you're saying you knew what don megan knew -- >> i've got to jump in here, jack.n you know there's allegations of domestic abuse there is no what did you know, you look for what actually happened. you don't just go was it a punch in the eye or a kick in the butt? i'm sorry, it's an absurd argument. we'll be back in a moment. not just airline purchases. (yelling) holy moly, that's a lot of miles! shh-h-h-h! what's in your wallet? man: shh-h-h! shh-h-h-h! ythen you turn 40 ande everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today with td ameritrade. renein the caribbean.onder... for a limited time enjoy two free perks, like complimentary wi-fi and drinks. a savings up to $300 when you book now,

and we have one source saying don megan knew about a year ago. definitely one of those friday nights where -- >> let's talk about if he were a president and normal white house staff. i know that's a hell of a leap, but let's try that. a president kwekts his kpeexpecf staff to deal with this and know what their reporting and come through with. they go back door-to-door, every place they ever lived. it's thorough investigation by the fbi. according to all the reporting i'm seeing the fbi was doing its job. as long as a year ago they happen getting indications there was violence in these exmarriages, former marriages. and wasn't that information enough to be brought to the attention of the chief of staff? >> i assume you're directing that question to me, chris. what i can tell you is that there are indications this came to light in the fall, that there was word this was happening, that these allegations had been out there -- >> it took nine months to get the information to the chief of staff. >> that is what john kelly told us tonight himself. in no

and this case that would be don megan. this madministration has deeuatd from the norms.ause he would have found out before kelly if they were sticking to that typical process. >> let me ask you. this is what "the washington post" wrote. they write that a e growing number of aids are blaming john kelly for the bungled handling of the scandal with one official calling him a big, fat liar. you heard mike pence. you b don't say he has the full confidence of the president. unless he has the full confidence of the president. you worked in a white house. so what happens when, as evidenced by this reporting, the staff doesn't have confidence in the chief of staff. >> john kelly has a constituency of one. that's the united states president. i think that he doesn't really -- he the president isn't very concerned about some of the problems that have come up. >> what does it do for the ability to function given that fact? >> they haven't functioned well for a whole year. it's resulted in scandal after scandal. they have huge amount of turnover. there's no question that they are not

big fat liar by a white house official in the "the washington post" as he and white house counsel don megan face serious questions about what they knew and when they knew it. >>> and there's this, across town on the hill today one of our intelligence chiefs warned us america is under attack. all part of "the 11th hour" as we get under way on a tuesday night. well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 390 of the trump administration, and this was day seven now of this still widening scandal over domestic abuse allegations against one of the closest men to the president. today the fbi publicly contradicted the white house time lean of what it knew and when about these allegations of spousal abuse facing rob porter. allegations that he denies. at issue here the fbi background check porter had to undergo to get his job as a white house staff secretary. here's what the administration has been telling the public. >> the allegations made against rob porter as we understand them involve incidents long before he joined the white house. the truth must be determ

carrie, first to you, what do you make of this warning from rod rosenstein to don megan? how significant this call was made at all? >> well, i think it might have been in reaction -- one possibility is it was in reaction to john kelly's memo that went out exactly a week ago that said they would require and and the justice department to give estimates when they would be able to complete security clearance adjudication for certain white house officials. so john kelly said i'm going to try to straighten out this problem. it's possible that phone call from the deputy attorney general to the white house consul which is the appropriate communication between those two entities was the deputy general reporting back it's still held up, there still are issues in his background. and white house, if you want to know that, now i'm telling you that. and now it's up to john kelly to do something with that information. >> john, as you look at this how significant is it that jared kushner still can't get a clearance 13 months in, and does it smell to you it's directly linked to the muelle

and then you had rod rosenstein the deputy attorney general call the white house counsel don megan and say there are ongoing concerns with his background investigation, didn't give any details as far as we know. but you have the head of the mueller investigation telling the white house that. this latest development is just the tip of the spear in the sense of all these things that have been happening. and if the kushner wing of the white house faces a tough question tonight. how does he move on if he does stay? what is that portfolio? are they willing to accept a narrow scope in that portfolio? >> i'll and two hypotheticals. was kushner naive enough when another government says we want to deal with you personally to accept that at face value, be flattered by that. and was he naive enough to ever raise business, the kushner family business with these foreign relations that he came into by dint of his west wing knowledge? >> if you take the president at his word this young fellow has good judgment so you would think he'd know better. i think probably from "the washington post" reporting

the dni director of the national security team is looking at it, and the white house lawyers and don megan are looking at it. >> he never referred to anything other than white house lawyers looking at the republican memo when he say talking about how that was going to be released. and john kelly said something mysterious that he did not clarify about the democratic memo not being as clean as the republican memo. >> this is not as clean a memo as the first one. but, again, back to we essentially got today. the teams are doing exactly the same thing on this one that we did on the fist one. this one is more lengthy, but anyways -- >> it would have been nice to have a white house chief of staff who said all those things about the republican memo when they were considering releasing the republican memo. but we have what we have. here's what john kelly said when he was asked about releasing the republican memo before the president even read it. >> rod rosenstein and the fbi director ray don't want you to release the memo. will you guys? >> the memo, four pages, came over the day before yesterday

big fat liar by a white house official in the "the washington post" as he and white house counsel don megane serious questions about what they knew and when they knew it. >>> and there's this, across town on the hill today one of our intelligence chiefs warned us america is under attack. all part of "the 11th hour" as we get under way on a tuesday night. well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 390 of the trump administration, and this was day

big fat liar by a white house official in the "the washington post" as he and white house counsel don meganquestions about what they knew and when they knew it. >>> and there's this, across town on the hill today one of our intelligence chiefs warned us america is under attack. all part of "the 11th hour" as we get under way on a tuesday night. well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day90

don was happy. >> democracy in action. >> megan, thank you so much for this report. i think it's phenomenal that we have a record with a budget of 192,000. i think all of us should be extremely happy of this accomplishment. i do have to say that the way it's presented, and i think that in the past, i've always beencau been accustomed to seeing a details report. hopefully we can get that prior to the next time you bring the budget to us. but the way it's laid out, it does look like we have issues with maritime, and that, you know, across the board, we're losing money. and it is -- should be a point of consideration, and i do think that we do need to come -- even though i know all the work that's being put into it, and what's being done, and i know we can't -- we don't know -- know in advance what our port calls are going to be, but still, we need a strategy. we need a maritime strategy, and we have to look at all those revenues and at all our departments to see which ones we're subsidizing and where we need to focus our efforts. also, it was hard to understand 67 posi

megan mccane that he wouldn't do that anymore. so what gives here? chris, what's going on. >> i mean, remember back, don- i thought this was the end of donald trump. little did i know when he made the joke that he preferred his military heroes, not captured in reference to john mccane. this was right back -- speaking about vintage trump, this is back in the beginning of trump's campaign, sort of the fall of 2015. you know, i think he does not like john mccane. donald trump broke his word to megan mccane and cindy mccane he wouldn't attack john mccane any longer given the struggle against brain cancer. it shouldn't be that surprising. joan mentioned the last segment this is donald trump in front of the most raw meat crowd you could have as a republican president. he likes applause. >> but it's unnecessary. >> he knows mccane isn't popular he does it. >> it's a low below, unnecessary. and he should be ashamed of himself and the people should be ashamed of themselves for abroad applauding here is john mccane. >> fighting for his life. >> thank you. and come on. it's just -- it's gauch to say the least. >>