that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. and a very good easter morning to you. i'm richard lui in new york at msnbc world headquarters. here's what's happening. behind the lines, top democrats bracing for their first look at the redacted parts of the mueller report as lawmakers grapple with the big question -- where do they go from here? and new reaction, fresh poll numbers show how voters feel about the impeachment question as donald trump's closest aides do damage control. game plan, russia's spinning its own narrative about the contents of mueller's report and the kremlin's attempt to connect with the trump campaign. first off for you, the

attorney general promising that beginning tomorrow, top democrat -- top democratic leaders will have access to view some unredacted sections of the mueller report under secured conditions. also happening tomorrow, democrats are expected to hold a conference call to strategize how to move forward. this comes as the white house and trump allies are trying to control the public narrative. >> these people are actually disappointed that the president of the united states isn't a criminal. that's really what they believe. they hate this president more than they love their country. >> they put all the garbage in one place. there's nothing in that redacted material than anything you ever read. everything in that cohen section, you could wuburn it. >> a true mischaracterization. >> democrats insist the attorney general mischaracterized the findings of the special counsel. >> the president was frustrated

and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency. >> if you don't like the message, you attack the messeng messenger. >> he's not going to put his reputation in any way to do anything dishonest or sneaky. >> as two trump allies question the report as they say he slumped back in his chair and said, this is the end of my presidency, i'm f'd. >> this is the end of my candidacy, this is the end of my presidency. i've never heard him utter those words. we've been through some pretty impossible, tough situations together. >> he's a winner at everything he does. so someone who says he's a debbie down and says my presidency is over is an absolute liar. >> the attention turns to how they will address it. ted lou is looking at a possible hearing.

>> looking at other potential crimes of donald trump and his associates is to educate the american people on what happened. at the same time we'll be focusing on issues that move american families forward, such as health care, infrastructure and getting rid of corruption. >> the mueller report is renewing the debate on whether to imbeach the president. the chairman of the oversight committee says he's not there yet but could foresee impeachment proceedings possibly coming. >> we need to make sure congress has all the information and we need to be able to have the public know that information so that they can see that they have a president that basically has been about the business, i think, doing great harm, not only to our country but to our democracy. >> and here are some other democrats on how they view the impeachment debate. >> i believe that there is room for that conversation, but right now, what i want is i want mueller to come before congress to testify. >> i think we're on our -- on a

path that could lead to impeachment, but we're doing everything i think we need to do. >> the political calculation is not on my table. i want clear, complete evidence. >> i'd rather defeat donald trump. we are already a badly divided nation. the impeachment effort is only going to divide us further. >> to the white house now and msnbc's mike viqueira. a bit of a shift from the white house in terms of tone in the last 24-48 hours. you saw the headlines. the ire of the president against those speaking out against the president. >> reporter: you're right. happy easter. the president is in mar-a-lago, evidently spending his time, if the tweets are to be believed, golfing with rush limbaugh and watching a whole lot of fox news, tweeting his appreciation for some things he's hearing

there. it's the anger and ire not only against democrats but internal critics, a few, within the republican party, most notably mitt romney tweeting harsh assessment against mitt romney saying if he put half as much energy into criticizing president trump as he did against running against obama he would have been president. it is the d to come up with a coherent message, at least unified message when it comes to impeachment. as far as congressional democrats, pressing their advantage, they want to see the unredacted report. we know the house judiciary committee has issued those subpoenas, demanding unredacted report by may 1st. meanwhile, you saw many of the president's allies, including kellyanne conway taking out after democrats. >> the real rebuttal for donald trump will be his re-election.

the democrats and friends in the media wasted so much time thinking this was the way to get him out of office. and really diminish him to the american people. and has had the opposite effect. >> reporter: now, of course, the justice department has said they will allow top democrats and republicans to see most of that unredacted report, at least many of the portions that were redacted, except the grand jury testimony. that's the nut of it. that's what jerry nadler and house democrats want to see. unlikely they'll get that once again. and on this question of impeachment, richard, i think you'll start to see a divide. congressional leadership in the democratic party, nancy pelosi, steny hoyer and others see a long, drawn out investigation. we're only 18 months until the election. hearing after hearing, bringing win witnesses like bob mueller and bill barr to testify before congress, a slow burn, while a lot of presidential candidates on the democratic side have democratic caucus goers to

please. these are the base voters. they want to see impeachment proceedings begin right now. you'll see that divide continue in the democratic party going forward. >> mike viqueira, thank you. joining us, julia manchester, a reporter with the hill, dan lipman, author of the political playbook. let's start with you, julia, kicking it off from what they were describing. democrats expected to have a conference call tomorrow describing their next steps. there are two sides, those asking for impeachment, those saying let's slow go it. it tends to be leadership saying let's slow go this. >> there's no question there's a democratic divide on this caucus issue. going into 2020 that's something leadership is concerned about. i think a lot on the campaign trail, a lot of democratic candidates aren't necessarily being asked about the mueller report and the russia investigation.

the focus appears to be on kitchen table issues like health care and the economy. however, there is a concern among some of the more liberal progressive members in congress that this does need to be further investigated. and i think you're going to see definitely more of a push on their end as well as other democrats onto president trump's finances, which is a bit separate from the mueller report. i think you can definitely expect to see more investigations on the president's finances. however, this issue of impeachment is going to be an issue for democrats going forward. there really appears to be two camps. these two camps appear to be dug in. last month, nancy pelosi really gave a lot of democrats in her caucus cover by saying they weren't going to necessarily look into impeachment. i think a lot of us looking at that thought this was her protecting him, this is her giving him cover so they don't have to face backlash from constituents about not looking into impeachment. however those more progressive

members such as aoc or representative al green from texas seem to be dug in on this issue. definitely a divide to watch. >> as you look at this new -- you have your ear to the ground here, for each and every one of these members going up for re-election in the 18 months as well, this he have to worry about their messaging as they come out for or against impeachment with energy or not. the question is between political expediency and when you talk about the constitution what is expedient as a member of congress. >> yeah. many democrats i talked to say the evidence is definitely there for impeachment. that doesn't mean automatically they should pursue that. you have to think, are there going to be the votes in the senate among republicans to help this effort along. clearly, we do not see the votes. unless robert mueller comes onto congress and says, you know, trump had all these different

criminal offenses, he couldn't charge him because he was president or what have you, then hard for me that democrats would launch a failed impeachment effort, which would only strengthen the president. that's kind of the opposite of what they want. it would make him a martyr. then his voters would be doubly enthused about what they would consider a legitimate coup. >> it would hard to think of doubly enthused when it comes to his base because they're quite enthused already. we are looking at the conference call that will happen. the department of justice tomorrow is promising to give democratic leaders some secured access to unredacted parts of the mueller report. here's why the chairman of the intelligence committee is opposing that invitation. take a listen. >> we don't want the justice department to hide behind the gang of eight or even hide behind the intelligence committee and shield from the other members of congress information they need to determine how to do their jobs

in congress. >> what do you think on this? >> i think democrats, like the chairman said there, they want this to be made as public as possible. they want all of their members to get their hands on this information or at least view it. so, you know, yes it's not surprising there is pushback to this. i think overall the broader issue of this, you know, we're seeing a big battle emerge between the department of justice and house democrats. i think after the mueller report was released, we're seeing democrats really go in that direction of continuing to attack the department of justice. this might be a bit of a strategy on their part. instead of maybe -- they're definitely going after the trump administration, but in a way they're shifting their focus directly from president trump onto william barr. and i think in a way they could be -- he could be their new boogie man, if you will. this is definitely a shift and shows a broader battle really emerging.

we can expect to see more of these between the justice department and house democrats. >> some reporting that came out yesterday, daniel, was that there was a clear -- well, they didn't agree, shall we say, the attorney general, attorney general barr as well as special counsel bob mueller. they didn't agree on what obstruction means. what does that mean now as all of these 448 pages sitting in front of me move forward again to the congress to make a decision here? that disagreement they had? >> that's going to be a huge topic for democrats to ask bill barr about because in his press conference, where he didn't take actually many questions, he said, he and rosenstein disagree with mueller on some of the aspects of obstruction. but he also said that by saying some, that doesn't mean that he disagrees with all of the allegations of obstruction. he doesn't go into detail of exactly which obstruction

elements he disagrees with and why. and so that is something that democrats will say they'll go through the ten different obstruction counts, if you will. you know, go one by one and say, so where do you stand on this, mr. attorney general? >> yeah. we're looking forward to that in that it's in our calendar for the attorney general to go to the hill as well as bob mueller, as promised by some leaders on the left. thank you so much, daniel, julia. we'll see you a little later in schote. we want to get to breaking news from sri lanka where a series of explosions this easter sunday has killed nearly 140. these blasts targeted three churches during services. each in different cities and three hotels in the capital of colombo. sara herman is following the latest from our london bureau. do we know what the significance of this is and who is behind it? >> well, richard, it's early days. this is still a fluid situation.

the explosions began around 8:45 local time as worshippers were attending sunday mass. simultaneous blasts ripped through three different churches around the country and three luxury hotels around colombo. these are the places popular with foreign tourists visiting sri lanka and with the country's business community. then just a very short while ago we began getting more reports of explosions in the capital. it seems at the moment that this awful violence may not be over yet. the sri lankan government has issued an overnight curfew, telling people to remain in their houses. hundreds of people have been admitted to colombo's hospitals. families celebrating easter sunday together will now be planning funerals. the archbishop has canceled all easter services in light of these horrific attacks. this is the worst violence in sri lanka since the end of the

civil war there ten years ago. we don't have a claim of responsibility yet. what we do have is sri lanka's speaker of parliament writing on twitter, these attacks weren't against any ethic group or religion, but the whole sri lankan group. >> sarah harman, thank you. live from london. we'll stay up to date with you as we get more information. thank you. the president's multiple memory lapses in his mueller interview. how could he get away with so much forgetfulness, some ask? plaque psoriasis get clearer. and stay clearer. most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. before starting tremfya® tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine.

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we are watching some pictures there from the pope at the vatican. pope francis is delivering his easter message at st. peter's square. the pontiff condemning the attacks we were just reporting on that happened in sri lanka. he called them such a cool and violent act. as you can see here, this address that he does annually. well loved by travelers and visitors from all over the world. in his speech so far, he's discussed the americas. he's talked about the end, as they say it, end the war of arms. a great picture here of the square. onlookers cheering the pope.

he's just in the midst of his address. we wanted to stop by on this easter sunday. resurrection sunday, as christians around the world celebrate easter. now to now questions about president trump's written responses to bob mueller. after the special counsel revealed in his report that the president claimed he had no recollection about his campaign's contacts with russians, more than 30 times. take a listen here to what the president has said in the past about his memory. >> i went to an ivy league college. i was a nice student. i did very well. i'm a very intelligent person. >> i'm speaking with myself, number one, because i have a very good brain. in my boom in 2000 i talked about osama bin laden and i did remember somebody putting the book in front of joe.

i remember joe looking at the book and saying, i don't believe it. that's amazing. so, i know what i'm doing. >> let's go to our msnbc legal contributor katie phang. katie, you're the prosecutor here. you hear this from a potential person like president trump and it's a common response to say, i don't recall. >> i don't recall, no recollection, 37 times? no, it's not credible. here's the bottom line, richard. we know that donald trump on previous occasions when being deposed, when having a live deposition, oftentimes on video, he says the same thing. i don't recall. i have no recollection. i vaguely recall. i think what mueller did was, and we actually know this for a fact because the mueller report talks about this, there was a strategic decision not to subpoena the mt. what's important about that, though, is mueller determined they would have been able to legally support a grand jury

subpoena. i know you and i spent a lot of time talking about that. it was debated a lot about whether there would have been a legitimate grand jury subpoena issued for trump. mueller says yes. they decided to do a cost benefit analysis. if donald trump had done the voluntary interview, he would have said the exact same thing. i don't recall. i don't recall. i have no recollection. i think once they saw these written answers they figured, you know what, this is what he's going to commit himself to. if you have the corroborating independent evidence, that's a different situation. but they took these written answers and decided not to pursue the subpoena but i think they should have. >> we might be hearing more i don't recall when bob mueller and bill barr make it to capitol hill. what do you expect might come down in light of what's been redacted in the 440-page report? >> what we've seen from bob mueller throughout the course of

his investigation as well as the 448-page report, he is committed to detail. i will not expect to hear, i do not recall, from someone like robert mueller. i expect him to be consistent with the information he provided. i also expect, though, assuming we could get that far because, remember, we've had these subpoenas for the unredacted report and the subpoenas for not only bill barr but robert mueller to come testify in congress, i don't except robert mueller to go against the redactions. i don't take him to take a position adverse to what the department of justice has averted, which the redacted portions of the report must remain redacted until court order or some type of waiver. >> one of the takeaways looking at the mueller report by the numbers here, katie, was a number of investigations, right, or cases. whatever you might characterize them as. 14, which for lay people like

myself, we have to wonder, what are those 14? you as a legal expert, what do you think are these other investigations/cases ongoing? >> we know the portions of the report that were redacted that dealt with current ongoing investigations was done so to protect those current, ongoing investigations. one of which that is noteworthy which is the subpoena sent by the grand jury for documents to an unnamed corporation that we know is located in a foreign country. it's been the subject much a lot of speculation and it hasn't been revealed what country, what corporation. we know every day they're racking up thousands of dollars in fines because they refuse to comply with a mueller subpoena issued by his grand jury. we know there were some investigations dealing with the trump inaugural committee, the expenditures of that money, the fact the money is gone, it was triple what was done before and that money is gone. things like that are probably what would satisfy somebody's speculation about what those investigations were. >> who can sleep better now

after reading the report saying, phew, all right, i'm okay, or i was able to get out okay. >> dodge that bullet. >> yeah. >> the most obvious person who would have and should have been indicted, in my opinion, is donald trump jr. i would caution everyone in trump world to be careful. why? because like we just mentioned, several jurisdictions are conducting their own investigations right now into the trump organization, trump foundation, anything to do with the trump inaugural committee. there's a lot of continuing investigations. that doesn't mean people like donald trump jr., jared kushner, his security clearances, things like that yet, they're not out of the crosshairs. >> katie phang, good morning to you. hope you have a good easter in miami. why tomorrow could be a pivotal day in congress on

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get ready for yet another exciting week on capitol hill. how democrats have a call set for tomorrow to discuss a coordinated response to the mueller report.

delayed due to religious holidays. speaking -- speaker, rather, nancy pelosi vowed congress will not be silent as it's split over democrats widens. joining us, rashad ritchie and a adrianna. we got more polling from reuters, fresh numbers i want to share with both of you. in this reuters/ipsis poll it finds those who wants president impeached, nearly steady at 40 percentage points. no, a difference of seven percentage points. what do you think about this, rashad, and what it says about the public's appetite on this very topic? let's put it in the context of the 2020 election because this is not ranking high on the

issues voters are watching. >> it is not ranking high as far as voter issues but it's still important. remember this, richard, when it comes to impeachment, impeachment is an unpopular political process but it's ail political process. right now you don't have -- i think people use the term that impeachment is the end all to the presidency of trump. after impeachment you need two-thirds vote of the u.s. senate. they have nowhere near that. so, while they should continue to investigate and legislate, as the democratic congress, they've got to be very careful not to overplay their hand and go down this rabbit hole of impeachment without having the prerequisite public sentiment to make it successful. >> egg shells, if you will, right? they have to be careful, the numbers are changing, the don't

knows could mean voters are reconsidering, right, their view on what has happened so far. and congressional members have to raise money and go for a vote, too. this is not just about the presidential election in 18 months. >> that's right. rashad is absolutely right. impeachment is highly, you know, an issue voters simply don't like. if we look what happened with bill clinton, republicans took a shellacking in the election that followed. there was backlash for that impeachment and republicans suffered as a result. so, i'm sure democrats are weighing the -- you know, the backlash that will follow if they should move forward with impeachment. let's not forget. the special counsel investigation found, you know, no collusion with russia and no obstruction of justice. the president of the united states and his campaign were not charged with crimes. with the president, you have to

find high crimes. there were no crimes found. the department of justice doesn't, you know, indict innuendo, they indict crime and they found none. i think impeachment is dead on arrival and there will be political backlash come 2020. >> most who have reviewed the report would say obstruction was not found. this particular special counsel said it's not for me and my group to make a decision on that. that's for somebody else to do. that will be the debate. will it be the attorney general, who already said there is no obstruction of justice, or congress? this special counsel in the report at least not saying that he has or has not found obstruction necessarily. of course, we don't know what's in the redacted pieces so far. i want to move on to another point that came up in the poll. that is it found people believe

president trump here or someone close to him broke the law. that is up in terms of more likely category here, that is up 19 percentage points in this latest poll. that feeds the other argument here, rashad, that folks who are paying attention to this, this report has potentially given them more reason to be worried. >> in that poll more republicans believe president trump or one of his significants broke the law. there's an actual u.s. code for obstruction of justice. you don't have to be a legal scholar to understand it. it says clearly if you do anything to influence or impede the administration of justice, i.e., an investigation, you are guilty of obstructing justice. it's clear in the mueller report that the president of united

states, according to mueller's own words, utilized his influence, his connections, one-on-one meetings and also unofficial channels in order to impede or stop the investigation that was going on. so, it doesn't take a legal scholar to get that. that is clear. and that's what you're seeing reflected in the polling data. >> one of the challenges here, now that we've had three days with this report so far, anow both sides, republicans and democrats have an exteistential question in who they are and what they'll do going forward. from the hill, senate republicans rested on mueller's report. what do they do now? >> i can tell you the voters care about the kitchen table issues, health care and the environment and education and the economy and jobs. and this the is going to be -- if democrats decide to proceed with impeachment proceedings, that's going to be a huge distraction. it's going to gobble up all the

oxygen in the room. and the 20-plus democrat candidates are not going to get the attention they deserve. it's going to hurt them with building name recognition and fund-raising. they won't be able to flesh out their issues versus the other competing candidates. it's going to drown out elizabeth warren and every other candidate. it's a grave political mistake because all we'll be talking about is impeachment for the next year instead of these various candidates. >> you just laid out the questions i was going to have of rashad, but for you on the republican side, what is the question and what will they do on the right? i'm reading that headline from the hill saying senate republicans are tested. really all republicans in the house and senate are tested right now. >> i think the republicans, aside from mitt romney, will rally around the president. he's been cleared. he's been fully vindicated,

exonerated. mueller and his team of prosecutors did not like president trump. they turned over every single stone. it was an exhaustive, 22-month investigation. if they could have found any crime to charge the president with or his family or campaign associates, they would have found it and brought charges. the fact they didn't is because they don't have the evidence. democrats are going to have an extremely difficult time trying to persuade the american people that crimes were committed when, a, the special counsel found no evidence that crimes were committed. the threshold for impeachment is high crimes, not low crimes, misdemeanors. i don't think it will fly with america. nancy pelosi said she didn't want to move forward with impeachment. i think her instincts are right. voters should decide in a year and a half. >> the president has not been

fully exonerated, i don't know where that came from. as a matter of fact, mueller in the report specifically said, i cannot exonerate the president of the united states. it is clear that obstruction of justice took place. i don't get the whole notion of stopping the congressional oversight because the constitution, article 1, section 1, says congress has the right to oversight and the right to investigate. the same constitution that gives us our second amendment, our first amendment and everything else is the constitution that gives congress the right to do what they're doing. if you're going to respect the constitution, respect all of it. >> we'll see what bob mueller says about exoneration or nonexoneration when he hits the hill as well in terms of what's in that report. the debate on the left and right in front of us today. thank you so much. you both have a good sunday. >> thank you. >> you, too. >> happy resurrection day. >> absolutely. why is hope hicks being called the breakout star of the mueller report? we'll tell you. of the mueller report we'll tell you we want to remind you, msnbc

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incriminating information about hillary clinton. don junior famously replied, quote, if it's what you say, i love it. here's what goldstone regrets. >> i regret two things. one is sending the e-mail in the first place, and the second is, naming hillary clinton because it's important to understand, the information i had been told that was there was about funding to the democrats and its candidate. i inserted hillary's name because she was the kaepd. if that candidate had been you or joe biden or bernie sanders, that name would have been in there. >> back with us, julia manchester and daniel lippman from politico. the special counsel did not find conspiracy to collude. they found multiple instances in which the trump campaign expected to benefit. how do we assess now this moving

forward? the importance of the trump tower meeting, based on what we learned in the report. >> well, it's interesting, richard. you're hearing from the president's team on this that there was no collusion, no coordination, he's exonerated. however, he's not out of the woods yet, in my view. there are several other investigations going forward. and i think this is something that's going to look at the investigations. weren't necessarily indictable or criminal because he didn't -- he wasn't sure about his mental state in terms of whether he knew this was an illegal action. you know, you've seen some mockery on twitter, if you will, about donald trump jr. and whether he was smart enough to know what he was doing or whatever, but i think going forward, you're going to see these other investigations really focus on this needing and what donald trump jr. knew about it. so, he's not out of the woods

yet because you're going to see these smaller investigation really look into his involvement in this meeting. >> daniel, you may have been listening to our last segment. and we got some of that talking point of fully exonerated. this, despite the language in the report, does not say that around obstruction of justice. there's no statement of fully exonerated. with the report now out, would we expect republicans, those on the side of donald trump, i should say, to continue that headline, despite what is in black in white in front of us? >> republicans do not really want to talk about this. what's lucky for them is they were all on congressional recess this week and next week, and so it makes it much easier for them to escape from nosey reporters on capitol hill asking them tough questions. the only republican who, you know, one of the few republicans was mitt romney who issued a strong statement.

but the others either did not issue any statement or kind of are letting this escape. mueller in his report says if he could say that there was no obstruction, he would say so. and if trump -- if he thinks he was fully exonerated, why is he so mad at everyone in the last couple of days? it doesn't seem -- it seems like he's still a little worried about all this. >> julia, one of the other revelations, not only around this discussion of exoneration is that former white house communications director hope hicks warned the president, jared kushner and ivanka as well, is the meetings about the trump tower meeting, quote, really bad, is the way it was described, and it was better to release them to the president. but the president directed hicks and others not to reveal the emails. slate magazine describes hope hicks as the breakout star of the mueller report. how would you characterize that as she might be the breakout

star here? >> right. i think she was -- hope hicks and the media has really been described as a bit of a voice of reason within the trump administration. one of the few people that trump really listens to and really -- or listened to when she was in the white house and really takes her advice to heart. however, this certain episode, this particular episode that was sdrind in the report really shows that at the end of the day, president trump is his own communications director. he had his own way of how he wanted to deal with these emails set out in his mind and not even hope hicks could convince limb. hope hicks would say this is her characterization of events. something else could have happened. yes, this does show -- go along with the narrative that she was that smart voice of reason within the trump administration. >> thank you so much. i appreciate your time. julia manchester and daniel lippman go out and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend and this easter. >> happy easter.

>> you, too. up next, why the russians are gloating over the mueller report. how it could be a treasure trove of information that could benefit russia greatly of informationthat could benefit russia greatly [farmers bell] (driver) relax, it's just a bug. that's not a bug, that's not a bug! (burke) hit and drone. seen it, covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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report how deep the sections between the trump administration and the russians go. "the new york times" reviews multiple ties between campaign officials and the russian government. donald trump and 18 of his associates had 140 contacts with russian nationals and wikileaks or their intermediaries in the 2016 campaign and presidential transition. meanwhile, my colleague, nbc's chief global correspondent, bill neely, got the response from the kremlin. >> reporter: in the last 48 hours there's only what can be described as gloating here over the mueller report. over recently what is seen as the u.s. political class tearing itself apart. >> joining us now, we're lucky to have chris dickey, nbc and msnbc, contributor, in the house at 30 rock.

it's good to see you on this easter sunday, chris. >> it's nice to be here. >> reflect on what bill neely is saying and the way russians are reacting to the mueller report. >> what the russians have been saying again and again, and they've been saying since the night the elections came in was putin has won. the reaction that goes out to the russian people is this is good for you. putin has won. they saw the mueller investigation, and trump would say this himself, as an optical of improving relations with the united states. he says there's no russian interference, which is a complete lie. and they also say this opens a new chapter in russian-u.s. relations. it may make it easier for trump to be much more friendly, maybe even start lifting sanctions. i'm not sure that's true. but that's the way the russian media are playing this. >> if you are those who are not the good folks, the bad guys, in

russia, and that have looked at how to influence the election of the united states in 2016, does this report then say you -- you did a good job. let's do the same in 2020, if not more? >> they are saying this. there's talk show hosts in russia, at least one of them, one of the most famous and most watched, who said, we're about to do the same thing to help trump get elected again. is he joking? he's half-joking. it's what mobsters used to call kidding on the level. he wants to be heard but to say it's a joke if someone calls him out on it. >> how closely are you watching what's happening with julian assange and wikileaks? >> it's going to be fascinating. he was a key player because he became the vehicle for releasing so many of those hacked e-mails. but there's a lot of reasons why the american intelligence and law enforcement establishment

would like to nail him on a number of charges. if they nail him on the charges they can bring against him, what is that going to show about the question of collusion? we'll come back to that again. some people have said this is like three separate groups. wikileaks, the russians, the trump campaign, that were working together but not conspiring together. seems to me, that's a difference without a distinction or a distinction without a difference. >> 0 seco30 seconds. let's talk about the e-mail, i love it e-mail, from donald jr., to get dirt on hillary clinton. that's part of the discussion here. >> the question is, when a foreign government is coming to you, a hostile foreign government that's under angsts by the united states, offering dirt, tell somebody. tell the fbi. tell somebody in law enforcement. that was not what the trump campaign was doing. >> christopher dickey, in the

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that does it for me this hour of msnbc live. i want you to have a great easter. it's time for weekends with alex

witt here she is. good to see you, richard. good morning to all of you, from the msnbc headquarters in new york. 7:00 a.m. in the east, 4:00 a.m. in the west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." action on the hill. democrats plotting their next move as they may get a look at the mueller report. denial. it's one of the most quoted moments in the mueller documents. one of the president's advisers says it never happened. so, what's the truth? >> i'm not there yet. but i can foresee that possibly coming. >> what does one of the leading democrats see coming, as congress prepares to get back to work next week? patriotic millionaires. one group wants the government to tax them more. why isn't that happening? and where would that money go? we begin this hour with breaking news from the south asian country of sri lanka,

where a series of explosions this easteda