. >> we are joined now by tim o'brien. he's the executive editor of bloomberg view. also with us, ana marie cox, contributor to "the new york times" magazine and the host of the podcast, with friends like these. tim, you at bloomberg today, had very important reporting about where this investigation is going, and it feels in the reporting we're getting from "the washington post" tonight about the exploration of pardons, that the kind of reporting you revealed in bloomberg today may be what's driving the president to these pardon inquiries. >> i think he's been clearly worried all along that robert mueller would go down the money trail. and i think the president doesn't have the kind of concern about collusion charges that he does about a very thorough exploration of his finances. and i think that has been top of mind for him all along. and, you know, in the times interview yesterday, he essentially threw this gauntlet down at mueller and said, don't look at my family's finances. we now know from bloomberg's reporting today that, in fact, mueller is robustly looking at

tim o'brien gets tonight's last word. with brian williams starts now. >>> the breaking news we are "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now. >> breaking news we are covering tonight on the trumps and russia. the e-mails of donald trump jr. that show he's known for over a year that the russian government wanted to help his father's candidacy. and was offered damaging information on hillary clinton. to which he eagerly replied "i love it." the storm inside the white house described tonight as a category 5 hurricane. among our guests a key member of the senate intelligence committee, a trump campaign adviser, and a former watergate prosecutor as the 11th hour gets under way. good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. day 173 of the trump administration. today came a big change. a string of e-mails

tim o'brien gets tonight's last word.ian williams starts now. >>> the breaking news we are covering tonight on the trumps and russia, the emails of donald trump jr. that show he is known for over a year that the russian government wanted to help his father's candidacy. and was offered damaging information on hillary clinton. to which he eagerly applied, i love it. the storm inside the white house skrabd described as a category 5 hurricane. among our guests a key member of the senate intelligence committee, a trump campaign adviser a former watergate prosecutor

tim o'brien, what do you believe the issues are?think first and foremost it gets back to the whole collusion issue. the argument has been raised that when donald junior met with a lawyer who was connected to the kremlin, that it was simply oppo research, any kpaent would have taken this meeting if that operative or any foreign national is being paid or using money to influence the u.s. election, if a u.s. national meets with that individual in the course of events, it's collusion and a criminal act, not merely research. >> it would get complicated legally. you're right. there are issues that are raised. mr. dantonio, having you here, your knowledge of don jr. is he the of person that would take a meeting with somebody either, a, that he knows nothing about, which is the initial suggestion from donald jr. i had no idea who i was meeting with. it was on a recommendation of a friend or, b, he would take this type of opo research meeting even if this person had connections to the kremlin? >> i think i would choose both of the above. he

say that excepting for some remarkable books written by the veterans particularly the fiction of tim o'brien in jim webb, few of the popular accounts of the vietnam war recognize those who served what they were, scared kids. they were scared kids signed up for a disk and difficult and very scary assignment. we knew them as the baby boome boomers, as the 60s generation, as the woodstock celebrants, the antiwar protesters on our campuses in our streets, to stereotype hippies who challenged the boundaries of american culture but it also is clear to me and should be clear to everyone that this is not the face, the fullface, of this generation. not at all. for example, about 40% of the 60s generation served in the military and about 10% went to vietnam. more of them died in vietnam then went to canada or what to present for evading the draft so my book tells the story and reminds us of some of the members of that generation. it is enriched by over 160 interviews i completed with men and women served in combat or medical unit in vietnam. i really did focus on the ground action, the combat, the war

last month, journalist tim o'brien did a deep dive into one of those ties. felix saider, trump family associate with ties to russian and american organized crime. brian's report includes these words from trump in a 2007 deposition about his meeting with russian investors. quote. it's ridiculous that i wouldn't be investing in russia, trump said in that deposition. russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment. tim o'brien joins me now, he is executive editor of bloomberg view and author of trump nation, the art of being the donald. tim, i have been eager to have this conversation with you. always enjoy you when you're on with rachel and other shows and with lawrence o'donnell. here's the question. for those not caught up, who is he, how is he tied to donald trump? >> felix sader was a principal in the bay rock group, operated two floors beneath donald trump's own office in trump tower in new york. and for a long stretch of time from early 2000s until about 2010 or so they were actively involved investment deals together, most specifically a

tim o'brien gets tonight's last word. "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. >>> the breaking news we are "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now. >> breaking news we are covering tonight on the trumps and russia. the e-mails of donald trump jr. that show he's known for over a year that the russian government wanted to help his father's candidacy. and was offered damaging information on hillary clinton. to which he eagerly replied "i love it." the storm inside the white house described tonight as a category 5 hurricane. among our guests a key member of the senate intelligence committee, a trump campaign adviser, and a former watergate prosecutor as the 11th hour gets under way. good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. day 173 of the trump administration. today came a big change. a string of e-mails showing a trump campaign willing to let the russian government help win them the election. after three days of headlines and under threat of reading them first in the "new york times" dona

one of trump's biographers, tim o'brien said he is obsessed with "the new york times."'t surprise me that he's given three interviews to the "times." and at the first one, he even began the interview by saying the stims"times" is a great, gr american and world institution. when he beats up on the "times," he is playing to the base and they love his talk about the fake news media. >> so you raise such an important distinction, which is him essentially tricking people, or trying on convince people of something that isn't the case. he is not treating it as fake. then you have this reporting from jim comey's memo that trump urged the fbi tried to jail reporters. mr. trump said he should jail journalist who's publish classified information. it was an act of intimidation which would likely be unconstitutional. a huge scandal if it was one thing any other president did. and then this week for your response, officials saying jeff sessions now due to announce in the coming days a number of criminal leak investigations, based on news accounts of send i have the intelligence infor

. >> journalist and biographer tim o'brien doesn't buy that.gtime trump critic he finds the meeting easy to explain. he says it proves don junior doesn't fall far from his father's tree. >> he's as injudicious and as reckless as his father. donald trump sr. had a long career in which he bent and sometimes broke business rules. and i think you see a lot of donald trump sr. reflected in the children, particularly in donald trump jr. >> o'brien says the chaos of the campaign is only one factor in don junior's decision to take that meeting, character counts, too. >> i think like his father he wants to win. and i think ethics and right and wrong can frequently take a backseat to that question. >> do you think he wanted to be the opposition research guy, to be the guy who had this silver bullet that would knock out his dad's opponent? >> i suspect knowing what i know about him is he relished that role. i think he's like that as a person. you know, he's aggressive and enthusiastic when it comes to joining the battle. >> o'brien says the meeting highli

. >> let's discuss it with our media analyst, the busiest man on television, brian seltzer and tim o'brienthor of "trump natio nation: the art of being the donald." let's consider the source here. somebody -- there are lots of people who say this is harmless fun, the president is having harmless sun, hefun, he's seen wrestling cnn. if you look at the source, it is on this disgusting site of this man or woman who posts anti-semitic imagery, racist rants. so this is what the president's retweeting. >> and what i want to know today, how from this troll on reddit, this hateful troll who posts anti-semitic racist trash and other people and outlets how did it get from this person to the president's twitter feed? we don't know the answer to that. there say lot of clues online about how this thing started but now how it reached the president's desk. this is not the first time we have seen some sort of meme from the swamps of the internet make its way to the president's twitter feed. >> a question of the on camera briefings they'll be holding in the briefing room over the next few weeks. i'm saying

o'brien is also with us. there is a pattern he established. the net is even wider. tim: the first question is why donald trump junior released these? it's another moment. they are prioritizing a media campaign. i don't think they are thinking about the legal circumstances. that question gets raised. the second thing is they are certainly in legal consequence now. these emails establish a point in time where they are openly colluding with russian operatives. did the president know about it? did other people know about it? tonie: whose job is it now steer the dialogue? happens, there are going to be years of investigations. of public perception of what's going on, who should step in here and make sure the message is heard? marty: it's us in the fake news business. we have to keep on the story. various congressional investigations. we have the trump administration constantly criticizing the media for covering those revelations. ultimately, the dialogue is going to have to be from the facts as we know them. we are going to have to continue to report this story. we will take