joining me, tim o'brien, and eli a columnist for bloomberg view. both have been chewing over the phrase that has become famous. thank you, let me go to -- eli, let me go to you first. the white house has it was improvised, something he wasn't reading from -- not to think he was reading from or intended to say in any sort of script. what did you make of it? what was the message the president was trying to send? eli: the biggest part of the statement was they would be met with fire and carry of the threats continued, and you can set your watch to the threats they will make. they make them all the time. if he had modified his language and use less flourish, he would have probably been similar to what secretary of state -- defense mattis had said -- if you decide to actually make good on your threats, you will lose, and we will win. you will lose your regime, your people will be destroyed. that has been the implicit threat of every u.s. president that has had to deal with the north korean nuclear crisis since the early-19 90's. the reason why that has

also with us tonight, tim o'brien, executive editor of bloomberg view and author of "trump nation, thert of being the donald." and, steve, on the timeline, here we have what will be on your timeline, the entry of some new e-mails. this new e-mail discovery that's now been published first by "the washington post," then more details by "the new york times." and this is a very, very direct communication about getting vladimir putin himself involved in helping donald trump win this election. >> it's certainly interesting, and the interesting thing about it to me is that it really fits into a broader narrative, i think. and this is one of those situations where, you know, you can analyze the event and the e-mails in a micro sense. then when you take a step back and look at it in a macro way and realize that what's really going on here is while a man is running for the presidency of the united states, his company is simultaneously trying to enter into a business deal which would be one of the largest real estate projects of its kind in the world. pretty stunning stuff, i would think. >> and,

. >> we're joined now by tim o'brien, the executive editor of bloomberg view and the author of "trumpation." also jim vand heist, co-founder of politico. tim, who are these people who come out of the hearings and say there's no collusion, there's no collusion? i haven't heard any. >> i think they're dancing around in the president's head. >> but having studied trump and talked to him, as much as you have been around him, i imagine that's familiar behavior to you when you see him say things like that? >> we've talked about this before. i think the president has a very cinematic sense of himself, and he constantly has this screenplay going on in his mind of the reality that he sees around him, not the reality that actually exists. and he will change facts, change scenarios to comport with his desire to conform with how the world works. and we have seen this in the way he rolls for years. >> jim, so many elements here moving around the paul manafort part of the story now. we're discovering through various reports that it was paul manafort, in fact, who revealed to investigators the exist

tim o'brien, i want to go to you first. matter of his frustration with the generals, here he lied his way through the campaign saying, i have a secret plan. don't worry about it. then i'll listen to the generals' plan, and if i like their plan better and it turns out he had no plan. the generals have a plan that he doesn't like because it didn't work in, what, a week or two. >> and because he can recall this long-ago incident at a local restaurant in new york that gave him all of the experience and authority he needed to have to weigh in on military policy. we don't even know if the anecdote about the 21 club is true. >> what we know is it wasn't closed as long as they said, so he exaggerates the part of his story too. >> to make his point, which is that he should be listening to troops on the ground in afghanistan rather than the military brass and that that gives him the authority to go after nicholson and question nicholson's leadership in afghanistan and take mattis to task in front of the joint chiefs. and again shows

point with him so except in for some remarkable books particularly the of fiction of people like tim o'brien a few of those accounts recognize those who serve they were scared kids. you signed up for very scary assignment. we knew them as the baby boomers the anti-war protesters the stereotype hippies to challenge the boundaries of american culture but it is also clear to meet the this was the of the full face of thisne generation for example, about 40 percent of the '60s generation served in the military and henderson went to vietnam.went so maya book tells a story of the members of that generation enriched by over 160 interviews between men and women and i really did focus on the ground action to combat the war fighting in vietnam led described inn greater detail today think of the say pivot point. i talked about the experience of serving in vietnam in a talk to them about being with friends in coming home in their experience when they came home and also interview members of families of those were told their son oror daughter would not be coming home so s&l personally inscribed copies to t

. >> tim o'brien, and michael d'antonio, thank you both. uappreciate it. thanks a lot. >>> it's the top of the hour. president trump defiant in the face of national outrage. sources telling cnn that he has no regrets for saying that counterprotesters share the blame for the violence in charlottesville. that violence took the life of heather heyer. today family and friends gathered in charlottesville to celebrate her life. we'll hear from her mother, and i'm going to talk to her pastor in just a few minutes here on "cnn tonight." it's easy to overlook the fact that the charlottesville violence began after white nationalists began to march the protest the remoouvl of a statue of robert e. lee. president trump expressing sympathy with those opposed to its removal. >> this week it's robert e. lee. i notice stonewall jackson's coming down. i wonder is it george washington next week and thomas jefferson the week after? you have to ask yourself where does it stop? >> the debate about what to do with confederate memorials takes place in at least nine states. the c

as tim o'brien, his biographer has pointed out, everything can be in two prisms, self aggrandizement, self-preservation. that seems to be the president's two speeds. >> narcissim as well. >> narcissim as well. >> april, going after the senators, mccain and flake, from arizona in their back yards, the crowd seemed to like it, obviously. everybody there is predisposed to support president trump. where does that leave us today? what happens on capitol hill? how do people like mitch mcconnell and the arizona senators respond to him now? >> senator john mccain is really in a battle for his life and trying to heal. so that's probably his primary focus, which it should be. and others in the republican party are fighting for him. here is the bottom line. the other night we heard hear on this network, cnn. we heard speaker of the house paul ryan say the president messed up with his words, and he came back monday and it was okay. this is the fifth time. you wonder how this party can stand and justify -- and you already know mitch mcconnell just last evening, to donors saying that he felt the pr

another chess please moving in the white house, there is a he's written by tim o'brien who is the head of our gadfly columnists and he says trump's presidency is like his business career. -- so radioactive it burns most of what it is exposed to. politics is still there but does it move markets? geoff: you are having these discussions, at what point do we stop treating this as a bit of a reality show? in anill have an impact indirect way by virtue that expectations are not possible and will anything get done? this has an impact on growth expectations. now is are weght going to get the period of stability? positioning for this is asymmetric. markets feeles happy for politicians to be slightly able -- unable to enact change so we see times when the white house is unable to pass legislation has pleased markets but there is so much expectation especially around the tax agenda. things look a little different, do they? geoff: there is the dollar index chart that shows the dollar .ndex gain manus: you said a lot of this is baked in. carefule need to be going down the slippery slope saying that

my panel, tim o'brien, bloomberg news executive editor and msnbc contributor and also the author of "on." he might know about trump's taxes. robert trainor, msnbc analyst and former bush/cheney senior adviser. and ben white, cnbc contributor. ben, we'll start with you. we don't know much about this plan but based on what we know what did president trump deliver us yesterday? because, listen, across the board all americans want jobs and they want their taxes lowered. if you actually look at what he delivered it was the campaign rally speech attacking trade, going after claire mccaskill. he didn't need to d that. >>, no he didn't. let's talk about what we know about the tax plan right now which is not a lot. what he talked about specifically was taking the corporate rate from 35% to 15%. >> most corporations don't pay 35%. >> exactly, which gets to the larger point of how you do tax reform versus tax cuts. but paint the backdrop. corporate profits, very high, stock market, very high. most polls s show that american think they pay too much tax, and he wants to do it in a populist way tha

we have tim o'brien, executive editor of trump nation. thank you both for bow being he.elly, general, military. trump respects him, we are told, especially when in uniform. he's in charge of everyone. then ivanka's tweet comes out. was this a nudge sgens against power or a ownership of the obvious which is i'm his daughter. you don't stand between me and my father. >> jard and i are first among equals. i'm doubtful kelly will make a difference in this white house. the fact is trump is his centrifugal force. he pushes everyone away from him except family members. and that's the problem in this. it's never going to be an organization that's run in a linear tactical way. he's in it for self agrandizement. he's not about ideology. >> people see that as refreshing. he's pragmatic. he just does works. >> he's got to get it done. refreshing alone doesn't get policy put in place. >> respond to that. let me put my wedding band on my pinky ring. the head rauts -- the fish rots from the head down. that was bhaut scaramucci put the to the either and now i can't say it without laughi

. >> tim o'brien, what do you think? you've written the book on the man. >> i think the russia question is an interesting one because that is the background music to everything that's happening now. the investigation that's hung over the administration. i think the time of the bill comes at a time of efforts of this white house to shore up the base, divert people's attention to what the real issues are, and i think to ultimately roll the dice. john mccain is rearing his head again in this administration. they'll need him to get this bill through. they're probably not going to get him. he's a senator from arizona. like lindsey graham, you have migrant workers coming in and out of that state that the state economy relies upon. i think it's a very strange choice for this white house to put steven miller out front again. he's a controversial person -- >> he's the bannon branch. >> remember, some of the first missteps this administration took was the extraordinary on banning migration from mostly muslim countries and steven m

that tim o'brien was a "times" reporter, although the "times" wasn't sued. in the deposition to that case, and this is pertinent to questions about whether the president lies are not or plays fast and loose with the truth, when they asked him what his net worth really is, which is essential in the case, his answer was "it depends if i wake up in a good or bad mood in the morning," and that's what the facts depend on. it tells you something about where he's coming from. unsurprised that testimony has been used -- i'm surprised that testimony hasn't been used more often in depicting his state of mind. let's move to trump and the white house. when he became president after the campaign, there was a fear that he was going to circumvent the mainstream media and just deal directly with the people through tweeting and so on. have that come about, or have the opposite taken place? >> it has definitely come about. goes -- hel three has mostly, though three days communicated entirely through twitter, and it didn't serve his purposes. that's why i think we've seen him

. >> i should say that we were,, tim o'brien was a times reporter, though at times was ensued, the bookublisher was sued. but in a deposition in the case, this is pertinent to questions about whether the president lies or not or place fast and loose with the truth, in a deposition when they asked him, you know, what is net worth really is, which was essential matter in the case, his answer was depends on if i wake up in a good or bad mood in the morning. that's what the facts depend on. it tells you something about where he's coming from. i'm surprised that tesla has been used more often in depicting his state of might be but in event -- [inaudible] >> so let's move to trump in the white house. when he became president after the campaign, there was a fear that he was going to circumvent the mainstream media and just deal directly with the people through tweeting and so on. jim, has a come about, or in fact, has a opposite taken place? >> is deathly come about. he ha is mostly until three days ago -- definitely -- communicated via twitter. and i think it didn't service purposes. that's w