Page 28 - Press Availability News Today

Him as well. jonathan, unpack that for us. >> yes. so look, i think that the president hit an unbelievably negative trifecta in his press availability with chancellor merkel today. one, he reopened the wound with the uk that his team had tried to clean up earlier in the morning by again asserting they had wiretapped him when we all know thats not the case. he also drag the chancellor and the german government into this fray, which im sure was the last thing they wanted when theyre trying to buil...

>> the secretary of state going to be on the ground in beijing for a little under 4 hours meeting with some of chinas top diplomats. two meetings have taken place today. including one with the foreign minister here. this comes at a time at the top of the agenda will be north korea. frankly, in this part of the world things are tense. north korea tested dozens of ballistic missiles since the start of 2016, conducted two different nuclear tests. china and the united states both want that to stop. ...

Parts. heres the thing. youre right. north korea very much top of the agenda. the united states and china agree that they dont want a nuclear threat in north korea. they disagree on how best to approach this moving forward. china says its direct negotiation between the united states and north korea that will eventually solve this crisis. the united states hasnt totally ruled that out but the u.s. says that china needs to be more. you have president trump weighing in within the last 24 hours or s...

Obligation to vet anything that he says or tweets, and you almost, you dont but you almost have to feel sorry for the sean spicers, kellyanne conways, who are people who know better but pretend they dont. >> thats become part of their job is to pretend otherwise. the wiretapping story causing international problems with sean spicer citing that debunked report claiming that britains intelligence services wiretapped him as well. jonathan, unpack that for us. >> yes. so look, i think that the presi...

That was the wrong sound bite there. rex tillerson, while hes in japan, he came out during this press availability and said, look, this policy is not working, it is a failing policy thats been there for 20 years and its time to do something more. i think what everybody wants to know is, what does that mean? what does the u.s. want to change? how is it going to raise the level of pressure on north korea to the point that it actually will change behavior? he didnt want to go into any detail but we...

That just about does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." before we go, whats on deck for secretary tillerson today? >> well, its his first big day in japan and later today well have actually a press availability, a chance to ask questions, we hope, and also he meets with prime minister abe and then its on to south korea. a lot coming up. >> well look for the results of that questioning coming up later on today. follow the show online on facebook and on twitter. you can find me on t...

To you the morning of that story breaking. i was very clear with all of you about what i thought about that "new york times" story. this was way in advance of the white house sending me one phone number. and i still dont understand what would be the problem of the white house sending me a number of a press person to call. isnt the whole point of the press to be transparent? you guys normally want to talk to me. thats why i wanted to create this press availability today so that i can talk to all ...

>> jon: one of the highlights of that bit of video tape came right there at the end when nbc news asked the president about any connection he has had with russia, you might have just caught it at the end, we heard the president say as the camera was pending up, he said, i have not called russia in ten years. just ahead of that was a press availability with evan nunez, the house intelligence committee chair who is investigating. his midi is investigating russian meddling in the u.s. elections. an...

Any prior administration so i think you can take that to the bank. >> that is fake news. i dont know what he would base that on. i can ns he is upset but i used to defend sean. this is indefensible. he knows better. as much as they may not like some things that are being written about them, you dont take it on by barring people. you counter it with facts. its an unfortunate moment and im hopeful that sean and perhaps those in the white house will try to dissuade this president, whomever else mig...

>> it would all be rolled into the investigation. new questions? >> reporter: your democratic colleagues are not here at this briefing today, we understand they were not aware its happening. why should americans be confident that what youre doing is in in fact bipartisan? >> the whole point of me calling this press availability is because i didnt want to have like we had the last week where there were multiple press scrums. i often had times to have to continue to repeat myself. and then as i sa...