bannon calls it treasonist. and that is just the start. >> the president is said to be furious and disgusted in a blistering statement he said bannon had, quote, lost his mind. this morning the president is tweeting about other things. his decision to dissolve the voter fraud division after too many states refused to participate. that was created after the president insisted, without any evidence, that there was widespread voter praud that prevented him from winning in 2016. let's go first to joe johns live at the white house which is of course the scene of all the talk this morning. joe? >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. this is extraordinary even for the trump white house. the president angrily lashing out at his former chief strategist for trashing the president and his first family using words like, oh, among other things, treasonist. the president also in a situation where he is demanding through his lawyers that steve bannon stop talking. even though bannon has said at least some of the things democrats h

s meeting as treasonist in a new book. but bannon says he still stands by the president.ake a listen. >> i don't care what trump says. he would have never gotten in without you. >> thanks for the kind words. nothing will ever come between us and trump's agenda. don't worry about that. don't worry about us and trump and the maga agenda. we're tight on this as we've ever been. >> he said he was falsely quoted when talking about trump and trump's son-in-law. joining us now is curt bardella, former spokesman for brigeitbar news. and keith koffler whoeo "bannon. >> correct always the rebel." steve bannon said that meeting in trump taufrs treower was tre. >> he wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe it. he doesn't minutes words. he speaks bluntly, directly. if that is what was reported, that's what was said. that was the inept. if that wasn't his intent, he would be the very person out there saying he got it wrong. michael wolff got it wrong. they would be sending a cease and desist to michael wolff if they thought he was misquoted or misrepresented. >> how do you square wi

that's after bannon called the trump tower meeting with a russian lawyer treasonist.d that's not all. we'll hear how the white house responds coming up live on shepard smith reporting. >> dana: lawmakers from both sides of the aisle announcing support for protesters in iran. this comes as iranian officials organize pro government rallies today in at least ten cities across that country. today's events were a response to the previous days of often violent demonstrations that have claimed the lives of at least 21 people. joining me now, senior writer at commentary magazine. you've been covering this from the beginning. i encourage everyone to follow him on twitter. tell me, are the protests growing as well as continuing, the ones that are against the government? >> well, the size is not as big as it was in 2009 when you had 3 million people in the capital at one point. but you're seeing lots of scattered protests and it's much more nationwide. even in really small towns and hamlet, if you will. they're continuing. they're not being able to amass. that's partly because t

s trump tower meeting with russians " treasonist" in a new book by author michael wolf and presidentmp responding to steve bannon's latest interview today. let's roll tape. president trump: i don't know he called me a great man last night so he obviously changed his tune pretty quick. thank you all very much. >> thank you. president trump: thank you. i don't talk to him. i don't talk to him. liz: white house lawyers are also sending a cease and assist letter to michael wolf and his publisher. wolf claims he has taped the backup as interviews let's bring in our rnc spokesperson, breaking news, the book company announcing it will move up the release date for michael wolf's book, the statement from henry holt & company spokesperson to fox news is this. due to unprecedented demand, removing the on sale date for all formats of fire and fury to friday, january 5 at 9:00 a.m. what's your take on all of this? >> well i want to point out something really quick from a wise man gone far too soon and that would be justice anton scal ia. he argued and this is an important point that right now med

was treasonist. it quotes bannon at a dinner with roger ailes during the transition saying about now-president trump -- and this is a crucial question -- what has he gotten himself into with the russians," pressed ailes." "mostly, said bannon, "he went to russia and he thought hear was going to meet putin, but putin couldn't give a hoot about him, so he's kept trying." now, david on "60 minutes," bannon said russian collusion is a farce, so it's counter to what he said before. do you believe what he says to michael wolff? >> what i do think is striking, erin, something you suggested earlier, and that is what we haven't heard from steve bannon saying that any of this is wrong, that he's been misquoted, that he's been misunderstood. he's been silent today, and that silence is deafening. just as every other, and there are many other named sources who have remained silent. the only one, tom barrack, as you mentioned, has come forward saying i've been misquoted. that really lends weight to the book. >> i

accusations in a tell all book called the trump white house call a meeting with a russian lawyer treasonist the president is blasting saying quote he has lost his mind also coming up with the chips are down firm scramble to fix major security flaws that are bad news for everyone except the hackers we'll explain. it's good to have you with this we begin with that now very public feud in the u.s. trump versus. the warrior for u.s. president double trump is threatening legal action tonight against former white house strategist steve benen over what he calls disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements made in a new book a cease and desist letter has been sent to its author and publisher trying to hold its release the us president launched a scathing attack on ban in saying steve bannon has nothing. do with me or my presidency when he was fired he not only lost his job he lost his mind. well it's emerged that banning the tyrant donald trump jr for a twenty six team meeting with a group of russians in the book by journalist michael wolff bannon is quoted as saying even

treasonist. the president's letter sent a cease and desist letter to bannon saying he violated a nondisclosure agreement. the president yesterday released a statement saying that bannon lost his mind when he lost his job as the chief strategist. the president also said bannon had nothing to do with his presidency. still, steve bannon is defending the president on breitbart's radio show he said we're as tight on this agenda as we have ever been. >> the president is a great man. you know i support him day in and day out, whether going through the trump miracle speech or on the websites. >> shepard: the president responded. here's how he reacted to it. >> any words about steve bannon? >> i don't know. he called me a great man last night. he changed his tune pretty quick. thank you very much. i don't talk to him. >> shepard: i don't talk to bannon. peter doocy is live with more. >> shep, it's no longer just lawyers with their cease and desist letters talking about whether or not this book should be p

bannon calling that meeting " treasonist and unpatriotic" saying they should have called the fbi and that meeting was about trying to get dirt on hillary clinton but president trump firing attack cartizing bannon as a former worker. we've got the details tonight bringing in former bush 43 senior advisor karl rove, former arkansas governor michael hillary clinton, chairman steve forbes on this story and much much more, tonight, money and politics we've got you covered welcome to risk & reward i'm elizabeth macdonald now the market hitting more new year highs today the dow finishing less than 80 points shy of 25,000 that's its 89th record close since the election the s & p and nasdac also having a second day of record closes and now we've got new information surfacing about that book, basically the information is attacking the credibility of the author michael wolf, the book that quotes steve bannon. the book that triggered this major fight with the president. the president's billionaire friend thomas barrick ran the inaugural committee now says michael wolf misquoted him saying he nev

strategy steve bannon said the infamous meeting at trump tour with trump junior and manafort is treasonist to which trump responded today quote when he meaning bannon was fired he not only lost his job he lost his mind. white house press secretary sara sanders acknowledged that the release of the book left trump furious and disgusted the former chairman manafort sued the justice department and special counsel mueller and plan fort said prosecutors over stepped authority when they chargeed him for conduct he says is unrelated to the russian meddling investigation and he was indicted in october on marijuana laundering and conspiracy charges related to his work for the russian friendly party in ukraine. two significant swearing in today in the u.s. senate, vice president pence gave the oath of office to doug jones who defeated roy moore in alabama and former minnesota lieutenant governor tina smith to replace of sexuals misconduct allegations and mar ner east two pipeline inmental regular later said them to stop work today citing eggregious and willingful violations of state law and a number

founded comes less than a week after he was quoted as labeling president trump's son and son in law treasonistelivered his state of the state this afternoon and said new jersey needed what he called tough and plain spoken leadership when he took office eight years ago the republican delivered bringing the state back from the brink of financial ruin. >> i vetoed corpus and energy tax increased, in fact, over the last eight years i have vetoed more tax increases than any governor in modern american history. >> reporter: governor elect phil murphy responded saying christie's speech painted a sunny picture but new jersey have long known we are in a state of crisis and schools and pensions are under funded and murphy takes over next week and fewer babies are dying of sleep related complications in the united states a new report from the c.d.c. says the causes are on the decline down to about 3500 a year. however, many parents still are not following the experts advice one in five parents say they do not place they infant on their back in the crib which is the safest position more than 38% say that

want answers abouts son, son-in-law and former campaign chairman and os and why bannon called it treasonistrepublicans are equally frustrated. >> keep many mind the president and some of his supporters want congress to hurry up and conclude these investigations. so do i. the best want to do that is to instruct the witnesses to answer our questions instead of going through executive privilege. >> corey lewandowski was in front of the same committee today and he promised null cooperation. former fbi director james comey's chief of staff is scheduled to appear on capitol hill tomorrow. he was copied on the may 2016 draft statement recommending against criminal charges in the clinton e-mail case. david. david: kat tom dupree, former deputy assistant attorney jern under george w. bush. we could get in the weeds of what executive privilege is. i don't want to do that. why does anyone care what steve bannon says? even if he's -- i mean at the very least he's a blow hard. at worst he's a liar. we know that from how he's contradicted himself in regard to how he feels about donald trump. why do we ca

it unpatriotic, and this is from the new steve bannon book, and even if you thought it was not treasonist, you should have called the fbi immediately. our joe johns is at the white house with all of it. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, poppy. one tweet from the president this morning on iran, a theme he handled yesterday, yesterday very busy, of course, two tweets on north korea, a total of 16 tweets on a variety of topics, the president going after, among other things, the palestinians. and that's something we want to focus on right now. the president threatened to with draw funding from the palestinians if he did not return to the negotiating table, the peace talk table indicating in his view we give hundreds of millions of dollars to the palestinians and ending up with a question, why should we continue to make these payments? palestinians, of course, responding very curtly indicating they cannot be blackmailed. that's what they said. today the president will have a lot to talk about as he sits down to lunch with his secretary of state and secretary of defense and vice presiden

treasonist and unpatriotic and it became evidence that this is political dynamite and the other portrait is not surprising for journalists to covering the white house for a year but certainly putting flesh on the bone that we suspect of the factual of fighting. and now there is really has been a tangible impact of this public feud between bannon and president trump. we are leearning that bannon wa going to put out some kind of statements before and he changed his mind. what more can you tell us about it? >> this was drafted by bannon and intended to smooth the water a little bit and try to walk back some of the inflammatory statements and not denying all tl quotes but trying to smooth things over with trump. once trump comes out and disowning bannon. the comments from bannon, the reason why the focus is on bannon is the bannon's quotes are nothing we have never seen before between the former chief strategist to say that trump is like a 9-year-old and the presidency is over and is taken down by robert mueller. that's extraordinary. it is one thing for trump's critics to be saying it and h

meeting was treasonist. what difference does it make about what he makes about that? >> his opinion is. >> why uninformed? >> treason only applies if you're at war. the united states is not at war with anybody right now. the president gave nuclear codes to vladimir putin and it wouldn't be treesennist. david: that meeting in trump tower is perfectly permissible under federal law, the campaign election act, which says that you can meet with anybody, even foreign nationals in a campaign as long as money is not exchanged. so if he's a guy who has these ill-informed opinions about things, why is mueller so anxious to get him? >> he's interviewing everybody who currently works in the white house and used to work in the white house relevant to his probe. it's a fishing expedition to try to uncover any evidence if any can be had. and i suspect that nobody in the trump white house has anything to say about trump-russian collusion. david: meanwhile, the russian democratic party collusion story is the one that interests me quite a bit. and there's growing evidence that the trum

s 2016 meeting with a russian lawyer treasonist and unpatriotic president trump wasted no time firing back releasing a statement wednesday that read in part, quote, steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. now that he is on his own, steve is learning that winning isn't as easy as i make it look. steve had very little to do with our historic victory yet steve had everything to do with the loss of a senate seat in alabama held for more than 30 years for republicans. steve doesn't represent my base. he's only in it for himself. so, dan, as takedowns go, that's failly thorough. what does this book tell us about the trump white house that we don't know. >> it tells us something interesting about steve bannon and the trump white house. steve bannon reports to be a guy whose goal in life is to drain the swamp. but in fact it turned out that steve bannon was a den zen of the swamp himself in washington. he played the game in the first six months of the trump presidency. he clearly was one of the leakers who produce

in the book, bannon describing the meeting of the president's son and a group of russians as treasonist and unpatriotic. he said he believed the russians were after the meeting taken up to see candidate trump. that's something, by the way, the president has repeatedly denied. he said bannon, the chance that don jr. didn't want them up there is zero. if you don't know what jumos, it means that you're a drunkard, you drink a lot. the russian probe, it seemed to surmise that this special counsel, bob mueller was trying to angle towards money laundering to ensnare the president. this is something that bannon said. i want to take you to this full screen. he said they're going to crack down jr. like an egg on national tv. yeah, you better believe the president would not like this. he's pushing back very forcefully. again, some of the statements that he is making today are strong, very strong. he said this. steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. >> i don't think it does anything to the president's base. the base a

why does the president have to put up with a naked aggression, the subversion of these ignorant treasonist -- fill in the noun you want. >> he doesn't. and basically everybody at the hierarchy of the justice department and the fbi work for him. he can fire any one of them. he fired comey. whether it's the right decision or not, it's irrelevant. at the end of the day if he thinks they're not serving the american public, then he needs to clen it out. he needs to order sessions to clean it out. lou: sessions. sessionshe withdraws like a mole at dawn. >> he needs to go back to alabama. i like jeff sessions as a senator but he's not functionin- lou: we had a great relationship with jeff sessions. the truth is he's not doing -- he's doing almost nothing. >> no, he's not. and mueller is operating -- most people don't understand that mueller is functioning with the authority of the attorney general, the justice department because sessions didn't do that. and so the whole premise of bringing the president -- lou: you're the constitutional scholar. let's get to it. the president needs some counsel h

president trump's chief strategist for seven months, now he's calling the donald trump junior quote treasonistump

bannon calling that meeting " treasonist and unpatriotic" saying they should have called the fbi andmeeting was about trying to get dirt on hillary clinton but president trump firing attack cartizing bannon as a former worker. we've got the details tonight bringing in former bush 43 senior advisor karl rove, former arkansas governor

okay, using words like treasonist and unpatriotic. validating the russia investigation. and then raising issues. i don't think we really paid enough attention to two words that appear in that book that allegedly came out of steve bann bannon's mouth where he allegedly talked about money laundering. he's suggesting he engaged in unpatriotic behavior and perhaps criminal behavior and there is an invisible but very sensitive red line that was crossed there because he's gone past the politics into the family and raising some issues that i think exposed some real vulnerability. if you're wondering why the president has reacted to this, even by his standard, kind of an unhinged way, i do think he's raising issues of really hypersensitivity in trump's mind. >> charlie, based on the excerpts that you've read so far, and what you know about this white house, i know you still got some sources that are close to this administration, you find it believable? >> i think that we ought to approach the book with a certain amount of skepticism just because, you know, michael wolff might be

s meeting with the group of russians treasonist and unpatriotic. >>> and here in d.c., they are back on capitol hill. senators in session in just a couple of hours facing a race against the clock to get to deals on the budget, immigration, children's health insurance, just to name a few. we have a real bezzlesusy 60 mi coming up with the nbc reporters. here with the latest, kelly cobiella is in seoul. you have more details on the initial contact between north korea and south korea. this is significant. >> reporter: yeah, hallie, this is a really big deal. the two countries have not spoken directly in two years, since about february of 2016. that is when this hot line was cut by kim jong-un because of a diplomatic dispute with the former administration, the conservatives here in south korea. now today he ordered it to be reestablished. the south koreans made that phone call from that contraption that you see in the pictures to the north. the north answered. we understand that they exchanged pleasantries, introductions, the call lasted for 20 minutes. nothing substantive discussed from

nationals that included the president's son, son in law, former campaign chairman who bannon called the treasonist. the session frustrated both sides of the aisle. >> the president and some of his is supporters to hurry up and conclude this investigation. the best way to do that is to instruct witnesses to answer our questions instead of going through the executive privilege. >> reporter: bannon will be back on the hill tomorrow, so we will see if it's more of the same. that's going to be an interview not in front of the grand jury. that subpoena may have been a negotiating tactic. >> dana: we expect mr mr. lewandowski's session to be very different, is that right? >> reporter: he's expected on the hill at any time this hour. on fox yesterday, he said he's going to answer every question. >> all they said to me is to prepare to go in and answer questions. i'm going to answer every question truthfully, honestly, to the best of my ability, to the best of my recollection. because i have nothing to hide, i'm looking forward to this opportunity to help finally bring this to a close. >> reporter: second

explosive accusations in a tell all book on the trump white house call a meeting with a russian lawyer treasonist the president.

had with a kremlin-linked attorney treasonist. also indicating that the russia investigation is very real. indicating that robert mueller is gunning for the president, essentially. and that donald trump jr. will essentially fold like a card. at the end of this investigation. so, a lot of really inflammatory statements in that book. steve bannon speaking out for the first time in his radio show on sirius xm. take a listen to what he said about all of this, hallie. >> let's focus on the agenda, because, you know, there is no one we think -- >> hallie, the president is furious about this. reportedly growing more furious about this by the minute. see the headlines that highli t highlighhighligh highlights this west wing. broader questions here. this is not only a big riff between the president and one of his former top advisors. it's also potentially a riff between the president and what is widely seen as a link to his base. remember, steve bannon seen as the touchto his base. the lead e er of the party head into the midterms and 2020

the campaign in trump tower a group of russians attended by jared kushner and paul manafort as treasonist. bannon says they're going to crack don junior like an egg on national tv. one of the sources for the book is katie walsh who served as the white house deputy chief of staff in the first couple of months of the trump white house. here's how michael wol off delivers her view of the commander in chief. he didn't process information in any conventional sense. he didn't read. he didn't really even skim. some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semiliterate. he trusted his own expertise no matter how irrelevant and confident but he was just as often paralyzed less a salve saint than putting and dangerous insecurities whose response was to lash out and behave as if his gut however confused was, in fact, in some clear and forceful way telling him what to do. it was said walsh like trying to figure out what a child wants. joining us now, john heilman, analyst for nbc news and jonathan capehart from "the washington post" and also with us, ron klain, former chief of sta

and we know the comments from steve bannon about it being treasonist. that don jr. and jared kushner and paul manafort took that meeting with the russians, has gotten to have gotten under trump's skin. >> trace: you can separate yourself from the george papadopoulos's than the steve bannons of the world. he's a major player in the media. it's different for him to get some separation between himself and bannon, is it not? >> i think trump's mistake today was in his statement personally attacking bannon instead of focusing on issues or even the content of what he said. all trump has right now is his base. if he alienates them, he's done. the democrats think he's mentally unstable. when he turns to the attacks of a fellow populist conservative, he risks having his own base think he's unfit. he has to be careful. i'd like to see him use his fantastic unorthodox spirit pushing for what he ran on, what he campaigned on. that's what his base wants. i come from a family of trump supporters. they have no interest in squabbles with steve bannon. they want the wall built and t

s meeting with russians treasonist. >> going after the president's son in an absolutely outrageous andunprecedented way. >> reporter: bannon was fired but still in the president's good graces three months ago. >> steve has been a friend of mine for a long time. >> reporter: now in a statement the president said bannon lost his mind when he left. overnight a letter from mr. trump's lawyer claiming bannon violated his nondisclosure agreement. they want him to sees acease an desi desist. lawmakers aren't saying much at all. >> um -- you know, that's between mr. bannon and the president. >> i have a long standing policy of staying out of the battle of personalities in washington. >> reporter: some analysts think special counsel robert mueller may want to hear more. >> what was bannon going to say? i was just making it up? >> reporter: explosive details from a former insider now up for debate as fact or fiction. tracie potts, nbc news, washington. >>> happening today, a long time leader in san francisco politics is expected to throw her hat into the ring in the race for mayor. former board

. >> steve bannon says that meeting in trump tower was treasonist. >> news stories from the trump whitee. liz: let's take a look at network coverage of the wolff book compared to another important economic story bike the dow jones cracking the 25 k mark. almost two and a half hours on the wolff book and under six minutes on the dow. danielle, a lot of errors in that wolff book. for example, he said house speaker john barrasso left his post in 2011 and called the labor secretary, the secretary of commerce a lot of mistakes in that book and now the media is backtracking saying wait a second historied eled with rumor s so why the lack of coverage on the economic good news? they are covering the economic good news but not as much as going wall to wall on the wolff book. >> the wolff book is selacious, it's like what happened with clinton cash a couple years before the election. the new york times picked up all of the news reporting in its investigations into the clinton foundation, really came from clinton cash. liz: but clinton cash is more accurate. nobody disputed what's going on. they d

jared kushner saying that it was treasonist and unpatriotic. president apparently has had enough. just releasing a statement quoting here steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. now that he is on his own, steve is learning isn't as easy as i make it look. steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. yet, steve had everything to do with the loss of a senate seat in alabama held for more than 30 years by republicans. steve doesn't represent my base. he's only in it for himself. steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party. yet, he spent his time at the white house leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. it was the only thing he does well. steve was retailer in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue whom he held right. all right. i'm

treasonist. of all the stuff he said, he just went way too far on the -- neil: well, that apparently tipped it for the president. disparaging comments with his kids. i was raised in the outset that the president always gets annoyed that some of his best news is stepped on in developments like this the 25,000 thing with the release of these book excerpts, et cetera. it has happened countless other times. sometimes of his own doing, you know? a tweet that comes out and all. but he does have a point. i mean, whether you like him or not, some of his best achievements get buried in these sort of other developments. what do you think? >> yeah. i don't disagree with you. i mean, house republican, senate republicans, aids i've talked to on the hill are very frustrated. they feel they just passed this tax bill. they want to be talking about that. they want to be selling this. they think they can make it a positive for the midterm elections. they do not want donald trump and the erratic behavior and his ne

and russian operatioperatives was unpatriotic and treasonist.ed, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. that's a quote. however, on his radio show last night bannan says he still supports the president and went as far as to call him a great man. michael wolff that wrote this book "the fire and fury" inside the white house will be here tomorrow for an exclusive live interview. with that we turn to hoda for the morning news. >> here we go, girl. we have been talking about the powerball the mega-millions jackpot. this is about a new jersey mom. she won $5 million. she won it by accident. she went into a manhattan convenience store. she told the store she wanted a $1 scratchoff ticket t. clerk ripped off a $10 for life ticket. off the rom. she handed it to her. she felt bad, she said, okay, i'll buy it anyway, she didn't bother scratching it off a couple weeks, it was ache a lookmark in one of her books, eventual she did. she plans to take her family on vacation to the bahamas. >> i love that. >> a pleaser, oh, i feel bad, i'll take it anyway,

donald trump is not treasonist. he's an american patriot. go out there and denounce it.egg and mueller is going to focus on money laundering and predicted that's going to be on national television. >> so, again, i don't know if he said that, brian or if he did say it. brian: it's been a few hours. he hasn't walked it back. >> so he's not going to crack like an egg. he has nothing to crack about. he's an extremely honest person. i would put all of my money on the table. you guys remember john, the governor of new jersey. he had a scandal with mf global. wasn't really a scandal, it was just a bad trade. the ceo. everybody on cn nbc all around said he was a criminal. he stole the money. i got out on the air. i said he's not a criminal. it may be politics but he's not a criminal. didn't steal one dollar donald j jr. is a very good guy. i have no problem standing up for him. i think steve made a big mistake if he said it. steve: let's ask you about this. apparently mr. wolf had pretty good access to the white house because 95% of his dozen visits there, he was the guest of st

and the others had with the russians in trump tower summer of 2016 was a treasonist act.take that to the bank and bet on, what bannon did was suggest did meet with the russians indeed very active treason. bannon stabbed trump in the back by making that suggestion. there's no investigative reporter from the new york times, you name the trump-hating news organization, no one has in any way suggested that president trump had anything to do with the russians that don jr. in his inexperience can be in a meeting in trump tower. brian: i'll add a couple of things to that. he was not in the building, number one. and he was not hired at the time. it was all conjecture on his part, something you would suggest from david corn, somebody on the left who has a presumption about the president that is predominantly negative. but what's the motivation? is it pure ego? he's not a wall street guy. multimillionaire, ivy league grad, he's not dumb. what is he up to? >> i've seen it in show business where the agents are helping shepherd the career of a central person in the movies and now you'