the next morning betsy woodruff with a big story here. they're not quiet.hey're not letting this play out. making another on-the-record move, the white house's criminal defense attorney for the president saying follow the example of what jeff sessions did last night and shutter this probe. it suggests, in a bad way, that the doj process and the president's criminal defense are together. and that's not my inference. that's what john dowd said on the record. he's calling for this in response to what jeff sessions did late last night. >> to go back to betsy for a moment, did you take this statement, i pray that -- betsy woodruff from the daily beast. i pray that acting attorney general rod rosenstein will follow the courageous and brave example of attorney general jeff sessions and bring an end to the alleged russian collusion investigation based on the corrupt dossier. did you take that, as a reporter, as a message to rosenstein or simply a comment upon what the president, i guess, hopes rosenstein will do? >> that's a good question. you know, if the white ho

betsy woodruff, this reporting is suggest this is going into one of those areas, the president didn't want it going into. >> without a doubt. that said, has julia pointed out, it's within mueller's mandate. his mandate is quite broad to look at matters that arise from this investigation. that said, i think an important piece to understand is about coordination between people in trump's orbit and russia is that we've known since even before mueller was put in place as special counsel that this story was going to be all about money. when you look at the history of trump's conversations with folks in russia, his visit to moscow in 2013 for the miss universe pageant, so many people in his orbit had conversations related to business dealings with very powerful individuals in russia. it's not just a question perhaps of ideological sympathies or trump seems to have an appreciation for putin's positive comments about him. all these relationships are always informed by a financial back story. that's part of the reason that months ago we would learn that mueller was working with irs financial i

back with me once again betsy woodruff and kurt berdala.n who have strong ratings, strong support from the nra. this is rick santorum on cnn this morning when he was asked his thoughts on the student marches yesterday. take a listen. >> it's all about politics. is this really all about politics or is it all about keeping our schools safe? because it is about keeping our schools safe, then we have to have much broader discussion than the discussion that's going on right now. how about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem do something about maybe taking cpr classes. >> mind-boggling. >> what an idiot. so he obviously, rick santorum, i should say had an a-plus rating from the nra while he was in congress. for those that are like him, they're probably unreachable for these kids that actually demonstrated that they're going out and doing a lot just by getting people to register and go to the streets to have their voices heard until they can vote. are there republicans who can be open to stronger gun control legislation?

tara, chris lu, and betsy woodruff, thank you for joining us. still ahead, laura ingraham that writes to condem the students ahead. and tonight's thing 1, thing 2 is a good one, starts next. racing isn't the only and with godaddy, i'm making my ideas real. with godaddy you can get a website to sell online. and it will look good. i made my own way. now it's time to make yours. ♪ everything is working just like it should ♪ >>> thing 1 tonight, we've all seen how obsessed our president is with building a wall on the southern border. he's been very specific about the fact it has to be a real wall. we already have quite a bit of fencing along the border with bhex cobut no, that is not good enough. >> they all say the fence. first of all, we're going to build a wall and it's going to be a real wall. okay? >> it's not a fence, it's a wall. you just misreported. we're going to build a wall. >> it has to be built. a properly built constructed built wall high not a little fence like they would have. >> definitely a wall, not a fence. but here's the thing,

tara, chris lu, and betsy woodruff, thank you for joining us.ad, laura ingraham that writes contempt for students the stoneman douglas high school. and tonight's thing 1, thing 2 is a good one, starts next. oh. yeah. ah. agh. d-d-d... no. hmmm. uh... huh. yeah. uh... huh. in business, there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you. so we're doing it. yes. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we help all types of businesses with money, tools and know-how to get business done. american express open. >>> thing 1 tonight, we've all seen how obsessed our president is with building a wall on the southern border. he's been very specific about the fact it has to be a real wall. we already have quite a bit of fencing along the border with mexico, but no, that is not good enough. >> they all say the fence. first of all, we're going to build a wall and it's going to be a real wall. okay? >> it's not a fence, it's a wall. you just misreported. we're going to build a wall. >> it has to be built. a properly built constructed built w

. >>> betsy woodruff joins me, politics reporter for the daily beast, and johnathan lamere, an msnbc political analyst. both of your entities have pretty big breaking news including you specifically, betsy, you were the first to break this story. so walk us through your own reporting and what did john dowd tell you. >> i reached out to john dowd as soon as the news broke involving andy mccabe being fired from the fbi. dowd responded over e-mail and told me -- he basically gave me two pieces of information. first he told me that he believed the decision that the attorney general had made to fire andy mccabe was brilliant and courageous, unequivocal praise for sessions on that front. second, i said he hopes rod rosenstein would follow suit and shut down the mueller probe. as pete williams pointed out, there is not a causal link between the reasons for mccabe's firing and the reasons for the mueller probe. mccabe's firing had to do with the investigation of hillary clinton, not the way the special counsel came together. that's a ling, howevk, however, john dowd claims exists. dowd made r

tara, chris lu, and betsy woodruff, thank you for joining us.ham that writes con department for the students ahead. and tonight's thing 1, thing 2 is a good one, starts next. when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. help stop the journey of gum disease. try parodontax toothpaste. ♪ that goes beyond assumingl pet ingredients are safe... to knowing they are. going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food. hello. let's go for a ride on a peloton. let's go grab a couple thousand friends and chase each other up a hill. let's go make a personal best, then beat it with your personal better than best. let's go bring the world's best instructors right to you. better yet, let's go bring the entire new york studio - live. let's go anytime, anywhere, with anyone who's willing. and let's go do it all right here. ready to go? peloton. withwhat sore back?sk... what bum knee? advil is relief that's fast strength that lasts you'll ask... what pain? with advil >>> thing 1 toni

jonathan lemire, white house reporter, betsy woodruff, msnbc contributor, ken vogel is a political reporter for "the new york times." and ben wittes, editor of chief of law fare. so much to get to. ken, it was your paper that first reported dowd's departure. now trump saying he would indeed like to go before robert mueller. so what happens now and what do we know about dowd's decision? >> well, dowd's decision is a reflection of two things, both personality that he never quite got on with the president and he was telling the president, pushing an approach that the president ended up souring on, this idea that the more forthcoming you are with mueller's team and the more documents you produce and the more willing tower work with them, the quicker this thing will work itself out and the quicker the investigation will move on from looking at trump. obviously that hasn't happened. that was a great frustration to trump so we see him pivoting potentially, looking at the types of folks who he's talking to and talking about possibly bringing into the legal team, to potentially a more confrontationa

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. >> with me betsy woodruff, politics reporter of the daily beast who had sort of the big scoop of the weekend. so andrew mccabe gets fired. and we'll talk about that a little bit later. the president appears to view that as the green light to go after mueller. and then you talk to john dowd. and he says this to you. "i pray that acting attorney general rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the fbi office of professional responsibility and attorney general jeff sessions and bring an end to alleged russia collusion investigation manufactured by mccabe's boss james comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt dossier." that doesn't sound off the cuff despite the fact they walked it back. >> no, not at all. and i should note we should all aspire to have friends and partners in our lives who describe us the way john dowd describes the fbi's office of professional responsibility after the firing of andrew mccabe. of course you look at this statement, and that is not something that necessarily reads like it was, you know, something that was just sort of popped out there

. >>> joining me right now, aly vitali and betsy woodruff. ladies and gentlemen with a good morning to you both. aly, i want to talk about scott pruitt. even if the expenses weren't illegal. let's talk about the optics here and what the white house's position is on this. >> kelly gave a pretty comprehensive view of why this looks problematic even though the epa is saying that legally it was not. as you were saying it is a pretty nice deal to pay $50 a night only when you stay there. i wish when i was on the campaign trail i could have paid a similar rent deal. that would have been pretty helpful. but i think when you have all of these other cabinet secretaries who are also facing problems over the way that they're spending taxpayer money and of course this is slightly dirn, right, because this is his own money and that's a point that kelly made. but when you have all of these cabinet secretaries doing strange things with money and flying on the taxpayer dollar, you saw david shulkin get fired over the fact that he was doing some strange thing

this. >> this white house is under a ton of strain, i want to thank my experts, john harwood, betsy woodruff doing news with me tonight. >>> i have a live interview with a mueller probe witness, we're going to go live inside the room, what is he asking, what does he want to know? we're going to hear directly from the wife of george popadopoulos. my legal breakdown on what it means and bad news for the white house. and also the man who literally once said he would take a bullet for donald trump, micha. feel the clarity of non-drowsy claritin and relief from symptoms caused by over 200 allergens. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones. feel the clarity and live claritin clear. new family connections, every day.llion that's more ways to discover new relatives. people who share your dna. and maybe a whole lot more. order your kit at ancestrydna.com copdso to breathe better,athe. i go with anoro. ♪go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called

that's significant. >> betsy woodruff, the daily beast and david corn, author of "russian route legal thanks for being here. >>> coming up, the mourning of his twin brother by marching on washington, d.c. trymaine lee introduces us to one of the extraordinary students who made their voices heard this weekend. you do not want to miss it. that's ahead. vascular event in adults who have type 2 diabetes and heart disease... ...and lower your a1c. wow. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. this may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, or lightheaded, or weak upon standing. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, and trouble breathing. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction. symptoms of an allergic reaction include rash, swelling, and difficulty breathing or swallowing. do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. other side effects are sudden kidney problems, genital yeast infections, in

that's significant. >> betsy woodruff, the daily beast and david corn, author of "russian route legal." thanks for being here. >>> coming up, the mourning of his twin brother by marching on washington, d.c. trymaine lee introduces us to one of the extraordinary students who made their voices heard this weekend. you do not want to miss it. that's ahead. sure smells amazing... even in accounts receivable. gain botanicals laundry detergent. bring the smell of nature wherever you are. racing isn't the only and with godaddy, i'm making my ideas real. with godaddy you can get a website to sell online. and it will look good. i made my own way. now it's time to make yours. ♪ everything is working just like it should ♪ >>> the never again movement born of the high school shooting in parkland, florida last month moved to worldwide protests with focus on washington, d.c. and a call for action. >> we're not here for breadcrumbs. we are here for real change. we are here to lead. we are here to call out every single politician to force them into enacting this legislation. they know what is coming.

and i want to give my thanks to betsy woodruff and evan mcmullan and jennifer rubin.stin welker in for nicolle wallace. >> good to see you. >> another slow day. >> another slow news day. we haven't had breaking news in ten minutes so hurry back, will you. >>> if it is friday, it is fight-or-flight to mar-a-largo. tonight how john bolton's appointment as national security adviser changes america's relationship with the world. >> he has a world view that i think will help the president make us safer. >> he has a history of being a war monger. >> plus the president ordered new tariffs o

joining me now betsy woodruff, and kailynn huey burns. ladies, good morning to you both. betsy, your biggest takeaways from yesterday's rally? >> one thing that stood out to me most from the rally, is that lawmakers are calling for putting -- nixon helped kick off the drug war, he put the dea in place, he temporarily closed down the border, he took a very democraticing draconian approach. it probably would be considered cruel and unusual punishment. to executes people who haven't murdered anyone. but the fact that the president is using this relate trick ahet is an indicator of what we're going to hear going into the fall. and the question becomes, are americans so tired and beleaguered of the toll of the opiod epidemic, that they would be open to these extreme types of measures. those are going to be issues that voters are going to hear about, and it's really something that at this point in the political discourse, that it's a solution that the president himself is floating. >> he was there to rally sup fort to the democratic candidate. did he stick to that? >> no, and i

joining us now betsy woodruff a politics reporter and judd sugarman. betsy, this precise connection isn't something we've seen from the special prosecutor. >> that's right. and what else is fascinating is it's mueller saying what he and his team thinks is important. part of the filing is it has to do with the sentencing of alex vander swan, the attorney that viewers saw on screen a few minutes ago. they're arguing a case why the judge should take he guilty plea so important. it's because he lied about person a. and mueller says that person a is an important person. the fact that he talked fo a senior trump campaign official, rick gates, the month before the election is material. it's mueller showing his hand, it's mueller telling us what he thinks is important. it's almost to the point of why he thinks it's important. >> judd, konstantin has denied any ties with russian intelligence. in the pleadings it said he does have the ties. he said he did speak to the 2016 campaign every couple months. >> yes. a couple things that are important here. the first is

i want to bring in tony rom, and back with me, betsy woodruff.uckerberg's remarks today will be aimed at rebuilding trust. yesterday it was top building all day, there was going to be an all hands meeting for all facebook employees to voice their concerns, ask questions. and i get the meeting was led by a lawyer, given how complicated this is. but it was all hands with no heads. sheryl and mark nowhere to be seen. rebuilding trust seems like a phrase like community engagement. this ain't about community engagement. this is serious business. >> all hands is a great way to describe the situation at facebook right now because this is a serious issue for the company. look at its stock price, it's fluctuated pretty dramatically, it's lost billions of dollars as a result of the reports about cambridge analytica. but, you know, there's mounting pressure on capitol hill right now for mark zuckerberg to be the one that shows up and answers questions from lawmakers. they'll send top aides to brief members of congress and their staff about what exactly happ

joining us now tom nickels a professor and author and also with us betsy woodruff a politics reporter and msnbc contributor. i want to get your reaction to the possible shooting war that's reduced to twitter exchanges with john bolton and did he really have to promise not to get us in a war. >> john bolton can't start any wars on his own. there's nobody in his chain of command. he doesn't command the state department, the cia. what he can do is convince the president that military action is important and that starts that ball rolling. but then a lot of other people get their say. john bolton can't go to war by himself but he can make the military conflict more likely by the kind of advice he gives the president. which is the advice i think he's going to give the president. >> betsy, this president saw what kind of distraction firing missiles can be when he did it in syria and this is someone who needs distraction. there's open distraction about what kind of distraction what he might want to sunday to distract from stormy daniels. >> that's correct. you have to add to the fact there wa

. >>> joining me right now, betsy woodruff and josh barrows. big welcome to you both. betsy, you heard kelly say, we just don't know. what are you hearing on the issue of where tariffs stand right now? >> the big issue of what happens next is whether or not the ultimate new policy has any carve outs for american allies. some of the countries we're most closely a lillied with are if te tariffs equitably go to all of the countries. japan is one of our closest allies. we have a very close trading relationship with them. both of those nations would be punished if the tariffs are implemented the way the president suggested last week. the question is are there carve outs or exemptions in these tariffs. whatever their final form looks like to try to protect or at least soften the blow they could have on our close allies. it's very much a closed question. free traders, especially gary cohn, are pushing for there to be exemptions. the fact that the president made the announcement without much consultation or reliance on their advice, indicates there's not as much clout. >>ve out

here on panel alexa cannon along with betsy woodruff. gang's all here. bob let me go to you first. you know this white house and the president. we are being told by senior administration official that the stormy daniels position does not rise to a presidential response. don lemon rose to the level of the president's response. joe biden calling him crazy that rose to a presidential response. what makes this different? >> it's not that different, that doesn't mean the white house doesn't have to respond. you had a press briefing offen gauging into this issue and the white house official tells me the president continues to think through this matter. nonresponse is the best strategy moving forward. >> what are they determining? >> so far they say the president has huddling with his attorney talking to other white house officials. and realizing if he draws this out in any way with miss daniels it's something he's not really to accept at this moment. >> there's someone who is working to draw this out and that is michael avenatti, stormy daniels' lawyer. this is an adversary that is diffe

and i want to give my thanks to betsy woodruff and evan mcmullan and jennifer rubin. and i'm kristin welker in for nicolle wallace. >> good to see you. >> another slow day. >> another slow news day. we haven't had breaking news in ten minutes so hurry back, will you. >>> if it is friday, it is fight-or-flight to mar-a-largo. tonight how john bolton's appointment as national security adviser changes america's relationship with the world. >> he has a world view that i think will help the president make us safer. >> he has a history of being a war monger. >> plus the president ordered new tariffs on china. and the war of words. but not vetoes. >> i looked very seriously at the veto, i was thinking about doing veto -- >> this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. ♪ ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." donald trump's impulses are to fight and after a dizzying series of white house shake-ups it looks as the president's impelss might be running the country largely unchecked. he wanted to fight robert mueller, who will stop him in t

>>> our last question of the day goes to betsy woodruff. did you watch the white house press briefing and were you surprised that sarah huckabee-sanders couldn't go as far as theresa may did and blaming at tack on the russians -- on russians. >> it is extraordinary there is so much daylight between how united states officials talk about these issues related to the u.k. and how the british government does. in january president trump canceled a trip to the u.k. citing some sort of trumped up controversy and now sarah huckabee-sanders is unable to say what theresa may is dozens of people got poisoned and the russian government deserved the responsibility. >> i'm nicolle wallace and "mtp daily" started with katy tur. >> can i answer that question. i'm not surprised. it is remarkable that the press secretary will say that the u.k. is our closest ally and we have a special rell apationship and stand by them three times and refuse to say what the u.k. said, is that russia is likely behind the attack. you can't make this stuff up. >> you can't make

on the new reporting after that from the "los angeles time" curtis lee and kevin serilli and betsy woodruff. all-star team. but, let's now, as i was mentioning, get straight to philip rucker and you have some reporting on your website on "washington post" here and i'll read the headline very quickly. pure madness. dark days inside the white house as trump shocks and rages. two or three new pieces of reporting and if you can relate that to us. >> so glad to be here. we spoke with a number of white house officials over 20 folks inside the administration and other advisors who are increasingly concerned after the moves of the last couple of days. with the president's stability and control. there is a feeling that things are flying a little bit out of control here. there is a level of anxiety and volatility and darkness that aides say they have not seen since the middle of last year when there was a big turnover with the departure of reince priebus. part of this is because the president is feeling increasingly isolated with the departure coming up soon of hope hicks ho hicks. he has lost some o

. >> betsy woodruff, stay with us. >>> new revelations about paul nana fort's alleged ties to russia, it's brand-new and i'll explain where it comes from, a key filing. also a push to have donald trump deposed in the stormy case. >>> and roseanne tackling the trump era head on. >> what's up, adorable. >> there it is, and a lot of people were watching. my special guest tonight sandra bernhard is here fresh off the set of ""roseann." you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? most pills don't finish the job because they don't relieve nasal congestion. flonase allergy relief is different. flonase relieves sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose, plus nasal congestion, which pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. and 6 is greater than 1. start your day with flonase for more complete allergy relief. flonase. this changes everything. but mania, such as unusualrder can changes in your mood,able. activity or energy levels, can leave you on shaky ground. help take control by asking

tara, chris lu, and betsy woodruff, thank you for joining us.still ahead, laura ingraham that writes to condem the students ahead. and tonight's thing 1, thing 2 is a good one, starts next. we do whatever it takes to fight cancer. these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com hello. let's go for a ride on a peloton. let's go grab a couple thousand friends and chase each other up a hill. let's go make a personal best, then beat it with your personal better than best. let's go bring the world's best instructors right to you. better yet, let's go bring the entire new york studio - live. let's go anytime, anywhere, with anyone who's willing. and let's go do it all right here. ready to go? peloton. >>> thing 1 tonight, we've all seen how obsessed our president is with building a wall on the southern border. he's been very specific about the fact it has to be a real wall. we already ha

special correspondent for "vanity fair" who wrote the new report on trump's "clean reset," and betsy woodruff is a political reporter for ""the daily beast."" gabe, your reaction to sarah sanders today in the briefing not disputing the idea mcmaster is on the way out something others have reported along sort of in line with that. take a listen and i want to get your reaction. >> reporter: would we assume then that general mcmaster will remain national security adviser throughout the duration of the negotiations? >> i have no reason to believe otherwise. >> and that means, so it could be in the fall of this year, it could be later, but he'll still be on there to advise? >> i don't have a krystal ball to predict the future. but the president's national security adviser is general mcmaster. he's a valued member of the president's team and an important part of this process. >> not getting anywhere -- >> he's not leaving anytime soon. >> not that i'm aware of. >> what do you think, gabe? >> if i was general mcmaster, that would not inspire a lot of confidence in my job security. look, chris, this

and betsy woodruff, msnbc contributor and reporter for the "daily beast." want to start with a big part of why this story has developed so quickly over the last 24 hours. what sarah sanders had to say about it yesterday from the podium at the white house. take a look. >> did the president approve of the payment that was made in october of 2016 by his long-time lawyer and adviser michael cohen? >> look, the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. this case has already been won in arbitration, and anything beyond that, i would refer you to the president's outside counsel. >> does he know about the payment at the time? >> not that i'm aware of. >> you said there's been arbitration won. by whom and when? >> the president's personal attorneys. for details on that, i'd refer you to them. >> sarah sanders acknowledging there the arbitration. here was stormy daniels' lawyer on "the last word" last night talking about this. >> any claim by the administration that donald trump won an arbitration is no d

betsy woodruff and our national political reporter from bloomberg. great to have you both. and let's start with the nra's response overnight. basically calling it good tv but bad policy. watch. >> i don't know yet whether that was just a performance or whether that is actually the new position of the white house. but i got to tell you, it shows how this debate is fundamentally shifted. >> that was actually chris murphy. i think we have the dana lash sound bite that we want to play. but i know you have new reporting on their reaction to this. >> right, so i've spoken to people familiar with the nra's meeting on this and they are in a bit of an uncomfortable position right now given the fact that there is a president who they strongly support who has been strongly supportive of their second amendment issues who is now proposing things that their members strongly oppose. what i'm told is that they are not going to back down on rising the rifle age, they won't back down manchin and toomey -- >> so no compromise? >> not on the background checks, gun show sales. only thing that t

that statement first given to the daily beast, betsy woodruff. at first he said it's his statement representing the president. he has walked that back. what's white house saying about the thrust of what john dowd said this morning? >> reporter: it's a dramatic shift from the trump legal team's previous commitment to fully cooperate with the special counsel, robert mueller. you made the point that dowd is the president's personal lawyer not official white house counsel who represents the office of the presidency. as you made clear, he issued this point of clarification where he said he was speaking for himself after initially telling the daily beast he was speaking on the president's bhafr bhaf. trump's lawyers have said in the past that the president's campaign didn't collude with the russian government. as dowd said in that statement, he wants rod rosenstein, deputy ag, to end the thing on the merits, he says, david. >> jeff, thank you very much. >> sure. >> i'm thinking about all of this, it raises three big questions here. let's start with who

. >>> our last question of the day goes to betsy woodruff.ou watch the white house press briefing and were you surprised that sarah huckabee-sanders couldn't go as far as theresa may did and blaming at tack on the russians -- on russians. >> it is extraordinary there is so much daylight between how united states officials talk about these issues related to the u.k. and how the british government does. in january president trump canceled a trip to the u.k. citing some sort of trumped up controversy and now sarah huckabee-sanders is unable to say what theresa may is dozens of people got poisoned and the russian government deserved the responsibility. >> i'm nicolle wallace and "mtp daily" started with katy tur. >> can i answer that question. i'm not surprised. it is remarkable that the press secretary will say that the u.k. is our closest ally and we have a special rell apationship and e

attorney and senior fbi official, betsy woodruff, an msnbc contributor who covers account russia probe for the daily beast, and mimi rocha, a former federal prosecutor. thanks to you. what are they looking for? >> they're looking for things related to russia, looking at obviously these are business documents. this is the business. and if you obviously know, the trump organization was not where the campaign was run out of it. there's nothing it could have done in regards to obstruction so what is it they're so interested in? obviously, we don't have a copy of it. we know there were a lot of search terms in the subpoena. so now the folks at trump org having to go through and look through the e-mails and look through documents and see what's responsive. at the end of the day, the president's lawyers said this investigation was going to be over at the end of last year. here we are in march, trump organization is dealing with the subpoena. this is obviously going to go on for at least several more months if not longer. >> chuck, this has always seemed to me or not always, for weeks, the mue

with me here on set, betsy woodruff daily beast reporter. chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and former senior official at the fbi now fortunately for our benefit an msnbc contributor. joining us as well former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade, also an msnbc contributor. ashley, let me start with you if i can quickly. the one real triumph seems all he has done in the course of lashing out the last several weeks and months frankly most of the last year, the president's attorneys for most of that time convinced him to back off robert mueller, not go directly at robert mueller himself. obviously that changed. what led to it? >> well, they sure had. and a lot of that was to his credit, at least until recently, was ty cobb, reassuring the president saying, i agree with you, this probe is a witch hunt, but it will be over soon. it will be over. we all remember he said by thanksgiving. then by the holidays. then by the first of the year. and then when it wasn't over, the president grew increasingly frustrated, increasingly enraged and you have a legal team that is often at tim

betsy woodruff, politics reporter for the daily beast. cli clint watts, msnbc security analyst. and good to see all of you. if this is true could this be obstruction of justice? >> well, it could. the idea he's possibly dangling out this idea of a pardon to paul manafort or michael flynn is very troubling. but, you know, the idea that constitutional powers are absolute, i mean, we all -- and that's kind of the argument here. >> meaning the president can pardon whoever he wants? >> for whatever reason. we all know in the constitution there are limits at times. for freedom of speech. you can't run into a crowded theater and scream fire. to kind of paint a law school hypothetical to draw this out a bit. if the president and his son, for example were in the white house and the president told his son to pick up a gun and shoot someone and that happened and a moment later they came in to investigation and the president says, i'm pardoning myself and i'm pardoning my son, i think we'd have trouble with that. it can't be just absolute at all times in all ways. in this instance if trump

and betty woodruff, politics reporter for the daily beast and msnbc contributor. betsyur view of the significance of this and the -- what is revealed in the link there between an alternative facts approach to politics and a digital campaign that might be relentless at pushing misinformation. >> it speaks to the time we live in. and ultimately, the responsibility for how whether or not these ads work falls with the consumers. the people who see the ads. at the end of the day, these ads only work if americans don't follow politics closely enough, don't take the time to put in the legwork, fact check, and get a sense of whether or not the things that they are reading, the media they're consuming is coming from reliable sources or not. it's harder than ever in this internet age in some ways, but there is such a rich variety of fact checking sites, an amazing websites and newspapers and television networks creating wonderful journalism that fortunately, it shouldn't be as difficult as sometimes it seems to be. speaking of the significance of this news we have, one thing i ca