but i think we need to be clear that this is good news for donald trump junior and this is good news for donald trump. >> exactly. >> you cover the white house for us. what do you think would happen if mueller decided to indict the president's son? how would the president react if donald trump junior were charged? >> i think we have had that hypothetical conversation with white house officials, people close to the president. they said, it would be a red line for the president they think. he has communicated as much. clearly we know the president has been irritated by this probe, frustrated about it. he lashes out at it, sometimes early in the morning. they do -- most people believe if it came close enough to where it affected anyone in his family, including donald trump junior, then it would be kind of like you never know -- it would be hard to predict what the president's reaction would be because people believe it would be so explosive. >> i think it's important to keep -- there's more than one investigation right now. there's the mueller investigation. then there are the southern district of new y

he wrote on op-ed piece "the washington post" attacking donald trump's character. saying that donald trumphave the essential qualities of honesty and integrity that mitt romney believes a president must have. and donald trump showed just how afraid of mitt romney he is. in his response there was no wild twitter attack. the president who does not know the meaning of the world team player simply said that he hopes mitt romney will be a team player. >> so with mitt romney, i'd love him to be a team player. >> mitt romney attacked donald trump in even stronger language when donald trump was on his way to winning the republican nomination for president. and then mitt romney did not vote for donald trump for president. he voted for the woman. mitt romney says he wrote in the name of the woman he is married to, anne romney on the ballot for president of the united states. and now he attacks donald trump's character, and all he has to say is i hope he'll be a team player? that is what donald trump sounds like when he's afraid. mitt romney has just been elected to a six-year term. mitt romney is go

so donald trump asks people to lie the way the rest of us breathe. >> right. donald trump lies. donald trump asks people to lie. michael cohen, which the story alleges, very much fits a pattern of behavior. it's not much of a leaf to suggest donald trump would ask his former fixer, who worked for him over a decade, who is a key surrogate during the campaign, who had aspirations of an important white house job, although that didn't turn out. but his right hand on a lot of things. we know already handled very delicate and illegal business for the president in terms of his campaign finance violations, hush money payments to stormy mcdaniels and mcdougal. it's not much of a leap that the president would ask michael cohen to do this. downplay his knowledge of the moscow project or perhaps go before congress and not tell the truth there as well. we should point out, it took the white house quite a while to push back against the story. they since have. last night, rudy giuliani, his attorney said -- >> first off, i never said the campaign didn't collude. >> correct. very unorthodoxed ap

that would seem to include michael cohen's knowledge of donald trump, of the donald trump organization where he work ford a decade and how the senior title and presumably some of the lies that we do already know michael cohen told apparently on donald trump's behalf. the hearing as a matter of when it is, timing, well, just weeks before cohen is scheduled to report to prison. now let's be clear. this will be an on camera public hearing with public testimony that is already begun conjuring comparisons to the nixon era. it was cohen's own adviser lanny davis who recently said, "remember john dean? it's just the beginning, dean. he was famously nixon's trusted lawyer until he wasn't. he went from nixon confidante to star witness for the other side unraveling key parts of watergate in public even as critics at the time attacked his perceived credibility." will michael cohen emerge in a similar role as you consider these two white house trial lawyers? will he reveal things he's only told to prosecutors up to this point? and why is michael cohen planning to apparently tell all under oath bef

donald trump, hold on. i didn't interrupt you. donald trump, who gives you back more of your money, fought for school choice, black unemployment of the lowest int modern american history donald trump, if he's a racist he's the worst racist we've seen in history. >> laura: criminal justice reform.he >> donald trump. donald trump. donald trump. >> i'm embarrassed for you. >> he called -- >> laura: talking about third world nations, not just african nations. >> black athletes sons of bitches. >> laura: hold on, hold on hold on. criminal justice reform legislation passed into law which president obama wanted to do, i think george bush talked about it, civil rights. years, for years have been trying to get people to pass, he actually did it. does that count at all? >> it absolutely counts, laura. the entire team of van jones and those -- >> laura: van jones worked with him. that was smart. >> that piece of legislation will have benefits to african-americans and people across the spectrum. >> laura: why would a racist do that? why would a racist do

trump's kids and the trump organization they ran. sources now saying that trump directed cohen to lie to congress about the moscow trump tower project. >>> and it names trump's kids, ivanka and donald trump jr., as having a big hand in the planning of that tower, receiving regular and detailed updates about the project from cohen himself with mueller learning about trump's alleged directive to cohen through interviews with multiple witnesses from the trump organization. even internal company e-mails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. as ari pointed out, the trump organization is not general motors. it's not a huge company. it's basically a family-run organization. the executives are his kids, ivanka trump, donald trump jr., and eric trump. that is the executive board you're seeing right there. and the lawyer was michael cohen, who is cooperating now. the cfo was given immunity from prosecutors and that pretty much paints for you the picture of how this organization was run. >> the other four people who are inside the trump organization at the time this felony was committed, who apparently would have had the authority within the company to make something like this happe

donald trump jr. before and after the 2016 trump tower meeting with russians who promised dirt on hillary clinton. >> this meeting has been heavily investigated by multiple congressional committees, by the special counsel because donald trump jr. tried to get dirt from the russians on the hillary clinton campaign, jared kushner, paul manafort also in attendance. there have been questions whether candidate trump knew about the efforts by his son to set up the meeting and in particular the democrats have pointed to phone records that had blocked phone numbers and it was uncertain whose number that actually belonged to. two phone calls occurred as donald trump jr. was communicating with a russian pop star who was involved in setting up the meeting. those two phone calls had blocked identities. and two hours later he had another blocked phone number. when asked whose number that was, he said he could not recall. democrats had pointed out that others had testified that his father, candidate trump, had a blocked number at his primary residence. we have now learned that the senate intelligence committee, als

donald trump. stone served as donald trump's first and longest serving political adviser. g back decades stone has also been closely associated with trump's 2016 campaign chair, paul manafort who's currently in jail awaiting sentencing. in the 1980s and '90s, stone and paul manafort for pandered together in a lobby and go consulting firm. as "the washington post" noted at the time, they had a list of clients that by 1988 already included donald trump. stone continued to be an intimate and top political adviser to trump the 2016 documentary "get me roger stone," manafort said this about the close relationship with donald trump. >> roger's relationship with trump has been so interconnected that it's hard to define what's roger and what's donald. it will clearly be a donald trump presidency, i think it's influenced by stone philosophies roger's relationship with trump, they both see the world in a similar way. i think roger will see one more very significant impact he's had. >> a piece of hillary video that shows just how important roger stone was to trump's political rise bac

that include donald trump recently, donald trump a long time ago and whoever can cut the giant hole in donald trump's steel slat wall model. that's all the time we have on "the beat." "hardball" with chris matthews is up next. >>> cohen to testify. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. we begin with bomb shell news that president trump's long-time lawyer and fixer has agreed to testify in public next month before the congressional oversight committee and appears ready to really set the record straight. as co cannen said in a statement today i look forward to having a privilege to giver a full and credible account of the events which have transpired. it comes just one month before cone himself sets to one year in prison. and he's being compared to dean who broke ranks with president nixon. nixon was, of course, forced out of office the next year. and and in fact, cohen has already implicated the president in at least one felony. last month cohen admitted to breaking campaign finance laws alleging affairs with donald trump and said he did so at the

best approach for our military and he found that he just had so many differences with donald trump's style donald trump's refusal to listen to the generals on the ground that he couldn't take it any longer donald trump did not fire james madison james madison quit but here's the only thing matta said he was going to stay until the end of february to provide a transition that's where donald trump said no you're not you're going to leave january one and i'm going to put mr mcdonald i believe this in charge and so maybe he fired him for two months but he didn't fire the whole deal bill in the last segment i asked former congressman chris shays this question can you recall another time in modern history when respected military leaders the leaders of issues so many warnings about a president he said he could not could you know not at all not at all you know you may go back to douglas macarthur and harry truman for open fights between not that you are all of that but open faced with tuner president and a general but not in modern times and you know you add to that. what former general four star general stanley

donald trump said it. and mexico will pay for the wall became a campaign chant, led by donald trump. that big lie, mexico will pay for the wall, was carried into the trump presidency, and it immediately became a problem for president trump in his first conversation as president with the president of mexico on the telephone. donald trump begged the president of mexico to stop saying mexico would not pay for the wall. and now donald trump himself is finally saying mexico will not pay for the wall. these are the moments that donald trump hates more than any others in his public life. if you ask him if he had sex with a porn star and paid her off during his third marriage, that's the kind of thing he can take in stride. but having to admit that one of his big lies is a lie is as painful as it gets for donald trump. and you can see it. you can see it when it happens. let's take a look at what might be the single most painful moment of the presidential campaign for donald trump, was the moment that donald trump believed would never come. when he began his presidential campaign. because dona

donald trump. during the campaign, donald trump said that he could go out onto 5th avenue and shoot someone and his voters would still support him, but apparently, the one thing donald trump was really afraid of his voters finding out is that he was still trying to negotiate a deal to build a trump tower in moscow during the presidential campaign. candidate trump clearly did not believe that his voters would stick with him if they found out that he was trying to do business in russia during the campaign. and so during the campaign, candidate trump said this. >> i mean, i have nothing to do with russia. i don't have any jobs in russia. i'm all over the world, but we're not involved in russia. i have no relationship to russia whatsoever. i don't deal there. i have no businesses there. i have nothing to do with russia, folks. okay? >> special prosecutor robert mueller seems to maybe have some doubts about that. seems to think the truth is probably something different from what donald trump said during the campaign. and so according to "the new york times," one of the questions that the special prosecu

i always said donald trump always looks like he's going to lose just before he wins and he's got a remarkable capability of winning so i've been a donald trump supporter and have watched him and when he began to run for the presidency, i was very enthusiastic. again, just like alex jones, donald trump is going to be disruptive. he's going to be a disruptive presidency to this leftist agenda because theydon't want confrontation . they don't want the american people to wake up or as they in the deep internet, this red telling and if you follow some of the things like this to a non-which has been posted on the deep chance which i pretty well identified as one of the military intelligence working closely with trump that this is a narrative that is again, back to the fact that the constitution's going to be preserved. donald trump is going toturn the tide. that he has weathered the first attack . on the miller attempts, a special counselor to impeach donald trump has failed. and i'd say that because miller has an indictment of over 13 wacky russians that posted some things onthe internet . even the department of justice said did not influence the

donald trump can hurt. donald trump can be cut. donald trump is not an unstoppable force. you have a backbone. if you stand up to him, if you punch the bully in the mouth, he will go down that's what democrats learned for the first time thanks to nancy pelosi if trump declares a national emergency, that will be a tyrannical attack on american democracy, and i hope what the democrats have learned you have to stand up to him i hope what republicans have learned is that standing up is something you can do as well i hope rob johnson remembers what he said to mitch mcconnell and i hope republicans understand that if they allow donald trump to declare a national emergency and say nothing and go along with it, what happens next is that president kamala harris comes on. >> i just love the moment where donald trump said, you know, nancy pelosi or as i call her, nancy. so that's a good nickname. and i thought that was striking of the fact he doesn't know what to do with her we all thought at the beginning of this year it would be very different because the democrats have control of

we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. >>> donald trump being donald trump means that donald trump will want to set the record for government shutdowns, even if his shutdown is only a partial shutdown of government departments and agencies that have not already been fully funded for the year by congress, and to set that record, donald trump has to keep the shutdown going until saturday, which will be the 22nd day of the trump shutdown. the shutdown that donald trump told democrats he would never blame them for because he would take full responsibility for the shutdown. president trump has scheduled a trip to the southern border on thursday with the full expectation and probably the desire that the shutdown is still a shutdown, but the big problem looming for president trump and republicans in congress if they do set a record with this shutdown is that 800,000 federal workers will miss their first payday on friday. federal workers get their paychecks twice a month and friday is their first payday of the shutdown. in government shutdowns, nonessential workers are not all

early two thousand for the reform party nomination is donald trump and this is what i said early on there's a there used to be a different donald trump the donald trump who stepped forward to run against pap you can in called him a hitler lover called him a racist denounced him for getting support from david duke all of a so many of the elements that we would now say are trump ism were the buchanan platform in the ninety's and donald trump back then was calling it racist to make this book read by the way in tribalism was the rule of cable news was the rule of social media yeah but i think oh and social media especially but they are they are products of it and accelerators of it and i think both i think that's a big part of the story of this of this book too. you don't really get you know cable news is an invention basically dates back to the one nine hundred eighty with c.n.n. and c.n.n. was a you know it's basically a nonpartisan. place you don't get m.s. n.b.c. and fox until the late one nine hundred ninety s. they don't really have their their full force and influence till a few years later and that m.s.m. be seen its current form

including the detail and frequency, anthony, with which it appears that donald trump and/or ivanka trump and donald trump junior were, in fact, briefed and the degree to which donald trump was involved in this, despite simultaneously denying during the campaign and subsequently that he had meaningful dealings with russia. >> right. he said, again, on the campaign trail that he has no business with russia, nothing to see here, when, in fact, behind the scenes, he was encouraging mr. cohen to set up a meeting overseas in russia with vladimir putin. he was encouraging him to pursue the deal and he was made aware of sort of granular details about the project. what it would look like, where it would be, what the land -- how they were going to acquire the land. so he was -- he was definitely read in to this project to the extent that he has not admitted on the campaign trail. >> of course, for anybody who understands the relationship between donald trump and his children, particularly the business relationship, the detail in your story discusses the extent to which donald trump's kids were inv

>> i think he thought no one should ever underestimated the speaker, as donald trump has learned. >> who can say what donald trump from his and his party's failed showdown with house speaker pelosi and the democrats. perhaps one lesson might be that he shouldn't be listening to anyone presumably on his side. donald trump was pushed to this fight by immigration hardliners, a minority of the minority in the house, and by conservative media personalities like ann coulter who have literally nothing to lose from the government shutdown or, frankly, from donald trump's humiliation and failure. nothing. also a bad idea, entrusting the negotiations with democrats to trump's son-in-law jared kushner, whose genius advice to his father-in-law reportedly was to dig in. jared believed that he could crack the senate democratic caucus and get an immigration deal politico reported that after the vote to re-open the government and fund the wall failed in the senate, jared was surprised it got only one democratic vote, joe manchin, who represents a state that voted 68% for trump lesson learned, don't send jared. see, there is this

everything he knows about possible russian influence in the trump campaign or the trump transition or the trump white house or russian influence overus donald trump himself? today nbc's kristen welker asked the president of the united states the question that produced theue answer that will follow donald trump for the rest of his life and beyond. it may turn out to be the most memorable line of the trump presidency. it surely would be for any other presidency, but donald trump is so verbally explosive we have no idea what is coming tomorrow. to put what the president said today in historical perspective, let's consider just for a moment how little mo of us can remember of what presidents actually say --pr and i don't mean phras like hope and change or shining city on a hill or a thousand points of light. i mean full sentences. the truth of it is that most of us usually cannot remember a single full sentence spoken by a president. i mean jimmy carter, i can't remember a single full sentence he llsaid, and that's not unusu. that's true for most presidents. so just an example, i will now recite for you every full sentence that i can remember a

foremost this was a highly symbolic act especially in these times with brags that nationalism and trump donald trump the u.s. president and danger in what the european union stands for so them signing this treaty supporting multilateralism the german french friendship going in together is a sign to the world. mechanic or an afghan national some of the other stories making news around the world for ukrainian prime minister yulia timoshenko has announced that she will be a candidate in march as presidential elections opinion polls show her as the favorites to win because to machine code was jailed for two and a half years over a gas deal with russia in what was largely seen as a politically motivated conviction. a moscow of course is ruled a former u.s. marine detained on suspicion of spying will remain in custody pending trial paul wayland's lawyer says his client was tricked into taking possession of a flash drive containing russian state secrets. they have been violent protests in the venezuelan capital caracas after authours was arrested a group of soldiers who'd been hoping to provoke a coup agai

donald trump's life. this worst year of donald trump's life has begun with one of the most difficult problems a president can possibly face, a government shutdown and donald trump is the very first president in history to publicly blame himself for the shutdown. >> i will be the one to shut it down. i'm not going to blame you for it. >> tonight is the first time in trump's life as president that he has watched the house of representatives do something that he did not want them to do. as rachel reported at the beginning of this hour, nancy pelosi pushed legislation through the house tonight to reopen the government. in normal times republicans would vote for the pelosi legislation because they voted for it already. she passed six spending bills tonight that have already been agreed to by senate democrats and senate republicans, bills that have nothing to do with the border wall that president trump wants. speaker pelosi suddenly pushed through the house a bill to extend funding for homeland security at its current levels temporarily for a month that would allow the president and congress to continue to str

foremost this was a highly symbolic act especially in these times with brags that nationalism and trump donald trump the u.s. president and danger in what the european union stands for so them signing this treaty supporting multilateralism the german french friendship going in together is a sign to the world. that was back so often in their reporting here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world the u.s. supreme court has author. the trumpet ministration to go ahead with its ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces the court voted five to four to lift injunctions against the ban former ukrainian prime minister yulia timoshenko has announced that she'll be a candidate in march is a presidential election opinion polls show that she is the favorite to win mr machine co was jailed over a gas deal with russia in what was largely seen as a politically motivated conviction french police say that they have detained american singer chris brown after a woman filed a rape case against him and two other people the woman claims that she met brown and his friends at

foremost this was a highly symbolic act especially in these times with brags that nationalism and trump donald trump the u.s. president and danger in what the european union stands for so them signing this treaty supporting multilateralism the german french friendship going in together is a sign to the world. and our correspondents max hoffman and mcculloch of her reporting there or british prime minister to resign may is preparing to go back to brussels to try to renegotiate her breakthrough deal it was resultingly rejected by the u.k. parliament last week on monday she outlined what was supposed to be an alternative plan but critics say she failed to offer any new ideas and despite ruling out the option may is facing mounting pressure from campaigners for a second referendum on bragg's that among them is former british prime minister tony blair at the world economic forum in davos he told the w correspondent been physical and why he believes a new vote is necessary. the idea is to to change the withdrawal agreement obviously that's a matter of negotiation between the british government and europe

donald trump has had pretty good support. and even in those places at crucial electoral college areas for donald trump, according to your reportinghey're blaming the shutdown on donald trump. >> that's right. i spent a couple of days in michigan and suburban detroit. this is an area when we think of blue collar voters who swung the 2016 election to donald trump, these are the voters we're talking about. and many that i spoke to the concerns about president trump. republicans or democrats who swung and voted for president trump are concerned about him, and the shutdown is adding to that. they're worried about things it might do to an economy they so far felt pretty good about. and i think that is causing more anxiety, and they're saying it would take something miraculous for them to support president trump again. so it sill straights a little bit of the challenges he faces right now as he deals with the shutdown and gets a lot of the blame for it. >> speaking of something miraculous, ron klain, mitch mcconnell has risen from a version of the dead in the senate. and here he is now doing what he said he wouldn't do, and he's actuall

donald trump who has also made some racist remarks particularly after the charlottesville as we know branding all immigrants from mexico rapists are criminals. he's seen kings an easy target donald trump so tough target they went after steve king or frey to donald trump guys amy to start with you know we go to c.n.n. when's the shutdown going to end. oh boy larry i don't know any better that you do or bill or even the rest of washington lindsey graham the senator from south carolina has said that he thinks the sides are dug in he's trying to bring together a bipartisan group to fund the government for three weeks on the promise that there will be discussion about funding the border wall and finding some sort of compromise but it seems like both sides think that they're winning this thing i don't think that they are i don't see how this ends other than through compromise which has even been suggested by the washington post editorial page five point seven billion dollars for the border wall which by the way we already have seven hundred miles of so this whole argument that it's immoral is just silly and belies the fact that democrats have voted for border barriers in the past in return

donald trump came to my wedding. i went to two of his. i was at both his parents' funerals." and time and again, stone has pushed trump's ambitions.president donald trump: "roger always wanted me to run for president. and over the years, everytime a presidential race came up, he always wanted me to run." roger stone, former trump political advisor: "i was like a jockey looking for a horse. you can't win the race if you don't have a horse."their partnership has at times been a rough ride: the two had to pay fines related to that casino lobbying long ago;trump once told the new yorker: "roger is a stone-cold loser. he always tries taking credit for things he never did."and even after stone was all-in on trump's 2016 campaign - advising the candidate, raising money - stone was fired - or he quit - depending on whom you believe.still-- roger stone, former trump political advisor: "i am a loyal supporter of donald trump. i think he can be a transformational president." trump prizes loyalty and stone's loyalty is unwavering. he even has a tattoo on his back of richard nixon, whom he once worked for.so for trump - stone soon b

about the intersection of the trump political machine and russian efforts to aide donald trump's campaign. the significance of these developments on a day that donald trump is being aided by every television network that has agreed to air his immigration speech is that the more information we learn about what the justice department knows the more we see ties between trump's campaign and russians. here to discuss some solve our favorite reporters and friends, from "the new york times," reporter ken vogel. former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence, frank figliuzzi and chuck rosenberg, former senior fbi official. frank figliuzzi, let me start with you. i'd like to get you all on the record with these stories. let's talk paul manafort. we've talked so much, you and chuck have taken me to school on how a conspiracy is investigated and charged. we know robert mueller has charged the russian part of the conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 election. could paul manafort sharing polling data from the trump campaign with a russian operative be that link between the conspiracy and the trump orbit? >> got a significant revelation today and it's the result of

trump's primary residence has a blocked number. democrats have raised questions about whether or not it was president trump that spoke with donald trumpthat he did not recall the individual with whom he spoke with. that's one reason why they asked if thches his father. turns out it was not, according to the information given to the senate intelligence committee. >> manu raju on capitol hill, pam loo brown ela brown. let's talk about this with my experts and governor chris christie, who has been kind enough to join the panel. >> that's good news for don junior. one of the things that i love about the mueller investigation and have hated about all the political commentary around it is that bob mueller went to capitol hill, leak central. it's gotten leaked out. mueller has known this, you have to believe, for a very long time. this is why people need to just take a breath on all this stuff. bob mueller knows more than any of us at this table, on capitol hill and will act on it when it's appropriate to act on it. meantime, people's reputations get damaged and don junior's has gotten damaged, it appears, unnecessarily. if you trust bob mue

donald trump came to my wedding. i went to two of his. i was at both his parents' funerals." and time and again, stone has pushed trump's political ambitions.president donald trump: "roger always wanted me to run for president. and over the years, everytime a presidential race came up, he always wanted me to run." roger stone, former trump political advisor: "i was like a jockey looking for a horse. you can't win the race if you don't have a horse."their partnership has at times been a rough ride: the two had to pay fines related to that casino lobbying long ago;trump once told the new yorker: "roger is a stone-cold loser. he always tries taking credit for things he never did."and even after stone was all-in on trump's 2016 campaign - advising the candidate, raising money - stone was fired - or he quit - depending on whom you believe.still-- roger stone, former trump political advisor: "i am a loyal supporter of donald trump. i think he can be a transformational president." trump prizes loyalty and stone's loyalty is unwavering. he even has a tattoo on his back of richard nixon, whom he once worked for.so for trump - st

donald trump never has. but he's telling us that all these 800,000, they're fine with the shutdown according to donald trump. >> well, i think obviously donald trump doesn't know anything about most working people and certainly most government workers, and there's been some reporting which strikes me as wholly credible, the notion that what trump thought at the outset, he liked the notion of the shutdown because he thinks all the government workers and many of them he encounters in washington, d.c. are in fact democrats. but of course he forgets there are tens of thousands of federal employees spread out across the country doing vital things. those people are many of them trump voters. and in certain places where i think where some of the political pressure that might bring the shutdown to an end because of the political pressure on parens and on mitch mcconnell. when the transportation issues start to really bite. when the storm hits. when it turns out that one of the major hub airports gets locked up because there's an issue with the air traffic controllers or with tsa. donald trump is going to realize som

donald trump's hard core base isn't going anywhere. you could deport all of them, they would still be with donald trump. for donald trump a kind of sister moment. n famously faced down his left wing and strengthened his hand in gaining the opposition. but instead it was a wound that he didn't have to do it -- >> i want to show you, of course during the campaign the president would say he would be working hard for the american people we put this clip together. take a look. >> we're going to work so hard for you. we're going to work so hard. >> i don't think anybody has ever worked harder in the last month of a presidential campaign than i did. >> what is the first thing you're going to do when you walk into the white house >> i want to go to work. >> to work. >> to work. >> i'm going to work very hard. >> i promise you that i will work so hard >> okay. so how hard is the president working for us take a look at this. the average first start of the presidents' day in october 2016, versus october 2018. we get into the office there at 10:15, president trump and 11:30. this past week, this thursday he got to