the aforementioned ashley parker, pulitzer prize winner at "the washington post" as white house reporter jonathan lemire. and mimi rocha, former u.s. assistant attorney for the southern district of new york. welcome to you all. again, ashley, fantastic detail by you and the members of your team. what struck you most? and allow me to call it about the trump method and the mueller method? >> what struck us most was just how different they were. both sort of in temperament and goal. you have mueller, who is methodical and disciplined and leak-free, and you have the president, who is loud and blustery and defiant. and as we started doing these interviews and reporting, we also realized that they are making two very different cases. mueller's team is building, again, methodically a legal case. and the president, while he has a team of lawyers and he may need a legal defense, is building a political case and a p.r. case that he's taking to the public. and it is sort of an open question of which one of these will win out and rule the day and which one will be more important or, if in some ways,

one of the writers, ashley parker, standing by to join us. she and her colleagues conducted interviews, and this is important, with 22 white house and justice department officials, witnesses, trump confidants, attorneys connected to the investigation. the post reporters write, quote, the mueller operation like the former marine corps platoon commander who leads it is secretive and methodical. ten blocks west in the white house, president trump combats the probe with bluster, disarray and defiance as he scrambles for survival. on the president's mood, they report this. quote, "the president vents to associates about the fbi raids on his personal attorney, michael cohen, as often as 20 times a day in the estimation of one confidant, and they frequently listen in silence knowing little they say will soothe him. trump gripes that he needs better tv lawyers to defend him on cable news and is impatient to halt the witch hunt that he says undermines his legitimacy as president. and he plots his battle plans with former new york mayor rudolph w. giul

those are his word, ashley parker. know he likes to take your stories with 30 or 40 sources and call them fake. he smeared the media this morning in a twitter tirade. but those are his words. and we show them just to put proof behind the point steve's making. is there anyone in the white house bothered by the blatant racism? >> the answer to that question is yes. there are absolutely people who are privately bothered by some of the things he says, although very few have reached the tipping point where they were publicly come out and condemn it or resign. so there does seem to be -- >> has anyone? >> i guess you could say gary cohen came out after the charlottesville in that interview, i believe with the financial times. but that was not what he resigned over. he resigned over a trade issue a couple months later. >> tariffs. close. >> yeah. >> i'm really offended by the trade tariffs. >> you can talk about nazis. >> mnuchin and cohen are standing behind him like bobbleheads nodding when he's talking about there being go

ashley parker, take me inside the current white house state of mind about rudy giuliani as a public face of donald trump's legal lollapalooza of woes. >> sure. if you remember back a week or tua go whether he first came on, there was some concern inside the white house of people who were worried about sort of if he was the right lawyer and legal person for the job. but at the time they all sort of said, you know, we also expect him to be a public face of the administration's legal team on television. and we think he will do a good job in that role. the president wanted an attack dog and that is a roele juniang is coming on to fill. he is a public face and certainly an attack dog. in addition to not being the right legal mind for the job, he is also not the right public face because if you're following this, giuliani is going on television. the first time he went on with that first bombshell at sean hannity last week, that was hatched with just him and the president, no one else knew it was coming and so it's not a sort of coordinated messaging strategy. it's we see him going out, saying

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. >>> joining us now from capitol hill, jake sherman and ashley parker. ashley, to you. this story is very complicated. it's tying michael cohen in with the russian oligarchs and potentially in with mueller. the white house isn't responding on the record as far as i'm aware. but from your reporting, what's been the reaction inside the white house? >> so this is a continuation actually of the white house's previous stance on michael cohen, which is when you talk to people in the white house, a lot of them believe that when it comes to mueller's probe itself, the president is going to be fine. if he is or not, that's an open question. we don't know. but they will tell you very confidently that he did not collude with the russians, he has nothing to hide and they are not worried about that. when it comes to michael cohen, they are more worried. not because they know of some smoking gun but because of precisely the opposite. they don't know what they don't know. they do not know that this was coming. they are sort of scrambling the same ways news rooms across the country are

ashley parker, josh dawsey, and philip rucker write, quote, the white house communications director's job has been vacant for exactly two months, but in practice it has been filled since the day hope hicks said farewell to her unofficial replacement, president trump himself. the president also has unofficially performed the roles of many other senior staffers in recent months, leaving the people holding those jobs to execute on his instincts and ideas, and that's exactly how trump likes his west wing. post goes on to report, quote, though trump continues to rage about special counsel robert s. mueller's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the president seems satisfied for now, at least, with his new legal team which includes giuliani and emmet t. flood. >>> rudy giuliani has of course been a constant fixture in television and in print about this investigation since he was brought on last month. this sunday was no different. giuliani spoke openly about his public opinion battle while on cnn. >> to a large extent, remember, dana, we're defending he

we couldn't be prouder to know, ashley parker and philip rucker. and we brag all the time that you're part of our broadcast. thank you both. >> thank you. >>> coming up for us, legal reaction to tonight's new report on jeff sessions and the mueller investigation. >>> and later, president trump once praised roseanne and her ratings. 18 million viewers on a single night. so what now with all of that? all part of "the 11th hour" on a tuesday night. back to work night, just getting under way. the middle of the ni. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma ♪that i'm a traveller ♪i'm gonna follow the sun♪ ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma transitions™ light under control™ visit your local visionworks to ask a

we couldn't be prouder to know ashley parker and philip rucker. and we brag all the time that you're part of our broadcast. thank you both. >> thank you. >>> coming up for us, legal reaction to tonight's new report on jeff sessions and the mueller investigation. >>> and later, president trump once praised roseanne and her ratings. 18 million viewers on a single night. so what now with all of that? all part of "the 11th hour" on a tuesday night. back to work night, just getting under way. ahh... summer is coming. and it's time to get outside. pack in even more adventure with audible. with the largest selection of audiobooks. audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. or discover magic when you hit the open road. with the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. and for just $14.95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. if you don't like it exchange it any time. no questions asked. you can also roll your credits to the next month if you don't use them. so take audible with you this summer... on the road... on the

. >> ashley parker is with me as well. ashley parker with the "washington post." a fair amount of this q & a seem to be devoted to north korea and the upcoming talks between this country and that country in singapore. did you get a sense from sarah huckabee sanders that this is an administration that's starting to lower its expectations? >> yes and no. from what she said today and from also what other people in the white house have told me is that they are expecting this summit to ultimately go on. but part of this is a negotiation. it's tactics and it's leverage and that's obviously what we're seeing on the north korean side with their threats. and that's something that the white house has told me is why they think this president is so well positioned. so you saw sarah sort of also publicly sending a message to north korea which is that, look, they asked for this. they're in no way in the driver's seat. we would love to make this happen. we're also absolutely fine with walking away from the table. now, is that absolutely true? i think the president would like to

. >> joining me now to talk more about that is ashley parker, "washington house" white house reporter. ashley, great to see you. what do you know about what kellyanne conway was hinting at? >> it's a great question and a little unclear what specifically she was saying, including to people inside the white house. i mean, on a ground level, yes, of course. there is a world in which if someone was blatantly caught leaking any white house would certainly be well within their rights to fire them. that makes sense. and she also made a fair point and a good point that is if you work in a white house, you should be loyal to the president. and that's a very reasonable expectation. the problem is, a number of people have observed in this white house that for a variety of reasons, there are some true trump loyalists in this white house. but there's also some not trump loyalists in this white house. and that's a challenge for them. but i think it would be hard to sort of blanket weed out all of those people. >> ashley, is there a sense that they know who it is that's leaking or -- i remember read

ashley parker, pulitzer prize winning white house reporter for "the washington post." julia ainsley, nbc news national security and justice reporter. and jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and the pentagon. jeremy, it's in your capacity as a non-practicing lawyer that i'd like to begin with you. even though various press reports have been saying this gentleman identified was not, repeat not, an embedded spy in anyone's operation, this whole thing went from idea to full-blown crisis in a big hurry. what does this trump move signal to you, and what does the justice department reaction thus far signal to you? >> well, the reason why protecting human sources is so important is this individual may have played sort of a negligible role in this counterintelligence investigation, it's quite possible he has played a significant role in other counterintelligence investigations. and whenever you have a human source reporting on the activities of, say, the russian intelligence services and they are core to that investigation, and then we reveal publicly or pressure others t

also with us, ashley parker "washington post" reporter and msnbc political analyst. hley i want to start with you kind of on the latest reporting out of the white house on this d.o.j. briefing for members of congress. we know that emit flood, the white house attorney as well as john kelly, the white house chief of staff briefly attended both of these meetings. what's the rationale behind that? originally they presented supposed to be there. >> exactly right. for someone like john kelly it sort of fools like a no-win situation. when it was first reported he was not going to be there. it was seen as another example of hi waning influence within the white house as sort of a minimized chief of staff. now that he is going to be there, democrats have a lot of concerns and say it's inappropriate for someone that close to the president to be in a sort of meeting like that. so i don't entirely know the rationale but i can say just like everything else involving this investigation and specifically this meeting today it's basically been politicized. >> sabrina, let's pick up the

ashley parker is with us, pulitzer prize winning reporter for the washington post, also an msnbc politicalst. and jill colvin is back with us, white house reporter for the associated press. >>> ashley, it is impossible to have the discussion we planned to have absent our lead story tonight from your pals over at "the new york times" because this just adds to the undercurrent of stress and the fact that people are walking around the west wing morose at what's going on, i imagine. >> it certainly does. our understanding was basically as soon as the nbc story broke, the west wing in the white house started scrambling to figure out how to handle it. general kelly privately was sort of indignant and defiant. you see that in the statement he put out. and our understanding is that general kelly and president trump met in the oval office very shortly after that story posted. they were both very upset, very frustrated. they said they claim it's not true. they have been getting along well and they counseled sort of a very aggressive strategy of push back which is what you're seeing now, both in thei

"the washington post" pulitzer prize winning correspondent ashley parker joins me. erg white house reporter tolu al awanipo. good to see both of you. ashley, let me start with you. look, this was by any i think calculation, if you have a heart, a wonderful moment, to see people who have been held in prison in a country like north korea coming home. having said that, the optics of it, as great as they were, politically how important is it for this president? >> well, you sort of raise a good question of how much is foreign policy achievement or even his decisions like what he did on iran are going to be overshadowed by the sort of chaos and domestic disruption at home and i think the answer is on the one hand, we don't know, but one way to look at this, and this is certainly how aides inside the white house look at it, is between all of these scandals and the mueller probe and the chaos is basically whether they like it or not it's a backdrop. we're approaching the one-year anniversary. it is just a constant. things like last night where 250 reporters showed up to cov

answer them some of our favorite reporters and friends from "the new york times" mike schmidt, ashley parker with the rare on-set appearance from the washington post, and matt miller former chief spokesman from the justice department. matt, you have been tweeting prolifically. i know you have so many thoughts. what has rosenstein done to the justice department by agreeing to carry out the investigation the president is calling for? >> you know, i think what rod is doing here is taking really a dangerous gamible. what the president requested was really inappropriate. it was the red line that presidents don't ask for. they don't ask for political investigations. they don't ask for any criminal investigations out of the justice department. i think what rosenstein did is what he's done before where he tries to give just enough. we've seen him turning over documents to congress justice department wouldn't usually give. he's given just enough space to buy space for him and bob mueller to complete his investigation without the entire justice department being blown up. what i worry about is that he'

. >> for more i'm joined by ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post" and an msnbcolitical analyst. and susan del percio, a republican strategist. susan, i know this puts you in something of a box, but i enjoy doing that. my question, i've always sort of found -- what's the right word -- familiarity of rudy giuliani. i've considered him i know from growing up. big city kid. i know him. i don't dislike him in any personal way. i just wonder why he's changed to the guy who's willing to say outrageous things like you can't indict. you have to apologize to somebody. you can't have an informant. i mean all these rules are gone in terms of defending his current client. >> they are gone. and, chris, i'm so happy you showed that earlier video of rudy in 1998 because that's the giuliani i worked for. that's the administration i worked for. and that was someone who led our city through one of the darkest times. i have no idea why he's willing to sacrifice that legacy, if you will, for one of being the head p.r. guy to discredit the justice department. the only thing is i thin

ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post." and an msnbc political analyst. kimberly atkins is the chief washington reporter for the boston herald. and an msnbc contributor. matt miller, former chief spokesman for the justice department o department, also an msnbc justice and security analyst. carol, start us off. what are the facts? >> so the facts when it comes to this informant, which the president was referring to as a spy -- which is not a spy. it is not someone who's inside of his campaign. is that during the campaign there was at least one informant or as it technically would be called, a confidential human source because this was a counterintelligence investigation, who approached at least three people who were affiliated or working for the campaign. what we know is that this is an informant who potentially -- one of the names that's popped around is this man named stefan helper who was an american professor at cambridge university and he -- there's a new report saying he was this alleged informant. he also now that his name is out there, he could hav

thank you ashley parker. "the post" is amazing. susan del%io. we have to talk about rudy sometime. up, trump is uniting the right on all fronts. he won't apologize about the knock at john mccain. he's taking on planned parenthood. he's not going to do anything about guns as long as the nra is part of his camp. this is "hardball" where the action is. and a little nervous. but not so much about what market volatility may do to their retirement savings. that's because they have a shield annuity from brighthouse financial, which allows them to take advantage of growth opportunities in up markets, while maintaining a level of protection in down markets. so they can focus on new things like exotic snacks. talk with your advisor about shield annuities from brighthouse financial- established by metlife. my secret visitors. appearing next to me in plain sight. hallucinations and delusions. these are the unknown parts of living with parkinson's disease. what stories they tell. but for my ears only. what plots they unfold. but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experien

ashley parker and joyce vance thank you so much for spending time with us. >>> after the break we willal counsel bob mueller's investigation room from the perspective of a witness in the investigation into possible collusion and obstruction of justice. this witness under the belief that bob mueller already knows everything. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monito

let's get the inside scoop from ashley parker. the website is down.aybe they are taking it down or there's a lot of interest in the coin. >> they are super great fun coins. it was indicative of the way the white house approached this summit. it came together incredibly quickly and fell apart incredibly quickly. the coin is physical manifestation of the white house and president trump's eagerness to have this showdown. to have this face off. to have this historical summit that barack obama couldn't do. he dipped into the talk of a possible nobel peace prize. he tried to bring a more pragmatic, realist skeptical attitude. if you looked at the long string, it fell like we were headed toward this out come. >> i do not believe they gave a heads up. just as he accepted it without telling moon, advisors were there in the white house. they then scrambled and called president moon and say he's accepted it. is that okay. they issued a statement from south korea saying he's convened an emergency national security council standing committee from an hour from midn

ashley parker, pulitzer prize winning white house reporter for "the washington post." peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." jonathan lemire, white house reporter for the associated press. and because we need a lawyer and a damn good one, barbara mcquade is back with us, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. all are msnbc analysts. jonathan, since we dropped your name, we know rudy's feelings about trump. what are trump's feelings about rudy, do we think? >> at this moment, he does appreciate -- >> at 11:07 eastern -- >> ask me again at 11:09. at this moment he does appreciate that the president -- that the former mayor is sort of an attack dog in the media, that he is out there. he's grabbing headlines. he's defending him. >> that he is. >> he's defending him, and he's taking a much more aggressive tact than some of his other lawyers have done. that said, as our reporting indicates, he's also growing frustrated. we saw those video clips there. pretty muddled answers suggesting that the president couldn't be trusted

>> we also have ashley parker with us, a white house reporter for "the washington post." and msnbc political analyst. ashley, just looking through the statement from giuliani. couple things, he seems to be trying to reframe some of the issues here in terms we're familiar with. in that hannity interview the other night, he talked about the idea of trump firing comey because trump was upset that comey hadn't said publicly trump's not a target of the russia investigation and now in this statement giuliani false balk on something i think we are are mo familiar with, this argument of hey, look, it really doesn't matter on motive, he has the constitutional authority to fire comey for any reason at any time at all. what do you make of this statement though? >> well, this statement is a clear effort at clean-up. and it is probably a better venue for rudy giuliani to do it. and the problem was, and to be clear, speaking to sean hannity, that interview that first got him in trouble, that's a very friendly news outlet but there was something about giuliani just being free-wheeling an

ashley parker of the "washington post" standing by with details of her story based on 22 sources. >>>ive days and no white house apology to john mccain after mocking his fight with terminal cancer. instead, the president calls the leakers of the comment traitors and cowards. that's all in the west wing. >>> but in the east wing, total secrecy. zero leaks as the first lady goes in for a medical procedure about which little is known. "the 11th hour" on a monday night begins now. >>> another monday, and good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 480 of the trump administration, and we have some of the most revealing reporting yet on special counsel robert mueller's investigation. what it's like behind the scenes

ashley parker of the "washington post" standing by with details of her story based on 22 sources. >>>after mocking his fight with terminal cancer. instead, the president calls the leakers of the comment traitors and cowards. that's all in the west wing. >>> but in the east wing, total secrecy. zero leaks as the first lady goes in for a medical procedure about which little is known. "the 11th hour" on a monday night begins now. >>> another monday, and good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york.

joining me now is kristen welker and ashley parker, white house reporter at "the washington post."risten, first to you. do we know for instance whether emmet flood, the new white house lawyer, was present for these meetings where rudy giuliani says the president and rudy were dividing up the territory, the president would take care of north korea, iran, things like that, and giuliani would take care of stormy daniels and things like that? >> reporter: we don't know for sure, andrea, we do know this is a more aggressive strategy that is being unveiled by the president, by his newly installed legal team. remember, under ty cobb who is still here, by the way, the motto was, comply with robert mueller, get this over as quickly as possible. now you're seeing the president and lawyers dig in their heels. you heard rudy giuliani make those statements, leaving the door open to the president pleading the fifth. and in conversations with peter as well as myself last week, andrea, mr. giuliani really making the case that he's concerned that mueller's team may be trying to lay a perjury trap f

and i invite in ashley parker, a white house reporter for the "washington post." also have ned price former special assistant to president obama. he is also an nbc contributor. thanks to you all. ashley, i want to start with you on what you just heard there from mike pompeo the secretary of state. it seemed as though he took a notably different tone. he seemed to acknowledge that morale at the state department has been at a low, he seems to go out of his way to show respect to those employees and em emphasize that he was going to spend time to getting to know, learn and value their contributions. quite markedly different from the tenure of his predecessor. >> it sure did. the first rule of the trump administration that we have all learned is sort of it's less what people say and more what they do. but he definitely said all the right words today especially when he was talking about the state department getting its swagger back and executing missions in far corners of the globe about th globe. that is in direct contrast to what tillerson said in his mission, which

. >> ashley parker from "the washington post" and eugene robinson, a columnist with the "post," both. gene, i saw you laughing at his sort of explanation there. it depends what your definition of "is" is. i was checking, i had somebody collect. i could do it myself anytime i wanted to. it was a two-year set of discussions between kim jong-un's grandfather and us. >> right. >> in the so-called ending of the korean war. is that what they're talking about, dragging us into the table in pyongyang somewhere? >> it is unimaginable to me that north korea would agree to do anything without some sort of protracted negotiation process, whatever. it's also unimaginable to me they will give up all of their nuclear weapons. why would they? they worked for years, for decades. >> they like the libya model. they don't like the libyan model. though know what happened to moammar gadhafi. so after all had money, all this research, all this effort, to make nuclear weapons and to be treated like a nuclear power even though they're not acknowledged to be one, are they going to give that up? you know all t

costa, national political reporter with the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst, and ashley parker, white house reporter with the "washington post," also an msnbc political analyst. kelly o'donnell. sorry. the prompter said peter. next time i'll just look at the screen! >> i didn't do anything to peter. i promise you. i didn't do anything to peter. >> with that breaking news playing out right behind you, tell us what you foe rigyou kno about this shakeup. >> there is a distinction to make. ty cobb has served in the white house as a top lawyer interfacing between the white house, the executive branch, and the various investigations, the congressional as well as the robert mueller investigation, the russia probe, of course. he is out. the white house is saying that in a flat-out statement. "the new york times" is reporting that emmitt flood from a very prominent law firm here in washington and with relevant background. he had worked in the bush administration 43. had also dealt with other issues back in the clinton era related to impeachment. the "times" is reporting that he will be

there freelancing and talking to the president directly and not talking to them and my colleague ashley parkerthe west wing aide yesterday who sent a bunch of emojis including a basket of popcorn in a text message to describe what this was like. they're sitting back like we are watching it unfold. >> one thing about rudy. i've been saying since his speech at the republican convention that there is something off about rudy giuliani. this is not the giuliani we know. it just isn't. >> if you show tape of that -- >> trump told that to me and joe in private when he was -- and we talked on the air because we told him no for secretary of state like that's a bad idea joe september saying it on the air for days and days and days and he said to us that he was way off and kind of weird and falling asleep. >> trump said that? >> trump said that to us during the transition. >> and then he hires him as his personal attorney? >> giuliani said donald trump's son-in-law is disposable. let's say that again. he's disposable. that's what he said on national television. so i don't know what to ask you. what's nex