Sanders joins us for his perspective on pretty much all of the above. Jim acosta at the white house. A very busy day. Lets start with sean spicers First Official press briefing. You were there. Very different mood than saturdays. Very different mood. This was an attempt to reset relations between this white house and the news media after you heard the president of the United States and his press secretary really go after the media on saturday accusing reporters of falsely reporting on the crowd size at Donald Trumps inauguration last friday. And that episode was filled with sean spicer going to the podium on saturday and basically delivering some false metrics in terms of how they came to the conclusion that Donald Trumps inauguration was the most watched ever, which was not the case. But at this briefing today, sean spicer was not yelling at reporters. He was answering questions as the White House Press secretary should do. I asked him at one point why was there such a big focus on saturday on this crowd size issue, and heres what he had to say. Isnt that just part of the conversation that happens in washington . No, its not. Being president of the United States and no, look, ive been doing this a long time. Youve been doing this, the. Ive never seen it like this. You see this historic thing. He stands there at the capitol, i was not that close but on the platform. You look out and all youre its an amazing view. And its just so many people who got in long lines, who had to go around all this different stuff to get in. And that was for the first time that we did have to go through fencing that far out. And then to hear, well, look at this shot and it wasnt that big. Its a little demoralizing. Now, sean spicer also told reporters today it is not his intent to ever lie to the press, which was obviously something we all hope for as well, anderson. But at the same time we should point out the president does appear to be rather obsessed with this issue of the crowd size. Steny hoyer, a top ranking democrat was over here with the rest of the congressional leaders here at the white house meeting with the president for a reception late this evening and steny hoyer told our erin burnett that donald trump was talking about this at this reception. So it appears to still be on his mind. Also today the president signed several executive actions. Was that all part of day one promises . They were. Actually, one of them, first and foremost, withdrawing the u. S. From the transpacific trade deal. Thats something we heard donald trump talking about time and again throughout this campaign. It is definitely chipping away at president obamas legacy there. There was also a freeze that donald trump ordered on hiring federal workers. He said there was a caveat that doesnt apply to military personnel. But we heard this white house setting new policy. Sean spicer from the podium today at the briefing said that right now there is not a priority when it comes to deporting undocumented young people, the socalled dreamers. Thats a shift from the campaign when donald trump talked about a deportation force. I think its fair to say olive branches were extended today. Jim acosta, thanks very much. Well talk to Bernie Sanders who agrees with donald trump on tpp. Now the news and the senates action on the nominees for state and cia director. Good news on capitol hill today for President Trump regarding nominees. Thats exactly right. The Trump Administration has made no secret about their displeasure with the fact that the majority of their team, the majority of the nominees are not currently in place atop the agencies they were selected for. Rex tillerson, the secretary of state nominee, moved through the Committee Process today, but what matters is marco rubio, the senator who had a lot of objections, a lot of pause about supporting that nomination, hes now on board. That more or less clears the way for Rex Tillersons confirmation in the coming days, probably in about a week or so. Also mike pompeo, the cia director who republicans initially wanted confirmed on friday, hes on his way to being confirmed tonight. So weather related issues holding up the vote a bit, but already 14 democrats have voted for that nomination. He has enough votes to be confirmed already as soon as they close that vote. So look, the dam isnt breaking, according to one Democratic Senate source i spoke to, there are still eight or nine trump nominees the democrats really have problems with and plan to put procedural hurdles in front of. But some of those nominees starting to move through the process. I know youve been talking to sources familiar about it today. How are they describing it . Jim kind of pointed out the most interesting point. The fact that the crowds did come up and they came up from the president. But when you talk to individuals over there, House Majority leader kevin mccarthy, he said this was largely Relationship Building described as a reception and trump was in listening mode. We heard this a lot when he meets with individuals, where he sits and tries to get a sense for who they are and how they click. When it comes to policy, there werent a lot of in depth discussions but the Affordable Care act did come up, trying to pressure the president on how hes going o the act on that. One of the most interesting elements i thought talking to the members, was how the president is trying to get a feel for these leaders. Its not a partisan thing for him. He recognizes if he wants to move big ticket items through, he needs democrats on board. That was the start of the process tonight. Democrats are actually willing to join him. Thanks for the update. Our Panel Members tonight have seen more than a few administrations get down to work. Some have been on the inside. Carl bernstein, republican consultant margaret hoover, also trump supporter kelly mcaninny. Bob jones and joining us tonight the legendary ed rollins, former adviser to president reagan. Lets start off with you. It was a rocky start for the Trump Administration over the weekend. Certainly seemed to get back on track with a lot of events lined up. Shocking to me, actually, is having been a white house staffer, it takes a lot of time to plan these events, to get all those 18 Union Leaders there in the oval office. They did six photo ops. Theyve been working really hard without even having offices in the west wing because the Obama Administration had them make it. They dont have their stuff together and the website didnt work. Theyr making it work. This is the peoples business happening on day one. How much of it cameras are there for at least for part of it, to capture the images. Its very clear the Trump Administration wants americans to see what they are doing, to see that they are working. Of course they want to show themselves working. But what happened over the weekend was extraordinary. We had an administration coming into office that declared war on the press, that has made once again the conduct of the press the issue rather than the conduct of the president of the United States. There were lies told throughout today by the president , by his press secretary and then when the press pointed out the lies, the fusillade continued against the press. I dont think we can move on quite so easily. Hopefully this will change. But this was an extraordinary development. Also i think it calls i think theres a special role for fox news in this that id like to bring up. That is that when you have the president or the people around him lying, all journalists covering that story need to point it out. And this is not, you know, fox, theyve got their point of view, thats terrific. But it also is about hard reporting. And we all need to be together on this in terms of the best obtainable version of the truth. Thats our job. Not complaining and whining about the president and about look, lets just do our jobs. But all of us need to be calling out lies. Ed, i want to ask you about your take on the last couple of days and versus today. I thought he had a great day today. A lot of the commitments he made in the course of the campaign. He brought some people in that traditionally havent been in a Republican White House in a long time, labor leaders and what have you. I thought the leadership of the house and the senate when they came to their meeting, they kind of looked at him, heres this guy weve been fighting for, 18 months and all of a sudden hes sitting there in the oval office and hes the president. Weve got deal with him now. The reality, he understands the big picture. I think they made a big mistake over the weekend about the size of the crowds and what have you. Who cares . At this point in time doesnt matter. The press, carl, and i know youre obviously a part of that. The press are going to foyt this guy and theyre going to try to make up for the missed story in this election. They missed the story badly of the changes that were going on in this country. And he tapped into that, the battle will continue. But the reality is that the press secretary got a second shot today and i think if he sticks up to the fact that hes never going to lie, thats a very important thing. But trump is a competitive guy and hes going to basically always challenges things that relate to his view of things. Republicans and democrats on capitol hill. Thats certainly something which president obama was criticized for not doing rightly or wrongly, but its obviously only the first full work day. What do you make of what you saw . Glad to see them talking. If something can get done, it should get done. We get back and forth about this, tweet that, you got people out in the country who are hurting and who would like to see americas government work for the American People, period. Thats a good thing. At the same time those democrats are sitting there with a different feeling than they would have had the week prior because of the protests over the weekend. You think thats had an impact on democrats . Its given them a sense of, wait a minute now, you know, the tea party protests start off in august of 2009, and it was hundreds of activists, maybe thousands, but more like hundreds of activists going to those town hall meetings. And those minor protests ultimately wound up costing obama the house of representatives within 24 months. What you saw over the weekend, 5 million plus people. These protests start out bigger than the peak of the protests against george w. Bush five years into his presidency. And so i think if youre a democrat, at some point, in some ways you got a oneparty republican rule here in washington, d. C. , but at the same time theres a big pushback coming. So how both sides evaluate each other i think is going to be very interesting over the next several weeks. Looking at what donald trump was focusing on today, which is really jobs, also meeting with congressional leaders and meeting with Union Leaders, bringing business people. I mean, it is probably the smartest thing for him to do because it just hits home the message that brought him here, which is jobs, jobs, jobs. 100 . If you think of any other republican president sitting in that seat on their first day in office, george bush, to a certain degree, even ronald reagan, you would have seen a different slate of action. You wouldnt see a rescinding of the Transpacific Partnership. Thats not a conservative dock trinal position. You wouldnt have seen meetings with Union Leaders, which is out of the ordinary for a republican president. Donald trump is a post partisan president. These protesters will be very surprised because donald trump has been depicted as, in the words of msnbc host hitlerian, but when they see someone in office who is reaching across the aisle and you see someone in office who is probably going to put in place ivankas plan of paid maternal leave, all of a sudden this guy who was so hitlerian or so was described by msnbc commentator seems very palatable and reasonable. Well see. Much more to talk about tonight. The notion voiced today by press secretary sean spicer. The administration is lashing out at the media because its frustrated and doesnt get the recognition it thinks it deserves. Is that a fair point in plus the fbi investigation involving Michael Flynns phone call with the russian or phone calls with the russian top diplomat and senator Bernie Sanders take on all of that ahead tonight. Want powerful relief. 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And i think its just unbelievably frustrating when youre continually told its not big enough, its not good enough. You cant win. I think over and over again theres this constant attempt to undermine his credibility and the movement that he represents and its frustrating for not just him but i think so many of us that are trying to work to get this message out. Sean spicer this afternoon. Back with the panel. Carl bernstein. What do you make of what he is saying . I think theres no necessity for the press secretary to whine like that because donald trump won a great victory and the press knows it and the press has reported on it. It is one of the great upsets in american political history. And he deserves all the credit for that that hes getting. That doesnt mean, though, that the picture of america that theyre drawing in the white house of this huge mandate is accurate. What it means is that he won the electoral college, hes 3 million votes behind in the popular vote. Its a divided country. Its going to be a Fascinating Development to watch this occur. But we dont need lying on the part of the white house to advance what theyre doing. But nonetheless, the fact that the president tweets, i think its terrific. Its like an mri of his psyche. Its really amazing. And we get to see it direct, no filter. Its telling us a lot. But lets back off from making the conduct of the press the issue here. The press has reported accurately and fairly on donald trump and the business of lying, there was too much of it in the campaign by the candidate, theres too much of it going on now and let them learn from this lesson. Kayleigh . I dont think the press has necessarily been fair. It was revealing to me when you heard sean spicer say and describe as a real human being what it was like to watch the inauguration and then to go home and turn on the Television Set and hear this negative critique of what was supposed to be a day of coming together just to give you a synopsis. New york times, dark and angry speech, this was ugly speech with antisemitic overtones, this was unnecessarily divisive. Thiss these are journalists that americans saw as reempowering the people. When you have journalists not reporting the words of the president but instead characterizing it as dark saying the same words in fact that came out of the mouths of democratic senators. It is disappointing. And i think its fair for sean spicer to push back on that. Thats pretty dark. I think its fair for people who have their own views. I a different understanding of why its so important for trump and leaders like trump to talk about the crowd size. You know, ordinary leaders rely on the constitution as a source of l legitimacy. But you have these leaders that have these more authoritarian overtones. Its the size of the crowds. The legitimacy doesnt come from these documents. They come from the fact that i represent something. I represent these masses that are rising. But youre characterizing it as authoritarian overtones. Yes. Theres another way you could look at it is that it comes from a donald trump who has a longstanding interest in his numbers, in his ratings on the apprentice. I mean hes talked about ratings his entire career, the size of his business, you know, even the size of the crowds at the cia on saturday. The size of his hands. I wasnt going to say it. I wasnt going to say it. You said it. Right on twitter. No, i wasnt going to say that most of us do see it as some kind of personality thing. It may be 80 personality but it i