so you and chris ruddy are having dinner? - lunch. - lunch, and at another table at mar-a-lago is the president. - it's at his golf club. - his golf club. - mar-a-lago doesn't have a golf course. - pardon, so it was at his golf club. it's not at mar-a-lago. so tell the story. so you're having lunch, and there's the president. - and the president calls ruddy over, and i come up behind ruddy and ruddy says, mr. president, i have mike schmidt of the new york times with me, and the president looks up at me as if what are you doing in my golf club? and then he says, oh michael, and he remembered our interview in july. - in the white house. - in the white house, and he thought that we had treated him fairly. and i went up and i shook his hand and he immediately launched into a thing about salt. it's state and local taxes. something i know very little about, but they had just passed the tax bill and he was very, very proud of that, and wanted to be his best own spokesman. and starts going on and on with me about that. and the proble

of what we're doing right now and what's been going on this week can't possibly have health and chris ruddy not only president trump's friend but a member at mar a lago the president's club were supposedly he met with the tories to negotiate this deal he says there's no truth to this now but is this whole debacle just that a debacle and maybe they wish they hadn't and engaged in it this story at politico was based on information brought by two sources who apparently had a close early information about the deal they were working on the negotiations so it's it's possible that somebody planted the story in order to generate negative press and kill the deal because if chris reddy of the nine charities if chris reddy is denying it it might be suggested it might not actually happen right if he's going to go away deny this deal i doubt we're going to hear in a few weeks that it actually went through but who knows maybe that's possible but as you say it is ironic because they're out there the qataris are out there trying to get in good with the white house and get positive press but then when these

chris ruddy, a trump friend and chief executive news max quoted saying, this has moved at lightning speedthe number of indictments and other moves is amazing. i think it will come to a head quicker than other investigations. as we all know, the president wanted this over yesterday. his vice president jumped onboard with that last week. but is he right? is it moving quickly and could it be over fast? >> mr. ruddy is right on one count, i suspect wrong on another. this investigation has made far more quickly than any public corruption case i've ever been involved in or observed. these cases are slow moving. it take as long time for the fbi to do a lot of the leg work involved. it takes a lot of time to gather and review financial records. the fact mueller in his first year has already indicted and obtained guilty pleas is pretty remarkable and tells you there really is a lot of fire beneath all of the smoke. that doesn't necessarily equate to an investigation that wraps up quickly. this is a complex conspiracy, and what the american people deserve from the justice department and prosecutors