sean hannity declared to him when he said the president reimbursed michael cohen, that sean hannity didn't know that. and, of course, none of us knew that. >> no, none of us knew that. 30 years ago, 35 years ago, rudy giuliani was a great prosecutor. he was a great lawyer. he and a few others took down the new york mob. he was really good. but that was then. and if you have followed rudy in recent years, remember his speech at the republican convention in 2016, for example. which was -- unhinged is a polite way of describing it. he is not on top of his game or any game i would argue, and i couldn't understand why he was chosen for the legal team except to be someone the president likes, someone around the president trusts and maybe he could communicate with the president in a way that others can't. so i thought maybe that could be useful. but for him to come out tonight and just sort of destroy their previous position on the stormy daniels case and possibly expose the president to -- and michael cohen to all sorts of legal jeopardy they've been trying to avoid is just stunning. it's absolu

so listen to this moment. >> i then spoke to sean hannity, which everybody refuses to call sean hannitynnity at fox and sean hannity said and he called me the other day, and i spo to h about it. heaid you were totally against the war because he was for the war. >> so people didn't know if that was actually a reliable narrator given their relationship. there's also a question whether or not the president produces sean hannity's show of the do you have any sense of how involved he is in the programming level? >> based on my reporting i know that they do speak about the show sometimes. the president obviously very publicly tweets about the show sometimes before its on. he tells people when it's going to be on and where they can watch it and to tune in. it does seem as though fox and the white house are in communication quite a bit but one of the white house officials who i spoke to for this story, someone currently there was sort of complaining about the fact that, they don't always know what's going to be on fox news and they have to react to it as the president reacts to it publicly. if

. >> i then spoke to sean hannity, which everybody refuses to call sean hannity.onight it's sean hannity because we had a really good show. hannity is a great, he's a friendly guy. >> it's a different kind of p preamble, to form a more perf t perfectiperfect union, and the union is sean hannity and donald trump telling each other what they want to hear every day. what if you only got your news from fox news, what if it was a constant loop, especiallily at night by the pundits. >> by at night, do you mean right before bed? >> right before he gets on the phone and they talk about their day and because, you would think they would be doing that with their wives, but apparently this is a different level of bromance. . >> again, presidents are supposed to be seeking counsel, serious counsel, he's gotten rid of rex tillerson, he's gotten rid of h.r. mcmaster, now he has to reach out to a tv host. you were great, i was great, mueller's awful, what do i do? he's looking for a shoulder to whine on, every day. this is just crazy. and that new york piece that says hannity is

sean hannity being a core supporter of the president and very public about that. ident to reach out to hannity to kind of take the temperature of where things are with his supporters? >> it's an unusually tight relationship with a broadcaster or member of the media. hannity frequently says he's not a typical journalist. i think it's better to call him an entertainer, but he's a very influential entertainer. he channels trump's base and is able to express what trump's target audience might be thinking. i think the issue here is that hannity's not the most reliable source of information. hannity is someone who presents a very tilted view of the world, whether that's promoting fear of immigrants or the idea that mueller's probe is a witch hunt. the president's having that message reinforced not just by watching hannity's show but also by talking to him on the phone. i think that's ultimately why this is an issue. look, if trump was getting advice from dana perino or shep smith or other television hosts, journalists at fox news, i don't think this would be as intriguin

let's go to the issue of sean hannity. everybody is making a big deal how these guys are chatting on the phone every night after tv broadcast by sean. what's it about? what do you make of it? >> well, one, i don't think it's very important. if the president is playing to just the fox news audience, i guess it's important. but back to i think the central issue we're discussing, chris, and the context, which is about mueller, which is if the president wants to win over the public opinion, he is going to need to talk to all of us. he is going to need a spokesperson whose actually got his facts correct, who actually knows what he is talking about. the president's biggest liability right now is not sean hannity. it's the president. the president is an undisciplined client. i would never want to represent someone like him. and giuliani is an undisciplined lawyer. the both of them together are a mess. so if i'm mueller, i want to give him the opportunity to talk to me voluntarily. and if not, as your other guests have just said, w

oprah of angry old white men. ( laughter ) according to "new york magazine," donald trump and sean hannity? i'm wearing nothing but a cheeseburger wrapper." ( laughter ) i'll never get the smell of onions out now. ( laughter ) ( piano riff ) what do these lovable old codgers talk about? apparently they "alternate between discussing "the witch hunt!" and "gabbing" like old girlfriends about media gossip and whose show sucks. oooh! ( cheers and applause ) ( piano riff ) i hope it's me! ( laughter ) i would love to be up there with "low rated morning joe," "unfunny s.n.l." and "lyin' spongebob squarepants." ( laughter ) i'm more of a chum bucket fan. ( laughter ) now, one source said that trump needs these calls with hannity, because "he doesn't live with his wife," explaining that he lacks someone "to decompress" with at the end of the day. yeah, if melania were there, he could complain to her about how his day went. "today, one of the porn stars i had sex with while you were home with our newborn didn't even adhere to the terms of her n.d.a. talk about a monday!" ( laughter ) and they don't

a crime to lie to sean hannity.lie to any journalist. >> maybe these guys should stop giving interviews to sean hannity. whether it's cohen or giuliani. guys, sometimes a friend is not your friend. okay, we have a big document here in the development here in the special counsel looking into these ties. a federal judge rejecting paul manafort's, he tried to get a case dismissed. the criminal case. judge rejecting that effort in washington. manafort said mueller is beyond his bounce. outside of his mandate. this isn't okay. judge said no. mueller can proceed. what's the significance? >> i think it's significant for two reasons. number one, there are two cases pending against paul manafort. one in washington and one in virginia. the one in was the one where the judge made the negative comments. he will read this very detailed opinion by the judge in washington. and may well be influenced by it, bring him around the government side. it could. won't be binding because one trial judge can't bind another, but it could serv

survival in being in touch with those people, there aren't a lot of better people to talk to than sean hannityre of them than anyone. >> ashley, let me give you the last word and tie this hannity reporting to what you're reporting about the president's state of mind over the probe. it seems like sean hannity has likened bob mueller to a mob boss running a mob family operation. you think that's what's around the corner in terms of their defense against the investigation? >> well, the risk is, it was sort of a pick your own poison. at the beginning of the administration, the president was also sort of hate watching a lot of msnbc and a lot of cnn and that created one set of headach headaches for this white house. he's hearing what he wants to hear. he's hearing what his base hears. but then you see him sort of engaging in some conspiracy theories, getting advice his lawyers might not want him to have. and obviously not governing towards the center. >> all right. none of those helpful. ashley parker, bob, thank you very much. when we come back my favorite headline of the day. white house leakers

great sean hannity from new york. >> sean: great show as always. welcome to "hannity." this is an amazing news night. we will tell you and break it all down. we have a lot to cover. the nuclear deal with iran, well, that now weighs in the balance. we will have an answer tomorrow. the president set to decide the fate of this very flawed, highly irresponsible agreement. now, john kerry, the former secretary of state is waging a sketchy, unauthorized, illegitimate campaign in order to save this reckless deal he was in part responsible for negotiating. is he violating the law? the logan act? we'll investigate. also we will call out kerry's shadow diplomacy and show you just why this obama era nuclear deal puts the united states and our allies in danger, why it needs to be scrapped immediately. plus, the stonewalling, the obstruction from the department of justice is out of control. jeff sessions, rod rosenstein, other d.o.j. officials are now actively hindering ongoing congressional investigations. they need to be held responsible. nobody is above the law. and what are they

sean hannity is very close to the white house. some people have called him the unofficial chief of staff. he's frequently on the phone with the president and frequently visits the white house. his reaction, during the interview was, oh, really? i didn't know that. >> so that, i think, definitely caught the president off guard. and it definitely made it seem like this wasn't land. and that giuliani was very much off the cuff. so, it's interesting to see how all of this has been playing out in that way and it's interesting to see how this has been playing out with giuliani as well. after 9/11, i think giuliani had a ton of credibility with the american people who was close to the intelligence community. he was known as america's mayor. but over this past week, it seems like that's kind of all worn off. and he's contradicting the president. and it's just -- it's a very weird public relations strategy. >> weird and interesting. okay. two key points there. jonathan, now according to "washington post," sarah huckabee sanders told her co

in this case sean hannity is somebody giving advice.you, brian, this is sean hannity who once said, i am not a journalist jackass. now, there was no punctuation in that, but he was espousing is he's not even a fair minded jftd in his own words. he is an opinion talk show host who is feeding that opinion to the president of the united states and making him feel good before he goes to bed at night. >> some of those public servants you just mentioned, this quote that's in the article, trump in -- what is the -- i wrote it down in my own writing and i can't -- inherently distrust. sorry. it's my own penmanship. inherently distrusts anyone who chooses to work for him. imagine fdr trying to carry out helmed by mr. trump tending to his own allies and interests even when the president's instincts lean in another direction. so absolute adoration and fealty publicly, but behind the scenes, anyone who knows mike pence, he's a cagey veteran politician. you've often said on this broadcast this can't be the party of trump, though you admit it probabl

new york, and current attorney for the president, made a stunning revelation while speaking to sean hannity. giuliani revealing what happened after that $130,000 hush payment to stormy daniels was facilitated by mr. trump's then lawyer, michael cohen, days before the 2016 election. he said cohen was reimbursed by the president himself. take a listen. >> that moneyas not campaign money. sorry. i'm giving you a fact now you that don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they funneled it through a law firm. >> funneled it through a law firm. and then the president repaid it. >> at one point the fox news anchor even tried to interject into giuliani's revelation as giuliani claimed payments mr. trump made to cohen for his services each month were in fact reimbursements for that $130 thousands hush agreement. >> when i maerd cohen's retainer of 35,000 when he was doing no work for the president, i said that's how he's repaying -- that's how he's repaying it, with a little profit and a little margin for pag taxes for michael. >> but do you know the president didn't kno

sean hannity at that point paused and said i wasn't aware of that. that will no doubt create a host of new legal problems for the president. we'll have much more on that just ahead. also tonight, the seismic shake-up in president trump's legal team on the russia investigation. donald trump has hired emmet flood, a veteran criminal defense attorney. he was one of the bill clinton's impeachment lawyers. he also worked in the white house counsel's office during george w. bush's second term. flood, who is a partner at the d.c. law firm of williams and connelly will be part of the white house counsel's office and the point person for the administration's response to special counsel robert mueller. flood replaces ty cobb. he's been in that position since july of last year. he'll retire, they say, at the end of this month. there are major legal and political implications that stem from this move, say nothing of what rudy giuliani said tonight. the switch was first reported by "the new york times" matt opuso who will join us in just a moment. they write, quo

in this case sean hannity is somebody giving advice.ind you, brian, this is sean hannity who once said, "i am not a journalist jackass." now, there was no punctuation in that, but what he was espousing is he's not even a fair-minded journalist in his own words. he is an opinion talk show host who is feeding that opinion to the president of the united states and making him feel good before he goes to bed at night. >> some of those public servants you just mentioned, this quote that's in the article, trump in -- what is the -- i wrote it down in my own writing and i can't -- inherently distrust. sorry. it's my own penmanship. inherently distrusts anyone who chooses to work for him. imagine fdr trying to carry out world war ii, get this country out of a depression if he was working around harry hopkins all the while. >> that's right. fast forward even to our generation with bush 43. whatever you think of his politics, his decisions with the war, the reality is bush 43 came in having lost the popular vote. he won the electoral college. his

they were as shocked as sean hannity, viewers who watch seem to be. the president and rudy giuliani that made the other members of the private legal team involved, but folks inside the white house said, no sense at all. no heads up at all this would come down. >> shepard: it didn't feel real lawyered, if you know what i mean. what we heard today felt lawyered. i'm enjoying the sentence, my understanding, my references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president's knowledge, but instead my understanding of these matters. >> yeah, and that came when giuliani seemed to suggest that president trump didn't even know about the payment to michael cohen until a week or even just 10 days ago. now giuliani is saying, i was the one who learned about this a week or 10 days ago when we saw documents seized in the michael cohen raid, not that the president only learned about it then. you are right. it was much more careful and precise and giuliani's statement than when he was on the air wednesday and thursday. >> shepard: in the big picture, fir

all of this stems what we heard initially from an interview with sean hannity. take a listen. >> i was talking about the $130,000 payment, the settlement payment. the only violation is was there a campaign finance violation, that was money that was paid by his lawyer the way i would do out of his law firm funds or whatever funds. >> that was part of the explanation we got there. there's a couple of things there that stick out. number one, he worked obviously in the southern district here. he knowes it es it's not a stor trooper issue. he said the biggest issue here would be a fine. is the biggest issue that there could be a fine from the sec and a slap on the wrist and now we move forward? >> no. there could be the impeachment of the united states. >> over this? over a payment? >> this is part of a picture that could lead to obstruction of justice charges and other thanksgiving th things that might support impeachment. the trouble i have with the giuliani statement is having represented many people charged with crimes the lawyer sits down with the client and say

so -- >> thank you. >> sean hannity says you funneled if through the law firm.and i want to take this entire interview because it would take a whole seminar to break down everything wrong with it. i mean, first of all, sean hannity acted like he had his legs cut out from under him. giuliani apologized to him, sorry a fact you didn't know because you've been cut out of the loop on this. which is literally true. and also sean hannity, he's been defending trump on this issue for weeks and weeks. and then all of a sudden he comes out, jewgiuliani shows upd says no, everything you've been saying is all wrong. he is actually paying him. and again the idea of the structured payments, they were designed to hide a wrongdoing. and that does not sound very legal to me. >> no, and also i mean we've been critical of sean sometimes concerned about the relationship, but he does a great job last night. bang up job. >> president thinks so. >> and so do we. >> this president does that trust michael cohen otherwise he would have given him a white house job be. so giuliani saying h

. >> there were these stories about sean hannity as a chief of staff. i was wondering if you ever coordinate? >> i don't coordinate with sean hannity. we're both pretty busy. i go on his show once a week. there's nothing to coordinate. what is there to coordinate? i have a relationship with the president. i speak with him regularly. sean is running the highest rated show on cable. there's a reason for that. he's providing information that people can't find anywhere else. sean would have low ratings if he was talking about everything else that everybody is talking about. think about that for a moment. people are starved for unique content. they seem to not be getting it elsewhere. the ratings show that and what he covers every night show that. he's also dealing with things that are outside of my per view. i don't have access to those materials. i'm glad the country is starting to have access to those materials because i think when everybody is calling for transparency and accountable, it ought to cut every single way. we ought to know they were expecting

that's operating, i mean i was talking in real-time with people while rudy was on "sean hannity" showe house -- they're watching it like us. they're like viewers, spectators watching this playing out on tv. and these are not junior, mid-level people, these are senior people watching it in real-time on tv. as if they are you know, just guests watching you know in someone's home. watching a show on television. >> i think i was reading when i was reading your reporting, i saw someone had texted someone within the white house and said what's going on here, and they sent back the emoji that said this -- i have no idea. jonathan swan, we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a little bit. for you, you can sign up for their newsletter on axios.com. i'm yasmin vossoughian, "morning joe" starts right now. >>> good morning. it's friday. it's just friday may 4th. joe is on assignment. we have a lot to get to. with us to start things off msnbc contributor mike barnicle. donny deutsch is here, republican strategist and political commentator, susan del pursio and law professor at george washington unive

a sean hannity interview. sean hannity is in the president's kitchen cabinet. he is basically an advisor to the president. it is more than a friendly interview. rudy giuliani is in the president's kitchen cabinet and at the time he was a lawyer. it just defies belief to imagine that he wasn't briefed or that it was a set-up or some kind of weird freelancing. i think he believed he was doing what the legal team thought was best at the time and i suspect it is because, look. it is almost certain that special counsel or other prosecutors have the financial paper trail of these transactions and know who paid what. so to speculate for a second, you can imagine if they know where the money is coming from and it is obviously coming from the president, that lays out this campaign finance problem which ken was talking about. so i think that rudy was trying to clean it up but made a second problem in cleaning it up. it just goes to show you how tangled this web is. >> are you saying that the intent perhaps was to acknowledge that the payment was made, that donald trump h

. >> it's hard to believe, the rudy giuliani interview with sean hannity was last wednesday night, not even a full week since that happened. it went the way it did and the next day it went even worse then he was on tv again this weekend, he was on the phone with politico and the "the wall street journal" all day today. how is it that this is still going on? >> we still actually don't know what the story is, we don't know which of juligiuliani's stateme and the white house statements stand as the official account of this episode. you know, all this time later. i want to say a couple things, one about getting too close to the son in this white house. absolutely. bannon wasn't on tv so much, but had the book about him, he was on the cover of "time" magazine. >> right. >> we know from the famous scaramucci ten days that at first, trump really liked scaramucci, he liked, you know, all the stuff he was doing, liked when scaramucci was punching people in the news. >> like you. >> then the blow-back came and everyone said this guy's a bit of a joke, making you look bad and trump discarded him.

something we hear every night from sean hannity and i don't think it is any coincidence you're hearing it from the president the morning after he get the hannity notes here. that is, you know, it is a political strategy and maybe that will work. >> it is. by the way, john, it is working. we have seen how republicans are responding in the polls and looking at the mueller investigation. this constant hammering and politicizing of this investigation, it does seem to be working with the president's supporters and beyond that a little bit inside his party which is key. but what i do think is important to note here too is that the president seems committed to a strategy on fighting back on the obstruction of justice charge, the potential charge, that he laid out in january when, remember, he met with reporters in john kelly's office in a stop by, and he -- we're still in the same place all these months later, he calls what he did fighting back. and he thinks that's what investigators are calling obstruction of justice and he still seems committed to a strategy that that is the case he's goin

i think what we're seeing is panic and cover-up in light of giuliani's admission on sean hannity. >> reporter: rudy giuliani in addition to being a former mayor of new york city is also a former prosecutor. but the lawyer says his actions aren't portraying that. >> it's, um, his public statements that are getting the president into trouble. >> reporter: the lawyer says the statement ping pong may not have federal ramifications. but it could have some in the golden state. the $130,000 payment to daniels was made in california. >> there could be state of california issues because the payment was made in california versus federal issues. the importance there is that president trump does not govern what happens in the legal mechanism of the state of california. >> reporter: andria borba, kpix 5. >> the professor says michael cohen's bar standing in the state of california could be called into question. >>> time now 4:39. a group of notorious bay area animal activists had eluded police until now. we'll hear from the group's leader. >> plus, one bay area city hopes smarter trash cans will

sean hannity, fox news"oh. i didn't know that, he did?"y giuliani/ attorney for president trump"yeah."sean hannity, fox news"no campaign finance law?"rudy giuliani/ attorney for president trump "zero!"in revealing trump reimbursed cohen, giuliani revealed trump in fact had to know about the payment which the president denied on air force one just last month. reporter"did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels?"trump"no, no."reporter "then why did michael cohen make that..."trump"you have to ask michael cohen. michael's my, an attorney and you'll have to ask michael cohen." reporter"do you know where he got the money to make that payment?"trump"i don't know, no."and giuliani's revelation undercuts what white house press secretary sanders told the american people in march. sarah sanders/ white house press secretary"i had conversations with the president about this. there was any payments from the president and he's denied all of these allegations."giuliani back on fox this morning trying to clear things up claiming trump wasn'

sean hannity is your tv version of alex jones. job the types of nut conspiracy theories he comes up with. book whenpromoted my i'm occasionally asked to be on programs. cnn, chrissnbc, hayes on msnbc, sean hannity's show, to talk about my book. i tried to politely be on these programs that offer a platform for something i care about. is true toay that what i am reporting without making comments about what they do. shows,go on all of these it doesn't imply an endorsement for everything other people say on the left, right, or whatever program i am on. i don't think it is throwing my reputation down the toilet but if it is to him, so be it. >> the color mentioned alex jones. -- the caller mentioned alex jones. would you be on his program? >> i don't know much about him and i don't have a wide breadth of knowledge about what they are bringing up. but i focus on the issues i take into. day,'t read, on a given through the washington post for example, cover to cover in the new york times, and i might not even read news articles today and

he'll latch on to anything, including a disastrous interview with sean hannity by rudy giuliani. >> but is there some truth to that? that obviously the special counsel office is seeing people like paul manafort as somewhat of a tool to be able to get to the ultimate goal, which is to get to the bottom of what the president knew and when he knew it. isn't there -- is there a fair element to the judge's critique? >> well, i guess somebody could try to make that case. but i think there is a lot of evidence about potential criminal activity by mr. manafort involved massive money laundering, involving undisclosed sums coming from rather shady characters tied to ukraine and pro-russian elements, coming into the united states and deliberate efforts by him to off-shore that money so it wouldn't be disclosed. those are potentially crimes -- federal crimes. and i would hope that federal judge, mr. ellis, doesn't overlook that. >> and you mentioned rudy giuliani and we've seen these statements after statements after statement, some cleaning up the previous ones from rudy giuliani about the stormy

in the days after the sean hannity interview had giuliani confirmed that michael cohen had reimbursed trump for the stormy daniels payment, i heard that this was not the same rudy giuliani, he lost a step and gone off the reservation. but i've trump is very pleased. one adviser said rudy doesn't go out there and do anything without trump's agreement. >> as you look at the principals involved here, there's rudy giuliani, other members of the president's political team. but on capitol hill, you have the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee, mark medadows from the freedom caucus. house of representatives clo how closely are they working to the with the white house? >> th >> you mentioned sean hannity, corey lewandowski and others, people who are sort of the let trump be trump camp where they wanted to let him go on the attack. you had the original lawyers, ty cobb and john dowd who advocated that trump talk to mueller directly. but now you've seen a daily indictment of robert mueller's reputation. >> we see the familiar railing against the deep state, james clapper has

we may not like sean hannity but sean hannity is almost inevitable as a part of this media universe. the things that lead to success, the standards of success, and the motivations that drive people are different on both sides. if it were not sean hannity, it would be someone else. the roots of these things are structural, not personal or a matter of integrity, honesty, these deep ecosystems which have been decades in the making are producing these outcomes. that is we -- that is what we have to grapple with. one more thing, thinking about the sources of this information. -- misinformation in media. a lot of culprits. facebook algorithms, crazy uncles. pay close to home when you said bob but i am rob. [laughter] russians, those kinds of things. they are interacting through these existing media ecosystems. for me, it is less troublesome or less consequential, the source of this information -- dis information that for it to gain traction in bd ecosystems. , because of media the structural elements, is more disinformation been fact-based journalism rooted. that is kind of what we are loo

sean hannity awaits your viewing in new york city. >> sean: tucker, they got. it monologue set. welcome to hannity. this is yet, i am not kidding another insane breaking news night. day 365 of the mueller witch hunt. president trump and the legal team are fighting back in a huge way against the corrupt special counsel investigation. we have a massive development. the president's attorney rudy guiliani is telling the new york times tonight that mueller is agreeing to narrow the scope of the questions he wants to ask the question. he will join us on the bottom. and great mark levin was correct from the get go. the constitution of the country is on president trump's side. and he will explain. president trump is reacing to the new york time and confirming our year long reporting that the obama fbi, one part spied on his campaign and he called it bigger than watergate and the president is right as we told you. and new details from sarah carter reporting the doy ig report on the corrupt handling on the hillary clinton investigation long and thorough and could lead to criminal charges r

sean hannity from new york city. >> sean: great show as always. welcome to "hannity." president trump's attorney, rudy giuliani, making massive nizam's program. he took james james comey to to much more, but tonight, this abuse of revised news media in this country, they only cared about one space my 32nd clip. weip had a 40 minute interview. all making news. this regarding revelations around stormy, stormy, stormy. we are you how insane, ridiculous the anti-terms of media and their echo chamber has become in this country. plus we have breaking developments tonight over the fbi's investigation into michael cohen. earlier today, fake news nbc reporting the fbi wiretapped drum's longtime attorney. now we are learning that much of that story was fake. we'll explain coming up. finally, a massive development out of north korea. the media is howling at the moon over michael cohen and stormy daniels and russia, russia, russia, they are visibly yawning over the report that three of our fellow americans that were imprisoned by kim jong un, they may soon be released. sit tight,

things changed when rudy guiliani trump's new lawyer told sean hannity the president did in fact pay for it. >> they funneled it through a law firm. funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it. when i heard cohen's retainer of $35,000, when he was doing no work for the president, i said that's how he's repaying it. >> giuliani then made things more confusing when toe he told "the new york times" a day after that sbav that the president's reimbursements to mr. cohen were roughly $46,000 in that total. in the same financial filing, the office of government ethics disagreed with the payments writing it was required to be reported the year it happened in 2016, two years ago. acting director sent a letter to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein flagging the filing. walter schaub tweeted this is tantamount to a criminal referral. o gt effectively reported the president to the department of justice for potentially committing a crime. i'm joined by natasha bertrand it, an msnbc contributor, paul butler, analyst and jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios. this is a

this was sean hannity from this evening. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> this is the biggest abuse of power, corruption, scandal we have seen in the history of this country. talk about watergate. this is watergate on steroids and human growth hormone. what is playing out right now is nothing compared to watergate. >> so, brian, there you have it. that's the talking point. we've seen it now for the better part of 24 hours. is this what we can expect more of going into next week? >> yes. this is part of a pattern president trump and his allies like sean hannity are trying to undermine mueller's investigation and undermine the fbi's longtime investigation into the ties between russian officials and trump's campaign. and so when trump does things like says that an fbi informant was embedded in his campaign, that's an intentional exaggeration of the known facts to try to make it look like there was impropriety and overstepping of bounds when, you know, what we know based on the reporting from "the new york times" and "t

but for him to go on sean hannity's program without fully debriefing the president seems the height of unpreparedness. i can't imagine a lawyer for client going on television without fully debriefing the client about what the client expects and wants. >> you remember donald trump. do you have phone conversations before and after your appearances? >> i do. and find him to be very cooperative, and i've had no trouble whatsoever in managing a defense or prosecution for one of his cases. i might say in each of the cases i handled for him for which i take credit that they were always won, he was always in the right. >> did you warn him you didn't think rudy was up to the job? >> well, i told him that i didn't think that guiliani was the right person for him to select. i thought that there were much better people that he could use in terms of negotiating with mueller. >> do you think he likes rudy for the fact that he is on tv a lot than for legal training? >> no, that's one thing i mentioned to him, i thought rudy would come into the case with intent to take the spotlight off trump and in s

listen to what he told sean hannity last night about what the president was thinking when he made thation to fire the former fbi director. >> 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 he couldn't get that. >> reporter: but that really contradicts what the president himself has said and it also raises some new questions about whether, in fact, the president was looking for james comey to vindicate him in the russia probe publicly despite the fact that the explanations the white house and others had given at that time was that it was about comey's handling of the hillary clinton investigation. just a couple of days after comey was fired, president trump gave an interview to lester holt of nbc news when holt asked him about why he fired comey and he again, brought up the inspector of this russian investigation. listen. >> we had a very nice dinner and at that time he told me you are not under investigation. regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing

while it sounded like a bolt out of the blue and appeared to take sean hannity by surprise the whole thing was arranged with his counsel and the president last night. rudy giuliani insisting the president didn't know anything about where the money was going. he had michael cohen on a monthly retainer for services rendered and for expenses incurred. giuliani saying this morning that the money was not for the campaign but the money was to protect the president's reputation. listen here. >> this was for personal reasons. this -- the president had been hurt personally, not politically, personally so much and the first lady by some of the false allegations. that one more false allegation six years old i think he was trying to help the family. for that the man is being treated like some kind of villain. i think he was being a good lawyer and a good man. >> the president weighing in with a tweet sets the record for the link. he tweeted mr. cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign which he entered through reimbursement

it's apparently an extension of the white house and i think that that is not journalism i know sean hannity is a partisan person he wears his stripes on his on his sleeves there but at the same time you get that you get the feeling there's real collusion there what do you think. well i think hyper partisanship and kind of like that type of punditry is just a quick paycheck and it's always kind of been in style who's the number one host right now rachel maddow rachel maddow is just the corporate left i mean because she's she's not left at all but she's kind of the corporate media version of the left response to a xan hannity sean hannity was number one when obama was in office was she's number one now because trump's in office and it's giving people the these tribal little groups to get into and that's how we go about our business and i would also say you know the white house is in total disarray yes that's true there's more turnover than a third party pyramid scheme yes that's true however the media is no better at all i mean when the media was told to turn off their cameras there was not o

he's also frustrated in an exchange from a previous interview with sean hannity, whe sean hannity is a long-time confidant, surprised that he was suggesting -- he said, oh, they were funneled through the law firm? giuliani repeated back and said, funneled, yes, and the president, according to our reporting, got mad at both men saying funneled suggests a criminal enterprise. >> that's not a normal word. peter, i have two questions for you. number one, the rudy factor. since the hannity interview, it strikes us tonight he's been all or part of our lead story every night since so there's that and a serious question, we don't get to see you in new york that often, by percentage, you cover this white house for the "new york times." how much of the trump presidency do you end up covering every day and how much of this, the moving parts, the machinations. >> that's a great question. there was talk just last summer about trying to separate these things, to have somebody who just dealt with these things so that the white house could get on with the business of governing the country. we've got

i believe after sean hannity. so that was a late night for him. then he went back on fox this morning. in the interview with the "washington post," he explained exactly why he's talking now. he says it's a courtesy to robert mueller's team to tell them there is nothing to see here. quote, i want them to know, don't chase. we spend so much time chasing windmills here. according to giuliani, the circumstances prove there was no campaign finance violations and nothing illegal. one, he says the money was from trump's personal funds, not campaign funds. and two, he says trump did not specifically know what the money was being used for. president doubled down this morning with a long, long tweet. insisting the agreement with cohen is not unusual. and that, quote, money came from the campaign or campaign contributions played no role. role, mr. president, is r-o-r-le, in this transaction. does that get the president off the hook? no matter where the money came from, if the intention was to use it or to influence the election, it would have to be reported

guilty of creating a real national security threat every time he picks up his cell phone to call sean hannity or rudy giuliani. it's amazing. it's utterly amazing the times we're living in and it amazes me so that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle still remain silent. still remain silent. who would have thought? on ebola. in early may, president trump proposed rescinding $252 million meant to combat the ebola virus, another in-- and other infectious diseases. not only are these recisions a slap in the face of the bipartisan budget process, but they are dangerous to our national health and security. just last week a new case of the ebola virus was confirmed in the democratic republic of the congo and at least two dozen people have already died from this most recent outbreak. let's not forget how vociferously my friends on the other side of the oil criticized president obama for how he handled the ebola outbreak in 2014. once again donald trump totally contradicts what he said in the past with what he's doing now. here's what donald trump tweeted in 2014. ebola has been confirmed in

back to sean hannity on fox news.com. >> sean: our next guest is caught up in the democrat witch huntnd cost him dearly and personally. former trump campaign aide had to sell his home to pay for legal fee and fearful that his kid's future is in jeopardy. he had harsh words for the senate intelligence committee. he said america needs an investigation. investigators, i want to know who is paying for the spies work and coordinated attack on president trump and crushed our kids and cost us money and forced us out of our home all because you forced us out of our home. i want to know because gd you to hell. i know you said what a lot of people feel. i said it to rudy guiliani, i watched whole picks. and i am guessing and she probably spent more legal fees than she was paid last year and that is a case for a lot of people. explain how this impacts you and your family? >> thanks for having me, sean by the way. it started on march 20, 2017, the house intelligence had a public hearing where representative jackie spear brought my name up and my wife's name and called me putin's image maker. and

back to sean hannity.or all your headlines, log on to foxnews.com. >> sean: welcome back to the special edition of "hannity." it's no secret that the liberal press viciously attacked president trump while completely ignoring his very long list of accomplishments. i have highlighted many of the president's major successes in my opening monologues. let's take a look. president trump is on a complete tear by continuing to keep his promises and enact the agenda that you, the american people, voted for in november 2016. the d.h.s. secretary kirstjen nielsen made a major announcement earlier today about president trump's plan to secure the southern border. here is what she said. >> the president has directed the national guard personnel be deployed to the southern border. the department of defense as you know long supported the effort of d.h.s. to protect the nation's borders and this includes ongoing counternarcotic missions, infrastructure construction, persistent operation training and aerial support througho