i really want to thank jeff hunt for that introduction and it was exciting. got me charged up a little bit in the late afternoon. i appreciate his leadership for the centennial institute. jeff worked at the senate republican conference back when i served in the senate and i remain grateful for his service throughout the years to the conservative movement. and thank you to the centennial institute for -- and to colorado christian. i visited there i guess a year before last in the campaign and to our speakers, kelly shackelford and doug robinson and ryan bombberger and kirk cameron and gardner and tomorrow you will hear from ed meese. i'm glad i'm speaking first. i'd hate to follow ed meese. he's a tough act indeed. many of you have heard me say this already. but i think he's one of the greatest attorney generals ever to serve in our nation's history. and -- actually, i would go further too and say he's one of the greatest americans of my lifetime. this man is a real tribute, a giant. it's great to be here with my fellow conservatives. especially right now in t

i want to extend a special thank you to my friend jeff hunt for the opportunity to be here.rom theou greetings museum of the bible and hobby lobby. we mentioned the museum of the bible, our family has been the founding family. the museum itself has been supported by tens of thousands of people all over the world and many of whom i am sure are in this world. the museum opened up last year in washington, d.c. and it is three blocks from the nation's capital. there are 97 museums in our nation's capital and the museum of the bible is the third largest museum. it is also the most technologically advanced. i hope you get a chance to come and see it. the thing that takes it distinct is that it is privately funded. we receive no private funding. i hope you will come see us soon. the museum of the bible is founded on this conviction, that the world is a better place when people read the bible. regardless of your background or your political preference or your religious affiliations, that we see time and time again when people engage with this book, it causes the flurry sea of societ

[applause] please welcome jeff hunt, the chairman of the west -- western conservative summit. jeff: let's give him another round of applause. let's get set up here. we watched an administration ignore the rule of law for eight years. president obama's department of justice oversaw the fast and furious program which gave drug 2000 weapons resulting in the death of a u.s. order control agent. obama's department of justice did not enforce federal drug laws. all while allowing the irs to target conservative groups and suing the state of errors on a for enforcing immigration laws. that changed in my 16. -- in 2016. attorney general jeff sessions was first u.s. senator to endorse donald trump for president. attorney general jeff sessions has threatened to sue 23 sanctuary cities has sued the state of california over there sanctuary city policies. [applause] than blaming the police for our problems, attorney general jeff sessions hiring more police to make our communities safer and yes, they those ms 13ter animals. [applause] >> unlike some who have chosen to flood our communities wit

please welcome jeff hunt, the chairman of the western conservative summit. >> hi, everybody.having a great morning? all right. we're about to get started with our gubernatorial candidates. we're going to feature all four of the republican gubernatorial candidates. now, friends, we did invite the democrat candidates to come, but they decided not to join us. in fact, jarred polis is leading a protest outside the western conservative summit. i said to him you can come and actually speak to our attendees here, and he would rather load a protest outside so we're going to feature all four republican gubernatorial candidates over the next two days. we're going to start with walker stapleton. later this afternoon will be doug robinson. tomorrow will be victor mitchell and greg loerngsz so you'pez, s chance to hear from all of them. what's important for you to know is we have a straw poll in the exhibit hall, and i want you to vote for your candidate. this is really important. your vote could change the direction of this race. this is the largest grass roots conservative gathering in

when i won it became a big deal in the rigged witch hunt headed by struck. jeff, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, philip and frances. we all know what hangs over this meeting. russia's attack on the heart of u.s. democracy. it's why you have lawmakers on both parties pressing president trump to hold president putin to account. you can see how his instinct is to blame president obama first while not really condemning russia at all. while the other issue of these 12 indictments of these 12 russian agents that now stand credibly accused, president trump was asked whether he might ask president putin to hand over those agents, to exextradite them. check out his response. >> the russians who were indicted, would you ask putin to send them here? >> well, i might. i hadn't thought of that, but i'll certainly be asking about it. but again this was during the obama administration. >> reporter: in some ways it's a moot point because there is no extradition treaty between the u.s. and russia. but you certainly get a sense of the president's thinking heading into thi

jeff sessions. tweeting in june, the russian witch hunt hoax and continues all because jeff sessions didn't tell meing to recuse himself. i would have quickly picked someone else. so much time and money wasted in so many lives ruined. sessions knew better than most that their was in collusion. five months after this video was shot, james comey was fired. we later learned that, he gave memos, some containing classified information to a columbia law professor and his two lawyers. at least one of them documented a conversation with a president was given to a times reporter. on may 12th 2017, the president tweeted, james comey better hope there are no tapes of his conversations before he starts looking for the press. the house secretary said that twitter line inquiries wiry smacks of desperation. >> if we are starting to investigate people for mean tweets in washington, d.c., we will need a whole lot more special councils. the mueller probe is so baseless they are literally down to trolling tweets. >> a source told fox news that the twitter issue was discussed many months ago when the lawyer doubtless

this morning he told cbs's jeff glor he describe it as a witch hunt referring to the investigation intoussian meddling in the 2016 election. >>> and chicago police released body cam video of a man killed by police friday. harith augustus had a gun in his hollister and was reaching for his waist. it's not clear whether he was reaching for his gun. he did not fire the weapon. he died from multiple gunshot wounds. some protesters threw rocks and bottles at police. >>> ir natl igf cyber attacks against the u.s. he called russia the most aggressive offender. elizabeth palmer looked at what they're doing to crack down on cyber invaders. >> reporter: ben nimmo is a cyber investigator for the d.c.-based investment council. with the u.s. midterms approaching, he's teaching these activists and social media experts how to detect and expose russian disinformation online. >> we know elections are always a big juicy target. >> reporter: the aim is to head off the kind of russian meddling that tainted america's 2016 presidential campaign, but with the mid under way, nimmo agrees with u.s. ill intellig

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

probe because of tweets like this in june, when the president said, "the russian witch hunt continues, all because jeff sessions didn't tell me that he was going to recuse himself." and appearing to threaten comey after hiring him, writing "james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press." mueller's team also scrutinizing the president's actions to see if he violated u.s. law that deals with tampering with a witness, victim or an informant. all this as trump still struggling to clean up missteps in helsinki. >> dan coats came to me and some others. they said they think it's russia. i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this. i don't see any reason why it would be. >> sentence should have been i don't see any reason why it wouldn't be russia. sort of a double negative. >> reporter: a white house official telling cnn the president will convene a meeting of the national security council on friday to focus on election security. that as trump attempts to flip the narrative, claiming that russia will tamper in the 2018 elections

jeff, i think i know what road you are going to go down -- >> legally he can. >> i don't understand. there's not like republican outrage about the president calling it a witch hunt today or -- i mean, jeff, do you think this is some sort of a crossing of a raoub acon, where now the president can't confront vladimir putin? what evidence is there of that? >> if there's anything we learned in the last year and a half, nothing changes anybody's mind. no news development changes peoples' mind. donald trump has 40% support of the people, and 60% of the people disapprove, and nothing changes. i don't think today's news will either. so if the president wants to fire rod rosenstein tomorrow, he will fire him. look, he called this a witch hunt after this news broke. he called it a witch hunt after his own justice department laid out chapter and verse how the russians intervened in this election. the facts don't matter at all. >> but you know what? >> the republican party is united behind him. >> yes, and i have talked to republican operatives, and i know this might boggle your mind, but they said the russia investigation started to help them in the polls in some of these

hunt. >> the plot thickens. jeff bennett, thank you. >> joining me to discuss all of this is benji and jordan fabian. white house correspondent for the hill. we have the president, his family, his legal team, they always denied that trump knew about that 2016 meeting we were talking about with a russian lawyer. watch this. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> did you know at the time of the meet something. >> no, i didn't know anything about it. >> the president said he knew about it right before this came out. >> it must have been a very unimportant meeting, because i never even heard about it. >> this is all of it? >> this is everything. this is everything. >> michael cohen now says trump did know. from a political perspective how damning do you think cohen's allegation is? >> this is a damaging political fight for the white house. >> republicans i talked to would rather

jeff, because i think i know what road you're going to go down. >> legally he did. >> but i don't understand. there's not like republican outrage about the president calling it a witch-hunt today or i mean, jeff, do you think this is some sort of crossing of a rubicon? now there is no way the president can't confront vladimir putin? what is there of that? >> you know, if there is anything we've learned in the last year and a half is that nothing changes anyone's mind. no news development changes peoples's mind. donald trump has support of 40% of the people. 60% of the people disapprove, and there are a handful of percentage points where that changes. nothing changes. and i don't think today's news will either. so if the president wants to fire rod rosenstein tomorrow, he's going to fire him. look, he called this a witch-hunt after this news broke. he called it a witch-hunt after his own justice department laid out chapter and verse how the russians intervened in this election. the facts don't matter at all -- >> but you know what? >> -- and the republican party is united behind him. >> yes, the republican party is united behind him, but i have talked to republican operat

and the excuse as jeff points out about the witch hunt is very interesting to me because we have no idea when that will be concluded. >> yep. excellent points. let me ask you the two of you to standby as we look at the live pictures inside the hearing room. we'll go to capitol hill where any moment now, we'll see mike pompeo, the secretary of state, speaking, being questioned in front of the senate foreign relations committee. our senior congressional correspondent is up in one of these hallways right around the corner from this hearing. and michelle kosinski is there, our medical correspondent. to you first, you have been talking to lawmakers about what they want to know from the secretary, namely the fact that he said in the last 24 to 48 hours, many things came of this summit. no one really knows what the many things are. how do you think that he will be treated today and especially from republicans? >> well, i think we'll get a good sense of that in a minute. we're actually going to see the senate foreign relations committee chairman right here, bob corker. senator, what is your reac

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 official proposal. white house secretary sarah huckab

hunt on a tiger. that is shocking. >> jeff corwin, thank you so much. hi i'm joan lunden.oday's senior living communities have never been better, with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. where we're changing withs? contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. >>> that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. katy tur joins me now. >> hi there. have a great week. >> thank you. >> have fun. 11:00 a.m. out west, and 2:00 p.m. in washington. in moments we expect to hear from the white house. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders will brief reporters, and there is a trio, there

jeff, little marco. you have seen him conflate, two, the robert mueller witch hunt. >> and the paul manafort trial is pabt to staabout to start. >> is this like the fire works at the end where they all go off. >> there is a midterm election coming up, he has to get his base excited, and i think it is just a moment to rile up the base. paul ryan is not behind it, they didn't bring privileged articles of impeachment to the floor. >> okay, so michael cohen, rudy giuliani is loaded now on michael cohen who of course was the president's long time fixer, confidant, personal attorney, you know, often constant side kick. here is how he felt two years ago versus today. >> he he feels it is best to cooperate, god bless him. don't think he will lie, i think he will tell the truth as best he can. >> the man is a liar, a proven liar, there is no way you're going to bring down the president of the united states on the testimony, uncorroborated of a proven liar. i guarantee you she a prov-- he proven liar. >> it is important that we keep his statements in context. he is the president's public face of his public and lega

he's been tweeting regularly, denouncing the investigation as a witch hunt and denouncing particular pleasuayers in it, including jeff sessions and james comey. what "the new york times" is reporting is that mueller has told trump's lawyers that he is scrutinizing these tweets as part of a pattern of conduct that could add up to obstruction of justice, to witness intimidation. i've been talking to legal experts about this and they say it's not surprising at all that these tweets are coming under investigation. what was surprising to them all along has been the fact that trump is making these tweets in such an inflammatory nature while he's under criminal investigation. they definitely could in fact be used against him, peter. >> the bottom line, legal experts are saying, 17, that criminal intent is what they may need to focus on, just that he intended to interfere in some way, right? >> that's right, a corrupt intent. that's why ideally they would like to talk to donald trump and ask about his intentions. it looks like that may not happen, but they also have a series of witnesses they're calling and subpoenaing docum

hunt. we're still hearing silence from the white house, though, on the jeff flakes. on the newt gingriches. newt gingrich saying the president needs to clean this up. it didn't appear the president realized yet his political situation. when he was flying in the air from helsinki back to joint base andrews, it's at that point the republicans really started to be critical. we're hearing the start, the preview, of what his clean-up strategy will be. stephanie. >> if he needs one, republicans could talk a big game. but unless they do something, he won't be compelled to do anything. what's this about his intelligence briefing? >> intel briefing was on his schedule last week. this morning, it has been scrubbed -- >> he learned everything yesterday? >> he does not feel the need to receive a briefing from his briefers this morning on the intel front, stef. >> i, and i alone. i want to bring in my panel. steve schmidt, an msnbc political analyst. christine quinn, vice chair of the new york state democratic party. and emmitt siegfried, a republican strategist. i invited a myri

until, i'm quoting john bolton here, the russia witch-hunt is over, meaning the mueller investigation. joining us democratic senator jeffey of oregon who questioned secretary pompeo today. senator, do you think secretary pompeo knows what went on in that meeting? because he never said -- the white house said that the president met with pompeo and mattis, among others and talked to them, but the white house never said that the president explained in detail what he and vladimir putin talked about. was it clear to you mike pompeo even knows? because he doesn't seem to give any details. he didn't seem to have any answers. >> well, the secretary said the president had informed him about the details, but, of course, that means the president only shared what he wanted to share. so i don't think anybody knows for sure what was discussed in that meeting. >> secretary pompeo argued, though, that the president's entitled to private meetings. i mean, i guess isn't the president allowed to conduct foreign policy as he sees fit? >> i must say we're in a very strange space right now because the president is under investigation, or his

jeff glor. >> this could be the time to undermine the special counsel. he labeled the investigation as a witch hunthat president trump said about his assertions in aspen. >> i do not believe special counsel robert mueller is on a witch hunt. i believe it is is a profession investigation. i consider him to be a straight shooter in all of my public life and since then. i don't think it is a witch hunt. >> not a witch hunt. how important is that from chris wray? >> it should be important to hear it from him. more on the political campaign and investigation. most people don't know who wray is. they will not follow his comments at aspen compared to the president's twitter feed witch hunt. >> 2018. julian, thank you. >>> we're following breaking news this morning. british police identified two suspects in the poisoning of the former russian spy. source says that investigators have been combing through months of surveillance footage from the uk airport and salisbury where the poisoning happening. authorities discovered two individuals to the previously known as spies by using facial recognition technology

is reviewing some of the president's tweets as they relate to jeff sessions and as they relate to james comey as well. the rigged witch hunt, he says, continues. how stupid and unfair to our country. here's the part that relates to this new information. and so the fake news doesn't waste my time with dumb questions in all caps, he writes, no, i did not know of the meeting with my son, don junior. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. taxicabs maybe he writes. he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, i wonder if they helped him make the choice. there of course he's attacking lanny davis. lanny davis is a representative of -- the lawyer now representing michael cohen. i spoke to lanny davis within the last ten minutes. he declined to comment about our reporting last night about what michael cohen is willing to tell robert mueller and today declined to comment in response to the president's comments. a little context about this as the president is attacking cohen's alleged story here. the bottom line is you'll remember as it relates to this case

the russia investigation, calling it a rigged witch hunt and using his stock set of nicknames saying, fbi lover boy and crooked hillary. let's go to jeff, and his perspective on the appearances. rudy giuliani made three appearances on sunday shows talking about his strategy going forward. we were talking yesterday about this change in tact. the president's team trying to cast doubt on this investigation. what do we hear from rudy giuliani today? >> reporter: that's right. he has said he sees himself as an attorney/spokesman and that his motivation is to wage a p.r. war to undercut the special counsel investigation should the findings ever lead to impeachment proceedings in the congress. the battle seems to be working. you have two national polls now showing that the number of americans who approve of how mueller is handling the investigation is dropping. now to the other topic that giuliani is saying now, he plans to contact the special counsel team this week, monday or tuesday to inform him of his new demand that the special counsel has to meet these certain conditions before the president would agree for an interview. mueller would h

hunt. and you know what? it's very bad for our country, very, very bad for our country. >> back now with jeff toobin, carl bernstein and gloria borger. >> good lord, what a pathetic interview. i'm sorry. he didn't -- you know, i would expect that from fox news. but the fact that jeff glor sat there and let him say all that stuff without following up, without saying why didn't you raise that with putin? i just thought that was such a missed opportunity. >> well, there are questions about collusion that ought to be raised. and, in fact, why won't this president of the united states allow the special prosecutor, mr. mueller, to come forth with his report and tell us whether there has been collusion or not? we have prima facie evidence of an attempted collusion with his son in the room in trump tower. >> right. >> it is unambiguous. they were open to collusion that were inviting collusion. so to listen to the president of the united states say there was no collusion, there was no collusion, let's let the facts come in, mr. president. that is what he is unwilling to do, and that is why his friends who are closest to him

jeff sessions, trump almost specifically threatens him. if i had known he would have recused himself i would never have appointed him, and trump threatening sessions to drop the witch-hunt into the presidential election. the president is his boss. you could make the case this is trump trying to pressure his subordinate to drop an investigation into the president. >> can we pull up that picture once again from politico? this dca, reagan terminal 35x. have either of you been there, and if you have, would it be possible to not know. it's small. cramped, right? would you not know somebody else who is potentially boarding the same plane, these two -- >> it's possible if you're absorbed in whatever you're reading and didn't look up to see as people came in and out. but it is not -- it's not a large space, but because of a lot of flights depart from there a lot of people do go through. an amazing terminal. sort of like a green room from outside a cable news show. people from all walks of washington go through there and often there's curious interactions that happen in that terminal. >> oh, yeah. especially after events like white house correspondents' dinners and things like t

jeff, it is remarkable that the president, even after the indictments were announced, but even when he knew about these 12 indictments were coming out, he continues to call the mueller investigation a witch hunt. >> it was remarkable, but that is what the president believes. that is his whole narrative that he's been saying, you know, really since the beginning. i was actually asking senior administration officials if they believe this summit simply draws more attention to this. they believe, at least they're trying to say and argue, that this meeting here with putin might redirect the conversation from the mueller investigation on to showing the president on the world stage doing his job, meeting with foreign leaders. but anderson, this investigation still hanging over them. the u.s. government has put out so much more information about what russia actually did, so if it doesn't come up tomorrow, the president will have to be explaining why it didn't. >> yeah, jeff zeleny, thanks very much. appreciate it. mr. trump has publicly promised he'll raise the topic of election meddling with putin, but he doesn't expect much to come from it, as you heard in that piece. a source told cnn. michelle ko

hunt? >> mr. phillips there's a push in congress to kind of take back some of the tariff power from the president, there's some republicans in particular, jeffll won't give it a vote on the floor. i'm wondering what's your message to mitch mcconnell and would you consider put your organization's resources to get behind congress. >> we support senator corker and others to allow votes in the senate on this. look, congress ought to have a role on something like this. tariffs, trade policy, we see the danger to nafta right now. nafta has been good for this country, creating a lot of jobs, a lot of prosperity. it is now potentially in danger down the line. we do think congress ought to have a bigger role, and we're calling for that consistently. >> all right. noah? >> tim, so i have seen a lot of controversial comments in the public sphere about how the democratic party is the new free trade party. i'm not buying it. i don't think their members are either, but republicans are clearly turning a wedge against free trade. is there a free trade constituency in the country anymore? >> there is, but it will take a genuine effort to explain the good tra