Good day. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. President trump is in belgium preparing for a critical phase of his first foreign trip making a direct pitch to nato allies to spend more and hoping that they forget about his Campaign Rhetoric about nato being obsolete. The buzz here at home all about the first familys first meeting with pope francis with plenty of memorable moments. Joining me new, kelly o now, ke and nick schmidt. Kelly, first to you in brussels. This nato meeting were told that the nato leaders have been told to keep their speeches short because President Trump might not be as interested in all the details that usually take place at a nato meeting in brusse brussels. Weve seen those report, weve heard those comments. There is perhaps both an adaptive quality to that and maybe even a condescending quality to it. You have had so much experience with this, the density of the complex issues that are sometimes discussed at a nato meeting and this is convened in part because we have a new american president who of course plays a very Important Role in the organization of 28 countries and they are also unveiling a brand new nato headquarters hoohere in belgium. And there is a trail of unfortunate sound bites in the wake of President Trump of course. He has a ten ddency to leave the behind and start a new oig. And we get that from secretary tillerson who spoke to reporters previewing what he hopes to see and that includes try togs preshl some of the nations that dont contribute the full amount of their Gross Domestic Product to defense as agreed to. Only 5 do and the u. S. Is at 4 . So candidate trump will probably be similar to President Trump who will talk about that, as well. And were also getting the idea of even from his recent meeting just in the last hour or so with belgian officials, the Prime Minister here, a focus on what happened in manchester being an urgency for these nations to continue to talk about how to confront isis and terrorism and lone wolves and how that has happened especially here in europe where there has been so much tragedy. Kelly, thank you for that. And nick, you spent years not only advancing papal visits, but traveling with the president s. This trip so far has pretty much gone well when its scripted. The things that you saw today, imtages from the vatican, how did that strike you . It goes without saying any visit by a world leader to the vatican is an incredibly special and moving moment. And i think that was the case with the trump family today and its also symbolic. The pope is chief of state, but he is also a man who is larger than that. He represents over 1. 2 billion catholics across the world. And so i think those catholics and miles an hour american cith to go see what it would look like. They had a meeting that was 20 minutes long. Is that typical . President obamas last meeting with pope francis was i think closer to 45 minutes. And so obviously there were issues that they had to talk about that were brought up by both sides during the campaign. So we dont know what they talked about exactly. But they hashed it out no doubt. And the pope of course had been critical of the president over the wall, over his immigration policy. Perhaps they didnt discuss that. But the gifts to the president , interesting that he gave him among other things a copy of his encyclical on Climate Change with a personal encryption. Is th inscription. Is that a point references as the president decides whether to withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord . I would suspect that there was a lot of research that went into these gifts on both sides. With President Trumps gift, yon which he referenced mar about contin Martin Luther king and the writings of king. Very sensitive and appropriate gift. Very sensitive. Im not certain it was necessarily a surprise. Youve traveled alongside pope francis when he was here. Would he choose to ignore their disagreements on this first most important visit with the american president . I think again they talked about these things during their meeting, but ultimately the idea behind this is First Impressions are lasting impressions. And so this was their chance to really sit down, have the start of a relationship that they can look back to and move forward with to work through difficult issues as we go forward. So im not certain exactly, but i think this is a good first meeting without a lot of hicc hiccups. Thank you so much nick schmidt. Really appreciate you being here. New jersey democratic senator cory booker sits on the Foreign Relations committee and joins me now. So the scorecard on this trip so far, the big summit , a hard lie antisemitism speech which is understandable, its the position of this administration, but no mention of the human rights issues. Deliberate reference to were not going to electric which you were you, we wont talk to you about human rights. And then what happened in israel. Do you want to take it from there . Yeah. Look, to me its a glaring hole in this trip. And its anguishing not just to me, but you see republican senators speaking out about the importance of us being a nation that stands for values, not just sort of our self interests, but larger values. To go to saudi arabia and not call out critical human rights issues, not to even talk about the dangerous exportation that they are involved in affecting the safety and security ranging from bosnia all the way to nations in asia, this is very problematic. And then to announce an arms deal, something that the Obama Administration rejected pulling out of certain sales where the Obama Administration didnt do that because of their philosophy, they did that because of military leaders who saw in a joint targeting center that they had no they were not exhibiting the values we have about targeting civilians. For him to turn around and announce an over 100 billion arms sale flies in the face of what we as a nation stand for. And i think you and i discussed this, we abothe words of john m who was a prisoner of war and talking about what Ronald Reagans values that he put fort on an Enter National scale, what that meant to oppressed peoples around the globe. This is what our nation stands for and donald trump is trying to go change that, alter to say really our nation just stands for what is in our best interests, a philosophy that is a departure from democratic republican president s of the past. And i also wanted to ask you about John Brennans testimony and your thoughts about his sdwripgs of what his concerns were regarding russia and the need for an fbi investigation into possible connections because he saw unusual contacts between the Trump Campaign associates shall we say, u. S. Persons, and russian officials. Were at a point in American History where were seeing a lot of dots that seem to be directing us towards a real problem and potential collusion. We have a everything from an fbi criminal investigation going on, a new special prosecutor, to now a reenergized bipartisan investigation in both the house and senate. Because there still continues to seem to be smoke that might result in an actual fire. In other words, real collusion going on between us and the soviet union. And im sorry, but this circles back to just what do we stand for, what are our values. Whether its our collective defense of our Democratic Institutions like our election from the russians to even this president and his conversations. Now that were seeing transcripts come out from his conversations with erdogan in you are itky, a k turkey, and how he almost seems to praise them for violating international norms. This this is part of a problematic trend in a presidency that greatly concerns me about that. Pretty mlet me pick up on th. The white house has revealed that this is a legitimate transcript of the phone conversation with duterte where he praises him for doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem when they deal with it by shooting suspects in the streets, and also violates pentagon policy by revealing that the u. S. Has two nuke nuclear sub made about reasons off the coast. And tsz this is not just a one off. Were sighi seeing a pattern. So praising authoritarian antidemocratic actions, actions that violate human rights by praising people dictators or strong authoritarian leaders that where doing these kind of things. And so as a guy who has been fighting for years now against a drug war gone wrong here in this nation, to see him praising a more dramatic extreme of that in a different country, greatly worries me both about the Enter National context as well as the american context. But then for this president not to understand whether its conversations with the russians in the oval office, russian leaders in the oval office or this conversation where he is revealing information that should be by any leader, including myself, should have the common sense knowledge that this is not something that should be shared, he goes to israel at the time that he exposed potentially Israeli Intelligence and endangered our strong cooperation between these countries. This is becoming a pattern of recklessness and really potentially as we saw with china how dangerous it is, these folks who are doing intelligence gathering, how it cost american lives. This is a recklessness that is you were acceptable and again wore are any of criticism and im glad to hear a lot of my Republican CoRepublican Colleagues resoundingly criticizing this brd for the way he is conducting Foreign Policy and potentially putting americans at risk. Senator cory booker, thanks for joining us. And coming up, senator Bernie Sanders joining me with his reaction to the president s Budget Proposal. Can you love wearing powerful sunscreen . Yes neutrogena® ultra sheer. Unbeatable protection helps prevent early skin aging and skin cancer with a clean feel. The best for your skin. Ultra sheer®. Neutrogena®. Whoa,i just had to push one button to join. Its like im in the office with you, even though im here. Its almost like the Virtual Reality of business communications. No, its reality. Intuitive one touch Video Conferencing is a reality. And now its included at no additional cost with vonage business. Call now and see why 3,000 companies a month are switching to vonage. Business grade. People friendly. Hi. And i know that we have phonaccident forgiveness. Gent, so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. What we did hear is try to change the way that washington looks at spending. We know longer want to measure compassion by the number of programs that we have or the number of people that are on those programs. We want to measure compassion, true compassion, by the number of people we help to get off of those programs. We dont want to measure our commitment to the country by the amount of money that we spend, but instead on the number of people that we help get off of these programs and get back in charge of their own lives. Budget director Mick Mulvaney trying to sell the president s first major Budget Proposal to lawmakers on chiapitol hill tod. Joining me now, Bernie Sanders. Senator, welcome. Good to be with you. Great to see you. Im very interested in your take on the Budget Proposals. Andrea, that budget that trump has presented is a grow on de grotesquely immoral budget. What it says is that if you are the richest family, you will get over a on grotesquely immoral budget. What it says is that if you are the richest family, you will get over a 50 billion tax break you through the repeal of the estate tax. But if you are a low income pregnant woman, you will lose nutrition programs for yourself and your baby, kids will be thrown off of head start. Millions of kids will lose their Health Insurance. Senior zit citizens will lose t meals on wheels brahm program. Pell grants will be cut. Environmental programs will be decimated. So you are looking a the a massive transfer of wealth from working families, from seniors, from children into the hands of the richest billionaires. It is an outrageous budget and a budget that should not see the light of day in the u. S. Senate. The other point that is being made, Larry Summers wrote an oped about this, is that there is a 2 trillion double accounting, double bookkeeping here. Because they are counting first of all on 3 growth over the number of years which is very optimistic. They are counting on a 2 trillion saving from higher growth to make it meet its mark to be revenue neutral and they are also counting on the 2 trillion to finance the tax cut that they plan to 3r0propose. So they are counting it twice. Look, this whole budget like much of trumps proclamations is pretty frauds leapfraudulent. They are doing hocuspocus accounting. They are saying if we give hundreds of billions of dollars of tax breaks to the wealthiest people, somehow it will automatically translate into economic grooet and increased tax revenue for the federal government. Unfortunately, that is a theory that has never worked. What this is all about and its the same thing as Trumps Health care proposal, his Health Care Proposal as you know threw 24 Million People of f of Health Insurance but provided tax breaks for the top 2 . His budget has massive cuts to programs that working families need but cuts to the people on on top. That is what all of this is about. Its to make the we would aniest people richer at the expense of working families. I know that the president talked about america first, but if you look at the state department budget, 32 reduction overall. 31 in humanitarian assistance, 25 reduction in global health. What are the real costs hooer . Because mike mullen is a military man who talks about the real costs of cutting global health, pet frograms for sub san african at a time when people talk about counterterrorism programs that we will see the results in major ways in terms of military needs. Your point is very well taken. And the issue here is if we are serious about trying to prevent young people around the world from becoming terrorists, from becoming antiamerican, they have got to know poor people all over the world have got to know what used to be the case is that the United States of america stands with them, that well do everything we can to eradicate illnesses that for a few cents a day can keep children from dying. That we will work to help educate the poor people of this world, that we will provide housing, well provide nutrition. That is what america used to stand for. We were a beacon of help for poor people. But to suggest that the future is simply to put more money into the military and cut back on the kinds of support and state Department Programs that uplifted poor people around the world, that made them believe that america was on their side, i think that that is very short sighted and counterproductive. What is your reaction to John Brennans testimony about his suspicions on contacts between persons, us persons connected to the Trump Campaign, and russian officials and his desire to follow it up. Do you think that the investigation will ever get to the bottom of this . I certainly think that it must get to the bottom of this. The issue here is very simple. We know that the russians played a significant role in the 2016 president ial election working to see that trump was laepgt elect. That in itself must be addressed. We cannot have the russian government trying to destroy democracy in the United States, in europe and around the world. That is one issue. But the second issue is did the Trump Campaign, people in the Trump Campaign itself, company lewd with the russians. Was this a joint effort. We dont know the answer to that today. But this is an issue clearly that mueller has been charged to discover. We have the intel against committee in the house and Senate Working on this. It must be done in a bipartisan way. And i think people are demanding that we get to the truth. And i want to ask you about the Paris Climate Accord. One of the gifts today from are pope francis to the president was a copy of his encyclical on Climate Change. And you and i have talked about the importance of pope francis moral authority around the world. What are you hoping the president will take away from that different and from that meeting . Andrea, trumps view on Climate Change in which he thinks it is a hoax is just an International Embarrassment and extraordinarily dangerous for the future of our country and the future of the world. All over the world, governments understand, private corporations understand, that Climate Change is real, it is caused by human activity, it is already doing devastating harm. An