ty cobb is a mid level employee. i would listen carefully to what donald trump said than to what ty cobb said about his intentions, of what his intentions are. i think it is unclear whether this investigation, the white house will attempt to shut down this investigation one way or another. >> david, the president often says "we'll see" when he's asked those questions. is it possible that he's just going to go into that throw away response sort of his natural instinct and it is really not something he's considering. >> well, i found the operative word in that and the most striking word in his response on the pardon and i don't want to talk about pardoning michael flynn yet, yet. that suggests he wants to keep the door opens in his own mind of what he's going to do. that's a clear and obvious signal to the flynn people to take some encouragement and possibly holding on and hope to get a pardon. that maybe better than whatever stories we got to spill. what we don't know and flynn have been cooperating for a while. he ma

right now ty cobb is not at war with bob mueller, but ty cobb could be more at war with robert mueller two months from now. >> robert mueller and his team would like to interview trump and mike pence as part of their examination into potential collusion between the trump orbit and russia, what do you think the answer would be? >> it's hard to speculate on that. the special counsel may be moving in different directions, as john said, it's hard to say exactly what they're up to. that would be a question that ty cobb and the president would have to decide, along with john dowd, would it be a private interview, a formal interview, would that be a major move by the special counsel to interview those two principles, we have not seen that come close to happen. we have been told by the post, mueller is moving from the outside in, so they're not ruling it out, those that are familiar with the investigation, but at this point, it's really about the confidants of paul manafort, as the special counsel is really looking to paint a picture of what happened during the campaign and what was the extent

what is ty cobb saying? >> reporter: he is saying fact based defense, not at theoretical legal that the president cannot be held accountable or be found guilty of obstruction of justice. that is a concept that was floated out by john dow to axe on we can put this up on screen. this is a statement from ty cobb to the "washington post." he says it's interesting as a legal issue technical, from talking about this theory from john dow that the president can't be held accountable for obstruction of justice. but they intend to present a fact based defense, not ha mere legal defense. that should, going on with the statement, resolve things. but we all shall see. that's an interesting statement there from ty cobb because it does reveal a split in the president's legal strategy as to how to deal with the russian investigation. of course, yesterday when john dodd quote hit the headlines there via axios, it struck a lot of people in washington as president is above the law. the president is above the law type of legal

ty cobb acknowledges in his statement that mike flynn has pled guilty. he doesn't acknowledge the more important of flynn's statement, that flynn has agreed to cooperate with the authorities, with mueller's investigation. after 33 years of military service to our country, this is flynn, including nearly five years in combat away from my family, and then my decision to continue to serve the united states, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of, quote, treason and other outrageous acts. such false accusations are contrary to everything i have ever done and stood for. but i recognize that the actions i acknowledged in court today were wrong and through my faith in god, i am working to set things right. here's the important part. my guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel's office reflect a decision i made in the best interest of my family and our country. i accept full responsibility for my actions. now, i'm going to quickly transition to what we heard from ty cobb about an hour and a

the last time i spoke to ty cobb he said early next year. i can tell you once you go one ring out from that there is a lot of skepticism that this will be cleanly wrapped up with a bow by the ind end of january. >> julia, the other wild card is put yourself in the shoes of michael flynn. his brother on twitter the other day saying, mr. president, pardon my brother. you had trump until now at least publicly and still publicly trump's posture has been friendly and generous. now you're reading, hey, look, they're worried you're going to say something and they're worried they go after you. what does this have to do with flynn's strategy, calculation, thinking, how he approaches it? >> again, i think it would be purely speculative. if i'm michael flynn and i'm watching this guy throw me under the bus more i might talk more. the other thing is we have to keep in mind the issue of michael flynn is an important one because if you recall, one of the reasons that trump -- or shortly before trump fired the fbi director jim comey he said he pressured hi

here is what the white house lawyer ty cobb said today. a former national security advisor for 25 days during the trump administration and former obama administration official entered a guilty plea to a single count of making a false statement to the fbi. the false statements involved mirror the false statements to white house officials, which resulted in his resignation in february of this year. nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than mr. flynn, the conclusion of this phase of this special counsel demonstrates again that the special counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion and so that is clearly what ty cobb is trying to say to the president today in the oval office. ty cobb is just showing us his notes of what he tried to tell the president to calm him down today. only donald trump. maybe donald trump junior and sure, eric trump and other people who spent too much time in the bubble could believe anything in ty cobb's statement today. and you kn

open question whether we will hear from attorney ty cobb, white house lawyer ty cobb prior to that. so those are the things our team is working on. also waiting for more information on how this court hearing is unfolding. it is happening right now. you saw michael flynn walk in with lawyers about 10:20 so about 25 minutes ago, walk into the courthouse there. michael flynn saying nothing to reporters on his way in. >> one of the reactions coming from tim cane, former hillary clinton running mate. hillary clinton is somebotalkin about. we'll play that for you now. >> he would not give the benefit of fair legal process to anybody else. but he gets the benefit of fair legal process. he will get the benefit of a process he was unwilling to accord to anyone else. but it's very disturbing. >> very disturbing tim cane says about what we are seeing now. but as we've been talking about here perhaps not all too surprising if you've been following the developments that michael flynn is being charged now. being charged by the office of the special counsel on this single count of making a misstat

let's go to hans nichols who's got a statement now from ty cobb. >> ty cobb is the president's lawyer on this matter. and they appear to be down playing this guilty plea by michael flynn. remember, embedded in that guilty plea was an acknowledgment they are now cooperating. michael flynn's team is now cooperating with mueller. nothing -- this is a quote from ty cobb. nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. the conclusion of this phase of the special counsel's work demonstrates the special counsel is moving with all speed and has a prompt and reasonable conclusion. you see two things happening to that statement. one, an acknowledgment. he has pled guilty. but they're trying to make the distinction it's just flynn and it's not going to plebleed over into the white house. you see ty cobb trying to signal to flynn they're not taking shots and expect a speedy and prompt withdrawal. >> guys, i'm going to want us to find that sound. i can specifically remember the day when president trump again was saying it was unfortunate what happened to mike fl

is ty cobb definitively ruling out a flynn pardon? >> well, ty cobb is saying there are no discussions. it is not under consideration. i don't think that's necessarily intentioned with what president trump said earlier. president trump said he hasn't made a decision. he doesn't want to talk about it yet. ty cobb's statement and president trump's earlier comments would be entirely consistent but for that yet that president trump added at the end of his discussion there. talking i don't want to talk about any pardon for michael flynn yet. that's the daylight. just because ty cobb says there aren't any considerations, he doesn't know what's going on inside the president's mind. from my reading from what the president said he seemed like he was leaving the door open potentially to a michael flynn pardon. >> indeed. spent a long time this morning bashing the fbi which was odd because he was at quantico and also bashing the russia investigation which the fbi's heading up. hans, they are trying to pass this tax bill. they're trying to get it

white house lawyer ty cobb was disastrously wrong. as we know, breitbart headlines, mr. , usually means, mr. bannon may be sending a message to his friend the president. he had been anti-cobb strategy the whole time. >> yeah. seems as though this talk happy, it's all going to blow over. best of all possible worlds sort of strategy, if you can call it a strategy, is clearly not something that's going to work. it's not an effective defense. you know bannon's instinct is always the bulldog. >> fight, fight, fight. >> exactly. mr. sunshine is not his style. >> and would you be shocked if the president wanted to either shake unp or add to the legal team? i'm sure that's what bannon is telling him to do, the headline and probably on the phone telling him. >> now's the time. >> more aggressive, cooperation. will the president take away from, cooperation hasn't worked? >> well, and saying that there's nothing here hasn't worked either. so now that there clearly is something. >> i agree. might well shake it up. >> does this impact some business on the hill? how compartmentalizing

. >> trump lawyer ty cobb said, "for the record there is no consideration at all for a pardon of michael flynn at this time." meanwhile one other report could you tell our attention. "the wall street journal" reports deutsche bank mass received a request from the government for any transactions that could be linked to michael flynn. earlier this month several media outlets reported the special counsel had sought information from deutsche bank related to people or entities affiliated with president trump. and as for mr. trump's dealings with vladimir putin, we know they spoke by phone yesterday. today the president elaborated on that conversation. >> it was great. he said very nice thing about what i've done for this country in terms of the economy. he said also some negative things in terms of what's going on elsewhere. the prior point was to talk about north korea. because we would love to have his help on north korea. china's helping. russia's not helping. we would like to have russia's help, very important. >> to our lead-off panel for a busy and confusing friday night, peter baker, c

we do have that statement from ty cobb the white house attorney that just came in a few moments ago,ally and i think you addressed this earlier, that they feel that these false statements, that michael flynn is admitting to, really just pertain to him. now, obviously, that as your guest was just saying a few moments ago, that is not exactly the case. the president of the united states has told reporters repeatedly that the russia investigation is fake news, that there were no contacts between his campaign and his associates and the russians. we now know all of that to be false. and in this ty cobb statement it goes on to say that they believe that michael flynn's cooperation will somehow lead to a speedy conclusion or a swift conclusion to all of this. i was talking to a source close to the white house earlier this morning who advises this white house on strategy, communication strategy, and this person was saying that this is not good for this white house. somebody who usually offers a lot of fresh spin in terms of white house activities over here, kate, this person was being pretty

>> we would refer you to the comments by ty cobb that he indicated as such as in the past few days. > robert mueller ends up looking into the president's finances or has already looked into the president's fninances, does the white house believe that's a red line and if so why? >> i think it's important to note, and hopefully you guys have seen this statement, that jay sec a low confirmed that the news reports of the special counsel had subpoenaed financial records related to the president are completely false. so subpoena has been issued. we have confirmed this with the bank. i think this is another example of the media going too far and too fast and don't see it going in that direction. >> let me ask you the second red line, this white house has consistently said there are two red lines on tax reform, middle class relief and then 20% corporate rate. but the president over the weekend seems to stug that he would be amiable to a corporate rate up to 22%. why would he be willing to step over his own red line on that issue? >> look, the president said, just i guess maybe a couple of hou

i don't read into ty cobb's argument.ou watch closely, if the special counsel does move against him at some point in obstruction of justice, they are back in the legal argument that he's the chief law enforcement officer. his actions can't constitute. >> one of the friends of the show was out on axios this morning with an interesting and important point to make on this. that i have heard reflected in my conversations with sources in and around washington. allen writes, this part of the plan has been in full motion for many months. the trump fog machine blows daily. the idea is to take the prosecutor, the fbi, the process, the media, the democrats, the critics, trump is playing not for court per se, but for the court of public opinion and more importantly the court of house republican opinion. and it seems to me, mike allen, that's what this all basically comes down to. how does this play with the public and with the republican colleagues over on capitol hill right now? >> he's certainly succeeding on that front. not only

trump lawyer ty cobb is now pushing a factual denial.s will show trump didn't collude and didn't obstruct. dragnet's joe friday was known for his no-nonsense approach, a style captured in this parody. >> why are you asking me all these questions for? >> just routine, ma'am, we just wanting to get the facts. >> just the facts. and that is the context from cobb saying this will be a fact-based exoneration and dismissing alan dershowitz' argument as an academic discussion and that's a smackdown of the other trump lawyer, john dowd, who is trump's assertive counsel and sometimes twitter ghost writer, because it was john dowd who publicly advanced the dershowitz argument saying the president cannot commit obstruction. this is the nixon side. the argument that because you're president, your criminal activity becomes decriminalized. if that sounds ridiculous, that's because it is. it also has a terrible track record. this has been rejected by past congresses and was famously stated in a 1977 nixon interview. >> the president can decide that it'

ty cobb is a mid-level employee. i listen far more carefully to twa donald trump says to what ty cobb says about what his intentions really are and i think it is very unclear whether this investigation -- that the the white house will attempt to shut down this investigation one way or another. >> david, the president often says, "we'll see" when he's asked questions about topic he doesn't juan and is it that really isn't something that he's considering? >> i found the most operative word and striking word on his response on the pardon that i don't want to talk about pardoning michael flynn -- yet. yet. that suggests he wants to keep the door open in his own mind about what he's going to do, and that's a clear and obvious signal to the flynn people to take some encouragement from that and possibly hold on in the hope of getting flynn has been cooperating for a while so he may have already told a lot of his story. we'll have to, again, wait and see about what this is. but i agree with jeffrey that we don't know yet w w

mouth in public isn't the biggest mistake made by trump lawyer and wilfred brimley tribute head, ty cobbgest blunder is that the steakhouse is "on the same block as the 'new york times' washington bureau." it's 171 steps away from the washington bureau of the "new york times." don't go to the same place that people eat who are out to get you. that's like shaving in a shark tank while wearing a vest of pork chops. ( lauger ) oh, and this is huge. this is huge. we also just learned that the government wire-tapped former trump campaign chairman paul manafort, both before and after the election. this means-- ( cheers and applause ) sure, sure, sure, absolutely. you applaud until they wire-tap. ( laughter ) this means manafort was under federal investigation when he interviewed to become trump's camp m "mr. manafort, what would you say is youbiggest weakness?" "well, som too hard. oh, and treason." ( laughter ) now, we already-- manafort fans here tonight, evidently. we already knew the f.b.i. conducted a pre-dawn raid of manafort's house back in july, but now we've learned that instead of kn

you know, ty cobb is the lawyer for the presidency. he works for the white house counsel's office.ective has always been let's cooperate, let's get this thing done. we have nothing to hide. jay sekulow and john dowd who represent donald trump personally are in a somewhat more combative mode. that has been a source of some tension. now you have dowd and cobb saying really different things about how this investigation will proceed. excuse me, but the real point is that they're not in control. robert mueller is in control of what happens here. they can say anything they want, but mueller's going to decide how this goes. >> you know, and what may have happened is that dowd may have jumped the gun here. ty cobb has been saying for months we have nothing to fear, the president has nothing to fear, this is fact-based. what dowd did when alan dershowitz said at first you can't prosecute a president for obstruction and perhaps it was not the right thing for him to be saying at this particular moment. >> not least because it's wrong under the law. >> right. think he can say it's not a well-o

when white house russia lawyer ty cobb gave his initial response to that guilty plea as if he was beaming into this news story from some other distant backwards planet where this was good news. mike flynn plead guilty to lying to the fbi and simultaneously agreed to cooperate without limit with the special counsel's investigation on all other matters and white house lawyer ty cobb greeted that news by praising quote the conclusion of this phase of the special counsel's work as if mike flynn issue was done now. it's like if you went to see a movie and as soon as the opening credit started rolling, you stood up and tried to lead a big round of applause and tried to get everybody to leave the theater with you. wow, that was awesome. i love that title. we all came to see the title, right? that was the first odd response from the president's lawyers greeting the mike flynn news as if it's done. as the flynn as a cooperating witness chapter opened, the president's lawyer praised the special counsel for wrapping up that part of the investigation. super weird and a sign they would behave strangel

official and that was funny when ty cobb said that about mike flynn because that would be announcing nixon's resignation as former california congressman steps down from position in washington. it's ridiculous, right, that the import of mike flynn stepping down is he's a former obama administration official. it's funny to see the desperation. but mr. cobb technically is correct that mike flynn worked for the obama administration. he was the top official at the defense intelligence agency during president obama's -- the first part of -- the first part of president obama's second term. and that part of his career is actually the start of some of the important stuff we really don't understand yet about mike flynn and his motivation and state of mind and how he ended up with trump in the first place. as we've covered here on the show recently, while mike flynn was running the defense intelligence agency, one of the things the agency did was sent out an urgent pentagon-wide threat assessment warning the entire department of defense against using any software made by a company. the dia war

and white house lawyer ty cobb greeted that news by praising, quote, the conclusion of this phase of the special counsel's work. as if oh, the mike flynn issue was all done now. it's as if you went to see a movie and as soon as the starting credits opened you stood up and led an applause and tried to get everybody in the theater to join in with you. we came to see the title, right? s that watt first odd response from the president's lawyers. greeting the mike flynn news as if it's done. as the flynn is a cooperating witness chapter of the investigation opened, the president's lawyer praised the special counsel for wrapping up that part of the investigation. super weird and a sign that they were going to behave strangely after that play. second weird set of reactions from the president's lawyers came yesterday when john dowd argued to axous.com and then jay sekulow argued to the reporter that if the president obstructed justice or if the president colluded with russia, who cares. he cannot be an obstructor of justice because he is justice. and jay sekulow arguing to the new yorker tha

that ty cobb, president trump's lawyer, threw michael flynn under the bus on this one. seen that before. saw it with the arrest, or with the charges against george papadopolos, able to dismiss him as a low-level volunteer. 2345 is impossible to do with mike flynn, because mike flynn was the opening act at trump rallies. mike flynn led the lock her up chant. one thing the white house can not do is suggest mike flynn, national security adviser to the president, was not influential. ty cobb has to take the other road saying this is all about mike flynn and mike flynn's activities. go to ken delanian, following this. the question most people have at this point, why would michael flynn have not been honest with the fbi if his argument is that he was doing this at the direction of senior white house transition official we now know to be jared kushner? what's the benefit in lying to the fbi about this? >> reporter: right, ali. a couple possible explanations for that. one, mike flynn knew it was wrong. not as a matter of law, who's heard of the logan act? that 1799 law making i

attorney ty cobb said nothing implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. flynn was charged with the same thing that got him fired earlier this year saying: the charging documents reveal more people knew what flynn was up to in conversation with russian ambassador kislyak than the white house admitted. according to the information, on december 29th, flynn called a member of the trump transition team to discuss what if anything he should communicate to russian about sanctions. a source with knowledge of the investigation, identifies that official as flynn's official macfarland. flynn called back to report on the substance of his call. russian president vladimir putin said he would not take action against the sanctions. that prompted trump to tweet. that information was never passed to mike pence, who on fox news sunday 17 days sunday denied any knowledge of flynn's conversations. >> did michael flynn discuss lifting sanctions? >> i talked to michael flynn yesterday and the conversations that took place at that time were not in any way relateed to new u.s. sa

those are the words of white house lawyer ty cobb.any implications for current and administration officials, a former national security adviser michael flynn's guilty plea in the russian investigation. the many ways it suggests there may be far more to come, because he also agreed to cooperate with special counsel robert mueller. the many ways it undermines virtually everything the president and his surrogates have been saying about russia for month after month after

ty cobb said this. nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. what the special counsel said in court calls that into serious question. >> look, that is a political statement. that statement from ty cobb aimed at making donald trump happy and keeping the mummies at bay, but at the end of the day, it has no bearing on what flynn might be telling the special counsel's office. number two, the rest of the statement is that flynn was an obama official. that is the most disingenuous and silly part of the statement. yes, he was an obama official and he was fired. he was somebody who the obama administration warned trump about. he was somebody who the current president of the united states floated personate to a newspaper report as a possible running mate when he was doing the pick of vps well after he was fired. he was chanting lock her up that the cameras had to stop or they had to usher him off stage. chris krifchristie and jeff sess before this president was elected had warned of having flynn in a consequential position like security adviser.

here's a statement released just a short while ago by white house counsel ty cobb in response to thateport in "the new york times." quote, out of respect for the special counsel and his process, we are not commenting on matters such as this. we are continuing to fully cooperate with the special counsel in order to help complete their inquiry expeditiously. joining us now to talk about this. and michael let me turn to you first. something that comes across in this article is that george papadopoulos played a bigger role than many are saying he did. something that has come across as the story reported out how fractured the campaign staff were. can you give us a sense what it looks like? was >> no, i think the campaign was a manage teritocracy. but i think he was a volunteer. and anyone can go act as private citizen. he reported back to a campaign official, sam clovis who longer up for a job, and that's unfortunate, but george papadopoulos was never more than a low level volunteer. i thisnk anything else would be here say. i worked on the campaign for 18 months and never met him. so i th

the president has so many people in his ear, his lawyer, ty cobb, john dowd. they're telling him he should be patient. then you have devin devin nunez, the chairman, and his own son saying, fight, fight. where is the president tilting? eli: so far he's listening to ty cobb and has been restrained in terms of attacking robert mueller but a lot of people out there carrying water for the administration, republicans, members of congress saying mueller should be fired. several members of congress are saying this, too. one of them, freshman representative matt gates from florida was on air force one with the president when they went to pensacola. they discussed it and gates revealed that the president was encouraging so there are all these questions about, is the president behind the scenes doing this. i think deep down this agitates him. he wants a full exoneration. he wants it to be over. and he believes this is a witch hunt and unfair and the things propagated by fox and friends about the f.b.i. agents and corruption and deep state, he's always been prone to acce

bush white house. >> ty cobb knows that donald trump's legal team is going to be -- he's made himself a witness, he can't represent -- cobb will need to leave trump's legal team because he's made himself a potential part to -- dowd will have to leave trump's legal team because he has now made himself a party to this crime. the question of whether or not he wrote that tweet for trump is now a material fact in the obstruction of justice case, so he will now be brought before mueller as a witness and so you can't represent a client in a case to which you are a party. that's an inevitable chain of events and i think ty cobb is saying i need to create some distance. >> this is because of the nature of what was tweeted from the president's feed suggests that donald trump knew this mike flynn had lied to the fbi. a source close to don mcgahn confirms what salliate y atyate testified to that mike flyshe d that mike flynn had lied to the fbi, what she said was that he could be vulnerable to a blackmail attempt from the russians. they're in a vulnerable position, how do they undo this scramble

ty cobb's statement specifically referred to flynn as a former obama administration.dd it all up, and what does it mean for the president and possible fallout for the white house? >> what you're seeing here is a classic political statement. the white house is racing to distance themselves from flynn. they're saying he's a former obama administration official, that he only worked in the white house for a few days, but i think that argument is getting harder and harder to make. unlike george papadopoulos, who had to plead guilty earlier this year and was a low-level play, and unlike manafort, who was charged with things that happened before the campaign, these charges directly relate to flynn's time in the white house and in the transition. this is a white house official. this is someone who actually worked in the white house. so this is a very big problem for the trump administration and a turning point in the presidency. this probe is going deeper. mueller is working methodically up the food chain, and the question is who's next. >> sean, what are you hearing about ho

the fact that ty cobb, the president's lawyer, has consistently told media, everything's fine, the white house isn't worried, we have a good relationship with mueller, we're cooperating. i think we can say with a high degree of confidence that that's affected the way trump views the mueller probe. i don't think it's permanently changed it, it doesn't mean trump is fine with mueller investigating. but the reality is what we can say with a high degree of confidence is that, look, the president's attorneys, his legal team, are telling him that he doesn't need to be worried about the mueller investigation. and that certainly seems to have some sort of impact on the way the president views it. >> you can imagine the news breaking today about this would put a dent in their efforts, that all reporting indicates they've been making to keep him calm about this whole thing. another development today i wanted to get you take on nbc news reporting exclusively that donald trump jr. in that infamous meeting in trump tower where he was offered the russian government's efforts to help your father, the m

on ty cobb who speaks to the press.and it is helpful when he speaks on the record, he is saying the white house interviews are over. in the mueller probe. could that be true? >> i can't see how it would be. i see this as an investigation by bob mule and company that would take many, many months and potentially a couple of years. you're talking about a lot of people. a lot of transactions, overseas transactions. transactions m]+vyñ many l+k"le. probably banking and financial transactions with formal institutions. i think it would take months anu months. i would be shocked if it's over. >> i won't ask but alabama. thank you as always. >>> next, the exit polls. what's going on in sfwham and how do voting laws affect the alabama race? pass please. i'm here to fix the elevator. nothing's wrong with the elevator. right. but you want to fix it. right. so who sent you? new guy. what new guy? watson. my analysis of sensor and maintenance data indicates elevator 3 will malfunction in 2 days. there you go. you still need a pass. t

. >> reporter: white house attorney ty cobb threw cold water on that in a statement no consideration given to pardoning michael flynn at the white house. not the first time the president has slammed thes fbi tweeting that the bureau reputation was in tatters, worst in history. president made his latest comments about the bureau an hour before he praised federal and law enforcement officials at a fbi academy where he again blasted the news media. >> you see there is the fake news back there. look. fake news. no, actually some of them are fine people. about, let's see who is back there, yeah, about 30%. >> reporter: robert mueller's band of democratic donors. >>> on conservative media and gop lawmakers about the mueller investigation. >> when he picked his team he was fishing in the never trunk aquarium. >> reporter: attacks come a little more after a year truaft sarah huckabee sanders when you are under investigation, you are losing. democrats worry the ground work is being laid for the president to dump mueller. >> i think the fact that bob mueller removed somebody from those text me

ty cobb the top of the legal team backed off of this a little bit. but it does smack familiar of something we heard before. do we have the david frost sound? let's play it. >> what you're saying is that there are certain situations, the hughouston panel, that was of them, where the president can decide it's in the best interest of the nation or something and do something illegal? >> well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. >> okay. now first, before we get to the legal analysis and political analysis of what was going on there, if you can, please go back and watch the frost/nixon interviews. not the movie. it does a decent job but it's the best example of how an interviewer used facts and a flat tone to get an unwilling subject to say things they never wanted to say. it is a brilliant exercise. when the president does it, it is not illegal. does that standard ever apply to anything? >> the president is not above the law. that's been established over and over again. if we had -- that suggests that the president could commit

the president's lawyer ty cobb calling michael flynn a former obama official. he was the president's security adviser, a vocal supporter of then-candidate trump during the campaign, does it seem like the white house legal has a handle on how severe it is. >> i think ty cobb understands fully the significance of this. that was a true but misleading statement. he was an obama official but he's not under indictment because of his role in the obama administration. it is in this administration he's under legal jeopardy and ty cobb well knows that. think what the white house is trying to say is this is not collusion. it doesn't go backwards to the campaign. it goes only forward from the transition, therefore we're home free. we will see whether mueller's evidence supports that view or not. >> of course, a big question is what information is he providing now that we've learned with the plea agreement he is cooperating. in a deal like this it begs the question, is flynn expected to provide evidence that could incriminate people up the ladder? >> right. so i think one o

it is a mixed message and looks like the president's attorney, ty cobb, who was brought in to handle the special counsel investigation is trying to reframe the issue that has really kind of caught fire over the past few days. ty cobb is saying that really the facts will exonerate the president and the issue behind that is for an obstruction case, robert mueller's team would have to find that there was a corrupt intent to obstruct justice, and so that really will be fact based. i think he's trying to redirect the conversation to focus on that. >> despite what john dowd has been saying outloud and what allies to the president have been musing about out loud in the media which is also notable. k.t. mcfarland who was a key figure in the transition, a one-time deputy to michael flynn, now nominated to be ambassador to singapore is in the spotlight this morning because of an answer she gave about michael flynn in some of her senate testimony. explain? >> so k.t. mcfarland was sitting before the senate foreign relations committee as part of the nomination for her role as ambassador to singa

congregating here not surprisingly looking for reaction in a statement from donald trump's lawyer ty cobb essentially theirs are downplaying of these charges against flynn pointing out that he was in the administration for just twenty five days according to the statement and that the white house took action against him and that these charges really are relatively low level in the statement ty cobb says the the the statements that michael flynn has made that he's admitted lying to investigators near the false statements to white house officials which resulted in flynn's resignation the statement goes on to say nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicate anyone other than michael flynn certainly there are suggestions to the contrary with regard to that because of course michael flynn was one of the closest advisers to the president on the campaign trail. he was the white house national security advisor for only three weeks but in that time michael flynn back to videos helped to cast a shadow over an administration from which it has yet to emerge although the investigation by speci

white house special counsel ty cobb saying in a statement nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than mr. flynn. but with flynn now cooperating with prosecutors, white house officials must be left wondering just what flynn will tell the special counsel. so still no word from president trump on all of this, but one republican source close to the white house says the administration was blindsided by the news of flynn's plea deal, craig. >> beyond being blindsided, jeff, what is the mood behind you right now? what is the mood at the white house? >> reporter: publicly you saw that statement from ty cobb trying to create some distance between the president and mike flynn, but another source close to the president tells us this development is very, very bad for the white house, craig. >> all right, jeff bennett for us this morning at 1600 pennsylvania. >>> ari melber, good morning to you. >> here's the thing. we learned on friday that it was jared kushner that directed general flynn to make this initial contact with the russians. they talked about the u.n. resol

>> we heard from ty cobb. it looked like there was an opportunity to ask president trump questions, there was a pool spray where you can go in at the top of the meeting, he was meeting with the libyan prime minister. the meeting with the libyan prime minister continued. that did happen. they scrubbed the pool spray even though it was on the schedule, the pool was lined up, ready to go into the oval office. so there would have been a chance had that event taken place. the pool side of the event. to get his response. here's what ty cobb is saying, the president's lawyer. they are basically acknowledging that mike flynn has pled guilty, not a big deal. what they are stud yusly avoiding is perhaps the more important part of what we heard from flin todynn today and that that he is cooperating with bob mueller. today michael flynn and a former obama administration official, entered a guilty plea to a single count of making a false statement to the fbi. the false statement involved mere -- fault statements which resu

ty cobb has been given a clear ending which is the end of the year. the interesting time to check back to see if the president still believes him is january 1st, january 2nd. >> if we get that far. >>> all right. a lot more to come coming up in this next hour. the dnc is getting a taste of momentum. deputy chair keith ellison is joining me and carly fiorina will speak about tax reform and sexual harassment and the culture in washington. you're watching "kasie dc." >>> democrats are riding high after wins in alabama's special senate election and last month's virginia governor's race. but tonight there's a new reason for them to be optimistic heading into next year's midterm elections. our brand-new "wall street journal" poll finds 50% of registered voters want democrats to control congress. that's compared to 39% who want republicans to stay in charge. joining me now, minnesota democratic congressman and deputy chair of the dnc keith ellison. thanks for coming back on the show. really appreciate it. >> of course. >> my question for you is, do you think

. >> that claim drew howls of protests from critics and by late monday a white house lawyer, ty cobb was down playing it telling the washington the theory is not the president's official legal strategy. he said quote it's interesting as a technical, but they intend to present a fact-based defense. as for whether the president can in fact obstruct justice, it is worth noting that articles of impeachment against both richard nixon and bill clinton did include obstruction charges. >> we've also learned another white house lawyer told president trump in january he believed flynn had misled the fbi as well as vice president pence. that raises new questions about what the president knew when he urged thn fbi director jim comey to drop the investigation against flynn. >> the president says never happened. >> fbi director chris ray responding to the president's claim that the bureau's reputation is in tatters. ray, tending an agency-wide e-mail that reads base of the important of our mission are he we are entrusted with great power. we should welcome people asking tough questions asking how