>> of course the issue isn't personal dislike of trump, but whether donald trump wants to work with his republican party in control of the judiciary committee to actually get votes on that bill. we will be watching that does it for our show. i'll see you back to you 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. >>> the iceberg cometh. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews from miami. with rudy giuliani at the helm of the president's legal defense team, donald trump is on all-out war footing against the special counsel's russia probe. a new report in "the washington post" today illustrates the alarming degree to which the president is consumed by this investigation. which the authors describe as a steaming locomotive. quote, the mueller operation, like the former marine commander who leads it is secret and methodical. ten blocks wisconsin in the white house, president trump combats the probe with bluster, disarray and defiance as he scrambles for survival. according to "the washington post," the probe has been a near constant distraction for

close to the trump campaign. there's multiple e-mails to that effect. so this would appear to be, at a minimum, an effort by the fbi to track all the russian efforts to penetrate the trump organization, the trump campaign, in 2016. and certainly the overtures of mr. torshin would be front and center in that. >> michael isikoff thanks very much. great reporting at yahoo news. appreciating you joining us. and joining us is david jones, coauthor of "russian roulettero and joining us is danny si val lis. >> lots of ties stretching back to 2013. those who have been following this and your reporting know that's the year of the moscow miss universe pageant. why is this important to the story? >> we do go into more details in the book. what we've seen over the course of the campaign, and even before, are multiple russian efforts to make contact with american conservatives and with the trump campaign. they try with george papadopoulos, with carter page, with michael flynn, and we see early here this predating the campaign

dump on trump . i think he has actually done a very good job policy wise and getting things past that are important. that are important. on the other hand, the leaking at the white house today is so much greater than i have ever seen before, and i have covered white house is back to gerald ford, a very nice man, by the way. 41, andworked with bush there was some but nothing like this. when there is this much leaking, it is poison, and trump said he is going to stop it. other presidents said they were going to stop it you they all failed. and i am afraid trump will, too. covers theprobably white house more than anyone, writing for the daily. what is it like to deal with them? how much do they stab each other in the back? mike: yes, that is sort of a big question and sort of defines the white house, not the administration, but the white house, the way it works. i heard a lot particularly at the beginning of the white house when i started covering it. sentiment,ople, this and i heard it from one particu

option if trump declined. he could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury. as "the washington post" notes, it was the first time he is known to have mentioned a possible subpoena to trump's legal team. trump's former lawyer, john dowd, reportedly then told mueller you are screwing with the work of the president of the united states. minutes ago, trump quoted dowd's statement on twitter adding, with north korea, china, the mideast, and so much more, there's not much time to be thinking about this. especially since there was no russian collusion. the standoff over the president's testimony could provoke a constitutional showdown should the president refuse to comply with the subpoena. refuse an order to testify. that would leave it to the supreme court to determine whether it's constitutional to subpoena a president for his testimony. and more to the point, whether the president must comply with a subpoena. amid this comes news of another shake-up to the president's legal team. it was a

trump: at 2:00 a.m. early this morning, and by the way, i got back to the white house at 4:30 a.m., and somebody said "oh, that is ok, we can cancel indiana tonight." [crowd booing] pres. trump: i said, "you don't know the people of indiana. i don't have the courage to cancel." [cheers] but at 2:30 in the morning, i had the incredible honor of greeting three great americans who had been held in north korea, and we welcomed them back home the proper way. [applause] pres. trump: and on june 12 in singapore, i will be meeting with kim jong-un to pursue a future of peace and security for the world, the whole world. [applause] pres. trump: the relationship is good. but you remember, everybody in the fake news is saying "he is going to get us into a nuclear war. he is going to get us into a nuclear war." [crowd booing] pres. trump: you know what gets you into nuclear wars and what you know what gets you into other wars? weakness. weakness. [applause] pres. trump: the relationship is good, and hopefully for all

trump is right. i read these things about foreign-policy, the europeans are going to stand up to trump. no they aren't. they are going to find a way to deal with him. europeans -- what have they done? i don't want to give them too much credit. [laughter] >> in terms of policy, i think the party has changed more than trump has. there was already a big fight on immigration inside the party. if you want to look at the future and see how that can be sympathized -- someone like tom cotton, who is a little more of a hawk on immigration without the temperament problems of trump. but what is happening to the republican party? is it shrinking so badly? that is why i think you should read this issue of "the weekly standard." ben schapiro does a good job of laying this out. they focused on policy, policy, policy, and voters under 40 are pretty appalled by the erotic temperament for my moral character and they are fleeing the party. -- erratic temperament and immoral character and they are fleeing the party. is

trump jr., paul manafort, jared kushner and russians connected to putin and russian oligarchs but the new details from "the new york times" in which we learned the original investigation had a secret code name, cross fire hurricane. a nod to the rolling stones lyric from jumping jack flash and the agents were afraid of leaks so much so they kept details secret from the justice department, only five officials at doj knew the whole story. the facts had they surfaced might have devastated the trump campaign and his national security adviser was under investigation and his campaign chairman. one trump adviser appeared to have russian intelligence contacts, another was suspected of being a russian agent himself, unquote. this comes in stark contrast with the way that hillary clinton e-mail case was being handled with a public press conference from former fbi director james comey and a public announcement the case would be reopened a week and a half before election day. but when it came to the trump

president trump's

enter donald trump. he is a completely different animal, and he loves this world of lavish living and money. and it would not be outside the realm of possibility that they saw a man that finally would play on their field to where gifts, emoluments, money, bribes would actually work. >> and jeremy, when you pull all these threads of the story together in the daily mail in your reporting and elsewhere, on it so far, if this is substantiated, what you're seeing is a qataris and kuwaitis thinking exactly the way malcolm just described and kind of rushing to get in there to figure out how do we deal with these people and who do we have to pay what to deal with these people. >> well, what you have when you talk about such transactional, you know, exchanges is that it's not just about getting something in exchange for something. it can also be about being punished for not fulfilling on something. and the trump administration turned around at the top level, basically president trump, the country's position on qa

does for trump. because i felt the moment trump was elected the whole world of the kardashians was kind of wrecked. what i'm hearing in tv circles is that networks like msnbc and cnn are taking the ratings from reality tv because basically the whole world is reality tv at this point. >> can we give them back? [ laughter ] >> how does that work? >> i think we know how that works, and how to make that happen. >> i think it's a scary moment because we are not living in a reality show. we are living with very serious issues all over the world and donald trump is a textbook narcissist. we gloss over this fact when we talk about him and his tendency to make every single thing, no matter what it is, about himself. but it's an inflated sense of self-importance, but it's based in a deep sense of insecurity. so that's why he needs celebrities to validate him to feel important, to feel that he's someone that people are talking and buzzing about, because that's what being a celebrity is, that people know who you

, proximity the meeting was one floor from donald trump and proximity with donald trump and donald trump jr. and how much they talked about the campaign for a year. so it's hard to believe he didn't know. >> when donald trump jr. said i didn't want to bother him with it, this is someone we heard talking on the "access hollywood" bus, we see him spending his entire weekends playing golf, this is a guy who publically, donald trump, has all the time in the world to discuss all the trivial things that cross anyone's mind close to him, the credibility of i didn't want to bother the big guy with anything as small as this is rather strained in this situation. >> sure. look, you played the clip before of the comment trump made right after this meeting is being set up, which he says he's going to give a speech about some very interesting information about the clintons. and this is right after the e-mail trail shows that rob goldstone is promising the russians meeting at trump tower is going to have some very incriminating information from kremlin files about hillary clinton. so the parallel in th

trump's legal team. and while the questions themselves are fairly broad they could represent a legal minefield for a president known to stretch the truth. today, in an attempt to distort the news in his favor, president trump incorrectly claimed that none of the questions related to potential collusion with russia. "so disgraceful that the questions concerning the russia witch hunt were leaked to the media. no questions on collusion. oh, i see, you have a made up phony crime collusion that never existed." well on that point, however, the president's mistaken a review of the 49 questions made public today shows at least 14 of them relate to the potential collusion with russia during the campaign. and while those questions don't reveal what kind of evidence the special counsel might already have, there's one in particular that's receiving a lot of attention. mueller wants to ask trump "what knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign including by paul manafort to russia about potential assistan

what is it that they didn't understand about the trump voter and the trump base regarding donald trump. >> i think he didn't understand that it's very hard for people in certain circles on the east and the west to understand the way the average voter thanks. my home contractor, working class person said to me, i don't care what he says, i just care about what he does and i think that sums up the way people in the working-class think. they have to be judged by results. if a carpenter puts a nail into a strut and it's crooked, he could be fired. i hired professor can spout off about anything and they're not hold accountable. these people understand results and that's we see with donald trump. >> i see your point. that was great in your book. let's talk about palm beach. it was alien to me, but you write that behind the hedges, the game that palm beach plays, their scams, murders, jealousy, bigotry and occasionally generosity to make the tv shows look like nursery tales. talk about how donald trump came in tomorrow largo and his whole personality, how he took that place. >> this is typica

trump. it is a very straightforward road map through things that are known here, interesting new revelation that paul manafort actually reached out to russia to see how it could work with the campaign, but the heart of this is taking the contradictory and inexplicable things that donald trump himself has said over the course of the past year and laying them out in a very straightforward, very factual way in a way that clearly president trump couldn't possibly explain. >> ruth marcus, also harvard law school graduate, so we have a full team here, the firm of kline, rubin and marcus. >> we get to argue who gets to have their name go first. >> we'll work that out. we have to do it alphabetical, i guess. ruth, i want to point out the various things here, the number of questions in here that exist only because of mistakes donald trump has publically made are quite stunning. he's being asked about tweets that he gave, he's being asked about statements he made in public interviews on subjects that

the trump agenda. i am an outsider like trump. he beat to sitting congressman. this was a really bad night for sitting members of congress who are running for higher races. two lost.diana, on, but did not break 50% of the vote. amy: tim murphy, let's go back to west virginia and talk about the pro-marijuana, pro--- pro-coal democrat who voted for trump -- and now regrets it. he won the democratic primary fowest virginia's congressnanal se. >> we haven't d d anyby inin washininon, d.c., iquite metime that has oxley fought r the third conessional distctct. we h havit. we are a state that is bro. w'reot realla ststat we arar a coolly. everything we ha in the state has been sent t to makother people millionaires and billionaires. amy: tim murphy come your comment? >> at first glance, he looks like a unicorn in democratic does she got elected to a seat that donald trump carried with like 70% of the vote in 2016. riding a significant wave and was virginia and across the country. he was at the vanguard of the

that's great for trump. that's in fact rudy guiliani's purpose in life at the moment is not to be a substantive lawyer for trump. it's to smear mueller, cast doubt over the investigation and harden the polarization and partisanship and frankly to rally the troops around trump. the bet is that by the time mueller wraps this up and puts his report out and congress has to deal with it, that the republican party will almost entirely rally around donald trump. >> let's go with this theory. >> instinctively, it makes perfect sense. >> i would say after we've gone through the access would tape, it's clear that the threshold of crap they're willing to take is about 100%. they'll take it all, his supporters no matter what he says about sex or lifestyle behavior or personal character, they don't care as long as he's on the right sides of their issues. weren't they smart to -- let's talk about stormy instead of russia. giuliani like a big magnet. let's talk about me, giuliani, which is what you're talking about and sto

>> that the world and many governments knew that the trumps and trump family were for sale, and they were not selling the trumps, they were selling the united states interests. i don't believe in coincidences anymore with this family or with this investigation. it was always shocking from the national security perspective that when trump became president, america, not trump's, america's interests lined with saudi arabia and ueae against qatar and the gulf in the middle east. you put pieces together, and who knows if there is a direct line, if there is causality, but you see the trumps are known to sell, they are known to be bought, and are willing to take these meetings, period. let's just stop there. they are taking these meetings. and then policy changes out of the blue. we ha we had the same thing with the kushner family and the baling o -- bailing out of various buildings and we had the same thing with the russians. at some stage there are no more coincidences, and donald trump jr. is an adult male who is running the trump company. the idea that he's somehow naive, it's like male

pleased to be here. >> jeff bezos, amazon.com ceo. >> donald trump jr. >> ivanka trump. >> eric trump. >> welcome. they're open for business. critics say he will do for america what he did for the trump organization. critics say we may be witnessing the reverse, using american power and taxpayer dollars to bail out the trump organization one last time. joined by liz plank and ben clemens, former prosecutor and chief legal counsel to governor deval patrick. ben, is this a problem? >> well, it's more than a problem, ari. and it is more than a conflict of interest. it is a blatant violation of the constitution at a minimum. there may be criminality as well. more information is needed to know whether there's criminality. unquestionably, the latest dealing with the flip flop on what the commerce department did with respect to -- within 70 hours of trump getting the benefit, his organization getting the benefit of a half billion dollars in loans from china is just a straightforward ee mol ments violation. >> you're saying barring gifts from foreign governments. what makes it a gift than a c

if donald trump is solving his trump university problems potentially that way with one d.a. and potentially has kompromat basically on his local hometown d.a., it does beg the question what did he do with it, did he use, it is there something illegal about -- i don't know. it is just a strange case. >> it's very strange. one of the other people schneiderman is going after is trump's own son. so he's got real beef, trump does, against schneiderman. if he's got this really damaging evidence, why wouldn't he use it? the only thing that makes this juicy, it is kind of like a page turner, is how did trump know to lump schneiderman with weiner and spitzer? >> right. >> he does that in 2013. and part of the big story about snyderman is still recently, nobody suspected this about them. but weiner, spitzer, their sexual improprieties. trump lumps schneiderman in there. how did he know? so that provides, i don't know if you'd say credibility to gleason. gleason's wacky, colorful, weird. but some kind of way trump knew something was up. >> and publicly tweeted about it. the other quest

problem for donald trump. >> plus, is this man about to be the next major trump scandal figure? >> i hope not. >> new scrutiny over an rnc mo you go's big payment to a playmate. then the backdoor attack on the mueller probe continues. >> do you have confidence in rod rosenstein. >> what's your next question, please. >> how the trump tax cuts for harley-davidson led to hundreds of people losing their jobs. >> thank you, harley davidson, for building things in america. >> when "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. breaking news tonight and it looks like potentially bad news for one michael cohen potentially even worse news for donald trump. "new york times" first breaking the story now confirmed by nbc news that cohen's long-time business partner gene freedman has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors after pleading guilty today to stealing around $5 million worth of taxi fees from new york state. in exchange, free man will be avoid jail time and been assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations according to a person briefed

people who know donald trump jr. know the trumps say that this is something that donald trump jr. would have wanted to tell his father about. keep in mind at this point ivanka and jared kushner have been brought into the campaign, donald trump jr. is not part of the campaign and he's eager to show his father that he too can help with the campaign of the that's one reason why he organizes this meeting, he brings people in from the campaign to try to do this and if you talk to people who are close to jared kushner, people close to paul manafort they describe themselves being a little suspicious as to why donald trump jr. is doing this after all he's not formally in the campaign, they've always been suspicion as to who he might have told about this. they don't buy the story essentially that he has been telling and certainly donald trump jr. is not explaining it. one of the interesting parts of this is going to be whether robert mueller and the fbi and the technology that, you know, their investigators have, whether they're able to decipher using phone company records where that phone

, donald trump is feeling the heat. the only answer he's going to have is to somehow try to discredit legally or constitutionally the entire investigation. rudy is the rough version that have message talking about storm troopers and so forth. you're going to hear that consistently from here on. >> trash talk. francesco, why the trash talk and why bring down the whole level -- it is like a beatup owed car crashing into a flu car. mueller looks like a new car. they bringing this jalopy, giuliani, and he goes charging into the new car. metaphors here. >> this is what the president has been doing this entire time trying to undermine comey's credibility. he started to move in that territory with the special counsel earlier this year. now he's sending in giuliani. >> he calls comey perverted. i can't figure that one out. >> you're asking as if he was first choice. let's not forget how many attorneys turned down donald trump. this is the guy he got. a guy like himself. this is a guy who he tried to join the administration and

trump, jr. admits and what he says about his father's involvement. all that coming up. up first, can the north korea summit be salvaged? moments ago, president trump said, we'll have to wait and see. [ overlapping speakers ] >> can the korean summit be salvaged? >> we'll have to see. we haven't seen anything, we haven't heard anything. we will see what happens. we'll see what happens, we'll see. time will tell. >> time will tell, the president says. the fate of the historic face-to-face meeting between president trump and the north korean leader kim jong-un is in jeopardy. north korea's threatening to cancel the summit scheduled for june 12th in singapore. jeff, how is the administration responding to the threat, the threat to cancel this meeting? >> reporter: good afternoon, wolf. you could hear the president there measuring his words very carefully, not saying anything too intentionally to provoke kim jong-un or not saying anything to disrupt the potential disruption of this summit. some of th

you know how trump is, trump will be -- trump is focussed on slates and i'm sure it has annoyed him to have heard that he's not welcome at the funeral. it's also the case of trump being as narcissistic as he is, he would rather be playing golf that day. so he will console himself with the notion, i didn't want to go to that thing anyhow. >> this story coincides with the leaks and the president calling his own staff traitors for leaking and part of the concerns about leaking is what's going on with the pence operation and what might they be leaking? >> the irony of donald trump calling people cowards and traitors for leaking is pretty strong. this is a guy who's been talking to the press for the last 30 years, sometimes under his own name, sometimes john baron or what have you. it appears from the reporting, everyone in trump world leaks. at some level i think the pence operation has been a little more tightly held and there are a bunch of pence people marbled throughout the white house. it's not just nick ayers, you have mark short, his experience on capitol hill was as mike pence's st

trump fans might say -- trump supporters would say this shows that president trump does what he says. he said he would withdraw and he does that and now north korea sees that. others say, especially a lot of people in the diplomatic community, how is north korea supposed to agree to bide by an agreement when the united states show its willingness to withdraw from the agreement they made. >> at will. it is a very valid concern. foeb folks look at north korea and kim jong-un is holding on to his nuclear weapons or lack thereoff because that is in the -- because that is their mode of survival. and so he saw what happened in libya when gadhafi gave up his nuclear weapons and then he was no longer with us. so i really think that this is a -- this is dangerous territory for the white house. i want to say one thing about young people. in hard a poll of young americans every year and in the most recent poll, democrats and republicans and independents notes they are more fearful than ever for this country. the decisions like this coming from the white house are reasons why young people across

trump tower meeting. i have a simple minded view if you go to the trouble of lying to congress or to investigators or putting out fake, phony press releases about meetings you were in, there's something that happened at the meetings that you're not too happy to have come out. >> you're saying even if the available information about the meeting doesn't seem all that terrible, the response to it could be itself telling, which is sort of an investigator's sixth sense. you mentioned eric prince. here's eric prince talking about all this. >> i was on a business meeting back in january. in the seychelles. i had gone to see guys from the middle east i had done business with before. they said there's this russian guy we have done business with in the past. you should meet him, so i met him in a bar. chattered for 20 or 30 minutes. and that was that. >> the flip side to all of this is that the trump folks and eric prince lie about all kinds of stuff, including little stuff. >> yes. you don't know what to make of i

it sounds like donald trump. bret: there are a lot of similarities twin trump and reagan in their personality and style. and the threats are very similar. change the paradigm in washington in foreign policy is very similar. reagan upset the apple cart as far as detante and foreign policy. howie: both were outsiders. a two-term governor. president trump a businessman and reality tv star. i heard echos in the 1980 campaign. a lot of reporters said ronald reagan was a war monger and we heard that when trump and kim jong-un were at odds and trading nuclear threats. bret: we were going to war with ask north korea three or four months ago, but the prospect of sitting down at a summit is there. some aggressive speech and tweets and rocket man and how big is your button. that's not reagan style. but he was saying communism would be to the ash heap of history and the soviet union was the evil empire. at the time those things were seen as inflammatory. howie: reagan got a lot of bad press, revisionist history much better.

:'s to hurt trump." i said, give me that article, i want to read it. a federal judge questions special counsel robert mueller's authority to bring tax and bank fraud charges unrelated -- unrelated to the 2016 election against former trump campaign manager chairman paul manafort. he was there for a short while, but i really believe he is a good person. the judge, who is really something special i hear from many standpoint, he is a special person, suggested the charges before the court for the eastern district of virginia, which is part of the mueller team history mr. manafort into giving information on president donald trump. i have been saying that for a long time. it's a witchhunt. then, none of that information has to do with information related to the russian government coordination and the campaign of donald trump. it doesn't have anything to do -- it's from years before. then, how does this have anything to do with the campaign , the judge asks? let me tell you folks, we are all fighting battles, bu

a group gathered at trump tower to meet with donald trump jr. the meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the trump team. what that help was, you know, it's not fully -- is it about the campaign itself? was it a quid pro quo for the iran nuclear deal? there is a lot of speculation about the avenues where this could go. how likely would it have been that a meeting like this would have suddenly hit the radar of the intelligence community before the election? >> unclear. i actually think the fact that the intelligence committee turned its sights on russian aggression and potential efforts by the russians to interfere in the election and ties to u.s. persons, meaning people in the trump campaign means it had to cross a significant threshold. if the campaign as just meeting with foreigners, you know, inside a lot of back and forth between emissaries of foreign governments who come and say i want to educate you about this issue or that policy issue or hey when you get into office we would like to talk to you about your situation. that's differ

trump. >> reporter: mr. trump won it by 16. rodgers won it by 20. but it centers and spokane and suburbs where we spent a day with her. >> this is a year where he need to take all races seriously. >> reporter: rodgers doesn't run away from the president. would you like to campaign for him out here? >> well, i know a lot of people would love to see him come. >> reporter: are you one of them? >> well, i would always welcome the president to come to my district. >> reporter: and they are base is committed. >> she's calm. and you know what, she listens, she listens. >> reporter: but now turning voters into volunteers focused on rodgers. >> i woke up the morning after the trump election, i thought i got do do something, is this nuts. the more i watched it the more she's lauded to this president the more i wanted her out of office. >> reporter: and the obamacare repeal debate convinced majority leader lisa brown to return to lisa brown to return to politics and challenge rogers. >> after that healthcare vote i realized that we needed voices really speakin

ivanka trump? i i think i would get on my charger and go right into their offices with a lance if they go after ivanka. >> and then he goes on to explain why ivanka is off limits and trump's son-in-law jared kushner is fair game. >> what about his son-in-law? >> i guess jared is a fine man. you know that. but men are, you know, disposable. but a fine woman like ivanka, come on. >> i think some would argue that is a misogynistic, perhaps even sexist comment. phil, let me first start with you, if i may. what do you make of the idea that a senior adviser to the president, regardless of the fact that it is his daughter, should be off limits to the special counsel? >> well, you know, ivanka trump is the president's daughter, but she's chosen to take a job at the white house. she works on the white house staff. she's a senior adviser, as you just put it. she should be sort of fair game in this investigation just like any other staff member at the white house. and i don't think the mueller team would view

day 491 of the trump administration, and tonight president trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, is taking new aim at the russia investigation, telling the associated press that trump's legal team, quote, wants a briefing on the classified information shared with lawmakers about the origins of the fbi investigation into russia's meddling in the 2016 election. trump's lawyers may take the information to the justice department as part of an effort to scuttle the ongoing special counsel probe. also that, quote, the white house hopes to get a readout of the materials next week. giuliani telling the a.p. he wants to know about the use of a longtime government informant who approached members of trump's campaign about russian efforts. he says that if it was inappropriate, special counsel robert mueller's entire probe may be illegitimate. giuliani added the white house may press the justice department to, quote, re-evaluate the investigation. yesterday lawmakers received classified briefings with intelligence and law enforcement officials about the fbi's use of an informant in the russia investigatio

donald trump doesn't care. has he apologized to the kahne family and veterans and wives of veterans he's insulted. >> it seems as if sarah huckabee sanders with a admonishing her staff with regard to this leak but she was more concerned about the leak than she was about what was actually said. >> her press conference on friday i think it was, the day after was an absolute atrocity. i mean to essentially say i refuse to even address the issue, i'm not going to validate a leak and make it all about the leak when first of all let's call a spad a spad. there's no way this was actually a joke. that's the aftermath of the sort of trying to save it and salvage in some way but they are in the middle of a conversation trying to figure out how to handle something and say that. and then for her to go on at that white house briefing and not answer anybody's questions, not say it was a bad thing to say, we're looking into it, we're going to -- nothing. and that kind of stone walling when the president of course is going to

donald trump jr. had already released his e-mail exchange wes rob goldstone in which he was promised dirt on the clinton campaign. goldstone said it was part of the official russian government and president trump's candidacy. donald trump jr. said i love it. he wanted to get information about hillary clinton that could be damaging to her campaign and we now know that rob goldstone testified that he believed this could be, quote, bombshell revelation to donald trump jr. and others in this meeting. so there were a number of discussions that donald trump jr. had with goldstone and with russian pop star amin agalarov, and when asked about this coming from russian sources, donald trump junior said this, i'll read you from the transcript. he said i was interested in listening to information, the question, information on hillary clinton? yes. it came potentially from the russian government? again, i have no way of assessing where it came from, but i was willing to listen. what trump junior testified is that

client donald trump in a couple of weeks. i repeat rudy guiliani talking to everyone except apparently donald trump. we'll i'm sure have more on that and discussion of a potential interview with bob mueller. that does it for "the beat." "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. >>> how scared is trump? this scared. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris math you ooze in boston. the bbc is reporting according to sources in kiev, trump fix ter michael cohen received $400,000 for setting up a meeting with president trump and the ukrainian press poroshenko. we have not verified that report. faced with the evidence on trump's web of eastern promises, the president himself is setting up what appears to be a fifth amendment strategy not answering robert mueller's questions on the ground his answers would tend to incriminate him and claim that as justification for taking the fifth which trump himself associated with gangsters but also on the political ground now that the mueller investigation is out to get him. indeed, presi

trump is. i think a critical point that he made was that we knew everything, really everything that might be asked and had prepared answers at the various stages. i don't think that's the case with mr. trump. so i think he would -- -- >> what do you think -- let me ask you this. what do you think about something in a a lot of trump defenders say and that he has tweeted about, for what it's worth, which is the argument that if there is no high-level collusion provenible at least on the part of the president and that the whole thing turns to obstruction that can by way of analogy look a little bit like what some of the clinton folks said about bill clinton which is he ultimately admitted to things that many people thought were wrong and objectionable but there wasn't an underlying felony and to the extent the argument was about obstruction it wasn't enough. what do you say to that? >> that doesn't make any sense. obstruction is a very serious offense. and i think the big risk to president trump i

trump tower moscow. information that mr. cohen perhaps other than the president alone can give us more information on. >> let me go to jill on this. it seems to me there's lots to pursue here and the idea that this probe by robert mueller should end now because of some artificial anniversary celebration is insane. we are only learning now these stories about the way in which trump's people were out there trying to make a buck over in moscow using his prestige as a candidate. we're going to develop that tonight. apparently they were using the fact that he was now a big american political big shot as well as a tycoon as a way of greasing the skids for his investments in moscow. >> it's an unusual situation where you have a candidate for president of the united states as concerned if not more concerned about his personal wealth and his financial dealings during the time of the campaign and to be that involved in trying to do business with russia at the same time as a lot of secret meetings are happening wit

she likes what trump's doing. at a restaurant, she tells me unpredictability can be a positive since it keeps opponents guessing. >> and i think that it is a good thing to not know, you know, because sometimes the best defense is not knowing what the offense is. >> reporter: back at the gas station, i asked owner chris if he ever worries that trump's words could go too far and maybe lead to war. >> that does worry me a little bit, the war part of it, he does come across a little harsh sometimes, but like i said, he says what everyone else was probably thinking, you know? >> reporter: the reason trump voters don't have a problem with how trump sees the world is because many of them see it the very same way. erin, as i always do, i finished by asking the voters if they would vote for president trump again. lately i've been noticing a trend. the answer is still yes, but then some voters say that could depend on who is running against him. erin? >> all right. thank you very much, martin. that's the crucial question, r

trump's legal team. and that makes john dowd suspect number one in this leak because he is now outside mr. trump's legal team. in fact, john dowd quit the trump legal team within a week and a half of getting those questions from the special prosecutor. the special prosecutor's office could not possibly have leaked the document because they don't have the written list of questions that was created by john dowd and jay sekulow. john dowd has denied today that he leaked those questions. john dowd can now fairly be described by "the new york times" or anyone else as a person outside of trump's legal team. john dowd is also the star of a dramatic scene delivered as the lead of "the washington post" report tonight complete with the terrible dialogue of a terrible hollywood screenwriter that john dowd has told nbc news he thinks is an accurate representation of the scene. and that means, of course, it is a scene that makes john dowd the hero, the less for trump supporting readers. in a tense meeting in early ma

to define the trump presidency. bloomberg columnist noah feldman put it this way today. without the firing of comey there would have been no appointment of mueller adds special counsel. and even one year later, here we are, trump can't seem to let go of his feelings about james comey. in just the last month the president has attacked the former fbi director at least 20 times on twitter. with us tonight to talk about this, jeremy peters, political reporter for the "new york times" and michael crowley, national security editor for politico. you told one of our producers, looking back, you were among the first to learn of the firing of comey and you had enough sense as a veteran reporter to not believe it at all. >> yeah, brian, it's amazing. the first is relative but i learned about it well before it became public and by that i mean 20 minutes before it was announced no one else in our newsroom heard about it. i had a source who i can't get into the details but almost by accident found out about it very soon after the

he said trump directed. he said something came out of this retention fee that michael cohen had access to and he could pay it off month to month without having to tell the president he had gotten the money. he got in trouble by saying this was to avoid an election eve daft disaster for the candidate. he said it on "fox & friends" yesterday morning. today he says it had nothing to do with an election. trump still didn't direct the money but he paid it. and also it wasn't to do with the election, but with the trump brand and his relationship with his family. >> which is difficult to square because everything we know about donald trump is that he's a penny pinchers and controls all his money. he's a micromanager of the bills for his building. >> when he pays the bills. >> so it's surprising that $130,000 would just somehow leave his bank account and him not note about it or question where the money was going. that's the argument the lawyers are making tonight. then the other issue with the political motivation,

and trump's former doctor says he was raided by trump's long-type bodyguard. >> well, all his medical records, pictures, anything they could find. when "all in" starts right now. >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. special counsel robert mueller's 49 questions for the president of the united states leaked to "the new york times" reveal the scope and the seriousness of the legal peril the president now faces. that might explain why the president and his staff set to work today to try to mislead the public about mueller's questions. questions which cover both, both the president's efforts to interfere in the justice department's investigation and the numerous established documenteded contacts between his associates and russian operatives. the president tweeted first thing this morning, so disgraceful the questions concerning the russian witch hunt were leaked to the media. no questions on collusion. oh, see. you have a madeup phony crime, collusion that never existed and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. nice. first of all, the leak appear

remember, the trump tower meeting between donald trump jr. and the russian lawyer, okay, the senate released the documents and in spite of what the media is telling you, a total t dog, going nowhere, we'l explain. also a stunning report, new from the fbi, launched the secret investigation, and has a name, enter the trump campaign, only days after they rigged and put the fixation and the clinton email investigation. "the new york times" is inadvertently confirming everything we have been telling you about all of us regarding the massive abuse of power and corruption. also tonight, congressman mark meadows, jim jordan, ron desantis, they are fighting back hard against the doj and their obstruction.ha they are urging the president to get involved. we need the documents released. they are demanding to see it. a lot to cover and tonight's breaking news monologue. ♪ we start with another stingingng step back for the special counsel robert mueller. president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani sing tonight robert mueller will not seek a presidential indi

day 491 of the trump

trump. the times said donald trump jr. responded approveingly according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. the times adds, quote, after mr. trump was elected. mr. nader paid mr. zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate up to $2 million. donald trump jr.'s attorney released this statement. prior to 2016 election, donald trump jr. recalls a meeting with erik prince, george nay der, they pitched him on a social media platform, he was not interested in. erik prince's roll in arranging the meeting contradicts his testimony to the house committee in a way that sure looks like perjury. togeth according to the transcript he had this exchange. aside from writing these papers donating, supporting in a -- mr. prince, yard sign in myrd -- my yard. mr. rooney, so there was no other formal communications or contact with the pain? mr. prince correct. joining us now the co-author of the new book how to rig an election to be published tomorrow. and david frum is back with us. brian your reading of this. >> it speaks t

knows what he did, and trump knows whether he did or didn't know at the time about the trump tower meeting, trump knows about meetings that he had with jared kushner and his own daughter and manafort will have to testify in those investigations. if trump thinks he's not so innocent, i've got to think he will think at some point that it's less risky somehow to curb, limit or abort the investigation than let it go forward to win. >> "wall street journal's" shelby holiday, betsy, dealers choice on these issues, go ahead. >> it's a great question, there's so much to talk about. one thing that's really important is when we're talking about the length this probe is taking and the complaints that have come from the white house and mueller himself, the president's own legal team seems to be dragging its feet to decide whether or not to let trump sit down for an interview with mueller. that would be whether they make the final determination of whether there was obstruction of justice. jay sekulow said they still have yet to make a decision, even though they have been in talks with mueller's team an

maybe trump is right. we all think it's madness with trump. there's a method. don't be, don't fool yourself. there's a method. he knows, he said it. if he goes after this and plants seeds of doubt over and over, at least 50% of the public over time and maybe more might agree with him. that's the strategy, it's been the strategy for a year. it will be the strategy until this ends and it's why he loves rudy. because rudy has the same grievances mentality and approach to it and now he's got a mouthpiece as his new spokesperson. >> jim vander hyde, we'll be reading axios some bad news to share, they are 8 1/2 back in last place behind the chattanooga lookouts. get on your horse. go birmingham. >> we'll do better. >>> it's a risky business speaking for president trump. mark leibovich got a look inside the white house communications office. he joins us next to el us what he found out. so, you guys have recently started dating... -yes -yes cool. i want to show you guys three chevy suv's. the first one is called t