. >> let's bring in shawn sullivan with the "washington post" and jonathan allen, political reporter for nbc news digital. great to have you both here. >> good morning. >> jonathan, after the mueller story, what are you hearing from people in the white house about the mood? one report suggests the president's aides are still worried he will fire mueller. what are you hearing? >> well, i think there's a certain unpredictability to the president that makes his aides somewhat concerned about what he might do at any given time, but it sounds like he has been disabused of this notion that he can fire robert mueller. he already fired jim comey, which got him in a lot of trouble. it's been reported in the past that steve bannon thinks that was the worst decision he's ever made. reince priebus, the white house chief of staff, and bannon both opposed the idea of firing mueller way back when. you know, there's a concept that sort of undergirds american democracy, which is that the president of the united states is not above the law. it differentiates us from dictatorships and from kingdoms in t

i want to go back to jonathan allen. we're going to cope an eye and ear on the senate and bring it back to you as soon as there is something you need to know. jonathan allen, what about this proposal to keep it going until february 8th. will democrats be able to accept that that deal without looking like they caved to pressure from the people who want daca settled? >> that's a great question, ali. there were any number of proposals today talking to democrats and republicans there. the numbers of days and weeks that this is goes is something that is in contention between the parties. think they're going to have to try to round up votes for that in the next 24 hours or so and maybe they don't actually get to a vote on that until monday based on the senate rules. if a deal is ready to be had, it will be a little earlier than that. you asked the right question, how do democratic senators who just voted against extending government funding because there wasn't a daca deal in place, how do they turn around a couple of days lat

but everybody was talking about the book. >> jonathan allen, put this in political context for us. anita was just talking about kind of what the president would prefer to be focusing on, and they did, they came off this huge victory in the winter, and it was a relatively quiet christmas, i would say, by the standards of the trump administration, and then we come back and there's this. >> i think what's really devastating about this for the president is you've got steve bannon so closely identified with his victory, so closely identified with him in the presidency, and then as sort of an outside agitator for trumpism, basically echoing everything that everyone on the left has said about donald trump, and that things that people in the trump administration have said quietly, that, you know, our colleagues have reported before that rex tillerson had called the president a moron. this is so devastating because it's believable, and what you've got is the right wing of the trump coalition represented by steve bannon making these same charges about russia, about the president's competence

for more let's bring in kevin cirilli, chief washington correspondent for bloomberg news and jonathan allen, national political report for nbc news digital. jonathan, we just heard president trump address concerns about his mental well-being and it was head-on. was that the right way to handle this? >> i think if he didn't handle it that way once he was asked about it, it would be problematic. i think there would be two issues. one is his general intellectual competence. that's in one basket. and that's not something that the constitution considers or that our laws consider the people elect somebody, what they're smart or not, given what we've heard about president trump through this book "fire and fury" and all of his aides saying that he might not be that bright, that's one thing. it's a totally different thing that's questioned his continued mental acuity. and it's something that he has addressed in a way that i don't think any other president ever has. he did it himself. he went out there even before this question and answer session to try to make people believe that he's stable. not ju

i want to go back to jonathan allen. we're going to keep an eye on what's going on and we'll bring it back to you as soon as there's something you need to know. what about the proposal to keep this going until february 8th and then do it? will democrats be able to accept that deal without looking like they caved on pressure from those people who want daca settled? >> that's a great question, ali. there were any number of proposals floating around the senate during the day today when i was talking to democrats up there, to republicans up there. you know, the number of days that this goes, the number of weeks that this goes is something that's in contention between the parties. i think they're going to have to try to round up votes for that over the next 24 hours or so. it may be they don't actually get to vote on that until monday based on the senate rules if there can't be -- i mean if the deal is ready to be had, it will be a little earlier than that. but you asked the right question, which is how do democratic senators

. >>> i want to bring in jonathan allen and our panel for the next 52 minutes, white house correspondent tamra keith and, thank you all for being here. john, let me start with you. a new piece at nbcnews.com about this. reaction you just heard from chris there? >> i think it's interesting in part to hear the president's defenders come out and rip steve bannon to say that he's delusional at a time when the president's lawyers are threatening a defamation suit against steve bannon. you know, this is, this is without historical precedent really the fight that is going on between the president and the former aide. and i think what's important to remember here is the degree to which what steve bannon and what others in this book are saying, if it's all true and there's no sort of specific pushback on anything yet. the degree to which this is really damming about the trump presidency and why the fight for this white house is important to keep going as a distraction. >> there's, obviously, been a ton of pushback from the white house. you saw it from sarah sanders in the briefing and saw it in t

also former chief counsel of the senate judiciary committee and jonathan allen and nbc news political reporter. welcome to you all. ron, i'll start with you. every time i have to work overnight shifts, you seem to be here with me. we seem to be on shifts of dealing with things congress deals with late at night. what do you think happens next. >> great to be back. when i worked in the senate we used to joke the senators must be vampires. only important things happen after midnight. i think what will happen next is some effort to round up the votes for february 8 date. turn into a conversation about whether or not and senator schumer said on the floor tonight. president trump is in a position to say yes. this is a weird shutdown. not because the democrats won't give donald trump what he wants. it's because they will and he just can't get there. own internal hard liners are saying no. schumer thought he had a deal with trump and john kelly called him afterwards and said no. tom cotton, rc republican sneen are vetoing it. will trump stand up to the right in the white house stand up to the

jonathan allen, thank you very much. speaking of jolly, former republican congressman from florida, david jolly, remains with us. congressman, now that it is kind of done and dusted for tonight, we realize grinding halt is going to be our way of doing business here for thor for seeable future. your opinion of what you've just witnessed? >> yeah, think what we're seeing is the shutdown might be fizzling, right? i think mcconnell is orchestrating a three-week delay, probably as early as tomorrow. ryan and mccarthy are keeping house members in town. they'll probably have a vote as early as noon tomorrow perhaps it might get convened. so we get a three-week delay. the reality what we heard from mcconnell and schumer is that they are no closer to a deal right now. they absolutely are not. that was a lot of invective and senatorial language, but they are not seeing eye to eye. two important things tonight, brian, one is, john maahcem should have been the person to point this out. donald trump may have been the president of the

jonathan allen, stick around.se there is also a report today in the "wall street journal" that casino mogul and rnc finance chairman steve wynn engaged in sexual harassment over several years and dozens of people say he pressured works to perform sex acts. he released a statement that reads, the idea that i ever assaulted any woman is preposterous. we find ourselves in a world where people could make allegations regardless of the truth and a person is left with the choice of weatherering publy listity our engaged in multi-year lawsuits. here is the part of the statement from wynn. we are reported to committed to the operating with the highest ethical standards and maintaining a safe and respectful culture that makes it a choice of employers and the company requires all employees to receive anti-harassment training and has a an independent hotline. since the inception of the company not one complaint was made to the hotline regarding mr. wynn. so jonathan give us a sense of the politics of this, how steve wi wynn f

. >>> i'm joined again by jonathan allen who covers national politics for us.ard a lot from steve bannon. he's usually out there, combative, but he's lost a lot of his allies and is laying low. >> sure. he's been isolated by himself within the republican party and you see, you know, what the white house was certainly fearful of at this point when the president is trying to negotiate on immigration. steve bannon commanding breitbart and its listeners and readers against any sort of immigration deal. he doesn't have to do with that. the president doesn't have to worry about that right now because bannon has been so diminished. >> this country runs the gam ot. you have people who, like me, think immigration is fantastic because i wouldn't be here without it. but on the other hand, this -- we forget how big an issue it is to the far right. immigration is to the far right and that's what we were hearing in some of these callers. people on breitbart who didn't like steve bannon and are glad he's gone but a lot of people to whom immigration is the single biggest issue

let's bring on jonathan allen, national political reporter. jonathan, what about the imagery of tonight? this was supposed to be a glittering evening in mar-a-lago. the president's departure time posted last night from today for the white house lawn was 4:10 p.m. that assumed this would all be done and dusted and he would have kind of a celebratory flight down to florida to celebrate the anniversary of his inauguration that was not to be. >> what's striking to me, brian, is we have a president who has been so good at telling us he was going to do things he's never seen before and he's fulfilled that promise and the senate was like, here, and all of this milling about, the set of senators that were um p huddled around lindsey graham as though he was moses bringing the tablets down to give law, i've never seen anything quite like that. you've got these conflicting interests but house republicans seemed to have a lot to lose here with a government shutdown. the president seems to have a lot to lose here with the government shutdown and the senate'

being shown on the stall right now looking at these fragments is the acting british ambassador jonathan allen i've been in touch with him and on twitter he seems convinced there's a norm expert i understand it's more than just frank factory stamps he tells me missile shape unique as is anti-tank missile design hard to see there tampered with is that if that's the accusation and that's from the acting british ambassador who right now is at that air base looking at those remnants james bays thank you very much indeed aid agencies say there's been a surge in homelessness among refugees in northern greece the country's second largest city thessaloniki has apparently run out of space to house new arrivals refugees avoiding the greek islands and instead of crossing over the land border with turkey they are often forced to pass through the everest river firstly reports . many people believe pakistanis or iranians aren't refugees and so they cannot know what's happening in the border province of blocky stand where these people come from they spoke out against tribal leaders there who want independenc

jonathan allen national political reporter. nathan, we're not surprised the president is upset about the book or not surprised people are questioning michael wolff's veracity, that this -- and, you know, him saying he's not sure if the president knew whether or not he was being interviewed, which strikes me as a little strange. having said that, you're going to have the people who support donald trump saying this is all lies. more fake news. you're going to have the people who are against and hate donald trump believing it or at least wanting very much to believe this. so where does it leave us? >> i think the problem for the president, he immediately recognized this. the decision to go full gums on steve bannon the other day was at least a temporary distraction pine thought . a bri a brilliant stroke from the president. so much is believable because it echoes so much of what we've already heard about the president. we know the secretary of state, rex tillerson called him a moron earlier on. we know the people in the administrat

joining me now is jonathan allen, national political reporter for nbc news and co-author about two booksn. you both covered clinton during 2016. our colleague from the campaign reached out to her spokesperson who said, it is simply when she finished writing it. it is why she posted it minutes before the state of the union speech went off. how much pressure was on her to address this aide who was accused of sexual harassment? >> there was pressure in her circle, people across the country. if you put this out before the state of the union, one of two things happens. it gets less news attention or distracts from what should be a great moment for donald trump, right? >> yeah. >> you're doing it at a time when it won't step on good news for democrats. it is helpful for her. i thought it was a reflective moment. if you go through the facebook page, she's trying to explain what was she thinking at the time, what she's thinking now. she says she made a mistake. she wouldn't do it again if presented with the same circumstances. and she says, we're all on our second chance now. i really thought it

. >> roll call's jonathan allen and the hill's amy barnes wrote shattered. >> finally, reluctantly, sheakes the phone, puts it up to her head and says, "mr. president, i'm sorry." >> thank you all. >> you could see the pain, the complete earthquake. >> i'm still having a hard time getting myself used to standing on this earth right now. >> underestimated. >> it is a collective failure. >> the media were dead wrong. >> the numbers wrong. we didn't see this coming. >> so how did it happen? how did clinton lose the presidency? and how did so few people see what was coming? well, this man saw it very clearly. >> we started talking to people, and i said, we've got to warn them that they're messing this up. they're [ bleep ]'ing it up. >> david betras, the chairman of ohio's mahoning county democratic party, was the canary in the coal mine. >> i said boy, she's in trouble. so my consultant and i wrote a memo. >> that memo, written six months before the election, went up beatrice's chain of command, warning that the campaign was losing ohio voters who had once been devoted democrats. >> had th

jonathan allen, aufted herndon and melanie zinnona. jonathan, i'll start with you. the president distanced himself from the author of "fire and fury" during this news conference today. take a listen. >> we can tell you that the president said that he had never had a long interview, long conversation with michael wolff and sort of implied that he didn't even know who he was on some level, that he was never in the oval office either. michael wolff told savannah guthrie he spent three hours with the president. seems to be a battle of credibility here. who do you think is more credible? >> well, look, i think if the author said he spent a few hours with trump, he probably spent a few hours with trump. remember, there are multiple audiences here. the president doesn't care whether the reporters who are gathered around him were, or even the people who watch our network 24 hours, he doesn't care as much about communicating to them as he does to his base and trying to distance himself. i think he believes his mega phone is big enough that he can sort of twist what the truth

. >> congressman charlie dade, jonathan allen, thank you both.ate that. >>> in a spinal cord group? >> this is "hardball" when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair accident. >> with liberty mutual all i needed to do was snap a photo of the dabble and viola! >> viola! >> charlie? ♪ it's time for sleep number's 'lowest prices of the season' on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. and snoring? does your bed do that? it's the lowest prices of the season on the queen c4 mattress with adjustable comfort on both sides. now only $1199, save $400. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you. ♪ it's so hard to believe ♪ but it's all coming back me. ♪ baby, baby, baby. all you can eat is back, baby. applebee's. and i heard that my cousin's so, wife's sister's husband was a lawyer, so i called him. but he never called me back! if your cousin's wife's sister's husband isn't a lawyer, call legalzoom and we'll connect you with an attorney. legalzoom. where life meets legal. >>> welcome back

let's bring on another one of our friends and veteran is journalist, national political reporter, jonathan allen, what about the imagery of tonight? this was supposed to be a glittering evening in mar-a-lago. the president's departure time posted last night for today from the white house lawn was 4:10:00 p.m. that assumed this would all be done and dusted and he would have kind of a celebratory flight down to florida to celebrate the i was in of his inauguration. that was not to be. >> what's striking to me, brian, is we got a president who has been so good at telling us that he was going to do things we've never seen before. he's fulfilled that promise in the past year the senate was like, here, hold my beer. i'm going to show you what unprecedented looks like. i have never seen anything like what we witnessed on the senate floor tonight. i was in the chamber almost two hours ago, when the first vote opened and, you know, all of this milling about the set of senators hubbled around lindsey graham as though he was moses bringing the tablets down from god to give law. i've never seen anything qui

we're joined by our digital national political reporter jonathan allen, co-author ofcus 2016 white house bid. this is back from 2008, not the 2016 campaign. but what happened here? what was going on? >> there are allegations against him of sexual harassment and these were taken to the leadership of the campaign, the campaign manager patti solis doyle recommended that he be fired. secretary clinton decided against that. he had been close to her personally, he was her faith advise, somebody who sent her sort of daily devotional messages over e-mail every morning, something about scripture or something from one of her favorite philosophers. so somebody she definitely had a relationship with on a personal level and it was in contact with a lot. i spoke briefly on the phone with patti solis doyle today. she declined to comment in any way on this story. and then of course the second part of the story which the "times" reported is that burn strider had been hired for correct the record and for the 2016 campaign. and amid similar allegations was let go. so this is a story about to some extent th

jonathan allen, national political reporter for nbc news. also with me, two msnbc contributors and dear friends of mine, princeton professor eddie glaud and "new york times" op-ed columnist brett stevens. john thanks the question is, to you, same thing i asked peter. basically no word from the president all weekend, except for a handful of tweets. i mean, even the picture on that completely blank desk, i mean, that desk was an invitation for a jigsaw puzzle. who exactly was he speaking to? i'm talking to people in the white house who said we're shut out of this conversation. the president hasn't asked us. >> i think he's satisfied with his position, stephanie, and it's a mistake to believe that the president is anxious to cut a deal to get the government reopen again. you know, he said last year that in order to get the wall, he was willing to do it, even if there was a government shutdown. it was pretty easy to interpret that as him looking at two positive goals for his base, both getting the wall and having a shutdown. he's been offered th

herald and msnbc contributor kimberly atkins, and national political reporter for nbc news digital jonathan allenanks to all of you for being here. really appreciate it. so we have a lot to break down. we had the interview with senator hirono and marc short. and my takeaway if you listen to both of them is that both sides are still dug in. i don't hear any ounce of compromise. what did you take away? >> i think it's remarkable that essentially marc short was saying the democrats are still throwing a tantrum. he didn't walk back from that language. he didn't give any type of inkling they were going to try to talk about daca. instead he started talking about the fact they need more money for the border wall. so there's this idea that i think some point they're all going to have to get in the room but the person to convince them to get in the room and trust each other, i don't know that's going to be president trump. i think that's what's remarkable. most presidents would be able to walk across the hill and come over and have a cheeseburger. in this case people don't trust president trump. >> kimber

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but jonathan allen wrote delivered the kind of inspirational and aspirational message at the golden globeslinton had trouble hammering home in the 2016 presidential election. you know what i think? the question for me is what is trump going to do right now? is he dopey? i'm not going to ask that. that's the wrong way to put it. is he stupid enough to attack her? or is he smart enough to lay back? >> he won't attack her until he feel likes she say tacking him. you now how he is. >> he gets quiet. >> that's right. what i was reminded of watching oprah's speech is barack obama back at that 2004 convention in boston. you remember that? he lit that place up. democrats at the time were demoralized. they were feeling down in the dumps. they were worried about al sharpton. >> and who came on right after he spoke said you have just seen the first african american president. >> was it me by any chance? >> no more bragging. the crowded trump field in 2020 where she would have run. just as trump did in 2016. one of his vanquished rivals lindsey graham was asked today the questions surrounding the pres

the impact killed officer andrew camilleri and injured officer john allen -- officer jonathan velasquez. >>> and developer broke ground yesterday on a tower which includes more than 300,000 feet of office space and a rooftop deck with views of downtown. the plan includes refurbishing the historic building next door. plans to develop the site have fallen through over the decades.>> the idea of a blending of oakland's beautiful past and are inspirational and innovative future is embodied in this project.>> the high- rises a joint partnership between ellis partners and intercontinental. it has already acquired tenets. it is expected to be ready for move-in by late 2019. >>> the u.s. postal service trucks in oakland are being targeted. their leading graffiti and black letters all over the vehicle. at least 40 trucks have been tagged in the past few months.>> will have to clean these vehicles and take them out of service, which will obviously affect our delivery operations. we want to make sure these vehicles are in service, and we want them to look the way we normally have them looking as p

. >> mike allen, it's jonathan lemere. question to you, what are you hearing about the negotiations in terms of is there anything that seems remotely close on daca? there's been such a breakdown in talks it seems in the last couple of days. is that still going to be essential to a deal here? will democrats cave on that? do you think the government is going to shut down tomorrow in. >> we saw something very fascinating online. we saw democrats, including pod save america starting to press democrats here, to vote against this. to go ahead and tank this. so there's going to be a great war to define who shut down this is. republicans know they will mostly be blamed in the country, and that's why they've been work sog hard to avoid it. but the chances, went up yesterday, 24 hours ago i would have said they're going to figure it out. now that looks much less likely as you're reporting also suggests. >> mika, if pod save america is saying, that they need to shut it down, the -- what do they sa willie? as goes pod, so goes -- fran

jonathan and tells us the mother was perplexed when deputies arrived at their door. >> reporter: we are learning more about what went on inside the house of horrors. where 57-year-old david allen turpin and 49-year-old louise anna turpin held their 13 children captive inside their home in perris california. >> i cannot imagine the pain and suffering they have endured. >> reporter: officials where alerted to the situation early sunday morning when one of the children managed to escape through a window and call 911. >> the 17-year-old girl called 911 tropez deactivated cell phone and reported her siblings are being held against their will and somewhere chained.>> reporter: victims ranging in age from 2 to 29 were malnourished, and where very dirty. it was initially believed they were all children but seven were over the age of 18. >> they are tiny, almost looked malnutrition. >> reporter: the family lived in the neighborhood since 2014. >> they were homeschooled at the residence. >> reporter: state records show the home school was named the sandcastle day school in david turpin was listed as the principal. the couple filed for bankruptcy in 2011 but photos have emerged showing t