Jemile Smith News Today

Say that. And did he ask you to pledge loyalty and there would be nothing wrong if i did say it according to everybody that i read today but i did not say that. And did he ask for a pledge of loyalty from you. Thats another thing he said. No, he did not. He said those things under oath. Would you be willing to speak under oath to give your version of events. 100 . I didnt say under oath. I hardly know the man, i didnt say i want you to pledge allegiance. Who would do that . Who would ask someone...

Democratic. these district are engineered for republican victory. it may not matter what this administration does, but it may only matter what voters turn out. >> i keep hearing because this campaign was built in a non-traditional way, there are campaign volunteers who are going to have to have legal fees despite receiving no compensation. but because they had exposure to things that will get them called for questioning? >> yeah, which is sort of a sad side to all of this. even lower level staff...

For questioning? >> yeah, which is sort of a sad side to all of this. even lower level staffers at the white house will likely have to lawyer up. probably anyone who rode on a plane with michael flynn during this election. thats the way the special counsel probes work, especially when the questions are as broad as they are here, when there are as many people involved. the tentacles kind of stretch out. its unfortunate that lot of people who probably had very little to do with the russians and di...

Campaign volunteers who are going to have to have legal fees despite receiving no compensation. but because they had exposure to things that will get them called for questioning? >> yeah, which is sort of a sad side to all of this. even lower level staffers at the white house will likely have to lawyer up. probably anyone who rode on a plane with michael flynn during this election. thats the way the special counsel probes work, especially when the questions are as broad as they are here, when th...

White house press corps right now. lets welcome jemile smith, senior national koerpent for mtv news. notely an msnbc veteran back in the day. and sima rhetta, political writer for the los angeles times. welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> sima, lets start with the politics of it. well several people in the last 24 hours have said maybe hes just going to become a 40% president. >> he is clearly speaking to his base. this isnt really any surprise because at campaign rally after campaign rally la...

Different? >> i would say thats a zero chance. frank lesion i think angela merckle and other european leaders made it clear this is not a renegotiatible agreement. new york, california, washington, they understand thofs going to happen. they believed his actual promise for one that he was going to keep. they were prepared for him to make the wrong decision. >> jemile, the other thing you are reading is that its -- everything is so retro about it, doto, but notably including, a return to coal min...

Make the wrong decision. >> jemile, the other thing you are reading is that its -- everything is so retro about it, down to, but notably including, a return to coal mining and people keep asking, where are those jobs going to come from? coal-fired plants are coming off line. the momentum of the nation has been going in the other direction. >> yeah. unless they are going to fire the machines that are doing the mountain top removal or, you know, the people who are doing all the fracking that is co...

>> you know, i did answer the question because i said the discussions the president and i have had over the last several weeks have been focused on one key issue s paris good or bad for this country. >> you are the epa administrator, shouldnt you be able to tell the american people whether or not the president still believes the climate change is a hoax. where does he stand? >> i answed the question a couple of times. where does the president stand on climate change. does he believe it is a hoax...

>> i still believe in america, though. >> absolutely. jemile, you know, the thing thats also happened, it used to be you had republicans who were afraid of donald trump tweeting at them. there was a sense he could destroy you politically with a couple of tweets, enforce -- enforced a sort of discipline among republicans. you are starting to see this utility of his tweets, the power of them diminished over time, no? >> no. indeed. i think its evident in how he field to destroy the one politician ...

>> are you going to be tweeting and whatever youre upset about just put it out there? >> im going to do very restrained -- if i use it at all im going to do restrained. >> well restrained he certainly was not as donald trump threatened see you in court after his travel ban was blocked. he called the failing fake news media the enemy of the american people and falsely accused president obama of wiretapping him. back with our panel is david jolly, sabrina siddiqui and jemile smith. david, we went ...