plus paul butler, former federal prosecutor, msnbc legal analyst. let me read the first couple paragraphs and you take it from there. you write, trump's gripes against mccabe included wife's politics and comey's ride home. the day he fired comey, he became furious watching television footage of the ousted fbi director boarding a government funded plane from los angeles back to washington, d.c., that he called the bureau's acting director andrew mccabe to vent. trump demanded to know why comey was allowed to fly home on an fbi plane after he had been fired, these people said. mccabe told the president he hadn't been asked to authorize comey's flight. if anybody asked he would have approved it. the president was silent for a moment then turned on mccabe. ask your wife how it feels to be a loser, trump said. mccabe replied, okay, sir. trump hung up the phone. carol, i don't know how to put this. i talked to a couple of the president's friends. he comes off as such a jerk. this person said, he sure does. >> well, certainly mccabe was taken aback by this

joining me now to break this down msnbc legal analyst and former federal prosecutor paul butler. d nbc news national security contributor and former assistant director -- fbi director for counterintelligence frank figlusi. we appreciate you being here. paul, i want to put to you first the question -- looks like we're having trouble with paul being able to hear us. frank, i'll ask you to look at this idea of mueller being -- the firing of mueller being ordered even though it didn't ultimately happen, is this an example of obstruction of justice? >> yeah, i think it's important to understand that the statute that talks to obstruction of justice federally includes the word endeavor. so you don't actually have to go through with the event to obstruct. just trying or attempting can satisfy the elements of the statute. so ordering the firing, wanting to do it is part of a long list now that we have of everything that the president has done that points toward obstruction. whether it's firing jim comey, whether it's telling the attorney general not to recuse himself, whether it's writing

ken delaney and benjamin wittes and paul butler, thank you so much. natasha, we're not letting you free yet. when we come back, an obstruction during justice. that's how one republican described team trump's antics. we'll ask him what he means by that subtle jab. >>> also ahead, one of the investigators questioning -- we already did that. that was a tease for the congressman who already joined our show. >>> and ex-trump as stalin, more harsh words from republicans about the president's war on the free press. the great emperor penguin migration. trekking a hundred miles inland to their breeding grounds. except for these two fellows. this time next year, we're gonna be sitting on an egg. i think we're getting close! make a u-turn... u-turn? recalculating... man, we are never gonna breed. just give it a second. you will arrive in 92 days. nah, nuh-uh. nope, nope, nope. you know who i'm gonna follow? my instincts. as long as gps can still get you lost, you can count on geico saving folks money. i'm breeding, man. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen per

paul butler and jennifer ruben, thank you.coming up, we'll look at last june and what was going on when trump ordered the firing of special counsel robert mueller. that's ahead. plus trump's scarecrow in the field. congressman devin nunes is supposed to be leading the investigation into the russian meddling, instead trying to chase attention away from trump's russia connections. >>> and jeb bush is sounding is the alarm about 2018. he says trump's character will drag the republicans down in the midterm elections this november. and with the news that trump ordered the firing of the special counsel last june, the party's chances aren't likely to improve. finally, let me finish with the democrats' attempt to recapture their gloerd past by picking bobby kennedy's grandson to give the democratic state of the union. three cheers for that. this is "hardball" where the action is. . ounds. except for these two fellows. this time next year, we're gonna be sitting on an egg. i think we're getting close! make a u-turn... u-turn? recalcula

joining me now paul butler and malcolm nance. thank you for being here.ur commthree commit received testimony by these fusion gps heads. >> why did you decide to do that? >> because i think people are entitled to know what was said and the lawyers also wanted it released. i see no problem with releasing it. >> senator grassly says you've jeopardized their ability to get certain witnesses like kushner. your reaction? >> i don't think so. that's been difficult in any event. >> is diane feinstein right, that there was nothing preventing this information from being released and it does not prevent the committees from receiving further testimony? >> absolutely. it has nothing to do with kushner. mueller or the congress can subpoena him and make him talk. when there's a movie made about this, there's going to be this dramatic scene where we see steele doing routine opposition research and he comes across information that's so troubling that he thinks the man who was the next president of the united states is subject to blackmail. he goes to his boss and tells h

senior adviser to president obama as well as hillary clinton, paul butler, and author of "chokehold",inated for a naacp image award and professor james peterson back with me. near ra, i agabegin with you one c kollage i just showed. >> i mean obviously, it's extraordinary that you have a president who plays golf on martin luther king day instead of doing really anything, any kind of act or statement, other than a tweet. but obviously, i don't think we can separate that president's actions today and actions last week and his basically racist statements he made and you know, just the entire administration, which started with the muslim ban and went through to charlottesville and attacking nfl players through obviously last week. and so i think that the reality is that there has been a consensus. obviously, the parties have not been equal, but there's been some consensus that we cannot just openly flame racial hostilities in our country, there have obviously been dog whistles, et cetera, but that has been broken by a president who feels perfectly comfortable basically pitting american ag

i'm joined now by a former federal prosecutor, paul butler who's worked closely with fbi agents overany years. your view of andy mccabe and of these kind of attacks on a high ranking fbi official? >> so, ari, asking the fbi director who you voted for is not a crime, but it's more evidence of a corrupt mind state by president trump. the list of law enforcement agents who the president has tried to pressure is long and dishe distinguished. james comey, sally yates, jeff sessions, chris wray and now andrew mccabe. so trump wants their loyalty. he's trying to rig the system, that's investigating collusion and corruption, obstruction of justice. when you try to derail an investigation so that it's not objective, there's a name for that, it's called obstruction of justice. >> on that point, in the "washington post," all the"," s did almost precisely what comey did to him, hit him with the idea that the fbi director should be loyal to the president. if this was not one, quote, unquote mistake questioning by the fbi, but an ongoing pattern in targeting mccabe, budoes tha make things worse fo

i'm joined by paul butler. what you make of all that?laundering is hot because of simpson's testimony, that's what they were looking at that led to the dossier, the president clearly doesn't want to talk about that. i get the feeling he's going to fire mueller the minute he goes in that direction. >> what the transcript says eric trump said he can get money from the russians. we have that and the suspicious pattern of real estate transactions with people in russia. and then we have steve bannon, the guy who knew the president best, who said if the trump team goes down it's going down because of money laundering. as you say they've focussed occlusion, obstruction of justice, but this could be the thing that undonees the administration. >> it raises the question whether his campaign for president was a criminal inte enterprise. the whole question were they selling them land to get the money laundered. >> we think about the political organization of the campaign. that's another area bannon is key. a question they will ask him is how did it

i'm joined by se ri hurwitz who covers the justice department for the "washington post" and paul butler, msnbc legal analyst. se ri, let me start with you. how unusual is something like that to bring the new acting director in and just say, who did you vote for in the first meeting? >> well, it's obviously highly unusual. he talked to mccabe, what we are reporting tonight is that the president asked the number two person in the fbi, andy mccabe, who he voted for but he also brought up contributions to his wife's campaign in virginia. you know, andy mccabe has been under pressure, so has the fbi director, chris wray, from the white house, from sessions. chris wray, we've written this story also, the fbi director has been under pressure to get rid of andy mccabe and to put other people who are not connected to former director comey. we have a story today that he is bringing in a new chief for his office, a chief of staff. a new general counsel, and of course, we know that andy mccabe is leaving. you're going to be seeing a lot of new faces at the fbi and this is directly because of pressu

joining me now are nick ackerman and paul butler. i want to go to you first, nick.his question of bannon refusing to answer. i want you to listen to eric swalwell on bannon refusing to answer questions. >> we witnessed today what i believe was the most aggressive effort by the white house thus far to obstruct our efforts to seek the truth. it took a long time to sort out what mr. bannon was willing to talk about and not. most of it he was not willing to talk about, citing a privilege for the white house. he believes the white house is preventing him from testifying. >> if the white house is preventing bannon from testifying, but bannon's lawyer is also the white house couns counsel's lawyer, don mcgahn's lawyer, how can that be legal? >> and he's not only representing mcgahn but reince priebus. under the ethical rules as a lawyer, he has to explain what this conflict is, and that there can be a conflict. at the end of the day it's possible that reince priebus could be testifying against bannon or mcgahn could be testifying to facts that would incriminate bannon. >>

. >> paul butler, how concerned are you that even if donald trump does not succeed in pushing out robert mueller, the alternative nick just hinted at is they could fire -- he could fire rosenstein and put a hack in his place or somebody who would essentially handcuff robert mueller because essentially he's his boss. he's his supervisor. >> if the president continues pattern of trying to get rid of law enforcement agents who are investigating him and done that with everyone from james comey to sally yates, the fbi director, the fbi current director. yes, there could be a constitutional crisis, only if the republicans don't step up. there hasn't been the level of outrage to this recent breaking news about mueller possibly being fired by trump that we would expect. the concern t constitutional crisis happens in trump fires mueller and republicans let him get away with it. >> yes, that is the big concern. appreciate it. >>> coming up, lawrence o'donnell and chelsea handler stop by. you do not want to miss that. laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but she's not much on "ar

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it is not going to happen in the big east and then we will go into the de paul game, we have a lead, same thing and then butler we got smacked in the face, you know, and even marquette when we got lead, we got lazy. so this xavier team if we do that, they will blow us out of here. >> something tells me jay will figure this out. >> he is on the case. >> yes. >> thanks, leslie. >>> when we come back a little taste, reason more people are hopping down to the betsy ross house for a history lesson. pro tip: gianraspberries for prices on produce. john... strawberries for amy... what's a jicama? thanks! amazing produce prices. only at giant. advil liqui-gels minis. our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. a small size... that's fast, 'cause it's liquid. you'll ask... "what pain?" advil liqui-gels minis. if you could see your cough, you'd see all the sickness you're spreading. robitussin cf max. nothing lasts longer and treats more symptoms for your cough, cold and flu. (elevator bell ringing) robitussin cf max severe. because it's never just a cough. lauren casey took our mobile weather watcher to a p

people and it's not going to happen in the big east then we went into the de-paul game and got a lead and did the same thing and butlerksidasical and our guys understand that and got good practices but a lot of work to do defensively. >> and jay has to clean that up by tomorrow. jimmy kimmel live next on channel six followed by night line he has gary oltman phil and music from honcho jack and action news continues at 4:30 with pamela edwards matt o'donnell and murphy and karen rogers and cecily tynan and ducis rodgers and the entire news team i'm jim gardner. tion news is brought by gmc visit your gmc dealer. tonight -- gary oldman. from “somebody feed phil”, phil rosenthal. and music from huncho jack featuring takeoff. and now, and furthermore, here's jimmy kimmel! [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: thank you very much. very nice. i'm jimmy. i'm the host of the show. thank you for coming. [ cheers and applause ] thanks for watching. thank you for -- really, thanks. [ cheers and applause ] for braving the elements to be here tonight on a

people and it's not going to happen in the big east then we went into the de-paul game and got a lead and did the same thing and butlerhe face and marquette we got leads and lacksidasical and our guys understand that and got good practices but a lot of work to do defensively. >> and jay has to clean that up by tomorrow. jimmy kimmel live next on channel six followed by night line he has gary oltman phil and music from honcho jack and action news continues at 4:30 with pamela edwards matt o'donnell and murphy and karen rogers and cecily tynan and ducis rodgers and the entire news team i'm jim gardner. action news is brought