joseph digenova, was a u.s. attorney so he supervised these investigations, criminal and civil, and possibly had some skills. he did have a terrible conflict. he should have never met with the president, that was wrong of him because it was unethical when they represented mark ka rl low for them to talk to the president about being his lawyer but he definitely needs a lawyer and i hope he gets one soon. >> mark carolow was known to be the spokesperson for the trump team and he is a corroborating witness for the special prosecutor. it shows you how ill equipped somebody like joseph digenova was to come close to being engaged in any of this that he didn't mention that kind of conflict early enough. >> the lawyer the president wanted was ted olson, head of the office under ronald reagan. the winner of more supreme court cases than can be tallied. that's who you want wand. ted olson turned him down, and didn't just turn him down, but the head of the firm turned the president down in a tweet within minutes in the ann

this is joseph digenova, a longtime washington, d.c., attorney. let me read you the statement from jay sekulow who is part of the legal team. sekulow writes former u.s. attorney for the district of columbia joseph digenova will be joining our legal team this week. i've worked with joe for years and have full confidence he will be a great asset in our representation of the president. now, to the critical point that you were making, how might digenova be approaching this process, we know he's been on fox news quite a bit, and he has been touting a theory that effectively the president in essence has been set up by the fbi. let me read you a quote from january, katy, just to give you a sense how he approaches this. digenova saying earlier in january, there was a brazen plot to legally exonerate hillary clinton, and if she didn't twin election to then frame donald trump with a falsely created crime. make no mistake about it, a group of fbi and doj people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely created crime. pretty tough words there, katy. and,

monday, joseph digenova was announced as joining the president's personal legal team. then tuesday, the fallout from trump's congratulations to putin for winning the election, and at the same time there was also the stormy daniels polygraph report that was released. then on wednesday, trump reportedly was furious over the leak that he was warned by his own white house team not to congratulate putin in the call. then trump's top lawyer, john dowd's, resignation comes. then the national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster was also out, replaced by john bolton. attorneys joseph digenova and his wife victoria toens ii nrk with the president the same day that karen mcdougal alleges that the president paid her for their affair. on friday, trump threatens to veit t veto the omnibus spending bill over daca and the border wall. so is this the president trying to stay on message, the challenge that it can be on message, that things are in disarray? how dua asseo you assess all of? >> it is a challenge to stay on point and the president tweeting about things that are on message. idea

the next day, march 19th, he hired controversial attorney joseph digenova. on the 20th, the po"post" repor that trump's legal team tries for a second time to hire ted olsen. so i guess the question was is it possible dowd was already planning to leave? when you look at "the washington post" report in the last couple days, he's been thinking about it, been considering it, and you see sort of the lineup of things that happened, did everything just come to a head? >> there's no question the president has taken a much more aggressive tone in recent days. in fact, those tweets that mention mueller by name are the first time he mentioned biden by name on twitter. this is an uptick on twitter. i think it's connected to a bigger point about how the president is governing right now. he is feeling sort of newly emboldened and confident. he's making decisions more with his gut, his instincts and trusting himself. we saw it with the tariffs decision. >> so his gut is, nobody can tell my story the way i can, let me go in front of the special counsel. >> and he's showing

that does not mean joseph digenova and victory tensing are completely out of the mix. kelly o'donnell is in west palm beach. what's the latest on that >> reporter: we had expected that joseph digenova and victory tensing would be a part of the russia investigation team for the president. it had been announced by jay sekulow who leads that team for the president outside the white house. and then in the days intervening we got clues this might not turn out. first there was a talk about checking for conflicts of interest to see if there might be lawyers with a conflict taking on a new client who is the patriots. there are obvious ones right away. tensing is representing markkaral low and he's involved in the russia investigation, so that could be a red flag right away. and then we saw that the president was tweeting he might not be adding to the team. those were prominent clues. then we got today a message from jay sekulow who had announced the original plan to hire, and today said this. the president is disappointed that conflicts prevent joe digenova and victory tone si

it was just last monday that joseph digenova, former attorney in washington, d.c. was announced as joining the president's personal team as it relates to the russian probe. and tuesday, the fallout from trump's congratulations to putin for winning the election. and on that same day, there was also the stormy daniels polygraph report that was released. on wednesday, trump reportedly was furious over the leak that he was warned by his own wohite house team not to congratulate putin on the call. and trump's top lawyer, with john dowd, resigned. national security adviser, h. rmt r. mcmaster out, replaced by john bolton. attorneys joseph digenova and his wife, victoria toensing, they have a law firm, they met with the president on the same day that playboy pinup karen mcdougal tells cnn that trump tried to pay her after sex during their affair. and then friday, trump threatened to veto the omnibus spending bill because of daca and his border wall, but ended up signing it anyway. and then, today, we find out that digenova is not going to be part of the legal team. whoo.

so is his hiring of joseph digenova. so does his long-standing pattern of behavior and so does the reaction from fellow republicans who warned it would be dangerous or even politically suicidal to fire mueller but are doing nothing to actually stop it. that includes the house intelligence committee. on top of all that, there's breaking news about any interview with robert mueller the president may eventually submit it. gloria boj gloria borger joins us on that shortly. congressman jim himes joins us now. when you look at these criticisms from the president, do you think he's laying the ground work to fire mule center. >> you know, we've seen this pattern over and over again. you get the denial right up until the moment it happens. it might be the firing of comey or tillerson. they're always prefaced by tweets primarily. you know, as much as i appreciate the staff members at the white house saying that there are no plans to fire mueller, i think it's well established at this point that the staff doesn't know what the pres

trump is beefing up is legal team hiring former federal prosecutor joseph digenova. digenova has a reputation for bare knuckle tactics, including endorsing the idea the president is being framed telling fox news in january -- >> make no mistake about it, a group of fbi and doj people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely created crime. >> reporter: legal analysts say a tough approach can backfire. >> it's a bad idea for the subject of an investigation to criticize the investigative team. he could very easily and accidentally say something that hurts him and hurts his case. >> reporter: in a 1997 op-ed in the "wall street journal," joseph digenova weighed in on former president bill clinton's legal troubles saying "the nation could conceivably benefit from the indictment of a president. the founders created a presidency. not a monarchy." lester? >> kristen welker, at the white house, thanks. >>> president trump today revealed his long-awaited plan combating the deadly opioid epidemic. he unveiled the details in new hampshire one of the states hardest hit by the crisis. among the tough

joseph digenova, who is a powerful d.c. attorney, also classified as being rather controversial because of conspira conspiracy theories that have been attached to his name. now he is no longer going to be on the team. this just days after the white house or the president announced they were looking forward to a kind of collaboration. what happened? >> reporte boris, are you able to hear me? it looks like i lost the audio with boris. how about you, shimon? we got the legal team shake-up with joseph digenova no longer being part of the team just days after we heard that the personal attorney for the president, john dowd, would no longer be part of the team. what does all of this signal? >> well, is certainly signals that there is turmoil within the legal team. one of the regions that john dowd has given privately to people in public reports is he did not agree with the idea of bringing a new team to digenova. while you say he's a powerful attorney, he's an interesting guy and he has sort of a different take on some of the par

joseph digenova and his wife victoria tonsing out days after meeting with trump. the president tweeting in part many lawyers in top law firms want to represent me in the russia case and adding, quote, i am very happy with my existing team, besides there was no collusion with russia besides by crooked hillary and the dems. all this after the massive marches across the country for gun control and safety. >> americans are being attacked in churches, night clubs, movie theaters and on the streets, but we the people can fix this. >>. >> powerful moments as young people called on lawmakers for change from the nation's capital and beyond. the demonstrations launched by the teens who survived the parkland school shooting? florida. >>> today the president returns to washington from mar-a-lago and tonight one of his alleged mi mistresses, porn star stormy daniels, will speak out to cnn's, anderson cooper about her relationship with the president airing on "60 minutes." we begin with the president's personal attorney, jay sec lo saying that president trump is disappointed co

and i think joseph digenova joining the legal team adds to that. but there is this confusing question about what is the legal strategy when it comes to an interview with mueller? i think that's not been resolved. but trump did say today that he wants to talk to mueller. ty cobb may be winning that fight. so that is a kind of parallel track that we need to be watching closely, because the stakes of an interview like that are incredibly high. >> vivian, because of your aforementioned front seat on this administration, for the folks who may join us over a martini to kind of get caught up on this day in the administration, on the hubbub scale, what is it like to say compared to 14 months ago? >> in some ways it's interesting and things have calmed down. it's a bit more orderly in terms of the organization of the white house. in the old days we were getting sporadic calls. everybody gather right now, and there wasn't the systematic scheduling and organization that the white house usually has. but obviously behind the scenes, there's a lot of people who

if john bolton was a criminal defense lawyer, he would sound a lot like joseph digenova just did. the pattern we have seen is that every day that donald trump comes closer to a show down with the special prosecutor, every day jared kushner comes closer to what will be his own show down with the special prosecutor, which might or might not result in the president's son-in-law being indicted. every day we move closer and closer to what ever the special prosecutor's confrontation with trump world turns out to be, trump world gets crazier and crazier and more and more chaotic and every containment strategy devised by the white house staff or the trump family or the lawyers -- every strategy deviced to contain the madness does not work and the madness mushrooms. and so it will be into that white house where all of the systems of containment of donald trump that have been tried and have already failed and failed completely -- it will be into that ever more chaotic white house that john bolton officially reports for duty for the first time on april 9th. and on april 9th, we will be that

the president decided against hiring joseph digenova and his wife because of personal conflicts of interest. they had been negotiating with special counsel robert mueller about a potential interview with the president. meanwhile the president is ready to fire veterans affairs secretary david shull ckishulki. >>> this weekend's demonstrations are just the beginning. the student driven movement sparked rallies from coast to coast with a unified message, a demand for tougher gun laws. wendy gillette reports. >> reporter: for survivors of the school shooting in parkland, florida, saturday's big turnout was just a step toward an even larger goal. >> we're demanding an assault weapons ban, the prohibition of sales of high capacity magazines, and we're demanding universal background checks. >> reporter: having led the way, students are now turning their attention to this year's midterm election. >> we're revving up. this is not the end. this is just the beginning. >> reporter: the students say they'll target candidates who refuse to support what they call kmoon sense gun laws. >> the most importan

so you add that kind of thinking to joseph digenova, and you have another big dose of unreality in thete house. so the bolton appointment scares me on iran, north korea, on this conspiracy theory thinking about the president. but the john dowd should alarm all of us because it's another signal that he intends to have a more aggressive approach toward bob mueller and i think we're a step closer to a potential firing of bob mueller. >> i mentioned a moment ago i look at the way the president has changed his legal team with the addition of joseph digenova and his wife, with the removal of john dowd today, and the president's statements, and i feel to me the president no longer seems to be working on a legal strategy. seems to be looking at a pr strategy, and therefore it seems to me he thinks he may be able to end this in the court of politics rather than by going through legal proses. it sounds to me from what you said that you share that worry. >> i do share that worry. i also share the concern that the president's world is confined to watching fox news, to believing what he sees on fox

that's the theory espoused by joseph digenova, the latest lawyer to join trump's legal team.s what he told fox business two weeks ago. >> this was a plot, a brazen plot, to exonerate hillary clinton in the e-mail server case, to make, to ensure that she became president and if by chance she lost, part of the plot was to frame donald trump with a false crime. this is the single most important scandal of the last 50 years because senior doj and fbi officials engaged in conduct that was designed to corrupt an american presidential election. it wasn't the russians who corrupted the presidential election. it was the american officials at the department of justice and the fbi. >> well there you have it, the message that the trump people want everybody to have when mueller comes out with his report. in other words, don't believe a word of it. digenova joins a host of trump allies calling for investigation into those conducting the russia investigation. let's watch. >> i think there's a lot more investigating to do, and it may very well be that you had an informal cabal functioning i

joseph digenova is not a new face in washington.ever, his hiring could signal a new direction for the president's defense. randi kaye has more. >> they didn't like donald trump. they didn't think he was fit to be president. >> reporter: that's joe digenova, a regular tv pundit and the man president donald trump is adding to his legal team in the russia probe. he's the same joe digenova who has, in recent months, pushed the theory that the fbi and the justice department were working to frame trump, fabricating the russia investigation in an effort to keep trump out of the oval office. evidence to support that theory is scant, yet still his notion is based in part on thousands of text messages exchanged between two fbi officials. >> everything that we have seen from these texts and from all the facts developing shows that the fbi and senior doj officials conspired to violate the law and to deny donald trump his civil rights. >> reporter: digenova is just one of the conservative tv personalities trump has brought onboard. he joins form

robert: trump did hire former federal prosecutor joseph digenova to join his team, a washington lawyer known for defending t presidents and for attacking the special counsel investigation on cable news. when you look at digenova, excuse me. mtalian and sometimes even mispronounce it.ge va. my grand parents would be unhappy with that. but he's a lot like cudlow, a presence the president has seen on tevision. th real issue is white shoes attorneys in washington are turinning down the offers from the white house. a lot of law firms said no thanks because of the political sks involved, conflicts. >> from the beginning, when you sawhe lawyers that he surrounded himself with. michael cohen, mark cassowitzd ohn doumed subsequent lip. it was open talk in washington about how is it that a man who's thesident of the united states couch such a low-wattage, second-rate legal team around him? then he started to bring in people that were more representable. robert: dowd. cobb. >> exactly but the way he'te tr him, who of any repute would wants toork with him? people like ted olson. >> tedlson mention

day afters john dowd resigned it was announced today that joseph digenova will not be taking overdue to conflicts. >> meanwhile the president's personal lawyer may be turning his attention tonight to an interview on television. here's errol barnett. >> this 2006 image president trump smiles with stephanie clifford, the adult film actress known as stormy daniels who alleged they had an affair at the time. on tuesday she wrote technically i didn't sleep with potus 12 years ago, there was no sleeping. people do care that he lied about it, had me bullied, broke laws to cover it up. for the first time daniels is detailing her relationship with trump in an interview with "60 minutes." the president denies the allegation but his personal attorney michael cohen acknowledges paying daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election. from what he says were his own personal funlds for which he was not reimbursed by the trump organization or campaign. >> she is prepared to return the 130,000. >> michael avanetti who represents daniels is traying it void the nondisclosure agreement. >> the only reason why

>> well, joseph digenova would know if he's representing him. >> his wife is. >> his wife would knowe is representing him. and so as they're making this decision, they might have to point out that you've got this information on the one hand, whatever it is mark corallo has said, and punitive role of president trump which is potentially punitive defendant. if the interests are adverse to each other, it may be that robert mueller had to point that out. it seems likely they would have known the corallo said but perhaps lacked an understand ing of the significance, theories robert mueller is pursuing with respect to president trump. >> there's a red hotanalysis, t target. let me read you something, a lawyer representing a witness, someone informed by bob mueller's investigators, that he is a witness, said to me about the kinds of questions he got when he was interviewed by bob mueller. he said, "my client has been told he was a witness and all the questions he got were about trump's conduct. he said to me, there is no doubt that the president is a subject, the term used in a very wide wa

nbc news confirmed joseph digenova and his wife victoria tonesing bowed out tu to a conflict of interest. it looks as though mr. trump may not be done with his shakeup. news outlets eyeing v.a. secretary david shulkin as the next person out. a close friend of mr. trump chris ruddy said this about the near future. >> he did say that he's expecting to make one or two major changes to his government very soon. and that's going to be it. >>> over the weekend in washington, a reported 800,000 men, women and children took to the streets of the nation's capital demanding gun control with more than a million people participating in the march for our lives across the country marking one of the largest protests since the vietnam era. students let by those from parkland, florida, spoke out and called for a change. >> i have a dream that enough is enough. >> arming teachers will not work. >> more security in our schools does not work. >> we cannot keep america great if we cannot keep america safe. >> we need to arm them with pencils, pens, paper, and the money they need! >> some republicans said the

nbc newsome has confirmed joseph digenova, a veteran washington lawyer and his wife victoria bowed out from trump's legal team due to a, quote, conflict of interest leaving the president with just one personal lawyer, jay sekulow. meanwhile it looks as if there trump may not be dup with his staff shake ups as they eye david shulkin as the next person out of the administration. a close friend of mr. trump, newsmax ceo chris ruddy said this about the near future. >> he did say that he's expecting to make one or two major changes to his government very soon. and that's going to be it. >> on saturday reported 800,000 men, women and children took to the street of the nation's capital demanding gun control. with more than 1 million people participating in the march for our lives across the country, making it one of the largest protests since the vietnam era, as students led by those from parkland, florida, spoke out and called for change. >> i have a dream that enough is enough. >> arming teachers will not work. more security in our schools does not work. >> we cannot keep america great if w

>> reporter: well, that new attorney is joseph digenova, former u.s.orney in washington and for years a darling of this city's conservative legal establishment. digenova has also been a very tough critic of the f.b.i.'s handling of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation, and he has denounced special counsel robert mueller in terms very similar to president trump. digenova also appears frequently on fox news but was on a washington radio station this morning, and he said this about senior justice department leaders. >> we have a very, very bad situation. it's the worst since watergate. and you have people in charge, rod rosenstein to be one, chris wray to be another, who do not understand that this is a crisis. they're behaving like children. they don't know how to lead. they don't know how to make public statements. they have disappeared. >> reporter: the white house says there are no discussions about firing mueller, but there are discussions about an interview between mueller and the president. that's clearly a subtext to all this. in the senate, r

according to the "wall street journal," dowd felt blindsided that the president was bringing on joseph digenovato one person familiar with the legal team's thinking, digenova, a former u.s. attorney, has claimed federal agents have worked to frame the president for partisan political purposes. meanwhile, according to the "new york times," the president is pleased with down's exit adding the lawyer's prickly personality had begun to irritate the president. so heidi has an angle on the story of the morning, rick will talk about republicans but first, barbara mcquaid. we have the possibility of mueller closing in on the president. we have the president's s sexcapades and his allegations of trying to silence women coming to the forefront, we have money issues for the president. these are the things he cares about. some would argue he's cornered at this point which could explain these lurching moves yesterday. where do you think he stands at most legal risk at this point? >> i think it's still the robert mueller investigation. some of these issues with regard to women who are coming forward about pa

. >> trump's attorney claims that joseph digenova is joining the legal team.age with the media and actively defend the president in the russia investigation. >>> overnight, "the new york times" discussed the president considering firing ty cobb. fellow republicans warn the president not to fire special counsel. >> republicans warning the president not to fire the special counsel. >> how would republicans react if he fired mueller? >> i think it would be upheaval in the senate. >> there is little support among republicans to pass legislation blocking the president from firing mueller. >>> president trump wants stiffen penalties for drug traffickers. he is promising a large advertising campaign focusing on education. he is pushing for the border wall and a company pharma for their decision. >> to provide free, free narcan to all high schools, colleges and universities in america. >> it's not clear if the president knew he was praising a program backed by the clinton foundation. he has fiercely criticized as a corrupt pay for play scheme. first lady melania trump

the announcement also comes notably after it was announced that joseph digenova and victoria tensing who were asked did not. this coming at an awkward time for president trump as the russia probe moves into a new phase. we may soon see a decision being made between the president and his legal team over whether president trump will testify and go one on one with robert mueller. >> boris at the white house, thank you. >>> the sheriff's department in orange county, california, taking steps to cooperate with federal law enforcement, sidestepping the state's new sanctuary law. the department says it will put the date that inmates will be released on its website. the move challenges the california values act which limits police communication with federal immigration authorities. critics say the measure will cast too wide a net, handing i.c.e. information on undocumented immigrants who may never be charged with a crime. the orange county board of supervisors will review this. >>> yet another former tv personality joining the trump administration, but this time it's not at all what you'd exp

still, he added joseph digenova to his legal team. >> make to mistake about it.of fbi and d.o.j. people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely created crime. >> reporter: while paul ryan and mitch mcconnell said they don't believe legislation is necessary to protect robert mueller, they both said they think his investigation should be allowed to finish unimpeded. >> thank you. it is pretty stunning that the white house wouldn't say that they have concerns about the russian elections given how overwhelmingly all our allies have. >> this is a white house that has purposefully ignored these types of issues when it comes the other world leaders that maybe the president wants to work on other issues. china or the philippines, or in this case, russia or even saudi arabia. he had a meeting with the saudis today and mentioned none of the concerns about how that country is run. this president is very clearest wants to work in areas where he thinks they can be helpful to the united states. he doesn't want to discuss holding on to power. at one point president trump

was going to replace him with husband and wife lawyer team, victoria toensing and her husband, joseph digenovan here playing the evil foster parents who want to send beethoven to the pound. but then they said they couldn't do it because of conflicts of interest. and yesterday, trump was rejected by two more prominent attorneys, tom buchanan and dan webb, who both rejected an offer to join president trump's legal team, citing business conflicts. "oh, i'd love to be your lawyer, donald, but i've got conflicts! turns out, i'm already scheduled to ride a mechanical bull made of cheese graters then squat in a bowl of gin. and i'd rather do that." ( laughter ) ( applause ) mechanical bull fans. ( cheers and applause ) ( laughter ) yeah, yeah. i was in the mime rodeo for a while. ( laughter ) now this part's weird. some people are speculating that robert mueller may have told trump that mueller had concerns about trump's own rights. and that "diligent prosecutors, when they see a defendant doing something profoundly dangerous to their self-interest, including hiring lawyers who have conflicts, will r

days after john dowd resigned it was announced that joseph digenova will not be taking over due to conconflictse president's personal lawyer may turn attention to the interview on television. here is errol barnett. >> reporter: this image, president trump smiles with stormy daniels who alleged they had an affair at the time. tuesday she wrote, technically i didn't sleep with potus 12 years ago. there was no sleeping. people do care he lied about it, had me bullied. broke laws to covered it up. for the first time daniels is detailing her relationship with trump in an interview with 60 minutes. the president denies the allegation. but his personal attorney, michael cohen acknowledges paying daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election. from what he says, were his own personal funds, for which he was not reimbursed by the trump organization, or campaign. >> ms. daniels is prepared to return the $130,000. >> the representative of daniels is trying to void it the nondisclosure agreement. >> the only reason why he would not accept it is if he wants to continue to attempt to silence her. >> in court docu

an official statement said joseph digenova and victoria had conflicts which prevented them from beingn his team. the senior administration told politico that the couple looked disheveled when they came to meet with the president. that convinced trump that they were not the right fit for the team. but four senior justice department officials familiar with the investigation told msnbc that victoria toesing's representation of mark carowa is a problem. he left are with concerns about obstruction of justice around the 2016 trump tower meeting with russians. >>> joining us from washington, politico's daniel lippmann. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> let's talk russia first. what's been the reaction so far to the administration expelling 60 russian officials? i know we heard from paul yesterday and his reaction to all this. >> yeah. i think it's kind of a welcome breath of fresh air. we had concerns that the trump administration wouldn't be tough on the russians, yet they are even tougher than the obama administration, expelling these types of people. so i think it sends a clear mess

he is joseph digenova. he made public his allegation of a fbi justice department plot against the president. >> make no mistake about it, a group of fbi and d.o.j. people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely created crime. they were going to exonerate hillary, and they were going to frame donald trump. what they have done to the department and the fbi is undermine the confidence of the american people in federal law enforcement. it is disgraceful and it all stems from their animus towards president trump. >> joe digenova has been around a long time. this quote from a wall street journal op-ed during the investigation in 1997 of bill clinton is getting a wide circulation tonight, quote, nobody should underestimate the upheaval that a prosecution of the president would cause, but we went through it once before with watergate and survived. the nation, in fact, could conceivably benefit from the indictment of a president. it would teach the valuable civics lesson that no one is above the law. presiden

john dowd's departure comes days after president trump added joseph digenova to his defense team.dent made news on the russia probe as the press throws a question at him. >> mr. president, would you like to testify in the robert mueller ve

this edition of new lawyer, joseph digenova is known in washington circle, he appears on cable often.ocontinueversely is someone who has put forward this conspiracy theory that the president what subscribes to which is that the fbi and senior officials at the doj are trying to frame the president with this russia investigation. all this makes him a fairly controversial figure but also someone who seems to be much more aggressive presence in the trump legal team, es special he at a time when there are other attorneys like john dowd and ty cobb whose futures on the team are a little uncertain. dave and christine. >> abby phillip, tluch for that. >>> joining us is paul callan and former republican chairman of the house intelligence committee mike rogers. good to see you. paul, let's start with you, this new addition, he nailed his audition on fox news, a flame thrower when it comes to lawyers. what does this tell you about the direction of the trump legal approach? >> i think it's a shocking development. on the one hand, you have his current -- the president's current lawyers cooperating

many will appear live from a green room near you, john dowd out, as joseph digenova is in.ere's where casting meets policy. bolton says all kinds of snappy things that might make for good tv segments, but is a first move against north korea as good an idea as a fox news sound bite. >> i think the only diplomatic option left is to end the regime in north korea. >> question, how do you know that the north korean regime is lying? answer, their lips are moving. when a foreign intelligence service conducts an operation and leaves evidence pointing the finger at somebody else. >> in other words china may have left fingerprints that look like russia? >> why would russia leave their fingerprints itch they were trying to influence the election. >> the senate has no vote on this job and if trump is turning the cabinet into a tv casting call, we can't say we weren't warned. that was the exact premise of president obama's deadly punch line when he humiliated and ethered trump in a 2011 roast to his face. >> just recently in an episode of "celebrity apprentice," at the steakhouse, the m

john dowd's departure comes days after president trump added joseph digenova to his defense team. the president made news on the russia probe as the press throws a question at him. >> mr. president, would you like to testify in the robert mueller investigation? you would like to, sir? when do you think that would happen? >> in case you couldn't make out what the president said, would like to testify before special counsel robert mueller. chief white house correspondent john roberts is live with this story. the many of them at this hour, john roberts. >> yeah, take a pick. it's like a chinese menu. this is the second time the president's legal team has been shaken up. john dowd came on in june of 2017 after the president said then lead outside attorney mark kasowitz left. dowd has been working on the case ever since. let's put up a picture. and he's compiled -- we won't see a picture. there he is. compiling also a legal argument for robert mueller as to why he believes mueller either doesn't need an interview with the president or would have an interview under very, very strict par

and he also added a combative lawyer and fox news pundit named joseph digenova. look at this guy.s like a boxing promoter who sells fake rolexes on the side. [ laughter ] he looks like he's 100 years behind on his alimony. [ light laughter ] he looks like he got caught stealing food from the buffet at a strip club. [ laughter ] "are you putting shrimp in your pockets?" "this is from home. i brought this from home." [ laughter ] but trump has reportedly been looking to add more top-tier talent to his legal team. earlier this week, he reached out to one of washington's most seasoned and respected litigators to join his team, but got turned down. >> "the washington post" reported that the legal team reached out to ted olsen, who you know as the former solicitor general in the george w. bush administration, to join the president's group of lawyers. >> however, olson has rebuffed the offer. as ted boutrous, one of his partners at gibson dunn, said olson will not be representing president donald trump. >> seth: oh, really? he didn't want to work for trump? i can't imagine why. that's li

he said he was bringing on a guy he had seen on fox news, joseph digenova. whatever the president's reasons were for wanting to bring him on the team, we know it came at a very high cost. it caused his lead lawyer on the russia scandal to quit and walk out. maybe that kind of a risk, maybe that kind of a trade-off felt worth it at the time to the president but that was a bad calculation. because we now know that at the time the president took that risk and thereby watched his lead russia lawyer, watched john dowd walk out the door because of it, at the time the president hadn't even met joe digenova yet, this new guy he was bringing in. it cost the president so much to bring on this new guy and then when he finally met this new guy, turns out he didn't like him. thursday night joe digenova and his wife were finally invited to the white house to meet the president for the first time and the president didn't like them. according to politico.com, the couple looked disheveled which helped convince the president they weren't the right fit. "the new york times" wa

as a contributor, joseph digenova has pushed the theory that the fbi and justice department have been working together to intentionally frame president trump. >> make no mistake about it, a group of fbi and doj people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely-created crime. they conspired to exonerate improperly and politically hillary clinton and also if she lost, to frame the incoming president of the united states with a false claim. they have undermined the confidence of the american people in federal law enforcement. it is disgraceful and it all stems from their animus towards president trump. >> digenova is a former u.s. attorney who served as special counsel in the 1990s and was later hired by the new york senate to investigate eliot spitzer. it was just last week that the president was talking to bill clinton's impeachment attorney to help dooem deal with the inquiry. trump responded to the article via twitter calling on reports that he was going to at autoed lawyer to his team false. yesterday, following his attacks over the weekend, trump called the investigation a, quo

writing in a new op-ed, the combination of dowd's resignation and the addition of joseph digenova isgn of a more combative approach by the white house. jonathan turley joins me now. always good to see you. thank you for being here tonight. it's interesting. i'm looking at the parallels of the conversation i just had with john bolton and the changes in the legal team. you used the words full contact. the president is entering into a full contact phase of this with the people he's bringing on board and perhaps the same can be said of his advisers at the white house as well. >> that's right. i think there's an analogy to the lack of communication. a cool hand luke of a failure to communication. there was the failure with dowd. not always necessarily his fault. but he's had these public disconnects where his statements had to be pulled back or recorrected. that reflects a break down in the relationship. the greater concern is whether we'll see a significant change in strategy. dowd -- while dowd was against reportedly the president sitting down because he was -- with mueller because he w

. >> so president trump is hiring long-time washington attorney joseph digenova that jack mentioned to his legal team. here's what he said on fox news about the russia investigation. watch this. >> as we've said from the beginning, that there was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate hillary clinton, and if she didn't win the election, to then frame donald trump with a falsely created crime. >> that's why the steele dossier was used. it was designed to create a false narrative about trump and his people and to be used ultimately against them if hillary clinton lost. senior doj and fbi officials gained in conduct that was designed to corrupt an american presidential election. >> what does this hiring tell you about trump's legal strategy and frame of mind? >> there's something about the president's tweets and the president's most recent utterances that suggest an almost manic nature, almost desperate nature to what he's doing. in some fashion, i'm not at all surprised by his changing his legal team. after all, he's changed his entire white house staff, key positions, with more turnover i

the president currently has ty cobb, john dowd, jay sec ewe low, joseph digenova advising in the russia robert costa reported they'd reached out to high-powered defense lawyer ted olson to join them but olsen declined. i am joined by the aforementioned robert costa, "washington post." moderator of "washington week" on pbs. and jeremy peters is back with us, political reporter for "the new york times." both msnbc analysts. robert, we'll start with you. mr. olsen is a fairly well-known attorney in this country, he was part of the legal dream team along with david boies that argued the landmark gay marriage case. he lost his wife barbara olsen, a frequent guest on this network work, during the 9/11 attacks. he is a man of repute in the legal community. why ted olson, then why did ted olson say no? >> such a revealing moment for this president, brian. he is reaching for the hard-charging personalities. some of them he sees on television to join his legal team. but he knows he also needs gravitas. he had his legal team reach out to mr. olsen and say, could you maybe come on? could you be the

attorneys joseph digenova and his wife victoria won't be joining trump's legal team just days after theirced. the president's personal attorney telling nbc news the president is disappointed that conflicts prevent joe digenova and victoria toensing from joining his legal team. president trump tweeted, many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the russia case. don't believe the fake news narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on. it will take months to get up to speed, if for no other reason that they can bill more, which is unfair to our country. and i'm happy with our team. besides, there was no collusion with russia except by crooked hillary and the democrats. joining me is john mclaughlin, great to have you with us. i want to read you something by john dowd. he quit, kristen welker was reporting. this kind of building up tension within the legal team. they want to introduce the president. john dowd says the president thinks he can handle it how risky when there is this heightened tension. it is absolutely crazy. >> i think the problem is one have