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betsy woodruff and manically jane fox, we're so grateful to have both of you. after the break, donald trump's no good very bad july went from the helsinki debacle to the cohen tapes. we'll show you how the president has hunkered down for the storm. with two times more geographic detail... ...ancestrydna can pinpoint where your ancestors are from... ...and the paths they took, to a new home. could their journey inspire yours? order your kit at ancestrydna.com. it's a high-tech sleep revolution. the sleep number 360 smart bed intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts. so you wake up ready to run the world. the new sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999. and back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid, plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. >>> thank you all very much. appreciate it. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. >>> thank you. thank you. >> are you upset with mr. cohen? >>

politics reporter for the daily beast and msnbc contributor betsy woodruff.an who puts memo, nbc news national reporter mike. joining us from london, london school of economics brian class. and from helsinki finland, chief correspondent affairs, host andrea mitchell reports nbc, andrea mitchell. it's such an honor to have you here. thank you for staying up with us. >> thank you. absolutely. >> i have watched so many of these meetings, dozens of types of meetings with foreign leaders over the years. this seems like everything this president does, stunning in a way that is extraordinarily difficult to kind of understand and explain. what's your latest reporting going into this summit? and can you put it in some historical context? what do you think is important here and different than what you've seen before? >> sure. i think this is unique because we've never had a summit with a kgb spy master, someone who has, you know, completely studied and examined donald trump, and a president who spent the weekend golfing and has not been preparing. there were no princip

betsy woodruff, politics reporter at the daily beast, also an msnbc contributor. betsy, nbcnews.com reporting six women are among the 25 possible nominees that the president has publicly named already. and based on what we just heard there from pete, one of the two at the top of the list is a woman. if the president does choose a woman, chosen and confirmed, she will become the fifth woman in history to serve on the court. the fourth among the current lineup of justices. justice ginsburg, justice sotomayor. all of whom were appointed by democratic presidents. if the president does name a woman, betsy, would that ease concerns from democrats? what do we know about the women that the president may be considering? >> i think it's unlikely that democrats would roll back their concerns about the potential for overturning roe v. wade just because a woman were nominated. in particular, amy connie barrett, who's one of the top contenders to be the president's pick to be a supreme court justice, is known as very conservative. she would be viewed by democrats as an automatic

let's get the inside scoop on this fascinating story from betsy woodruff, politics reporter for the dailybeast, and msnbc contributor, and david ignati ignatius, "washington post" foreign affairs columnist and msnbc political analyst. she's not accused of being a spy. there are levels of being a foreign agent to espionage, and i guess there's a level of proof here, but what was her role in the nra? >> she worked assiduously for years to build relationships with people in the conservative movement, the republican party and particularly the gun rights space. >> some bold face names here. >> exactly, people like wayne lapierre, another senior, senior person. she started a gun rights group in russia, so that was part of the way she was able to wend her way into these networks. one thing that makes the butina case unique from any other russian indictment we've seen over past year or so is that the court documents about her case make it clear she appeared to have knowing help from an american. the documents that came out yesterday showed she was in a romantic relationship with a significantly o

joining me now, betsy woodruff, co-author of that great piece and david caye johnson, author of "it'se than you think, what the trump administration is doing to america." betsy, we are seeing this play out in public because these two men are caught in an existential death match and what you see is what you get as they play this out in public. >> that's a good way of putting it. what we have seen unfold over the last few months and sort of reach a breaking point in the last 48 hours is the final irreparable, unfixable rift between michael cohen and his former boss, president donald trump. and it's important to take a step back and sort of put this in context. michael cohen spent most of his career presenting himself as the watchdog of trump. as somebody who would go to the mat for him. as someone who as recently as a few months ago said he would jump out of a building for trump. rapidly, we've seen that shift. we've seen a sea change. now according to numerous sources that my colleagues and i spoke with, the break is unfixable. michael cohen has resolved himself, has made peace with th

correspondent for "the new york times" and msnbc contributor charlie savage, also politics reporter betsy woodruff and staff writer for the atlantic natasha bertrand. natasha, you're with me, so we'll start with you. senate democrats made it clear they don't want the meeting to happen with the president alone without anybody else, no aides, no cabinet, meanwhile, sergey lavrov who talked to larry king about that interview on russia today, a kremlin-backed network, and here's what lavrov had to say. let's listen to that. >> well, as things stand now, that's what the american side proposed, and we are polite people, so we agreed. >> they are polite people, so they agreed. this has got to be more than etiquette and the politeness of please and thank you when it comes to that. >> of course. what we're seeing now is the kremlin is echoing donald trump's talking points saying this is all fake news, this is something that never happened, why does this witch hunt continue, et cetera, et cetera and the president is going into the meeting on monday wondering why the fbi didn't look at the dnc server more, n

. >> joining me now, the daily beast betsy woodruff, kenneth white and paul butler. want to get your reaction on this report from all of you. what do you make of this news about how rod rosenstein felt he was thrown under the bus by the white house? >> i've known rod rosenstein for a long time. we started together at the department of justice. normally this dude is cool as a cucumber. he's not emotional. he's rational and to see him go in at the congressional hearing as he did yesterday tells us a couple of things. he's mad as hell and he's not taking it anymore. that's bad news for president trump. he's kind of boxed in, the president is. if he fires rosenstein then he is providing more evidence of obstruction of justice. if leaves him in, then trump has someone who is supervising the investigation of trump who is very angry at him and knows has experience first hand trump's ways of trying to derail investigations. rosenstein justifiably feels used. >> i have to say in the public appearance he's made he's shown a very calm demeanor. he's even joked around a lot in t

news and msnbc john heilemann, associate editor of "common" magazine and jonathan lamere and betsy woodruff and "new york times" reporter michael schmidt. joe and mika have the morning off. a full house and a verification of a 2016 audiotape recorded by trump's former fixer. who said what, agreeing on the subject of the conversation. then candidate trump is heard discussing a possible payment to purchase the story rights of a former "playboy" model karen mcdougal about an affair the president had in 2005, of which the president denies. nbc cannot confirm whether it's been edited or altered, here's what was played. a warning. it includes a profanity from then candidate president donald j. trump. >> let me know what's happening. okay? oh. oh! maybe because of this it would be better if you didn't go. you know? maybe because of "this." for that one, you know, what you can do to get rid of this, because it's so false, what they're saying. it's such bullshit. um -- i think -- i think this goes away quickly. i think it's probably better. to do the charleston thing. just this time. yeah. in two we

news and msnbc john heilemann, associate editor of "common" magazine and jonathan lamere and betsy woodruffnew york times" reporter michael schmidt. joe and mika have the morning off. a full house and a verification of a 2016 audiotape recorded by trump's former fixer. who said what, agreeing on the subj t

. >>> joining me now, betsy woodruff and also katie bewilliams. ladies, a good sunday morning to you both. betsy, i want to go back to senator graeham and he said tha roe v. wade is settled into law and he squoes stare decisis as being the reason, which means that he don't overturn a law unless there is good reason to do so. you would think that is a tactic, it can come off that way trying to calm democrats over the potential drif knoconservat nominee to the high court. but at any point, one case could re reverse all that, so are democrats buying this? >> really what this comes down to is justice roberts. it seems very likely that president trump is going to appoint a conservative supreme court justice who would set aside this principal of stare decisis, this principle of staying with prior decisions in most cases in favor potentially of voting to overturn row. just looking at the list of potential supreme court nominees, who he has put forward, they are all broadly viewed by progressives and by pro abortion rights activist as people who would pres

joining me now, betsy woodruff. paul, let me begin with you. in the event that there are several potential legal challenges that come forward for a potential nominee to have to do with the russia investigation, can the president pardon himself? can a sitting president be indicted? those are just some of the questions that a potential supreme court justice may have to deal with. are those questions that they should ask president trump's nominees? and what other questions am i mising that th missing that they should ask? >> president trump has a unique superpower that no other subject of a criminal investigation has ever had. he gets to choose his own judge. the supreme court may very well decide some of the issues not only about america's future but with regard to donald trump's personal things. one thing, president trump said the appointment is unconstitutional. he thinks you she have been confirmed by the senate. that's an extreme view. some lawyers that he is considering for the supreme court might share that view. >> and are those valid ques

have, as you put it, such a close friend at the head of that tabloid company, this is reporter betsy woodrufftake a listen. >> the reason that that conversation happened, according to a source familiar with it, is because david pecker, who's the head of the parent company of the "national enquirer" told president trump that he was thinking about leaving that company. trump then thought, oh no, if my ally leaves this tabloid company, the company could then go ahead and publish the karen mcdougal story. >> what is your assessment of that? >> well, my assessment is, is that they were wise to think that that would be a concern. and i think that ultimately what you're going to find out is that one of the reasons why they moved away from that concept, that use of ami as to some of these other payments, was for this exact concern. that's why the $130,000 payment to my client, for instance, was nod meat through ami. that's why the two additional payments that i referenced last night were not made through ami for this exact reason. they wanted to close the circle, if you will, so that the president th

betsy woodruff, a politics reporter for t"the daily beast" and an msnbc contributor. danny sav alos, nbc legal analyst. phil, i do want to start with you. this new that alan weissleberg has been called in before a grand jury is not surprising because we heard michael cohen reference him in that tape. but at the same time weissleberg is somebody who is going to know a lot about how the trump organization operated and whether or not there were payments potentially to more women in the lead up before the election to try to keep some negative stories quiet so as not to harm donald trump's chances. if those payments exist, am i right to say, he would know about them, phil? >> i think he would. he has been working for the trump organization for decades now, including for fred trump, the president's father. he knows all the expenditures. he knows times when michael cohen might have been reimbursed for these payments. he knows how much donald trump is really worth. he knows what's real and what's not real. and talking to people in trump's orbit this afternoon, this is being i

correspondent for "the new york times" and msnbc contributor charlie savage, also politics reporter betsy woodruffou're with me, so we'll start with you. senate democrats made it clear they don't want the meeting to happen with the president alone without anybody else, no aides, no cabinet, meanwhile, sergey lavrov who talked to larry king about that interview on russia today, a kremlin-backed network, and here's what lavrov had to say. let's listen to that. >> well, as things stand now, that's what the american side proposed, and we are polite people, so we agreed. >> they are polite people, so they agreed. this has got to be more than etiquette and the politeness of please and thank you when it comes to that.

of new york, now an msnbc legal analyst and here on set political reporter for the daily beast betsy woodruff, white house reporter with the associated press, zeke miller and ken dilanian intelligence and national security reporter to nbc news. daniel, let's start with you, if we can right now. this basically shuts down manafort's assertion that he was in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, that he was unable to prepare his own defense line by line. robert mueller's team basically said, that just simply is not the way it is. >> peter, as a former prosecutor for ten years, i'm shocked to read this. this is specialized treatment like none other i've ever heard of for a pre-trial detainee who is awaiting trial. i mean, the fact of having his own work space, unlimited access to phone calls, that's highly coveted phone calls, they're very difficult to get when you're in pretrial detention. to put it in context, here in new york many defense lawyers would make pleas to the judges at sentencing that their time should be reduced because they spent time in pretrial detention and it was so hard, s

betsy woodruff, thank you for spending time with us. we have to sneak in our last break. be right back. it's pretty amazing out there. the world is full of more possibilities than ever before. and american express has your back every step of the way- whether it's the comfort of knowing help is just a call away with global assist. or getting financing to fund your business. no one has your back like american express. so where ever you go. we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. don't live life without it. by staying in rhythm. and to keep up this pace, i drink boost optimum. boost optimum with 5 in 1 advanced nutrition helps support muscle, energy, bone, normal immune function, and vision. boost optimum. be up for life. with my bladder leakage, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were very saggy. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with new sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. introducing more sizes for better comfort. new depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit.

and let's bring in betsy woodruff from the daily beast.are still waiting for president to talk, and it was the the indictment of another russi russian, and you have written about this in the "daily beast" saying that it could be the only evidence or at least the first evidence of collusion, and talk to me about why. >> this is, what this indictment or this new complaint against ru russia and mariia butina, shows that this woman who is incarcerated and waiting for hearings to move forward was part of according to the allegations part of a russian influence operation trying to make some back channel between the republican party and the nra to the clem lynn and trying -- kremlin, and trying to connect these entities of the project to shoring up the relationships between the kremlin and the movement, and mariia butina spent years in the united states work on that project. what the criminal complaint shows that she had help from at least one american. the complaint does not name the u.s. citizen, but the washington post has identified this pers

. >> joining the conversation msnbc contributor betsy woodruff for the daily beast, msnbc national security analyst clint watts, a former fbi special agent and author of "messing with the enemy, surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news" and david hickton who led the fbi cyber unit named in the indictment during the obama administration. david, how did the mueller investigators piece it together? how did they get -- how did they find out with as much confidence as they have that this was done by russian intelligence officers known as the gru? >> when you talk about cyber enforcement it can be very complicated or reduced down to this. it is about attribution and defeat i defeati defeating anonymous. it's about pinning the tail on the cyber donkey. i was proud to lead a group i thought were the best cyber investigators here. three squads at the fbi who are identified in the press release as part of today's announcement. the hackers tried to avoid detection. in china, they are part of a group but they avoid detection by having an architecture of compromis

betsy woodruff, politics reporter for "the daily beast." and msnbc contributor. and curtis lee, national correspondent for the "los angeles times." charlie, this is talk about the meeting on "rachel maddow" that's the focus from june of 2016. listen what he thinks the import of the meeting is. >> it's not about what donald trump did with that meeting. i think what is significant is what he did not do. if he knew that the meeting was to take place, he did not tell his son to cancel the meeting. he did not tell the fbi about the meeting. and if anything, he further encouraged and emboldened the russians to hack because he went out just about a month and a half after the meeting and said russia, if you're listening, which was two years ago from today as you pointed out, you would be rewarded for hacking hillary clinton's emails. >> charlie, i want to get a sense from you it of how you view that meeting differently perhaps in light of what we heard on that tape, in light of what we've learned this week. cnn reporting, other outlets following here, that michael cohen