>> i can't go into it. >> phil rucker, how worried should they be? >> i wish she went into it a little bit there, told us some examples. look, i think they're worried potentially about what she could say. but it's important to keep in mind she's been gone from the white house since december of last year. and also while she was on the senior staff and in some of the senior staff meetings and had or own personal relationship with president trump she was not in sort of the crisis meetings that white house counsel don mcgahn would have with the chief of staff. she might have not have been privy necessarily to the most sensitive discussions or those representing to the management of the russia investigation and how to spin that. >> jonathan lemire, you were among the journalists and they could fit comfortably in a 747 who regularly talk to rudy giuliani. and you just watched that exchange with chris cuomo. does any of it matter? the target is moving almost on a daily basis. we had a former federal special prosecutor here in your chair last night who said

>> phil rucker has nicely agreed to stick around this late to talk to us about this topic. ust hope none november o no one in the dog community is watching. does this president physically not like dogs? >> that's right, brian. he is actually the first president in more than 100 years who has not had a dog as a pet in the white house. he lived with a dog before when he first got married to his first wife ivana. she brought a poodle. he resisted the dog. he didn't want anything to have to do. she said chappie is coming along. any time trump would come near he would come near ivana's closet, chappie would bark at hi. >> we launched an extensive web search that took us at least a few minutes and we could only find one photo, ex-importatant. this is the best in show at the westminster show a couple years back in trump's now famous office in trump tower. let's call that a mutual admiration society. the fact is he has been a germophobe for a lot of his life there was a period of time people here in new york remember when he did not bring himself to shake hands when he met people. s

phil rucker, thank you for your reporting, thank you for spending time with us. everyone else is stinging around. donald trump has may have lost his favorite punching bag at the fbi, but the fbi may have just lost one of its best assets in the war against russian meddling. i will tell you the weirdest thing about omarosa being fired in the sit room. it isn't that she recorded a conversation with chief of staff john kelly when he fired her. ever wonder what happened when you click a stopwatch and ask a staffer to name one african-american west wing staffer? we'll show you. my mom washes the dishes... ...before she puts them in the dishwasher. so what does the dishwasher do? new cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuck-on foods, the first time. wow, that's clean! new cascade platinum. i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette

phil rucker, i want to start with you because you have spent so much time digging into the psyche ofaround him. what are your sources telling you about how he has reacted to the coverage of senator mccain's funeral today? >> kasie, he doesn't like to be upstaged and he has been for six days, going to be a seventh day tomorrow. he likes to be the center of attention. he's the president of the united states. i think you saw last night at that rally in indiana, he let it all out. he aired his grievances with the media, with the establishment, with the globalists and so forth and really tried to rally his supporters. i think he watches this all unfold and knows his add been pleading with him not to say anything critical of mccain. >> he seemed to listen this morning. >> he has seemed to listen. with the exception of the things we saw monday with the flag going up and down, he's really been on it's sort of like a tinderbox. you never know what can set him off. i'm a little worried about the funeral when bush and obama are there. >> i think the idea he is going to have to watch two former

phil rucker, it's your report. take us through it. >> so, josh read a lot of this book and it's a pretty explosive portrayal of president trump. she describes him as a narcissist, as a racist, as a bigot, as a misogynist, all the bad words. but there are some specific things -- >> did she leave anything out? >> ashley is smiling in here because we were joking in the office. there is a scene where michael cohen comes in the office with omarosa. president trump according to omarosa's account actually chews pieces of paper in the oval office. so there's a lot of -- >> wait, wait. let me just ask a question about this. there is so much bad news, like what would be so bad, he would eat it? >> i will just -- i will never not find that passage amusing. it's totally unverified. we should add our colleague said omarosa is wildly incredible. he did listen to some tapes omarosa made that verified what she's quoting in the book. we can't tell there is munn muching of paper. >> can we find a sound effect of chewing? we need to

phil rucker, it's your report. your colleague josh dawsey's reporting. so take us through it. >> so, josh read a lot of this book and it's a pretty explosive portrayal of president trump. she describes him as a narcissist, as a racist, as a bigot, as a misogynist, all the bad words. but there are some specific things -- >> did she leave anything out? >> ashley is smiling in here because we were joking in the office. there is a scene where michael cohen comes into the oval office with omarosa. president trump according to omarosa's account actually chews pieces of paper in the oval office. so there's a lot of -- >> wait, wait. let me just ask a question about this. there is so much bad news, like what would be so bad, he would eat it? >> i will just -- i will never not find that passage amusing. it's totally unverified. we should add our colleague said omarosa is wildly incredible. he did listen to some tapes omarosa made that verified what she's quoting in the book. best we can tell, there's no munch, munch, munching of paper. >> can we find a sound effe

still with us, jeremy brash, carol leonnig, matt apuzzo, and phil rucker. jeremy, talk about the significance of these russians now being subpoenaed by robert mueller, what is he trying to do, what is he trying to prove, and what will he do next? >> the agalarov worked with trump to build the trump tower in moscow during the presidential election in 2016, it started to take shape in late 2015 and early 2016. they are the ones who went back to the russian government and said, we would like to send a russian delegation to trump tower to talk about how we're supporting the campaign in june 2016. they're integral to the ties between the trump family, the trump organization, and the russian government. they were the go-between. just because you are a cheesy pop star doesn't mean that you're also not a cutout for russian intelligence. >> matt apuzzo, this trump tower meeting has long been a flash point in questions about obstruction, because of what both your papers reported about the cover story about what that meeting was about. it now seems to be a flashpoint

phil rucker, let's talk about dj t. j. to your knowledge and to the best of your reporting, has anything about don june,'s case changed materially that has motivated the president's behavior, his change in mood? >> you know, the truth is, brian, we just don't know. but the president has become increasingly concerned as he sees mueller inching closer and closer. there's been a series of indictments all yearlong. there's a feeling inside trump's legal team and more broadly in his political orbit there could be another shoe to drop this month perhaps. and he sees paul manafort, his former campaign chairman on trial, and all of this is feeding the fear. and this fear he has is his son, don junior could be in trouble for this trump tower meeting. he spent a lot of time talking about the trump tower meeting and you've seen cohen and his attorney lanny davis making acswraea accusations publicly that maybe he knew about it beforehand. and it's all just feeding this anxiety that the president fears and this real fear something coul

. >> phil rucker, you and ashley parker have one of the great metaphors to describe the sort of reality tv president against the reality tv star who was a highly paid white house chief of staff. you guys wrote in "the washington post," now like in the jurassic park film series in which the dinosaur of turn on the scientists who created them. >> omarosa manigault newman has been a protege of donald trump's dating back to "the apprentice," she was the villain on that show. she learned a lot of trump's tricks along the way. she learned how to manipulate the media, how to create drama and expenssuspense, and develop magnetic charisma that kept viewers watching that show. it's paying off for her, she's smartly dangling out new recordings, new allegations. she has the president and the white house staff very much on the defensive, trying to respond to her and trying to game out what could come next around the corner. >> let's talk about these nondisclosure agreements which sanders is indicating are sort of standard and which the white house says where standard. all of you have been reporting

phil rucker, sarah huckabee sanders was asked if she knew this was happening and she said no. >> look, it's a question of whether there were plans, intentions for mcgahn to eventually leave at some point this fall after the midterm elections or after kavanagh. that was sort of the widely assumed and widely discussed inside the president's orbit. that's different than an actual departure announcement that the president tweeted. clearly the president decided to do that tweet on his own. he wanted to sort of leave his imprint on this personnel move. he doesn't like for people to leave on their own accords and their own time lines. he wants to be the one to show people to the door and we've seen it time and again. we saw it again today with mcgahn. >> so, phil, could this be the president being prompted by axios reporting and wanting to get a leg up on the idea that mcgahn might leave on his own accord? is this why his own white house communications staff doesn't even know about it? it seems like there are so often scenarios where we hear from someone like sarah huckabee sanders or the li

phil rucker still at the table. so happy about that. phil, yesterday there's -- you got reporting yesterday all over the place. by reporting i mean white house sources telling reporters, the president wanted these five guys out here. he instructed them he wanted them to come out. we talked about it yesterday. ever since on the because is- his behavior and gut instivgt. there's no way he sent those people out. they went out as an act of patriotism. donald trump was annoyed by that, he doesn't believe that. that's what everyone's gut tells them. his performance last night seems to back that up. what's the real deal? >> if he wanted them to come out there here and deliver that warning to the american people if he thought it was important for the american people to hear, he would have delivered it himself. he would have tweeted thisometh, he could have talked about it at his rally when he was talking extensively about president putin and what he called the russia hoax, but he never got into the actual threat facing the midterm elections here

joining me at the table, phil rucker. white house bureau chief for the washington post, love phil. new york policy research institute and respondent and political reporter, the one and only nicolas. guys, great to see you here. hallie, i called you here. you were on the phone. >> i know, i'm sorry. >> i said your name and looked up and you were on the phone doing the hard work of journalism. >> go to somebody else for one second. no, only because, john heilman, it's you and nicolle and i want to make sure we're getting hot, fresh scoops right out the can. >> so give it to us. >> yeah, so here's the deal. the question, right, is how did this come about. that fiechlt bve box to use thet the start of the show is strike, remarkable. as my colleague peter alexander said he hasn't seen anything like this before. what you can only call a show of force. and i will tell you when the five of them step through the briefing room doors just behind me here, people sat up real straight in the chairs in the briefing room because, again, this is significant. this is a moment when the white house cl

newcomer here, please come back, phil rucker, a great reporter. president trump stepping up his attacks in the face of legal threats. possible mueller subpoena. trump's problems not going away. they are multiplying. the defense rests in their case in the trial of paul manafort without calling a single witness. i think they are bluffing on defense. they don't have a case. the president signed a defense bill named for john mccain. he wouldn't admit in his statement that it is called the senator mccain. talking about that with the round table. everything trump has done in the last 24 hours shows a man pet tr trif fied. this is "hardball" where the action is. omaro . >>> four states holding important primaries. the polls closed in vermont. taking on republican governor. in the connecticut, voters choosing between two democrats and five republican candidates. closely watched race is in minnesota. voters are choosing candidates for the house, governor and state attorney general. in wisconsin republicans will pick between two challengers. scott walker is

phil rucker, the pulitzer prize winning bureau chief for the "washington post." tamara keith, white house correspondent for npr, and richard painter was chief white house ethics adviser for george w. bush. thank you for joining me. let's start with you. why now? what's specific about the potential departure of mcgahn that's got so many people worried, or is it just one more thing that's making them worried? >> ali, it's just one more thing that's making them worry. this fear has been building for a while now as it looks increasingly likely that democrats have a real possibility of taking over the majority of the house at a minimum in november's midterm elections. and people around the president, his allies, including some of his advisers inside the white house, are very concerned that could lead to a barrage of subpoenas, of investigations, of inquiries into ethical misconduct in the administration, into increase perhaps into the president's businesses, and most dangerously, into possible impeachment proceedings, depending, of course, on what sort of report speci

. >> phil rucker, your reporting of john kelly, the chief of staff who he expresses frustration with, in a different light. after this one year anniversary, he's telling the staff that he's staying. >> that's right. it is an effort to try to end what had been pretty rapid speculations and administration of kelly expected demise. their relationships have stabilized at the moment. kelly told senior staff on monday that the president asked him to stay throughout 2020. that could all change. personnel moves and there is constaco constant changes in the white house. there is quite a chatter of who in the white house could succeed him. >> phil rucker and thank you so much. sarah hucklebee sanders is scheduled to hold one of the briefings of the white house. we heard it will be delay. it could be well cut-off when the photo opt takes place. less time for questions. we'll bring it all to you live, stay with us. >> to stay in successful in business, you go t to navigate a lot of moving parts. on your business, we got your back with expert advice from getting funding and creating eye catching m

phil rucker, thank you very much.ynthia, thank you as well. >>> and while you were not looking, maybe because you were distracted by presidential tweets, the so-called rigged witch hunt as he calls it and ostrich jackets, that came out in the manafort trial today, the too has been successfully and quietly carrying out a conservative agenda. to start, president trump is reshaping the federal courts for decades to come. this week the senate voted 52-46 to confirm britt grant to a lifetime seat on the u.s. court of appeals for the 11th circuit. all but three democrats opposed her nomination pointing to what they call extreme conservative positions on voting rights, abortion, and same-sex marriage. her confirmation marks trump's 24th circuit court appointment. more than any other president at this point in office. and on the environmental front, today the trump administration officially announced plans to unravel one of president obama's signature policies. the epa's proposal would keep lower fuel emission standards than

nbc's phil rucker. ken, first to you for an update on what is happening in the courtroom today. >> andrea, rick gates continues on the stand. i just witnessed some really powerful testimony by gates. yesterday he laid out a summer of what he was going to say. today the prosecution is using a maxim we use in journalism, "show, don't tell." the effect is really powerful because they are showing, for example, e-mails where paul manafort was complaining about his tax liability and wanting to reduce it. for example in 2014 there was an e-mail where manafort said, "i just saw this, wtf, how could i be blindsided by this," a higher tax bill than he thought would happen. his strategy was to lie and to say that income was in fact loans. and gates testified that he falsely created documents suggesting that income was loans to essentially avoid taxes. i can't stress enough, andrea, how badly this trial appears to be going for paul manafort. a week ago the washington nationals were beating the new york mets 19-0 in

"washington post" white house bureau chief phil rucker, also an msnbc political analyst, and former fbi sore official chuck rosenberg and former u.s. attorney joyce vance. they are both msnbc contributors as well. hallie, i want to start with you. this has changed so many different times. i know the president was responding to the "washington post" over the weekend, but how are his lawyers today trying to, i guess, clean this up? >> well, there is not a whole lot to be able to clean up when the president tweets something in black and white and in plain english for everybody to read that is the opposite of what he said as you laid out the evolution of this over the last year and a half or so. the opposite of what the president said a year ago. now, one of his attorneys is saying i got bad information initially, presumably from his client when jay sekulow and others worked to frame this as something that was not, in fact, troublesome for president trump. so that begs one question, which is did jay sekulow get lied to by his client? did jay sekulow do the lying for his client, if in fact h

ruling and the president and his lawyers changing stories, i'm joined by msnbc political analyst phil rucker, white house bureau chief for the "washington post." phil, good to see you. what was your reaction to getting the new statement from the president about the trump tower meeting that nothing happened "to the best of my knowledge"? >> well, those words "to the best of my knowledge" are really important, ali. i was surprised to see that. that's not the kind of language we're used to seeing from the president. perhaps this statement was lawyered, it was in response to a request that my colleague ashley parker and i made to sarah sanders, first to interview the president. he wasn't available for an interview, but she offered to get a statement from him which he provided. look, it's important because he seems to be creating some wiggle room for his son. we know from our reporting that there's anxiety in the president's inner circle including by the president himself who has fretted to associates and friends that he's worried about don jr., worried that there could be some legal jeopardy, le

white house bureau chief with "the washington post" phil rucker, former assistant u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york and distinguished fell in criminal justice at pace university's law school mimi rocca. they are both msnbc analysts. and steve schmidt, also an msnbc contributor. phil, starting with you, i think it's pretty clear now that rudy giuliani will tell us today that he is going to give an answer to robert mueller by the end of the day and then tomorrow say, oh, we're still negotiating, and then the day after that say, there is never going to be an interview, and the day after that we might have an interview a month from now. it feels like a game to keep himself in the news, to keep this issue in the news, but to push it back as far as he can and to never actually sit down with robert mueller unless the president is forced to by a subpoena. >> i think that might be right, katy. clearly, the lawyers do not want president trump sitting down with robert mueller because they are afraid he won't be able to tell the truth in the interview. i don't know

joining me phil rucker, white house bureau chief for the "washington post." phil, john mccain is one of those old fashioned politician who's didn't mind talking to the president. >> he sure is. and what a night and what a man. there's nobody else like him frankly in the united states senate or in washington and there may never be. kelly and her tribute touched on so many things. one word that stands out is courage. that's what he's been in this three-year period when donald trump has become the leader of his party and now the president of the united states. he's had that courage to step out and speak out and stand up in a way that no other republican of his prominence has been willing or able to do that vote on health care, when he came in in the middle of the night and did a thumbs down because he didn't think that bill was good enough. all the way to the helsinkira, which were i think important for mccain and one lils last final acts as a senator. >> and phil, this is awkward for the white house as we've been reporting because. >> very awkward. >> there's no

so phil rucker, let me ask you.great reporting on where the president's mind-set is and the team around him. what do you anticipate coming here in the next couple of days? you know, this weekend is going to be dominated by the coverage of mccain. the president is going to be holed up in the white house, undoubtedly watching. where do you see him going this weekend, in response to the funeral coverage, but also, as we turn the corner, september 1st, we hit labor day, we're into the stretch run before the midterms. >> yeah, that's a good question. i think we'll see the president trying to get on the offensive, as best he can, to stoke some controversies, like he did this week with his attack on google. trying to create new enemies, new foils, new things that can really motivate his supporters to turn out. he's not trying to persuade independent voters who have already turned solidly against him in this election, he's trying to mobilize, to give his people out in the country a reason to come out in november and vote fo

this is the washington post reporting ashley parker and phil rucker. some who have appeared most effective countering trump employ his tactics such as michael avenatti, attorney for stormy daniels, they are relentless, create drama, hold news cycles hostage and dribble out tantalizing tidbits. they are masters of what donald trump lives and dies by. >> she has everything. she has tape, sound, powerful, the receipts as we call them. >> right. >> in a whitneyism. she's doling it out and tvs still can't get enough of her. this is the trump play book and the amazing this is there has never been more media, there has never been -- there can be so much content. there's a pact following, the kids following the soccer ball aspect and she's got the soccer ball right now. >> let me push back a little bit. it's not that we can't get enough of her. the president won't stop engaging her. i don't think we would have led with it if donald trump hadn't got on twitter and called her a dog. >> even though his aides disagree and people reportedly trite to rein him in, th

>> actually all of you guys, phil rucker, reverend al, jess, john, you guys are all goats of a way and my goat we mean the greatest of all time. that does it for this hour. i was in for nicolle wallace. she will be back next week and you all will be glad. >>> home alone. let's play "hardball." >>> well he is elected to run the country, head the u.s. government and speak for the american people yet gives the impression of a guy alone. even from his own staff, the cabinet he appointed. this is the world of donald trump. we know him from his tweets rather than executive leadership. tweeting from his bedroom while strangers run things down stairs and in the government agencies. i am chris matthews in washington. after months of inaction, his top officials gathered in front of the cameras to issue a strong message. russia is targeted the united states and our democracy is at stake. the trump administration was finally speaking with one voice. well, actually, it is not. just six hours after the president conference, calling it a hoax. boasting of his personal relationship with vladimir putin

. >> phil rucker and michael. thank you. >> thank you on msnbc will share a story a man dedicating his life to helping others, watch "breaking hate" at 9:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. we'll continue this conversation throughout the hour including a humanitarian crisis. a federal judge made a plan to turn around and stop deportation and sharply criticized president trump's ill congratulatimmigrat. >> major developments in the trump's campaign trial. we are watching an unusual recessing in court right now. what's going on? the pelosi problems. 50 democrats of the house saying know to nancy pelosi as house speaker if they win back control. to a world of new cultures to explore. with two times more detail than any other dna test... you can connect more deeply to the places of your past. and be inspired to learn about the people and traditions that make you, you. savor your dna story. only $59-- our site's lowest price ever. but he has plans today.ain. hey dad. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for

. >> stay with us, here in new jersey, phil rucker, as you are brewing of everything that's going on. you say he's privately brewing and publicly roaring as one adviser describes the president thinking he does not believe his son broke the law but is fearful none the less that trump jr. inadvertedly may have wandered into legal johnny deppty. >>ity . >> he's worried about his son and he feels like his son may not have knowingly broken the law or ignorant of the law but may have wandered in some jeopardy here. he's getting nervous because robert mueller and his probe are getting closer and closer to the president and his family and the inner circle. there is a sense inside the trump orbit that another big indictment can come in the next few weeks by mueller as he tries to get some of this work done for the midterm elections kick into high-gear. that speeds up a lot of the president's anxiety and fear. >> there is the piece where the president is trying to and his team put out this public narrative of what they believe happen and the talking point. jonathan, that's what you are writing

>>> my thanks for phil rucker, jennifer rubin, jennifer johnson and ashley parker. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. see you back here monday at 4:00 p.m. >>> this is an msnbc special series. >>> white lives matter. >> hate is on the rise in america. it's em bompt-- normalized. >> the government is nothing compared to the jewish menace. >> and destroying lives. >> there are people who will say, once a nazi, always a fana and that you cannot change who you are. >> but i know change is possible. from the age of 14-22, i helped build america's first neonazi skin-head organization. i believed diversity was a coder for white genocide, immigrants were raping our women and i was going to save the world, recruiting vulnerable kids and transforming them in to violent extremists like me. but now, instead of pulling people in to hate, i'm guiding them out. >> that's a pretty scary thing. >> i know how easy it is to get sucked in to the movement. >> i hated people messing with me. before i was just g-- i was jus gabe, and now i'm gabe the skin head, and everyone r

phil rucker is standing by with the details. >>> and in florida, republican ron desantis accused of racismopponent articulate and urging florida not to monkey this up.

are doing deep investigation at "washington post," "new york times," people like michael schmidt, phil ruckermany others are going to go down in history -- maggie, of course. these are brave figures. in the nixon enemies list, besides morton, paul newman made the list and the great journalist daniel shore, and both of them -- newman said it's the great moment of my life, i made the list. i think 50 years from now people are going to look at this as great journalism going on here and who stood up to a president acting like a despot, and who held the president accountable. you're going to have a who's who of great journalists, working at the new yorker, a lot of them. >> in the history books, that's what really writes the story, the history book. and, i mean, write it in terms of writing it out, and also correcting it as well. facts. so morton, nixon secretly taped you and others within his white house. do you think that the trump administration is using similar tactics? >> i don't think so because as a result of learning about the taping, not only by nixon, but by roosevelt, by kennedy, by eve

president goes out there and maligns the media who are clearly moving this story forward, you had phil ruckerthe great piece talking about how the president is reacting behind the scenes and then mounting his public reaction to it in a very strong and forceful way traying -- trying to say, look. the media can't be trusted. i was in tampa earlier this week and i asked several people that i talked to there, hey. do you think the media are the enemy of the people? to a "t," they all told me yes. i asked why, and they said, they have an agenda and it's different from mine. the idea that facts are shifting and this group of people are willing to look at whatever the president says, and say, i give him the benefit of the doubt and the media are probably lying, fact facts be damned, that's notable when you try to shift the goal post on russia, collusion, and whatever mueller is investigating. >> the president in that very statement that we had on the screen there said, you know, the meeting was legal. that it's just normal in the world of politics, but the difference is in this case is that there is

. >> actually all of you guys, phil rucker, reverend al, jess, john, you guys are all goats of a way and my goat we mean the greatest of all time. that does it for this hour. i was in for nicolle wallace. she will be back next week and you all will be glad. speaking of g.o.a.t.s, "mtp daily" starts now. >> heilemann, you got me to quickly google the men who stare at goats. do you remember that movie? i thought it was going to be extraordinarily funny and, well, i can't quote a single line from it other than the title. >> i can't believe you actually -- that is what this made you think of but i'm glad that it did and that's the kind of movie that you are the ultimate netflix customer. >> john heilemann, i think of you as one of the men who stare at goats. >> have a great weekend, chuck. >> thank you, sir. if it's friday, is the president feeling the heat? tonight, president trump's theater of the absurd of the. >> now we're being hindered by the russian hoax. it's a hoax, okay? >> is manafort's trial motivating the president's escalating attacks on everything from mueller to the media

>>> my thanks for phil rucker, jennifer rubin, jennifer johnson and ashley parker. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. see you back here monday at 4:00 p.m. >>> so it is a small enough range what they're looking for aesthetically that i'm thinking you have to register as having acceptable haircut a, or acceptable haircut b. throws the two lanes that are available to you. under haircut a, we have ben affleck. or josh brolin or mark wahlberg, or jake jillenhall, or chris hensworth or the great anderson cooper or jimmy fallon or that guy from the hurt locker who was so good. i think you would have to put in the category of haircut a, james bond, aka daniel craig. also, bear grylls. i hesitate with these last two though. i can't totally confirm that those aren't just slightly photo shopped copies of the same picture. look. they turned them into exactly the same dude. so those are examples of haircut a in this environment. but don't be fooled into thinking that the aesthetic range is singular. they will also occasionally accept a cover model haircut b. which

reports we saw our friend and colleague ashley parker in "the washington post" in writing on -- and phil rucker writing on saturday that the president is really getting exacerbated, getting increasingly upset. we see the tempo of some of these tweets against the press. increasing. now today he, if he did do it today and we have no way of knowing, they release a picture of him after they so-called put a lid on all of you that there will be no more pictures, no more movements today, nothing to cover and that they release a picture of him signing the sanctions against iran. we'll talk about iran in the next block. but this is normally something he'd do in public. a photo opportunity. reinstituting sanctions against iran and dialing up the rhetoric. doing all of this very much in private. what are you sensing is going on behind the scenes? >> yeah, you point to something that is significant here obviously. this is a president who wants to show all that he is doing. how effective he has been in making america not just great but strong again. so this would have been what you imagine is an opportunity

>>> my thanks to phil rucker, shannon pettypiece and evan mcmullen. that does it for this hour. i'm kasie hunt for in nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> how are you doing? i'm going to be careful in how i say hi, kasie, how are you doing? the last time we got in some twitter trouble so i'll leave it there. >> thanks, chuck. >>> if it's friday, is mueller about to go mum? good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." a lot of people are bracing for more indictments from mueller's probe or the u.s. attorney's investigation in new york. today another manafort associate, this one with ties to russia and cambridge analytica pled guilty and is cooperating with mueller's investigation. we know that one of trump's long-time aides, roger stone, who had a back channel with wikileaks during the campaign is himself expecting to be charged by mueller. stone says he thinks donald trump jr. is going to be charged as well. based on the long trail of mueller's indictments and guilty pleas so far, it seems like some of the folks associated with

>>> my thanks for phil rucker, jennifer rubin, jennifer johnson and ashley parker. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> is it really friday? >> i hope so. i thought yesterday was a friday so i had a very long day. >> this has been a rough friday for you, then. enjoy your weekend, nicolle, thank you. >>> if it's friday, the democratic leader is tangled up in blue. tonight, could a democratic wave at the ballot in november wash away nancy pelosi's power? we have exclusive new reporting on how the tide is turning for one of the biggest power players in capitol hill history. >>> plus, chaos in kansas. the republican gubernatorial primary is still too close to call. we'll dig into the vote counting confusion and the vote counting allegations. >> that's why they're called unofficial results on election night. >> and political bread and butter with heaping sides of fun. my triple fried love affair with the iowa state fair. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. >>> good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington.

phil rucker, msnbc political analyst. matt walsh, reason magazine. and tim o'brien, msnbc contributor. mark, i must go to you first. last night, the man who started the protest, colin kaepernick, tweeted this, my brother continued his protest of systemic oppression tonight by taking a knee. albert wilson joined him in protest. stay strong, brothers. walk us through this, mark. what message does this send? and we need to remind our viewers. this morning, we were going to be leading -- the top story was going to be about immigration, the abomination and the fallout of the disaster that was president trump's zero tolerance policy. probably number two story would have been space force. which we cannot find anyone in the republican party or the military to back. maybe number three would be paul manafort, roger stone, the manhattan madam. all of those stories, you know who doesn't like them, the president of the united states. so he has decided to tweet yet another wildly -- i'm not going to say what it is. he's tweeted about the nfl. what do you think, ma

and also msnbc political analyst phil rucker. mark, i'll start with you. a lot to get to. a lot to break down. i want to start with a simple question, have you ever heard the president use the "n" word? >> absolutely not. nothing close to it. i've traveled with the president, the vice president, for almost two years now, when i was on the camcampaign, in the white house. i never heard him say anything like that. >> have you ever heard him use any type of racial slur, say anything derogatory toward people of color or minorities? >> no. the president speaks bluntly and plainly, but he doesn't speak in those kinds of terms, that i have ever heard him say. these are consistently out of character. >> just to do a quick fact-check in terms of what omarosa said about the "apprentice" tapes, we heard rumblings of them on the campaign trail, did anyone ever say to you, i heard him use the "n" word during one of the outtakes on the "apprentice"? >> no, never. the thing is, those rumors were out there for years. you keep hearing about it, but no one could come up to me and say, i've

president and he would go for 20, 30 minutes taking questions from people like bob costa's colleague, phil rucker, for example, and others who are part of the pool. it's unfortunate we don't have that opportunity today, but we'll see how the rest of the week shakes out. >> it seems like a bill shine move if i were a betting person. >> what's interesting is the way bill shine has come in, there is a lot of talk that he's working on the lighting. i think it's a bit of a broader strategy as well of trying to focus different days on different issues, right? so, for example, on a day when you might be talking about the iranian sanctions, make sure that the focus is on that. i think you will see more of a strategic communications plan. although, i'm old enough to remember when anthony scaramucci wanted to do that too. >> bob costa, it seems as though the last round of tweets may have been sparked by a story that you all wrote about the president's thinking and state of mind. you write, quote, as one advisor described the president's thinki thinking, he does not believe his son purposefully broke the la

phil rucker, he's concerned donald trump jr. might have stumbled into some illegal territory on his own. also, he's got to be concerned about the fact that it's going to be coming out, not only whether it's in the manafort trial or somewhere else, that it was obvious the meeting was to get information from foreign nationals which is a crime. lawyers running around collusion is not a crime. anybody knows -- a low he ranking congressman like i was in my first year understood you can't get an in kind contribution from mullahs in iran or vladimir putin in russia. >> that's right, joe. the president is concerned. he's anxious, fearful about where this is all headed. his legal team is focused on that trump tower meeting as they have been for some time. that's a key moment in the mueller investigation. our reporting, despite what the president tweeted in response to it very much is that he's worried about don junior, expressed that worry to people he's been talking to on the phone, privately brouting about this. mueller seems to be inc

. >>> just ahead, phil rucker's latest reporting on republicans' secret weapon for the midterms -- donalds called keep america great exclamation point, exclamation point. keep america great. >> we will make america decent again. >> we gained $7 trillion. trillion with a t, trillion. i have wealthy friends like harold hamm, he doesn't even know how many a trillion represents. i said harold, how many billion are in a trillion. i'm not sure he could answer that. >> just thinking about covering that. >> so, yes, avenatti aside, phil, you have new reporting on donald trump jr.'s sort of surprise stepping into a role on the campaign trail? >> that's right, he's in a heap of legal trouble in the russia investigation, because of that donald trump tower meeting he held to get dirt on hillary clinton, it's a huge subject of the mueller probe. in a normal world, that would be political baggage. it seems that in trump's world that makes him a star surrogate on the campaign trail. he's going to be stepping up his campaign appearances in the fall and the president gave us a statement for our story sayi

there's the language, phil rucker, and as you cover the white house there's the question as we look ataze, lying lowlife and put her inside the west wing if she was so terrible. >> yeah, willie, and he didn't just hire her, but he kept her in the job for a year. he tweeted yesterday she was not showing up to work, she would miss meetings, her colleagues didn't like her, she was hated inside the building and you wonder why he protected her for so long, why he kept her in that job. it wasn't just any job. she was an assistant to the president, making a top salary of $180,000 a year. she was in the senior staff meetings. she had access to the oval office. she had broad responsibilities, and paid for by the taxpayers. you wonder where the management decisions were made, why they were made and why she stayed so long. >> here's the reason he gave yesterday in a tweet. he said, when general kelly came on board he told me omarosa was a loser and nothing but problems. i told him to try to work it out if possible because she only said great things about me. that's why she remained in her positio