Mcconnell. Todays media event was no doubt part of the pr offensive that began last week with john kellys unannounced appearance in the Briefing Room to beat back the narrative that the Trump White House has become an adult day care facility. So described by gop senator bob corker. Unsurprisingly, at 6 00 a. M. Today, a brandnew press account detailing the west wing as a place where aides spend a significant part of their day devising ways to rein in and control the impettuous president appeared in the Washington Post. Heres some of that press conference where the president hit every hotbutton issue in todays news cycle. I would like very much to see it be done this year. So we wont go a step further. If we get it done, thats a great achievement. It took years for the Reagan Administration to get taxes done. Ive been here for nine months. I can say the same thing for health care. If you look at obama, first of all, you look at clinton, they werent able to get it done. You look at other administrations, they werent able to get it done. So you understand, the Republican Party is very, very unified. Not even good politicians but they are good at obstruction. I femts very badly about that. Its the toughest calls i have to make are the calls where this happens. Soldiers are killed. Its a very difficult thing. Id like to see it end. The whole russian thing was an excuse. Excuse me. The whole russian thing was an excuse for the democrats losing the election. Puerto rico is very tough because of the fact its an island, but its also tough because, as you know, it was in very poor shape before the hurricanes ever hit. All i can say is its totally fake news. Its just fake. Its fake. Its made up stuff. We have the very best of the best on board to break it down. Our white house reporters from the Washington Post, ashley parker, from the los angeles times, brian bennet, from the new york times, glen thrush and nbcs Peter Alexander who was at that News Conference in the rose garden. Peerk peter, you describe that run that you guys took from the Briefing Room where you thought Sarah Huckabee sanders would deliver todays message of the day from the white house, and the president had Something Else in mind. Tell us about that. To be clear, when we saw the president in the cabinet room earlier today, he suggested, hey, ill see you guys out on the stairs a little later. To be clear, nobody knew what the heck he was talking about. Apparently it was this, which was in his head. We pressed folks here at the white house for a sense of what was happening. Not until we gathered did we hear, oh, everybody go meet up. Youre going into the rose garden for something that was so impromptu, so rare that there werent chairs set up for the reporters. There was no microphones for us. It was literally reporters shouting questions, trying to get called on by making eye contact with the president. Weve talked often about how this is sort of the great disruptor, the way he runs things around here. At least in the course of the five years ive covered the white house, i have not experienced a moment quite like this one. Peter, there was another role that you played. Im sure you hate being made part of the story but you became part of the story when you did a little bit of Rapid Response in the moment. Can you talk about one of the most stunning things i heard him say, turning even the process of consoling families who have lost loved ones into a story about himself. Yeah, thats exactly right. This was a moment where the president was being pressed on whether or not, in fact, he had spoken to the families of the four american soldiers who had died in niger. Here was the president s answer. Take a listen. The traditional way, if you look at president obama and other president s, most of them didnt make calls. A lot of them didnt make calls. I like to call when its appropriate, when i think im able to do it. They have made the ultimate sacrifice. So generally, i would say that i like to call. Im going to be calling them. I want a little time to pass. Im going to be calling them. I have, as you know, since ive been president , i have. But in addition, i actually wrote letters individually to the soldiers were talking about, and theyre going to be going out either today or tomorrow. So you heard the big takeaway. If you look at president obama and other president s, most of them didnt make calls. You worked for president bush. You know well he made calls. I was here covering president obama. Having spoken to many people this afternoon who worked for him during the last administration, he routinely made calls. Speaking to these individuals. I pushed the president on that. His answer to me was, when i said why would you say that, make that claim . He said, well, thats what ive been told. Ive pressed him on, who is telling him, when he made up his facts. He had no good answer. Heres what i heard from those who worked for president obama in the past. Well show you the statement that one former official provided saying President Trumps claim is wrong. President obama engaged families of the fallen and Wounded Warriors throughout his presidency, through calls, letters, visits to section 60 at arlington, visits to walter reed, visits to dover and regular meetings with goa s wit families. This former Obama Administration officials me that there was nothing that affected the president the way that he was affected by these conversations with the families of the fallen. This is something they take very personally, this accusation by President Trump. I havent been able to pull the words together to describe what these calls meant to george w. Bush. But ashley parker, let me turn to you and ask you about what might have inspired this performance in the rose garden. I think it might have had a Little Something with which you reported this morning. Tell us about your piece. Sure. So we did a piece kind of going off senator bob corkers comments where he has likened the white house to an Adult Day Care Center and said its an open secret. Every republican knows this president can barely be contained, and his aides spent all day trying to do that. Was this true and what were some examples of this . And it turns out that privately certainly, aides will tell you that a fair portion of their day is devoted to trying to channel and constrain and restrain this president , sometimes using creative techniques. To say the least. Which you write about. And the power of bob corkers indictment of this white house was twofold. One, i think that a lot of staffers are now afraid to talk. Theres been a Chilling Effect on bob corkers words. In one regard, he took the burden off them by describing the white house as it actually is. That these staffers, the National Security team, are what stands between the president and chaos. But he also made it a lot more difficult for people who normally have open lines of communication with reporters because they are all afraid now of being caught talking. Do you sense that thats the case . Well, yes and no. The white house got a bit more buttoned down and disciplined when general kelly came on, but theres always been, and this is the last quote in our story, a big difference, a janning gap between what aidis will say publicly about the president which is this fawning and heaping praise which is one of the ways they try to control him and buoy his mood. What theyll say privately, i think the discrepancy between what some of these aides and advisers say publicly and privately is among the greatest ive seen in covering politicians. And glen thrush, let me bring you in on this. I cannot imagine what was going through chief of staff john kellys mind when he heard donald trump say that president s dont call the families of the fallen. What do you think about the fact that its now all out on the table for everyone to see, that general kelly does not view it as part of his job to manage the president while everything that ashley reported, im insure you find to be the case as well in covering this white house. That what they spend a lot of time doing is trying to cajole him into a more reasonable position by flattering him, distracting him and by delaying his instincts. Well, look. First of all, i cant imagine whats going through john kellys head because hes a goals st gold star father. He lost a son in afghanistan. His perspective on this is one i cant imagine. When looking at my twitter feed, i would turn all your attention to a former deputy chief of staff in the Obama Administration who loosened a sort of profane tirade that however articulated what she believed the president had said with respect to president obama. Essentially she accused the president of being a liar saying this is something that president obama had done with great regularity. Look, the thing about these press conferences is they are twofold. These impromptu press conferences. They remind me of what ed koch used to do in new york. To a certain extent, this is President Trump at his absolute best. He took i dont know how many questions did he take, 20, 25 . Mitch mcconnell was blending into the topiary, not to steal sean spicers routine here, but i cannot imagine what was going through i would pay a Million Dollars to see a thought bubble from Mitch Mcconnells head as trump was talking. Thats trump at his best. Freewheeling, able to handle himself. Talk about a guy who didnt need supervision today, trump. He was able to handle himself with reporters. On the other hand, when you go back and look at the transcript, he didnt say anything. Your head is exploding saying look at all this news and none of it was really news. A lot of it were diversions, and whats the headline on the niger, the four men who were killed in niger . He hasnt yet gotten to them. He hasnt addressed it on twitter. Thats the headline and what he was trying to distract attention to. I think glenn just put his finger on one and, to me, the saddest thing about this story isnt that there are families who have paid the ultimate price. Isnt that he lied about what his predecessors did. Its that he made it about himself. But he did that with the California Wildfires as well. And he trotted out, you know, someone who was fema director maybe four or five fema directors ago and sides aid he s im doing a great job. There is nothing that happens on this planet in which he is not the leading character. Thats right. Theres nothing that donald trump likes to do more than to stand up and read his own positive reviews in front of an audience. Or make them up. I hadnt actually heard them before. And so here he was standing in this impromptu press conference where he answered questions for more than 40 minutes. And i think what today was about was a word that donald trump likes to talk about, which is momentum. He was feeling like he woke up this morning and the news stories like the Washington Post story about the Adult Day Care Center and how aides are working to control donald trump, that was dominating the news cycle and he wanted to mix it up and change that. So he came out and gave this freewheeling press conference to try to divert attention away from some of the things that people were talking about, particularly this idea that he really hates, which is that he has to be controlled and managed by his staff. Let me ask you, glenn, one more question, headline that was in the news. A big profile on pence and how trump sort of undermines and dare i say emasculates pence, makes fun of his religion. Is there a sense that pence is the backup plan, sort of grates on donald trump and annoys him . I think these guys are the ultimate odd couple. But mike pence is an absolutely brilliant apple polisher. No other way around it. Joe biden was very lavish in his praise of president obama, but theres a lot going on in them apples over there. And i think pence is i was talking with somebody who had talked with pence offline and who was being very, very tough on pence in terms of asking him about trumps behavior. Do you support his policies . What do you think of his legislative agenda . Even in private, pence was remarkably calibrated. Mike pence was, apart from the food tasters at this lunch with mcconnell and trump, pence was there to mediate because pence is the guy who goes up on the hill and hashes out the detail. Insofar as pence goes out there and constantly defends the president , oftentimes in ways that potentially could damage his brand up the road, that is what mike pences insurance policy is. I want to ask you about something that Susan Collins said this week because it seemed to be on full display. She said theres no doubt this president has been unconventional in his approach and thats caused more chaos than is good for our country and our relationship with our allies and our enemies. She says i would urge the president to remember that every single word he says matters. If you analyze this briefing today where it wasnt all true, it wasnt all consistent with the things he said before, the things he didnt want to respond to, he called fake news or deflected. Is that exhibit 434 for Susan Collins diagnosis . It is. And we can see it constantly happen where his aides and cabinet secretaries are working hard to get a few things done and working with their counterparts in congress and Mitch Mcconnells office to try to line up getting a bill passed on tax reform or on health care and then at the beginning of the news cycle, donald trump is constantly introducing new invective or bringing up new issues that spin everyone off in different directions. And this 40minute News Conference, which is longer than most of the daily briefings sara sanders gives, this was a prime example of that. It gave the reporters standing there, you know, all kinds of different avenues to try to go down and factchecking to do. But it took the main discussion away from the president s objectives. Why he sat down in the oval office with Mitch Mcconnell right before going out there which was to figure out a way to get tax reform done and put some points up on the board which they havent failed theyve failed to do. And trump blames members of congress for that. And members of congress blame trump for not staying focused on getting their agenda passed. I could talk to you guys the whole hour. Something peter and i talked about, and were going to talk about it during the show. The volume business that donald trump does and how that obscures everything else. Thank you guys so much for talking to us at the top of the show and talking to me throughout the day. I appreciate all of you. Peter alexander, glenn thrush, ashley and brian bennet. Donald trump sayinging too, im just not going to blame myself for the lack of progress in enacting a gop agenda. Well tell you who is left holding the bag. Also, donald trump today leaning in on the nfl anthem debate playing chicken with the league that will likely look like they cratered to an unpopular president if they outlaw peaceful protests. And fired man talking. The president s former chief of staff spends hours talking with Robert Muellers team. So what did the special counsel want to know from the man who was running the white house the day jim comey was fired . Ld who are not in school today. Girls are not in school because of Economic Issues and they have to work. Theres early child marriage, theres war and conflict. At the malala fund we help girls stay in school. There are some really amazing people around the world doing incredible work. The malala fund invests in Education Champions who work in the community and do advocacy and pave the way so that girls can actually go to school. To have the expertise of our financial partner, citi, guiding us is very important. The fact that citi is in countries where girls are vulnerable ensures that we are able to get funds to the people that were working with and expand with great confidence. When girls go to school were going to maximize their talents. We could have a solution for Climate Change in that girl. That girl could be the next Nobel Peace Prize winner. T music [announcer] imagine what you wear every day actually making your body feel better. Thats exactly what tommie copper does for people everywhere. They call it wearable wellness, and tommie copper has infused it into everything they do. Why not experience the difference tommie copper can make in your life . Visit tommiecopper. Com to see the entire line of wearable wellness compression. Go right now and find out how you can save 25 on your first purchase plus free shipping. Life hurts. Feel better. Alright, looks like weve got chips, ppretzels retzels . Plain, sourdough, spicy, sesame, chocolate covered, Peanut Butter filled, plain. Great. So what are we gonna watch . Oh show me fall tv. Only xfinity x1 brings you the best hand selected picks this fall. Not getting the job done. And im not going to blame myself. Ill be honest. They are not getting the job done. I can understand where steve bannon is coming from, and i can understand, to be honest with you, i can understand where a lot of people are coming from because im not happy about it, and a lot of people arent happy about it. But youre the president. Lets bring in our panel to make sense of this for me. Joining us, msnbc senior National Security analyst juan zarate, former deputy National Security adviser to george w. Bush. Donny deutsch. Megan murphy, and jason johnson, politics editor at theroot. Com also joins us from a remoets undisclosed location very, very nearby. I couldnt even get my