Chuck Todd: Comey’s New Book Attacks Trump as ‘Untethered to the Truth and Institutional Values’
EXCERPT:
CHUCK TODD: Good Sunday morning. This is one of those times when we'd really like to look into the future and see how historians judge this week. The fired F.B.I. Director James Comey's new book attacks the president as, quote, "Untethered to truth and institutional values." The Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, decides to retire rather than face a possible future in the minority. The U.S. and its allies lunch limited air strikes on Syria in retaliation for President Assad's use of chemical weapons. The F.B.I. raids the offices of President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen suggesting a new pathway for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. And in what may be a huge break in the Russian investigation McClatchy reports that Mueller has evidence that Michael Cohen made a trip he's denied ever taking to Prague during the 2016 campaign. And if proven, that could be the evidence that leads to collusion. All this comes as our new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows President Trump's approval rating slipping a bit. 39% say they approve of the job the president is doing while 57% disapprove. The approval number is actually down four points and the disapproval number up four since last month. But interestingly enough, today's numbers are the exact-- uh set of numbers that our poll showed in January. It's more evidence that the president's approval numbers move up and down within a very narrow trading range. We’re going to have more on our poll later on in the show. But we're going to begin with a week that started with a raid on the offices of the president's lawyer. And it ended with a military att- strike on Syria.
(BEGIN TAPE)
DONALD TRUMP: I ordered the United States armed forces to launch precision strikes.
CHUCK TODD: On Friday night the U.S. and European allies launched coordinated air strikes on three of Assad's chemical weapons facilities after a suspected chemical attack last weekend. The president even ratcheted up his rhetoric.
DONALD TRUMP: We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents.
CHUCK TODD: But the Pentagon quickly made it clear that the strikes were limited.
GEN. JAMES MATTIS:: Right now this is a one-time shot.
CHUCK TODD:
The air strikes come as Mr. Trump is mired in multiple domestic political crises. And he and his surrogates are launching a campaign against law enforcement. Earlier on Friday, the president attacked fired F.B.I. Director James Comey, as an untruthful slimeball. And the name calling kept on coming.
SARAH SANDERS: Comey will be forever known as a disgraced partisan hack.
KELLYANNE CONWAY: A disgruntled ex-employee who after the fact wants to clear his conscience.
JOSEPH diGENOVA: James Comey is a dirty cop.
CHUCK TODD: The Republican National Committee even rolled out a website called Lying Comey attempting to discredit Comey with talking points and digital ads. All this, a reaction to Comey's new book a portrait of a president obsessed with disproving a dossier filled with salacious and unproven claims and unconcerned with the Russian threat.
JAMES COMEY: No one to my recollection asked, "So what's coming next from the Russians? It was all what can we say about what they did and how it affects the election that we just had?"
CHUCK TODD: Speaking of the dossier, McClatchy reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has evidence that Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, made a secret trip to Prague in the summer of 2016, a claim that was made in said dossier, which included a report that he met there with a Putin-ally.
In the past, Cohen has denied ever visiting on Prague. And on Saturday he denied it again calling the story bad reporting, bad information and bad story. NBC News has not confirmed the report. On Monday, Cohen's office was raided by the F.B.I. A move that unnerved Mr. Trump, who has always considered an investigation into his personal business dealings a red line. Some Trump allies used the raid to argue that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be fired.
JOSEPH diGENOVA: Rod Rosenstein is so incompetent, compromised and conflicted that he can no longer serve as the deputy attorney general.
