hour and msnbc contributor yamiche and betsy woodruff and white house correspondent for reuters jeff masonfirst to you. you watched, we all watched, the president as he was getting ready, he wanted to talk, as hallie jackson pointed out and is ramping up what he is calling spygate and says people are saying, you all are saying, we are, not all saying, because there's no evidence of spygate but it's having an impact. >> certainly is having an impact. on him, inside the white house, and having an impact on the department of justice in the fact that he is now directing general kelly, his chief of staff, to orchestrate this meeting. i think it's obviously part of a wider strategy on his part as well and the white house's strategy as well and his legal team's strategy to deflect and to sort of frame the investigation in a way that gets people who are supporters of his to see it as the witch-hunt he has continued to call it since really day one. >> and betsy woodruff, your reporting on the impact this is having inside the justice department. they have to be demoralized? >> right. morale rate in

evelyn, i want to get you to weigh in on this broadly, but first, jeff mason, are you going to singapore on june 12, or are you staying home? i'm so confused. >> the fact that the president last week so very clearly canceled the summit -- >> it was a letter. >> not even the tweet. later also in his remarks that day at the white house, he said, who knows, maybe it will still happen on june 12. he's been leaving the door very wide open for that despite the very dramatic cancellation letter. he wants to go. he wants this to happen. and -- >> so, how did the letter evolve, then? obviously somebody convinced him this is the right thing to do or is this another impulsive, i'm going to send this because i want them to know i'm willing to do it? >> i think they were responding to a comment marc made the night before and which we'll either meet you for a summit or a nuclear showdown. the president and others decided we can't have a meeting under these circumstances. but he still wants to go. and so the key question there is whether or not they can agree ahead of time that denuclearization will be

for more on this, let's bring in jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters. thanks for being with us on a busy news day. this is a pretty significant development, is it not, that that robert mueller telling rudy guliani he will finish this investigation by september 1s september 1st. >> absolutely. it's significant for both sides. it's significant for the investigation and it's certainly significant for president trump and the white house. it would be positive of course for president trump and the white house going into the midterm he'l elections in novemo have this behind them and as far as the investigation itself, clearly according to guliani it's contingent on them getting access to the president and having an interview with him and that's something that they've been seeking. so there could be a win-win for both sides but certainly very interesting that they are willing to say we could get this all done by september if you give us time with the president. >> rick: it sounds like they will get time with the president based on what rudy guliani is saying, a

president trump has said, which is that this investigation in his view is a witch hunt. >> shepard: jeff mason from reuters and the grounds crew, shout out to them. thank you, jeff and grounds crew. coming up, word the feds are and to get a million files from the cell phones of president trump's fixer, michael cohen. a million files. which raises the question here in the middle of pollen season, who keeps a million files on cell phones? court show down ahead with a special appearance from team stormy as we approach the bottom of the hour. here's the story of green mountain coffee roasters sumatra reserve. let's go to sumatra. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. so we give farmers like win more plants. to grow more delicious coffee. which helps provide for win's family. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters. ancestrydna can pinpoint where your ancestors are from and the paths they took to a new home. could their journey inspire yours? order your kit at ancestrydna.com the nation's largest senior-living referral service. for the p

white house correspondent for reuters jeff mason.ociate editor and columnist for real clear politics amy today art. former deputy secretary of defense msnbc analyst evelyn. and former congresswoman of maryland, donna edwards. thank you for coming in on this memorial day weekend which has not -- the pace is not what we're used to in the trump administration despite the holiday. jeff, i want to start with you because as i understand it, you were in that background briefing at the white house this past week. were you -- i'm not even sure i feel like i should ask if you were surprised this is a tact the president decided to take with regards to this. it is a little jarring for him to deny the existence of his own aide. >> it is jarring. i remember even very early on in his administration he would encourage or tweet or say reporters need to use sources with their names. i printed it out and hung it up in a little office that we work in behind the white house because so often white house officials who do speak to us very frequently white h

. >> jeff mason from reuters. >> good to see you. , what about infrastructure? is that something you are advising the president and his team to push this year and what kind of an economic impact will that have? on the trade issue, have you put together numbers or advise the president or anyone else in the white house about the economic impact of a trade war. if some of these issues are not resolve with regard to terrorists -- tariffs? >> we have a whole chapter on infrastructure in the economic report. i think there is a lot of really interesting food for thought or the question of everybody is dring aund in electric car, how ely is the gas tax paying to fix the bottles? -- potholes? ,he infrastructure team including paul worthington, did a fantastic job going through the infrastructure policy and thinking about how relates to economic growth. i think we could get a 10th or two out of economic growth for a good long time out of infrastructure, smart infrastructure spending. the president's approach is really sound. , one big billtion is something everybody hoped

jeff mason is a white house correspondent from reuters.f busy days around there, but this is up on the ladder. >> never dull over here, shep. >> shepard: what is the thinking on the politics of a sit-down and how they change the public face of this today? there's clearly a new political strategy. whether it's legal or not, i don't know. >> politics is playing a big role here. questions, of course, include whether or not to do the sit-down and what to say. one of the things i heard you talking about, whether or not the president would consider using the fifth amendment not to answer the questions. imagine the political blow-back to that, if that was a decision that he made. i can just hear blow-back from democrats. i can also hear what the president would have said if hillary clinton had done the same thing when she was interviewed by the fbi in 2016. that said, the legal advice that he gets from his lawyers is the most important thing. he has rudy guliani now and another new person coming in to give him that advice. >> shepard: there appea

. >>> joining me, political writer for 530 and jeff mason, white house correspondent. good to talk to you both. i want to get to you first, perry. reaction to the president's tweets. six of them this morning, he went after a number of parties. what does it tell you about the president's state of mind? >> nothing new about state of mind, i don't think. i think he has been attacking the investigation, calling it a witch-hunt, criticizing the media for a long time. so i wasn't surprised he took this story. he reacts to what's news. his reaction to the story directly reinforced my view of big news. i think it is big news for two reasons. one is that we now have evidence don jr. was willing to meet with a second country and third country. he is open to having meetings in which foreign countries are helping trump win the white house. i don't think chelsea clinton was meeting with russian potential people to help her mom win the race. that's the first thing. the second, we have seen a lot of policy, i would argue that russia likes that has been done by trump or his idea that

helping us is geoff bennett, e ichlts ma and jeff mason. it is a big panel and let's go to kelly first with the fallout of the daniels payments. what you can tell us from the white house? >> reporter: today the lawyers for the president, his outside personal lawyers, are not commenting on the new stories. when we look at what the "wall street journal" is reporting, they found through public records and their sources say federal investigators are looking at the transactions of michael cohen. in particular he used properties that he has to increase his available cash access by getting a higher limit on home equity type lines of credit. now, what we don't know is if he utilized those lines of credit and took possession of that money, but he gave himself a wider and larger pool of money that would be available during that election year. why that is important is that cohen did say publicly previously that he had used a line of credit to pay for the stormy daniels non-disclosure agreement contract as a way to say that he did not need money from t