ashley parker, as i said before we wnt ent to break, has two bylines in the "post qubt" abou pence. , if you think the line pence is trying to walk is something the president understands. i mean, does the president just see the loyal soldier or do you think the president sees someone trying to be all things? trying to have the president's back, but also preserve his own political brand? >> as of now, i think the president just sees loyal soldier. i think it would be very problematic for the vice president if president trump saw anything other than that. that's one of the reasons, for instance, you know, when the president came under all this fire, there was all of this talk about, you know, the president pence, what would that mean, what would that look like? speaker paul ryan was even asked about it at a conference. and the vice president and his team tamp that down ferociously. both publicly and privately. and in reporting both of these stories, one thing that's interesting is that the vice president's loyalty, while he does, of course, want to protect himself and be strategic and

ashley parker, a white house parker for "the washington post," ken dilanian and kasie hunt who covers capitol hill for us. ken, i want to start with you. i wonder in light of comey's testimony last week and his answers about jeff sessions, it seems to suggest to me that he knew exactly why jeff sessions had recused himself from the russia investigation. if you think that the senate intel committee will be in possession of the same information by the end of the day tomorrow? >> well, we know they already are because after that public testimony, james comey went behind closed doors and briefed the senate intelligence committee. our sources are telling us that he discussed this april 2016 event at the mayflower hotel and talked about some reporting that the fbi and the intelligence community is aware of that suggested there may have been a private encounter. now, jeff sessions denies through a spokesperson has denied that there was any private encounter at that meeting between him and the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak. what i'm watching for tomorrow is whether he's going to repeat t

to robert kosta, to ashley parker, jeremy bash. i want to show you an l.a. times headline that william randolph hurst himself would look back on and perhaps be happy with. we have it, i swear we have it. i just saw it. anyway, we'll come back. there it is. that's how the l.a. times are portraying tomorrow's testimony. trump's loyalty demand. a viewers's guide. >>> welcome back to our broadcast. when you think about it, prior to today we were going on leaks, which became pres reports about what james comey saw and said and was told during his meetings with the president. what he rushed to write down afterwards. now we have james comey's words and memories on paper. by this time tomorrow night, if it we're still standing, we will have heard james comey in his own words under questioning from the senate intelligence committee. so we have brought in the big guns to game out what the questioning might look like in the morning, perhaps what it should sound like. former chief spokesman for the department of justice, a justice and security analy, mikko, back with us

to robert kosta, to ashley parker, to jeremy bash. i want to show you an l.a. times headline that william randolph hurst himself would look back on and perhaps be happy with. that's how the "l.a. times" is portraying it. trump's loyalty demand. on september 9, 2010, pg&e learned a tragic lesson we can never forget. this gas pipeline ruptured in san bruno. the explosion and fire killed eight people. pg&e was convicted of six felony charges including five violations of the u.s. pipeline safety act and obstructing an ntsb investigation. pg&e was fined, placed under an outside monitor, given five years of probation, and required to perform ,000 hours of community service. we are deeply sorry. we failed our customers in san bruno. while an apology alone will never be enough, actions can make pg&e safer. and that's why we've replaced hundreds of miles of gas pipeline, adopted new leak detection technology that is one-thousand times more sensitive, and built a state-of-the-art gas operations center. we can never forget what happened in san bruno. that's why we're work

i am joined by ashley parker. she co-wrote that article we were just reading from. and the author of the making of donald trump. and republican strategist who is ath author. yesterday, the news was, and donald trump was saying in this interview, suggesting he had been trying to send a message to james comey when he put tweet out raising the possibility of having tapes. now these comments he's making in this interview about the special counsel, about robert mueller. is there, the white house is saying no intent to fire. he does have the right to do so. what kind of message is he trying to send here? >> that has been the line, you're right. that has been the consistent message from the white house on robert mueller specifically. let me update you on specific news. we now have the response from the white house to the house intelligence committee who as you will remember, had asked for any sort of relevant materials related to potential recordings that donald trump may have had of these conversations with james comey. the deadline was today, close of business. it is now

joining our conversation, two reporters covering washington, ashley parker, who reporter for the "washingtonpost," and jeremy peters, political reporter for the "new york times." foregive me, some problems on our end. ashley, let's go to the potential firing of mueller. this has been our ongoing headline for what, 24 hours now. spokeswoman tonight said the president has no intention of firing the special counsel. how long is an answer like that valid for with an unpredictable president like this? >> i think -- you know, ever since president trump's friend chris rudy first floated that idea publicly and sort of set off a bombshell, you know, in washington at this point is getting use today's bombshells, that has been a question the president has been getting. he personally hasn't weighed in. i think at least until he personally weighs in and we hear it from his mouth that will continue to be a question especially because sarah huckabee sanders' response was he has no intention of doing it, but he certainly has the right to do. that's sort of a no but not definitive. >> jeremy, your colleague

to robert kosta, to ashley parker, to jeremy bash. i want to show you an l.a.es headline that william randolph hurst himself would look back on and perhaps be happy with. we have it, i swear we have it. i just saw it. anyway, we'll come back. there it is. that's how the l.a. times are portraying tomorrow's testimony. trump's loyalty demand. a viewers's guide. hey ron! they're finally taking down that schwab billboard. oh, not so fast, carl. ♪ oh no. schwab, again? index investing for that low? that's three times less than fidelity... ...and four times less than vanguard. what's next, no minimums? ...no minimums. schwab has lowered the cost of investing again. introducing the lowest cost index funds in the industry with no minimums. i bet they're calling about the schwab news. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. whuuuu

let's get the inside scoop from "the washington post" white house reporter ashley parker, co-author oftory. and msnbc contributor, sam stein. >> hello. >> thank you both. is this for the lawyers to try to restrain him so he doesn't do more tajikistan damage damage o? >> partially, yes. the goal in this was encouraged by some of the senior advisers within the west wing to help the president compartmentalize the rusch investigation. the thinking if he has a morning call and takes through strategy which he need to do legitimately and gets a chance to vent and get out his frustration. by the time he shows up for work oval office he is focusing on the day's agenda. sometimes it's not working and enhangs up a call and send out a tweet about the russia probe still occupying his mind. >> sometimes. let's just talk about yesterday. the senate republicans were unveiling health care with, you know, great fan fare, if not a whole lot of scrutiny. the tweet storm from the white house was all about russia because he was watching jeh johnson or something else. or cable news. and so one after another

ashley parker, washington post white house reporter and msnbc contributor, and nbc's katy tur who is joining us from new york right now. we'll get everybody involved. i want to begin with you ashley. we heard the position of joe and mika. i think what's interesting is the reporting you have and what i experienced behind the scenes in the way the white house frames this fight. what are you hearing about how the white house views this? >> there are some tweets as we both know you have administration officials kind of groaning and wondering how are we going to manage this. the white house thinks this war with the media hasn't been a bad thing. possibly it's been good. they went to war with cnn, cnn was force today backtrack on a -- >> president tweeted multiple times. >> one thing i heard was the only frustration i heard about this tweet was that it sort of stepped on their other war with cnn. but they think going to war with the media is a good thing. you know, it distracted a bit from energy week, of course. i don't think they're pulling their hair out over it. >> let me ask you, three

at the white house white house, "washington post" reporter ashley parker. peter, since you're truly on deadline, want to get back to what you're working on, talk to me about the piece you wrote over the weekend, it brought me back to my times at the white house where you never harkined for a day when you lived through a terrorist attack but in normal white houses you wait for all the facts to come in. that's not what we saw on twitter from this president and no apologies from the white house podium today. >> no, it's interesting, you right, when the terrorist attack happens the ushl usual response from the president is resolve in the face of the threat. you saw some of that from president trump over the weekend when london faced the latest attack but very quickly pivoted, actually even from the start, into, you know, making political points about his travel ban, and as you said, to go on the attack against the mayor of london. you know, republicans, democrats alike, found that somewhat perpl perplexing. he mischaracterized what the mayor of london said. you

week on pbs and phillip rocker for the washington post, by the way, it was robert and phillip and ashley parker who wrote and reported tonight's washington post piece. we welcome eric warner to the broadcast. robert, is it too early to do what the pentagon calls the battle damage assessment and sums up what has happened here today. >> it is many leader mcconnell's hands to figure out if he can get moderates of senator murko murkowski. he needs more time and this is a problem of the nate, tweaking how the waives happen and different aspect to be changed. >> phillip, your headline asks the question of who's afraid of trump, i would like to hear what you uncover along the way. >> the answer is nobody. not enough republicans for now. a lot of presidents in order to be successful in history have been feared and revered. there is a consensus forming here in washington from republican fixers that bob and ashley and i have been talking to all the times is trump is neither. the president is not able to govern with the hammer on capitol hill with the senate and to be able to dictate the term of what's do

and ashley parker is a white house reporter. thank you for joining us.heck here, do we know who is in charge at the state department? is the secretary of state allowed to pick the assistants for those posts or does the white house staff get to do it? >> it is a combination. he went in with an understanding that he would be able to operate autonomously. that he would be able to pick his own staff. there have been stove pipe block. the white house has vetoed his choices, because they were democrats or some people had been critical of the president during the campaign. and by the same token, the white house is incredibly frustrated that some of these political positions they've sent over, some of these ambassadorships they think are sitting on his desk and not getting signed. >> but tunneled hillary situation, the deal she cut with president obama, she got to pick all the top people with the exception of sid blumenthal. a person who caused trouble with obama. yet obama got to pick all the top, juicy ambassadorships. this is really amateur and an example acr

back to that story that my colleagues, bob costa, ashley parker and phil rucker published tonight, that atmosphere inside the white house, and you know i think for the -- for the people working there probably the most ominous part of that story is that president trump is determined to engage with comey's testimony and to react in some way whether or not he live tweets it or not is -- you know that's unclear. but clearly he wants to be sort of forward leaning in all of this. and as long as you're telling him is a bad idea his communications people telling him it's a bad idea. it's horrible idea. he got elected president by doing the opposite of what smart veterans told him to do. and his take in that lesson forward -- but that doesn't always work. and it's not working now. >> we're going to ask members of the panel to stand by, fit in a break we we come back. we will look at the people around in president right now and whether any of those faces are apt to change. your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatmen

for more on this, i have brought in ashley parker. eli and the gang are still here at the table. nder what you think from jared's sort of team's world view what they think when they see a legal surrogate who's not working inside the government and who's not working inside the white house communications operation get tangled up on fox news of all places over whether there is an investigation or isn't an investigation. obviously, jared's team his legal team is taking it very seriously, there may be one and they have some of the toughest and most experienced defense lawyers on board. does this complicate things for them? >> i don't think so. i mean, you're exactly right they already do have a very tough outside legal counsel, that they had retained i believe even before some of the russia probe and then as we have learned his team has taken steps to talk to other outside lawyers. i have been told they haven't made any decisions yet. but they're likely to bring someone else on. that's not someone who replaces current outside counsel jamie gorelick, but help, maybe someone with a bit m

with me ashley parker, white house reporter for the washington post who broke the story. ou for joining me. ashley, that is a good p.r. statement. we're happy to have this come to ui

. >> i want to bring in ashley parker, white house reporter from "the washington post" and an msnbc contributorlast part of that. ashley, i know we haven't heard from the white house yet but do you think this achieves the goal that the president had to make the senate bill less mean and to give it more heart than the house bill? >> well, i think the president has two goals. the first one was the stated behind closed door to give it more heart, less mean, and no, i don't think the cbo scores show that the senate bill is demonstrably different from the house bill and that may be tougher for the white house to mention. the second goal, however, which is always this president's top goal is to get a deal. and i do think that if he was faced with the option of being able to get the 50 votes necessary with vice president pence as a tiebreaker to pass the bill although it's a little mean by his own metrics, i think he'd choose the deal to move past health care and animate him more than he would to build a bill with more heart. >> let me read what i think was the president's attempt to give some cover i

by the way it was robert and phillip and ashley parker who wrote and reported tonight's "washington post" piece. we also welcome erica anwarer to the broadcaster, congressional reporter for the associated press. so, robert is it too early to do what the pentagon calls bda, the battle damage assessment and kind of sum up what has happened here just today? >> the republican agenda, particularly on health care remains stalled. it's in leader mcconnell's hands to figure out if he can get moderates snar from alaska and senator collins of may and along with senator cruz and lee. >> i was at the capitol all day. he needs more time and the president can be helpful to an extent. buts in a senate problem that has a senate solution about tweaking the medicaid provisions, about tweaking how the waivers happen. different aspects need to be changed. it doesn't take a phone call necessarily from the president. >> phillip your headline asks this. a question who is afraid of trump? i'd like to hear you riff on the answer and what you uncovered along the way. >> well, the answer is nobody, or not enough r

ashley parker, a white house parker for "the washington post," ken dilanian and kasie hunt who covers hill for us. ken, i want to start with you. i wonder in light of comey's testimony last week and his answers about jeff sessions, it seems to suggest to me that he knew exactly why jeff sessions had recused himself from the russia investigation. if you think that the senate intel committee will be in

you have a piece out this morning with our friend ashley parker talking about what the president is doingt want to say blow off steam, but tatalk about russia. early in the morning first thing when he wakes up making this phone call. >> yeah, there's a call that happens almost every day at 6:30 in the morning where he will get on the phone with one of his lawyers or pr strategists on the outside and informal call and they go over the headlines and they check in and he blows off some steam. it's a presidential venting session, if you will. the goal there is to get him to sort of filter through all of his russia thoughts early in the morning before he arrives in the oval office so that when he gets to work, he's focused on the agenda and governing. this government doesn't compartmentalize things that well. and it will bubble up either in tweets or have a rant about the media coverage or mueller and the investigation. it's a real problem for the white house to try to put its arm around. >> phil rucker over at the "washington post." thank you very much, hans nichols, thank you. >>> hang aroun

. >> joining me right now is ashley parker, reporter for "the washington post," and author of that article we were just talking about on climate. and ayesha rascoe. white house correspondent for reuters. i'll start with you since you wrote the piece. what -- these reasons, we don't know if he thinks there's a future for coal. he doesn't like europeans. he just doesn't seem to like them. he didn't like the handshake. he was upset that ivanka was running a campaign against him. he doesn't like macron, the handshake, and he likes bannon again. this is high school stuff. this isn't a reason to have a national policy against the world. >> well, the key thing is that the president had basically had his mind made up when he started this debate. and to be clear, it was a real debate. >> but he does change his mind. we're not moving our embassy in israel. he does open his mind sometimes. >> he changes his mind on a number of issues. but this was one in talking to his senior advisers, he said this on the campaign trail. he meant it. he's not particularly ideological but this is something he did beli

i'm joined by "washington post's" devlin barrett, glenn thrush, and ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post." thank you all. let me start with glenn and work across the table here. let's talk about this. "the washington post" is reporting tonight that the special counsel robert mueller is in fact focusing on the president not about the russian matter so much right now, but what about he did to quash the investigation, whether he -- i think it's about comey and what he tried to get comey to do, swear loyalty to him, end the investigation of the michael flynn, and ultimately fired the guy. are they the elements of this case? >> well, you know, as people have said before, it's often not the crime but the cover-up. and we knew generally that the comey -- his interactions with comey were problematrom an obstruction of justice poi of view. i'm not say he obstructed justice, but certainly worth investigating. what's novel about this story is they're also talking to dan coats, admiral rogers of the nsa and one of admiral rogers' deputies. i'm very intrigued to figure out wh

with me ashley parker, white house reporter for the washington post who broke the story. ashley, thank you for joining me. ashley, that is a good p.r. statement. we're happy to have this come to fruition and get handled quickly. but the fact he hired a lawyer is a stunner tonight. >> yeah, it certainly raises eyebrows. and also, you know, this is a white house where there is briefing for subpoenas. there is a risk when they see the vice-president hire lawyer all the down level aides will go scr scrambling for their own personal opportunity. it definitely resonated in the west wing. >> do you know why he did it? because he was head of the transition team. he was just a pro forma? you know, this is a very big difference from the night before. the fact the vice-president now has a personal lawyer on this. >> well, according to the vice-president's office, you know, he did it because he wants to sort of -- his duties as the vice-president, he will be facing inquiries to testimony, having to gather a lot of documents or e-mails. also this ongoing russia probe. as you mentioned,

. >> ashley parker from the "washington post."from "politico," a pleasure to have you. >> thank you. >>> we'll have much more on everything happening in washington and beyond the beltway when we come back. my name is barbara and i make dog chow natural. now that i work there, i value the food even more. i feed it to yoshi because there are no artificial colors, preservatives and it's made with real chicken. i'm so proud to make dog chow natural in davenport, iowa. whuuuuuat?rtgage offer from the bank today. you never just get one offer. go to lendingtree.com and shop multiple loan offers for free! free? yeah. could save thousands. you should probably buy me dinner. pappa's eatin' steak tonight. no. at lendingtree, shop and compare loan offers from top lenders and in just 5 minutes, you could save thousands. lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. i love date night. somebody's ruining it. yeah. well you could leave if you wanted to? "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. th

from ashley parker, philip rucker, and michael birnbaum. the pressure to remain in the climate accord came from all sides. chiefim cook and teslas elon musk. banca trump, the president's daughter host: they also note that at g7 summit, those leaders putting a lot of pressure on the president they also note wanting him to stay in it. they reported in the washington post that there was a quote from the new french president emmanuel macron after his meeting in the g7 summit after he talked about that white knuckle handshake where the french president called it a moment of truth that he was standing up to our president. apparently president trump read that, that galled him and then that was part of his decision-making to withdraw from this paris accord. is the ceo of tesla. he was serving on the president's economic council. council, he said yesterday in response to the president's decision, he is departing it. climate change is real, leaving paris is not good for america with the world. timr ceos have this to say, cook, the decision was wrong

. >> so my colleagues, bob costa, ashley parker and i have a big story coming out tonight on trump.his aides preparations for comey. he's angry. he's frustrated. he's defiant and he's spoiling for a fight. >> he'll get one. >> sources are telling me they're hearing crickets over who trump might pick as an fbi director. we know he pressed the restart button on this last week and it seems like he's not any closer to making a decision. >> i was on capitol hill today when senator corker found out about trump's tweets on qatar. he didn't really know what to say. he sat there silent for ten seconds. he kept asking us, the president? the president? he did this? it was mind blowing. >> corker is always trying to avoid -- he's very interesting to watch. you get the message the guy is not a big trump fan. anyway, thank you very much. when we return, let me finish tonight with trump watch. you're watching "hardball." hey dad, come meet the new guy. the new guy? what new guy? i hired some help. he really knows his wine. this is the new guy? hello, my name is watson. you know wine, huh? i ow tt

from ashley parker, philip rucker, and michael birnbaum.he pressure to remain in the climate accord came from all sides. chiefim cook and teslas elon musk. host: they also note that at g7 summit, those leaders putting a lot of pressure on the president to stay in the accord, wanting him to stay in, but they report in the "washington post," it was a quote from the new french president emmanuel macron after his meeting with the president where he talks about that white knuckle handshake, where the french president calls a moment of truth that he was standing up to our president, apparently, when president trump read that, a gall him and that was part of his decision-making to withdraw from this paris accord. elon musk is the ceo of tesla, and he was serving on the presidents economic council, he said yesterday in response to the president's decision, he is departing it. climate change is real, leaving paris is not good for america with the world. timr ceos have this to say, cook, the decision was wrong for our planet, apple is committed to fi