Trump Jr. Defends President, Slams Comey; First Lady May Move Into White House This Week; Ivanka Trump To Lead Meetings On Workforce
PAUL: Donald Trump Jr. is defending his father after the testimony of James Comey. Remember Comey's submitted testimony saying the president told him on February 14th, quote, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," unquote.</s>SAVIDGE: But the president and his personal attorney denied that happened. Listen to what Donald Trump Jr. said during an interview.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to get back to James Comey's testimony. You suggested he didn't tell the truth in everything he said. He did say under oath that you told him to let the Flynn -- or you had you hoped the Flynn investigation, you could let --</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I didn't say that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he lied about that?</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I didn't say that.</s>MARC KASOWITZ, OUTSIDE COUNSEL FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: The president never in form or substance, directed or suggested, that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that Mr. Comey, quote, "let Flynn go," closed quote.</s>DONALD TRUMP JR., PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S SON: When he tells you to do something, guess what. There is no ambiguity in it. There is no, hey, I'm hoping. You and I are friends. Hey, I hope this happens, but you got to do your job. That is what he told Comey.</s>SAVIDGE: All right, there you go. You got it played out there with a series of sound bites. Our panel is back with us. Let me start with Julian. What is your take on how Trump Jr. is sort of saying what his father did? Is he just coming to his father's defense or does he somehow add a bit more mud to the water here?</s>ZELIZER: Well, it's the chaos versus strategy question about the Trump White House, meaning the chaos is there is no war room. There no coordinated message as we have seen in scandals in the past and everyone is saying their own thing. Here he is directly contradicting what the president and his attorney said. The strategy side of this is the chaos is intentional. It's to create confusion. It's to send out multiple messages and it's to somehow put opponents in Congress with the investigators in a tougher position. We don't know which of these it is. I think it is more about the chaos. And I don't think there is this coordinated war room mentality in the White House as much as different player giving their own spin without someone at the top in firm control of how to respond to this unfolding investigation.</s>PAUL: Errol, how did you take what Donald Trump Jr. said?</s>LOUIS: I think Julian is exactly right. I have seen enough of this and really goes all the way back to the campaign. They do not coordinate their messaging. They do not have sort of a party line. Kasowitz, the attorney, the president's personal attorney, he rushed before the cameras so quickly he misspelled, you know, the word president in the very first line of his statement and he rushed off without taking any questions. We have had reporting of him telling everybody to centralize everything through him and then he doesn't answer questions from the press. So I don't think they have a strategy here. I think there's sort of a loyal son and that is commendable, I guess, on some human level, but beyond that, I don't think they have an answer for the many legitimate questions that are being put to this White House.</s>LOUIS: All right, well, let's move on to something else. That is that the first lady, now that her son's school has come to an end, she is going to move into the White House and we understand that could be as early as next week. Ninety plus people are on hand to accommodate her every request and it's all under the direction of others in the White House. But here is my point, the fact that she is there now with the president, is that going to change the dynamic at all, Tom?</s>LOBIANCO: Well, probably doesn't hurt him to have another minder with him, you know? There is always that reporting that, you know, Jared and Ivanka had been kind of keeping tabs on him and keeping his Twitter finger off the button, so to say, and that during the week, you wouldn't see that too much -- too many interesting tweets from the president. Then on Saturdays, he would pop off a little bit. Probably helps him in that regard. You know, there has been a lot of questions, more unlike the social scene of whether the Trump's would become a Washington family. Obviously, this would seem to show that. You know, we are a long way away from them talking about keeping another White House effectively up in Manhattan. All the, you know, questions about trying to secure that. So you know, probably a natural progression here, you know. Are they part of the swamp? I don't know. I don't think that, you know, that is the case here. Maybe not just yet, but definitely does kind of hurt the outsider image a little bit.</s>PAUL: Julian, this is another big week too for Ivanka Trump we should point out because she is about to leave these meetings this week about the work force, we understand, and bridging the gap between people who want to work and employers who want workers. What do you see her role being? How is she going to define this?</s>ZELIZER: Well, look, she has been the ongoing promise within the Trump campaign and administration of one of the more serious or thoughtful mind. This is an area of policy that has been a basic promise of the Trump presidency. We will bring more jobs. And so the question is can Ivanka be the person to finally step forward after months when we have heard really almost nothing about responding to the jobs problem in this country and offer some kind of work force plan. But at least from what we have heard so far, this is more of a set of discussions with CEOs and others than a very robust set of policies that will get to the core of what is causing middle class Americans to be so insecure and so anxious about their future. But of all the different players, she is the one within the Trump orbit who many opponents and supporters hope or believe can bring the most policy seriousness to this White House.</s>SAVIDGE: Yes, it's an interesting point to be made. Errol, let me ask you this then. Unemployment is pretty low and I'm wondering the message of jobs, jobs, jobs, still resonates with those who voted for the president. Clearly that is what they want to do is more focus on the employment issue and less focus on Russia, right?</s>LOUIS: That's right. Look, there are a couple of different issues within that. There is getting a job and then there is getting a decent good paying job that you can stay in and can support a family on. So we are at nearly full employment by one measure. On the other hand, if you add in the people who would rather be doing something else or aren't making quite enough money then there is a rather serious problem. I mean, look, with all respect to Ivanka Trump, this is a problem that is going to be solved by detailed policy work, people inside the government. There are more than a dozen job training programs. This White House has talked about streamlining it and it requires a tremendous amount of coordination between private industries between community colleges, the states have to get involved. There is a meeting of governors of the White House later in the week that has been scheduled. This is it's very intricate policy work and you have to have a lot of information flowing and a lot of different directions and to make it work and to make it effective is going to require a very serious policy apparatus. So Ivanka Trump being the face of it, sure, maybe that will be nice, but we really need to see a lot of the details as well.</s>PAUL: Very true. Errol Louis, Julian Zelizer and Tom LoBianco, always appreciate you being here. Thank you.</s>SAVIDGE: From Russia with no love, Moscow's top diplomat delivers a pretty harsh message to the Trump administration. We will also talk about the bombing strikes in Syria. The details just ahead.</s>PAUL: Also, British Prime Minister Theresa May appears to be cleaning house after that election disaster left the party without a majority. We are taking you live to London in just a moment.