"the new york times" political reporter ken vogel.bc political analyst and white house bureau chief for the washington post philip rucker. kwheef political correspondent for politico magazine tim alberta. and washington bureau chief for vice news, shawna thomas. i want to start with a piece that phil co-wrote this week in the washington post. quote, president trump's advisors and allies are increasingly worried that he has neither the staff nor the strategy to protect himself from a possible democratic take over of the house. which would empower the opposition party to shower the administration with subpoenas or even pursue impeachment charges. within trump's orbit there is a consensus that his current legal team is not equipped to effectively navigate an onslaught of congressional demands and there is broad discussion about bringing in new lawyers experienced in white collar and political scandals. winter is coming, said what trump ally, in close communication with the white house. nobody's prepared for war. >>> so, phil, we do often

. >> i am joined by ken vogel, "new york times" political reporter.t obama refer to his successor by name in that speech. the gloves appear it be off. what do you think the likelihood is that president trump is going to be responding in his speech a few minutes from now, ken? >> well, whether he responds in this speech or not i think we will definitely see him respond more and engage with president obama if we continue to see president obama invekking him by name and making a direct contrast. interestingly, craig, obama's gotten a lot of pressure from the democratic base. while this speech may go a little ways towards satisfying them, there are folks involved in democrat campaigns who want to see an even more robust denunsiation of trump and of republican dictatocandidates fra who is not suited to leveling those types of attacks. you hear a little bit of the reluctance today talking about president trump as a symptom, not the cause of this president climate of political polarization and sort of combativeness. >> it sounds like you are saying there are

i want to start with this, this new headline that came in from ken vogel, all the related to issue of why trump is upset with his attorney general and that is what a is happening with the special counsel. he is coming after sessions because he doesn't feel like he took control by his words of the department of justice based on that very topic. well, just within the last several hours, we have a new report from the "new york times" on the fbi and the department of justice, unsuccess fle tk secce to turn russian oligarchs related potentially to the question of russian interferenced a tinterference and relation of russian oligarchs and the united states. what is this reaction this effort? >> well, the dfrnltoj and fbi w cast a wide net when investigating russian collusion, russian interference in our election. and of course we've heard a little bit more information creep out just yesterday as a result of yet another guilty plea secured by this investigation of a gentleman named sam patten. and i think that is really bad news for paul manafort, yet another shoe dropping because we learned

bush, nbc national political reporter, anita kumar, ken vogel back as well.red a very personal story of dorothy garcia getting her husband's wedding ring back from the wreckage of the site. >> i thought it was a great speech. i thought he captured the moment. he focused on them, focused on the heroes. he found a very powerful story, and i think it's important for the american people to remind the sacrifice and the courage those men and women on that plane displayed. so i think it was a difficult moment, and i think he rose to the moment and helped the country to remember. >> josh? >> you know, hallie this is the speech many in the white house were praying president donald trump would be able to give, the tone they were hoping he would be able to strike on a somber occasion like this. it was sober. it was emotional. he made it about other people. he wasn't self-reverential. he told personal stories, and he really allowed this day to be for other people, and i think that it's going to probably go down as one of the better speeches this president has given. >> a

i want you to take a listen to this voicemail send to "new york times" reporter ken vogel. >> you arehe enemy of the people. and although the pen might be mightier than the sword, the pen is not mightier than the ak-47. >> and unfortunately that's not the only one. this past week, a california man was arrested and charged for making at least 14 threatening phone calls to "the boston globe," allegedly saying things like "we're going to shoot you f-ers in the head," and "you're the enemy of the people and we're going to kill every f-ing one of you," and, "i will continue to threaten, harass, and annoy the boston globe." up to 20 firearms and ammunition were removed from his home, two months after a crazed gunman killed five reporters and editors at "the capitol gazette" in maryland. when questioned about a free press, this is how chain responded. >> reporter: do you have a problem with the free press in america? >> there is no free press in america. >> april, i want to come to you on this one. it's the subject of part of your book. the escalating threats against journalists. and people

according to dramatic reporting from ken vogel and matt rosenberg, the reason they allowed deripaska to come here after all those years of banning him is because they wanted to have a little talk with him. they wanted to try to flip him. they wanted to try to persuade him to start working for u.s. intelligence and law enforcement. they wanted him to start informing against vladimir putin and russian organized crime. quote, u.s. justice department official bruce ohr attended the meeting with deripaska in 2015, during which time the americans pressed deripaska on connections between russian organized crime and mr. putin's government. they were trying to flip him. it did not work. deripaska refused another meeting and reportedly told the kremlin about that failed approach from u.s. law enforcement. that was in 2015. they apparently went back at him again in 2016, trying again and again. he gave them the hand. but now this president and his republican supporters in congress are apparently poised to try to destroy that justice department official by name. we are told to expect a leak of c

"the new york times" political reporter ken vogel. msnbc political analyst and white house bureau