yet we have no minimum security requirements for the federal government purchasing of the iot devices. i have talked to general ashley on this, i don't believe there is even across the ic and d.o.d. prerequisite before we buy the connected refrigerators or consumer goods that there be that patchability. so i think there's a lot of work that we can do, but we don't have the luxury of short time. senator blunt raised some of the questions around election security. >> and right now on "andrea mitchell reports," correcting the record. the head of the fbi directly contradicting the white house today on what they knew about rob porter and when they knew it. >> we administratively closed the file in january. and then earlier this month, we received some additional information and we passed that on as well. >> his background investigation was ongoing. he was operating on an interim security clearance. his clearance was never denied. and he resigned. red storm. the nation's top intelligence officials often say russia will be waging boulder and more disruptive cyber warfare against the united states within the next year, including targeting the 2018 elections. >> frankly, the united states is under attack. under attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every major action that takes place in the united states. and democratic senators hoping today's warning will finally get the president to agree. >> there is a wide consensus among intelligence community that russia interfered with the president of the united states. and good day, everyone. a big day here on capitol hill. i'm andrea mitchell where the fbi director chris ray took members of the senate intelligence committee through a clear timeline detailing the repeated rejection of rob porter's full security clearance for more than a year. >> was the white house informed that this could effect his security clearance, that's a yes or no? >> i can't get into the content of what was briefed -- what i can tell you is that the fbi submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in march. and then a completed background investigation in late july that soon thereafter we received requests for follow-up inquiry. and we did the follow-up and provided that information in november. and then we administratively closed the file in january. and then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well. >> in other words, the fbi did its job. joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker and nbc intelligence reporter ken delanian. kristen, this contradicts what the white house was saying, it was an ongoing investigation that had not been completed. >> reporter: that was the talking point here at the white house that the background check was ongoing when it came to rob porter. and they continued to insist that they only became fully aware, fully aware of the full picture and the allegations of spousal abuse when that was reported in the news. so what we are learning today from the fbi director is that this is a stark contradiction to what we have been told here at the white house. now, we have reached out to a number of white house officials for comment, for clarification as well as the white house counsel's office. andrea, remember, the white house counsel's office was made aware of the issues when this background check first initiated and they determined there were some problems. the white house continues to struggle with this timeline to explain who know what and when. andrea? >> let's look back at what has been said over the past week by the white house spokes people, rod shaw and sarah sanders. >> he was operating on an interim security clearance. his clearance was never denied and he resigned. >> the allegations that were raised against him would make him a prime candidate for black maybe that would lead any responsible person at the fbi to come to the white house to say, i just want to let you know, this person will likely never get a permanent security clearance. was that concern ever raised to anyone at the white house? >> i know we let the process play out, it was ongoing, hasn't been completed. and beyond that in the statement i just gave you, i don't have anything to add. >> ken delanian, the bottom line as our contribute tomorrows have been reporting, jeremy bash only yesterday, when the fbi gives an interim clearance and sends the file over, beginning last march, that's amounting to a rejection. but it is up to the president and the white house and the chief of the staff to maybe the decision. the white house did its job. >> reporter: that's the point many people are missing here, which is the fbi doesn't grant a security clearance. what the fbi does in this instance is conduct a background investigation and present its findings to the white house, which makes the final decision. and the president can clear anyone he wants regardless of the fbi's findings. and it is pretty clear from this timeline, and we know from what the ex-wives said to reporters, they passed information onto the fbi. the fbi was analyzing that information. porter was never given, was never -- never got a finding to clear his way to a full clearance yet he continued to be in very high level sensitive meetings. because after all, he was managing the paper flow within the oval office. some of the most classified documents, some of the most sensitive meetings he was on hand for while all this was playing out, andrea. >> and this, of course, may well apply to jared kushner and others. when the white house officials, kristen, kellyanne conway and others, mark short on the weekend shows, tried to put the emphasis back on the fbi and talk about backlog and how long it takes, yes, there's a backlog, that's also come out and one of the criticisms during this hearing. but the bottom line is, for top assistants, the assistants to the president, the highest rank in the white house, those are done immediately. and those were cleared or they attempted to clear them at the onset of the administration. >> reporter: absolutely right, andrea. based on our reporting as well as ken delanian's, 30 to 40 officials here at the white house still don't have their permanent security clearance, including jared kushner. and now we have spoken to officials with past administrations, republican and democrat, who say that it's highly unusual that it would take this long for that many security clearances to be cleared within a year. sometimes it can take a year, sometimes it can take longer. but they note that that is a fairly high number, specifically when you are talking about people who are working in such close proximity to the president like a rob porter and like jared kushner. so the broader security, the broader vetting here at the white house really coming under a microscope. i asked president trump about this yesterday and he ignored shouted questions about it, andrea. >> as peter baker was reporting in "the new york times," 31% of the white house staff has turned over in the year. 34% of them don't have security clearances. this at a time with persistent threats. that's the other headline out of this hearing. ken delanian. we have covered the white house intelligence committee for a long time, since 9/11, ever since the post-9/11 changes and the reporting in a unified way, it is always terrorism that has been the top threat. this year it's cyber and russia and russia's continuing threats. dan coates said as we played at the top of the show that the united states is under attack. under attack from russia and others trying to undermine our democracy and that there's still focus on the 2018 election. and as we also heard today, nothing has been done. there's been no briefing requested by the president about this threat. i think we have that bite, as a matter of fact. let me play that and come back to you. >> has the president directed you and your agency to take specific actions to confront and blunt russian influence activities that are ongoing? >> we're taking a lot of specific efforts to blunt comments. >> specifically directed by the president? >> not specifically directed by the president. >> ken, that underminds the fact that vladimir putin is not acknowledged by the president of the united states as an ongoing threat to our democracy and election process. >> reporter: yes, i thought the questioning by jack reid was the most important of the entire hearing. the russian effort to interfere in our politics is join going, it's ramping up and they expect russia will interfere in the 2018 midterms. and they talked about specific steps they're taking to potentially thwart that. but what jack reid got them to admit is that the president never asked them to do that. and it is not clear what intelligence the president has received or whether he's interested in this topic. and there's a real disconnect. and senator angus king, it was almost a plaintiff cry that he uttered essentially saying, where is the presidential leadership on this subject? i'm glad you intelligence chiefs are engaged, but why can't the president explain to my constituents in maine, angus king was saying, this is not a hoax, this is not a witchunt. russia interfered in the election and are coming back again. >> and the hearing is breaking up. they will be returning this afternoon for a closed session and a lot of what they can then go into that classified behind closed doors. joining me is the executive director shawn henry. and here with me in washington, john mclaughlin. john, first to you, you have sat through many of the hearings, they are not phofun. and there was a farewell appearance for mike rogers leaving the national security agency. and he said he'll miss these gatherings, which he will not, of course. these are tough hearings, but it's a unique venue in which to tell the american people and the congress of the united states and the white house, if the white house is listening, what are the threats? they outline cyber, russia, they talked about iran and the counter terror threat. they acknowledged that the iran nuclear deal is working, keeping that one-year timeline, which was the goal all along to postpone the eventuality of getting a nuclear device for one year and have eyes on it with the inspections that come with the nuclear deal. and they talked about the cyber threat undermining our democracy, which has not been addressed. >> i used to like to do the hearing. >> well, you like the back and forth. >> well, i like the back and forth, but people use the phrase truth to power. what the american people are seeing here is your intelligence community speaking truth to power. in these hearings, basically the world of spin collides with the world of fact. because you put intelligence professionals under oath and you ask them what is going on, what are the facts? they are going to tell you, that's their job. that's what they do. you know, 24/7. so it's been a good hearing so far. and i would encourage people, too, to look seriously at the document this community puts out. i think we are the only community in the world that puts out such a thorough inuberation of the threats. and buried in there are interesting things. you mentioned the most important ones, but take a look at what they say about the anti-satellite capabilities being developed by russia and china as a future threat. it's a very good hearing so far. >> and very timely the warning about north korea, that kim jong-un's sister is indeed as mike pompeo said the head of propaganda for north korea. that, in fact, north korea is in the next year, they believe, going to resume missile testing, long-range missile testing, and also the threat from the foreign minister of north korea to have an atmospheric nuclear test in the pacific. >> yes. i think you can look at north korea at this point as, if you had to rank order the regional threats around the world, probably in the number one or number two category for all of those reasons. as best we know based on the last test they did with a missile, they are very close to now being able to lift a nuclear weapon off the launchpad. the last test data i saw said they could put a thousand kilograms on a payload. they still have to work on the guidance system and a lot of the smaller parts, but they're getting closer and closer. and i think within this president's term they will be there. >> senator king was talking about the cyber threats, so i wanted to ask shawn henry about that. let's play that sound and come to you on the other side. >> we have no doctrine of deterrents. how are we ever going to get them to stop doing this if all we do is patch our software and try to defend ourselves? >> i would argue that your statement that we have done nothing does not reflect the responses that frankly some of us at this table have engaged in and the united states government has engaged in both before and after, both during and before this administration. >> but deterrence doesn't work unless the other side knows it. >> shawn henry, this is right in your ballpark. does the other side know that we have deterrence and that we have an offensive capability if we need it? >> well, i think our adversaries know we have an offense, andrea, but what i heard angus king from maine talk about is the fact that we need a unified cyber security strategy. and one of the members of the panel, it may have been coates who said, yes, senator, we need a comprehensive strategy. and when i heard that i was somewhat shocked. because in 2007, there was a group of representatives from 20 different agencies and departments across the u.s. government who got together and developed a comprehensive national security strategy. that strategy actually encompassed all of the issues that we're dealing with here today. it talked about how you unified the budgets of the different agencies to ensure there are no gaps and there's no overlap. it talked about shared situational awareness, how the different agencies across the government and the intelligence community, law enforcement and the civilian agencies, share the intelligence to understand. it talked about developing a counter intelligence cyber strategy. it talked very specifically about deterrence. it was one of the 12 initiatives clearly, how do you define the red lines and ensure that the ad very airs know what the response is going to be if the red line is crossed? it also talked about how you take the government strategies and move them into private sector, into critical infrastructure like electric power, for example. and how do you put detection capabilities into infrastructure so you can actually identify when these attacks are occurring? the most important thing, andrea, not only did the administration in 2007 sign this, the department of homeland security, the secretary of the department of justice, secretary of defense, secretary of the treasury, it was also brought to congress. they authorized and appropriated $10 billion. so the plan exists. blow the dust off it. when you take it off the shelf, use it as a framework going forward. we need to be able to define four adversaries and what the response is going to be. but we need to incorporate the ideas, build out the strategy. and that would have helped to protect us against some of the most significant threats that we have seen over the last few years, andrea. >> and every one of these officials, mike mafalout, a former u.s. ambassador to russia and from the nsc as well, when all the officials were asked, is russia still trying to attack our elections, the 2018 election, they said, yes. and we have already shown that christopher ray said no one asked him, the white house had not asked him. the president had not asked him to address this issue. to address this threat. vladimir putin has not been sanctioned under the new sanctions that were approved by the congress. vladimir putin yesterday talked to the president of the united states. and we only know that initially from the kremlin. once again, the kremlin announced that they had a conversation. and later, putin said, donald trump asked him to, in his meetings in moscow with mahmoud abbas, convey messages from the president to abbas. we are dealing with the palestinians through vladimir putin? conducting our foreign policy? what is going on here? >> well, let me just remind your viewers that all the gentlemen testifying today, their job is intelligence. their job is not to make policy. it's not to make foreign policy. just as you were discussing, we don't have a unified cyber security strategy. we don't have a unified russia policy right now. and so many people at lower levels of the government including heads of cabinets and even in the nsc, share the assessment we heard today about the russian threat. especially the russian threat coming up in the last few months now. but somehow the president of the united states doesn't agree with that assessment, doesn't want to deal with the policy implications that come from that assessment. and that disconnect means that we're not doing what i consider very elementary things to protect our vote to protect our sovereignty because of the disconnect between the president. and literally, in my view, i think the rest of his national security team. >> ambassador mcfaul, can you explain the refusal of the white house to take actions protectively to prevent russia from continuing what it is doing, given the intelligence analysis, which is a unified analysis from every head of the agencies? >> you know, having followed this for years now, and by the way, some of us have been talking about these steps for years, not just weeks or months. it has been obvious for a long time what the russians have been doing in terms of violating our sovereignty during elections. you know, the only explanation i have is that the president thinks that by admitting the diagnostics about what russia is doing, it will undermine the legitimacy of his election back in 2016. and because of that tension, he refuses to treat this as a national security threat. it's not a republican or democratic threat, it's a national security threat. and i think it is because of that he refuses to talk about it in a serious way. >> i think it was also significant that christopher ray implicitly rebuked the white house for the criticism directed at the fbi and indirectly at the justice department. let's watch. >> i would say that my experience now six months in with the fbi has validated all my prior experiences with the fbi, which is that it is the finest group of professionals and public servants i can hope to work for. every office i go to, every division i go to has patriots. >> so you haven't seen any evidence of some sofrt of political inheritance in the agency? >> no. >> is that going to get christopher wray in trouble by the white house? >> i like to hear about the hard working of the men and women working to identify threats and to work to protect the citizens of the united states. that was always my experience. and national security is not a partisan issue. and in my experience, it has always been working hard to identify threats to the country and to help to mitigate those. >> shawn henry, ambassador mike mcfaul and john mclaughlin, thank you so much. coming up, how does the white house recover from the latest scan doll to hit the west wing? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. you may be at increased risk for pneumococcal pneumonia, that 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pharmacist about prevnar 13®. the fbi aware of allegations related to rob porter and domestic abuse? and if so, was the white house informed this could affect his security clearance, when were they informed and who at the white house was informed? >> i would say that the background at the white house process involves a fairly elaborate standard, protocol, et cetera that have been in place for 20 years. and i'm quite confident that the fbi followed established protocols. >> chris wray testifying that the white house was told about former allegations against rob porter just moments before he contra digited the white house claims that porter's security clearance was still underway. joining me now, rob claim, bill crystal, and susan page. you're the "usa today" bureau chief, i ran this together, but you know who you are. >> we think we do, right? >> you were involved in two white houses and watched the law offices work. have you ever seen a white house putting it on the fbi to have these, make these decisions about clearances? this is a decision for the white house, for the chief of staff, per the president of the united states, under the advice of the general counsel. the white house gets information from the fbi, who is good, who is bad, who has stuff in their background. then they have to act on it. >> right. there's no pawning this off on the fbi. the fbi clearly did their job. they did their job months ago to make the white house aware of the charges. what has gone on here is not just that there's been a horrible mistake in judgment by the senior team of the white house letting rob porter be there, but they continue to lie about it and think they will get away with it. and it is time to come clean about what they knew and when they knew, admit they made a horrible judgment, and then try to put it behind them. but if they continue to say, we acted quickly and didn't know, the fbi didn't tell us, they are just not -- that's ridiculous. >> here's what they know and what -- they knew he had been very credibly accused of abusing his ex-wives and didn't care. let's say jared kushner, that's a biggish swhu the security clearance, the fbi isn't going to tell them anything they don't know. they know he has business dealings around the world, which he's not fully separated from, which are with countries with whom he's negotiating and they decided they don't care about that. i agree with ron, this is the fbi's choice. if they want to make the choice, they have to be forced to defend it. >> and it is the white house's choice. >> absolutely. >> the first ex-wife of rob porter has written an op-ed column in "the washington post." this is the first time we have heard from her. and she is the woman, of course, whose picture with the photo of the black eye was seen. being strong with excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts does not inoculate a person against abuse. it doesn't prevent her from entering into a relationship with an abuser. abuse often doesn't manifest itself early on, only later when you're in deep and behind closed doors. the really ugly side of rob's abuse only came out after we were married following three years of dating. of course, he's denied all this, understandably, but she's also talking about what got her to react after several days of this was watching kellyanne conway and sarah sanders, the women in the white house, so let's play a little bit of kellyanne and what she had to say about this alleged abuse. >> in the case of hope, i rarely met somebody so strong with such excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts. i didn't have the presence of mind and the professional capabilities at her age. >> and she's being asked whether hope hicks who is supposedly dating rob porter could be in danger given his past alleged record. and this was her response that she thinks hope is strong. and what kobe hodan is saying is strength has nothing to do with it. >> northwest you cadomestic abu those who are smart and confident and ensnares women who find it very difficult to get out. and the reason this is so serious for the white house is they are now caught up in questions about their competence and judgment amid a change in our society. this is a transformation in attitudes toward sexual harassment in the workplace and domestic abuse at home. and it's now being treated with a seriousness it never has been given before. the white house knew about these allegations against a key official since july, at least since july and decided it wasn't important enough to cost them. >> according to march, according to the timeline christopher wray put out today. >> one of his ex-gifts called the white house counsel who works in the white house to alert him to this. and the fact that that wasn't the ninth red flag. look, i'm with susan that this is a time of social change on a lot of the issues, but domestic abuse, even 20, 30 years ago, someone with this kind of record would never have been allowed to work in the white house, under a democrat or republican. it's inexcusable this was allowed to happen. but doubly excusable now that they continue to defend it, lie about it and not come clean. >> and denigrate the women who were abused. that's what kellyanne conway was doing. your hope is very strong, implicitly, unlike the other women. it's blaming the victim. what about president trump? last i looked he was in charge of the white house. and the only thing he said to my knowledge was to express sympathy for rob porter's career being damaged. >> sarah sanders is vouching for the fact that now he's expressed concern about this but he has not tweeted about it, at least at the moment that i got on the air, the last time i was reading, he hasn't said anything. susan, the other thing that really flies in the face is the politico reporting, which is not disputed by the people who are present, that four major organizations had reporters brought in to sit down with rob porter and hear his self-defense after the charges were made. so instead of the 40 minutes and he was out, they were still trying to spin it and have porter explain himself to people from the new york times, "the washington post" and other organizations. >> and this was after the photograph of the ex-wife with the black eye had been published. and for some people at the white house, that was apparently the turning point. although i think it is unrealistic and fair to say we only believe act saxs of northwest you can abuse if you can provide a photograph that shows your injuries. so this raises questions about the president, but also about the chief of staff. this strikes me as being a very serious matter for general kelly, one that he has not yet address in a way that will convince people that he was behaving with good judgment. >> and the "today" show interviewed jessica corbett, jessica corbett is the ex-wife of david sorensen who resigned when his alleged abuse was exposed. he claims he was the victim. this is what she had to say on "today.." >> he sat down and said, well, the first question is, why did you and david get a divorce? and i said, because he was abusive. and i escaped and survived. i had to come to terms with the fact that i had spoken the truth. and it was messy and ugly. but i wasn't out to get him. i told the fbi agent that he was really good at his job. >> so you had three women talking to the fbi. they say, telling the truth, under, of course, they could be accused of perjury if they lied to the fbi. >> yes. >> but the fact is, it's not easy for anyone to talk about their personal lives and the fact that they have been abuses in this fashion. >> yeah, i mean, that's one of the most sad things coming out of this. you see both of rob porter's ex-wives, jessica there, talking about the people who didn't believe them when they told the story. the skepticism they had to overcome. clergy people telling them they didn't believe them. and the idea that on top of that now, the president of the united states is essentially wishing well to the abuser and essentially casting doubt on their stories. that is just an unbelievable insult on top of the injury that the women have suffered. >> and jessica corbett with david sorenson's ex-wife, three women, two married to rob porter and this one married to david sorenson all vouching to the fbi for what they experienced. this is not a one or two-day story. it is already a week story. and stepping on everything else they are trying to do, it also speaks to the political ineptness as well as the moral questions being raised about this white house. susan page and bill crystal and ron claim, thank you very much. coming up, slow-motion massacre. why did a series of changes in top law enforcement have some see the makings of a new watergate? ari melber is joining us with his take. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. you know, i used to be good at this. then you turn 40 and everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today with td ameritrade. there are 37,000 people in the fbi who do unbelievable things all around the world. and although you would never know it from watching the news, we actually have more than two investigations. and most of them do a lot to keep americans safe. >> fbi director christopher wray def defending his agency in the shadow of the special counsel's russian investigation. leading many to draw comparisons against another attack against law enforcement. msnbc host ari melber recalls similar actions in the '70s taken by richard nixon in the lead-up to the infamous saturday night massacre. ari melber is joining me now. you see the perils and tom brokaw said, let's wait and see. but now he's also said he's persuaded there are parallels given the constant attack against the fbi and justice. >> that's right, andrea. there is a big parallel. and it has good news and i think bad news for donald trump. the good news is that donald trump has not executed, that is successfully removed the prosecutor investigating him. and as long as he doesn't under the precedent, it does not appear that he'll be violating the law in any direct way regarding the investigation while the wider obstruction probe proceeds. the bad news is, there are ways that you can still interfere without actually pursuing that. nixon created this spectacle with the rapid firing basically taking people out until someone was willing to carry out what many thought was an unlawful order and removing the prosecutor investigating him. trump here in slow motion appears to be putting pressure on everyone above and below bob mueller. and the reason why that subpoena important here, andrea, is at the end of the case when it is all said and done, we don't know what will be found. but we know under the rules that the call over whether to release the findings is not actually legally bob mueller's to make. it's rod rosenstein's or whoever the acting attorney general for russia is. we know that the person beneath rosenstein is now departing the doj. so some of the big questions aren't simply about whether there is a nixon-style targeting of mueller, but whether the pressure is put in a potentially inappropriate or even unlawful way on rosenstein or others to stop what potentially mueller could find. >> and what we have seen with the rachel brand resignation pending is according to the reporting yesterday, she was influenced by the concern that she did not want to be placed in the crosshairs there, if rosenstein is fired. >> as you mentioned, that msnbc reporting is very important and adds to the public record. there's the official statement when people say they have a great job offer or want to spend time with their family, those things are often true but not often the whole story. and julia ainsley's report as well as indications we're getting is that the systematic grinding down of doj, everything from vacancies, which have been seen in the state department as you have been reporting and other places, which means there's not enough people to do the work to the more express pressure on the russia probe itself to the president just last week saying he doesn't have confidence, essentially in rod rosenstein, when he was asked for the statement of confidence, all that seemed to effect miss brand's decision. as i stress, there is no single thing in her departure or in the words of rod rosenstein itself are illegal under the law. the other point i raise in this piece briefly is that it is judges, not the president, who usually have the final say in our system over whether prosecutors keep their jobs. so even, even if donald trump did find a way to get someone to try to remove mr. rosenstein or mueller, that could wind up in court and a judge could order as they did in the case of the nixon firing to restore the prosecutor. >> very interesting to note there. ari melber, thank you. you can get ari every night at 6:00 eastern for "the beat with ari melber here on msnbc. coming up, spies like us. could the border patrol soon have spying powers? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. for mom, the nation's largest senior living referral service. for the past five years, i've spoken with hundreds of families and visited senior care communities around the country and i've got to tell you, today's senior livingnd communities are better than tever.ou, today's senior living communities are better than ever. these days, there are amazing amenities like movie theaters, texercise rooms and swimmingg pools, public cafes, bars and, bistros. exercise rooms and swimming pools, public 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enforcement agencies could be getting more powerful. the daily beast is reporting exclusively that the customs and border protection is pushing to team up with the country's spy networks. that would be a new reorganization, politics reporter for "the daily beast" betsy woodruff broke this story. this would empower the border patrol well beyond their current power. >> that's a distinct possibility is this goes through. and jeh johnson under the prior administration told me the conversations were actually going on when he was there as well. so this is not a brand new thing, although people didn't know about it until our report came out. the reason this is important is that cuss totoms and border protection that includes the agents who patrol the southern border is one of the most powerful law enforcement agencies. the way that they are able to search people's cell phones and laptops when they're coming into the country is largely unconstrained. and the number of those searches went up dramatically from 2016 to 2017. so folks in the civil liberties space are pretty concerned about the possibility here. at the same time, one thing that many of the folks testifying before senate intel hinted at today is the fact that drug cartels pose a major national security threat. border patrol agents often deal with the impact that these folks trafficking, not just drugs, but humans pose to national security. i think that's part of the reason there's this tension about potentially giving border patrol and customs and border protection more access to top-secret highly-classified intelligence. >> and the border patrol during the campaign was, at least their union or association was in line with donald trump. we he went down and campaigned with them. he made a big support out of the border patrol rank in file. >> that's right. the union that represents the border patrol agents was one of the most enthusiastic enforcers for president trump. and in my understanding, he has yet to level a criticism at the border control, he highlights the work they do, highlights the risk the agents face. so clearly just based on his public comments, perhaps his favorite federal law agency. >> betsy woodruff, thank you. and coming up, the senate gets to work on immigration. can they find middle ground? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online. budget? looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor. on the only bed 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and then schumer j e objected, he needed everyone's assent to get the debate opened because the plan does not include so far any relief for sanctuary cities. are we back to square one? or is this just a little blip? >> i would characterize this as a blip in the road from what we know now, andrea. the proposal was just about sanctuary cities and democrats are essentially arguing this has nothing to do -- or rather doesn't include a daca proposal. so schumer, senator schumer, objected to that. as you point out, they would have needed all 100 senators to move up this timetable and get things under way here. this of course is the potential problem with this open floor taking a vote just on sank rsan city, potentially a big problem for democrats in a campaign year. the upshot here, we haven't yet gotten into the meat of the debate but we're seeing signs of how it could play out for the next couple of days. >> welcome to the senate of course. you talked to the leading senator foreign relations chairman bob corker. i wanted to throw to that. because we are hearing that there are rumblings in tennessee, republicans are concerned about holding that seat he said he is retiring from, and that he might be reconsidering. >> senator, are you reconsidering running for re-election? >> i don't have anything to talk about today, thank you. >> that's not a no. >> that seems to be confirming he's thinking about it. >> it does seem that way, andrea. i spoke to senator lindsey graham afterwards as well. he's said to be one of the people urging corker to reconsider. he of course said he thinks senator corker's contributions here in the senate are very valuable. you point to the underlying dynamic that is critical here. marsha blackburn, in many ways, the front-runner here for the republican nomination, with, cou corker out. there's concerns she could win a general election against a democrat, a well-known former governor. so we'll see if corker reconsiders this. he might have a tough time in the primary though, andrea. >> we'll be right back. oh, manatees. aka "th oh! there's one. manatees in novelty ts? surprising. what's "come at me bro?" it's something you say to a friend. what's not surprising? how much money matt saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. there'swhatever type ofhe end of eweekender you are,ton. don't let another weekend pass you by. get the lowest price when you book at hilton.com that does it for this editi edition. remember, follow the show online and on facebook and on twitter. peter alexander is next. >> sorry, there's no news today. >> i say the white house has to do a lot of explaining today. >> andrea, thank you. i'm peter alexander. in today for craig melvin. we begin with breaking news. the fbi director christopher wray contradicting the white house's ever shifting time line on who knew what when when it came to the rob porter scandal. top officials there from the intelligence community testifying with another closed door session. ahead in the next hour. we want to get right to this. start with our white house correspondent kristen welker and our intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian. kristen, this happened and we were there watching this together.

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