on set with us white house reporter from the "the washington post" ashley parker and mike schmidt from sniemz. -- "the new york times." joyce, let me start with you and the machinations of this for a nonlawyer and someone outside this court, it seems like a bizarre, bizarre trial with a very interesting character as a judge. tell us what it means that they were on pause for so long, do we know what they were doing and what are the scenarios for what could have been going on. >> we don't know exactly what was going on, but this really isn't at all unusual for a trial. sometimes when you get to this point and even earlier on in a case, issues can come up. there can be the need for a lot of back and forth between the judge and the lawyers as they sort out legal issues. and sometimes you can see juries either sitting in a courtroom or back in the jury room wondering what the delay is about because the judge doesn't necessarily share it with them either if it's purely a legal issue about admissible evidence. here we had a little bit of a curiosity thinking that perhaps it might involve juro

. >> do you have any sense, mike schmidt, there is any growing anxiety about all these fronts they're managing now since the manafort trial? the ruling yesterday there is a value gates has to the larger investigation, we haven't heard much from cohen this week. that is obviously ongoing and unfolding. is the president there sort of stewing? is that why we see jay and rudy? >> jay and rudy are keeping the president calm as much as possible and trying to hold him back -- >> he'd be doing more if they weren't out will? >> they've shown time and time again the failure as he continues to tweet about this and talk about it in ways that pretty much everyone in the legal community says are damaging. why would he continue to talk about such sensitive matters that relate directly to his own conduct? he continues to do it. so, you know, look, i think the president gets very upset a lot and he gets reported a lot in the press. he obviously has to look at this and be concerned, but i'm not sure what else he can do. i mean, he has one decision he can make to do that and that's to fire mueller and h

on set with us, reporter from "the washington post" ashley parker and mike schmidt from the "new york times." joyce, all the machinations of this i guess for a nonlawyer and someone outside this court, it seems like a bizarre trial with a very interesting character as a judge. tell us what it means that they were on pause for so long, do we know what they were doing and what are the scenarios for what could have been going on? >> we don't know exactly what was going on. but this isn't at all unusual for trial. sometimes when you get to this point or even earlier on in a case, issues can come up. there can be the need for a lot of back and forth between the judge and the lawyers as they sort out legal issues. and sometimes you can see juries either sitting in a courtroom or back in the jury room wondering what the delay is about because the judge doesn't necessarily share it with them either if it's purely a legal issue about admissible evidence. here we had a little bit of a curiosity thinking that perhaps it might involve jurors who had begun to deliberate prematurely. the rule is th

"the new york times" mike schmidt. here at the table daniel goldman, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, now an msnbc contributor. nbc news and msnbc national affairs analyst john heilman is back. eli stokols, white house correspondent for the l.a. times. solina maximum well, former clinton advisor, now director of progressive programming for sirius xm. michael schmidt, get us started. you wrote the piece last thursday about mueller's tactic of stitching together what his investigators have uncovered, the president's conduct, his efforts to get jeff sessions to reverse his recusal, his desire to have his white house counsel don mcgahn fire mueller. with his tweets and with his public statements, this tweet this morning seemed like it could fit into that fabric in an obstruction investigation. >> mueller is looking at the other tweets and the public stramts how they lineup with what was going on behind the scenes, trump's effort to influence comey and put out word he was not under investigation. his efforts to get sessions to reverse his dec

with us at the table from "the new york times," mike schmidt. eli stokols, white house reporter for the l.a. times, emily jane fox who was up as late as i was last night, maybe later, senior reporter for vanity fair who spoke extensively with michael cohen. and heilman is back, nbc news, national affairs analyst. let me start with you. you spoke to michael cohen yesterday after this dramatic day in court. did he realize that what he was saying -- i think it was counts 7 and 8 -- would leave all of us really as some of those white house aides described, breathlessly covering the president as possibly an unindicted coconspirator? >> that was the point. he went in there with a set of notes that were written down. he said in court that they were to keep his mind focused. but there is another intention there, and that was to throw a man who had thrown him under the bus under a bus of his own. and i think that what lanny davis, his attorney, has said in multiple television appearances since has been, let's focus on counts 7 and 8. forget 1 through 6 w

. >> mike schmidt, our friend chuck will tell you that mueller prefers meetings standing up in his office because it keeps your energy up and it's more efficient. ironically asks coworkers and associates every day what they have done for their country at work. sometimes prior to 6:00 a.m. it has always been difficult to imagine a room with mueller and trump in it. have the chances of that rumored mythical sit down, let's say dimmed, a little bit further today? >> well, i can't imagine they got any better. but i'm not sure they were in that good of a place to start. i've been reporting on this interview for almost eight months now and the president's lawyers have continually said they're just a few weeks away from making a decision. and i fell for that along the way at different points. we're still here. now coming into september. rudy said that they can't do an interview in september or october too close to the election. comey territory, as he calms -- calls it. referring back to the 2016 election. so the opening for that, i can't imagine is there. >> by the way, i'm told rudy is in scotl

but we don't know, obviously, where mike schmidt is getting his information. as far as are we going to get any information if it goes dark for a couple months, there are always kernels that are coming out from some source or another, because there are a lot of people tied up in this. i think details will still still emerge even if they do go dark on the case. >> especially with you and jeff involved. >>> omarosa has said many things about the president, like he's a racist, among other things. here's one thing we did not lar hear. >> my main intent was to make sure i was advocating for education, for citizen rights. there was so many things in that administration. while they were trying to dismantle everything president barack obama did, i was in there to make sure we could keep the things we worked for and advance. >> are you surprised at all by that? >> she is trying to save her own name, but i don't think anyone believes she went into the trump white house to preserve president obama's accomplishments. i think what she's doing now is trying to get some sympa

pop and i used to love to go to games all the time and of course i was a vend were the phillies mike schmidt my favorite player now sometimes we come across some families that are truly cadre to the show and kids that have real horse sense. you think you know your ceos nobody is going to stump at pounce the poodle's kid. >> animal electronics. >> mike law. >> facebook? >> mark zuckerberg. >> twitter >> and your favorite for the opening bell >> jim cramer and carl quintanilla. >> well, that's it that should be a show on its own. next up, patrick tucker asks @jimcramer a serious question are accounting issues always because of some level of shadiness, or can honest mistakes be made this is -- i could spend a whole segment -- i may have to do a whole segment on this some day, because the answer is honest mistakes can be made, and a lot of times my rule will keep you out of a situation where there is an honest mistake and then the stock takes off. but there are other cases where it's not honest and you lose everything so i am going for the maximum risk situation as opposed to the minimum one. an

. >> ken vogel, i want to play you something one of your colleagues mike schmidt said on the daily about the extent of what of what mcgahn knows and talk about it on the other side. >> i still don't think they appreciate the extent to which mcgahn has cooperated. we don't know everything that mcgahn did, but it's more than they think. >> ken vogel, how can this be the case, that this far into it and despite rudy giuliani going out on the shows yesterday and saying, oh, you know, he briefed john dowd and they were aware. it seems like if you look at all the flash points in the obstruction of justice prong of the investigation, don mcgahn is potentially a pretty incriminating witness if the president is found to have obstructed justice. >> yeah, absolutely. you laid out some of those flash points, nicolle. they deal with the firing of james comey, the pressure on attorney general sessions to unrecuse himself from the investigation, and all manner of other pushback, not to mention setting aside the obstruction case after the mueller investigation started. don mcgahn was there at the center

my thanks to eddie, mike schmidt, eli, bill and john heilemann.'m nicolle wallace, "mtp daily" starts right now. i owe you 19 seconds. >> that's okay. the bill is in the mail. talk to my lawyer, he might be able to reimburse you. >>> if it's wednesday, iceberg right ahead. >>> good evening, welcome to "mtp daily." i'm chuck todd here in washington. if yesterday we watched the trump white house hit a massive iceberg, then today the big questions are will the ship sunk and will republicans decide to evacuate? tuesday was an inflection point and arguably the worst day of the trump presidency so far. mr. trump hopes that this ends up the worst day. many other people think there will be worse days to come. michael cohen pleading guilty and paul manafort being found guilty, meaning two more of mr. trump's associates are facing jail time. added to a stunning list of people tied to him who have either been indicted or had to plead guilty. and now it's choosing time. every republican has a decision to make. there's short-term pain and long-term pain. yeste

it's interesting in mike schmidt's story that he uses the word cooperator to describe mcgahn becausef art for prosecutors. i'm not sure if he and maggie mean to use it in that sense here because to me that implies someone who has criminal exposure, who has been told that prosecutors are looking at them and who strikes a deal with prosecutors to cooperate in exchange for more lenient treatment. of course, it's also possible and perhaps more likely that mcgahn is simply cooperating in the sense that he's answering their questions. but it is intriguing since the president is the one who raises the specter of john dean and a rat. and then the walls have to be closing in on the president because michael cohen has gone radio silent up in new york, which is a pretty good signal that he's either trying to conclude a cooperation deal with prosecutors or has formally entered into one. >> michael schmidt. >> this is not a situation where mcgahn has gone in and pled or accepted a plea agreement or been given immunity. it's a situation where mcgahn has realized that he has to do everything possib

. >> reporter: hennepin county attorney mike friedman cleared officers schmidt and kelly from wrongdoinglevins' disregard for police instructions and his allegedly pointing a gun at officers justified the shooting. >> i'm certain in rapidly evolving situations -- >> reporter: but as friedman made his announcement blevins' family and community activists shouted him down. they claim blevins was not a threat and accused officers of escalating the situation. >> these officers were not afraid of my cousin when they approached him. that's clear as day on the video footage. >> did you see a drunk black guy with a gun around here? >> asking people in the car, what's up, did you see a drunk black guy? >> reporter: the minneapolis community is still grappling with recent deadly shooting of unarmed black men fillando castile and jamar clark. neither officer was found guilty from either incident. but following the release of this footage the head of the police union called these officers' actions hierarch. >> they deserve the highest award, the medal of honor. >> reporter: both officers are still on