Trump Would Speak with Mueller.
HILL: We are waiting to see Vice President Pence there at the podium in Dallas. He's addressing the annual meeting of the NRA. We're waiting for the president to take the podium as well. As we wait for that, I want to bring back in my guests. We continue to hash through what's happened not only in the last 18 minutes since we went on the air with a statement from Rudy Giuliani but also what's happened even just this morning. I want to take a closer look at some of what the president had to say this morning about Rudy Giuliani. Take a listen.</s>TRUMP: Nobody wants to speak more than me. In fact, against my lawyers because most lawyers they never speak on anything. I would love to speak. Because we've done nothing wrong. There was no collusion with the Russians, there was nothing. There was no obstruction. I would love to go, I would love to speak, but I have to find that we're going to be treated fairly. It is a very unfair thing. If I thought it was fair, I would override my lawyers.</s>HILL: There we have the president talking about how he really wants to talk to Robert Mueller. Nobody wants to talk to Robert Mueller more than this president. Paul, I know we've asked you this question a number of times, if you are the president's attorney, do you advise him to go in there and have this discussion? We know not every attorney who has worked for him has given him that advice.</s>CALLAN: I would never advise him to speak to Mueller. Every time the president makes a statement about a subject, he changes what he says about it. There are always five different versions of everything. You do that under oath to a federal prosecutor you have committed a crime. The president can speak publicly at a press conference and say whatever he wants. He's not going to be prosecuted for that. But if he testifies falsely before a grand jury, he's in trouble. He's facing potential criminal charges or impeachment first before there would be criminal charges.</s>HILL: When you look at that Giuliani interview, the first one that he gave to Sean Hannity, he kind of set that up. He said we think this is going to be a trap, we don't think this investigation is fair to begin with, setting up the parameter to which they could deny this. You can see just in the past 24 hours the way in which the president can't get his own story straight, that would set off alarm bells among attorneys wondering whether he should sit down with the special counsel if he can't get the story straight on the payment. Let's be honest here this is only the latest example of the president having a tough time keeping all of those ducks in a row. This is yet another example of why that's a concern. In terms of parameters, to Kaitlin's point, you have Rudy Giuliani setting the parameters there sending very clear messages in that interview with Sean Hannity, just like you have the president sending this clear message as he has in the past. I'm putting the narrative out there that I would love to speak with Robert Mueller. This is not me saying I don't want to speak with a special counsel. If I don't do it, it's just because of my lawyers and they won't be fair to us. But that's also an important narrative that the president is putting out there.</s>RESTON: He has to make that case in order to keep his base with him, keep the narrative going that this is a witch hunt, that he has nothing to hide, that he's willing to speak to investigators. But of course, if you are President Trump's lawyer, you don't want to put him in front of Mueller. We know from that very specific list of questions that the "New York Times" published earlier this week that there are so many areas in which there is legal peril for the president. And it's hard to see what he would gain beyond a PR victory with the public in going in and facing those questions and those follow-ups.</s>HILL: When we look at it in terms of messages that we got about the special counsel, the other thing that really stood out from Rudy Giuliani was this very clear message, do not go after Ivanka Trump. Jared Kushner, he's kind of disposable. But the minute the special counsel turns its focus on Ivanka Trump, that's when we really get serious. Paul, it's pretty tough to ignore that was a direct threat in many ways.</s>CALLAN: It almost seemed like Giuliani sat down with the president and the president said I want you to make it clear, send a message about leaving Ivanka alone. All of us are critical of the president so nobody can criticize him for wanting to protect his daughter. But it also suggests that maybe the president's true fear is what would be found out if there was a detailed investigation of the Trump organization or Ivanka's businesses. That's what he's worried about. And a message is being sent to Mueller don't touch her, don't go near her.</s>HILL: And we also got a statement from Rudy Giuliani where he talks specifically about James Comey and writes "it is undisputed that the president's dismissal of former Director Comey an inferior executive officer was clearly within his article two power. Recent revelations about former Director Comey further confirm the wisdom of the president's decision which was plainly in the best interests of our nation. He is clarifying his comments there, Maeve, what's interesting is how much the narrative on how and why decision was made to fire James Comey has shifted.</s>RESTON: It has and clearly that is one of the areas that is most dangerous for the president. And we don't have a clear set of facts, we have Comey out on his book tour talking about his side of the story. President Trump has said lots of conflicting things about the firing dating back to that original interview that he did with Lester Holt. So, I think that this is an area clearly that investigators are looking at and that the White House needs to get much clearer on their set of facts here. But Giuliani in general, that statement is just so confusing. It's like a Rubik's cube. You can't even figure out exactly what he's trying to say. I'm not really sure that's going to help the situation much today for the White House.</s>HILL: You know, there's another, as we were all waiting and watching to see what would happen once Rudy Giuliani was brought on a couple of weeks ago and we're seeing some of that and its aftermath, there were still all of questions about John Kelly and the relationship between him and the president, which the president also addressed this morning. Take a listen to this moment.</s>TRUMP: General Kelly is doing a fantastic job. There has been such false reporting about our relationship. We have a great relationship. He's doing a great job as chief of staff. I could not be more happy. So, I just want to tell you that.</s>JOHN KELLY, WHIT HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: It's an absolute privilege to work for a president that has gotten the economy going, we're about to have a breakthrough, I believe, on North Korea. The jobs report today. Everything is going phenomenally well, attacking the opioid crisis. It nothing less than brilliant what's been accomplished in the last 15 months. I believe.</s>HILL: I will say one thing that was brilliant in that exchange there, Kaitlin, is how General Kelly changed the narrative there. The president complained earlier today that we are not talking about these great unemployment numbers. And that we are almost at full employment and all anybody wants to talk about is this payment because both he and Rudy Giuliani were talking about. John Kelly right there really doing his job. Very quickly shifting to say, hey, look at this bright shiny object over here and how well all of these things are going.</s>COLLINS: Right, exactly. And they're standing right next to each other, so they can't really get into their personal relationship there. You could see John Kelly trying to take the reins here, trying to shift the president's and the public's away from all of this. I will say though however we're in the middle of a Republican primary season right now where you have a lot of Republican candidates and Republican voters who are very much sympathetic to the president and his views about this whole thing being a witch hunt and a distraction from things like at economy and from things like North Korea and other things that the president claims as successes. We have to note, however, that the president continues to talk about this in a way that helps to overshadow a lot of what Republicans on Capitol Hill would rather him be talking about. I think the Giuliani and Trump kind of strategy in that interview and taking that aggressive stance against Mueller was the sign that the two are them are keeping everybody else at the White House in the dark. Sarah Sanders herself said she didn't know that Trump knew about -- made this repayment until she saw that actual interview on television. The White House of course according to reporting caught off guard by the whole thing so it shows the limits.</s>CALLAN: You know what the strange thing about it is, though? Giuliani is now using Trump speak, which usually lawyers are precise in their expression of what's going on. He's now talking like Trump. This could be this, it could be that.</s>HILL: Maybe the president had a hand in drafting this. So many questions that we have. We do need to take a quick break. We're waiting for the president to take a podium there in Dallas. A federal judge today issuing a remarkable rebuke at a hearing for Paul Manafort. It wasn't for Manafort. This was for the special counsel's team. Plus, a CNN exclusive on the Republican chairman of the House Intel Committee who has been on a rampage about the Russia probe. Now we're learning when he gets those documents he doesn't read them. That's next.