joining me on set from political acts uotsuri, jonathan swan.bc national security analyst evelyn farkas. political reporter ken vogel. and joining us all the way from singapore and pulitzer prize winning white house bureau chief for the washington post philip rucker. phil, i want to start with you since you are on scene, the site of all of the action. i'm been enjoying all the instagram photos from jw marriott. you write, and i thought this was a really on point frame. one, is a septegenarian president, the other a millennial president. they mix taunts and tributes to keep the other off balance. thin skinned alphas, both men are wed to a go it alone leadership style, have a penchant for bomb past and project dominance when they finally meet. so, at what -- what is your sense of how things are unfolding there on the ground in singapore so far? and what do you think these two personalities -- how is the president going to end up handling this? >> yeah, kasie, they both arrived here in singapore last night. it is now morning, monday morning. presid

jonathan swan, live for us in washington, d.c., thank you very much.n just a little bit. can you sign up for the newsletter by going to signup.axios.com. >>> that does it for us, i'm yasmin vossoughian, alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf, "morning joe" starts right now. >>> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." we begin with four words "tone deaf, callous, heartless." we have the secretary of homeland security, kirstjen nielsen choosing to eat at a mexican restaurant last night where she was promptly heckled by protesters. we have that video for you, and we'll show it to you later. not sure why she thought that was the place to go after her presentation of lies and deceit about how children are treated at the border. >>> now to callous -- here's the president's former white house press secretary,

but today jonathan swan of axios, who joins us in just a moment, reports there were three additional instances that we know about. according to his report, quote, a source with knowledge of the conversation said they occurred throughout last year until fairly late in the year and not just in the short period after sessions recused himself last march. and that quote, the sustained pressure made several officials uncomfortable because they viewed it as improper and worry that it could be politically and legally problematic. trump has repeatedly raked the head of the justice department publicly over the coals for his recusal decision as recently as last night he quoted one of his favorite fox news legal analysts on twitter. he said, the recusal of jeff sessions was an unforced betrayal of the president of the united states. joe digenova, former u.s. attorney. we are joined by the aforementioned jonathan swan, and by ken vogel, political reporter for "the new york times." gentlemen, welcome to you both. jonathan, there is evidence that the president has bought the argument, confirmation

in washington, couldn't get him here, jonathan swan political reporter for axios. let me start with you, paul butler. the idea that bob mueller who years, his term was extended worked for democrats and fbi directors do, would be leading a team trying to frame the prt of the united states. that seems to be outlandish even in tse outlandish times. >> yeah, and if you're political, for the record, he's a republican as is his boss rod rosenstein. so what this is about is attacking the prosecution i guess because they feel like they don't have another defense. and seally their defense is this extraordinahat nothing the president could do would constitute obstruction of justice, and that he has the ability to pardon himself. so, they're trying to poison the well. it's really the tv lyer, rudy gi is doing job, but e scary thing is it's working with a certain set of people. so now i think polling shows a majority of people think it's time for the investigati wrap up. there are political concerns seept it and so there's a we can sayheac are sleazy, they're inappropriate for

jonathan swan when he got this tip, he called around and people said yeah, i heard the president sayn uncharted waters here? >> a well known trade lawyer here in d.c. said that the president -- he said we think he's nuts, not that nuts. so people inside outside saying that it won't happen. but they're not sure. >> you can never be too sure with this administration. that's for sure. let's turn now to the upcoming midterm elections. a lot of eyes on that just a few months away. reporting that democrats are finally getting serious about the mid terms and the data they're seeing. >> they went to a dnc data boot camp where they're educating campaigns about how you help target voters. the new thing, the big thing, and 2020 campaigns, are going to focus on reaching individual voters. like targeting us, not just demographics, but particular people. another fascinating midterm story out there today, on the front page of usa today. campaign ads that crush -- we talked about here on msnbc, they are -- ads are breaking taboos. abuse and harassment, and so women candidates are -- besides just the

national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. good morning to you.d of the potential summit between donald trump and vladimir putin, i interviewed four senior officials from nato member nations. there was very consistent concern across all of these officials about the summit. and the main concern was very starkly illustrated to me by poland senator and secretary of state anna maria anders, is that putin will charm donald trump into giving something away and their summit will be a much warmer affair than the nato summit where members are expecting donald trump to beat them up about not paying enough. >> i got an email that putin is going to be meeting with bolton as well today. in moscow from russian state media. what do you make of this new development? >> i only found out about two minutes ago. your wonderful producer sent me the email. i haven't had time to process this. but look, we know how important the negotiations are for this summit. they're negotiating over timing for the summit. location, and what's on the agenda. when i've spoke ton offici

, joining us from washington with a look at axios a.m., national political reporter for axios, jonathan swanke you inside the white house when there are these crazy, frenetic news cyc consumed by the mueller investigation. we oftenetke wt's it like in there when all of this is going on on television? and the reality is it depends which part of the building you're in. the president might be raging at the television in the dining room adjoining the oval office. elsewhere in the building if you're not a member of his legal team you're watching the show like the rest of us, truly watching on tv. completely unaware what giuliani is going to say nex and quite happy about that. because none of them talk about russia, it's the one word that they try to avoid. and at all costs inside the building. >> so can only manage what happens in the white house if the cable gets cut off. what are the white house aides that you're speaking to telling you about trump's legal team and how they're handling all of this, depending where they sit in the oval office or the west wing? >> there's not a lot of confidence

let's turn to jonathan swan from axios.com. sent out today, he writes that our allies are rattled by president trump and are worried about a key nato meeting scheduled for next months. good to see you. for what reason are they worried? >> they're worried because just what happened at the g-7 where president trump went to the g-7, had very, very contentious conversations with some of their closest allies. left on terrible terms with the canadian leader in particular and got on a plane to singapore and had a warm meeting with kim jong-un. they worry that that will repeat themselves at nato. a lot of them worry about russian aggression and they need to present a unified front against russia. what they're really worried about, let's say donald trump comes to nato and spends most of the team not paying on defense, which is what he's preoccupied with and sees vladimir putin. he's preparing a summit and maybe has much warmer scenes with vladimir putin. if that pattern repeats itself, would put more crack in the trans atlantic alliance

. >>> coming up, axios' jonathan swan has a look at this morning's one big thing.d salesman over his sit-down with kim jong un. the president pitches the korea summit as a win for the united states as critics point t ck of specifics in the agreement with pyongyang. >>> senate foreign relations committee members democrats chris murphy and bob menendez along with democratic congressman tim ryan weigh in as whether the summit was actually a success. >>>nd former homeland security secretary jeh johnson joins the conversation. there is no going back. everything's changed. we're not on an island anymore. genetic power has now been unleashed. we've entered a new era. welcome to jurassic world. [ scream ] rated pg-13. >>> welcome back, joining us from washington with, a look at axios a.m. national political reporter for axios jonathan swan. jonathan, good morning to you. good to talk to you. tell us about axios' one big thing today. >> the art of the film, the movie trailer that the president showed kim jong un offers extraordinary insight into how the trump team is viewin

jonathan swan, thank you so much. we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a little bit. for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for us on this thursday, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf, "morning joe" starts right now. >>> we don't like to see families separated. at the same time, we don't want people coming into our country illegally. this takes care of the problem. k you ve much, everybody. >> i'm very concerned, mika. >> what's that in. >> this water. willie, look at this water. if this water spills, we're all going to get wet. >> uh-huh. >> but i can't drink that water. >> why? >> i just can't, i can't drink that water, the last, the last host put that water there, i can't drink it. >> what? >> i can't drink the water. >> okay. >> willie, can i drink the water? >> i think you can drink the water. >> no, i cannot. barack obama put that water there, i cannot drink it. i can't drink the water. i cannot drink it it is impossible. are you catching on yet. i can't drink the water. >> is the water a parallel -- >> it's barack obama's fault. he pu

julia ains lis for nbc news and jonathan swan everyone ax koes. jonathan, is the president going to switch or is he going to fight. >> is he going to keep up this fight or climb down from that wall? >> that's the question i've been asking west wing officials all week. i have got no evidence that he is ready to flip this policy to make a unilateral action to flip this policy. but he's definitely feeling the pressure. he's definitely feeling the pressure and that house conference meeting that he just attended that elena from the atlantic reported on, he made clear in the meeting that the images are bad and this is a bad issue and needs to be fixed. the real question is, is he going to do it unilaterally? is he going to tell jeff sessions to flip the policy? >> that would be a major climbdown. trump would see that as a huge loss. >> that kid in the red will grab a lot of hearts. these another one. julia, it's a standing situation when the first lady of the united states seems -- that's the picture, seems to be challenging the president. what gives? an

for more, jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios, susan del percio, political analyst and maria teresa kumar ceo of voto latino. the court rouling, 5-4, no surprise, all republicans against four dras, the same we've had for years now giving trump the seal of approval on his travel ban beak intended as a muslim bin. >> words he his people want people to know is vindication. he feels vindicationings. >> ha. >> but trump theoretically i think understood the value of having slus conservative staffed court. obviously released the list of his justices during the campaign and felt that contributed to his victory. but this is the first time he's seen a really tangible result of that conservative. >> maria teresa, this is aimed at muslims but now he's got a free fire zone for everybody. doesn't it smell like he's got what he wants which is a seal of approval, do what you're doing, mr. president, the court said. >> under this president we're seeing a massive revamping of our immigration policy. he basically not only remove daca but also removed temporary protective status allowing t

thank you, jonathan swan, ginger, eli.to go before the president meets with kim jong-un. we'll get the latest color from singapore and look at how trump is spending his final moments ahead of tonight's summit. you're watching "hardball." . the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪ and with twice the detail of other tests... ...it can show dad where he's from ...and strengthen the bonds you share. give dad ancestrydna for just $69- our lowest father's day price ever. fyou might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originay found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.

jonathan swan made it to new york at the table, national immediate why columnist for the times is here. and lydia, editor in chief of the huff post is harry, let me start with you on the cohen freak out. we were i believe together if not the day of -- the week of the raid while donald trump was discussing national sec called the raid on cohen's office an attack on our country, he really sort of lost it for several days afterward. cohen's possessions, the items that were seized, really freak out the president. why? >> they're everything. they're the whole treasure trove. we're talking about a dozen cell phones, possible taped recordings, whatever documents and, of course, the real treasure trove that's in cohen's head about the different deals that he's had to -- dirty dealings for trump for the last maybe ten years. plus, the sort of overture to moscow that started some of the whole speculation about collusion in 2015 with the miss universe pageant. that said, nicolle, i think e several steps away from any actual cooperation. cohen is going to have to get new lawyers, discuss with them

jonathan swan's report something correct on this.sident has talked about wanting to get out of the wto despite what steve mnuchin and others have said. look, i think it would be a horrendous mistake to get out of the wto. this is something that the united states set up uniquely benefits the united states. it protects our exports. talk to our greatest exporters about the wto and the work that the wto does. it keeps others from tariffs unfairly. it helps american free trade. it helps american trade and creates wealth. >> president trump was asked about it earlier today in a gaggle with reporters. he also said he had no intention of exiting the wto. but he did say he had problems with. so decisions they have made. while it is good. it's a good trade organization it also has done a lot to build up china. there was this idea 20 years ago if you allowed china into the world trade organization and gave them the benefits of them acting as if they are good trading partners that they might rise to the occasion. instead, they have continued all

>> i don't know if that was part of the strategy, but jonathan swan has reported rudy giuliani's roleo get in the media, distract, attack the credibility of the mueller case as a witch hunt. he's done that. he's shown there's few questions he's unwilling to answer. he's made the rounds on cable news. while he's making headlines like this, it's hard for administration officials like mike pompeo to ignore what he's saying. mike pompeo was visibly uncomfortable when he had to address rudy giuliani's comment on north korea. axios reported this is very typical in this west wing. throughout these mad mueller news cycles, the administration officials have generally been quiet, and there's like two parts here. and you know, those worlds collided with rudy giuliani. >> erin, real quick, what is your reaction to that? >> well, i think it's a valid point. i think you do see styles and worlds colliding. there have been almost no leaks out of the mueller team. we see big reports come out and in fact you see trump's team in front of the tv cameras every day. different styles. >> erin and erica, tha

jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios. how are you? >> i'm good. >> bill: the request for immunity. what would that suggest with mccabe. >> there's look no chance they can see he will get immunity. it would require a huge leap and you saw that in the drafted letter to give immunity who may have things to share that could be criminally relevant. so i don't think there's much of a chance of that happening. it seems to be a higher chance of him not testifying at all but the really important question is what's in the i.g. report that's coming out. i just spoke to somebody familiar with the report and they said it won't come out this week, perhaps next week. if it comes out next week it will probably be later in the week but it should come out soon and deliver on people's expectations it will be critical of the leadership of the fbi. >> bill: this is interesting. we were told it would be out in two weeks. is there a reason nor delay? >> i don't know. >> bill: do you believe this could be a game changer in this story? >> it's hard for me to

. >> sandra: jonathan swan and alan dershowitz harvard law professor emeritus and author of the book "the case against impeaching trump." this is the day so many are waiting for. what are your expectations? >> it's hard because nothing's leaked. we heard reports it will come down hard on james comey and he did not obey the lines of authority and that he violated internal procedure with the press conference he gave and the way he handled announcing to the public the hill clinton investigation and some of his -- hillary clinton investigation and his interactions with attorney general loretta lynch. if that bears out it becomes politically useful to he -- president and his team and why it's anticipated. one of the core argument the mueller team is looking into is obstruction as justice as rudy giuliani talks about it and at the center his decision to fire james comey. if james comey is put under a cloud and james comey's decisions officially reprimanded by the report gives the president an effective political push. >> sandra: it will be interesting to see how the president handles this

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a bee started, associate editor at real clear politics and jonathan swan, national political reporteros. jonathan, what are you hearing as we get ready to see these two leaders no matter what happens inside that room? >> a lot of it is a mystery even to senior officials because donald trump is entering that room himself for the first conversation with kim.oing to bf them and their translators and that fits with how donald trump views foreign affairs and diplomacy. it's a man to man contest. he sees it as any kind of dealmaking, he wants to understand his opposite number in his briefings he's been asking for lots and lots of information about kim jong un, his personality. he's been asking mike pompeo about that and of course as we reported yesterday, the cia and intelligence agencies have a very, very detailed profile of kim jong un based on dozens of interviews with people who spent time with him in his adolescenc adolescence. >> bret: your thoughts? >> i was interested in your conversation before in the previous panel about tea leaf reading. i think that although secretary of state p

we saw that axios scoop by jonathan swan about the president's unusual actions in pressuring attorneyents about pardons, yesterday. and what we realized is that the pardon power is the one place that the president can have the sort of snap your fingers presidency. that he wanted. your viewers will remember the campaign trail, the president talking about just put me in, and we'll solve the national debt. just put me in, health care will be easy to fix. and it turns out that pardons, the executive clemency power is the place where the president can do this. the "washington post" pointing out this morning that a lot of these pardons the president done had gone around the normal process. where it works through the justice department, they can serve a thousand of them and they bring them to the president. and instead he's watching tv, and he reacts and that's the kind of presidency the president loves. >> read between the lines for us a little bit when you look at the messaging behind who he is pardoning, the frequency that he is starting to pardon more people. what does that send to those

you remember months ago jonathan swan had that scoop about how they carved out until 11:00 a.m.s alone watching tv. often reacting on twitter. they're sort of, their view internally is trump is trump, let trump be trump. there's nothing that we can do about it. the thing that frustrates him and why the book matters is facts do matter and they feel strongly that he sometimes goes off on something that he just feels is right and they can't get him the real information to say, it's not. if he thinks the post office is raising rates, or is doing things that benefit amazon, even if the facts belie it, they have a hard time saying no, no, look, here are the facts of the matter. a big scale, this stuff matters. you're talking about the north korea trade meeting, about nuclear, denuclearization of the peninsula. and the president saying, you don't need to do that much briefing. you go in there, you read the guy, you decide we can get a deal or we can't get a deal. most of the time it's more complex than that. >> it sounds like a scary thought to think of it like that. jim vandehei. than

jonathan swan reports senior officials from four member nato nations told me their worst fear is thatmp clashes with american allies at nato summit in brussels on july 11, 12 and then shortly afterwards lavishes praise on putin. putin has long sought to weaken the nato alliance. malcolm nancy explores putin's a direct title. russians and was carefully planned to benefit the russian republic. that gets your attention. the long time u.s. veterans counter terrorism here with us tonight the second balk on this topic of russian influence within the u.s. good evening and welcome and tell me why he would be an easy mark in your line of work? >> he has all of the hallmarks of the type of person who canning influenced to let's not used word betray, but influenced to carry out actions that would not be the best interest of his nation but in the best interest of himself. national leaders don't have to recruit. that's the way you get them through door. using psychological welfare technique. they can build a bubble around spu craft your decisions, technically but you in a decision-making matrix th

jonathan swan's axios report said quote the sustained pressure made several officials uncomfortable because they viewed it as improper and worried it could be politically and legally problematic. axios says trump's conversations with sessions about reversing his recusal occurred throughout last year and that trump told sessions he'd be a hero to conservatives if he did the right thing and took back control over the russia investigation, according to two sources with knowledge of their conversations, trump also told sessions he'd be a hero if he investigated hillary clinton. and today we got the first taste of the cohen tapes as rachel and i were just discussing. the michael cohen tapes, as was acknowledged in an ef den tear proceedings in manhattan yesterday donald trump's in-house lawyer, michael cohen, made audio recordings of some of his conversations. and today national public radio correspondent tim mack released on mpr his audio recording of a threatening phone call he received from michael cohen about a story that tim mack was writing during the presidential campaign for the daily be

music) (upbeat dance music) (bell ringing) >>> joining us, national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan russian president vladimir putin is slated to meet today with trump's national security adviser, john bolton at the kremlin. jonathan, good morning, always good to see you, you've got new reporting on why ama's allies are worried about the trump/putin summit next month and what is bolton's mission as he sits down with putin today? >> well, i interviewed four senior officials from four different nato member countries. they're all very worried about this potential trump/putin summit. what they're worried about is frankly a repeat of what we saw at the g7 in singapore. which is trump going and picking fights with some of his closest allies and turning around and having quite a warm meeting with a dictator. and we could see that again here, with the nato member nations worried that trump will come in, beat them up over not meeting their defense spending commitments and we'll have a very warm summit with vladimir putin. and i spoke to poland senator and secretary of state anna maria anders

and yet, he said 100 time, advisers tell jonathan swan, that he wants to get out of the world trade organizationnd they always brush him off, and they put it off, always try to buy time. but when we first heard this, we started to ask some other advisors, and they said oh yeah, we've heard him say that. so the twist here is that the advisers are realizing now that just buying time, that just pacifying him in the moment doesn't do it, because then you get tariffs that he just announces and goes out and announces the space force. just tweets that he's going to issue an executive order to deal with the kids. so, what they say now is you need to put a real policy process in place to deal with this and try to convince him otherwise, defuse it or he'll just tweak. >> this is exactly what the times is reporting today about the military parade. nobody wants to do the military parade. they keep pushing it off. >> including the military. >> exactly. thank you so much. and thank you for bringing up the tragedy in annapolis, which we're talking about. >> continue to cover that. still ahead, yesterday's shoo

jonathan swan, live for us in washington, d.c., thank you very much. we're going to be reading axios a.m. in just a little bit. can you sign up for the newsletter by going to signup.axios.com. >>> that does it for us, i'm yasmin vossoughian, alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf, "morning joe" starts right now. >>> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." we begin with four words "tone deaf, callous, heartless." we have the secretary of homeland security, kirstjen nielsen choosing to eat at a mexican restaurant last night where she was promptly heckled by protesters. we have that video for you, and we'll show it to you later. not sure why she thought that was the place to go after her presentation of lies and deceit about how children are treated at the border. >>> now to callous -- here's the president's former white house press secretary, sean spicer sharing a picture of a champagne celebration last night at trump hotel in washington. >>> how about heartless? here's the president's former campaign manager, cory lewandoski, about hearing of a

jonathan swan, alan dershowitz, jason chaffetz, judge napolitano, all on deck to react to that. hour. see you in a bit. her salon was booked for weeks, until her laptop crashed this morning. having it problems? ask a business advisor how to get on demand tech support for as little as $15 a month. this week get boise case paper for only $29.99 at office depot office max. ♪ brian: they are known for serving up patriotism alongside their delicious food right here. ainsley: every day at noon, this is awesome, the restaurant, they play the national anthem, at one of our restaurants, right? >> at all of restaurants every day, because we can. todd: they're cooking for us. cooking with friend. bill krauss, steve noonan, the founders of mission barbecue. thank you for being here. you are not just serving up good food but patriot system. >> more importantly we love our country. we build a business with purpose and meaning and significance. we opened our first one in maryland, on september 11, 2011. damn right we did that intentionally. 10 years after the world changed as we knew it. we'll

. >> jonathan swan, live in washington, d.c. thank you very much. reading axios a.m. in a little while will be easy. you can go to axios to sign up for the newsletter. >>> "morning joe" starts right now. >>> i would argue that the president has unleashed not in any way totally. but personally to blame for demons that have been unleashed, whether it's what i saw at a senior center back home and people saying f-u, f-u. at a senior center. the fact that you've got the top guy saying i wish i could hit you in the face, why don't you and i'll pay your legal fees, that's bizarre, we ought to call it as such. back home some of these people have been frankly weird and different, in a town hall meeting, i said what is going on? they'll say look if the guy at the top can say anything to anybody at any time, why can't i? >> that was republican congressman mark sanford on "morning joe" a year ago. while the south carolina conservative largely backed the president's agenda, he called out the commander-in-chief as we just heard right there. last night sanford lost his primary race

joe, jonathan swan also reporting that the president talked about whether or not it was possible to confine the mueller investigation, so it couldn't get in to his personal business affairs. to codify the red line. joe, when you think about it, all this is of a piece with yesterday's statements on pardons and tariffs. this is all kind of because he can. the president's frustrations with the guardrails of the presidency. that he doesn't work through the pardons office in the justice department. and we have reporting up on axios now saying the part of what he did on tariffs, what you're pointing out, so many of his allies inside think don't make sense. it was because he was frustrated that he was tired of waiting to do something big on trade. worried he wasn't going to win some of these negotiations. >> so clearly, mike, the attorney general jeff sessions, he is under constant assault. one way or another, from the president of the you have states. what sort of support has he been getting from his former associates in the united states senate, and what kind of vocal verbal back-up do they give