john heilemann, national affairs analyst for msnbc news and msnbc. and david frum, senior editor at the atlantic. take us through the possibilities here. and one of the things i want to consider as we approach this, jeff sessions may already be a subject of the special prosecutor's investigation, possibly for perjury in testifying to the senate, or possibly involving his possible russian connections. it is -- is it possible that jeff sessions tonight has to worry that if he participates in the firing of the special prosecutor, that could add a obstruction of justice risk to him in what could become any investigation that follows that? >> well, as you know, attorney general sessions recused himself from anything having to do with the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. for him to unrecuse himself and to participate in any decision to dismiss the special counsel i think would place him at extraordinary personal legal jeopardy. so i cannot imagine, no matter how loyal he may be to donald trump that he would be the

john heilemann? >> john heilemann here.ing as being something that's in the crosshairs of the investigation at this point. what can you tell us about that on the basis of your reporting? >> yes. we know and we've reported before that trump associates, including jared kushner, his son-in-law, are being investigated for financial crimes, along with all the other things that are being investigated, they are being investigated for financial crimes during the 2016 presidential election. >> thank you so much for coming on the show. >>> coming up on "morning joe" -- >> all of those gathered in tucson on saturday were engaging in what should have been a peaceful activity that is absolutely fundamental to our form of government. spending time with the gentle lady who who proudly advocates on their behalf here in the united states house of representatives. >> that was congressman steve scalise back in 2011 paying tribute to gabby giffords who was shot days earlier while meeting with constituents scalise himself shot yesterday while p

>> joining the discussion now, david frum, senior editor for the atlantic, and john heilemann, nationalrs analyst for msnbc. david, on important historical nights like this, i just want to give you a free open field to set for us what it is we saw today. >> well, i think what we saw was the collapse of all of the explanations and excuses that the president's team has been making over the past couple of days, anticipating this. testimony. the president's team has been saying their great vindication was that in january, when the fbi director met with the president, the president asked him, hey, this big espionage inquiry you're having, am i at this time one of the targets of the investigation. the fbi said no, sir, you are not personally a target of this espionage investigation we're doing. and the president says that's great, i'm fine. so it was just my campaign, then, not me personally. there is no problem. that's the vindication. and the president's lawyer is today now saying actually, we're giving up even on that. and we are going to say our defense is that james comey, because of som

john heilemann? i mean, it's funny on some level, people have pointed to the kind of swampiness of this, but, look, he's hired richard cullen who's close friends with jim comey. not just the -- he's the godnaur father of comey's daughter. they're close friends. i don't doubt ashley's reporting is correct, that mike pence never said a disloyal word about donald trump. i don't know if that reflects profound loyalty or reflects profound political smarts. one thing mike pence cannot ain order to look like is like he's trying to undermine donald trump when he's the person who stands to inherit the oval office if donald trump has to leave that room. and so i think mike pence is a guy who made a set of political wagers to join this ticket when no one else wanted to be on the ticket with donald trump. he stuck with him through "access hollywood," did all of that stuff. he's now in a position where, again, do i think it's now more likely than not that trump finishes the first term? i'm not sure about that. th

. >> john heilemann, you were going to say something? >> i know you were going to talk about polls in a second but i was doing some math yesterday. >> wow. >> wow. >> with an abacus. >> at least someone is. >> is it a good or bad situation if you take the popularity of the bill and add it to the president's approval rating and you're still under 50. >> that's not good. >> that's not good, right? that's not a good combo. i'm not good at math but that's not a good situation. >> and maybe perhaps they don't trust you. a slew of new devastating polls show the republicans' effort to replace obamacare effort struggling. four polls yesterday show how deeply they unapprove of their plan. people doesn't like it. they find it to be insulting. >> look at those numbers right there. and you know, willie, you can always tell when somebody's doing something they don't really believe in or that their heart's just not in. and these republicans have specifically said from the beginning, told me off the record on both sides of pennsylvania avenue, hey, you

jill wine bank, john heilemann, thank you. >> thank you. >>> breaking news that the fbi arrested a government contractor for leaking documents that apparently show that russian hackers got very close to our voting systems. they're actually trying to hack the vote and voting software. >>> and later, the chaos presidency was made worse by the president this weekend. ♪ ♪ award winning interface. award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century. visit your volvo dealer to take advantage of our midsommar sales event offer. visit your volvo dealer to take advantage when a fire destroyedwith us everything in our living room. we replaced it all without touching our savings. yeah, our insurance won't do that. no. you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. can lead to sleepless nights making you feel helpless. take control of your sleep with unisom® sleeptabs. you fall asleep 33% faster and wake up recharged with all the benefits of a good night's rest. take control of your sleep with unisom®. the future isn'

jill wine bank, john heilemann, thank you. >> thank you. >>> breaking news that the fbi arrested a government contractor for leaking documents that apparently show that russian hackers got very close to our voting systems. they're actually trying to hack the vote and voting software. >>> and later, the chaos presidency was made worse by the president this weekend. ♪ hey, bud. you need some help? no, i'm good. come on, moe. i have to go. (vo) we always trusted our subaru impreza would be there for him someday. ok. that's it. (vo) we just didn't think someday would come so fast. see ya later, moe. (vo) introducing the subaru impreza. the longest-lasting vehicle in its class. more than a car, it's a subaru. anyone ever have occasional y! constipation,diarrhea, gas or bloating? she does. she does. help defend against those digestive issues. take phillips' colon health probiotic caps daily with three types of good bacteria. 400 likes? wow! try phillips' colon health. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want.

. >> a grown man taking marching orders from an inlaw of the president, john heilemann. >> well, yeahcertainly, look. he ran a company that was the equivalent of a country. exxon is more important in the world than in terms of its own foreign policy, it's a massive entity. he's one of the most important business executives in the country. he left that job and came into this job. he walked in the door and wanted to appoint his deputy. wanted eliot abrams to be his deputy. that was the first warning sign when the white house overruled him and didn't let him pick his own deputy. >> and remind us why he wasn't allowed to do that. >> i still don't know exactly why he wasn't allowed to do it, but possibly because abrams had criticized donald trump in the course of the nomination fight. it was seen as a personal insult, a personal slight, so he was blackballed from the administration. and tillerson not only lost that fight, but lost it without putting up much of a fight. and that sort of, again, signified to me that they not only had much power, but didn't understand what kind of battles the

john heilemann, marco lopez, reverend al sharpton, and my friend, robert traynham. that does it for this hour. i'm nicole wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. >> nicole, are you ready for mark on sunday? are you going to be good to him if >> father's day. yeah, happy father's day. >> only one day a year you have to be nice to mark. remember that. thank you, nicole. >>> if it's friday, did president trump sound the fire alarm again at the white house? tonight, president trump's latest twitter rant. did he just confirm he's under investigation for obstruction of justice? plus, dazed and accused? the president attacks his deputy attorney general. will rod rosenstein be the next to step aside? and the cure for cat scratch fever. while i'm obsessed with rocker ted nugent's new political pitch. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. >>> good friday evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington and welcome to "mtp daily." the special counsel's investigation is, indeed, expanding. and in response, the president has basically declared war on his own justice department.

good to have you on board. >> john heilemann has a question with for you. >> yeah, mr. notable that this is not something that happens every day. we haven't had a u.s. shootdown of a hostile jet in around a decade i think. so again from a standpoint of again a casual observer, you look at that and you say is this a sign of some kind of escalation that is at work here or is this sort of a random kind of one off that no one should read too much into? >> i think it's indicative of a larger problem. syria is a relatively small country. you have the fighting forces of russia, iran, hezbollah and syrian government on wong side. you ha one side. you have the united states, sue any oig and kurdish groups that we support. and yestday looks like the iranians and the americans are beginningo bump up against each other, iranians trying to extend a land corridor from iraq into syria and then lebanon. so as the admiral said, we've done a good job, the obama and trump administrations, in deacon flektsing with russia. we have to deconflict with iran, as well. because the iranian forces

with us we have senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc mark halperin, john heilemann, former aide to the george w. bush white house elise jordan, and chairman of the department of african-american studies at princeton, he heddie, and nbc n capitol hill reporter casey hunt. also with us from washington, and we might as well give you a quick swing at this, what do republicans on the hill think when you have the president who has them running around ignoring the russians meddling in our election side of it, instead let's just look at the leaks and on the other side the political fight possibly of some of their lives on health care reform. they jump over a cliff or president trump and then president trump over the weekend says the bill they passed was mean. >> reporter: look, i think they would rather he maybe stay out f of it a little bit for a little while while they finish counting the votes. there are some people he could call that would help. i think there is a feeling he is not aware of the landscape and could potentially do more harm than good, shall we say, if he were to