Today, donald trump seemed to some folks to be talking about Frederick Douglas as if he was a contemporary, somehow still alive and with us. But those were just distractions by comparisons today the Trump Presidency became a lot more real for a lot of people when his National Security advisor came into the Briefing Room and put iran on notice. And then walked out. We dont know what that means. More on that in a moment. That is some high stakes language to use. And its in response to their recent behavior including, but not limited to, the test launch of that unarmed missile. Perhaps the most president ial thing this new president has done in the job, he flew today with his daughter to the air base in dover, delaware, to witness the transfer of remains of a navy seal killed in yemen days ago. And to meet with members of the family. Back at the white house, after that, the president gave a brief and rather dark assessment of violence around the world before presiding over the swearing in of our new secretary of state. Rex tillerson, until recently the ceo of his lifetime employer, exxonmobil, is now this nations 69th secretary of state. On the confirmation front, the vote to confirm senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general has been delayed likely because his vote as a sitting republican senator is so badly needed now that betsy devos is in trouble. She is trumps selection for education secretary. She is now being accused of plagiarizing answers to Committee Questions from an Obama Administration official. And she has lost two major gop defections, senator collins of maine and murkowski of alaska. The Washington Post and Associated Press are reporting tonight, trumps calls with the leaders of australia and mexico didnt go well. The australian call apparently ended early and badly. And it was initially reported the president threatened to send u. S. Troops to mexico. Our Kristin Welker reports tonight, the white house is pushing back, denying the president threatened to send the u. S. Military across the border into mexico. But we begin tonight with geopolitics and this warning to arrest, vague, but they are quote on notice. The recent Ballistic Missile unch is also in defiance of u. N. Security Council Resolution 2231. Which calls upon iran not to undertake any activity related to Ballistic Missiles designed to be capable of delivering Nuclear Weapons including launches using such missile technology. The Obama Administration failed to respond adequately to the malign actions, including weapons transfers, support for terrorism, and other violations of international norms. The Trump Administration condemns such actions by iran that undermine security, prosperity, and stability throughout and beyond the middle east and place which places american lives at risk. President trump has severely criticized the various agreements reached between iran and the Obama Administration as well as the United Nations as being weak and ineffective. Instead of being thankful to the United States in these agreements, iran is now feeling emboldened. As of today, we are officially putting iran on notice. Lets start off our discussion with our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. Dual question, first of all, what does on notice mean and second, how will that kind of thing be translated in that part of the world . Well, the first question, what does on notice mean, questions were asked at a briefing and offcamera briefing afterwards. They said there will be a response. There will be a retaliation. They would not move out military action, but it seemed more likely to be diplomatic and economic, but everything is on the table. They did say, and this is important, that this is separate from the iran nuclear agreement. Which President Trump during the campaign derided said it was the worst deal in history. Indicated he would renegotiate or cancel it. Its a multilateral agreement as you know. All of the six major powers as well as et European Union are committed to it. If the u. S. Wanted to get out of that, they could with six months notice, but that would still not stomp the agreement. It was interesting that the briefers did not say that that is involved. This is a separate issue of whether or not iran in its missile test on sunday either defied or violated the u. N. Resolution which said that that should not happen. Now there have been a number of missile tests and the Obama White House has responded with other kinds of chastisements, but never this kind of strong statement, drawing a line if you will, a line that now has to be carried out, something has to happen here or else the Trump Administration is following the much criticized example of the white house in drawing a red line against syria. In that case and not following through. It does seem that the timing so interesting, he came out even before the hour before the senate was voting in a very historically divided vote on the secretary of state. 5643 to confirm Rex Tillerson. Rex tillerson was then sworn in tonight as you described in the oval office with mike pence officiating and donald trump stding by and both the president and Rex Tillerson speaking. Tillerson with perfunctory statements, but the president making some rather strong statements. And now we have more tweets, a tweet tonight against iran suggesting by the president that iran is taking over much of iraq, why did we waste 3 trillion . And then again another tweet which seems to be in response to reports in australia and reports in the Washington Post that he had a very, very contentious conversation on saturday night with the australian Prime Minister. Instructing contrast to the very bland read out that the white house gave out to its reporters on saturday night. Yeah, the president has just tweeted in recent minutes, do you believe it, the Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of Illegal Immigrants from australia, why . I will study this dumb deal. Its sure getting a lot of coverage in australia and now starting tonight in this country as well. They are long time steadfast allies of the United States. I mean steadfast allies, go back to vietnam, who were our military allies down there . Among our strongest allies and the fact is that he has tweeted so aggressively about australia there was a one off refugee agreement, done by the Obama White House and australia for us to take some refugees from australia and now hes saying that it seems to be confirming that he accused the australians of wanting to send the next boston bombers over. And that this was a conversation that was abruptly cut off a half hour before it was scheduled to be. He did a number of calls to foreign leaders, including Vladimir Putin on saturday, saturday afternoon and evening. And the fact that this has blown up with one of our closest allies is quite extraordinary. Andrea mitchell, starting off our veteran chief foreign correspondent. Thanks, well look for more of your coverage tomorrow on this very network. Lets bring in members of our panel tonight. Ali flel she who normals covers business, but hes in here in part because hes spent a lot of time in iran. In washington, chief of staff of the cia and defense, jeremy bash, and friend and columnist for the Washington Post, eugene robinson. Jeremy, do you think in the early days can of this white house and this is among the levers of power. They are obviously empowered to pull. Do you think the command went down the chain of command to the carriers out of u. S. Policy . The young men and women on carriers, the soldiers, sailor, marine, and airman around the world that this may ratchet things up . I doubt it, but those military planners and those commanders in the field should be ready. Because this could get very sparky very fast. These were intense words from the National Security advisor. I actually thought most of his statement was very strong, but the last line i felt, brian, i think like you referenced like my tv went on mute. Iran is on notice. I was struggling to figure out what the rest of the sentence was. Let me offer some ideas what they could be thinking about. Increased naval presence in the region, increased special Operations Forces going after irans surrogates and proxies, including hezbollah and their backed rebels in yemen. Helping out, training, advising, assisting, and equipping some of our partners. Thats a big request that ours have requested from washington. They did not get as much from the Obama Administration as they wanted. And the fourth big one i would think would be direct military action, if there is in fact a scrape between u. S. Worships in the red sea or the arabian golf between American Warships and Iranian Naval vessels. One of the most fascinating places ive ever traveled, i speak for you as well. What an interesting culture and now since its going to be top of mind, whabd americans know about this . Two things. That there was a lot of pressure on the iranian government to make this deal. A lot of people in iran were enriched by the idea that there were sanctions. Somebody always gets rich off of sanctions and in this case it was a revolutionary guard which we think of as their elite military, they are the biggest industry in the country. So, just like there are people in the United States who thought this was a terrible deal, there are a lot of wellplaced people in iran who also think its a bad deal and would welcome some opportunity to subtle it. The other thing to jeremys point, the strait is where about 20 of the worlds shipped oil has to go through. One doesnt need to do much to mix it up with the iranians, they are constantly involved in zirmishes. America tends to escort other flag vessels, sometimes they turn them into American Flag vessels to get the oil out of there. Its 20 miles wide at some point. A war can start right there and the affect its going to have on americans is at the price of oils going to go up real fast if you start a fight with the oil producers. Eugene, you focus yourself for a living on a couple ideas a week. And weve had a lot of fun with what has happened so far in this administration. The executive order over the weekend got real serious real fast today, seemed to get real serious, real fast. It did get real serious real fast. Because when you say iran is on notice, as andrea said, what do you mean . Do you back that up with something, and if you do, then at the very least youre talking some kind of sanctions. And beyond you could be talking about some kind of military action. Remember this is the president who said during the campaign that these foreign wars were dumb. And he was very critical of the notion that the previous administrations had gone around starting wars and, you know, america first, were going to have to do nation building here at home. It seems to have changed his tune considerably. And then these phone calls that we learned about today with the mexican president and especially with the australian Prime Minister. It takes a lot to offend the australian Prime Minister to estrange the United States from australia. Literally one of our very, very closest allies historically and to the present day, at least until that phone call. I just want to for the record, point out there are two lies in Donald Trumps recent tweet about the australia phone call. And i call them lies because he must have known he said thousands of Illegal Immigrants. There are not thousands coming, its 1,250, and if he doesnt think theres a difference between Illegal Immigrants and refugees, which is what these people are, then the world is in trouble. Jeremy, david girgen has worked for four u. S. President s and i havent, i often quote him. He said tonight, never had a president in my memory bully our friends. He ao sai you cannot conduct yourself in the world this way. He was very upset at especially the treatment of the aussies. Let me tell you something about our friends down in australia, down under, and i was there recently, i met with Prime Minister turnball with some others. First of all, hes an affable, proamerican guy, businessman, not unlike donald trump who came into politics after a career in business, those Australian Service members, the men and women of the Australian Military have fought and died with american soldiers, airmen, marines, and sailor in every single one of our wars, every single one since world war ii. Beaches of normandy. They are the second biggest contributor in iraq. They fought with us in australia, they are great warriors. They are great friends. Were going to need them. If were going to get into a scrape in the persian gulf, if were going to have to take on other adversaries including isis, were going to need people like the australians first and foremost. Its very short sided to alienate them right out of the box. These are among the levers you get to pull when you win the presidency. It can be like getting a masters degree in interconnectedness, oh my goodness, i pull this and this happens half way around the world. It might be a good thing that Rex Tillerson was sworn in as a secretary of state so he can devote himself to the business of diplomacy. Back to the iran thing, when the iran deal was being settled, for months and months, pictures of john kerry and the foreign minister of iran standing side by side. In the last days of the Obama Administration, you sort of saw the Russian Foreign minister and john kerry standing side by side and giving press conferences. Its diplomacy. Its not little squirmishes and fights and someones going to have to figure that. As we go to the first break, our great thanks as often happens, jeremy bash has a particular area of expertise, and it has come in very handy lately, jeremy thanks. The psident has a habit of doing an amazing job. When he did it today, a lot of people were left confused afterwards. Well explain after our short break. I cant wait for her to have that College Experience that i had. The classes, the friends, the independence. 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I am very proud now that we have a museum in the National Mall where people can learn about reverend king. So many other things. Frederick douglas is an example of somebody whose done an amazing job and being recognized more and more, i notice. Later, White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer was asked to clarify that position. Today he made the comment about Frederick Doug last. Do you have any id