susan glasser, staff writer at the new yorker. paul butler, a former federal prosecutor and georgetown law school professor. and ken dilanian, nbc news intelligence and national security reporter. thank you all for being with us. ken, let me start with you. with this news, rudy giuliani, what he is telling the a.p. about, he says, potentially going to the justice department to have this investigation declared illegitimate. what do you make of his comments tonight? >> it's a very significant and potentially disturbing development, steve, because, look, under normal circumstances, the subject or target of a grand jury investigation has no right to learn secret information about that investigation. now, absolutely, once you're charged with a crime as a defendant, you have a right to get discovery and to learn how the government investigated and what they got and anything exculpatory. but before that, you have no right except in this case, the putative defendant is the president of the united states. and in theory, he could order that

susan glasser, and david bowl offer. believe the day after the mid terms and we have to wait to do the results of the election into the second half hour. susan glasser, you are a former moscow resident arc former reporter based in moscow. what do you know of vekselberg? what did you make of micromcfaul's explanation? >> i learned a lot of tough from mike mcfaul. he was a tutor to me and peter when we were correspondents in moscow. vekselberg actually -- you know, we knew him when we lived in moscow at the beginning of putin's ten your as an oligarch who did favors for the president. when we were there he purchased faberge eggs to bring them back to russia. >> this has always been a thing with russia. they are in a race of malcolm forbes. >> these allegations are jaw dropping. i mean, if you had told any of us a year ago, especially those of us who follow russia that there would in fact be so many connections like actual connections between kremlin envoys or russian business people and the trump circle, we would have been

and susan glasser is back with us. ken, let me start with you. the president saying this could still happen. this could still happen on june 12th. is that a realistic possibility right now? >> it's certainly possible. it seems like nothing is ever really dead in this white house. you know, they were certainly disappointed yesterday. there seems to be more optimism in the building today. one thing to look for is whether the white house advance team actually goes to singapore this weekend. joe hagan is the deputy chief of staff. he leads that group, and they told us today that there's still a possibility that he could go out there. but it just does raise this whole question of whether, you know, there's a risk that the president could essentially be left standing at the altar in singapore. if logistics are an issue here, if there's concern that they can't have meetings of advance teams on time or that calls can't be returned as they get ready for this summit, it raises risks of whether the president would actually be stood up by kim jong-un. >> i'm

shane harris, susan glasser, charlie savage. peak pretty good russian. putin's return on investment segment, anything you would have added. >> i thought that was a great conversation with evelyn. i'm struck. every day there are so many examples of this. yesterday you had the president of the european commission tweeting and then repeating at a press conference that basically, after the iran deal decision with friends and allies like these, who needs enemies? even at the height of our disagreements with europeans say during the cold war in 1982, missiles in germany and the like. >> or iraq war. >> iraq war. >> yeah. >> you never ever heard anything like that. i can only imagine that might have been one of the reasons why president trump did not want to have the press conference today with attorney general stoltenberg. >> i think that's right. even though it symbolically showed gees, he is snubbing nato. i think putin would have loved that symbolism. let me go back to the probe here and michael cohen. seems every couple of weeks "v

susan glasser, thank you so much. we appreciate you being here. susan's piece in the "new yorker." >>> still ahead, the "washington post's" eugene robinson will be with us with his latest piece titled "president trump's spy and the dark art of branding." "morning joe" back in a moment with low energy joe. [music playing] (vo) from day one, we always came through for our customers. it's how we earned your trust. until... we lost it. today, we're renewing our commitment to you. fixing what went wrong. and ending product sales goals for branch bankers. so we can focus on your satisfaction. it's a new day at wells fargo. but it's a lot like our first day. wells fargo. established 1852. re-established 2018. welcome to holiday inn! thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! every stay is a special stay at holiday inn. save up to 15% when you book early at hollidayinn.com save up to 15% and we got to know the friendsy of our friends.r the friends. and we found others just like us. and just like that we felt a little less alone. but then something hap

susan glasser has new job since last time we saw already she now writes column trump-washington for newker. ramesh ponnuru is the the national review, visiting fellow at the american enterprise institute. paula reid is cbs news correspondent who covers the justice department, the fbi as well as white house and anything else we throw at her. let's start with you, what the president calls spygate. we have talked about so far we have heard that there has been nothing new learned from these extraordinary briefings that happened on capitol hill this week with doj meeting with republicans and democratic leaders to talk about what happened during the campaign and this probe. what more to learn because congressman meadows says they are about to present new documents. >> no one in the justice department has ever mentioned fact that there could be another meeting. bull really there's always another meeting. they have been doing this for months now. we'll find something, some question about origins of the muller problem, make a lot of noise, usually justice department will eventually agree to some

and susan glasser, staff writer at "the new yorker."ther's day. >> happy mother's day. >> happy mother's day. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. thank you very much. cecilia, back to the discussion on north korea and kim jong-un. do you think the white house, despite what john bolton said, is pretty certain of the outcome? is there really a chance that donald trump will walk away? >> no. i think they're very certain of the outcome. also, i should say that and say i have promised never to predict anything about this white house ever again because i'm always wrong. i think they're very confident about the jot come. they need this victory. do you remember what the president looked like on that runway at joint base andrews at 2:00 in the morning? >> happy. >> i have never seen him happier. how much the language has changed on kim jong-un. we went from fire and fury and little rocket man to good and he made the mistake saying how well the prisoners, the detainees has been treated at one point. he was riding high. they're going in e

for this block he joins our panel of dan balls, "washington post," susan glasser from "the new yorker and kapur. matthew we have got you here, we are going to enact with you, you are an expert on how the justice department works. any parallel of a etd mooing like this in your time while you were at justice? >> no, of course the president of the united states wasn't under investigation for obstructingious and potentially cooperating with a foreign power. no, there aren't a lot of parallels. i can tell you generally how we interacted with the white house. whefrs this was a he question of a criminal investigation, let's say the justice department was investigating a corporation, vetting a mafia family we never talked to the white house about those investigation. they never talked to us about those investigations we never talked to the white house about those investigations. we were always clear, as hard a line as that was, had this ever been an investigation that involved the white house it self that line would be even more bright even more clear and we would never talk to them about it

. >> as the new yorker's susan glasser points out, deal making has proven challenging for the president "there are no deals with trump and increasingly unlikely to be not on nafta, middle east peace or obamacare or infrastructure. trump is a much better deal breaker than dealmaker." for more, i'm joined by nicholas kristof, jonathan lemire from the "associated press" and analyst and sue me terry former director for korea, japan at the national security council. jonathan, let me start with you. what is going on inside the white house to precipitate the cancellation and how active are the talks now in terms of getting this back on the schedule potentially? >> this is something that the president has really wanted despite some of his closest advisers urging caution 0 go ahead with this deal, even some suggesting by just agreeing to the summit in the first place, you've given kim jong-un an air of legitimacy he didn't have. they made efforts in recent days to make this thing happen in singapore in the middle of june. north korea suddenly disengaged in a lot of the talks setting off alarm be

. >> as the new yorker's susan glasser points out. deal making has proven challenging for the president. quote, there are no deals with trump, and there are increasingly unlikely to be, not on nafta, middle east peace. trump is a much better deal breaker than deal maker. i'm joined by nicholas kristof, "new york times" columnist, jonathan lemire, and sui mi terry. thanks to all of you for joining us. jonathan lemire, let me start with you just on what is going on inside the white house to precipitate the cancellation and how active are the talks now in terms of getting this back on the schedule potentially? >> this is something that the president has really wanted despite some people around him, some of his closest advisers really urging caution to go ahead with this deal, even some suggesting by just agreeing to the summit in the first place, you've already given kim jong-un an air of legitimacy he did not have. they made efforts in recent days to try to set up logistics to make this thing in singapore in the middle of june, and nort