phil rucker, jill colvin, harry litman. thank you so much for starting us off tonight. >>> and coming up, if you listen carefully from washington to new york, you can still hear the echoes of michael cohen's testimony before a life television audience. it has brought fresh troubles to this president, his former friend and boss. >>> and later, donald trump is not a pilot, but he has flown on jets a lot. and so he has weighed in on aviation and avionics today. we'll talk about it tonight as "the 11th hour" just getting under way on a tuesday night. >>> it's been nearly two weeks since michael cohen's testimony, and it already may have triggered new investigations. as we told you here last night, "the new york times" first reported that the new york state attorney general subpoenaed deutsche bank and investors bank for financing records related to trump organization projects, and another loan trump sought to buy the buffalo bills of the national football league. the president clearly unhappy with the news said today, quote, ne

i'm in the phil rucker camp on this. i would like to see exactly what is in those notes, those edits, before i would be willing to say how significant they are, but if, for instance, they are changes that are tracked and linked back to sekulow, and if it can be proven it was actually him, not someone editing for him, or if they're in handwriting that can be linked to individuals, this evidence, again, is building blocks in a chain that is equally useful for mueller and for the folks up on capitol hill. >> melanie, it's an interesting strategy that michael cohen has turned to after being smeared and branded. and i guess he's been convicted of lying. he is now not asking us to believe him but showing us the documents. the six checks that we mentioned at the top of the show in the "new york times," and we'll get to all of those in a minute. that's some incredible reporting that on a normal day would lead this show for at least one day, maybe two. but this edited testimony to me seems like something he knew he had, he could

thankfully back with us are phil rucker and laura lopez. i'm told jeff murkily and there's a reason we're listing only those democrats not running. what do hickenlooper, hensley and merkle, what underserved markets do they fill? >> i think more importantly they're going to be advocates for particular issues. in the case of ensly as you saw in his interview a couple of hours ago on this network with rachel maddow he cares hugely on climate change. hickenlooper is running on his economic record and other aspects in colorado. and in the senate. back in 2016 he was the only u.s. senator to endorse bernie sanders in the democratic primary. what it tells us is that the democratic party sees a huge >> laura, let's get closer to that. i have nbc news "wall street journal" polling which may not be great news for bernie sanders and to a lesser extent, joe biden. both of those gentlemen would turn-0 years old during their theoretical first term in office. this is kind of the bottom of the poll. another way to put this is, democrats were asked what two

thankfully back with us are phil rucker and laura barron-lopez. hil, now i'm told jeff merkley has an event tomorrow. there's a reason we are thinking of listing instead only the democrats not running because it's going to be economically advantageous for our graphics department after a while. what do hickenlooper, inslee and merkley, to name three, bring to this race? what underserved market do they fill? >> first of all, brian, they come from states that have not had presidential contenders recently. washington state, oregon and colorado. i think more importantly they're going to be advocates for particular issues. in the case of inslee as you saw in his interview a couple hours ago on this network with rachel maddow, he cares hugely about climate change. and wants to make that the sole top issue on his agenda and will really try to use that spot on the debate stage probably to force that issue into the conversation. you know, hickenlooper's rung on his economic record and other aspects of his governorship in colorado. and merkley's running as a

let me start with you, phil rucker.theories, but take me through the relapse into mccain derangement syndrome from the man in the oval office. >> well, i'll see if i can do that, nicolle. i mean, trump has been nursing a grudge about john mccain for more than three years now. go all the way back to the first big controversy of trump's presidential campaign in august of 2015 in iowa where trump made a really flippant remark about mccain, saying "i like heroes who weren't captured" and he got tremendous heat and blow-back on that including from the republican national committee and throughout the party establishment, and trump instead of apologizing to mccain and commending his war service just dug in and ever since then, mccain has been sort of a ghost in trump's mind, somebody he can't shake. he was really bothered by that health care vote, obviously, but it's been other things. i was with president trump in hanoi, vietnam, just a couple of weeks ago and trump was there for the summit with kim jong-un, but the summit wa

phil rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post," former u.s. attorney joyce vance, betsy woodruff, daily beast political reporter and with us at the table nbc news national political reporter heidi przybyla and associated press white house reporter jonathan lemire. let me start with you, joyce vance, and take us through this framework laid out in politico about what these final chapters, if that's where we are in the mueller probe, could bring in terms of revelations and if not mueller sort of pulling back the curtain, then what we might learn in the court dates and deadlines this week. >> so i think it's always important for us to remember that prosecutors know a lot that's not public about an investigation. so we're reading their tea leaves, sometimes we're successful, other times not so much. but i would be cautious about what we can expect to learn in the coming days. doj policy is not to reveal the existence of let alone the progress of investigation, so when we learn that investigations are in progress, in the southern district of new yor

former obama campaign manager and deputy white house chief of staff jim mussina and matt miller and phil ruckertill with us. phil, i want to start with you because i believe the last thing i read there was from a piece that you wrote. >> that's right. >> tell us about why now the moment arrived for bill shine's exit. >> yeah, john, it was a pretty abrupt announcement today but not altogether surprising. we know just from our reporting the last several months that trump and shine have not been seeing eye to eye entirely. in part because the president expected by bringing in bill shine, the former fox news president, he was going trump presidency would somehow evolve into a much greater place for trump. and that just didn't happen. shine doesn't have a magic wand. he came in to do this job but at the end of the day the president is the president, and the news media, like ourselves, we're just covering what the president does. so he grew frustrated with shine. they were not sort of natural -- there wasn't a lot of natural chemistry there and i think at the end of the day they decided to go separat

phil rucker, julia ainsley. thank you, guys. after the break, federal prosecutors are set to file charges against lawyer avenatti, ranging from embezzlement to extortion. whenever we're about to get on a stage for a huge audience, i always give my dad like a facetime kinda moment. you see the crowd, you see the emotion. you know, he has that experience for the first time with me, and that's really important to me. i created a rockstar. (both laughing) (vo) there for you when it matters most. get iphone xr on us when you buy the latest iphone. and apple music on us with unlimited. only on verizon. it's nice. ♪ you got this! ♪ woo! ♪ ♪ ♪ [zara larsson - "wow"] ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop drop say oh my drop drop drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪ >>> michael avenatti was arrested this afternoon, he's accused of extorting $20 million from nike. avenatti is expected to be charged on los angeles on embezzlement and wire fraud. joining me now our tom winter and here in the newsroom,

the president's associates or advisors might be compromised by the russians. >> let's put up our phil rucker quote on the screen. phil, from your work and your reporting today, this gets at a mueller mystery how trump dodged a special counsel interview. what is known is that the president's lawyers now believe keeping their client from sitting down with investigators was their greatest victory. indeed, phil, laura ingraham congratulated rudy giuliani on live television a few nights back. does that advantage, though, phil, get diminished as days go by and the chance increases that we'll have actual poll quotes from mueller's work? >> perhaps, brian. i mean, one of the things that mueller may actually get into in his report is an explanation for the internal thought process seeking testimony from president trump. we know from our reporting that as far back as thanksgiving of 2017, the special counsel's office was trying to get an interview with president trump because robert mueller and his investigators wanted to try to determine the president's intent when he took actions that were under scr

phil rucker, i want to ask you too about one of the things that we heard that was directly related toampaign which was his comment about elizabeth warren at cpac. >> i should very saved the pocahontas for another year. because i destroyed her political career. i don't want to knock up some of the good stuff and end up with somebody that actually got talents. >> is that the president speaking honestly of how he feels about elizabeth warren? >> we talk about how racist and d degrading this attack is but the president seems to think it worked. >> he feels like it is a good contrast for him going up against elizabeth warren, he calls her pocahontas and a term that many people view as racist. he talks openly about her and his advisers will talk privately about that matchup, that hypothetical matchup in 2020, they think that would be a good race for trump and trump would be eager to run against her. it is a big democratic field. they're not sure if she's going to make it into the nomination and there are other candidates that are fearful than most at the moment. >> eli and phil, thank you v

joining me now, msnbc correspondent kristen welker, phil rucker, and harry litman, former deputy assistant attorney general. kristen, this is an angry president pushing back. we're hearing from sarah sanders as well. are they going to cooperate, are they going to stonewall? what do you think they're going to do? >> in terms of the strategy, andrea, they are on the same page now when it comes to maevenlg messaging. you read the tweet from president trump and sarah sanders echoed that, calling this disgraceful and a fishing expedition. there's that term again. president trump was asked yesterday by our hans nichols if he would in fact cooperate. he said, look, i always cooperate, at the same time this is a witch hunt. based on my conversations, what's going to happen now is the requests will be reviewed by the white house counsel. and by the way, there are of course requests for folks outside the white house, so their attorneys are reviewing those requests as well. the question becomes what may be protected by executive privilege, will they claim that. i anticipate, and i wouldn't be surpris

jake sherman, ben wittis, phil rucker. thank you guys as well. coming up, we'll continue this conversation and look at how high a standard democrats have set for impeachment. but first, we have breaking news. federal prosecutors say it is the largest college admissions scam they have ever seen. at least 50 people are caught up in it, including some famous folks you might know. folks you w so, i started with the stats regarding my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. like how humira has been prescribed to over 300,000 patients. and how many patients saw clear or almost clear skin in just 4 months - the kind of clearance that can last. humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. numbers are great. and seeing clearer skin is pretty awesome, too. that's what i call a body of proof. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious aller

phil rucker, let me ask you about the politics of this. if we indeed are about to go into a kind of dark side of the moon phase where the report will reside with the attorney general who takes his time, he's under no time constraint to move quickly, the democrats on the hill i'm presuming are going to make their presence known to this west wing each and every day of the president's life. >> i think that's right, brian. and they're going to do so in a couple of ways. one is i think as soon as we get word that the report has been transmitted to the attorney general you're going to hear a drumbeat from the democrats in congress about releasing the report in full to the congress, which is effectively releasing it to the american people. they're going to consider this a historical document, something that they need to see in full, as opposed to some sort of abbreviated summary that could come from the attorney general. but secondly, there's a series of oversight investigations that you alluded to in the opening of the show including by the judi

. >> and phil rucker, the democrats are really on defense because they are deflated, clearly, they thought there was going to be more from the mueller report and we don't have the mueller report, all we have is a four-page rewrite of it, if you will, the way the attorney general has presented it. but right now at least on the collusion front, they have a pretty clear statement, at least the section that was quoted, we don't have the backup information. how do they handle this? do they move on? >> yeah, andrea, it does not look like the democrats are going to move on. in fact they're digging in on this question of obstruction of justice and demanding the full report, the full mueller report from the justice department. but the problem for congressional democrats is they have very little information. all they have to go on here is attorney general barr's summary of that finding, and they're having to deal now with the president and his allies really launching an offensive about this and trying to make this a campaign issue in 2020. and there's an emerging divide among the democrats, between

phil rucker, let me ask you about the politics of this. if we indeed are about to go into a kind of dark side of the moon phase where the report will reside with the attorney general who takes his time, he's under no time constraint to move quickly, the democrats on the hill i'm presuming are going to make their presence known to this west wing each and every day of the president's life. >> i think that's right, brian. and they're going to do so in a couple of ways. one is i think as soon as we get word that the report has been transmitted to the attorney general you're going to hear a drumbeat from the democrats in congress about releasing the report in full to the congress, which is effectively releasing it to the american people. they're going to consider this a historical document, something that they need to see in full, as opposed to some sort of abbreviated summary that could come from the attorney general. but secondly, there's a series of oversight investigations that you alluded to in the opening of the show including by the judi

. >> phil rucker to your reporting to the extent to which the president is newly emboldened. >> brian, this is a huge political victory for the president right now and he feels emboldened and empowered. we're going to see him get on the offensive here. he's planning to go tomorrow to capitol hill to take a victory lap with a lunch with the senate republicans there. and thursday he'll head to michigan for a campaign rally where we can expect he'll be talking a lot about this. and he's not a president who's going to, you know, just be pleased with how this turned out and focus on governing and bipartisan. rather he's seeking revenge, retaliation. he's naming his enemies we saw him in the oval office today saying there are people who did evil things to him and the country, and that their acts were, in fact, in his view treasonous so he's not going to let this go and he's going to be digging in for some time trying to seek out recourse. >> ashley, in the interim, if, in fact, the newspaper up here in new york was right in their headline today that a cloud has been lifted from the trump pr

. >> let's put up our phil rucker quote on the screen. phil, from your work and reporting today, this gets at a mueller mystery how trump dodged a special counsel interview, what is known is that the president's lawyers now believe keeping their client from sitting down with investigators was their greatest victory indeed phil, laura ingram congratulated rudy giuliani on live television a few nights back. does that advantage, though, phil, get diminished as days go by and the chance increases that we'll have actual poll quotes from mueller's work? >> perhaps, brian. one of the things that mueller may actually get into in his report is an explanation for the internal thought process seeking testimony from president trump. we know from our reporting that as far back as thanksgiving of 2017, the special counsel's office was trying to get an interview with president trump because robert mueller and investigators wanted to determine the president's intent when he took actions that were under scrutiny in the obstruction of justice investigation

. >>> phillip rucker is white house bureau chief for the "washington post." phil, good morning. >> as kelly mentioned, the republican party has stood by president trump through many a verse circumstance but now a dozen republican senators have voted with the democrats of course to block the president's national emergency declaration. put it into done text for conte. how big of a deal is this rebuke? >> it is significant and it is a rare rebuke. it is so much more significant because it is on his signature issue of immigration. clearly these republicans have been uncomfortable with the president's expansive use of executive power here and were willing to defy him here. and it wasn't just the ones like mitt romney, but there were others as well. marco rubio, roy blunt, across the spectrum these republicans said this was not okay. and they were trying to defend their constitutional powers in the congress. >> i want to turn your focus to what a lot of the world is watching, it took place that terrible tragedy in new zealand. the president again yesterday down played t

. >> joining me now is phil rucker, white house chief for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor. with me tonight's panel, steve kornacki for nbc news. brett stevens for the new york times and msnbc contributor and heather mcgee, senior fellow at demoss. this as arguably been the best week of donald trump's presidency. no impeachment and no more isis controlled territory and no determination on obstruction and no veto overright. michael avenatti was arrested. why change the subject? >> as we know by now, there is not a lot of strategic planning and coordination that goes on inside the trump administration. i'm not sure this was necessarily a deliberate attempt by the administration to change the subject. it certainly handed a lifeline to democrats. democrats won back the house in the 2018 mid-terms in large part because of the health care issue. it was a motivating force for suburban swing voters in key districts to flip to the democratic side and democrats in 2020 are hoping to use issues like health care to have more victories then. it is odd indeed that the trump administratio

in that is something phil rucker took a look at. he will join us on "up" as well. >> so am i. watching. thank you, david. >>> coming up next, oac town hall and the moment she scolded an audience member. the big moment that garnered a headline. the big moment that garnered a headline oh my dr p drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪ ♪ and you never felt this type of emotion ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop drop say oh my drop drop drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪ (driver) relax, it's just a bug. that's not a bug, that's not a bug! (burke) hit and drone. seen it, covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ the matters.ar... introducing the all-new 2019 ford ranger, it's the right gear. with a terrain management system for... this. a bash plate for... that. an electronic locking rear differential for... yeah... this. heading to the supermarket? get any truck. heading out here? get the ford ranger. the only

washington white house bureau chief, my dear friend phil rucker. i go to you first.s comes against the backdrop of democratic infighting over impeachment of president trump. we know the president sent out a number of tweets this morning. i want to share a bit. he writes, i greatly appreciate nancy pelosi statement against impeachment. everyone must remember the minor fact they never did anything wrong while reiterating impeachment is for high crimes i crimes and misdemeanors. so is the white house worried about this paul manafort sentencing at all? last week was a huge victory for them? >> reporter: yeah, they're not worried insofar as they are not directly involved in the manafort sentencing. clearly, president trump is paying close againstattention. he has been for months now quite sympathetic to paul manafort, not shut the door to a pardon of paul manafort. i would expect the president will be following news today and will comment on it in due time and of course some of the questions reporters are going to be asking whether he would consider pardoning his campaign

phil rucker, i barely know where to start with this speech.did seem after the trip from vietnam where he was 12 hours off the news cycle here in washington while he was reportedly up all night watching michael cohen that he did have a lot of feelings and thoughts, things he needed to say. you were on that trip. i mean, what's your sort of overarching view of how this week has gone for the president and where things stand now? >> k.c., it's not been a good week for the president. that summit in vietnam, he came in there with high hopes he would be able to persuade kim jong-un to make a deal. instead left completely empty handed. he couldn't get anything out of the north korean dictator. he was in the air 20 hours going to vietnam, 20 hours going back. meanwhile, everything was hitting the fan here in washington with the testimony. >> very polite way of putting it. >> of his personal attorney michael cohen. that cpac speech, it was not consistented or planned for hscd for planned to talk like that two hours. >> did he have anything on teleprompt

phil rucker, jill colvin, harry litman. thank you so much for starting us off tonight. >>> and coming up, if you listen carefully from washington to new york, you can still hear the echoes of michael cohen's testimony before a life television audience. it has brought fresh troubles to this president, his former friend and boss. >>> and later, donald trump is not a pilot, but he has flown on jets a lot. and so he has weighed in on aviation and avionics today. we'll talk about it tonight as "the 11th hour" just getting under way on a tuesday night. so how are you enjoying your first ncaa tournament? it's just lovely. i'm here to let all these folks know how easy it is to save money on their car insurance with geico- oi oi oi set the pick! kick it outside!! shoot the three! shoot the three!! yessssssss!!!!!! are you...ok? no, no i'm not. i think i pulled a hammy. could we get some ice? just one cube of ice? geico®. proud partner of ncaa march madness®. (coughing) need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel site