joining us from the white house associated press reporter jill colvin. jill, i want to ask you this. to me, having watched donald trump in 2015, 2016 and 2017-2018, one thing he's been consistent about the entire time he's run for president and 20 years before that, he's been a proud protectionist. he's been anxious to do this the entire time. is he happy today in the face of all the criticism and condemnation? he's like, dudes, i'm right about this, i'm doing what i think is best? >> yeah, this is something that clearly is at the heart of the president's thinking. he feels this kind of innate injustice that other countries have been treating the u.s. badly and that he's finally in there, taking this seriously and he's going to fight for the u.s. by turn rg these around and winning trade concessions. >> bill crystal, i ask you, the free est free trader in this entire group by tradition, by ideology, what do you make of the fact donald trump has done this despite the fact you look at all the economic impact studies, everything people are saying including y

at forementioned jill colvin, white house reporter for the associated press. and michael steel, pretty much a veteran of everything, including former chairman of the republican national committee. welcome to you all. sam, i'd like to begin with you. based on the strength of your journalism and headline today, the headline on your latest piece reads "the formula for a trump pardon, reward celebrity and punish thy enemies." sam, what on earth could you mean by something like that? >> well, we were trying to divine what the form was because that is definitely an unorthodox presidential pardon pattern that we're seeing here. in the past, i think it's important to note these processes took a lot of time to actually put into effect. barack obama took many, many months, if not years, to get his process for pardons going, in part because it goes to the department of justice, to the white house counsel's office, and then to the president's desk. with donald trump, it's been entirely different. if anything, it's been impulsive. he finds a cause that he likes and jumps o

jill colvin. and jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and the pentagon. also an msnbc national security analyst. that's the area i'd like to begin with tonight, jeremy. you're also the only lawyer here. what are the national security implications at play in light of this supreme court decision as you see it? >> well, this 5-4 decision wasn't a surprise because if you'll recall the president started his administration almost from day one initiating a total categorical blanket ban on seven muslim majority countries. that's what led the courts to rein him in. and only after the president tried, tried, and tried a third time did he whittle down the policy and included countries like north korea and venezuela, and finally he was able to pass by the thinnest of majorities, 5-4, some constitutional muster. but it does not mean the policy is wise. from a national security perspective, you want to do risk-based targeting. you want to use intelligence to focus your security apparatus on the true risks, not engage in blanket targeting or categorical bans or bans of

back with us, fake news veteran jill colvin and former member of the congress david jolly. , i kid. but how does your view of truth and the reporting differ from the version we just heard from the president there on social media? >> well, i mean, get your viewers to correct me if i'm wrong here. i certainly don't remember reading any reputable news outlets raising speculation about plastic surgery or her being abused or abducted or living in some other country. in fact, the president of the united states is the only person i can recall recently making some crude jokes about somebody potentially having a facelift and spreading that rumor back when he was in the spat with the "morning joe" hosts a couple of months back. that said, look, the president and the first lady have a different relationship than a lot of people are used to seeing of the first lady in the white house. she's not accompanying him on his foreign trip right now to canada and to singapore. she has had a -- defined her role differently. there are two people who describe themselves as very independent. and the

let's bring in jill colvin. these break-aways are people that have said they're going away. >> they are indeed. paul ryan is on the cusp of retirement. he's always been someone more willing than others to criticize the president or draw a line in the sand when it comes to things the president has said. but you can see this is somebody that is very interested in making sure that republicans maintain their majority coming this november. that's really seems to be his top priority here, making sure the president doesn't do something when it comes to talking more about pardoning himself or continuing to discredit the special counsel investigation. things that could be damaging going into the fall elections. >> shepard: are there other republicans sticking around that have indicated that they may stand up to the president on some of the more radical ideas he's put forward like self-pardoning and the rest? >> you know, there haven't been that many. you have people like jeff flake. >> shepard: he's out. >> you have lind

jill colvin, white house reporter for the associated press. and here in new york, john heilemann, co-author of "game change" and "double down" and co-host of the circus on showtime. jill, a lot of your reporting today painted a portrait up to and including the existence of these tender-age centers tonight, but painted a portrait of a president going it alone. >> absolutely. this is a president right now who, you know, he's actually i think a little bit torn here on one hand. this is a president who feels like he is under attack, who feels like he's going into the midterm elections and that immigration is his issue. he's told folks around him that he's worried that the lack of progress on the wall is going to make him look, quote, weak, and that he feels like this is a winning issue for him. if he's able to hammer this going into the midterms, it's something that makes his base very excited and something that's going to help them turn out. it's going to be something that's beneficial to him. at the same time, the president spoke very briefly thi

jill colvin, white house reporter for the associated press. and jeremy peters, political reporter for "the new york times." mr. schmidt, home field advantage goes to you. you also did happen to break the clinton e-mail story back in the day. so what is your takeaway? i know it's a big question. it was 500 pages after all from today's i.g. report. >> there's all sorts of stuff in there about all different parts of this investigation. it's the biggest thing it comes back to comey. comey is the chief witness against the president in an obstruction investigation. how does this change our understanding of comey? well, if you didn't like comey's judgment before today, you're not going to like it after today. there's not a lot of facts that move that in any direction. the story is pretty much the same. what is good for mueller and for comey, if mueller is banking on comey, is that there's nothing in there that raises questions about comey's truthfulness. people say comey has bad judgment. he made all these mistakes. he thought he could maneuver thing

. >> jill colvin and jonathan lemire of the associated press write of trump's decision to disinvite the eagles, quote, it was another sign that trump intends to continue to fan a culture war he has stoked and which he has long believed is a winning issue with his base. trump has long fixated on the nfl national anthem controversy was pleased ent month's announcement of the league's new policy returned it to the news. the president told one confidant monday that he aimed to periodically revive the anthem issue in the months ahead, beev headlines would help republicans as the midterm elections approached. let's talk about this now. with us to do that, charlie sykes, author and longtime conservative radio host, who is now contributing editor and podcast host for the weekly standard. we should also mention he's from wisconsin. i seem ter thehave a football team there. and jason johnson, politics editor at the root wcome back t brt. i'd like to begin with you. my sundays took an awful turn with a horrendous head coaching choice by my beloved new york giants a few years ago. we're in recovery

. >>> joining me now, jill colvin and alley vitale. a good morning to you. the statement addressing the 2016 trump tower meeting, why change the story now? >> why change the story now? you could also say, why not just be forthright about it and deal with the ramifications of what actually happened. you have a shifting story what happened on the plane ride consistently. in the summer of 2017 it was that he didn't help draft the statement. sara huckabee sanders told reporters he didn't dictate any of that. i know kelly touched on that. now it's that he did. he draft eed a short but accura statement on the plane. you have these shifting stories. i think that that's part of the reason why when you look at how the white house has handled the fallout from the things going into this probe, they have had shifting stories. it makes it hard for reporters and for the public to say, okay, yeah, it makes sense this white house is being forthcoming with all the information that they have about this probe. when they shift their story, it spurs more questions. of course, th