i want to add what john said about bannon because bannon can't treat congress the way he is. it sounds like even the republicans are ready to hold him in contempt and the white house is abusing the concept of executive privilege. they are stone walling, they are obstructing justice by saying here are 25 scripted questions, the answer to all of them are no. that's not cooperating. it's stone walling, it's corruption, that's what nixon did. it's one of the charges in the impeachment against him and i think it might lead to that here, too. >> go ahead, ron. >> i think there's also an alternative theory here. which is it's possible that the reason bannon is stiffing the house intelligence committee, maybe as john said, he thinks they're clowns, partly at the direction of the white house as jill said, but i think bannon knows everything that gets said in that committee gets reported back immediately to the trump white house. it's a sif to the white house. and if bannon is telling tales about people close to the president, it doesn't surprise me he's not repeating the tales in the

steve bannon is smarter than jarvanka, smarter than priebus, smarter than everybody. bannon's gone. are you surprised given the way he comes off here? i mean, he comes off as someone who really thinks he's smarter than he really is. are you surprised that he is no longer there? and not just no longer there, like, excommunicated. the mercers have even left him. >> i think that i saw steve come -- i do think steve is smarter. and, again -- >> was he qualified to be in that job? >> excuse me? >> was he qualified to be in that job that he hadsome. >> well, you know, steve is 64 years old and has never worked in politics or government before, so i would say in no conventional terms was he qualified for this job. nevertheless, he had at least read a few books. [laughter] >> the bar is very low here. [laughter] >> all right. i'm going to ask this one last question, and i think i'm going to open it up to q&a from the audience, because i've lost track of time, and i'm so afraid that i am going to take time away from you. i'm going say this now before i ask this last question. if you have a q

bannon and this official. there was a refusal to answer any questions that might have brought out the full facts. that is not how privilege works, that is how stonewalling works. we cannot take that kind of stonewalling for an answer. it obviously has deep implications for our investigation, but also for any investigation that congress may conduct future. we also asked mr. bannon whether he had been instructed to invoke executive privilege before any other body, and he refused to answer. it's my view that he is likely, to the degree that there is even any privilege as to any small subset of the questions we had, that privilege has been waived. waived by potentially testifying to those matters before another body, and waived by the partial and incomplete answers he had for the questions today. in terms of next steps, i think the next step for congress to take is to initiate contempt proceedings. we gave the witness the opportunity under house rules to provide any basis he felt for why he should not be held in c

>> so, yeah, today we've got the tale of two bannons. the one that's really not kooptding with congress and the one that spent two days, ten-hour days back to back talking to mueller's team. he's forecast what he thinks the investigation is about. he's publicly stated i think it's about money laundering. he's publicly stated the trump tower meeting was treasonous. obviously the mueller team is going to be asking him, mr. bannon, tell us a little more why you think that trump tower was treasonous. tell us why you think we're investigating money laundering and he's going to lay that out and apparently he has to the tune of 20 hours. the other thing bannon holds keys to, he was a direct point of contact with cambridge analytica. campaign research. >> right. >> what was being done for opposition research? what e-mails were hacked or privy to? what was the role of russia with regard to the campaign? bannon has information on that. my guess is he's cooperating and telling what he knows to mueller. i'm also intrigued by his lack of cooperation

that he led adam schiff to threaten content proceedings against bannon. snif certainly, it will be our recommendation to our leadership that we initiate contempt proceedings. and i hope that we have a meeting on the minds. i spekt expect that we likely will, judging from the comments that my colleagues the majority have made publicly about the necessity of compelling answers to these questions. >> such a measure might face long odds. at least one top republican on the committee, mike conaway, did not rule out the prospect of holding bannon in contempt. betsy woodruff covers the russia probe for the "daily beast." i'm fascinated what he may have told muler. he mueller is the key here. the house intelligence committee is useless. the senate might do something. i respect burr and warner. let me ask you what bannon had to tell under oath mueller and what he refused to tell the house committee. >> the major outstanding difference is that what i've been told is bannon refused to answer any questions from congress besides precleared ones had he given them before

because let's remember, bannon didn't have to cooperate.could have taken the fifth amendment, decided not to testify at all. he's taken a different choice. by spending 20 hours, i think that's a good sign he's walking him through joust about everything that happened in the white house. i think the key question we really ought to ask here, what are steve bannon's motives? remember, in the last month, we've seen the president publicly attack steve bannon. you have to wonder if bannon still wants to protect the president or if he's wishing to put him in legal jeopardy. >> his cooperation with robert mueller seems to be a little different than what he did on capitol hill according to some people who have been disappointed with his answering of questions or a lack thereof. i want you to listen to what congressman adam schiff had to say about the testimony before the house intel committee. take a listen. >> i think the likely he'll face a contempt citation. steve bannon, when he did come back yesterday, he had a list of 25 questions that were wri

. >> steve bannon spending the day with house intel as nbc learned. >>> tonight steve bannon spending the day behind closed doors with the house intel as nbc learned he spent some 20 hours with mueller this week. >>> >>> president trump addresses the school shooting tragedy without mentioning the word guns. >>> as florida mourns and washington fails to act, are students going to be the one to push this issue where others have failed. "the 11th however -- hour" on a thursday night begins now. >>> good evening once again from our nbc news headquarter here in new york day 392 of the trump administration. according to details today, we know this has been a busy week in the russia investigation. nbc news is reporting that steve bannon met with special counsel robert mueller over multiple days this week, according to two sources familiar with the proceedings. in all he spent some 20 hours in conversation with the team led by mueller. then today after an almost month long stand off, bannon returned to capitol hill to continue his interview with the house intelligence committee. he emerged af

after bannon's testimony, adam schiff, the top democrat on the committee, told reporters bannon refused to answer questions that had not been scripted in advance. >> it went to far to not answer questions about conversations he had after the administration and with people who played no role in the administration. there's no claim of privilege that could apply to those circumstances. what's more, the only questions he would answer were questions that had been literally scripted for him by the white house. a set of 25 questions that had been written out for him to which the answer to each must be no. whenever we sought to probe anything beyond the four corners of the specific wording of the question he refused to answer. that's not how executive privilege works. >> schiff went on to say the next step would be initiating contempt proceedings against bannon. we're about to ask an expert about that. and "the washington post" reports, quote, house republican leaders are weighing further steps to force bannon to answer investigators questions in their probe of russia medicaling in the election

bannon had a much different reaction.ed this as he told me an existential threat not just to trump, but to republicans' majority in congress because he didn't think that republicans, especially not trump and the senior people in the white house were sufficiently alert to the political threat posed by the rise of this female-driven resistance. they had a great falling out a month ago and bannon was in the political equivalent of siberia and it is not clear that his warnings will be heeded, but at least someone in trump's orbit recognizes that this could be a real problem for the party as soon as september and the spousal abuse scandal now entering its second week is only making that problem worse. >> to press you on that, bannon thought roy moore inial bamma was going to win despite the allegations against him and he didn't because of the climate that he created in his state. do you think bannon has his finger on the pulse or is he taking his misjudgment about alabama to go forward with? >> no, i do think he has his finger

bannon and another individual. to answera refusal any questions that would have brought out the full facts. that is not have privilege works. that is how stonewalling works. cannot take that kind of stonewalling for an answer. it has deep publications for our investigation and any investigation but the congress may conduct in the future. asked him whether he had been instructed to invoke executive privilege before any other body. he refused to answer. likely, view that he is to the degree as there is any that privilege has been waived. waived by potentially testifying to those matters before another body and waived by the partial or incomplete answers that he gave to the questions that we have for today. in terms of next steps, i think the next step for the congress to take is to initiate contempt proceedings. we gave the witness the , under our house rules, to provide any basis he felt for why he should not be held in contempt. that is a requirement of the house rules. we presented that opportunity. mr. bennett di

you know, corey had already been gone, and steve bannon, steve bannon came in i believe in august. >> right. >> but i think what they want to know from steve bannon is what he knows about what was going on in the white house, did the president order mcghan to fire mueller, et cetera, et cetera. i think bannon could be very helpful. of course, as you know, bannon has claimed privilege, and that could become an issue. >> yeah, he doesn't want to answer questions before the congressional committees. >> yeah. >> on what happened during the transition or what happened while he served as chief strategist in the white house. corey lewandowski was long gone, then he never served actually in the white house. but clearly -- >> they do cover different parts -- >> clearly they have serious questions for both of them. what's going to lap? >> i think eventually this rolls up to the mueller investigation. like dana said, you'll have more chance of getting consensus among democrats and republicans in the senate to compel testimony from any witnesses, probably a steeper climb in the house. but at some

so bannon slammed don jr.y that there's no way the president didn't meet with the russians that don jr. snuck into their gold house. yeah, and this is huge. steve bannon--steve bannon, trump's dude, not only accused trump's second dumbest son of collusion, but he's also accusing the president of being in on it. and then lying to the american people about it. you know what that means, people. buckle up, because trump's about to blow. - president trump issued a statement like no presidential statement ever before in american history, lambasting his former campaign and white house senior strategist steve bannon. - ohh! damn! i didn't even know presidents could release diss tracks. but i do feel bad for president trump because today he found out that some nazis aren't very fine people. [traditional russian music] [hip-hop music] [traditional russian music] - donald trump has a shadow of his own-- robert mueller. and so far, the special counsel has indicted four of trump's campaign officials, interrogated over 20 a

you know, better than me there is no love loss between trump and bannon after bannon's dismissal, his wolff's book. when bannon left the white house, in public he was loyal. but privately, you say the facts are different. >> publicly he said to me and other reporters he presented this as an amicable parting. but i reveal in the book that privately, bannon was upset. initially refused to take trump's phone calls and said to associates at the time, i am sick of playing wet nurse for a 71-year-old man. that illustrates the frustra frustrations that was documented in wolf's book. >> wet nurse to a 71-year-old man, that is explosive. >> pleasant thought. >> you revealed that bannon tried twice to delay the publication of your book. why did he go after your book? >> i think he perceived correctly that having a book that featured him as a prominent player could be potentially damaging to his relationship with president trump. he once told me if trump doesn't want a costar, he does not want to see me on the cover of your book. trump didn't like it and it cost bannon severely. thanks very much

but i think she has a point that some of bannon's information may -- bannon and priebus grew, quote,ncredibly concerned that was going to fire mueller and wanted to influence others. how do you believe that, that not only there was a credible effort to oust mueller, but that bannon knew something or decided something that was so bad that he had to intervene. >> the reason being, this could be the basis for obstructing justice. >> i mean bannon saying don't do this. >> in the context of everything else, of course. >> certainly from the standpoint of mueller's office, they don't want bannon, if he's really going to be a witness for the government going into a congressional committee and providing other testimony that can be used as prior inconsistent statements that could be inconsistent, even in a minor way with what he tells the mueller group. so if i were the prosecutor, i wouldn't want him talking to any of these committees, i would want to keep his testimony to myself, i would want to know what he says and be very careful about how i developed it and do it in a way that would make

bannon's lack of cooperation with the house investigation. we hear first from mr. conaway. >> something going on you guys are interested in? the interview with mr. bannon has been completed. we are moving to the next steps to complete the investigation. answer all the questions we would like answered. a little bit of frustration with respect to that. there were 25 questions the white house authorized to

bannon said so i can -- >> that happened later on when they realized that bannon was kind of monopolizinge. in the beginning everybody was talking and confused why they were talking but they were talking. it had come on high from nobody -- nobody actually knew from where it came, it seemed, but there was general feeling that you were supposed to talk to me, i think. >> were people unburdening themselves? >> yes. >> did you feel like a therapist? >> eventually you did. what i saw in the -- this book is really about -- there's a plot line, the transformation that took place is people in the beginning, who were donald trump, arah-rah and then you got the line and then that ban to debraid. gave you the trump line and they were go, err, ha-ha. and it bake very clear that they wanted -- they wanted someone else to know that -- why they had to give this line, they didn't believe it. after moving even further on, then it fell apart entirely, and then they would tell you, this is really a mess here. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> good afternoon, welcome to the he

the man who interviewed bannon is next. this is the story of green mountain coffee roasters dark magic told in the time it takes to brew your cup. first, we head to vermont. and go to our coffee shop. and meet dave. hey. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good, he asks? let me show you. let's go. so we climb. hike. see a bear. woah. reach the top. dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. like these mountains, each amazing on their own. but together? magical. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters packed with goodness. on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. does your bed do that? right now, save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com fora store near you. on thousands of hotels, cars and things to do. like the occidental at the xcaret destination for 32% off. everything you need to go. expedia. everything you need to

bannon grabbed at her neck, also pulling her into the car.heir police report they saw physical evidence to back up his wife's claims. and also writing, i saw red marks on her wrist and red mark on her neck. these were photographed. police officers put in their report that mr. bannon's wife described three or four previous arguments that had also become physical. that incident resulted in criminal charges being brought against steve bannon, domestic violence, battery and dissuading a witness. put a pit if that. charges were filed against steve bannon in that case, but when it came up for trial the case got dismissed because the alleged victim, steve bannon's wife couldn't be located to testify. which may explain the dissuading a witness charge. a couple of days after that bombshell report from politico nbc news got ahold of a court filing from after the couple's divorce where steve bannon's wife explained her absence. from the domestic violence trial after he haddan charged. she said that steve bannon's defense attorney told her to leave town.

bannon. michael schmidt, you had the big scoop last night. this is something i have to say, i've heard from chris christie i think on this show, other people, nobody thinks it's a good idea for the president to talk to the special counsel. what did you learn? >> as you sort of saw it today, there are concerns about the president's discipline, not only that he will tell the truth -- what? >> the understatement of the century. there are concerns he's going to end up giving them the obstruction of justice case on a platter. isn't that one of the concerns? >> but the other concern is that he likes to talk and that he would go on and on and try and explain himself and in the process of that, open up all sorts of avenues to mueller and allow them to probe into areas that would be outside of what the president's lawyers think he should be questioned about. the question is is that is this a negotiating tactic? or do the lawyers realize that he is going to have to meet with mueller? and they're trying to put pressure on mueller to try and define the l

it plays into comments made by ousted trump aide, steve bannon who says the me too movement might bebook. green is here to discuss the new items he has in the preface, and before we get to your book, joshua, i want to ask you about the current turmoil in the west wing. you have chief of staff john kelly making it clear he is willing to resign if president trump wants him to. kelly hired to come in and, you know, restore order or create order for the first time, and yet that hasn't necessarily happened in every case. one of the things he did -- one of the first things he did was try to get steve bannon out the door. it doesn't seem like the white house is in as full control as they had hoped. what is going on? >> what's worrisome is it really harkens back to the early days of administration, when there was a kind of unchecked chaos in the west wing, and kelly was coming in supposedly to fix that. when he came in, there were really two things he had to think about. one, how do you manage trump? he said, i'm not going to try to do that, but he said i'm going to try to manage the white h

>> well, bannon's not fighting, i think, so he's decided to roll over, it looks like, bannon loves allpe of rhetoric and metaphors, bannon knows if you're working with a serious proo prosecutor, you're going to testify and you're under penalty of perjury, and it seems like systematically, mueller is learning everything he needs to know about trump and kushner and other members of the administration. it just feels like this investigation is further along than the conventional wisdom has had it. he's just doing his job, he might indict a few people who have been misleading along the course of the way, he clearly thinks that there's at least a plausible chance that donald trump has obstructed justice or done illegal things during the campaign or both and he's talking to the people who would have the most knowledge about what trump has at least said about it or done about it also. >> and that would go a long way towards why people who seem to be in the know, trump allies seem to be so panicked, especially in the last three weeks. >>> up ahead, another story that keeps getting weirder. stor

bannon, apparently they don't like him either. questions, but when he said there was a gag order from the white house, they didn't press him. that remains to be seen. mr. lewandowski simply said he's not going to answer questions with this extraordinary expansion of a privilege that the white house has yet to exert. so we don't have the power to subpoena. this is clearly mr. nunes' power. so that's a great concern. it should be noted, when we talk about the midnight ride, there's much more that he's done to suppress the investigation. he's refused to issue subpoenas. he's gone along with this gag order. he is not really the only one to blame. none of these things could happen, including this latest escapade with rogue investigations and the memo that came with it. none of these things could happen without the speaker of the house involvement. before we get to a constitutional crisis, i think we're just at constitutional clashes now, he has to step up. the only republicans i've seen who have spoken out about this memo and what shou

former chief strategist and lonely hemorrhoid, steve bannon. ( laughter ) yesterday, bannon was calledore the house intelligence committee to testify about the trump campaign's possible ties to russia, a meeting which stretched more than ten hours. if your bannon lasts more than ten hours, seek medical help. ( laughter ) the interview was so rough, it was described as "brutal, a total free-for-all," and, as one person put it, "bannon doesn't have any friends in that room." to be fair, bannon doesn't have friends in any room. ( laughter ) senators were ticked off, they were really miffed, because bannon's attorney told the committee that bannon wouldn't discuss anything about his time in the white house or during the transition after the 2016 election. well, what's the point of interviewing steve bannon if he won't talk about trump? nobody cares what he did before that, which i assume was chasing teenagers through abandoned amusement parks. ( laughter ) so, why is bannon being so tight-lipped? it turns out he was instructed by the white house in advance of the hearing not to respond to

kim, talk us through, we'll start with bannon, that's where ken left off.s what adam schiff had to say to andrea mitchell this morning about bannon's nonanswers to the house intelligence committee. >> i think it is likely he'll face a concept citation. >> the bar is pretty high for most absurd but i think steve bannon exceeded the bar. >> so no love lost between schiff and bannon the idea there may be a contempt of congress finding, how does that play into this. >> it's a difficult thing to achieve. there's three ways there can be a citation. one congress has authority to bring the witness fiscally to the chamber which isn't going to happen. the second is a criminal contempt citation. that requires agreement of the trump white house. the third is a civil route that requires a vote from the senate. i think it's possible. it's conceivable but i'm not that surprised that bannon's team isn't as worried about it as they might be something that's happening before robert mueller. >> how about the reports of this rick gates plea deal with robert mueller? what does

bannon.been postponed and we are setting another date where we hope he will come in and answer questions. >> why was it postponed? >> i think according to mister bannon's counsel, because they needed more time to work out privileged issues. that may be the case or it may be they didn't want mr. bannon's testimony to step on the state of the union. obviously there's close coordination between mr. bannon's counsel and the white house. in fact, mister bannon's counsel represents several others in the white house, including don mcgann. so it's never easy to find out what the true motivation is but that was the ostensible motivation. >> and when steve bannon appeared before you, the white house said it was okay for him to talk about the campaign, not about the transition for his time in the west wing. will that objection hold? >> no, and this is the dissidence of the white house. you have sarah huckabee sanders saying we are being fully transparent. at the same time you have the white house tellin

i don't know what the status of the bannon situation is.may or may not appear in front of the committee today, but we are talking about the tax reform and jobs. and as we are talking about the memos, this is self-inflicted. this is not something the president did, this came out of the house where we created this whole issue, distracting from the message that our leadership is telling us to focus on, which is the economy, jobs, tax reform and talk about memos again. and we're caught up under all the matters related to mueller. by the way, i support mueller's investigation and should leave him alone uninterrupted and unimpeded and see what he finds. then we'll deal with the findings at that time. >> and as a republican congress member for now, i know you're leaving congress at the end of your term from pennsylvania, do you have any reaction to the u.s. supreme court upholding the ruling that said that the republicans had gerrymandered the seats, that's been a big issue with the republican party in pennsylvania wanting to challenge that decisi

he said this week steve bannon's council informed the committee they prohibit mr. bannon from testifying to the committee beyond a set of 14 yes or no questions the white house had preapproved. the white house's bar on bannon's testimony includes his tenor yr at the white house and his communicationwise the president since leaving government service, even though the president has not in fact invoked executive privilege. what do you make of that legally >> yeah, i don't think that's going to fly. the executive privilege may exist but during the time the president was in office, it wouldn't exist in the transition period or after bannon left the white house. it isn't that the president or the white house gets to say here are the 14 questions he gets to answer. and question by question the white house has to assert the privilege or not assert the privilege. i think they're trying to take charge of it process. i don't think that's going to fly. as long as the members of the committee push back, and we haven't always seen that happen. sometimes we've seen, for example,

bannon refused to answer questions about his time at the white house last month. all of this while the white house weighs whether to release the democratic memo pushing back on the republican memo made public last week. the man at the center of that memo, carter page, speaking out to defend himself now that it's been disclosed he was under surveillance amid allegations he was acting as a russian agent. >> what i've seen thus far is just complete ridiculousness. >> reporter: page is also claiming he's never met the president, despite working for several months as a foreign policy adviser for the campaign. >> you've been under surveillance since october 2016. since that time, have you ever spoken to donald trump? >> i never spoke with him since, i never spoke with him any time in my life. >> you've never spoken to donald trump in your life? >> nope. >> no e-mail? no texts? anything like that? >> never. >> and when it comes to the democrats' rebuttal memo, the five-day window is ticking down for the president to decide if he will declassify it. in fact, the president

this is not just about steve bannon but about the office. and with respect to the special counsel, we're cooperating with their investigation as the president has long said, there was no collusion, they aren't going the find any evidence of wrongdoing. we'll cooperate and put this behind us. >> sandra: quickly, trey gowdy said he was troubled by almost every aspect of rob porter's employment at the white house and opened an investigation. i have not heard a response from the white house on that yet. >> as we said, we could have done better in that situation and we will do better going into the future. the security clearance process is an important one. we trust and rely upon the professionals at the f.b.i. as well as the white house personnel security office to render solid judgments on these individuals. that process had not finished yet and so ways to reform and fix the process are things we're open to and considering and working with congress and others on that.

a spokesperson for bannon told politico that bannon had a great relationship with both his ex-wife and their twin daughters. the case was later dismissed. and the president himself had also once faced accusations of domestic abuse. his first wife, ivana, alleged in a divorce deposition that donald trump had raped her back in 1989. the accusation was first revealed in a 1993 book about trump, written by a former newsweek reporter. just before publication, ivanka composed a statement for the book, saying, i felt violated, as the love and tenderness which he normally exhibited towards me was absent. i refer to this as a rape, but i do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense. after trump announced his run for the white house, ivana said, the story is totally without merit. donald and i are the best of friends. donald trump has always denied the allegations. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> joining us for more is dana bash, kirsten powers and paul begala. dana, you have new reporting on the rob porter situation? >> gloria and i have been digging tonight on kind of wh

what has the relationship between steve bannon and president trump been since bannon was pushed out they it was pretty good publicly. one of the stories i tell in my book is the day that bannon was pushed out. he was very angry, refused to take trump's phone calls, and he said i'm sick of being a wet nurse to a 71-year-old man. he had as many doubts and frustrations about his fitness to be president as a lot of other advisors around trump did. so he also recognized if he was going to continue to have a voice in national politics, if he would be able to lead this national movement, he had to be seen as a trump ally. so he positioned himself as this outside resistance leader, supposedly fighting on trump's behalf. >> you talk about watching the golden cloglobe awards with ste ban non. he said the antipatriarchy is going to undo 10,000 years of patriarchy. women are going to take charge of society. they couldn't have a better villain than trump. >> i think bannon is a shrewd analyst of politics and our anxieties. he recognized this was a move that could be an existential threat to republic

we did have in bannon before our committee today.nd he asserted new privileges that we've never heard of which include that even if he talked to somebody yesterday or in the past few days and acknowledged that he had, that he can't tell us about it. and so we are seeing further efforts to obstruct and he's doing this, he said, on behalf of the white house and so you know, it's quite disturbing and if our subpoenas are to ever mean anything, the next step we should take would be to hold him in content. >> i want to play the sort of acting chair of your committee because devin nunes has kind of recused himself although not really. the acting chair vis-a-vis this investigation had to say. take a lis. >> and contempt is a big deal. i don't have unilateral control over that conversation. we have conversations about house equities as to how important our subpoenas are. >> do you personally feel like he should be held in contempt. >> i think he should answer our questions. >> what's your take quae away from that. >> they're in the majority.

bannon. what's up with mr. bannon in light of both house intel and the mueller investigation? >> brian, what i think is going to end up happening is what happened the last time steve bannon was asked to testify before the house intelligence committee. he will stonewall. he will stonewall because his approach to the committee is wholly consistent with the white house's approach, which is let's not give them too much information. this investigation is not as serious or as legitimate as the mueller investigation, so, therefore, we will cooperate fully or at least much -- in a much more cooperative way with -- with the mueller investigation because they want to appear as if they have nothing to hide. so steve bannon will sit down with mueller, he will speak to him, he will answer questions. and do so in a more forthright manner, i imagine, than he would with the house intelligence committee. >> amber, this next question may call for a judgment on your part, but this is about customer service for the american people. what do you think will be the subject of the next signing ceremon

a source saying bannon issi declining to testify.he committee delayed the return of bannon twice to determine if he can discuss events during the transition and time in the white house. >>> mocking the democrats for the stone-faced reactions to the state of the union address. the president was outside cincinnati on monday and he said this about the democrats refusal to stand and acknowledge the low black unemployment during the state of the union. >> they would rather see trump do badly than our country do well. that's what it means. it's very selfish. even on positive news like that, they were like death. and unamerican. unamerican. somebody said treasonous. yeah, i guess, why not. can we call it treason? why not. they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much. >> the constitution defines treason as an act of rlevying wr against the united states and giving enemies aid or comfort. sitting silently is not treason. attempting to overthrow the government by teaming up with the enemy. >> steve bannon knows about that word trea

will she exert executive privilege like steve bannon and refuse to answer questions? plus, mounting pressure, congress back for its first full day, feeling the squeeze to get something, anything, done on gun reform, with the midterms just months away. can republicans afford to do nothing? >>> melting point. scientists shocked at the heat wave hitting the north pole with temperatures nearly 50 degrees above normal. so what does it reveal about climate change? a guest appearance by our own al roker to explain. >>> we do begin with the woman who may know some of president trump's most closely held secrets, hope hicks, the white house communications director, arrived this morning and is reportedly still behind closed doors testifying in the russia investigation. hicks defines the term inner circle. she was the president's right hand on the campaign trail. she's close with jared and ivanka. and in a white house that has seen key officials like steve bannon and michael flynn leave, hicks has survived. today, she faces the house intelligence committee, perhaps the only body

have you been waved off of a bannon appearance? >> well, i can't really speak to it, but i would be surprised if mr. bannon shows up, and i would be surprised if mr. bannon answers any of our questions. >> we'll see what happens tomorrow. our thanks tonight for joining >> well, that is the republican chair of your committee. what has happened to the house intelligence committee which is one of the repositories, ideally of our nation's secrets in your view is it broken forever now? >> well, i hope it's not broken forever, but it has been deeply wounded by this process, and it has not helped that this memo in particular was dropped on us with no notification. it has not helped that requests that we've made for persons to be interviewed have been denied. that our request for subpoenaing documents from many of the witnesses have been denied. they have really done their level best not to be cooperative. and frankly, not to do an investigation. that is not their goal. >> i keep hearing steve bannon has a subpoena deadline expiring tomorr

bannon and then what would happen? >> i was scheduled -- had a lot of meetings with steve, steve was one of the pillars, everybody was under the impression they were supposed to meet with me. did that impression come from the president or you were talking to steve bannon. >> i was introduced around by various people, hope hicks, the president's personal pr person, kelly and conway, sean spicer, this was not a mystery here. i think on one level nobody quite new how this came about and everybody looked a little puzzled. there was no friction here. there was no friction. no friction. nobody was saying what are you doing here? >> they would see you sitting in the west wing lobby and you would say steve bannon and they would chuckle and say that is not going to happen, come back and talk to me. >> i became a familiar presence around the white house and also very much a nonthreatening presence. i was not, the press corps was over there, not far away. i was careful not to come in as a member of the press and not to act -- the

carol: steve bannon has another warning for the white house. julia: all that ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." ♪ carroll: we are here with the editor, joel webber. but start with remarks in asia, that bears close watching. business week has been writing about the debt pile up in china. china has been doing something to get rid of that. joel: this is called the europe the dog. what we will be talking about is deleveraging. the debt pile up in china is enormous. there's been a number of people. for years, people have been calling for, something is going to give. it will be bad for the global economy. all eyes on this in general. where our story picks up on that is talking about, the number is $30 trillion. that's how much we are talking about here. it's massive. the number people pick up on is gdp. what do you do about that? this will be -- deleveraging will be with us is about. julia: still providing credit to companies that they are not concerned about, but they are also cracking down on big corporate's that have been spending. >> it's not eve

a spokesperson told politico that bannon had a great relationship with his wife. the accusation was first revealed in a 1993 book about trump. just before publication, ivana composed a statement i felt violated as the love and tenderness. ivana said the story is totally without merit. donald and i are the best of friends. donald trump has always denied the allegations. >> joining us is dana bash. kirsten powers. >> gloria borger and i have been digging on what is going on there. a couple of things we have learned first that the president himself we are told by two sources did not know about these allegations about the fact that the fbi clearly found this information when they were doing the background check of rob porter. the president didn't know until the daily mail was presented to him. so didn't become aware until it was in the public sphere and the other thing is ivanka trump we were told was quite upset about it when she found out particularly when we saw the photos we all saw of his ex-wife and the bruises. it is a complicated dynamic not just for hope hick

>> not just steve bannon. also donald trump jr.as invoked a new privilege we've never heard of, the father-son privilege. roger stone has refused to give us information. corey lewandowski, who never served in the white house, is asserting some sort of new executive privilege. i hope we're just consistent, because seems to me now that the only reason my republican colleagues were so eager to have steve bannon come in and bring him under subpoena was to dance on his political grave because he was an enemy of theirs. not because they were trying to be consistent and do all we could to get to the bottom of this and make sure we have any witness who refuses to testify, force them to provide information. the intelligence committee met earlier today. what can you tell us about the session? >> it was nonrussia-related. most of our work is not related to russia so it had mostly to do with our budget and the future. right now, i hope that we can be unified in agreeing that as we put a spending plan forward that we dedicate more money than we