ofning me is maggie haberman the "new york times" and cnn. i want to start with you. this is what dylan byers wrote in a profile of you. there may be no reporter trump respects and fears more than haberman. he returns to her to share his thinking and participate in interviews.

joining me now is maggie haberman of the "new york times" and cnn. i want to start this about this, and this is what dillon buyers wrote in a cnn profile of you. there's no reporter trump respects more than hairman. he inevitably turns to her to share his thinking and participate in interviews. he does so because in addition to having known her for so long he knows she matters and she will not treat him with kid gloves, will not be unfair. she commands washington and new york. she gets access to trump because he needs her not because she needs him. >> i don't know how the president would agree with dillon's opening description, and i don't certainly want to speak for him. but i think two things are true. i think i have known him for a long time. i covered him at politico and i covered him at the new york post. longevity matters with him and the familiar matters with him. but i also don't think anyone should make any mistake if i didn't have the prepositional phrase of the "new york times" attached to my name, i'm not sure that i would be speaking to

. >> joining our maggie haberman, vaseen miller, the president spoke very eloquently and passionately during the campaign when he was in new hampshire. clearly, he was affected by people he had talked to. how do you square those with this proposal by cutting the budget by 94%? >> well, anderson, you are exactly right. this is something the president was very passionate about on the campaign trail. certainly his family and many families have been impacted by i. i'm sure every person can talk to an immediate or close family member that has gone through a struggle with opioid addiction. my understanding in talking to folks in the administration is the program is going to be reformed and this administration is going to pay just as much attention, spend just as much time on opioid restriction as before. there are a couple startling statistics i would put in front of you just in the previous administration from 2009 to 2015. the amount of opioid overdoses went from 20,000 to 35,000 a year and just with heroin alone, it went from about 3,000 a year to 13,000 overdose deaths every year. >> th

let's bring back maggie haberman and david gregory and salena zito. he is key for reining in north korea? >> i don't know what he is referring to in the meetings with the chinese to make the philippines so. the philippines could be bold work against china's expense in the south china sea. that may be on the president's mind. there again is an impulseivity to this. we will see what the internal push back to this. duterte is an authoritarian bad guy on the world stage. as transaction al and pragmatic the president is, he has to remember the overall. the more he courts strongmen around the world is not good for freedom loving countries around the world. we cannot cast aside allies and rely on strongmen. i'm in the sure the president really understands this. if he is looking from one deal to the next. >> maggie, what is it with his seeming affinity of vladimir putin or said compliment s or nice things of kim jong un. the president wants credit for what others could not get? >> i think it is yes to all of the above . what you said is a key part of it. they

we have analyst ron brownstein and maggie haberman and april ryan.ith all of the last minute arm twisting, now the battle begins for the senate. now what happens? >> the senate indicated it is paying no mind to what the house passed yesterday. they are starting over. they have been holding a number of meetings the last couple weeks led by senator ted cruz to get a bill that is acceptable. they are very unhappy with what has come before. when you are essentially starting from scratch after the process over the last month and a half in the house, this is not reconciliation. this is not the normal process we are used to. this is two separate tracks on health care. it is a reminder why washington has expectations. watching the president take the victory lap. this is a president who loves winning and important for the white house. it is all it was. psychic victory. >> a win in quotes. that is what it is. the politics are less relevant, ron brownstein, in the senate. it is more policy driven. just because the absolute numbers. for every ted cruz, you have

david chalian and maggie haberman and jefferey toobin. what does special counsel mean as opposed to special prosecutor and what does mueller mean? >> the terms have he solvevolve the years. archibald cox was a special prosecutor. then the independent counsel. laurence walsh was an independent counsel. now the law has expired and there is a special counsel. independent counsel, special prosecutor, special counsel. it all basically means the same thing. someone outside of the supervision of the justice department who can investigate an area that is very much their own. >> i ask because some of the skepticism is if there is no crime, how do you have a special prosecutor and the ag trying to explain. this is to investigate. not just prosecute. >> exactly. it is very clear that mueller can conclude. there are no cases to be brought and close up shop. what is interesting and unclear at this point is how much public disclosure of his work there will be. in normal circumstances when the justice department investigates something and declines to br

a great piece about maggie about how trump can't quit maggie haberman. he can't quit mike flynn, either. i don't think it's loyalty. i think it's a connection he doesn't have to anybody else. it's like he just cannot cut that tie and he's gone so far as to fire his fbi director and to plead with with him to drop the case, drop the investigation, because he's a good guy. what do you think it is that flynn and trump share? >> well, nicolle, the first thing i have to say is if you're talking about good relationships that are going for people, i would tell trump immediately, stick with maggie. i mean, i think -- >> flynn's a little toxic? >> yeah. i think the maggie relationship -- >> maggie is part of talk therapy. i agree. >> a lot better. look, you know, flynn was one of the few defend erers the presid had when the entire military establishment and foreign policy establishment signed letters saying that he shouldn't be president. he is a guy who i think shares a lot of the president and steve bannon's world view about the rise of globalism and militarism.

maggie haberman of the "new york times" says trump and murdoch now speak almost every day, even as the justice department investigates murdoch's profit-making fox news machine. thursday's high profile trump/murdoch meeting calling to mind another eyebrow raising meeting that trump criticized heavily on the campaign trail. he blasted former president bill clinton's meeting with then attorney general loretta lynch as the d.o.j. was investigating hillary clinton's e-mails. >> so she met with him for 45 airline on the tarmac in - arizona. i think it's disgraceful. i think it's a disgrace. >> reporter: but now that trump is president, it's his relationships that are raising questions. now, this ongoing federal investigation of fox news involves subpoenas and grand jury testimony and allegations of wrongdoing. the company says it is fully cooperating with the authorities, and no one knows what the outcome will be. in the meantime, fred, this relationship between rupert murdoch and president trump is one of the most mysterious relationships in all of media. fred? >> thanks so much, brian stel

written by matt apuzo, maggie haberman, and matthew rosenberg, may 19, 2017.mp told russian officials in the o. office this month firing the f.b.i. director james comey had relieved great pressure on him, according to a document, summarizing the meeting. a dowrnlgt a white house document, summarizing the meeting. "i just fired the head of the f.b.i., he was crazy, a real nut job." according to a document read to "the new york times" by an american official. "i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off." what do you say to that? >> well, i say three things. one, the president is seeing the price of antagonizing the national security establishment, intelligence. this is part of a gusher of leaks that is going to come out. it's sounusual, so shocking for something like this to be leaked by an american official about their president. second, it's a reminder that the president forgets the difference between campaigning and governing. a conversation like that is not going to stay private in this environment. and, third, why are you irritating james co

joining me is maggie haberman of the "new york times" and cnn. i want to start with this about you.lan byers wrote in a cnn profile of you. "there may be no reporter trump respects and fears more than haberman. he returns to

ofning me is maggie haberman the "new york times" and cnn. i want to start with you.ers wrote in a profile of you. there may be no reporter

ofning me is maggie haberman the "new york times" and cnn. i want to start with you.his is what dylan byers wrote in a profile of you. there may be no reporter trump respects and fears more than haberman. he returns to her to share his thinking and participate in interviews. >> i don't know the president would agree with his opening description. and i don't want to speak for him. i think two things are true. i have known him for a long time. i covered him at politico. and the "new york post. longevity matters with him and the familiar matters with him. i also don't think anyone should make any mistake. if i did not have the oppositional phrase of "the new york times" attached to my name, i am not sure i would be speaking to him as frequently. it is a marvin lewis -- marvelous paper. charlie: he has set in front of audiences, "i love the new york times." the next words out of his mouth are "the failing new york times." twoe games to our offices weeks after he was elected. we were the first major interview he did. he came to us. we did not go to him. that was the subjec

. >> this is new reporting from the "new york times" and maggie haberman.he piece is called in part "mr. trump's four decade career in real estate casinos and entertainment has given him a sense associates say that a tacit agreement exists between him and the people who work for him in exchange for the wealth, fame and power he conveys to them, they agree to absorb incoming fire directed at him but, mr. trump, it's pretty simple, once he makes up his mind on something, that's it, said a former trump political adviser who remains close to the president. you either work for him or you quit. this is just coming in to cnn. does this sound like the donald trump that you have studied? >> very much so. he wants people around him to are loyal to him and to his personality and to his endeavors. if you have a moral code or a commitment to the facts and it somehow differs with what he's presenting, you have to go with the trump line or you're out. now, i think people when they got to work for him understand that this is the condition. you know, you accept higher pay t

i did some foreign policy interviews with him last year, with maggie haberman.hat if this chinese consult this problem, then xi jinping visited him at mar-a-lago, and then he said he doesn't have as much influence with north korea as i thought, just like, "who knew?" knew health care was complicated. the chinese also provide them with oil. they could turn off that pipeline. they have never really been willing to do that for more than a couple of days. there's also the question of goes to his profile as well. how willing if he'd let his own people suffer in order to resist ?anctions that's one half of the question. the other half, is there ever a level english sanctions would cause so much pain in the country that they would turn against him, or is his power just too strong for that to happen? i think he has shown that he doesn't much care about the suffering of his people. he's willing to think more and more resources into the nuclear and missile technology. , when i wouldme like to see is if we are able to get a freeze in praise -- place, if we are able to esse

maggie haberman, you have reported to the "new york times" that advancement is withstanding. what's the latest? >> i'll try to narrow down that category, but my colleague mike schmidt reported how james comey had kept these memos, these notes about the president, where he basically felt that the president was, if not trying to pressure him, trying to cozy him and curry favor with him, for lack of a better way to put it. as you have this investigation ongoing, there was a phone call where the president just basically wanted to chitchat and just wanted to talk, because this president, as we have heard repeated repeatedly, is fairly isolated. the president has been speaking to prospective lawyers given the latest in these probes. it's not a huge surprise. given what he is facing, you would suspect he might go to somebody who has some washington experience. that's what his current lawyers possess, but this is lawyer i expect he's not going to want to spend, and he's learning what special counsel means for everyone. they're all going to have to hire lawyers, they have to be carefu

. >> maggie haberman and michael sheer are reporting in the "new york times" that the president has told not looking forward to this trip. how essential is it to be prepared for a trip like this? >> it's an extraordinary trip. it very ambitious. he's going to the birthplace of the three great religion, he's going to see the leaders of nato. this is a varietially important tr -- vitally important trip for establishing himself abroad. he's had a hard time acting presidential during his first 100-plus days and he has to deliver in a very short period of time the image of a commander in chief in control and this is a president with very limited foreign policy experience and he's trying to build an ae aero version of nato, push the arab peace process into yet another new round. you know, he wants to build a coalition that will counter isis, al qaeda, and extremism generally and a counter to iran. it's a very ambitious agenda. it's very hard to see how he's going to establish what he wants to do in a srt period of time with all this drama at home hanging over him. >> "mr. trump's advisers ackn

we have cnn analyst abby phillip and maggie haberman and chris cilliz cillizza.re they starting from scratch? >> you heard them say we will not pay attention. you are not seeing the process that we are used to of reconciliation where you have dual tracks in the same direction. there is a lot going to be tossed out. we will see what it ends up like when they try to marry these bills. make no mistake. you have senators from purple states or red states where president trump did well who have a lot of working class or rural voters who do like obamacare. obamacare is not a slam dunk for a lot of voters. i heard voters complain in the 2016 campaign and premiums had gone up. enough of president trump's base of support and swing voters favor it. it is not the easiest thing to take it and get rid of it. the provisions that those voters like in many cases are not in the house version. >> if they didn't like obamacare, it is hard to argue they are better served under what just passed as trumpcare in the house. mr. cillizza, the idea of the president looking at the australia

maggie haberman and michael sheer are reporting in the "new york times" that the president has told friendslooking forward to this trip. how essential is it to be prepared for a trip like this? >> it's an extraordinary trip. it very ambitious. he's going to the birthplace of the three great religions, he's going to see the leaders of nato. this is a vitally important trip for establishing himself abroad. he's had a hard time acting presidential during his first 100-plus days and he has to deliver in a very short period of time the image of a commander in chief in control with a vision of the foreign policy of the earth and there's an impression this is a president with very limited foreign policy experience and he's trying to build an aero version of nato, push the arab peace process into yet another new round. you know, he wants to build a coalition that will counter isis, al qaeda, and extremism generally and a counter to iran. it's a very ambitious agenda. it's very hard to see how he's going to establish what he wants to do in a short period of time with all this drama at home hanging o

. >> this is new reporting from the "new york times" and maggie haberman.iece is called in part "mr. trump's four decade career in real estate casinos and entertainment has given him a sense associates say that a tacit agreement exists between him and the people who work for him in exchange for the wealth, fame and power he conveys to them, they agree to absorb incoming fire directed at him but, mr. trump, it's pretty simple, once he makes up his mind on something, that's it, said a former trump political adviser who remains close to the president. you either work for him or you quit. this is just coming in to cnn. does this sound like the donald trump that you have studied? >> very much so. he wants people around him to are loyal to him and to his personality and to his endeavors. if you have a moral code or a commitment to the facts and it somehow differs with what he's presenting, you have to go with the trump line or you're out. now, i think people when they go to work for him understand that this is the condition. you know, you accept higher pay than y

. >> maggie haberman, great reporting. thanks so much. we appreciate this. >> thank you. >> cnn's jim acosta just arrived in riyadh, saudi arabia, ahead of president trump's arrival. jim, the president will be faced with yet another headline to respond to. i guess he has wi-fi up there. it could happen any moment but he'll be asked by report remembers as soon as he lands. >> reporter: that's right, jake, and i can tell you that just talking to his senior administration official on the way over here, they have not made any plans for a press conference during this trip. we might still have a press conference, but as of this point they have nod scheduled a news conference during this president's eight or nine-day trip, and so this just sets the stage for what we see at the white house on occasion which is a reporter shouting questions during pool sprays when the president is sitting down with a foreign leader or a diplomat, and that might be what you see happening here over the next several days. now, i can tell you right now, jake, there ar

. >> michael, "the new york times" ran a piece by glenn thrush and maggie haberman that says that, again, the president was angry about the testimony. let's keep in mind the testimony last wednesday, which is now in the official white house timeline they've given on background was testimony in which james comey talked about the clinton matter but also reconfirmed he is investigating the president's campaign, and it's somewhat remarkable they're now admitting that was part of this. >> in comey's testimony, he actually gave a few clues about the investigation. he mentioned a u.s. attorney's office that was involved, and, you know, he gave a few other small things just about -- you know, around the sides. but he didn't really get into much. but what that may have signaled to the white house was the seriousness of the fbi investigation. what our reporting shows is that comey had approached the department of justice just days before he was fired to say that he needed more resources and he needed more prosecutors to move forward with the investigation. and comey would not have done that if the

what they are reporting, this is maggie haberman, this is the day after the president fired fbi direct comey and he's in the oval office and we've seen the pictures. the russian ambassador kislyak and sergey lavrov. they have having this conversation and we've previously reported that the president had divulged classified information to the russians and why were the russians even in the oval office when they are at the center of this probe. the news now is that he told the russians, the president of the united states, that he had relieved great pressure on him, quote, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nut job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off." mr. trump added, "i'm not under investigation." i've got michael and paul and now brian stelter sitting here. first, brian, to you, this is the biggest leak yet. >> this has been a week story of "new york times" and "washington post" stories, all until now confirmed by other outlets. i'm sure our reporters are g digging into this. "the times" reached out to the white house for comment. sean spicer d

is this article that just posted at "the new york times," it was written by glenn thrush and maggie haberman about this president's appetite for chaos. and it also talks about some looming staff changes that may be in the works inside this administration. how far would changing a white house chief of staff, how far could a move like that go in righting the ship? >> you know, what's clear is that this white house is broken. you know, they can't do anything right from executive orders to handling sensitive intelligence. and one of the prime reasons for that is because donald trump thinks that he can run the white house the way he ran a manhattan real estate firm, with senior advisers coming and going. nobody empowered as first among equals. no chain of command. and the result is what you see. you know, dysfunction, off the charts dysfunction, and i think that what trump has, you know, we've seen this before. jero gerald ford, who was famously called the accidental president, following richard nixon, ford thought he could run the white house himself. he called it the spokes of the wheel with hi

. >> and maggie haberman, appreciate you joining us for the latest on that. that story is up now on "the new york times." sara murray is standing by at the white house. sara, a, how is the white house responding to this? and certainly a lot to talk about what went on at the white house today and the interview he did with lester holt. >> we haven't really seen a lot from the white house explaining what happened at the dinner or in the subsequent phone calls that president trump had with james comey. i can tell you we've asked him repeatedly for more details and even dates when these thing os cured and it's very clear this isn't something the white house is interested in providing the details on, anderson. >> one of the things the white house is sticking by is that comey was unpopular with the rank and file of the bureau despite the acting director of the fbi fully contradicting that today in sworn testimony. sara, at the briefing she said she spoke to countless fbi agents and personnel who had expressed that to her and then later on she seemed to backtrack and

maggie haberman joins us. explain what we know about this meeting, what you have learned. >> this meeting had already raised eyebrows because the president had had this indiscreet slip about intelligence and a laptop that was secured and upsetting to allies. he also talked about the russia investigation as we know, this president has a habit of talking about what's on his mind. we know this investigation wrangles him a great deal. he had just fired james comey and he talked about it. he described him as a quote unquote real nut job. that's a phrase this president uses frequently. he said that the investigation had put pressure on him, that pressure is now off. he was adamant that he was not under investigation. my sense of that was that he was actually referring to what he has been referring to this whole time which is that he has been adamant that he is not under investigation. comey has not said that publically. he then made chitchat about policy and ukraine and looking for russia intervention. he talked abo

according to "the new york times" maggie haberman the president speaks to murdoch almost every day andeaks with jared kushner as well. he's one of the people who urges the president to stay focused on the economy narrowly and foreign policy more broadly. joining me now media critic for the baltimore sun and media correspondent for npr, the author of murdoch's world the last of the old media empires. when there's a federal investigation of a network, and the network's head honcho is hanging out with the president, does it look inappropriate? is it inappropriate? >> brian, it totally looks inappropriate. this is the style, though, of both of those men. in your face. you know, i saw that and i was so angry when i saw it and i thought, you know, donald trump, this is what you ran on. the world was not going to be run with winks and nods and secret handshakes by the 1%. you were going to stand up for people. and here you are, hugging this guy and saying all these wonderful things about each other. at this event. this is exactly -- i was so upset. but you know what? you know what cheered me?

so he puts people -- my colleague and i, maggie haberman, did this story. >> unbelievable story. >> helievably compromised position, as steve said, he thinks about 15 minutes into the future in terms of the implications of most of the things he does. >> can you imagine being in this position? >> no, absolutely not. let's remember -- >> imagine biding going on the hill with one story different from president obama? >> i can't remember anything like that ever happening for a very good reason. >> biden? >> well -- point taken. but there was transparency between the policy and the communications shop in the obama white house, but let's look at the absurdity of president trump's statement. this is a man who actually live tweets "fox & friends" in the morning. >> and other shows. >> from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. to say he's too activist as sean spicer has been saying to keep his communications people in the loop, that's absolutely absurd. >> what do you think active means here? i'm trying to decode trump. he's too active to get anyone active information behind the trump. to me, it means skitzo

i did some foreign policy interviews with him last year, with maggie haberman am he said to us definitively, the chinese can solve this problem. then xi jinping went to visit him at mar-a-lago and came out saying mr. j stat me down and explained he doesn't have as much influence with the north koreans as i thought, sort of like who knew, just like who knew health care was this complicated. and so i think he is now discovered just as ben suggests, that the chinese's ability to pressure the north is not quite what it seemed. now the chinese also do provide them with oil, and they could turn off that pipeline. they've never really been willing to do that for more than a couple of days. >> rose: there's also the question that goes to his profile as well. how willing is he to let his own people suffer in order to resist sanctions. and if he, that's one half of the question. the other half, you know, is there ever a level in which sanctions will cause so much pain in the country that they will turn against him or is his power just too strong for that to happen? >> well, charlie, i mean yeah, i th

maggie haberman joins us again, jeffrey lord, general psaki, matthew rosenberg and phil mudd. said he wouldn't comply. he said now he will comply if there is a subpoena. but he says basically that there is no there there. >> that's my sense of it. i got a message from him earlier saying he has not been subpoenaed but if he is he will gladly comply, "as i have nothing to hide." michael schoen a very familiar face to most of us who cover the trump campaign. he's been an aggressive defender of the president for a very long time going back to -- my dealings with him go back a long time but including 2011 when trump was first thinking of running for president in recent history. he has been pretty aggressive against this probe. he's been pretty aggressive that there is no there there. i don't know expect him to go sort of quietly into that good night. and we will see. it's an interesting contrast in terms of how he is handling this. because it is very different than, say, what michael flynn is doing, which is that he was subpoenaed and resisted it for quite some time and i think now

. >> and maggie haberman, appreciate you joining us for the latest on that.hat story is up now on "the new york times." sara murray is standing by at the white house. sara, a, how is the white house responding to this? and certainly a lot to talk about what went on at the white house today and the interview he did with lester holt. >> we haven't really seen a lot from the white house explaining what happened at the dinner or in the subsequent phone calls that president trump had with james comey. i can tell you we've asked him repeatedly for more details and even dates when these things occurred and it's very clear this isn't something the white house is interested in providing the details on, anderson. >> one of the things the white house is sticking by is that comey was unpopular with the rank and file of the bureau despite the acting director of the fbi fully contradicting that today in sworn testimony. and sarah huckabee sanders said at one point in the brief ing she spoke to countless fbi agents and personnel who had expressed that to her and then later

. >> he seems to -- first of all, he'll spend hours with maggie haberman and wants to sit down with editorialand talk and talk. what is this about? >> it's about a symbiotic relationship. donald trump, remember, is a reality tv star. without the attention, without tv cameras and all the press, there is no there there. he needs it. but at the same time, in donald trump's mind, his idea of a free press or vigorous press is something that we would see as more along the lines of a state-run propaganda machine which wants nothing but praise for donald trump and the thing that i think that we forget, when we watch scenes like this press conference playing out with hostility, there's a large part of america, they like that. that wins with trumps space. when she goes after journalists that way, they like it. >> and they also like to -- if you're a trump supporter, he's lopely talked about fox news this is what they put on their banner. it's a study, three networks say 62% of comey coverage pushing russia conspiracy theory. so rather than a huscandal, whi it is. >> what they are seeking to understand