joining me now is philip rucker, deputy national editor for "the washington post" and msnbc politicaliley, president and ceo of the leadership conference on the civil and human rights who previously worked on the civil division of the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. thank you guys so much for joining me this evening. i'm usually hesitant to get into the this is the worst week ever for trump, but help put this in context for the audience. he had a special gambit, i'm going to get this special master and that's going to allow me to delay things but it seems like the special master hasn't really been on his side. is that a huge blow? was the special master trump's hail mary? is that what they're sort of saying in trump world or was this just another delaying tactic? >> it wasn't exactly a hail mary. but it was more than a delaying tactic. i think this was a strategy by trump and his legal team to try to gain an advantage in this investigation frankly. they thought that they could recommend as a special master someone who would be more beholden to what trump wants tha