us tonight. and we begin all that right after morning joe. we will cover everything as it happens throughout the day and of course we'll see you right back here at this same time tomorrow evening. for now that is our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc headquarters here in new york. ♪ bob mueller breaks his silence. the special counsel vents his frustrations over attorney general bill barr's characterization of his russia report saying it caused confusion. plus, the political standoff in venezuela intensifies as opposition leader calls for protesters to take to the street to end nicolas maduro's rule. and a gunman opens fire at a north carolina campus leaving two people dead and several hurt in the latest incident of mass gun violence here and at home.

good morning, everybody. it is wednesday, may 1st. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we have a lot going on this morning. we're starting with the latest developments as special council bob mueller's long silence appears to be breaking. democratic lawmakers are calling for mueller to testify after "the washington post" broke the news on communications between him and attorney general william barr. in which mueller complains that barr's four-page memo drafted in the span of about 48 hours was twisting the public's perception of his findings. now, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by "the washington post," mueller said this, the summary letter the department sent to congress and released to the public late in the afternoon march 24th did not fully capture the context, the nature and substance of this office's work and conclusions. there is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.

this threatens to undermine the central purpose for committee department appointed the special counsel, to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations. justice department officials told "the post" that the letter made a key request that barr release the 448-page report, introduction and executive summaries, and made some initial suggested redactions doing so, for making this release. mueller's letter was sent on march 27th, the same week as barr's summary, and a day after the letter was sent, barr and mueller actually spoke by phone for about 15 minutes in which mueller expressed his concern. yet in testimony to the house and senate, the attorney general said he was actually unaware of mueller's objections. >> reports have emerged recently, general that members of the special counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your march 24th letter.

that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report's findfindings. do you know what they're referencing with that? >> no i don't. i think -- i think -- i suspect that they probably wanted, you know, more put out. >> would bob mueller support your conclusion? >> i don't know whether bob mueller supported my conclusion. >> so, last night, a justice department spokesperson confirmed the talk between mueller and barr stating after the attorney general received special counsel mueller's letter he called him to discuss it in a cordial and professional conversation. the special counsel emphasized that nothing in the attorney general's march 24th letter was inaccurate or misleading. but he does express frustration over the lack of content regarding the special counsel's analysis.

they then expressed whether the report could be quickly released however, the attorney general ultimately determined that it would not be productive to release the report in piecemeal passion. the attorney general and special counsel agreed to get the full report out with necessary redactions as expeditiously as possible. the next day, the attorney general sent the letter to congress reiterating the letter was not intended to be a summary of the report but instead stated the special counsel's conclusions to testify before the senate judiciary committee this morning. when asked about it before congress, barr declined to acknowledge the comments before sending that follow-up letter. >> the letter of the 24th, mr. mueller's team did not play a role in drafting that document, although we offered him the opportunity to review it before we sent it out and he declined that. the letter on the 29th, i don't believe that was reviewed by mr. mueller or that they participated in drafting that letter.

>> and president trump's attorney, of course, rudy giuliani, reacted to the reports last night calling them, quote, very odd. for more than on this i want to bring in nbc national political reporter heidi przybyla. >> in an interview with nbc news, giuliani said if mueller didn't want confusion he should have made a decision. he was made special counsel to make decisions. and the fact that he didn't says to me president trump was innocent. however, mueller wrote in his report that while current rules say a sitting president may not be prosecuted by the justice department, congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president's corrupt exercise of the powers of the office. so, yasmin, you see there, it is very likely that mueller intended for congress to weigh in on the issue of obstruction, yasmin. >> there are so many things we need to get into this.

i want to bring in danny cevallos. heidi, you're standing by as well. danny, this is huge news that broke last night, finally hearing from mueller on all of this saying they actually had a conversation. he actually issued the attorney general a letter saying he needed to release more because he didn't feel like the public really had the true picture of what took place in those 480-plus pages. talk to me about what happens from here, especially when you consider that april 9th testimony from the attorney general, in which he was pointedly asked if he had a conversation with bob mueller and whether or not bob mueller agreed with his findings and the memo and so on and so forth. and he said he did not. he denied. my big question here is, was he lying in his testimony here and is his testimony going to be held accountable to that?

>> we're going to be parsing barr's words to congress in the next several days to whatever he complained of in the letter. you see mueller testified i don't know if he disagreed or agree with my conclusions. and that may be technically true perhaps because barr reached conclusions like on obstruction and ultimately mueller reached no such conclusion. so it's interesting, the defenders of barr are going to say that mueller never reached a conclusion on the issue of obstruction, so how could he disagree with barr's conclusion of no obstruction? so, it's an interesting legal inquiry as to whether or not barr's testimony to congress was false, misleading and whether it was intentionally so. but in all likelihood, barr knew that the full report would come out and knew what he said would ultimately be scrutinized. this is something that barr knew when he released his top-line

conclusions that everybody would be comparing that against the ultimate mueller report which he chose do release. >> heidi, there were some questions as to whether or not bill barr was going to appear thursday to testify he didn't necessarily want to be questioned by congressional staffers. that's still in question here. there are also questions as to impeachment talks and that is growing surrounding the attorney general. i wonder what this news is now since it broke last night when it comes to attorney general? >> two things, first of all, you're hearing increased clamor for mueller to come up to the hill. and for him to come up to the hill quickly i was told by leadership aide last night, yasmin. they would like to mueller this week and barr as early as next week. secondly, expect much tougher questions. chuck schumer, for instance, wants him to come with letter in

hand so they can compare it to his previous testimony and have the full extent of what was said in the letter but you're also hearing, yes, calls from barr to resign from senators like senator chris van hollen, who you showed in the clip there, questioning the attorney general about what he knew and about what mueller's intentions were. and in his words this was a flat-out misrepresentation of what the attorney general's intent was. secondly, you have a lot of retro inspection as well. about how this was presented in the first place with the attorney general taking unusual steps, for instance, to tee this all up, saying there was no conclusion, even though when we saw in the actual report, collusion wasn't the standard that mueller used in his report. he was using whether there was coordination and conspiracy. >> and we also know that jerry nadler is obviously demanding to

see that letter before the testimony thursday morning. danny, talk to me about the executive summaries. mueller wanted barr to release the executive summaries to the public so we could understand what was in the full mueller report until he was able to release the full mueller report in its redacted version. what do make of this? the fact that mueller wanted him to release his executive summaries? this is a question we were all talking about on air. once we got the mueller report we saw the executive summaries in there. we had question as to the fact it teams as if the mueller report had teed this up for the attorney general to release the executive summary so he didn't have to come with the four-page memo. >> it did appear that way but he has to go back to the regulations. regulations require that mueller submit the report to barr, the attorney general and it to remain that way. look for barr to repeat that many times saying i didn't have to release anything. i close to release this 400-plus

page report knowing that everybody would scrutinize my words. >> could his defense here be that i didn't get enough direction from the mueller team on this? >> it might be. but perhaps it could also be that barr's duty was to prepare top-line conclusions. it is inevitable that in preparing top-line conclusions about a 400-plus page report in just a few pages that you're going to miss some important items, especially to the man and the team who spent two years investigating and writing this report. look for that to be barr's defense in the coming days. >> all right. we're going to look at it a lot when we hear barr testify. danny cevallos and heidi przybyla, thank you both. i want to turn to the chaos in venezuela. opposition leader juan guiieuai and the united states and other

countries agree as the leader it's part of what he is calling part of final phrase of freedom to remove embattled nicolas maduro from power. roughly an hour later, maduro's government said it was confronting a small group of military officers looking to promote a coup. the u.s. ambassador to the u.s. responded it was not, quote, not a military coup but a process. thousands of protesters took to the streets while it remained peaceful, things did get violent. clashes between security forces using tear gas and rubber bullets. in addition, what we should warn you may be pretty disturbing here. footage what appears to be military vehicles ramming, wow, wow, into a group of demonstrators and running them all. in all, at least 57 people are reportedly injured. president trump, vice president pence and secretary of state

mike pompeo also tweeted their support of guaido. and backers of the maduro regime, yesterday, secretary of state mike pompeo calling out the kremlin saying the u.s. has, quote, good information that maduro's airplane was preparing to leave the country but that, quote, the russians told him to stay and not to depart for havana. pompeo and john bolton also called out maduro saying they are protecting and propping up maduro with, quote, possibly the help from the russians. and president trump weighed in on twitter. if cuban troops and militia do not immediately cease the destruction of venezuela a full and complete embargo together with the highest level of sanctions will be placed on the island of cuba. hopefully, all cuban soldiers will properly return to their

island. >> still ahead, the gunman accused of carrying out the attack at a california synagogue makes his first court appearance as he officially enters his plea in that deadly mass shooting. plus, congress looks to take new action against an ally of president trump. the charges that lawmakers want to see the justice department file against erik prince. pnc bank has technology to help make banking easier,

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killing one and wounding three others at a california synagogue on saturday has pled not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder. and what prosecutors are treating as a hate crime. 19-year-old john earnest appeared for his arraignment yesterday afternoon in san diego county superior court where he also pled not guilty to a single count of arson. authorities believe he's the author of an anti-semitic poster posted online that caused responsibility for a fire at a nearby mosque back in march. the judge has ordered he remain held without bail. and the house intelligence committee has made a criminal referral to the justice department for erik prince. accusing the ally the president trump of, quote, knowingly and willfully lying to congress, citing discrepancies from a letter sent to attorney general william barr, adam schiff outlines six instances in which he says prince misled the panel

about a january 27 meeting in the seychelles tied to the kremlin. the understanding of russia's attempts to control and influence. maintaining, quote, there is nothing new here for department of justice to consider. all right. let's get a check of weather with meteorologist bill karins. >> dangerous weather outside of oklahoma, omaha, missouri, texas. last night, we had 25 reported tornados. we had one injury. this amazing footage came from somebody chasing the tornado that sent a drone up to follow the tornado over the landscape of oklahoma. sometimes, you get views of this from a helicopter. usually not this close. watch it go over a pond. it begins to suck the water up. you can see it get bigger there as the water goes up into it. just an amazing view and

technology is incredible. let's get into what we're dealing with now. the tornado outbreak portion is over with. now, we have a ton of water. this storm system has produced 2 to 4 inches of rain in many areas. now we have new storms behind it and we're concerned with flash flooding. many people don't realize that flash flooding kills more people than anything else. near mcallister, oklahoma, we have flash flood warnings. this area of dallas is in moderate risk of flash flooding today. as far as severe weather, yasmin, areas from abilene in texas, we could have more. we talk about may but how cold and chilly it is. >> is it early for tornado season? >> may is the tornado month. it's the peak month of the season. >> wow. >> yes was april, but april, may, june, tornado months. >> thank you, bill. still ahead, president trump and democratic lawmakers appear to be on the same page when it

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this and even this.hark, i deep clean messes like this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair, while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself. welcome back. president trump and congressional democrats have agreed to work together on a $2 trillion infrastructure package.

the agreement comes despite lingering tensions on capitol hill and follows what senator minority leader chuck schumer called a positive meeting at the white house. >> it was a very constructive meeting. it's clear that both the white house and all of us want to get something done on infrastructure in a big and bold way. and there was goodwill in this meeting sa ining and that was d than some the other meetings. >> and house speaker nancy pelosi and schumer said it will focus on bridge roads, bridges, waterways and broadband access. the two sides will meet to discuss how to pay for the deal. notably, no republicans were invited to yesterday's meeting. congressional republicans said they're unlikely to support the bill because it would increase the deficit. and stacey abrams has ruled out a potential 2020 senate run, watch this. >> i'm announcing today that i

will not be a candidate for the united states senate. i'm so grateful for all of the support and encouragement i've received from fellow georgians and leaders of congress and beyond. however, the fight to be waged require a deep commitment to the job. i do not see the u.s. senate as the best role for me in the battle for the future. >> abrams was considered a top opponent in 2020. however, abrams has not closed theed by on a vice presidential nominee next year. a spokesman called it an embarrassing fail for senate minority leader chuck schumer after narrowly losing by 54,000 votes. the organization fair fight to action is suing the state board of elections and seblgcretary o state over claims voter suppression. still ahead on the morning,

bill barr breaks his silence. and what lawmakers want to hear from the attorney general as he prepared to head to the hill. plus, outgoing a.g., rod rosenstein faces backlash over the letter. details over the criticisms he's facing. facing you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not, because you have e*trade whose tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad,

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opposition leader waujuan guaid called for an uprising over nicolas maduro. taking to the streets to clash off with military forces whose own loyalties appear splintered. nbc's kerry sanders has more on this. >> reporter: protesters against venezuela's president nicolas maduro taking to the streets, calling for freedom. the country's military loyal to maduro responding with fulls for, including tear gas, bullets and this national guard truck crossing a median driving inviting into protesters, mowing down more than a dozen. flanked by what appeared to be uniformed members of the country's military, opposition leader juan guaido calling on his supporters to take to the streets. saying today the armed forces are clearly on our side. they are loyal to the constitution. loyal to the vs.e venezuela peo.

but it's unclear that guaido who is seen as the leader including the united states. these officers publicly backing maduro. and at maduro's government headquarters, crowds gathered in support of the current socialist government. but as we found recently, many in venezuela are barely surviving, eating food out of dumpsters. the nation's water supply erratic. simple medicines nowhere to be found. and at this hospital, we discovered children in kidney failure. some dying, due to a lack of medical supplies. another critical moment for venezuela. >> wow. thank you, kerry sanders up for that report. and attorney general bill barr is scheduled to testify before the republican-controlled senate judiciary committee this morning, just as new reports reveal special counsel bob

mueller wrote barr a letter expressing dismay at the rollout of his report, concerned the lax of context has warped the public's perception. democratic senate minority leader chuck schumer demanded that barr must bring the letter with him when he testifies in the senate. and it is time for mueller to testify publicly now. and house judiciary chair jerry nadler said in a statement that barr, quote, should not withheld this letter from congress for as long as he has. i have demanded a copy from the department of justice, i have asked that it be delivered no later than 10:00 wednesday morning. there's also new scrutiny. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein defended bill barr's four-page letter that attempted the bruising obstruction and even felt that mueller's team felt the report was more damaging than depicted

rosenstein stood by barr. telling "the wall street journal" on april 11th this, he's being as forthcoming as he can, so this notion that he's trying to mislead people i think is just completely bizarre. democratic presidential hopefuls are weighing in from overnight. for more on that i want to bring in heidi przybyla. >> thanks. former hud secretary julian castro called on barr saying he should resign his position or face an impeachment inquiry immediately. and senator amy klobuchar who sits on the judiciary committee in the senate tweeted barr will have to answer for this at our hearing, updating my questions. klobuchar died 11 other senators in signing mazie hirono's letter calling for barr's conduction. others include kamala harris,

cory booker and kirsten gillibrand. and saying the house should take action if he does nottest before tomorrow. yasmin, expect that subpoena canon to be loaded. because a barr no show is not an option. these members are making that very clear. >> i want to bring back nbc legal analyst danny cevallos. heidi, obviously, we know that the attorney general is expected to testify today, possibly tomorrow. hopefully throughout the day, we'll get confirmation on his testimony in front of congress tomorrow. how is all of this news going to affect this testimony, and arm really the senators and congress people tomorrow? >> we're watching barr becoming in realtime part of the obstruction case here. so, expect the questions to become much sharper. like you saw senator amy klobuchar say she's updating her

questions. i'm hearing already from sources that those questions include why did not barr recuse himself from the very beginning, given that he had written a letter saying that he thought this entire investigation was fatally misflawed, kind of tipping his hand from the very beginning. secondly, what statute gave him the authority to step in and make that call on obstruction. when you read the report from mueller stating very clearly that he believes that was congress' prerogative to make the call on high crimes and misdemeanors and whether this constituted obstruction. and thirdly, it appears according to the post's reporting that there was also controversy over the redactions and whether mueller even believes to this day that all of the information that was given in his final version is what he thought should be given to congress and the public. >> so, danny, given some of these questions why didn't he recuse himself, what statute exists that justifies barr's

behavior and also misleading congress in his testimony after that four-page memo was released when asked about his conversations with mueller and how involved mueller was in the release of this four-page memo. what type of legal battles could the attorney general be up against concerning the sidewalk of impeachment swelling around skwlim. >> impeachment bar, congress would have to reach a very high standard. the standard is high crimes and misdemeanors. many believe there has to be some criminal activity but that's not the case. no actual crime is required. however, if what barr did fit within his official duties, then that will surely be his defense, if he's asked about it today in congress. then there really isn't going to be an impeachable offense. doesn't are to be a crime, but congress would have to prove that he abused his official powers in releasing the version that he did, the top-line

conclusions that he released or possibly in suppressing the letter from mueller. but that is a very high standard. >> okay. heidi, so, obviously, danny is saying, an impeachable offense -- trying to impeach barr, you have to meet a very high standard for that type of action to take place. so that is obviously the extreme here. but let's just talk about the basics which is the credibility of the attorney general and considering that he's in the office of the department of the justice. and it's not just this he's going to be deal with, but so many cases in his lime there, how is this going to affect the credibility, whatever happens here, so long as he's at this job, the credibility of william barr? >> it's going to affect it gravely, given that you've already got members calling for his impeachment. and if he does not show, yasmin, i believe that is going to start pounding even stronger. you're going to see potentially more leaks. let's just talk about how unprecedented this is for mueller to put pen to paper,

first of all torsion a air his s and, secondly, for that to then leak to the media. so that is indicating a very significant well of concern within the justice department itself. and expect that to continue to come forth, to the public through the media, if barr does not come up to the hill. and sit before -- and let's just make clear. these are not just staffers. these are trained attorneys who are going to know how to zero down in and drill down in the important questions of how barr may have misused his office here in order to misrepresent this report. >> well, and the timing of the release of these leaks ahead of the testimony of bill barr on capitol hill. so, obviously, there was some intention behind n ny cevallos, much. and the refusal to comply with congress 'subpoenas, the

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we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go-to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. my position is that there is no tool that is in our toolbox that we should not explore. okay? whatever it is. >> including jail? >> again, let me say it again -- did you hear what i said? i said there is no tool in our toolbox that we should not explore. >> welcome back, everybody, "morning joe" first look that was the chairman of the house oversight committee elijah cummings saying his committee is prepared to use all options.

joining me from nbc capitol hill reporter leann caldwell. leann, thank you so much for joining us on this. what are the tools that the house oversight committee has to make trump officials comply with these subpoenas? >> yasmin, they have a few tools. first, they can always go to the court system. but members of congress recognize this is a process that takes months, even years to settle. the other tool they have, they could ask the justice department to file criminal charges against people who aren't complying to the subpoenas. that's very unlikely since this is a republican justice department. and 31 there are other tools that have not been used in nearly 100 years. they can arrest or fine people who are not complying with these subpoenas. of course, this is really an escalation of tactics, but it's really incredible that democrats are even talking about this. this is something that the modern congress has not used. it was something that was used, you know, in the 1800s, early

1900s. and so, this is just really an incredible development that house democrats are actually considering. >> could we possibly see more legal challenges from the trump administration on all of this, basically to tie everything up so, so literally congress has access to nothing that they're demanding? >> absolutely. that seems to be the playbook of the trump administration. that's really what's frustrating a lot of these house democrats. and there's going to be legal challenges, of course. the house democrats are going to impose back on the trump administration, and that's why they're talking about some of more immediate tactics as far as jailing people or fining people. and congress says they have the authority to do this. >> yeah. >> but really, like i said, it's going to be a huge escalation if they do embark on this. >> any idea what the likelihood is that it would even escalate to that point where there would be jail and fines for people ignoring subpoenas? >> it's unclear at this point.

they're talking about it. and the fact that cummings is talking about this. the chair of the committee is really incredible. we have some steps to go before we get there, including the subpoenas. but something that we could watch out, as early as today, and then tomorrow, there's a deposition happening with an administration official regarding security -- background security checks and security clearances. and then attorney general barr is supposed to appear before the house judiciary committee. and they're in a legal battle over those things we could see developments soon. >> leigh ann caldwell, thank you. good to see you. let's get a check on weather with meteorologist bill karins. >> i teased you. >> yeah. >> let me get through the maps first. >> okay. >> then we'll get to your outlook. here's what we dealt with yesterday. tornado outbreak. we had about 25 reported tornadoes all of these little red dots show you where they

were. one in oklahoma, missouri, kansas, and where oklahoma all meet. there were actually more tornado reports than wind damage reports which is kind of unusual. 31 million people are still at risk. just a ton of water that's come down in areas of the central plains and areas of the midwest. and flash flooding is a big issue today and even tomorrow. for today's severe weather risk, sla dallas-ft. worth area, airport delays a big possibility out of that. mostly texas and the southern half of arkansas and also the southern portions of oklahoma. and there's not many people right now experiencing what we call normal-type spring weather. we're very chilly in the northern plains. very chilly in the northeast. new york city is only 55 today. 12 degrees below normal. you don't have to drive far to the south, raleigh is almost 90 degrees. and this trend is going to continue throughout the week. look at boston. 48 on thursday. and d.c. could be in the mid to

upper 80s. here's the part that yasmin will like, eventually it looks like your may temperature outlook shows warmer than average temperatures in most of the eastern seaboard and cooler in the central plains. >> i'm clapping for that forecast. >> if you want warmth in the next couple of days, d.c. is go south. >> why not. >> take the train with the kiddos. i'll probably just stay home, let's be honest. i'll just stay home and watch movies on my couch. still ahead, at the end of an era, one silicon valley giant. details at google's parent company. and the other stories driving your business day, coming up. pnc bank has technology to help make banking easier,

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welcome back. after 18 years of sitting on alphabet's board of directors, former google ceo eric schmidt is stepping down, as the company grapples internally over government contracts and reported payouts for executives accused of sexual misconduct. we go live to london on this. how can we define his tenure here? >> reporter: that's right, yasmin. end of an era. he's been there 18 years, as you mentioned. he was ceo a decade, then executive chairman another seven years. he stepped down last january, january 2018, from his chairman role and took a seat at the board. over his tenure, he sold the

meteoric rights of this company from a simple search engine to a powerhouse. the board he's been a part of has come under extreme scrutiny over the last couple of years, particularly in january, where there was a shareholder lawsuit leveled against the board, saying directors neglected fiduciary duties by approving massive exit packages for executives accused of misconduct. the latest shakeup at the board is mr. schmidt staying down. he'll be an adviser to the company. another name is facebook. ceo mark zuckerberg unveiled the new mantra for the company at the developer conference. not without irony, the future is private. obviously, this is a company that has gone from scandal to scandal on privacy concerns. it wasn't the show-stopper yesterday. they announced a secret crush

feature that will be unveiled in the u.s. >> whoa, what is that? you have to confess your secret crush on facebook or something? >> pretty much, yes. apparently, you can start connecting to people you don't know. you go into groups and look at activities and events and start randomly liking people. you can only like up to nine people a day. >> isn't that called stalking? >> pretty much, yeah. >> live from london. thank you. coming up, mike allen has a look at this morning's one big thing. action-packed "morning joe." special counsel venting his frustrations with the attorney general's handling of the russia report. much more on bob mueller breaking his silence on barr's summary of his two-year investigation. ken dilanian, michael schmidt, and robert costa will have their latest reporting. plus, reaction from former cia director john brennan, chris murphy, and congressman tom

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♪ welcome back, everybody. joining us from washington, axios' co-founder, mike allen. good morning. >> good morning. happy may day. >> happy may day. talk to us about axios one big thing today. >> joe biden is running like he won. in this first week of the joe biden campaign, we're seeing him leap ahead to the general election, running against trump. running as if he'd already won the democratic primary. we saw it in his announcement video, those images from charlottesville, and we've seen it on the stump. this is no accident. yasmin, we're told that the vice president's strategists think he has the luxury of thinking long term because he doesn't have to distinguish himself among the

other 19, try to build himself liberal street cred. they think he has it. >> it's probably a mindset, as well. talk to me about how the general election strategy is affecting others in the democratic field, for which there are, i believe, 19 other candidates in the democratic field. >> 20 for 2020. others tell us that they aren't able to do this. accept for bernie sanders, who also voters know what they're getting, everyone else is trying to distinguish themselves from the other, to jockey. when i sit down and have breakfast or lunch around here, i'll ask democrats, who is in your final four? the field is that uncertain. that's why we have vice president biden out talking about trump, taking it right at him by name in his ievents. he's talking about swing states that will matter in november 2020. and we hear him talking also about issues that will matter in

the conventions a year from this summer. we saw that big bump in the polls, solidifying his status as a front runner in poll after poll. one democratic group people had been watching closely, african-american women, biden is up there, too. >> i need a report on what some of the people eat their breakfast. interesting to me, how people start their day in washington. i know you're learning about a staggering amount of investigations into president trump's businesses. where are the newest probes focus focused? >> we should get a wheaties endorsement deal here. but in tracking the mueller investigation piece by piece, it was discovered even after mueller, in addition to congress -- that's the key -- besides whatever is going on on the hill, 16 different investigations of trump world, the presidents' businesses, his

family, by a dozen different federal, state, local prosecutors. you're taking the trump foundation, trump inauguration spending, trump business taxes, the nra. all those probes still out th e there. garrett has the memorable line, you look at the list, 16 investigations, trump investigations may well outlast a trump presidency. >> mike allen for us, thank you so much. we're going to be reading axios am in a little bit. >> have a great may. >> you, as well. sign up for the newsletter. that does it for me on this wednesday morning. back here tomorrow. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. reports emerged recently, general, that members of the special counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your march 24th letter, that

it does not adequately or accurately, necessarily, portray the report's findings. do you know what they're referencing with that? >> no, i don't. i think -- i think -- i suspect that they probably wanted, you know, more put out. >> did bob mueller support your conclusion? >> i don't know whether bob mueller supported my conclusion. >> all right. attorney attorney william barr in testimony to the house and senate last month, saying he was unaware of any objections from special counsel robert mueller. we found out late yesterday he was well aware of mueller's concerns. attorney general barr is scheduled to testify before the republican-controlled senate judiciary committee this morning. >> a lot has been going on. >> yeah. >> certainly since right after 7:00 p.m., when the news broke that robert mueller had sent a

letter to