we've also been getting a lot of questions from you about how you can help, and there are a lot of different ways you can do something, mostly in your local community, including donating to local food pantries, helping repair national parks by donating to the national park foundation or volunteering on site, calling your senators and representatives, supporting one of the many large and small businesses helping unpaid workers and letting them know that that's why you're doing it. or you can get creative. and good night from new york. i williams who will be back tomorrow. we are following a stunning report from overnight. buzz feed citing two federal law enforcement officials is reporting president trump personally directed his former fixer michael cohen to lie to congress about a deal to build a trump tower in moscow. plus day 28 of the government shutdown and as tens of thousands of americans worry about their next paycheck, president trump and nancy pelosi are taking their fight to the next level. and president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani tries to clear up recent marks he's made about russian collusion.

good morning, everyone. it's friday, january 18th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf. a major story broke late last night which members of congress say could be the most serious allegation yet about president donald trump and russia. buzz steed reports president trump directed his then attorney michael cohen to lie to congress about negotiations to build a trump tower in moscow, citing two federal law enforcement officials involved in investigation of the matter. nbc news has not independently confirmed the report. buzz feed sources go on to allege the president and his children, ivanka and donald trump jr. received regular update details about the development from cohen who they put in charge of the project despite trump's repeated claims to have no business deals with russia. cohen also told the special counsel that after the election that president personally instructed him to lie by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did. all in order to obscure donald

trump's involvement. buzz feed reports the special counsel's office learned about trump's directive for cohen to lie to congress through interviews from multiple witnesses in the trump organization, text messages and other documents. cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office. >> the special counsel and michael cohen both declined to comment on the story. president trump's attorney rudy giuliani told the ap quote, if you believe cohen i can get you a good all cash deal on the billion bridge. in a late night social media post democratic members of congress are seeking answers. house intelligence chairman adam schiff wrote the allegation that the president of the united states i have suborned per jirj before our committee in an effort curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with russia is among

the most serious to date. one question, if this is, in fact true, bob mueller has this information that, in fact, the president did instruct michael cohen to lie to congress, would this be an obstruction of justice? >> yes. actually that's a very good question because obstruction would be the easier charge. conspiracy to induce someone to give false testimony. second part is subordination of perjury is not frequently charged because obstruction is an easier case to make out under federal statutes. you may have all the necessary elements. the next question is, of course, can a president commit that crime? can a president be indicted? can -- is a president by virtue of being the executive, the

chief executive unprosecutable? >> it almost makes it possible to think that what rudy giuliani said earlier in the week when he had that kind of gaffe, if you want to call it that when he said there was no russian collusion or i'm only talking about the president, not the campaign, it makes me think that nothing happens by accident with the way all of these developments happen. would you consider this to be one of the most, if not the most significant development in this case so far? >> very significant. possibly the most santa ana. i can't say it was unanticipated. this is michael cohen. he has been trump's trusted confidant. he has signaled to us that he has all of this information and he's finally laying it bare. he's going to tell us everything he ever knew. we shown be surprised that these bomb shells are going to start leaking out. i've been saying for months now that of all the investigations, the most concerning to trump has to be michael cohen, and it's evident in all of his frantic

tweets about michael cohen. michael cohen is the greatest threat to the trump presidency. is he to be believed? is he credible? well, that's another question. but make no mistake about it, he's going to saturday throwing bombs in the trump direction now that he's just opening up his soul to government investigators. >> so, this morning what is the defense strategy for donald trump look like with this revelation. >> classic he lying defense. we'll see that. sometimes in criminal defense if you don't have much left, if you don't have an alternative theory of what happened you fall back on he lying or she lying. that's what trump has down with michael cohen. unofficially at the criminal defense bar. i didn't invent it i only carried it on. >> a pleasure. so now to the very latest on that front with the border regarding the battle over the

budget and the wall. president trump has now cancelled house speaker nancy pelosi's military travel to afghanistan after she requested that he postpone his state of the union address until after the government is re-opened or submit it in writing. in a letter to the house speaker the president wrote in part due to the shutdown i'm sorry to inform you your trip to brussels, egypt and afghanistan has been postponed. we'll reschedule the seven day exkurgs when the shutdown is over. in light of the 800,000 great american workers not receiving pay, i am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate. he added quote obviously if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial that is your prerogative. speaker's office responded saying trip to afghanistan required a stop in brussels for pilot rest and while there the delegation would meet with

military leaders and key allies to affirm the united states iron clad commitment to the nato alliance. it didn't include a stop in egypt. the speaker pointed out the president and any congressional delegation traveled to iraq during the government shutdown. yesterday adam schiff was asked if the house speaker still plans to make the trip. >> i'm not going to comment on the speaker's travel plans. frankly, there has been far too much said about that already. and i think the president's decision to disclose a trip that a speaker is making to a war zone was completely and utterly irresponsible in every way. >> now one of the president's top defender, lindsey graham said it was inappropriate for the president to cancel the house speaker's military travel. graham said he, glad the speaker wants to meet our troops and hear from our commanders and

allies. he accused her of playing politics with the state of the union. the white house initially sent a delegation led by treasury secretary steve mnuchkin still travel to the world economic forum in davos. hours later white house back tracked and said that trip was cancelled because the government shutdown. one government plane was cleared for takeoff yesterday. one reportedly carrying first lady melania trump to mar-a-lago for the long weekend and holiday. and as tensions between house speaker and president continue to rise the white house claims to be ready to negotiate an end to the shutdown. principle deputy press secretary says pelosi has a standing invitation. the president would sit down with nancy pelosi to negotiate opening the government and securing the border any time. in her news conference yesterday, speaker pelosi put the spotlight on the people securing america and the stress they are under from not getting

paid along with a dig at the president's personal business dealings. take a listen to this. >> we're not paying people to keep us safe, tsa agents who stop bombs from coming on planes. fbi agents who track down terrorists in our country, the dea agents that stop the flow of drugs in our country and the immigration officials who patrol the border. people think of public employees, federal employees only being in the washington area. no, they are all over the country. they are in small town usa. i don't understand why the reality of this in people's lives is not cared about by the administration. not only are these workers not paid, they are not appreciated by this administration. we're saying let's get a date when government is open. let's pay the employees. maybe he thinks it's okay not to pay people who do work and i don't and my caucus doesn't

either. >> the sub tetext behind that i the president not paying workers. >> federal immigration authorities took a decorated main combat veteran and u.s. citizen into custody to face deportation. he was born in michigan and served in afghanistan was arrested on a trespassing charge pled guilty and was ordered released. however he was instead handed over to i.c.e. agents that held him in a detention center for three days claiming gomez was in the country illegally. his attorney called i.c.e. and said various documents showed he was a u.s. citizen. they called me back and said oops, come and get him. a new federal audit reveals the trump administration began separating children from their parents months before it was announced but separated thousands more kids than previously admitted. an investigator with the

department of health and human services told reporters yesterday, quote, how many more children separated is unknown by the u.s. and hhs due to failures by the administration to track families as they were being separated. although officials estimate that the additional number is in the thousands, all of this comes as nbc news has learned that the trump administration wanted to speed up the deportation of migrant children by denying them their legal rights to asylum here after separating them from their parents according to comments on a late 2017 draft of trump's separation policy. that document also shows that the administration wanted to specifically target parents and migrant families for increased prosecution since that would be reported by the media and it would have a substantial deterrent effect. still ahead, we'll hear some of the stories of americans across the country that personally have been impacted by the ongoing government shutdown. plus new reporting what president trump thought about

william barr's confirmation hearings this week. that and a check of the weather when we come back. the weather when we come back. (burke) parking splat. and we covered it.

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welcome back, everyone. we're entering day 28 of the government shutdown and more and more americans are being impacted by the ongoing stalemate. teen fbi is feeling the pinch. a law enforcement charity has set up a food bank for agents in the bureau's new york office and we're hearing many, many more stories from people across the country who are personally affected by the shutdown. here are just a few. >> reporter: over three weeks ago the paychecks stopped coming in. >> we're prioritizing what we have to pay. we have to pay our electricity and groceries. >> reporter: no paycheck and no luck getting a loan leading to plenty of stress. >> i'm helpless. i have no control over my life right now. >> this is a correct shion

facility. >> i'm a federal law enforcement officer. and we have all worked roughout this. and we're not getting paid. and there's nothing american about that. >> reporter: for the hunter family. >> we'll be okay for this first chunk but as of february 1st i don't know where we go from that point. when is the end in sight. >> joining me from washington, d.c. senior writer at roll call. neal, great to have you here this morning. president trump, nancy pelosi are embroiled in a war of tit for tat about flights and state of the union addresses. is there any sign of negotiation efforts that's in the works? >> good to be with you. the only thing we've seen really in the last day that was at least slightly interesting was vice president mike pence and jared kushner, the presidential

son-in-law and white house adviser made an appearance at about 5:00 p.m. or so yesterday to mitch mcconnell's office, the senate majority leader. now mcconnell has been trying and arguing that he does not really have a role to play in these negotiations because it's largely between pelosi and trump, but if the white house were able to engage mcconnell, that might be, at least something of a sign. >> what role could mcconnell play in all of this? could he allow the bill that's been unanimously passed before to show up at the president's desk and have a veto proof majority? >> he said he won't do anything that the president won't sign, so what we always have to be looking for is the possibility that the white house, whether it's pence or someone else gives sort of a wink and a nod to mcconnell that it would be okay for something to pass. >> interesting. let's switch gears for a moment and talk about this latest bomb

shell report from buzz feed news. how are house democrats reacting to this ahead of michael cohen's upcoming testimony? >> sure, it certainly changes sort of the trajectory at least a little bit for the cohen testimony in public, and it does sort of go to what we've all sort of been assuming was the most potentially damaging part of what's been going on in terms of investigations of president trump. and so i think it just sort of -- if it was ever possible to ratchet up the level of attention that the cohen testimony would get, this will certainly do that, and it will be interesting to see how much he'll be able to say or maybe, in fact, more curiously if there's anything he says he can't talk about because of some sort of ongoing legal matter. that may tell us more than what he actually says. >> i suspect we'll hear from the

president at some point via twitter. thank you very much. we'll talk to you again in a little bit. let's get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill that slight dusting we received in new york a prelude to the big storm to come. >> just a minor blip. the big storm is on its way. we'll wrap up of what's left over of our dusting of snow. at most an inch or two out there. there are some school delays. almost finished. this afternoon temperatures in the 40s and upper 30s. let's get to the big storm this upcoming weekend. 105 million people are under winter storm advisories, watches or warnings. as far as the winter storm warnings, des moines, chicago under a winter storm warning and almost all of new york state with the exception of new york city is under winter storm warning. new york city is under a watch. maybe they will issue an ice storm warning or advisory

because we may not get the heavy snow totals to meet the criteria for the warning there. as far as weekend impacts. here's the snow forecast for the entire storm now through sunday. snow today is in areas like sioux falls, southern portions of minnesota, rochester down to ames and des moines. that's three to six inches. enough to do a little bit of shoveling. enough to make roads slippery. chicago somewhere in the three to six inch range. north of interstate 70 for significant snows. south by detroit. by the weekend especially saturday afternoon is when we get the heavier snow in western new york, saturday night it moves into areas of northern new england and central new england and sunday morning up here in maine, new hampshire and northern mass. heaviest snows are north of the pike and catskills. south of there battleground going from snow to ice. here's the ice forecast. this is of great concern. when you get up to half an inch that's potential for power lines

and trees coming down. that's in areas north of baltimore, eastern pennsylvania, northern half of new jersey, all of southern new england and those are the areas we're concerned with, people losing power. if you lose power be prepared for temperatures on monday in the single digits with wind chills down in the negative 10 to negative 20 range. we'll cross fingers we hold on to the lights. >> not a good combination between the weather and no power. house democrats want to know how the shutdown is impacting the irs. steve mnuchkin doesn't want to testify, though. that story straight ahead. and healthy. so, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals your body needs. all with guaranteed great taste. the upside- i'm just getting started.

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♪ welcome back. time now for sports. we begin across fond where our british friends got a taste of live nba action as the wizards hosted the knicks in london last night. not only do the knicks blow a 19-point lead in the contest while clinging to a one-point advantage in the game's final second, new york is called for goal tending on a washington lay-up attempt with less than half a second to play. the wizards win it 101-100, pretty much sums up the knicks there. turning to the action on the tennis courts in melbourne, months after losing the u.s. open serena williams is back in the saddle advancing to the third year-round with a straight win set yesterday morning as

she's close to breaking the all-time record of 24 grand slam wins. and finally former nfl quarterback tim tebow will have another shot to prove he belongs in the big leagues. he'll attend the mets training camp. i' pared in major league training last year but was one of the team's early cuts after recording one hit, a walk and 11 strikeouts at 18 at-bats. we're rooting for you. he's hanging in there. >> everyone at "first look" is. still ahead rudy giuliani tries to clarify comments he made this week in which he claimed that he never said the campaign or at least the trump campaign didn't cloud with russia. what the president's personal attorney is telling nbc news. plus michael cohen weighs in on how his alleged efforts to help donald trump in the polls.

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welcome back. everyone i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf. it's the bottom of the hour. president trump's personal attorney is working to clean up his comments suggesting that trump didn't clued with russian officials but other campaign officials may have done so. here's what rudy giuliani said on wednesday. >> i never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the

campaign. >> yes, you have. >> i have not. i said the president of the united states. there's not a single bit of evidence the president of united states committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the russians to hack the dnc. >> that was on wednesday. then yesterday speaking with kristen welker, giuliani disputed his comments were an attempt to get ahead of news that's coming down the pike telling her no, we can tell you what we know. we can even tell you if we made a mistake. but we can't tell you what other people were thinking and doing completely. if you say to me tomorrow someone in the campaign clued with the russians, well, okay, that person did, but we didn't know of any such person. he tells kristen welker that the president's reaction they are trying to blow this out of proportion and understands exactly what i was saying. giuliani spoke with "the washington post" yesterday and asked about paul manafort sharing data with an associate

with ties to russian intelligence. even as he said company not speak for manafort giuliani went on to downplay the significance of manafort's relationship with a russian oligarch. he added they are not russian government officials. it's like sharing bowling an english guy and saying we're clueding with an american guy. >> rudy giuliani also weighed in on the "new york times" report that a counterintelligence investigation was open into whether president trump was working on behalf of russia following the firing of james comey. giuliani tells nbc news if i had known about the counterintelligence probe i probably wouldn't have answered any of the questions, referencing robert mueller's russia probe because i would have said the investigation is completely illegitimate and i

don't know why we're cooperating with it. >> donald trump's former fixer michael cohen respond to that bomb shell report from the "wall street journal" which details how the run up to trump's presidential campaign cohen hired an i.t. firm to rig polls in favor of trump. as for the "wall street journal" article on poll rigging what i did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of donald trump. i truly regret my baseline loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it. in a statement responding to that tweet donald trump's current personal attorney rudy giuliani told the "journal" my response is a cleanup version of [ bleep ] and if he rigged them woe have done it on his own. nobody on the campaign talked to him. no one had any real contact with him. giuliani confirmed he asked the president directly about it and said quote the president has no knowledge of rigging polling data. the revelation by attorney general nominee william barr

that he has a warm relationship with robert mueller reportedly was news to the man who tapped him for the job according to cnn citing three sours. president trump was startled while watching tv confirmation of barr's hearing on tuesday as his ag nominee describes his close ties to mueller. those sources says while barr said during his hearing the president was interested in hearing about the friendship, the details that actually emerged during the hearing caught trump offguard. cnn. said trump bristled at barr's close relationship complaining to aides he didn't realize how much their work overlapped or so close. there's no indication trump's surprise will jeopardyize barr's nomination. the state department has ordered employees to return to work next week. the department said it has found enough money to cover half a month in salary. the notice says the state

department campaigned most of their employees next sunday or monday for their next pay period but they will not be paid for the time worked until appropriations are enacted for 2019. the state department plans to reprogram anticipate transfer resources to fund payroll if the shutdown drags on. treasury secretary steve mnuchkin is refusing to testify before the house ways and means committee about the impact of the shutdown. house democrats invited mnuchkin to testify before the panel next thursday to discuss how the shutdown is affecting the treasury department, taxpayers, the irs plan to bring more than half of the agents workforce back into the fold ahead of tax filing season. but enoumuch mnuchkin has been scheduled to travel to davos but that trip has been cancelled. but he has declined to testify saying the committee is better

talking to agents with knowledge of the shutdown plans. >> concerns that the president is using the military as a tool, the president gave a speech at the pentagon which was aimed to focus on missile defense. it doesn't permit those in service participating in political events. >> without a strong border america is defenseless, vulnerable and unprotected. i want to thank the military for helping us out during the big caravan period. we need strong barriers and walls. nothing else will work. everyone knows it. the federal government remains shutdown because congressional democrats refuse to approve border security. while many democrats in the house and senate would like to make a deal, speaker pelosi will not let them negotiate.

the party has been hijacked by the open borders fringe within the party. the radical left becoming the radical democrats. hopeful hopefully democratic lawmakers will step forward and do what is right for our country. >> joining me once again senior writer at roll call, neal. so as we saw there state department and other federal agencies some are calling staff back to work, finding ways to squeeze the budget to be able to pay them for that time. but what's stopping furloughed workers from going on strike en masse? >> i think part of it is that there are laws that restrict the ability of federal workers and public employee unions from striking. this seems more akin to a lock out where the employer, the federal government in this case, doesn't want the employees coming to work. you know, one of the things that

i've been following about this, is this that the metro rail system here in d.c., the transportation system in washington, d.c. is now apparently losing $400,000 every business day that the government is closed because so much of their fare revenue comes in from federal employees who, frankly, just can't go to work right now. >> it's residual effect that sometimes we don't take into consideration when we talk about the government shutdown. talking of the president's former attorney michael cohen, he helped rig early polling data at least that which was online. how might this confession play into the bigger mueller probe and how significant of it if in fact he was regularing online polls? >> i don't know how significant it is the polling was being rigged specifically, but it does go to sort of this broader

question of what was being attempted to be done. certainly if you're talk about the more significant polling news it's probably true still that the question of the polling data being shared with the russians is more significant or russian associated entities is probably more significant than the rigging of the online polls themselves. >> some making point if this is true as michael cohen has attested to, could be violation of campaign finance laws as well. neal, always a pleasure. thanks for joining us. still ahead donations from big companies could present a problem and one 2020 looks at her past. plus bill karins is back with the very latest on the major winter storm moving across the country. winter storm moving across the country. cleaning floors with a mop and bucket...

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congresswoman tuls irctulsi is jazzing. news reports showed she worked for her fathers anti-gay organization the alliance for traditional marriage back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. here's what she said in her apology message yesterday. >> in my past i said and believed things that were wrong. and worse, they were very hurtful to people in the lgbtq community and to their loved ones. many years ago i apologized for my words and more importantly for the negative impacthad. i sincerely repeat my apology today. i'm deeply sorry for having said them. my views have changed significantly since then.

>> congresswoman went on to thank her friends both gay and straight who helped change her views over the years and hopes her story encourages others to do the same. >> as the 2020 election looms around the corner donations from superp.a.c.s is a point of contention. all 2020 candidates who have declared or launched exploratory committees have sworn off p.a.c.s. but the "wall street journal" found that new jersey senator and potential 2020 contender cory booker has largely fueled his previous senate bids with major donors and outside money rather than from small donations. booker has the lowest percentage of small donor funds of any senator thought to be weighing a presidential bid at just 11% according to the federal election commission records. a long time major fundraiser for booker has registered a super p.a.c. to help him if he runs for president which may be seen as a political liability as the

election cycle starts gearing up. with less than three weeks into his new term, congressman tom moreno is leaving congress. he was re-elected to his fifth term by a landslide said he'll step down on january 23rd to take a job in the private-sector. his retirement will trig ear special election within the next 60 days. the date is to be set by cover tom wolf. let's bring in bill karins for a quick check on your weather forecast. >> a lot of people trying to fix out their plans for the weekend because of the storm if they should cancel or reschedule flights. 1500 miles is how far our advisories go from nebraska up through the northeast. a lot of people are switching under to warning and also from those watches. here's the snowfall map. this is how much snow we're guessing and thinking we'll be on the ground. areas of white is only an inch. blue is up to three inches which is through areas of southern investigation, northern ohio valley.

interstate 70 is the dividing line. have to be north of 70 to get into plowable and shovelable snow. areas in the northeast that's when stuff gets heavy and we could see that foot plus from western new york up into central and northern new england. let's take you through saturday. airports of concern st. louis is going to get, see the temperatures dropping and possibility of delays. indianapolis and also pittsburgh. chicago is going to have some clean up to do there too. hopefully not too many cancelations. delays likely. interstate 70, snow covered roads. severe storms. alabama and mississippi, a lot of strong storms. wind damage most likely the culprit there. late in the day we'll watch this mess hanging in the northeast. only good news is this happens when everybody is asleep saturday night. when you wake up sunday morning a winter wonderland throughout upstate new york. very difficult travel sunday first half of the day from albany to boston. then an icy mess we'll wake up

to from areas north of new york city to boston. what's going to make this worse is today we're starting our cold blast in the northern plains. on the heels, it will be freezing. get out there on sunday to clean up as quickly as you can. by sunday and monday, vermont at 9 degrees. new york city in the teens for a high on mlk day. very chilly. >> time to bundle up. still ahead not dead yet. details on sears surviving bankruptcy after its former ceo steps in. but the u.s. lift tariffs on china and ease the ongoing uncertainty hammering the stock market. uncertainty hammering the stock market take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. you got this. with the one hundred and forty-first pick,

the seattle seahawks select. alright, you got it, shaquem. alright, let me see. with my bladder leakage, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were too loose. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with a range of sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. with a range of sizes for all body types, depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit.

welcome back. market are poised to rally after spiking on reports that u.s. negotiators were debating whether to remove tariffs on chinese imports. the question is, is this a reason for investors to be excited? >> reporter: certainly investors are excited this morning on that "wall street journal report" citing the treasury secretary mnuchkin as looking for ways to actually remove some of the tariffs that were previously imposed on china as a means of advancing trade talks. he said obviously facing a lot of resistance mainly from a trade adviser who has been vocal on the imposition of tariffs and sees removing some tariffs would

be a concession on their part and therefore weakness. overnight some treasury officials denied that report but markets are pricing in some optimism here. chinese equities are up elsewhere in retail news, billionaire edward lampert and his offer trumps that of all other creditors to liquidate the company. the plan needs to be approved from february the 1st. it's unclear whether or not this is going to have a substantial empact impact at the end of the day. sears is still losing money.

at least for the time being sears is moving away from being fully liquidating. >> after years of refusing to give specific audience numbers, netflix is changing its news. what more can you tell us about the staggering numbers? >> if you it bought netflix shares on december the 24th, you'd be up 45%. >> wow. >> after the results came out yesterday, the shares dipped. but they did post very strong numbers when it comes to subscriber editions. in deed netflix's own project n projections coming in higher. they said they think their streaming prescription is 10%, equivalent of 100 million hours

a day on netflix. they pencilled in about $10 billion of content. >> that is a lot of television. >> i think you and me, louis, we account forabo about ten of tho hours a day. >> coming up on "morning joe," new bombshell allegations saying that president trump directing his attorney to lie about building a trump tower in moscow. and how jewuliaian castro plans take on donald trump. n castro p take on donald trump

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what is axos's 1 big thing. >> my colleague got his hand on part of a back by -- the latest book by one of president trump's white house aides, cliff simms, most people haven't heard of him. he became close to the president in the campaign and recounts an extraordinary scene in which he's snuck in to the back of the president's private dining room and study while and the president writes were him an enemy list, all the white house staff, not including his family, asking cliff whether they are loyal or disloyal and the president has one of his cards with the white house stationary and his sharpy pen and his literally drawing a list, good and bad, which who kept in his coat pocket for many weeks after

that. >> that sounds kind of vindictive. do we know if any of those people on the enemies list is still part of his administration? >> you have to remember, this is cliff's perception. my understanding is most people on the list fulp stop are out of the administration, whether they were perceived by cliff to be good or bad. cliff himself is out of the administration, some of his allies are out, some of the rnc allied people are also out of administration. i don't have the full list with me, but i suspect you would find that very few of them remain. >> i know you cover the white house and have great sources in there. what does this tell you about how the president likes to operates, what he expects from his staff?

what does this tell you about how the inner dynamics of how the white house operates? >> well, the president himself is constantly asking people what they think of his on staff. and it can be quite shocking. i mean, at the g-7 -- i think it have the g-7, one of the global conferences, the president was going around asking them what they thought of his own defense secretary jim mattis. can you imagine how bracing it would be to hear the leader of the free world your staunch ally asking you what you think of his own defense secretary, who is conducting, you know, national security on behalf of his administration. he does this with members of congress, what do you think of my staff? and really no one is immune from this polling except his own children. >> let me ask you about the women's march that's coming up.

this time many prominent democrats not taking part in this year's event. what has changed in this movement over the past two years? >> so my colleagues have followed up on this and did this reporting. so two years ago you had the democratic national committee was involved, tom perez spoke there, you had prominent democratic senators, kamala harris, you had nancy pelosi speaking, attending the march and elizabeth warren. almost all of them with the exception of kirsten gillibrand are not attending. they have reported of attendance of louis farrakan as a presence at one of the women's march so that's become a problem for

organizers. >> thank you, jonathan. we're going to be reading axios a.m. in just a minute. that does it for us. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. >> you wrote a president persuading someone to commit perjury -- you also sid a president convincing anyone to change testimony would be obstruction, is that right? >> yes. >> and on page 2 you said a president deliberately impairing the delivery of evidence would be obstruction. is that correct? >> yes. >> that was attorney general nominee william barr on tuesday confirming a memo he wrote about what he considers