the legal team is look at strategies here. the washington host and new york times are both reporting that the president is also looking into ways to disrupt this investigation. they're looking into the background of the attorneys working on this investigation. it just shows how much time and attention here at the white house is being focused on this. so much fallout reverberating from the interview with "the new york times" earlier this week, about the president expressing his blistering disappointment with the attorney general. it's sent shock waves throughout the west wing. the attorney general is one of the most loyal soldiers in the trump army. he was the earlier republican senator to sign on. as we end this week, the sixth-month mark of this presidency. the russia investigation dominating many things here at the white house. christine and miguel? >> thank you, jeff zelny. >>> the is the said he would have hired someone else if he knew that sessions would recuse hils in the russia probe. >> i have the honor of serving as at

the president shakes up the legal team with new leadership. t said hours earlier, he planned a more aggressive pushback. the post reports the legal team is taking a look at where the president's authorities stand on issuing pardons for aides and family members, but maybe also for himself. this morning, the president's lawyer called that reporting nonsense. we are covering all the developments this busy morning. susan malveaux is on capitol hill and caitlin collins is at the white house. the white house says nonsense, much to do about nothing. >> reporter: good morning, poppy. we are hearing donald trump is reshuffling his legal team in wake of the investigation. the lawyer is going to see a reduced role.

the legal tell didn't know about it. and right after that, we see mark curalo, the spokesman for the legal team, quits. it's hard to think that interview with "the new york times" and being blindsided like that is unrelated to mark curalo quitting. >> yeah, i mean it seems like there's a certain amount of restructuring that's going on in the legal time. you've got that timeline right, and it may well be there's some connection between those events. so we've got curalo resigning tonight. there's also reporting this evening that marc kasowitz's role is going to be -- he, of course, is the president's private attorney, who's been seen sort of as the chief responder on russia, that his role is going to be reduced though he will still be there. there's also jay sekulow, who is sort of the public face of the team. he goes on television. and john dowd, who is kind of more of a veteran washington hand, who is going to be more of the work behind the scenes. >> rosalind, i notice that some of your sources, unnamed sources on this within the trump world, talking about the president's inquiries about his pardon aut

there are a lot of advisers who do want him to defer to the legal team. on the other hand, his son has

rather distinct dispute in the legal community. >> sreenivasan: finally briefly in the courses you've spoken with is the shake up or at least the change over in the legal teamwell in the communications department part of something bigger. >> i think there's a sort of sense of the whitehouse on edge right now. there's a lot of turmoil. i certainly would not guarantee that we've seen the end of the changes. of course we'll all note that the president had those very harsh words for attorney general jeff sessions earlier this week in an interview with the "new york times." we're told that people in the whitehouse were quite surprised that those comments did not result in jeff sessions resigning. he instead came out and said he planned to stay on the job. so that's in the air. the chief of staff reince preibus, there's been many rumors that he's on his way out. so i don't think that the team is settled by any means. >> sreenivasan: all right. wrawroz lind helderman from the washingto"thewashington post." >> sreenivasan: from the white house, to capitol hill. for seven months, congressional republicans have taken a sharply partisan route on health care. they have

what the president is talking about, in due time, if there is in fact, a conflict that the legal team deems is significant enough to be raised, we would raise the conflict with the special counsel. >> he says mueller has an inherent conflict. he already said mueller has a conflict. has that been raised with the deputy attorney general? >> we have not raised it with the deputy attorney general yet. i'll tell you this. the special counsel's situation, which is a bit unique in the way it's structured. it's not an independent counsel. it's a special counsel. you have to be evaluating conflicts as they -- as a matter moves forward. remember, we're not at an investigative stage yet. i'm not going to start talking about individual and particular conflicts that could exist that would render or put us in a position where we would, in

the spokesman for the president's legal team has resigned. and mark kasowitz, the new york lawyer trump called down to the washington legal team we're told will be taking on a reduced role. let's bring in the members of tonight as starting panel one of the authors of that remarkable "washington post" piece tonight white house reporter ashley parker is with us. jeremy bash is with us. former chief of staff at cia and dod and former white house intel. . white house reporter for the walgds is eli stokeles with. white house reporter for the associated press vivian salama returns to the broadcast. welcome to you. ashley i'll begin with you. begin wherever you wish, though it appears because there is some do you mean indication in both the post-and the times tonight this is something officials within the white house were anxious to share about in re strategy and this at least investigation into the powers of pardons. >> well i have to say reporting this story tonight it certainly didn't feel like they were anxious to share it. >> okay. >> but it is

the president's legal team is trying to find some chin ks in the armor obviously of robert mueller's legal team and they're, what, looking into their political leanings? donations? what are they looking into? >> there's a long list of things they're looking into, political conflicts, associations they've had with hillary clinton in the past. the relationship you know bob mueller has had for a long time the with the working fbi director james comey who the president famously fired and which led to all of this investigation. most of mueller's investigative work as you know comes from comey's own investigation that he had to leave when he was fired. other conflicts are sort of baffling and intriguing to us at "the post." one of them strangely enough involves bob mueller's membership at a trump golf course in virginia. and the president seems to be, according to a source that spoke to me yesterday, really fascinated by the fact mueller resigned his trump membership at the golf course and there were some alleged disputes over the fees he was owed back. mueller's team told us there was no d

while it makes for interesting academic discussions, let me tell you what the legal team is not doing, we're not researching the issue because the issue of pardons is not on the table. there is nothing to pardon from. eric: that was president trump's attorney strongly denying the reports that president trump has considered the possibility of pardoning himself and others amid the widening russia probe. but you know it may have been the president himself who planted the seed so much. he tweeted yesterday quote while all agree the u.s. president has the complete power to pardon why think of when only crime so far is leaks against us, fake news. so can he pardon himself or can't he? some of the biggest legal minds in the country disagree. we have two of those guys with us now. both defense attorneys and former prosecutors. david, let me start with you. article 2, section 2 of the u.s. constitution says that it grants reprieves and pardons for offenses against the united states except in cases of impeachment. i mean, what does that sound like to you? >> i think it is pretty clear

there is frustration from the president's legal team that he has been discussing the investigation. ere are different legal teams. there are different p.r. teams. every person for themselves in this west wing, many of whom are going to face questioning from prosecutors. there is not the unity you would get in the last few white houses that this has covered, because now by both circumstance and personality, we have a bunch of fifedoms and people are worried about their own jeopardy rather than protecting their guy. which usually is the first team of anyone working in the white house. jonathan: in the midst of that, there is the white house communications operations, which would normally be the one coordinating the message in terms of policy stuff. we have not seen sean spicer in public for more than two weeks. we have had precious few white house briefings. most of them off-camera. where are we with the shakeup of the communications team? is it coming? they seem to have faded into the background. mike: the problem is they cannot get people to come in. they are desperate for talent. th

the president's legal team and his son-in-law's legal team. they don't want the two men understandably talking with each other. there are a lot of tensions and you throw in the president's namesake son, don jr., who hired his own legal team and talking about his own p.r. team and a lot of people who are not coordinating for legal and cultural reasons and it's a really tricky thing to handle. robert: they were trying to handle it as they were on air force one, the president flying back from his trip. mark, the "new york times" broke this explosive story. did "the times" expect donald trump jr. to release these meals emails and what do you make of the story that a former russian spy was in the room last summer? mark: first off on don jr., we didn't know where the story was end up. the story kept evolving over the weekend, the white house story or don jr. kept evolving. on saturday, the meetings was about russian adoptions and on sunday we approached them and said we know it was about getting dirt on hillary clinton and they said we know everyone

number one, the president and his legal team are reportedly discussing his pardon powers, including whetherrdon not just his family members and his staffers but also himself. the post also reporting that the spokesman for the president's legal team has resigns. the post also reporting that the president and the white house are talking about ways to try to discredit bob mueller and his special counsel investigation. that presumably would be used either to retroactively explain actions that they set in motion to fire bob mueller or to try to make the case to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein if he stays in his post that he should fire bob mueller. that reported by "the washington post." moments ago we also just got new reporting from "the new york times." siel read you the lead here. president trump's lawyers and aides are scouring the professional and political backgrounds of investigators hired by the special counsel, bob mueller, looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation. so this is a variety of the same information that "the washington post" is a

legal team. if your client despite the fact married to the president's daughter. he's going to have a legal team focused on his interest. a lot of people in the white house think the legal team has been not doing the service. >> here is how president trump defended the meeting this week. >> it's called opposition researcher and research into your opponent. i've only been in politics for two years, but i've had many people call and say we have information on this factor for this person. that's very standard in politics. chris: does that explanation fly in as a veteran, a lot of washington scandals, how damaging do you think they were? >> in one particular sense it means there's no end in sight for this firestorm. and once you have, as julie was explaining, all these people getting lawyers and preparing to testify and all the rest of it. the burden on the white house is enormous. it was already a burden on the white house to fight these allegations, whether they have the political consequence of this, which is very serious because it means this is the atmosphere in w

the reshuffling of the president's legal team comes around the same time he's sending signals that he's gearing up for a fight against special counsel robert mueller's legal team, citing conflicts with an interview with "the new york times. >> reporter: "the new york times" and "washington post" reporting that the president's lawyers and aides are lacking to undermine the special counsel's investigation. "the times" says trump's team is skewering the professional and political backgrounds of robert mueller and other investigators, looking for conflicts of interest they can use to discredit the investigation. "the post" also reporting that the president has been asking about his authority to pardon aides, family members, and even himself, in connection with the probe. attorney general jeff sessions refusing to answer questions about whether he's discussed pardons with the president in testimony before congress last month. >> i'm not able to comment on conversations with high officials within the white house. >> reporter: all this as the russia investigation appears to be widening. bloomb

backgrounds of all of the robert mueller's legal team. is the assumption that if they find someone on there who has given money to a democratic candidate that that prosecutor or that lawyer cannot be impartial? >> i think they're going to make that case. i don't know that that's actually true. i think that, first of all, these are lawyers. so it's very common for lawyers and the way that our legal system works, to make political donations. but they're going to raise all of these issues publicly. it's not clear that there is even a sort of non-public venue for them to air these complaints. i think the idea is that they want to publicly discredit whatever comes out of this investigation, by undermining the people who are involved in it, but trying to, in some ways, some people might consider this an attempt to intimidate the investigators, by saying, if you go here, we'll find things on you and air that out publicly. it's a really interesting strategy, but again, not one that's strange for donald trump. i mean, he has a long history in his l

the hour right now. we're learning more about a possible investigation into the team heading the russia investigation. president trump's legal team says there could be conflicts of interest. >> meanwhile, there are reports about trump questioning his pardoning powers. sarah dallof joins us now to break down more information. sarah, good morning to you. >> good morning, aaron and eun. call it investigating the investigators. according to new reports, president trump's legal team is looking into potential conflicts of interest surrounding aides on robert mueller's team possibly in an effort to undercut the investigation. the president, you'll remember, issued a warning to mueller in that interview with "the new york times" cautioning him about looking into trump's family finances. also this morning, a new report in "the new york times" saying that the president is beginning to ask about his pardoning powers when it comes to aides, family members and even himself. now, his legal team so far has declined to comment. trump not only had sharp words for mueller and his investigation but his attorney general jeff sessions who was on

i don't know that that necessarily took place because the legal team, the pushback has not been as forceful as we have seen when other russia-related revelation has come out. it makes sense that president trump's legal team would seek to keep him isolated from this very damaging knowledge. they would have wanted to bring him into the circle as late in the process as possible. they don't want to get him involved in this. they want to keep the president compartmentalized from the russia scandal. the hiring of mark casawitz, jay sekulow, and the private legal team reporting the president has gone a good job of trying to keep -- has done a good job of trying to keep him separated from the scandal and keep the scandal away from the white house. the briefings have gotten a little bit easier from the standpoint of the white house because you don't see them peppered with the russia questions every day because reporters know they're going to get the answer "i would refer you to outside counsel." >> and there's his own scandal on the show. he's got issues himself. >> let's listen to a little bit more

the president's daughter. don, jr., will have a legal team fose frankly, a lot of people in the white house think the president's legal team has not been doing the president a great point. >> chris: here's how he defended the meeting this week. >> it's called opposition research, or even research into the opponent. i've been in politics for two years. i've had many people call up, we have information on this factor or this person or frankly, hilary. that's very standard in politic politics. >> chris: does that explanation fly and as a veteran, as i am, of a lot of washington scandals that we have covered, how damaging do you think these revelations are? >> the revelations are damaging in one particular sense, which means there's no end in sight for this firestorm. once you have, as julie was explaining and you were pointing out, all these people getting lawyers and preparing to testify and all the rest of it, the burden on the white house enormous. there was already a burden on this white house to fight these allegations whether they add up to anything illegal is a second matter. a political consequence of this

the irst question. reporter: legal -- will you interact with the president's legal team? mr. scaramucci: i'm a close personal friend with jay sekulow. i have a relationship with john dowd. i will work with don mcgann and other people to make sure we are handling ourselves in the most appropriate way possible. and that we're on message. that is all i can say about that. reporter: and so than to follow on, communications problems versus policy problems. the way you see that in the context of this president. mr. scaramucci: long ago, teddy roosevelt said that the presidency is a bully pulpit, and the president has a great gift in being able to control the news cycle and the messaging. if we get super coordinated around here with the president and we go back to what he did, some of the great successes he had on the campaign and the transition, and even in the presidency, frankly, it is delivering that message to the american people. i think the policies are fantastic. i think he has done a phenomenal job. i think sarah read something hat he is doing a phenomenal job and we need t

scaramucci: i -- again, that is sort of in that zip code of the legal team, and not in sarah or my code. it is actually very complicated, and i don't want to bore people with the legal details, but it is important on my first day standing up here that i don't go in that direction. i'm not going to answer the question not because i'm not trying to be forthcoming. i just think there is legalities there i don't want to touch. last two questions, then i'm going to go. reporter: the president is the great communicator. how important is the relations between the president and the press? and you think the media -- how is it going to change? how much trust in the white house press? what is the future? mr. scaramucci: listen, i'm a super optimistic guy. i'm too short to see the glass anything other than half full. i think the president will have a phenomenal relationship with the press. we will get there together. take this last question. saidter: larry speaks don't tell us how to stage the news, we won't tell you how to report the news. do you think that is an accurate reflection of what your j

the spokesman for his personal leaguing -- legal team also resigned. this is a big week and shows the white house hasn't yet gotten its footing. he hopes that the hiring of anthony scaramucci will help but instead of solving the tribal conflicts it seems to bait them. priebus, the chief of staff was said to be against the hiring of scaramucci. others might have also been osupposed. -- opposed. robert: is he trying to contain with the legal team, dan, all this unfolding drama on the russia investigation and politically to find his foot something dan: politically it will be difficult to find his footing as long as the rub -- russia investigation goes on and i think he understands that. it's clear that he sees the russian investigation as getting in the way of everything else he would like to do or believes he would be able to do. it appears as though he is looking for a way to provoke some kind of conflict. in all kinds of ways he seems to be moving toward what could be a huge collision with the special counsel. molly: a president trying to contain the da

"the washington post" reported moments ago that the spokesman for the president's legal team has justesigned. the president is querying his legal team on the extent of his pardon powers, including whether he can pardon himself. and "the washington post" reporting that the white house is exploring ways to cast aspersions on the special counsel investigation that is looking into the president's campaign and connections with russia. >> joining us now is a historian and he's the guy we went to to find out if there's any precedent like this today. thank you for being here. >> thank you very much, rachel. >> this is, i know already, not like anything that's ever happened before. >> right. >> let me just ask you about the pardons issue that has just been reported on by "the washington post." they're saying the president has reportedly been asking whether he can pardon his staffers, family and himself and the attorneys are considering those matters. what should be our historical reference point for thinking about that? >> in keeping with your theme of doing the opposite of what happened befor

the first questions? >> legal? you will interact with the president's legal team? mr. mckay: that's mr. scaramucci: i am close personal friends with jay sekulow, i have a relationship with john dowd, and i will work with them and other people to make sure we are on message and handling ourselves in the most appropriate way possible. that is the best i can say about that. [indiscernible] >> and then the follow-on was communications problems versus policy and political problems and the way you see that in the context of this president? mr. scaramucci: not long ago teddy roosevelt said the , presidency was a bully pulpit. and the president has a great gift to be able to control the news cycle and messaging, so if around hereinated with the president and go back to some of the great successes he had on the campaign and transition and even in the presidency, frankly he is , delivering that message directly to the american people. to me, i think the policies are fantastic. i think he has done a phenomenal job. i think sarah read something i totally believe, is that he is doing a phenomenal jo

the president's legal team knew about the e-mail chain three weeks ago.rom now, a trump campaign organizer will be in the hot seat when he testifies behind closed doors. lawmakers get ready to request more documents from jared kushner and donald trump jr. we are covering all of this. let's begin with jeff zeleny. hi, jeff. >> reporter: good morning, pamela. president trump, as you said, wrapped up his whirlwind trip to paris after spending 30 hours or so here in paris. a lot was among white house staff and others, consumed with questions and wonder and worry in regards to the russia investigation, still looming and expanding in washington. we heard the president yesterday give a vigorous defense, a fatherly defense, if you will, of his son. he called him a good man, a, you know, young boy. the reality is, he is the exact same age as the french president, emanuel macron, so not a boy. this is a moment where there are more and

creates complications within the house not only with the other staff but also with the president who has his own legal team guiding him on his own problems with the mueller investigation and at some point inevitably these could potentially be competitive legal strategies of some kind. >> rick, we were looking at the assorted newspaper headlines because there is no better time than during a bon a fied newspaper war and the coverage has been so robust here is three the post-ob noshlgts, usa today. to phillip's great point think of what mueller has so look at, all the various cross current and areas where mueller has been hiring up deputy counsels, in some cases real veteranings like him who know their way around the subject matter. >> what phil said is exactly right. i'm curious about what the pie of jared's time now is taken up in this russia investigation. it's got to be at the very least a distraction. but one of the other points, the larger point, you have a president who has no political experience never been montana military and you have his chief adviser who has no political experience and never been

this is the high-profile lawyer working for the president on his russia legal team. brought on board because he's supposed to be the excellent tv communicator. >> and now he's being investigated by the department of justice. so he's being investigated for taking the action that the attorney general -- deputy attorney general recommended him to take. >> first of all, you've now said he is being investigated after saying -- >> no. >> you just said that he's being investigated. >> no. chris, i said that the -- let me be crystal clear so you completely understand. we have not received, nor are we aware of any investigation of the president of the united states. >> sir, you just said two times that he's being investigated. >> jay sekulow is the lawyer who was brought on to the president's legal team because of his excellent tv communication skills. here he was this weekend. >> do you accept what we heard from the president's pick to run the fbi that what should have happened there if, you know, a situation where you have representatives of a foreign government offering as

the pink vests just behind me the legal team here before i was speaking to you there was a confrontation going on by a young girl is being taken out of the crowd which is over to my right she being drug through here somebody who is stood on side of the police line went to intervene on her behalf he was reprimanded for continued to do that he was then thrown to the ground now the legal team was straight to him telling him to and telling the police to back off as well so it does seem that there's been some kind of mediators involved now and i can also tell you what we're hearing from the the left policy one of the opposition parties here in germany one of the main opposition parties one of the main opposition parties to this demonstration and these demonstrations saying that they want to distance themselves from the violence that we've seen they still stand by the point that they were against the g twenty that their approach socialist policy but they say they are against this now as you can see the water cannon is all going over there to some fireworks going off in the background. has been

josh, first of all, what are your thoughts on the "washington post" report tonight that among the trump legal teamey're looking into just the legalities of pardons and how it would work. and the president according to one source has asked about that as well. >> well, this has been a big fear of some people in the white house al i long that trump would lose his temper and lash out at bob mueller. and that hasn't quite happened. it sounds like we're seeing some early rumblings. i think it's a blow also to this outside legal entity that the white house had set up that steve bannon in fact was sent back from the president's foreign trip to saudi arabia back in may to kind of set up an outside operation of lawyers and a professional spokesman with experience in justice matters, mark coralo who we just found out has resigned tonight. the deal is if the white house could hive off the russia investigation and mueller into an outside entity, it would free up the daily briefings and it wouldn't dominate the news in quite the way it has. the fact that there has been reported tension between the lawyers in th

and the reality here is, don, there are some shifting legal strategies and legal teams as well. as the president is bringing in a new lawyer, ty cobb, to essentially, you know, be the quarterback, if you will, for, you know, the legal strategy here at the white house, the other lawyers in the earlier legal team are receding a bit from public view in the main view here. the spokesman here, mark corallo, is more than a spokesman, don. this is very interesting, i remember back covering the bush administration. president bush. mark corallo was a prominent spokesman, communicator at the justice department at that time. so he is someone who is viewed as a strong asset to have at this moment to be speaking on behalf of the president. but he is stepping away from that role, resigning from that role. we have not -- we've confirmed this through a senior administration official, my colleague, jeremy diamond, confirmed this a few moments ago and we've not yet heard from mark directly, himself. it does speak to the fact that this is a fully engaged legal strategy here and i think that,

and for the president's private legal team, as well. stories about how the white house planning to push back on the independent counsel's investigation. all of it covered from various angles. let's start with our chief white house correspondent, hallie jackson, who is standing by for us inside that briefing room. hallie, bring us up to speed. reset for us all of our viewers and listeners joining us, 1:00 here on the east coast, how did we get here? >> if you're just joining us on this slow news friday, let's sort of take a breath of where we are now. >> let me set the scene. know it's the briefing room. you know behind me at this podium in about an hour, sara huckabee sanders will be coming out and delivering a briefing. the room is already filling up here. there has been a crush of reporters standing in the doorway. that is the doorway that leads upstairs to where the press shop is, the communications shop. typically, with our passes we can walk up and down. at this point they have kind of kept everybody down here, at least for the mome

the legal team is undergoing big changes. the donald trump's legal team a a lawyer we came to know and wrote profiles of is kind of fading into the background. >> yeah, mark kasowitz who was the president's personal lawyer, someone very loyal, a confidante a friend of the presidents, set to lead the legal team outside the white house sponing to all the injuriys around the mueller investigation, the congressional investigation. he has had some controversies. he is a very colorful. >> ewe good euphemism. >> and a seasoned washington lawyer. he is not a real estate lawyer, not a transactional lawyer. a very seasoned lawyer now taking the lead. and then mark coral o the crisis communicator who had been trump on liked had a lot of respect for was going to handle the outside communication to take the pressure off the folks inside the white house, he on thursday announced he was resigning a person close to him says it was becoming too chaotic didn't feelic he was in the know, left out of the loop and he didn't need this essentially.

potentially in. >> mark, do you think there's a little musical chairs happening right now among the legal teams and all these different players who are hiring their own legal counsel. do you think that ty cobb could help with the headbutting we were just discussing regarding the president and his legal team as sort of this immediate yar and somebody who the legal team can go to instead of trying to control the president himself? >> i think what happened initially is they didn't want to bring in somebody who was going to be referred to as a seasoned criminal defense lawyer or seasoned white collar lawyer, even though i hate that term, because then the story becomes who did they previously represent and then you've got all of that baggage that comes along. the problem is is when you've got somebody like mueller and then you see the team that he's assembled and you understand the jeopardy, and if anybody if they'd just consulted with anybody who would explain to them the jeopardy and having gone through this countless times myself and with the independent counsel back in the '90s with ken starr, i

josh, what are your reports among the trump legal team that there are reports they're looking into theons and how it works and the president according to one source has asked about that as well. >> well, this is a big fear of people in the white house that trump would loses temper and lash out at bob mueller. that has not quite happened. but sounds like we're seeing early rumblings. it's a blow to outside legal entity that the white house set up. steve bannon back in may set up an and a professional spokesman with experience in justice matters, mark garallo, who resigned tonight. the idea, if the white house, off the russia investigation and mueller into an outside entity, it would free up the daily briefings and wouldn't dominate the news in quite the way it has, so the fact that there's been reported tension between lawyers in the trump outside legal team and now corallo, himself, the fact he resigned shows the plan is beginning to splinter. >> the president, himself, gives a long interview with "the new york times" yesterday going into details about it, going after mueller. attorney

there are a lot of advisers who do want him to defer to the legal team. the other hand, his son has hearings coming up. >> son-in-law has hearings. >> son-in-law, this week. >> both. >> i think trump wants to raise questions about the validity of this line of questioning in anticipation of this is going to be in the news. this is going to be focussed on. i can't stop it. i can raise questions. >> you can't have it both ways. you can't constantly complain about the russia story and constantly talk about it. >> that's what he does. >> he has to choose a path. >> he doesn't come -- he complains about the media's treatment of his presidency. the media only cares about russia. it literally occupies -- >> because he talks about it every day. >> i would -- my first question to jay sekulow, had the president not tweeted about russia yesterday. let me bring this back to maggie haberman right now. in the midst of all of this, a big white house shakeup. one that apparently the president -- it sure seems like most of the white house didn't know that the president was