is this the trump that you know as you read it in michael wolff's book? >> well, i didn't know just -- he didn't seem as incomprehensibly out of control and stupid as he seems from michael's book. i mean, for starters, michael is depicting this white house that's just a madhouse of chaos and incompetence. that team letting michael wolff in there is a symptom of that very thing. all you have to do is read what this man has written over the last couple of decades the know he's probably not going to be a friendly journalist. >> yeah. and, steve schmidt, michael wolff again writing just in today's hollywood reporter, so much to cover with what he's revealing and that's why monday night joining with us the book to get into more detail in the book and on what michael wrote today in hollywood reporter he said about trump's staff advisers and family, my ill delible impression of talking to them and observing them plu much of the first year of the presidency is that they all 100% came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job. >> this conspiracy of sile

you are always welcome here on "new day." >>> michael wolff just said it again, 100% of the people around the president do not think he's capable of functioning in the job. wolff says that includes jared and ivanka. we will tell you what he says, next. whoooo. looking for a hotel that fits... ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor. mcgahn. >>> now it's the same three stories in every ten minutes. >> what is the suggestion there, because that goes beyond saying okay, the president is not an intellectual? what are you arguing there? you say he was at mar-a-lago and did not recognize life-long friends. >> i will quote steve bannon, he's lost it. >> that's author michael wolff just this hour talking about his new book that paints a picture of dysfunction and chaos inside the white house, and it also questions the mental fitness on donald trump. let's bring in our senior analysts. that story, i read that in the books notes, that's troubling, right, repeating the sam

michael wolff and donald trump are not dissimilar people. on they knew each other before the president became the president. wolff refers to him as donald, not president trump. so there is a similar style there. >> the president says i don't know the guy. i never let him in. i nephew talked to him. that's not 100% true. certainly shame on husband team for letting him get the axe. >> it's a lot false. what they are hanging it on is this thing on of -- they are frustrated, and i understand why, that wolff is overstating the access he had to the president. that is true. he spoke to the president by phone early on. the president called to complain about the president being in the bathrobe, which he was very upset about. there was another time, and the folks in the white house kept saying that's all that happened. but yesterday i learned that wolff was in the oval office and walked in by one of trump's aides. the question was that was not in the book. when you are writing a book it is all for the book. and they did the thing that world always does

if they just asked him about michael wolff, he would have said get him the hell out of there now. >> of discipline that michael writes about throughout the book. let's go back to how he even got access to the white house in the first place. in june of 2016, michael had done a cover story at the hollywood reporter on donald trump, and trump had invited michael to his house in beverly hills. the story was not flattering. this was a story where michael was questioning trump about brexit, and he was quite confused, didn't know what brexit was, didn't seem to know who peter teal was, who was about to speak at the republican national convention at his behalf. when michael brought up peter teal, he said, oh, is that a friend of jared's? so on and so on. even calling the furniture in trump's home that of a four-star hotel, not a five-star hotel. the kind of notes that would typically drive trump insane. after that, the cover was sort of cool looking and michael got an e-mail from hope hicks saying great cover, exclamation point. so shortly after that michael went in for the kill. this is mic

here's when he says, when i met michael wolff in reince priebus's office where i was told to also speak to him for my book. my attitude was polite, but firm, thanks, but no thanks. that backs up what wolff just said, he had access and people told them -- >> he had very limited access. barely spoke to the president. >> who is this that he cooperated with? >> i'm told that the whole cooperation was jason miller asked someone in the white house what should i talk to the guy and somebody sent back a note saying, hey, you should say nice things and talk about the president's accomplishments. and that was the only thing that was communicated to staff. it was never a blanket discussion, i am told that people should cooperate. >> you said there were hundreds of journalists who were at the white house who were reporting and that they don't report these things. there are also many journalists who can confirm, michael wolff had unprecedented access and he became a fixture around this white house. >> i don't think he did, and if you look at the fan it's a call stories that he's telling, for instanc

if you willingly talk to michael wolff the way steve bannon talked to michael wolff, you almost have to believe that your president is not going to survive his first term. >> well, as i've reported and others have, steve bannon has said in private he only believes donald trump has about a 30% chance of making it a full four years. whether it's the mueller probe or the 25th amendment that ultimately removes him from office. in some way i don't want to be in steve bannon's head, judging by his comments, he seems to be make a kag ccalculus in a short war, but if trump is out of the picture he's playing a much longer game. >> i don't know if rex tillerson is one of the people wolff had a conversation with. rex tillerson was just asked. let's listen. >> everybody in this book questions his mental fitness. have you ever questioned his mental fitness, and describe your relationship with him, because some people would think it's -- you know, through his tweets and stuff, it's not a very good relationship. >> i've never questioned his mental fitness. i have no reason to question his mental fi

the position from trump loyalists is that michael wolff is an outsider.n't see that. he was such an intimate and a so warmly received by steve bannon and roger ailes and roger's wife and had such a level of trust with them that the conversation we had was stunning. it was... the things from start to finish, forfive hours, they poured their hearts out about the republican party and how they were going to, who they were going to put into cabinet. roger ailes offered to coach candidates in their congressional testimony. they talked of rudy giuliani. steve bannon said they owed him something because he had come out forcefully and spoke on the shows in the united states, when no—one else would after the access hollywood tapes. roger ailes said, you know, just let him be photographed walking out of air force one. just detail after detail that, were they openly spoke so comfortably in front of michael. to any way characterise him — you can try to dispute the facts, but you can't dispute the relationship he had with people in the white house. at that dinner, did

and so -- >> so i think this cuts really to the heart of michael wolff's, dr. wolff's credibility, here's a guy that claimed he interviewed the president. he's been asked that point-blank. he did not interview him ever for this book. i am told that the longest conversation he had was in a phone call with the president, michael says it was a half hour, the phone logs obviously said -- the phone logs show it was 12 minutes. something like 12 minutes. he had a brief meeting with the president to pitch the book, the president said, why should i do a book with you? there's other authors that want to do the book. it was a very brief meeting. there were no questions asked about policy. he did a few during the campaign for the hollywood reporter. so there was no real interview. so why does he keep claiming, i interviewed the ex-president? i think that cuts to the very heart of not only his credibility, but where he's embellishing things. i think it's perfectly -- i've been on your show. i've criticized the president on certain issues on policies i disagree with. that's

that's from michael wolff.he book is full of gossipy details, yes, david, but the thread throughout it is donald trump's mental acuity, his ability to lead, his ability to take in information, to process the information, and then to go out and act on it. is it alarmist for people to seize on this? is this too much? if critics are coming out and saying we're making a big deal about this, what would you say to those critics? >> alarmist, sure, but more importantly it's a grave conversation to have as a nation. you know, in law there's a principle called res ipsa loquitur. the facts speak for themselves. the fact the nation is having a national conversation about whether or not our president is fit to serve, whether he has the capacity to serve, that speaks for itself. that suggests the president does not reach the bar that the american people have set for the fitness of a president. and this is very grave because it's different than politics. i was a republican member of congress, disagreed a lot with president o

we have michael wolff here with us tonight. his first public reaction to what we learned yesterday that the president ordered the firing of the special prosecutor. >> amazing. can't wait for that. >> thank you joy. >> thanks, lawrence. >>> last night the obstruction of justice case took on a new and dramatic turn when it was reported that the president ordered the firing of the special prosecutor in june and don mcgahn refused to carry out that order and threatened to resign if the special prosecutor was fired. here is every word the president said about that important story today. >> mr. president why did you fire robert mueller? why did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks. "new york times" fake story. >> in the nixon era that's what they called a nondenial denial. joining us with his first reaction to the public reaction is the author of the best selling book in the world right now, michael wolff, the author of the "new york times" best-seller "fire and fury," inside the trump white house. thank you for comin

now the part in this book michael wolff writes the president insisted the meeting in trump tower was purely and simply about russia adoption policy. that's what was discussed, period, period. wolff goes on to say even though it was likely if not certain that the "times" had the incriminating e-mail chain, it was possible that jared and ivanka and the lawyers knew the times had the e-mail chain the president ordered no one should let on to the more problematic discussion about hillary clinton. now the white house is dismissing many of the claims in michael wolff's book as complete fantasy and even the president himself is specifically pushing back on the book and the idea that michael wolff had a great amount of access to him. he tweeted overnight saying, i authorized zero access to the white house. actually turned him down many times for the author of the phony book. i never spoke to him for the book. it's full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist. look at this guy's past and watch what happens to him and sloppy steve. now that directly contradicts what wolff said

joining us now, the author of fire and fury inside the trump white house, michael wolff. michael, thank you for being here, i know it's been a long day, a loaning weekend. a weekend unlike any in your life. you knew this pressure was coming, you knew what you were writing, you knew how this white house operates, you knew how this president operates. you might not have specifically known there would be a cease and desist letter from lawyers, but the attacks that you have faced from the white house, from the trump machine since this book came out, is that what you expected? >> no. i expected some response, did i expect the president to basically drop everything? i had heard from eye source who still speaks to me that he wanted my media schedule for today. he's probably spent his whole day just watching me on television. this is -- the man is among other things, the man is an obsessive. that's how he responds to things. so he responded to this, i mean, this is -- it is literally crazy. to write a cease and desist, a president has never done that. a prior restraint of a book,

is it more than just the michael wolff book? >> you know, i think there's a lot of navel gazing that will go on in washington and figure out people have their own theories. i do think that, you know, if the michael wolff, you know, national enquirer, sensationalist book did not come out, i don't think we'd be having this conversation. liz: we've got more on the errors in that book later in the show. i think the viewers want to stay for that. >> it's full of lies, absolutely. liz: we have quite a remarkable list that we're compiling right now. it's longer than we realize. republicans all, david, are probing fbi agents potentially biased leaks to the media, text messages showing evidence of anti-trump bias and leaks by fbi officials to the media before the election. look at this text message 2016 from lisa page, article is out but hidden behind pay wall and can't read it. peter strzok said boy, that was fast. does it show bias with the guys at the fbi? >> it is certainly a very serious problem for the fbi. the american people have

that's not reflective of what michael wolff presents. what we have seen is reflective after coherent strategy, policy staff that's competent. and i think the results speak for themselves. as far as i'm concerned the michael wolff book is tabloid fodder. >> how do you respond? we see the open questions about daca and immigration. he still talks about the wall. poolcy priorities he hasn't been able to go to. where do you see us going undfr here? >> we didn't have much done that the president can take credit for and yes contrast with democrats going in. here is the telling part about michael wolff's book. he did most of this on deep background. which is the challenge for the author of the book. but this is most telling, the president himself is questioned about his mental fitness. in politics, if you are explaining, you ain't campaigning. if he is having to defend his mental fitness before the american people and world stage he has lost the message, he is losing the american people and is doing very poorly entering mid term election year. >

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, he 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 th

he said, you don't give michael wolff 45 minutes. and hen the said, why don't after the show come back to the house and we'll hang out. that was interesting because nobody knew he had a house in the middle of beverly hills. >> i learned it through your article. >> amazing. >> let's go to something that tony blair said because this goes to the contesting elements of the book and this is the most significant one i've seen. some of the others are literally about how many "l"s in hillary and hillary rosen and learned through the correction of your book there's quun. i have known hillary for decades. i didn't know that. tony blair in the book, this passage, page 157 -- in february blair visited kushner in the white house on this trip the now freelance diplomat seeking to prove his usefulness to this new white house imparted a juicy nugget of information. there was, he suggested, the possibility that the british had had the trump campaign staff under the vur vail lance, monitoring the telephone calls and other communications and possibly e

it's a crisis when welcoming michael wolff inside, and michael wolff calls the president after the election, i want to write a book, can i come? sure. he sat on a couch in the west wing for almost a year. >> it's an indictment of the political judgment, not just to steve bannon and president donald trump, but everybody who cooperated with the book. it was almost every senior official that talked to wolff, so they are all complicit in the humiliating disaster. >> in the first bush administration, you have seen the inner workings of a white house before and you have been very critical of donald trump for a long time, bill, and what does this book now mean, all these revelations mean, and i put revelations in quotation marks, you believe what you want to believe, and is anything different today than yesterday? >> there are tell-all books, but nothing like this, obviously. an awful lot of people who have been close to donald trump have a certain amount of contempt for him, and that's different from any white house i know of. >> thank you all so much. former white house chief straf gis strategis

this is bannon's creature, michael wolff.odward's style, you might get one or two people who work with you. imagine if woodward was living in the nixon white house and the oval office during the watergate years. it shows a big error on trump and the white house to have allowed i think a reporter that kind of roaming access. our country may be benefitting from it. we may be able to see now that perhaps the president isn't mentally stable. >> wow. all right. professor douglas brinkley and david gergen, always a pleasure to talk to you. >>> republican senators recommending charges publicly for the first time in the russia investigation, but who are they going after? next. nobody knows pot pies better than banquet. with tender cuts of meat, sweet veggies, and rich, savory gravy, banquet makes everyone at the table feel like family. good to have you. banquet pot pies. made for the moments that matter most. to find smarter solutions. to offer more precise and less invasive treatment options than before. like advanced genomic testin

past and this morning he sent me this letter he sent to the publisher of the book as well as to michael wolffectly that says the book is -- may be defamatory and accuses wolff of malice which is a legal standard that would suggest a future potential lawsuit. the more immediate concern here is they are demanding the publisher not release the book. remember, thousands of copies have been shipped to book stores across the country. number one on amazon. there are tens of thousands of preorders. this is the president of the united states' personal attorney saying do not publish this book or we'll see you in court. be clear, though, there's a history here of president trump before becoming president sending cease and desist letters to people. he frequently threatens lawsuits, doesn't always follow through. remember he threatened to sue "the new york times" last year and did not follow through. but by any measure this is a pretty serious escalation of his war against the media to have one of his attorneys send a cease and desist letter to a book publisher. >> and shines a new light on the book and m

that is what michael wolff is reporting. i asked a friend of the president, you just played a little bit of our interview a second ago, about this particular passage and about the president apparently according to wolff being unable to recognize friends at mar-a-lago over the holiday break. he says the president oftentimes likes to repeat things for dramatic or theatrical effect. he also says the president recognized him on new year's eve at mar-a-lago several times. no questions about the president's mental fitness. in this briefing room about 24 hours ago, you might remember, sanders pivoting to talk about the mental fitness of kim jong-un in north korea. remember, nbc news has not independently confirmed a lot of what's in michael wolff's book. some things in the book that now appear to be just factual untrue, for example, that the president did not know who former house speaker john boehner was. you search twitter, it's obvious the president's been tweeting about john boehner for a long time. i would also point out a coup

and michael wolff pushed back on that this morning saying he, quote, absolutely spoke to the president, and more specifically he said he spent three hours with president trump over the course of the campaign and during his time here at the white house. when savannah guthrie asked if wolff flattered his way into having access to the west wing, he said he had to do to get access. we can see how many times he was cleared for access on to the grounds of the white house, if the white house releases the visitors logs which is a decision where they decided not to release the visitor logs, and so we don't know how many times michael wolff was let into the white house. another note here, the president's plan to send a cease and desist letter to the publisher backfired, because not only is it being published but four days earlier than originally planned to do so. >> and we don't think there's a lawsuit right now because of it. the white house just not dealing with the book this morning, but the explosive new report in the "new york times" that raises new questions about the obstruction, and the

by day two, michael wolff's bombshell book had mr. trump lashing out again. steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. >> furious, disgusted would probably certainly fit when you make such outrageous claims and completely false claims against the president. >> by day three, the president's legal team was threatening to sue bannon, wolff and the publisher. in "fire and fury" bannon describes the june 2016 meeting with the russians hosted by the president's son, don junior, as unpatriotic treasonous, predicting special counsel robert mueller's investigators will crack don junior like an egg on national tv and speculating that the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, in a long-running feud with bannon, is involved in financial crimes. trump allies attacked the insider account. >> this is obviously a hit job on the president. >> it's outrageous. >> he's a sleaze bag. >> absurd allegation by someone who's talked to a lot of disgruntled people at the white house. >> complete fantasy and

how did michael wolff do it?f the big conversations that's happening in journalism circles this weekend. his process started back in june 2016 during the presidential campaign. in this interview with the hollywood reporter, trump talked at length with wolff. trump liked the cover and how he treated him, interviewing steve b bannon. this story came out two weeks after the election and then right after the inauguration, a profile of kellyanne conway by wolff appeared in "thr." he seemed to be warming up his sources for the book. and then his appearance here on "reliable sources" from february 5th of last year." he said i was being approached as a ridiculous figure. let's take a look at some of the interview that shows how wolff was talking about the press. >> i think individual journalists are, in many cases, having a nervous breakdown. >> you seem to think that the media is at war with trump. is that fair? >> absolutely. yes. i don't think that there would be anybody who would credibly disagree with this. >> many

book passage i read, disclaimers about michael wolff and sourcing.resident on air force one talking about characterizing the trump tower meeting. president insisted that meeting in trump tower was purely and simply by russian adoption policy. that's what was discussed period. even tho it was likely if not certain that the "times" had the incriminating e-mail chain. president ordered that no one should let on to the more problematic discussion about hillary clinton. jeff, if this part of the book proves to be true that president of the united states ordered people to essentially lie about this meeting in trump tower, saying it was about adoption or not tell the full story, does that put him in some legal jeopardy? >> this is obviously something mueller has looked into and continues to carefully. we know that not from mueller but witnesses who have talked to his office. when the "new york times" story broke about the june 20th meeting in trump tower with jared kushner and the russian lawyers and donald trump jr., the initial report was that this was on

brian: word is that mike michael wolff was seen often in steve bannon's office. would you say that's true? >> no. i know there were a number of times that he met with steve and i think they have both said in repeated that that happened. we looked at the logs. we know that they met on multiple occasions. he was frequently seen meeting with him. so i think that's a pretty indisputable fact on that front. steve: yesterday, during your press briefing, i heard you describe in some detail about how some parts of the book are just flat out wrong. you detailed john boehner thing and stuff like that. additionally, we are learning, sarah, that apparently a number of people who were quoted in the book have revealed that they spoke to him. but it was off the record. but he still put it i in book. any idea to what their reaction is to thinking okay it's off the record now it's in the book. what am i supposed to do. >> not only that not only did they say it was off the record. a number of them have said that the things that are attributed to them they simply just didn't say. i

these are the thoughts of the author, michael wolff. nobody survived him to survive mueller, whatever the substance of the collusion, trump in the estimation of his senior staff did not have the discipline to navigate a tough investigation nor the credibility to attract the caliber of lawyers he would need to help him. at least nine major law firms turned down an invitation to represent the president. that's new. >> i didn't know the number was as high as nine, but we knew there were some that turned him down, and even in the face of a special counsel investigation, it has been an ongoing problem throughout his presidency. we have seen time and time again, he will be quiet for a little while and then erupt on twitter, his legal team, which bannon was instrumental in bringing together before he was pushed out of the white house his struggle from the get go to get him not to tweet or attack robert mueller and the investigation. >> this is really long, so everybody just settle in, and get comfortable because this is a fascinating one becau

michael wolff quoting steve bannon saying he's lost it. talk according to wolff within the west wing about the 25th amendment. not just wolff. i have sources who worked inside the white house, have known donald trump for many years as well telling me that, and asking me if i think he's lost a step, because they think he's lost a step. this is not just confined to wolff's reporting. >> look, there is no question that donald trump is a controversial political figure to a lot of people. i will give you that. i don't know who your sources are, but i know you're a good -- >> fans sashgs porters of donald trump. not people who don't like him. >> i'm not questioning your sources. i'm saying all i can know is what i know, and i've read a large part of this book and think michael wolff is simply not a credible source. i have seen journalist after journalist go on news shows talk about all the inaccuracies in the book and the fact he's made a career spinning what he sees as his version of the truth, which he starts the book out, michael wolff does, t

this book by michael wolff, michael wolff doesn't have a lot of credibility as a journal eufjournalist. he burned a lot of sources. this book rings true. there's nothing in it we're really surprised about exempt the degree steve bannon was willing to throw his boss under the bus. the idea that katie walsh called him a baby. we chronicled that every saturday morning here. the fact that the president sometimes acts like an idiot. we chronicle idiocy every saturday morning. he's firing back. these tweets don't really lend to his credibility or give us the impression that he is mentally stable. >> what about what politico reported this week, zerlina, that dr. lee, a yale professor, that president trump will unravel and we are seeing the signs. according to this report, those who met with dr. lee were all democrats. there was one gop senator in the bunch. how much of this is about an effort to remove the president from office, to talk about the 25th amendment? >> i think that's where this conversation is going. i think we have tip-toed around this issue every year. we analyze his crazy twee

>> i said whateverness to get the story. >> who is this guy, this michael wolff? >> cnn randy kay has more. >> this is the most extraordinary story of our time. >> reporter: once a coffee boy. at 64, wolff is emersed in the world of media and money and power and politics. he's been up front about the fact. he uses media reporting and political reporting as a way to hang out with the elites that he really fascinated by. my cal cotte interviewed wolff years ago. his writing is so distinctive, it is more like art. >> he will set the scene so he does not say someone is sick and a quote, he will say this is what they would have said or should have said in the circumstances. so it is a little bit of art that he's sticking in there that makes it not quite a hard quote. >> wolff has been accused of in accuracies of his reporting over the years and his style is anything but conventional. >> cottle says wolff does not work the phone like most reporters and does not go on the record or off the record either. instead, choosing simply to observe and take in the atmosphere. >> w

and he took michael wolff fire and fury inside of the white house, it is only part of the picture and how he operates in a white house under fire. wolff said he based the book on vofgss and interviews -- conversations and interviews with the senior staff, even the president himself. according to wolff's book, here is what steve bannon said about the june 16 meeting with jared kushner and paul manafort. quote, the three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government in trump tower on the 24th floor with no lawyers. with no lawyers. even if you thought that was patriotic and bad ex policive, you should have called the fbi immediately. and we'll go to that, but first the white house disputes much of the book. but what is interesting it the white house line of attack on steve bannon which seems to be exactly what they've done time after time and insisting that the person in question never was much of a player after all. they did it with paul manafort and george papadapoulos and markal online and carter page and now listen to what sher saying about

we didn't need michael wolff's book to do this. i love michael wolff. almost went into business witht. but i don't think anybody with any reasoning would come up with any of the conclusions. i'm not calling him names. it's a behavior analysis. if somebody runs through the subway naked and is throwi inin towa turds against the wall, we don't need to diagnose him. >> joe scarborough has known him for a long time. let me show you what joe scarborough observed with the same sort of period of familiarity having known him a long time. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> for the past year we've had people around donald trump. even during the campaign saying he's not mentally fit to be president. and there is such a reluctance and i'm not knocking "the washington post." they are being conservative with a small "c." i've written twice in my column a quote about one of the people closest to donald trump during the campaign saying he's got early stages of dementia. he repeats the same stories. it's getting worse and not a single person who works for him does

meaning that the assumption was, yeah, you can -- you can talk to michael wolff. we've, meaning the president, was that the assumption was you were blessed, it was okay >> i think it was. there was no official -- i was certainly not brought in to be the -- >> you weren't invited to write this book. >> the court chronicler. i was sort of invited. i mean donald trump is sort of, oh, yeah, yeah. i said to him, i said, listen, i'd like to do a book. and i remember because i remember he seemed deflated, a book. who cares about a book. and i said, no, no, i'd really like to do this. then he named a couple of other authors who he knew who he said, oh, yeah, they'd like to do this too. and i said, but, you know, is it okay? yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. so i went around -- it was basically me saying the president says this is -- this is -- he likes this idea. and then everyone would say, oh, okay, great, sit down. talk. >> you said something to savannah guthrie on the "today" show. you said whatever it took to get this story. would people feel as if you intentions with this boo

how trustworthy in your view is michael wolff? i know michael wolff personally. he was working on the book. he is not a fraud at all. he does know donald trump. they know each other from new york media elite circles. he was let into the white house for months on end. he would ta ke house for months on end. he would take the train down from new york to dc, stay in a hotel near the white house and basically report to work and bea house and basically report to work and be a fly on the wall. so trump should have known that this was happening to stop him from writing his book, which has proved very damaging to his image. his book, which has proved very damaging to his imagelj his book, which has proved very damaging to his image. i assume you have read some, if not all of the book. i have it here! excellent. what would your criticisms of italy? what would your criticisms of italy? what are its shortcomings?m what would your criticisms of italy? what are its shortcomings? it is on the whole mostly right. and we hear the whole mostly right. and we hear the same things f

in michael wolff's explosive tell-all book, "fire and fury." is he mentally fit? book also sparking debates about whether president trump is mentally fit for office. we're going to hear from a former trump adviser who's quoted in the book calling the president an expletive fool. and a fast and furious defense. the president and his allies lashing out at the author, calling the book a fake and a pile of trash. lots to cover here. let's get started. >> i would have been delighted to have written a contrarian account here -- donald trump, this unexpected president, is actually going to succeed. okay. that's not the story. he is not going to succeed. >> the book is best understood as a work of very poorly written fiction. and i also will say that the author is a garbage author of a garbage book. >> we have all these, you know, wise ac wiseacres out there wanting to criticize and be presumptuous about judging everyone's intelligence. i can tell you he's got the wherewithal to do things no politician hasee

watch how they handle him when he was there. >> there is a michael wolff here to see you. >> read michael wolff. thank you lucky stars, he's not writing about you today. >> this is off the record >> really good. >> do we know anything of past controversies. >> the idea of that about ten years ago. the owner of fox news and 20th century of fox. he wrote a flat ritering profilf murdoch. the book that came out about the murdoch empire was not very friendly. murdoch was fieri of the book when it came out. he seems very friendly and i remember this time last year, wolff says attack me. the immediamedia was out there him. i am on your side. i am the friendly voice that is here to take your side. he was doing that obviously to warm up to his sources and cozy up to the white house. now, a year later, we see the results, he was able to get inside and he was able to write what it turned out to be adaming illustration of a white house in crisis. you may criticize his tactics saying it was under handed or inappropriate to be out there saying one thing and now saying something very different. now, he

credibility of michael wolff, you worked with, part owner of the publication that largely employs michael wolff, the "hollywood reporter. people are now attacking his credibility. does he need to be defended? >> this is my concern about all of this, is that oftentimes, you know, i would call this the technique, you don't attack the message, you attack the messenger. and this is a famous strategy that roy cone used and trump has used for -- it is, you know, from the time way back when he started using cohn to now the administration i think, i can't speak to any of the specific details because i only know the one from the dinner which are entirely accurate i've seen before, though, where subjects who say things in the comfort of a conversation with the reporter, often regret those things because they take on a life of their own when they're in print i'm not -- >> but i'm sure you know michael wolff well. >> yes, i know michael incredibly well. >> we've had him on the showmice out there watching, an open invitation forget about the details of the book for a moment. i guess the biggest discre

you talk about robert mueller, one thing also comes to mind, the revelations in this new book by michael wolff about the way the president talked about women in particular, sally yates, the former acting attorney general. mike wolff writes in firing, to trump, he was just up against sally yate, who, he steamed, such a blank, expletive deleted. hope hicks, someone so close to him, the gatekeeper in the oval office, trump, who otherwise according to michael wolff's book, seemed to treat hicks in a protective and even parental way, looked up and said why, you've already done enough for him. you're the best piece of tail he'll ever have, sending hicks running from the room. a horrible description of the way he treats women in the white house. >> i haven't read the book yet. and these things are unbelievable, but i don't think anyone there who reads his twitter feed would be surprised or some of the tapes that have come out in the past. what really matters to me is what are the legal ramifications of this. what happened at these meetings and this coordination with russia. because we know we have so

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

aides calling it a crackpot fictional writing, sarah huckabee sanders trying to downplay access michael wolff had to the president. wolff said earlier today it was three hours in total, including the campaign. sarah huckabee sanders saying there was one short phone call and it wasn't an interview in any way. the white house has said these are misrepresentations of information, that this is just all to sell books, and the bottom line, they insist, is it's gossip tabloid fodder. andrea? >> at the same time, michael schmidt of the "new york times," with another blockbuster report with efforts of the president to tell don mcgann, the white house counsel, to get the attorney general sessions not to recuse himself. which could be, depending on how it was phrased and how much the president pushed hard for this, it could become part of an obstruction probe. >> reporter: i think that's right. the reason this is important, obviously the president has said repeatedly, as he did again on twitter today, there is no collusion. that's why there's all this attention on these other issues, because they couldn