has a serious problem it's leaking a shocking secret memo leaked to the new york times white house's most prolific leakers all the weeks we get out of the way else why this white house leaks and all the reasons it's hid there's always so much fun in this white house is so leaky there is even leaks about why they're leaking and so in an effort to deal with the issue is to find it to move on from its fatigue to war of words with the media and show a bit of muscle wrong with the press. or the press are also where the fire is very. well trumps verbal disputes with the press have become commonplace his latest step can be seen as a watershed moment that is crossing the line into spying on journalists now at the center of this is new york times reporter ali watkins whose phone and e-mail records were secretly seized amid a justice department investigation into this guy james a wolf a former high ranking ate at the senate intelligence committee who's suspected of leaking classified information to reporters and he also happens to be the former boyfriend of what kids during their three year ro

about all is with chris whipple award winning journalist author of the new york times bestseller the gate keepers how the white house chief of staff define every presidency and that has now been out in paperback including a new chapter on the trump presidency he joins us from new york. in terms chris of how that some white house reads in the term presidency is being defined what do you take away from the singapore summit well you know it's the latest example of how this is a president for home process and discipline are anathema you know chris hill the former negotiator described this as speed dating you know the walk up to the to the actual summit somebody else said that well now maybe it was more like internet dating where the guy who shows up is shorter than he looked in his picture but in any event it was it was absolutely unprecedented clearly you know none of the details had been worked out and at the end of the day you had the president of the united states giving an awful lot away in return for quite frankly an empty pledge it's just not clear what denuclearization would be it's not clear how we would ever g

has a serious a shocking secret memo leaked to the new york times white house's mostprolific leakers all the weeks we get leaks and one of the reasons is hit there's always so much fun in this white house is so leaky there is even leaks about the issue it's just the media and show a bit of leverage over the press journalists now at the center of this is new york times reporter did of leaking has skills engaging it was the direct result of tips she wanted to be zoe barnes until episode very grey area i think the week of the which i'm ok with shelley barnes of the washington herald during a source close to the i want to go over i'm sorry mr president the. give and take. well takes all right so perhaps it was the all too often that journalists' continued you can see the football team from brazil whose plane has landed and saw a kick start in his hand and if you forgot say france will be playing denmark in moscow so i asked him about stage. these events you know said that russia was one hundred percent ready for the world cup and the age of the fan first of all the covete

joining us now is political analyst and "the new york times" white house correspondent maggie haberman. hi maggie. >> hi. >> so what does the president like about this culture war and why does he think he's winning it? >> we've seen him bring this up repeatedly over the last year and we saw him move numbers on it. it ended up that most of his voters ended up sharing his view about players who were protesting police brutality by going down on bended knee during the national anthem. the nfl ended up telling players they should not do it so that was a victory for trump that he was able to wave and talk about with his own supporters. i'm not convince that had yesterday was a win for him. it is true he wants to keep talking about that because often when he tests something out, for instance, he had tested out talking about monuments, confederate monuments last year. that didn't play as well. this played better. what i think you're going to see a lot of voters in pennsylvania which is a swing state see is news coverage of this event not happening in the white house canceling the event and the

joining us now, cnn political analyst, "the new york times" white house correspondent maggie habermanok, there's been so much news in the last 24 hours, it's hard to keep track. but the supreme court justice nominee in the next ten days. you have a story in the paper which i think is fascinating, which talks about this quiet, indirect influence campaign from the president and the white house to anthony kennedy. i guess the way to describe it would be, to make him feel safe to retire. explain. >> right. and this was largely reporting by my colleague, adam liptac. essentially, there was an effort to let kennedy know there would be an effort to continue in his tradition, to find somebody he would be comfortable with to replace him. the president, as we know, faced skepticism during the campaign as to whether he would appoint conservatives to certainly the supreme court but to any courts. he came up with a list of 25 people that he worked on with don mcgahn, who is now the white house counsel, and other advisers, and that is the list that he has stuck to. that's the list that he's expecte

can only performance and chief of staff in the past what do you make of the new york times report that he's called the white house a miserable place to work. well i guess we should take his word at it for it you know remember when he said that taking the job might have been god's punishment. leon panetta told him to go out and buy a big bottle of scotch right at the beginning it's a thankless tough twenty four seven job even in the best of circumstances this is a difficult challenge for any chief of staff in fairness to kelly but i do think he's failed not only to manage up with donald trump but to some extent he's failed to manage down you know in a in a functioning white house with an empowered white house chief of staff who really acts as an honest broker people within the west wing feel that their voices are heard they feel that they're there they're vested they're invested in decision making and you have an happier shop. stay right there we'll have more politicking right after this break. when you also see that action the u.s. agrees on paris the us weekly's on iran and paws all over as if i'm kinda little f

the families, period. peter baker is "new york times" white house correspondent. we saw what that. the president comes out. he is making comments and he says, i find this family separation sad. so sad, he says. but again, misrepresenting that this is the democrats. it is indeed a policy announced in the spring by his attorney general. this is what he wants done. is he coming out because they're starting to feel the heat? the moral outrage? >> it seemed to me they're doubling down. there was a critical mass building over the weekend. you reported, laura bush and republican senators and even, you know, the conservative from the new york post and a variety on the right side the political equation coming out saying this is going too far. yet the president is digging in his heels. he is presenting this as if it was not the result of his own policy, which it is. but is this how result of a legislative stalemate. both are true. there is a legislative stalemate but this did not to have happen this way. as you point out, attorney general sessions made this intentional policy. and perhaps for

"the new york times" reporting that the white house conducted a quiet campaign to create an opening onhe court. not pressuring 81-year-old kennedy directly, but assuring him his seat was in good hands. >> throughout his nearly 30 years on the supreme court, justice kennedy has been praised by all for his dedicated and dignified service. >> reporter: trump promises to choose from a list of conservative judges the white house published last fall. >> it will be somebody from that list. so we have now boiled it down to about 25 people. >> reporter: fulfilling a campaign promise that could transform the court for decades. >> if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that is what is going to be -- that will happen. and that will happen automatically in my opinion. because i am putting pro-life justices on the court. >> reporter: a raiser thin majority in the senate has sent the white house into overdrive to mobilize support. trump dining with key senators would could determine the court's future, including three democrats who voted to confirm his last nominee justice neil gorsuch.

about all is with chris whipple award winning journalist author of the new york times bestseller the gate keepers how the white house chief of staff define every presidency and that has now been out in paperback including a new chapter on the trump presidency he joins us from new york. in terms presume how that some white house rigs in the presidency is being defined what do you take away from the singapore summit well you know it's the latest example of how this is a president for home process and discipline are anathema you know chris hill the former negotiator described this as speed dating you know the walk up to the to the actual summit somebody else said that well now maybe it was more like internet dating where the guy who shows up is shorter than he looked in his picture but in any event it was it was absolutely unprecedented clearly you know none of the details had been worked out and at the end of the day you had the president of the united states giving an awful lot away in return for quite frankly an empty pledge it's just not clear what denuclearization would be it's not clear how we would ever get ther

the office of governmentic revealed the white house was looking into two loans the kushner family business received from citigroup and apolo global management in the spring of 2017. first reported by "the new york timesser told cbs news, the white house counsel concluded there were no issues involving jared. a representative for kushner's and trump's ethics counsel released a statement, they have complied with rules and restrictions as sent out by office of government ethics and their net worth remains largely the same. don fox was head of the federal office of government ethics during the obama administration. >> if they are going to serve in senior white house positions we actually want them focused 100% on the business of the people of the united states and not their own personal trtz. >> in an april 2017 interview with gale king, she dismissed concerns that her family is b benefiting while her father is in the white house. >> if my interest was making money or growing my business, i would do far better to completely disengage and do exactly that. >> in an interview, last month. kushner's father defended him against the claims of conflict of interest. he described ethics watch dogs as "jerks" who

"the new york times" contacts the white house and says we've got something about this trump tower meeting. then the evening trump has a private chat with putin, they're sitting together at this international summit. they talk to each other just the two of only this with no american translator and only a russian translator, russian note taker. and then you get the dictated stement from the president about adoptions. and when the president is asked about that meeting with putin, this is what he says when he is talking to "the new york times." take a listen. >> wit was not a long conversation. it would be 15 minutes, just talked about things. actually, it was very interesting. we talked about adoption. >> you did? >> russian adoption. yeah. because he ended that years ago. and i actually talked about russian adoption with him, which is interesting, because that was a part of the conversation that don had with this meeting. >> so interesting, natasha. what a qingy nk. >> why would he volunteer that type of information? no one even knewhat he had dined with putin on that night until a geopolit

now a "the new york times" report says the white house may have orchestrated his exit with the president forming a personal relationship with kennedy and assuring him his legacy was in good hands. >> president trump's replacement for justice kennedy could shift the ideological balance for the court for generations. nbc's peter alexander tells us who is on trump's short list. >> reporter: president trump making his surge for a supreme court nominee a top priority. >> i'm going back to washington and we're going to pick ourselves one great united states supreme court justice. >> reporter: the president determined to find a nominee young enough to make a lasting difference. >> we have to pick one that's going to be there for 40 years, 45 years. >> reporter: on the short list, all appealstt c of indiana, brett kavanagh of maryland, and thomas hardy man of pennsylvania. whoever is confirmed is considered to be more conservative than anthony kennedy. president trump boasting about a $10 billion fox come based in taiwan. >> this is the 8th wonder of the worldful >> reporter: the company pledgin

all the things we've seen this week so it is a wish list that is payday. >> and the white house strategy, it test first time the "new york times" has accused the white house of being competent and if president trump were to take that be nice to other people he'd get more done. >> norm, you've written about congress -- i want to ask you this quickly because it occurs there's a longer term question where you have democrats up in arms. they already think the gorsuch seat was stolen. let's say republicans get the votes, 51, 52, whatever it takes, they get the appointment and democrats get the senate this november, what would they do with that power? >> well, what -- it will be a difficult thing for them. if there's still a republican president there isn't a lot they can do. the real trouble will come or the real challenge will come when there's a democratic president and a democratic senate and we've seen trump fill one-eighth of all the appeals court seats in the country. all of these judges by the way, steve, including the ones on the list for supreme court have been vetted through the federalist society. they don't need t

point you towards the new york story -- the new york times story in which stephen miller defense policy and the times reports he has been behind the scenes, pushing this at the white house. host: you sound skeptical. the new york times, did you notice who their sources were? these days, i am a little skeptical about sources whether they are anonymous and his stephen miller the only one in in supportouse to is of this policy? it sounds like they are all against it but they have been it, am i enforce wrong? guest: there are certainly other thegration hubs in president, including the president himself. as far as the policy, you are correct that not everyone in the trump administration necessarily supports this. there is a split in the republican party in general over this. but it is also true that the administration could decide to stop separating the families if they chose. it isn't the democrats forcing these separations to happen. host: preston, you are on the line. wondering where someone finds the requirements for the rules on entering our country? host: why do you ask? caller: well, i don't know what they're required to know or not. i don't appreciate the fact that m

joining me to discuss this incident potentially and what it says about the white house, michelle goldberg, columnist at the "new york times former white house cabinet secretary and assistant to president obama. and asawin suebsaeng at the daily best. asawin, let's start with you. you've got some reporting on this? >> yes, from senior officials i've been talking to in trump's west wing, they're still last i spoke to them earlier tonight trying to figure out exactly what happened here. but the best that they believe that happened was the comedian called in multiple times to the white house switchboard and was turned away, then he started impersonating someone supposedly on bob menendez's staff and they managed to get all the way to the white house legislative affairs office, which found it fishy enough to shoot down the idea of connecting him to the president. they still somehow managed to get a hold of jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, who ended up patching the call to the president of the united states on air force one. now, this is what they're not publicly acknowledging but what they believe

the new york times." jill colvin, white house reporter for the associated press. and jeremy peters, political reporter for "the new york times." mr. schmidt, home field advantage goes to you. you also did happen to break the clinton e-mail story back in the day. so what is your takeaway? i know it's a big question. it was 500 pages after all from today's i.g. report. >> there's all sorts of stuff in there about all different parts of this investigation. it's the biggest thing it comes back to comey. comey is the chief witness against the president in an obstruction investigation. how does this change our understanding of comey? well, if you didn't like comey's judgment before today, you're not going to like it after today. there's not a lot of facts that move that in any direction. the story is pretty much the same. what is good for mueller and for comey, if mueller is banking on comey, is that there's nothing in there that raises questions about comey's truthfulness. people say comey has bad judgment. he made all these mistakes. he thought he could maneuver things

there breaking key stories for the new york times like the news that it was the nixon campaign funding water gate burglars which tied the scandal back to the white house believes a lawyer from the committee to elect the president used money to persuade the water gate defendants the plead guilty and not talk. >> dean said the president authorized both. mr. nixon denied both. >> he made the front page of the new york time with five different stories in six days. his new book says a washington press corp. that was too desperate for access. he says water gate's legacy does help keep presidents accountable. he's my guest tonight. thanks for being here. >> sure. glad to be here. >> let me run one by you. it seems that donald trump knows that no matter how bad something may look, if you actually do it in public, it will still play as vaguely less sinister than if you keep it a secret. he literally talks about things that are in the ballpark of investigation interference that if they were on a secret tape might get you in trouble but here they are out there being laundered and normalnormalized. >> if we had tape of what went on in the white house, i think we