buttoning up the day that was. >> i thought george w. bush gave a great eulogy of his father today. an historic circumstance in which the president was eulogizing his father, who was also president. i think being out of office has suited him well. i would imagine that after what people saw of that yueulogy tod, his favorability ratings would rise. >> i hope so. thank you to everybody that joined us today. that does it for this hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" joins us now. hi, chuck. >> good thing there were so many warm feelings in the cathedral, i'm trying to thaw out. >> i was not cold. maybe my down jacket was puffier. >> well done, anyway. thank you. if it's wednesday, the known/unknowns with mueller are growing.

good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington, and welcome to "mtp daily", on this national day of mourning. president george h.w. bush left washington for the final time this afternoon, after a funeral service at the national cathedral. it was an emotional ceremony with all five living presidents in attendance. right now, president bush's remains are aboard a special air mission 41, otherwise known as fa air force one, it is en route to houston. we're going to have much more on the 41st president later in the show. we have a terrific panel to remember him with as he makes his final trek back home to texas. but we will switch gears, in the meantime, we begin with what seems to be a very public warning to the current president from bob mueller. last night, just one week after individual one, who we now know is president trump, emerged as a central subject of his

investigation, robert mueller's team slipped this otherwise innocuous line in a sentencing memo for the president's former national security adviser michael flynn. quote, flynn's record of military and public service distinguish him from every other person who has been charged as part of the special counsel's investigation. however, senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards. let that last phrase sink in a moment. senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards. folks, flynn's case is a microsome of where some think the investigation could be headed. with last night's sentencing memo, mueller has laid out one, how a senior government leader was being influenced by a foreign power's financial leverage, and two, how a senior government leader then lied about his foreign ties in an attempt to cover them up. mueller notes how flynn not only lied to investigators about his contacts with russia while he was the national security adviser in both before the president took the oath and when he was sort of the national

security adviser to be, but how he also lied about the work he was doing in secret as an agent of the government of turkey. so, in a moment when flynn was supposed to be using his power as a top trump adviser to take positions that would benefit the united states of america, his company was being paid more than half a million dollars to take positions that would benefit a foreign government. and then, flynn lied about those arrangements. also, the sentencing memo is chock full of indications that mueller's investigation is far wider and far deeper than we might have expected. for instance, mueller says flynn provided, quote, substantial assistance to not one, not two, but three separate ongoing federal investigations, one of them is criminal, and don't forget, this is all the result of an investigation into flynn that president trump allegedly, according to james comey, tried to shut down. we know one of those ongoing

investigations directly involves the president. but we don't know for sure what the other two are about. and one of them, as i mentioned earlier, is a criminal investigation. joining me now is two people who have obviously very familiar with this investigation, joyce vance is an msnbc contributor and former u.s. attorney, and shane erris from "the washington post." shane, let me start with you, with the mystery probes, other than the special counsel investigation that mike flynn may have been helping out with. one of them appears to be this turkey debacle, the kidnapping plot, that may be the criminal one, on that front, but it doesn't seem to be that we know a lot about the third investigation. what is your reporting unearthing? >> we're still looking into that. you raised the question about the allegation that mike flynn had been involved in a platt to kidnap someone. that was one of the first things that came to my mind, this possibly could be. there have also been allegations

in reporting of a number of organizations that mike flynn was involved in an effort to try to push a deal involving nuclear power plants in saudi arabia. there is, of course, what mike flynn might know about other connections between people in the trump transition team going into the administration. also the campaign before that. with people in russia. so, when you look at mike flynn and the universe of things he was involved in, or touched or was alleged to have been involved in, it's pretty substantial. and so i think there's probably a fairly significant list of things that might be those investigations that are hiding underneath those black lines in that document. >> joyce vance, you read this sentencing memo, you saw the phrase substantial assistance, the recommendation to little to know actual jail time. what does this tell you as a former prosecutor? >> it strongly indicates that flynn had something very valuable to offer to prosecutors, probably more than one thing, right?

i mean, we see the three investigations on the face of the document, where prosecutors indicate he's provided significant information. this notion of substantial assistance is actually imbedded in the rules for federal prosecutors. it permits prosecutors to recommend a lower sentence than the one established by law for a defendant who provides assistance that helps them make additional criminal cases or criminal cases against additional people. so, it seems that flynn's cooperation for prosecutorials has lived up to their expectations when they signed him up. >> and joyce, when you see the notations of three investigations and they note that one of them is the special counsel's investigation, one is criminal and one is this mystery one, is -- is it -- one of the theories that i've heard out there is that robert mueller is doing his best to actually farm out as much of his investigation as he can to other entities, whether it's the southern district of new york, the

eastern district of virginia. frankly, in case he gets fired. so, is this likely what this is all a piece of, that as the special counsel has unearthed stuff, possibly with mike flynn, he's been farming this stuff out? >> i don't think we can answer that for sure, chuck. it could be that he's construing his mandate from rod rosenstein pretty narrowly. he can investigation into connections between the campaign and russia, he can look at obstruction, but there's also this broader provision that lets him investigation any matters that come up as a result of his investigation, so, there's really, strictly speaking, no need for him to hand pieces off. he could be doing it for resource purposes, he has a limited number of prosecutors and agents. but he could also, as you say, be doing it in an effort to ensure the case exists in so many different components of doj that it can't be squelched by, say, for instance, acting a.g. matt whitaker. >> shane harris, this is what

rudy giuliani told us in response to the flynn sentencing memo. he sort of tried to, i think, embrace the redactions, he noted, if flynn had information to share with mueller that hurt the president, you would know it by now. there's a yiddish word that fits, they don't have bubkes. i looked at the sentencing memo and it seems like if there is bubkes in there, it was redacted. does rudy giuliani even know -- would the president's team know what he has helped with yet? >> oh, i don't think that they would. they might suspect, maybe joyce would answer this better than me, but i don't think there's any reason to believe they have any idea what's underneath those redactions. you know, there's another tell elsewhere in that document, which is where mueller says that flynn's cooperation has essentially compelled other people in this investigation to be more forthcoming about information that they know. one thing i know from my own reporting is one person whose story changed a bit to

investigators after flynn's predicament became known was k.t. mcfarland, his deputy. and we know from his earlier guilty plea that k.t. mcfarland was the individual who was relaying to mike flynn during the transition what to say about sanctions to the russian ambassador, and that she was doing this while she was down at mar-a-lago with other senior trump administration officials. it is possible, we're speculating here, we think it's fairly informed speculation, that if there is any kind of answer of what did donald trump tell michael flynn to say, if anything, to the russian ambassador, it's possible that message flowed through k.t. mcfarland. if what mueller is trying to say here is, in addition to the information flynn provided, he also got other people to kind of come clean and be more forthcoming, that could be a very significant piece of this whole collusion puzzle. >> joyce vance, what message is robert mueller trying to send

with this phrase, however, senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards? >> right. he's stating a very clear principle that applies to the president, perhaps to his daughter, who is a senior counselor, indicating that people who are entrusted with great responsibility have a great obligation. that's how robert mueller's lived his life. that's a principle that doj prosecutors operate under. he's indicating that people in government should be held to a high standard, and i think we need to help rudy giuliani out, this is not what my grandparents would call bubkas, this is the whole schmear. mueller is saying, he's got it and he's coming after folks. >> you said it's an indication that government officials should be held to the highest standards -- but it's not as if there is a separate, that a government official is going to get held to a higher standard than a private individual as far as the law is concerned, this is more of a political argument

he's making? >> no, i think it's a legal one, chuck. there's actually a provision inside of the sentencing guidelines that indicate people who hold a position of trust or authority can actually be sentenced at a higher level than just those of us who are private citizens. that's not necessarily limited to government, but it applies to government. and as reality, we know that people who are entrusted with public funds or public responsibility who engage in corrupt practices become special targets in the eye of prosecutors. mueller's just restating that fundamental principle that animates public prosecutions. >> and matt whitaker is now the acting attorney general. would he have seen these unredacted portions? >> i -- yeah, i don't think we though the answer to that question. he could force the issue. i think he's sitting in the chair, he's not as far as we know recused. he could insist on being shown

that information. but there's often this yin and yang between the person sitting at the top and the people doing the work on the line, and even as the u.s. attorney, i would have had to have asked to see that. it doesn't look like he did or if he did, it doesn't look like he interfered. and it would be very hard, frankly, if mueller has multiple witnesses who are giving him consistent information, for an acting attorney general to interfere. >> and shane harris, mike flynn has not been apart of the president's twitter feed in some time when it comes to the mueller probe. he's let him alone. hit a roger stone -- supported a manafort, roger stone, sometimes hit him. he's never touched flynn recently and of course previously was standing by him, perhaps out of fear of what he might say. he has said nothing here. how much does the president's team fear flynn? >> i think the indications that i've gotten and also my colleagues, too, in our

reporting, is that the president has been concerned that mike flynn could reveal a lot. and there's good reason for that. he was an adviser to donald trump through the campaign, he was certainly the most senior and well-known person from u.s. national security circles to be advising then-candidate trump, was with him at the convention. he was close in, and a vital part of that transition, and knows a lot. and knows a lot of the key players and obviously spent time with him in the white house. and i do think that he kind of -- the lack of a twitter barrage, whether positive or negative, directed towards flynn, gave an indication that the president thought, leave that one alone. and when donald trump shows restrint, that's pretty telling. >> that's the way i look at it, too. when he says nothing, means, boy, he's more nervous than we think. joyce vance, shane harris, thank you both. coming up, we're going to dissect more of mueller's message. our supersized panel is next. ♪

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welcome back. we got much more on the fallout from bob mueller's latest court filing, but look, this is special air mission 41 before landing in houston. they plan on doing a bit of a flyover over the bush library in college station, which is, of course, a few hours away. he will be landing in houston. they'll have a funeral service tomorrow in houston and president bush will make his final trek to his library via train. we are watching. we're going to introduce you to the panel here, we have george will, maureen dowd, former white

house chief of staff andy card and "washington post" national politics columnist karen tumulty. you were at that introduction of that blibrary, maureen? >> yes. >> why did he pick college station? andy, do you remember? >> i do. he picked college station -- he had no connection to it except he had been invited to speak there. >> okay. >> and every time he went to speak there, he did when he was president and he gave a major speech there, they treated him well, he loved the underlying -- i'm going to say spirit and the core values of texas a&m, and he just fell in love with the place. and he also was being wooed by yale and andover and he said no, i'm going to go to college station. and university of houston really wanted the library, too. >> i bet they did.

>> he liked college station because of the core values and the cadets -- there are about 2,400 core cadet members in a campus of 65,000 students. it's the core cadets that give that place the core values that make texas a&m special. and it is a very special place. >> well, and obviously there's been a lot of sort of bush connections with texas a&m. bob gates, former secretary of defense, president of texas a&m. there it is, as they're doing the flyover. president bush will be joining the former first lady, barbara bush, and his daughter, robin -- >> and that's where the bush school of government and public service is, which is his living legacy, because those are the people being trained to enter public service, and that's what it's all about. he didn't want an institute. he wanted a school. really teaching young people and introducing them to the opportunity to serve in public service. >> george, the split screen that i feel like i'm stuck with today

a little bit, got this mueller situation, we've got this -- we're, i think, correctly, i believe, especially with me having teenagers, i want them to learn something today about a former president, about what -- what should folks take away from this split screen, the current political situation and the political situation that we're describing to people that may not have lived through the life of president bush. >> well, on one side of the split screen, there are developments that are daily, not that they're unimportant, but they won't be with us forever. on the other side was this marvelous civic liturgy that the country has. republics don't do this naturally. if you have a monarchy, 800 years of history, pomp and circumstance comes more or less naturally to a country like that. in a republic, which is kind of leery of celebrating the state and celebrating the rulers and

all the rest, to come up with a republican, small r, republican celebration of smaller government like this, was quite stirring, i thought. >> maureen? >> well, i think in this era of covering white collar crimes and porn stars and vulgarity, you know, it was nice to look back to someone who was trying to respect decency and civility. and when they were planning his funeral in 2011, he said to an aide, do you think anyone will come? and that modesty is in such contrast to trump's endless odyssey of narcicisstic self-discovery. >> it struck me, karen, when we talk about -- a lot of people say, is it an end of an era with him, and you just brought up the idea that he was this -- there was still this sort of -- the new england sort of

conservative, you don't show -- you're not a showboat. our presidents since have all been celebry if ied. right after him, bill clinton became a big celebrity. w was branded. he became a celebrity. obama and trump. something has changed between the end of bush 41 and what we have today. >> oh, exactly. and the service managed to do what the man himself imagined to do, which is something almost impossible. he was almost regal and modest at the same time. and i was really struck by the difference in tone from the mccain funeral, which happened in that same spot just three months ago, which was such a direct rebuke of donald trump, it was almost like donald trump was -- >> there was no subtlety. there was no subtlety with that. more subtlety with that. >> this was actually more summoning people to the values that george herbert walker bush

stood for. i compared the speeches that george w. bush gave at that service and at this service, and he was talking about despots and b bigots there. here, he was talking about the fundamental human values that made his father both a great father and a good man. >> well, it's interesting, though, andy, george w. bush spoke at both of them. but he made sure to -- he made sure to channel the person he was eulogizing. so, he channeled john mccain, you know, in some ways, and maybe taking a dig, and he channeled his father in being the bigger guy. >> president george h.w. bush respected the institutions of democracy. and he actually celebrated them every day that he was serving in whatever it was. no matter where he was in government. he understood the kind of core values and what it means to be in a republican democracy. and doesn't trash the institutions, he defended the cia and went there to help clean

it up. he defended the institutional of the presidency when richard nixon was in deep trouble. he defended the two-party system when it was thought to be out of sorts. and this was another reflection of respecting the institutions of our democracy and that was how george bush lived his life. >> george, where does he fit in the history of conservatism? where would you put him and how would you write about him in that sense? >> well, he was elected, in a way, because the country wanted a third reagan term and he was standing there. he got in trouble for violating a very clear promise to the american people and it didn't work out well in terms of the numbers, economic growth, deficit reduction, unemployment, they all went the wrong way afterwards. i don't think that's his fault, necessarily, because i don't think presidents control the economy, but they pretend to. so, he was -- to many conservatives, he's someone who, in a way, dissipated the reagan

momentum that the country had imparted to it, up to 1988. >> i'll push back on that a little bit. >> push away. >> well, first of all -- >> this is kind of what i wanted here. >> the house was overwhelmingly democrat. he didn't want to govern by executive order. he respected the -- >> reagan had a republican senate for six years of his eight. >> right. but bush did not. >> bush didn't have any of that. >> bush didn't have it. so, he had to build some kind of compromise strategy in order to get his legislative agenda through, which he was quite successful at getting through, and even on violating the tax pledge that he had given, no new taxes, it was the senate that kind of said, we can do something, it's got to be comprehensive, big package, but it will include new revenues. it was the house that created the tea party opportunity, newt gingrich, all that kind of

stuff. he was trying to get something accomplished. >> he also had a very canny adversary in george mitchell. >> what do you mean by that? >> well, he was an extremely shrewd legislature. >> i heard the word candy. not canny. >> george herbert walker bush had minimum legislative experience, when he said, raise taxes and cut spending, they took the taxes and didn't stop the spending. >> he did. but on the house side, he worked and built coalitions. spent hours at the negotiating table, it was real negotiating. they came to an understanding -- i will admit, some people on the republican said it was revenue enhancement, not new taxes, but it violated the deal, and the president understood the consequence that was likely to come. i don't think he did a good enough job of describing the

success and the discipline that was being introduced into congress and the executive -- >> was that his fatal flaw, his inability to boast? he wasn't boastful? he didn't know how to do it well? >> i think he also, though, by the time he reaches re-election time, he's being undermined from three different directions. the conservatives are abandoning him. bill clinton is a very good candidate who can really connect with the economic pain that people were feeling in the recession, and then there's ross perot out there, sort of raising the deficit as an issue, in a way that we had never seen before. so, he was having to deal withed a verve says, essentially, from three directions. >> well, the violation of the read my lips on taxes, it created an opportunity for pat buchanan to wedge into new hampshire and disrupt the structure of the republican party, which invited ross perot.

and he was eventually the one that created the difference between success and failure in re-election. >> maureen, does that make george h.w. bush the father of the gingrich and the tea party moveme movements? unintentionally, right? >> you know, bush treated words like little buzzing flies, and when he made a campaign promise like that, that didn't stop him from thinking he could throw that out and govern differently. >> he wasn't looking to throw it out, but he knew the consequence. >> yeah. >> i'm going to positive the conversation here. up ahead, i want to talk about another big story in the news today, the growing stock shock over china. how president trump is trying to clean up his self-made trade crisis. we'll be right back.

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you're looking live at ellington airfield in houston, texas. as we said, special air mission 41 is right now flying former president jgeorge h.w. bush bac to houston. we just saw the plane make a low, slow flyover, a wing tip, if you will, to the george bush library center where the president will be buried tomorrow, next to his wife, barbara, and his daughter, robin. this is where the plane will land shortly, and once it does, the president's casket will be taken to st. martin's e ppiscop church in houston, where his body will lie in repose until tomorrow. we'll talk more about the day when we come back. so, that goal you've been saving for,

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welcome back. president trump is trying to clean up his self-made trade crisis. first, he touted what he called an incredible deal to pause the trade war with china over the weekend. but then, mr. trump helped set off investor jitters with tweets yesterday calling himself a tariff man. so, now he's trying to change his tone. president trump tweeted this morning that he seeing very strong signals from china to pause the trade war. quote, not to sound naive or anything, but i believe president xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting. all subjects discussed. chinese government said today that it's confident in the trade talks, but offered little clarity on what exactly they agreed to or purported to even talk about. out of all the news this week, from former president george h.w.'s funeral to the latest developments in the mueller probe, this is arguably the most

consequential for your pocketbook and the global economy. greg, good to see you, sir. >> hi, chuck. >> so, help me understand this a little bit. i guess the best explanation i've understood is, the president got a -- the phrase is, got out over his skis a little bit before the chinese were ready to announce. is this naivety about the chinese or just maybe inexperience on how to deal with the chinese? >> i think it's a product of the unusual negotiations are conducted under this administration. when you are entering a very completion negotiation and they don't come much more complex than this relationship, you typically have your lower level officials spend literally months in hard negotiations hammering out details. then the presidents get together and they sign off on what everybody agrees you said you would do. >> maybe one sticking point that has to be done on the leader to leader level. >> correct. >> here, we're doing it kind of

backwards. the presidents agree to the agenda, then they send their officials out to do the hard negotiating. if you look at trump's tweets, though the tone keeps changing, the substance is always just the same. we had discussions to talk about these things. and where this will all sort of, like, end up is the key question. what in the end will the chinese agree to do, relative to what the u.s. wants them to do, and can the united states, can trump accept that as a deal? >> you know, during the cold war, the assumption was, we're going to go into this sort of back and forth, this sort of -- this decision to, you know, spend and spend and spend and the assumption was, they're going to go into bankruptcy before we do, who has the better hand here in these negotiations? >> in the cold war, you would have extremely tense negotiations on things like nuclear weapons, but the economic fallout was limited, because the soviet union was basically hermetically sealed. china is heavily integrated in

the world and u.s. economy. the dow goes up and down because the outcome of these negotiations matter for u.s. companies and u.s. consumers. now, if you look at the raw numbers, the u.s. should have the leverage. u.s. exports to china are less than 1% of gdp. their exports to us are about 4% of gdp. but having leverage is one thing. knowing how to use it is another. the u.s. needs to be careful that what it asks for is deliverable. on that list, there's a whole continuum. some things are easy. china says, you want us to buy more soybeans and liquefies natural gas, easy. you want us to end joint venture requirements, lower tariffs, well, yeah, we can probably do that. and then there are things that are really hard. a big problem is forced technology transfer. the chinese say, we don't force anybody. they do it voluntarily. and if you are saying, give up our -- >> what's voluntarily? china says it's voluntarily. if you want this amount of money

for your business, then you have to give us this -- is that really voluntarily or is that a bit of, you know, extortion? >> and i think that is what's going to be really hard to decide in 90 days. if you listen to the different voices coming out of the administration, we had john bolton speaking yesterday, very hawkish, he was saying, it's not just about them buying a trillion dollars worth of stuff, it's about aspects of their behavior, and sththen steve mnun said, they will buy a trillion dollars of our stuff. >> the united states usually has more leverage because we're representing a larger bloc of other countries. doesn't seem that we've made the decision -- we're not the only country that doesn't like china's trade prax r practictic we're the only one fighting it this hard. >> there are positive signs on that front. administration officials have played up the fact that there was a joint agreement of the

world trade organization needs to be fixed, but it allowed china to get away with too much stuff. if you talk to people in the european union, canada, japan, they are coming around to the view that china's a real problem and there needs to be action. the question is, is this administration prepared to reach out to them, pull back from some of the friction it's created on things like steel and aluminum tariffs, and form that united front. it's possible. will it be done? to be seen. >> what are the markets truly reacting to? the uncertainty or fear of the outcome? >> it's a little bit of both. the fact of the matter is, the raw numbers are not big enough to really shake up an company as big as ours. it's somewhere between 0.1%, best case, 1%. we've dealt with worse things. but it comes at a time when there's a lot of other uncertainty. the global economy is rising. housing market is slowing. the fiscal stimulus is fading. you layer on a lot of protectionism and tension.

it's just an ugly mixture. >> all right, greg ip, good toe see you. i appreciate your exper these and per peck spif. thank you, sir. coming up, robert mueller's message to members of the trump administration. we're going to break that down with tonight's panel, coming up. . it was the last song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? i knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. i needed answers. my doctor and i chose xarelto® to help keep me protected from a stroke. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your body's natural blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. for afib patients well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® compares in reducing the risk of stroke. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor,

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cathedral in washington. that service, and service in general, is an important word when you're talking about the bush family, honored, which, of course honored president bush as a war hero, a family man and president who understood what it means to be the custodian of the american democracy. hundreds of dignitaries gathered today to pay their respects, including president trump and the four living former presidents, among them, of course, president george bush, who delivered one of four eulogies of the former president. >> so, through our tears, let us know the blessings of knowing and loving you, a great and noble man. the best father a son or daughter could have. and in our grief, knowing that dad is hugging robin and holding mom's hand again. >> the most decent and honorable man i ever knew was my friend george bush. one of nature's noblemen.

his epitaph, perhaps just a single letter, the letter l, for loyalty. >> i believe it will be said that no occupant of the oval office was more courageous, more principled and more honorable than george herbert walker bush. >> george herbert walker bush that survived that fiery fall into the waters of the pacific, three-quarters of a century ago, made our lives and the lives of nati nations, freer, better, warmer and nobler. sooner or later, we all sign up for medicare.

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filled with great advice... ...like your dad, right? yeah, right. welcome back. time for the lid. our panel is back. maureen, i wanted you here, because i loved your piece about you and this president, president 41. you were the chief white house

correspondent, right? among them, during this era. >> i was, yes. i was one of them. bob woodward always says, every president gets the psychoanalyst he deserves. >> and that was you? >> i guess it was, yeah. >> what was interesting about your relationship with him is that it wasn't mean, was it? if he had a problem with you, he didn't get angry. >> yeah. it was like a sort of a '40s cr screwball comedy, like i was the gene about thank you working girl and he was the jimmy stewa stewart waspy rich guy. without the romance, of course. i was all class rage and it was right at the gunning beginning the white male waspy pate yard can i was breaking up. and i think he thought he would

have horatio hornblower iv drinking martinis and he got me calling him goofy and, you know -- >> my favorite story is he had -- he had to hide from his son that he went and snuck and had coffee with you. >> oh, no, he wanted to have coffee with me and kennebunkport and he had karl rove call me to see if we could set it up, but it would have been like him and his secret service agents sneaking out to meet me at a coffee shop and avoiding w and his secret service agents, so, it was very complicated, but i loved this skull and bones, skull dugry of it, because he was the head of the cia and he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. >> karen, i -- i am -- as i said, i'm in this split screen world, i don't want to let this day go with mueller and what we're learning today on this front. what is your sense of the significance of where this is headed with mueller, especially when he puts in there, when you

serve in office, you know, you got to be held to the highest standard, which phones more poignant today as we just said good-bye to one of america's, probably most famous public servants. >> well, the significance -- i mean, to one of america's most famous public servants. >> it's one of truck's firmp's acts was to go to james comey to tell him to let this case against anyone slidflynn slide. we have mueller saying keep him out of jail because he's cooperating. we're getting so much information out of him. as every one has said earlier, it's all in the redactions here. it does seem like people who thought it was going to be over quickly that it was going to be something that trump could get past, i think aren't thinking that today. >> do you think it's possible that the lawmakers that attended today's ceremony listened to what everybody was saying today?

at the same time they are watching what's happening in realtime. they are seeing a man of bob mueller's pedigree make this case that something is wrong here. something smells. we're saying good bai -bye to mo made integrity his lifelong mission. >> i think they were listening. i'm not sure they found the courage to act. i think they know what the noble thing to do is. they are finding way to do it but they haven't found the courage to do that yet. maybe he's introducing a little courage too. restraint and respect. i'm not sure they got there on the restraint side and i still think they learning on the respect side. >> the story of an rnc chairman, george bush, basically not just

being a knee jerk defender of nixon in that moment. that in itself today would be considered courageous. >> that's right. it's worth remembering that mueller is from bush's world. st. paul school athlete of the year. princeton marine corps officer. university of virginia law school, the thiwhole thing. the biggest puzzle to me and maybe someone has intuitions about it is the whole mueller probe. he got 16 hard charging, type a personalities to get off their fast tracks and lucrative careers to come here. he didn't say come on down we're going to indict someone called papadopoulos. he told them there's something here. he must have enticed them with that. second thing that puzzles me and nothing he's done so far with the redactions clears this up. we know what the russians warranted to do.

they wanted to sow salt in our social wounds and make them worse and they wanted mr. trump to get elected. they did not need to collude with his campaign. they were much more professional about this than his campaign ever could have been. >> i think he's onto something else. it does seem as if when you look at what michael flynn was doing with the country of turkey while also advising an incoming president of the united states, that to me is where this probe gets much more, i think, troublesome for other people around this president. >> yeah. mueller reminds me of the guy in the white hat hunting butch cassidy and the sun dance kid. he keeps coming and they keep turning around going who is that guy. he keeps coming. bush senior loved and respected institutions and trump doesn't. when trump was going to fire

comey, they said you can fire comey but the investigation goes on and trump didn't understand. he thought if you just fired one man, it would be over. he doesn't even fathom, i think, the trajectory of what's happening. >> i would argue that's been part of the problem, for instance w this iss instance, with this issue of china. he thinks everything is a two bit real estate deal and he's more overmatched that he is fully appreciative. whether it's mueller or the chinese. >> in part because he's also a real estate deal and he sees it as a branding exercising. as long as he keeps declaring there's a victory here that people will believe it. the fact is that the economy, the world economy, doesn't operate according to slogans and nor do criminal investigations. >> andy, i want to close with this final thought that we were discussing. there's a lot of things we're

praising george h.w. bush at the time was ordinary. working across the aisle. >> i think it says more about the time. the mob is much closer to the rule today because of the internet. many more decisions are made out of emotion rather than logic and judgment. there's nothing we can do about it. it used to be that if you're angry with a congressman, you sent them a letter and it took seven days to get there and would be in the staff and you get the answer. a thoughtful answer would go out. today you get a tweet and you're expected to respond to the emotion of the tweet with the same level of emotion and you do and you get stuck on stupid and you can't change. >> i think about what's happening to the french. there's this protest. it's succeeded but they don't know who to negotiate with. it's literally, who is the leader of this movement.

they don't know. this goes to what you're saying. it's mob rule. >> find someone in yellow vest in france and try to make that person a leader. it's very difficult. the only thing worse is a mob with no head. >> thank you all for spending time. i'll be right back. over 100 years ago,

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"mtp daily." president bush has just landed in houston. the beat with ari melber starts now. we have a lot of big stories. bob mueller sending a clear message, tell the truth and i'll tell the judge to go a lot easier. a top democrat joins me from the senate judiciary committee discussing roger stone invoking the fifth. the seen at president bush's funeral. donald trump greeting this man he accused of illegally wiretapping and another opponent he tried to have investigated and indicted. bob mueller telling convicts they will be spared prison time if they testify honestly while donald trump has been doing something quite remarkable.