it's really kind of like we are bending over backwards and it's very, very bizarre. >> michael crowley, it's hard to differentiate all the headlines. the bunch of us, you and i have discussed and reacted to. of all of them of late, it occurs to me this could sneakily be the most damaging because this goes to the notion of a fix being in from early on. >> right, brian. the follow-through that it suggests of national policy takes it to that next level. you know, the most damning scenario on table here is that there was some kind of collaboration between the trump campaign and the kremlin that helped trump defeat hillary clinton and that there was a payoff on the other side for the russians, which was that there would be an easing of american policy towards russia, and that would fundamentally involve the lifting of sanctions. brian, i also just want to point out here, it's remarkable there was this push to move so quickly on that front. but trump did publicly campaign on the question -- or on the argument that we should have a cooperative relationship with russia, that he would befriend

with that all in mind let's bring in our starting panel, michael crowley, white house reporter for the "associated press." vivian salaama and rick stengel back with us here in the studio. former unseth for public diplomacy and public affairs at the state department in the obama years. also the former managing editor of "time" magazine. rick i'll begin with you. is this story tonight the first clear evidence that they always and really wanted to lift sanctions as that gentleman called it, cave on russia? >> well it's just very, very strange, brian. and i mean it all does seem to fall into line. i mean, the sanctions policy against russia, because of the annexation of crimea, the quasi invasion of ukraine was something that actually was strong and powerful and putin -- really hurt putin and the people around putin. people at the state department actually wanted to do more. there was the assistant secretary for foreign affairs felt we needed to push back against russia. dan fried, who was the sanctions czar, this is something that people felt very, very strongly about, and that russia had

michael crowley senior foreign affairs committee. mika and a former staffer for the house intel committee. jeremy bash let me start with you because the original tweet was the tweet that launched the special counsel investigation that in president is now attacking. we should fact check a little bit. i don't think his smear on some of the lawyers that bob mueller hired is completely accurate. regarding political are contributions what of the overt to put the tooth pace back in the tube. >> the tweet today was heavily lawyered. he said i did not make and do not have any such tapes or recordings. he left open the possibility that maybe others in the white house made such recordings and that they possess them. that's why congressman schiff at ranking democrat on thes committee is smart to pursue this and really call the president as to whether or not there was any evidence created or later destroyed about what james comey said. >> and let's watch the comey testimony. because he details exactly what he did in response to that original tau

joining conversation to weigh in on michael crowley senior correspondent.ouse correspondent for mcclachy newspapers. aneata i really hesitate to ask a professional for predictions. but how -- how nervous do they seem in the west wing and just how bad could this week yet get? >> they're pretty nervous. republicans -- outside the white house that are watching are nervous. they're nervous. appear are. they don't know exactly what comey is going to say. obviously the biggest problem. they don't know how the president will react which is the next biggest problem. we are hearing that they are going to fight back very hard and how they do that is going to be interesting. obviously you've talked about how the president plans to tweet. he does have a speech that day almost at the same time at about 11:30. so late morning. i think comey scheduled to talk at about 10:00. so i expect he'll probably talk about something in the speech he is speaking to conservative religious group in washington. >> michael, think about it this way, where your beat and bailiwick are conce

anyway, ayesha rascoe, howard fineman, and michael crowley, thank you.e come back, the great actor alan alda joins us on why we just have a failure to communicate in this country. this is "hardball," where the action is. ou who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection, have had cancer, if you develop any new skin growths or if anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening p

joining outside conversation to weigh in on our breaking news, michael crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for politico. and anieto couple ar, from mcclatchy newspapers. anita i hesitate to ask a professional for predictions, but how nervous do they seem in the west wing? and just how bad could this week yet get? >> they are pretty nervous. republicans outside the white house that are watching are nervous. they are nervous. they don't know exactly what comey is going to say, which is, obviously the biggest problem. and they don't know how the president is going to react. which is the next biggest problem. we are hring they are going to fighback verhard. and how they do th is going to be interesting. obviously you talked about how the president plans to tweet. he does have a speech that day, almost at the same time, at about 11:30, so late morning. i think comey is scheduled to talk about 10:00. i suspect he will probably speaking about something in that speech, he is speaking to a conservative religious group in washington. >> michael, think about it this way, where your beat

michael crowley and white house reporter for the associated press welcome to you all. and i hold in my hand the breaking news. this is a press release that came out in the last hour from the justice department. and social media, where attention spans go to die is, losing its collective head. they are standing on a ledge with ts. this is the assoate attorney deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous officials particularly when they do not identify the country let alone the branch or agency of government with which the alleged sources are supposedly are affiliated. americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. the department of justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations. michael, you are going to get the first crack at this. again, the theorizing tonight on social media ranged from is this a cry for help by the number two guy at justice, or has doj been hacked? >> well, it's an extraordinary statement, brian, it's kind of trum

. >> let's bring in the "hardball" roundtable, ayesha ras co-howard fineman, and michael crowley, senior correspondent with politico. howard, let me ask you about this attack. it seems like there's two modes for this ship of state from trump. it's either attack speed or ram speed. they came out of this thing yesterday attacking, attacking, attacking, and formulating the notion of crimes. now, obstruction of justice is a crime. if he committed it, he'll have to pay for it. but the notion of leaking, i mean i spent all these years since the '70s in washington, and leaking is what you do in politics. i mean if you're going to get a story on the front page of a newspaper, you give it to one newspaper or one weekly magazine as you know. that's how you put out a story. in this case, mr. comey released what his memory was of a meeting he had with the president when he was working for the government. it doesn't seem like a leak to me no matter how hard kasowitz tries to make it so. >> no, it's not. these were notes about his private impressions written by himself, for himself. and especially now

byron york, laura ingraham, olivia knox, michael crowley. byron, what stands out for you? >> republicans getting their feet under them as to why sessions didn't answer some of these questions. memos from the reagan administration justice department. explaining that attorney general has a unique role. i think they are going to try to be making the case that sessions was on solid ground. i think they are happy with everything else sessions did but this is turning into a controversy. >> bret: the president treating a number of things this morning. "loretta lynch made decisions for political purposes. totally illegal. "the fake news media has never been so wrong or so dirty. purposely incorrect stories and phony sources to meet their agenda of hate. sad!" "fake news is at an all-time high. where is their apology to me for all of the incorrect stories???" thought he was going to step away from the twitter machine. >> why would anyone think he was stepping away? it worked for him through the campaign. it's his unique way of communicating with the public. there was never any cons

. >> thanks to our lead-off panel, thanks to, along with birthday wishes to beiana goal riga, michael crowley and vivian salmano. thank you. >>> come up, the donald trump a nightmare client? are his troubles of his own making? is he making new troubles every day on twitter? >>> as a defense lawyer, he is your nightmare client, because he is saying all the wrong things. he is contradicting every defense that he had. all of his tweets are terrible. his attack on mueller saying these are bad people. these are not helpful to the defense at all. >> that was a former watergate assistant prosecutor weighing in on just how tough it might be to represent this president in this investigation. we have two very capable lawyers with us here tonight in the studio to weigh in. richard painter, who was the chief ethics lawyer for the bush 43 white house. and mika owe yang is back with us as well an attorney and former staffer on the house intel and house armed services committee. counsellors, welcome to you. richard, to jill's point, is this the nightmare client? and in light the vp lawyering up, is this goi

joining us tonight, michael crowley has just published a piece on the worries about this trump/putin meeting. more on that in a minute. and former department of justice prosecutor, these days a georgetown law professor, paul butler who we know escaped washington for the confines of our studios here in new york. and we're glad he has, welcome to you both. michael, your task tonight for members of the audience who have not read and d digested the fly story. walk us through it. >> well, brian, the shane story, i think this is really significant because it provides us with potentially the most -- it's the most specific potential evidence of collusion between trump associates and the kremlin. and that potential evidence is that -- a republican opposition researcher, a man in his 80s who passed away in may, actually, was apparently trying to -- it's an amazing story, when you say it out loud you can hardly believe it. made contact with russian hacker who he believes may have hacked into hillary clinton's private e-mail servers, found those thousands of deleted e-mails, extracted them. this

let's go to michael crowley now from politco.d to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> shepard: republicans are in two different places on this, right? >> yeah, they are. i think everything on capitol hill right now is in a state of flux and chaos. and overshadowed by the fact that it's hard to get your plan together when there's so many distractions from the agenda and you don't have a white house that is -- has a firm hand on the reins because there's so much turmoil at 1600 pennsylvania. >> shepard: where are the republicans on the legislative agenda? if they think there's something they can get done, what is it? >> they are probably most hopeful to do something with taxes. that is always the top of the republican legislative agenda. the highest priority for republicans. but again, shep, when you're trying big legislation through congress, through this town, one of the most important things is message. feeding your talking points to the american people, selling a piece of legislation is like a product to sell with a mass adver

. >> i'm joined by politico correspondent michael crowley.hat interview that surprised you other than the dismissive tone toward the media that we've gotten used to in the united states? >> not really. and that tone wasn't surprising either. that's classic vladimir putin. who actually, in russia, rarely has to account for ordeal with tough media questions. so to see him sit down and take hard questions, i guess, that in and of itself is kind of unusual. but in classic putin fashion, he doesn't give any ground. the thing strikes me with the interview is the way he revels in all the attention. what vladimir putin has wanted since he became president of russia is for russia to regauge respect that he felt russia had lost on the world stage. he must love being at the center of attention and having all of america fascinated by what he says. what will russia do next? that is putin winning in his own view. >> we have heard some reporting that some key members of the president's inner circle, including the secretary of state tillerson and general mat

michael crowley, senior correspondent for politico. mercedes schlapp and charles krauthammer. blown up about how important it is. >> these are generally not predicted. in 2010, there was no indication you'd have a republican sweep, as you did. i can't predict who's going to win that i can predict with absolute certainty what the headlines are going to be. if the democrat wins, the headlines are going to be "a referendum on trump." guaranteed. if he loses, the headlines will be "in a race that doesn't mean anything, and a special election with special circumstances, turnout problematic." they will say of course the republicans won deceived by 23 points last time so what do you expect that this is how it's going to be played. everybody is waiting. if there is a stumble by the republicans it will be hyped from here to sunday. i think these special elections are very special. where else are you going to pour in $25 million into a house rac race? saying that 2018 elections are more than a year away, a year and a quarter away. a lot will be read into it but that's because there's a

while joining us tonight politico seen year foreign affairs editor michael crowley published a piece on the worries about the trump putin meeting. more on that that. formerly department of justice prosecutor these days a georgetown law professor paul butt remember who we know has skaebd washington for thes confines of our studio in new york. welcomes to you back, gentlemen. michael you're tasked tonight for members of our office who are have not read and digested the flynn story in shall we say a different publication, walk us through it on the dangers in it. >> well, brian, this story in the "wall street journal" by shane harris, a talented intelligence reporter is i think really significant because it provides us with potentially the most -- it's the most specific potential evidence of collusion between trump associates and the kremlin. and that potential evidence is that a -- a republican opposition researcher -- a man in his 80s who passed away in the may apparently -- was trying to make -- it's amazing story when you say it out loud you can hardly believe it. made contact with r

. >> thanks to our lead-off panel, thanks to, along with birthday wishes to beiana goal riga, michael crowley and vivian salmano. thank you. >>> come up, the donald trump a nightmare client? are his troubles of his own making? is he making new troubles every day on twitter? when "the 11th hour" continues. tech: when you schedule with safelite autoglass, you get time for more life. this family wanted to keep the game going. son: hey mom, one more game? tech: with safelite, you get a text when we're on our way. you can see exactly when we'll arrive. mom: sure. bring it! tech: i'm micah with safelite. mom: thanks for coming, it's right over here. tech: giving you a few more minutes for what matters most. take care! family: bye! kids singing: safelite® repair, safelite® replace. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. yet up 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more. add one