never based on reality. >> all right. vice president al gore, great to have you. the movie is called "an inconvenience truth." >> that does it for us. you can catch us every night right here at 8:00 on msnbc. we have a special program tonight. trump under siege, and we are live right now with some late-breaking news this evening from "the new york times." special counsel mueller's investigators have just made contact with the white house. they're demanding documents about michael flynn's ties to foreign powers. that i can tell you is a first. meanwhile, trump under siege from the grand jury, the internal leaks, and punching back today through a cabinet official that trump of course recently disdained, attorney general jeff sessions. calling for a crackdown on the leakers and on the press. i am ari melber, and this is a special hour of "the last word." >> donald trump is officially on vacation. >> as new signs robert mueller's russia investigation is growing in intensity and scope. >> he can lie all he wants in

front of his adoring fans. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. >> he cannot lie to the fbi, to the grand jury. this is about matters of law. >> this culture of leaking must stop. >> sessions scolded everyone today about this. >> i have this warning for would-be leakers. don't do it. >> classified leaks have played an important role in bringing to light, you know, really crucial public information. >> are there any russians here tonight? any russians? >> he's the one who keeps bringing this up. >> this is what the president does when he's backed into a corner. >> i'm not sure it can hurt him to get out of town for a while. >> mueller has a grand jury, and now he wants documents. this late-breaking story from "the new york times" tonight, friday. mueller's investigators bearing down on michael flynn's financial ties abroad.

now asking the white house for documents related to flynn, and they've questioned witnesses about whether he was secretly paid by the turkish government during the final months of the trump presidential campaign. this according to people close to the investigation who spoke with the times tonight. now, the request is reportedly not yet any kind of formal subpoena. but it is to be clear a new step. quote, the document request is the first known instance of mueller's team asking the white house to hand over records. president trump's lawyers know that any resistance to this would only speed up mueller leaning on the grand jury that everyone's been talking about for subpoenas or testimony. that's the process. here is the actual criminal issue tonight. mueller looking at how flynn worked with a turkish-american businessman. flynn's business was reportedly paid $530,000 -- that's a lot of money -- to run a kind of a political-type campaign that would attack the opponent of the current turkish government.

now, "the times" wants to know if this was a secret government contract and mueller wants to know, quote, if the flynn intel group made kickbacks to the business men for helping conceal the source of the money. you may remember if you have watched our coverage that flynn already violated the federal rules on registering as a foreign agent. he later conceded that in order to update his filing. what this new request tonight is about is it suggests to us that the special counsel is further following the money. "the new york times" saying that these hidden payments could potentially be considered for fraud charges. all these developments come as nbc news confirmed today with three sources familiar with the matter that bob mueller has been making use of more than one active grand jury. this is in multiple districts, so that includes virginia and d.c., the big story that broke yesterday. those grand juries are issuing subpoenas for records and documents tied to the ongoing

investigation. we have a lot to get to tonight. i'm happy to say a strong panel to begin. walter dellinger. sam buell is a professor of law at duke university, a former federal prosecutor. lead prosecutor in fact for that enron task force which has some overlap with some of what mueller is doing now. and michael isikoff, a chief investigative reporter for yahoo news. walter, folks are just digesting "the new york times" reports. folks at home my want to understand what does it mean when we say this is one of the first document requests that mueller has sent to the white house. >> well, it means a couple of things. one, i think, ari, in a later segment, we're going to wonder how this information got out of the white house and into "the new york times." but on the information itself, i think it shows how a good-faith prosecutor cannot keep narrowly to russian influence on the election as his mandate because the whole financial web is so interconnected. a prosecutor who wanted to know whether there were, for example,

russian payments being made to officials in the campaign would want to see if there's a pattern or practice within the flynn group, for example, of getting covert payments from foreign governments. so i think it shows how i think the money chain is going to be followed, and it's potentially quite serious. >> well, you raise that point. and, sam, you know as a former prosecutor, bringing charges is not just about crimes. there are a lot of unsolved crimes out there that never get charges. it's always about having evidence, and these financial crimes seem to have a lot more evidence. i want to read to you what a colleague of yours who has done the same job, preet bharara is saying.

if true, the request for white house documents regarding turkey much more significant than what he calls breathless reporting about the grand jury. why is this significant, and how does it relate to the evidence trail? >> well, because the most important evidence that you get in any kind of complex case like this, particularly a white collar case, is the testimony of witnesses who really know what happened, were in the key meetings, had conversations with people. and the way that you get that testimony is you build cases against those witnesses. people are not going to volunteer to testify in a case like this. i think what's very interesting about this reporting in "the new york times" tonight is it suggests the possibility -- i'm speculating, but the possibility that michael flynn is being targeted as a potential witness in this investigation. the stronger case you build against him, the more likely that you might ultimately obtain his cooperation, and he may know about lots of other transactions that the special counsel would be interested in looking at.

>> does that potential have any impact on how prosecutors and investigators would look at what jim comey described as donald trump's keen interest in getting the dogs to back off of flynn? >> well, i think that, you know, we've all said all along with regard to the potential obstruction of justice charges in this case that the backing off on flynn was in part potential effort on behalf of the president to reduce his own legal jeopardy because it was clear from the beginning that flynn was an important individual in this network, in this whole fabric, and a potential witness. so if, in fact, it did turn out that a case were made, and now we're several steps down the road, but if it turned out that a case were made against flynn and ultimately his testimony were obtained in some fashion,

whether through cooperation or perhaps compelling him into a grand jury and immunizing him ultimately, something like that, or even convicting him and then taking his testimony, well then that would certainly cast the obstruction of justice case against the president with regard to asking comey to drop the investigation of flynn in a much starker light. >> michael, why is this coming out now? >> well, because mueller is stepping up his investigation. he's requesting documents from the white house, and inevitably that's going to come out. there's two points that i think are significant here. first of all, the fact that mueller is following the trail relating to turkey is not that big of a surprise given that if you remember, on election day, michael flynn publishes an article in "the hill," urging the united states to extradite erdogan's main enemy, gulen, from pennsylvania to turkey. that was the chief goal of the turkish government.

in that op-ed, michael flynn was not identified as a lobbyist for the turkish government or a turkish-american businessman who had an interest in this. it just popped. later, you know, investigative reporting uncovered his ties to this turkish-american businessman who had close ties to the erdogan government, and that inevitably led people to follow the money trail and for him to retroactively register as a lobbyist for the turkish government. so it's not a surprise that mueller would focus on this. but i think it's absolutely right the important thing here is the leverage that a case about flynn and turkey could give mueller in the core russia investigation. if they can threaten flynn with serious criminal charges, they've got leverage to get his cooperation, and then he's so central to everything to do with russia, including those conversations with the russian ambassador and including the obstruction of justice allegations since, as you noted before, it was trump's bringing up and request to comey to let flynn go that ultimately led to comey's firing. >> right.

if they can threaten flynn with serious criminal charges, they've got leverage and then he's so central with everything to do with russia, including the conversations with the russian ambassador and including the obstruction of justice allegations since, as you noted before, it was it was trump's bringing up and requests to comey to let flynn go that ultimately led to comey's firing. that's what we were just saying. walter, what is the theory of the case, then, for investigators? that flynn is vulnerable and that's why you're moving on him, or that he might be involved in two sets of crimes, something about turkey, and something about russia, but you're willing to let them both go if he cooperates. >> you know, it sounds like both. i think sam and mike make the

point quite convincingly about why you can't create the red lines that president trump said he wanted to have to confine mueller's investigation narrowly to, quote, russian involvement. that's not the way prosecutors operate, as sam and mike noted. so i think this is a case that aptly demonstrates that what the prosecutor is looking at is financial influence on those who are running the trump campaign. as someone who became the national security adviser, and you can't artificially separate that out from what connections there might be with russia. it both shows sort of motive and operation on flynn's part potentially, and it also provides the kind of leverage they were talking about. >> all of this, michael, is against a backdrop of increasing attacks on the entire special counsel system. take a listen here to newt gingrich. >> of course the white house

should be concerned. first of all, anybody who has any doubts about corruption in the justice department ought to read sidney powell's book "license to lie," which is a tremendous study of both senator stephens being destroyed by the justice department and the whole enron/arthur andersen case, both of which were basically corrupt. i worry about the government having the kind of power, and notice what mueller is doing. he's changing the targets. he was supposedly going to look into russian collusion. the articles this morning say, gee, it looks like russian collusion is going to be hard to prove, maybe because it didn't happen. >> michael? >> you know, it is extraordinary that the president's allies are attacking bob mueller, a former republican assistant attorney general under george h.w. bush's administration, nominated by president george w. bush as fbi director, kept on by president obama for a couple of years.

i mean he is as nonpartisan a figure as you can get. so, you know, it seems to those of us who have followed bob mueller for many, many years highly unusual to hear these kind of attacks on his integrity at this point. but on the other hand, this is what white houses do when they are facing special counsel investigations. they go after the special counsel. >> well, and you said he's nonpartisan. sam, another way to put it is to the extent he has had affiliations with a party, it's the republican party. that's where he was rising as an appointee, at least when he had taken over fbi. i guess the opposition research is kicking around. you can't do the whole topic

justice, but anything you want to say about the enron task force here because it's something that republicans seem to think is a kind of vulnerability for mueller. >> well, it's ironic, ari, because the enron task force was created at the instigation of the bush justice department. john ashcroft was the attorney general at the time. larry thompson was the deputy a.g., and they certainly consulted with the white house as to how that case ought to be handled. and the conclusion was, let's have a very vigorous task force, and let's wall it off from the white house and let it do its job notwithstanding the fact that some of the targets of that investigation had been major campaign contributors to the bush administration. and i think it was understood, you know, we need to cut ourselves off from these people and let the law run its course.

and it's just, you know, we're in a different world now. you know, i understand what michael is saying about being surprised, but at a certain point, it's now august. we've been being surprised about things since january. the norms are out the window. i mean at some point we have to start to accept the fact that this is normal -- now the new normal for how the white house is going to behave. i think that mueller's people and mueller himself can be under no illusions. they are going to be absolutely savagely attack at every turn in everything they do in this investigation. it's going to be their professionalism -- >> yeah, you're saying let's not act so surprised every night. if someone shows you who they are, believe them. i understand her to have meant that negatively. walter, final point. i think a lot of point people may be wondering about when it comes to flynn's cooperation. i'll ask it as a hypothetical because we're not presupposing

anything about what flynn will or will not do. if you have someone who has already lawyered up and has written a letter saying, i have a story to tell, what would happen if a deal was struck? the fbi can't just jump him. you try to bring him to the grand jury, or do you try to cut a deal? how would it work? >> well, you would make an agreement that he would perhaps plead to lesser crimes than they might ultimately charge in exchange for his cooperation in providing testimony against others, perhaps his superior. and i think then he could be -- you know, if there were crimes committed in relation to the campaign and the russians, he could be a devastatingly important witness if that were the case. >> fascinating. i want to thank sam buell for joining us. mike and walter, we are going to come back to you on another angle. coming up next, trump under siege. the chaos in the white house. general john kelly, chief of staff, reportedly trying to rein

in how information reaches the president. but how does he rein in how the president gets his own information and spreads it? plus, this is a very important story today. attorney general jeff sessions threatening the free press at an official doj event saying it all comes back to the leaks. we have a special report on that and what it means next. (class) ewwww! (boy) sorry. (dad) don't worry about it. (mom) honey, honey, honey, honey! (vo) at our house, we need things that are built to last. that's why we got a subaru. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. get 0% apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 subaru legacy models. now through august 31st. one laugh, and hello sensitring a bell? then you have to try always discreet. i didn't think protection this thin could work.

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one side donald trump seemed to realize he was under siege came an unusual staffing choice this week when he tapped a top aide, john kelly, for his professional credentials rather than personal loyalty or of course nepotistic ties. kelly's first work day was this monday, which became anthony scaramucci's last work day, and this trump edition of survivor. it was the rare time that a career public servant beat out even a slavish trump loyalist. kelly is trying to change process and personnel, and in a key meeting when bickering trump aides steered off course, he ordered the pair out of the

room, according to "the new york times," telling them to return when their differences were resolved. that was according to a person who spoke to the times about the exchange. kelly also cuts off rambling advisers mid-sentence. he's booted lingering staff members out of high-level meetings and ordered the doors of the oval office closed to discourage strays and has demanded that even mr. trump's family, including daughter ivanka trump and son-in-law jared kushner check with him if they want face-to-face time with the president. as the old saying goes, the proof is in the tweets. trump's 16 tweets today covered many topics other than his own grievances. he even touted those new job numbers, and when he did bring up hillary clinton or russia, it was usually through re-tweets. now, that seeming digital restraint did not carry over into the rally last night. this was pitched as a celebration of a governor who was switching parties to back

trump, which is the kind of political grassroots story that people push out in both parties. but he couldn't stick to the message, bringing it back to russia. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics. that's all it is. >> joining us now is tom nichols, a foreign policy expert and professor at the u.s. naval war college as well as jonathan capehart, an opinion writer for "the washington post." the award for friday night outfit, no surprise, goes to jonathan capehart looking ready to dash out of the studio as soon as we're done. but we're not done yet, jonathan. my first question goes to tom. it sounds like the order most white houses would have had to begin with. what do you make of the military component here? >> as always, ari, this is my own view and not the navy's.

i think it makes sense. general kelly is a well respected man, and you're right. most white houses would have had a little more order than this, but they do sometimes have trouble getting off the blocks. i think one of the things that's concerning is this seems to be the go-to answer in times of trouble, is to bring in senior military officers. and while all these are men of sterling character and credentials, it's a disturbing trend because there are more people out there than just senior military officers, and it creates a bad precedent in my view. >> jonathan, you know, sometimes the question is are we all paying too much attention to the tweets, which i think can be a fair question. but there's a lot of reporting that suggests, particularly in the pre-kelly era, if anything, some of the tweets needed more attention. i was sort of blown away by this politico report, quote, white house officials woke up to the tweet announcing the fbi pick. they hurriedly wrote a news release. much of the president's inner circle knew little about wray. trump reportedly tired of the search, so he tweeted it out to

get it going. that is, by the way, a ten-year position running all counterterror national security, drug enforcement, everything. >> that right there, therein lies the challenge for chief of staff, retired general kelly, that you have a president of the united states who takes to twitter and just makes pronouncements that have wide-ranging, far-reaching impacts on the rest of the government. so the story that politico has out there, the president got tired of the search for fbi director and just announced it. last week we were gob smacked by the tweets he sent out announcing that transgender service members were no longer welcome in the military. so i think for general kelly, it's great that he's bringing order and systems or, as they like to say in the building behind me, returning to regular order, that's great. but if you don't have the -- if the president is not going to

abide by the rules, such as they are, then all of kelly's efforts will be for naught. let's not forget something else, ari. those tweets are considered official statements. >> yeah. >> so they're not just willy-nilly, you know, missives that he used to send out when he was private citizen trump. now that he is president trump, they have the imprimatur and effect of being official white house policy. >> yeah, and it really goes -- when we talk about the general reining him in, tom, two things. i want to flag something about this whole adult issue and then read from your piece. politico also noting that trump has a proclivity for rattling aides with those unexpected tweets. so they say the generals with tillerson as kind of a junior partner are nicknamed the axis of adults.

it's sort of like we're back into one of those, you know, amusement rides, and you have to be this tall to ride, which means you either have to be an adult or a tall adolescent. i don't know that that is the best standard for white house access, and you dig into this here. you write, the u.s. has a civilian commander in chief to provide a civilian check on the power of the military, not the other way around. to hope kelly and mcmaster and the white house and general james mattis at the pentagon will restrain the president's impulses is actually a terrible development in our history, because too much reliance on them corrodes a key principle of the american constitutional order. explain. >> right. the government is supposed to be run by civilians, and when the american public gets to the point where it says, well, we can tolerate a certain amount of dysfunction as long as there are enough generals around, that's a very worrisome thing to say. people will say, well, we

understand there's a lot of chaos and nobody is really in charge, so the answer is to make sure there's always enough three and four-star generals, retired or active, watching over the president. it's supposed to be the other way around. we explicitly have a civilian commander in chief to watch over generals, not to have generals watch over the commander in chief. i think the public is getting too used to this idea, as is congress, to be quite frank. >> jon, you're nodding yes. >> yes. that was actually my number one concern when it was announced that john kelly was going to be the next chief of staff. while on the one hand i was, like, thrilled that there would be someone, an adult in the room who could maybe bring some order to the oval office, i was also very concerned for the very thing that tom wrote about and talked about just now. having a general who is keeping tabs and keeping watch and trying to rein in the president of the united states is super concerning, especially when you have a general at the pentagon,

a general who is also national security adviser. and here's the other thing, ari, i wanted to mention before. this is a perfect time to bring it up now. maybe general kelly will be successful in this job with the president because of the president's sort of childlike fascination and admiration of men in uniform. and what we all have to hope is that those generals, those members of the military, we are now dependent upon them to safeguard our democracy. this is sort of echoing what tom just said, but think about that for a moment. >> tom, briefly.

>> well, just like jon, i was relieved that general kelly was brought in. i was relieved when general mattis was appointed, but in a way that's the problem itself. when someone says we're going to appoint a lot of generals and everybody breathes a sigh of relief. jon, i'll see you soon. coming up, i want to discuss the lengths attorney general jeff sessions is now threatening to go to find whoever in trump's own administration may be leaking. we have a breakdown for you. later, donald trump clearly isn't over that big string of losing health care votes. what he said about the congressional republicans coming up. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next.

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i have this message for our friends in the intelligence community. the department of justice is

open for business, and i have this warning for would-be leakers. don't do it. this nation must end this culture of leaks. we will investigate and seek to bring criminals to justice. we will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country. >> jeff sessions today basically telling bureaucrats, just say no to leaks, and he rolled out a new crackdown on leaks. this is right after the president's transcripts of calls with foreign leaders were published in "the washington post." sessions also said the doj may threaten more reporters with jail time if they don't give up sources. here he is discussing a revamp on that of media subpoenas. >> one of the things we are doing is reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas. we respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect. but it is not unlimited. they cannot place lives at risk

with impunity. we must balance the press' role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in the intelligence community, the armed forces, and all law-abiding americans. >> sessions also announced the trump doj leading more than three times as many leak investigations as were open at the end of the obama administration. there have been as many criminal leak referrals in the first six months of the trump administration as there were over the past three years combined. in response to the increased number of investigations, the fbi has working to expand a counterintelligence unit for the cases. four people have also been charged with unlawfully disclosing classified material. that we did know about. this is a plan to do more. walter dellinger and michael isikoff back with us. walter, nothing new about --

but the balance has been struck. the balance currently under the rules is that you have to have national security or imminent injury or death to issue a media subpoena, which ultimately is the road to jailing reporters. do you buy jeff sessions' argue that that's not good enough or needs to be reset, that balance? >> no. i've seen no indication that if anything, the obama rules may have been too permissive. the previous justice department said there are clear standards that must be met before you subpoena a reporter or his or her notes or sources, and that's critical to allow the free flow of information. i think it was an attempt at intimidation because he spoke so broadly. some leaks are criminal, and

some are harmful to the national security. >> what do you mean, sir, by intimidation? you think absent actual fact-driven inquiry, the attorney general is trying to scare reporters out of doing their job? >> i think more trying to scare officials in the government as well as reporters out of releasing information that ought to be disclosed. when the attorney general says that it's a message to would-be leakers, don't do it, that's way too broad because many unauthorized disclosures are not by any means criminal. many may be embarrassing, but they don't adversely affect the national security. and, ari and mike, think about the number one leak that the president's talked about. that's jim comey's disclosure of his notes, which was both perfectly legal and perfectly appropriate. >> sure. well, you have mike isikoff here. michael, for viewers who remember your tenure, the number of epithets that have been hurled at you by government officials on stories you have broken originally and

exclusively based on what i assume are your sources -- i know you're not going to discuss them. but the lewinsky dress, the drone targeting strikes. you have a long list of those reports. walk us through what you think of this and whether you think it could chill, as a general matter, government sources. >> well, first of all, you know, it's useful to remember that this is not the first attorney general to vow to crack down on leaks. and, you know, as you well know, ari, under the previous administration and under eric holder during his first years as attorney general, there were more leak prosecutions under the espionage act brought by the justice department than in all previous administrations in history. it was only when there was public attention on this and exposure about just how far the justice department, under eric holder, had gone, subpoenaing the phone records of the a.p., labeling a journalist as a potential co-conspirator in

violation of the espionage act, that obama administration officials got embarrassed and decided to impose these media guidelines that were designed to have greater scrutiny of media subpoenas. now, you know, i do think sessions is sending a message here, but just on its face, the review of the media guidelines is probably not as significant as it sounds because the essence of the media guidelines was to require a higher level of review. >> no, a higher level -- >> for subpoenas of journalists. >> i think that's fair, michael. a couple points. that higher level of review was put in as a safeguard. the tenor of today's talk didn't make you feel it was going to be more safe, but rather more aggressive. >> exactly.

>> i want to play something on the points you raise. look, i used to practice first amendment law, so i definitely share the concern about the obama justice department. they were highly aggressive on this. in addition, the other context, of course, is the internet, and it became drastically easier with groups like wikileaks to put out more voluminous material without the gatekeeper function of the press. i think that was the other macro factor driving more of those prosecutions although they concern us all. walter, take a listen to floyd abrams who won the pentagon papers case, who happens to be my old boss. i had him on a show about the transcripts of these presidential foreign dignitary calls which a lot of people said are over the line. the president has got to have an ability to do private diplomacy. mr. abrams takes a different view, that they expose really problematic activities and statements by donald trump. >> the public was informed yesterday about really important stuff. i mean here's the president talking to the president of mexico, the prime minister of australia, and saying things which are against his interest

but are very important. that sort of thing is highly newsworthy, serves a genuine first amendment purpose, and the public would know less. >> walter, were those leaks over the line? >> you know, i think they were. i do in this instance. i think they were over the line because, you know, what they showed was that the president sounds foolish in talking to foreign leaders. but that's really very sensitive material, transcripts of presidential conversations. not as sensitive as something that would reveal sources and methods, that would reveal the fact that we have, you know, a way of surveilling the russians that wasn't previously disclosed. that's the most serious. i will say in floyd's behalf, of course, the president, when he's speaking to a foreign leader, has no idea who all is on the other line, whether it's being recorded. it's not exactly a private conversation. so there is that to be said. but i do think presidential transcripts, it makes me nervous, and not the kind of information like the critical

information we got that general flynn, the national security adviser, was having back channel substantive discussions with the russians and lying about it to the vice president. had it not been for that leak, michael flynn would still be the national security adviser, and that would be the threat to national security. >> well, it's such a great point. you sort of brought us full circle to the top story tonight with "the new york times" reporting mueller getting a hold of more information on flynn for that reason. thank you so much. >> thanks. coming up, donald trump versus his own party. that's next. this is joanne.

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i'm going to fight for every american in every last part of this nation. we have a president who doesn't fight. he goes out and plays golf all the time. i love working. i'm not a vacation guy, right? like obama. he plays golf in hawaii, flies on a 747. >> tonight donald trump is on day one of a 17-day working vacation. this is according to his aides, relaxing at his golf resort in bedminster, new jersey. his job approval, while we're talking about work, is down to 33% in a quinnipiac poll, 61% disapprove. that's a new high. news week's new issue dubs him lazy boy. some asking if he really wanted

this job. meanwhile at this west virginia rally, he once again blamed congress for work. >> congress must do its job, keep its promise, live up to its word, and repeal and replace obamacare. you have to do it. congress must get to work and deliver americans the great health care that they deserve, the great repeal and replace that they've been talking about for seven years. incredible. one vote. incredible. but we'll get it. we'll get it, folks. >> there actually is something incredible if you think about it, and here it's friday night. we can breathe for a minute. consider that it's six months into this congress, which means

the first session is half over, and it's a republican congress. and the only major things it's done are pass bipartisan sanctions on russia to defy donald trump and his policy and to go into, yesterday, a pro forma senate session to defy donald trump from even thinking about trying to ram through a new attorney general since he's so openly mused about it. where congress is acting, it is acting to defy trump. >> whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the president's subordinates. we are his equal. >> there's any number of things that we'll work on to try and wrestle back power and assert congressional authority over things we should have never allowed to go downstream. >> with the midterms around the corner, what will be the state of the republican party when they get back from this recess? that is up next. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening.

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okay, time to do this! don't let your bladder always take the lead. ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you. and visit myrbetriq.com to learn more. can make anyone slow downt and pull up a seat to the table. that's why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. so that you can spend time on what really matters. marie callender's. it's time to savor. i am a first responder tor and i'emergencies 24 hours a day,

everyday of the year. my children and my family are on my mind when i'm working all the time. my neighbors are here, my friends and family live here, so it's important for me to respond as quickly as possible and get the power back on. it's an amazing feeling turning those lights back on. be informed about outages in your area. sign up for outage alerts at pge.com/outagealerts. together, we're building a better california. what has trump learned about congress in seven months? >> i hope that we're a co-equal branch of government and we'll stand up to our prerogatives. we don't -- no president should expect any senator or member of the house to be a rubber stamp. >> thank you, senator. >> we have our own franchise. >> senator flake there talking about what the president might have learned. i'm joined by republican

strategist and author of "gop gps" and back with us, jonathan capehart. that was radio audio, jonathan, the key part there, though, is when flake said, look, we're a co-equal branch of government and we'll stand up for our prerogatives. lately, that's been defying trump when they do anything. >> right. he's reflecting what senator mccain said in a clip earlier during the health care debate that, you know, they are reasserting their power. they're reasserting their standing as a co-equal branch of government which you know from the last eight years and then the eight years before that, congress simply in a lot of cases rolled over and did whatever the executive -- took orders from the executive and

what we're saying in the way president trump is unarirunning administration, congress has found his backbone and has relearned the lesson that they don't have to take all of this lying down and that they are part of the solution to keeping the enterprise that is the united states running as reasonably well as it can be run with a chief executive who is literally all over the place. >> yeah. and the flip side is that republicans got united government and they're acting like it's divided government. here's mike lee, who has strong grassroot support saying, hey, trumps taking these cheap shots at congress and it's easy. >> is he placing blame in the right place? >> i have no idea. we're an easy target. we're an institution that has an approval rating of between 11 and 14%, making us slightly more

popular than the influenza virus. >> he's saying you want to attack republicans at the beginning of your presidency? >> donald trump has never taken responsibility for anything that has happened in his administration. so the failure to replace the repeal and replace of obamacare, it's the republicans in congr s congress' fault. and look at the health care debate, how we have different factions talking about different things to cobble it all together and the president hasn't done that. he views being president as a ceo and congress as middle managers and lower levels vps who do all of the work. >> what does make jared? >> one lucky intern.

>> jonathan? >> that's an excellent description. let's just take the health care situation, for example. the house passes a bill. it's step one in, say, 20 steps to make this thing become law. what does president trump do? tells them to all come to the rose garden and have like a victory rally for this one step and say we're going to get this done and then what does he do a few weeks later, he says, well, that house bill was really mean. so you have a president who basically just wants victories. he just wants wins. as evan said, he just wants to be there for the photo op. he couldn't care what it's about. >> right. he wants to win but he's not at a place yet where he can say all i do is win because they haven't put a single legislative win on the board. evan and jonathan, thank you for your time. jonathan, i hope we can catch

you outside looking good with an outfit as advertised. >> thanks, ari. >> absolutely. appreciate it, you guys. i think we're going to fit in a break and we'll be right back. ♪ sailin' away on the crest of a wave, it's like magic ♪ ♪ rollin' and ridin' and slippin' and slidin' ♪ ♪ it's magic introducing the all new volkswagen tiguan. ♪ higher and higher, baby the new king of the concrete jungle.

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brian williams. tonight, donald trump leaves for 17 days of vacation. "the new york times" reports tonight robert mueller's team has asked the white house for documents on former national security adviser mike flynn. plus, attorney general jeff sessions vows to crack down on leaks but is his tough message to his boss? and can the generals bring order to a chaotic administration? the friday edition of "the 11th hour" begins now. we've made it to friday. day 197 of the trump administration and a long-time trump ally and short-time white house employee is firmly back in the news tonight. "the new york times" is reporting, quote, investigators working for the special counsel robert mueller recently asked the white house for