please welcome robert harris. we are experiencing a remarkable moment and the upcoming churchill biography. sparking the renewed interest in him. your focus is on chamberlain. your take is a little bit more sympathetic than we are accustomed to seeing. it is a very kind introduction. it is typically perverse. i wanted to write the book. thirty years ago. i did a documentary to mark the 50th anniversary of the agreement. and met hitler in his apartment. treatment with daughter it was fascinating and i realized that a lot of what i had grown up with. and even then although i've never written and not all i heard it would be interesting to write from another point of view with the secretary. his wife having would he make a stand. i toyed with that idea for many years. never really expanded into a novel. in the next couple of years ago. i read a diary kept by the german historian. i wrote the biography of hitler. in 1969 he asked spear about munich and he said hitler was in a foul mood for two weeks. and he took it out

ladies and gentlemen, please welcome robert harris. [applause] we are experiencing a remarkable moment with films and television shows and upcoming biography sparking a renewed interest if your focus on the novel is on nebo chamberlain and your take is a little more sympathetic than we are accustomed to seeing. can you tell us what motivated you to write about him and the conference? >> thank you for that kind introduction. i suppose in a way it is because of that, but i wanted to write a book 30 years ago i did a documentary about the agreement and talked to the pastor who accompany the chamberlain on the plane and chamberlain stalker. it was fascinating and i realized i grew up thinking i knew about nebo chamberlain that was wrong in approaching it and even the then although i've nevr written a novel i heard it would be interesting to write from the point of view who might be facing in his private life a crisis in his marriage similar to the crisis but despite having an affair and i toyed with that idetheidea for many years but nr re

robert harris, thank you very much. >> please. thank you.woodruff: next, we turn to another installment of our ekly brief but spectacul series where we ask people to describe their passions. tonight, we hear from comedian phoebe robinson. p she co-hosts tcast "2 dope queens" from wnyc studios.ia her hbo spl of the same name, airs this friday. >> i'mrom cleveland, ohio, the i was the only black girl in my grade. and i was just like really dorky. i wasn't cool. like i didn't go to hiool parties. i would later find out about all these parties where people were making out and i was legit atin home watthe west wing being like, "i think i'm like donna." recently i looked back at a clip of me doing standup at gotham medy club and i had this tiny, tiny babfro and still as flat chested as i am now but i was smaller, i was like a size two, now i'm a 10. what up double digits. but it's kind of cool to see myself from like a 24 year old to now a 33 year old doing comedy and actually like having success at it. two dope queens, jessica and i met four year

. >> harris: john roberts tors is not from the lawn. >> good afternoon. his ten play just long versus from the republican memo that was released last friday. the nsc national security council, the white house counsel's office will be reviewing it. and it's also been given to the department of justice. it wasn't the white house that did that. my understanding is that it was the minority in the house permanent select committee on intelligence can send it over to the doj for review and is interesting that we have not heard the same concerns from the doj and fbi about the democratic memo that we heard about the republican memo last week. sarah sanders, the press secretary's statement this morning saying the white house has received a memorandum for the minority members of the house select permanent committee on intelligence, stated many times they've administration will follow the same process and procedure with this memorandum from the minority as it did last week when it received a memorandum from the majority. as you play just a second ago, adam schiff who

harris: fox news alert now. another new development in the russia probe. now special counsel robertller has charged a prominent new york attorney by b. lying to investigators last communication with former campaign aid rick gates who was indicted in november. that attorney is expected to plead guilty in a little while we're told. chief intelligence correspondent kathleen herrige is live for us with the details. catherine? >> the court hearing begins over an hour from now. fox news crew got footage of the lure is expected in court just as he arrived at the fbi wants washington field office a few blocks from here. according to court records made public this morning, he lied federal agents on november 3rd, 017 about his contact with the target of the special counsel russia investigation and their conversations about a year earlier, two months before the presidential election. guilty plea is expected in the case and it's standard to finalize outstanding issues at the fbi field office before court. court records alleged a lawyer lied about his last contact with rick gates who was indicte

. >> harris: chief white house correspondent john roberts now on the north lawn, john? harris, good afternoon to you. we are on day eight. rather than things getting better for the white house they are actually, as you point out, taking a turn in a much more dramatic direction. we have known for the last week that there were serious allegations leveled against the former white house staff secretary rob porter. the most serious among them that on a vacation in italy, back in the early 2,000s, he allegedly, according to his first wife, punched her in the eye, giving her a black eye. the fbi yesterday came forward in the form of christopher wray at a hearing on the senate intelligence committee to challenge the white house's time line of events which then forced the white house yesterday to adjust its time line again. let's listen to what sarah huckabee sanders said. >> the fbi portion was closed. the white house personnel security office, who is the one that makes a recommendation for adjudication had not finished their process and, therefore, not made a recommendation to

>> harris: john roberts, thank you very much. we are awaiting that news conference now in florida to begin. we should tell you that florida democratic senator it's a state lawmaker there, lauren book has helped organize. this she will be with the students. just moments ago, some of those majorry stoneman douglas high school students were at the lecturn and now you are seeing local officials speak. it isn't just the students from parkland but they are there now to head up a news conference when that happens. we will take you there live. you know, kennedy, presidents can weigh n a lot of different ways in this instance. when you see an enominee ration, a lisenumeration a listt crosses your mind? >mind? >> fothe fact that he is a bottom line president and more malleable makes him more men to be bipartisan. and, you know, here you have that bipartisan bill co-sponsored by a republican from texas, john cornyn. and i think the president will be more open to that yes, he has got a huge endorsement from the nra and he understands the val

harris: for the record i didn't say rumors, i said reporting. there is a big difference. i will say that on that. john roberts, thank you very much. >> you bet. >> harris: pete hegseth, it's been 8-plus days on this. , which regardless of what the subject matter is, when a white house communications department is focused on an issue that is negative for the white house for eight days, what does that tell you? >> well, it means at some level it wasn't handled the way that it should have been. i will tell you this. i'm not here to defend rob porter. >> harris: you can't. because you don't know all the facts. we don't know all the facts. pete pete or anyone involved in domestic abuse at all. that's on the table completely. did rob porter not get fired and did the white house not take action? he doesn't work there anymore, does he? ultimately. consequences came down the pike. why are we still talking about this 8 days later? i just think it's -- it's a process story that washington is obsessed with. this guy got canned because he should have. rest of america wants to know what we're doing about china. they want t

. >> harris: john roberts, i know that you are going to school to the briefing room, we appreciate youoming in and telling us the details ahead of that. thank you very much. let's bring in stephen hayes, editor in chief of the weekly standard and fox news contributor. always great to see you. i know your publication is also covering the story. so rob porter is gone, second employee of the white house accused of domestic violence of their staff is gone. and you've got some in discrepancy, some discrepancies between the timeline of the fbi and the white house. what is the take away and all of this? >> i think they were too. the white house quite plainly didn't take seriously credible allegations of domestic abuse leveled against at least one of its very senior officials made that abundantly clear. the white house was telling one story, christopher wray is telling an entirely different story in mind we have heard in news reports from the ex-wives of rob porter that they have been talking to the fbi about these allegations long before the white house insist that they have. >> harris: you k

>> harris: let's talk about special counsel robert mueller.eportedly looking into president trump's business dealings with russia before the 2016 gain. something that could cross a red line for the president, which he said before. this has gotten wide ranging. the power panel stays, you two. too. liberty mutual insurance. let's team up to get the lady of the house back on her feet. and help her feel more strength and energy in just two weeks yaaay! the complete balanced nutrition of (great tasting) ensure with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. ensure. always be you. ♪ i'm walkin♪ wow! nshine ♪ i'm walking on sunshine ♪ wow! ♪ applebee's handcrafted burgers. any burger just $7.99. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. >> dana: hi, everyone, i'm dana perino, attorney general jeff sessions issuing a response to president trump's tweet about him. we will tell you what sessions is saying now. senate democrats signaling they won't back a bipartisan bill beefing up background checks. chris wallace weighs in on that and on the movi

there's no evidence of collusion, no evidence of wrongdoing. >> harris: where does it stand right now the president sitting down with robert mueller and his investigation? >> again, the president has been very cooperative and we've been very cooperative with the special counsel. >> harris: i know that his attorney has him looking at possibly some way to make that happen. has the ball moved at all on that? >> i would have to refer you to his personal attorney. >> harris: i just want to press in a little bit because both these people, rick gates and paul manafort -- he heard catherine herridge say a legal piling on with all of this. it's a pressure point. the no knock door raid on paul manafort at that very early morning raid. what's the white house's response to these former campaign workers? >> of these actions, these indictments do not have anything to do at the white house. they have nothing to do with the president. president trump today has been focused on dealing with this issue of school safety, as we know we've experienced a tragedy in park in florida. this week alone, he spent time with family, students come along

that could facilitate the end of robert mueller as special counsel. harry lipman, a former u.s. attorney worked with rachel brand as a clerk for supreme court justice anthony kennedy, justice analyst matt miller a former chief spokesperson for the department of justice under president obama. let me start with you, harry. knowing rachel brand, having been very high up in a political position at the doj, what do you make of this? >> look, what i don't make of it is that the walmart offer was just irresistible and she couldn't say no. i mean, in terms of why she left, there's a sort of divide in washington between the kind of credentialed conservatives and the traditional stripe and then the kind of trump infidel. she's very much in the first camp and that correlates with people who would be more likely to resign than to fire bob mueller. but for her, you know, there's a lot of reports how miserable it is to work there. i think that's right. it's miserable not just day to day there but in the whole sort of dinner party circuit. her the people she you know goes around town with they

. >> harris: new developments in robert mueller's russian investigation, now cnn is reporting that trumpawyers argue the special counsel has not yet met the requirements required it to interview a president in person. they want proof that only the president can provide the information that that to the team is seeking. if denied an interview, me a could issue a subpoena, leading to prolonged court battles. this is the investigation that is reportedly narrowing in on a phone conversation the president had with white house communications advisor, hope fixed, where the two decided to release a meeting between donald trump jr. and the russians was about adoption. plus, the doj turned over documents about jeff sessions at previous offered resign from his post. and that president trump asked rod rosenstein if he was on my team during the white house meeting. there is a lot to this, buck. what is the bottom line? >> buck: you keep hearing about these concerns about whether or not you can trust public officials, if they act in it this way, then i hear about these comments. and then i think about

. >> harris: howard, i heard you this is a necessarily touched the robert mueller investigation, butyou think that this pays for maybe impugns or causes us to question other investigations? >> melissa: i think from a legal perspective, we wouldn't know. these are the argument that you guys are having from a legal perspective, maybe people wouldn't have done what they did and maybe we would know about it. >> harris: that's what i'm asking. the bottom line. the drumbeat that you'll see on some media outlets as well, this is all about president trump writing to fire mueller. so what i'm asking is, can you shut that down or can you enlighten it? what does this do? does it do one thing or the other? >> howard: remember, mueller is not involved in any of these pretty came and we find out about the rogue agents, took them off the case and he is now looking at obstruction. i'm not saying he has a case but here's the bottom line. there's been so much fears partisanship surrounding this issue, surrounding this memo that we are going to get the democratic counterattack, a lot of people followin

in obviously i'm with the group that thinks it's a witch-hunt. >> harris: should the president sit down with roberter? when he said he would love to, this is a classic example of where people don't listen to what donald trump says. he says he would love to. but he adds the caveat at the end where he says i will listen to my lawyers. >> sandra: alan dershowitz says he is not going to have a choice. he can be subpoenaed. >> yeah. i would love for the president -- i mean, what is he going to say different than what he says all the time. he testifies every day. >> maria: they don't have a time sequence. >> harris: very different. comes from the grand jury. that's not one-on-one with a prosecutor who has, you know, kind of made it the business of finding out whether or not people are telling the truth or lying. >> this is a bad jury pool for donald trump. >> i guess the question comes down to which element would be better for the president? sitting down with robert mueller and his team or waiting for a subpoena to come? it's a very different. >> maria: i think sitting down with mueller absolutely would

roberts is in for bret. >> quiz, what else is harry truman famous for? >> greg: he had a secret tunnel?ve office building. >> juan: way to go, john. >> john: president trump backs efforts to improve federal background checks as florida shooting survivors challenge washington to do something about guns. the kremlin says indictments over russian election interference proves nothing and politicians and one u.s. state want to improve election security by going back to the past. this is "special report" ." good evening. welcome to

robert also told me magnet harry and dean rusk that vietnam was his fault and his fault alone. something was absolutely wrong, but it was revealing about that. edgar hoover appeared -- appealed to the worst in lyndon johnson. it has been repeated that lady bird johnson appealed to the best. in formingr role some of these ideas that were a part of the great society? mr. woods: thanks. she was not involved in policy. manic-depressive he knew it. -- depressive. he knew it. he could work himself into an absolute frenzy, and he would go to these long times of depression, he would not get out of bed, he became paranoid. of 1964,e convention when the mississippi freedom democratic party was challenging the regular party and causing so bed stress, he took to his and declared he was going to take his marbles and go home. she was the counteraction. she was the emotional support, that kind that gave him context and balance. she appealed to his better nature, if you will. she has a story in her own right. she came to -- her father and her folks in alabama were hardline racists, hard, tough

roberts is in for bret. >> quiz, what else is harry truman famous for? >> greg: he had a secret tunnel? >> john: the bowling alley in the executive office building. >> juan: way to go, john. >> john: president trump backs efforts to improve federal background checks as florida shooting survivors challenge washington to do something about guns. the kremlin says indictments over russian election interference proves nothing and politicians and one u.s. state want to improve election security by going back to the past. this is "special report" ." good evening. welcome to washington. i am john roberts in for bret baier. there are signs of movement tonight on gun control in the blistering reaction to last week's school shooting in florida. president trump is indicating he would be in favor of efforts to improve federal background checks for gun purchases. this comes at some of the survivors are making plans to go to the state capital this week in march on washington next month, as they demand change. correspondent steve carrigan start us off tonight parkland, florida, . good evening, steve. >

. >> harris: let's bring in former justice department official robert driscoll. house oversight committee chairman jason chaffetz. we are fortunate to have you both a long along. robert, i'm going to cut to you first if i can. just on what we should be looking out at the doj. if this is phase two and you've got the state department, what should face two look like? >> i suspect what he's referring to is there's been some stories that the state department also compiled information or was used to funnel some information about the trump dossier to the either steele himself or the fbi. this doj memo is still important to look at in terms of what procedure it followed and i think regardless of the politics of it it is still a very serious law enforcement issue that needs to be looked at if you have unverified information essentially being presented by political allies to the department. that's serious regardless of the context. i think sometimes the context of the presidential campaign nature where it came up overshadows it and that is a civil rights problem to have a

harris faulkner. he is expected to plead guilty in the robert mueller investigation just a day after being slapped withcatherine herridge is alive for us in washington. the big question everyone has is, this isn't really connected with where robert mueller was going in the first place. fill us in. >> just within the last hour, this 25 page of the superseding indictment has been made available for the court. you can think of it as a road map for the hearing that's coming up just an hour from now. i read to the documents, and i

why robert wagner is being called a person of interest. >>> prince harry and meghan markle step out as she gives her first royal speech. >>> and countdown to kickoff. excitement building over super bowl lii from flew fears to security to snacks. we have it all covered for you live from minneapolis today friday, meb air 2nd, 2018. >> from nbc news, this is "today," with savannah guthrie and hoda kotb, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >>> and good morning, everybody. welcome to "today." thank you for being with us on a friday morning. it's almost super bowl day. when you care enough to send your very best, you send al and craig to minneapolis. >> yes, they are there. >> is that what we are? the very best? >> i heard they did -- >> here in the bold north. >> i heard they did some ice fishing. we've got a lot to get to with them. we're going to find some fans that are outside in the plaza that will be happy when it comes to the super bowl. >>> we have our top story to get to. the controversial republican memo causing an uproar in washington. it could be made public as early as tod

roberts of the white house. it will be released sometime this week here. >> harris: we appreciated here.ow, my first guest says that the memo contains every relevant fact. he was one of the first lawmakers urging for it to be released. it sits on the house intelligence committee. you know, nancy pelosi and others, democrats across the political aisle are saying that perhaps this memo, including -- that it has been changed in some way. i want to start there with you. i want to know what changes have been made it to the memo before its potential release. >> the democrats change their arguments every day. as far as i know, and this was discussed the other night, there is only one change that i am aware of, it may have been a grammatical change. 3-forwards in the memo, which everyone knows about. but the protocol and, the fbi did not want it included. it does not change the substance. it is a political issue. that is it. there is no way that any of the substance or spirit of the memo has been changed, so the democrats are just throwing a totally phony issue out there. >> harris: you will we

robert jeffers, senior pastor at first baptist dallas. that and more. back to you. >> thanks, harris. this is a fox news alert. we are awaiting to hear from broward county, florida, school superintendent, scheduled to hold a news conference just moments from now. students at marjory stoneman douglas high school returned to classes today, exactly two weeks after a mass shooter opened fire on campus, killing 17 people. most of them students. we will bring you that news conference when it begins. >>> president trump's border wall clearing a hurdle. a federal judge ruling that the government could ignore environmental laws to begin construction. the president celebrating the decision this morning. of course by tweeting, saying big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows u.s. to proceed. our country must have border security. the federal judge handing down the decision, the same judge then candidate trump accused of being bias because of his mexican heritage. the judge was born in the great state of indiana. david, where does that take us with the wall? >> it gives us an

. >> harris: he called it a witch hunt, he goes beyond frustration. should this president sit down with robert muller for the special investigation he's put forth? based on everything we know now. >> i think he has no choice. i think in our political system, if president trump were not to sit down with bob muller it would seem that he is guilty, he did it. he has no choice. i know smart lawyers say never sit down with an investigator, i don't think donald trump is a choice. >> harris: always great to see you. have a great weekend. let's bring in now brett bear who is the anchor of special report, he has an exclusive with devin nunes. as a story is breaking we are learning new elements, what can you tell us? >> i know you talked about this and you've gone down what we're learning from this memo but just to boil it down a few points, confirmation that the dossier was in fact use to get surveillance. 90 day extensions for the surveillance have been under jim call me, andrew mccabe, sally yates. under rod rosenstein. two of those were trumped people who extended the 90 day surveillance. that bruce

francisco stanley roberts kron 4 news (justine) actress emma watson is donating more than one-point-four million dollars to help sexual harassment victims.watson, known for her roles in the harrylms, is giving the money to the justice and equality fund. it's a part of a crowdfunding campaign started by women in the british entertainment industry in response the #metoo movement. more than two-hundred british stars signed an open letter calling for an end to sexual harassment at work. all-star weekend is supposed to be a time for relaxation, but that doesn't really apply to the warriors. the champs busy in l-a... as the golden state contingent has four players on the roster. --let's get to the action. steph curry and lebron...your team captains that assembled the lineups. --early on, we're seeing the starpower. . russell westbrook... sets up the alley oop for lebron. ájust look at how much air he got on that one. --curry...struggled early, missed his first 6 shots. converts that one late in the 2nd for his first three. --good thing he brought his splash brother. klay thompson..dropped 15 in the first half...all from downtown. --out of the break, you can tell how serious this gam

in this case, harry, we know the judges are appoint owned a rotating basis by the supreme courts chief justice. in this case john robertsdo we know anything else about who the judges are? >> yeah, we do. there's a list. it is clear that their work is secret. their identities are are generally not. we know about 80% of them. we know the battle has been with republicans in recent years. we know about court paeappeals t can occasionally hear about denial of warrants. we do know something about them. and the ones we do know about are from the extreme in the country. this is not parcelled out. it is a serious business. >> chuck, is there a safe mechanism in place that if in fact we are saying from a devil's advocate point of view, not just carter page. but if an american citizen was wrongly caught up in fisa court application, is there an pale once they realize they have been targeted -- the target after surveillance? >> there is a bunch of places to go if there is a mistake or concern about a process, amman. releasing a partisan memo is not the way to go. can you go to the fisa court or inspector general at department of ju

robert, thank you. for more on, this david hop peu is a former chief of staff for ryan paul. mark pen is chairman of the harris poll and president and managing partner of the stagwald group. i understand the president has been having conversations with the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, and paul ryan. and if congress is going to do anything this year, as i understand it, because the speaker of the house said the house has already passed a background bill/concealed carry law, or bill, that they're gonna wait for the senate to take action. is that the most prudent way to go about this? >> dana, i think that it's perhaps the best way to expedite it because you have one house that's already active. the senate would pass it without a concealed carry in it, then they could go to conference and figure it all out. background checks can go more quickly. bump stocks can go quickly probably. but if you look at something like mental health, that's something that's gonna take time to work out. because the president said in his remarks, there was no place to put this young man who was suffering. they couldn't put

. >> harris: he does have supporters, orrin hatch has supported him today, saying if this is true, he should get help so he can segue back into politics. john robertsgreat to see you today. thank you for breaking this down for us. >>> the clock is ticking whether the president will okay the release of the democratic memo that allegedly counters gop claims of obama era surveillance abuses by the fbi, and justice department. john kelly has given white house lawyers until the end of today to make recommendations on how to handle the document. then kelly will brief president trump, who has until saturday to decide whether he wants to block its release, and whether any redactions will be made before it is made public. here's republican congressman, peter king, earlier today. >> i've read the memo. i've read it several times, and i want it out there. i want people to be able to compare the republican memo and the democratic memo, as i read it, i show nothing in there that rebutted any of the main points we made, any of the points we made. >> sandra: he told me that if any redactions have to be made, he said the president shouldn't do them. he should give

. >> harris: fox news has obtained thousands of brand new text messages exchanged between anti-trum trump fbi officials peter strzok and lisa page. the pair who worked at one point for robert mueller's investigation alleged collusion between the trump campaign and russia. those text messages are raising more questions about bias within the agency, the fbi. and whether president obama got involved in the investigation into hillary clinton's emails. just weeks out from the election. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has more from washington. great to see, catherine. >> thank you, harris. these text messages were sent in september 2016, two months after the fbi closed the clinton email investigation, recommending against criminal charges. and two months into the bureau's russia probe. and then fbi agent strzok to lisa page talking points to lisa comey, page replies yes because potus wants to know everything we're doing. it's not clear from the text alone whether truck an strzok ad page are referring to either investigation or something else. on interview on "fox news sunday" at the height of the fbi's criminal case president obama insisted he had no special