aaron blake, how does this end? >> that point is completely pertinent to this.tter idea how this ends if the president had a perception of how he wanted it to end. he didn't offer goalstarted. he basically said, congress, you pass it, and then he decided what he was going to do. even coming out of a meeting with senate republicans today, there was reporting that said he really didn't tell them exactly what he wanted out of this and how firm of a line to draw. it's much more difficult for the senate and for the house to deal with these things if they don't know what is being required for the president to put his signature on that dotted line. >> i want to ask you about mick mulvaney's role in all this. keep going, though. >> i just think if the president had come out and said right away, $5 billion is my red line, if it's less than that, i'm not signing, republicans would have approached this differently. they wouldn't have gotten so close to the end, and they might have had a better outcome. the fact that that is waiting so long till the end means nobody really

i'm joined by shawna thomas, aaron blake again.just hearing from ambassador john bolton, while russia still holds these ukrainian vessels, there will be no trump putin meeting. shawn na, you're also looking at foreign policy today? >> definitely listening to chris murphy, i also talked to senator rand paul who's one of the people pushing this yemen saudi arabia resolution, he also thinks it's going to pass today, which is a rebuke of saudi arabia, it's a message to the president, and it's also one of those things, while it is symbolic and rand paul admitted it's symbolic. >> in the diplomatic world having the senate, the u.s. senate say hey, saudi arabia, we are not going to help you anymore in yemen does actually have power: there's a reason why saudi arabia has lobbyists here. they're paying attention. >> that's true. >> aaron you're focusing on something we talked about earlier in the show. allen weisselberg. >> it was the name that came up in the tape that we played of michael cohen's conversation with president trump. on that

aaron blake is also with me.en, through this interview comey implied that there were many loose ends. one of which being evidence of obstruction of justice. take a listen. >> the obstruction statute requires a specific corrupt intent. so we had evidence of obstruction that he needed to investigate further. one of our problems was what would the investigation look like? you're alone. if there are tapes that solves the problem of the investigation. because it's not my word against his. i wrote a memo. that's great. if it's a tape, i know what will be on that tape. >> following weeks of legal experts, analyzing the president's latest tweets, your reaction to that. >> yeah. i mean, it is true that there's a little bit of a he said he said here, but we don't have to look a whole lot further than the action that led comey to be where he is right now which is his firing to see the potential building blocks of an obstruction case. the question as to whether trump actually asked comey to go easy on or let the flynn invest

aaron blake, your reporting has been tremendous on this.tinue to track your reporting as we continue to understand what happened with this. thank you so much, aaron. >>> right now, congress is considering cutting support of the horrific war in yemen. the debate under way right now. >>> plus, there's still no plan to avoid a government shutdown avoid a government shutdown. where that stands as the funding deadline looms. you're watching msnbc. sometimes the best time is time you make for yourself. aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion improves skin hydration in just 1 day. and for twice the moisture, try the body wash, too. aveeno® naturally beautiful results® so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free. discover.o. and fearlessly devours piles. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them.

. >> joining me now is aaron blake, "the washington post" senior political reporter. have you. >> thank you. >> it does seem as though lindsey graham and marco rubio were caught offguard in this. >> that is very much in keeping with how the president generally handles these kinds of things. this is something that didn't necessarily come out of nowhere, this is something the president has talked about or reported to have been talking about for a while. ta it's also the kind of thing where these republican senators will occasionally be able to talk the white house out of certain things or express their real disagreements with the president. i think it actually kind of goes back in some ways to the jamal khashoggi situation where a lot of these republican senators very uncomfortable with this, didn't understand what the white house was doing, and, you know, as much as it's difficult for them to call into question what a united states president is doing, they view these issues as being significant enough where they're willing to actually go to that level and risk the poten

senior political reporter aaron blake. here at the table, msnbc political analyst elise jordan, david jolly, a former member of the republican party who served in congress from the great state of florida, and our legal duo to help kick off the show. harry litman and paul butler. what is that? i mean, it's sort of like my cousin vinnie meets, you know -- i mean, i don't know what that was. >> about giuliani? >> yeah. >> it was a little perplexing, right? because, of course, it's a crime depending on what stone is telling him about. we already know there's a crime. the crime has to do with a conspiracy to -- with russians who have already been indicted. and to hack podesta's e-mails. and if stone knows about it and is dropping the hint or coordinating with donald trump, that's not like saying there's something in "the new york times," which is what the way giuliani has put it. in general, i think nobody, even giuliani now is trying to defend the president on the merits and all you're hearing are these kinds of defenses. some

joining mess now is aaron blake, with "the washington post," and brennan, a former prosecutor. ow much the transcript to argentina is being at least somewhat affected by this news in d.c. i also keep bringing this back to the nato summit a few months ago where the president was kind of a bull in a china shop, constantly making news, really being the center of attention. that's not been the case in this summit. he has been a bit player. that had change today. he haus a high-profile meeting with president xi, but for a guy who likes to be the center of attention, like to make a ruckus on the world stage, he's been pretty quiet today. >> he declared, though, the reason for cancels the meeting with vladimir putin was the ukraine situation, not the comen plea deal. is that clear that was the case? >> i don't think the two are mutually exclusive. i think it's possible they're both playing a role here. certainly when it comes to the relationship with russia, there have been times regularly where the administration has brought him into check and prevailed upon him to take certain action

the washington post journalist aaron blake sums them up in his twitter post. quote, what william barr has said, more clinton probes needed, uranium one more worthy of investigation than collusion. comey firing was a-ok. mueller team's donations are too left leaning. it's okay for presidents to request specific investigations. >>> now, barr was there just days ago on the steps of the u.s. capitol alongside some big republican names when the body of president bush, his former boss, arrived to lie in state in the rotunda. barr is a new yorker by birth who worked first for ronald reagan before 41 made him attorney general. with us to talk about all of it, tamara keith, white house correspondent for npr and kathryn lucy, white house reporter for the associated press. >>> all right, tamara, you go first. this is, in your view, the real deal or a lighter than air trial balloon? >> well, one trump insider i talked to today said he wasn't convinced that this is going to stick because president trump likes loyalists. he likes people he knows. and he doesn't know barr. n

also here with us, katherine lucy, reporter for the associated press, aaron blake. joyce, let me start with you. let me start with what john kennedy, senator from louisiana, said this morning related to the mueller investigation. listen. >> talk's cheap. i know no overt steps to interfere with mr. mueller, nor should there be, to impede his investigation. mr. mueller is moving along now at a very rapid pace. we're going to know more. if somebody did something wrong, punish them for the rest of their natural life if it's appropriate. prosecute them. he seems to be moving quickly now. i'm happy with that. let's get this thing wrapped up. >> senator kennedy is making the point, things are moving. what's your expectation for what we'll see over the next 24 hours? >> mueller looks like he has taken on a new phase in this operation. under doj policy, there was this slowdown period for about 60 days ahead of the midterm elections but now three key defendants are moving forward and at least so far because there's a lot more to come this week, the most interesting details we

your colleague aaron blake tweeted this. he said more clinton probes are needed. uranium one is more worthy of investigation than collusion. he said the comey firing was a-okay. that mueller's teams doanations are too left leaning and it's okay for presidents to request specific investigations. those are outside the mainstream, i think, of even republican legal thought. chris christie at least is against a few of those. shep smith at fox thinks uranium one is hokey-pokey. i guess that's what makes william barr such a strong candidate for attorney general in trump's mind. >> he doesn't have a personal relationship with president trump. but it raises questions about governor christie's relationship with the trump white house. a lot of my top sources have always said christie, even though he was the front-runner for ag, he was really a long shot for ag because of his tensions with jared kushner and ivanka trump. as we remember, prosecuted kushner's father. that's always been a cloud over the relationship. everyone has happy talk and says that's been papered over and

joining us, aaron blake. what is that? what was that? what was that? >> wishful thinking?ke rudy from lunch, cocktail lunch? that was weird. >> they have this desire to constantly be arguing if we knew if through their was something damning here it would be out there. they've been arguing this about collusion. if they had collusion, we'd know about it. >> isn't the opposite true? if you were innocent, it would be over by now? >> of course, robert mueller is assembling a case. he wants to make sure until he needs to tell things to tell things. that's the reason we saw those redactions in the memo last night we were all waiting for to find out really important things and hope there would be something that would give us more. he served notice that he is not prepared to show his hand right now. he's not going to do that until he feels like he has to. and there's a very good reason for him not to do that at this point. >> frank, you want to help explain what that reason is? >> because if you show your hand too early, people are going to change stories and be able to, like, subm

. >> and aaron blake has a great piece. everything he tweets about the wall is a lie. he's on six sides. he says mexico will pay for it. he says the wall has already been built. he has got his base so confused around this issue that i think there's some concern among his political allies and outside advisers that this issue will not be what it was for him two years ago. >> nor should it be. >> if he can't deliver on his central promise, then, yeah, there are -- i'm not -- i don't disagree with laura ingraham or ann coulter because this was the promise. if you can't deliver on even that, then what good are you? >> he underestimates his own ability to get through these thickets of contradictions and lies being exposed. it's very easy for him. we've seen him do it on health care. just blame congress. even if it's controlled by republicans. i've talked to i don't know how many trump reporters at their rallies when they say i don't like everything he says or i don't believe he's going to do everything. but -- and then they roll out why they like him. they are always finding

kim atkins, charlie sykes, and aaron blake. thank you. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. high, chuck. >> nicolle -- >> i'm like is he ready? it's before 5: >> i almost needed the seven-second delay button. it would have been me and mazie hirono. but then u.s. senators say anything these days, right? well, if it's friday, is this the beginning of the end of what we have known as the trump presidency? >>> good evening. i am chuck todd here in washington. at this hour there's chaos in the white house, at the pentagon, and, yes, on capitol hill. thanks to one person, the president. and we're going to bring you the latest on all of it. oh, and by the way, the stock market just had its worst week in ten years with the nasdaq in bear market territory. welcome to what is going to be one hell of an hour here at "mtp daily" as we build towards the possibility that history will see this moment after the jim matt mattis resignation repudiation as part perhaps the beginning of the end of this presidency. we have news from capitol hill

. >>> i want to bring in now abiga abigail and aaron and blake let's take a listen. >> he said he is ready to receive a counter offer. it has been many days since the house passed border security. the steel slats the president has tweeted about and talked about. >> we are certainly prepared to provide additional funding, drones, satellites, sensor, cell phone towers and things the experts indicated would improve our border security. we want to enhance the ability of our officials to conduct themselves in a humane fash sio. >> what's the hold up based on what we are hearing from them? >> the fact that we are talking about $5 billion in funding is relative when you're talking about funding the government. it is a philosophical question about whether that money should be use today build a border wall. i think it is sbretsing the democrats are facing right here. we have seen them become timid as far as talking about things like impeachment, was yusing hi as a campaign issue. he is urging his democratic colleagues not to counter offer, basically let it draw out and let the president own t