everything rudy giuliani said tonight suggests that he will advise the president not to submit to an interview with robert mueller because the mueller investigation is, as giuliani calls it tonight, unfair and a witch hunt. and sean hannity kept that interview going longer than was safe for rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani then wandered into what i've already referred to as these explosive revelations about the stormy daniels case, including that donald trump did in deed know that michael cohen was handling these kinds of things like the stormy daniels for donald trump and was doing it all the time and that donald trump reimbursed michael cohen for that $130,000. we will get to that stormy daniels, michael cohen, trump reimbursement bombshell later in this hour. michael avenatti will join us with his analysis of that. but here is a look at how rudy giuliani explained why the president fired james comey. >> he went on lester holt, lester holt's interview was as good as anybody could do, better than i think any of the people around mueller could have done. lester holt asked him, why did you

is this quintessential rudy giuliani? >> giuliani is kind of a proud bomb thrower, right?ided himself on it. that's always been his kind of mo. he has this kind of operatic quality to him where he likes to draw attention to himself. he didn't do the president any favors today. he basically painted trump into a corner as a liar. the interview was a disaster, in my opinion. >> he said the president liked it. >> objectively speaking, again, the president was painted as a liar, he referred to the money that went to cohen as being funneled through a law firm, which conjured images of money laundering, whether, you know, true or not. it was kind of in sequence with kind of giuliani's behavior over the last few years, which is not really what made him think. right. giuliani was a brilliant tactician, both as prosecutor, as mayor, you know, 9/11, his bombast almost helped. he was courageous, fearless. over the years he's turned far more extreme, questioning obama's patriotism, you know, lashing out at hillary clinton, kind of personal ways and now talking about the fbi as storm tr

and the president himself backed up what rudy giuliani said in a series of tweets. he made several comments about rudy saying he's a great guy, but still learning the subject matter, getting his facts right. he said he just started yesterday, but, of course, i should note it was reported two weeks ago that rudy giuliani was joining the president's legal team. one of those comments there about rudy felt like getting adjusted could have been about the fact that giuliani did announce on fox news yesterday that those americans detained in north korea were being released yesterday. of course, that didn't happen. and the white house and the state department still have not confirmed any of that. that might have been what the president is referencing there, but a fascinating back and forth just there on the tarmac at jba before the president boarded air force one, where he was arguing with a reporter about what he said on air force one about stormy daniels. he was telling the reporter to go back and look at what he said. of course, john and poppy, we both know that on that f

otherwise there's literally no explanation for what rudy giuliani just did. talk about rudy to the rescue, this is terrible thing that he did. i have to think he's getting out in front of some bad facts that he knows, potentially. it's a strategy on part of criminal defense attorney tuesday kind of get all the bad facts out up front. maybe that's the strategy here. that's the only thing i can think of. >> what do you think of that, michael? >> i think that's probably not the case here. i think this guy was just freelancing. remember the first thing he said when he was brought onto the team is i'm going to put this mueller investigation together in a few weeks time and it would be done. >> so hares giving it more fuel now. >> that's right. now he comes on and he says one of two things. either michael cohen made a contribution that was excessive and violated the law or the president made a loan -- received a loan that should have been reported and wasn't reported and that the repayment of that loan was funneled in $35,000 increments in the way i think calculated

rudy giuliani insulted michael avenatti. we will show you what rudy giuliani had to say.we'll show you his attacks on michael avenatti. and michael avenatti is here to respond. an idea sir. get domo. it'll connect us to everything that's going on in the company. get it for jean who's always cold. for the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. give us the data we need. in one place, anywhere we need it. help us do our jobs better. with domo we can run this place together. well that's that's your job i guess. ♪ this time, it's his turn. you have 4.3 minutes to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. find them with the refrigerated desserts. ...nausea, heartburn, when indigestion, rries. upset stomach, diarrhea! nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea! here's pepto bismol! ah. nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. if you have a garden, you know... weeds are low-down little scoundrels. with roundup's sure shot wand, you don't need to stoop to their level. d

rudy giuliani insulted michael avenatti. we will show you what rudy giuliani had to say.we'll show you his attacks on michael avenatti. and michael avenatti is here to respond.t ve got an idea sir. get domo. it'll connect us to everything that's going on in the company. get it for jean who's always cold. for the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. give us the data we need. in one place, anywhere we need it. help us do our jobs better. with domo we can run this place together. well that's that's your job i guess. ♪ let your inner light loose with one a day women's. ♪ a complete multivitamin specially formulated with key nutrients plus vitamin d for bone health support. your one a day is showing. >>> this morning rudy giuliani had a few things to say about my next guest. >> so i got to bring michael avenatti who represents stormy daniels to -- he wants to get a tv show or something. >> yeah. >> he watched your interview -- >> the tv show he can get is ambulance chaser. he's trying to make up for what he thinks -- he's trying to make money. turned out, when you looked at

rudy giuliani now is confirming that. the better of all evils, but the president lies. >> that's the point i was trying to make earlier. one of the reasons sarah huckabee sanders is saying once again, i've already told you -- no, the reason you're being asked over and over is because the stories are changing from the president, from his lawyer, rudy giuliani, from his former lawyer, michael cohen. and i take you back to this. if you did nothing, why are you worried about michael cohen flipping? if you didn't have an affair, why pay stormy daniels $130,000? it just -- none of it adds up. >> and interesting when you heard sarah huckabee sanders being asked about this by peter alexander, she said i don't comment on ongoing litigation when speaking about james comey. i wonder whether they use the terms to not answer questions. >> she does. she's answered questions. she's addressed the stormy daniels situation before. so she doesn't answer questions about ongoing investigations when she doesn't have an answer that president tr

you heard rudy giuliani say as much. imagine if this has come out in october how problematic that would have been. a lot of legal analysts pouncing on those specific remarks and saying that in and of it suggest this payment could have been made to make sure there wasn't damage to the trump campaign. >> well, perfectly teed up our next guest. thank you so much. michael avenatti represents stormy daniels. your reaction to, let's take it from from what we were talking about. rudy giuliani's statement they were trying to make it go away and the timing was october 16th. can you manl what if this had come out around that time. does that make it, in your mind, a campaign contribution? >> well, our position has been the same and that's been it's clearly a campaign contribution. it was made to influence the election. any claim to the contrary is bogus. i'm very disappointed because i had a lot of respect for rudy giuliani, 15, 16 years ago. i thought that the way he handled 9/11 was admirable but he's well past his prime. he's no

hiring of rudy giuliani is not about rudy giuliani's ability to give legal advice. rudy giuliani hasn't been a lawyer for a very long time. it's about his ability go out on television and try to spin this. obvious the president thinks he's taking a beating in the public and often your best legal advice and pest pr advice are at odds. he's chosen pr for the time being. >> i hear peter alexander has sprintd back from the white house lawn where he was one of the reporters yelling questions at the president. i'm hoping he's with us if not we'll keep up the conversation -- there he is. peter, i know you're probably out of breath. thank you for running. you were there, you were in front of the president. he seemed to want to be talking, right? he seemed to want to be getting this off his chest as it relates to rudy giuliani, frankly as it relates to bob mueller jie think that's exactly right. we'll play it four in a moment, but i'll give you some of the highlights. first of all, he had nothing but praise for rudy giuliani. he said he's a great guy. he did say something th

and for rudy giuliani to say yes to the question of did michael cohen make payments to other women, rudyiuliani would have to have been born yesterday. here is the best rudy giuliani could do when he was asked if the president does acknowledge meeting stormy daniels? >> it depends on what you mean by met her. >> there's the picture there. i want to get that fact on the table. >> is giuliani the only person in the america who doesn't know that there is a famous photograph of donald trump with stormy daniels, meeting stormy daniels? so it's impossible not to acknowledge that they met. even if giuliani started on the case yesterday, isn't he supposed to know at least that? reports indicate that giuliani has been speaking to the president every day of the last couple of weeks, but you'd never know that on sunday if you listened to rudy giuliani explaining how and when the president reimbursed michael cohen for the $130,000 paid to stormy daniels. >> the other day you told buzz feed that at some point after the 2016 election michael cohen complained to some people he hadn't been paid by donal

and suddenly rudy giuliani and he probably spoke with the president about this and they all believed presidential kind of thing that they concocted. he goes on tv and supposed to message, supposed to say this is unfair to the president. comey's a liar and all the -- you know, the fbi is unfair and the rest of it and instead he veers off into the stormy daniels territory and ends up telling a story that actually contradicts what the president has said. so the team is infuriated and they say we look stupid and they say it looks like we're calling one play at a time because they are. >> because they are. susan hennessey, when you look at this, it looks like perhaps it's rudy giuliani's objective but it certainly was not the objective of the team at large. do you think this was something that giuliani considered the ramifications of or happy with the outcome of or probably should not be. >> i think we have to consider a complex legal landscape. the daniels litigation. the new dnc lawsuit. emoluments legislation and need the lawyers to be well coordinated. we have actually seen rudy giuli

rudy giuliani needs the same treatment. if you're going to wire tap somebody, it's not the fbi and the department of justice alone. you realize they're going to a federal judge and getting authorization based on evidence to wire tap somebody. he said something else outrageous. he suggested that attorney/client privilege should protect this. let me get this straight. if there's evidence that mr. cohen committed a crime, does that mean as an american citizen he's outside the law and shouldn't be investigated? if there's evidence of a crime, i don't care if you're the president's lawyer. you get the same treatment as i do. the most deadly thing in america is getting between him and a microphone. he's wrong. >> wow. chris, as you follow that, in all seriousness, when we look at the point we have gotten to here and to phil's point, you can't just pop up one day and say i want a wire tap, and they say, oh, sure, we'll put that on for you. there's a process for there and there's a process for very important reasons. >> and to phil

obviously this morning there's all of this rudy giuliani/stormy daniels news. what do you make of it? >> it's discouraging to me. we are seeing the norms that underpin our democracy being eroded at all levels. things that we used to take for granted that we didn't have people who lied to us, that we would get full information and disclosure, that we did have a standard that separated for instance, cabinet officials from lobbyists who do business with their agency. if you see it over and over again and i just worry about the message that its sending to young people for epa, for instance. i worry about this denigration of science. young people are looking at what their future holds. i'm not going to go into government. they don't care about science if that's what i'm interested in. maybe i shouldn't be. maybe i should find another avenue and that's bad, but it's more the assembling of fact and this attack on the freedom of the press. be sceptical of the press, absolutely, with all due respect, you should be sceptical of stories. read both sides and to see both si

and president trump, as you heard, publicly undermined his new attorney rudy giuliani after giuliani created waves for commenting on the stormy daniels matter and then shortly after the president spoke, giuliani himself released a statement attempting to clarify his recent remarks. president trump on clean-up duty. >> rudy is a great guy but he just started a day ago. >> reporter: walking back kpr-- comments from the rudy giuliani. after giuliani appeared on fox news and declared trump had repaid michael cohen for the $130,000 in hush money for porn star stormy daniels' silence. >> rudy knows it is a witch hunt. he started yesterday. he'll get his facts straight -- there has been a lot of misinformation really. people wanting to say -- and i say, you know what, learn before you speak. it is a lot easier. >> reporter: giuliani telling cnn on thursday, you won't see daylight between me and the president. but after suggesting on television the hush money payment to stormy daniels was made to help protect the campaign -- >> imagine if that came out on october 15th, 2016 in the middle of

rudy giuliani dropping a bombshell. he is saying that president trump repaid michael cohen for that $130,000 hush money, that money to stormy daniels. he also talked about what the parameters would be for an interview with the special counsel. as a control enthusiast, i'm all-business when i travel... even when i travel... for leisure. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations- -or paying any upcharges. what can i say? control suits me. go national. go like a pro. "i have antivirus, but my computer's still slow..." "i think it's time for the fixmestick." fixmestick is a plug-in virus removal device. it's the smart, simple way to clean an infected computer, with a whole lot going on inside the stick... [computers sound] "this one got around the antivirus software!" "not a problem." "we're on it." and because it connects to the internet, fixmestick it's always up to date. no one thought much of itm at all.l people said it just made a mess until exxonmobil

there is inside the trump team, specifically friction being generated by former new york mayor rudy giuliani. giuliani now saying the president reimbursed that $130,000 in hush money that was paid out by michael cohen to porn star stormy daniels. since mid january when the story broke, the white house denied president trump knew anything about the payout, which again was made by his personal attorney michael cohen. listen, though, to what giuliani told fox news. >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman 130,000, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money. sorry, i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they funneled it through a law firm. >> funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh, he did? >> yes. >> there's no campaign finance law? >> zero. sean, sean, everybody was nervous about this from the very beginning. i wasn't. i knew how much donald trump put into that campaign. i said 130,000, he's going to do a couple of checks for 130,000. when i

i don't know he will fire rudy giuliani. i would be stunned if we see more of giuliani rather than less. >> four days ago that sarah sanders stood from the podium to say giuliani adds value. tonight, he totally screws up again. a major argument for the president. unless they want to get this out there because, again, maybe they know something -- who knows? >> like chris said, this is like a few days ago with stormy daniels and cohen and the money going into the essential consultant account. giuliani is going out and trying to put one story out to cover up another story. the story that he puts out looks bad as well as the story he was trying to cover up. he is sort of break dancing all over cable news as if he hasn't been paying attention to politics or news or anything in the trump administration for the past year and a half. like chris said, it's one thing to try to get caught up on the first strike. but when you are at a full count, you gotta get in there, dig in and swing or try and put the ball into play. he is doing neit

they're battling with rudy giuliani. there was a phone call this morning that rudy giuliani said i'm not giving you any information. so maybe that could be some of it. but what i will say to you is that for her to say -- for sarah huckabee-sanders, the mouthpiece of the president of the united states to say you don't know me, in certain quarters of this nation, that starts a physical fight. i was very shocked. it was street. i will even go beyond that. it was gutter. and there is no room, no place for that in that white house briefing room. and you know what, she can be mad at what i say right now, tough. i'm a reporter who's going to continue to ask questions. and there was nothing wrong with that question. am i a little upset about it? yes. yes, i am. i am. i am. >> well, phil, you know, you saw the exchange with april there. you heard what jim said. i've seen jim. he's been a bit contentious with him at times. lie after lie after lie. it's a pattern. and it's deliberate, is it? >> it is. let's cut to the chase, don. t

rudy giuliani knows i'm real lawyer. the only person that seems to be ignorant as to the law right now is rudy giuliani in two respects. number one, he suggest that is the only way you can have a campaign finance violation if you use campaign funds for the $130,000. that's not even close to being the law and then secondly he seems to suggest recently in the last hour or two relatting to these wiretap allegation that is the president should have been informed that mr. cohen being wiretapped. not only is that not permitted but that's illegal had anyone done it so i'm confident in my abilities and confident in my client. >> i don't know if you saw but george conway, a noted conservative lawyer in washington, d.c., he was talked about as a possible solicitor general candidate for president trump, his wife happened to be kellyanne conway, he tweeted the description of violation might have been occurred with this quote/unquote loan. if president trump, if michael cohen paid this $130,000 to stormy daniels for election purposes

rudy giuliani said it. so what rudy giuliani right or was he wrong? >> once again i'm not going to comment on ongoing litigation. >> is that litigation? that's not litigation. >> i mean, to me this is just, more than anything, proof that rudy giuliani and trump team-up is going to be a sloppy and very loud one. they're not going to be careful about this. the more rudy is out there, the more he will say things about this. if i can go briefly to the other interview, i do think it's important that a trump-sympathetic subject who spoke to the counsel said this is focused and fair for russian collusion. there's a reason he may be saying that on tv, which is the medium to which the president likes to get messages, and i think that may matter. >> and it counters a lot of speculation from the president's allies that they don't have anything on collusion. here's michael caputo saying, this is not the case. the senate and white house are fishing, the president is spear fishing. here is a pro clearly spooked sitting across that table and the gravity of the situa

so rudy giuliani here trying to clear this up. also trying to make clear this was not a campaign finance violation. of course that has been the central question about this ever since michael cohen did first admit to making that payment. also he's referencing that other bombshell from that interview where he said that the president fired james comey because james comey wouldn't make a public statement that the president wasn't under investigation, something that james comey says he private lily told the presid but didn't want to say publicly. so really rudy giuliani just two weeks on the job here, erika, since he's been announced as the p president's latest lawyer already having to issue a statement clearing up himself comments. >> or making them clear as mud as you pointed out. i want to bring in our analysts. paul, i want to start with you on this. just to go back to what we just got from rudy giuliani, the counsel to the president, right? so counselor, that second part, which i have to say stuck out to me as well as it did to ka

further, we heard sarah sanders from the podium today saying the president values rudy giuliani as a member of his legal staff, though as you noted, sources are telling others news outlets at the president is unhappy with giuliani not making the stormy daniels saga go away. we've also heard from white house officials that suggested that giuliani is catching a lot of officials at the white house off guard with some of his statements. they were surprised by some of what he's saying. one white house official actually comparing his tenure to that of anthony scaramucci, someone who came in with a brash personality, was very vocal. that source telling cnn, quote, either he'll change his behavior or will not last. we asked the white house for comment on this. they have yet to back to us. >> scaramucci tweeted he's flattered by that comparison, by the way. boris, has the white house responded yet to the idea of the possible may 17th decision to sit down with robert mueller, his investigators? >> reporter: not yet, john, but we suspect that if they do respond, they will repeat something that s

the president's statement and now rudy giuliani's statement. the question is in my mind, did rudy giuliani dream that up himself or was that a result of the conversation he had with the president that they would put out yet another explanation for what happened. if all of that comes together, is that obstruction of justice, yes. you're trying to shut down an investigation. i'm also curious i guess astounded by guilliani's request for the attorney general and the deputy attorney general to shut down a formal criminal investigation in new york. now, guilliani is the president's lawyer. is this from the president to guilliani to try to get that shut down? if so, question arises, is that also obstruction of justice in a different case, the michael cohen case. this is just going totally out of control and it's rolling and railing the entire world as they look at the top of the american government in total, absolute chaos. >> guilliani also said on fox news this morning that north korea would be releasing three american prisoners today. that has not

>> sure. >> let me ask you about something else rudy giuliani says it has to do with the special counsel's investigation, has to do with why the president fired former fbi director james comey. this is what mayor giuliani said about that. >> he fired comey because comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn't a target of the investigation. he's entitled to that. hillary clinton got that. and she -- he couldn't get that. so he fired him, and he said i'm free of this guy. >> he fired him, so i'm free of this guy, this guy who would not publicly exonerate me. does that seem to be a case for obstruction to you? >> well, i believe the president has the right to fire the fbi director, whether or not it was a good idea is another matter. but the question is, why he fired the fbi director. if he fired the fbi director to basically undermine or stop the russia investigation, i think that certainly -- that type of interference could rise to the level of obstruction. i'm not an attorney. i can't make that judgment. but i would have to think that he fired him to basically to interfere with t

rudy giuliani knows that he is auditioning.over again. >> we just got a new secretary of state. he was just confirmed. >> look, no moss grows under a secretary of state or any cabinet seat in this administration. and rudy giuliani knows it. he wanted that position. he wants it again. and he knows it doesn't matter what foreign leaders think about him. it matters what his potential boss thinks when he turns on the television, sees rudy boosting his ratings. that's his number one qualification to get back into the cabinet. >> lauren, steve wouldn't even hire rudy giuliani to fix his speeding ticket. do you think rudy giuliani potentially is doing more harm than help for the president? >> i think a lot of republicans were scratching their head this week when we saw the addition of rudy giuliani to the team and also when we saw the hannity interview and the interviews that followed. you know, look, as someone who does a lot of crisis communications for a living, i don't think he's helping in any way. i think that he's making the si

she was questioning rudy giuliani.ven though it was embarrassing and revealed that the president lied was very intentional. >> on on talk tv you can say it's the left's fault. obama did it too. it's hillary clinton. none of that will wash in front of a federal investigators. there will be a big reckoning for somebody at is some point. coming up in our next hour, we will talk to former campaign aide michael caputo. he is especially relevant this morning. why? he met with mueller's investigators and he decided to give you a straight read on where he thinks they're headed. it comports with a lot of what you may suspect >> more big news. three americans imprisoned in north korea could be released at any time. is this a condition ahead of the meeting with the north korean dick traeurt? we discuss all of this next. gs s --bigtime. and things just got bigger. f-150 is now motor trend's 2018 truck of the year. this is the new 2018 ford f-150. it doesn't just raise the bar, pal. it is the bar. this is the story of green mountai

he's disposable. >>> trump's new attorney, rudy giuliani, he says three americans were released from north korea today. why is this news coming from giuliani? and again, sarah sanders has no knowledge of it. is he even right? with rocket mortgage, you can be approved in as few as eight minutes, giving you super hero levels of confidence. rocket mortgage. america's largest mortgage lender. "avengers: infinity war" in theaters april 27th. it's a lot easier to make decisions when you know what comes next. if you move your old 401(k) to a fidelity ira, we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. ♪ oh and at fidelity, you'll see how all your investments are working together. because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. ♪ just remember what i said about a little bit o' soul ♪ things are just clearer. get your groove on with one a day 50+. ♪ get ready for the wild life ♪ complete multivitamins with key nutrients that address 6 concerns of aging, including heart health, sup

i've known rudy giuliani for many years. by full disclosure i was one of the first people to endorse him of mbz of congress when he ran for president in 2008. i have a high regard for the mayor, great job he did in new york city when he served there. so i think rudy giuliani was basically speaking truth as he understood it. you know, maybe he didn't say it as artfully as he did in his statement today, but i'm not sure exactly what rudy giuliani said the other day that was incorrect. >> and then he released another statement today, i guess in an effort as he put it to clarify what he had said over the past few days, which if you have to release a statement to clarify what you've been saying for the last few days that's never a good thing. but he said, "my references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president's knowledge but instead my understanding of these matters." does that clear up anything for you? because i've now read that several times and i still don't quite understand what it means. >> i was try

joining me now, so you know rudy giuliani.ed rudy giuliani's first day in office. >> no kidding. >> i was a film producer for fox 5 news here in new york city and i watched him become mayor and covered his first day in office. >> '94. >> he's not the same guy i knew back then. you worked with him a long time. >> i was his chief speechwriter in his second term and went with him through 9/11 and remained incredibly proud working with him and the work he did to say new york city. even before 9/11 i think transformed the city. and i think folks who are fired up about this stage and his defense of trump, look we're in a family feud as a country right now. and good people can disagree. but also you've got to see the guy's career and everyone's career in full context. and whut at he did oas mayor wa extraordinary. >> when i look at him i just wonder, like, what is he doing? you can be a supporter of the president and still go on television and not, you know, say the wrong things. >> i don't think anybody -- maybe it's easier for me t

what rudy giuliani says can be binding on trump. >> sounds like we're going to have to get you a cot at 30 rock, you're not going anywhere. >>> coming e ing up, rudy giuli interviews. he blasts mueller as not objective. demanding trump receive the same treatment hillary clinton did. plus, landing in china to try to avoid a trade war. this morning, new reports that china, please pay attention to this, has stopped buying american soybeans. half of our soybean production, you must know this, goes to china. they just said buh-bye. we see two travelers so at a comfort innal with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, "wow, maybe i'll glow too if i book direct at choicehotels.com". who glows? just say, badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com it was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personali

rudy giuliani is adding value to the trump legal team, despite the fact that the president set last week that giuliani did not have had is facts straight. they shying away from questions today about the legal troubles. you can't tell this just by watching them today, they have gotten burned in the past with statements that later turned out to be true. today they were being much more careful with their words. the only scheduled appearance, an yeah with the first leady as she unveiled a campaign aimed tess nation's children. that came less than an hour after the press secretary stated cautiously she's not aware of any other hush money to women alleging affairs. >> i would refer you to rudy giuliani to respond to any of those questions. >> reporter: that question was prompted by comments made by rudy giuliani, who try to do do some damage control over the weekend after he revealed mr. trump's personal attorney was reimbursed to a payment made to stormy daniels, money giuliani insisted did not violate campaign laws. >> it was not a campaign contribution, this is the thing that i have settled

giulia rudy giuliani -- yeah, not slowing down any time soon. obviously we're going to continue our coverage of the nbc news exclusive reporting, again, about this wiretap of donald trump's longtime lawyer. i'm going to leave things off for this hour. i've steve kornacki in for katy t tur. >> i'm going to trrecap it, thas for your great coverage. i'm ali velshi. on the very same day president trump signed a faith-based initiative, the country's faith and president's ability to tell the truth is being tested, in some places it's been obliterated. once again the trump administration spent another press briefing deflecting questions on two major story lines involving the president's past claims and his ever-changing legal team. first, the breaking news on the nbc news exclusive. federal investigators wiretapped phone lines of trump's personal lawyer, michael cohen. it is not clear when the wiretap started. or how long it's been authorized but according to one source the wiretap was in place in the weeks lead

he's ready to -- >> to be clear, rudy giuliani isn't the same rudy giuliani you have seen up until nowient and he is representing his best interest. michael caputo, former aide to the trump campaign. he met with mueller's investigators yesterday. good to have you on. you matter, especially this morning. >> thanks a lot, chris. it's good to be with you again. >> first, help me with our big question. somebody suspect telling the truth to the american people about this stormy daniels deal and how it went down. fair statement? >> i don't know that. i guess that this is becoming a pretty sticky wicket. i haven't talked so much about pornography since my buddy's bachelor party. i'm getting really tired of this story. i think america is too. i wish they would put this thing to bed. i know it's the president of the united states. i know he has opponents all over the place. i know stormy daniels is looking for a second act in her life. this is all getting really, you know, difficult, i think for all of america. >> but, michael, the appetite for this type of pore kwrapbs aside, somebody ain't te

rudy giuliani, when this happened, said this is not extraordinary. this is what prosecutors do. prosecutor would know whatrosecutors do. that giuliani may have done this himself because if he said this is not extraordinary, this is what prosecutors do, either to convict of sometimes to let somebody off the hook, then this something that is between the lines. last night he goes on television and he compares american law enforcement officers who wake up every morning and go to bed every night and wake up the next morning trying to protect americans from terrorist attacks, trying to protect americans from crime in their own cities, trying to protect americans from drug rings, trying to protect americans from all of the things that we're challenged by and you know what? we have one of the lowest prime rates in decades because of the great work of the fbi and other law enforcement officers. we didn't have all of the attacks people thought we were going to have after september 11 because of the great work of the federal bureau of investigations and also local law enforcement officers

. >> is he throwing rudy giuliani under the bus? >> rudy knows it's a witch hunt. he started yesterday. he'll get his facts straight. he's a great guy. >> plus a public embrace for the president's embattled chief of staff. >> i would love to speak. i would love to go. nothing i want to do more. we did nothing wrong. >>> president trump is sending yet another message to robert mueller. let's talk. >> i would love to speak. i would love to. nobody wants to speak more than me. against my lawyers because most lawyers never speak on anything. i would love to speak. >> want to revise rudy giuliani two-day media tour. the president stopped not once but twice to stop before leaving for the nra convention in dallas during which he endorsed his chief of staff and signalled a new willingness to talk to mueller. his newly white house lawyer emett flood wants him to take a hard line. peter, you have new reporting that rudy giuliani will issue some sort of correction to the various legal points that he has been making for the last 4 8 hours. >> reporter: that's right. the presid

that's the rudy giuliani i know. that's the rudy giuliani i miss.i mean even when you look at that -- >> he's gone. >> he used to give a state of the city, lay out something, lay out what his vision, deliver it without notes. he was fantastic. this interview we saw the other night was disjointed. he went into fisa warrants -- he should be doing his job. which is to prep the president. not be his pr guy, but be his lawyer. and seeing him take this tack. now i think knowing rudy, he has reason for it. i just don't see how it turned out to his best interests. >> i can't imagine what that would be. >> as we talked about yesterday, the people he is calling stormtroopers is the same fbi he relied on in the days after 9/11, he walked through the streets with a mask on his face, the southern district of new york that issued the subpoena, is where he worked himself. he was the u.s. attorney in the southern district. these are people he knowed, has respected and worked with. >> he was able to sell himself out in this way so quickly. rudy said it would be wrap

he did go to yale. >> you know, and he knew that rudy giuliani would be there, and he knew that rudy giuliani is someone who on the campaign trail said that he didn't think obama loved america, and he thought that hillary clinton had some sort of secret health problem that the press was hiding. i mean there was a lot going on here before he walked in, and i think that he had to have known that and made his own calculation to join. but i think lawmakers are still making their own calculations, especially as the midterms loom, how they're going to deal with this. >> rudy did memorably say to chris matthews that he had seen hillary lifted on to planes. clint, you're our reaction guy. i'm going to play a little bit more of rudy giuliani, and i need you to react to this. >> i think i would get on my charger and go right into the partners' offices with a lance if they go after ivanka. if they do ivanka, which i doubt they will, the whole country will turn on her. they're going after his daughter. >> they talked about his son-in-law. they talked about him. >> jared is a fine man. you know th

what the special counsel could potentially ask the president, as well as the efforts now led by rudy giuliani to set up that interview. here is what giuliani said about the chances for an interview tonight. >> if their objective -- if th objective, we can work something out. if not, we have to shake hands and go into a litigation over do they have the power to subpoena, and i think they lost that power. right now, the odds are he wouldn't be interviewed. but i don't close my mind to it. >> so this is a kind of negotiation that took place on live television tonight between rudolph giuliani and the special counsel's office. more on that later. meanwhile, the president continued to send out messages on twitter, assailing the entire russia investigation. quote, there was no collusion, capital c. it was a hoax, capital h. and there is no obstruction of justice, a couple more capitals there. that is a set up and trap witch hunt. the mueller team, however, interviewed another witness today. former trump campaign aide michael caputo. and this is interesting. he spent three hours with investigators in

rudy giuliani was corda fating on this. today the president said he didn't have the facts straight. >> a fascinating day here where it ends the week a very complicated and chaotic week. but more questions about what exactly the relationship was businesswise with the president michael cohen. and stormy daniels. for months we heard the president saying he had nothing to do with that. now we know of course rudy giuliani he did. now we learn the new information by the "wall street journal" reporting. it highlights the fact that is an unorthodox business arrangement with the president and michael cohen. they've had it a long time rudy giuliani trying to explain that this week. trying to get it out all in the open which he says was a strategy discussed with the president clearly did not work. i think it speaks to the fact very complicated, very murky here. certainly not an ordinary relationship with the president and his lawyer. >> and jeff, what are you learning about what kind of precip giuliani had before the fox interview. >>

rudy giuliani says michael did no work for the president. why are we learning this now? it's baffling. i can't understand where giuliani learned this -- >> can we get that sound bite. i want to hear zasean's questio before and the afterwards. go on john, sorry about that. >> yeah, the fact is -- the question is where does he get this information from that he seems to know, first of all, the entire arrangement to how it was paid back. this sound like something from trump, his client and so he's -- to be able to speak this information and not breaching the privilege, he has to have trumps permission to put that out. he did say also that he does things like this for his clients without letting his clients know. well, that's contrary to the rules of ethics in new york state, which is an amazing statement by the mayor. so, he's just stirred up a hornets net with these remarks and looks like loose lips to me. >> yeah. similar thing happen during campaign, rudy giuliani during an interview revealed some information that sort of caused chaos in the campaign. john, just your over

so none of what rudy giuliani said is actually accurate. i think that needs to be said even before you respond to it. but what is your reaction to it? >> lawrence, this is pathetic. this is the guy, this is the best lawyer -- and there's a lot of lawyers in america. this is the best lawyer that the president of the united states can find to represent him before the american people. i mean, this is the best that donald trump can do with all the lawyers in america is this guy? this guy is -- is a known liar, he can't keep his facts straight, he doesn't know the law, he contradicts himself. he's an absolute bafoon on television. this is the lawyer that represents the president of the united states, it's an absolute joke. anyone that looks at my appearances and sees the way i conduct myself and the knowledge of the facts and the law and compares me to rudy giuliani, it's clear as day as to why he won't go on any show with me, why he won't debate me. he can't handle it. he would be destroyed. he knows it, the president knows it, and anyone with

better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. >>> hard to believe it's only rudy giuliani's first weekr a whirlwind 24 hours of tv interviews, nbc news has now learned giuliani's big revelation president trump paid michael cohen for his $130,000 payment to stormy daniels was not coordinated with the rest of the president's legal team. that comes after we learned in today's white house press briefing that press secretary sarah sanders learned about the payment at the same time we all did during giuliani's interview with hannity last night. joining me now is senior political reporter for the washington post aaron blake. his latest piece sarah huckabee sanders just basically blamed trump for misleading her. aaron, everything about today is fascinating the last 24 hours. the press briefing was fascinating for those ever us who watch it all the time. sarah huckabee sanders started using a phrase over and over again which she does and it was all about, i give you the best information i have at the time and that's what i will continue to do. in other words, when reporters are saying why did y

rudy giuliani. >> we love rudy. he's a special guy. >> the president's top attorney made headlines this week. with that stunning revelation about hush money to stormy daniels. >> the president reimbursed that over a period. >> decimating trump's previous denial. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment? >> unleashing a firestorm. >> i love rudy. but they better van explanation for that. that's a -- that's a -- that's a problem. >> an unusual retreat. >> started yesterday. he'll get his facts straight. >> the facts, the facts, i'm still learning. >> what are the facts? what did the president know about his lawyer's deal with stormy daniels? when did he know it? is this case now as great a threat as the russia investigation? >>> plus -- >> i would love to speak. i have to find out if we're going the be treated fairly. >> team trump targets the special counsel. as we learned what mueller wants to ask the president and what he might do if the president refuses to comply. is this headed for the supreme court? might tru

boris, where is the white house on this ongoing back and forth between rudy giuliani and rudy giuliani? >> hey, anna. yeah, the white house has maintained their position that the president did in the interfere in this decision by the department of justice to try to block the merger between at&t and time warner. sarah sanders said earlier today it was the department of justice's decision, not president trump's. this leads to a series of questions. first, just how much influence does this president have over the department of justice? we know he sees it as an extension of his political power, the way that she's suggested that they should carry out investigations into some of his political opponents, and he's very publicly opposed this deal between time aroundwarner at&t. the question of influence lingers. it also beckons a question about rudy giuliani's role within the legal time. he was brought onto help defend the president into the probe between the trump campaign in and russia. he's waded into waters he certainly perhaps should not have waded into whether it was announcing that north

i love rudy giuliani. he's a mentor of mine and a friend of mine.re is nobody better to negotiate with robert mueller. he is narrowing this down to what this is supposed to be about, which is collusion. there has been no evidence of collusion -- >> you really think rudy giuliani helped donald trump today? >> what i think is that there's nobody better to go up against robert mueller to redefine what we're supposed to be after. and that's collusion here and trying to get to the facts of was there collusion that happened during the 2016 election? that's what's so frustrating to us as trump republicans is we don't see any collusion. >> well -- and we lost your satellite. eric mecina, you're coming back. eric b breech, you are, too. they're pulling the plug on me. >>> welcome to "inside politics." i'm dana bash. john king is on assignment. >>> rudy giuliani told me in a phone conversation this morning that there is no daylight between him and president trump on this new blockbuster strategy coming clean that the president actually reimbursed his lawyer/f