carol lee, i want to start with you and your fantastic reporting. take us through it. >> basically what we learned in talking to various people who have been witnesses in the mueller investigation, people in the president's orbit, and they have said there's a rising anxiety among those who cooperated with this investigation because they fear that the president, if it's obvious that they shared certain information that is viewed as damaging to him, that he will seem some sort of retribution. he'll attack them, allies will attack them. from their perspective, they are saying, look, we were told to cooperate. we didn't really have a choice. we have to talk to investigators. when you get in and talk to investigators, you have to tell the truth. have you to fully disclose everything you know. like it or not, some of the things they know are not things that president trump is going to find make him look good, and he's going to be upset with. so there's this concern that they don't know what mueller's report -- redacted report is going to look like. there'

joining us now with more detail, national political reporter for nbc news carol lee. he reason why many people don't want to see the mueller report out because their names will be all over it. who are we talking about? >> some who are still in the white house and then former officials. there's two former chief of staff. don mcgahn spent countless hours with mueller's team and a number of other officials. from their perspective people we talked to look we were told by the president and his legal team hey cooperate with this investigation and the only thing to do in that scenario is to going and tell truth otherwise you risk perjury charges. so now the report is going to come out and, is my name going to be in there. is it going to say i said this incident that the president said this thing that he'll be angry about. said bob woodward kind of thing where you can figure out who exactly said what and what the different sources are and then that basically they are worried about the president's wrath. that he and his allies will come down on him and publicly, whether it's th

joining us now is carol lee, political reporter. nbc hans nichols is live for us from the white house. carol, i want to walk through some of this reporting as we kind of sit here and wait. it's been almost a year we've been waiting to find out what mueller has been able to find. why are these white house staffers so stressed out? >> basically, k arkkasie, they' stressed out because they agreed to cooperate. they were told by the president's white house legal team to fully cooperate with the investigation. they did that, and in order to do that, the only thing to do is tell the truth and be completely forthcoming, which they did, otherwise they would put their own selves in legal jeopardy. in doing that, there are some things they had to talk about and disclose that would be potentially damaging to the president or make him look bad. and what the concern is that they are now really thinking about is are their names going to be attached to certain specific information where they are identified as the source of that information, or is i

joining me now, nbc national reporter carol lee and msnbc political analyst phillip rucker. former deputy assistant attorney general, elliot williams. carol lee, first to you, i do think that big question of the day has been the question hovering over washington for however -- a year, plus now since this entire investigation started. walk us through why these officials are so concerned, and do they feel as though they might be protected by some of these redactions of grand jury material? >> they don't know, that's where the anxiety comes from, what we've learned is that they're realliried about, they were told they had to cooperate that was what they should do, the only thing to do in that scenario is to be completely forthcoming and tell the truth, and some of the truths that they have told are not going to make the president look good. according to people we talk to, it's things we've already seen from the president in terms of different things that he's done that were part of the obstruction investigation. and their worry is that the president will either see their names

joining me now, nbc investigate if reporter carol lee, who's behind this exclusive report, and former.s. attorney and professor at the university of alabama law school, who i love to see in person, joyce vance. carol, tell us more about this report, because when robert mueller calls, you're supposed to cooperate. in fact, trump's lawyers told people to. >> exactly. and they're feeling now, some of them, we were told to cooperate, we had no choice. once you go in and talk to investigators, you have to answer every question truthf truthfully, tell them everything you know. and now they potentially could be criticized by the president, attacked by the president and his allies for having done what in their view they were told to do, which is go in and cooperate. and so they're worried will their names be explicitly listed in this report and attributed to certain information or will it be written in a way that even absent their names being disclosed, a way you could tell where the information is coming from and will that get under the president's skin. they're concerned about that. >> well

along with nbc national reporter carol lee. i think we have your shot up as you now raced back in from the south lawn to the north lawn and president trump not talking once, but twice. stopping on the south lawn under the wing and plenty to say. >> touting the strong economy today, hallie, but defiant upon leaving the white house. as he so often is as he heads off to speak to the nra. he covered a range of different topics. everything from former vice president joe biden announcing he's running for office. president trump saying that he thinks he will beat him and, also, answering a number of questions about whether he's going to allow his current and former officials to testify before congress. as you know, this is an intensifying battle between the white house and capitol hill and president trump increasingly saying, look, we need to move on. we have given you a lot of information and mueller was able to ask questions of don mcgahn the former white house counsel of more than 30 hours. the mueller report is out and now it's ti

our own carol lee continues to watch and listen. carol? >> brian, look, i think there's no other way to say it. the attorney general went in, made a conscious decision that he was not going to let this report speak for itself. i think nicolle makes a really important point. there is a question of whether he went too far. if everything he said is true, then would it have been more beneficial for him to let the report come out and then say what he had to say? if you look at the things he said, he said more than a dozen times in one way or another that there was no collusion. he went through and defended the president in ways that i'm guessing the white house probably didn't think he would go so far to defend him, particularly on the obstruction piece of things. and he didn't leave a lot of wiggle room in terms of things -- for things that we may come to learn. he almost sort of presented it as a fait accompli that there wasn't going to be anything worth digging through in this report. yet there's one thing, and jeremy bash touched on this a

one of the reporter who is broke that story is carol lee. >> the big concern is these are official who is were told to cooperate by the white house and the president's legal team. they did that and in their view they had no choice but to be honest and say everything they knew. now they are freaking out because this report is going to come out and the president may or may not be able to determine what told the special counsel what. things that are going to make him look really bad. are their names going to be in the report. so and so said the president did x or the bob woodward whodunit. individual number one and everyone can figure it out. they are worried because the president is vindictive in this way. >> wrathful. >> good word. is he going to go after them on twitter or block them from getting different gigs? who knows. his allies will do the same. >> these are not people by and large who still work in the white house. >> there are a few. >> it's a big circle of people. >> they are fearful of the president's wrath. he runs the republican party. if the president is mad at you, you ar

>> yeah, that's right, katie, carol lee and kristen welker and i are all hearing they want to crack down on asylum yet again. we know there are many iterations of how they've tried to make it harder for people claiming asylum to come into the united states. one way they want to do that now, is to take the initial interview out of the hands of asylum officers who have been trained on what to listen to. and they want that instead to be conducted by border agents. steven miller is behind this here, and he thinks that will make it tougher for people to pass that initial interview. he thinks border agents will naturally be more skeptical and harder on these people as they claim. but, of course, asylum is something protected under international treaties and u.s. law, and when they come here and say they have a credible fear of returning home, because they face persecution, that's hard to get around. right now, that's one thing we know that's on the table and is in planning. >> the president a little earlier was asked about this new -- the renewing of the child separation policy, not about the

carol lee broke this story for us, also joining the conversation former u.s. attorney greg brower. , what do you know? >> well, what we know is that as the report is closer and closer to coming out, that some former and current white house officials who were told to cooperate with the mueller investigation by the president's legal team at the time are now worried about what is going to come out in the report in terms of is it going to be -- are they going to be explicitly named as sources of information about the president and if not, is the report going to be written in a way that makes it obvious that they were the source of the information. meaning, like, if there was an incident involving the president that clearly one person was a party to. then is that -- what is that going to do to the president? is that going to make him and attack them on twitter? are his allies going to start attacking them. there's a lot of anxiety. one person described it to us as breakdown level anxiety. >> do these people not anticipate this would be released publicly, the mueller report? >> i think it

carol lee is in washington. she's covered the vice president for years. also with me here in the studio, "the new york times" shane go goldmach. tell us what we should be expecting in the next few days and let's talk about the focus on charlotteville in that new video. >> reporter: do me a favor. if you see a taller gentleman walking down the stairs that looks like joe biden, give me a shout so we can talk to him. he's on a train from washington this morning. the way his campaign is framing this announcement is hitting on three pillars. the first time is that announcement video talking about this fight for the soul of america. that is going to be followed on monday with the former vice president in pittsburgh, pe pennsylvania, and then that third pillar is about bridging the divides in america. that will be in a big public rally on may 18th in philadelphia. he's going to be a little bit of fundraising. that's on the agenda for tonight as well. let's talk about that video, though. the first words out of the vice president's mouth as he announced his candid

will have expensive coverage with kristen welker at the white house, ari melber, julia ainsley and carol leer pete buttigieg will join the table. an action-packed "morning joe" is just moments away. g joe" is just moments away plaque psoriasis can be relentless. tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i'm ready. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. before starting tremfya® tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. ask your doctor about tremfya®. tremfya®. because you deserve to stay clearer. janssen wants to help you explore cost support o

carol lee. plus msnbc contributor joyce vance, a former u.s. attorney. and peter baker, msnbc political analyst. peter baker i saw you on "morning joe" this morning as you ticked through the litany of terrible headlines for the president this morning in your paper and the ones we cited, i said, wow does everything wear off this quickly? we're living these news cycles that feel like dog years. it feels like seven weeks ago the news of the mueller report wrapped up, a terrible week of headlines and a crush of bad news for donald trump. >> the bill barr letter about the mueller investigation feels like a million years ago and it should be something that lasted for the president for a while. he went through two years of this investigation, the bottom-line conclusions seemed to work in his favor, you would have thought that he would have want to spend more time soaking that in and enjoying the aftermath of that, but you're right he headed straight to health care, the border, the headlines on his tax returns and whistle blowers. not good for a guy who came out

i want to bring in carol lee who has more on this exclusive report.eople are worried around the president. >> surprise. yeah. we talked to people who said that there's a lot of anxiety about the report because from their perspective, they were told cooperate with the investigation. the white house told them to talk. the only thing to do in a situation like that is to go in and tell the truth and be candid about everything you know. and the flip side is that when this report comes out, people are worried that either their names will be disclosed as having provided certain information or which is probably more likely is that it will just be obvious who said what in certain instances n particularly the instance where it's just one individual and the president. and the concern is that then the president will lash out. people around him will start to criticize, and that they will be targeted for having cooperated in an investigation that they were told by the white house to cooperate with. >> what are they doing? >> biting nails, maybe having drinks, tryin

for now carol lee is our national political reporter. she's been among our team of journalists looking at and talking about the white house staff and anxieties that they have that they may find themselves open to scrutiny, exposed in what we're going to read this afternoon. >> reporter: that's right. there's a lot of anxiety among those who cooperated in the investigation at the direction of the white house, and the president's initial legal team who said, you know, we're going to fully cooperate. everybody should go in and talk to the special counsel's office if they're asked. on the flip side we now have this report coming out and a number of those officials who are worried about what the president is going to do if he looks at this report and can see how much they cooperated with the special counsel's office, the kinds of information that they may have provided that could be damaging to the president. i think that none of them are probably feeling any better this morning when they see the president having shifted already from the posi

and jane fox, senior reporter for vanity fair and carol lee because joyce vance and peter baker, msnbc political analyst and "new york times" chief correspondent. peter baker, i saw you on "morning joe" this morning and as you all ticked through the litany of terrible headlines for the president this morning in your paper and in the ones we cited, i thought, wow is it everything just wear off this quickly? we're all living these new cycles that feel like san diego years and it feels like seven years ago, not one or two weeks ago, that the news of the mueller report wrapped up and terrible week of headlines, a crush of bad news for donald trump? >> exactly. the barr letter, the bill barr letter about the mueller investigation feels like a million years ago. it should have been something that lasted for a while for this president, right? he went through two years of ordeal with this investigation. the conclusions, at least, the bottom line conclusions seemed to work in his favor. you would have thought he would want to spend more time soaking that in and enjoying the aftermath of that, b

carol: this is interesting for me. leets to do it for herself, but also the bigger, broader public and women on wall street in public. katia: 100%. carol: where are we? she has not gotten her day in court. max: she won that decision. cantor fitzgerald is appealing. one thing that occurred to me is that women can end up in arbitration and sometimes some women want to be in arbitration. women could end up in court. another thing women and men can do is tell their story to reporters. katia and i, if anybody is watching this and want to talk about their time on wall street, our phones are open. katia: that is assuming they are not bound by a nondisclosure agreement. a lot of women are bound by nda's, and that is what is keeping them from talking because they have so much at stake. the agreements are structured, a lot of money. carol: the new jersey judge, sometimes you don't even realize what is in that employment contract you are signing. stay tuned because it ain't over yet. we see whether or not she gets her day in court. k

. >> carol lee, as we come up on 9:00, we know thanks to your reporting that a lot of people inside theals them and how the president might react to that. how will you read this report when we finally get our hands on whatever version we get our hands on. >> i think the three things i'm looking for is one, what do we learn new about any contacts between trump associates and russia? the extent to which russia tried to coordinate or collude with members of the trump campaign. the second thing is the counterintelligence piece of this. they put out there was a counterintention investigation on whether or not the president was a witting or unwitting agent for the russian government. we still have no answer on that question. will there be anything in here that helps us get to that, and the thing that all the people who work for president trump who cooperated with the investigation are going to focus on the obstruction piece. what do we learn new this president was doing that we don't already know? all signs point to the fact that there are a number of things that we still don't know despite k