breaking tonight, the memo and the blow back now. donald trump says people should be ashamed of themselves and then we got a look at out what the memo actually reveals about his own presidential campaign. meanwhile, the russia investigation plows on. a former colleague of the special counsel is here with us live tant and he knows how mueller works a case. but will mueller's boss survive the trump administration. the president tells reporters you figure it out when asked if he has confidence in rod rosenstein. "the 11th hour" on a consequential friday night begins now. good evening once again from our nbc headquarters here in new york. this was day 379 of the trump administration. tonight the president has arrived in florida. here's a number for you while we watch that. the president has now spent 123 of his 379 days as president at

a trump branded property. tonight we now know what's in that top secret house intelligence memorandum that's been used to accuse federal intelligence of bias and discredit the russia investigation. it was released today despite strong opposition from the fbi and justice department. devin nunes helped to write the document, has been pushing for it to be made public. a party line release set it to be released in motion, and the president signed off on it. carter page, alleging that the warrant was wrongfully obtain by the fbi and the justice department. it refers to christopher steele who compiled the now infamous dossier on trump. republicans say the dossier was a key part of the information shown to the federal intelligence surveillance act court or fisa court to justify the continued surveillance of page. but officials did not reveal

that it was funded by the dnc and hillary clinton's campaign, though, not initiated originally by them. earlier tonight congressman nunes talked about this memo and how it came together. >> i have an obligation to the american people when we see fisa abuse, the american citizens that are represented before this court have to be protected. and the only place that can protect them is the u.s. congress when abuses do occur. i don't believe that somebody like mr. page should pea a target of the fbi, especially using salacious information paid for by a political campaign like this dossier was about mr. page. >> did you write it? >> myself, trey gowdy, our two investigators and obviously checked by the rest of our committee members.

>> did you read the actual fisa applications? >> no, i didn't. >> more on all of that in just a bit. democrats on this house intel committee are outraged at the memo's release. they have accused republicans of quote, cherry picking information of the material by the fisa judges. >> when they raised this memo, which they raised with no notice to us, we said let's bring in the fbi, let's bring in the department of justice, let's hear what they have to say. let's look at the full fisa applications. let's go through them. let's see what's being left out of this memo. we took a vote on it and they voted no, we don't want to know. we just want to publish or memo. so clearly this is not about oversight. this about a narrative they wanted to tell, that they wanted to get out in the public domain. and this is the latest chapter in effort to distract attention from the russia probe and try to put the government on trial. >> the memo also notes those fisa warrants were signed off by a number of officials who either had problems with the trump

white house. former acting attorney general sally yates, david boente, and current deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. rosenstein is robert mueller's director supervisor on the russia investigation. that puts him right in the president's cross hairs. asked about the house intel memo today, note how the president spoke. not about facts but in dark, vague almost threatening facts and offering no support for rosenstein. >> i think it's terrible. you want to know the truth, i think it's a disgrace. what's going on in this country i think it's a disgrace.

the memo was sent to congress, it was declassified. ask congress is going to do whatever they're going to do, but i think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country. and when you look at that and so many other things that's going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that. you figure that one out. >> something else we noticed today, the memo also answers a key question about what setoff the russia investigation in the first place. it confirms what the "the new york times" reported late last year, that this investigation was triggered by an australian diplomat who met trump campaign advisor george papadopoulos in a wine bar in london and became alarmed when papadopoulos after a night of heavy drinking said the russians had dirt on hillary clinton. and that triggered this

investigation. that dirt turned out to be the hack of the dnc e-mails. papadopoulos has pleaded guilty. he's now cooperating with the mueller investigation. his wife said recently her husband, george could wind up as the john dean of this investigation. and on that note let's bring in our lead off panel for another busy friday night. ken dilanian is with us, nbc news national intelligence and national security reporter, and we welcome to the broadcast anne milgram, she is these days a professor and distinguished scholar at the nyu school of law. also with us covering the president down in florida peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" and an msnbc political analyst. ken, you get the wind up question. you get to be the first thoughtful person we have here tonight. what did we learn today? that's another way of asking what was proven, what was disproven and what still dangles out there? >> well, i'm struck by some of the most significant things we learn, do not actually prove this memo shows corruption at the heart of the mueller investigation. and first of all it's the thing you mentioned, which is that the

memo is very clear the investigation began as a result of the information about george papadopoulos, which came from a australian diplomat. nothing to do with carter page. and the surveillance of carter page began many months later in october of 2016. so what does that tell us? that the investigation that became the mueller investigation was already well under way. so whatever mistakes that were made, and this is hotly disputed in the application for surveillance of carter page, could not, you know, sort of corruptly infect the mueller investigation. it really kind of foils this fruit of the poisonous true argument. and you heard it today on fox news, robert mueller should be fired because of this corruption. it's not clear how that would follow at all. >> this guy, carter page, which can sort of come off as guileless in television interviews, they've been looking at him for years, something like five years. did we learn today he was a

suspected russian spy or operative? >> we knew that -- >> in that way we knew that? >> he popped up in an old espionage case as a target of russian surveillance. the russians tried to recruit him. he admits this. not successfully. he said he was not a russian spy, but that put him back on the radar in 2013. and then he showed up taking a trip to moscow, which was publicly reported. and at that time the fbi began to scrutinize him. and this shows information clearly they had reason to believe he was a suspected russian agent. and they were able to get four different federal judges to sign-off on first applying for and then extending the surveillance of him. >> we have learned to have a lawyer present for all of our discussions now. counselor, you are it. what stood out to you today? >> first of all, as a lawyer always looking for facts --

>> that's a funny habit. >> it's amazing, and this memo had virtually none. i think ken has just mentioned what i think was also the biggest fact, which was a true sort of statement of how this investigation started, that it did begin with papadopoulos and this conversation about the russians having a e-mails. in terms of memo itself, what is also stunning to me is that it is completely conclusory. it purported before we saw it to be a memo that was going to show that there was taint at the beginning that then meant that the fisa was tainted, and it does nothing of that sort. so i actually agree, and i don't know if ken was going in this direction, but there are a number of things in there beyond what ken mentioned that i think support the mueller investigation and actually do not support this claim that they're making. >> peter, thank you for joining us first of all after a long day for you. and second you hear the tone and tenor of this conversation as we get to you, kind of the advance

billing versus that thing that we read today and what we're kicking around tonight. and i've noticed on cable television representatives for the administration when they've appeared, statements that have come out are kind of saying there are no plans, there's been no discussion to make any personnel moves at the department of justice. we've seen it. it wouldn't be unusual if these were aides to the president trying to publicly will him out of a decision, trying to publicly move him, in this case, into preserving rod rosenstein as justice. >> yeah, that's exactly right. one of the things people are going to be watching the president do here in florida is see whether or not there is some sort of move to in fact take action against rod rosenstein. and i think you're right. most of his staff, a lot of his advisers think that would be a bad idea and invite more controversy and allegations he was trying to obstruct the investigation. and it's not clear it would actually solve the problem he's

trying to solve. rod rosenstein has the power to fire bob mueller, for instance, but under justice department regulations it's only if there's a finding of misconduct. so far there is no actual substantial allegation of misconduct against robert mueller, even if in fact this fisa warrant were corrupted or attained in a less than perfect way. even if you put someone else in there as deputy attorney general you would then have to make the case that robert mueller did something wrong and therefore i don't think he has. you heard republican lawmakers say, at least some of them say leave robert mueller alone. when obama was office and maybe even after trump took office, but it doesn't indicate anything about what robert mueller, the special counsel has done. we'll see where this leads. the president is here for the weekend. he's got a few aides with him. he'll see friends at mar-a-lago. he'll have a chance to relax and down -- you know, decompress. but sometimes that's the moment

where he most gets upset about things and makes decisions that end upcoming back to be more controversial than they might have been had they been chewed over in the white house. >> the white house counsel who has a interesting job these day and at the crux of so much of this, in his note kind of said -- reminded everybody this is product of the house of representatives, where it's heading back right now. >> right, where some people interpret it as saying this is press release, it has no legal weight. and the point of that is if devin nunes and these republicans really believe there's corruption at the heart of the fisa process, shouldn't they go to the held of the fisa court and raise these allegations and let's have it out. of course, the democrats are saying tonight that the key allegations in this memo are false. they are saying, for example,

andrew mccabe the deputy fbi director did not say as stated in the memo there would not have been a fisa application absent the dossier. so we need to get to the bottom of that. >> and counselor, you made the point that this did not show at all that this was a dirty at birth investigation. let me take the other side. is there anything in here actually exculpatory that is thoroughly embarrassing to mr. nunes the way the publishing was rolled out? >> i think there's two things to point out. the first is there's a stunning amount that's missing. and the steele dossier is an essential part of the fisa documentation. there's a wiretap, he has countless business trips after that. we know he essentially continues to work with and have conversations with the russians. and it's also been publicly reported there was a prior fisa on him, so he's already been -- he's already been wiretapped. additionally, the fact in the

memo that they talk about that there were three or four authorizations, no reauthorization can happen without new evidence that supports the claim that the russians are trying to flip carter page and he's potentially going to turn against the united states. >> you have to stand in front of a judge every 90 days and say we're learning stuff. >> show something new that again reproves the point. that's the first bucket that i think should not be lost, that there's nothing i've seen that the fisa warrant was not justified. could there be some issues at the margins, of course. the second thing is that the whole contention that nunes is making here, the really core piece i think of this is this allegation that it wasn't disclosed, that essentially fusion gps and the democratic party.

but two things. one, is it's a challenge by the democratic party today. and two, there's a piece of the memo where that actual paragraph says there was information provided that an unnamed person -- steele was working for somebody else. as a matter of law the key question is they were telling the judge that steele was being paid. so he is not -- he doesn't come ins a good samaritan that walked off the street to say, hey, i have information. he's a financial interest and being paid for someone. it would be interesting for us all to know who that named person is. it might be someone recognizable or associated with either the democratic or republican parties who paid for the dossier. but regardless i think that's a really, really i think critical piece that's been lost in this conversation. again, i think the dossier was a core piece of the fisa. but even if that's their

argument, we've already got evidence that the judge was fully informed that there was a payment that was made to mr. steele. the other thing i'll say on this that i think is also important is that steele himself never had primary information. so he always had sources. so if you think about the dossier or the conversations he would have the with the fbi, it was never him saying i spoke to carter page or i spoke to a russian. he's saying i spoke to somebody else who spoke to someone. and to get into a fisa, everything that goes in there has to be independently verified. so there has to be independent evidence of it. so if you and i were sitting in as fbi agent, if steele said i spoke to "x," we would go speak to "x" or "y." >> peter baker, the nation turns its lonely eyes to our print journalist and in "the new york times" tradition give me the r.w. johnny apple, jr. lead

piece, the thought piece, kind of what have we learned? i'm reminded the "state of the union" was tuesday night of this week. what have we learned here come friday night? >> well, i'm just struck by, of course, the situation where we have a president of the united states basically at war with an fbi that's run by his own appointee and a justice department that, again, is run by his own appointee. that's rather extraordinary. even during watergate i don't think we had nixon in public bat battle with the administration as we have seen. and people around the country, they're worried about this. is the fbi going to look bad? are there reasons that it would look bad? but it's a rather extraordinary moment, and it's a risky thing for a president, too. normally presidents don't, you know, tick off the people who have subpoena power and are able to find out secrets. that's kind of a dangerous thing as a politician to do. most presidents haven't. so we're at an extraordinary moment where this president is

at war with the law enforcement apparatus of this country. >> ken dilanian, anne milgram, peter baker, much obliged. thank you, all three of you for starting our broadcast off as we said a consequential friday night. still ahead for us a colleague of robert mueller to look at this tumultuous week and ongoing russia investigation. speaking of which, is the president really considering moving mueller's boss out of the job? the reporter who got him on the record will join us as "the 11th hour" continues on a friday night. ( ♪ ) ♪ one is the only number ♪ that you'll ever need ♪ staying ahead isn't about waiting for a chance. it's about the one bold choice you make, that moves you forward.

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we've been talking about it for days, the reports that fbi director christopher ray, might resign in protest in response to the trump administration ignoring the bureau's request to keep that house republican memo private. ray instead took a different approach today by sending a video message to his staff saying, quote, let me be clear. i stand fully committed to our mission. i standby our shared determination to do our work independently and by the book. i stand with you. he goes onto say, quote, talk is cheap. the work you do is what will endure. we're going to keep doing that work because we know and we know what we are and because we know that our mission comes first, the american people come first. after that memo's release former fbi director james comey hopped into twitter to say this.

"that's it. dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the house intel committee, destroyed trust with the intelligence community, damaged relationship with fisa court and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an american citizen." having said all that, with us to discuss the implications of the memo release on the fbi, robert anderson who spent more than 20 years at the bureau and served as assistant director under then fbi director robert mueller. mr. anderson, i heard someone very smart say on television that among the things we gave away today, unforced errors, we now told the russians when we were conducting electronic surveillance in case they want to go back over anything they said, in case they want to go back over their steps. what's your reaction to what happened today, and what was lost today? >> well, i think, first of all, brian, i think you're right. i mean some of things that are being talked about on the media and news all because of memo which came out, which really

subverted the whole process that is to handle these type of situations in a classified and secure environment, it does give our adversaries insight into exactly how we look at, review, and in some cases extend coverages into our national security world. so i think that's something that needs to be looked at and addressed. >> oddly, it shows how difficult it is to get a fisa warrant and so many steps. but you're saying it's way too high a price to just give away this information. >> that's absolutely right. and i'll tell you that's a good point you make. if you've been inside the national security arena, especially in the fbi or other united states intelligence community organizations, the fisa process on a u.s. person is extremely rigorous.

there are so many checks and balances built in from the field office level through the general counsel, the national security law review branch and comes up through the highest levels of the organization. and i can tell you having signed off on hundreds and hundreds of fisa, they never make it up the first time. they don't make it up the second time. there's numerous reviews before they even go across the street to be signed off by the deputy attorney general and attorney general. i've testified in fisa court many times. some of these testimonies take hours and there's a rigorous review. so i think people need to understand that. it's not the rubber stamp that you hear some people say. >> thank you for that. the last time we had how on the broadcast i was reminded because you had just written an article about how robert mueller writes a case, for time magazine. let me take you back to your med line and tell me how do you think he's working this case?

what do you think is going on? >> i think he's going to keep doing exactly what he's doing. this memo is not going to slow him down one bit. what i read today further substantiates the investigation that mueller is conducting is righteous and forthright investigation which actually substantiates the allegations written in the fisa package merchandise so i think the memo does nothing but strength that case, and i think mueller is going to drive straight ahmed. >> what if the man before him is in peril? what do you think he'd do? >> i think, first of all, you have to look at the team and you have to consider the team of this is the deputy attorney genneral. he's a strong man, been in the department for 27 years and highly regarded. i don't think he's in as much jeopardy as everyone says. i think the team that's in place right now will go about this strictly under the rule of law. and it won't matter what side of the house you're on and i think those evidentiary proceedings

will commence. >> thank you. thanks, brian. coming up for us on a friday night, the reporter that got trump to answer that question about rod rosenstein today, she's here to talk about where this rod rosenstein situation may be tonight. ing to talk to y, uh oh. well, you know, you're getting older. um, you might be experiencing some, ah, sensations. ah, it happened to your dad..uh with.. oh, look the tow trucks here! can't wait to be rescued? esurance roadside assistance lets you know when help will arrive. that's insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company. click or call. you have any questions, uh.. i'm good. awesome.

and i think it's terrible. you want to know the truth, i think it's a disgrace. what's going on in this country, i think it's a disgrace. >> you still have confidence? >> you figure that one out. >> the man robert mueller reports to as justice is rod rosenstein. someone to watch because of this widely held belief the res leaf of this memo was aimed at him. an attempt to give donald trump a grounds to fire him. here was adam schiff. >> i think there's a grave concern that the president who is looking for any pretext to get rid of anyone who doesn't swear fealty to him might use this memo to argue against rod rosenstein or anyone else. as we continue to cover this developing story, we have two reporters on the story tonight. jil colvin, white house reporter for the associated press whose voice you just heard asking the president about rod rosenstein

today in the oval office. so it was jill he was kind of sneering at all and matthew nussbaum, white house reporter for politico. if looks could kill, jill, i was surprised to see in the elapsed time since your question and his very dark answer, though, we've seen a little bit of a shift if white house aides are to be believed their public utterances, it's as if they realized the memo didn't have the desired effect and they're now pumping some air back into the political life of rosenstein. do you sense that same thing? >> look, a white house aide said after that episode the president has no intention of firing him, that right now he remains in his job. but i think anyone looking at the president's face there and his tone can understand the president has serious concerns

about rosenstein and is deeply suspicious of him. felt like the release of this memo would be something to help make the case that this whole russia investigation is just a hoax, that the fbi and the justice department are against him and that rosenstein is part of that group of people, that leadership that can't be trusted. >> matt, have you run out of words to describe the depths of the president's desire to derail mueller? >> it is getting harder. i think what we saw today is it goes beyond just donald trump in this effort to try to distract from and ultimately like you say derail the mueller investigation. republicans in congress, especially mr. nunes and some of his allies in the intelligence committee and other republicans in the house are trying to do whatever they can to play defense for donald trump. i mean the idea that this memo was about shining light on the fisa process, i mean that's farcical. and donald trump made as much

clear this morning when he tweeted out, oh, this shows, you know, what awful things are going on at the department of justice and the fbi. and like he said in that pool spread today when he said people should be ashamed of themselves. i mean this is about discrediting bob mueller. devin nunes, donald trump fellows like matt gate, their goal is to discredit robert mueller. look, they're fought going to stop there. this effort to going to continue. whether rod rosenstein keeps his job throughout, we're going to have to see. >> jill, in normal times you'd be coming off a road show following the state of the union. that did not happen. we've got another shutdown looming less than a week away. what do you expect the business end of this west wing will -- >> i'm sorry, what, the "state of the union" -- i can't remember that happened. that was only this week. that speech was arguably, it was very well received by a lot of

people. instead he spent it mostly talking to republicans. and he spent yesterday talking to an rnc, and today he spent a big chunk of his day speaking to immigration officials trying to make the case that democrats are really slow rolling, trying to prevent the protection of these dreamer immigrants, trying to blame it on him. so there really haven't been any of the typical momentum you'd expect the white house to put behind an agenda for this year. we're getting really close to the mid-term elections, and the republicans need to have an agenda to sell this year that goes beyond, hey, we passed tax cuts. and we haven't heard much of that. >> the ratings for our fox friends have been through the roof. can you express the assist the

administration is getting from the long and formidable arm of fox news? >> well, it's enormous. well, it's enormous. you remember former president obama said not that long ago that folks who watch fox are in a different universe than those who listen to npr. i think he could have gone a little further than that. all it is is there's a plot going on within the fbi and the department of justice to take down this president at fox news. and they've got on fox like representative gates and folks like nunes who are fighting to lead this agenda whether the facts are there or not, and they're not. look, yes, it gives donald trump some ammunition for his tweets, it gets some of these people riled up. but i don't think shawn hannity going on the air and telling bob mueller to end his investigation

as mr. hannity has done is really going to have any effect. i think what mueller has shown is he can work through the noise. whether it's coming from fox news pundits or members of congress or from the president himself. his investigation continues, and i think he realizes and we all should recognize that these attempted distractions aren't going anywhere anytime soon. you know, it was uranium one, it was unmasking, that was the memo. who knows until how long nunes has another memo. if they're going to keep throwing out these distractions, robert mueller is going to keep doing his investigative work. coming up for us, the republican senator who spoke out today.

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and a year into this he is already not chipped, has cut away at the things that protect us. half of this country thinks the media totally lies. at this point 44% of this country doesn't trust the fbi. guess what? a year from now if this hasn't changed, maybe this table is in trouble if we keep talking like this. i'm not being dramatic. this is what's happening, kids. >> things got serious and heated and emotional as he ran through the damage assessment to all of us as he sees it so far. others spoke up today as well including john mccain who's home in arizona receiving treatment for cancer. he wrote today, quote, the latest attacks on the fbi and the justice department serve no american interest. no parties, no presidents, only putin's. the american people deserve to know all of had facts surrounding the russians in order to subvert our democracy, which is why special counsel mueller's investigation must

proceed unimpeded. if we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing putin's job for him. with us tonight, long time republican strategist mike murphy, worked with john mccain and initial a number of gop candidates including but not limited mr. romney and jeb bush. what does it say to you the most telling comments from the republican side came from a guy who's not been in the game of late because he's in a battle of his life. >> john mccain, i applaud what he's saying. and i hear similar things from other senators in congress on the republican side, but i hear them privately. i think more people have to speak up about this. politics is not declaring war on our institutions for your own personal gain, but apparently this president has no problem

doing that. >> are you surprised this is the most we're getting from paul ryan? i keep hearing moderates express disappointment and people saying things, my goodness, the guy's third in line to the presidency and got a custodian at some point. >> he's by kind of conservative, but i'm disappointed. i'm disappointed in a lot of our leadership. i'm disappointed in a lot of our friends. there's a point where the political game has to stop, and it's nautica rear over country. these guys are afraid of their primaries. there's kind of a herd instinct in both parties, which have become tribes. but there's a point it gets ridiculous, and declaring war on our intelligence community is corruption. and we have to find people in the party who are willing to say

that. >> how great is the fear of a reckoning of a backlash and how great do you fear that'll be carried out next november? >> i'm very afraid. if you look at the president's numbers and the turn out in the special election there's a receding protest army against the republican party, and we've got ten months. we will see. maybe there's some policy agenda like the tax cuts that will sink in and help but right now storm cloud horizon, we're bringing a lot back on ourselves. >> do you promise to come back and talk to us? >> i'll be happy to. and this memo will be over in 24 hour and we'll in shutdown politics. i think a lot of people think it was a dud. nothing changed. it's almost an embarrassment. >> i think i might take that back. mike murphy, thank you. always a pleasure to have crow on the broadcast. coming up for us presidential writer about the

mccarthy era. there's tail gunner joe right now. we'll ask him about it when "the 11th hour" continues. 1, 2, 3, push! easy! easy! easy! (horn honking) alright! alright! we've all got places to go! we've all got places to go! washington crossing the delaware turnpike? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money sean saved by switching to geico. big man with a horn. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

i present, general, you should be removed from any command. any man who has been given the honor of being promoted to general and who says i will protect and honor, general, who protects communists is not fit to wear that uniform, general. [ applause ] it's a disgrace for the army to bring these facts before the public, but i have a duty to do that. >> in the end it turned out he had no decency. republican senator joseph

mccarthy rose to prominence in the '50s including the state department and cia. his accusations that the u.s. army had been infiltrated by communists brought him great attention before leading to his downfall and his eventual censure by the senate. invoked mccarthy yesterday when he said this on twitter. quote, all should appreciate the fbi speaking up. i wish all of our leaders would, but take heart. american history shows in the long run weasels and liars never hold the field so long as good people stand up. not a lot of schools and streets named for joe mccarthy. we welcome back a presidential journalist. among his works in his spare time, barack obama, the story and the bill clinton biography, first in his class.

he's working on a new book about the mccarthy era. great to see you again. >> thank you. >> i'm a layperson in this. i know one through line is the lawyer from new york named roy cone, he was an acolyte of mccarthy, he was one of the new york mentors of our current president, but my question to you is what are the similarities you are uncovering? >> someone said history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. i have seen so many of these rhymes in this story. you start with just today, the release of the memo evokes february 1950 when mccarthy is in wheeling, west virginia saying, "i have here in my hand." a contrivance. just like today's was. you have "where is my roy cone" uttered by donald trump. you have roy cone was a mentor of donald trump's, he was joseph

consiglie consigliere, hatchet man and a fellow mccarthyite like paul ryan, who is helping him do this. and you have mccarthy, he was doing their work for them, going against the new deal and making democrats seem soft on communism, as trump today seems to be using them for the same purposes. and mccarthy went too far when he attacked one of the most revered institutions in america and maybe trump is doing that now going after the fbi and the cia. >> tell the good folks what it took to end mccarthy and his era and who it took to end mccarthy. >> well, it was in the spring of 1954 when mccarthy -- they were called the army mccarthy hearings by a senate subcommittee of investigations. and the subcommittee was looking into the fact that mccarthy and roy cone were trying to get preferential treatment for

another mccarthy aide in terms of his military service. mccarthy responded by attacking the army and saying it was full of security risks and communists. and finally a lawyer from boston, welsh, said to mccarthy "have you no shame, senator, at long last have you no shame" and by december, the senate had censured mccarthy. >> and it took the moral authority of a five-star general -- >> the huge difference is mccarthy wasn't president and donald trump is president and dwight d. eisenhower did finally stand up, especially when he went after the army. >> how are the hopes for your future for the republic these days? >> my hope in the long terms are great. in the short term, really iffy.

>> and last question, the role investigations played in what you're looking at now and we're seeing what, three, four under way now? >> well, there were -- you had the house on american activities committee, you had the senate committees. here's the great irony of this. russia is in both stories, right? but from completely different ends. it's like a distorted house of mirrors. many of the same people in that era who were going after people who were said to be soft on communism or communists are the same people today defending russia and attacking the institutions. you have these distorted investigations going on in both eras. >> all i ask is that you hurry up with it so we can read it. it's great to see you, david maraniss. always welcome on this broadcast. we'll take another break. when we come back, a word about what we're going to be watching, at least a lot of us, on sunday.

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this friday night is about what millions of us will watch on sunday. like a lot of you, we're going to get in our car, go over to a friend's house and watch the super bowl. the super bowl is a lot of things and while there is an indoor football game at the heart of it, that's after hours of pregame programming. it's a marketing bonanza. it's what passes for a national gathering place in terms of

electronic media and popular culture now. and it's a huge celebration of america, let's not forget. we're going to see flags and members of the military and commercials intended to make us cry, even though they're selling pickup trucks and beer, but we gather to electronically celebrate america like this once a year. and as we do this year, remember this, the folks at the economist annual democracy index have a warning that we're in a bad place and it's getting worse. "the washington post" puts it this way, "in 89 countries, democratic norms look worse than they did last year. just 4.5% of the world's residents live in fully functioning democracies down from 8.9% in 2015. that precipitous drop is thanks to primarily the united states. in 2016 the economist demoted the country from the full to flawed democracy, citing a

serious decline in public trust in u.s. institutions. in 2017 the united states didn't fare any better as the report's authors explain, president trump was able to tap into the disempowerment felt by voters who were frustrated by u.s. political and economic stagnation. the reports' authors caution this wole -- polarization foreshadows further democratic deterioration. so enjoy the game, keep your citizenship skills sharpened, especially if you sense that the america portrayed on sunday on tv doesn't match the country you are seeing these days. this is our broadcast for this friday night and for our week. thank you so much for being here with us. have a good weekend and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york.

hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. what was carter page doing on the trump campaign in the first place? a memo declassified by donald trump over the objections of his own fbi director who warned of grave consequence today reveals that one-time trump campaign aide carter page was of such concern to the nation's law enforcement and intelligence agencies that a court reauthorized a warrant to surveil him at least three times, including twice while donald trump was president. the memo also reveals that one of the men who authorized the surveillance of page is deputy attorney general rod rosenstein.