from the washington post white house reporter ashley parker. and joyce advance, law professor at the university of alabama. peter baker, your piece landed like a thud this weekend in the west wing, i'm told. talk about how they are processing what is to many of them i'm sure the grim reality that the mueller probe is contrary to the pledges made by ty cobb and john dowd, far from over? >> yeah, no, it doesn't look like it's over any time soon. and i think in the white house they take some solace from the fact that so far none of these indictments and none of these guilty pleas have specifically pointed a finger at the president or the campaign in and of itself. but they have to wonder where it's leading to. what is bob mueller building a case toward? and it looks like he's moving up the chain. well, the chain only goes so far, where it ultimately ends up nobody knows. in the process of course many who have been around the president now are facing enormous trouble. legal trouble, lawyer bills and so on. that doesn't sit well obviously with the p

the aforementioned ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post." ashley, we're going to get to begin with you. you and i have been hearing many of the same things this evening. first of all, most notably is that kelly is likely -- likely i guess is what we're saying on his way out and talking about the leading candidate replacement this hour. >> that's exactly right. with all things involving this president the usual caveats apply, which is that until trump makes a decision no decision has been made. but there is a growing sense even from when we wrote that story to when i went home this evening and continued talking to sources that there's a sense within the white house that kelly cannot weather this storm. so the question is he out tomorrow, out this week, in a month or two? and that's the open question. but there's a sense he is not going to be able to make it as long as he said he has hoped. and part of that is being driven by the fact that the president's own aides and advisers and outside confidants and friends about who he should replace gen

ashley parker thanks for getting us started. when we come back, donald trump's memo obsession could have something to do with the fact that bob mueller is getting closer and closer to the president and his role in crafting a bogus story to explain why his son met with russians at trump tower. >>> also ahead, unpacking the right's propaganda campaign against top cops. how the latest developments reveal targets may have put him over the top in 2016. stay with us. oh, you brought butch. yeah! (butch growls at man) he's looking at me right now, isn't he? yup. (butch barks at man) butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. (laughs) (vo) you can never have too many faithful companions. that's why i got a subaru crosstrek. love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek. tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to time to bask... in low prices! find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. refreshing, isn't it?. tripadvisor. and sometimes, i don't eat the way i should. so, i drink boost. boost high protein n

washington post white house reporter ashley parker is also with us. joining us at the table, philip gump from the washington post, john heilman, nbc news and msnbc national affairs analyst. eddy, princeton university professor and msnbc contributor. and dave cohen is here, journalist and author of the book columbine. dave, let me start with you. i saw a note, your gut reaction. i don't know if it's been tempered at all. what did you think when you saw the president's comments this morning? >> infuriating because he gave a 7-minute kind of poem and didn't say anything he was going to do. that's not his job. actually list nings to him again now, i was reminded of something different. the morning after columbine, the first big assembly was light of the world church when they got together the first time. there were 20 different officials who spoke from the community, fire department, schools, blah, blah, blah, everything. the kids sat sort of stone faced and listened politely. you could just see them just kind of distraught that all the speeches were sort

ashley parker who will join us here in just a moment is the coauthor of tonight's piece. she and her colleague philip rucker and mike dossy write, quote, it has created an atmosphere of quiosreminiscent of the game of thrones staged early in the trump presidency. in the white house aides blame kelly for the bungling. he's began musings about possible replacements. and the post adds this quote, kelly is a big fat liar said one white house official who spoke on the anonymity to share a candid opinion. his handing of the scandal amounts dereliction of duty. a lot to get to here tonight. let's bring in our panel. we welcome to this broadcast bob bower, frank mantoya is back with us, former special agent in charge for the seattle division of the agency. he is served under fbi director comey and reported to of all things andrew mccabe. >>> and the aforementioned ashley parker. ashley, we're going to begin to get with you. you and i have been hearing many of the same things this evening. first of all, most notably is that kelly is likely -- likely i guess is what we're saying on

from the "washington post," white house reporter ashley parker. with us from harvard where he's a visiting law lecturer, juan z zerate. former deputy national security adviser to george w. bush. at the table, jonathan lamiere, associated press white house reporter. philip bump, "washington post" political reporter. z zerlina maxwell, now director of progressive programming for sirius xm. let me tell all the reporters at the table, feel free to look at your phones, take your calls and bring us any news you're hearing on this rather remarkable headline, ashley parker. jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, has been under scrutiny since minutes after the election was won for i think his very earliest contacts with foreign governments, as he sought to fill out all the background forms that anyone going to work in the white house fills out. the sf-86. the more extensive form, it's been amend ed countless times. his clearance attorney, jamie gerelik, who was a very senior democrat at the doj, has departed him. he's now represented by abbe lowell in

"washington post" white house reporter ashley parker. at the table with us, alyssa, former obama white house deputy chief of staff for operations. who could barely keep a straight face through all that. michael crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent politico. jim rutenberg with "the new york times." lydia pulgreen, editor in chief. let me start with you, that was sarah huckabee sanders taking on the art of the tease. what's she talking about, what's the new tough on russia news that the white house is holding back from you guys? >> yeah, we should all be investigating that. i don't know the answer to the question. i wish i did. look, you know, unpacking what she said there, it is true, of course, that there was criticism of what president obama did or did not do last year. including from some of his own, you know, former top aides who wish they had done more at the time, try to pressure him to do a little bit more. it's also true that he no longer is the president of the united states, and that what happened in 2016 under presiden

ashley parker? one more question to you. sorry to make you wait. >> no worries. >> we're looking at this white house and looking at the president. what happens if these kids walk out of that meeting and criticize him and say he wasn't listening or don't believe what he says? how does he react? >> that's another great question. it could go one of two ways. but what we've seen so far at least is that this is a president who is not particularly receptive to criticism and that sends him reeling in the other direction. if they take a model from members of congress, it's members who sort of publicly either praise him or delicate in their criticism, he's not going to respond well. doesn't mean they should not do it. they should do whatever it is they want to do and what they feel is most effective. but he doesn't respond well to getting publicly trashed. it will be interesting to see how the meeting goes, how these students and parents think the meeting goes and what they say publicly about it and what next steps that does or doesn

with us tonight, the afore mentioned ashley parker and jackie collins.shley, two questions one kind of rhetorical. remind us of how barack obama is guilty for not doing or saying enough after newtown and number two, this is not an issue this president wakes up in the morning knowing about. he doesn't have the usual institutional knowledge of the contours of an issue he tends to land in an issue, as is the case with this. >> that's exactly right. on your second question, this is a president who was born in queens and spent most of his adult life in manhattan, as his own aides pointed out to us, he doesn't come from a gun culture. part of that you saw today and over the past week is he would sort of float general ideas but offer no specifics or say maybe congress should do something. so he put himself in the center of the debate but without knowing where the exact fault lines were in the specifics of the policy. that said he has an incredibly fine tuned antenna for where the gun issue and where second amendment rights are culturally and out in the country.

joining me now is blouse reporter ashley parker who wrote that story. and julia.l me about the chaos of the past week, the porter resignation and all of the rest and what you were told in your reporting about how the white house was responding. >> sure. the past week, as we all know, was incredibly chaotic. they were dealing with rob porter and even know they haven't answered sort of basic questions about who knew what when. it was part they were dealing with renewed allegations of extramarital affairs involving the president when he was married to his third wife, melania. they were dealing with fnew cabinet secretaries spending too much on luxury travel for themselves. what happened was the horrible tragedy in florida occurred. i refocused away from all of the scandals and drama and onto something quite serious. that is what this staffer was trying to convey. the staffer used the words as a reprieve and distraction. he said the white house became focused on trying to handle the situation in florida rather than what they view is more trivial stuff such as affairs

ashley parker, let's switch gears. you took a trip with the president recently to asia.were kind of your take aways from that trip as far as where we are with north korea? there are these new sanctions but there may be conversations opening up. >> sure. it was a fascinating trip in part because the vice-president went there. ostensibly he was going to be at the winter olympics ceremony. all throughout the aides were telling the case he was not there to watch the games and cut a ribbon. he was there as this one man superhero to try to combat north korea's olympic efforts. it's an open question how successful he was, but almost every stop, he announced these sanctions that were coming. he met with north korean defectors. he toured the ship, the south korean ship that was torpedoed by the north in 2010. and i reported when we got back that it turned out when he left washington, he had known he was prepared to take a secret meeting with the north koreans. again, this was not opening up negotiations. his plan at the time was basically that he was -- the president believes in

i want to start with ashley parker who wrote that story, a top reporter for the "washington post" and political analyst. kris wilson a republican pollster cornell belcher. lesley stahl would call up and say can you tell me anything. i would say i'm not telling you anything here's somebody who says our boss is a big fad idiot. it's stunning the lack of loyalty and the freedom you get sourcing over there. you don't laugh about this. you actually heard a person say big fat liar on phone. let me get that down here. >> i did get it down. we put it in a story. what's interesting about this is when kelly came in at first, there was a lot of discipline pep sort of staunched those leaks and chaos we saw under the first chief of staff in the early months of the white house. so this quote and sentiment told me how much general kelly has lost the support and trust and respect of his staff and his subordinates. part of that is because some of them believe he asked them to lie for him. >> 2407 minutes deal? >> exactly. an account they knew not to be true. the fact that someone would feel emboldened

. >> ashley parker, from the "washington post," eugene robinson from the "washington post." both are m subpoena np bc political analysts and jonathan allen, national political reporter for nbc news digital. ashley, what is going on with trump? when sarah sanders came out today, she actually said something i didn't believe. she said basically the president's always admitted that there was russian meddling in the election. where did she get that from? did he say go out and tell us that when he's been denying it forever? >> let's be clear. the president has not always admitted there was russian meddling or russian interference in u.s. elections. that's wishful thinking on the part of sarah sanders. you know, the thing is that this president basically, whenever the topic of russia comes up and their interference, he views it if he admits they interfered in the u.s. elections, it would be a referendum on the legitimacy of his own presidency. and that's why he is so unwilling repeatedly to ever say that russia did in fact do what his intelligence community says it did, what members

ashley parker is a report for "the washington post" and nbc political analyst. and maria, a former department chief of staff. jeff, the white house briefing was supposed to be at 1:00 p.m. today, then 2:30, now it's at 3:30. but on the issue of security clearances which with this porter story has exposed. i'm told one person with direct knowledge of the process there are a lot of next to in the white house that have interim clearances but are still handling sensitive information. what are you hearing? >> that's right. we're told 30 to 40 white house officials have those interim clearances but presumably have unfettered access to sensitive information. a third white house official announced his departure this week, george david banks. he was a senior official and national economic counsel. he's stepping down because of issues related to his security clearance. he chose to resign. that is raising new questions about jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor who reportedly has interim clearance but has access to sensitive information. i spoke wit

ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post". thank you for joining us. jennifer, let's go back up to the top of our reporting which is "the new york times" reporting tonight and hope hicks, the white house communications director. she again is denying those comments through an attorney. but what if it turns out she said something like, no one will ever see those e-mails, as a matter of law? >> well, it depends, right? it depends what she meant. if she said it in a way that's kind of speculative, like i don't think they'll ever get out because so few people know about them, then that's not necessarily signaling that she plans to actually engage in obstruction of justice. but what's key to me and we'll see what the mueller team makes of it, but corallo, his take was that she may be talking about obstructing justice, and that's so important to him and troubling to him he ends up quitting. so clearly that's kind of going to be his take on it to the mueller team. and he was there. something that's really important, of course, when you're evaluating what someb

hallie jackson, thank you as well, and ashley parker, appreciate it. jonathan, you're going to stay here, don't go anywhere. tom do you pree served from 2007 to 2009. he's been a lawyer for george bush and partner with gibson dunn. gentlemen, welcome. i know you're watching up on this breaking news because we just reported it 16 minutes ago. but tom, the only person who might be surprised that mueller is actually investigating cooperation between the president or seems to be that he's investigation this because he's got a line of questioning surrounding this, could be potentially the president himself. >> yeah. i think that's right. look, it doesn't surprise me at all that bob mueller is requesting the asking these questions. i think with all the brouhaha about all the fast groouf-- the collusion between the campaign and the russians. doesn't surprise me mueller is asking these questions. i think it's an open question as to what thea answers are. but mueller is assembling a team and putting together the witnesses. won't be too long before he shows his

ashley parker of the "washington post". jake shoe man. nile, i want to begin with you.ivisions in the democratic party over guns saying on the one hand you have people like conor lamb in pennsylvania who is all over the place on the issue in the special election. you have an activist for the center for american progress using the #banallsemiautomaticrifles. what is the democratic position going into 2018 on what, if anything, needs to happen with gun laws? >> well, i don't think we can say there is one national democratic position. you mentioned the special election in pennsylvania. that is one of the addressing areas. it's a conserve is active district. it's been republican since 2002. a democrat running there is having to balance a different kind of set of priorities to someone running in a more liberal district. i do think there are memories for democrats going back 20 years or more thinking that this is not a politically good issue for them. but is that changing? that's the key question, hugh. we have seen a number of polls even in the last week talking about public

let's get to ashley parker. shley, forgive me, i don't know if you were on this byline, i assume you were because you are on all of them over there. but from your reporting over there, the president said he thought the release of the memo would help build a public argument against rosenstein's handling of the case. trump suggested the memo might give him the justification to fire rosenstein, something about which trump has privately mused or made changes at the justice department which he complained was not sufficiently loyal to him. yesterday on our air, lee zeldin said the memo would show there needs to be leadership changes at the done of the doj and the top of the fbi. >> looks like they would like that leadership change to include the removal of rod rosenstein, the man in charge of the mueller investigation. >> that's exactly right. that was my story. whether they want the actual removal is an open question. but they certainly want the option to remove him and make other changes at the justice department. th

ashley parker and philip rucker report "the washington post," trump officials have felt under siege. they write that one official described the nation's focus on the issues raised by the school shooting in florida as quote, a distraction or a reprieve. a lot of people here felt like it was a reprieve from seven or eight days from just getting pummeled. "the washington post" philip rucker described the this way on this network earlier today. >> they had been under the bright light for the media spotlight for these numerous scandals which were growing in the days leading up to the shooting. and all of a sudden the media attention turned to florida people stopped asking questions and they got a few days to collect their thoughts, figure out what they're going to do, reset, if you will. but i don't think these scandals are gone. i think tuesday they're going to be faced with a lot of questions about all of it. >> let's bring in your panel. michael schmidt, shannon pettypiece, and msnbc political analyst eli stokels. the power of positive spin, telling the boss, no, this is good news stor

ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post," chuck rosensberg, former u.s. attorney and veteran of the fbi and david voriakis, reporter. i'd like to go up to you, ashley. let's assume that house intel has so thoroughly screwed up this effort and so badly kol ared everything that comes out of house intel, is it house intel that she has to worry about or robert mueller? >> i think you have to be worried about any moment where you're testifying under oath but do i think robert mueller is probably a bigger concern for her. so far house intel in some ways has sort of been functioning as precursor to the same sorts of questions but in a less obviously partisan way, that these same people then fate from reform. so i think that's probably her main area of concern but i will say she has prepped very thor otherly for tomorrow's testimony and it's certainly not something she's taking lightly. >> chuck, we know there's prep and there's prepping to sit down with mueller and any member of his team. talk about the potential legal peril or exposure for her before house intel

from the "washington post," white house reporter ashley parker.ere he's a visiting law lecturer, juan z zerate. former deputy national security adviser to george w. bush. at the table, jonathan lamiere, associated press white house reporter. philip bump, "washington post" political reporter. z zerlina maxwell, now director of progressive programming for sirius xm. let me tell all the reporters at the table, feel free to look a

parker is a white house reporter for the "washington fost." ashley, thank yojoining us. so, what is known about why hope hicks is doing this? >> so, i first should underscore that this is an incredibly stunning development. there was a sense that even in a chaotic andus tumulthite house, that there was one person who would be with president trump through the end of his term or potentially two terms, is would be hope hicks. our understanding is that she did actually make this decision before yesterday's tetimony on capitol hill. and she has told people that she basically wants to spend-- be closer to homto her family in connecticut, that three yearscu d solely on one thing and working in this incredibly high-pressure an high-intensity environment just talks a toll on anyone and s reaized it was her time to move on. i do have to say, this comes as she, herself, was under a lot of personal stress. there was not just that testimony. she had been romantically linked to staff secrary rob porte who was forced out of the white house amid allegations of domestic abus and more bro

white house reporters ashley parker with the washington post and from the associated press jill colvin. ashley, i understand that the idea of arming the teachers and making that announcement yesterday wasn't the white house plan for the day. that wasn't in the president's play book. that wasn't on the card that your paper and others have reported about. >> that's exactly right. this wasn't an official policy ro rollout, or the president's aides necessarily knew he was going to say. that said, in talking to a number of aides, it was also not something they were necessarily surprised that he said. this is an idea that he had been floating behind the scenes for a couple of days now, talking about this idea. it is actually an idea that i understand one or two advisors had brought up to him as this is something some states have considered. it's a possibility that's out there. he started talking about it, floating it, making it his own. and as often happens, when he's in public, he reiterates the things that are top of his mind privately and that's what we saw. >> jill, you heard sam there w

>> she's brilliant, ashley parker. i wish she were here in washington because she would be teaming up with us to cover all of this white house drama. she does it better than anybody else. she's out there in south korea trying to keep the vice president accountable. >> thank you. what a great colleague are you. the white house staff drama played on in a reality game show. only roman na gold rose to fame on the apprentice before working in the white house. she once said this about her former boss, trump. >> every critic, every detrac r detractoring will having to bow down top president trump. it's everyone who's ever doubted donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. it is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe. >> in a world. anyway, that was her then. here she is now. >> should we be worried oh. don't say that. because we are worried but i need to you say no, it's going to be okay. >> no, it's going to not be okay. it's not. >> so bad. >> would you vote for him again? >> god no. ne

i'm used to saying ashley parker and you got caught up in that, kathleen. also teaches at the washington university school of law. ely, let's start with you. what is going on here? was this deal done before donald trump became president? and wlhat are the optics of his son wading into foreign policy while he's on a business trip? >> well, the optics are not good, but this is a different kind of administration. they have so many controversies swirling around, i don't know if this even makes the top five right now. that said, this is a project, the trump condominiums in several cities around india. these projects were underway before trump took office, so they sort of are exempt from the new ethical arrangement that trump entered into, where they said there would be no new foreign projects. but it's clear what's happening here. the son of the president is traveling around meeting with the leaders of the country, meeting with narendra modi, and also meeting with anybody who is willing to pony up the cash to a trump property. on the front page of the hindu time

lucky for us, "washington post" reporter ashley parker traveled with the vice president, friend of thee said he had just found out about the porter allegations. >> you often seem a little bit out of the loop on some of this major news. >> it's a great honor for me to serve as vice president. president trump has been incredibly generous for the opportunities he's giving me to serve. i'm very grateful to that, but we'll leave those white house staffing matters for when we get back to washington. >> vice president mike pence -- >> always on message. >> skating. >> that was a great question. >> i think it says more about how much there ee's crises than mike pence's travel. >> but in serious, though, he does, and i have noticed how very aggressively behind the scenes people who support the vice president are quick to make sure that we are all aware that he is not part of this. he has managed to walk a line that i feel like a lot of other people have not been able to walk, which is to be seen as someone who's utterly loyal to the president which are things that could follow him into his poli