MSNBC

Donald Trump is exploring another presidential campaign, but two Washington, D.C., insiders agreed Republican candidates aren't too excited about him announcing his candidacy.

The former president has reportedly been discussing his 2024 plans at secret dinners with wealthy donors and high-profile supporters, but MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire is hearing that GOP congressional candidates want him to hold off any announcement until after the November election.

Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers militia who testified before the Jan. 6 committee, said Donald Trump encouraged the warlord fantasies of the anti-government group's founder.

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes has been charged, along with some of his group's members and members of the Proud Boys militant group, with seditious conspiracy for their roles in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Van Tatenhove told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Trump granted those extremists "an air of legitimacy."

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell revealed that Republican lawmakers have avoided him since he was injured in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and he can only conclude they consider him an enemy.

The Capitol police officer will be forced into early retirement due to long-term injuries, and he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that only two GOP lawmakers -- House select committee members Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger -- have spoken to him since the U.S. Capitol riot, although some of the Republicans who voted against Joe Biden's certification have publicly supported the rioters.

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski said the phone call Donald Trump allegedly made to a White House staffer ahead of their testimony "fits a pattern" that she has personally experienced.

The Jan. 6 committee revealed Tuesday that Trump allegedly called a witness, a White House support staffer whose lawyer then reported the incident to the FBI, in an apparent attempt to influence their testimony, and the "Morning Joe" co-host said he has tried to personally influence her own coverage of him.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said the six-hour meeting between right-wing conspiracy theorists and White House officials demonstrated how deep in the bottom of the barrel Donald Trump was willing to look for anyone to help him overturn his election loss.

Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and Patrick Byrne got into the White House on Dec. 18, 2020, where they presented the former president with a scheme to seize voting machines and other highly dubious measures to undo the election, and the "Morning Joe" host described the event as the opposite of forum shopping for a friendly judge.

The Jan. 6 committee will focus on a decision made late at night in the White House that spurred the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol.

It's not clear who made the decision for Donald Trump to tweet out an invitation to his supporters to go "wild" in Washington, D.C., on the day Congress met to certify Joe Biden's election win, but The Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that investigators intend to show that post set the insurrection into motion.

A reporter who has closely covered the Jan. 6 investigation said Steve Bannon has few legal options remaining after a judge smashed his defense.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols denied Bannon's request to delay his trial on contempt of Congress charges after Donald Trump abandoned his executive privilege claims, and The Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the right-wing podcaster faced intense new pressure to plead guilty.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Republicans were costing themselves a shot at retaking the U.S. Senate by nominating poor-quality candidates.

The "Morning Joe" host blamed Donald Trump for costing his party the Senate majority with his 2020 election conspiracy theories, and he might thwart Mitch McConnell's ambitions again by backing a string of underqualified loyalists in GOP primaries.

The House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 still has at least two more hearings that they intend to hold, and now they're revealing when former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's testimony could be revealed to the public.

Cipollone appeared behind closed doors on Friday for several hours and the committee revealed that he did confirm some of the information that was already known. Members wouldn't go into detail from there, however.

Pat Cipollone will sit down to testify before the House Select Committee to discuss his service as White House counsel during the lead-up to the Jan. 6 insurrection, and a legal affairs reporter explained what evidence he might provide to investigators.

Previous witnesses, including former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, have testified that Cipollone repeatedly advised Donald Trump that his efforts to overturn his election loss were unlawful, and Politico senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" what the House Select Committee hopes to learn from him.

On MSNBC Thursday, New York Times reporter Luke Broadwater outlined the key question that he hopes to see answered in the upcoming House January 6 Committee hearings next week.

In particular, he said, the hearing is likely to fill in new information on links between Trump's inner circle and far-right paramilitary groups that helped pull off the Capitol attack, like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

The Jan. 6 committee has established that former President Donald Trump reached out to two close associates who had direct links to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups, and its next hearing is expected to further examine those links.

Cassidy Hutchinson testified last week that Trump directed his chief of staff Mark Meadows to call Mike Flynn and Roger Stone on the night before Jan. 6, 2021, and the former White House aide said she had to talk her boss out of going to the Willard Hotel, where Flynn and Stone were staying.

Pat Cipollone has agreed to testify before the Jan. 6 Committee, and a New York Times reporter explained what the former White House counsel might be able to tell investigators.

Multiple witnesses have placed Cipollone near the center of Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, which the White House counsel repeatedly said were unlawful, and Times correspondent Luke Broadwater told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he would be able to provide valuable testimony even if some topics are protected by executive privilege and the Fifth Amendment.