but michael cohn is not in the position of donald trump. and he's named in there. so to see a defamation case come outside of the parameters of the political arena, go into a court where truth is a defense, is going to be interesting, to say the least. and i think it may be more elucidating than some of the things going on in the political arena. and if you're running one of the investigations in either the house or the senate, not robert mueller's and you have something like senator feinstein releasing an otherwise private transcript, then what do future witnesses do? do they talk less? do they come at all? they certainly would be presuming that there is no such thing as private testimony, if one senator can simply release it. so i think that may change the dynamic for the witnesses, not in a way that the ordinary public will see, but it may slow the flow of information into the congressional investigations at least. >> laura, before you respond to that, because michael cohn is saying that the allegations raised against him and there's a statement, but i don't hav

trump they might get a call from michael cohn.t bull, anthony scaramucci, said -- told us for that story that he's the guy you call in the middle of the night at 3:00 a.m. with a problem so this is the kind of thing that michael cohn did for donald trump at the trump organization. >> last piece of due diligence and reporting this out, obviously, the picture accompanying the story shows that ms. daniels and mr. trump have been in the same place at least once. were you able to document anywhere else they were seen in the same place? >> we don't know over instances in the same place and spoken to at least three people, three people who contemporaneously spoke to stormy daniels about her account of an encounter, sexual encounter with donald trump. around that time. >> okay. this is -- this is our lives now. michael rothfeld of "wall street journal," one of the reporters who broke the story today, thank you for helping us understand it today. >> thanks. >> we'll be right back. ♪ with expedia, you can book a flight, then add a hotel, an

doesn't say if she was paid hush money by michael cohn.at wasn't enough, now today before we got on the air, t"the daily beast" published this story where it says it too was chasing the stormy daniels story, during the campaign, negotiating with her to go on the record with them. they say they have three sources confirming that a sexual relationship between mr. trump and stormy daniels did take place. "wall street journal" reporter who broke this whole story joins us here next. life happens. that's why feeling safe is priceless. with adt, you can feel safe with an adt starter kit professionally installed for only $49.00. call today, and install an adt starter kit that includes security panel, keypad, key fob, entry and motion sensors and for a limited time, get a camera included and installed at no additional cost. that's a $449.00 value, installed, for just $49.00. adt has over 140 years of security experience, with our commitment to customer service, and round-the- clock professional monitoring, you have the comfort of knowing that adt i

michael cohn the personal attorney for mr.er signed by miss daniels the actress says she had no sexual interaction with the president. nbc reached out to daniels and without for comment on the "intouch" interview but has not received a response. >>> if you've had too many to drink you know to stay away from the car keys, right, but if you're from new jersey you have to stay away from the drone controls too. on his last day in office on monday governor chris christie signed a law banning people from flying an unmanned drone aircraft with a blood alcohol content of 0.8% or higher or while drugged. violators can face up to six months in jail and a $100,000 fine. the law also bars flying a drone near a prison or in pursuit of wildlife. >> new frontier when it comes to drinking and technology like that. >>> still ahead, police officers and kids taking time to enjoy the snow in the south. find o find out what's ahead for the rest of the week. that's next. hello, aloe. kelp is on the way! with herbal essences bio:renew made with acti

while michael cohn won't address the story specifically, he says it's not true.he says rumors that i received hush money from donald trump are completely false. mollie: the "wall street journal" asserted something is true but provided zero evidence to that fact. howie: it says money went to her through her employer. mollie: why are they so certain given both parties deny and everybody quoted on the record deny it. howie: we have the "times" interviewing jake wiseberg saying he got pre-election daniels, according to these text messages she had an affair with donald trump in 2006, and he was late in paying her. now she denies it. no * the editor said the reason they didn't run with the story was because she couldn't verify it. that's not the best sourcing for the original claim. howie: the text messages seem like evidence to me. but the slate reporter says she was demanding money. the top two newspapers in the country reporting these sense sayingsal allegations. >> any other president, this might be a major story. but this is president trump. this came baked in. he

this week, and some toll associated press they didn't run it at the time because trump's attorney michael cohn threatened aggressive legal action, if they did publish the interview at the time mag said trump was ant huge star weren't sure would move copies unclear why they didn't publish in 2016 election voters may have wanted to know this information so at this point, why publishing now sell magazines store out relevant again, but it is unclear why this wasn't published iowa caucuses prior to election voters really did want all information they could get on both. >> i think we can agree in touch trying to sell magazines. >> told "washington post" i don't know why wasn't done in fact past seems lame like a responsibility to find out seems like the mag needs a statement about whether -- illegal -- why published now. >> strange didn't come out to 2015 or 2016 i absolutely agree what is interesting several outlets had this tip on roughly before election stormy daniels stop cooperating with them. >> technicalities involved a very liberal outlet had those backed out stormy daniels was not cooperati

the president's attorney michael cohn hit back very hard too at this journal report saying, these rumorsave circulated time and again since 2011. president trump, once again, vehemently denies any such occurrence, as has miss daniels. and while cohn did not directly address the idea of a payment, he did give cnn a statement from stormy daniels, saying, my involvement with donald trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more. when i met him, he was gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and everyone in my presence. rumors that i have received hush money from donald trump are completely false. if fdi did have a relationship with donald trump, you wouldn't be reading about it in the news, you'd be reading about it in my book. >> but did you say that statement came through cohn? >> yeah, came through trump's attorney. >> not directly from her. >> no. >> so have we been able to independently confirm -- >> we've tried to reach tout to her, to get miss daniels' statement directly. we've not been able to speak to her yet. and trump's lawyer cohn has not provided c

justice department to investigate whether the $130,000 daniels reportedly got from trump layer michael cohnillegal contribution. but could robert mueller expand his probe into possible collusion with russia to include the alleged daniels payment? >> if he starts to find monetary transactions in 2016 involving some of the same circle of people. >> could that theoretically be a reason? >> it could. he could say this is part of a pattern, this is the way they do things when they engage in suspicious activities because as part of a pattern, i think it has bearing on my investigations. >> saul wisenburg was part of ken starr's team that expand in the probe of bill and hillary's collections into a land deal and the monica lewinsky affair. what about mueller's mandate in the daniels' case? >> this charter covers specific coverage of russian collusion and anything that direct ly arises from this investigation. this didn't arise from his investigation. >> mueller's team told cnn it would not comment on the prospects of expanding on the payment to daniels. skeptics of the idea of her becoming a legal

the "wall street journal" reported last week that trump attorney michael cohn arranged a $130,000 payoff to stephanie clifford, also known by her stage name "stormy daniels," to stay silent about the alleged relationshipme relationship. cohn, clifford, are staying quiet on the report. >> "the zone" had an on-the-record statement from her manager confirming her client had engaged in a sexual relationship with trump. but the fox news digital chief said they were unable to verify all the facts to publish the story. fox has not responded to why the network has not used previous reporting in recent stories about the alleged relationship between the two. >> we should note, the fox reporter filed a lawsuit against the network in may of 2017 alleging gender discrimination. fox has den i'med the allegations -- denied the allegations. the case is ongoing. abc news, slate, and "the daily beast" were working on stories about daniels and did not push. >>> seven trading days, that's how long it took for the fastest 1,000-point game on the nasdaq in history. the trip was brief. the dow closed lower, dr

trump knew about it but he's close to michael cohn and worked for him as his primary adviser in difficultumstances for a decade at the trump organization. >> and you talk about that in your piece. you describe a 2017 interview, year ago, in which he described himself as the fix-it guy. what does that mean? >> well, he is the guy who handles threats to donald trump. if there's anybody out there that's causing a problem or is speaking negatively about mr. trump they might get a call from michael cohen. he's called a pit bull, anthony scaramucci, said -- told us for that story that he's the guy you call in the middle of the night at 3:00 a.m. with a problem so this is the kind of thing that michael cohen did for donald trump at the trump organization. >> last piece of due diligence and reporting this out, obviously, the picture accompanying the story shows that ms. daniels and mr. trump have been in the same place at least once. were you able to document any other instances in which they seem to be in the same place? >> we don't know of instances in the same place and spoken to at least thre

. >> trump's attorney michael cohn has denied the alleged relationship, but remained silent of the report to not discuss. daniels issued a statement on january 10th denying a that she and trump had a relationship, but in a 2011 "in touch" interview, daniels is quoted saying she and trump had a sexual relationship. >> and the state department is pushing back against criticism that the trump administration has received for not implementing new sanctions relating to a 2016 russian election sbhfrninterference. citing a provision saying that monday wasn't actually a deadline but a start date on which the government could begin to impose new sanctions should it be deemed necessary. the administration says since the threat of additional sanctions has been enough of a det determe determent, so no need for new ones. meanwhile the treasury department is under fire for imposing any penalties or sanctions against people named in the congressionally mandated list of individuals with ties to vladimir putin which was also released on monday. yesterday secretary steve mnuchin says he believes there will

then candidate lawyer michael cohn made to a porn star just before the presidential election. the group says it was noenlt influence the election and should have been considered a campaign contribution. this was reported at least twice by the "wall street journal" which is not known as a publication that has it out for president trump about this. if you saw evidence that there was a payment to stormy daniels, would you be concerned? >> the question is, is it a violation of campaign law? no. they can go back and look at the checks that didn't come from the campaign. it is not a violation. nothing to see here. move on. >> even if his business gave -- >> i think the american people, if elected this president, doesn't seem to bother them. who knows if it's true. the prus hasn't spoken to it. the vice president says he doesn't know anything about it. there's lots of room or and innuen innuendo. >> there's weird story sexual fatigue. like people don't want to get into the details. >> i agree it is not campaign finance violation but this is a problem that a year ago, a lot of people

of hush money comes from people familiar with the matter, but the president's long-time lawyer michael cohn is hitting back hard saying the rumors have circulated time and again since 2011. president trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence, as has many daniels. cohn did not directly address the idea of a payment, but he did give cnn this signed statement. he says that is from stormy daniels saying, my involvement with donald trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more. when i met donald trump, he was gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and everyone in my presence. rumors that i have received hush money from donald trump are completely false. if indeed i did have a relationship with donald trump, trust me, you wouldn't be reading about it in the news, you would be reading about it in my book. the fact of matter is these stories are not true. cnn has tried to reach out to ms. daniels for independent confirmation. we have not yet spoken to her. and trump's lawyer cohn has not provided contact information for her. if the alleged event, nonethe

stormy daniels, porn star and donald trump had a sexual encounter back in 2006 and that in 2016 michael cohnnald trump's lawyer, formed an llc and used that to pay stormy daniels $130,000 to deep her quiet about that alleged affair. yesterday stormy daniels' publicly sift p publicly put out a statement. the fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence. i am not denying this affair because i was paid hush money as has been reported in overseas tabloids. i am denying this affair because it never happened. so okay, this seems to be an out right denial of the affair, but what had everyone talking yesterday was that the signature that was on this statement from the public, it didn't look like from the past in stormy daniels. you look at the two and a that look different at first glance, so raising the question of whether this new statement yesterday from stormy daniels was actually from stormy daniels. she went to jimmy kimmel, went on jimmy kimmel last night. he asked her about this and here's what she said. >> did you sign this letter that was released today

michael cohn denying the sexual encounter took place. president trump once again denies any such occurrence as has ms. daniels. in a statement provided to nbc news which cohn says is signed by daniels, she calls the journal article absolutely false. adding rumors that i received hush money from donald trump are completely false. nbc news has not independently verified the statement. and neither the white house nor cohn deny or acknowledge the six figure payment. while there is no allegation of nonconsensual behavior in this instance, more than a dozen women have come forward with claims of sexual harassment and assault against president trump, allegations he vehemently denies. >> jeff, thanks. >>> now to that devastating scene in california where search and rescue crews are working around the cck hoping against hope to signed survivors in this week's mud slides. an 18 accouvictim was found. >> reporter: good morning, sheinelle. this is still very much a search and rescue operation. no one is the ground is calling this a recovery effort.

. >> aaron, we learned that michael cohn, his personal lawyer was in talks with moscow about a proposalump tower there. >> that is the definition of business dealings in russia. >> the deal, outlined in a nonbinding letter of intent signed by trump in the fall of 2015 fell through. but not before trump's attorney reached out to the kremlin for help. >> cohn said he e-mailed vladimir putin's spokesperson for help on this project on behalf of the trump organization. >> we could make deals in russia very easily if we wanted to. >> according to james henry, all of the focus on trump's deals in russia might be missing the point. >> it is not so much that he has invested in russia, he is receiving lots of finance from the former soviet union states, from the oligarchs. >> i have more oligarchs living in my buildings -- >> and before he became a politician, businessman donald trump boasted about it. >> have you had any dealings with the russians? >> i have done a lot of business with the russians. >> the most expensive home ever sold in america. >> back in 2008 at the height of the u.s. housin

the white house has denied any sexual encounter took place, michael cohn has not responded to nbc news' request for comments on the "wall street journal" story. >> am i crazy? or any other moment in time this would be a 24/7 news story. think of what that story is. that weeks before the president got elected -- >> and monica lewinsky was 24/7. >> a porn star who allegedly had an affair with donald trump while donald trump, either melania was pregnant or just had the baby and supposedly, yesterday the "post" actually reported that in her documents, said that he -- i'm not just reporting this, he liked to be spanked with a rolled up "fortune" magazine cover with his picture on it. >> i believe it was "forbes." >> this would bring down any other president. it would be over. can you imagine george w. bush, barack obama. because our president has set the bar so below mud, that it almost becomes just another day at the office. we can't let that happen. let's think about this again. think about that story. i don't understand just from a pure capitalism point of view why this is just not -- >>

. >> paula, michael cohn filed the defamation lawsuit against over this dossier, what does it mean?it is a risky move. this plays well with this ongoing conservative campaign to so doubts of the russian investigation and dossier. a lawsuit like this has a discovery face. that could require mr. comey releasing information that's damaging. there cohn is asking for $100 million in damages. >> thanks, paula. >>> president trump's former strategist, stooeeve bannon is leaving breitbart. bannon was fired from his white house role back in august. the new tell all book, "fire and fury" quoted him bashing the president and the family. >> he was arguably the most powerful man at the white house after trump and here we are a year later, he's lost all of that influence. >> you may recall president trump said last week that bannon had nothing to do with his presidency and lost his mind. >>> baltimore city schools are facing a potential state investigation after teachers posted photos of students bun e bundled up in freezing classrooms. parents are still furious. they packed in a school board mee

he's looking for his own personal michael cohn. who is now his personal lawyer, who pays $130,000 allegedly to a prostitute. that's what he's looking for. he's looking for personal loyalty. that's what he's looking for. >> porn star. >> it's so gross. >> but it's, sometimes you let the trump comments fly by and there's so many it's hard to correct them all. when he says that andrew mccabe's wife quote essentially got the money from hillary clinton. it was a combination of terry mcauliffe's superpac, common good va. a little bit of a reach. terry mcauliffe, a friend of the clinton who is ran for campaign in 2008 and the democratic party of virginia that totalled about $675,000. he didn't become deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe, until february of 2016, well after her campaign had ended. that's when he had oversight over the hillary investigation. you have to pause and insert facts into some of the comments that the president takes just to remind people. >> facts get in the way. >> the republicans' timeline is just -- askew.

cohn next in your view? >> i think it is important that people have been misquoted michael wolff left open of something he putn his book is not true the president is going to ask gary cohn did you say this and never denied it. if gary cohn got asked, he's got to tell the truth and own it or disown it bluntly. i don't think we ought to trust a lot of the book. a lot of it is thrown up against the wall but the bannon stuff that's in there, there are tapes, i do believe bannon quote, i had the embargo copy that the nbc people have there is a lot of people who are not mentioned in the index people that i know the president relied on. i know that wolff did not have full access to the entire team advising the president i treat the wolff book gingerly. he's going to ask you about it and earlier, we are all walking around with some tattoos and everyone's got them. everyone gets a trump tattoo what matters is what you respond to it. >> hugh, there are two things though number one, i agree your points of the book. we on our side of the tv screen and no offense to anybody, i have been listening to people over and over a

michael cohen, the president's corporate lawyer -- that's gary cohn. that's the wrong cohn. c-o-h-e-n, michael cohen is suing fusion gps, which is behind the dossier as well as buzz fe "buzzfeed" news for publishing the entire dossier a year ago. i've talked to some legal experts. this could be a risky move for michael cohen. >> reporter: no question. he presumably would have to sit for a deposition and his wife perhaps would also have to agree to do that. the standard for evidentiary standard in the discovery process is pretty low, jake. that means a whole range of documents could presumably be requested from both sides as they investigate this further. of course he would be the closest person to the president to fight this in in the legal system, fight the dossier in the legal system. we just don't know what would come out, and clearly that's got a lot of people interested about what may emerge from these lawsuits going forward, jake. >> all right. manu raju on capitol hill. thanks so much. don't go anywhere. we have lots more to talk about, including the president bringing

from this very disturbing story. >> well, the link there, joe, was robert kennedy and roy cohn, the same as michael smith explained donald trump expecting loyalty to himself. not to the presidency. not to the nation to himself. roy cohn's loyalty in the 1950s, during the senate mccarthy hearings was to joe mccarthy to protect his patron joe mccarthy. so he would lie, cheat, trim the edges of the law on behalf of joseph mccarthy, senator mccarthy from wisconsin him but michael schmidt, i would like to ask you with regard to this brilliant piece of reporting in the "new york times," two questions, if you could explain to us the july plane trip where the president is returning from europe, the role of mark sxar ollo. if you could explain to the viewers who mark carollo is. then a back-up question, did we know, did you know, reens priebus the then chief of staff took apparently copious notes that apparently robert mueller has? >> so on the second one, what happened is last year the produces produced a bunch of do you means to mueller. this was e-mails, mem morks handwritten notes. in them were handwrit

michael wolff's book. when bannon left, liberal dems, jared, ivanka, cohn and goldman sachs took over. could say about real donald trump has hurt him as much as the daca lovefest right now. >> well, i'm torn, lawrence. because i kind of wish what ann coulter said was true. but i think we're forgetting one character here. the white nationalist stephen miller who still works in the white house and last week was writing donald trump's talking points about this daca negotiation. i think it's very unlikely that donald trump has changed his spots on immigration. and i think that, you know, just as unlikely as it is that lucy is going to let charlie brown actually kick the football this time. i think we're going see more of the same, more immigration bashing from donald trump and his white house. >> so to prove the president is of sound mind and body, they put him in a room and watch him agree with every single speaker who speaks in conflict with the previous speaker. that's their proof. ron klain, david frum, thank you both for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. >> thanks, lawrence. >>

if you believe michael wolff's i want my own roy cohn thing.a lot of people are very concerned about. the justice department, the fbi piece of this. >> i was going to say, is this recoverable? i have to say, look, plenty of clinton partisan who's really believed there were fbi agents in the new york field office leaking all the time rudolph giuliani. stoking the fires on the clinton e-mail investigation. now you have partisans on the right who believe the fbi is messing around and mucking with the russia investigation. the fact is that's not healthy for the fbi, period. >> no. and it is something that comey was very aware of. and worried about. they hadn't gotten anywhere near. >> one could say almost overworried about it. that was part of the problem. >> yeah. he was operating on the principle of, we have a way to do this. we may not like the outcome but we have a way to do this and we'll stick to it. obviously, that all sort of seems like ancient history now and slightly quaint. >> i'm waiting to see, are we going to get to the point where we

i believe it was in michael wolff's book he wants the attorney general to be like roy cohn. he was very controversial and that was trump's attorney. he was kind of an attorney that defended at all costs. that's what trump wants. that's what he wants his attorney general to be. he doesn't want the attorney general to represent the people of the us, but the lawyer to represent him and gives you an insight as to how it was expanding under a special counsel. >> this is a big deal. >> it's a huge deal. what's clear is that the president's erratic behavior and obsessiveness about this investigation goes back to him and that he has brought so much of this on himself. if there is no evidence of collusion and that the russians tilted the election, we are seeing more and more evidence that the president's own actions accelerated perhaps tilted the scales of this investigation against him. he hired the fbi director because he wanted to say one thing about eric holder that he was loyal it obama and that's what he want out of sessions. he was ignorant about the judiciary for that matter.

cohn and all these people. >> that's right. we've seen michael wolff come in. when the white house, this press secretary said earlier today, well, this is a book full of lies. it is tabloid trash and so on. yet it was the white house that was allowing michael wolf to come in time and again. apparently he was talking on steve bannon time and again and was not obstructed by anybody inside this administration. it was only when these revelations came out that they really urged to this book and turned on steve bannon. until this point we didn't hear much a people in terms of condemnation for this book. the publisher of michael wolff's book. that only served to draw interest and now it is coming out tomorrow morning. it is pretty typical of how they deal with damage control. they tend to deal with it after the fact when they really could have dealt with it months ago by not giving michael wolff as much access that they had. they would have gotten attention anyway. that certainly gave the president front page access. >> there are a few koipss circus lating in the west

or if that part of his white house that was written so much about by michael wolff, you know, jared kushner, ivanka trump, gary cohnat they are winning out here, do you think that's happening? >> well, symbolically it was a big deal, the deal that donald trump was going to davos and open to daca deal and other things, you would expect steve bannon to combust and part of the problem is, look, i think steve bannon had a thumbless grasp on american politics, he has unbelievably bad track record in all of the primaries backing people and ultimately -- bus his problem was that he was deeply invested in the idea that there was this thing called trumpism which was his nationalistic ideological agenda that was larger than trump himself and ultimately trump is the president of the united states, whatever he does is going to define trumpism and it's not bannon's agenda so bannon is left with basically nothing now and unhappy about it. >> the question is, chris, does trump carry the quote, unquote trumpism or is he changing too? the last point. >> i think he will, he will carry on. >> even in davos. >> he believes the reporti

michael wolff. he depicts a white house beset by chaos, staffed by people who question the president's fitness to serve. economic adviser gary cohnquoted as saying in an e-mail that the president is "an idiot surrounded by clowns" who "won't read anything" and "gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored." wolff writes that "for national security adviser h.r. mcmaster, he was a dope." the book also quotes treasury secretary steven mnuchin and former chief of staff reince priebus calling mr. trump an "idiot." on saturday, mr. trump hit back on twitter, calling himself "a very stable genius." he followed up at the camp david news conference. >> i had a situation where i was a very excellent student. came out and made billions and billions of dollars. became one of the top businesspeople. went to television and, for ten years, was a tremendous success, as you probably have heard. ran for president one time and won. >> woodruff: on the sunday talk shows, several members of the trump administration also defended the president. c.i.a. director mike pompeo rejected wolff's claims that the president gets bored

interview with the "new york times" michael schmidt where he said i admired the way holder protected obama. he's talked about wanting his own fixer, his own roy cohn when you speak to people inside the trump orbit, it's exactly what you described. it's that style of wanting to be protected, of want his ray donovans around to clean up his messes that makes people wonder if he did stumble into obstruction of justice. >> you mean the tv ray donovan, not the other one. >> exactly. >> not the one from the nixon administration. it seems to me that this is up guns the civil service code of the fbi. i just watched the mark felt movie. it's about the fbi's pride of service and independence. james comey and bob mueller personified, both together, person sonified the integrity of the fbi. there you have a president who knocked off this guy, james comey, because he was independent. then along comes bob mueller, i'll help fight this might because this is a fight i believe in all my life. the fbi is on trial here. no president should come along here, no matter who he is has a right to come in and bop off the head of the fbi because the guy in this case, a guy,

coming up, michael mckee with jim bullard in philadelphia. bill gross will join us. cohn. . is this a phone? or a little internet machine? it makes you wonder: shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. in america.jobs day the 87th consecutive month of job growth, but wages are the real warrior. plus, a new year rally. global equities, every named u.s. equity index sits at a record. all apple owners, the companies of all macs, apples, iphones are affected by the big security problems. david: it is jobs day. i am david westin alongside alix steel. i guess the jobs day is pretty good. alix: yes, i guess, unless you look at the dollar and say, i do not know, i do not really love it. one and a half hours until the jobs numbers. s&p closing at a record yester

michael wolff book "fire and fury" says this about how the trump staff views the president. for steve mnuchin and reince priebus, he was an idiot. for gary cohn was dumb as -- for h.r. mcmaster, he was a dope. the list went on. and an e-mail that the book describes as purportedly representing the views of gary cohn, white house economic adviser, said trump won't read anything. not the brief policy papers. nothing. he gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. and his staff is no better. kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. bannon is an arrogant -- who thinks he is smarter than he is. trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. no one will survive the first year. but his family. i hate the work. but feel i need to stay because i'm the only person there with a clue what he's going. i am in a constant state of shock and horror. republicans continued to hide under their blankets in their cribs today as the president tweets us ever closer to nuclear war with north korea. here is a sample of the republican reaction to the president's demented tweet last night about the nuclear button being bi

cohn. and it's going to be very hard for the department of justice to explain. >> and, in fact, there's another part of the "times" story by michael schmidt that says that sessions himself told aides that he wanted one negative story about comey a day. the justice department denies that, but i'm sure the "times" wouldn't print that if they didn't have good sources. that would suggest that even though sessions has recused himself from the fbi investigation and the special counsel investigation, he hasn't recused himself from the politics of this all. >> that's right. and look i think we have seen repeatedly with jeff sessions he's not directly involved in russia as far as we know but he is certainly -- it touches on so many other things and trying to please a boss in donald trump who remains very upset with jeff sessions for that recusal, touches on all other aspects of policy, practically. so it's hard to divorce one from the other. >> maggie haberman from the "new york times," thank you so much. my panel is here with me. gener jen psaki, your reaction? >> i spent almost eight years in the white house, i've never heard of any beha