thanks to all of you, michael schmidt, mimi rocah. california congress mman joins . you're a former prosecutor. don junior testified and, strangely, cited attorney/client privilege to shield conversations with his father, a privilege that does not exist. does congress need to hear from him again now if these michael cohen assertions can be backed up? >> well, we certainly do. we ought to bring him back in. i think we should extend an invitation to michael cohen to come back in. but i don't have much confidence that the majority will go along with any of this. after all, we knew that there was a call sandwiched between don junior's efforts to talk to emin agalarov in the setup to this meeting. we wanted to find out was this don junior talking to his father about the meeting. there would be a simple way to find out, we could subpoena the records, and the majority wasn't even willing to subpoena the phone records. >> beforehand, when it was still being set up, with their former friend and someone they had dealt with during the miss universe pageant in moscow. >> exactly

michael schmidt, what do we know about this tape? know about michael cohen's part of it, which explains so much of the president basically becoming so unmoored this weekend. >> michael cohen in september of before the election, two months before the 2016 election, secretly record this conversation in which he talks to trump about essentially a second payment being made to ensure that this model does not speak out publicly. this is part of the stuff that the feds took from michael cohen's office and that the authorities in new york are looking at as part of this larger investigation into what michael cohen was doing and whether these payments violated any election laws. now, the question is, is that will the feds be able to hold on to this stuff? there's a question about whether there's attorney/client privilege. does not look like the president is going to assert that, so they'll allow the authorities to have this. the president's lawyers say this may be personally and politically embarrassing, it is not legally problematic for him.

. >> michael schmidt. when it was revealed that this post-ga payment happens days before the election, what was the response of the administration? >> the campaign says trump did not know anything about this. we know it is a false statement. this story ran on november 4th, four days before the election and he laid out how this payment had been made. there was a lot going on at that time as you recall comey had sent a letter to congress about reopening the clinton e-mail investigation and that soaked up a lot of attention there. this received some but not nearly as much as that. the campaign says they knew nothing about it. they said this was new to them and it is hard to believe that folks certainly the president's lawyer knew about it at that point. >> to be clear michael schmidt. this is not just of the details of a man having an affair with a woman. investigators are looking at whether michael cohen broke campaign's finance laws or whether he was part with a group of people that broke campaign finance l

michael schmidt was part of the team at "the new york times" that broke that reporting morning. and reverend al sharpton is the host of "politicsnation" right here on msnbc. he sat down with michael cohen for two hours this morning. first, kristin, let me start with you. ayman jaffer talked to a source about this phone call and he was told the president was unaware that he was being recorded by his lawyer. >> right. effectively confirming a critical piece of "the new york times," katy, which is that the president wasn't aware he was being recorded when he had these conversations with his former attorney michael cohen. of course, someone who was considered to be his personal fixer. we are also told according to the president's legal team that this phone conversation was brief, it lasted only a matter of about two minutes, and the legal team essentially trying to make the case that ultimately it's going to prove that there was no wrongdoing. rudy giuliani telling "the new york times" in the big scheme of things it's powerful, exculpatory evidence. that remains to be seen. there is

michael schmidt, great reporting as always. congressman swalwell and barbara mcquade. >>> democrats are facing a five-alarm fire now when it comes to the supreme court. even president obama is out there warning about this and warning his party personally. >>> plus new reporting that white house chief of staff john kelly is on his way out the door. it's no wonder trump's apparently decided that his own instincts -- think about that. his instincts are better than anyone else's thoughts, and he's sick of having a hall monitor. >>> and further proof today that the president's looking for someone to be his trumpet. a fox news executive. isn't that great? is set to become communications director. the echo chamber will be official. the "hardball" roundtable tackles that. >>> and the administration's secret campaign to get justice kennedy to retire at their time convenience. that would be this july so they could pick a substitute before they lose the senate. >>> finally let me finish tonight with a word about what happened yesterday in

it is all in rod rosenstein's hands. >> michael schmidt, our thanks for joining us by telephone this friday night following your story on this subject for "the new york times" today. we want to turn now to our leadoff panel on a friday evening. the aforementioned josh gerstein, senior white house reporter for politico. jill wine-banks, attorney and former assistant watergate special counsel. and guy lewis is back with us, a former u.s. attorney who has worked with mueller, comey, and rosenstein among others while at doj. guy, i'd actually like to begin with you, and will do so after we replay kind of a collection of the not so great hits from that house hearing yesterday and the various ways they came after rod rosenstein. >> you -- they talk about the mueller investigation. it's really the rosenstein investigation. you appointed mueller. you're supervising mueller. >> i don't know why you won't give us what we've asked for. >> sir, i certainly hope your colleagues are not under that impression. that is not accurate, sir. >> it is accurate. we have caught you hiding information. >> m

let's bring in michael schmidt. also with us former u.s. attorney guy lewis. schmidt, have you ever seen an announcement like that? >> no, it's pretty extraordinary. obviously highly unusual. looks fairly political. i'm not sure what impact it would really have. the things that brennan and clapper are saying are mostly things that are in the public record and are simply expressing their views. so i don't know how taking this away from them would have any impact. it would be an annoyance to them, but at the same time they're out of government. they're not dealing with classified information on a day-to-day basis. they're private citizens who go on television and speak their minding. >> if the white house were to do this, they said that these folks, michael, are using their security clearances for ill-gotten gains, essentially, by using them to promote themselves on television. hallie jackson followed up by saying aren't you doing exactly what you're accusing them of doing, using it for political purposes? it's kind of hard to refute that. it seems like the whit

joining me now, michael schmidt, and barbara mcquaid. and danny cevallos. what are the circumstances under which the president of the united states would agree to an interview with the special counsel and his team? what do we know now from your latest conversations with rudy giuliani who now heads up the president's legal team? >> what rudy is saying is that mueller needs to come forward with evidence that the president committed a crime and that there is a reason that a counterintelligence investigation, an investigation of how russia meddled in the election, can now be one about obstruction. and if mueller can prove it to the president's lawyers, then they can move forward with an interview. the question really here is why is rudy saying this. negotiations have been going on for six months now between both sides. this is a new condition. and is this simply a stalling tactic to ensure that if mueller was going to write a report, it wouldn't be sent to congress until after the mid-terms. >> what's your sense of how bob mueller and his team are reacting to t

we got john hyland, donny deutsch, michael schmidt, former chairman of the renational committee, michaelur conversation, eugene robinson, the former u.s. attorney for northern district of alabama joyce vance and as promised the host of msnbc's last word lawrence o'donnell, joe and mika will be back on monday. >> this is no longer a show, it's a gathering. >> i get an hour every night. joyce vance, go ahead. >> genuinely curious how we got you up early. >> the threat came late at night. i can't remember what the terms were. but here i am. >> we caught you at a weak moment. nbc confirmed michael cohen is willing to inform robert mueller that donald trump as a candidate knew about that 2016 meeting between russians and his top campaign aides at trump tower. he's willing to tell special counsel that donald trump jr. told his father in advance of that meeting. cohen's claims were first reported last night by cnn whose source said cohen does not have evidence to back up his story. cnn reported the source familiar with cohen's testimony to the house intelligence committee says cohen did not tes

. >>> joining me on the phone, "new york times" washington correspondent michael schmidt. who co-wrote this piece on the trump legal team's shifting strategy. michael, with a welcome to you. walk us through a bit more of these demands and what prompted the change in strategy? >> well, this has been going on for six months. the president's lawyers having discussions with mueller's office about an interview. and it makes you wonder what's really going on here. are they really just negotiating and trying to narrow the scope of the questions? or is this a delay tactic? to just prolong the investigation and insure that it's mueller were to write a report, that it wouldn't go to congress until after the mid term elections. >> despite the fact that they've been calling for this to wrap it up as quickly as possible. so is this potentially a pr strategy? as well? and to what end? >> well, that's the thing. is it a legal strategy? is it a pr strategy? what we've seen in the past few months is a ratcheting up in the tension from the trump legal and public relations teams. we've seen t

you, too, michael schmidt. thanks for getting up early for us. >>> other headlines making news, syria. the death toll is growing after a series of suicide bombings today. according to the associated press, at least 38 people have been killed. state media is blaming islamic state militants though no group claimed responsibility. back here in new york, a federal judge ordered the release of an ecuadorian man detained by immigration officials delivering pizza to a military base in new york city. the father of two was living in the united states illegally but has filed to change his immigration status. he spent nearly two months in an immigration detention facility. >>> also making news, contentious runoff for governor, kemp, self-described politically incorrect conservative endorsed last week by president trump. his win sets up a heated battle in the fall taking on democrat stacey abrams. we'll talk more ar the significance of that race with the "new york times" jeremy peters. finally, a georgia lawmaker resigns a

michael schmidt is here. and greg brower, a former u.s.orney, a former assistant director for the office of congressional affairs at the fbi and a partner brownstein hyatt and shrek. the tweets in question, how much are they paying attention to the jeff sessions tweets in particular, and what are they looking for? >> so it's not just the tweets. it's when you take the tweets and you line them up against what the president was doing in private. the president privately trying to get comey to say that he is not under investigation when comey says he won't do that, the president goes out and raises questions about his job. the same thing with sessions. the president was trying to get sessions to quit. he wanted someone loyal to oversee the russia investigation. sessions wouldn't go. the president last july laufrmgs a three-day attack on sessions, twitter from statements from the rose garden and statements in interviews with "the times" and "the wall street journal." >> greg, rudy giuliani would say, and he has argued, that obstruction is somet

global power or a global economy and be the superpower without having the infrastructure and for michael schmidt running for darryl i says forty ninth congressional seats says the issues surrounding the country's infrastructure is enough reason to declare a national emergency that would allow us to do things like. in the davis beacon era now the davis beacon act was a a good idea at the time it was done in one nine hundred thirty three during the depression and the idea was because people were so desperate for jobs not not for them to be taken advantage of with below market wages so you do think it's possible when the president is saying we can do things ahead of schedule under budget right but the big hema that has become the national the federal government regulations contributes to a lot of the problems in getting those things done the country's freights is projected to grow some forty five percent by two thousand and forty five and the u.s. has trade volume is expected to quadruple after twenty thirty by twenty thirty seven the u.s. will export more than fifty two million should be container

michael schmidt, and white house bureau political chief and correspondent for political news hour. chael, can i start with you on this mysterious man in the bucket hat, carter page. which assessment of himself is right. he writes i'm an informal advisor of the kremlin or you shouldn't listen to me, i never had much -- >> he's done a ton of media over the weekend. we now have the fisa application, what the justice department said to the court when they had the ability to tap his phone last year. it shows they did have evidence there was issues around his ties to russia and the accusations from the republicans about how the fbi and justify department handle it are not really true and they did acknowledge this information was coming from folks paying to help hillary clinton. >> the president seems very focused on carter page for his continued insistence carter page was a nobody. >> he can call carter page a nobody. he was involved in the campaign, at the time in the campaign, he was a foreign policy advisor, the period trump was not able to recruit any of the top shelf foreign policy f

again, this is coming from the "new york times," the reporter who broke this story, joins me now, michael schmidt from the times. michael winebeck is also with me, former assistant special prosecutor. michael, what more can you tell us? >> well, most times that people are accused of obstructing justice it's things that happen in private, it's pressuring witnesses, it's making threats against folks to try and stop them from speaking. what's unusual here, what's difference is that the president has made so many public statements about the investigation, about the former fbi director james comey, about attorney general jeff sessions, things that could be construed as trying to influence them. if you line up his public statements with what he's accused of doing privately, you can see where the president may have been trying to move these guys in different directions as it relates to the investigation. trying to get them to do things that he wanted. remember, the president is accused of asking the fbi director to end the investigation into his former national security advisor michael flynn, the presid

michael schmidt writes that mueller is scrutinizing tweets about jeff session and james comey. mueller is examining whether the actions add up to attempts to obstruct the investigation by intimidating witnesses and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to tamp down the inquiry. mueller wants to question the president about the tweets. trump has been prolific in his attacks on both sessions and comey on twitter and in public comments and that's just the start of it. the times notes the president's written and verbal criticisms and actions could be woven together. the wall street journal reporting that the trump organization's chief financial officer allen weisselburg has officer allen weisselburg has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in new york in the michael cohen investigation. in the name sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because we heard his name earlier this week. >> i've spoken to allen about how to set the whole thing up with funding. yes. all the stuff. you never know where he's going to be. >> michael cohen talking to donald trump about alle

matt apuzzo, maggie haberman, michael schmidt reported today that michael cohen secretly recorded a tape about payments to karen mcdougal who claimed she had an affair with trump in '06 for about a year. we should note president trump has denied the affair. according to "the times," the conversation was recorded two months before the 2016 election. and the fbi seized the recording this year during that raid on cohen's new york office. days before the election, the "wall street journal" first reported the company that owns the national enquirer, american media inc., agreed to pay $150,000 to mcdougal about the alleged affair, but didn't publish it. the journal recorded the ama was a backer of trump and quashing the story this way is known as catch and kill. quote, in the 90-second conversation, cohen can be heard urging trump to consider buying the right to mcdougal's claims to better control the story, according to people familiar with the exchange. "i think we need to bring this in-house," cohen tells trump, according to one person with knowledge of the recording. meanwhile, president t

matt apuzzo, maggie haberman, michael schmidt reported today that michael cohen

for more i'm joined by michael schmidt who broke the story for "the new york times," the political reporter for politico, thanks for all 06 you for being with us. michael, who reported this to start with, let me begin with you and just begin to take us through the basic heres. this is about a conversation that took place in the fall of 2016 during the campaign. at that point the national inquirer had the rights to this story, to mcdougal's story and the conversation was about potentially paying the national inquirer for that, is that right? >> this was going to be a payment to buy the rights to the story, to essentially ensure that it continued to remain silent. this was in september, just two months before the election. in november the campaign denied any type of deal or knowledge of anything, any money that went to her. but this conversation is brought up in the context of the inquirer payment that was made to the model. now, cohen secretly recorded the president's lawyer saying he did not know cohen was recording at the time. it's only two minutes long. michael cohen recorded a lot of th

joining us now, michael schmidt, new york times reporter. have new reporting how trump's legal team shifted their conversations with special counsel mueller. of course rudy, the comments were focussed on him calling the investigation corrupt. michael? >> so, if you take a larger look at what's gone on since april when rudy came on, they've become much more aggressive publicly and privately with mueller. the white house has basically tried to put guardrails on an interview with john kelly before under the previous regime of the president's lawyers they would allow any white house official to meet with the special counsel's office. they provided them with a lot of documents. this is the new body posture and we see it playing out constantly with rudy who goes out and throws a lot of different things at the wall for the president on the investigation. >> and what about what john dowd told "the new york times," specifically about swinging public opinion? >> well, so what has gone on here is that the president's lawyers have concluded that the onl

michael schmidt joins us now.e relationship is different from publicly. he seems cool. you can see he's obviously frustrated with what's going on. >> he's very angry. he thinks that the president really wanted to fire comey but used him in his rationalization as the basis for that. that deeply bothers him. this gets at a critical period of time last year between the firing and the appointment of mueller and how rod rosenstein dealt with that. he had provided the memo to the white house, to the president. they went out. they read it on the north lawn of the white house the day that comey was fired saying that comey had to go for how he treated hillary clinton. it blew back on rod rosenstein, he had only been the deputy attorney general for two weeks at that point and then in the days that follows he comes to a decision to appoint mueller, obviously the biggest thing to happen to the president but most consequential, worst thing to happen him in office so far. >> we've seen rod rosenstein especially in the past thre

editor of "common" magazine and jonathan lamere and betsy woodruff and "new york times" reporter michael schmidtand mika have the morning off. a full house and a verification of a 2016 audiotape recorded by trump's former fixer. who said what, agreeing on the subj t

july 27, 2016, this date, your colleague michael schmidt writing a fine piece about what happened then. the spear-phishing at its known began in earnest. what do we know about the coincidence of these two events on that date? >> it is rather extraordinary. we don't that it necessarily means anything, but prosecutors in their indictment did not draw attention to this coincidence in an explicit way but it's interesting. what happened, on that day you saw the clip you just played of then candidate trump saying i hope you find the 30,000 missing hillary clinton e-mails. said it around 10:30 that day. according to the indictment the same day russian hackers for the first time tried to penetrate the domain used by e-mail accounts from hillary clinton's personal office, the very same day. the indictment didn't say what time it happened but happened amp hours. using that phrase, after hours, because it would seem to be making a point. to stay that the president, future president said this at 10:30 in the morning, around 6:30 in the evening in moscow time. so suggesting that this possibly came

. >> that was part of my conversation with michael schmidt, new york times reporter and a msnbc contributor. >>> happening right now around the clock rescue efforts to save a group of boys from a flooded cave in thailand. they have been trapped for two weeks. the situation is getting more dire with torrential rains in the forecast that could flood the passageway of the cave and also the combination of the falling oxygen levels. let's go to bill neely joining us from thailand. bill, i understand there was some sort of a heavy downpour there, a cloud burst of sorts. that can't be good news for those attempting to rescue these boys. >> reporter: no. not great news. it didn't last long. maybe half an hour. it does herald the beginning of heavier rains. it won't bother the rescue commander too much. it certainly won't do anything to flood any of the caves. the commander knows heavy rains are coming. in fact, in his last statement he said it's a war here against rain and against time. meanwhile we're learning more about the exchange of letters between the parents of the boys and the boys themselv

. >>> michael schmidt in "the new york times" reported back in january that amid the first wave of news media reports that mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the president began to argue that he had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation. >>> joining me now to talk about all this is ken vogel of "the new york times" and also the law firm of butler rocca and dershowitz, former federal prosecutor georgetown law 0 professor and legal analyst paul butler. former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york also an msnbc legal analyst mimi rocca, and professor emeritus at harvard law school, alan dershowitz. he is the author of the book the case against impeaching trump. thanks to all of you for being with us on this sunday night. ken vogel, i want to start with you just in terms of what we've been seeing out of the white house from this president today. what prompted this flurry of tweets? >> well, clearly he's fairly under a lot of pressure. michael cohen is coming out publicly and releasing the tape of the conve

and michael schmidt, senior reporter of "vanity fair," and with us from washington, national politicalprzybyla and white house bureau chief and political analyst for msnbc and "nbc news at sunrise," phillip rucker. joe and mika are off. they'll be back monday. and reported on michael cone extensively, wired into that world better than anybody, donny deutsch knows michael well. >> it's like the michael cohen friends, family and tormentoring table. >> michael cohen reportedly has a story to tell. nbc news confirmed cohen is willing to inform robert mueller that donald trump as a candidate knew about that

joining us now is maggie haverman and michael schmidt. >> let's talk fast because the story may change again. >> it says we were given an initial explanation where she indicated it is a separate payment and it is a payment to mcdougal that was separate and apart from this arrangement that mcdougal had with the ami. they're discussing of obtaining the right to her story from ami. rudy giuliani was strenuously denying it could be construe as a reimbursement and he's adamant that it is not and it has legal implication and of the finance piece of this. in his telling of it, it was trump that says let's do it properly and it was michael cohen who either suggested cash or did not suggest a check in the first place. someone close to cohen denied that version of event suggesting that the presentation which, the candidate says let's do this is not how this went out and we are not going to know without hearing of the conversation that is short. it is around 2 minutes long and it cuts off before the conversation is done. there are portions of it that's inaudible in the transcript. and, i think it

. >> kristen welker, there's a new "new york times" maggie haberman/michael schmidt story that's justeen posted, we haven't had a minute to check this out but they've been in the forefront of a lot of the reporting, saying that mueller is looking at some of the president's statements regarding sessions and comey, and that would involve, i suppose, trying to wrap up a report on the obstruction aspects of this case. kristen? >> reporter: that's consistent with a lot of the reporting that i have done, andrea. so i wouldn't be surprised by that. we know that the special counsel has been focused on this idea of obstruction sort of at the forefront as opposed to the collusion piece of it right now as it relates to the president's campaign. to the broader question, is the president going to sit down and do this interview with special counsel robert mueller? i spoke with rudy giuliani, the president's attorney, a little while ago, who essentially said to me, look, we haven't made a decision about that, in part because there have been so many other issues that have cropped up, including of cou

>> the first one was leaked at the time to michael schmidt, they went on the restaurant, record and saids in us. it is turn them over to us. they didn't get until a day later. >> melissa: does chris palma know about this? >> he knows everything about it, he reported on it. i'm not sure he's ever really -- he was an off the record conversation which is kind of silly now because it's off the record recorded in link to the public. you have to ask him about it. they would grow quickly before we let you go, is there any legal recourse that you take on an off the record surreptitious recording? i understand how the laws work here in new york, there are exceptions to the laws, what are you looking at? >> the ones without the president have no legal implications and they have ethical implications, just for human relationships. the one with the president is a real problem because he's the president's lawyer. and it's another subject discussed that's clearly attorney-client privilege, the one we are talking about is attorney-client privileged and has to lead to some kind of disbarment proceedings,

. >>> plus, "the new york times" michael schmidt and emily jane fox from vanity fair will join us.of "morning joe" just moments away, everyone. e unexpected friends. e unexpected friends. these zebra and antelope. they're wearing iot sensors, connected to the ibm cloud. when poachers enter the area, the animals run for it. which alerts rangers, who can track their motions and help stop them before any harm is done. it's a smart way to help increase the rhino population. and turn the poachers into the endangered species. ♪ ♪ i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. we carry flowers that signifyn why we want to end the disease. and we walk so that one day, there will be a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor. join the fight at alz.org/walk. you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unloc

michael schmidt, thank you very much. guy lewis, thanks for sticking around. that will wrap things up for me this hour. ali velshi, remarkable day every day. but to have the white house say we're going to revoke security clearances about people not saying nice things about the president -- listen, donald trump was on the campaign trail talking about prosecuting hillary clinton. he was talking about doing his political dirty work if he got elected. >> so should any of this surprise us? >> this is not surprising. >> i'm sure you get the same thing, i get tweets from people saying what part of this surprises you? it's not about surprising us or not surprising us, it's the work that we do. you're right, donald trump said he'd do it, now he's doing it. >> ali velshi. >> good afternoon, everybody. i'm ali velshi. america is open for business, ending quote. that's the subtext for trump's made in america event which is happening very shortly. the president already kicked off the new week by renewing old criticisms and adding more controversies to his own plate. he did

. >> ben, there was a piece in "the new york times" by michael schmidt, focusing on robert mueller's investigation, what he might be looking into, looking at the tweets of the president. this was something that donald trump responded to. we can talk a bit about the way that the president has reacted to reports in the news over the course of the last week. let me read this one tweet in particular, he said, "the only collusion with russia was with the democrats. now they're looking at my tweets along with 53 million other people," whatever that means. "the witch hunt continues. how stupid and unfair to our country. so the fake news doesn't waste my time with dumb questions," he continues a second tweet, "no, i did not know of the meeting of son, don jr. sounds like someone is try igto make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. taxi cabs, maybe he even retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, i wonder if they helped him make the choice." we'll take the tweets in kind starting with the first one here. the interest in the tweets. what we can learn about the p

schmidt. that's not what michael cohen claims, alleging that he and several others were present when then-candidate donald trump gave his nod of approval for the meeting to move forward. that contradicts repeated denials from donald trump jr. and others in donald trump's orbit. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. >> the president said he became aware of it very recently, right before this came out, and that's when he was notified. >> joining me now is jeff bennett, msnbc's white house correspondent, natasha bertrand, and kevin is with us, as well. help us sort through the confusion, kevin delaney is with us, as well, four in total. let us sort through the confusion, not only who's on with me, but this story, as well. part of a trio of tweets from president trump, in which he's trying to answer the question before it's even asked here about what he knew when, what he was told. give us the latest, if you would, jeff. >> hey there, david. well, president

schmidt in 2015. ushe opened about her bat with depression and how michael phelps encouraged her to get some help.e me, she thought she was done with swimming but now want to use her gift to inspire others. initely have two passions now swimming and mental health. soca if use this platfor to let everyone know, thank you, to let everyone know it's okay to not be okay, that's exactly what i want to do. >> schmidt now qualifies for an international competition in tokyo. nbc4 is committed to raising awar mess abouttal health challenges for education and information aboutesrces available in your community. open our nbc washington app and search changing minds. >>> sky watcher around the world get a treat tonight. the longest complete lunar eclipse of the century. this video is the best view anybody here is going to get tonight. visible in won't b north america and parts of australia, africa, asia, europe and south america. tonight's total lunar eclipse lasts an hour minutes. the whole event is closer tour hours. pretty cool to see from here. >> right. the bes view for us the one on the internet, right?

steve schmidt is here when we're back in just 30 seconds. >>> back with the other top story tonight, michaelohen telling people he is ready for a plan to smear trump's campaign if they think the efforts to discredit are known to me, they're sadly mistaken. did they think i was going to roll over and die? these quotes are leaking from sources as prosecutors get their hands on the newest recordings, a person close to co hen saying when michael says he wants the truth out there, the truth is not the president's friend, he's not talking about margeal issues, he's talking about core issues at the heart of the probe. the russia conspiracy, of course, and potential collusion. cohen never served in the white house, so this does sound like cohen's people saying i know what you did last summer, or a few summers ago in the election. trump's lawyers say they're not afraid of collusion questions, that's the kind of interview, they would allow, they say, one topic for trump. no subject of a probe gets to dictate the topics. we all know that by now. and we also know mueller is probing those obstruction iss

schmidt about it. but if it is trump and his lawyers t says one thing. and if it is michael cohen leaking it, then you can see it as a warning shot or a cry for help or a signal that he is intending to cooperate. and some people suggests that if it is the president's attorney or rudy giuliani, then they see it as potentially good news for the or they are trying get out of a bad news story. there is a lot of potential sources. >> well, you know, michael, look, i know, futile, i was going to ask you to reveal a source or anything. but is your sense, do you have any sense of the motive of who is leaking this? >> no. and i think sometimes is looked at too black and white in the media that things are dolled out and handed out. this is an important part of the current trump story. in new york, there is an investigation that is focused on cohen. but trump's lawyers don't know what the authorities are looking at. still fighting over what the u.s. attorney's office can have and can look at and whether anything is protected. michael cohen has not formally agreed to cooperate with the