trump? any concerns? >> things did not go well as trump called out some members... >> narrator: the confrontation between flake and trump signaled a crisis in the g.o.p. >> between donald trump and senate republicans... >> narrator: and raised th question of who would control the republican party. >> the 2016 presidential race is underway. >> 2016 presidential race starts to take shape. >> it's game time for the republican national convention.t >> elishment republicans skipping the event. >> not going to be here because they can't support him. >> i've never seen anything like this at a convention. >> narrator: the campaign that followed was unlike any republicans had seenefore. >> trump is encouraging gun rights advocates to act out against hilly clinton. >> called president obama the founder of isis. >> narrar: the candidate was a lightning rod. >> attacking a federal judge because he is mexican-american. >> trump called r miss piggy and miss housekeeper. >> donald trump is questioning the parents of a f

for instance two days before the trump tower meeting donald trump jr. had two calls with the son of a russian oligarch who was arranging logistics for the meeting. according to democrats, quote, donald trump jr.'s phone records also show a blocked number at 4:27 p.m. between the two calls trump junior claimed he did not know who was associated with the blocked number. the report notes that former trump campaign member corey lewandowski told the committee that mr. trump's primary residence has a blocked phone line. democrats suggest that then candidate trump may have been in touch with his son at the time they was planning the meetings with the russians. but the republicans say, quote, despite the minority's repeated efforts to obtain home or cell phone records for the then candidate trump to determine whether the blocked call was trump junior's father, the majority was unwilling to pursue the matter. joining us now is michael isikoff, natasha bertrapped and stephen harper. welcome to all of you. thank you for being with us. stephen, let me start with yo

trump university. the real estate seminar that promised you, too, could get rich just like donald trump. >> if you don't learn from the people that we're going to be putting forward, and these are all people that are hand picked by me. >> but he did not hand pick them. just one of the fraud claims made by former students. once again michael cohen went on the attack. >> so when they talked about frauds and scams, why don't you ask like the 14-year-old boy who went with his mom and ended up making a million dollars. >> he seemed confident trump would prevail. >> mr. trump is doing incredibly well in this lawsuit. >> but after a five-year battle trump settled agreeing to pay $25 million to former students. then in the late stages of the campaign cohen paid stormy daniels to keep quiet. >> so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> michael cohen's years of fierce loyalty would not be prepaid by a position in president trump's administration. yet he has remained a fierce supporter. in march of 20

it's trump, right?t this moment, that tendency, the thing that trump does to diminish people rather than enhance them is right on the brink of coming back to bite him because michael cohen is maybe the most important example of someone who is now realizing that he has not been enhanced by donald trump, but he's ultimately going to be diminished, by being put in jail. as he's realizing that it could be the cause for him to ultimately turn on donald trump. >> i think john is exactly right. look at the people who have left the white house. they end up leaving in disgrace or under an indictment. or potential indictment. >> or as some federal prosecutors say on team america, working for bob mueller. >> that's right, they flip. one of the interesting aspects of the kind of corrosiveness of donald trump's washington, think of how prestigious it used to be to work in the white house. look at the law firms that turned their back on donald trump. how prestigious it used to be to represent the president. you still

if trump knows it tends to undercut the idea trump didn't know about stormy daniels. prosecutors build these cases by going piece by piece. the stormy daniels payment comes very close to the election. the tape on the bus comes out very close to the time that there's a dump of documents from wic wikileaks that is a distraction. and if the trump folks are saying we had nothing to do with the wikileaks dump, well, the wikileaks dump looks like from press reports it came from the rugs. so if the russians got the stuff, gave it to wikileaks and trump campaign officials or someone in the trump campaign is controlling when that information is coming out, you don't have to steal the stuff to be part of a conspiracy to break the law. >> all right. >> if the stuff is gotten in an illegal matter and it comes out later that's a problem. >> that's what i was going to and you julia. listen, what is criminal about wanting to prevent a tape and having your attorney do it? it may be solas vegas s and embarrassing but is it a crime? >> not necessarily. he's running for office, so we ha

trump you know, because you have down fred trump.y mentioned you had asked about that or somebody had. it's been pretty well consolidated. >> he notes at the time he pushed back on trump's claims about his net worth but didn't realize how much he inflated his own numbers. greenberg points out this was a model trump would use for the rest of his career telling a lie so cosmic that people believed that some kernel of it had to be true. the tactic landed him a place he hadn't earned on the forbes list of richest people and let the future accolades press coverage and deals that eventually paved the path toward the presidency. i'm joined by tim o'brien, author of "trump nation, the art of being the donald." trump sued him for libel after he reported a relatively low estimate of trump's net worth. i don't know if that's libellous. thank you for coming on. >> it's good to be here, chris. >> i was joshing earlier. i don't know how to describe it. we have a president of the units with at least three aliases. george washington, fdr, lincoln, i

trump: they were saying, what do you think president trump had to do with it?do you what. -- i will tell you what. how about, everything? [applause] pres. trump: even president moon says that. he has been great. i will tell you what. it will be an interesting period of time. we had an interesting thing happened over the last few days. the senator of montana who voted in favor of sanctuary cities, who is weak on the border, didn't vote for tax cuts, he took a gentleman who was a truly high-quality human being and what they said about him, what they said about this great american doctor ronnie jackson. an admiral in the navy. he served three presidents. president obama said he was fantastic, president bush said he was fantastic. i say -- this is a high-quality individual. like they would love in montana. he just started throwing out things he has heard. i know things about tester that i could say too. [applause] if i said them, he would never be elected again. [applause] pres. trump: it was sad. i watched dr. jackson, admiral jackson, both a doctor and an admiral

trump because you have down fred trump. i think you can use donald trump now and just consolidate. >>> tonight on the beat, i have an interview with the oscar winning actor sean penn and his new book about america in the age of trump. i'm ari melber. you're watching "the beat" on msnbc. with new car replacement, if your brand new car gets totaled, liberty mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. is it to carry cargo... or to carry on a legacy? its show of strength... or its sign of intelligence? in crossing harsh terrain... or breaking new ground? this is the mercedes-benz suv family. greatness comes in many forms. lease the gla250 for $349 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. for all the noses that stuff up around daisies. for all the eyes that get itchy and watery near pugs. for all the people who sneeze around dust. there's flonase sensimist allergy relief. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestio

." >> trump's response is classic trump, "who am i going to blame?" >> don't mess with donald trump. donald trump doesn't forget. >> somebody needs to stand up and say, "this is not our party, this inot normal." >> tonight on frontline' "trump'takeover". >> frontline is made possible by contributis to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. d by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdanf and pe world. more information is available at macfound.org. additionalupport is provided by the abrams foundation: committed to excellenc journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awarens of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires.ro and by theline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. >> breaking news from campaign 16, marco rubio... >> narrator: washington, 2016. >> ...chris christie have suspended their campa

of donald trump. it's an interesting precursor about whether michael cohen made illegal campaign contributions in the whole stormy daniels affair. >> the fec sided in cohen's fairer in 2011 and trump's lawyer supporter continued to stand by his man. >> the way he described it to me was a father/son relationship. when i asked him why he had done certain things or why he has blind loyalty, he threw the question back to me is, would you do this for your father. >> michael cohen and others outside of the orbit of the trump family can say they are like family. at the end of the day, the only people donald trump considers as family are his own family members. anyone who considers themselves to be almost a trump family member should really take a reality check. they tend not to stay around very long. >> over the next few years, cohen would stay. and take his loyalty to a whole new level. >> coming up, the price of loyalty. michael cohen has been a devoted fixer for president trump for years in public and pri

trump. ♪ >>> you can see president trump there along with the first lady melania trump who has been centraln orchestrating this state visit. she set up the dinner we're told with no outside help, just the east room staff, the east wing of the white house helping her set up the dinner tonight. she is there beside her husband to greet the french leader and his wife, who will be arriving momentarily as we await their arrival, on the issue of president trump listening, he does seem to hear people often agreeing with them but then very shortly after can be turned. >> yeah. i think that's absolutely right, john. macron is here for a couple of glamorous days. clearly getting along and enjoying each other's companies but trump is going to go back to a national security team and foreign policy team that generally supports his foreign policy belief and that is to get out of multi-lateral deals not get back in to them which is why macron is trying to convince the president here today to do. you only need to look at senate democrats, macron might want to talk to them when he's on capitol hill later thi

be trump or not say it, trump is going to be trump. >> okay. so, this is all slightly entertaining, not really, but until you get to national security. and i want to read you two things. and get your thoughts through the foreign policy prism. jennifer rubin writes, public servants don't want to work in this white house. trump spinners who assured us during the campaign would workout because stellar people would be there were mistaken. trump is making sudden decisions without much staff consultation, wagering they will pay dividends. one of those things was proposing a white house visit for the russians and that call on the 20th, the do not congratulate call in which he of course he did congratulate, we counted 15 nato allies who haven't been to the west wing yet. >> amazing vladimir putin hasn't been to the white house since 2005. >> 2005. >> and, look, and it's very interesting that we learned about this once again through the russians. you guys will all remember when the russian ambassador and foreign minister came to the oval office last yea

trump, donald trump, president trump wants to review this material or not, they say michael cohen doesn't do a lot of lawyering? >> exactly. from all the reporting i've seen, what michael cohen did for donald trump was basically two things. he was a deal maker and he was a fixer. but in terms of, you know, representing him in court, giving him legal advice as opposed to advise on a deal or advice on solving a problem like stormy daniels, you know, which i there are aspects of that maybe could be privileged, i don't know. you're the lawyer. he want, you know, a lawyer all the time he was dealing with donald trump. he was an aide. >> ari, because of the role that cohen played in donald trump's life for a long, long time, i think everybody understands there's potential jeopardy here and my guess is, is that the trump organization, the lawyers will fight this and battle this on and on as long as they can. there's potential jeopardy for the president and i think they know it. >> this kind of action creates a maze, but even more it's legal quicksand for the president, because coming back to the

in the mafia he also sees in trump and in the trump white house. the circle of deceit, the demands for loyalty pledges, the sort of with us or against us world view. and the constant lies and copy says it became very clear to him that the lifestyle he saw within the mafia and the mob was evident in the oval office now. >> two more questions, the small hands reference which i thought was a bit cheap but the more serious question about trump's admitting he likes oaths of loyalty. >> that's right pep talks about the loyalty oath. this is something that comey got into in his senate testimony that we remember. there was one-on-one dinner comey had with president trump in the green room of the white house where the president asked for his personal loyalty. they went back and forth. comey made clear it wouldn't give his personal political loyalty, he would be loyal to the truth. they sort of left it at that. after that point, trump went through a litany of accusations against him to try to convince comey they weren't true beginning with the sexual assault

in other words, emmanuel macron spends all of his time with donald trump trying to prevent donald trump from being harm to himself, his country, and the world. and of course president macron is obviously far more intelligent and articulate and wise and younger and more attractive in every way than donald trump. and that has to drive donald trump just crazy, crazy to the point of possibly pretending to see something that only his 71-year-old eyes can see. >> mr. president, they're all and that has to drive donald trump just crazy, crazy to the point of possibly pretending to see something that only his 71-year-old eyes can see. >> mr. president, they're all saying what a great relationship we have. and they're actually correct. it's not fake news. finally, it's not fake news. so it's a great honor. a great honor that you're here. but we do have a very special relationship. in fact, i'll get that little piece of and the rough off -- we have to make him perfect. he is perfect. >> if he is perfect, he was perfect, he was perfect before donald trump touched him. because there isn't even any

two days before that june meeting in trump tower, donald trump jr. reportedly had two calls from the son of a russian oligarch who was arranging the logistics for the meeting. according to house democrats, quote, his phone records also show a blocked number at 4:27 p.m. that day between the two calls. trump jr. claimed he did not know who was associated with that blocked number. the democratic report also notes that corey lewandowski -- it aappears donald trump senior may have been in touch with his son at the very time he was planning to meet with the russians. however house democrats note the majority was unwilling to pursue the matter. ken dilanian, let's talk about this. the lack of appetite for the republicans on the house intelligence committee for digging up the truth is amazing. this paul revere character, nunes, who runs down to the white house to get the talking points basically and then delivers the talking points back to the west wing, and now he has his whole troop of followers saying, case closed. and then this woman, veselnitskaya, com

trump and the french president.and continue that thought. >> guest: yes, well, both of them were elected on their first attempts and macron had no electoral experience and trump did not. they're botht. outsiders and inn an interesting way they are both products of the same phenomenonm which is a populist projection of the status quo and the traditional parties. in the us that rejection gave us president trump who is politically very different from president macron and after france you had the reduction of the traditional parties which gave the leadership to a young man who had never -- he was trained and has a degree in philosophy and had a degree in public administration and his first job was as an investment banker. they are both outsiders from the private sector and they both -- in our interview he said they're both trying very hard to carry out the campaign promises that they were elected on and of course the promises are different but as trump told macron at the first meeting we are both outsiders. >> host: pro

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trump's hotel room. mr. trump laughed it off.promise vip guests. >> sure, anderson. it's not just whether it's prostitutes or whether it's donald trump or somebody else. that goes on with high ranking businessmen. when you have a target like donald trump i think it's probably undeniable that donald trump would have been a target for the russian intelligence frs is services because the rush shsia would have considered him. you never know when you're going to need that kind of information on somebody like donald trump. it turns out that appears to be true. it is standard operating proceed your for that sort of thing to happen. >> as you said before we don't know what robert mueller's team knows. >> that's right. for a brief investigation seems to have done enormously k06r7 te -- competent work. the question is whether michael cohen met with officials. there was a report that suggested he did go and meet with russian officials. so it is pretty darn good. it is true that this accusation is very much unproven at this point. the fact t

a lawyer that used to work for trump in the '90s, trump is kaumg him on friday.ow he's reaching out to giuliani. trump gets stuff stuck in his craw. it reveals something he is obsessed with and he, like i says, does protest too much, something he feels vulnerable, or the things where he senses some kind of weakness. he can say over and over again his legal team is all in great shape, but his habit of perpetually and relentlessly reaching out to new lawyers, looking for new solutions tells you about places where he feels vulnerable and not on the firmest of ground. >> sam, do you agree on the protesting too much front because, i mean, there is a case to be made that anyone accused of what's in that dossier, what is alleged to have happened in moscow -- i was just going to say would be pissed -- perhaps i'll use a different expression, would be angered to read that and looking to be cleared? >> i suppose, but i actually do agree with john. the reason i agree is a specific part of these memos, which is trump going out of his way to ask comey to look into this so tha

trump cashes russia's white house spy! trump must build the wall! trump takes charge!hy such a difference? the man in charge of that tabloid, david pecker, is a friend of donald trump, and trump is a man of pecker's slash and burn tactic forth taking down politicians and celebrities alike. >> i've always said why didn't "the national enquirer" get the pulitzer prize for edwards and o.j. simpson and all these things? >> reporter: the mutually beneficial relationship between the two new yorkers started in the 1990s over their shared interest in the power and value of headlines. ever since, they've grown closer and more protective of each other's empires. >> it was mostly a one-way protection. it was a kind of hero worship on the part of pecker. he really looked up to donald trump. still does. and he put his very important magazines to work for donald trump's interests. >> reporter: for example, when "the national enquirer" printed a ridiculously false claim about the kennedy assassination and the father of ted cruz, trump's rival for the republican nomination, the billio

imagine if donald trump -- the 2017 version of donald trump had been the same as the 2015 donald trump. and he joined the big infrastructure program, sustained the social safety net as he said he would, opposed upper income tax cuts, all of which were demanded by the country as a whole and republicans. he may be a more dangerous president than he is. instead donald trump signed on to the paul ryan program, the massively unpopular tax cut. he signed on to the attempt to repeal -- spend the first half of his most powerful year in office attempting to repeal obamacare. it's a funny thing to think about but steve bannon's political instincts may have been sharper than paul ryan's, and it may be if the trump ship goes down, paul ryan will be the person to put a hole in the bottom of it. >> a republican source said today on axios, this is going to make every republican do nor believe the house can't be held. >> absolutely. for a speaker of the house to make himself a lame duck with this much time left in the year and for mitch mcconnell to say we have much to do, no you have nothing to do. y

also, donald trump's epa chief grilled. will trump stand by him? and my special report about what people may be getting wrong about why the trump/kanye bromance matters. >>> we begin with donald trump's defense of his personal lawyer completely publicly backfiring. michael cohen headed to a federal courtroom today. trump was trying to stick up with him, but instead made an admission, that you probably know, the entire trump team has been trying to hide for months. this is about the stormy daniels hush payment. >> mr. president, how much of your legal work was handled by michael cohen? >> well, as a percentage of my overall willing work, a tiny, tiny little fraction. but michael would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me. and you know from what i see, he did absolutely nothing wrong. >> cohen barely did any work for trump, but that tiny little fraction does include the infamous stormy daniels pay-off. think about three weeks ago when trump had a completely differen

trump. i've never met him. it's hard to imagine why he would fund a hotel room to meet with russian girls of questionable social stature. although no doubt that russia has the best of those girls. >> i'm joined now by california congresswoman, jackie speier, who serves on the house intelligence committee. former watergate special prosecutor, nick ackerman and nbc terrorism expert, malcolm nance. congresswoman, much has come out and much has been discussed about these comey memos, which leaked from your constitution, your institution. not you, per se. walk us through what you think is significant about this and was congress right to leak them? >> well, this is an example where the majority, the republicans, wanted desperately for those memos to come under their possession so that they could use them as a weapon. they then, i think, leaked them immediately and it sort of blew up in their faces. it just confirms what then director comey had said during the hearings on the senate side and also w

organization here at trump tower.in the trump empire and its real estate holdings, and of course the residence before he became president for donald trump. monica did underline that both barron as well as melania, the first lady and first son, not here today. they're in d.c. we understand there's one seriously injured in this incident. the picture on the right is where the fdny put out the visual of what was earlier. that fire is now out, but again if you're just joining us, a four alarm fire at trump tower in new york city throat on the corner of fifth avenue and 57th street at the moment, you can see in the live pictures there's still hook-and-ladders and then on the right-hand side, there were also some fdny vehicles. you can see in the reflection in the windows some of the other units that are on location. there are several sbraxs to this. we're looking at 57th on one side and fifth on the other. there's also an entrance on 56th. there's many ways to get in and out of the building. you can see some of the personne

trump.o there is no adult in the room. if we're looking for someone who has deep morals or a conscience or some sort of upper level have intellect, if they are still with this administration, that is cause for serious question. we knew when john kelly came out and, as you mentioned with congresswoman wilson, and never apologized. >> alarm bells, right? >> completely lied about the situation and never corrected the story. these are things that the president does. he throws things out there he says many people say. we know that they're false. they're proven to be false by the journalistic standards we have at least for now, and that's what this administration has been doing. i think the long-standing effects of this trump presidency will be to make lies and untruths and false statements part of the ethos of doing business and call into question real facts. >> normalizing a lot of these. >> and i think that's the most difference. by the by, i think president trump is probably the most emotional

trump -- >> but one thing donald trump is, he's a compassionate man.a man of great intellect, great intuition and abilities. >> mr. trump's memory is fantastic and i've never come across a situation where he has said something that is not accurate. >> there are -- seriously? >> yes, seriously. >> mr. trump truly cares about america. he love this is country. >> he is an amazing negotiator. maybe the best ever in the history of the world. >> you guys are down and it makes sense that -- >> says who? says who? >> most of them. all of them. >> he's a smart man. he's a decisive man. he's a swift-acting individual. >> generous, compassionate, principled, empathetic and kind, humble, honest and genuine. >> he's not lying. he was proteching a friend. there is a different. >> what is the difference? >> the difference is he was being a true friend. it doesn't matter to him. he will ultimately and i said this so many times, he will ultimately go down in history as the greatest president. >> mark, according to the latest report in "the new york times," associates o

trump: you know him?was one of the biggest and smartest lawyers in new york, represented me over the years. he is incredible lawyer. he loves israel. he loves our country. he is very proud of israel, very important to him. i said, let's see if you can make peace. part of it is, let's see about this. i called him, i am not spending a billion dollars on an embassy. he said, i think i can do it for $150,000. he said, yeah. we have a great site that we are going to buy. the best site. it has a building on it. i can take a corner of the building and i can spend that $150,000 and i can build a beautiful embassy. we can have an open in three months. [applause] pres. trump: big difference, right? big difference. we went from a billion dollars to $150,000. i took the liberty of saying, david, you can spend a little bit more than that and that is ok. it is temporary. at $1 billion, most of us would not be around to see it. here we get it open immediately. and it is opening in like a month. about it.een reading we h

trump. >> they say i'm mr. pit bull. >> i've stood by him shoulder to shoulder. >> there's an issue that relates to mr. trump that is of concern to him it's of concern to me, and i will use my legal skills within which to protect mr. trump to the best of my ability. >> your guys are down -- >> says who? says who? >> polls, most of them. all of them. >> says who? >> is that manning to go to prison for donald trump? >> i doubt it. i actually doubt that that man issing to go to prison for donald trump and one of the single moments for me this past week was after the fbi raided his office and trump came out and said they hicked the hinges off his door. cohen came out and said they were polite. they actually didn't beat me up too badly. to role this back, any time the president gets extremely angry i always think it's because he's nervous. if you have nothing to hide you won't get that angry. as it pertains to michael cohen, i don't think michael cohen is actually the most important lawyer in the trump organization.

he did so in that trump tower briefing.e did so again in a phone call a week or so later, and again and again. and comey details all of it in his book. according to his account. and the big picture, ali, about the portrait comey paints of the president is about as scathing as it gets. he describes the president as a congenital liar, somebody who is unethical and unfit for this office and somebody who is really blurring what should be traditional boundaries between the white house, the politics in the white house and the more independent fbi and department of justice. comey was very alarmed and described it as a forest fire of a presidency. >> phil, let's talk about the lewd allegations that the president seemed to be obsessed with. did he ask comey to do anything about it? does comey believe the allegations to be true or what he was asked about them? >> he did. so the allegation is that during a trip to moscow in 2013, then private citizen donald trump was in a hotel room in the ritz carlton and was taped by the russians in

statement out tonight from president trump and first lady melania trump. i should mention the date on it is wrong, it says actually 2018. but other than that, there you have it. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening. i have to say about barbara bush. from anything i've ever heard from her children, her grandchildren, everything you hear from them about her is just wonderful stuff. just ideal comments about a mother and a grandmother. >> yeah. always described unfailingly always described as strong, as the rock of that family, as the spine of that family. and somebody who was seen as unshakeable, even in extreme circumstances. and obviously the bush family is like none other in american history and politics. and she was by all accounts the absolute center and heart of it. >> rachel, i know you have commented on the president hiring new lawyers to represent him in what is now the michael cohen case in the southern district of new york. i'

trump quick with a response.orea has agreed to suspend all nuclear tests and close up a major test site. this is very good news for north korea and the world. big progress. look forward to our, capitalized, summit. wall street journal reporting tonight that a senior administration official urged caution, adding it may be less than meets the eye. whatever it is, donald trump's immediate twitter response is a far cry from the old reagan approach. trust but verify. i'm joined by ambassador wendy sherman, msnbc global affairs contributor. if trump moves forward in this way and then would go on to cancel the iran deal, what would you make of where we're headed, and is this tonight based on what we know in your view good news? >> well, i think mostly this is old news, ari, in the sense that they haven't been testing, and i think kim jong-un is playing his hand extremely well. he's starting out this negotiation by saying, i've made a concession. i've done an incredible thing. i have stopped testing of my weapons because

with donald trump. why weren't there hundreds of women lining up to get $130,000 in free money from michael cohen. the whole thing makes no sense. you don't have to have gone to law school to understand that is crazy. we as civilians pay lawyers, we hire someone like michael avenatti. they don't pay for our issues, we pay them. so donald trump didn't pay his lawyer. his lawyer paid a random woman, who all he did was take a picture with in california? this is crazy. so i think donald trump's problem is, to your point -- i think to both of your point, he never should have answered the question. because the only logical answer to this, right, is, of course, i paid -- had my lawyer do this, and, of course, i meant to pay him back. which means they attempted to influence the election. there's no way out for donald trump here. the mueller case on its own with the russia stuff is tough. the stormy daniels case feels like an absolute vice for this president. >> ron cline, i waklain, i want the intersection of t

he says meets with trump and the e-mails are released and trump is also hinting that e-mails are going to be released. sometimes i think we try too hard. it is just right there. this is what mueller is looking at. i'm not staying up late at night wondering, you know, whether roger stone is being misunderstood. he knew exactly what he was saying. >> i think if people are just kind of perplexed at it and it would actually happen to this level. you know, not that they don't like, really, is it that -- are you going to be that obvious and maybe that's the best way to hide something is do it right in front of people. "the wall street journal" reported that mueller is looking into whether stone met with julian assange in the final months before the 2016 election. what he is looking for, keith? >> ultimately, you want to know whether aassange is an important go between russia and the access they're getting to e-mails and everything they want to leak to the media and ultimately possibly to the trump campaign or members of the trump campaign. it's worth remembering they're legal and political i

>> 20 years of donald trump being donald trump. we can go from a business point of view, personal point of view. he raided his personal lawyer's office. his quote-unquote fixer. michael's words to me, he's loyal. he says i'd rather jump out of a building than turn on donald trump. he's fiercely -- that might change over time, but he has this fierce, fierce -- fierce loyalty that's almost inexplicable at this point. >> and where does he place telling the truth to federal prosecutors? is that somewhere between jumping out a window? >> michael's point of view is he has not done anything wrong. he's been a lawyer. he's also a smart enough guy to know that in this world even if you haven't done things wrong in your own perception, he understands the fire he's under. he's not a fool. he understands he's in a very difficult position here. but as of now, he is fiercely loyal to trump. i personally don't understand it to tell you the truth for all the obvious reasons. maybe time will change there. what's interesting, i spent some time in a

. >> and tweets, talk about the trump tweets. >> well, trump tells me in our interview -- it it he hadnot been tweeting, he would not be president. it is a way of getting around mainstream media and connecting with common people with his own vernacular often dispelled and -- in the morning -- start tweeting on his own -- he only l sleeps four hours at night, and then he'll start tweeting and he'll leave by the way a lot of major papers you know, he according to that novel by michael wolf doesn't. well it reads "the washington post" covered to cover -- new york tiles cover to cover. new york journal and washington times op-ed he will have things printed out from other publication and internet sites like breitbart. >> how do you know this? >> i was able to get right to the heart of the whole issue here, and find out, you know, what and the plane -- and okay stakes most wonderful steaks are served mar-a-lago yet he'll have them well done and reagan did the same thing. fascinating it's just full of lots of thing okay, conclusion you say in your book turns out in the thousands of story abou

host: it is called "trump's takeover." can you give us a sense of the word your tried to imply by the word takeover? guest: it is the current republican party in washington versus the donald trump. it is what he did and they did over the year beginning in the summer of 2016 when they really do not understand who donald trump was. they did not feel like he cared because they did not believe he would win. from that moment until the ceremony at the white house on december 20 after the tax cut is passed and they are all praising him, the astonishing difference between how they felt about him at the beginning and how they felt about him at the end of his first year is what the film is about. host: give us a sense than exactly how they did feel about him at the beginning and the end and why that changed. guest: at the very beginning, as i said, i don't think they expected him to win. i don't think they felt they needed to spend any time at all. trump comes to washington in july for a kind of victory lap as the presumptive nomine

trump jr. after they were promised dirt on hilling. they mailed a european move: the house intelligence committee down played it as an act of poor judgment in the newly released report that the president is celebrating this afternoons evidence of no collusion between his campaign and the russian government. we have all angles of this story covered with the reporters from the capitol and let's begin on capitol hill with manu raju. the lawyer veselnitskaya long claimed she was a private attorney and she used to deny working on behalf of the russian government but now it appears we're learning otherwise. >> and she also denied there was anything nefarious that happened in the 2016 meeting with senior members of the trump campaign but the revelations of her being an informant capturing many by surprise and a informant to the republican who ran the house russia investigation. >> the russian lawyer who attended a 2016 meeting with donald trump jr., now acknowledging she's an informant of the russian

may have seized tapes of phone calls during the raid of trump's lawyer. >>> president trump talking about prime minister theresa may working on the response to the chemical attack in syria. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm alex marquardt. >> i'm christine romans. it is friday the 13th. april 13th. it is 4:00 a.m. in the east. 11:00 a.m. in northern syria. we will have a report in a few minutes. in the book, fired fbi director james comey blasts donald trump in brutal terms calling him unethical and untethered to truth and insurantitutional val. ego driven and personal loyalty. it exploded into public view last night. cnn obtained a copy. comey calls the trump presidency a forest fire and says aspects of the loyalty oath and boss in complete control reminded him of the days prosecuting the mob. >> and comey recounts the first meeting with president trump. comey said the only question of the russian meddling, you found no impact on the result, right? >> and the d on oossier and the unverified claims that russia had video of trump watching prostitutes urinate. he was obsesse

because someone enrolling in trump university had to be kind of a super trump fan, like a trump super those people turned on donald trump. >> yeah, that's exactly right. i think that's a pretty good metaphor for how trump has conned his fans. and it's a good metaphor for his critics to use and to think about how they're going to go about separating him. but i also think that it's not just a matter of scandals and corruption, but this is i think a way of talking about trump that ties in his legislative agenda, right? because it's about making himself rich. it's about making his family and his friends rich. and that's something he is not only doing through his behavior and the way he is running his business, it's a way his cabinet is behaving, the way that they're helping themselves to the public till constantly across the government. and it's what they're doing in congress, the tax bills they're voting on, the health care bills, it's the regulation. it's all about protecting their own economic interests. >> yeah. so your recommendation to democrats campaigning, as i read it in your art

trump is thef guy from new york. always someone in alian territory. >> this reflects the division within the republican party but his own administration. >> has the republicannan party of paul ryan or trump. >> there's no choice. it is the republican of donald trump. which is why paul ryan lighted. >> but the truth is if you want tosee real disunity, look at the democrats. they have no real leader is there moved so far left, they left america. they're reduced to silly antics or stammering in their attempts to rilee up their base. >> it is a scam. the tax bill that gives 83% of the benefits to the top 1%. they try to call it a middle-class tax cut. and yet 86 million middle class families in the life of this bill will be paying more taxes. >> laura: we'll bring in an interpret ter w next time. et democrats are so desperate they have sued trump campaign. wikileaks and russian over hillary clinton loss in 2016. >> donald trump has been saying for a year plus it is because you lost an election. what says that better than

trump organization. cohen's attorney commented on the president's remarks tonight, saying, quote, this is an accurate assessment of the facts. this is exactly what i've been saying all along. michael cohen made the payment to protect reputation, family, and businesses. it had nothing to do with the election. meanwhile, here's what stormy daniels' attorney, michael avenatti, told lawrence o'donnell about the president's remarks. >> we think this is basically game over as it relates to our claim. we've heard, lawrence, for the better part of a month now that this was a rock-solid, airtight agreement. you have david schwartz out there talking about what an excellent lawyer michael cohen is and how this was a model. this was a model nda. it's a lot of things, but there is no way in hell it's a model nda. this thing is a piece of trash in reality and everybody knows it and any legal analyst that looks at it will tell you the same thing, who's not biased. but that's what we've been hearing. and now what we hav

trump jr.'s only e-mails that was set up because the russians had dirt that they wanted to share with mr. trump's political opponent hillary clinton. this included his campaign manager and other trump officials, including his son. this is an individual who -- let's remember they first lied about the purpose of the meeting, issued a statement they discussed adoptions. we know that wasn't true. this is one more example of a meeting between trump campaign officials and the russians that folks have lied about or attempted to conceal and now we learn that this woman lied about her own role there. that she wasn't just a private attorney, but she, in fact, had ties to the kehm ly-- kremlin a worked for the government as an informant. so this is very disturbing. this is, i think, just one more piece of evidence about this relationship and this ongoing relationship between the trump campaign and russia officials that continue to be the subject of meetings and secret conversation and concealment. so i th