we've asked michael beschloss to stay with us for this one last conversation. here is, of course, a serious reason why we have change chain of command and lines of succession because this is a very serious business. >> absolutely. continuity of government to make sure that we are always led, but it does happen. it's pretty rare. march of 2013, barack obama was flying to the middle east. his vice president joe biden was coming back from rome. there was about a half an hour i think it was when both were outside of the country. and john boehner, the republican speaker of the house, was next in line of succession, but that's perhaps not -- you know, there are communications and, you know, just as the white house will say, it's not exactly as if the president is out of touch. an example of that is when woodrow wilson in 1918, 1919 went to europe for months, there wasn't a telephone, there was sort of primitive cable. he really was out of touch and there was a republican speaker of the house. that was really taking a chance. >> before i have to let you go, let's previ

the completely unimpressable and not available for purchase michael beschloss has been our last guest so much -- >> thank you brian. >> -- for coming on the broadcast as often as you do. >> always. >> that is our broadcast for a friday night and for this week. we thank you for being here with us. have a good weekend and good night from all of us here at nbc news headquarters in new york. >>> tonight we are reporting live on a mueller friday, and this is a big one. bob mueller is filing his final move against paul manafort tonight, making the case for a long jail sentence as news breaks that separately new york prosecutors may indict manafort within weeks on charges that donald trump cannot pardon. all that plus there is this late news right now about the mueller report itself. let me show you the scene here. it all seems equipment at the justice department, but the doj is doing something that is not quiet at all. something it almost never

we talk with lawmakers, historian michael beschloss puts the address in context, and our panel previews what is at stake for the president. plus, mr. trump's plan to keep forces in iraq to monitor iran sparks condemnation in baghdad avd calls for the u.s. to all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: american cruise lines fleet of small ships explore american landmarks, local cultures and calm waterways. uderican cruise lines, pro sponsor of pbs newshour. >> ordering takeout. >> finding the west rout h >> talking frs. >> planning for showers. >> you can do the things you likeno do with a wireless pla designed for you. arn more atular.d data. consumercellular.tv >> babbel. a language app that teaches nal-life conversations in language. >> and with the ongoing support these institutions: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. e woodruff: this is state of ion night, and the battle lines are drawn. the white house says p

we also want to go to nbc presidential historian michael beschloss who has been watching along with usand we wanted to ask you particularly about the strange way this started tonight. nancy pelosi was supposed to introduce the president. she did not. she looked briefly bewildered, he then did not acknowledge her as new pre-s do. does that strike you as an anomaly? >> it knocked me out of my chair. i'm used to these historic traditions. and you know the speaker says i have the distinct honor and great pleasure of introducing the president. so what was going on here was donald trump startled and sort of forgot that that was supposed to happen. well, that did happen with harry truman, his first speech to congress in april of 1945 after franklin roosevelt died and the speaker actually interrupted him and said, harry, i've got to introduce you. or was this something intentional from donald trump, he did this sort of deliberately as sort of a power play against nancy pelosi. >> michael, we're also interested in the president having made those sort of jarring remarks there can be no investiga

we also want to go to nbc presidential historian michael beschloss who has been watching along with us tonight. michael, we wanted to ask you particularly about the strange way this started tonight. >> mmm-hmm. >> nancy pelosi was supposed to introduce the president. she did not. >> she sure was. >> she looked briefly bewildered. the president jumped in and started without her. he then did not acknowledge her the way previous presidents, we think, have when new speakers have been named. did that strike you as a historical anomaly? >> knocked me out of my chair. i'm used to these historical traditions, and that's what usually happens, as you well know, rachel, is that the speaker says i have the distinct honor and the great pleasure of introducing the president. so what was going on here was donald trump startled and sort of forgot that was supposed to happen. well, that did happen with harry truman, his first speech if congress in august -- in april of 1945, after franklin roosevelt died and sthe speaker actually interrupted him and said, harry, i've got to introduce you. or was this s

. >> the testimony was -- >> reporter: historian michael beschloss says it's unprecedented for someone once so loyal to sit in that chair. >> it's awfully hard to find the spectacle of a confidant of the president who flips on him, then goes before congress and says he's a racist, a cheat, and a con man. >> reporter: reminders of another historic history. >> john dean was back on the witness stand today -- >> reporter: in 1973, former nixon white house legal counsel john dean testified erga committee. >> i began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. >> reporter: it's not a perfect parallel. dean was on the inside at the white house and revealed nixon's personal involvement in a cover-up. >> john dean's testimony was the moment where richard nixon went from being a president with a problem, to being a president who might very well be driven out of office. we don't yet know if michael cohen's testimony is going to have the same effect. >> reporter: republicans today slammed cohen. >> you're about to go to prison for lying. how can we believe anything

we talk with lawmakers, historian michael beschloss puts the address in context, and our panel previewss at stake for the president. plus, mr. trump's plan to keep forces in iraq to monitor iran sparks condemnation in baghdad avd calls for the u.s. to all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

all these weeks the movement still unlikely to have any influence on the policies of emanuel michael. beschloss his you still need to visualize france's resisting we always skeptical towards neo liberal innovations and from this perspective he contributed to macros failure as a representative of the in the fridge economy came into power to exercise definite policies to lower taxes for the rich and businesses to keep wages low to cut back social spending and so on it's obvious that he won't give up on the stances due to the yellow vests this week during discussions on unemployment benefits we see that macron aligns with his strategy he condemns social services partners he intrudes into their talks in a very disrespectful manner preserves his line of the contemptuous technocrat. tear gas has been fired and barbed wire put up in the capital of the small balkan country of albania which is in the grip of intense antigovernment protests people want to get rid of the current cabinet alleging corruption and links to organized crime opposition m.p.'s have resigned on mass demanding new elections it is d

and thanks to michael beschloss and his always educational twitter feed, this week he has posted photosf, for starters, everything that was in the president's pockets the night of his assassination at ford's theater. a photo of lincoln at his very tiny desk. a photo of abraham lincoln's slippers. but what got our attention from michael were the two rejected designs for the lincoln memorial. one with his statue on top of it and another full-on pyramid. think of how that would have changed the view in washington for all of these years. and with that, let us give thanks for the beauty and the majesty of the memorial that we have. a fitting memorial for the president we lost, the man who was born 210 years ago today. and that is our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. rnlgsz this morning with another shutdownth looming, president trump is signaling that he may sign a bipartisan border deal that would keep the government funded, but he also has his options opened for building a wall. >>> plus b lawmakers on the sene intelligence committee have fou

schneider and did our own due diligence authenticating them we consulted the great michael beschloss, nbc's presidential historian, who told us he thinks he's letters, these documents have never been known about publicly before. so like i said, the reporting that we tid for "bag man" has yielded some unexpected stuff, but as promised, there is something else we turned up in reporting out this story that has quite direct implications for today, maybe even for this week. and specifically for the now quite pressing question of how exactly the investigation into the current president might end, specifically the question of whether the president could be indicted. and that is still ahead. stay with us. l ahead. stay with us the fact is, americans move more than anyone else in the world. on average, we'll live in eleven homes. and every time we move, things change. apartments become houses, cars become mini vans. as we upgrade and downsize, an allstate agent will do the same for our protection. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands? when cravings hit, hit back. choose glucerna,