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think of nuclear weapons of other things. the greatest thing i could do is shoot that ship out of the out of the water. hillary clinton made the stupid black button that made us all look like a bunch of jerks? they are a very powerful nuclear country and so are they. i've been briefed as howard cosell said. i love this. i'm having a good time doing it. >> the public doesn't believe us any more? >> willie -- >> happy friday. >> willie, as we were walking in, you know what would have been really funny? that would have been a really funny hour or so of television if you weren't president of the united states. >> yeah. that was right off the campaign trail, call it summer of 2015. a man in his element saying whatever crossed his mind, throwing out things that were verifiably false and the key line we played at the end, i love this. i'm having a good time. he did not want that press conference to end. he felt like he was back. he had watched other people try to defend him for a month, kellyanne conway, sean spicer, steven miller. it wasn't working. he wanted to put himself out front and center and speak for himself and if the idea was to convey there is no chaos in the white house, i'm not quite sure it had that effect easement it was one of the most chaotic press conferences that anybody has ever seen. >> we have mike barnicle bus. >> -- bus and mark halpern. >> before we pick out all of the falsehoods, a gut check. he may only be 39% in the poll, according to the pugh poll and 40% in gallup and the hard-core supporters i talked to yesterday and all of my friends they were in front of the tv set and they were laughing. they weren't laughing at donald they were laughing athemedia. so he's going to have his 37, 38% hard-core support, mike, and he's playing to his crowd. and you know what? it is a great 38% strategy for him. >> no doubt about that, joe. no doubt about that. the base of his support, whether it's 35%, 40%, they are not going anywhere. the first 30 minutes of that press conference is watching a president of the united states who has lost his grip on reality. it was as if he performed yesterday for himself because he needed to perform like that to convince himself that he was president. >> because we have said this before, we will say it again, mark halpern, he has absolutely nobody inside that white house. >> clearly. >> that will walk up to him and will tell him the truth. and so he lives in an alternate reality. he says things that are verifiably false and called out on it yesterday by peter alexander who we have with us, he will say that was just information i was given. no, that is the information he says. he just talks and makes up things and repeats them until he believes them. what is the impact of yesterday? the impact of yesterday, from my take, and i'd love to hear what you think, is we are going to talk to kasie hunt later on. kasie nt and everybody i a lot of republican senators and congressmen, were scared to death by what they saw and more than one said, "this just isn't going to last long because he just doesn't have control of reality." and you actually saw something extraordinary after the press conference. a guy who was given the opportunity to have the most powerful job in national security said, no, thanks. saw that press conference. no, thanks. >> if you look at the arc of american history and the presidency and you look at the arc of donald trump's life that press conference was totally shocking and totally unsurprising. >> yeah. exactly. >> it's going into a time capsule. if trump is a successful president that is a time capsule this is what he was about and what he was like. if it's a failure, it's going in a time capsule. if you watch the campaign, not one thing he said yesterday, lies, exaggerations and bullying and bragging and not one of those things was shocking. >> it's only shocking now because he has a presidential seal. >> in his own party. he'd like some democrats but at least in his own party to be inspired by him. not one republican outside of his core of kourptersupporters anythingut freaked out about that. >> we have to get to that which is massive in itself but headlines that broke right after as well. sort of the reaction almost. we want to gets to peter alexander as well. the. this morning did michael flynn mislead the fbi? "the washington post" reporting that trump's former national security adviser denied to fbi agents during an interview last month that he had discussed u.s. sanctions against russia with their ambassador before the president was sworn in. the paper cites current and former u.s. officials who says that contradict intercepted communications. lying to the fbi is a felony offense but several officials said it's unclear whether prosecutors would attempt to bring a case, in part, because flynn may parse the definition of the word sanctions. a spokesman for flynn said he had no response. here is president trump speaking yesterday about flynn's departure. >> michael flynn is a fine person and i asked for his resignation. he respectfully gave it. he is a man who -- there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence who is with us today, and i was not happy with the way that information was given. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador? >> no, i didn't. >> prior to your inauguration? >> no, i didn't. >> excuse me. i fired him because of what ed to mike pence, very simple. mike was doing his job. he was calling countries and his counrpart. so it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasn't doing it. i didn't direct him, but i would have directed him because that's his job. >> i'm wondering what, like, the intercadre is thinking back stage. are they excited or wringing their hands because they know there is an unraveling happening? >> i would be willing to bet you some amount of money that mr. bannon and jared kushner, his son-in-law, thought that was a wonderful performance yesterday. >> that is correct. >> that that is donald trump. >> trump being trump. >> they are suspended from reality which is why donald trump is suspended from reality because the people closest to him think that he is lie all he wants and the people love it. >> it was hard to count the lies. >> people love it. >> you talked to several people yesterday in washington, as did i, as did mark and willie. >> yeah. >> the flynn story, whether what michael flynn did or may not have done, we don't know yet. that is now far down the bar in terms of important stories. the number one story is the stability of the president of the united states. >> and his top pick for national security adviser saying no, thanks, i don't want the job publicly? how does that happen? >> his performance yesterday is done without a real crisis on the front burner. what happens when there is a real crisis? >> you know what is interesting, mika? you're right. the man that he selected to be his national security adviser said no. that is shocking. >> this is a well-oiled machine? >> it's not. >> this is a well-oiled machine? >> and what makes it especially a junk yard "sanford and son" truck going toward the cliff is the fact that they offered a job to someone and they didn't know the answer. you would always say perry mason would never ask a question he didn't know the answer to? well, if that is the truth in the courtroom, the truth for a presidential office, willie, is you -- unless it is amateur hour of the first degree, you never offer a job and give the person a chance to say let me think about it. >> right. >> we don't even do that around here. if we say would you like working here, they say let us think about it, you say, you already did and thank you and we move on to the next candidate. they let a guy keep them twisting in the wind and then -- >> at this time of crisis. >> after that crazy press conference going, he's too unstable i'm not going to do it. >> makes him look terrible and they may have thought they knew the answer and he may have watched that news conference and said i don't want to walk into that. this is kellyanne conway yesterday said after the press conference, she had she reminded everyone j he became president and speaking his mind and taking his case to the american people. that was the reaction from the front row. >> i wanted real reaction. the truth easement good luck. >> at the center of the nmike flynn story, flynn was doing his job i fired him because he didn't tell his truth to vice president mike pence. donald trump knew the truth and everybody in the white house knew the truth, why didn't they tell mike pence the truth when he went on "face the nation"? >> he said i was upset he didn't tell the truth, that flynn didn't tell pence the truth. no one in the white house told pence the truth either. >> trump denied in that anyone from his campaign had contact with russian officials, quote, to the best of my knowledge. >> you know, you can talk you will you want about russia which is all, you know, fake news fabricated deal to make up for the loss of the democrats and press plays right into it. in fact, i saw a couple of of the people that was supposedly involved with all of this, they knew nothing about it and weren't in russia and never made a phone call to russia and never received a phone call. it's all fake news. when i was called out on mexico, i was shocked, because all of this incredible phone equipment. when i was called out on mexico, honestly, i was really, really surprised. same thing with australia. i said, that's terrible that it was leaked. but it wasn't that important. but then i said to myself, what happens when with i'm dealing with the problem of north korea? what happens when i'm dealing with the problems in the middle east? are you folks going to be reporting all of that ry,ery confidential information? i didn't do anythingor russia. i've done nothing for russia. hillary clinton gave them 20% of our uranium. she did a reset with the stupid plastic button that made us all look like a bunch of jerks here. here, take a look. he looked at her, what the hell is she doing? remember i said reset? if i do that, oh, i'm a bad guy. >> hillary clinton may have used that stupid plastic button and i agree it was a stupid plastic button, it was embarrassing, but she never accused american heroes that fought in iraq of being killers when trying to defend vladimir putin, which is exactly what donald trump said. he said, oh, yeah, we killed a lot of people too. you remember the walker in iraq? so, i mean, yes. hillary clinton screwed up and -- but, again, you look at that press conference and he is wondering about the leaking. there weren't these leaks inside the bush white house. there really weren't these likes inside the clinton white house to this degree. you could have calls with foreign leaders, but once again, this points to the need of giving reince priebus complete control or finding a chief of staff that he feels like has complete control, because say, josh bolton was chief of staff and there were two of these leaks, he would call everybody in and say, listen. if that happens again, everybody around this table is fired. everybody. and he would. hell, that guy came in and two weeks later, you had rumsfeld fired. you had -- i mean, you could go down the list of he went in and he cleaned the place up. when leaks happen, you know, trump is not going to be able to figure it out because he is at war with everybody. when you're -- i keep saying this. how stupid do you have to be? if you're at war with everybody, if you're at war with the intel agencies, if you're at war with the state department, if you're at war with the d.o.d. and if you're at war with everybody, everybody is going to come at you. >> you can be on populist that wants to change washington and still develop relationships with all of these institutions. he has not. and does not seem to have asked himself why are these leaks happening and what is the motivation of the people? for a lot of them, it's not political. it's not personal. it is because they are worried about what is happening and trying to get the word out. he and the people have to recognize this will not stop. even as the obama administration fades, this will not stop. he wants change. if he really wants to make intelligence stronger, if he really wants to change relationships with other countries, he need to work with the existing bureaucracy or he'll lose. >> when newt gingrich who had a similar temperamental approach to speaker of the house and had to dole with something everything day, it wasn't a coincide that newt gingrich game after some of us that, suddenly, every day a different story was in the new york city. every day, there was a different story in "the washington post." it just nicked and nicked and bled him. finally, it was very easy to run him out of town. >> what do you suppose they were thinking watching this performance yesterday in places like riyadh and london? what were they thinking? >> a tale of two press conferences. in bond, they were extraordinarily nervous. in birmingham, they liked it. in riyadh, they were very nervous. in raleigh, north carolina, a lot of people were cheering at it, say, way to give it to the press! way to go! so, again, let's not pretend that his 38%. >> it's there. >> didn't love him. he is horrifying the rest of the globe. at the end of the day this will bring him down if he continues doing this. but, for now, he has nobody around him that will tell him the truth. nobody. let me underline this. he has nobody around him who will tell him the truth. and so he can lie all he wants to about the electoral college and everybody goes, great job, boss. by the way, willie, who else was on the front row? little miller. the 31-year-old, who actually went on all of the sunday shows, lied through his teeth about the 3 million illegal votes and then he had donald trump say, great job. donald trump rewarded his lying. donald trump rewards kellyanne's lying. so who is going to go to donald trump and say, hey, listen. you really are undercutting your credibility and catch up with you if you don't stop lying. >> mike pence. >> mike pence. >> not happening. he is waiting to be president. >> i don't know. >> he's got things to do. >> another theme of that news conference yesterday was how backward looking it was. we talked a lot about hillary clinton. he talked a lot about the election and how he won. here is president trump misstating the size of his electoral college victory. >> i put it out before the american people. got 306 electoral college votes. i wasn't supposed to get 222. they said no way to get 222, 230 is impossible. 270, which you need, that was laughable. we got 306. i guess it was the biggest electoral college win since ronald reagan. >> you said today you had the biggest electoral margin since ronald reagan with 304, 306 electoral votes. in fact, president obama got 365 in 2008 and president obama 332 and george h.w. bush 426 when he won as president. why should americans trust you when you're misrepresenting information? >> i was just giving -- we had a very, very big margin. >> reporter: why into americans trust when you say the information you're providing is fake and -- >> i was provided that information. actually, i've seen that information around. >> and joining us now from the white house the man on the end of that exchange, nbc news national correspondent peter alexander. good morning. you were on the front page, sir, of "the new york times" in a large photo with your exchange with donald trump with the front row of the trump administration sort of glaring back at you at what you asked. talk a little bit, peter, about that moment. >> reporter: i think the bottom line is what we were trying to get across in that simple moment was this issue of trust that really goes to the heart of the credibility of this president. the point that you want to make and i'm not sure if it came out as clearly as i wanted is why should americans trust you on big things if you can't even tell the truth on little things? and that seemed like a very fundamental little thing, the electoral college victory, the margin, the numbers i provided him. he said he was talking about republicans. as you saw, i told him what george h.w. bush got 426 when he won as president. and it was sort of one of those rare opportunities where you're able to fact check the president in real-time but i think it spoke to a larger frustration, not among reporters, but really among americans. i heard fromrump supporters, individuals i met when i was on the campaign with donald trump from as far away as iowa in the early days of the campaign, who told me then as they tell me now, they love all things about donald trump, but they wish he would cut out this sort of stuff. they said just stick to the facts! we like you, we like what you stand for and like what you're doing, but why are you making up things? i think that was sort of the bottom line of a lot of frustration the americans, republicans and democrats, shared, but it really was sort of a unique moment there. >> peter, it's very interesting saw that. i've been calling trump supporters from the first week when almost all of the coverage has been negative for good reason. and i've been asking after the e.o. and after one mistake after another that he has made inside of there, i said, are you with trump? are you with trump? i've reported on the show every week. we love he is giving it to the press and love he is giving it to congress and love all of that stuff. i'm starting to hear now three and a half weeks in what you're saying, which is i'm asking -- are you still excited? that is my first question. now it's kind of like, well, you know? maybe i'm 4 out of a 5? i really like what he is trying to do and i like that he is shaking things up. i just wish he would stop with -- they call them distractions. they don't call them lies. i just wish he would stop with all of the distractions and i had one guy i talked about the other day, he said i just with wish he would shut up and work! like that old frank zappa album, shut up and play. people want him toi shut up and play. do his work. they seem to like the agenda a lot and same with the guys on the hill and the women on the hill, can't he just be quiet and push regulatory reform, tax reform? education reform? that's what we are here. >> i think that is exactly right. that's what we hears well. i think mark halpern it on the head and we were on the campaign a lot. this was equal part shocking and totally unsurprising if you saw the way donald trump conducted himself over the course of the campaign but one of our colleagues described it perfectly. it was sort of the verbal equivalent of a tweet storm. we watched in real-time over the course of what was a free wheeling jaw dropping 77-minute news conference. donald trump, as he is. it was a unique peek into him not through twitter, but face-to-face where you're really staring at him now as president. and i think it was as telling as anybody we have seen over the course of the last 18 months. >> the only way i -- i was watching it. obviously, all of us were incredulous. you also could see -- please correct me if i'm wrong but he could never really go deep on a thought. he never actually takes it a step further on issues and policies. everything is just a huge problem. >> but, mika -- >> and he can't, like, take it to the next level. he can't get his head around anything. i don't think he has the ability. >> the thing is -- >> so he throws out shiny objects and lies to distract us. >> he could have gone out yesterday with a script, with ten position papers and he could have gone out and he could have talked about keystone pipeline. i'm talking to the unions. this is what we have decided. this is the schedule. this is when we are going to start building. we are working with this -- these u.s. steel companies. we are moving forward. i'm having a follow-up conversation. yesterday, i spoke with the retailers and explaining what is he going to be doing. let me continue, please. he said this is what we are going to do on education reform. i just spoke. i just got off the phone with mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, we are moving forward with -- i mean, he has so many things that he could talk about. he could talk about his good summit with justin trudeau. he could have talked about his very good weekend with the japanese prime minister. he could have talked about middle east peace. there were so many things that any other president that wasn't addicted to chaos, could have gone up and filled up an hour and a half worth of -- instead of me, me, my, my, i'm the greatest ever, no president ever. come on, just be quiet! look at fdr. because right now, he is doing a lot of stuff by himself that he can do. he's not going to do anything that fdr did or anything that gingrich even did in '95 if he doesn't shut up talking about himself and start working with other people on the hill. >> now, see, you've put your finger, i think, on one of the ultimate puzzles of right now of donald trump. this afternoon, he will get on marine one on the south lawn of the white house and a fleet of marine one helicopters will take him to andrews air force base where he will board air force one. he is the president of the united states and he doesn't realize he is president. he doesn't behave like a president. why. >> peter, what he doesn't understand, he has been this kid from queens that moved into manhattan and has been scrapping every day of his life to get into newspapers. because that has been his life. no one has told him, you're president of the united states. you could put out a well-constructedentence once a day and you would be making all of the headlines you ever need to make. >> reporter: you're right. i tried to punctuate that very point at the end of my exchange that you just played. at the end of it president trump looked at it, peter, at least you'll agree it was a significant margin, it was a big margin. as i sat down, i said, you're the president. and i think that just speaks for itself. right? this guy is in charge. if he chooses to do with this opportunity that so many americans have given him that americans of all sorts are now investing in him and hoping for the safety and security of their families and for the future of their own lives, that this guy is going to handle this office and this opportunity in a way that benefits everybody. i think he still has an opportunity before him but, yesterday, i think posed a lot of real challenges. >> if he wants to get his agenda through, if he actually wants to get things done and be the great president he believes he is already he is going to have to get help from congress. if you go up there and that press conference yesterday and you call chuck schumer a lightweight again you need him to get your supreme court pick through. you need him to get anything you want done. you can't just write executive orders for four or eight years and get your agenda. he has to see the field better and understand he needs some of these people he is insulting. >> did you see that restraint he didn't call him a clown? >> maybe is an upgrade from clown. >> the thing is, ari mabnuel talks about the management good. you have to be a great war time leader and at the end of the war you have to be a great peace time leader. he is still at war. as somebody else told me this past week, we have heard our entire lives about sore losers. this guy is the first sore winner we have ever seen. you know, at this point in everybody's presidency, they have reached out to the person who lost and they are working with them. michael besh tweeted a picture yesterday and the picture had dwight eisenhower reaching you to -- who i didn't need. and they were trying to reunite the country. here we are into the way of first month of donald trump's presidency and he still so insecure he can't accept the fact he is president of the united states. he is the 45th president of the united states and still being a sore winner and still nursing past wounds, and he can't just say, wait, i won. and move forward. he still is trashing hillary clinton. >> it's a problem. >> how sad. >> it's more than that. peter, thank you very much. we have much more ahead this morning on the president's news conference. we are going to bring in two other reporters who asked him questions. april ryan and julie pace. kasie hunt will bring us the reaction from capitol hill. you're watching "morning joe." >> he is president. he should accept he is president. enjoy it. ♪ why do so many businesses rely on the u.s. postal service? 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[ boink ] >> we had hillary clinton give hillary clinton 20% of the uranium in our country. [ boink ] >> drugs are cheaper than candy bars. circuit has been overturned at a record number. [ boink ] >> construction of the keystone pipeline and dakota access pipelines. thousands and thousands of jobs. [ boink ] >> you have a lower approval rate than congress. i think that is right. [ boink ] >> we couldn't show half of it but got some of in there. >> i liked the music. >> the music is soothing during turbulent times when the president spits out lie after lie and he's president. >> a song that the year that the beatles invaded america and had like all of those number one songs in '64. >> what a joke. >> that's good stuff. >> like the grammys, they don't get it right all the time. >> we are back in a moment with "the post" eugene robinson. >> we got the music. should have won a grammy. 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"i am going to protect and save your social security and your medicare. you made a deal a long time ago." now, it's congress' turn. tell them to protect medicare. 37 past the hour. kasie hunt spent the day on capitol hill yesterday. >> looks beautiful there, but under that peaceful, peaceful view. >> turmoil. >> turmoil. >> you would think -- i mean, i know in our circles, everybody was watching this news conference and if you weren't watching the news conference, you texted someone who said turn it on. it was epic. >> time stood still. >> our entire newsroom. we were trying to have a meeting and kept rushing out because we kept hearing laugh sistter and screams and fright quite frankly. kasie hunt on the hill. can you imagine every office around the tv? she went around and asked women and congressmen their reactions to the trump news conference. see if you can see the theme that developed among republicans versus the democrats who watched. >> what is your reaction, one word for the president's press conference today? >> i didn't get to see it. >> did you see it either? >> no. >> one word reaction? >> terrifying. >> unfocused. >> i didn't see the press conference. i'm sorry. >> nonending. >> any of those a committee hearing. >> lacking. >> unbelievable. >> i've been in committee hearings all day. >> i didn't see it. >> i haven't got to watch it. i was in a committee hearing. >> what is your one word reaction to the president's press conference? >> prayer. >> i'm not ducking it but i've heard it's entertaining but haven't seen it. >> what is one word reaction to the president's press conference? >> i'm in the chair the past two hours so i didn't see it. >> growth in tax reform and getting the economy going which is, obviously, more than one word. >> well, so most democrats saw it and it's interesting. >> they were so busy working hard. >> freakish coincide. all of the republicans were in committee meetings, i guess by themselves. >> alone. >> alone, yeah. >> alone with their boss. >> let's bring in pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson. kasie confirmed what i was hearing and what she heard from republicans off the camera was that they were terrified by what they saw. republicans on the hill telling me, were telling kasie and telling anybody that would listened how terrified they were by donald trump's erratic performance. >> it was terrifying. and it went on and on and on. i had never seen anything like that. >> i know about you, but every once in a while, i said, this is the president of the united states? this is the president of the united states? this is -- you know? just that phrase. just kept coming back because it's, at this point, unbelievable. i don't know where this goes from here, joe. where does this go from here? he is who he is. he showed not the slightest inclination to change. and if this is a fine-tuned machine, you know, it's one of those crash tests simulators, right? that is the kind of machine it is. it's just -- it's just unbelievable. i've never seen anything like that in my life. >> our country is being tested in a way it's never been tested before as far as the constitutional system goes. it's working. the courts are rising up and doing what james madison and alexander hamilton and andrew jackson expected them to do. the press is working. >> intelligence is working. >> the way the first amendment is written for it to work. the intel communities are working the way we wanted to work but he doesn't listen. and so he is shocked. i thought it was very funny yesterday morning. he attacked i'm going after those dirty rotten scoundrels and three hours later, "the washington post" mike flynn lied to the fbi. you go after those dirty rotten leakers. >> might not help out mike flynn too much. >> could end up in jail. >> the quote for me of the week is mitch mcconnell saying to me in the interview,, you know, there are some other people in washington, d.c. that are pretty good in politics too. donald trump is going to find that out. and i know people don't like when i bring up barack obama. he came to washington thinking he was the only one who was pretty good in politics. and you asked democrats on capitol hill and the senate, mike, they told us all the time, he thought he invented politics. he thought he was smarter than everybody else. you ask foreign leaders they tell you all of the time, barack ama thght he was smarter than everybody in the room. donaldrump in a much more erratic frightening way, has the same attitude. he thinks he is the smartest guy in the room. that never ends well. >> another thing they had in common they both thought they would be the first one to change washington. we are going to come in and change the way business is done in this town and they learned very quickly in this case in the first four weeks, it's not as easy as you think it is. gene, you write in "the washington post" how could things get worse for trump? so, gene, what are the implication of that performance? we can say it's crazy, unhinged, all over the place, he was counterfactual. what does it mean to have a president stand for 77 minutes and give a performance like he did yesterday? >> well, i've heard earlier in the show, i've heard the word terrifying used. i think that is basically the impact. i mean, imagine watching this in berlin, imagine watching it in london, imagine watching it in paris. imagine watching it in peoria, you know? you realize that this is the man in the most important and most powerful job on earth. and he's just at the beginning of his term and you try to project, try to imagine where we will be after four years of this, and it's just -- it's almost unthinkable really. and then you say, well, okay. at least i see a learning curve. except i don't see a learning curve at all. nobody sees a learning curve. it's as if he regresses at times but he never gets beyond the point that the minimal point where a president needs to be. >> gene, somebody did like the press conference yesterday. >> it's important. >> the reviews are in. >> the reviews are in. >> donald trump has tweeted it out. >> this is the only one you care about. >> this is his 38%. read it. >> i'm manicing the tweet trump desk here. thank you all for the nice statements on the press conference yesterday. rush limbaugh said one of the greatest ever. fake media? not happy. >> this is the sort of tunnel vision he has and maybe even some parts missing. >> he is 38%. >> seriously. there is no humility. he has no curiosity and doesn't want to know about the issues. he doesn't attempt to even grasp them. and ultimately no humor. this is a guy i've never seen laugh. and i heard from a guy on the inside that they had an alfalfa speech prepared for him with jokes. they were crowd sized jokes and they were really good. the speech was read to him. dead silence. he said he didn't get it. >> one of the first jokes he was going to the alfalfa dinner. thank you so much. i understood you were having trouble with tickets and i looked at this audience and there must be 80,000 people in here. he said, that's not funny. i don't get it. >> even a joke about himself he thinks diminishes him in some ways and he cannot handle that. >> in a way that is impossible to actually do anything constructive. >> he'll hear rush limbaugh say it was a great speech. he will say to himself and his advisers will say keep doing what you keep doing. they didn't like you during the campaign and you won. don't go back. >> jimmy carter gets elected. everybody, for two years, says no way a peanut farmer from plains is going to get elected. so he gets elected and suddenly tip o'neill and people who know how to run washington try to explain it to him. he doesn't want to hear it. and so he spends four years fighting his own party, as well as the other party. and it goes badly. you had the same thing barack obama came into the white house and he was smarter than everybody else and his people were smarter. we always said, we had it on the air, you would try to explain to them, forget about the republicans. you need to spend more time talking to democratic senators on the hill. we always said, it was like, oh, joe! that's what we heard in the campaign. we are different. we're outsiders. everybody -- every insurgent campaign, gene, you've been in long enough and i have been around washington long enough to know, bill clinton's campaign, democratic professionals tried to go and going, you have a chaotic white house. have you got to bring order to it. and they are like, oh, those are just the old democrats. they don't understand, we new! we new. we different than anybody else. that is the old people. we beat the new people and we are in here. well, they weren't. sorry, james carville, the best imitation i got for you. finally, after a year of chaos, congestive to bring in gerringin a -- gergen and panetta. >> once you get inside the white house, you are, in fact, inside! guess who else is there in the insiders. you have to work with them. you can't continue to attack them at every turn and to refuse to work with them or even to refuse to understand how the place works. and that's a mistake, one of the many, that the trump administration is making, and he can't continue to take a reductive strategy, appealing only to a shrinking base and attack the intelligence committee. how is that going to work, the intelligence committee? how is that going to work out? it's not going to work out well. >> right now he is thinking i've acted this way my entire life and i've been rewarded for and that is what every president going in thinks. they never realize you're in a completely different reality, that they have to adjust to. those who adjust to like bill clinton after his 1994 loss, do extraordinarily well. others don't. by the way, barack obama, i know a lot of people said he got re-elected. yes, he did but he lost more democratic seats than any president, i think, in modern american history and -- >> i think that president trump ought to have a lot of news conferences genetic this over with. >> oh, no, this is different. >> and get it over with. >> four most dangerous words for the trump right now is let trump be trump. that is what he is thinking. >> just let it go. let it play out. eugene robinson, thank you very much. >> thank you, gene. let gene be gene. >> gene is gene, the dancing machine. still ahead on "morning joe." >> that is "the gong show." >> i don't have to tell you what i'm going to do in north korea. and i don't have to tell you what i'm going to do with iran. you know why? because they shouldn't know. >> right. >> no, nobody said they should. president trump might quite on military matters but somebody in the pentagon is talking about sending more troops to syria. we will have more from the defense secretary straight ahead on "morning joe." your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says, "you picked the wrong insurance plan." no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. liberty mutual insurance. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. companies across the state are york sgrowing the economy,otion. with the help of the lowest taxes in decades, a talented workforce, and world-class innovations. like in plattsburgh, where the most advanced transportation is already en route. and in corning, where the future is materializing. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today at esd.ny.gov first of all, you're all fake news. i hate you all very much and thank you for being here. >> can you address the recent missteps in your administration? >> look. it's not my problem. we inherited the mess. it is such a mess. not even a giant roomba could clean it up and it's confidential and secret and i'm going to leak it in about 15 minutes. >> the reports say you knew about mike flynn's corresponds with wooush thrrussia three wee. what did you know? >> he knew that i knew and he didn't know that i knew that he knew that i knew that he knew that i knew that he knee. so you know. next? >> yeah. i'm just going to fold my starve. >> ahead, much more of e reaction of the president's unforgettable news conference. one for the books. put that one in the time capsule. apparently, russia is real and leaks from the white house is real. but the news is fake. we will will be talking to two white house correspondents who were forth the entire 77 minutes and actually lived to tell about it. april ryan of the american urban radio network, she was asked to actually get together with a coccus. i wonder why he asked that? also, julie pace of the associated press. plus kasie hunt with reaction from capitol hill. 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(in chinese) king arthur: charge! ♪ let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. it's my decision ito make beauty last. roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it, the better it works. retinol correxion® from roc. methods, not miracles.™ may not always be clear. but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. so wherever your retirement journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. call usent journey takes you, or your advisor t. rowe price. invest with confidence. the president decided to hold an impromptu press conference and it was a sight to see. we boiled it down so you can get the gist. i want to find a friendly reporter. not good. not good. not good. wait, wait. quiet, quiet. sit down. i understand the rest of your question. the least racist person. i am the least anti-semitic person you have ever seen in your entire life. i do get good ratings. you do have to admit that. trump rants. i'm not ranting and raving. >> well, there you go. that's it. welcome back to "morning joe." it's friday, february 17th. it's friday. >> he got one thing right. he gets good ratings. i guarantee you, a lot of people that stopped dead in their tracks and wated that yesterday. >> absolutely. including republicans. you little sneakers. you can't say you weren't watching that. you just can't! everyone was. >> they were scared. >> mike barnicle is still with us. the president of the aspen institute best selling author walter isaacson and white house correspondent for the associated press, julie pace. we want to start with what happened after? which is probably the still the lead, i think? yes, it is. michael flynn, big question. is he going get arrested? did he mislead the fbi? >> yes, he did. >> it's interesting. this report just sort of came out right after the president stuck his thumb in the face of intelligence and the press yesterday. "the washington post" reporting that trump's former national security adviser denied to fbi agents during an interview last month that he had discussed u.s. sanctions against russia with their ambassador before the president was sworn in. >> so "the post" is reporting that michael flynn lied to the fbi. >> which that is, what? >> a felony. >> that's a felony. okay. the paper cites current and former u.s. officials who say that contradicts intercepted communications lying to the fbi as we said, is a felony offense. but several officials said it is unclear whether prosecutors would attempt to bring a case, in part, because flynn may parse the definition of the word "sanctions." a specksman for flynn said he had no response. here is president trump who i'm thinking at this point flynn is saying, please don't talk. just please don't talk. speaking yesterday about flynn's depart tour. >> mike flynn is a fine person and i asked for his resignation. he respectfully gave it. he is a man who -- there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence, who is with us today, and i was not happy with the way that information was given. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador? >> no, i didn't. >> prior to your inauguration? >> no, i didn't. >> w y have fired him if the information had not leaked out? >> excuse me. i fired him because of what he said to mike pence, very simple. mike was doing his job. he was calling countries and his counterpart. so it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasn't doing it. i didn't direct him, but i would have directed him because that's his job. >> walter, donald trump has been saying that michael flynn was fired because of fake news. of course, everything is fake news. it's an excuse for everything when he is actually the one making things up. we find out that michael flynn not only lied to the vice president of the president but he lied to the fbi during an investigation. >> at the very least, it's not smart. if the fbi is asking you this question, they might have information. >> people go to jail for lying to the fbi. >> and also if you're going to lead the lock her up chant at the convention, maybe you ought to say maybe i not lie to the fbi within a few months. >> let's not commit a felony. the fbi never actually had hillary clinton dead to center committing a felony. this is, if he lied to the fbi, is felony? >> yes. lying to the fbi is definition of a felony. when you listen to donald trump's explanation for why he fired general flynn, it was not because of what he said, it was because of the way he communicated with the vice president. everyone in that white house had that information for two weeks. it wasn't like general flynn was holding it and he didn't tell the vice president. the president and senior level strategist and senior level advisers new that general flynn had talked to the russians. why didn't they let the vice president go on tv and lie? >> they kept him in the dark for, what, over a week? two weeks? >> almost two weeks. >> also -- >> i walk in and say do that again, i will leave and it will be ugly. that is unbelievable that they lied to him for over a week. >> they didn't even do that. the vice president of the united states may as well have been a coffee cup on the table. sally yates tells steve bannon and the president of the united states and the council they know and they wait two weeks. >> you don't tell the vpt of ic president of the united states? >> can you explain what happens when he puts his thumb in the face of the intelligence community? >> i have. >> say it again. how does it work usually? >> this is getting old but we could do a nice little matchup of actually doing this since november, saying when you attack the intel community, they always win in the end. george w. bush, people don't really piece it together, but, walter, george w. bush's presidency was identities heels from the very beginning of the iraq war, because every claim he made, the intel community would leak out whether it was about the yellow cake uranium, no, actually, that's not true. whether it was about wmds, they would leak out, actually, that is not true. sm something else, then that is not true. then they decided to leak out the enhanced interrogation sneaks a techniques and waterboarding and leaked it out and chopped him up in little pieces. again, we have been telling donald trump this now for four months, five months, and he just doesn't get it. yesterday, he goes i'm going to get those dirty rotten scoundrels and three hours later, we get another leak on the fbi. and the truth, getting the truntruth out that michael flynn lied to the fbi. >> when you start fighting leaks it's errant especially in a place like this. a nice old country and has leaky pipes. if you want to fight leaks, form a plumbers union and we know how that one ended. it just doesn't work. and the fighting of the leaks usually becomes a little bit worse than the leaks itself. we are not talking about leaks in this case that gave russia something russia didn't know. russia already knew what mike flynn had been saying to its ambassador. it was only a leak that gave it to the vice president of the united states what he didn't know. >> you know the phone is tapped so why would you lie to the fbi about what you said when you know they know what you said? any way. >> a bunch of fools. >> julie pace, you inside that extraordinary press conference yesterday. >> by the way, he is so concerned about leaks coming from inside america. he celebrates leaks coming from russia. how twisted is that? >> right. >> in fact, he encourages leaks from russia in the middle of the campaign. >> he loves wikileaks. >> he did then. julie pace, yesterday, you asked the president inside that press conference for a straightforward answer on his campaign's ties to russia. let's listen to that. >> yes or no answer on one of these questions involving russia. can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with russia during the course of the election? >> well, i told you, general flynn, obviously, was dealing that is one person but he was dealing, as he should have been. >> reporter: during the election? >> nobody that i know of. >> reporter: you're not aware of any contacts during the course of the election? >> how many times do i have to answer the question? >> reporter: can you just say yes or no on it? >> eye know you have to get up and ask a question. so important. russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia. haven't made a phone call to russia in years and don't speak to people from russia, not that i wouldn't. but i have nobody to speak to. >> julie, didn't give you that yes or no answer. >> and you're very important. >> he did not give a yes or no answer. he did say one phrase that i think was important. he did say that nobody that he knew of from his campaign was in touch with the russians during the course of the election. he also later said that there was no contact to his knowledge. it was almost a lawyerly answer, though. you observe here that not to my knowledge when people are on a witness stand. i think it's important to note that i was the fourth reporter. my question came deep in that news conference, to try to pin him down on this pretty simple question. were you aware that anyone on your campaign was in contact with russian officials during the election? intercourse of most of his answers, he really tried to push this in a different direction to focus on the leaks and talk about the broader relationship with russia and it became almost impossible to just get a simple yes or no answer to what should be a pretty straightforward question. >> that would be the big narrative, though. it all started with the campaign, the manafort and working with the wikileaks people and all of the trolls and everybody else trying to get things. then it leads into policy and then it leads into what flynn did. so i think, you know, what we are looking at is a question of can they stop that narrative from forming? >> joe, are we approaching special prosecutor time on this? >> no. they are not going to do that. i mean, mitch mcconnell said they are not going to do that. people always ask how long is this going to go? because we are all hearing people saying, this can't last. even the republicans are saying this cannot last. no. i think -- jeff sessions isn't going to do anything. >> what about a special committee or a select committee in the senate? >> no. mitch mcconnell doesn't want to do anything and that won't happen. >> you talked to him. he said no, i think right now roy blunt has it under control. i was listening to your interview and he is a careful man. >> i always said mitch mcconnell doesn't give up anything he doesn't want to give up. he doesn't care whether you or i like him or people think he is being straightforward. three times in that interview, and i think you picked this up, where i stopped asking a question and i was about to ask the next question, and then he would say something like, hey, and by the way, the president -- the president is subject to judicial review. just like we are subject to judicial review. >> he wanted to make sure he got that out. >> then he added the thing about we are getting a little tired of the twitter stuff. it's distracting us. that was something also that he went forward to say. >> can you imagine him today? >> i'm sure very upset. this is simple. in the house of representatives donald trump is still popular in a lot of these districts. donald trump's approval rating whether he wants to believe it or not is 39%, 40%. most people think it doesn't count. they look at pugh and gallup have him at 39% and 56% disapprove. he can angry at the pugh research center and republicans on the hill those are real matters. when the 39% gets to 35% or 34% and when his numbers collapse in the republican districts and especially in the states. see it in the senate first and it starts going down, then, suddenly, you'll have the howard baker step forward. >> do you think that press conference yesterday hurt him really among the people he is counting on to -- >> it does two things. the first thing it does, it solidifies and hardens his base support. the 34%, 35% is even more entrenched, more hardened. what it does is it peel off that 5, 6, 7, 8% who voted for him because they couldn't stand hillary clinton. the choice was donald trump or hillary clinton. now the choice is donald trump or elizabeth warren. >> or mike pence. >> donald trump are the mainstream media. >> don't go there. >> when they get to the point they say, wait a second, the choices between donald trump and mike pence? >> looking good. >> we trust mike pence. >> for mike pence. >> and we don't have to put up with our children seeing somebody lying every day on tv and we don't have to putp with a horrific example. like the democrats thought we either have bill clinton or newt gingrich so we will put up with the lying. right now the republicans have the choice of we have donald trump or mike pence. when that starts to solidify -- >> you have two types of people in the white house now. those like a mike pence or perhaps secretary costa looks that way and judge gorsuch who completely grounded people, whatever you may think of mitch mcconnell, completely grounded person. and they have the unhinged people, people who look like that just not focused or grounded. they are all over the place and i think that is the more worrisome divide. >> its who is by his side and that little miller is -- from everything we have heard he is relentless and at him all the time in his ear and relentless. this 31-year-old very disbalanced dishonest individual is at his side. flynn was at his side throughout the campaign. and he didn't want to fire him. steve bannon is at his side in the evening. his intercadre are here and they don't have access. >> we talk about donald trump we have known a very long time and people have known him for a long time are all saying the same thing. donald is very charming in person and he's got some very good traits. he also has some traits that are not very good. the people that he is surrnding himself right now with are bringing out the very worst of donald trump. >> nixon had very good people that appealed to his good side and then -- >> and brought out the worst of nixon. >> yeah. >> are scared they can't move. here is more from president trump yesterday. i didn't do anything for russia. i've done nothing for russia. hillary clinton gave them 20% of our uranium. she did a reset with the stupid plastic button that made us all look like a bunch of jerks here. here, take a look. he looked at her, what the hell is she doing? remember i said reset? if i do that, oh, i'm a bad guy. if we could get along with russia, a positive thing. we have a very talented man, rex tillerson who is meeting with them shortly. i said i know politically it's probably not good. the greatest thing i could do is shoot that ship that is 30 miles offshore right out of the water. everybody would say that is great. it's not great. >> james mattis continues his meeting with key allies in germany today and speaking yesterday at his meeting with nato allies, secretary mattis rejected the possibly of increased military ties between the united states and russia. he also would not commit to putting combat troops into syria and iraq to fight isis. but nbc news has learned a proposal to put forces on th ground could soon beresent to president trump. ining us from munich, germany, nbc news foreign correspondent hans nichols. what can you tell us about this proposal? mean troops on the ground? >> reporter: it could mean combat troops on the ground in syria. we are hearing back in washington, munich is here at the conference and talking about having apache military helicopters and already some artillery in syria but basically the campaign in syria would look like the campaign in iraq where you have 5,000 u.s. troops training and assisting and a little more forward presence in a support role in syria. but, guys, here is the basic question here. no one really doubts in security circles that mosul and iraq will fall. the question here and debated here at this conference is what do you do after iraq falls and what does it look like? that gets to the key question of what kind of force do you want to take the city of raqqa? want it a sunni arab force or have the kurds involved? that gets to the other big question is do you arm the kurds? remember ash carter, his pentagon, they wanted to arm the kurds and they were that way. the white house said, no, too implicated on the diplomatic front and some of the diplomacy mattis is doing here today and pence arrives as well. they have a lot of explaining to do. >> hans nichols in munich, thanks. >> that was clean. he didn't do any samples or anything like that. >> no random dirty things at the end. >> he was flinching and i thought he was going to do something. >> he did something else yesterday and you're just, come on, man. >> he always adds a little spice. >> you need to clarify something. yesterday, i was talking to jim vandeh vandehei. we were trying to recall the glory days. i was trying to remember something that was before the committee that tom lantos was so frustrated with the clinton administration official that he suggested he kill himself. tom lanto on s was a unique character to say the least. there were gasps. i was reaching for words, i'm not sure, but i think it was david jon. i shouldn't have said that but it's a three-hour show and no teleprompter. apparently this guy was a top notch. david, i'm sorry! it ended up. i googled it afterwards. somebody called me up, nsc adviser, so and so is really angry about what you had. i said, i didn't say anything. what? and they say, he is really angry because you accuse -- no, i didn't. then they said, then they explained it was a segment. so i said, okay, you got to help me out. who was the guy? it was a guy that had taken all of the fbi personnel files and was reading through them improperly and they thought they passed it. the name you may remember, craig livingstone. >> we have a winner. >> craig livingstone! so david johnson, a pretty common name. >> he does my hair! johnstone. >> all of the david johnson's out there we apologize and we especially apologize to the david johnson who was an nsc spokesman and deputy white house press conference for the clinton administration. we are clarifying this morning that congressman, former congressman from california, tom lantos did not ask you to commit suicide. tom had a wonderful family and took his family down to swim in the house gym. a vecolorful character. i think he survived the holoust. a great man. on his wall he had my favorite picture when you'd go into his office and it was the line of tanks in tiananmen square and one kid standing. >> with the flower? >> no, no, no. >> his hand is up. >> and for the rest -- it was "time" magazine and we wanted to make him person of the year. we tried to find the guy standing in front of the tanks in tiananmen square and never could find him. >> what a great idea. >> it was one of the most powerful visuals i've ever seen in my life. >> walter isaacson, thank you. >> julie pace, stay with us. chris collins still ahead. he says senators and congressmen should not second-guess the president? >> yeah, sure. >> that is what they do. checks and balances. >> he can tell us what his job is and probably too late for that. we will bring in katy tur and april ryan. it's not an anti-aging face cream. it's realizing beauty doesn't stop at my chin. roc®'s formula adapts to delicate skin areas. my fine lines here? visibly reduced in 4 weeks. chest, neck, and face cream from roc®. methods, not miracles.™ mattress firmness? enter sleep number... she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed, plus 24-month financing. go to sleepnumber.com for a store near you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪ (silence) ♪ the people get it. much of the media doesn't get it. they get it but don't write it put take tthat way. a new poll came out just a short while ago and it has our approval rating at 55% and going up. unfortunately, much of the media in washington, d.c., along with new york and los angeles, in paicular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very, obviously, broken system. i put it out before the american people. got 306 electoral college votes. i wasn't supposed to get 222. they said no way to get 222, 230 is impossible. 270, which you need, that was laughable. we got 306. i guess it was the biggest electoral college win since ronald reagan. >> you said today you had the biggest electoral margin since ronald reagan with 304, 306 electoral votes. in fact, president obama got 365 in 2008. >> i'm talking about president. >> reporter: and president obama 332 and george h.w. bush 426 when he won as president. why should americans trust you when you're misrepresenting information? >> i was just giving -- we had a very, very big margin. >> reporter: why should americans trust when you say the information you're providing is fake and -- >> i was given that information. actually, i've seen that information around. >> it's very hard, mika. you got to cut him some slack here. it's very hard to stay focused when you know the crime rate and willie and i talk about this all the time. >> the presint told us. >> crime rate is the worse it has been, willie, i think since 1973? >> most people are being murdered. >> in chicago 80% of the people are being murdered. how can you focus on the electoral college? >> the attack on fake news. >> while delivering fake news. >> while delivering information and lies. >> it's wonderful ironic. >> this doesn't feel real. >> when you say this feels like a fake presidency? >> a fake presidency. i'm at that point. >> i don't know exactly what this means. >> someone tell me what is going on here? we have a president who goes out in front of mechanic for an hour and ten minutes rifting and just making up stuff and throwing out lies right and left. our president. this is our president. >> that's what we saw during the campaign. it's the same. he is literally the same exact person that we saw during the campaign. nothing changed. anyone who said he is going to become more presidential believed him when he said that. they are wrong. this is who he is. he won off this. he is going to continue to act the way that he does. it fundamentally is who he is. he did that press conference yesterday because he was itching to spar, to get out there to talk, to defend himself. this is a man who spent the entire campaign going on television and holding a rally every single day. he was on national television saying whatever he wanted to say every single day. >> this is what he cared about. these are the things he cared about with everything that is going on in our world and in our country, and all of the different jobs that have yet to be filled and other countries are looking at our country, going what is going on there? this nation seems to be destabilizing. he cares about what? >> but he's giving off the appearance that he doing something by signing the executive orders and by holding these round tables and having the photo ops with the business leaders and talking about rolling back regulation, promising obamacare. he is giving off -- at least for now. he is giving off the appearance that things are getting done and that is what is resonating with the people that voted for him. >> it's a bit of a -- presidency. they are setting these things up and not actually getting out and doing anything real. it's all about press. but, mark, one of the things we have noticed certainly since he has become elected president. when you campaign, you campaign seven days a week and an excuse to go to rallies every single day. some of his worst tweets have come on saturday morning. he is so addicted to headlines that on saturday morning, he starts panicking because the swirl of activity and the controversy is gone and if you want to dig into his brain, that is what you do. when things get quiet on saturday morning, he starts freaking out and he starts sending out nasty tweets about john lewis or you pick the worst subjects for him to send out so-called judges. he will do that on saturday morning so the swirl continues. >> for thepresident, winning a war against cnn's 10:00 show or the latest "the new york times" story is the way he judges whether he is a success or a failure. >> does he know he is only helping cnn? does he know he is only helping "the new york times"? >> i don't think he does. >> but he. >> his 2017 will be judged by does he pass either tax reform or repeal and replace obamacare. >> not for him. >> that is what history will judge and congressional republicans will judge. the biggest thing about yesterday his passes of passing health care reform was set back yesterday. people on capitol hill view what happens no longer are the tweets and the attacks and the pettiness and the lies a side show, he made them the main event. >> willie has some news. >> i'm looking at. we can report this now. senior white house official has confirmed to nbc news that there is now a white house communications director. his name is mike and one of the founders of crossroads media, a conservative firm. according to some of the reporting out there, people inside the white house are not terribly excited about this pick because they believe crossroads tried to stop trump during the campaign. and this is one of the founders of the campaign. but mike dubke will be the white house communications director. they have that in place. they didn't have one for the first four weeks of the administration. >> julie pace a lot of fighting inside the white house. we had somebody tell us early on that knows washington better than most that is what trump wants. fdr on a much different level would have four or five, six people constantly fighting and that allowed him to pick and choose his allies from battle-to-battle. donald trump appears to be doing the same thing. >> you hear these stories from aides who will talk about how trump in meetings will praise one aide in an attempt to try to take a jab at another aide and next time he'll do it and he' reverse those roles. it is part of his style. he did this during the campaign. he did this in business. but one of the challenges in doing that when you are governing is that you have so many things that you have on your plate. so many things that you're trying to push that are a pro active agenda. then this is what i think is just going to be so fascinating to see in this white house. so many things happening out of your control. we have not had an actual crisis yet. any of these problems that the president is dealing with are basically self-made at this point. a poorly written executive order. these problems with mike flynn. he is not had to deal with a big international crisis yet, a big domestic crisis yet. if your team is fighting amongst themselves and not working in a coordinated fashion, it makes all of those crises and things that can hamper a presidency that much more difficult to deal with. we are in month one and they have an opportunity to have a course correction here but i didn't see a lot in that press conference yesterday that showed that the president is aware that that would even be needed at this point. >> but, katy tur, he doesn't think he needs a course correction. there is one difference between trump now and trump during the campaign. when things started to go very badly for trump during the campaign, that trump would listen to people around him after wisconsin, for instance. he treated. he went back. the last ten days of the campaign. >> he got scared. >> he got scared, exactly. >> the campaign went on a teleprompter. >> he got scared then and he got scared a couple times. right now, he actually thinks everything is going great. he's listening to the rasmussen poll. people on the hill pay absolutely no attention to rasmussen. >> listen. i think that we are still early on. it's been, what is it? 26 days? >> oh, gosh. >> it's been 26 days. >> oh, my god. >> it can get worse in there before he starts to see how bad it's gotten. and before -- you know, bannon got him on track during the campaign. i'm not sure how much he is going to be able to corral him in this new role. this is just completely different. he doesn't have the same controls any longer. he's not living in his house. he is suddenly responsible for, you know, an entire government that he doesn't quite understand. he cannot control people with nondisclosure agreements. so these leaks keep coming out. this is the first time in his life that he has employees -- >> by the way, he has all of these agencies. rex tillerson has absolutely nobody under him working at state. you could go agency by agency by agency. not only does he not know how to run a government, he's got the people aren't filling up the spots right now. >> tillerson, they are not even having state department briefings yet. we found out that tillerson is meeting with lavrov through the kremlin and no press shop. but look at the news surrounding bore h bob harwood and he was not taking the national security adviser role. the reporting he could not fill the nsc with the people he would have wanted in place. if you exclude the never trumpers who were very many in the campaign, often the ones that were the most qualified and now you try to lure in the rest and they do not want to be a part of it you're left with a thin staff that doesn't understand politics and doesn't understand government and doesn't understand washington and will continue to allow the president to go off on these tangents and get nis ohis own w. when they see this bumping up and getting reforms in that they want and getting obamacare repealed and replaced, et cetera, then there is going to be more of a problem between the republicans and trump. >> the president needs to do a speech and it can't be written by a 31-year-old tyrant or a media obsessed clothing seller and it can't be written pretty much by anybody in there at this point because they are all so worn down and scared, that they are all stautstuttering around calling him mr. president, mr. trump. it needs to stop and he needs to get some real men apple wnd wom there who know what they are doing and actually tell him what they think and it's going really badly. you can't lie to the american people. and you can't lie about your national security adviser. >> what was so fundamental about the mike flynn stuff, he thinks it was a problem that the media treated him unfairly. ultimately michael flynn doesn't lie to the administration but he lied to the american public and donald trump backed him up yesterday saying he would have ordered him to do the same. that is an astonishing circumstance set of events that gets almost -- it's so jaw dropping and eye opening. it's hard to see it in the ongoing daily hurricane that is the news coming out of this white house. >> that is why the loss of harward is so significant. he was respected by republicans and democrats alike. you heard from republicans in the foreign policy establishment and also people from the obama administration who said if this guy gets in, it's a great thing for the country. when he pulled out, that was a huge loss. >> let's just put that on the president. that is on trump. >> katy tur and julie pace, thank you. coming up an apology from the white house's ghochoice on ambassador to israeli during a heated hearing. we will talk about that when we continue. we have a question about your brokerage fees. fees? 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the president, himself-- >> it was as we feared it was said, donald trump will not accept the outcome of the election. >> gets back to he's a sore winner. first sore wner in presidential history. >> you know if he didn't go back and relitigate and complain about and give out wrong numbers, it would be an extraordinary historic amazing presidential win. >> and now it's dirty. >> because it was but he wouldn't stop talking about why it wasn't. >> he won't shut up and take the masters jacket! he wants to talk about hole 3. this happened after iowa. he kept talking how iowa was stolen. it took him about three or four days to shut up about that because his poll numbers were collapsing like this in new hampshire. but, remember, he kept saying, ripped off in iowa, ripped off in iowa and his numbers kept going down like this. mike barnicle has a story. >> no. we have to follow. >> mike, quick. >> it's a big one. trump travels come at a high cost and about the cost of providing security for the president of the united states and his family, including his two sons who are, today, overseas in the middle east. and the post reports that barrel a month into the trump fressy the unusual elaborate lifestyle of the america's first family is strange the secret service and security officials and perhaps based on past assessments of presidential travel and security costs could balloon into the hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of next four years. >> they are doing business over there for trump international? >> yes. >> they are opening up a new golf crse day in the middle east. >> great. >> secret service has to be with them? >> yes. >> they got to do what they got to do. >> you want people protected. let's start there. >> meeika, the white house need an injection of calm. peggy noonan. trump is an individual character and his staff included conventional ones. words of wisdom as always from peggy noonan. >> still ahead on "morning joe"? >> mr. president? >> i know it's a bad question. >> yes it is. i enjoy watching you on television. >> thank you, sir. >> that very awkward exchange between the president and our next guest where it began right there, we will talk about that. april ryan celebrated 20 years as white house correspondent last month. but, yesterday, definitely a first for her. april joins us next to talk about it. we will be right back. with every early morning... every late night... and moment away... with every click...call...punch... and paycheck... you've earned your medicare. it was a deal that was made long ago, and aarp believes it should be honored. thankfully, president trump does too. 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[ girl screaming ] [ laughter ] are you going to include the cbc, mr. esident, in your conversations with the urban city agenda? >> am i going to include who? >> the congressional black caucus? >> well, i would. i tell you what, dumt to set up the meeting? are they friends with yours? >> why would he set up a meeting. why does he assume -- >> what decade is this? does anybody know? >> 1952? >> that goes in the capsules with women's difficulties. i think he's going help us with cramps. thank god! >> you have to give a little background. >> help me out here. >> "the washington post" reported this morning that when asked what melania was going to do, she's going to help with women's difficulties. >> he's known her a long time. she's classy. she's going to help with women's difficulties. let's go to baltimore and forget what mika said. april ryan. i'm curious, why did the president assume you were friends with members of the congressional black caucus more so than say, jim acosta, i don't know. >> i'm friends with jim acosta, but i don't know the new incoming secretary, the nominee. i cannot assume what this president was thinking. i just can't. i want to believe that -- i just want to believe he wasn't thinking what everybody is thinking, you know, right now. i just want to believe a better day in 2017. >> what do you think erveds is thinking? >> what i'm reading and seeing. twitter and facebook are blowing up. maybe because i -- people assume that i do work with the dnc. i would do work with the rnc if they called me. i know people in the rnc. i know democrats, inow republicans. i kn peoe in the chc. >> do you think it had to do with whether democrats or republicans but because he saw you as a black woman and said, oh, do you have friends in the congressional black caucus? >> it kind of looked like that. >> that's what i'm saying. i just want to believe -- i want to look at a better day and hope -- >> we all want to believe, but it's getting harder by the day, isn't it? >> you can't believe. you have to look at what you see. what you saw yesterday was a show. there's no other way to put it. >> yes. >> we need to be more real. >> you know i have written two books on race, so, it was a moment. but, you know, i was struck more -- he really hit me really was the fact he asked the first thing because i consider myself a journalist, like everyone else in that room. i wasn't looking at i'm a black woman, i'm a journalist asking questions. would you convene the meeting? no, no, no. that's crossing the line. when you talk about fake news, that's fake news. if they would invite me to be in the room when the members of the cbc and president meet, i would love to report on it. to convene the meeting, no. members of the cbc were watching yesterday. yes, i do know some. they are sources. i kno some of them. congressman congressman elijah comings, i used to be with him. i have a formal introduction and conversation yesterday with the heads of the cbc. >> just for the record, the cbc did send donald trump a letter seeking a meeting. trump said we have been trying to get a meeting and can't. they looked for a meeting before he was sworn in. he never got to your question about the agenda for helping inner cities. did you lean anything other than what he told you and him trying to get you to set up a meeting? >> he has this idea about health, about education, about crime, but he was warm to bringing in -- he warmed up to the idea of bringing in the people who had been carrying these issues for inner cities for decades, since 1971. so, also, because of that exchange that question and answer session with president trump, the white house did reach out to the cbc and they are trying to work out a date and time for a meeting to talk about hbcus, to talk about the fix to inner cities. so, that's what i gleamed mostly from the whole piece, however many minutes it was with my discussion with the president yesterday. >> april, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate your patience. >> mark halperin a quick update before we get a break. what are the kids saying? >> not everyone agrees with rush limbaugh's analysis of the president. >> all right. >> that was one of the most bizarre moments of the press conference with april. >> still ahead, no more double duty. >> i know, i know. a lot of members of the congressional black caucus are my friends. why not ask me to convene the meeting. elijah, i think i'm sitting with him during the state of the union address. he could ask me. >> you could book that in a new york minute. >> in a moment. >> sean spicer announcing e hiring of a new communications director momentsgo. more on that breaking news and much more on this. >> i want to find a friendly reporter. are you a friendly reporter. watch how friendly he is. he said he was going to ask a very simple, easy question and it's not. it's not. sit down. quiet, quiet. that's what i call a nice question. that is very nice. who are you with? liberty mutual stood with me when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. i just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company definitely doesn't have that... you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance on mattress firmness? 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>> bbc. >> another beauty. quiet, quiet, quiet. the public doesn't believe you people anymore. i didn't win by listening to you people. i inherited a mess at home and abroad. i inherited a mess. this administration is running like a fine tuned machine. the rollout was perfect. zero chaos. this is a fine tuned machine. russia is fake news. i don't want to be hacked. you know what uranium is, right? things called nuclear weapons. the best thing i could do is shoot that ship out of the water. hillary clinton did a reset with the plastic button that made us all look like jerks. we are a powerful nuclear country, so are they. i'm really not a bad person. i'm not ranting and raving. i love this. i'm having a good time doing it. >> the public doesn't believe us anymore? >> willie said it best -- >> happy friday. >> willie, as we were walking in, you know what would be funny, that would have been a really funny hour or so of television, if he weren't president of the united states. >> that was right off the campaign trail, call it summer of 2015. a man in his element saying whatever crossed his mind, throwing out thing that is were verifingly false. the key line, i love this, i'm having a good time. he did not want that press conference to end. he watched people try to defend him for a month, kellyanne conway, sean spicer. he wanted to be front and center and speak for himself. if the idea was to convey there's no chaos in the white house, i'm not sure it had that effect. >> it was the most rambling press conference anybody has ever seen. i just -re we start talking about this and pking it apart and picking out all the falsehoods, i just -- he may be only 39% in the polls, according to the pugh poll and 40% in gallup. i tell you, the hard core supporters i spoke to yesterday and all my friends were in front of the tv set laughing. they weren't laughing at donald trump, they were laughing at the media. he's going to have his 37%-38% hard core support. he's playing to his crowd. you know what? it is a great 38% strategy for him. >> there's no doubt about that, joe. there's no doubt about that. the base of his support, whether it's 35%, 40%, they are not going anywhere. they are going to stick with him. yesterday, the first 35 minutes of that press conference was watching a president of the united states who has lost his grip on reality. it was as if he performed yesterday for himself because he needed to perform like that, to convince himself that he was president. >> because we have said this before and will say it again, mark halperin, he has absolutely nobody inside that white house that will walk up to him and tell him the truth. so, he lives in an alternate reality. he says things that are viably false. when he got called o on it yesterday by peter alexander, he will say that's just the information i was given. no, that's the information he says. he talks and makes up things and repeats them until he believes them. what is the impact of yesterday? the impact of yesterday, from my take, i would love to hear what you think, casey hunt and everybody i talk to on the hill, republicans, senators, congressmen were scared -- they were scared to beth by what they saw. more than one said this is not going to last long. he just doesn't have control of reality. you actually saw something extraordinary after the press conference. a guy who was given the opportunity to have the most powerful job in national security said no thanks. i saw that press conference, no thanks. >> if you look at the arc of american history and the presidency and the arc of donald trump's life tharks press conference was totally shocking and totally unsurprising. >> yeah, exactly. >> it's going in a time capsule. if trump is a successful president, it's going in a time capsule. if he's a failure, it's going in a time capsule. >> it's going in. >> unraveling. >> yeah. >> if you watch the campaign, not one thing he said yesterday, lies exagration, bullying, bragging. not one of thosehing was shocking. >> only shocking because he has a presidential seal in front of him. >> in his own party. he would like some democrats, but at least his own party to be inspired by him. there's not one republican outside his core, core supporters that are anything but freaked out. >> embarrass zed. >> freaked out. >> we have to get to that, which was massive in itself. there were headline that is broke, sort of the reaction, almost. the question is did michael flynn mislead the fbi? "the washington post" reporting the former national security adviser denied to fbi agents during an interview he discussed u.s. sanctions with russia with the ambassador before sworn in. the current and former u.s. officials say that contradicts intercepted communications. lying to the fbi is a felony offense. several officials say it's unclear whether they would attempt to bring a case because flynn may parse the definition of the word sanctions. a spokesperson for flynn had no response. here is president trump speaking yesterday about flynn's departure. >> mike flynn is a good person. i asked for his resignation. he respectfully gave it. he is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence who is with us today. i was not happy with the way that information was given. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador. >> no, i dnlt. no i didn't. >> would you have fired him if the information hadn't leaked out? >> i fired him for what he said to mike pence, very simple. mike was doing his job. it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasn't doing it. i didn't direct him, but i would have directed him because that's his job. >> i'm wondering the people are they excited? do they think it's great? are they wringing their hands because they know there's an unraveling happening? >> i would bet some amount of money mr. bannon and jared kushner, his son-in-law thought that was a wonderful performance yesterday. that was donald trump. >> yeah. they, too, are suspended from reality, which is why donald trump is suspended from reality. the people closest to him think he can lie all he wants and the people -- >> it was hard to count the lies. >> you talked to several people yesterday in washington as did i and mark and willey, i think. >> yeah. >> the flynn story, what michael flynn did or may not have done is far down in terms of important stories. the number one story is the ability of the president of the united states. >> the top pick for national security adviser saying no thanks, i don't want the job. >> his performance yesterday is done without a real crisis on the front burner. what happens when there is a real crisis? >> what's interesting, mika, you are right, the man he selected to be national security adviser said no. that's a shock. >> this is a well oiled machine? >> it's not a well oiled machine. what makes it especially a junk yard sanford and son truck going toward the cliff is the fact that they offered a job to someone and they didn't know the answer. you know, you always say perry mason would neversk a question he didn't know the answer to. if that's the truth in the courtroom, the truth for a presidential office, really, unless it is amateur hour you never offer a job and give the person a chance to say let me think about it. we don't even do that around here. if we say would you like to work, let us think about it, you already did. thank you. >> thank you. >> and we move on to the next candidate. they let a guy keep them twisting in the wind. >> at this time of crisis. >> after that crazy press conference going he's too unstable. >> makes them look terrible. >> they may have thought they knew the answer and he watched and said i don't want to walk into that. to answer your question about the front row. kellyanne conway said, she reminded everyone of why he became president, speaking his mind and taking the case directly to the american people. that's a reaction from the front row. another problem -- >> i want a real reaction, the truth. >> good luck. >> another problem, at the center of the mike flynn story and what the president said, flynn was doing his job. i fired him because he didn't tell the truth to vice president pence. donald trump knew the truth. everyone in the white house knew the truth. why didn't they tell mike pence the truth? >> because it wasn't coming out in the "washington post." >> i was upset he didn't tell the truth, flynn didn't tell pence the truth. no one in the white house told pence the truth either. ahead -- >> we are just thrilled with what he's accomplished in less than four weeks, even standing in the face of all the objections of senator schumer and the like. i would say to other republicans, though i'm not hearing a lot of that, i would say chill out. he's getting a lot done. >> one of trump's first supporters in congress. congressman chris collins joins us to talk about where things go from here. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. when standard cancer treatment no longer works for patients like lynn, advanced genomic testing may lead to other treatment options that can work. learn how genomic testing is changing the way we fight cancer at cancercenter.com/genomics ♪ king arthur: ready! washington: charge! empress wu: charge! (in chinese) king arthur: charge! ♪ let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. mattress firmness? enter sleep number... she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. save 50% on the ultimate limited editiobed, plus 24-moh financing. go to sleepnumber.com for a store near you. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. don't ever let anyone tell you you can't change. that is what life is. change. it's not some magic trick. it's your will. your thoughts become your words become your actions become your reality. change is your destiny. now go chase it. ♪ heigh ho heigh ho ♪ ♪ heigh ho heigh ho it's off to work we go here's to all of you early risers, what's up man? go-getters, and should-be sleepers. from all of us at delta, because the ones who truly change the world, are the ones who can't wait to get out in it. welcome back to "morning joe." more now on the president's news conference yesterday and his denial that anyone from his campaign had contact with russian officials. quote, to the best of my knowledge. >> you can talk all you want about russia, which is all a, you know, fake news fabricated deal to try to make up for the loss of the democrats and the press plays right into it. in fact, i saw a couple people that were supposedly involved in this. they know nothing about it, they never made a phone call to russia. they never received a phone call. it's all fake news. when i was called out to mexico, i was shocked. all this equipment. when i was called out on mexico, honestly, i was really, really surprised. same thing with australia. i said that's terrible that it was leaked. it wasn't that important. then i said what happens when i'm dealing with the problem of north korea? what happens when i dealing with the problems in the middle east? are you folks going to report all of that very, very confidential infoation? i didn't do anything for russia. i have done nothing for russia. hillary clinton gave them 20% of our uranium. she did a reset with the stupid plastic button that made us look like jerks? remember it said reset? if i do that, oh, i'm a bad guy. >> the thing is hillary clinton may have used that plastic button, i agree it was stupid and embarrassing, but she never accused american heroes that fought in iraq of being killers when trying to defend vladimir putin, which is what donald trump said. he said, oh, we killed a lot of people, too. remember the war in iraq. i mean, yeah, it's -- if hillary clinton screwed up and -- you look at that press conference and he's wondering about the leaking. there weren't these leaks inside the bush white house. there really weren't these leaks inside the clinton white house to this degree. you could have calls with foreign leaders. once again, this points to the need of giving reince priebus complete control or finding a chief of staff that he has, feels like has complete control. say josh bollton was chief of staff and there were two of these leaks, they would call everybody in, say listen, if that happens everybody around this table is fired, everybody. he would. he, that guy came in and two weeks later you had rumsfeld fired, you had, i mean, you could go down the list. he went in and cleaned the place up. when leaks happen, you know, trump is not going to be able to figure it out because he's at war with everybody. i keep saying this. how stupid do you have to be. if you are at war with everybody, intel agencies, the state department, the d.o.d. if you are at war with everybody, they are going to come after you. >> you can want to change washington and develop relationships with the institutions. he is not. he's not -- does not seem to have asked himself why the leaks are happening, what's the motivation of the people? for a lot of them, it's personal. they are worried about what's happening. >> they are scared. >> they are trying to get the word out. this will not stop, even as the obama administration fades, this will not stop. he wants change. if he wants to make intelligence stronger, if he wants to change relationships with other countries he needs to work with the existing -- >> gingrich had a similar approach to being speaker of the house when we had to deal with something every other day. it wasn't a coincidence after newt gingrich came after some of us, suddenly, every day there was a different story in the new york times. >> yep. >> every day, there was a different story in the "washington post." it nicked and nicked and nicked him and bled him and finally, it was very easy to run him out of town. >> what do you suppose they were thinking, watching this performance yesterday in places ke riad and loon? what were theyhinking? >> it's a tale of two press conferences. in bon, they were extraordinarily nervous. in birmingham, they liked it. in riad, they were very nervous. in raleigh, north carolina, a lot of people were cheering at it. said way to give it to the press. again, let's not pretend that his 38% -- >> oh, it's there. >> absolutely. >> they loved it. at the end of the day, it will bring him down, if he continues doing this. for now, he has nobody around him to tell him the truth. let me underline this, nobody around him to tell him the truth. so, he can lie all he wanlts to about the electoral college. everybody goes great job boss. by the way, willie, who else was on the front row? little miller, the 31-year-old who went on all the sunday shows, lied through his teeth about the 3 million illegal votes, then he had donald trump say great job. donald trump rewarded his lying. donald trump rewards kellyanne's lying. so, who is going to go to donald trump and say, hey, listen, you really undercutting your credibility and it's going to catch up with you if you don't stop lying. >> coming up, we fact check the claims from the news cron frens if we have enough time. it's going to take a long time. we'll be right back. my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but dad, you've got... ...allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. it's good to be in, good hands. ♪ some things are sily impossible to ignore. the strikingly designed lexus nx turbo and hybrid. the suv that dares to go beyond utility. experience amazing. this is the story of green mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen. all this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. put it out before the american people, got 306 electoral college votes. i guess it was the biggest electoral college win since ronald reagan. we had hillary clinton give russia 20% of the uranium in our country. drugs are becoming cheaper than cand bars. circuit that h been overturned at a record number. construction of the keystone pipeline and dakota access pipelines, thousands and thousands of jobs. you have a lower approval rate of congress, i think that's right. >> we couldn't even show half of it, but got some in. >> i like the music. >> soothing during turbulent times. the president spits out lie after lie. >> little known fact, the year the beatles invaded america. >> '64? >> '64. the girl that won the grammy -- it's kind of like -- >> it's good stuff. >> they don't get it right. >> just ahead, casey hunt joins us live from capitol hill. are house republicans beginning to panic after the blockbuster news conference? >> yes. yes they are. >> you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise oh, it's actually...s your sfx: (short balloon squeal) it's ver... sfx: (balloon squeals) ok can we... sfx: (balloon squeals) i'm being so serious right now... i really want to know how your coffee is. it's... sfx: (balloon squeals) hahahaha, i had a 2nd balloon goodbye! oof, that milk in your coffee was messing with you, wasn't it? yeah. happens to more people than you think. try lactaid, it's real milk, without that annoying lactose. mmm. good right? yeah. lactaid. it's the milk that doesn't mess with you. ♪ ♪ ♪ lease a 2017 lincoln mkx for $369 a month. only at your lincoln dealer. i put it out before the american people, got 306 electoral college votes. i wasn't supposed to get 222. they said there's no way to get 222, 230 is impossible. 270, which you need, that was laughable. we got 306. i guess it was the biggest electoral college win since ronald reagan. >> you said today you had the biggest electoral margins since ronl reagan with 304-306 electoral vos. president obama got 365. >> i'm talking republican. >> president obama 332 and george h.w. bush 426 when he won as president. why should americans trust you -- >> i was told -- i was given that information. i was just given. we had a very big margin. >> why should americans trust you when you are providing information that is not accurate. >> i was given that information. actually, i have seen that information around. >> joining us from the white house, the man you saw in that clip, nbc news national correspondent, peter alexander. i guess we shouldn't be surprised by what donald trump says and does. it's odd to see that specific number when you can so quickly shoot it down. >> reporter: here is the bottom line, the point i was trying to get across in that exchange is why should americans trust you on big things if you keep misrepresenting the facts on little things like your electoral college margin of victory? that was the significance of that exchange there. it's notable, that wasn't the first time in the news conference. he tweeted about it, talked about it multiple times over the course of the last three and a half months. it was a rare opportunity to fact-check the president in realtime. this is the information i have been given, which had i do it again, how can you trust any of the information you are provided if you are provided that? >> did you hear sources were pleased with the president's performance, he got done what they wanted him to do? he put himself out front instead of having others do it for him. >> this was his decision. white house aides tell me yesterday in the ovl office, he basically said let's do a news conference today. he wanted to fight his own fight against the news media, against all the chaos that's been described that is engulfed this white house. he annnc it on his own. when i was outside yesterday, members of his team didn't know there was going to be a news conference when i was trying to confirm it. they said that's news to us. the bottom line is, today they feel good about it. they are praising his performance. we have spoken to aides. this is the donald trump that resinated with americans. they feel that's the real donald trump who is authentic, real, in command and appeared confident. >> news this morning, as well, we are learning there is for the first time, a white house communications director, mike who comes from the conservative cross roads media, which he founded. what else do we know about him? >> reporter: this was confirmed by aides in the last hours. crossroads was one of the groups that was fighting to defeat the trump movement early on. there's already some frustration among some people that were with donald trump during the course of the campaign. his is the voice that will be in charge of communications here. it should take some of the heat off press secretary, sean spicer. he was trying to juggle both jobs, communications and press secretary. he gets scrutiny from the president who goes over the press briefings with him in person, i'm told, he'll have help in terms of messaging to focus on the specifics of the day. >> loo like another busy day at the white house. as if there are others. peter alexander. >> if i can interrupt, i know you were talking national security adviser. i got a call with other names. keith kellogg is still in the mix. just heard the other names general keith alexander, david petraeus and general jim jones. they may be the other names the president was referring to. >> some jaws just dropped. jim jones. >> general jones was barack obama's first national security adviser. was basically forced out after a brief tenure. >> exhibited management abilities people were worried about with general flynn. i would be shocked if that happened. >> would you be shocked if general petraeus happened? >> i wouldn't be. i can see why he would want to do it and why trump would want him. anybody who takes the job has to demand the ability to hire, fire and reshape the staff and work with the other departments. this is a real dangerous thing right now. this job must be filled and by somebody qualified. russia's close connection to president trump could be cooling as the kremlin told state media to dial back the flattering coverage of mr. trump. the decision stems from fading hopes of senior leadership relations with the u.s. will improve under the trump administration. they justified the move saying russians are no longer interested in president trump's transition. let's go to the new york stock change and sarahizen. good morning. >> good morning. shares are in focus today. president trump set to be making a tp todayo a boeing plant, north charleston, south carolina. boeing is going to roll out the first 787-10 dreamliner in honor of the visit. we are expecting remarks from there trump and the governor henry mcmaster who took over for nikki haley. as for boeing, topics include manufacturing jobs a core campaign promise, exports, trying to make the u.s. more competitive. boeing is one of the biggest exporters in this country, potentially talk of the xm bank, the export/import bank. important to the likes of ge, boeing and other exporters. the stock of boeing is up 20% since the election. it's been one of the winners along with other defense providers like lockheed martin. other news, mark zuckerberg, ceo of facebook, a defensive globalism is how it's being painted against the isolationist tendencies we hear from president trump and others. trump wasn't mentioned by name and wasn't political. zuckerburg needs global responses like ending terrorism, fighting climate change and preventing pandemics. progress requires humanity coming together as cities, tions and a global community. this serves the interest of facebook as a business, connecting people around the world for social media. i think that, at the heart of this sort of state of the union is really what it's about, where social media stands in this world where it's very polarized and he took on the idea of fake news saying he has responsibility in combatting it and making sure things are accurate while everybody can still have a point of vu. >> sarah on the floor of the new york stock change. thank you very much. last night, i'm walking through times square. >> of course you are. >> we don't want to know what you are doing in time square. were you doing elmo? >> extra scratch, walking around money i'm making. i walk through times square and i look up at the big nasdaq board. they have the huge screen up there. i see your gig streamed live from prohibition on the big board in times square. >> all of it went to the orphanage. >> the guy came to prohibition. i just put it up because natalia told me to and he's very good. >> it's crazy. 87 million views. it was a -- if you pulled back, it looked like the end of world war ii. >> it looked like new year's eve out there. >> really? >> like the resurrection. >> how did your costume work? >> i made $11 last night. >> really? >> and no arrests. >> do your arms get tired? >> it's an elmo costume, for the kids. >> you never have to wash it. you see the guys out there across the street. you save money in detergent to never wash that thing. that $11 you kept? >> i have very low overhead. >> you own that costume or a rental? >> it's like a cab, you buy a medallion and share it with other people. >> you still don't wash it. you don't want to be the one stuck with the tide pods. let somebody else do that. >> why are you so gross? okay. thank you natalia brzezinski. thank you nasdaq. >> sony, spotify. friends from spotify were there last night. >> yep. huffington was at prohibition. >> fager was there. >> jeff fager from my 60 minutes past. he wants you to do the 60 minutes party. joey and kathryn, oh, and lewis. >> jonathan prince. >> jonathan prince was there. i had no idea. i had no idea you knew jonathan prince from spotify as well as you did until he showed me all the pictures you sent him of your baby. >> the prime minister of spotify. >> he is the prime minister of spotify. great guy. >> it was fun. good job. you did well. check it out on his facebook page. >> you can check to see all the ople o spotify. >> your band is so good. >> we had more people watching than ever before. check and see. as far as bands go, we got more electoral votes than any other band in the history. what? what's so funny? somebody just told me that. >> the monkeys had more. >> somebody told me that. >> the nasdaq thing was cool. my daughter was watching from dartmouth so that was cool. >> there's a scandal breaking. >> up next -- >> our bassist came from russia. i'm just saying we had more electoral votes than any band in history that played on the nasdaq. >> i'm going to talk about my chickens if you are not quiet. >> it's very humbling. >> where were you when the president gave that epic news conference. >> my next problem is women's difficulties. that's next. >> good. we really struggle with cramps. we don't care about things like equal pay or being -- speaking out, having a seat at the table. >> if you are a member of congress, it may depend on whether you are a democrat or republican on whether you actually saw donald trump's press conference. >> we'll be right back. knowing d has never been easier. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. the microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn countless points of data into insights that transform their business and will enhance the game for players and fans. the microsoft cloud turns information into insight. on mattress firmness? 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(scream) i don't do blood. but now, thanks to cigna, i can do more than just look the part. is that a foot? we are the tv doctors of america. and we're partnering with cigna to help save lives. by getting you to a real doctor for an annual check-up. so go, know, and take control of your health. doctor poses. cigntogether, all the way. it's realizing beauty doesn't stop at my chin. roc®'s formula adapts to delicate skin areas. my fine lines here? visibly reduced in 4 weeks. chest, neck, and face cream from roc®. methods, not miracles.™ start here. at fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. it's your retirement. know where you stand. in a moment, we are going to bring in casey hunt, live from capitol hill. first, a look at some of the ground we have covered this morning. >> that would have been a really funny hour or so of television, if he weren't president of the united states. >> the idea was to convey there's no chaos in the white house. i'm not sure it had that effect. >> they were laughing and they weren't laughing at donald trump. >> giving off the appearance things are getting done. >> they thought that was a wonderful performance. >> imagine watching in berlin and imagine watching it in london. >> why should americans trust you on big things if you can't tell the truth on little things. >> do you want to set up the meeting? >> no, no, no. i cannot assume what the president is thinking. >> he could never go deep on a thought. >> this guy is the first sore winner we have ever seen. >> lies, exaggerations, bullying, intimidation, bragging. >> not one of those things was shocking. >> the man he selected to be the national security adviser said no. they offered the job to someone and they didn't know the answer. >> they may have thought they knew the answer and he watched the news conference. >> michael flynn lied to the fbi. that's a felony. >> if you are going to lead the lock her up chant, you would actually say maybe i ought to not lie to the fbi. >> what michael flynn did or may not have done is far down the bar. the number one story is the stability of the president of the united states. >> all right, joining us now, nbc news capitol hill correspondent, casey hunt. she was getting reaction from the hill. >> yes! >> this is different. >> casey, there was reaction in front of the camera,re was reaction behind the camera when the camera was off. talk about reaction in front of the camera with republicans versus democrats. >> reporter: right. so, the house of representatives has now left for their presidents' day recess. they are going to go home, face the music from constituents. in the wake of this press conference, what was happening, joe, you will remember well, everyone is fleeg out the halls. when the weather is nice, they go down the steps. i thought this is the last chance to catch up to the members to get reaction to exactly what happened with the press conference. it seemed democrats tended to have time to have seen it while republicans didn't. take a look. what is your reaction, one word for the press conference today. >> i didn't get to see it. >> reporter: one word reaction? >> terrifying. >> reporter: sir? >> unfocused. >> i didn't see the press conference, sorry. >> nonending. >> i was in a hearing. lacking. >> i didn't watch it. >> unbelievable. >> i didn't see it today, i have been in committee meetings. >> embarrassing. >> i haven't got to watch it yet, i was in a hearing. >> reporter: your one word reaction. >> prayer. >> reporter: can i bother you briefly for one word reaction to the president. >> i have been in the chair for the past two hours, sorry. >> growth and tax reform getting the economy going is obviously more than one word. >> reporter: so, as you can see there, for the most part republicans have not looked at it. i will point out the one congressman at the end brady, is one of the people that does have the most invested in actually being able to pass an agenda, which i think is part of the reason you are seeing republicans not come out and criticize the president. they want to get things done. the conclusion, publicly, clearly, is this did not contribute to that. >> what about privately? are you hearing the same thing i am hearing from republicans which is not quite a meltdown, but almost a panic that their leader is -- >> sort of losing it. >> this uneven. >> reporter: so, what i learned after this had concluded was very different than what i was hearing while this was going on. i was texting, e-mailing with many republican congressmen, republican aides. everybody seems to be watching with their jaws on the floor. one called it unbelievable. another said face palm with a hashtag in front. i think there was a lot of consternation behind the scenes. the sense is this snowball around russia, in particular, is something that could threaten the administration in a fundamental way. it's a different thing than the constant tweets. they are really kind of starting to get to the point where they feel what's going on at the white house could prevent them from doing the big things they want to do. paul ryan and mitch mcconnell want to be in charge, unable to do anything big, able to work around the margins. they have been willing to give the president as much leeway as they have because they want him to sign things like tax reform and the health care repeal. they feel it gets in the way of it. >> cas hunt, thank you so much. mark, it's very interesting. i hear on the house side house members still more lined up behind the president. on the senate side, they say talk about their concerns. the house side, we are interested in the agenda. we are concerned about the distractions, but at the end of the day, the question is, does he pass the agenda or not? >> on the two big things that are going to be done, health care and tax reform, they are split. tax reform, he is more alive on the house. health care, more aligned with the senate. part of the challenge for republicans is not special interest groups, can they draw democratic votes for the projects, but fighting amongst themselves. part of republicans were unhappy with what happened yesterday. they need a focused white house that is thinking about a legislative strategy and the tactics requires to get it done. that was a planned success or failure in 2017. >> let's bring in somebody that knows a lot about that republican, chris collins in new york. he was the first to turn toward donald trump as president. he served a key roll in the transition. thank you for being with us. i spoke to mitch mcconnell and paul ryan on and off the record. they both tell me the senate and the house are working closely together and that we need to be patient but we should expect a bill on both health care reform and tax reform that both sides, both chambers agree on. is that what you are hearing? >> yeah. there's no question. we are marking up the bill. we are marking up the health bill week after next. you know, we have general agreement on most aspects. there are a few details toork out. the president isoced on this as is the vice president. i think we are in a very good place and we'll follow that up a few months later with a tax reform. again, there are details to work out, certainly on the border adjustability tax. we have overall general agreement on certainly where the rates need to go. unlike what some of the press is reporting, i think things are going very well, smoothly, a lot of focus, certainly, vice president pence being the key liaison between the administration -- >> that's what i was going to ask next. can you explain how he's playing an important roll. we have been talking a lot of distractions the last couple hours. you look at policy so we can dig into this. you have the house and the senate lined up. in the white house, i was going to ask you, how big of a role is mike pence playing as the liaison to make sure everybody is talking to each other. >> vice president pence is everywhere. i mean, as most people know, i was with the president yesterday for about an hour and just before the press conference. certainly vice president pence was there as well. we talked about health care. we talked about infrastructure. we talked about tax reform. we are hitting all of these, a small group of us, the early endorsers. a lot of focus. the president is counting on vice president pence to be the go between the senate, the house, the administration and various secretaries. secretary price, certainly, when it comes to the health care, secretary mnuchin when it comes to tax reform and others. they are very focused and vice president pence is playing a key role. he's in all the meetings. he is the legislative liaison that is going to make sure a bill that hits president trump's desk will be signed into law. >> okay, we really appreciate your coming on the show. we have been so critical in some ways. you know? i do want to kind of echo peter alexander and ask if you are at all concerned that this president often says things that aren't true on such a small, petty scale, given the grand scheme of things. is that at all concerning to you? >> no, it's not. yesterday was a unique day. as i said, i was with the president for the hour just before the press conference. he's relaxed. he's focused. he's got his team working very well. what you are seeing, i think, is a little frustration or a lot of frustration with the way the news media is covering things. i mean, i for one lived through it relative to a situation that was distorted and not accurate with myself and secretary price. so, all of us are frustrated. the facts don't matter. when people are trying to fit a story into a bias like the stories already written and they have to find facts, whether they are facts or not. it's sumply frustration. what's what you saw with the president's press conference. i can assure you he and his team are focused, working hand in glove with mitch mcconnell and paul ryan. folks that think it's not sho. >> i was told to be short. what would the headline you put on the press conference yesterday? >> i would say frustration with the news media. >> okay. >> really quickly, can you give us a time, sort of a time frame, when do you think we are going to see repeal and reform bill on the affordable care act? >> we are marking it up week after next. you are talking about the first week in march. the details coming together on some of the biggest pieces you have ever seen, including medicaid and looking at total reforms that we have talked about for decades on medicaid. these are really big things. >> thank you so much, congressman chris collins, we appreciate you being with us here. have a great weekend. >> we end this week with a good-bye to one of the longest members of the "morning joe" family. it's best set up with this clip. >> because everybody's shoes were so wet, i ruined my carpet. this carpet was wiped out. >> yeah, man, it really tied the room together. >> value dollar. >> my rug. that rug really tied the room together, did it not? >> we have to get a hat -- laura kim, our producer. >> take that one. thank you for that. it really tied the room together x man. that was one of the hundreds of times we have said laura kim's name here on "morning joe." she was with us at the very start. >> very start. >> we needed a production staff. we had a staff of three people. >> they were all laura kim. >> we were quite literally making it up as we went along. >> laura has been working on the "morning joe" digital team and by working on, we mean she founded it and leads it nearly single handedly. she's behind a lot of viral moments you have seen on the internet. sorry to say, and happy to say, she's headed to the family new york times. >> that takes courage. >> help it not fail. >> she will undoubtedly shine. we are so proud of you. we are going to miss you, so much. look, joe wanted me to say this -- yay for laura. we adore you and thank you so much for your service and long and putting up with joe. >> it's been hard, i know. >> we'll miss you so much. >> we love you. >> thank you, laura. you can let her say thank you. >> you want to say anything? >> thank you so much. it's been a pleasure working here. i don't know which camera to look at. it's been an amazing ride. thank you. >> thank you. we will miss you very much. come back. >> i will. >> come back soon. >> that does it for us this morning. it's been a long week. get some rest. allie velshi picks up the

Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170224

we handle himself. >> he must be enjoying it. it is quite funny. >> i think he is enjoying it too much being in the middle of it. you can just report from there and you don't have to give commentary. that's what we get paid to do and you get paid to report. >> he does a pretty good job. >> i think he does a good report. but his twitter feed, i think we have all discussed our concern of twitter feeds of reporters who are working to be snarky. >> never seen that on my twitter page, god knows. >> sunshine and light in my feed every day. >> by the way, that is one minute and 18 seconds more than we expected to talk about glenn this morning. >> he's our lead story. >> he is on "snl." we will be talking about him the next three hours. buckle up, my friends. i just got back from the hospital. donny deutsche. >> how is he doing? >> he overdid it. >> at? >> he just overdid it yesterday. >> too much? >> i think it's a heart problem. unbelievable. >> very glad i wasn't on set. >> he sings on set and tries to become a sympathetic figure and then he -- >> you behafeved? >> no, i did not. we do this thing. he says it actually helps him get dates in the hamptons. he really overdid it. as you said, inot off-season in the hamptons so he had to work a little harder. >> it's slow in the winter so he had to work harder. >> guys! >> it's donny. we go back and forth. then you break character and then laugh. he refused to break character. >> he didn't get to the last moment? >> he was very method until we got to commercial break and then he started laughing. i'm going to get so many dates. >> he also has child actors he pushes around strollers and all kinds of tactic. >> they say he hires child actors to go to central park so women will come up to him. and he'll be the sensitive father. >> sick, isn't it? >> how does this get to the hospital? >> yeah. >> huh? >> you started i just came from the hospital. >> it's a nurse's thing. >> it's a nurse thing. >> he's doing well. he overdoes it sometimes. >> you mean he is doing well with the nurses? >> let me just say this. hgh really can tear your body apart. >> you don't too little. you want to get swollen but not too much. >> his arms. he is a 78-year-old man. i'm joking. >> we will cut all out and post it. >> there is no post here! >> that's right. no post. >> there's no post here. that was a minute and a half more talking about donny deutsche. >> that is two and a half minutes through the program. >> how many people can tell mika is off this morning? >> when people ask how do you get through three hours? three hours is a long time. the answer is a minute and a half on glenn thrush and then three and a half minutes on donny deutsche. then three hours has gone by. >> isn't it crazy since trump has gotten into the white house? threerssn't enough, actually. there is so much to talk about. >> some days you think it's normal or quiet and at about 12:00 it blows up. >> it's been more normal and quiet the past five days. >> it has been relatively normal three days. >> relatively is the operative word. >> then we did have yesterday, secretary kelly and the president contradicting each other and steve bannon at cpac. >> the first couple of days you would have white house staffers saying things and the whole world would catch on fire. here we are a month later and you have general, no, actually, no mass deportations. also no military operations. we are just talking about precision. it's precise and everybody calms down. >> last week, it was general mattis and vice president pence in europe. this is mexico yesterday with tillerson and kelly. in europe general mattis said we are takie ining a role in iraq. >> i guess people get used to listening the calm voices of general kelly and mike pence. >> i think we in the press and foreign leaders look at it and say is this a pattern? as peter baker brought up yesterday on the ow, ihink it was pete. peter said not such a bad deal. you have a president saying all of these things. we are getting out of nato, getting out of nato. then his people go to europe and say we are not getting out of nato but you guys need to by your 2% and they leave and everybody saying, yeah, we will pay our 2%. the question is, we will have a better grasp of this six months from now is this a good cop bad cop renoutine on the national station? if so, he with not pick mcmasters or tillerson or mattis. he does not want disruption in foreign policy. >> yesterday, when he was talking about it, it sounded like he wanted whatever it was, deconstruction everywhere. he did mention national security issues as well. >> as we said before, let's see steve bannon walk into mcmaster and tell him what to do. that does not end well for steve bannon. >> i think one of the questions is going to be places in national security the administration has to speak in one voice, especially in crises. you can't have parallel foreign policies. if there is a crisis who is speaking? the president or the defense secretary? you have time to clean up a mess, it's easy. >> or nsc in the white house? >> that's right. >> in time of crisis, it's the president. >> we will talk more about steve bannon's performance at cpac yesterday. a white house official asked fbi to pour cold water on stories that trump campaign advisers were in touch with russian advisers during the election. cnn reported that they refused to bow to that effort. it is reported that reince priebus made the request of deputy director andrew mccain but the question after the bureau told the administration it believes "the new york times" describing those contacts were not accurate. joe, i understand you have new reporting? >> let's build on that aittle bit. two sources. one in the white house and intel community tell us at "morning joe" that while over at the white house on other business deputy director mccain asked priebus if he could set five minutes at the end of the meeting to discuss another topic. p priebus said yes. mccain said the u.s. report on contacts with russian was overblown and not supported by any evidence the fbi had. priebus asked mccain in the meeting if they could clear it out and get the information out. mccain said think about it and calm him. later that afternoon, mccain called priebus and said even though it was bad information, the fbi didn't want to go into the record because they didn't want to get into the business. i think this is very wise of calling balls and strikes on reporting. fbi director had a follow-up call with priebus and the two had a similar discussion. priebus asked if it's accurate for him to cite fbi sources knocking down the story. comey said yes and that is when reince went on the news shows on sunday on fox saying the news was bogus. the reporting what cnn was saying and what we are hearing this morning not really that different. >> i guess it's fairly the white house is going to try, right? i'm not that surprised that priebus would go to the fbi and say, listen, this is getting us into a whole lot of trouble, this story. if you don't think the story is accurate, can you help us clarify it? perhaps you have more credibility. >> what depends. >> i was going to say -- going to do it but doesn't surprise me that -- >> if the fbi is there on other business, is this reporting suggest and if the fbi says, hey, can we talk to you, that's one thing. which that is what this report suggests. >> yes. >> if you have somebody doing what the clinton administration did in 1993 and george stephanopoulos said we need you to write this press release we are putting out late today that crosses the line. based on these reports, the fbi was there for other reasons. still there is a quizzical look in your eye. >> look. i think that there is longstanding practice and guidelines and not -- maybe not legislation to this effect but there is an ongoing criminal investigation of any kind that the white house should not be talking to the fbi about it and the fbi should be talking to the white house about it. the difference between these reports is who initiated the conversation. it seems to me that there will be questions raised about this one way or another that if you think -- if you went to the obama administration and suggested if dennis mcdonough or rahm emanuel are were having discussions and even the president himself that would be a huge scandal if rahm emanuel called the fbi and said just -- we need you to talk to the press about what you guys are finding in your investigation. >> again, that is the fact pattern. the same exact pattern that happened in 1993 in the travel gate dustup. >> it went the other way. the call came from the fbi. >> it wasn't even a call. >> it was -- >> right. >> they were in white house meeting. here is the question. was it improper for mccain. >> yes. >> -- to go to reince and curry a favor going, hey, listen. "the new york times" report was b.s.? >> my point is i think it is considered standard practice that the fbi and white house and especially if the fbi is investigating people that are close to the white house or involved with the president's campaign, especially in that instance, but in any instance, there shouldn't be discussions about ongoing investigation. so the question -- >> i totally agree. >> the question is who initiated the conversation? whether a phone call or in this case in person session. previous reporting that priebus raised it with the fbi in which case the burden -- the inappropriate behavior would be on the part of the chief of staff. if the fbi was raising it to priebus these questions should now be directed to the fbi. this kind of conversation should not behaening. >> by the way,willie, agree. it shouldn't happen. i guess under bush, it expanded out who people could talk to. >> and then restricted. >> i guess my question is why would anybody at the white house be allowed to talk to the fbi? o or vice versa if they are in the middle of an staeginvestigation? this directly relates to the white house. there has to be a chinese wall here. >> the cnn talks about the meeting on the sideline but takes it a step further and saying reince priebus later called the office of comey himself and asked him to talk to reporter on the background to put cold water on the story. that is calling the director and asking him to put his hand on the scale of the story. >> that was initiated in the white house it sounded like. >> took place later. >> right. >> right. >> so -- so you had the meeting in the white house. you had mccain coming up. you had reince saying if that is the case can you guys get the facts out there? mccakab said let me that i abou that. comey said the same thing that mccabe said. >> with comey? >> yes. it was the same confidence with mccabe saying it's bad information. can you get the information out there and tell them to which comey said we are in the business of calling balls and strikes here. if we did that with this report that is how we would be doing it the whole thing. sort of the fbi's attitude. >> the chief of staff of the white house shouldn't be calling the fbi and ask him to meddle in reports. >> it's not surprising -- here is the deal. if somebody comes in and tells me this story people are suggesting could lead to your becht impeachment is a bunch of b.s. >> how can you help me? >> if i'm sitting there you're telling me it's b.s. you going to clean that up since they are sticking it around your neck that you're investigating something and people from your agency -- i'm just saying what i would do in congress. your agency has leaked that i've done something -- >> you don't need to shout. you can do it calmly. >> i would be shouting in this office. you're telling me you're sitting there after your people are leaking to "the new york times" that i've done something illegal and now you're saying, oh, i'm sorry, we can't clean it up? i say you need to clean your shop up and probably start by getting the right information out there. the people that were lying about me -- that's what i would do. but it's different being a congressman. i just go through that exercise and say you can understand why somebody would be sitting there going, okay, well, you guys have screwed our life -- >> especially -- gravity of the story. >> yeah. >> the facts here matter a lot and a lot of reporting. >> gosh. >> on the next 24 hours. the reality is that in past administrations, you have here a serious multiprong investigation over the most politically sensitive thing currently affecting this white house over the question of russia, right? i think there is going to be -- as we get clarity about it who called whom, who said what to whom and what circumstances. in any event i think this will increase the pressure among many democrats and others who are going to say all of this just makes it more essential we have an independent prosecutor looking at this because no way this administration can investigate itself on this issue. >> which republicans have no interest in giving. >> clearly. >> just to be clear. i was explaining that little routine there. again, why they may feel the way they may feel and why somebody may have done what they may have done, but there has to be such a massive chinese wall between the white house and the fbi on this, because you're exactly right. it is completely -- it is the issue right now that they are going to be investigating for sometime. >> not be talking to the fbi about this. should not be happening. shouldn't be happening. >> and conversely. >> conversely, the fbi should not be talking to em. >> if this reporting is correct and it was mccabe who started this. you know i will give them good news, dah, dah, dah, we have sort of had a rough start. wasn't mccabe's wife that ran in virginia? he was part of one of the hillary stories in the past. i think temporary mcauliffe may have raised some money. i got in trouble again! i named a guy named david johnson a couple of weeks and said he is a bigot. it was craig livingstone! >> you throw stuff against the wall and some of it sticks. >> so i need to be careful. mccabe, i don't know. hey, let's clean that up! i take that back! no. i thought mccabe was involved in the hillary thing. >> better do some research at the break. >> all of this gunk. the bottom line it's a mess at the fbi and i think they need to keep their noses clean like the white house. i'm with you. >> there you go. >> let's talk about glenn a little more. >> cpac, yesterday, steve bannon and reince priebus deny reports of tension and blame the media for negative reports and calling the press the opposition party and fascinating look into steve bannon's world view. next week "morning joe" will have special coverage of president trump's first address to congress. we will be live on capitol hill tuesday and wednesday mornings starting at 6:00. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ (music plays throughout) ♪ announcer: get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. ♪ ♪ (crowd cheers) ♪ it's my decision ito make beauty last. roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it, the better it works. retinol correxion® from roc. methods, not miracles.™ i'm raph. my name is anne. i'm one of the real live attorneys you can talk to through legalzoom. don't let unanswered legal questions hold you up, because we're here, we're here, and we've got your back. legalzoom. legal help is here. explore your treatment options with specialists who treat only cancer. every stage... every day.... at cancer treatment centers of america. learn more at cancercenter.com/experts withevery late night...g... and moment away... with every click...call...punch... and paycheck... you've earned your medicare. it was a deal that was made long ago, and aarp believes it should be honored. thankfully, president trump does too. "i am going to protect and save your social security and your medicare. you made a deal a long time ago." now, it's congress' turn. tell them to protect medicare. this morning president trump will speak at the conservative political action congress and the first president to address cpac during his first year in office. yesterday all eyes were on an unlikely pair. the joint pap appearance of senior counselor to the president steve bannon and chief of staff reince priebus. bannon summed up his administration deconstruction. >> when you look at the lines of work. i break it out in three buckets. the first is national security and sovereignty. the third broadly line of work what is deconstruction of the administrative state. if you look at these cabinet appoia appointees they were selected. if they can't get it passed they put it in an's and that is all deconstructed. there is a new political order that is being formed out of this and it's still being formed, but if you look at the wide degree of opinions in this room whether you're a populace or a libertarian or an academic nationalist, we have wide and sometimes diversion opinions but i think the center core of what we believe we are a nation with an economy and not an economy in a global marketplace with open borders but a nation with a culture and a -- and a reason for being. and i think that is what unites us. >> joe, that was a fascinating look. we don't get to hear from steve bannon firsthand very often in his world view and a world view that has been adopted by donald trump and really steve bannon waiting all these years for a vessel as he called trump a blunt instrument to use to impose his world view. >> a lot of things about the trump administration and the people around him that are not conservative. they are not conservatives. but that was a conservative speech. and he sounded an awful lot like theresa may talking about economic nationalism saying we are a nation with an economy and not an economy that happens to be a nation reminds me of theresa may when she was speaking saying that if you're a citizen of the world, you're a citizen of nowhere. something along those lines. and as far deconstruction goes, it sounds an awful lot like what we said in 1994 and i will -- all i will say about the power of the state is i got elected by screaming about the dangers of a $4 trillion national debt. >> 4 seems quaint. >> i would love 4. it is 20 now and headed to 30. you would need about 30 people thinking exactly like steve bannon to simply stop the deficit from being over $300 billion for the next 20 years. probably they probably like him at cpac and people who wanted a smaller, more restrained, state like him probably as well. it's the cpac message. >> in some ways it's not totally the conservative message. economic nationalism suggests less trade, more tariffs, potentially. that's not a particularly conservative message. internationalism actually goes back in the conservative economic theory. >> there is a split in the party. speaking of '94. half of us when -- first thing newt wanted to do was he wanted to do the mexican bailout which wasn't a bailout of mexico but a bailout of goldman sachs who had invested a lot in mexico and needed to be rescued. that was one of our first economic fights. and i think there are a lot of republicans like me and like all of those that came in '94 free trade, that is great but we are going to ballot that altar. what impact is it having on everybody across the country? there has always been that strain underneath in the house. certainly paul ryan doesn't share that opinion and most of the leadership doesn't but there is always sort of in that strain conservativism, i think the first time it's ever reached the other side of pennsylvania avenue on the republican side. fascinating. >> it's interesting how protectionism has shifted something being the unions and left supported to now being the mantra o a certain group within the conservative and right movement. it's gone out of fashion. >> willie -- >> you can see why, you can see why it's been part of the more conservative theory. i wonder how does that fit with the chaos theory? you go in and every single department is blow the place up is effectively what he is saying. we want a deconstruction of the state and change everything and a chaos theory of government. >> if the entire administration and all of the republicans on the hill shared his view, then you might see that. but we have, as donald trump is learning, we have a very complicated system and you've got checks from the courts, checks from the press, checks from congress, checks from mitch mcconnell's senate. yet don't try to move too fast because the senate will always slow you down. >> kasie hunt was inside the room and she is our nbc news capitol hill correspondent and she was at cpac there yesterday. you could hear when steve bannon spoke, echoes of all the speeches donald trump had made on the campaign trail the last year and a half and fatalking a the forgotten man. >> it was fascinating to watch these two men are really embodiments of the half you were talking about. steve bannon on stage next to reap ins pri reince priebus. he opened saying thank you for invite he me this year. we have gotten a lot of chest beating no one expected us to win, but look, we did. it put priebus in a bit of an uncomfortable position. you could see in the room. i was down in front with the audience kind of watching the two of them to see how they reacted and applause for both of them but some people in the room sat and watched and listen to bannon. didn't stand up, didn't clap. you could hear priebus making kind aftof a pitch to those peo in the room. take a listen to what priebus had to say about that. >> president trump brought together the party and the conservative movement and i've got to tell you, if the party and the conservative movement are together, similar to steve and i, it can't be stopped. >> you can see that he is kind of pleading with a lot of those people to say, hey, give donald trump a chance. and the other thing that priebus focused on a lot was the supreme court pick, of course. but bannon, as you guys have pointed out, took a distinctly different posture and you could get a feel from him of where the most combative version of president trump is coming from. take a look. >> if you think they are going to give you your country back without a fight, you're sadly mistaken. every day it is going to be a fight and that is what i'm proudest about donald trump. all of the opportunities he had to waiver off this and all of the people have come to him and said you got to moderate. every day he tells reince and i i admitted this to the american people and promised this when i ran and i'm going to deliver on this. >> my question from that was kind of, hey, is it president trump doing that or is steve bannon making sure to be in president trump's ear every time somebody comes up and say think about this idea or try that or work with congress here and bannon is very clearly singularly focused. i think, look. there was a lot of tension beyond this as well. there was tension over richard spencer, the white nationalist who showed up and held impromptu press conference and cpac threw him out and wanted him to be gone so i think still ungrappling on between these two wings. >> kasie hunt, thanks so much. to hear steve bannon talk about the world view but also about when when they say we read about chaos and media and all the media want to talk about. we have our heads down in here and not change who we said we were going to be in the campaign. all of the things you see donald trump doing raising hell in the press is all of the stuff we said we were going to do and he will keep his head down and do on it. if you listen to bannon they are completely undeterred about chaos in their white house. >> that is because they are in the middle of a lot of the chaos. >> right. >> i don't think there iany doubt that early on especially, it was steve miller and bannon that were in the middle of the chaos, doing runs around the president, around the staff and getting the president to sign an executive order. they are still having to clean up a month later. but, apparently, everything i've heard, john, there is systems are starting to get in place and some people in the white house figured out that sometimes credit is not the first thing that you want. so now they are trying to get by on more things. there is at least a process is starting to take shape whether you like the policies or not. >> look. by conventional standards it took a little longer than it has in other cases. i think still a lot of tension. even with just those two guys you saw there. the reality is they are a picture. reince priebus and steve bannon about contrasting approach to the world. their ideology is different and their sensibility is different and there will always be that essential i think going forward even though i don't doubt on some level they get along fine. i think that is kind irrelevant, right? >> you know what's interesting? >> it's relevant but not -- >> what's interesting is that those two, and jared kushner are all completely different but all seem to work together very well. and none of them leak about the others. you can't get any of those three people to leak from the others. if you read a story that is really -- i don't mean -- this sounds ugly but it's just not. it is the truth. i am reporting. if you read a really ugly story about reince priebus or an ugly story about shooean, chances it came from kellyanne. those three, willie, do not seem to leak. >> that certainly the impression they were trying to give yesterday. a. >> look at. look at the body language. see? he is patting him. and he is saying don't touch me. >> i think he was trying to pat ba but the hand w gone by then. >> is that it? he won't shooing him away? >> i'll say to your point, joe. i think one of the things really you look yesterday there was this show that we saw and you see bannon saying, he's all for -- we are in to fight the war every day for the deconstruction of the administrative state. one of the fascinating news i saw yesterday john boehner coming out and say there is not a repeal and replace of obamacare, right? you think about what would be the main target? if you were wanting to deconstruct the administrative state is repeal obamacare. that was something donald trump said he was going to do on day one in office. we are now more than a month in and there has been no vote to repeal obamacare and there is a reason for that which is that as you pointed out there is the house, the senate and what is going on in the country there is a lot of pressure to maintain a rather large part of the administrative state. >> exactly. we got to go to break. i made a pie chart and up all night doing it while you were talking. here is a pie chart. this is all social security, medicare, defense and the mandatory stuff that nobody wants to touch. >> donald trump included. >> donald trump has said, not only -- in defense, not only does he not want to touch this, he want to grow it. actually what you're going to have is this, actually, is now going to be -- >> that is the deconstruction part. >> i'm sed serious. right here, this is going to make up and i can write upside down. this is going to make about 12% of this administrative state that they are going to, quote, deconstruct. thanks a lot. it's a side issue and they are not touching entitlements and not let them go bankrupt. they are going to let them go bankrupt and expand the military and talking about the deconstruction of the state they are talking about a small sliver of this pie which has just gotten smaller because defense spending and donald trump talking about wanting big new beautiful shinier new weapons is going to squeeze out 10% to 12% and immigration agents. that is a tease. >> coming up, what a nuclear arms race fall under the category of a rule in disarray? richard haass wrote the boo on it and he talks about th coming up. ♪ why do so many businesses rely on the u.s. postal service? because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. ♪ that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority : you youthat's why you drink ensure. sidelined. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. yet some cards limit whereuldn't you earncomplicated. bonus cash back to a few places. and then, change those places every few months. enough with that! (echo) with quicksilver from capital one you've always earned unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. welcome to unlimited. what's in your wallet? trump's relationship with the press could still use some work so that during the campaign trump staff will try to keep him calm by showing him pro trump news coverage. his current staff is trying to do the same thing but tough to find anything positive. check out what she thoed hthey this week. >> donald trump is remarkable and handsome. >> might have been edited a little bit. >> yeah. >> so the president wants to enhance the american nuclear arsenal. "morning joe" is coming back with richard haass, the president of the council on on foreign relations, to talk about what that means. that is next. there are over 47 million ford vehicles out here. that has everything to do with the people in here. their training is developed by the same company who designed, engineered, and built the cars. they've got the parts, tools, and know-how to help keep your ford running strong. 35,000 specialists all across america. no one knows your ford better than ford. and ford service. right now, get the works! a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more -- for $29.95 or less. z2a1fz zx9z y2a1fy yx9y don't ever let anyone tell you you can't change. that is what life is. change. it's not some magic trick. it's your will. your thoughts become your words become your actions become your reality. change is your destiny. now go chase it. listerine® total care strengthens teeth, after brushing, helps prevent cavities and restores tooth enamel. it's an easy way to give listerine® total care to the tal family. listerine® total care. one bottle, sibenefits. power to your mouth™. ♪ [dramatic ♪ ic begins] ready! charge! charge! 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>> the short answer is not a lot. we have more than adequate nuclear weapons. the last place we want to invest other defense dollars. >> where is this coming from? >> i don't have the answer to that. a small group of people worried about nuclear modernization and we should do a bit. the previous administration -- >> we heard putin has invested a lot in this and putin's arsenal is bigger than donald's nuclear arsenal. >> henry kissinger said what is in god's same is superiority? we got enough and you have an agreement that runs until 2026. >> there is any strategic advantage in investing in nuclear weapons? >> other than modernizing our arsen arsenals. >> why would we do that? because some things get old. >> are you saying some are saying the quality is not adequate? where he is getting this from? mcmaster say to him, you know, we have sort of gotten lazy when it came to nukes? >> in my experience people in uniform are worried about the adequacy. number of ships, number of planes, whether we have enough equipment for our army. training. all of the manpower issues is where defense dollars needs to go. no one virtually has wanted dollars to go into nuclear weapons. you don't fight wars with these forces. these are the things on paper. we got a framework, given a new start agreement. it goes until 2021 or 2026 as a five-year extension option and brings down the number of warheads on both sides and brings down the number of bombers and missiles on both sides. allows you to keep certain numbers in reserve. you need to do a bit of modernization on war heads to make sure things are still adequate. but this is not an area we want to have for -- >> i think -- i don't mean interrupt you but it rais an question about the way the president speaks. is this the president speaking in slogans, we want our nuclear arsenal to be bigger than everybody else because america needs to be bigger and better than everybody else? it's a bit like yesterday when he talked about a military operation and then down goes general kelly saying absolutely not a military operation. you can see why if you're an ally or adversary of the united states you're confused at the moment. what does the president mean? was the president making a sophisticated case as richard haass just outlined for the mead -- need to modernize and upgrade nuclear stockpiles? or was he rifting? >> this administration has a review of its nuclear weapons posture and there is not an administration. not the officials at the pentagon or the state department or the nsc. >> i'm not sure when there is an administration it will make much difference. donald trump will speak the way donald trump speaks. >> that is another issue. i'm saying it's highly unlime a comprehensive careful review. i don't think this grew out of that. there is a case for amping up defense spending but defense -- so you have to fight defense spending versus everything else. entitlements and discretionary and more. do you want defense dollars to go here as opposed to other directions? i would say most definitely not. >> richard, we got a lot more to talk to you in a minute. stick tight. ahead, former u.s. ambassador ambassador martin indyk. president trump set to take the stage at cpac after his chief strategist said everything in the white house is, quote, going according to plan. jeremy peters will join us with his reporting. "morning joe" is back in a moment. looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? start here. at fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. it's your retirement. know where you stand. you'll always be absolutely...clear. this is the story of green mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen. all this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. ♪ heigh ho ♪ heigh ho ♪ heigh ho heigh ho it's off to work we go here's to all of you early risers, what's up man? go-getters, and should-be sleepers. from all of us at delta, because the ones who truly change the world, are the ones who can't wait to get out in it. . knowing where you stand has never been easier. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. the anger on the left. i've never seen anything like that. they are now opposing everything. democrats in the senate are filibustering absolutely everything. their base, there is a attack term for their base. >> moscow. >> i was going a different direction which was bat crap crazy. right now, democratic senators are more scared of their base than they are of the voters. >> that was senator ted cruz yesterday at cpac. the last time he spoke there, he was an odds on favorite to be one of the last candidates standing as his peararty's nomi. in a few hours, it's donald trump's speech. we will look ahead at his speech when "morning joe" comes back. did you know 90% of couples disagree on mattress firmness? 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>> mayor de blasio with an interview. >> barbecue thing is everywhere. >> i know. grilling bill. >> wow. dramatic cover there. >> dramatic. welcome back to "morning joe." it's friday, the 24th of february. mika has the morning off. with us is co-author of "game change" john heilemann and katty kay and richard haass from the council on foreign relations. katty, you were noticed and other members of the press noticed that things are a bit calmer coming out of the white house, in part, because there are fewer tweets. >> yes. i tweeted on wednesday that it had been three relatively normal days. you had the sweden flap over the weekend which, again, was precipitated by something donald trump said at a speech and tweeted about. >> did you notice, even on the sweden cleanup tweet, instead of sad, bad, mad, glad, he just gave the facts. >> we did have a sad this week. i was glad to see that. >> which was a change i saw this report on fox news. >> yeah. >> and it was actually just a statement of fact. >> it was not a statement -- it was a statement of what he had seen on fox. >> but yeah. there seems to be a correlation between him tweeting less and a certain amount of normalities. some people pointed at the rescinding of the protections for the lgbt kids in schools and the harsher executive order when it comes to immigrants and you may not like those things, but you can't deny that the tone of the white house is -- the heat has been lowered around the chaos factor. >> there seems to be less chaos on the surface but, richard, that doesn't mean that a lot of the battles aren't still going on underneath. i sense a huge battle between bannon and miller and that faction versus priebus and some of the more institutionalized republicans? >> it's between radicals or radical conservatives and traditional conservatives. and i think that battle is now, in some ways, institutional in this administration. as long as those people are in place not a battle that is resolved but a battle that continues and you'll see it on issue after issue and see it between bannon and mcmaster when it comes to national security that this administration in some ways institutionalized he's ideological struggles about the role in the united states and the world. i don't think a day in saens where there is thebattleship" missouri" is something that happens. >> we have periods of calm. maybe it's changed. then he'll explode with a tweet the next ten minutes. >> you're predicting. >> i think he just lost -- >> we haven't seen what mcmaster is doing in terms of shaking up. story of steve bannon setting up a alternative within the white house his own group. how is mcmaster going to change that and how he is going to look at that chart and shake things up? that is interesting to see and three days. >> we saw some of that also over the weekend where you had the vice president going around europe trying to reassure about the united states support for the european project for the eu. you know the stories about bannon trashing the eu and saying it needs to be disrupted, it's counterproductive force and that is exactly the thing. american officials can't reassure if it's not clear who is speaking athorough tatively for the government and what the government line is. >> i was about to say how strange was it that you would not have your main players moving foreign policy forward? but we go back to the obama administration. and how dysfunctional. you had the nsc director cut out. you had kerry cut out. these big decisions were barack obama and ben rhodes, and occasionally, i heard dennis mcdon docdonough would have a s >> you can't sustain a successful foreign policy that way. it's going to happen -- >> when did that start? when was for the first time we saw that tendency to the white house and president and a couple of people basically deciding -- >> to the exclusion of the cabinet. >> under bush, too? >> you are some under w and i think much stronger under obama. the size of the nsc is ten times than bush 41 and gives you some sense of the drift in personnel. what is exacerbating in this administration is tillerson don't have a staff yet. they simply don't have staff. by the time he chooses them they still have to get their clearances and go through senate confirmati confirmation. this could take another six months before tillerson and company are up-to-speed. >> there was cleanup yesterday. members of the trump administration had to walk back the president's description of his effort to deport undocument immigrants after calling the measures, quote, a military operation. here first is the president during a meeting at the white house with manufacturing ceos followed by homeland security secretary john kelly and white house press secretary sean spicer. >> we are getting really bad dudes out of this country and at a rate that nobody has ever seen before. and they are the bad ones. and it's a military operation because what has been allowed to come into our country, when you see gang violence tt you've read about like never before and all of the things, much of that is people here illegally. >> no. repeat no use of military force in immigration operations. none. yes, we will approach this operation systematically and in an organized way, in a results-oriented way. and in an operational way and a human dignity way. this is the way great militaries do business. the united states, mexico and many others. >> the president was using that as an adjective. it's happening with precision. in a manner in which it's being done very, very clearly. i think we have made it clear in the past and secretary kelly reiterated what kind of operation this was but the president is clearly describing the manner in which this was being done. so just to be clear on his use of that phrase. i think the way it's being done by all accounts is being done with very much a high degree of precision and in a flawless manner in terms of making sure the orders are carried out and it's done in a extremely and efficient manner. >> sean spicer used it as an adjective, he said. c'mon! that is a poor guy. seriously? thrown -- he literally thrown into media-fed fire pen every day. yeah. alex said he is playing mad lib. can you imagine? he is walking out, by the way, today this is what you're going to tell. it's not -- go! >> he is saying what the president meant was that we will have military precision the way they remove undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes. >> thank you for that. >> he said it was being used as an adjective. he is not only is giving us information from the white house, but -- >> maybe trump's translator in chief? full-time job. >> also very educational. we can find out what adjectives are. i still haven't figured out what a gerand is. >> charles krauthammer wrote a new piece in "the washington post" about what he calls trump and the madman theory. quote. >> kissinger actually would tell anybody that would listen in '73 and '74 that nixon was -- was detached from reality at times and could be a dangerous man. and he did use it to his advantage in negotiations. charles krauthammer, do you buy his theory here? >> on not even close. the downside is much greater. first of all, with friends it doesn't work at all. friends get up every morning and put all of their reliance in you and their security in their hands and can't live with uncertainty. if they don't think we are dependable they will go other ways. tactically it work but selective on when you do it and don't pick on china on the one china policy. they care about it more than you do and you have to back down and you have to choreograph this with precision and care. this administration is not in a position to choreograph this sort of stuff with great precision. >> what is the theory? >> the tremendous unpredictablity. the americans night do crazy things and we can't risk that. therefore, we are not doing anything that is going to -- >> great dizzy dean coach, great pitcher for the cardinals. it always help if the batter thinks you're a little crazy. good for baseball but not good for our beautiful head of the pack nuke arsenal. >> john heilemann was talking about the idea the problem is what happens when there is a crisis, right? say there is a crisis over north korea and you're playing the madman theory. i don't see them saying i think i'll play nice because donald trump is a little unpredictable. >> look. i think this is the point -- i agree with richard. donald trump has said throughout, he said throughout his campaign and he continues to sort of seem to believe that unpredictability is a vir tou v virtue. it it seems to me in terms of international economics and in terms of national and security issues that reliability, predictability, knowing what is going to happen when you're the world's one remaining super power and you have alliances all over the world that rely on you in terms what have you're going to do next that reliability and predictability are vir to virt . the members of the president's cabinet saying on a regular basis pay no attention to the president of the united states. just doesn't seem to me the right way to proceed with global affairs. >> richard, john just said, rightly, and you said allies wake up every morning wanting to be able to depend on the united states of america to be there. let's look at it from the other side which is we need them. there is going to be become a point where we will need germany in some matter, we will need australia. maybe it's south china seas. we will -- >> even mexico. >> even mexico. we found even after 9/11, we needed iran to help us out with what we were doing in afghanistan. unfortunately, when i hear people in the white house talking about how this is like some one-sided relationship, no. we actually need nato as much as nato needs us. we actually need australia as much as they need us. you can go through the list. maybe not every day. maybe they need us more than we need them. but there always comes a point in time where you're like, oh, wow. i better call merkel because we really need this right now. and maybe merkel picks up the phone and says, okay, i'll care of it now, maybe she doesn't. >> you're absolute right. whether it's dealing with terrorism or the spread of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles or stamping out an infectious disease or dealing with climate change. we need partners. they are force multipliers. these relationships go two-way. not an act of philanthropy on our part. george h.w. bush had great relationships. when he had to get countries to come with us in 1991 there were a lot of leaders that had to make decisions that were not popular in their home country. but they did it for bush. if you're merkel right now and donald trump asks you to do something that the united states really needs but your people may not like it, let me get back to you, i'll think about that for a little bit, mr. president. that's what he doesn't understand. >> you have to bank goodwill in these relationships. >> bank goodwill. >> bank goodwill. you can't pick a fight on every subset of the relationship. you have to think about the relationship as a whole because days will come you will need them and it's not just the other way around. >> even the trip to mexico. mexico is now the secondiggest recipient of american exports. american exports natural gas to mexico more than any other country in the world they help us with intelligence, they help us actually with keeping other latin american immigrants out of the country. you destroy that relationship too much, that goodwill evaporates in the country. they can't do it. you put nieto in an impossible position. >> we will make sure the next president of mexico is a populous named pepo mexicans will come back to the united states. >> american exports will suffer. >> donald trump have to explain why illegal immigration exploded on his watch. they have better play nice in mexico. >> richard haass, thank you, sir. still ahead on "morning joe," we go live to nbc's peter alexander at cpac. the president will address the conference later this morning. joining us is two-time ambassador to israeli martin indyk and bianna and steve kornacki and david sanger. a full house is coming up. looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? 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(in chinese) charge! let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. it's my decision ito make beauty last. roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it, the better it works. retinol correxion® from roc. methods, not miracles.™ this is the story of green mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen. all this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. president trump brought together the party and the conservative movement and i got to tell you if the partynd t conservative movement are together, similato steve and i, it can't be stopped. >> that is white house chief of staff reince priebus speaking yesterday at cpac in a joint appearance with steve bannon. joining us from the site of the conference is nbc news national correspondent peter alexander. on capitol hill, "the new york times" reporter jeremy peter. peter, start with you. the president will be there speaking today. what do we expect to hear from him? >> what is notable about the fact one year ago, president trump didn't show up to this event and went to a campaign rally instead and a threatened walk-out by people in this room. this time is back not just as president but the headliner. i spoke it a senior white house official his remarks will be a thank you and reaffirmation and focus on the eyes in the white house he has had over the course of the first 30 or so days as president in implementing a conservative agenda. one note he'll make is the fact that he nominated neil gorsuch for the supreme court. it is a full couple of days here at cpac. i was browsing through the brochure. to give you a feel of what is taking place here, they have names like prosecutors gone wild. when did world war iii begin and threats of arm and fabulous the new normal. some of the conversations that will be taking place here at the conservative political action conference over the course of the next 48 or so hours. yesterday was notable because you got to witness how team trump is in effect taken over this event, even kellyanne conway, the senior counselor to the president said it's not cpac but to be tea pack preferring to president trump himself. here is a moment steve bannon, the chief strategist to the president came out side-by-side with a man who is rumored to be his rival reince priebus. here is more on ban none. >> is that the opposition party? >> yes. >> if you look at, you know,he opposition party and how they portrayed the campaign, how ty portrayed the transition and now they are portraying the administration it's always wrong. if you remember, you know, the campaign was the most chaotic, you know, by the media's description no kay chaotic and no idea what they were doing and then they were crying and weeping that night! >> joo in simple words the course of that conversation bannon said among his priorities his goal is, quote, the deconstruction of the administrative state. so we wait to see what the president has to say a short time from now. >> peter, my friend, we here at "morning joe" think you are armed and fabulous, my friend. have fun there today, buddy. >> cpac doing an entire panel on biceps. >> touchy stuff. >> jeremy has got today's front page piece in "the new york times" about steve bannon's appearance yesterday at cpac. we have been talking all morning about it. pretty extraordinary, jeremy, because we don't get to hear firsthand from steve bannon very often. >> no, you don't. compelling yesterday is one of the most elusive figures in washington and one of the most mysterious men in the world right now and addresses a audience and reassure them that everything is fine in the white house. they are proceeding as planned with the deconstructionf the administrative state. don't listen to the cry babies in the media who say everything is falling apart. but what is funny is while bannon says that about what he calls the corporatist globalist media he directs those same criticisms at the establishment of the republican party, which he may actually hate more than he does the left and the corporatist globalist media. let's not forget. trump was never supposed to be on that stage and neither was steve bannon. bannon was essentially banished from cpac a few years ago and had to start his own rival conference down the street that he called the uninvited and trump was almost denied a speaking slot a few years ago because the cpac organizers thought he was a fraud that only wanted to sell his ties and sqas casinos. the conservative movement as far as steve bannon feels is ready to be reshaped with his nationalist populace brand of conservati conservatism. >> "the washington post" a column this populace wing in cpac was loud but we could always beat it back and go on and win. he said now that wing of the party is the center of the party. they are running the show. >> the thing is everybody takes all of the results from the last election and i think overgeneralizes. i think the conservative movement and cpac is what the conservative movement and cpac has always been but they are going to have the president and all of trump's people there. same thing with the republican party. just underneath the surface. . that is what steve bannon needs to be concerned about. the problem was there weren't any establishment figures that could stand up and defend the republican party. and what it had done. i always say george w. bush, get george w. bush on a stage with donald trump and let's see how that goes. and richard's thought should do pretty well against george w. bush. he was a tough guy to debate but no type a like republican candidates that could stand up to trump. >> do you think it was a question of the candidates or that trump's message which is so powerful that whoever, even george w. bush this year this time in our country it was trump's time? >> i think it was -- i think it's everybody's reaction to donald trump. nobody punches back in an effective way. and so he plays by his own set of rules and everybody else they get their white gloves up to their mouth and so shocked. nobody punches him back in the face. >> by the way, the press basically has done the same thing as the republicans which is, oh, i'm so shocked, it's so horrible! then they overplay their hand instead of just barreling in and just, you know, doing their job day in and day out. i don't think people know how to react to this guy. i think they are just starting to learn how to react. >> in some ways the people who are there at cpac, while they may have longstanding ideological difference with donald trump must be thrilled legitimately what he has given then. the most conservative cabinet in 50 years and neil gorsuch and deregulation is starting to happen and he has given them a lot more than they might have actually anticipated he would give them. >> as everybody is saying he's not a conservative. he's not a conservative, but you look at the results. gorsuch. you look at the most conservative domestic cabinet since herbert hoover and looking and talking about less regulation and leg taxss taxes. a grand slam for conservatives sitting at cpac. >> in a big tent, if you have a big governing majority and big movement, right? you're going to have differences and conflicts and contradictions, right? but when bannon make the list, he made yesterday talked about if you're a libertarian or conservative or economic nationalist huge difference between those. if you're a limited government conservative you want there to be the actual role back up large government programs. is donald trump committed to that? >> no. >> is that where we are going? >> absolutely not. >> steve bannon and i think donald trump don't care about the expansion. they don't care about social security or medicare. >> they don't care about the debt or on the deficits. >> which republican party is it? one question. on the question of nationalism, is the full throated and four square commitment to nato, that has been a traditional part of republicanism, of international republicanism for 50 years. 40 years, right? steve bannon, i don't think, cares about nato very much and that has huge global implications. is the republican party the party of internationalism and longstanding alliances or is it the party of bannonism? >> on your two issues. on u you had george w. bush spend money like it was going out of style. he took 155 billion dollar surplus and turned it into a trillion dollar deficit and doubled the national debt. he was a big government republican. on foreign policy, he was a big internationalist, but he was also sort of a unilateralist in that everybody had to follow his view and richard pearl's view. >> a big spreader of american yi ideals around the world and a lot of republicans quite agreed with. >> i just -- i think -- basically what i'm saying i think they will cave to trump. i think we are going to have a 30 trillion dollar national debt and unfortunately people are so excited to be in power. as i found under brush they don't give a damn. the things they would fight against a democratic president, they suddenly don't give a damn because the republicans are in power. >> i ask the question as you think about going forward, is the republican party and the conservative movement now a party and a movement that is about international institutions and international internationalism, or is it not? >> no. >> a party in trade wars or a party part of or not? i don't know the answer to those questions. >> the answer is if you look at bush's administration, they will cave to their president and whatever the president wants, that defines the party and they will cave because they caved shamelessly and they did not want people like me or tom coburn saying, hey, republicans are actually spending more than democrat. >> i think my question -- >> are you going to ask this a third time? i just answered it! asked and answered! the judge steven miller would say. >> where is trump in this? >> you going to -- aren't you? >> tillerson and mattis and mcmaster are traditionalists, right? >> right easement they are the people he appointed. he has appointed steve bannon and a cabinet in national security -- looks much more traditional. >> we have to go to break. >> where do we end up? >> again -- >> do we end up with bannonism or mattis and tillersonnism? >> we end up with bannonism and millerism and two will mix and massive debt and nobody will care because we have tax cut and regulatory reform. i think the foreign policy giants he will listen to mattis and mcmaster's way before he listens to steve bannon in the time of crisis. so now you know. >> i got the next three years figured out. thank you for that. >> jeremy peters, what say you? >> i think on the domestic side in terms of spending, bannon is eager to get in and blow a trillion dollars on infrastructure because that is the key component to making his economic nationalist message work. people have jobs, if people feel like their livelihood is better that gets trump a second term and validates their vision for what trumpism is, whatever that is. >> by the way, that is -- this is how the white house thinks. what jeremy just said is exactly what they are thinking. a lot of distractions and crazy things going on. yes, there is chaos in the white house. they will admit behind the scenes. we are getting all of those systems figured out but at the end of the day we e looking at wisconsin, we are looking at michigan, we are looking at pennsylvania, we are looking at ohio. those people don't care about tweets. they don't care about white house organizations. they care about jobs and, katty, they say inside the white house and i think they are dead right. if we deliver jobs to wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, and ohio, they give us the votes. >> let's be clear. the jobs will probably have to come as jeremy is saying from a trillion dollar infrastructure program because he can tinker around the edges on manufacturing and coal but he is never going to revive those industries in the way of bringing back thousands and thousands of jobs. so it has to be an infrastructure spending bill. that is what he has to go up against republicans on. >> your point is essentially what bannon said yesterday. the stories about chaos in the white house don't matter to the people they are talking about. their agenda is what matters. >> jobs, jobs, jobs. >> jeremy peters, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> the world according to trump is coming up. the first meant on substance and policy have been very, very strong strong. you look at the cabinet appointments. this is an all-star sabt and the most conservative cabinet pef seen in decades. did you know 90% of couples disagree on mattress firmness? enter sleep number... she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. find our queen c2 mattress at $599. sale ends sunday! go to sleepnumber.com for a store near you. she had cancer one day.as 100 bricks weigh. it was very serious. i have an aggressive stage iv metastatic breast cancer. it's metastasized to brain and liver. it was scary when she was sick. i never want to leave my grandma. the affordable care act saved my life. grandma still needs some help. tell lawmakers: save my care. ♪ z2a1gz zx9z joings us now national security correspondent for "the new york times" david sanger. >> you know what david did for the world? he gave donald trump the america first slogan. >> how did that turn out? >> we were doing this interview last march with maggie haberman. i said to him at the end of an hour and half of conversation if i had to sum up what i'm hearing here it sounds a lot like america first thing he would say it doesn't sound like lindbergh but he said i kind of like the sound of that. >> it stuck. >> the news and finance anklor at google is bianna golodryaa. >> she gave him the russian american great again. >> the hat. >> in washington steven hadley and ambassador martin indyk and served twice as america's top diplomat to israeli. they contributed to a brookings report laying out a strategy for the future of u.s. national security policy. >> steven, why don't we jump that that immediately. tell us how your report lines up with the challenges facing this administration over the next four years, and the people that he has put in place to run that foreign policy. >> well, i think, actually, our report shows a blueprint, if you will, a way forward for the trump administration in this sense. what president trump has talked about is america ought to take care of its own interests first. i don't think anybody would disagree that our foreign policy ought to reflect our interests. if you listen to mr. tillerson, they have not rejected the notion there is an international order that the united states to defend. the issue is how do you revise and revitalize that international order? we make some suggestions in our report. president trump has talked about things he want to do more. allies do more and different kind of trade agreements. i think the opportunity here is to figure out how we take this international order that we have maintain for 70 years, how do you revise it, revitalized it, and see if we can get agreement on that and that could be a basis for a bipartisan foreign policy that would bring congress and the democrats and republicans together and bipartisan foreign policy is a much stronger and sustainable foreign policy. i hope it's in some sense a road map for a dialogue with the administration going forward. >> martin, let me ask you on that note with regard to foreign policy, whether it be in the middle east or russia or what have you, we know the president is inclined to bilaterally agreements as opposed to lateral agreements. using that how will that impact relations? let's stay in the middle east and with israeli. >> well, i think first of all, the critical point that steve makes here is renovation revig ration of that. i think we both disagree with that kind of approach. as far as the middle east is concerned, there is a need, which we identify in the report and which i think president trump understands and is pursuing is to try to rebuild trust with our traditional allies. the saudis, egyptians, gulf states and israeli, of course. and try to use that as a basis to forrestoring order in that region where there has been in effect a collapse of order. when it comes to the peace process, we don't advocate making this a major priority. donald trump seems to think that that is doable at the moment. we think that that first things first, we need to deal with the multiple crises in the region before making peace between the israelis and palestinians. >> steve, you served as national security adviser to on president bush. i wonder what you think about the choice of general mcmaster as a replacement for general flynn and how that role plays to the president of the united states? >> i think it's a brilliant choice. i think he is a very successful military officer. he has a reputation for having a sense of history being innovative in what he does. i think he understands the role of the national security adviser, particularly in this administration, will be to run a process in which cabinet secretaries have an opportunity to present their views to the president, that it's not just a white house-run operation and that could be the basis for developing the policies that will be the cornerstone of the foreign policy for this administration but take time. they don't have their people in place and don't have their processes staeble es establishe. i think people need strategic patience here and let them get organized and we will have a better understanding what we are dealing with in terms of this administration. mcmaster is a great choice and i think he'll play the role very well. >> david sanger is bus and with he has a question. >> martin and steve, one of the things we saw last week is while the president has made statements about -- not sure that our nato commitment should be followed through unless nato countries pay more. he said the same thing about the asian allies. we saw secretary tillerson and secretary mattis all make much more traditional statements. in fact, the things they said on-to-me sounded like when you were national security adviser, steve. i wonder how they walk this line between what you hear in the white house and what we are hearing from the cabinet members. >> well, i think, actually, we have been saying -- that is to say u.s. officials have been saying for a couple decades that the europeans need to do more. what president trump has said and what mattis said was if you don't do more, we will have trouble convincing the american people that we shouldn't do less. and that put a bit of a point on the stick and ramped up the rhetoric a little bit. i think in that sense, mattis was basically communicating what president trump has been saying and i think this is easily remedied. i think the allies are already doing more and will agree to do more. secondly, i think they will agree to take a look at nato's strategic concept, its basic strategy to make sure it is adapted to the challenges of the 21st century and i think that is the way you bring the trump administration policy into line with what nato allies can and should do in order to strengthen the alliance. >> the new bipartisan brookings report on a strategy for the future of u.s. national security is out today. a fascinating look at where we are. ambassador indyk and stephen hadley, thank you both. >> thank you, guys. >> the president tweeted the following. david sanger, i feel like saying to the president, one month late, welcome to washington. >> yeah. >> because every president finds out that you get checked, barack obama certainly did, by judicial review, by a free press, the first amendment, and, yes, even leaking from inside and outside your own administration. >> that's right. and he has had to face a couple of types of these. first of all, because of the sku executive orders came out so hurriedly, people in his own administration did not have a chance to see and review them. i think a lot of the leaks we saw, some that "the times" published and many "the post" and others published was a way for the leakers to identify members of his own administration you need to read about this and think about its meaning and that worked because some of those executive orders got pulled back and some got amended. >> somebody from the dhs letting, i think "the times" know that they actually had tried to correct miller and bannon on the green card exemption and then overruled overnight. that sort of thing did send a message. but donald trump acts like this is the first time this has been happening. the white house under bush was horrified. i mean, obama, obviously, more aggressively went after leakers than anybody. but even under bush, a lot of the bad news bush received early on with the iraq war came from inside his own cia. >> that's right. there can be a destructive nature to leaks and can be an extremely constructive nature to leaks because frequently a way for people on-to-make sure an issue is aired and because it's a leak does not mean it's necessarily damaging. i would argue in the case of the executive orders some of these leaks actually helped the trump administration get its act together earlier in this first month. >> he seems so focused on leaks from the intelligence agency when we know that there is a lot of leaks that come from his own administration. people a that have been in a room with him sometimes phone calls five people we see the photo have been in the room and yet we know details that only one of those five people would know. so we see this on a repeated basis here. journalists getting calls within somebody from the administration and not just intelligence. >> i said that priebus and bannon and kushner didn't leak about each other. but there's a lot of leaking going on about other things. >> yeah. >> and other people from everybody. >> details of phone calls with heads of state a only a few people would be privy to. >> facial expressions during those phone calls. not what we see in the photo but what is happening inside the room. >> david, you've covered a lot of these administrations and seen some roll out better than others. how unusual and how strange and how different is this really from the trump administration from barack obama, george w. bush, going back? >> willie, i think it could settle into something more normal. the first month has not been normal. usually, what happens in an administration is they are fairly leak-free the first couple of years because the people who come in around the president are convinced that that president is the best thing ever, th ce through the campaign. then they make their way out and there is a rescue team that comes in to go fix things and they immediately say, well, we are going to make this better. you can't believe what the last folks did. this time, this is all happened in the first month or so. i think, in part, it's the fact that you've got an administration here full of people who have never been in government before and just don't know these levers. >> doesn't this remind you a good bit -- obviously, donald trump is everything a super-sized. but doesn't it remind you a lot of the first few months of the clinton administration that just had one -- they starred with y gay -- started with gays in the military and that was world war iii and i think two of their justice picks were immediately disqualified. they had travel gate early on. they had stephanopoulos going to the fbi saying write this press release. we forget the first six months and that was so chaotic, i guess until gergen and panetta came in. >> gergen came in and said it reminded him of the set of "home alone." >> i don't remember that! that is devastating! >> that is a little "home alone" going on if you go into the agencies. at the state department these days a secretary sitting up there and doesn't have a deputy yet or any assistant deputies. the structure isn't there yet. now the structure will impose some discipline on this conversation. but, so far, it's not there. so the other day on a subject i was getting ready to write about, i heard that there was a deputies meeting at the white house and my first question was who showed up? there weren't any deputies. the answer was a bunch of holdovers from the obama administration. >> wow. >> fascinating. david sanger, thanks so much. always good to talk to you. >> thank you for the "home alone" quote. i like that. >> john boehner's prediction about his party's ability to repeal and replace obamacare. he is a lot more candid now that it's not his problem! 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[ dog barking, crashing ] so when you need a dog walker or a handyman, we can help you find the right person for the job. discover all the ways we can help at angie's list. th...oh, baked-on alfredo?e. ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. cascade platinum powers through... your toughest stuck-on food. nice. cascade. at least two people in chicago were shot last night following the city's deadliest day of the year. 13 people were reported shot in nearly as many separate incidents on chicago's south and west sides on wednesday. seven died of their wounds, including 20-year-old jones, who was nine months pregnant with her first child, an unborn baby girl who did not survive. last night, president trump tweeted seven people shot and killed yesterday in chicago, what is going on? totally out of control, chicago needs help. he's right. tammy duckworth responded tweeting won't address the violence, how about the root violence like economic justice and gun trafficking. if you are serious about stopping the violence, there's a lot we n do. through wednesday, there have been 379 shooting incidents in chicago this year according to the police department's numbers, up from 365 at this time a year earlier. by the "chicago tribune's" count, 495 have been shot in the city of chicago this year as the crisis continues day by day. still ahead, the cpac stage is set for president trump. did the white house call the fbi or the fbi call the white house? it's the big question after the report the trump administration tried to get the fbi to cut back on claims they were in contact with russian officials during the campaign. we are back with that story and more in a moment. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get on your feet for the nastiest, most terrifying bull in the state of texas. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (crowd cheers) ♪ only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol® ♪ [dramatic ♪ ic begins] ready! charge! charge! (in chinese) charge! let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. start here. at fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. it's your retirement. know where you stand. you'll always be absolutely...clear. this is the story of green mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen. all this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. is that the opposition? >> yes. >> did you look at the opposition party and how they portrayed the campaign, how they portrayed the transition and now they are portraying the administration. itis always wrong. if you remember, the campaign was the most chaotic, most disorganized, unprofessional, didn't know what they were doing and they were all crying and weeping that night, on the 8th. >> welcome back to "morning joe." 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the east coast. mika had the day off. we have co-author of game cnge and washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay. >> we are doing to talk about steve bannon's performance at cpac. they asked the fbi to pour cold water on stories trump campaign advisers were in touch with russian officials during the election. the fbi refused to bow to that pressure. they report it was reince priebus who made the request of andrew mccabe. that came after the bureau told the administration, it believed "the new york times" report describing the attacks were not accurate. we have new reporting on it. >> two sources, one at the white house and one at the intel community tell us at "morning joe," while at the white house on other business, deputy director mccape asked reince priebus if he could set aside five minutes after the meeting to discuss another topic. priebus said yes. mccabe said "the new york times" report is overblown and not supported by evidence the fbi ever had. priebus asked if they could clear it up and get the information out. mccape had to think about it. later, mccabe called priebus and said even though it is bad information, the fbi didn't want to go into the record because they didn't want to get in the business. i think that's a wise calling balls and strikes on reporting. th fbi director, james comby had a follow up with priebus. he asked if it would be accurate to cite sources knocking down the story. comey said yes. that is, of course, katty, when reince went on the shows over the weekend, i think it was fox news sunday saying that the information was bogus or however he said it in his wisconsin accent. so, the reporting, what cnn is saying, what i'm hearing this morning, not really that different. it's pretty consistent. >> the white house is going to try, right? i'm not that surprised that priebus would go to the fbi and say, listen, this is getting us in a lot of trouble, this story. if you don't think the story is accurate, can you help us clear it up. perhaps you have more credibility. >> whether the pins went to pins -- >> doesn't surprise me. >> if the fbi is there on other business, is this reporting suggests, and if the fbi says, hey, can we talk to you, that's one thing. that's what this report suggests. >> yes. >> if you have somebody doing what the clinton administration did in 1993 and george stephanopoulos cowelled the fbi, the head of fbi for the white house and said hey, we need you to write this press release that we are going to put out later today, that crosses a line. based on these reports, the fbi was there for other reasons. still, there's a quizzical look in your eye. >> there's long standing practice and guidelines and maybe not legislation to this effect, but when there's an ongoing criminal investigation of any kind, the white house ou not be talking to the fbi about it and the fbi shouldn't talk t the white house about it. the difference is who initiated the conversation. there will be questions raised one way or another. if you think, if you went back to the obama administration, if rahm emanuel were having conversations with the fbi while the fbi were investigating people close to the president, people on the president's campaign and potentially, certain circumstances, the president himself, that would be a huge scandal saying hey, just we need you to talk to the press about what you are finding in your investigation. >> again, that is the fact matter. that is the same fact pattern that happened in 1993 in the travelgate dust up. >> he went the other way. the call came -- >> actually, it wasn't even a call. they were at the white house meeting. here is the question. was it improper for mccabe to go to reince going, hey, listen, "the new york times" report is bs. >> this is my point. considered standard practice the fbi and the white house, especially if the fbi is investigating people close to the white house or involved with the president's campaign, especially that instance, but any instance, there shouldn't be discussion about ongoing investigations. >> i agree. >> who initiated the conversation? whether it was a phone call or in-person session. previous reporting was priebus raised it with the fbi, in which case, the inappropriate behavior is on the chief of staff. if the fbi was raising it to priebus, these questions should be directed to the fbi. this kind of conversation should not be happening. >> by the way, willie, i agree, it shouldn't happen. i guess under bush it expanded out who people could talk to and restricted. i guess my question is, why would anybody at the white house be allowed to talk to the fbi or vice versa if they are in the middle of an investigation. i can understand saying you are going to see something in the press, but this directly relates to the white house. there has to be a chinese wall here. >> the cnn report talks about the meeting on the sideline saying reince priebus called the office of jim comey and asked him to talk to reporters in the background. that is priebus initiating a phone call directly to the director and asking him to put his hand on the story. >> that is subsequent to what is nic initiated in the white house. >> you had the meeting at the white house and mccabe coming up, reince saying, okay, if that's the case, can you get the facts out there. mccabe said hold on, let me think about that, later decided we don't want to get in the business of balls and strikes, then you have the conversation with comey on the same matter and comey said the same thing mccabe said. >> did you have reporting on the conversation priebus initiated the comey? >> with comey, yes, it was the same conversation they had with mccabe, which was the fbi saying, yes, it's bad information. well, can you get the information out there and tell him to which comey said we are not in the business of calling balls and strikes here. if we did that with this report -- it was the fbis attitude. >> good for him for refusing. the chief of the white house staff shouldn't call the fbi to ask him to meddle in media reports do we agree? >> it doesn't surprise me that he did it. >> it's not surprising. so, here is the deal. if somebody comes in and tells me, hey, this story that people are suggesting could lead to your impeachment is a bunch of bs, if i were sitting in my seat, i can only put myself in my congressional office, i would say, so you are telling me it is bs. are you going to clean that up since they are sticking it around your neck that you are investigating something and people from your agency leaked -- i'm just saying what i would do if i'm in congress, your agency leaked that i did something illegal. i would be shouting in this office. you are telling me you are going to sit there after your people are leaking to "the new york times" that i have done something illegal, now you are saying i can't clean up. i would say you need to clean your shop up. you could start by getting the right information out there. the people lying about me -- that's what i would do. but, it's different being a congressman. i'd just go through that exercise and say you can understand how somebody would be sitting there going, okay, you have screwed our life up. >> the gravity of the story. >> the facts matter. there's going to be a lot of reporting on this. the reality is, in past administrations, if you have a serious multi-prong investigation over the most political thing affecting this white house, over the question of russia. i think there's going to be this, as we get clarity about who called whom, who said what to whom, in any event, this is going to increase the pressure among many democrats and others who are going to say all of this just makes it more essential we have an independent prosecutor looking at this. there's no way this administration can investigate itself on this issue. >> the republicans have no interest. >> clearly. still ahead, steve kornacki joins the political round table plus -- >> this is something the opposition party never caught. if you want to see the trump agenda, it's simple. it was in the speeches. he went around to rallies where the speeches had a lot of content. he's probably the greatest public speaker. >> steen bannon and reince priebus share the stage. at the event kellyanne conway is calling t-pac. we'll explain if we really, really have to, while we are gagging when "morning joe" returns. don't ever let anyone tell you you can't change. that is what life is. change. it's not some magic trick. it's your will. your thoughts become your words become your actions become your reality. change is your destiny. now go chase it. i voted for trump. i love my popsy from here to knoxville. popsy had to see a doctor. i was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. a lot of people think that people that are on the affordable care act are gaming the system. it's just people like me. the affordable care act saved my life. everybody's popsy should get the care they need. i am still here and i am still fighting. tell congress: save my popsy's care. ♪ ♪ (music pla♪ throughout) announcer: get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. ♪ ♪ (crowd cheers) ♪ you know what? the establishment never saw it coming. the media, elites, insiders, everybody else, the status quo, they dismissed our president in every step of the way. in dismissing him, they also dismissed millions of the hard working men and woman who make this country great. >> this morning president trump will speak at the conference. the first to address cpac during his first year in office. the unlikely pair, steve bannon and chief of staff, reince priebus. bannon laid out his plan for the administration which he summed up as deconstruction. >> i line it up in three buckets, the first sovereignty, the second is economic nationalism. the third, broadly, line of work is what is deconstruction of the administrative state. if you look at the cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason, that is the deconstruction. the way the progressive left runs, if they can't get it past, they are going to put in a regulation in an agency. that is all going to be deconstructed. >> there's a political order being formed out of this. it's still being formed. if you look at the opinions in this room, whether you are a pop list, a libertarian, an economic nationalist, we have wide and sometimes divergent opinions. the center core of what we believe, that we are a nation with an economy, not an economy in a global marketplace with open borders, but a nation with a culture and a reason for being. i think that's what unites us. >> joe, that was a fascinating look. we don't get to hear from steve bannon firsthand very often. his world view and a world view adopted by donald trump. really, steve bannon waiting for a vessel as he called trump a blunt instrument to use to impose his world view. >> there are a lot of things about the trump administration and the people around him that are not conservative. they are not conservatives. that was a conservative speech. he sounded like teresa may when talking economic nationalism saying we have a nation with an economy. it reminds me of teresa may speaking saying that if you are a citizen of the world you are a citizen of nowhere, something along those lines. as far as deconstruction goes, it sounds a lot like what we said in 1994. all i will say about the power of the state is, i got elected by screaming about the dangers of a $4 trillion national debt. >> four seems quaint. >> i was love four. it is 20 now, heading to 30. you would need about 30 people thinking exactly like steve bannon to simply stop the deficit from being over $300 billion the next 20 years. cpac and people that want a smaller, more restrained state probably like him as well. that's the cpac message. >> yeah. in some ways, it's not totally the conservative message. economic nationalism suggests less trade and more tariffs. that's not a conservative message. go back in the conservative economic theory quite a long way. the idea of globalization and trade is something that republicans traditionally supported. >> katty, there has been a split in the party. in '94, half of us, the first thing newt wanted to do is the mexican bailout, which wasn't really a bailout of mexico, it was a bailout of goldman sachs. so, that was one of our first economic fights. i think there are a lot of republicans, like me, and like all those that came in '94, yeah, yeah, yeah, free trade, that's great. we are not going to bow at that alter. what impact is it going to have on everybody across the country? there's always been that strain underneath, in the house. certainly paul ryan doesn't share that opinion and most of the leadership doesn't. there's the strained conservatism. it's the first time it ever reached the other side of pennsylvania avenue, on the republican side. >> yeah. >> fascinating. >> it's interesting how protectionism shifted from being something that unions and the left supported to having become the mantra of a certain group within the conservative and right movement. it's gone out of fashion. >> again, willie -- >> you can see why. i wonder whether they have the notion of conservatism. how does that fit with the chaos theory of government bannon is exposing? you go in and the mission is to blow the place up, effectively, is what he's saying. we want deconstruction of the state, radically change everything. it is a chaos theory of government. how does that fit with people in the audience who are consvatives? >> if the entire admistration and the republicans on the hill sharedis view, you might see that. we have, as donald trump is learning, we have a very complicated system. you have checks from the courts, checks from the press, checks from congress, checks from mitch mcconnell's senate. don't try to move too fast. the senate will always slow you down. coming up, we are going talk about the health o. nuclear arsenal. president of the council of foreign relations and noted barbecue master, richard haass joins us when we return on "morning joe." this is the story of green mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen. all this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. z2a1fz zx9z y2a1fy yx9y (sfx: rain and thunder) says it won't let up for a while. the cadillac xt5... what should we do? ...tailored to you. wait it out. equipped with apple carplay compatibility. ♪ get this low mileage lease on this cadillac xt5 from around $439 per month, or purchase with 1.9% apr financing. the president, once again, speaking about his desire to add to the country's nuclear arsenal telling reuters the u.s. has fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity. >> it would be wonderful. a dream would be no country would have nukes. if countries are going to have nukes, we are going to be at the top of the pack. >> in december, then president-elect trump said let it be an arms race. we will out match them and out last them all. joining us now richard haass, the author of the book, a wild best seller called a world in disarray and the crisis of the old, changing the way we think about outdoor grilling. >> yes, it is. >> a wild best seller. we haven't thought about these nukes since 1991. we are much more concerned about grilling. do we have to start worrying about nukes again? >> the short answer is, not a lot. we have more than adequate nuclear weapons. the last place we want to invest. >> where is this coming from? >> i don't have the answer to that. there's a small group of people worried about nuclear modernization. we should do a bit. the previous administration budgeted. >> putin invested in a lot of it and putin's is bigger than donald's nuclear arsenal. >> henry kissinger sd what is strategic superiority? we have enough. we are comparable. we have a new agreement that runs until 2021 or 2026, with a five-year extension. >> is there a strategic advantage? >> other than modernizing -- >> why would we do that? >> to make sure the quality is adequate. certain things get old. >> people are saying quality is not accurate? i'm sorry, katty. where is he getting this from? masters say to him, you know, we have gotten lazy. >> people in uniform are the last people. they are worried about the forces, number of ships, number of planes, whether we have enough equipment for our army, training, all the manpower issues. that is where defense dollars need to go. no one in the military, virtually no one over the years wanted marginal defense dollars to go into it. usually it's civilians. you don't fight wars with these. they are on paper. we have a framework. it's got a ways. it goes until 2021 or 2026 with a five-year extension option. it brings down the number of warheads, bombers and missiles, allows dwrou keep certain numbers in reserve. do modernization on warheads so things are adequate. this is not an area w want to have -- >> i think, it raises an interesting question about the way the president speaks. is this the president speaking in slogans, we want our nuclear arsenal to be bigger than everybody else? it's like yesterday, talking about the military operation and general kelly says there will not be a military operation. you can see why you are kind of confused at the moment. what does the president mean? was he making a sophisticated case for the need to modernize and upgrade certain nuclear stockpiles or riffing? >> it's unlikely this administration has a systematic review of the nuclear weapons posture. there's not an administration yet. there's not officials a t the pentagon or nfs. >> i'm not sure when there is an administration, donald trump will speak the way he speaks. >> that's a different issue. it's highly unlikely there's a review. again, there's a case for amping up defense spending. so you have to fight defense spending versus everything else. domestic, paying more interest on the debt as rates go. do you want defense dollars to go here? i would say most definitely not. >> richard thank you so much. republicans across the country take different approaches to town hall meetings. next week, the president addresses congress. join us tuesday and wednesday, live in washington. 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(echo) with quicksilver from capital one you've always earned unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. welcome to unlimited. what's in your wallet? you may be muddling through allergies.oned with... try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin®. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. try zyrtec®. muddle no more®. i need to know this. what is the best podcast? >> i believe richard simmons, the search for richard simmons. >> it's a podcast? >> you said you were obsessed with podcasts. >> i haven't listened yet. >> how can you be obsessed with something you haven't listened to? >> i'm obsessed with yours. >> how many listen to hers? >> 87 million around the world. >> i'm looking at richard simmons. the democratic party chooses a new chair after town halls, tv interviews. south carolina party chair, jaime harrison dropped out to support tom perez. they are locked out of the white house, congress and increasingly state legislatures and governor's mansions. the approach for democratic leaders may have been decided for them. the paper writes, spurred by explosive protests and angry phone calls and outrage themselves by mr. trump's swift moves, democrats have all but cast aside a notion of conciliation with the white house. the party of no. wagering that brash obstruction will pay similar dividends. all week the contentious town halls around the country lawmakers are facing in their home district. bill kassidy faced a crowd in new orleans shouted down with demands to do his job. the office sent out a fund raising blast with the subject line, stop shouting. liberal groups are organizes to keep conservatives in congress and the white house from doing the job we were elected to do. by compareson, yesterday, he was in smaller towns with crowd that is were much quieter. >> you know, the good thing about today is that people actually respected others desire to hear. there were good questions. some of the best questions i have ever had in a town hall were today. even though there are folk who is agree and disagreed, they would listen to each other. >> among the best. other senators are asked, when will they meet with the public. here is senator marco rubio. >> i found missing child posters all over the town. are you going to host a town hall? i'm glad you are okay, but are you going to host a town hall? a town hall today. we need to hear from you, senator. >> senator rubio's office notes he had been in germany and france as part of the work on the intel committee. he hosted a round table on opioid addiction in his home state in florida. in arizona, two members of congress opted for two approaches to engaging their constituents. >> republican congressman cannesling his public town hall. >> if you would like to ask a question, press zero. >> reporter: instead, holding one on the phone. >> thanks for joining us. >> reporter: seven call-in questions, zero a posing views, a far cry from the scene outside his office. on the flip side, martha mcsally proceeding with her in-person town hall in tucson, despite a rowdy crowd. >> joining us to sift through this, steve kornacki and contributor to the guardian and host of jaime podcast. >> i think we are just under 1 million under what the population in the united states is. it's huge. >> it's a big audience. >> the ratings are unbelievable. >> john heilemann is back as well. >> steve kornacki, are the democrats going to completely tear a page out of the tea party play book in 2009? does the party go as far left as the tea party went right? >> it looks that way. there was a poll that asked democratic voters what are you most worried about when you think of congressional leaders and how they deal with trump? most are worried democrats will not go far enough in opposing donald trump. 20% thought the democrats had a risk of going too far. that is the mood of the party. i have been having on the show, candidates and asking them, do you consider yourself part of the resistance and they don't want to necessarily say that word. they don't want to say they are not. i look at where donald trump stands in the polls right now and look at what i'm hearing from democrats and thinking back so much to the campaign. the campaign was about record shatteringly low numbers, brutal headlines, republicans saying this guy is committing political suicide and democrats believing they were on the verge of finishing him off. i'm seeing that confidence return to democrats. i'm not sure anything changed since the election. >> jaime, i mean, conservatives, you are like, oh, okay, you are going further left? you are so culturally disconnected in america, you lost 1,000 state legislative seats and you want to go further left? culturally, that seems like a win for the republicans. >> hard to see what the pay off is for going left or not cooperating for the next two years. in 2018, the senate map favors, heavy favors the rublicans. i'm not sure, you know, they can go farther left, do a strategy, a smart strategy of opposition. the best strategy won't win them many senate seats in 2018. the map heavily favors republicans. >> john heilemann, i don't think democrats faced this, yet, but, the cultural disconnect from the national party and the rest of america that when i say the rest of america, you know, 1,000 state legislative seats, the governorships they lost and the house seats they have lost. it's hard to believe that going left gets them any closer to power, going further left. >> the question to me, i genuinely don't have the answer to this. you might have argued the same thing in 2009 and 2010 that going further to the right wouldn't help the republican party. by tapping into the energized base that became the tea party movement then. it benefited republicans because that's where the energy was. the problem the democrats have had in off year elections, the last few cycles, their base hasn't turned out. if you are a progressive democrat, the argument is we need to get people to come to the polls in an off year election that don't normally come out and say this is the way to do it, to energize the left. i don't know if that's the right strategy or not. that's the argument for why going further to the left makes sense. >> that argument does make sense, actually, since it's a low turnout in the off years. maybe that does make sense if you can get these people whipped up the way they are now and keep them that way, i guess screaming moderation forever doesn't quite do the trick as much does it? >> governor terry mcauliffe said that. what makes him angry about the presidential election is 92 million people didn't vote and now they have woke up say whag happened. take all the people marching in the streets now in january and february of 2017 and get them to go out and vote. take that energy and turn it into something electoral. >> the thing is, one of the truisms of american politics is the best thing that can happen to a political party is losing an election and losing everything. i mean, i think back to 2004, george w. bush got re-elected. democrats went in thinking they were going to beat bush, take back the senate, the house in play, they got nothing. we had the talk about the republican mar jorty out of '04 and in '06, when they had nothing, they were the default party. if you have a problem with anything happening in this country, there's one party to blame, the party that controls everything. you catch all the buyers remorse. democrats may be in line to catch that. >> republicans own everything. they own washington. they can't blame anybody anymore. >> they do. you see internal riff within the party themselves instead of the democrats veering further left, they could focus on the frustration within the party when it comes to the affordable care act that we are seeing in town halls. republicans are saying they are hired. i'm not so sure. republicans outrage and concern about their health care taken away may be a reason donald trump was in the beginning trep tr -- former house speaker john boehner doubting the republican led effort to repeal and replace obamacare, listen. >> republicans never, ever, one time agreed on what a health care proposal should look like. not once. all this happy talk that went on in november and december and january about repeal, repeal, repeal. we'll do replace, replace. i started laughing because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. they will fix obamacare. i shouldn't call it repeal and replace. that's not what's going to happen. they will fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it. >> that was a post cocktail post 18-hole chat john boehner had. jaime, as you are reporting later this afternoon, boehner makes a couple great points. the last thing you want to own and people inside the trump white house know this, the last thinyou want to own is health care. thehave said all along, it was wreck before obamacare. it's a wreck now. it's going to take ten years to try to fix it systemically. >> that was a man free of any responsibility. >> just, you know, monterey golf and merlot. >> this is tied to the last discussion. it doesn't matter necessarily what the democratic strategy is here, it's dependent on the republicans. the democrats fortune to rise will depend on how republicans deliver. they are going to be blamed for whatever happens to the health care system. if things go south, that's going to be on republicans and the democrats are the beneficiaries of that. if the economy doesn't improve or gets worse, the democrats are the beneficiaries of that. the republicans, as you say, own what happened. >> why should democrats do anything? i'm not saying democrats don't play tough, they need to try to tear republicans to shreds, but you can do that, clinton could do that and still appealing to yes, i will say it, white, working class voters that abo abandoned them in record numbers. the question is, are they going to figure out a way to culturally reconnect? joe biden warned us about this. >> get sanders, the great democratic senator who figured out how to bring the white working class voter into the democratic side. mudcat is a character. a good man. >> call me mudcat joe. that's my name now. we have been talking this morning on mudcat joe about parallels and looking for the clinton administration and doing the same thing in 1993. early in the clinton administration and early crisis in the clinton white house ghanded an fbi release of a statement to be helpful to their cause as reported in may of 1993. >> reporter: the white house called the fbi directly to investigate the travel office. thursday, the fbi said it would wait for a report before proceeding. that wasn't good enough for the white house. an fbi official was summoned to the white house friday and a new statement was drafted, which men included the words that additional criminal investigation is warranted. >> steve kornacki, isn't that crazy? talk about history not repeating itself, but rhyming. an administration in turmoil asks the fbi for help now and then. >> you think back to those first six months or so of the clinton presidency in 1993. i remember the cover of "time" magazine in june, 1993, the incredible shrinking president, it was bill clinton reducing this big. approval rating fell below 40%. one story after another. there was the $200 haircut on the tarmac of l.a.x. and the air traffic was stopped. so many mishaps. he came in saying i'm going to do the economy like a laser beam. gays in the military was a controversy. >> the hollywood friends trying to get supposedly business from the travel office. it was a crazy time. we just had david sanger say when david gergen came and tried to clean things up, it was a scene out of "home alone." >> right. that was part of it, too. you have this administration and you don't have a washington vet running it. there's shades of what you see with trump here in terms of people not experienced in a lot of ways with the inner workings of the white house, washington and they came in as outsiders. there were definitely growing pains then. >> it will be interesting to see if it changes over time. come in with mike flynn, now general mcmaster and the figures that came in without experience and replaced. >> let's see what happens inside the white house. >> let's go to wall street. dom chu is at the new york stock exchange. what are you looking at? >> we have a huge deal going on right now, a lawsuit between a tech giant, google's parent company is suing uber because they alleged they stole self-driving car technology. that court ce is gngo go forward. lot ofoney is at stake here. a lotf that frontier, for the next generation of cars is about autonomous driving. whether you are see uber and google going head-to-head is going to be a big deal to watch in silicon valley. watching what's happening with the big, private prison companies. we heard earlier this week, we are going to see a rescinding of obama administration policy to phase out private prisons. a lot of the stocks have seen their stocks surge since the election, up big. of course, a little controversy by some people's minds because names like core civic and geo group donated to the trump campaign in the past. to be fair, many companies are donated or have donated to the inaugural committee. private prison is one to watch. watch jc penney. the retail operator is going to close 140 stores that are underperforming, also give payout package to 6,000 employees. we are going to watch those as well. warren buffett's annual letter comes out tomorrow. he's selling his laguna beach house for $11 million. he paid $150,000 for it in971. >> wins again. >> always winning. >> i have rode in one. i went to pittsburgh and wrote about the self-driving fleet. it was a fine trip. >> that's horrifying. >> they are working out the kinks. >> it speaks to automation being the wave of the future. more americans drive cars in this country than any other profession. we are seeing shift in educating them as far aztecnology. >> this doesn't get easier. >> we will watch your podcast and richard simmons. that's our home work. >> will politics get the e got. keep it on "morning joe." so how old do you want to be when you retire? uhh, i was thinking around 70. alright, and before that? you mean after that? no, i'm talking before that. do you have things you want to do before you retire? oh yeah sure... ok, like what? but i thought we were supposed to be talking about investing for retirement? we're absolutely doing that. but there's no law you can't make the most of today. what do you want to do? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow. yea. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change. investment management services from td ameritrade. wheyou wantve somto protect it.e, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. legal help is here. it's my decision ito make beauty last. roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it, the better it works. retinol correxion® from roc. methods, not miracles.™ except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. ♪ [dramatic ♪ ic begins] ready! charge! charge! 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(crowd applauding) ♪ we know a place that's already working on it. ♪ academy awards is sundays night. like everything else these days, politics is going to seep into the show. here is nbc's friar with more. ♪ >> reporter: how brightly will the city of stars shine upon la la land. they need 11 oscars to tie the all-time record. >> i got a call back. >> reporter: they will tell you what the front-runner is. >> la la land is a perfect film. >> reporter: "snl" poked at the fact it's not everyone's favor rit. >> it was good. i didn't think it was amazing singing. >> reporter: the biggest challenge is moonlighting. the lead actress casey affleck swept upmost of the awards this year. denzel washington is gaining momentum. >> you best be making sure they are doing right by you. >> reporter: when it comes to leading ladies, la la land's emma stone faces the toughest competition from natalie portman. >> i got 18 years of my life to stand in the same spot as you. >> reporter: in the supporting category, viola davis seems unstoppable. a role that brought her a tony. moonlights and lion best supporting actor with a diverse of nominees following the oscars controversy. no matter who wins, politics will likely take the stage if the golden globes are any indication. >> we need the principled press to hold power into account, call them on the carpet for every outrage. >> our nation is more divided than ever. >> reporter: "the new york times" will debut the ad with the message, the truth is more important than ever, a sign that with millions watching, hollywood's biggest night could become the most political. >> jn heilemann, you want to get people mad at you again? >> you know, they are mad at me all the time anyway. >> these movies. everybody that's seen these movies, i can go down the list, it's overrated. >> it's a weak year. >> they are indy films 10 years ago. >> my thing with la laland is it's a fine movie. i enjoyed it. but the idea that it is the most nominated movie in the history of the academy awards, it is not a movie worthy of that stature. >> i haven't seen it. everybody that has seen manchester by the sea says the same thing, wildly overrated. >> i agree with that. >> i'm only the piano player, elton john's album said. overrated. there you have it. with with us now, leading spine surgeon and established newsletter thrive, dr. dave campbell. we want to start with opioids. chris christie is finally here, his big focus. marco rubio talking about it in the state of florida. it's been a real problem in new england. in new hampshire, that's what everybody was talking about. are we making progress on this battle? what's going on? >> it's a terribly big problem. it's ahronic disease. it's a disease of addiction. it's been spiked by the up tick and the availability of the synthetic version of the potent opioid. if you look at the cost of heroin per kilogram, $35,000. >> right. >> a kilogram of this is like $3,000 and would kill an entire city. most of the drugs available now are laced with this because it makes the drug go further for the drug distributor. kids are dying. it's cheap and very, very potent. 50 times more potent. >> what is the answer to the problem? we hear donald trump talking about a crackdown on the border and all the stuff they are going to do, a war on drugs that's been fought 30 years. what do you do about this, mostly a prescription drug epidemic? >> it's a prescription and synthetic, chemicals made in a lab. i like the idea of harm reduction. harm reduction is a technique and topic, instead of arresting everybody, you create policies to make it less harmful for individuals. we will all know people, young adult college kids who die from an overdose because it is so rapidly depressive of your respiratory system. reducing the harm, especially to those who don't know they are taking a potent opioid is one answer. it doesn't mean let drug dealers run rampant. it's a valid approach that seems to be taking ground. >> young americans have access to the drugs in ways they don't have access to alcohol and cigarettes. let me ask you about another thing, that's social media and what effects that has, if any, on the body and health and stress. >> social media, as we know, it's gone from a small percentage of individuals ten years ago. >> it is driving america in sane. we all agree with that. >> when they calculate and stress as it relates to social media by measuring anxiety through questionnaires, a dramatic incrse is developing in millennials. millennials have gone from over 90%, kind of linked to their social media. i found one thing very interesting in that study. 35% of those that are constant users of social media describe they have decreased the interactions with their family members and their friends. i would say that if you pulled their family members and friends of the constant users, constant checkers, 100% of them say you are checked out. >> it's much different. >> my mom and i argue about this. she thinks i don't call enough. we text all the time. for me, it's my mode of communication. she wants to hear my voice. >> there's an addictive nature to it for people who just text, twitter, instagram. they move from one area to another. >> yeah. >> much worse than this. >> it's similar in their addictive description. when you look at constant checkers and texters. look at the definition for addiction, they overlap tremendously. >> no doubt about it. dr. dave campbell, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >> that does it for mudcat in the morning. i'm joe scarborough. >> we made it through another show. >> we did. >> we are still alive. >>barely. thank you for being patient this week. i know it required more patience. >> it's friday. >> it's friday. people are very patient. i was having a bad day yesterday. >> i thought they were patient. >> incredible. we started with week with all due respect "morning joe." stephanie ruhle is patient. she's always patient. we thank you for your patience. >> we thank you for your great content, joe scarborough. have a great weekend. good morning. i'm

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