natasha bertrand.ote that came out from the white house general counsel yesterday, don mcgahn explaining his reasons, president's reasons for not declassifying and releasing the democratic memo. what stood out to you? >> it's fascinating that they are, all of a sudden, very concerned about the fbi and the doj's potential objections to the democrats' memo. they didn't seem very concerned about the fact that the doj came out and described the nunes memo as extremely reckless, or the fact that the fbi issued a very rare statement saying that they had very grave concerns over the nunes memo being declassified and released to the public. one thing that stood out to me about that statement was just that they said that there was going to be a review period and that the trump administration would essentially take the doj and the fbi's recommendations and have the documents sent back to the intel committee to make the appropriate redaxs. of course, that stands in stark contrast to what the trump administration

don't remember much about it. >> let me go to another, natasha bertrand. i don't know nothing here, as sergeant schulz used to say on hogan's heroes. any time somebody gets indicted, coffee boy. didn't some kind of work around the office. don't really know him. >> reince priebus actually said it himself. he cedric gates was working behind the scenes. rick gates was flying on trump's plane, on trump's campaign plane until election day. he stayed on working with the transition team as a liaison between the transition team and the rnc. even after, well after paul manafort was ousted, he stayed on. and he of course was still talking to paul manafort throughout that entire period. he was paul manafort's protege. he was his right-hand man. and i would also say the fact that george papadopoulos is being characterized as a coffee boy, you would want the coffee boy to be the one doing the intermediary work if you wanted someone low level in the campaign who isn't noticed to be colluding with russia. so the fact that they're trying to downplay papadopoulos's role, w

and natasha bertrand, staff writer at the atlantic. harry lipman, i want to go to what leads like a novel legal theory, that as a "new york times" reports, the president's lawyers are thinking that mr. mueller lacks the legal standing to question mr. trump about some of the matters that he is investigating, like the president's role in providing misleading response to the "new york times" and even the president's role in talking to james comey about the flynn case. >> well, novel is one word for it. i think a better word would be muddled and meritless. they seem to be confused between potential defenses that they could offer and the potential right or in this case obligation to answer questions in the first place. it's straightforward that somebody has to answer questions. there's a special case about the president that i'm sure we'll get to. but they're completely confused in thinking that just because they might have some valid claim on the merits that that somehow might mean mueller could seek and require their questioning. it's jus

let's talk about this now with natasha bertrand, staff writer for the republic magazine.o you think the democrats expected their memo to be blocked? >> the democrats never thought that the memo would see the light of day, to be totally honest. >> do you? >> i'm sorry? >> do you think it will? >> ultimately that will be up to the democrats, whether or not they take the suggestions that the doj gives them in the and the white house gives them about the suggestive redactions of this information that remains to be seen. of course it is very surprising that trump all of a sudden cares about what the doj and the fbi have to say about the memo. he released the nunes memo last week without any reaction whatsoever and over the strenuous objections of both the doj and the fbi. he didn't seem to care when the doj came out with a letter saying that it would be extremely reckless to release the nunes memo. he didn't seem to care when the fbi released an extremely rare statement saying that they had grave concerns over the release of the nunes memo. which again had no redactions when i

joining me to discuss it is staff writer for the "atlantic," natasha bertrand.e of these indictments? no big names are listed in the indictments. is this a big deal or more symbolic? >> it's an extremely big deal. what we're seeing now is essentially mueller's laying the groundwork, he's establishing the legal precedent for the fact that russia did interfere in the election. and of course we saw that trump yesterday actually acknowledged it for arguably the first time he said the russians began their campaign in 2014. now kind of ignoring the rest of his statement which was no collusion, et cetera. he did in fact acknowledge that the russians did this. and that's going to be a very, very important precedent for mueller to establish when he moves forward and issues further indictments. >> so in the article that you wrote this week you point out the house intel memo sent to the white house to be declassified which put trump the subject of the investigation in charge of the evidence that could be used against him. so should the president recuse himself of the power

we are joined now by natasha bertrand, staff write at the atlantic and jill wine-banks is still with us. natasha, the significance of your discoveries of wikileaks and roger stone. >> well, it just kind of undermines all of the assertions that roger stone made during the campaign that his communications with wikileaks and with julian assange took place primarily if not exclusively through a back channel. that was his main line of argument. he said, well, i never actually spoke to assange or wikileaks directly. it was always through some kind of intermediary who he later identified as this radio host. but now we see he actually was directly communicating with wick which ki le -- wikileaks on twitter. and the morning after trump won the election, wikileaks messaged him, well, are you happy now? we're much freer to communicate. when i asked stone he said the entirety of their communications, suggesting that there was actually more than this exchange that i was provided which was between october and november of 2016 would essentially exonerate him, would show that he had no knowledge, pr

chuck rosenberg, former senior fbi official and msnbc contributor and also with me natasha bertrand staff writer at "the atlantic." help me understand the import of what happened yesterday, this plea that rick gates copped yesterday in washington. >> david, it's a big deal. as you know, mr. gates was there for a lot of stuff. he was on the campaign. he was on the transition. he knows the folks around trump. he talks to them. at least he talked to them. and he has a lot of information to provide. it's really important to remember that there are a lot more than four cooperators. there's dozens of people who know pieces of this story and all of them are providing information important to the investigation. the four cooperators have pled guilty. >> natasha, let me read the statement we gotrom rick gates yesterday. despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, i've had a change of heart. the reality of how long this process will take, and the circus-like atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. i will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process. when you look

. >>> and natasha bertrand on her piece in "the atlantic." how do you win at business? stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com start winning today. fthere's flonase sensimist.f up around pets. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. >>> this happens nowhere else other than the united states of america. this epidemic of mass slaughter. the scourge of school shooting after school shooting. it only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of inaction. we are responsible. >> scolding fellow lawmakers for not taking action to prevent school shootings like the one in parkland, florida. congressman, with a good morning to you, sir. you know, he has a point, senator murphy, there. it doesn't seem to happen anywhere else. he's from the state of connecticut where s

for more, let's bring in natasha bertrand from the atlantic, matt miller former chief justice spokesperson under president obama and an msnbc justice analyst. natasha, a lot of back forth whether this would happen. what's your reaction to it happening today? >> it's not surprising at all that rick gates pleaded guilty. we expected this for weeks leading occupy to this. there was a lot of reporting gun on that he was ultimately going to flip. of course, he said in his statement today those res reports were wrong and he suddenly had a change of heart. that is very unlikely given what we saw today which was this plea agreement. usually things like that are in the works for quite some time. what was unusual was we saw this indictment that was issued last night. that created a lot of confusioning about whether he was actually going to plead guilty. it's very unusual for an indictment to be filed like that on the eve of someone pleading guilty. so it's definitely possible that perhaps gates really did have a change of heart and he realized that he wasn't going to get the kind of plea agreement o

. >> natasha bertrand covers national security for the atlantic, fred feg lew zi, a former assistant director of the fbi where he served under then director robert mueller. frank, i want to read a little bit from the nunes response to the fbi. so the fbi, the trump fbi, christopher wray, trump guy saying material omissions we basically think this is a misleading document and also don't want you to release it. nunes having stonewalled congress demands it's no surprise they issue spurious objections to allowing the american people to see abuses at these agency. the fbi's intimately familiar with material omissions with respect to their presentations to both congress and the courts. what do you make of that? >> i think congressman nunes is displaying what we call willful blindness. you reported earlier that he's not even seeing the underlying sensitive intelligence that he claims is in support of his own memo. you heard the fbi say they have grave concerns about the release of that. there's significance in the intelligence community in the word grave. it may be a subconscious use of the

. >> the atlantic's natasha bertrand talking about wikileaks and how stone tried to keep this communication open. i wonder the view of where stone fits into all this as a former trump aide, and was he in doing other things helpful and also what you heard from mr. nunberg and that in his view these mueller investigators are sharp. >> i'm going to start with the second question first. >> sure. >> which is the attorneys that work for the united states department of justice are attorneys that could be in private practice making a lot of money and choose public service and when i was an assistant u.s. attorney, i can tell you that everyone i worked with was highly professional and skilled, so it's not surprising at all to hear that kind of praise, which is also part of why we should be so upset that donald trump undermines and attacks the fbi and the department of justice. >> and how donald trump never mentions bob mueller by name. >> bob mueller who was an extremely accomplished investigator and attorney. but let's go to roger -- so remember, let's do the timeline. because i think this is impor

. >> i'm breaking this story from natasha bertrand.lk to you for a second about what that interview clip looked like, because if that is the televised victory lap for devin nunez, that might be the saddest, most tired, most kind of just blase victory lap i have seen in the history of modern dell vise etelevised pol >> what makes that particularly amusing is after he performed that duty for the chairman, mr. nunez, trey gowdy announced that was he was getting out of dodge, he was retiring from congress. is there a relationship there, i don't know, but i find it quite curious. devin nunez, and there can be no more reliable donald trump ally than he. surely must know that this was a face plant of the most dramatic kind. there really is nothing there. if they're going to impugn christopher steel's integrity, then devin nunez should read hid own memo, because in there it says in two places that christopher steel had been a very reliable informant for the fbi over the years. and of course, as we know, the original investigation wasn't even b

natasha bertrand and ned price, thanks for joining us. >> coming up, we now have more details about the latest resignation from the white house over domestic violence. it follows the same pattern as our handling of rob porter. that reporting is ahead. >>> thing 1 tonight, infrastructure week. the theme that became a punch line and symbol of this president's inability to stay anywhere remotely close to on message. last year before the first instruct week event at 11:00 a.m. monday june 5th, things has already gone off the rails. shortly after 6:00 a.m., trump blew up his legal defense for his travel restrictions declaring the latest version was still a travel ban. by 10:00 p.m. he called london's mayor pathetic in the wake i've terror attack happening in that city. those stories already eclipsed any news on infrastructure but trump piled on taking credit on tuesday for the decision by arab nation tosses cuts ties with qatar, u.s. michelle partner. by thursday, james comey was testifying about trump's loyalty test and potential obstruction of justice while trump responded by accusing him

. >> natasha bertrand, good to talk with you as always. >>> coming up next, demanding change, students from parkland and beyond plead with the nation's leaders to help stop the carnage. >> let's never let this happen again. please, please. >> i'm going to speak with one surviving student who is leading the charge for change and ask him about the president's call for arming teachers. >> and a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened. >> some new numbers on this issue to show you. americans are split on the issue of whether to arm teachers, 44% in favor, while 50% oppose the idea. a quinnipiac poll finds 66% of americans support stricter gun laws overall. that's the highest level of support ever measured in that poll. 97% of americans support requiring background checks for all gun buyers, currently 91% of florida state representatives and senators have a rating of a-minus or higher from the nra. it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some

begin with our superpanel, karen lofler who has worked with the fbi on hundreds of cases and natasha bertrand, when you hear your former colleague saying he's going to take the fifth, is that a good idea? >> it should be a political fiasco, but as a citizen of the united states, he has the right to take the fifth amendment, but really, and of course it would be unprecedented, but to sit there and say, you know, i will talk to you, but only under, i will assert my fifth amendment or i want a grant of immunity, should be political suicide, but we have seen so many amazing firsts that are sort of shocking. i'm really bound to say who knows? >> and karen -- >> it shouldn't exist. >> karen, i always respect your candor and you're saying, basically, wow, to this whole idea. i want to know that your legal receptivity to it, you point out that this is a legally possible thing to do, echoes what eric holder said, but you, eric holder and roger stone are all overlapping tonight. you don't have to state an opinion, i will say that roger and eric holder usually don't agree. he says i recognize the politi

and natasha bertrand, who covers the russia investigation for the atlantic. and olivia newsy, washington correspondent for new york magazine. thanks to all of you for being here. natasha, let me start with you. we know, as you just heard mike memoli say, there is no doubt lawmakers are going to want to ask hope hicks about helping the president craft that response, once it was learned that donald trump jr. met with the crekrem n kremlin-linked attorney during the campaign. what do you think we're going to see today? >> that's really the key question i think they want to get to the bottom of, is what did hope hicks know about why this misleading statement was crafted, why was it left out entirely that this meeting was taken on the press of obtaining dirt on hillary clinton, what were the conversations like among -- between donald trump jr. and the president, and why did she tell a parentally -- why did she say during a conference call that the e-mails that donald trump jr. had exchanged with robert gold stostone, this music publicist, would never get out? was t

natasha bertrand, matt apuzzo and william scott. >>> john kelly still under intense scrutiny for his the rob porter scandal. he announced yesterday he is overhalling the security clearance process after revelations that dozens of white house staff are operating without permanent clearance. author of "the gate keepers:how the chiefs of staff affect every presidency." his piece in vanity fair, and reince bring business and his time as chief of staff for president trump. chris whipple, thank you. let me ask you about john kelly. he made this announcement he's changing the clearance process. there was speculation that his days might be numbered in that position. has he righted the ship by doing this, do you think? >> the security clearance process is broken and it's got to be fixed. but that's really just a minimum prequisi now for kelly. i think he has bigger problems. this was a chief of staff malpractice, having a staff secretary without a security clearance. he needs to fix that. but the larger problem really is a lack of credibility. and that goes all the way back to that infamous a

. >> natasha bertrand add today our merry gang. she coffers national skpurt and russia investigation for the atlantic. obviously he doesn't know the difference between any of those classifications, but to hear him read them from what i understood to be his own notes is pretty entertaining in light of the fact that he's now the president and his white house is full of people without full security clearances. >> yeah, one of the most alarming things that i read this weekend came out of politico, which reported that john kelly actually knew weeks, if not months ago, that many aides in the white house would not qualify for a full permanent security clearance and that the ones -- many of the ones working on interim security clearances such as rob porter would never get a permanent security clearance. that, of course, indicates that there was serious red flags in their background that the fbi determined would not qualify them for a permanent clearance and yet kelly did not push porter out. and porter, of course, is the one who is really

natasha bertrand and ned price, thanks for joining us. >> coming up, we now have more details about the latest resignation from the white house over domestic violence. it follows the same pattern as our handling of rob porter. that reporting is ahead. remember our special night? abdominal pain... ...and diarrhea. but it's my anniversary. aw. sorry. we've got other plans. your recurring, unpredictable abdominal pain and diarrhea... ...may be irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, or ibs-d. you've tried over-the-counter treatments and lifestyle changes, but ibs-d can be really frustrating. talk to your doctor about viberzi,... ...a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day that helps proactively manage... ...both abdominal pain and diarrhea at the same time. so you stay ahead of your symptoms. viberzi can cause new or worsening abdominal pain. do not take viberzi if you have no gallbladder, have pancreas or severe liver problems, problems with alcohol abuse, long-lasting or severe constipation, or a bowel or gallbladder blockage. pancreatitis m

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california, former assistant director at the fbi, frank fig gluecy, nbc national security adviser and natasha bertrand from the atlantic and charlie savage, also an msnbc contributor. the congressman here, this is exinfratraary. i wonder, does the president understand what he's doing here basically trying to crash into the very people protecting this country's security? >> well, chris, the president is likely under investigation. so you know, he shouldn't have anything to do or be anywhere near reviewing a memo. that's a monumental conflict of interest that he or the white house counsel is able to look at this. who obviously are the adults? it's the members of the intelligence committee who obviously are trusted with our nation's secrets and hop are expected to not allow politics to invade into the independence of the department of justice and that responsibility has been advocated by chairman nunes and every member of the committee who obviously has vote odd to allow this inaccurate memo to be released. they are risking the republicing to protect the president. for what in for tax cuts? to deregulate

one of the by lines on this report is our friend katy tur who joins us now along with natasha bertrand, intelligence and national security writer for the atlantic. kimberly atkins chief washington reporter for the boston herald. jeremy peters reporter with "the new york times". and from washington chuck chosen berg, former u.s. attorney, former cia official. now lucky for us an msnbc contributor. katie, let's start with you. unbelievable reporting and an unbelievable picture of the specificity with which bob mueller is piecing together the entire campaign. >> his significance in the reporting, it felt like the investigation was moving on to asking not whether donald trump coordinated or colluded with russia, but wloehether or not h obstructed justice once he got into office. those are the threads that we had been following. that's what we had been hearing about. this points us back in the original direction, which is did donald trump himself potentially work behind the scenes to coordinate the release of those e-mails. that july 27th press conference is one that i was at, and that comm