we start with jeff bennett at the white house and ken delanian. >> fill us in. >> rudy giuliani was on fox news and he was explaining why he believes that michael cohen is saying that there is a

jeff bennett is in helsinki for us. he is a white house correspondent for nbc news. jeff, a lot of anticipation here. a lot of folks wondering what's going to be discussed at this meeting tomorrow. we have new insight from president trump. he sat down with jeff glor of the "cbs evening news" to talk about the meeting. it sounds like there isn't much of an official agenda. do i have that right? >> reporter: you have that right, david. that's by design. president trump and members of his administration are really setting the lowest of low bars for this meeting, although the president, we should say, is sounding fairly optimistic. he said, look, i have low expectations, but some good could come out of it. nothing bad will come out of this meeting. the russian ambassador, the u.s. ambassador to russia, rather, tells me that by design there are -- sorry, david, what was that? >> jeff, a little trouble with jeff. you were talking about what we can expect here tomorrow at this summit. >> reporter: yeah. the point of the meeting is to determine whether russia is serious about

jeff bennett, nbc news, washington. >>> president trump is threatening to take drastic action to pass immigration policies, tweeting he's willing to shut down the federal government unless congress funds his controversial border wall and zero tolerance immigration overhaul. it's a risky proposition for mr. trump, especially with midterm elections months away. as kelly o'donnell reports, the threat comes at a time when republicans and democrats were showing bipartisan progress on his budget. >> reporter: his new jersey weekend over, the president heads back to washington with a provocative threat. "i would be willing democrats dr ecurity." tested earlier this year. >> let's have a shutdown, we'll do a shutdown, and it's worth iy i'd love to see a shutdown if we don't get this stuff taken care of. >> reporter: but that's a very lonely strategy. wisconsin republican senator ron johnson said, no way. >> i certainly don't like playing shutdown politics. i don't think it's going to be helpful, so let's avoid it. >> reporter: but the president sees immigration as a way to hammer democrats th

jeff bennett, nbc news, washington. >>> police are on a manhunt for two armed suspects who opened fire outside a new orleans strip mall, killing three people and injuring seven more. police say the suspects appeared to have fired indiscriminately into a crowd. the two suspects were wearing hoodies and fired a long rifle as well as a handgun. police are asking the community to share any information they may havbo the shooting. >>> severe storms swept through colorado, bringing damaging hail and tornadoes. the dangerous weather ravaged several area, all within 50 to 150 miles of denver. from greeley to fort collins and areas in between and in the norn part of the state, delivering extensive damage to the municipal airport in brush. the national weather service will assess the destruction today. >>> let's see how the new week is going to treat us. say good morning to bill karins. >> good morning. hope you guys had a wonderful weekend. we did see over the weekend a little bit of severe weather. we had about six reports of tornadoes yesterday, mostly in areas of colorado. and now we're watc

jeff bennett on the ground in brussels. we'll be watching your reporting. we'll fact check one of the president's tweets in a moment. but the president has proven he's not as tough behind the scenes as he is on twitter. >> there's a pattern we've seen here, he flies in with a bunch of tweets saying i'm going to be tough. he gets there, he doesn't have the knowledge base or the courage to actually stand up to them. and as he leaves, he tweets mean stuff again. so i think we should expect some time on the ground of him being nice trump. and as soon as he leaves, the craziness will start again. >> let me show you one of those tweets from the president. >> michael, he doesn't understand the way this works. >> this always happens with president trump. he has a kernel of concern, that our allies don't hit the 2% gdp spending that they committed to do. >> this is not a lone sharking operation, this is an alliance. it's an issue, but far from the only one. >> we in nato to defend the united states of america and our people this alliance has protected us from the th

>> carol lee and jeff bennett. thanks for joining us. president just making comments there about the issue of immigration and according to the last numbers put out by the department of health and human services, more than 2,000 migrant children are still separated from their parents. but as of today, hhs says it will no longer be releasing those numbers to the public. over the partly cloudy there were -- weekend there were hundreds of protests to reunite families separated at the u.s.-mexico border. one guatemala2346789 was reunited after seven months apart. marian na. let's get to that story and what the president had to say about immigration and talked about having a conversation within the last few hours with the president elect of mexico, reiterating there that there are weak border law and bad border laws that need tore changed and rhetoric we've heard before. what did you make of what he had to say in the last couple of minutes? >> so steve, i've done reporting on what has been said in mexico about these migrants, regrettably none

. >> at the white house, jeff bennett. now, to the former u.s. attorney, and former director for counter intelligence with us. >> frank, what are you seeing? you heard the reporting, that jeff bennett gave us, from your sources, on this very topic, is this a shift? why now? >> it is a shift. giuliani and the defense team are trying to move the goal posts it is clear from the defense lawyers i have heard from, no really anybody under investigation wants to sit down with a prosecutor. a prosecutor is not there to help you. they are there, in those questions, they want to find out what you know to help their case. they want to find out if they can find out if there is perjury involved. this is a strong tactic, they are playing hardball. giuliani is playing hardball. mueller is hardball. this could potentially go higher up to the supreme court. >> which is another conversation we willville later this hour. the democrats are making regarding this. joyce, when we look at this change and the wording coming out from rudy giuliani. >> i think it is import

active broad shift to the right across many if not all sectors of life and law in the united states jeff bennett of n.b.c. news tweeted this morning that the outgoing justice kennedy had been in months of negotiations with the trump white house over who would replace him if he retired bennett reported that kennedy quote felt comfortable retiring once assured that mr cavanaugh would be nominated the report seems to corroborate a similar but heads report in politico and may create grounds to challenge both the kavanaugh nomination and supreme court decisions made with kennedy's vote one negotiations with the trump white house were underway a white house spokesperson did not deny the n.b.c. report when asked directly about it earlier today and judge kavanagh will need to be approved by the u.s. senate and late today a group of senate democrats standing in front of the supreme court gathered to denounce the selection saying that if successful the new justice could lead to an alteration of the infamous roe versus wade decision on reproductive rights and issues related to health care among others and

msnbc's jeff bennett is there for us. jeff, what can you tell us? >> reporter: another sunday brings another round of tv interviews featuring the president's outside attorney, rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani is now saying a tape made between president trump and his former attorney, michael cohen, has been tampered with. there is no evidence to back that up. we hear the voices of the president and cohen discussing payment of karen mcdougal. she is the former playmate alleging she had an affair with the president before he became president, something the white house denies. take a look at what else giuliani had to say about these cohen tapes. >> we know of something like 183 unique conversations on tape. one of those with the president of the united states, the three-minute one involving the mcdoougal payment. there are 12 others out of the 183 in which the president is discussed nature length by cohen, mostly with reporters. all clearly corroborating what the president has said in detail on many of those tweets, in other words, that he didn't know about

jeff bennett is at the white house for us. pete, let's start there, where can you tell us where things stand? >> reporter: it started about an hour and a half and it will resume at 2:00 p.m. this is basically a financial fraud trial, this had nothing to do with manafort's work on the trump campaign and everything to do with his work about a decade of the russian of ukraine and the former ukrainian president. what the government says is manafort stashed all of that money in overseas banks and avoided paying taxes reported in his foreign bank account activities as required by law. that's what the trial is about. it is heavily dependent on documents. that's what the arguments have been about today. just within the past few weeks, they gotten a big dump of documents from the government that were subpoenaed including from richard yates' electronic devices and laptop and computer and another device. he was his business partner and in february, he pleaded guilty to similar charges and has agreed to cooperate with the government. he'l

jeff bennett is joining me today. yes, these tariffs and new unemployment number. 213,000 jobs added last month and that seems to be what the white house is focusing on today. >> reporter: that certainly to be the case. let's start with the tariffs. the president is casting these as an overdue fix as a long trading balance. beijing has not played fair for years stealing america's intellectual property and under cutting u.s. manufactures. these tariffs follow six months of threats and failed negotiations and the world's two largest economy blocked in a full-blown trade conflict. president trump last night talking to reporters promising today's package of tariffs will not be the last. he suggested that the final total can top $500 billion. the risk here is a spiraling conflict could undermine economic growth. it can force companies and consumers to pay higher prices. the extent of the damage will depend on how far both sides go. at this point, as you mention, the economy is coming along. the economy added a solid 213,00

nbc's jeff bennett has more on this. jeff, good sunday to you, my friend. what else did giuliani say about this? >> hello, alex. rudy giuliani did the rounds on the sunday morning talk shows to downplay the notion that michael cohen might give away information with interviewers. giuliani said he and the president are not worried about what cohen might say as long as he tells the truth. >> if he wants to cooperate, that's great. we have been through his records. i know michael. he wasn't involved with anything untoward with the president. michael is a victim here like other people. >> do you want donald trumichae cooperate with the feds? do you think that will be good for donald trump? >> yes. if they had anything on trump, do you think they would need this? >> it's been farmed out to the special counsel in the prosecutor's office in the southern district of new york. this all comes as michael cohen is taking steps to distance himself from president trump. he most famously said he would take a bullet for the president, now on msnbc news saying he would put f

nbc's jeff bennett, he beat him fr there. the president is in the air but he is still on twitter?reporter: that's right. the president in the last few minutes accused some nato members of being delinquent, leaving opened the question whether or not they would reimburse the u.s. for the defense spending. it's clear based on the president's tweets, to our colleagues this morning, he issiching for a fight. he se setting the tone for his meetings with the members at the nato summit, blasting them for not spending enough on their own defense. it's not a new argument for mr. trump. he said much the same thing on the campaign trail. it's not much the same thing for a american president to make. past presidents have conceived the burden sharing. past presidents made sure the u.s. would support the allies on the prem ace peaceful and pros pus europe is essential to a peaceful an pros pus u.s. in this instance, though, president trump is warning the u.s. might not intervene on behalf of those countries that haven't fully paid its full share of this threshold spending. craig. >> nbc news' fi

. >> joining me now to talk about all of this, jeff bennett. thanks for being here, the president and his lawyers have been increasing their attacks on michael cohen. does this indicate they're growing increasingly worried about cohen? >> great do see you. we've seen the trump camp escalate its counterattacks against michael cohen. president trump insists he did not have prior knowledge about this trump tower meeting that took place june 2016. separately, i'm told michael cohen's transformation is really rattling, really unnerving for president trump. it's one of the things that accounts for this real shift this dramatic shift in the way the president himself has referred to cohen and tried to characterize him publicly. take a look at how rudy giuliani has talked about michael cohen a couple months ago as compared to what he said this past week? >> no, i expect he is going to cooperate. i don't think he'll be happy with it, because he doesn't have any incriminating evidence about the president or himself. the man is an honest honorable lawyer.

nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett has more on this. jeff with, a welcome to you. is there an explanation to this discrepancy between the north koreans' account and secretary pompeo's account? >> this development certainly comes as no surprise to long-time korea watch who are make the point that the north korean regime is an unreliable partner at best and point to this cycle of hope and inevitable disappointment when it comes to dealing with north korea on this issue of eliminating its nuclear weapons program. to be clear, secretary pompeo traveled back to the region with a mission. he was there to flesh out the details of that vaguely worded joint declaration that the president and kim signed at the singapore summit just last month. remember the president touted that as a game-changing moment on twitter. he said north korea no long irposes a nuclear threat. he said that americans could sleep well at night that put the pressure on the secretary of state to really produce some tangible results. well now you have the north koreans saying that the u.s. team's attitude

joining us is jeff bennett. let's reset this. we talk about this a lot. there are a lot of americans who don't quite understand why we're having a fight with nato. and if you have a long memory, you remember why nato was set up to be a bulwark against the then-expanding soviet union. if you have a short memory, you remember the only time article five of nato was ever called to action was after 9/11 when all the other countries came to the defense of the united states. so it's quite puzzling that this fight continues. >> ali, you said it. i would just add to that. people also make the point that nato works based on the strengths of the member nations and the leaders within it. so the president's rhetoric, his testy tweets, the statements he's been making on the south lawn before he set off on this trip, his potential actions really risk undoing. seven decades of global world order and seven decades of a common defense policy. you mentioned a couple of the tweets in the last few minutes the president fired off another one. he says this. the european union m

not the only red state democrat in the president's sights, it's also heidi and joe donley. >> jeff bennett in west virginia. bring back some biscuits for the white house booth tomorrow. >>> scott pruitt's staffers, a tell-all behind closed doors. what they told congress about the growing list of scandals at the epa. >>> we're not the only ones putting pruitt on swamp watch. why this mom interrupted the administrator's meal with some food for thought at a d.c. restaurant. that's next. we're the most isolated population on the planet. b there' little rest for a single dad, and back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid, plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until

. >> jeff bennett was quoting that tweet from the president. i've worked in washington, i've worked in new york. something i always struggled with when i was in washington, why new york didn't seem to care more about things like government shutdowns, particularly at the end of the obama administration. there was this sense, whenever i would talk to business people here in new york, that they'll get their act together. they're going to sort this out. it's not as big a burden as we make it out to be. when you read something as cavalier as what we saw from president trump, how do you feel about the potential economic and political ramifications of raising the specter of having another shutdown? >> shutdowns are damaging to the financial credibility of the finances. we have already seen the russians dump all of their treasury holdings in the united states. when you start talking about shutdowns, not paying your bills, that could shake the faith of those who lend us money. having said that, this is also a manufactured immigration crisis. we do not h

nbc white house correspondent jeff bennett has more on what we can expect from the commander in chief today. jeff, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, milissa. president trump kicks off his final day at the nato summit in bruce wells a couple of meetings. one focused on the nato military mission in afghanistan. the other focused on security in eastern europe. it's a crucial issue for some of the european allies given russia's growing presence in the region. of course yesterday the summit got off to a bruising start. the president attacking allies for alleged trade abuses and for not spending enough on their own military budgets. the president even floating a proposal for nato member nations to increase their defense spending from the currently agreed upon 2% gdp up to 4%. 4% of their total economic output. now, from here the president heads to the uk. he's got a sit-downit's also goh the british queen. he spends the weekend at his private golf course in scotland, and then he heads into that h h high-stakes summit, that sit down with russian president vladimir putin. milissa? >> j

when i won, it became a big deal and the rigged witch hunt strzo" let's get to jeff bennett in helsinki with more on this and what we can expect today. good morning. >> good morning. president trumps and putin are set to make their way to the finnish presidential palace for this highly anticipated one-on-one private meeting. the president so far dialing down expectations for the meeting, saying, in fact, he has low expectations for what might come of it. of course, the one thing hanging over their sit-down is russia's attack on the 2016 election. an issue made all the more urgent by s ties of bomb shell indictments from our own justice department against this group of 12 russian agents who now stand credibly accused of hacking democrats and a state election board in the run-up to the 2016 election. it's the reason why you have lawmakers, both democrat and republican, calling on president trump to really press vladimir putin on this issue. but it would appear based on the president's own statements, both on twitter and to that interview he gave cbs, that his instinct is to blame america

active broad shift to the right across many if not all sectors of life and law in the united states jeff bennett of n.b.c. news tweeted this morning that the outgoing justice kennedy had been in months of negotiations with the trump white house over who would replace him if he retired bennett reported that kennedy quote felt comfortable retiring once assured that mr cavanaugh would be nominated the report seems to corroborate a similar but head report in politico and may create grounds to challenge both the kavanagh nomination and supreme court decisions made with kennedy's vote one negotiations with the trump white house were underway a white house spokesperson did not deny the n.b.c. report when asked directly about it earlier today and judge kavanagh will need to be approved by the u.s. senate and late today a group of senate democrats standing in front of the supreme court gathered to denounce the selection saying that if successful the new justice could lead to an alteration of the infamous roe versus wade decision on reproductive rights and issues related to health care among others and he

let me quickly go to jeff bennett, our correspondent at the white house. jeff, how has this news filt erd capitol hill? >> with senior members of his own party on the other side of pennsylvania avenue. i can tell you that two senior congressional sources told me that when house speaker paul ryan and mitch mcconnell met with the president here last week, they walked away from that meeting thinking they were on the same page as the president. su suggesting that this talk of getting a wall would happen after -- >> the prime minister now taking questions. let's take you to the east room. >> thank you, mr. president. to follow up on what you were saying about the shut down, sir. are you saying you would be willing to shut the government down in september if it does not fully fund 25 billion worth of your border wall and also deliver all the immigration priorities that you listed in your tweet or are you leaving room for negotiation. >> i'll always leave room for negotiation. this has been many years. this is not just trump administration. we're new. many years,

jeff bennett is joining us now. jeff, another welcome to you. what more can you tell us about the talks with the north and the discrepancy with the accounts? >> reporter: secretary pompeo traveled with the goal of fleshing out the detailing of the joint declaration that president trump and kim jong-un signed at the singapore summit last month. as you heard the secretary say there, mr. kim agreed to work toward the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula, but he offered little in the way of specifics. even so, the president touted that summit as a major success. a major breakthrough going so far as to tweet that north korea no longer poses a nuclear threat. well, that certainly put the pressure on his secretary of state to produce some tangible results. now you have the u.s. side signaling progress while the north korean side is panning the talks. you have the north korean foreign ministry in a statement accusing the u.s. of betraying the spirit of the summit. but take a look at how the secretary character rises that very same meeting.

. >> join us now life from brussels is nbc white house corresponde correspondent, jeff bennett.he president is raising the stakes and asking countries to raise their spending on security to 4%. they have six years to meet the target that was agreed to. what is the reason for that? ratcheting up that demand over the course of the summit? >> the president is having a specific request, asking nato member nations to boost their spending t reaction among theal lies -- the reaction of the allies was best captured by the secretary, he said we agreed to -- we agreed to 2%, let start with that. we are not sure the president is serious about it or it's a negotiating tactic. what we know, the 4% number, 4% of a country's total economic output is higher than what the u.s. spends now. the u.s. spends 3.5, 3.6%. germany spends 1.2%. which had is one of the reasons that -- which is one of the reasons that germany is the target of the president's ire, that 4% would be representing an enormous militarization of europe. >> how do we see things shaping up today? >> he has a couple of meetings befo

we start with jeff bennett at the white house and ken delanian. >> fill us in. >> rudy giuliani was on fox news and he was explaining why he believes that michael cohen is saying that there is a premeeting a strategy session before the infamous june 2016 trump tower meeting where a bunch of senior trump officials met with the russians. rudy giuliani says michael cohen is now saying that some of the participants including donald trump jr. and jared kushner got together and talked about their strategy for the meeting. that would be significant if true because it would suggest that they view the meeting as great import. donald trump jr. testified that they did not know what the subject of the meeting would be. where did rudy giuliani get that information because we have not heard it before. now, rudy giuliani is saying he got it from other reporters who are prepared to publish a story about it. we have not seen a story like that. other participants are not responding to our inquiries. chris, we have this dually narrative of this trump tour meeting. stick with us if you can, ken. >> let me

. >> with more is nbc's white house correspondent, jeff bennett. jeff, let me ask you first of all how the trump team is handling these recent revelations. we saw the tweet from the president answering the question before it was asked about whether he knew about the meeting in advance. what is president trump and his legal team saying? >> reporter: david, the white house is referring all of our questions about michael cohen as is custom to the president's outside legal team. the president's outside legal team, namely rudolph giuliani, is now portraying michael cohen as a disgruntled former employee with an axe to grind. it wasn't always that way. take a look at how rudolph giuliani characterized michael cohen just a couple of months ago and then contrast that to what he said this past week. >> no, i expect that he is going to cooperate with him. i don't think they'll be happy with it because he doesn't have any incriminating evidence about the president or himself. the man is an honest, honorable lawyer. i expected something like this from cohen --

though nbc white house correspondent jeff bennett is reporting this morning kennedy himself asked the president to tap kavanaugh. kavanaugh used to clerk for kennedy. bennett said it was a deal and would step down if kavanaugh was the replacement. fox news tried to nail down whether the president decide on kavanaugh. >> when did he make up his mind then, yesterday or sunday or can you nail that down for us? >> i could but i'm not going to do that because i'll leave it to the president. what's the point? it doesn't matter. the matter is where he landed. >> we'll talk more about kavanaugh as the week progresses but the basics, yale law school, on the federal circuit court since 2006. he worked for ken starr who investigated bill clinton you remember. at the time, kavanaugh was in favor of charging clinton but has since reversed himself saying in an academic article indictment and trial of a sitting president would cripple the federal government. back to you. >>> well, president trump is pardoning two cattle ranchers convicted of arson in the case of national attention and triggered the

jeff bennett is in helsinki for us. he is a white house correspondent for nbc news. t of anticipation here. a lot of folks wondering what's going to be discussed at this meeting tomorrow. we have new insight from president trump. he sat down with jeff glor of the "cbs evening news" to talk about the meeting. it sounds like there isn't much of an official agenda. do i have that right? >> reporter: you have that right, david. that's by design. president trump and members of his administration are really setting the lowest of low bars for this meeting, although the president, we should say, is sounding fairly optimistic. he said, look, i have low expectations, but some good could come out of it. nothing bad will come out of this meeting. the russian ambassador, the u.s. ambassador to russia, rather, tells me that by

. >> a lot to discuss with jeff bennett who covers the white house for us. ned price, an msnbc national security analyst, he was a special assistant to president obama. let me start with you, we turn our focus to the summer of 2016. let's pull up the timetable here if we could, donald trump jr. was pitched some information on hillary clinton and his campaign. donald trump teased a major speech on the clintons. june 9th, this meeting takes place. june 27th we hear that call from president trump to the russians to find those 30,000 plus hillary clinton e-mails. the same day, russians attempt to hack the clinton e-mails and the democratic national committee. >> the president asserts he does nothing wrong here. . he was told about it by his son. that certainly wasn't the case. people here at the white house seem to think the earliest movement could come on the donald trump jr. part of this. since have you republicans calling forehim to testify about what he knew and when many donald trump jr. sat behind closed doors, clearly and unequivocally, that he did not te

jeff bennett, and former u.s. attorney and contributor. jeff let me start with you. in touch with rudy guiliani about the existence of this recording, my understanding the president and legal team are waiving attorney/client privilege. what more can you tell us about what the president and legal team decided to do? >> by way of explanation, should be clear after the radid on michael cohen's private and home office, there are so many documents, a special master would review what was deemed privileged under attorney/client privilege and what was not. this tape, this recording we learned about yesterday was initially deemed privileged. the trump team waived the attorney/client privilege on the tape. that means investigators can listen to the tape, deem if what was on it was in fact illegal. we're told the tape captures the president and michael cohen talking about a plan to buy rights to the story of karen macdougal. that's the former playboy model alleges having a relationship with the president. that's what "the washington post" has reported. the question now is why w

. >> breaking news, jeff bennett, thank you. >>> i want to bring in our danny cevallos again. >> simplyhow serious of a crime to lie to congress? >> it is very serious. there are six obstruction statues in the federal system. all but one applies to congressional activities. lying to congress could be a violation of the specific statues that addresses congressional activities, section 1505, all of them carry minimum, well, i would not say minimum but jail term of around five years depending on sentence and guidelines. those are the maximum but definitely in the federal system if you are convicted, you are going to head to jail for a certain period of time. these are very serious crimes if he did in fact conceal anything from congress. in 1996 congress added that the intent requirement is that it must be done corruptly which means for an improper purpose. if he is concealing it. oh, i misunderstood the question or there is an innocent reason why i did not include the information. that goes along way for the government to prove its case. >> we are having the conversation of a picture has s

jeff bennett is live at the white house. national security analyst evelyn farkus. what is the president saying about the comments about iran? >> it's a great point. look, if you take the tweet by itself, the all caps tweet, it reads line fire and fury 2.0. it's the reckless language the president used against north korea. if you put it in context of the secretary of state, blasting iran's religious leaders as hypocritical holy men, then you get the early contours of what the administration officials are describing as a maximum pressure campaign. it's true the loose talk about iran could be seen as a way for the president to push past the criticism that he kowtowed to vladimir putin in helsinki last week. we asked the white house press secretary about that earlier this morning. here's what she said. >> is the president trying to change the subject from russia to iran? is that part of the purpose of his tweet faed? today? >> no. i think the president has the ability to actually focus on more than one issue at the time, and certainly we know the media is obsessed with

. >> jeff bennett at the capitol. weird to see you with the columns but i appreciate you coming on the show. now at the university of baltimore school of law and also onset, erin blake for the "washington post" and white house correspondent for pbs news hour and msnbc contributor, friends of the show all, thank you for being on. kim, is there any reality in which mark meadows and jim jordan have a point? do they have any kind of valid leg to stand on here? i don't think so. none whatsoever. the fisa application was authorized and signed by a federal judge. so we already have a system accountability in place for that and judge looked at it and determined there was sufficient evidence to go forward. that's irrelevant. the second thing has to do with this question with respect to documents and essentially congress wants to know how the justice department is conducting an ongoing investigation. which is deeply problematic. >> i was going to ask, they want more documents about the clinton e-mail documentation. is it unreas

>> jeff bennett is in brussels. what's it been like there just watching the interactions donald trump is having with other world leaders, watching the interactions of his own administration sitting with him as he's gone on to attack nato allies, to attack germany? it seems tense from where i am sitting, what is it like there on the ground? >> reporter: yeah. i think most people expected the worst possible outcome after the president's morning outburst when he had that bilateral breakfast meeting with the u.n. secretary general. world leaders didn't respond in kind. they didn't take the bait. i think german chancellor effected the art of german understatement when she says we were counting on controversial discussions that's why there were closed door meetings were fairly mild, but at the risk of sounding alarmist, it's fair to say that the president is really shifting what we've come to expect from a president at a summit like this, not just from what he said here but what he's tweeting. i want to read the tweet fro

. >> jeff bennett at the white house. thank you very much. i want to turn to matthew nusbaum, and our msnbc political contributor. let's start about this news with tom hardiman. the president has talked to these candidates. mike pence, the vice president has been talking to them as well, and he has had assistance from don mcgahn, the white house counsel as well. who do he want in this job? how important is personal rapport as this president looks for somebody like a supreme court justice? >> i think you hit the button because oddly personal rapport is one of the biggest factors and i say oddly because trump should be looking at the policy positions or the legal rulings of all of these candidates because that's how it will play out in the supreme court. in that context, somebody like kethledge who has been a big proponent of executive authority, you would presume he would be attractive to the president, but trump considers him quote/unquote boring and he has fallen to the bottom of the list. hardiman is somebody mcconnell has been pushing hard

. >> let me bring in jeff bennett in london.here where thousands of british people are protesting against this president on a lot of issues and now the timing of this just when the president is going to the windsor skcastle f tea with the queen of england. you can see the picture that's been released to the american traveling pool reporters of melania trump and donald trump smiling and the queen sort of an impressi impression on her face. she's done this kind of moment and thousands and thousands of time of her long time reign, this is most the awkward of the timing. >> as i speak to you from london, i can hear two helicopters hovering above. the president is wrapping his trip here in the u.k. and ending it with this meeting with the queen. he heads to his home of scotland. he's going to spend the weekend there at his private golf club. we have reached out to the white house, the official channel to find out if the news of these indictments will change the scope of the meeting in any way. we have not heard yet from the white hou

. >> joining me now is jeff bennett, msnbc's white house correspondent, natasha bertrand, and kevin is with us, as well. help us sort through the confusion, kevin delaney is with us, as well, four in total. let us sort through the confusion, not only who's on with me, but this story, as well. part of a trio of tweets from president trump, in which he's trying to answer the question before it's even asked here about what he knew when, what he was told. give us the latest, if you would, jeff. >> hey there, david. well, president trump insists he did not have advanced knowledge of this infamous trump tower meeting in june 2016, and the reason why this is so important from the president's side is because as these investigations continue, the biggest problem it appears, the biggest present problem, is political. you have michael cohen, the president's long-time friend, attorney, so-called fixer, now saying, in effect, the president is a liar when he says there was no collusion between himself, the campaign, and russia. this really undercuts the president's narrative that the russia investig

nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett is in helsinki. geoff, this is kind of the spacecraft going around the dark side of the moon and being out of communications. what do we know, if anything, about this portion of their day? >> well, we know that the two are set to have this bilateral meeting, just the two of them, and their interpreters in the room. president trump has ratcheted down expectations for this meeting with vladimir putin, saying he has low expectations, which i think is fairly notable, given the intensifying pressure on this president from lawmakers, democrat and republican alike, to really call putin for account for what is the consensus view was a nefarious act, an attack on the heart of democracy. russia's meddling in the 2016 election. so far, we've seen the president, based on his tweets and public comments, instead of condemning russia and putin, really attack democrats and president obama, saying they're to blame for this attack. we have to see what comes of this bilateral meeting. the expanded meeting to follow. in

jeff bennett, this is your beat. a new setting for the president.ft for the president. the facts of today's economic news were good enough, but apparently they weren't good enough for the president, were they? >> they weren't good enough. if you own the highs, you also own the lows. the president really cut out the second part of that and went out there and really touted the economic success, even though, you know, certain things, like the surge in factory jobs, that started under president obama. but look, this was something the president wanted to use the turn the channel away from michael cohen and all the other stuff of the week. >> not what any president does when they have a great quarter like this. same style of let's get an event before the newscast. >> for good reason. >> he did oversell it. >> he deserves to go out and crow about the state of the economy. >> did he eversell it? >> he oversells everything. he's a serial exaggerator. president obama had quarters better than this quarter. >> he can't ever get his facts straight on this. nobod

let's do it with jeff bennett back in brussels, what actually went on behind closed doors with president trump and our allies? some heads of state have come out and said the president does not deliver a threat or ultimatum and others are saying depends on how you heard it, right? >> reporter: a senior administration official makes clear the president was very aggressive in his approach. i want to see significant changes as it relates to defense spending and if he doesn't see them, well, then, we would go it alone. we would do our own thing. this happened in a session that was focused on the security of georgia and ukraine. two countries we should mention that were invaded by russia but the president playing that role of debt collector, laid into allies for not spending enough on their own defense. his threats were viewed that ultimate up viewed by some people in the room as a threat and that language is really what triggered an emergency session focused on defense spending. the president says there were so many developments and things he talked about in the meeting and with world leaders

chris dickey and kal perry and jeff bennett. he's enumerated those three things, the issues of syria, of crimea and meddling in the election as well. we have seen the president of the united states talk about these issues over the course of the last few days. and in so doing he has been looking back, he's used the excuse these were all things that happened at least initially under the presidency of barack obama. that is his go to now as we've seen it over these last few days. >> it's fairly remarkable, david, that the president we've seen is condemning democrats, former president barack obama. however, not grappling with, not condemning president putin and russians by all accounts was a nefarious act, an attack on the heart of american democracy, meddling in and interfering with the 2016 election as we now know by both the senate intelligence committee to really tip the election in favor of donald trump. particularly listening to something chris dickey said that one of the things the president and putin might try to arrive at is

joining us live from london, white house correspondent geoff bennett, also international correspondent cal perry. jeff, i'm going to start with you. in addition to his meetings with prime minister may which should it be interesting to say the least consider reggie everything that was said in the sun newspaper, i'm sure israeli something to say with regards to that. he's set tote have an audience with the queen, as well. take us through trump's day. >> reporter: yasmine and david, one imagines the president and prime minister will have a lot to talk about given that stunning interview where trump undercut theresa may whose political standing here in the uk is fairly tenuous. to give you a sense of the day, the two begin the morning by taking in the military demonstration at sand hurts which is notable given the president has been leaning on may to increase her country's schaefer defense spending. from there, they'll head to checkers, her official country house. they have a working lunch planned. i'm told they'll talk about north korea, iran and trade. remember this trip comes against a backdrop against

jeff, stand by for me. cnn's kate bennett is inside. i want to go in there right now.you seeing? >> well, i'm actually on top of windsor castle on one of the upper levels. they walked us up many, many steps here. looking down over the quadrangle as the band plays and the queen watches from this tented area, she's there with the comptroller, lieutenant colonel sir andrew ford. obviously we don't see prince philip. we don't expect him to attend. at any moment, president trump and first lady melania trump will drive through the castle gates into the quadrangle. they'll come around the corner and stop in front of the queen. again, more pomp and circumstance. it's not a large crowd that's gathered. a bit of press, but certainly this moment feels very important. here at windsor castle -- we drove here from the press conference. it took about 45 minutes. of course, the president flew back via helicopter to london then will fly via helicopter here again to windsor. certainly right now the queen is standing and just waiting for the trumps to arrive. she's been doing so for the

bennett. caitlyn huey-burns for real clear politics and sam sater. jeff, let me start with you on the ground in helsinki. the president, the meeting scheduled to take place tomorrow morning. what new have we learned from the white house, from the president himself. he sat down with cbs news to talk about the meeting and what they hope to accomplish and what might be on the agenda for that conversation behind closed doors between these two presidents, attended only by their interpreters. >> that's right, david. the president is setting low expectations. you heard him say there that he expects nothing bad to come out of it. perhaps some good could result. we do expect the two to talk about syria. crimea. nuclear arms control. of course, at the very top of the list, russia's election meddling, made all the more relevant and resonant following this latest bombshell string of indictments from the doj, accusing 12 russian agents of hacking the democrats in a state election board in the lead up to the 2016 election. so far, president trump has not condemned puti

and now we go to geoff bennett who is awaiting the president's arrival, and jeff, what is the presidentbe walk into? >> well, kayty, i think that it is fair to say that the u.s. allies and the nato members will be afraid that the president replays what we saw in quebec. he spent a lot of time antagonizing the allies, and in some cases, he was downright hostile, and he insulted prime minister of canada justin trudeau as meek and mild. and then he heaped praise calling kim jong-un smart and talented, so there is some definite changes here. and so we should make clear that it is not a current commitment that the deadline for the member nations to reach the spending of 2% gdp is six years away, and six-year deadline, and so the view that they owe the u.s. anything is off of the mark, katy. >> and now, the president of the eurasia group is joining littl cell phone, or at least that i noticed exempt for one from you about the president tossing star bursts at angela merkel after the g7 saying don't say i didn't give you anything, angela. given that that was their last interaction, what's it go

nbc's geoff bennett is traveling with the president in brussels. kasie hunt is on capitol hill. jeff, as end stand it, another tweet from president trump. what's he saying now? >> reporter: that's right, craig. the president sent a tweet that captures the thrust of the argument he's been making all day. the president says this, what good is nato if germany is paying russia billions for gas and energy. why are there only 5 of 29 countries that have melt their commitment. the u.s. is paying for europe's protection then loses billions on trade. must pay 2% of gdp immediately, not by 2025. the president is again conflating trade issues with defense issues. he calls on nato members to increase defense spending to 2%. the latest is that the president is asking member nations to increase defense spending to 4% gdp, 4% of their total economic output. that's higher than the 2% they've agreed upon. that's one of the reasons why the nato secretary general rejected this proposal out of hand. he said we're already settled on two, let's start with that. we should make clear this request was not an

i want to bring in geoff bennett, an nbc white house correspondent and glen kirschner is a former federal prosecutor. jeff, let me ask you how the president reacted to this. charlie was talking about what this document offers in the way of independence, the way of sort of getting a sense outside ever the partisan lines of what happened here. what have we heard from the president today? how does it stand to change the political conversation in washington? >> the president rather predictably tweeted that the fisa warrant application supports his claim that the fbi investigation is rigged. in some ways we kind of expected that. we know president trump is unbothered by partisan backlash. we know that so many of his statements and tweets are oftentimes not tethered to the facts. i was struck by the reaction from florida senator marco rubio who says he takes a different view of this. he says that the fbi in his reading of these documents did nothing wrong. i think it's also worth noting that rubio sits on the senate intelligence committee which found uneequivalentably that they side with the rubio intelligence

bennett, yahoo!'s chief investigative correspondent michael isikoff, mulroy and white house correspondent along with phillip from the "washington post." okay. jeffwe'll go to you first here. give me the reaction from the white house to the cohen recording. is there anything on record? what are you sensing there? >> well, officially white house officials aren't saying anything which really fits the pattern. white house officials tried for weeks and months to create distance between white house and mr. trump. allegations that michael come heb secretly recorded the conversation about hush money to karen mcdougal, the former "playboy" model who a little she had an affair with mr. trump some decades ago. in the process the tweet sent out he's confirming the reporting that he was really stunned to learn about the existence of this tape. so here is what he says. the president says this. inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office early in the morning. almost unheard of. even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client totally unheard of and perhaps illegal. the good news is your favorite president did nothing wrong. th