of the aisle are sounding alarms. the president today fueling the growing chorus of concerns that he came to the conference prepared to obliterate america's deepest alliances and instead cozy up to vladimir putin. here he is lashing out at germany in what is being described as a masterful display of projection. >> germany is totally controlled by russia. because they were getting from 6 to 70% of their energy from russia. you tell me if that's appropriate. i think it's not. jrm any is a captive of russia. they got rid of their coal plants, got rid of their nuclear, they're getting so much of the oil and gas from russia. i think it's something that nato has to look at. i think it's very inappropriate. you and i agree that it's inappropriate. i don't know what you can do about it now, but it certainly doesn't seem to make sense that they pay billions of dollars to russia and now we have to defend

them against russia. >> all this of course before they had even taken a sip of their orange juice. i'm not in putin's pocket. trump seems to say you are. his attack on germany taking an immediate toll on the tone of the summit. "wall street journal" writing, the clash dashed the hopes of diplomats that would showcase unity ahead of trump's meeting with putin. a nato official telling "the daily beast," i expected bad and i kept telling people to expect bad, but it is still surreal to see. one former cia director john brennan describing the stakes ominously tweeting, it is in the interest of america's security if nato leaders push back against the reckless behavior of donald trump, who is dangerously naive and grossly ignorant of how the world works. he writes. history inhe have staably will regard trump as one of the most disastrous figures of the 21st century. at this hour, there is one picture that perhaps best captures everything you need to

know about the president's stand ing with our allies. looking one way when everybody else is looking the other, defiantly out of lockstep. focused his critics would say, in the wrong direction. of course not pictured here, vladimir putin who may emerge from all this discord the biggest winner. joining us to discuss all of it in brussels eli stokols, the white house reporter for the los angeles times. ashley parker with the washington post. and presidential historian john meacham here joining me on set, a man dedicated his career to diplomacy. former assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacifica fares as well as the former ambassador to several countries. christopher hill. all are nbc news and msnbc contributors. eli, since you're on the ground right now, if vladimir putin meddled in the election, helped get donald trump elected, he certainly is reaping the rewards at this point. >> reporter: well, it remains to be seen exactly how much, but he is clearly the beneficiary of

any weakening of the transatlantic alliance. any weakening of nato. and what you feel being here today is more of that. it's what all the people of other member nation ands diplomats who come here, what they were worried about and what ultimately came to fruition very quickly this morning is the president really setting the tone here, it being a negative tone, very hostile going after merkel when she wasn't in the room. he's at a breakfast with nato general secretary stoltenborg. he decides to air these grievances publicly. typically the grievance itself may have some merit. there are other countries that oppose the pipeline. for trump to come out and say it publicly, to trash merkel when she wasn't in the room, i talked to a person who said it seemed vin tick did i have. this is the way he has treated merkel. he has also been unkind toward theresa may. these are the people who are sort of the pillars of this transatlantic alliance. you compare that to the way that he talks about putin, the way he talks about kim jong-un, and it is noticeable the difference and so people here were sort of on

edge. you had stoltenborg throughout the day reminding people that other countries have increased their contribution s to defense spending, there has been progress, almost begging donald trump to take credit for that and trump pooh poohed and said that's a little bit. they need to do more. just wasn't having it as the nato general secretary and the folks who were trying to paper over these -- this division. the problems with the u.s., the worries, they came out with a statement. at the end of the day it's palpable, the disconnect and the worries people have about the u.s. administration. >> ashley, help pull back the curtain for us. you like me work at the white house, talk to the people who speak to the president on a regular basis. this was clearly strategic. he knew the cameras were on. the first thing he did on the first moment of his arrival at nato was basically go to down on nato. >> that's exactly right. on the one hand, this pipeline has been something that's been on his mind for a while. he's been grumbling about it

privately and the president is someone who often blurs that public and private line so it's not surprising that something that's aggravating him would come out. but you phrased it exactly right, which is that he didn't do this behind closed doors. we don't know this because he said it privately and then it leaked out. it was literally the first thing he said in full view of all of the cameras. so this is not just a public grievance or private grievance that has now moved public, but this was a deliberate hit on an ally. >> ambassador hill, let me ask you. how problematic is this in real terms? it makes for a show for the president, but are there real consequence to this? we talk about optics a lot, but at this point it's become so familiar, is it really having a real impact? >> that's right. as a professional diplomat, our favorite expression is, well, it could have been worse. and it could have been worse. first of all, they got a 22-page nato document together.

they condemned russia in ukraine. they said they will never now nor in the future -- >> this is all a show. >> so there is a lot of show here. the question is why is he doing this? i mean, does he really think his base is cheering him on when he's blasting these allies of some 70 years and more? why is he doing this? that's a question, it's almost as if he's saying, hey, you don't like what i'm doing with our allies? just hold on, let me do some more. so when he said before they even reached their orange juice, believe me, they're reaching for something else today as well. >> i trust that's true. john meacham, let me play for you a moment from one of the debates with hillary clinton a while back that we were reminded of today. take a listen to this. >> well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president -- >> no puppet, no puppet. >> it's pretty clear -- >> you're the puppet. >> so, there they were talking about vladimir putin. the president saying i'm not a puppet, you're the puppet here. this had the same feeling. the president facing criticism

that he's a puppet to vladimir putin. i'm not. germany is. >> secretary baker, our state is credited having said, if it quacks like a duck, it looks like a duck, maybe it's a duck. it's just possible that the russia allegations, the sense that there is some subrosa relationship or pressure being exerted is true. and i think we should say that because -- is this simply petulance as ashley said? this is isn't a private grumpible. it's a public grumpible. is this something he had on his mind? he had a briefing book. there were too many statistics for him not to glance at something, perhaps by accident. but i think that you have a moment here.

i'm guessing from afar, but he is always conscious of the people at his rallies, the people at his base. i can what this was was another shot at bringing russia into a more favorable light and putting long-time allies in a more negative one. why that's happening is going to be the question that i suspect director mueller is going to have to answer for us. >> he really is training his base to dislike nato as one of our friends wrote, instead to like vladimir putin. here's what glenn thrush of "the new york times" tweeted which i think was interesting. you say i'm corrupt, lie, and spread fake newsome. you're worse, like ted and crooked hillary. you are worse, moscow merkel. ashley, this is something russia is one thing perhaps more than any other that really gets under the president's skin, doesn't it? >> it sure is.

it's sort of the fatal flaw or the one issue that he cannot let go of and is so sensitive. and so he is someone who has been accused of being too cozy with russia. and so what you saw today was him taking that allegation, that accusation and throwing it in the face of germany. and that's sort of a standard play book for this president. it's to take what should be a weakness or a vulnerability for himself and to weaponize it against someone else. often it's an enemy, in this case it's an ally who he perceives as an enemy. >> we like to say let's roll out that tape one more time. let's do that, take you back into the room this morning and watch the rest of the room. not just the president, but there we highlighted it. john kelly, the body language of the president's chief of stay, kay bailey hutchison, our ambassador, mike pompeo, the secretary of state, nobody's eyes are looking across the table at nato. instead they are looking in other directions right now.

eli, back to you on the ground in brussels. is there anybody in the president's inner circle -- doesn't look like it -- that can say, cut it out, or stop? >> it sure doesn't look like it. and the white house did no briefings today. they didn't make anybody else available. you just saw the exchange by trump and the leaders he had polar sides with earlier. there were no more extensive briefings or read outs on those conversations. not much coming out of the white house if it's not coming from president trump. you saw john kelly's body language. didn't look very good. you saw secretary pompeo after the day of meetings was over tweeting about the importance of nato. but those things -- those sort of tweets from staffers, from aides, from cabinet members ring awfully hollow to people out here, to europeans and nato member states when they've seen trump just sort of thumb his nose at alliances, at treaties. he's pulled out of paris. he blew up the iran deal. they don't trust him and they certainly don't trust the words

of his aides, especially when they kind of belie the things that are coming from trump himself. >> i was on the south lawn yesterday before the president left. he said that the last stop of his trip, the visit with vladimir putin, could be the easiest perhaps he's made it now the easiest by making this one the toughest stop literally antagonizing our allies. here is what leon panetta said today about our relationship with russia and how big of an adversary they are. take a listen. >> president of the united states has to protect our country from our adversaries. and i worry that this president, for whatever reason, is not operating with the awareness of how much an adversary russia is to the stability of the united states. >> the top democrats in congress nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are also weighing in on this within the last several hours.

they say the president needs to remember that as commander in chief, his duty is to protect the american people from foreign threats, not to sell out our democracy to vladimir putin. ambassador hill, is the president selling out our democracy to vladimir putin? >> you know, i think leon panetta said it best, for whatever reason. because it is hard not to arrive at a conclusion like that given what he's doing to this absolutely crucial alliance. and by the way, it's not just crucial to them, it's crucial to us. we have relied on allies really since our inception as a country. and for him to just kiss off our main allies is incomprehensible. and by the way, i've been in that situation where your principal at the table is saying crazy stuff and you are just desperate to have scotty beam you out of there because it is painful. and you could see all his staff members trying to look at their shoes under the table. >> it was remarkable. john meacham, walk us through. can you give us some perspective

on this moment right here, more than 70 years ago as nato was formed, now 70 years later you have the sense as you watch this today that we may be witnessing some history here. this may, in fact, be the end of the nato alliance. >> well, it could be. one hopes that -- one benefit here is europeans are accustomed to convulsions in politics. they're used to moving borders. they're used to regimes rising and falling. they're mostly parliamentary systems. a president who seems so far out of step with the basic stability from truman, really, from fdr forward through president obama, i suspect they have a bit more perspective on this than perhaps we do. ambassador hill may disagree with that, but they're accustomed to governments rising and falling. but there is, in international relations as in the lives of people, your word matters.

the character matters. your stability matters. something is going to happen because it always does where we are going to need help, where we're going to have to trust their word or they're going to have to trust our word. and i suspect the corrosion here is probably a kind of rot from inside actually. if you're merkel, if you're may, if you're macron, are you going to listen to trump if he needs you to do something that is perhaps against your own national interest? because you're not going to be sure whether this is a stable actor. this is old vocabulary, the vernacular we always used about north korea and iraq and other nations we weren't sure whether the principal was a rational actor. we now have that question about our own country and i can that's the most significant thinkig ou of this. >> ashley, i want to punctuate that, he's not a rational stable actor is notable because within

the next week the president will be alone with vladimir putin. there won't be anybody else in the room as in their translators. it's the two of them having a private conversation. there is not going to be a read out except what the president or putin says. who knows what goes on behind closed doors. >> that that is the concern. it is bad so far the start nato has gotten off to. it's the trip -- everyone is really worried about what happens at the very end. with putin generally and certainly when trump is in the room alone, and trump is someone who goes into all of these meetings, not just with someone like putin or a world leader, but even with his supreme court pick. what he's looking for is less of a real policy and more of a deal. getting a sense of the person and the vibe and that is exactly what worries all of those allies who are gathered there now. >> ambassador hill, what worries you? what are the real risks of that conversation behind closed doors

with vladimir putin that no one in the planet but the two of them will be privy to? >> i am afraid the president will not reiterate our view on ukraine. i don't think he's going to reiterate the idea that crimea is something we cannot accept. and perhaps more ominously, i don't think he's going to deal with syria or even north korea. there's a lot to worry about when he gets in there by himself unbriefed, unprepared, going on instincts that tend to be 75% wrong. >> because, eli, the president is all about personality, right? he's all about the personal relationship there. when these two are together, in fact, as we've witnessed, he talks tough from a distance. but in person he likes to have the sort of friendly conversations, right? he likes to warm you up, be popular. >> he does. he loves these one on ones, the photo ops. standing out there with 28 other leaders is not really his thing. but it's true that this is a thing that he likes to do. he likes to shake hands and

parade around and focus on person amou personality. personality matters to him more. it has bound nato members 07 years now. that is the thing that makes people worried. nobody expects donald trump to say something to putin about crimea, even though the u.s. is party to the summit declaration that came out today. when the secretary-general of nato stoltenborg was asked did trump give you assurances about being tough on putin in his meeting next week, stoltenborg dodged the question. he didn't have anything to say. people here just do not trust donald trump. he might have signed the paper today, but they do not trust him to really go in and press and to argue for those democratic small d democratic values when he sits down with putin. >> eli stokols in brussels, ashley parker, john meacham, abhill, we thank all of you. when we come back, the breaking news this afternoon on paul manafort's vip treatment behind bars. a private cell, private

bathroom, private work space that may all be coming to an end. details from the special counsel's latest court filings are coming up next. also ahead, michael cohen's new lawyer goes on record warning the former fixer will not be a punching bag for donald trump any more. ing, pins and nes of diabetic nerve pain these feet... ... made waves in high school... ... had a ball being a dad... ...and built a career in construction. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes causes diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda approved to treat this pain from moderate to even severe diabetic nerve pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs, and feet.

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provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. two significant developments this afternoon in the case against paul manafort. a judge just denied manafort's request to stay where he's currently being jailed instead of moving to the alexandria

detention center in virginia. this comes as robert mueller is out with a jaw-dropping filing late this afternoon countering manafort's request to delay his trial. this footnote in mueller's filing is drawing plenty of attention and it sheds light on why he would want to remain where he is. it says the following. among the unique privileges manafort enjoys at the jail are a private, self-contained living unit which is larger than other inmate's units, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone and his own work space to prepare for trial. that's all behind bars. manafort is also not required to wear a prison uniform. on the monitored prison phone calls manafort mentioned he is being treated like a vip. mueller's filing details the substantial access manafort has to unmonitored phone calls with his attorneys and highlights manafort's alleged explanation on a call that was monitored indicating he found a way around the jail's ban on e-mail use. this is according to the filing. it says, quote, manafort appears

to have developed a work around. manafort has revealed on the monitored phone calls that in order to exchange e-mails he reads and composes e-mails on a second laptop that is shuttled in and out of the facility by his team. this is amazing. when the team takes the laptop from the jail, it reconnects to the internet and manafort's e-mails are transmitted. joining us now, daniel goldman is a former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, now an msnbc legal analyst and here on set political reporter for the daily beast betsy woodruff, white house reporter with the associated press, zeke miller and ken dilanian intelligence and national security reporter to nbc news. daniel, let's start with you, if we can right now. this basically shuts down manafort's assertion that he was in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, that he was unable to prepare his own defense line by line. robert mueller's team basically said, that just simply is not the way it is. >> peter, as a former prosecutor for ten years, i'm shocked to read this.

this is specialized treatment like none other i've ever heard of for a pre-trial detainee who is awaiting trial. i mean, the fact of having his own work space, unlimited access to phone calls, that's highly coveted phone calls, they're very difficult to get when you're in pretrial detention. to put it in context, here in new york many defense lawyers would make pleas to the judges at sentencing that their time should be reduced because they spent time in pretrial detention and it was so hard, so much harder than elsewhere. and for him to have all this access that other detainees don't get, i don't get it. i really have no -- i can think of nothing else other than the special counsel's office just doesn't want any more flack for anything else that's going on. and you read that footnote, the additional thing about the e-mails and work around, acknowledging that. it's truly mind boggling. >> i'm reading the filing.

you talk about how hard it is to get those phone calls, time to make those calls. it says the filing does, that manafort had more than 100 phone calls with his attorneys and another 200 calls with other persons. ken, what does this mean for paul manafort right now? >> well, right now he's going to the alexandria jail which is going to be a lot harder than the northern neck rural jail 100 miles from here. what's remarkable about this, peter, his bail was revoked in washington, d.c. and when i asked the marshal services that day what normally would happen, he was supposed to go to the washington, d.c. jail which is one of the roughest jails in america. we were wondering how he was going to survive with his thousand dollars suits. he was a vip prisoner, he would be at risk. they moved him to this place in rural virginia. i don't think it's mueller's office givesing him the privileges. he was classified vip prisoner from day one. >> judge elliott in the order denying manafort's request that he not be moved. he says, quote, the

professionals at the alexandria detention center are familiar with housing high profile dee e defendants including foreign domestic terrorists, spies and traders and now, betsy, paul manafort as well. >> right. he's joining a store i had and ignominious group of people. one of the situations about paul manafort that is so mind boggling is the reason he's in jail in the first place is because heshut, because he reac out to people who were potential witnesses for the mueller investigation and this is what mueller alleges, encouraged those witnesses to lie to federal investigators on his behalf about lobbying that manafort did for a ukrainian government official who is close to vladimir putin. so it's really -- the parallels here are striking. manafort can't help himself, can't keep his mouth shut when he engages in this behavior and is always getting himself in huge amounts of trouble. >> he brought this up, my conditions stink. not only do they not stink, but they're really, really, really nice right now. zeke, what does the white house

make of this? paul manafort, right, the president -- we have been both of us in the briefing room when they try to distance themselves from paul manafort, said he was only loosely connected to the campaign for a short period of time. he was the campaign chairman. this is a guy that they cannot escape right now. >> no. i mean, in a way manafort is the gift that keeps on giving. the white house wants to keep returning. they can't get away from him. his scandals in this case, he keeps getting himself into trouble. and the most ridiculous ways, he created this problem for himself. he wanted to delay that trial and saying he couldn't have time with his attorneys, couldn't adequately prepare. by his own admission he has been fully prepared for that trial already. it's a month before it's supposed to start. the white house wants paul manafort to go away. they wish he would take a plea deal. they wish he would be across the country, across the planet. and they want him out of the news because it's a constant reminder. once this trial starts, it will

be a reminder day lyft ily, hiso the president ask potential criminal behavior. >> he's not across the planet, he's across the potomac. daniel, as of this moment, the trial is scheduled to start later this month, july 25th. there is another hearing a week from now, i think it's on the 17th. so even less than that, to determine when this trial takes place. how likely is paul manafort to have the judge's good will and be open to his effort to try to knock this thing back several more months? >> well, i think that based on what we're seeing today from this motion, it's not a very good chance that this -- the judge will grant this request. normally at this point in pretrial with a case with as many documents as this case has and with as many charges, defense lawyers often look to try to delay a little bit because of the mountains of evidence that they get much later than the prosecution does.

but manafort's lawyers chose not to use that as the basis for an adjournment request, but to use this, what we now can see is somewhat of a farceical rational that he can't prepare himself because of his conditions at jail. the judge is not going to look very favorably on that if he believes the special counsel's office. and so i think that this motion is sort of dead on arrival right now. unless there is some other reason that manafort can come up with for adjourning the trial, i think it may actually go -- that surprises me as well, but it does look like based on what we're seeing from the court filings, this thing is ready to go in two weeks. >> yeah, this is what the u.s. attorney, our friend joyce vance writes earlier on twitter. looks like prosecutors have had enough of manafort's misleading filings about jail conditions, excuse me, when mueller is ready to punch back he's going to make mince meat of trump's p.r. campaign. this is one small sample of what

lies ahead. ken, how upset is robert mueller by paul manafort's handling of all that? >> joyce is making a great point. robert mueller only speaks through court filings. he doesn't give news confrensz, he's not briefing reporters. when he speaks, it's meticulous, it's well prepared and it's powerful. and he really hasn't done much speaking yet. he's filed a series of very strong charges against manafort, but he hasn't gotten to the fundamental questions in this case, whether donald trump colluded with russia, whether he obstructed justice. i think there's a lot of speaking yet to be done by robert mueller. >> simply put, betsy, mueller is for t fortifying his team. >> he's been slowly building out the number of prosecutors working on the investigations with him. one in particular who stands out is jonathan cramis, he worked on gucifer, hacker of gucifer 2.0, dnc wikileaks. that hacker report was the first to reveal that hillary clinton had used a private e-mail during her time as secretary of state. so the world is very small in

this space of prosecutors and politics and the people who mueller has working for him are intimately familiar with all these matters. >> more and more of them lining up with the special counsel's office. betsy, thank you very much. up next a controversial confirmation, the man who is taking over the justice department's criminal division. democrats warning that he could put the mueller investigation in jeopardy. i landed. i saw my leg did not look right. i was just finishing a ride. i felt this awful pain in my chest. i had a pe blood clot in my lung. i was scared. i had a dvt blood clot. having one really puts you in danger of having another. my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®. to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner that's... proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your body's natural blood-clotting factors.

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late this afternoon, the senate confirmed donald trump's highly controversial nominee to lead the department of justice's criminal division. that is a big job. brian benchkowski will over see 600 prosecutors. it was formerly held by christopher wray and special counsel robert mueller. so what are the concerns with the president's pick? first of all, there are questions about his experience or better said, his lack of it. questions the democratic senator dick durbin laid out yesterday.

>> wait a minute. you are being chosen to head up the criminal division of the department of justice and you have no experience? you have never prosecuted a case, never? never once been in a federal court room, not one time? that's fact. >> then there are questions about his resume, specifically his work for a russian bank that thrives under the putin government. here's what senator dianne feinstein had to say. special counsel mueller's investigation has resulted in 23 indictments, 5 guilty pleas and one prison sentence in only one year. confirming benczkowski puts that in jeopardy. here's why. he refuses to recuse himself from the russia investigation, she writes, despite having worked for a russian bank under investigation for ties to trump. he also pushed for comey's firing to a.g. sessions, while serving on the trump transition

team. those are clear conflicts of interest. doug cornell is a former senior advisor with the dnc, he's joining our table. ken dilanian back with us as well as betsy and seek. 51-48, joe manchin the only democrat that broke ranks. what are the biggest concerns here? for those that are concerned about the special counsel's independence, do they have real reason to worry? >> democrats certainly do. let's unpack that alpha bank representation. aven alpha bank is a bank with ties to vladimir putin. there were reports that server was paying a trump campaign server during the campaign. "the new york times" looked into this. they said the fbi had actually kind of ruled out anything nefarious there so this is kind of -- it's out there in the ether. it's concerning some democrats. he actually represented this bank as a lawyer after he left the trump transition. but the people -- i've talked to former justice department officials today who are more

concerned with the fact he's never tried a case, never filed a motion in federal court and that he was a top aide to jeff sessions. and some people are wondering whether he can be independent, whether he's going to support the russia investigation. but one person i talked to said, look, he's a man of integrity. he'll do the right thing. he could be a bulwark against donald trump and the justice department. >> the important thing to know about him, he's a sessions loyalist. he's going to do what sessions wants him to do. for people worried about the future of the mueller investigation, that should actually be a source of comfort. remember, sessions followed the directions of career ethics lawyers at the d.o.j. his recusal is the reason we have mueller to begin with. there's been zero evidence that sessions has interfered or tried to change the way the mueller probe works. if sessions is going to be the person who is leading him, he's not going to do anything to undermine his boss. additionally, there is scant evidence he would be viewed as a trump partisan or a trump loyalist. this is not somebody who is going to be a stooge for the white house. so while the concerns about his experience are certainly acute

across the aisles or across the d.c. legal community, questions about the impact he could have on the mueller probe. if you talk to people who know him are not particularly acute. >> doug, i'm guessing the democrats are not satisfied this may not be a stooge for the trump white house. >> the simple way to do that is follow jeff sessions' lead and reku recuse himself. advising during the transition that comey be fired, so that's one way he could solve this. i think there are also larger questions that relate to his qualifications. could they not find anyone who served as a prosecutor or tried a case to fill this very important position? i mean, to me it's like unbelievable that they've put -- they nominated, now he's confirmed, this person who has basically no experience doing a job that's critically important. and it's sort of like part of the larger issue with the trump administration, where they have so many of these people that have these odd ties to russia.

>> daniel, if i can, lets put up first of all where he is in the hierarchy as it relates to the russia investigation now being overseen by rod rosenstein. on the screen you can see he is effectively number four if rosenstein were to go right now. butinvestigation, what potential impact could he have? is there sincere concern he could have some window into it, some access to it in some form that would be problematic? >> you know, i actually think this concern say little overblown. let's remember, rod rosenstein is the deputy attorney general who is overseeing the russia investigation. but that russia investigation is completely separate from the rest of the department of justice because robert mueller was named as a special counsel. that is not a part of the rest of the department of justice. so i think some of these concerns about him infiltrating the russia investigation and being a back channel for jeff

sessions are probably a little overblown. but like doug says, i am really shocked that the person charged with overseeing all of the prosecutors in the department of justice was not a prosecutor himself. that just does not make any sense to me and is a little disconcerting. >> senator dick durbin of illinois disagrees i think with the assessment, this isn't potentially problematic. here's what he wrote a short time ago. i cannot believe a republican party just rubber stamped a nominee who has no prosecutorial experience who chose to represent a russian bank with deep ties to vladimir putin and who would not recuse himself from russia-related matters if confirmed. this could be a historic mistake. zeke, the white house likes to put its allies in high places and here they are doing it again. >> if you look across the entire administration, they've had a strong challenge filling jobs with qualified individuals.

>> that's a nice way to put it. >> in this instance, this is somebody who is obviously close to the attorney general. in the family in that regard. if you look across the whole -- the whole administration, how many people are lined up to take this job, lined up to take other jobs by people who aren't necessarily qualified or have the relevant experience to take those roles? so at a certain point for this administration pretty often, it's who can they get who is willing to do the job? it's not even who is the best person for the job. are you a warm body. >> he's running the division of 600 prosecutors. he's never prosecuted a case before. ken dilanian, we thank you very much. when we come back here on "deadline white house," michael cohen making it explicitly clear where his loyalty lies and it is not with the president. not in i more. (vo) what if this didn't

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michael cohen's new lawyer, long time clinton ally lanny

davis speaking in an interview about how his client is handling the mueller investigation. saying he has pushed the reset button and it's a new michael cohen with a new attitude about speaking his mind. and referring to an interview earlier with abc news in which cohen said he'd be more loyal to his family than the president, he said this. >> he said at the very end of the interview with mr. stephanopoulous, he took these contrary positions to mr. trump who he previously said he would take a bullet for, a comment i don't believe he would say today. and the reason he said is i will not be a punching bag as part of somebody else's defense strategy. >> lanny davis strikes at the trump legal team on behalf of michael cohen. it sounds like he's trying to keep the federal government happy. here he is again. >> no question that bob mueller is a silent submarine, no leaks, focused on the facts. this man, mr. mueller, is widely respected for his integrity and

nothing rudy giuliani says is going to affect his search for the facts. >> daniel goldman and our panel all here with us again. betsy, let me start with you. what is the most significant part of what lanny davis says in this interview? he said effectively, this is his declaration of independence, that he's a freem man at this point. >> that's right. he said michael cohen has become a new person, he's reinvented or imagined himself. that's a big deal. this is lanny davis doubling down on the eye popping comments michael cohen made last week shortly before the 4th of july to george stephanopoulous. that was a scripted choreographed interview. it was deliberate. it was essentially a poke in the eyeballs of donald trump. cohen went out of his way to say he supports of the fbi, the mueller probe is behaving aboveboard, not engaging in bad activity. this is lanny davis pushing forward that narrative and

highlighting the fact that michael cohen is no longer whatsoever a loyal foot soldier to the president, but actually quite 9 the opposite. >> the question is what michael cohen has on donald trump otherwise this is all talk. the presumption on everybody is he has something. the fact that he said he's now free to tell the real truth, is that the biggest indication yet that there is something he knows about the president of the united states? >> well, he did hedge when he was asked about the payment to stormy daniels, porn star that the president had an affair with. but, look, i think one thing that's happening here is i think michael cohen is preparing for war with trump. i think he knows that at some point trump and his surrogates are going to turn on him and go after him. his credibility. and i think they need someone like lanny davis who is a lawyer but also a crisis communications expert. he's represented people like dan snyder in the washington redskins along with president clinton. and i think they need a visible face out there to counter what giuliani is going to do.

i think they're expecting a full-fledged war from trump and his folks that's going to try to destroy michael cohen's credibility. >> daniel, if i can ask you, it certainly seems like they're trying to butter up the special counsel in some way, right? speaking very fondly about robert mueller and how he doesn't leak. he's doing everything by the book right now. is that what this effort is? why is so much of this playing out publicly? >> i think it's playing out publicly because giuliani is making it very public. and i agree with doug. i think perhaps the biggest difference in michael cohen's new approach over the last week is the hiring of lanny davis. and i don't think lanny davis is being hired for his legal advice. i think that's going to be guy patrillo. lanny davis is being hired to counter rudy giuliani. they're playing very similar roles for michael cohen and the president respectively. the biggest thing that struck me from that interview, peter, when he said that when giuliani goes on sunday television and says that if michael cohen tells the

truth, then that will be good for us. and lanny davis interpreted that to mean that if michael -- the truth according to trump is actually falsehoods and lies and lanny davis made it clear that if michael cohen tells the truth, it would be the opposite of what trump would say and trump would want him to say. so that was a pretty striking revelation. i do think it is an open question as to how much michael cohen has on donald trump. and it may be that michael cohen has a lot of information on other people and a little bit on trump. but as you point out, buttering up the special counsel, michael cohen has been buttering up the fbi from the very get go of these searches. i think at some point he is going to go meet with prosecutors and cooperate. >> and, betsy, michael cohen is not your usual deal maker -- excuse me. donald trump is not your usual deal maker. michael cohen knows that better than anybody right now. is it possible he's playing the president better than anybody else has effect.

ly done so far? >> you know, i don't think cohen is trying to do some sort of reverse psychology on the president. i do think he's actually trying to defend his reputation. the sense that i get of this, especially i had a conversation earlier today with a person quite close to cohen and that person's explanation of this ex look, if cohen was trying to get the president to come back to him, to woo him or pay his legal bills, he would be doing the opposite of what he's doing. he wouldn't go talk to george stephanopolous. he wouldn't hire lanny davis who of all the lawyers in d.c. is known as one of the most loyal clintonites. you don't hire somebody from hillary clinton's inner circle if you're trying to woo the president back on your side. this is very much a declaration of independence. he's drawing a line in the sand. >> daniel goldman, thank you for spending some time with us today. wait until you hear what the white house had to say about that video we showed you earlier. remember the chief of staff, john kelly, cringing this morning? how the white house is framing it, next. man: it takes a lot of work to run this business, but i really love it.

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at the top of our show you remember we showed you this video. it's getting plenty of attention there. there on the left of the screen, the white house chief of staff, john kelly, visibly cringing, looking away, grabbing at his ear while the president lashes out at germany this morning during the nato summit. the white house press secretary, sarah sanders, now tells us kelly's visceral reaction had nothing to do with trump's attack on our ally. no, according to the white house, quote, kelly was displeased because he was hoping for a full breakfast and they

only had pastries and cheese. doug, betsy and zeke are all back now. it says nothing to the fact that they haven't been served yet. are they being serious? >> in reality here, the issue is that they would rather be talking about john kelly's reaction than the conversation of the president right before he sits down with angela merkel. do the opposite of reassuring all his allies, upsetting all of the allies at nato with his conversations about defense spending. they would sort of deflect and send the media into an uproar on this issue rather than focusing on the president. >> there's been a lot of other cameras focused on john kelly since he said there were bad folks on both sides. you remember that well, doug. john kelly has been in the line of sights for a while now. >> he was supposed to be the

adult in the white house that was going to control the president and bring some order to it. you know, it's embarrassing for him when he goes out in front of the nato allies, goes after germany and also you had obviously that iconic moment during the charlottesville moment where he kind of i think had his head in his hands. >> there you can see a shot of it. >> when trump was talking about both sides being at fault. another cringe worthy moment from this administration. >> there's another one at the u.n. speech. betsy, to you really quickly. this scene some are suggesting to me that john -- obviously his days have been limited. they appear to be waning. nobody really controls the president and the chief of staff certainly doesn't. how long is he for the west wing? >> you know, it's tough to say, but it can't be that long. he certainly -- at the very least he certainly doesn't seem to be taking much joy in the job. when people become really, really miserable in the work that they're doing, often that means they're on the way out. >> if the answer is just to give pastries at breakfast, i think there will be a lot of people

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my thanks to doug, betsy and zeke. that's going to do it for this hour. i'm peter alexander in for nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. chuck is back in the chair. chuck, it didn't take long for the president to start antagonizing our allies. >> apparently it does not. i have a feeling he's not going to stop, that's for sure. thank you, pedro. nice to see you. if it's wednesday, why is the president looking for loving in all the wrong places? tonight, the fate of nato. how president trump is taking aim at the alliance. >> germany as far as i'm concerned is captive to russia. >> plus, can republicans stop the president's trade war? >> i don't want to hamstring the president's negotiating tactics. >> and later, what if the midterm elections ran more like mad libs? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now.