wives thanks to rudy giuliani. the person who is supposed to be defending the person on tv, not creating new problems and horrors for the first lady on tv, which rudy giuliani has now done. let's review what rudy giuliani said about all that yesterday in israel, beginning with rudy giuliani's slightly confused personal relationship with porn. >> now, i don't really look at porn. please get that down. i don't look. >> okay. so which is it? i don't really look at porn or i don't look at porn? because i don't really look at porn sounds like a hollywood vegetarian at a drive through saying i don't eat meat while they're waiting for a double, double. i apologize for the pornographic sound of the menu item, double-double but that's a real menu choice at inand out burger. even though rudy giuliani has developed some major credibility problems in defending the president. let's just this one take rudy giuliani at his word that he does not enjoy pornography as much as the billions of people in the world who have made pornogr

rudy giuliani is going to new lengths in his defense of the president, suggesting he couldn't be prosecuted for an outright murder. i will get reaction from someone who works with giuliani when he was a u.s. attorney, the former homeland security secretary, jeh johnson. he will join me live. >> vo: these neighbors are starting right. miracle-gro guarantees results with rich potting mix and essential plant food for three times the blooms. success is sweet. miracle-gro. three times the beauty. one powerful guarantee. a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for yfree publisher kit today! news on the white house attempt to tap dance around two claims by president trump he has the power to pardon himself and the appointment of the special counsel robert mueller is totally unconstitutional. joining us now, the former ho homeland security second, jeh johnson. he is a former trial lawyer and prosecutor. he served as an assistant district attorney in the southern district of new york under rudy giuliani. thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> yo

i'm not trying to -- to your point minimize how rudy giuliani is speaking about women. t he's playing a clear role which is to distract. and giuliani has become the gaslighter on the company to distract serious issues. by the way, it's important how the president and his attorney talk about women but what's more at stake when it comes to the rule of law, nuclear disarmament and the korean peninsula and there's many many issues we could be spending our time talking about. it's unfortunately we're talking about the month ralt of giuliani and donald trump. >> watch this. >> can you tell us how does she feel this days with all the stormy daniels going on in the background and not stepping up to -- >> i can't speak for melania. >> but you're a personal friend. >> i am and i -- she believes her husband, she knows it's not true. i don't think there's a something like that suspicion that it's true. >> so, he said he's not going to speak for melania and then he proceeds to speak for her. melania has tried to stay above the fray in all of this and he brings her into it anne. >> ye

another outrageous claim by rudy giuliani. he's now accusing robert mueller's team of trying to invent an obstruction case against mr. trump. is there any line the president's lawyer won't cross? >>> and doubting trump. the house speaker and senate intelligence committee chairman both side with a fellow republican against the president. they're refusing to buy into his claim about an fbi spy during his campaign. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're "the situation room." ♪ >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following breaking news on a new allegation of collusion. the porn star stormy daniels alleging in a new lawsuit that her former lawyer was secretly in cahoots with the president's attorney michael cohen. she claims mr. trump knew the two men were working together to help him. tonight daniels' current lawyer michael avenatti says there are text messages that prove there was a coverup and that the president has been lying. i'll get reaction from

rudy giuliani has said.closest ally, canada, but also gets on the phone and doesn't know u.s. history about canada, saying didn't you guys burn down the white house? >> joe, something that is so disturbing about the canada reference is now he's been living in the white house for a couple of years. one of the most famous stories that you always hear is the picture that dolly madison saved of george washington during the war of 1812. just by osmosis and living in the white house, he would pick up the basic information. he's not picking up history. makes you wonder what he's not picking up about the wars around the world. >> he's not interested -- go ahead, joe. >> every kid that's gone to the white house has heard it. britain burned down the white house, but dolly madison cut out the picture of washington, rolled it up and passed it out the window. that was our win. it was a bad night for us. we were the cavs against golden state in the that war. the only heroic story we had is dolly madison was able to cut ou

want to talk about it. >> what concerns does it raise when the president's lawyer, in this case rudy giuliani, says something like that? >> it's so corrupt and unethical what giuliani said. we are in an area here that is literally unprecedented, because not that many people in american life have the power to give a pardon. the idea that you could dangle a pardon with the apparent intention of shortening an investigation or getting people not to cooperate -- i think there are definitely people out there who believe that alone is obstruction of justice. perhaps even an impeachment offense. if you were to -- if the president were to be involved in this. we are so far out of normal ethical behavior that it's just worth preserving our sense of outrage about it. because so much of this stuff happens every day. it really is appalling. >> what message does this send to michael cohen and to some others? >> certainly, witnesses that could be contacted by anyone whosywho is a subject -- there's an investigation coming out, that they will come forward. if there's anything inappropriate that witnesses see

rudy giuliani is on tv wherever he can find a camera trying to do what you are describing, muddying thed trump's voice coming directly from giuliani. that wasn't exactly what was happening when he started. when giuliani said it will take me time to get up to speed, what's happened is now we hear the voice of donald trump literally coming from rudy giuliani's mouth and that was i think particularly when we saw him talk about melania. >> no. that was incredible. and stormy daniels. >> and stormy daniels. >> disgusting comments. >> dan, your new book is lincoln's last trial, it offers a first hand account of his skill as a litigator through hand-written transcripts detailing a landmark self-defense case argued in the summer of 1859, just two years before he would become america's 16th president. tell us about it. >> we have the only transcript that exists of any trial lincoln's ever done and it was only found in 1989 in a box in the garage of the great grandson of the defendant. and they're lincoln's own words as the defense attorney for this guy who was accused of stabbing his neighbor an

but rudy giuliani doesn't have evidence of that. he's one of the enablers that you're talking about that ultimately will be pinned with damaging severely almost irreparably the institution ands agencies in our government. >> so, donny, i know if i had a tv show i'd be shouting my outrage on the corner. my point is this is to me the moment in law enforcement that charlottesville brought us in race, as i said to nick. it boggles the mind that there are people humming about the west wing, people who before trump came along were serious people, people like emmet flood, people like don mcgahn, people at the justice department, they hum along and let the president smear and malign d.o.j. and bob mueller's investigation. >> nick's insight is just to be close to power does something to people. here are the two things, talk about in a second. it's interesting when we talk about the base. his approval rate sergio garcia 40%. 40% of americans think the mueller probe is tainted and shouldn't be believed. that's what we have. there is only one t

how firm is rudy giuliani's legal footing here? >> rudy giuliani is not known these days anyway for his firm legal footing. i id, i have severe doubts about whether somebody could pardon themselves. in some ways pardon is inherently a bilateral word. you pardon somebody else. and so i do think it's quite possible that even though the pardon power's quite broad, a court could say, no, this is too much of a conflict of interest, it's not what the framers of our constitution had in m >> i think it's important for everyone to remember, rudy giuliani is now acting as the president's attorney. he is not acting as some sort of legal scholar. >> is he the president's attorney. >> he is the president's attorney so he's going to defend his client and say whatever needs to be said to defend his client and keep his client out of legal jeopardy. if he says my client can't be subpoenaed, we'll fight a subpoena, he's going to make that argument. he's not the legal scholar we should be listening to at this moment. >> doesn't it go t the 90 reporte

rudy giuliani pardons these people? >> i recommended pardons in probably worse cases to ronald reagan. >> you would pardon these people? >> probably each one of them, yes. martha stewart's conviction was a damn game to get yourself in the newspapers, which may have been the beginning of the jim comey who eventually illegally leaked a memo. arpaio, i don't know the case that well except it seemed to me it was highly political, as was d'souza. scooter libby had already been commuted. the investigation existed for the purpose of creating perjury on somebody. maybe that's what mueller is doing. >> arpaio openly flouted the law on purpose even when he was told not to. dinesh d'souza signed a plea ement admitting he lied and broke the law. martha stewart, i covered every day of that trial. she was a convicted liar. it seems like you want to send the message, lying is okay. >> lying is not okay. paons are perfectly appropriate. it sure beats the terrorist that clinton pardoned. >> that's our new standard, anybody is better tha

i'm hallie jackson where the world stage belongs to donald trump, to shinzo abe of japan and rudy giulianiooklyn because you seem to have rudy going rogue telling me he doesn't regret any of his recent rema remarks including slamming stormy daniels about being a porn star and what kim jong-un did to land that sit-down with donald trump. that's why the minister is coming here for the abe lobby as he tries to make sure he is not cut out of those talks and that great grandmother pardoned by president trump. alice johnson now free, now talking, look at that emotional reunion. we'll show you her message to the president, to kim kardashian and other people just like her. >> i can't just walk away and forget

rudy giuliani is like a dog chasing his tail in beoth directions. there's strategy is we're not going down. donald trump saying no matter what, come hell or high water, i'm not leaving office. i'm not quitting. at the end of the line if i have to pardon myself, i'll pardon myself. it's way to tell his base he's here for keeps and keep the morale going in the republican party in a midterm election year that if he has to pardon his son, donald trump junior, he'll do it. bill clinton pardoned roger clinton. >> david you reached for bill clinton. he was impeached for obstruction of justice. listen to what he said about that. >> i think if roles reversed and talking about it based on my experien experience, if it were a democratic president, most people believe impeachment hearings would be going on already. >> there there was a democrat in power now? >> yes. >> there are 42 democrats who voted to impeach clinton for obstruction. do you think their silence is hypocrite cal? >> i think they ought to be frank about it, that they believed the president coul

rudy giuliani is making a fool of himself. rudy giuliani is lying to the american people. rudy giuliani is, is trashing the entire fbi because of a couple of fbi agents who were fired last year. rudy giuliani is no fool. though he plays one on television. he knows that fbi agents also during the campaign were trashing hillary clinton in new york. it was a common occurrence. rudy giuliani, unless he's a fool also knows that while barack obama was president of the united states, c.i.a. agents regularly trashed barack obama. i know because they trashed barack obama to me. fbi agents did the same. guess what, during the build-up to the gulf war you know who the c.i.a. agents and fbi agents trashed? george w. bush. you are all are acting like such snowflakes it's as if the prime minister of canada said something mean to you, you're asking like it's the first time it's ever happened. a phony investigation? let me hold up lots of papers, rudy thimpgs you're too stupid to not be like brought into this tizzy, because he holds up lots of papers. if you read this. because i've writ t

he's not happy also with what rudy giuliani has been saying. so this is somebody's whose family is under stress and this is costing him a lot of money and looking to hire a new attorney once the document review is done, who is very familiar with the southern district of new york. he's not met with prosecutors yet. but if you are hiring an attorney who could go in and sort of chat with southern district of new york and talk to them about what potential charges might be and you would assume that they would also be chatting about the potential for cooperation. >> good point. nia, the president is basking in the glow of the summit with the north korean leader kim jong-un and continues to praise the young dictator. listen to what he had to say about kim jong-un earlier today. >> he's the head of a country and i mean he's the strong head. don't let anyone think anything different. he speaks and his people seat up at attention. i want me team pima to do the same. >> what did you mean just now that you wish americans would sit up at attention. >> i'm k

i'm hallie jackson where the world stage belongs to donald trump, to shinzo abe of japan and rudy giuliani of brooklyn because you seem to have rudy going rogue telling me he doesn't regret any of his recent rema remarks including slamming stormy daniels about being a porn star and what kim jong-un did to land that sit-down with donald trump. that's why the minister is coming here for the abe lobby as he tries to make sure he is not cut out of those talks and that great grandmother pardoned by president trump. alice johnson now free, now talking, look at that emotional reunion. we'll show you her message to the president, to kim kardashian and other people just like her. >> i can't just walk away and forget about those who have been left behind. >> we have a ton of new developments to get to this morning including new reaction to rudy giuliani's comments aimed at discrediting stormy daniels. her lawyer michael avenatti was on the phone with stephanie ruhle less than an hour ago. >> this is an absolutely disgusting pig and should be fired immediately. the fact that he has doubled down on hi

spokesman, it's worth noting that's the role he's functioning on in mueller's eyes as well. >> rudy giulianited a whole news cycle about his client's relationship with his wife. do you think this is part of some legal strategy or is giuliani needlessly spotlighting the first family? >> i don't know if that was part of the strategy, but jonathan swan has reported rudy giuliani's role is to get in the media, distract, attack the credibility of the mueller case as a witch hunt. he's done that. he's shown there's few questions he's unwilling to answer. he's made the rounds on cable news. while he's making headlines like this, it's hard for administration officials like mike pompeo to ignore what he's saying. mike pompeo was visibly uncomfortable when he had to address rudy giuliani's comment on north korea. axios reported this is very typical in this west wing. throughout these mad mueller news cycles, the administration officials have generally been quiet, and there's like two parts here. and you know, those worlds collided with rudy giuliani. >> erin, real quick, what is your reaction to that?

, that is rudy giuliani itself.

right now that's rudy giuliani. half-life of rudy giuliani staying in the white house, i don't know what it is. donald trump does not like someone to be on tv more than he does. he violated a famous rule in washington. never hire a principal to represent a principal. now the other thing i would ask, i don't know if peter baker is still on. >> peter is still here. >> rudy giuliani is in israel on what undoubtedly is a paid speaking gig. he's being paid by a private place speaking for the president while he's there. what are the ethics of that? should he be allowed to take public speaking gigs while he's representing the white house? >> peter baker, any thoughts on that? >> that is a great question. he's a private lawyer so he's not on the white house staff so a private lawyer can represent the president and also do other business but i think the conference was sponsored by a newspaper, the "globe" newspaper over there. i don't know much of the details but he seems to be broadening beyond his mandate of talking about

counselor rudy giuliani knows that.ond, trump pays daniels, lied about it, then admitted to part of it. the only bhepeople who have bee caught publicly lying is donald trump and michael cohen, not danie daniels. third, if you do follow rudy giuliani's logic there there would be something wrong with porn stars, what about men who sleep with them and pay them to be silent. that's what nbc news asked rudy giuliani today. he paused, my guess is that i mean thing applies but that's not the issue. arguiing daniels denied the relationship before admitting it. foumpt fourth, as so often is the case, the tape tells the story. let's compare rudy giuliani's argument about daniel's respectability to yes, his own client. >> i'm sorry, i don't respect a porn star the way i respect a career woman or woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and as a person that isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation. oh, very, very credible source. stormy the porn star. >> i'm automatically attracted to b

tell us that, rudy giuliani?ou're doing, but why are you, rudy giuliani, doing it? trump's going to move onto the next scandal to defend himself and you're going to get stuck with the stuff you've been saying and you're going to have to explain it when this fiasco is long forgotten. i liked you as mayor of new york. we thought you were a jet from your last cigarette to your last dying day. what are you doing hanging with the sharks? that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. >>> tonight on "all in.." >> he wants the phones turned over. >> the special counsel asks for cell phones. >> boom, boom, crack it up into little pieces. >> as the president auditions a new attorney general. >> jeff sessions is indeed the most dangerous man in america. >> plus. >> i'm sorry, i don't respect a porn star the way i respect a career woman. >> why even the first lady herself is rebuking rudy today. >> she believes in her husband. she knows it's not true. >> and donald trump's f

. >> that is rudy giuliani over the weekend borrowing a phrase from gerald ford, nixon of course was pardoned by his successor and rudy was asked repeatedly on sunday would president trump pardon himself? >>> plus, remember when the white house insisted over and over again that the president had no role in drafting his son's misleading statement about meeting with russians. >> jay, of course, who you work for pat robertson. >> yes. >> religious freedom evangelical lawyer swore that they never did that. i'm sure they didn't. >> we know it was a lie. >> are you kidding me? >> we know it was a lie because the president's own lawyers admitted that, confirming it. welcome to "morning joe." good morning, everybody it's monday june 4 we have a lot to get to. with us is mike barnacle, and steve ratner and richard haase. heidi przybyla, michael schmidt. great group to start off the week and so much to get to. >> well, there's so much to get to. and you listen to what rudy giuliani said over the weekend. there's so many things that are disturbing. team that with the letter they wrote that actua

rudy giuliani telling the "huffington post" it's impossible to subpoena or indict the sitting president, claiming, if he shot james comey, he would be impeached the next day. giuliani also raising questions about the extent of the president's pardoning power. >> do you believe the president has the power to pardon himself? >> he has no intention of pardoning himself but that doesn't say he can't. >> reporter: this hours after the "new york times" published a letter that was sent to robert mueller in january, asserting the president can't obstruct justice because the constitution gives him the authority to, quote, terminate the inquiry or exercise his power to pardon if he so desired, an argument that is far from settled. >> it's an outrageous claim, it's wrong. >> reporter: his lawyers argue there's no need for the president to sit down with mueller and he can't be compelled to testify, foreshadowing a potential subpoena fight, especially with the probe extends outside the bounds of the initial investigation into collusion. >> let them walk through their investigation, but i think if th

on rudy giuliani, he again praised his attorney rudy giuliani, saying he's doing a very good job. what was notable was the exchange i had with him, i thought when i asked him about giuliani's comments just yesterday in israel, giuliani, you will remember, said effectively he doesn't respect a woman who is a important star. that's not a respectable line of work. i asked the president what he made of those comments, if he agreed with that assessment, and he said, i'm not going to disagree with that. stephanie, that's just i think where we begin. one of the other items i think will infuriate a lot of the president's critics today. he said, he's not going to invite either the cavaliers or the warriors to the white house. help sai he said, i was never going to invite them. on the topic of pardons, there are 3,000 names on his list. we noted the possibility of muhammad ali. felt like it was out of the trump playbook where he was looking for a headline. recognize the supreme court overturned muhammad ali's conviction 8-0 years ago and there was a proclamation by jimmy carter that basicall

this is all about rudy giuliani promoting rudy giuliani. he clearly had not spoken to the first lady. we're even sure if the president speaks to the first lady, let alone rudy giuliani. however, i will say the president is benefiting from his desperation tour because of the fact that rudy giuliani is providing a distraction. we're not talking about scott pruitt and what he's doing at the epa and his litany of eluding taxpayers. we're not talking about the cruelty to children. he is providing the president with the distraction that the president needs from some of these real issues. >> and one of the tones that i pulled away from watching here, jennifer, was the misogynistic tones. pregnant whether it was shaking shoulders, grimacing talking about various women related to his comments so far. rudy giuliani is -- is he still the food -- is he the food tester, the taster, to try out these different ideas and different attitudes? >> it's hard to say what is deliberate and what is just him as we were saying shooting off his mouth so he can get o

have -- has rudy giuliani gone too far this time? >> well, i think rudy giuliani started by too outhere contradic and out theih theories that thesident can't be subpoenaed or compelled to participate in judicial proceedings. the fact that nixon was required attorney in thisresent capsty he's acting as a p.r. zbie and repeating the charges that come. step back and remember this idea there is 13 angry democrats, i try to appeal to my republican friends every once in a while and say we don't want to go to a world where for the next century every time there is an investigation that might be uncomfortable for your own party, you look at the party registration of the folks that are doing the investigation and said this one can't work. that policeman who just made that arrest, he's a republican or a democrat. folks, members of congress are the only people who day in and day out live their political affiliation. that is what we do. policeman and investigators, judges, they have political feelings but that doesn't mean ir job wit impartiality

so that was rudy giuliani in israel. stormy daniels' attorney reacting by slamming giuliani for showing his client no respect. >> this guy is a disgust -- this guy is an absolute disgusting pig. he should be fired immediately. he must believe that this president will support him and back him in these outrageous comments against women and my client. enough is enough. this cannot be allowed to stand. >> former director of strategic communications for hillary clinton's campaign and our msnbc legal analyst joining me now. just general reaction to the comments? >> you know, it's going to be really hard for me to get through this without completely losing my cool. i will say this, any woman who has ever felt that her voice does not matter because of her looks, her job, whatever it may be, that her voice, her opinion is somehow not as credible as another woman's opinion knows how they feel like, they sting, anger. this is why you're seeing so many women this election cycle, 2017, turn out. women are angry. they are frustrated.

rudy giuliani making the case for the leaked memo.orced to answer questions, cannot obstruct justice and can even pardon himself. the question we've been asking himself, because he's in charge of the justice department and the fbi. plus, if he is subpoenaed his lawyers are ready to fight and are even threatening to take special counsel to court. we may reveal something about donald trump jr. that was

13. >>> president trump is adding fuel to the fire around comments made by his personal lawyer, rudy giulianisident defending giuliani yesterday. >> rudy is great, rudy is rudy. but rudy is doing a very good job. actually. doing a very good job. >> he said what? >> i'm not going to disagree with him on that. >> let's bring in jonathan alter, a columnist for the "daily beast" and an msnbc political analyst and republican strategist arena shah. we have rudy giuliani making controversial remarks, we should play them. let's do that now. >> i'm sorry. i don't respect a porn star. the way i respect a career woman or a woman of substance. or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman. and as a person. and isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation. >> the president was pretty quick to back rudy giuliani up on that. why? >> sorry -- >> i'm sorry, i thought i asked you. >> well, you know he likes rudy giuliani because giuliani is basically an amen corner for him every day. in every venue. and is spreading his message, dumping on bob mueller, so you know, if he makes a comment like

right now that's rudy giuliani.fe of rudy giuliani stay in the white house, i don't know what it is. donald trump doesn't like someone to be on tv more than he does. he violated a rule, never hire a principle to represent a principle. rudy giuliani is in israel on what is a paid speaking gig. he's being paid by a private place. he's speaking for the president while he's there. what are the ethics of that? and by the way, should he be allowed to take public speaking gigs like that while he's representing the white house? someone should look into that. >> peter baker, do you have any thoughts on that? >> well, that's a great question. i don't know the answer. he's a private lawyer. he's not on the white house staff. in that sense private lawyers can represent him and do other business. it raises questions. i think the conference was sponsored by a newspaper, the globe's newspaper over there. i don't know too much of the conference. he seems to be talking about broadening the mandate of the policy. he was there not to

your thoughts on rudy giuliani's comments about cleaning up. >> well, look. i think rudy giuliani has been on the offense and trying to be on the offense for quite some time. i mean, but when you've got paul manafort taken into jail at 8:22 last evening, the previous trump campaign chairman, this mueller investigation is moving forward with our without rudy giuliani's approval. >> let's talk more about what rudy giuliani did say. >> let me make it clear right now. he is not going to pardon anybody in this investigation, but he is not, obviously, going to give up his right to pardon if a miscarriage of justice is presented to him after the investigation is over. >> that doesn't mean he could. >> so i think giuliani is showing that the president does like to use his pardon power. he likes to wield that executive power. we've seen him pardon several individuals within the past couple of weeks and we've seen reports that he plans to pardon numerous other individuals in the future. we'll really have to see how this goes on the russia investigation. i'm brought bac

let's get to what more rudy giuliani had to say. >> reporter: hello from a rainy washington. rudy giuliani, the president's outside attorney, is also making the point, alex, that president trump enjoys broad constitutional powers, as it relates to the special counsel russia investigation, including the authority to ends the inquiry or pardon himself. but giuliani is saying that the president is unlikely to do either of those things because both would lead to impeachment. take a look. >> he has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesn't say he can't. it would be an open question. i think it would probably get answered by, gosh, that's what the constitution says and if you want to change it, change it. >> reporter: and we should point out giuliani was not part of the trump legal team when this memo was written and hand delivered. but he and other members of the trump legal team are saying it's unlikely, though still possible, that president trump could sit voluntarily for an interview with the special counsel team. but the takeaway we're getting from this 20-page memo

comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. >>> we are back with the controversy, rudy giuliani'sreating with the willingness to talk about seemingly anything and everything at any moment of the day. throughout the world. moments ago, secretary of state mike pompeo said that giuliani does not speak for the administration coming the north korea and said that they're trying to get them to ignore the comments in israel saying kim jong-un got on the hands and knees and begged president trump for a summit. does giuliani seem to know how sensitive that remark may have been? let's talk about wit the panel. phil, the argument was that giuliani making that president trump walking away from the table got kim jong-un on his hands and knees but that could offend kim jong-un theoretically. >> it could? remember the partner -- potential partner we're talking about here. that is third generation leader who has to ensure the image projected to generals and he just replaced some of them srks a man of power and you have this clown giuliani that the dear leader on the hands and knees? i don't think

sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. >>> new reaction from trump personal attorney rudy giulianialing the lengths the legal time is going to argue the president's constitutional powers are widespread. giuliani was not part of the legal team whether that letter was sent to mueller in january. here is what he told chuck todd just moments ago. >> he has very broad powers. somebody who wants to question that under article 2 has a big, big burden of showing that there is no innocent explanation for what he did. they can't do that. i would like to convince them to ex exercise constitutional restraint. you can always come up, if you want to, with some non-innocent reason. >> joining me is lawrence tribe, professor of constitutional law at harvard university. he makes the case against impeaching the president. prove fesso professor, does the constitution give president trump this absolute power that his lawyers are claiming? >> no. no one is given absolute power by our constitution. we fought a revolution against the absolute power of the monarch of england. rudy giuliani is right that t

rudy giuliani but rather to the pig. i owe an apology to the pig for associating mr. ith a pig. it's disgusting. he should have been fired. and the fact he wasn't shows a complete lack of leadership and moral compass on the part of the president. rudy giuliani stood by his remarks and went further with dana bash earlier in the day. if he said you're involved with the sort of slimy business that says something about you. says something about how far you'll go to make money. our real point about her she's not just generally uncredible, she's uncredible from the point of view of wanting to get money. she's a con artist. your reaction. >> again, look, this guy has new credibility. i mean, i think he's lost his marbles. these comments are so outside the realm of normalcy and logic that it is astounding. it's shocking. the fact he would double down on the comments, triple down on them today on two separate occasions, it's shocking to me. i don't get it. i don't understand why this president continues to employ somebody of this nature. this guy is a disaster. >> but is it the

and to rudy giuliani is just throwing things out there that he can. if miss daniells were ever to testify, she would not be evaluated by her profession. i think it would come out as relevant to the story line, but maybe not even. that's just not part of how you evaluate people and their credibility. frankly, rudy giuliani's statements when you hold them up against the facts as we really know them, those are clearly not credible. and so for him to say that she has no credibility because of her profession is just -- >> i was a little surprised to wake up in 2018. this happened overnight, and to see those comments. all right. thank you very much. former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. tom winter, thank you to both of you. >>> trump's tough talk on trade is hitting american jobs and businesses to a tune of a trillion dollars. there's tariffs on peanut butter and whiskey and pork. and president trump has had a heated call with justin trudeau on tariffs. it's actually kind of hard to get into a heated conversation with trudeau. he quest

that first smackdown about stormy daniels payments from donald trump to rudy giuliani, rudy giulianithings i thought donald trump is not going to be happy about that. or donald trump may just say out the door you go. we haven't heard anything like that. and why? because what strategy is rudy giuliani following? the one that donald trump has made famous. say as many things as possible, see what stick, see what your base responds to, and go with those. 13 angry democrats, witch hunt, hoax. it's a strategy that works and one that we know donald trump likes. >> rick, i'm wondering if it's doing more harm than good for the president now. he's kind of like, he's become a funny meme on the internet. in the media, people are like, what's going on with him? >> i think rudy's job is not to be a lawyer. rudy's job is to throw bombs. the president wants bombs to be thrown. trump grew up in this whole, like, new york post tabloid beeves, all these fights back and forth. and so he wants that stuff around him right now. now wanting that is his gut. but the legal side of that -- rudy is not helping

the last thing you want is more attention from michael avenatti in a case that rudy giuliani doesn't need to comment on. the reason rudy has put himself out there as his role. he's donald trump's attorney for tv as it relates to the mueller investigati investigation. if anything, you would want to separate the image of the stormy daniels matter from the mueller investigati investigation, not combine them and lash out against a plaintiff in a civil action, in some civil actions that don't involve your client like the one that was filed two days ago or three days ago. it doesn't seem to be a risk averse solution. as lawyers, in my ways, much of our job is risk avoidance. rudy giuliani is throwing a -- raising a new issue and addressing a new issue that he doesn't need to here. you have to wonder why. >> one reason, according to some political experts, might be to try to distract from the mueller investigation and add so much to it to keep talking about stormy daniels in these other issues because in a way it takes away from, no matter what you think, of her case from some of constitutio

let's start with rudy giuliani.eard the clip there at the top from just moments ago, rudy giuliani speaking in staten island, invoking bellevue, talking about dimented people just hours after he had to walk back similar comments about vice president biden. >> rudy giuliani's capacity to just throw stuff up against the wall and see what will stick never ceases to amaze. it's so important to say that prosecutors and fbi agents, just like everyone else in our country, has their personal beliefs. some democrats, republicans, independents, people who are agnostic about politics. but the important thing is that the culture at d.o.j. is such that when you go to work, you don't let your politics influence your decision making. that's what we saw the inspector general report's conclude. t the i.g. concluded that it didn't taint the investigation. it's reprehensible that rudy giuliani represents that anything else is the case. >> i'm going to hold up this inspector general report, all 500-plus pages of it. it's detailed to sa

giuliani. that stopped rudy, right? wrong. let's bring in our panel. ni's senate campaign. i hate to throw this word around, molly, good evening to all of you, by the way. i hate to throw this word around, but that was some shade, epic clapback right there from the first lady's office, isn't it? >> it can certainly be read that way. i honestly also read it as a simple fact. it is well known to pretty much everyone in the white house that rudy giuliani is freelancing. he is not coordinating his message with anybody else. he isn't, in fact, talking to the first lady. he's just saying whatever floats into his head. and it's actually become a sort of parlor game among people in and around the white house about whether there is a grand plan here. or if he's just kind of shooting his mouth after. i mean, our cover story in "time" magazine this week is about the public relation strategy that's paralleling the legal strategy and that giuliani is in charmg of. he all but toll us explicitly, this is an insurance policy against impeachment. we're just going to say

the president's attorney rudy giuliani will be here live next. >>>mmigration outcry.lit at the border. >> it is unjust. it is unamerican. >> we will go live

nonetheless trying to add his opinion to anything rudy giuliani is saying. and giuliani believes that this is more -- as much as it is a case of law, it's going to be a case of public opinion, believing that mueller will eventually come up with a probe, go to the department of justice, that will likely release it to congress, and then pressure is on congress, on those lawmakers to make a decision whether to impeach or not. and this is giuliani's way of trying to influence them and influence the voters who put them in office. there have been missteps. the one with stormy daniels you just played is one of them. i might add the shade that melania trump's spokeswoman gave giuliani today came just a very short time after secretary of state pompeo from the white house briefing room basically told giuliani, hey, stay out of foreign affairs. we don't need you talking about the north korea situation either. but this is a tactic that giuliani believes is effective. he wants to be aggressive. he told -- the president has told him to keep doing this, and he is trying to

and trump lawyer rudy giuliani is escalating his public attacks on special counsel robert mueller and his team in an effort to discredit the entire russia investigation. earlier today at an investment conference in israel, giuliani said mueller's team is trying hard to frame the president of the united states. >> they are a group of 13 highly partisan democrats that make up the mueller team, excluding him, are trying very, very hard to frame him. to get him in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong. >> while in israel today, giuliani also sat down for an interview with pat robertson of the christian broadcasting network. during that interview, giuliani wept after former fbi director james comey and said robert mueller needs to take control of his team. >> mueller worked under me in the justice department. i am very, very disappointed in comey. comey i think is the real villain of this whole thing. i think in mueller's case, it's more, he's not taking control of these people that work for him. and they're going around starting all these new investigations. he's got to have the disc

. >> this is the latest mixed messages we've heard from rudy giuliani hours before he said that to chrisuomo, he suggested in the new york daily news that pardons could be used to clean up this case. the question really is, what is giuliani and the president trying to say to paul manafort and others who potentially could be implicated in the case. the president tweeted this was a tough sentence on manafort although he hasn't been charged. his bail was just revoked by a federal judge. but the question of pardons has obviously been swirling out there. the president has issued several pardons already to people who aren't involved in the special counsel case and a lot of suggestion it's a signal that if the special counsel gets too close to the president that a pardon could emerge. now the point sheer that manafort is now going to be under more pressure to flip on the president and start cooperating because instead of being in the comfort of his own home, he's now in a federal prison. >> jeremy, thank you so much. we appreciate it. >>> here's the other question -- can anything or anyone stop

. >> reporter: while president trump's attorney rudy giuliani may have ruffled feathers with the north korea comments yesterday -- >> kim jong-un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it which is exactly the position you want to put him in. >> reporter: secretary of state mike pompeo shrugged off the comments today. >> i know rudy. rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and this set of issues. >> reporter: but first, trump travels to quebec for the annual g7 summit coming face to face with key allies, many at odds with the president with the recent trade decisions. >> translator: for me, a question of principles. we can't wager a trade war between friends. >> reporter: this as the president seemingly more willing to engage with potential adversaries striking a deal to ease sanctions that brought zte to the brink of collapse. trump's top economic adviser dismissed tensions with leaders on wednesday. >> we are talking everything through. it may be disagreements. i regard this as much like a family quarrel. i'm always the optimist. i believe i

beyond rudy giuliani.t laid out in that memo to mueller. which is that the president can pardon himself and the president cannot be indicted, a sitting president. but that's a veryferent question from whether they think they should carry out these act. it's very cloer thear that they that should the president attempt to pardon himself that the president would likely impeach him the very next day. i don't think they're going to go down anything like this path, despite the public bluster. >> jonathan swan, thank you very much. >>> we're going to be reading axios a.m. in just a little while. and to all of our viewers, you can sign up for the news letter by signing up at axios a.m. >>> i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf, "morning joe" starts right now. >> he certainly didn't dictate, but he like i said, he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do. >> president trump dictated the misleading statements. >> you said he did not dictate. then he did. what is it? >> we