frank figliuzzi, and with us at the table jonathan lemire associated press white house reporter and evan mcmullen, former cia operative and former candidate for president as an independent. >>> the rally, even his friends describe that version of donald trump as slightly pathetic, as someone who is so desperate for attention, so desperate for the cheers and hoots and hollers from the crowd that he puts on a show that really isn't even remotely close to anything presidential. >> yeah, there is a show on comedy central where a guy makes an entire show of impersonating donald trump. that was like president trump impersonating himself. i've done dozens and dozens of these rallies. i was surprised by the me too moment, elizabeth warren, to make a joke about something that is obviously been a ground swell in the last year or so for a lot of people and has meant a lot of

my thanks to ken dilanian, frank figliuzzi. great to have you. come back. trump's twitter habit, he can't shake t. his um pulse i have summer meandering musings. could he stop if he wanted to in his lawyer doesn't think so. we'll go inside, ooh, ooh, you might need a snack or drink for this. we'll go inside the mind of the tweeting president. that's next. gas, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea can start in the colon, and may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. only phillips' colon health has this unique combination of probiotics. it helps replenish good bacteria. get four-in-one symptom defense. we can'twhy?y here! flat toilet paper! i'll never get clean! way ahead of you. charmin ultra strong. it cleans better. it's four times stronger and you can use less. enjoy the go with charmin. so we know how to cover almost we've anything.st everything even "vengeful vermin." not so cute when they're angry. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ i we work

frank figliuzzi is still with us. elise, to you first.acle of the president unwinding and letting it all hang out over the weekend was disturbing even if you're a critic. >> yes, looking at all the tweets lined up together, it keeps going and going and going. it's not normal behavior for really anyone to tweet with that velocity and any friend or family member who did so, i would naturally be concerned about. >> say something. >> i do think it's always interesting that donald trump manages to go back and some of his tweets to a strain of truth that is undeniable. he's asking the question, why didn't obama say anything? why didn't obama do anything? and it's a fair question to be asked. >> well, but obama did -- i mean, they did put out a statement in october. it was overshadowed by the access hollywood tape, but they did say something. on the question of doing something, they did sanction the russians before obama left office. so i guess the point is the tweets are increasingly disconnected from facts. they've never been truthful. but now

frank figliuzzi, let me get one question in to you about the backdrop with which the president went to the rose garden. obviously eager to change the subject, turned his back on reporters shouting questions about the things in the news, namely that leaked audiotape from a recording where he seems very, very, very conversant in a hush money operation to silence at least one woman with whom he had an alleged sexual relationship. >> yeah, so that's the backdrop. what we're seeing here is essentially a distraction. he's called a press conference to announce as we used to say in atlanta, he's fixing to get ready to do something good, and it might involve soybeans, but we don't have any details y. is he doing this? he's troubled by the release of this snippet. i'll be the first to admit there is not on its face any chargeable act in that clip that we've got. but seconds later when that thing breaks off, we don't know what's being said. we don't know the context of it. here's what i zero in on. number one, cohen is talking about needing to create a company to do a structured payment, a paymen

it's going to all happen. >> all right, frank figliuzzi, i want to put you on the spot. you were the deputy director of the fbi for counterintelligence. donald trump counters many of our intelligence. if you had that job for another country and you saw that and you were prepping vladimir putin, what would you tell putin to do to make sure donald trump was duped and left the meeting, as jonathan said, in vladimir putin's embrace? >> so, i think it's more of the same. i would continue the strategy here. don't -- >> it's working, right? >> exactly. so by that i mean that putin is going to come into the meeting and say, look, there is a basic understanding here, spoken or unspoken, that you are enamored with me and it may be because you know we've compromised you, it may be for a host of reasons. but we're going to leverage that and we're going to get as much out of this meeting as we possibly can. and the fact that you're in the room alone with me means we are going to agree to things in the spur of the moment that your associates and aides would never allow you to agree wi

frank figliuzzi, thanks so much.come on at the top, you've been stuck here 43 minutes. we're grateful. still ahead, was president trump the subject of an embarrassing prank? the white house won't say but an infamous prankster said he got the commander in chief. we'll play the audio and let you decide. that's next. [thoughtful sigh] still nervous about buying a house? a little. thought i could de-stress with some zen gardening. at least we don't have to worry about homeowners insurance. just call geico. geico helps with homeowners insurance? good to know. been doing it for years. that's really good to know. i should clean this up. i'll get the dustpan. behind the golf clubs. get to know geico. and see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. copd makes it hard to breathe. so to breathe better, i go with anoro. ♪ go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way, with anoro." ♪ go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators that work together to signif

my thanks to frank figliuzzi. when we come back, clean up on aisle 45.t trump has left england, who is left cleeb cleaning up his latest diplomatic mess? (door bell rings) it's open! hey. this is amazing. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don'

former fbi director and analyst frank figliuzzi and glenn kirshner back with us this time around. k, i'll start with you. as you try to make sense of all of the statements and the walk-backs, what stands out to you. what is the headline and most alarming from this week? >> well what a week it's been. but when i look at the tape out of aspen and we look at the reaction of dan coats, what i see is a man who didn't know whether to laugh or cry. he chose to laugh. but it is a laster th -- a laug out of frustration and hopelessness. when you spend your career immersed in intelligence, you know things and know things that the vast majority of the population doesn't know. if you think of the president as kind of a quarterback on a football field and think of the intelligence community in dan coats as the coach who has the playbook from the other team. the intelligence community has the playbook for russia. they're wanting to show it to our president. the president for whatever reason is choosing not to look at that playbook or not even to believe that is a valid playbook and he's going of

. >> let's get right to the ken dilanian, national security reporter for nbc news, frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence, former chief speaks plan for the justice department, matt miller and joyce vance. >> given trump called this a witch hunt and given rod rosenstein briefed him on this indictment days ago, what does that say to you how seriously donald trump is taking this investigation? >> he's taking it serious lis in one way, i think he's always taken this very seriously if that he's been clearly concerned about the aspects that relate to him, the onstruction of justice he's under investigation for. the other part he's never taken seriously as an attack on the united states. he cares about anything that might affect him. he cares about implications of wrong dong by people around him but whenever it's discussed as an attack on the united states and our democracy, an attack on the way on our free and fair elections, you see this defensiveness from him and this need to lash out against the investigators. and it is remarkable i think that days after he wa

. >> and frank figliuzzi, you're a trained intelligence guy and not a diplomat. having said that, what did you make of putin's nonacceptance of the second summit here in washington? was this his way of trolling trump? was he giving our president a down, publicly? >> this looks very much like a dominance move. this is one guy saying, i've got you on this, i'm not coming at your beck and call, i'll come when i'm good and ready. that's what i think happened here. there's an outside shot that putin is saying, you know, the fall might be about the time that mueller is wrapping up his findings and i certainly wouldn't want to show up on u.s. soil with an indictment hanging over my head. i don't know what's happening there. but my bet's on putin is showing him i'll do what i want when i'm ready to do it. >> gentlemen, thank you very much, two of our veterans, we appreciate you coming back on our broadcast. >>> coming up, the russians are talking about what was agreed to between trump and putin. but we don't know what to believe because the american side hasn't been told

we're happy he was not offered up for interrogation and frank figliuzzi, assistant director for counter intelligence who in the past worked for robert mueller among others. ambassador, what's your level of surprise a that putin was invited to washington seemingly over twitter, b that it's been put off, c that we're all still in the washing really about two hours of private time they had together. >> so on your first two questions, brian, it's become a pretty familiar pattern now with respect to russia. the administration has one policy and you heard that from secretary pompeo repeatedly today. our policy has not changed. our policy has not changed. and yet, when it's the president speaking or the president meeting with vladimir putin, it seems like the policy is changing all the time. i don't know for sure, but my guess is that the president decided impulsively to put on this invitation for another summit and the rest of the administration including probably secretary of state pompeo said why are we going to have another one? we just had one that was very unsuccessful. we're not prepare

. >> frank figliuzzi, thank you. hallie jackson was in the room as well. seated not far from our friend jonathan lemire. hallie, what was the reaction like when you were getting these answers in realtime? all i can do is ask the russians. i don't see any reason why it would have been the russians. >> right. why it would be. frantic typing and note taking, as you might imagine as every reporter was sort of furiously reporting and immediately analyzing what president trump had said. kudos to jonathan lemire for asking sharp and pointed questions today of vladimir putin. the follow-up questions didn't necessarily sit very well, but the russian media handlers here. he says now the russians get a third question because of the follow-up questions from the u.s. press, brian, but the reaction in the room, you know, i've covered this president when he was a candidate and since the moment he was sworn in. i report is sehaven't seen a pr conference like this one. president trump, the president, seeming to engage in very clearly as you talked about in that quote just

joining me now is frank f figliuzzi, an nbc news national security analyst. our panel is back. resident has invited vladimir putin to washington and he still -- he is still embroiled in the controversy and the drama that that first meeting has created. they still haven't cleaned up the mess from all of the muddled and confusing statements and the terrible walk-backs that he's made in the past few days to clean up after that first meeting. what do you make of inviting vladimir putin to washington this fall? >> katy, i've been half joking today upon hearing this news that the timing is great because putin's indictment should be ready by then and they can nab him at the airport. but seriously, i do think what we're seeing here, as surprising as it is, is the continuation of this double down practice of the president, the what i call the "you are not the boss of me" attitude when leading members of congress say this is not good, he's doubling down. he's saying not only am i in charge, i'm doing what i want to do and i've got a strategy and a method to my madness, and that's what we'