eugene scott, what is your first story of the week?fact that the national day of prayer had this huge cloud over it thanks to the president's personal attorney, rudy guiliani, talking about something that many white evangelicals supporting trump didn't want to have on the top of their minds, that the president was very well involved is and aware of the payment to the adult film star he was having an affair with shortly after the birth of his last child. >> they have to assess their belief in the context of this. there is a lot of complicated stuff about this. that put the national day of prayer in a setting that it has never been before. alana shore, what's the best story of the week? >> i chose the same story of the week. they were explosive remarks by rudy guiliani. i wonder how democrats treat this. i find it interested that they have avoided talking about stormy daniels. they want the pleasant to get in his own way. it is a fascinating case of this resistance-prone era, can they stay silent? i think they should keep resisting the t

betsy woodruff, a politics reporter for daily beast, and msnbc contributor as well, ju jean -- eugene scott is a msnbc contribu contributor, and reporter for washington post. and so, let's get to you, bet - betsy, with the president's newest attorney rudy giuliani going on fox news and changing what we knew this week. >>> yes, it was a softball on fox news reporter, and he not only said that the president knew about the payments of stormy daniels, but that the president had paid him back to recompensate him back for the payments he made. that is a shock allegation, and also came on the first day that emmitt flood, a low-key, but extraordinarily well powerhouse washington attorney joined the president's inside white house legal team. and emmitt flood certainly had a interesting first day on the job, and in the wake of that, we saw a number of different responses from the white house, and ultimately the white house seems to have settled back on some of the original narratives which is this idea that the president didn't know that the payment was being made and when it was made, and that kind

joining us now, reporter for "the washington post," eugene scott.ck with us again. >> thanks. >> let's talk about john kelly a moment. after our reporting about him calling the president an idiot and kind of demoralizing or eroding morale within the white house, is his role in the west wing now in jeopardy? >> i mean, it was before, seems like many people's roles are in jeopardy in the white house. important to remember the president continues to side with john kelly and have confidence in him publicly. larger concern for kelly is staffers and people that work with him that continue to leak conversations that make his reputation and future with the white house look as if it is not certain. >> talk about one of the most embattl embattled agencies, the epa. had two abrupt departures of top aides. there's on-going ethics investigation. do you expect to see more departures from the epa? how much blame rests on the shoulders of scott pruitt for how the agency is right now embroiled in so many controversies? >> we can expect more departures. scott pruitt

joining me now is mark murray, and eugene scott. mark, talk to me about what we saw last night and inny it was such a big night for female candidates not just in georgia but across the board. >> it was across the board. and not just last night, it was last week and the month before and the monday before that. we are seeing women winning across the board, whether it was that georgia race that you just mentioned with stacey abrams in georgia or amy mcgrath beating out lexington mayor jim gray decisively. and then in texas, lupe valdez won the democratic nomination for governor. also, a whole host of congressional nominees you are going to end up seeing from texas are also female. as a colleague has noted we have 72 women both democrats and republicans who won house nominations. to put that 72 figure into perspective and we have so many more primaries to go it was in 1990 where that number represented the entire slate of female candidates. we have longer to go and it's possible that 40 to 50 of the nominees on the democratic side could

shawna thomas with vice news and eugene scott with "the washington post" ever back with me now. reminder on who blanken smip is, served a year in prison by the way for a 2010 kohl coal mine explosion that killed 29 people. >> yeah. >> he made headlines, we talked about it a little bit, he's called mitch mcconnell cocaine mitch in a campaign ad that referred to his father-in-laws a china person. he's -- basically the post fact checker says this is a cookie tale gives blankenship four pa noc cos with him. start with him being trumpier than trump? can anybody be trumpier than trump? >> he's following his playbook in that he decided that mitch mcconnell represents the swamp and he's going to run hard against him so much so that he's bringing his wife who is of asian dissent into a conversation in a way that's further than dog whistling. i think in some ways that does make him trumpier than trump. we talked a lot of about trump u trump's dog whistles on the campaign trail, he's basically just whis. >> he's just whissing. literally about three minutes ago we got an interview with don

eugene scott is a national political reporter for "washington post." first of all, trump saying it's not true, somehow was hyped out of reality. and by the way, they're leakers and cowards. they're traitors in fact. treason to the white house even though the news is fake. put it all together, if you can. >> putting aside for a minute the president has long been a leaker to the press and now saying leakers are cowards. the thing we have to look at here is the white house has never contradicted this comment that was said behind the scenes. that stands right now as the white house's public statement on the issue is what sadler said behind closed doors about john mccain. and there has been no effort to turn it back. she hasn't said anything publicly. she hasn't apologized publicly as meghan mccain said she was going to do. you have to believe that the president of the united states agrees with the sentiment. >> and really, the buck stops at the top. and i think that we can remember that president trump said many things about john mccain on the campaign tra

. >>> joining me now, kaitlyn burns, political reporter for real clear politics and eugene scott, political reporter for the "washington post." good morning to you both. we'll go ladies first here, kaitlyn. no doubt the changes in the white house's version of the stormy daniels payment story, that's created a lot of confusion, it's hard for the public to keep up. does that in a way help trump. >> it could be part of a larger strategy to the extent that there was one. remember, that earlier this week. the president really shuffled his legal team as it pertains to the mueller investigation. and there was a sense that the president and giuliani got together and wanted to take a more aggressive stance against mueller. and giuliani's multiple interviews are reflective of that. the problem is they both have completely muddied the waters here. and you know, politically, that may be something that they were aiming for. but it also exposes additional legal liabilities perhaps. and additional political fallout. and the question today as it has been for the past several days, is what is the white hous

courtney kube nbc news, alana shore of politico, eugene scott of the "washington post".s on the mind of so many, what is his legacy at the pentagon going to be? >> tough. very tough minded. well respected. he did

with me now is eugene scott and also nancy cook. she covers the white house for politico. let me stick with this axios story for a moment. the white house communications and press team has been beset by leaks. several people in the room on friday told me they walk into meetings knowing they can't trust their own colleagues. in big meetings they feel inclined now to keep their mouths shut. you've done reportings on this communications arm of the trump white house. give us a sense of how the communication shop functions in the white house. >> the communication shop has been one of the most problematic offices in the white house. it has different people o who came over from the rnc, from the campaign and so they've really been at war with themselves almost from the beginning. it's interesting that the communication shop, it's a bit ironic they ended up constantly stepping on the president's own message. you would think this week they would want the attention to be on the three detainees or the upcoming summit and instead we spend a lot of time talking about the comment from a

joining us now eugene scott. thanks for joining us on this thursday morning. >> good morning. >> let's talk about the briefing with regards to spy gate as the president is calling it. now we're learning both republicans and democrats are going to be briefed by the justice department. at one point they said democrats would be briefed a month from today but then overnight it seems like that changed and now the gang of eight will be meeting directly after nunes sits down with the justice department. what do you make of these recent developments. >> i think criticism coming from republicans that meeting without that democrats could make the party look as if something suspicious was happening and could bring questions about the integrity of the accusations that the president and his congressional allies were making to -- to forward speed against the american public perhaps led to the decision to change things. >> so now with regards to the special counsel investigation in bob mueller you have as i was talking about ea

. >> eugene scott and ally, good to get your insights. thanks. >>> new this morning, details in the investigation of what drove a 17-year-old to open fire on his classmates and teachers in santa fe, texas and we're hearing from his family for the first time. marianna is in texas for us. what is the latest on this. >> reporter: alex, this morning, this community continues its search for answers. while the family of gunman dimitrios pagourtzis released a statement. they say that they are shocked and confused as anyone else by these events. we are gratified, they say, by the public comments by other santa fe students that show him as we know him, a smart, quiet sweet boy. while we remain mostly in the dark on the specifics of the tragedy, what we've learned on media reports seems incompatible with what we know of the boy we love. sunday is a day of retlex and mou -- reflection and churches across the state remembering those lives lost. a small-town baseball game with more at stake than wins and losses. >> we didn't come away with the win but

. >> with me now, gideon resnick, political reporter for the daily beast and eugene scott, politicalr for "the washington post." great to have you both here on this sunday. you see the a the start here if we look at it, gideon, that which kellyanne conway is saying today, right, where the president did not know the timing at the time of the statement. right? of those payments. yet before the illusion was opposite to that, according to the reporting from "the new york times." where are we? >> yeah, we're in no man's land. this has been a two, three-week story that's been drawn out because we simply cannot get a straight answer about the timelines from all of the people that are involved. and every single time we think we have some indication as to when the payment was doled out, what the president knew about it, how exactly it happened, we have other people jumping in to the fray and muddying the water once again. rudy giuliani specifically who has given, i'm sure, people inside the white house and people outside of it a headache over the last week as he tries to unpack this and we tr

national political reporter for bloomberg politics, annie lynn ski, reporter for the boston globe and eugene scottsthe "washington post." annie, do some cheerleading. go ahead. it is powerful and looks like it's a continuation of that first day after trump won the election with women in the streets. >> yeah, it certainly does. there have been so many female candidates i've talked to who said that they were inspired to run either on the day after the election when trump won or on january 20th on naug race day and the follow day in the women's march. you larry that as a reporter and think i wonder if they'll follow through and do it. what we saw last night and this season is that people really are. but i will say when you dig into the numbers there is one thing particularly interesting to me. you're seeing more and more women doing well and advancing executive level roles. women running for governor in various states. and the barbara lee foundation based in boston has done a lot of research on this topic and found that women tend to be elected to legislatures but they have a much, much harder time in

but, in fact, to the scott pruitt point, this is remarkable what eugene was talking about. xotic destinations he wanted to travel to and informed staff he wanted them to find reasons for him to go to those places. but scott pruitt and mick mulvaney and others in the government are doing exactly what donald trump wants them to do. they are dismantling regulations. the stock market, though weak recently, has been strong. the jobs numbers are still pretty good, and this north korea meeting, if it happens, is going to be an accomplishment. the fact is the president still seems to think he's doing well. in fact, he had a bluster and a confidence about him today that i hadn't seen in a while. >> well, unemployment is down to levels we haven't seen since 2000. so he can say to his people, to his base, i am delivering for you in certain ways. >> notwithstanding those are continuations of policies we've seen for years. >> right. but, you know, i think that ruth was too kind to him with the cat in the hat reference. i mean donald trump makes the cat in the hat look like abraham lincol