joining me on set, jonathan swan.o-founder of the beat dc, tiffany cross, republican strategist, rick tyler and nbc news national security reporter julia ainsley. we were hoping to have this conversation with hans to get a better sense really of what is going on, on the ground. obviously, you've been covering it from here in washington. but what do we know about the situation that's going on at the border? how is it different from some of the other -- you've reported there have been other closings in recent weeks. >> last sunday there was a closing because they thought something like this might occur. around 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., it seemed like it was a posturing to show we can shut down this border. and what we're seeing today needs a lot of context around it. it's not that these migrants that we're seeing running, this is the first time they've and to the border. they've been waiting, most of them over a week trying to come in and claim asylum. they've been in a pressure cooker situation. not only has the presiden

jonathan swan, good to see you.e you on "morning joe" the in just a bit. >>> that does it for us on this friday morning. just a quick note, yasmin will be back here making her return to "morning joe" this monday at 5:00 a.m. eastern. after a few months away following the birth of her son. congratulations to her. a big thank to alex witt and hallie jackson for helping us out. we appreciate it. with that being said, "morning joe" starts right now. >> i didn't do the project. i decided nod to do the project. so i didn't do it. so we're not talking about doing a project. we're talking about not doing a project. that was a project that we didn't do. i didn't do. i decided ultimately not to do it. this was a deal that didn't happen. that was no deal. it was an option that i decided not to do. we had a position to possibly do a deal to build a building of some kind in moscow. i decided not to do it. >> the president's former fixer pleased guilty on a charge of lie to go congress about a plan for a trump tower in moscow. th

. >>> still to come, axios's jonathan swan has a look at this morning's one big thing.dent trump making his final push in the final day of the elections. the president continues to stoke fears over immigration while the recent pipe bomb mailings have hurt republican chances. "morning joe" is just moments away. plaque psoriasis can be relentless. tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. before starting tremfya® tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. ask your doctor about tremfya®.

jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios and of hbo fame. kimberly atkins, washington bureau chief for the boston herald, white house reporter for the ap, jonathan lemere and rev al sharpt orngs president of the national action network. i know you know president trump so you're never as shocked as i am when he says out loud and in public some things that, you know, that -- i read that report from "the new york times." you now have gop operatives saying two newspaper reporters that -- when we lose the house, not if, it will be because, in part because of donald trump's closing message. >> i think that clearly it will be in part. when you look at the fact that some independent voters, suburban voters, that may have been leaning their way do not want to be identified with this kind of divisive and polarizing kind of politics, he has single handedly done what a lot of the republican candidates and operatives has feared. he has delivered the vote against them. and i think that he has done it aggressively. what is so shocking to people that don't k

joining me tonight, jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios. an salama, white house reporter for the wall street journal. jonathan lemire, white house reporter for the associated press. and seung min kim, white house reporter for the washington post an a cnn political analyst. here's what the president told reporters insid the oval office today. >> i was asked a series of questions. i answered tm very easily. very easily. you have always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad ntentions. there should haver been any mueller investigation because there was never anything done wrong. there was no collusion. never has been. you would have known about i a long time ago if there was. >> jonathan, what's the scope of the questions that the president is actually prepao answer here? >> what we've seen today is the return of the special counsel, who has been working behind the scenes for months but publicly tamped down ahead of the midterms. these questions, a series of negotiations between the white house lawyers and speci

with a look at axios, the man himself, jonathan swan. morning. what is axios' one big thing? >> we're calling it the conservative comfort trap. conservative mania, this is something that we've been noticing for the some time. conservative media pose a surprising risk to trump. while fox news opinion shows and other outlets provide unstintingly glowing coverage about this, the interviews that he does often open him up to some of his more substantial risks. he let's down his guard, he's in his comfort zone and he says ill advised things. we saw that again this week with the daily caller in the oval office. a reporter from the daily caller threw trump a seemingly harmless question about mat matt whitaker. if whitaker goes through a senate nomination, democrats are going to bring this up as evidence that trump links his appointment to the mueller investigation. we've seen it time and between. >> jonathan, how do you gauge the reaction or the reaction to the president when he does these interviews? is he helping himself or is he hurting himse

jonathan swan, thank you as well.ng joe" the white house looks for a roundabout way to ease pressure on saudi arabia over the assassination of "washington post" writer jamal khashoggi. and career officials at the justice department are furious. >> their plan is so grotesque, it actually, it is as you know, i'm not shocked by much any more coming out of the trump administration. in fact, he's actually becoming a parody of himself, but this plan is so grotesque it even shocks me. >> we'll explain that. plus tom brokaw joins the conversation. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. ight back. insurance that won't replace the full value of your new car? you'd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that. with liberty mutual new car replacement, we'll replace the full value of your car. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ - mwith the best ofodi, the prespressure cooking andsps, air frying all in one. with our tendercrisp technology, you can quickly cook food, juicy on the i

rudy giuliani told jonathan swan that he doesn't think mueller will follow this up with a subpoena.uestions about whether or not the president object vukted justice which is a big potential issue for mueller. but rudy giuliani tells us that he thinks the special counsel would not win that battle, which would go on for months. so he said the special counsel has not made any commitment, that he won't delve in there, that the president's legal team is expressing confidence after handing over these answers to questions. they were so convoluted, rudy said it was like a law school exam. >> wait. so you said that he doesn't necessarily -- this is according to rudy giuliani -- think that mueller is going to come back with a subpoena. but could he come back with an e-mail or more written questions and say i need a clarification on question two, question six, question eight. >> absolutely the the special counsel could do that. there's no agreement otherwise. and there's other topics he could even delve into. but rudy, in this long conversation last night, sounded pretty confident. he said he

my thanks to jonathan swan, kimberly atkins, jonathan lemi e lemire, and elise jordan. i'm going to be at work. i'm going to be here. that does it for this hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts now. >> you got that right. the 96 hours. get ready. >> i'm going to watch it on my phone. >> get ready to get sedated. thank you, nicolle. happy friday. >> if it's friday, 96 hours to go. and i want to be sedated. >> good evening. i'm chuck todd, not joey ramon here in miami, florida. four days to go, and we begin with a question of enormous importance for tuesday. does the president's rhetoric on immigrants save the senate for republicans or backfire. it feels like a day of rhetoric, who vowed to end birthright citizenship. he's sent 5,000 troops to the border and wants to send more. he paints democrats as complicit in murder and on and on. you're looking live at the president holding a rally in west virginia where he continues to push the immigration issue. >> democrats want to totally open the borders. they have the caravans. let them in. you want to let them in? does

thank you, jonathan swan. we'll see you on "morning joe" in just a little bit. to sign up for the newsletter,s as well, th and do it. >> "morning joe," everyone, starts right now. >> i guess i always thought 1968 would be the most memorable years of my career, the deaths of robert kennedy and martin luther king, the democratic national convention in chicago, of course, but 1989, think about what we have witnessed this year on the joyful side of the ledger. tiananmen square. the democracy movement is not yet dead. and then what has been going on on the communist world on both sides of this wall climax what has happened here tonight. the wall effectively has come down. and i mean physically, as well. that's a chunk of the berlin wall. men and women atop the wall tonight, hammer and chisel, taking it down symbolically because, realistically, it has taken down by the people in the last eight hours or so. they are crossing this wall, east to west and west to east. they are being joined once again as one, as freedom loving people, and no law can stand in their way. it

jonathan swan my friend and colleague says don't trust any of these rumors until you see it in writingappointed, the first story is when is he out. >> who is definitely not in consideration for this job? >> mick mulvaney, the budget director. he's not interested in it. he's happening doing his budget office work. what he may be interested in, if there's additional cabinet shake-ups, moving into one of those additional cabinet positions. >> what happened with this dust up with melania trump? what is going on here? do we know why this happened, if she is on her had way out? >> we know as you reported there was some tension on that trip with his foreign counsel. this is very much sort of striking a very strong tone also in the white house. i think she clashed with the first lady. i thought that treat twt president with, the statement from the first lady's office was something i've never seen. but it reminded me, do you know done reigan and nancy reagan, don't get in a fight with the first lady because you will lose. >> the president floated that he would be his own chief of staff. is that

constitutionally prescribed senate advise and consent role with that bring in our panel and start there jonathan swanaxios. mara liasson national political correspondent of "national public radio" and mollie hemingway senior editor at "the federalist." okay, jonathan, how concerned are they of the white house about the whitaker, this effort on a constitutional grounds legally and where he stands. >> i don't get the sense they are concerned at all. what they are concerned about is there is a body of opinion inside the white house that he is going to be very difficult, if not impossible to confirm. there are people that argue that but the president is very happy with matt whitaker, privately has been basically gushing about him. he has used the word courage to describe him. thinks he has been very strong and what trump likes is that he hasn't recused himself. he hasn't stepped down and that he is holding the line. so, trump is very, very happy with matt whicialght, whether that means he will end up being a permanent appointment i wouldn't go that far. i think it's much more likely he is not. but, trump

interview with president trump from our sunday group, former republican congressman jason chaffetz, jonathan swanite house for axios, former democratic congressman edwards. jonathan, i was struck by a lot that the president said, first, he really seems to be closing the door to any interview with robert mueller, he said probably it's finished and he seemed to be opening the door to possible oversight of mueller by the new acting attorney general mat whitaker? >> this is the first time i've ever heard him acknowledge on the record what has seem to all of us to be reality which is that there was no intention of him sitting down. we heard for months that he wanted to, trump said publicly that he wanted but his team really didn't want to, that's the first time i ever heard him basically shut the door to that and with whitaker it's interesting, i don't know that it's credible when he told you that he wasn't aware of the statements that whitaker had made about robert mueller but it seems that trump is very happy with him in his job and i think it was notable that he sort of let it open that he could, y

>> this is scoop from jonathan swan. scenes that he admires the courage of matt whitaker. lewis was just telling us about that lawsuit from the senate democrats who were saying that he was illegally unconstitutionally appointed. there will continue to be criticism of him. the senate democratic leader chum schumer said there were conflicts of interest and said that his repeated attacks on the mueller investigation disqualified him. why it matters, now matt whitaker is in charge of the mueller investigation. what we're hearing behind the scenes is the president likes the fact that matt whitaker is standing up to these attacks and the highlighting of his past statements about mueller. the president likes that and he's going to keep him there for a while. our reporting shows the president had likes the acting attorney general status and so may well leave him there for a while. they know it will be tough to confirm anybody else. >> let's talk a bit about that. there are a number of names being floated around of who might fill

what jonathan swan is told is that the president still believes in his car the tariffs work.ultimately help the u.s. economy. very few economist agree with that, but we had look at this interview and it doesn't look like he expects any break through at the summit and a break through would be anything that would give the u.s. an excuse to pull back from the planned economic tariffs. >> so take the economists aside for a minute. is there anyone in the president's orbit who says, look, when you have the soybean farmers who are a part of your base, this could be politically bad for you come 2020. is there anybody saying that? >> there are. but there are certain things this president will not be convinced of this and is maybe at the top of the list. and you're right as they take a look at 2020. but this is something for the president that is theology, not economics. >> climate change is another thing he doesn't seem to believe in right now. >> that's a whole other thing. >> either way. >> i wish we had time for that one. but we're out of time. thank you for being here. >> of cours

jonathan swan for sneak peek talked to senator lindsey graham who as we've seen repeatedly on the show lindsey graham said that he and other senators are going to push for a hearing this week to find out if it's really true that the cia says that they have high confidence that this was ordered by the crown prince and that the saudis were indeed -- did premed tate the death. he says if it turns out that as the media has reported the cia has high confidence in this, he will push for sanctions on the saudis. he said we can't be an ally, can't do business with someone if they are this crazy. so this is a notable shift from the president by one of his biggest backers, going to be a huge story this week. >> going to be interesting down in buenos aires that's for sure. thank you, mike. we will be reading axios a.m. in just a minute. >> in the simulation room. >> all of you can sign up at axios.com. "morning joe" starts right now. >> i'm very prepared, i've been preparing for it all my life. it's not like, oh, gee, i'm going to sit down and study, i know every ingredient, i know it every stat,

joining us now, national political reporter for axios jonathan swan and analyst susan dell percio.usan, this is a piece to the puzzle. do you believe there's more to come here? >> i believe there's a lot more to come. whenever mueller comes out with something, he's about six months to a year ahead of all of us and what we know. not only do i think this is a piece of the puzzle, but we're going to see where donald trump's business and political entities start to crash and mesh and is there an issue and how it affects his relationship with russia. but i think that mueller has a lot more to show than just the russia collusion issue. i think his finances will be under scrutiny. >> what is the level of concern, panic this morning in the white house? >> so a few things there. one is that trump, when he's with his aids privately, projects the same bravado and breezy confidence. it's a witch-hunt. there aren't these private moments where he said, oh, i worry it might be perjury. all what said, he was frustrated and agitated about it and you could see that publicly. the questions being aske

jonathan swan and co-founder an managing editor of "the beat d.c.," tiffany cross. i was going to talk about donny deutsch being a legendary ad man and marketsing guru but he showed a picture last hour that i couldn't shake from my mind. i fear it may haunt me for the better part of the weekend. >> if you're having breakfast push the bowl aside for just a moment here. that's donny deutsch, guys, no easy way to say that. that's donny deutsch in 1980 on "the match game." >> i won "the match game" with betty white. i have my epstein from "welcome back kotter." >> did you get dates during this period? >> amazing. i think they were pity dates. people felt bad for me. sad part that was the peak of my tv career. >> you won five grand that day in 1980. >> with a 43-year-old betty white. joe, just a little escapism. >> and so now, of course, willie he's evolved from that to wearing tight black baby gap t-shirts. so quite an evolution p.m. so let me, john heilemann, let me go to you. we had the great steve kornacki, the legendary steve kornacki who has become a national icon,

. >>> president trump sat down recently for a wide ranging interview with japan and jonathan swan froms they were discussing regulating big tech giants. >> what about looking into it? >> i have so many people saying that but it's certainly something that we have looked at. >> would you ever break them up? >> they were talking about this years ago. they were actually talking about this same subject monopoly years ago long before i was in office. >> do you think you're the man to do it >> a lot of people thought it was going to happen. >> you're in charge. >> i am in charge. i am definitely in charge. >> this is antitrust >> ain't trust, yes. >> for amazon? >> for all three >> mike allen is here executive editor from axios. congratulations on the show last night. >> thank you. >> i had a couple of questions one on the show or in relation to the show. did you believe that was an offhand comment or do you think he's actually really looking at amazon >> no, you talk to people behind the scenes, the president has been talking about this for a long time. the way that axios originally broke th

yesterday in a phone interview with jonathan swan, senator lindsey graham said he is going to push forider briefing he said if it turns out that it's true that the media reporting is accurate, that the cia has high confidence that this was ordered by the crown prince, he said he's going to push for sanctions on saudi arabia he said we can't do business with someone who's that crazy. >> and what do you think the prospect is that that moves ahead? because there are a lot of businesses obviously in the united states that do business with saudi that would be huge implications for the future of saudi and oil and everything else. >> absolutely. the chances of intel for congress are high. the fact that there are republican house and senate pushing for this is the surprising part. so president trump has a lot of work to do either to recalibrate what he's saying publicly or to convince the house and senate not to leave. >> mike allen, thank you >> thank you. >>> when we return, crude prices ticking higher this morning, but still down more than 20% just in the last month. >>> we'll talk about th