, since this began, feel the way he's on

felt the last few days. i've spoken to him the last few days where i think for the first time he really feels he's still being found guilty of something. he's still probably going to serve some jail tile, but he really feels he's on the right side of things. he feels not only is he doing something for himself and his family, it is starting to feel, you know what? i'm on the right side of things. i'm not the bad guy, if you will, i'm not on that team any more. and on a very personal level, he feels like it's been he versus trump. you know, he's left out by himself, hang out to dry, against the most powerful man in the world, against everything. and i think finally he feels he can stick his chest out. very different tone of him in the courtroom and just the way he's conducting himself. >> and emily, the president said yesterday in public comments as he got on the hell.incorporator to get to air force one, he said michael cohen is a weak person, he's a liar. let's listen to what the president said yesterday about michael cohen. >> he was convicted of various

things unrelated to us. he was given a fairley long jail sentence. he's a weak person. and by being weak, unlike other people that you watch, he's a weak person and what he's trying to do is get a reduced sentence. >> if cohen is such a bum, why did you hire him, him on your payroll for 12 years and have him do so much -- >> because a long time ago, he did me a favor. >> if by a long time ago you mean october of 2016 when he slid a payment to stormy daniels. so let's talk about how michael cohen got to this point. obviously, the years that preceded this moment, he was lying for president trump because he said i did it out of pure loyalty. where is he right now? >> he stood up in court yesterday and under oath, without having to, named the president as individual one in that document that was filed by the special counsel's office.

that is the second time that he has stood up in federal court and opted under oath to implicate the president in these things. he didn't have to do that. these were decisions that he has made. that is certainly a huge shift. he said in the interview with me that he would take a bullet for the president in august of 2017. it was i think about two days after he filed the document with the senate and house committees that he is now accused of lying on. in court yesterday, he said he did it out of loyalty. and it is my understanding from covering cohen very closely for the last year plus that cohen was incredibly loyal to the president and to his family. i do not believe that loyalty makes you just come up with a story that you can then pedal to congress people who are investigating you without trying to get credit for that. so it's inconceivable to me that cohen would just lie, straight up, without having any

conversations with anybody about that and not tell the president that he's doing that. we know for the president loyalty for the president is incredibly important, but getting creditor for that loyalty is important to they will. >> michael cohen now has admitted he's a liar, so he's probably lying about this, too. why is he a reliable witness? >> michael cohen was a concierge for trump. whether trump directed him to lie, he was doing it because this is his boss and he was the front man. very personally, personally tied up. the important thing to look at yesterday was the sentence. here he is pleading guilty. he does not have a formal agreement with the special prosecutor's office so this was not something to emily's point that he had to do. he has nothing to do with why he did what he did. but he only got six months to serve concurrently with where he's going to be sentenced december 12th which means he got nothing. that tells you what that was worth to mueller. that tells you there's probably a lot more to come.

according to michael, there will be a very lengthy letter by mueller written to the judge in the southern direct case about his 70 hours of cooperation, about an a plus cooperating witness without an agreement and i think this tells you what is to come. there will be more to come from michael cohen. this is, i think, just the beginning. >> so matt miller, before we return to the g20 with richard haas, what does this tell you about where bob mueller is in his investigation? >> i think it tells you there are a number of other shoes to drop. michaelco.en has already pled guilty to much more serious felonies. the sentence is likely to be short and served concurrently with the felonies he's pleaded guilty to. i think what you saw is using a guilty plea to lay out a public narrative and give you some sense of what's coming next. sos what's coming next, you look at references to individual one

who obviously is the president. you look at references to michael cohen having briefed members of the trump family. we know donald trump jr. has come in and testified to congress under oath and minimized his involvement in this deal. i don't know if that completely squares with what michael cohen told the special prosecutor behind closed doors. and i think the other thing we can look to what it means with what comes next, this is the first time we've seen the special counsel charge someone with lying to congress. he did that without a referral from congress. there are a number of other people who we've gone and tell stories to congress that haven't turned out to be true. erik prince is a great example, the former head of blackwater. he completely lied to congress about his role in a meeting with the russian government. so i think if you look at the things that are likely to come, bob mueller it seems is there. >> michael cohen has spent at least 70 hours being interviewed

by bob mueller's team, 7-0 hours. >> soon thereafter president trump sends out a tweet canceling his meeting at the g0. russia says that's news to us. he made the announcement in a tweet. do you think he's doing it to cover this or do you think he has actual occurrence about russia and ukraine? >> he ought to have -- >> but does he? >> no. the chronology with this is oernl about an hour before he got on the plane saying we were going to go ahead with the meeting with mr. putin and the announce many afterwards. nothing happened in that hour about ukraine. we've known what the russians were up to in ukraine. we've known what they're up to. anything developed in the ukraine spain that would have warranted calling off the meeting, if anything, let's be straight here for a second.

if you have real problems about what anyone should, then you have the meeting. diplomacy is not a favor. you have the meeting and you call putin out. you basically say.stop it or here is the price you'll pay if you don't. and you have a big show against him. so the idea that this was dropped because of ukraine, i don't think it makes any sense on foreign policy terms. you would have to be a real believer to think this is not what we've been talking about for the last 15 minutes. >> so the theory is out there that putin is testing trump in terms of possible weakness for the united states, now he knows that he won't even have to meet with donald trump face-to-face when he meets him. >> yeah. the theory is with the lame duck congress, maybe president putin is thinking, there's not very much america is going to do during the next two months. so i will try potentially for a land grab which is what the

president of ukraine is suggesting. he says he has plans in the east of the country, we don't know whether that's accurate, but certainly there's a step up in russian aggression and it doesn't suit donald trump right now to be seen helsinki style to be cozying up with vladimir putin back home. this is a good time to have the meeting to talk to him about ukraine. i think politically -- because we don't know what the legal implications are of the cohen story yet. we don't know what the answers are that cohen gave to the special prosecutor. but we do know politically there this is something that the

american public can xwrach of. a trump tower in moscow. a real estate negotiation while he's running for president. that is something people can understand easier than some of the other stuff in the mueller investigation which is complex. >> there always seems to be something in the air when the president travels abroad. so no meeting with vladimir putin for the president. they say no meeting with the crown prince of saudi arabia. what are the big headlines? what are the big goals? we know there's a signing ceremony for the usmca this morning which is nafta by another name. but what should be the big goals down there today? >> i think the headlines will be about the u.s. and china. with all the noise involving donald trump's washington and putin's movement in the black sea, the chinese continue to move quietly towards an increasingly central role on all major world issues.

i think if there's a moment to get some kind of a deal that ends the trade war that china can discuss as a victory that end the problematic tariffs that are hurting some u.s. businesses, this is the moment. the chinese have signaled that. the chinese ambassador made it clear we're willing to do the deal now. we'll have to see whether trump thinks he has enough to do that deal. he could benefit from coming away with something. other than that, we're going to have friction from really every direction. the image of the crown prince of saudi arabia arriving in argentina wanting to pretend that there's nothing going on, folks, that's an extraordinary one. >> we are on the last day of november here and it's been a

blo blockbuster week of developments. monday, trump campaign foreign policy adviser george papadopoulos reported to prison in wisconsin after losing appeals against the special counsel's legal authority. later that day, mueller tossed the plea deal of ex campaign chairman paul manafort, accusing him of violatinger their agreement. at the same time, jerome corsi claimed he rejected a deal and then corsi says he merely guessed correctly about the wikileaks document. tuesday night, it was revealed that paul manafort's attorneys have been speaking to trump's team. trump says he's leaving a pardon for manafort on the table. on top of that, we've learned trump's written answers to mueller including the claims that he was not told beforehand

about the 2016 trump tower meeting and roger stone does not tell him about wikileaks. if you're the president of the united states this morning, how much pressure do you feel you're under after this week? >> i think a great deal of pressure and i think the president is, as you can see from these tweets. it's only friday morning. friday is when the grand jury in d.c. that the special counsel meets, that he uses meets, so if there are more indictments coming, we could see those today. i think we know an indictment of jero jero jerome corsi is coming at some point. we may not be done with activity this week. one thing i want to say about the president's behavior, that clip that you played earlier on the south lawn of the white house talking about michael cohen being weak as opposed to some other people, who does he mean by the other people?

he means paul manafort who tore up his cooperation agreement and i suspect he means roger stone who continues to say he will not cooperate with the special counsel. the president is talking like a mob boss. he's talking like the head of a drug cartel. not like the president of the united states who swore to uphold and take care that the laws be faithfully executed. we get so used to the president acting the way he does that this stuff kind of rolls off our backs. i think it was a remarkable moment to see the president talk about people cooperate, law enforcement are weak and people who don't cooperate or that lie to the justice department or that try to protect criminals are strong. a really, really awful moment for the president and awful moment for the country. >> and perhaps signal to other witnesses that be like paul manafort, break your deal, talk to our lawyers, whatever you have to do to talk to the president. emily, 70 hours that michael

cohen has been with the special counsel for interviews. is there a bunch more stuff coming from michaelco be cohen regarding donald trump? >> it's difficult to imagine as busy as the special counsel's office is that they're spending 70 hours just wasting their time. i don't think they are spending 70 hours just talking about michael cohen lying to congress. i think that something that we haven't spent a lot of time talking about is what he has and what he has talked about on president trump's adult children. i think that there is a tremendous amount to come out about that and i think that there is -- you know, michael cohen worked with the kids every single day. he worked alongside them on projects, personal matters, and i don't think that there is anything that he has been holding back from investigators. >> and don't you think michael

cohen would have some insights into that trump tower meeting? >> he worked in the building. i don't know that he has any evidence, any kind of proof or any direct knowledge of that. perhaps he does. i don't know that. i do know there was a report in buzz feed earlier this year that ivanka trump received an e-mail from the wife of a wrestler in russia who was looking to set her father up with vladimir putin to talk about trump tower. ivanka trump received this e-mail and forwarded it on to michael cohen, according to this report and a spokesperson for her attorney does nid not deny . these are the things that michael cohen would go into investigators and say, hey, this is an e-mail i received. here is that e-mail. >> i just want to explain to people who have not been up to the trump office, the trump organization is a small floor. it's michael, the kids, it's

trump and it's a few other people. that's it. there's no 80 stories of i'm going to go to finance and you go to human resources. so everything that was going on there every day between the kids, between donald, michael was front and center, period. >> michael knows a lot and he's talking a lot to bob mueller's office. thank you. still ahead, we'll be hearing from the president directly in less than an hour. we'll go live to nbc's hallie jackson who is in the room in argentina at the g20. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. can determine your future. your school. your job. your dreams. your problems. (indistinct shouting) but at the y, we create opportunities for everyone, no matter who you are or where you're from. for a better us, donate to your local y today. - [narrator] for powerful suction, you need a shark. with two swappable batteries,

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his motorcade, he made a few remarks there after having tweeted about the news we've been talking about for roughly 24 hours now. the idea that this trump tower discussion was taking place with russia. of course, willie, as you and i remember, the president does not openly discuss this moscow deal and repeatedly said during the campaign that he had no dealings with russia. so i expect when the president arrives here, the president will be appearing with the leaders of canada and mexico to sign what the president dubs pass new nafta deal. there may be an opportunity to get some questions to him. we're not too far from the

podium and we expect both of those leaders to make remarks. there is the potential for some wildly awkward and uncomfortable moments when president trump comes face-to-face with vladimir putin hours after calling off that meeting on a surprise move on air force one. so the kremlin this morning saying that they have, obviously, received notification that the meeting is off. they found out via the president's tweet, by the way. so what will that interaction look like? the crown prince from saudi arabia will be here. that is going to be a moment, willie, that is happening around 10:00 eastern time. >> haley, thanks so much. we're check back with you. richard, let's talk about that

awkward moment. let's start with putin. did you do the handshake in this moment and afterwards to go up and approach the crown prince given that you've given him a pass for what the cia says is the ordering of the murder of a journalist? >> i think with putin, it's all right to have a handshake. is there any sort of a common front.? can he persuade the europeans to do something about energy. so whether he shakes putin's hands or not is almost secondary. with mbs, this administration is

doing saudi arabia's bidding, essentially taking the saudi position. this is not what the united states should be doing. we should be, if anything, saying i need support for msb or letting certain people out of jail, but to give him a pass is outrageous. so i would say any sign of normalcy with him that somehow all is forgiven would be wildly, wildly inappropriate. that said, sitting here, i can't tell you he won't do it. my guess is he may actually do it because this would be 100% consistent with what he and jared kushner have been arguing. i think it's wrong. i think it's short sighted. for someone who wrote a book called "the art of the deal," there is a stunning lack of effort to make the saudis change their behavior. i would have sent an envoy to the king and said don't send the

prince there. it will not be a normal relationship. >> aman, what is it going be like there between the crown print and t prince and the president? >> for the saudi perspective, it's to be on the world stage in a show of normalcy. there is no doubt the saudis want to move beyond this chapter and they want to try to get normalization from the president. i think a lot of people in the region, and even in the u.s., don't forget the secretary of state mike pompeo went to saudi arabia shortly after the killing of jamal khashoggi and it was all smiles and laughs. a lot of people crediticized hi for being willing to sit and do a photo-op. so i think the body language is

going to be key today to see as the president, does he normalize the relationship with the saudis or does it mark a new chapter for the saudi arabian crown prince on the world stage. >> isn't that horse out of the barn? hasn't he normalized it by his actions by going out publicly and taking the side of the crown prince? so whatever he does down there today, whether he shakes his hand or turns his back to him, saudi arabia has to be pleased with the way they have approached this. >> i think you're right. the decision the president has made is to stand by mohammed bin salman. this is now a photo opportunity, the main work has been done. i think for the saudis, this is about moving forward. i think mohammed bin salman knows that he has to get out in public, take the hit. the saudis understand there will be a lot of criticism. they want to keep moving and

survive this moment of intense global anger over the khashoggi killing, hoping that they'll get through this in six months or a year to something better. the final thing we really need to focus on is the war in yemen. this is the most disastrous humanitarian crisis in the world. i hope there will be some discussion with these leaders about how they can help the u.s. and other key parties bring an end to that war. >> everybody sit tight. we have to fit in a break here. still ahead, we have awaiting that live event with president trump in argentina. we'll bring it to you as soon it begins. i just got my cashback match,

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just because people are quick to criticize you does not mean you're doing the wrong thing, take it from me. >> that's deputy attorney general rod rosenstein speaking at georgetown law school yesterday on an address regarding cyber crime. joining us now, national political reporter for axios jonathan swan and analyst susan

dell percio. susan, this is a piece to the puzzle. do you believe there's more to come here? >> i believe there's a lot more to come. whenever mueller comes out with something, he's about six months to a year ahead of all of us and what we know. not only do i think this is a piece of the puzzle, but we're going to see where donald trump's business and political entities start to crash and mesh and is there an issue and how it affects his relationship with russia. but i think that mueller has a lot more to show than just the russia collusion issue. i think his finances will be under scrutiny. >> what is the level of concern,

panic this morning in the white house? >> so a few things there. one is that trump, when he's with his aids privately, projects the same bravado and breezy confidence. it's a witch-hunt. there aren't these private moments where he said, oh, i worry it might be perjury. all what said, he was frustrated and agitated about it and you could see that publicly. the questions being asked right now in the circles around trump, and this is not from people who have visibility. i discount what you hear from the legal team. but the people just outside that legal order are are wondering what mueller has in terms of documentation that can pin trump to any of this. one of the things that they've been saying all along, people

close to trump, is that the best thing going for him is that he does not e-mail and he is not someone who sends text messages. that's been something that they have been hanging quite a few hopes. it's very clear that mueller has excellent documentation to corroborate michael cohen's lies and the real question is what can he do to corroborate president trump, any lies that president trump has told. anyone who knows how this president operates and how he operated in his private business knows it's inconceivable that cohen wasn't reporting back to trump. and emily jane fox made the very important point earlier in your show that if cohen was going to

take the ultimate bullet for trump by walking into a congressional hearing and lie, is it plausible that he did that without reporting back to trump or telling truck about it. >> it's the same concept as the stormy daniels payment where they would have you been believe he was freelancing. >> it defies all belief. if you know anything about president trump, he was hands on everything. this was an youautocracy. this is happening against the back drop of trump's hand picked.man. rosen sateen is still driving

the wheels. what would be the tipping point where trump, do you think, would jump in, possibly fire mueller, possibly really kind of gin up whitacre. because it's clear at this point he's not driving the championship. >> the area that poses the most risk to that ready line is what is going on in the southern district of new york. so i know the people around trump, and it's true and it bears repeating, the investigation that has concerned them more is that southern district of new york investigation. i spoke the on rudy giuliani the day they submitted all their answers to mueller. i said, rudy, do you think like you know what the chief financial officer has told the southern district investigators

in return for immunity? and rudy says, oh, yeah, we know, it's all fine. and i said, have you spoken to weiselberg? he says, no, i haven't spoken to him. i guess you should use the words reasonably confident. and i said, okay, that's different. so, again, there is a huge area of investigate that is really concerning to the trump people that would not be affected if he tried to get rid of mueller .. >> jonathan swan, a man very dialed in as you can see. thanks very much, jonathan. we appreciate it. still ahead, president trump has a busy weekend ahead, but one thing not on his schedule any more is that meeting with vladimir putin. we'll talk about how that could impact g20 talks and whether or not that's a good call. "morning joe" will be right back. >> tech: at safelite autoglass,

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of msnbc's "politics nation," reverend al sharpton. i know you're about to catch a plane. you know michael cohen, you've known donald trump through the years. how significant do you think it was yesterday? >> i think it's very significant. any of us who has dealt with donald trump through the years, whether it's adversarial in my encounters, or friendly, you know that michael cohen was a fixture in his operations. he worked daily with him and his family. i think now the fact that he has now come forward and said that he was not only going to plead guilty before but now, the more he seems he's open to did i ssc the more we will see what was really going on in that building from someone who no one can deny, who is an insider. you are the guy you would talk

to to talk to trump. the inside. michael cohen was in the room. he cannot deny cohen was always there. you cannot say he doesn't have vital information. you could say he wasn't the one who could make decisions, he couldn't make donald trump go left or right. it doesn't matter if he was there watching him go left or right, that can be very dangerous if, in fact, trump did something. he was the guy in the room. >> that gets to the point that emi emily donnelly made earlier. he's been by his side for decades. what we learned earlier may be just the tip of the iceberg because he's the guy who knows everything. >> when you have trump saying, i didn't make a deal with russia, but all the actions that led to what did or didn't happen, he was there.

you don't have to finish the deal to have been doing something wrong. and you don't have to, in many ways, as you make your decision to make the deal or not, mean you weren't dealing with people in cutting situations that could lead to a relationship that could later lead to collusion. so i would understand why it was a rough walk for the president to marine one yesterday. >> a rough walk and a long flight. i guess the question is going to be to what extent does this change the perception of some independent voters? because the bulk of the republican party, which has now effectively become the trump party, barring any huge evidence that there was direct collusion between president trump and the russians is probably going to say, well, okay, there may have been some kind of conflict of interest but we can live with that. we can live with pretty much anything. it seems to me this does have an

impact with independent voters who will say, was the president acting in the interest of the country, or as he said yesterday, was he acting on his family's business interests? >> this has taken the direction in the tour that donald trump wants to fence off. one is personal finances. we're now talking about the discussions he made, he authorized, during the campaign of 2016 to build buildings overseas. that opens a whole series of other related business questions. and second, it takes the investigation into the subject of his family, of his children, their deals, his efforts to protect them. i think these are two of the areas that are going to -- even for people in the donald trump base, seem different. for so many months now, he said, no collusion, no deals, no russia, no nothing, and people kind of grew to accept that, and

then pow. here's his personal lawyer saying that he was in contact through june 2016 with the russians. that's got to feel like a contradiction even to folks who think donald trump is their guy. an >> and, of course, president trump is blowing that off today. david ignatius, thank you for being with us. reverend, your weekend will be a little bit different. you're going to celebrate the life of nelson mandela. >> to be there with his family and oprah and others to celebrate his family. jerry reed and i are co-hosting a special here on msnbc 9:00 to midnight on sunday to celebrate a man who did 17 years in jail to get one man one vote.

when you see saudi and putin and g-20 and we end the weekend with the man who raised the noble statesmanlike aura of what men should be like. >> joy reed hosts coverage of mandela 100. that's sunday night at 9:00 eastern time. reverend sharpton, off to the airport. >> tell oprah i'm sorry i can't make it, but next time. >> she said next time loan me your plane. >> she doesn't need a plane. >> your plane, your plane. the g-20 is about to get underway. president trump is expected to sign a new trade deal with mexico. michael cohen on brushing

off the president's new admission of guilt. he said it basically under lili what was said in court yesterday. "morning joe" comes back in two minutes. ok everyone! our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition... for strength and energy! whoo-hoo! great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-six vitamins and minerals. ensure. now up to 30 grams of protein for strength and energy!

welcome back to "morning joe." we're at to want of the hour here at 7:00 a.m. on the east coast, approaching 9:00 a.m. in buenos aires, argentina, where the president will appear in that room to sign the new renegotiated version of nafta, which the president has renegotiated and renamed. we'll get to the source of that. welcome back to "morning joe." it's friday, november 30. i have the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas. republican strategist and msnbc legal analyst depursio.

political analyst eugene robinson and times reporter richard schmidt. as we look in that large room where the president will sit in just a moment, what are you looking for in the next couple of days? obviously in the background is the news of michael cohen and another plea deal providing new information to the special counsel's office about the activities of the trump campaign in 2016. what do you view as you sit here? >> nafta is not the centerpiece. i want to look at how the world sees and shakes hands with mohammed bin salman. second of all, i want to see how they deal with putin given everything we're talking about, but also if there is a european front to penalize the russians for the latest aggression in

ukraine. and what's going on in china, they can't solve the labor dispute but can they have something of a truce? will the president not go through with the next round of sanctions, will the chinese accept gas. if that happens, you'll see the market go up in points. if that doesn't happen, it's more bad news. the biggest news will be the united states and china. >> if trump can pull that off, it will definitely change the news in the headlines that trump can come back to and tout that news of, look what i've done. i've done nafta and now i have china. if the market goes up, that's really the things that donald trump can go out there and talk about. yes, the mueller investigation will always be there, but that's the kind of thing that trump would like to have. >> katty kay, the president canceled the meeting with air

force one yesterday, he's cancelling the meeting with vladimir putin. he has reasons not to chum around with him, the news of these latest russian actions and ukraine. richard haas said he ought to meet with him and confront him and that would send a more powerful message than ignoring him. >> probably in terms of royal strategy, this would be a good time for the president of the united states to use the leverage that america has over russia and ukraine by telling him to back off. the president of ukraine says he thinks there are plans for some kind of russian land grab in the east of the country. politically you can see that it's very hard for him to be meeting any pictures of him, meeting vladimir putin at the moment will immediately raise the spectrum of michael cohen and what business negotiations they may be talking about.

you have to have some sympathy for the offices in argentina at the moment because there are so many people that don't want to meet with each other. he said he doesn't have time to meet with mohammed bin salman, but also remember theresa may who says she won't entertain his comments about brexit this week. there are so many people that don't want to sit in the same room with others down there. i don't know how they'll solve this at the dinner table. >> the german chancellor couldn't kbget there in time because her plane broke down. >> aiman, what are you looking for? the president will be with the leaders of canada and mexico to resign the new version of nafta which the president has named mnaca. >> the one thing i am watching in terms of the trade agreement

with canada and mexico and the u.s. are not what the details are, i want to see how much of it was the canadians and the mexicans kind of playing lip service to the american administration saying, hey, they really wanted to have this deal for president trump and his base, so how much did mexico and canada go along with this? we'll be able to say this is a change, this is not a change, then we'll be able to measure this against what the president says is a victory, because a sure you the president will come out of this signing ceremony saying, i negotiated, i delivered, i got something new for us and i won't get pushed around anymore, so the devil is in the details. what's interesting is who the president is not meeting with. he's not meeting with president macron, he's not meeting with theresa may. he was supposed to meet with putin, he was supposed to meet with erdogan and chinese president xi jinping. i think this says a lot about who we're prioritizing at these

global summits. >> the back story about this is michael cohen and the russian administration, the long-time fixer and lawyer for the president of the united states. you have a new piece out when you say trump's deal out with the moscow deal is meeting these lawyers. yeah, everything michael cohen has said is consistent. the quote from giuliani, the president said there is a proposal for this building in moscow. it was discussed with cohen. there was a non-binding letter of intent and it didn't go beyond that. that's their story and they're sticking to it. >> so after the development yesterday, our first thought was, well, what does this really mean for the president and what does it mean to his exposure? does it increase his legal exposure? what does it say about that? our first thought went to the questions, the questions that had come from bob mueller, that sort of take-home test that the president had that he filled out earlier this month that was sent back. we knew that trump tower moscow was something that mueller

wanted to ask about. we weren't sure if they were exactly in the questions. we were pretty sure. so we pushed really, really, really hard on trump folks to get an answer to this, to get them to provide some context to this really important question. because in what cohen was saying could have created some exposure for the president if their answers did not match up exactly. because mueller, in going into court yesterday, was certainly showing that he believes cohen was telling the truth. he wouldn't have allowed cohen to enter into that plea agreement if he didn't believe him. and the president's lawyers, after basically laying out for us and saying, look, this matches up. these are going to be the same things. these are not going to be inconsistent statements. and there are no issues about the accuracy of what either of them are saying when compared to themselves. the interesting thing was that the president himself went out and called michael cohen, called

him a luiar and said he was lying. the president's lawyer had to clean that up, because in a sense if you're talking about the legality of this and you're the president, you don't want to say that michael cohen was lying yesterday because michael cohen's statement in court is consistent with the statement that you've given to mueller. >> so, gene robinson, where does this leave the president? your latest piece suggests the president is not going to go down without a fight. but if his answers are now locked in with the special prosecutor, presumably mueller knows what the conversations were with the president about cohen's testimony to congress, so in terms of fighting, what are his legal options here? >> well, look, my first question about the president is what kind of mood must he be in today after what happened in court yesterday? because it did -- there is that mention of other members of the family that cohen said were kept briefed about this moscow

project. there's a question of what donald trump jr. in particular testified in his congressional. answers, and there is a lot of buzz, you know, around the idea that he did not testify truthfully or he may not have testified truthfully and he could be in trouble for that. so that's got to put the president in a pretty foul mood. and then, of course, once you get into the question of the trump organization and russia and russians, mueller has to be looking at how the organization survived and recovered after its near bankruptcy and to what extent russian money, russian purchases of luxury condos and that sort of thing played a role in that, and by the way, where did all that russian money come from and was it being laundered?

that's something he's got to be looking into. again, that's something that's got to driver t the president k of nuts. i think his concern would go beyond the narrow question of whether his answers to mueller's questions comport with what cohen said in court. i think he's worried about the rest of the iceberg, what else mueller might have known. the fact that mueller himself signed the criminal information that was presented yesterday, he doesn't sign all of them. he doesn't put robert s. mueller iii on all of them. that was kind of a statement. and the question of what else he knows. that's got to be unsettling. >> he does seem to surprise the public and the president with what he presents every time the special counsel's office does announce something. you asked about the president's mood, gene. here's a window into it. a couple tweets this morning. the president writes from argentina, quote, oh, i get it. i'm a very good developer

happily living my life when i see our country going the wrong direction, to put it mildly. against all odds, i decide to run for president and continue to run my business. very legal and very cool. talked about it on the campaign trail. lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in russia. put up zero money, zero guarantees and different do the project. witch hunt, writes the president. compare that to what the president said repeatedly during the campaign and then in the early days of his presidency. >> i mean, i have nothing to do with russia, i don't have any jobs in russia. i'm all over the world but we're not involved in russia. >> i have no relationship with russia. i have no deal there. i have no loans with russia. >> i have nothing to do with russia, folks, okay? >> i don't have any deals in russia. >> i have nothing to do with russia. i have no investments in russia. none whatsoever. >> i have no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could

happen in russia because we've stayed away. >> what do i know about the russians? what do i know about the russians? then they said, he borrows money -- i don't borrow money from the russians. i promise you, i don't have any deals with russia. i had miss universe there a couple years ago, other than that, no. i have nothing to do -- >> so, michael schmidt, let me put to you the trump argument, one i heard a lot yesterday, yes, there was a lot of smoke yesterday and breaking news banners and everything else. but where is the fire? in other words, maybe they approached the russian government, maybe they approached developers there and said, we'd like to build a tower. we never did it. there is no trump tower. how does that prove a connection or a crime or collusion which is, at the end of the day, what bob mueller is looking for if there never was a deal? >> well, i think that what we have to do with yesterday's development is sort of put it into the larger context of what was going on at the time. so in the first six months of 2016, you had the russians

hacking into democrats' e-mails, taking them, stealing them. the american intelligence community was seeing signs that putin had given orders, essentially, to help get donald trump elected president. there were efforts to reach out to the trump campaign. donald trump's son going -- well, not going -- at trump tower in january 2016 sitting down with russians, offering dirt on hillary clinton. also at that time, the russians kicking up this information to undermine the american political system. so all of these different things heading in whatever direction they are but emerging in the american election about the trump campaign and about russia, and now we have another piece of it, a business piece of it, that was being worked on. so are all of these pieces connected in a conspiracy? we didn't learn that from the document yesterday, but we now

do have a larger sense of all of the different things that were going on at this critical point as the united states was heading into a presidential election. >> and to add one more point of context to what michael was saying, the trump administration or michael cohen reached out to a government official within the russian context. it's not that this was a private sector transaction that they were reaching out with russian banks or what have you, and that could be kind of dismissed or somewhat marginalized between somebody considering to run for office, but it seemed they were reaching out to a political organization within the russian government, and i think that is an important context that should not be ignored. why would you reach out to the presidential office of russia, to the kremlin, essentially, for this transaction if you're trying to build a private building just for the sake of congress? >> that's an important point, richard. because in many ways in russia, they're one and the same, the public sector and the private sector, right?

>> that's important for us to know, but i'm saying the context of you doing that is suggesting you know how things are done there. >> that's what they did with the donald trump jr. meeting. they knew they were meeting with a russian official. they said putin's attorney. you can't claim ignorance if that's what he was doing back when they were looking at a potential government deal, a development deal, and then having this meeting. they know the protocol. >> that could be a problem for them because there is a total commingling in russia. there is no private sector. the only real significant economic activity that takes place is that which is blessed by mr. putin. crimea is the model. >> just when russia was set up, he said to 15 guys, you take gas, you take oil, you take metal, you take tin. everybody was talking about the tower being built in russia. this is just the tip. this is 20, 25 years of trump and russia and trump, inc.

and that's where this begins to unravel. >> i see secretary steve mnuchin in the room. soon we'll see the leaders of canada and mexico for a signing ceremony of the usmca, which is the renegotiated and rebranded by president trump version of nafta. we'll keep a close eye on that. in the meantime, there is a new claim that emerged yesterday outside the court hearings of an extraordinary offer. the trump organization was allegedly discussing to build that luxury condo tower in russia. convicted felon rick seder said he and cohen discussed offering vladimir putin a $50 million penthouse in the building to sweeten the deal. two u.s. law enforcement officials told buzzfeed news, the outfit that broke the claim initially, that cohen discussed the $50 million idea of a representative of putin's press

secretary, dmitri peshkov. he said it was his own idea when the hacking came to light in june 2014. quote, as soon as the russians stuff broke, it was like, well, this deal is over, sater said. nothing, however, materialized. that's a statement from the trump organization. you have people on the periphery of the trump world saying, we did this on our own. we were freelancing and the president and canada trump never knew about it. >> we'll learn about what kind of communication actually went on between president trump and

those people around him. it is details like the story breaking that the offer had been made or the idea was floated to give president putin a $50 million penthouse, because that would attract other russian oligarchs to the building. because they said between themselves, we know these russian oligarchs. they would love to live in the same building as president trump, so let's give him a $50 million flat and that would get others into the building. it's very hard to see if that doesn't smack of people who were prepared to do deals with president putin in order to get something back again. as you know, we'll give you this, you give us something back in return. that gets to the big $50,000 question of all the cohen news. was president trump acting in the interests of the trump family business and the trump family business' profits, or was he, as a candidate for president of the united states, acting in the interests of american national security. george w. bush gave up his interests in the texas rangers.

president carter gave up his interests in the peanut farms. it's not normal for people to run for the presidency and think that they can still carry on all that is very cool to be conducting business with a foreign adversary in this way. >> we're expecting the president of the united states to enter that room there in buenos aires, argentina for the signing ceremony. as we get ready to watch this, richard, just a little background on the usmca. it is nafta or is it a new deal? >> probably 85% nafta with a new name. when nafta was signed 26 years ago, there was no digital commerce position because there was no digital commerce. it needed to be updated. there is a new deal about the automobile manufacturers. there is certain parts that make it difficult to do certain trade with china. but it's more of a rebranding and not fundamentally different.

>> and the background of all this is tough relations with trudeau and with mexico, including this week the policy of asylum seekers coming into the u.s. >> he needed to rebrand it in order to do it. they are so anti-trade, a lot of this was to get out of the box he created for himself. the russian thing, i'm used to the idea of when you go buy a place in real estate, there are chocolate chip cookies. $50 million penthouses, i never encountered that buying a piece of real estate. >> the tower thing, let's not forget heading into the republican convention, the trump republican platform toward russia changed dramatically. >> basically, yeah. though, interestingly, one area where this administration is tougher than the obama administration is on ukraine. that the defense articles have gone to ukraine and one of the interesting things now will be whether more go in the aftermath of what the russians have done the last few days. >> what should be happening,

richard, that's not happening vis-a-vis ukraine in the united states? >> i don't think we ought to be sending military forces in. ukraine is not a member of nato. the geography does not favor us getting into -- >> ukraine has asked the u.s. to step in, for example. >> what happens is more intelligence to ukraine, more sanctions to mr. putin. we should use this as an opportunity for the europeans not to go ahead with gas deals that helped russia economically and gives them more leverage over them. we can't solve this problem for ukraine. geography simply favors mr. putin and putin has made the very cold, and perhaps correct, assessment that he can continue to slice the sa lalami and get y from it. this is now another shoe to drop. and the real question is not whether we can fight him on the scene but whether we can penalize him enough that he basically says, this isn't worth it. but that will take the united states and europe working together. >> and gene robinson, all this,

all richard is talking about right now, just more reason why the moments between president trump and president putin will be fascinating to watch over the next couple of days. >> it will be. they're not going to meet, but who knows, right? they could end up sitting next to each other at something, they run into each other. these sort of chance or maybe not so chance encounters happen at these summits. it's fascinating, you know, as per the earlier conversation, there are so many people there who don't want to be seen with other people, specifically. this drama is just perfect for buenos aires. i lived in that city for four years, and it's an operatic city. everything is drama there. what we need is a tango soundtrack and we're all set. >> gene, the audience can see in

the background ivanka sitting in the front row. what is her capacity? she's sitting in the front row. you would know this better than anybody. i keep wondering. >> i keep wondering, too. remember that earlier meeting when she actually sat in the official u.s. chair. who knows if she'll do that again. but there she is, and as far as i know, she doesn't have a role there. she's not the u.s. trade representative, she's not the treasury secretary, she's the first daughter, i guess. >> do we pay for her to be there? >> she draws a salary. >> she draws a salary. i'm sure we pay for her to be there. >> but also jared, her husband. >> we give her a per diem. >> her husband did play an important behind-the-scenes role in the trade agreement. i think it was just this morning, unless my information is wrong, he was honored by the mexican government. bob lighthouser was the front

person. he had a lot to do with the negotiation of the agreement. >> so katty kay, we're waiting to see the three world leaders fill the room here. it looks like, from where i'm sitting, all three of the podiums have the presidential seal of the united states on them. we'll have canadian prime minister justin trudeau, mexican president nieto pena. interestingly, this is his last day as president of mexico. the new president will be sworn in tomorrow. >> away from, if you will, more traditional democrats. we're back in the area of populism, and we're seeing it all throughout the continent. it's a real warning about what happens when democracy and markets don't deliver. people start going towards the sidelines, toward the extremes, and we're beginning to see it again. >> which is worth noting that john bolton is having an hour-long meeting with the new president of brazil and talking of populism, economic nationalism and plain out

nationalism. you've got this new far right leader in brazil who is seriously raising concerns about the prospects. i guess people are standing so the leaders will be coming in a moment, but it's fascinating that they have chosen to send the national security adviser to meet the new president of brazil, too. >> and there is the president of the united states taking his place at the center podium alongside prime minister justin trudeau of canada and mexican president nieto pena. let's listen in. >> we're gathered here this afternoon for a very historic occasion, the signing ceremony for a brand new trade deal. the united states, mexico, canada agreement. so important. i'm honored to be here with president enrique nieto pena. he's become a great friend, of mexico, and prime minister justin trudeau who has also become a great friend.

this has been a battle and battles sometimes make great friendships, so it's terrific. with our signatures today, we will formally declare the intention of our three countries to replace nafta with the usmca, a truly ground-breaking achievement, modern-day agreement. i want to thank u.s. trade representative bob lighthizer and his entire team for their tremendous effort and the efforts they've made all throughout the last almost two-year period. thank you as well to jared kushner, secretary of state mike pompeo, secretary of the treasury steve mnuchin and director larry kudlow for their hard work and untiring devotion throughout the negotiation process. peter navarro, thank you so much for the work you put in, and so many others. the usmca is the largest and

most significant trade agreement in history. all of our countries will benefit greatly. it is probably the largest trade deal ever made also. in the united states, the new trade pact will support high-paying manufacturing jobs and promote greater access for american exports across the range of sectors, including our farming, manufacturing and service industries. as part of our agreement, the united states will be able to lock in our market access to canada and mexico and greatly expand our agricultural exports, something we've been wanting to do for many years. this is an amazing deal for our farmers and also allows them to use cutting edge biotechnology and eliminates non-scientific barriers. our nations have also agreed to innovate new measures to ensure fair competition and promote high wages and higher wages for

u.s. and north american autoworkers. the autoworkers are a tremendous beneficiary. under the usmca, at least 75% of our automobiles' content must be manufactured in north america. and 40 to 45% of automobile content must be manufactured by north american high wage labor in order to gain preferential access to our markets. this will help stop auto jobs from going overseas and it will bring back jobs who have left. many are planning to come back. many companies are coming back, and we're very excited about that. this landmark agreement includes intellectual property protection that will be the envy of nations all around the world. the usmca also contains robust new provisions on digital trade and financial services and the most ambitious environmental and labor protections ever placed

into a major trade agreement anywhere at any time. we have dramatically raised standards for combatting unfair trade practices, confronting massive subsidies for state-owned enterprises and currently, if you look at it, currency manipulation that hurt workers in all three of our countries. the currency manipulation from some countries is so intense, so bad, and it would hurt mexico, canada and the united states badly. we've covered it very well in this agreement. these new provisions will benefit labor, technology and development in each of our nations, leading to much greater growth and opportunity throughout our countries and across north america. in short, this is a model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever, and this is an agreement that, first and foremost, benefits working people, something of great importance to all three of us

here today. president, i must say, pena nieto and prime minister trudeau, we've worked hard on this agreement. it's been long and hard. we've taken a lot of barbs and a little abuse. we got there. it's great for all of our countries. thank you for your close partnership throughout this process. this new agreement will ensure a future of prosperity and innovation for mexico, canada and the united states. i look forward to working with members of congress and the usmca partners, and i have to say, it's been so well reviewed, i don't expect to have very much of a problem. to ensure the complete implementation of our agreement. enrique, i want to thank you on a personal note, and i want to wish you the very best. this will be your last day in office, so that's a very auspicious day when you can sign

something so important, but we really do appreciate it. i think i can speak for justin when i say that. [ applause ] >> we both agree he's a special man and he's really done a good job. we appreciate it very much. thank you. so i just want to congratulate you on ending your term in office with this incredible milestone. it is really an incredible way to end a presidency, and you don't see that very often. i look toward to working with president-elect lopez for many years to come, and our relationship, i know, will be a very good one. we've had great conversations and i think we're going to have a great, great relationship. and i would now like to invite the president and the prime minister to say a few words, and

perhaps we can start with justin. we appreciate it very much, thank you. justin, please. [ applause ] >> good morning. thank you all for being here and thank you to presidents trump and pena nieto. donald, thank you for your words this morning. thank you for pulling this event together. enrique, this, as donald said, on your last day in office, it's a wonderful pleasure to see you and to be here on this historic moment. [ speaking foreign language ] >> while the prime minister addresses his country back home in frercnch, we'll take little break and talk about what we've seen so far. the president calls this the

usmca. in canada this deal is called the cumca. a little diplomatic push and pull there with prime minister trudeau putting canada first. the president, part of the reason he wanted to rename it, was to put the united states first. >> he wanted to rename it because he was critical of nafta. much of the content did not simply come out of the solar system. much of the content, of all places, came out of the trans-pacific partnership, which if you recall in the first week of his presidency, donald trump took the united states out of it. this is an asia pacific trade agreement. after criticizing that, a big part of the content of the usmca was essentially cut and pasted from that. so just saying. which is not a bad thing, just an ironic thing. >> there is, susan, the notion of passing this through the congress first. the president can sign it here, but as he referenced a moment ago, he has to get this through the congress.

chuck schumer said, quote, the president deserves praise for improving on nafta. he likes what he sees effectively in this new deal. do you think it passes through the senate and congress? >> did shouit should, but i thi discussing this with richard, there will be some tinkering around with. there will be changes that have to be made and that's where we'll see a little contention on the house side. >> and the problem is if you reopen it, you have to go renegotiate it. >> with the new president of mexico. >> one of the reasons this is happening today is that the new president of mexico, who has issues of trade, wanted this done on the previous guy's watch so he would not have is to bear responsibility for any controversial aspects of the agreement inside mexico. so if congress decides it has to change the text, that creates real problems for this thing surviving. what you might see then is pressure in congress not to amend it per se but to have side understandings. and that's traditionally what's happened in the history of u.s. trade agreements. you don't reopen the text.

you have five or ten unilateral understandings or side deals, ways of helping american workers who may have lost their jobs to foreign competition. so my prediction is you'll see an awful lot of that. essentially the marketplace will be open to the new house of representatives. >> toii want to go back to what schumer said. i would be hard pressed in eight years of the obama administration to hear mitch mcconnell say one positive thing about any obama accomplishment. >> but it was out of self-interest that chuck schumer said this. let's not forget the democrats really are having some problems in the middle of the country dealing with trade. so it makes sense that he would show that there was support for it, especially when he did it prior to the midterm elections to show that they weren't completely turning their back on their constituents. >> richard, how do you, going forward for this administration, use this as a template for other trade deals, for other deals they want to rip up? they got out of ttp, the talks with the south koreans to do a bilateral trade agreement. does this become a template of sorts for this administration?

>> the next big trade deal is going to be japan. what i think you'll see is elements of this and elements, again, of the discredited tpp are going to inform the basics of the u.s.-japanese agreement. i think over the next two years, putting aside china which is not a trade deal so much as a negotiation to deal with all of our problems, i think the next big free trade agreement will be the united states-japan. first largest economy in the world, third largest economy in the world. so that will be big and this will provide a lot of content for that. >> katty kay, the president of mexico now gets in and we listen -- prime minister trudeau is going back and forth from french to english, so we'll keep a close ear. the president of the united states said, not long ago at the white house of this new deal, quote, it's the single greatest agreement ever signed. that's the president of the united states talking about this deal, not to overstate. >> we're used to the president

talking about superl ativ es. it doesn't always mean those superlat superlat superlatives are real. it is interesting that the incoming president of mexico, who is a populist, who campaigned to some extent on protecting mexico from american aggression, as he sees it, has effectively signed onto this deal. he effectively agreed to it which is how pena nieto could get it through. he doesn't want to be there at the signing ceremony. but this is some tribute to the trump administration that they've managed to work with two mexican governments, pena nieto more conservative, am rr mrkamr positive, and this is laying the grou groundwork assuming it all gets through congress.

>> justin trudeau, as he touted this new deal, the usmca, but he also said it's important we remove tariffs in steel between our two countries. if you see president trump looking a little steely-eyed, it's because of that. >> president trump loves his tariffs, doesn't he? he loves his tariffs, because they're resulting in the opening of six, 12, new steel plants? oh, that's not happening. he keeps claiming it's happening but it's not happening. who knows where this will go? i really see this ceremony -- it is important, these are our neighbors and our huge trading partners, but i know what the financial markets are really waiting for, and a lot of people are waiting for, is how does the encounter with president xi of china go? and that's sort of the big news that i think wall street and frankfort and the other big financial markets are waiting for out of this whole summit.

>> what's interesting is the reason trudeau, among other things, hates those steel and aluminum tariffs is why we use the national security provision of american law, which was put into place against -- we didn't want to become dependent on adversaries to bribe us with critical items like steel and aluminum. last i checked, canada san ally and canadians among other things are dying in places like afghanistan. so for canada, it's hard to exaggerate what an insult it is that we're using national security justifications for introducing tariffs against them on steel and aluminum. >> prime minister trudeau has said that out loud, too. we're being treated like an enemy, your neighbor to the north is being treated like an enemy. as we listen to this, the president to the north may take some questions. but for people just waking up, our viewers this morning, what should they be thinking about

with the g-20? obviously the news of michael cohen's plea deal is front and center. it's the backdrop of this entire day for president trump as he may run into vladimir putin, he may run into the crown prince of saudi arabia. what are you going to be looking for here? >> there are two things. how does he handle those diplomatically awkward encounters with the crown prince who is trying to make things normal when in fact they're anything but. mr. putin dealing with outright aggression in ukraine and how they deal with that. people in my world would be looking mainly at the meeting between president trump and xi jinping. there are too many moving parts. the question is can they calm it down? can they have something of a temporary truce so the united states would not introduce the next promised or threatened layer of tariffs from 10 to 25%. can china be invited to washington in the hopes they can work something out? that to me is the real question.

or does that not happen and we very quickly move to the next phase of confrontation with china? that may be the most important news. >> we're also joined this morning by pulitzer prize-winning author and hi histori historian, the great doris kerr win. doris, we're happy to have you join our conversation. you've watched a few of these summits over the years. what is your impression of what we may see over the next couple of days? >> what we're already seeing, i think, is that whatever may be accomplished at this summit is shadowed by the russia dealings which has shadowed president trump's entire campaign and presidency. i just think about the fact that adlai stevenson said the challenge is not winning the race but how the win was made. president trump was top and center when he was running for president. think of it as the highest office in the land. you're possibly about to occupy a position that was held by george washington or abraham

lincoln or fdr, and at the top of your mind is whether you can make a deal with russia. as he says, if this is perfectly allowable to me, why have so many people lied about it? it's become the story of his presidency. if something interesting happens, skmoand hopefully it w at this g-20, you can't ignore what's happening in the background. >> doris, we know it hasn't been the norm for presidents to say, look, it's very cool for me to have pursued these business interests, even if they may have been in conflict with national security interests. has president trump changed the nature now of running for the highest public office, that this will, going forward, be seen as something that is acceptable, legitimate? >> i hope not. i mean, i think the norms that we're seeing that are unprecedented, we feel a sense of being unmoored in normal norms.

the hope is the difficulty it's presented, and he has to understand the difficulty he's presented by constantly what is asked of him. perhaps it's why he didn't want to meet with putin today, perhaps why he didn't want to go to the cemetary in europe, he didn't want to go on veterans day because things have unmoored him. they're already constraints but there should be constraints on our former presidents. we have to hope we learn from this episode. time is what's been so valuably lost. you think about the time the president has, think about the time any of us have. as i get older that matters more. and to think we're rebutting these things, talking about people in the administration who are lying, undoing these administrations that are doing harm to you. we should be concentrating on problems in the country. hopefully this is not creating a norm for future presidents but rather a constraint and a warning that they will follow. >> doris, this is gene robinson. have we ever had a president

whose personal and corporate financial dealings we've had to be so curious about and concerned about or not? i mean, has there ever been any -- not a direct precedent but anything like this that you can remember? >> you know, i really can't. sure, there have been presidents who had business interests whether it was jimmy carter and his peanut industry or president bush originally involved in the baseball thing, but it seems like when you run into that possibility of running for office or becoming president yourself, that's not at the top of your list. you're aware this is such an honor that's been given to the american people that you put that down. for president trump it seems it's always been intermixed. the deal is still at the top of his agenda and he's never made that separation between campaign and governing, between business dealings and government dealings. maybe somebody will find

something back in fillmore's life that i don't know, but not that i know. >> there's something about millalk fimill millard fillmore's name that gets to me. i just like saying it. the presidential sharpie has come out. the president of the united states is now signing the united states-mexico-canada agreement dubbed by president trump the usmca. we point out again that it does still have to be ratified by congress. the president is optimistic that will happen but he's still got some work to do to do that. sitting alongside the prime minister of canada, let's listen in as the president speaks for just a moment. [ applause ]

>> thank you very much. >> we thought there may be an opportunity there for some questions from the gathered press there, but the president quickly making his way off the stage after signing the usmca. richard, what jumps out at you from watching that? >> it's an important accomplishment. after the storm about nafta, how it became a poster child of what's wrong with trade, now we have an agreement of what looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. i think it was preserved, by the way, because of the importance of canada and mexico to the u.s. economy. the fact that a lot of americans, businessmen and farmers who had an enormous stake in this began to weigh in. the president moved into a trans-pacific partnership when

he came in, moved nafta out of it before people got involved. it was preserved. the name was changed to make it politically swallowable for the administration. but again, the good news is we avoided what would have been a major, major problem for the u.s. economy which at least now, i think, does open the way to a u.s.-japan agreement. the big question will be saturday night, dinner with xi jinping. can they not solve the problem, at least shelve it for now. >> i ask the viewers at home, are you ready to get back to the cohen conversation that is so important, the stuff that is driving the day-to-day emotion in this country is not this, which is what really affects it, but the other stuff. that is just an interesting thing of what matters in the psyche of america and what matters to the psyche of the president. >> let's go inside the room at

bayuenos aires. we spoke to hallie jackson before and we speak to her half ward. hallie, what's it like in the room? >> reporter: i just watched secretary mike pompeo walk out and i tried to get his attention but he moved on. we're hoping for more briefings from the press secretary or the officials here. in the room there were delegation members seated in the first few rows. a couple things that were notable, though, prime minister justin trudeau refused to say the words usmca. he notably referred to it as the new american free trade agreement, in other words, nafta 2.0, essentially. he had that line over at president trump related to the steel and aluminum tariffs. i thought that was kind of interesting, when you look at the relationship between the prime minister and president trump. we know it has been cool, to say the least, and there was that moment that the president said something about the good friendship, the good

relationship he has with president trudeau. there was not a smile or nod of recognition coming from the prime minister on that. a warm relationship on display between the president and president nieto who both leaders pointed out it is his last day. the new president will be sworn in tomorrow. even given what we have seen at the border, obviously, with that group of migrants and refugees there and the tensions that have escalated as ivanka trump walks out of the room now, it was notable there was that warm relationship on display not long after jared kushner received that mexican honor. the first couple of events under the president's belt, you could say, here at the g-20, but the next thing is the thing we're looking for the closest, willie, and that is the photo op with the president and the other g-20 leaders. we haven't seen vladimir putin at the g-20 yet.

we will soon. and that is something that we'll be closely watching. >> hallie, as you're speaking we're watching jared kushner file out of the trump, senior adviser and daughter of the president of the united states. will there be something in the air beyond what's happening in buenes aires for the president and the white house ask questions of this president on the trip? >> reporter: we hope so here's what i'll say. the traditional my, presidents do do press conferences at these overseas trips. so we are hoping for one. we don't have any information to report to you yet. obviously, that is the goal given that there is a lot happening not just on the international front but on the domestic front as it relates to michael cohen and this is hanging up in this thread. typically, i got out a mr. prez before he was able to get questions. i imagine that will clang at some of the bilateral talks we

have later on today. to give you a glimpse behind the curtain, those are much smaller rooms. so the 13 u.s. pretty pool are in there. they're up next to the president. >> that tends to be an opportunity when the president has in the past engaged with the press. we have a long list of questions, especially since russia is coming out the foreign spokes minister spokesperson casting that meeting in the first place, raising questions it has to do more with michael cohen and his guilty plea than russia's active agression in ukraine. >> until you get a question of the president and we know she will, she's that good. we have to rely on his tweets, he said his action during the campaign were quote very legal and very cool. thanks so much. we appreciate it. we'll talk to you soon. doris kearns goodwin, a final thought about you about what we are seeing in buenes aires and more broadly in the country the context of these meetings? >> in some ways it's a relief to

see a normal political meeting where alliances are being made, something is being signed. behind all of this, we know the breaking news, we are hughesed to every morning, something new happening, somebody pleading guilty. after a while exhaustion sets in, which is why this is such a relief. i was talking top meacham. in the end, what brought down old joe mccarthy is the american people got exhausted with him in the center of the stage, exhausted with his antics and being in the news every day. that's what may be happening in terms of president trump in terms of the volume of the mueller investigation speeding up. we can take solace that we talked about something normal. something was signed. he may have listened and dealt practicingmatically with it. give him credit for that. we will go within our exhaustion probably within hours or minutes. >> that's a good point we got a richard haase moment.

we are deep in the weeds. a good day for me. doris, thank you very much. gene robinson, before we let you go, your final thoughts? >> my final thoughts is i have three words for halle jackson. [ inaudible ] that's how you order the best rieb rib eye steak. a joint in the financial district. tell them i sent you. you will love it. >> oh my god. i got to write this down. traveler gene robinson. >> i want to travel with you, brother. >> ain't that the truth. gene robinson, thank you so much for your insights and travel tips. we will be watching the knew piece in the washington post titled "trump won't go down without a fight." by the way, your wing woman back. >> four months away, a mannerity lead. we hope she will bring him on set. the baby will be up early. >> thanks so much. still ahead on "morning joe,"

much more as president trump kicks off a busy weekend with world leaders. we will get a live report from nbc news' richard engel. plus on the heels of michael cohen's guilty plea, the president had the russia investigation on his mind this morning. he is defending his previous efforts to build the trump tower in moscow, as i said, as very legal and very cool. we'll try to explain what that means when we dom baccdom back. om bacom backmom backeom backm .

i didn't do the project. i decided not to do the project. so i didn't do it. so we're not talking about doing a problem. we're talking about not doing a problem. that was a project that we didn't do, i didn't do. i decided ultimately not to do it. this was a deal that didn't happen. that was no deal it was an option that i decided not to do. we had a position to possibly do a deal, to build a building of some kind in moscow. i decided not to do it. >> the president's former fixer pleads guilty on a charge of lying to congress about a plan for a trump tower in moscow. the president denying he did that at all. that he had any deal with russia. also saying there would be nothing wrong with overseeing business as a candidate even if he did. he landed last night after abruptly canceling a meeting with vladimir putin citing

russia's aggression towards ukraine. welcome back to "morning joe." it is friday, november 30th. we are live with donny deutsche and susan del percio. we are watching the president in buenes aires this morning where he has just finished a signing ceremony with the prime minister of canada and the outgoing president of mexico for the u.s. mca as the president has dubbed it. that's the renegotiated version of nafta. more on that in a moment. special counsel's probe, brought a charge saying donald trump was attempting to do business directly with the kremlin at the height of the 2016 campaign. in federal court, michael cohen, former vice president of the trump corporation and attorney to donald trump during his first year in office pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements to congress about the length and scope of contact about a project to build the trump tower in moscow, identifying the president as individual one. the charging document reads,

quote, cohen discussed the status and progress of the pros cow project with individual one on more than the three occasions cohen claimed to the senate intelligence committee and he briefed family members of individual 1 within the company about the project. reversing what he told congress, cohen admitted he agreed to travel in russia in connection with the moscow project and took steps in contemplation of trump's possible travel to russia as well. cohen admitted he received a response from the russian government when seeking assistance with the project, including from the office of a top putin aid dimitri peskov and talks about a meeting with putin extended until june of 2016. six months after cohen said discussion had ended. cohen will be sentenced next wednesday, december 12th. so here is the tweet from the president of the united states very early this morning from argentina. he writes this. oh, i get it. i'm a very good developer, happily living my life.

when i see our country going in the wrong direction, to put it mildly, against all odds, i decide to run for president and continue to run my business. very legal and very cool. he talked about it on the campaign trail. he goes on, lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in russia, put up zero money, zero guarantees. and didn't do the project. witch hunt, compare that to what he said repeatedly during the campaign and in the early days of his presidency. >> i mean i have nothing to do with russia. i don't have any jobs in russia. i'm all over the world, but we're not involved if russia. >> i have no relationship to russia. i don't deal there i have no businesses, i have no loans from russia. >> i have nothing to do with russia, folks, okay. >> i don't have any deals in russia. >> i have nothing to do with russia. i have no investments in russia. none whatsoever. i have no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia because we've stayed away.

what do i know about the russians? what do i know about the russians? then they said, he borrows money from -- i don't borrow money from the russians, i promise you, i don't have any deals with russia. i had miss universe there a couple years ago. other than that, no i have nothing to do there nothing to do in october of 2016 during the campaign. also joining us now, columnist for the new york time brett stevens and msnbc legal analyst danny savalios. danny, we've gone from the president time and again, nothing to do with russia. today we got him to i lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in russia. >> that proves that michael cohen is a liar. it's the moral of the story. and it's by the way it's an excellent reminder to all of my conservative friends why it is so important to maintain the integrity and the independence of the robert mueller investigation. i don't want to prejudge the outcome of it. but it has been uncovering one

bombshell after another. it has essentially proven that trump lied repeatedly, if not under oath, to the american public throughout the campaign and after that. so let the man finish his work. let the chips fall where they may. >> danny, let's talk about this from a legal point of view. the approach so far has been we looked at a deal. i'm a business guy. i wasn't president yet. it's well within my rights to continue to do my business. this is the president's argument. nothing happened. what itself the deal? where is the crime? >> i have been thinking about this trying to formulate the way donald trump might respond to this that's exactly what he's doing. he is going to say, loose, i got people. they handle all these things for me. i don't even use e-mail. which may quietly be one of the brilliant things donald trump does leave no virtual digital trail through the use of e-mail, which catches up more defendants

than you can imagine. >> donald trump will say, we were looking into it. i didn't actually have any deals. there is no "there" there. i think that's what we will see out of the trump team in the coming weeks. the reality is now for the first time, michael cohen, who was not valuable enough months ago to be a cooperating witness has in the interim demonstrated that not only he has information that robert mueller wants but that the mueller team finds him credible enough and there is corroborating everyday to support what michael cohen is now offering, whatever that may be and a plea, a guilty plea to false statements under section 1001 we sawied can only be the tip of the iceberg. >> what dpz it tell you that this sentencing he got six months to serve concurrently, which is basically nothing. at the same time, according to michael that mueller will be writing a very positive letter to the judge in the southern district how helpful he was.

70 hours. there is a lot there. what does that bode now, tell you possibly come december 12th? >> it's interesting. ordinarily when defendants want to cooperate, they want that downward departure the prosecution to ask the court to lower their sentence, just as observed, michael cohen's sentencing guidelines from the outset are zero to six monthles. that's the lowest level of sanction under the guidelines even if he gave the greatest cooperation ever on this particular charge the false statements, his sentencing guideline range would still be zero to six months. so that's why i say we are looking at the tip of the iceberg. there is something else he offered and down the road he will continue to cooperate. michael cohen has clearly continued to cooperated. >> there was no cooperating agreement between michael and the prosecutor?

>> prior to yesterday, michael cohen had no agreement. he was choosing to cooperate. prosecutors believe he wasn't valuable enough to give out a cooperation agreement when prosecutors decide to cooperate a witness. it's a very difficult decision. because they are making a deal with the devil, someone they believe is a criminal. they have to make a decision is his information so bad that he's tainted or sit band and we can use him to go after bigger and better guys? >> the argument appears to be that he's a developer. the president of the united states he's not the president. he was a candidate at the time. he is talking through his intermediaries about possibly doing something in moscow that never took place. maybe it's seedy, unethic. a but the message seems to be, there is no collusion there. >> that doesn't mean we could

lewded with the russian government to make him president of the united states. >> what it suggests is that the president as a candidate for the office was vulnerable to russian interests and, in fact, there is a good reason to believe. the central question here is why was trump so improbably sympathetic to russian interests? why did he strike such a dissident note, never mind every other democrat in the field that russia was a company he wanted to parlay with, he wanted a better relationship with. now that's come clear. his assumption was he was going to lose the election that might lose deals afterwards. that's a real, i don't know whether that's collusion but anyone that cares about the integrity of our system should worry a major candidate for president was so beholden to interests and fairs of an ad ver airline is foreign power he was

likely willing to bend what he said and thought to curry favor with that power. you know, on the subject of collusion this remind me a little of the famous summer 2016 meeting when they said nothing came out of it. you went into the meeting with the intent to collude. >> that should be just as significant. the only reason it didn't materialize is by the summer of 2016, there was so much focus on trump's bizarre russia policy it would have been crazy for him to stay with a deal. >> susan, this gets to what donny has been talking about for two years, with president trump, it will all come back to the money to his business ties. >> and i wonder, you look at his agreement it goes back 25 years dealing with russians and such. is this going to look like a pattern? is this something mueller may look at that donald trump has gone into deals, this pattern of behavior dealing with the governments.

on top of that, how worried do you have to be if are you donald trump's lawyers? a, you notice he didn't tell you everything him he won't. if 70 hours of testimony with michael cohen and we don't know what happened before michael conbecause he's only been with him a dozen years. how far back do you think mueller will be willing to go to see if this bred crumb trail leads to something? >> this is the bain of our existence, the examiner that tells you 70, 80% of the truth. because they believe when they do so, you as their counsel will go forward into the wilderness and advocate believing they may be less guilty than they may already be. >> that is one thing donald trump's lawyers had to done tend with. paul manafort's lawyers have been burned by their client. >> that is often what happens when a witness or a target or a subject takes matters into their own hands. going forward, it's hard to say, because mueller keeps us guessing every single day.

monday and tuesday, it was about russia, but it was connected to wikileaks, to corsi, to assange and then really to stone from there and then by wednesday, everything changed. it's still russia. now michael cohen is pleading guilty to connecting involving russia. i've said from the beginning, michael cohen presents the greatest threat to this president he's the man who we heard record the president apparently agreeing to pay off other folks. he's the man who stood up in the southern district of new york and said i committed a crime. a campaign finance law crime. the other person we all know to be the president. now here he is pleading guilty again. it's amazing that now he has given enough information that the special down secounsel find valuable. they needed a special master to sort out what was privileged.

>> just in case there is any question of what the dynamic was of michael cohen and the president and the family, a few years ago when it came out the birth of this thing. i was friendly with trump at the time, that's clearly racist. michael calls me up. hey the boss doesn't know i'm calling you. he's really hurt, he's upset. he considers you a friend. that was the level of a personal -- this was not a guy filing affidavits. he was his right-hand personal guy and there is a lot more to come. >> also to his children, right, donny? >> i want to continue to paint the picture of that office up there is a small one floor. they're all rooms next to each other. i ran a family business with my dad, on a daily basics we were talking 30, 20 times. this is not a structure with floors. >> that very personal deep 24-hour a day relationship will bear a lot of very rotten food

for them. >> the first decision to turn on the president was the most difficult one? right? to decide to turn a guy that's been loyal all his life. now he's done it. >> i remember sitting with him when the first thing started, he said i would jump out of a building before i would turn on donald. i would say, don't you see who this guy is? no, he was so loyal. there were a few tipping points along the way, obviously, doing what's right for him and his family. but helsinki, itial calling him, going, what have i been doing with this guy the last ten, 12 years. michael's father was a holocaust survivor. the thousands of e-mails, how can you work with this man? those two things and deciding what to do what is right for his family has been the arc shift. he was a different man yesterday in court. speaking to him. i sat with him on the phone with tears. he finally feels he is on the

other side going from being the bad guy to a guy two is really doing the right thing and has a future. i watched that personally up close and very, very emotionally. he's a different guy right now. >> the prospect of going to jail for a long time. trump's personal attorney is barge contract being charged by counsel, rudy guiliani said -- it is hardly coincidental that the special counsel once again tiles charges. since taking office, president trump has been on nine foreign trips. many have been overshadowed by headlines with the russia investigation. in may of 2017, a senior white house adviser was named of interest. right before president trump made his first ever foreign trip. at last year's g20 summit, the "new york times" was reporting on donald trump jr.'s

involvement in the infamous 2016 tower meeting. just before the president's trip to asia, paul manafort, rick gates, george pap top loss have been charged. the "new york times" reported this year president trump had ordered mueller to be fired by backed off only when white house counsel don mcgahn threatened quit. just this year when he met in helsinki, robert mueller indicted 12 russian military officials for 2016 e-mail hacking. katty kay, rudy guiliani is right. there is a pattern here. is it intentional on the part of the special down sell's office? >> reporter: i find it hard to see there is a conspiracy office in bob mueller's office where nay are deliberately trying to make things trouble as he travels abroad. at the moment, bob mueller has to wrap things up, he is moving fast. he has seen a slew of things

wrapping up. because of matt whit caner to come out with what he has and to have some kind of report ready that at least the new house intelligence, the democrat-led house committee could subpoena that report. >> that seems more likely to me. i don't know bob mueller's thinking on this. he doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would play international politics on this. people know two he is now, watching this investigation there, watching it closely. foreign leaders are watching it closely. he flies down there to argentina. they want to know what kind of mood he is in? will he arrive in a pad news? i can't tell you the number of conversations i had with diplomats who spend a lot of their time trying to assess the mood of the president and therefore the mood in the white house. therefore their chances of trying to get things done with the united states at the moment.

>> from where you are signature, are these bomb shells dropped before foreign trips more than coincidental? >> i think they are coincidental. i don't think the mueller team are quite so challenging. the facts will lead them where they lead them. they generally don't have a political motive. at least that's what we defense attorneys like to think. >> it's been a blockbuster week of developments by robert mueller in russia's role. on monday, trump campaign foreign policy adviser reported to prison in wisconsin after losing appeals against the special counsel's legal authority. later he tossed the plea deal of paul manafort, accusing him of violating their agreement. at the same time, gerow corsi claims he rejected a plea deal and revealed that mueller

prosecutors had e-mails about wikileaks' plans two months in advance. corsi says he guessed correctly about the timing of these releases. on tuesday night, it was revealed manafort's attorney had been briefing president trump's lawyers about his meetings with mueller's team. ing with the new york post the president said he was leaving a pardon on the table for manafort. on top of that we learned the written answers included the claims he was not told beforehand about the 2016 trump tower meeting and roger stone did not tell him about wikileaks. quite week it has been with the president. good to have you here this morning him still ahead, we just saw president trump alongside the leaders of canada and mexico. and there are many other world leaders in argentina right now. each bring their own information to the table. richard engel joins us next on

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welcome back to "morning joe." let's head back now to the site of the g20 summit in argentina. that's where we find chief correspondent richard engel. good morning. what are you looking at? >> reporter: well, it is just after 10:00 in the morning here. we're two hours ahead of eastern time and the official start to the g20 is under two hours from now. that's within they have the big welcome photograph where the world leaders stand in the same direction. a lot of leaders arrived last night like president trump. other came early this morning, including vladimir putin. as you have been talking about all day. they will not be having their exclusive one on one after the white house cancelled it because of washington's aggression over ukraine. but the world leaders are now arriving, getting ready, moving

around, angela merkel is not here yet. she was supposed to arrive. but she had a major flight issue after her plane took off with her and her delegation on board. they realized that the communication system was the not working and they had to make an emergency landing. the german authorities determined there was no criminal activities involved. she is now on her way again via spain but will miss the first half of the g20. we are now in a preparatory phase. we are moving forward. as you can see, very few protesters have started to gather. they are expected to gather more and more in the next couple of hours. there are about 22,000 police and national security forces on the streets. so if this g20 is anything like the last one in germany, we could see clashes as these protesters congregate and advance toward the police barricade. >> richard, how unusual is it to have this kind of scenario where

we have at the moment so many people don't want to be seen with some of the leaders. trump with putin. trump with mohammed bin salman. teresa may canceling with donald trump not wanting to meet the american president. it seems to be a jigsaw puzzle of people that don't want to be seen with somebody else. >> reporter: it is -- there are a lot of personal dynamics. if you were the protocol officer here trying to figure out who gets seated next to whom, i think you would have a lot to consider. teresa may says she will confront mohammed bin salman and raise the khashoggi issue. we'll see how that goes. the trump-putin meeting has been cancelled. the whole point of these g20 summits is the leaders get together in informal ways. while they are officially not going to have one-on-one bilateral meetings, who knows what happens in these rooms? will they find each other?

will there be special pull-asides? from is a gala dinner, tango, other things like that. will there be private discussion there is? one would have to assume there l. so i think a lot of the posturing is for public consumption when people say they're not going to be meeting with putin. i frankly wouldn't be surprised if trump and vladimir putin find a moment at a dinner or a cultural event to exchange a few words. >> teresa may says she will confront. thank you, as always, great to see you. so the headlines right now the g interest 20 are how -- the g20 is how they interact or not interact with the crown prince of saudi arabia. buried in this is the highly significant meeting with china. you actually described carolina in a way i don't think a lot of people do. they are often referred to as a rising power.

in your column, you say china ask a collapsing power. >> it's a declining power. a power with vastly greater problems than i think many of us looking from the outside appreciate. i think one person who really appreciates it isjinping. goat rat growth rates have been declining. officials have been shaky at best. china's demographics are not particularly good. they have a surplus of men, which makes countries prone to military action and they actually have a declining work force. they're signature on top of a debt pile, mostly corporate debt, of there are 34 trillion. so when we think of xoin today, o -- china today, if they experience a bursting, some

economic crisis, one of the ways they can resolve or try to resolve their economic problems is through military means. either by strikes against taiwan or further aggression in the south china sea. we have china all wrong. we think we need to contain china. we need to manage china so as it declines as a japan decline relatively peacefully rather than explosively. i don't see trump doing that. i think trump looks at china in far too adversarial a way. >> what does that mean for his approach starting today and tomorrow at the g20, what should he be saying to xi? >> he should be working for trade solutions and say, look the one thing the chinese can't do intellectually is to stealory property. >> that has to stop. there is a deal to have a resolution if terms of trade combined with the intellectual

property issue. we need to talk china down from the edge from building a military basis in the south china sea. very aggressive posture towards its neighbors and its incredible crackdown on domestic freedoms. you know the true founder of modern china is dao chung ping who talked about reform. trump should be influencing people like henry kissinger there to say continue on the path. we want china to succeed, not for it to collapse. >> by the way, this is a country currently surveilling all of its systems, creating a ranking system, rating each person like they're uber driemplts crazy. we saw much more ahead, including an update about alex acosta following that stunning miami "herald" investigation that claims he protected a millionaire accused of abusing dozens of young girls. "morning joe" is coming right

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former fbi districtor james comey has taken his fight with house republicans with their demand for him to testify in court. lawyers formally asked to young to overturn a subpoena demanding his testify before the house

judiciary and oversight committees next week. he was asking a judge to postpone a testimony until that request can be ruled on. the republican-led committee suspended the former fbi director in a bid to get him to answer questions about the agency's actions and decisions in the 2016 election. comey says he would be willing to testify and demanding it be at a public hearing. his laurgs say the testimony would be subject to selective leaking by members of the judiciary committee. u.s. labor secretary alexander accost that is reportedly out of the running for attorney general. they tell member claech mcclatc follows the deal, brokered for jeffrey epstein a accused of as dozens of under age girls one of the source, says he was never under serious condition anyway

to replace jeff sessions. the deal allowed epstein to spend 13 months in a county jail when prosecutors reportedly had enough everyday to put him behind bars for the rest of his life. snosh tim scott has come out against the president's controversial pick to become a u.s. district judge in the eastern district of north carolina, thomas farr was opposed by democrats and civil rights groups for efforts to disenfranchise voters. jeff flake refuses to support president trump's judicial nominees until a vote is taken on a bill to protect special counsel robert mueller. those two defections were enough to defeat the election. the only african republican appeared to be a 1991 department of justice memo that named farrs a the quote primary coordinator of an effort to intimidate black voters. this is the second trump

judicial nomination senator scott is posed to defeat. we will talk about what remains a possibility. although, majority leader mcconnell says it's not going to happen to produce a bill to protect mueller from being fired. have you flake saying we will hold up all these nominations. we haven't heard a compelling argument or specific one about leader mcconnell how he so trusts donald trump wouldn't take actions. >> it's a remarkable thing. ive have to wonder what the president is promising mitch mcconnell. this should go forward. this should be a fwoogood thing. it could be bipartisan, moving iting going into 2019, again, not sure why, eighth big mistake. >> what is the argument against? i know there are constitutional questions mitch mcconnell would

raise. what would be the harm in having that as a backstop? >> the argument to which i don't subscribe is that a strong executive has the right to fire the officers and robert mueller is an officer of the justice department. the arm of the executive. but the biggest problem we have today, i think, constitutionally, is we have a very weak congress and what is so strange about this whole situation is you have the leader of one of the branches of congress essentially making the argument against giving his own branch the independence and the power and the strength that it can exercise. that's a kind of stunning thing to do. you have republicans in congress who are not interested in protecting the constitutional prerogatives they ought to enjoy as a separate and equal branch of government. >> also joining us from amanpour and company and pbs, alicia

menendez. good morning. great to see you as always. >> great to see you. >> your first crack at the news we are getting about michael cohen. the president is at the g20. the backdrop is another strike against the president in this russia investigation. >> i have a question i keep coming back to which is generational theorists will tell you, for every generation there is a big event that shaped world views. boomers it's vietnam, my generation millennial's, it's september 11th and the 20 war on terror and a part of why minimum len yals are against unilateral action. they saw the consequences of unilateral consequence. and they watch the fact that russia has meddleed in our elections, if they perceive that as an attack on our democracy on par with these world events i've i laid out before you. when they see what's happening at the g20 summit, they understand that as being so incredibly abnormal.

we don't have a president that can go toe-to-toe to say what is happening in you kra inis acceptable f. they see that sand they that is not the way it is supposed to be, it is incumbent on us to put things back on track. >> we know the president will not meet. richard haase said that's the exact opposite. you should confront him to make clear the aggression against ukraine will not stand on his watch. he's not happy about russian interference in his election. >> if you had a completely different constitution, yes, that's what you would do. if you are looking at it from the lens of political optics and say fiam with him, then this is helsinki 2.0. we're getting a do-over of that press. it's going to look like the chummy relationship we have all come to understand it is. >> there is the question how the president will deal with the crown prince of saudi arabia. they say not at all.

we are under two hours away from that class photo. which will make interesting and awkward moments. meanwhile, after a day of pressure the department of veterans affairs announced it will now retroactively pay veterans the money they are owed under the forever gi bill following a massive computer glitch. the consideration comes amid an nbc report unveiling officials privately telling staffers they would not pay veterans whose checks were less than they should have been. members of congress questioned paul lawrence, who overseas the veteran's benefits administration. he said checks would quote be made whole, also expressed uncertainty over whether it would be worthwhile to make the repayments by spring 2020. va secretary reversed the comments in a statement. he wrote, i want to make clear that each and every post-9/11 gi bill beneficiary will be made

100% whole, retroactively, if need be, based on forever gi bill rates, not on post--9/11 gi bill rates. nbc news previously reported, education stipends has pushed them into desperate financial straights over the last few months. susan, we talked about this a lot idea on this show. we asked a bunch of elected officials what they plan to do about it. frankly, all of them were stunned. they didn't know what was going on. now you see the va had to be pushed over the finish line to give the benefits owed to men and women who fought for this country. >> let's not forget they said we can't do it because of a computer glitch. it's insane that that would even be considered a reason and that, frankly, that the head of veteran affairs is still there, allowing him to be in that position after such a messup. i think now we have to look at the department of veterans

affairs is being run. we heard a lot about privatization. they had a whole new computer system they were putting in place that is clearly not working. this is an operation a affects millions of people and it doesn't operate properly. so i hope that we will see some investigation into this. >> it's also just worth noting, one of the signature criticisms by conservatives of the obama administration were botchups at hospitals one u run by veterans affairs. so this is one department of government you would expect for political reasons the trump presidency would master and it would pay attention to these sorts of details. it's just another example of the kind of criticism that was leveled against obama unfairly i think because you are talking about a deep bureaucratic issue. not administrative issue and the trump administration now falling, being guilty of precisely the kind of

misfeasance with the same department. >> by the way, millions of tax dollars were poured into updating that computer system to avoid this scenario. again a lot of people like to talk about the troops with flag pins on in the florida house. everything, this is the most basic contact. you fight for us, leave your family, risk your life. we take care of you when you get home. the va wasn't doing it in this case until they were pushed to. >> there are mir add examples of bake inefficiencies. so you look at something like the child separation policy. yet another example not being able to do basic blocking and tackling. also, not having the people in place necessarily in order to leave these institutions to where they need to go in the 21st century. coming up next on "morning joe," as president barack obama promised to shut down guantonomo, signing an executive order to do so. nbc news got an exclusive look inside, that is straight ahead.

as we mentioned, joe and mika will be back on monday. before that tomorrow, can you join mika, cam la harris, mira sorvino and many others know your value national conference in san francisco. we buried the headliner, cat ki kay will be there, too. >> unfortunately, not oscar winning, there you go, second best. looking forward to it. >> they have opened up some adibble tickets, by the way -- additional tickets, by the way. so go to knowyourvalue.com. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. (chime)

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cumberbatch. president trump made good on the promise to keep gaut bay running indefinitely. military officials are asking congress for millions of dlafrs in funding. national security reporter julia ainsley spoke to the military commander in charge of the detention operations in guantonomo. take a look. >> all the previous administrations said, hey, we're going to close you down. all right. so people weren't paying attention to the buildings and everything else. we will talk about that later. the current administration came in and instead stand by to potentially receive new guests. okay. so i'm a soldier a trooper, i follow orders. we are ready to receive new guests. i think it is important to point out there has been no decision made to send folks here. we were told to get ready. we're ready. we are asking for money for something we call camp hate.

that's for a place camp seven. >> that site was built rapidly, not intended for long term. it's sort of falling into the ground, deteriorating rapidly. we need to replace that. >> nbc news' julia ainsley us now from guantanamo bay, cuba. obviously the history of kw guantanamo bay. >> i had a lot of time over these past few days here in guantanamo. they have an unfunded mandate. they've been asking congress for $89 million over the past five years. it hasn't come through. largely because a lot of members of congress don't want to look as though they're improving an expansion of guantanamo. as he explained, it's upkeep. he went through a lot of the details of some of these places. some of which we weren't able to see because they're secret. they describe having to sand down concrete in order to close

doors. they have to have people put on waders to go into the leechfield because it is backing up. these are camps no longer needed anymore. but now they don't need temporary structures. they need more permanent structures because right now they've been prepared to stay here for the next 25 years. >> what the commander said to you about the prospect of new inmates is intriguing. did he fill you in in your conversations on any conversations he's had with the administration of where those inmates might come from, what theaters of operation they're looking at? >> i think they're really sitting in the dark. one met fa for he kept going back to is he's the inn keeper. he takes people in when he's told to take them in. they really want to distance themselves from policy here and just follow orders. in a lot of ways, they're kept

in the dark. they could not know until the last minute when they're transferring someone in. that's tough because there's a lot of planning. if they bring someone in from isis, they would have to keep them in a place completely separate from al qaeda operatives. if they got a juvenile. if they got a woman. that would all have to be built very quickly. another thing they have to do to build temporarily now is if anyone is ever going under surgery or wheelchair bound, they had to build a temporary soldier for a man who just did his fifth consecutive spine surgery and did not have a cell big enough for a hospital bed. there's a lot of temporary measures. but they said they're in a real hard place if they don't get that funding. >> an exclusive look inside. human rights organizations have called for it to be shut down.

this administration is doubling down. what kind of signal does it send? even if they're not necessarily getting new inmates? >> it's obviously a political signal to try to suggest toughness and seriousness when it comes to the most hardened terrorist people. and there are real issues concerning people who are too dangerous to release. we can't try them safely in american courts. what worries me is really a question of expense. when you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. you have to start asking yourself practical questions like wouldn't it be more sensible to keep some of these people in like a florence, colorado, super max prison? the unabomber, other -- the 20th hijacker. so i think it's now after 17

years after 9/11, it's time to start thinking about guantanamo pragmatically. >> do you think we need guantanamo bay? >> i think if we don't need guantanamo then we need an actual plan to do this in an orderly manner. >> all right. still ahead, we'll soon see leaders gather at the g-20. which kicked off this morning with president trump signing a trade pact with mexico and canada. we're back in a moment. we've frozen out...out... and forgotten... by a white house and washington mired in special-interests politics. but we can take our country back with a democratic agenda for the people. that means lowering healthcare costs, increasing pay through rebuilding america, and cleaning up corruption. and it means having the strength to stand up for our values.

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with a range of sizes for all body types, depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. welcome back to "morning joe." time now at the end of this long week for some final thoughts. katty dkay, let's begin with yo. >> the big issue is whether donald trump was acting in the interest of his family business or acting in the interest of the united states national security when he was running as a candidate for the presidency. it doesn't matter whether the deal was done. it matters what was taking place as he was negotiating and preparing to compromise in order to keep russia happy. >> i think you know the answer. he was and always ask acting in his own business and his family business. showed up with the mind-set of how can i ex-plate this for my own needs.

it's the end of the business trump umpire. it's not going to stop when trump leaves office. u.s. attorneys in new york from here on in are going to continue to go after this empire because they have to show nobody is bigger than the house. trump said i'm bigger than the intelligence, bigger than the military, bigger than the judicial system and he's going to pay for that. >> i agree, let's focus on some good news. the signing of the new nafta, the u.s./mexico new free trade agreement is good news. trump manufactured a wholly unnecessary trade crisis with our two closest allies and just barely managed to solve it. >> will have to clear the senate. >> it's just before 9:00 on friday morning which means grand juries can still come back with indictments so that's what i'll look for today. >> that does it for us. stephanie ruhle picks up coverage on a very busy friday

morning. >> very busy. i'm steph e ni ruehl. starting with individual one. president trump in argentina for the g-20 meeting. but canceling a planned meeting with vladimir putin just after his former fixer and personal attorney seemed to tell a very different story than the president does about his business in russia. >> i have nothing to do with russia. i have -- john, how many times do i say it? are you a smart man? i have nothing to do with russia. there would be nothing wrong if i did do it. there would have been nothing wrong. >> don't have to lie, sir. checking the receipts, democrats and republicans in congress are going back over the family and business associates. >> we're going through the witness transcripts. looking at donald trump jr.'s testimony. look at jared kushner's testimony. looking at the