Biden administration. Sources telling nbc news that the president will ask politicians to pick a side. And tell the American People whose cider they are on. And to portray himself as fighting for Working Americans and democratic values. While his opponents want tax breaks for the wealthiest and want to abandon ukraine to russian aud democrat Vladimir Putin abroad. Curtain number two, the republican nominee, were talking about the fourtimes indicted expresident , he goes on trial for Campaign Finance violations for Paying Hush Money to a porn star in just over two weeks. Whats he doing . He is getting ready to play host to hungarian leaders at the private club where hes alleged to have illegally stashed some of the most Important National security secrets our country possesses for years. Hes a leader defined by his affinity for Vladimir Putin and his dismantling of democracy, piece by piece in his own country, which means in Donald Trumps eyes, he is, quote, a very great leader a very strong man. In this visit to mar la go, theres no white house stop for victor orban. Hes not meeting with anybody in charge of any aspect of setting u. S. Foreign policy. The guardian reports, the visit which comes at a low point in hungarys post cold war relationship with washington s being closely watched in Foreign Policy circles, in part, due to fears that orban could use his access to promote kremlin Talking Points on ukraine. President biden delivering a message about democracy here at home and abroad whooils the expresident works to undermine it is where we begin with some of favorite experts and friends. Former senator Claire Mccaskill is back. Also joining us is former Obama Campaign manager and political analyst the David Plouffe is here. Also joining us is columnist and contributor charlie psychs. Plus msnbc senior National Security analyst john brebrenna. Well get to the state of the union in a second, but i have to start with the news today with you, director brennan, that some version of our Intelligence Analysis will theres a plan for trump to start getting that while hes under criminal prosecution for mishandling classified documents. Will you explain what this is and what you think is likely to happen . Its somewhat surreal that an individual who is under indictment for mishandling classified information is going to be getting Intelligence Briefings. This traditionally is provided to the candidates for president by the sitting president. So therefore, i think it makes sense for the Biden Administration to offer that to donald trump. Now, im pretty certain my former intelligence colleagues will provide briefings that are not going to do any type of damage to sources and methods in terms of providing information to donald trump that he could misuse. But they will provide analytic overviews about some of the hot spots letting donald trump know what the assessments are at this point. I think its going to be analysis that will be devoid of the sources and methods. The sensitive things were most concerned about, the types of things in those documents that he had in the bathroom and other areas in maralago. Its a question about whether donald trump will accept the briefings. And im sure that if he does accept them, he will disparage them, as he has disparaged u. S. Intelligence officers and intelligence itself for so long over so many years. Not to be cute, but just to keep front of mind what he did last time the last time he had state secret, here he is showing war plans to mark meadows auto biographers. Let me see that. He said that i wanted to attack iran. Isnt it amazing. This is him. This is off the record. But they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. Wow. Is we looked at some. This was him. This wasnt done by me. This was him. All sorts of stuff. Pages long. Look, wait a minute. Lets see here. So whether hes kwukted for those Felony Crimes is tbd. But hes doing the deed, and i wonder even analysis has value. Thats why since 1952 that valuable information has been shared with the two people on the belief that if one becomes president , they will be better prepared on day one if they have this understanding. What is the predicate for giving it to trump . The predicate is that all other candidates for the office of presidency have been offered that type of briefing. But again, i would think that the briefing given to donald trump will be at most at the secret level. Its not going to involved top secret information, source of methods, no documents that are going to be provided to him. Its going to be an oral briefing, an assessment, something similar to what the Intelligence Community leaders do every year in front of congress in terms of a worldwide threat assessment. So i think thats what they are going to do. They are not going to get into any type of detail. So i think it makes sense to offer this to trump and make sure that hes not going to be able to do any damage with it other than just denigrating the work of the Intelligence Community. Im always noted some of the shift in the window. When you step away and come back, its even more stark. So the frame we have around it is were doing something that we have always done because the institutions in the norms must hold. This is in President Bidens dna is and why this is in the dna of the democratic party. This is honoring of institutions and norms. And the idea that Sue Gor Dance Sat where David Plouffe is sitting and basically said that anyone who sees the world and treats american democracy and american National Security the way trump does should be disqualified. Its these two clanging realities. But to sit down with victor orban and share what he already knows, to me s is a threat in and of itself. Everything about donald trump is a threat in and of itself. And i defer to the director about what the traditions and the norms are, but i think the Biden Administration will be well within its rights to say, no, were not going to give secret briefings to donald trump, somebody who is under indictment for Misusing Government Secrets who are surnd indictment for defrauding the government. Because at some point, you have to say this contrast, and well see President Biden later tonight draw this contrast, this contrast is not the normal political contrast this is not a normal traditional political race where we simply disagree about some of the issues. This is a fundamental question about Donald Trumps qualifications and fitness for office. And one way to do that, and im not going to get into the nuances of it, but one way to do that is to say were not going to treat him like every other president ial candidate. Obviously, there would be some blowback to that, but there are moment where is you drought line and say we are not going to give the nations secrets to somebody who is basically a show for Vladimir Putin and who is meeting with our enemies and who does on a Routine Basis disparage u. S. Intelligence. So David Plouffe, i know when i worked on the mccain campaign, john mccain would talk almost every day and one day he went to an arena in and so today we were all georgias. I dont know how many people were following putins aggression, but he was with lieberman and lindsey gra hall. So they all raised their arms. And all of the Campaign Staff just cringed. This was Foreign Policy. And i wonder how you think as a country how far along we are in this effort, very successful by Democratic Leaders like Josh Schapiro and Governor Whitmer and President Biden of knitting these thicks together, protecting it abroad and things we usually talk about as Kitchen Table issues. I remember that day well. We died a thousand deaths. But think that the coalition that needs to be stuched together here to get to 270 electoral votes is going to take a lot of different people but come together around the fact that we dont want to throw rose pet talls in front of someone like Vladimir Putin. That american democracies worth fighting for. We have to explain that what means. That shorthand doesnt work. What it would mean if donald trump were to win. And using the judiciary and basically disregarding norms, what that would mine mien. Thats the task of the next basically little less than eight months is to find enough people. Its going to require republicans, its going to require conservativeleaning independents, young people who i may not be thrilled joe biden is the nominee, but tonight is a big night because its going his biggest direct audience until the first debate. So you really have to maximize this. With social media, you can reach a lot of people who dont watch the speech. So i think that contrast, were going to hear a lot about the contrast you led off with. Its incredibly important. Biden has got to i dont know if he can win the straight up question on who do you trust more on the economy, but he has to get that number closely and take advantage of things like democracy, Womens Health care, Climate Change, all the issues he has an issue advantage. Do you think that this election is still one that we look at in that way . I remember looking at the strong leader numbers. Numbers on economy and retirement and health care and is that still where we are or do you think theres a gut thing . Or is it all the above . Biden does have a challenge, which as we see from the polls, people concerned about his age. Is he up to this. So tonight is a Good Opportunity. Every day is a Good Opportunity to go out there. Hes being more visible. And more visible doesnt mean just taking questions from the press. Its being on tiktok, instagram, just being out there. So i do think he has to provide more comfort on that, but at the end of the day, where i see this election, trump has a lead. These are polls in march s so we should be careful about overinterpreting them, but trump is closer to his ceiling. So most of these polls in a state or nationally have 87 of the vote allocated. I think most of that will go to biden, assuming they vote. This is a winnable race, but biden has to convince people hes up for this challenge. And thats why the debates are going to be important. If he can stand up to trump and push him around a little bit, i think thats really important. And then we have seen that abortion has driven and become even more so with ivf, the speaker of the house with some strange comments today on that. That will drive vote. But i think that this is going to be really, really close. And because its close, every moment matters. You cant squander one. So tonight, the biggest audience hes going face for a long time. Theres always a natural tension between the communicators and the campaign managers. They were in the data and knew everything. And people like me had our heads in the clouds. So on the gut level, you feel like you could just see biden saying, come on, this isnt who we are. Even if youre a lifelong republican f your kid comes out and protest the government, hes modelling our government after russia. Look what happened to navalny. Theres a gut argument you can make. Im sure theres a natural tension about how much time to spend on who we are, protecting democracy and some of these things that tighten the silos in the press office, but these boxes that drive the president ial year. I honestly believe what he says is not as important as how he say it is. I think he has to have a tone of feisty and aggressive. And off the cuff. He know this is is a fight. Its a fight worth making. And hes ready to fight. And thats why i think this idea of giving trump Intelligence Briefings is a miss. Its crazy. They shouldnt be doing that. Why . Because this is an opportunity to point out again that, yeah, normally we would, but this isnt normal. No one who has been indicted for stealing Nuclear Secrets from the white house and who purposely kept them from the Intelligence Community afterwards much less the fact that trashed the Sbelks Community his entire term in office, they shouldnt be getting secret briefings. And this would be an opportunity for biden if trump is going to ever use them for anything positive. So whats the downside of saying no, were not going to do that. That shows strength. It shows decisiveness. Frankly, its common sense that you shouldnt give somebody who is indicted for violating the laws of the country around secret documents secretment ises. Documents. I think thats a miss. Tonight while he hat tok optimistic and positive about what patriotism really is, he has to be feisty and aggressive and i hope those looney tunes heckle him and he takes them out like you better be quiet in the backseat or im pulling this car over. Okay, mom. I think hes done that when hes been heckled before and those moments, you cant script them. But they end hes capable of it. Thats what im trying to spit out here. What do you think of this idea that it becomes selfperpetwaiting . Like the polls show concerns about his age, i had a lifelong republican who read liz cheneys book. It feels like theres an irresistible temptation to provide instant analysis that sort of robs people of eight months to sift through everything thats in front of them. How do you balance those two tensions . Think we need to quit worrying about them so much. I think biden needs to be biden. If it he makes a mistake, he makes a mistake. Its more important that hes out there showing on his front foot showing that he has the strength to do this job. I think this orban thing is a great opportunity for him. Hes sitting down in a club where you have to pay 400,000 to join. And hes bringing in this guy who is single handedly tried to wipe out free press and free speech. And this is not a guy who likes freedom. This is a guy who wants to make a lot of money for rich people. Hes got a lot in common with donald trump. And i think highlighting that while hes there talking to the American People about bringing Insulin Prices down to 35 a month, this guy is down with his gold guilt toilets hosting a guy that puts the press out of business. I think its a great contrast. I bet they dont do it. But i would put it in the speech, if i were doing it. I just want to echo what claire said about that how he say this is is more important than what he says. You helped prepare president s for state of the unions. I have too. Its a really messy process. All the staffers in the white house, all the agency want their line. Its a mess to put together. But a lot of time is put on the speech and preparation you do some run throughs. The preparation around the performance here is key. Youll look at it both ways. Dont make any mistakes. Dont have a moment that overrides in a negative way, but its an opportunity to show strength that im up part the job im up for the fight. So that hopefully he doesnt feel captive to the teleprompter. He will use it, but not feel like imprisoned by it and let it rip when he needs to. That would be wonderful. No one is going anywhere. Were going to come back to you, director, on this issue of briefings, any version of briefings of our secrets for donald trump. Also to come for us, one of the big themes for President Biden tonight will be showing the country firsthand the effects of republican lawmakers and judges who have been eroding womens rights and removing the right to make your own Health Care Decisions in the wake of the fall of roe two years ago. There will be more than one dozen guests who certainly didnt want this night to be in the spotlight on this issue, but they will be joining democrats to help tell the story to america. One of those women will join us here first, a doctor from texas who was forced to leave her home state for lifesaving abortion. Shes now suing the state of texas over its antiabortion ban in the state. She will be the guest of Congressman Allred. Hes ready to go all in on this issue of protecting Reproductive Health care and Abortion Access and other fertility treatments making the cause that ted cruz is a danger to women in texas. They both join us ahead of tonights state of the union. And later in the broadcast, while President Biden is preparing for the state of the Union Address, donald trump is preparing to welcome europes biggest autocratic leaders to maralago. Well look at the implications of that and more when deadline white house continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. After a quick break. Dont go anywhere. I got the power of 3. I lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. In studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. Im under 7. Ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardio