Trump administration on defense today in the wake of massive protests over the weekend opposing the president s moratorium on immigration from some muslim majority countries. Trumps opponents calling this the first step toward a muslim ban. And trump hitting back on social media. Also, on the agenda today, the inner circle. The Administration Just added steve bannon, with his sties to a News Organization that traffics an antisemitism and White Supremacy to the National Security council. One of the most controversial figures inside the Trump Administration now taking on a big role with the National Security council. While some Senior Intelligence officials move to the sidelines. At least thats what trumps critics are saying. Administration officials are defending the shakeup. We will take you through what both sides are saying. And, zeroing in on a Supreme Court pick. A person who is unbelievably highly respected and i think you will very impressed with this person. Trump says the announcements coming tomorrow, our sources saying were down to just two contenders for that open seat on the Supreme Court. Were going to break town who they are and what their selections could mean. That is still ahead, but we begin with our top story, President Trump on the defensive after nationwide protests over the weekend reacting to that executive order that he signed on friday that halted immigration from seven majority designations and banned Syrian Refugees. White House Press Secretary sean spicer down playing the scope of the new measure this afternoon. Were talking about a universe of 109 people, there were 325,000 people that came into this country over 24 hour period from another country. 109 were stopped for additional screening. This is weve got to keep this in proportion, folks, this is 109 people being stopped at a 325 over a 24 hour period. I know that everyone likes to get where they want to get to as quick as possible, and i think the government did a phenomenal job of making sure that we processed people through, but we did so knowing so that the people who are coming in hadnt done anything that was seeking to do us harm. Trumps critics calling the early start of a muslim ban. Thats something that trump did suggest during the campaign. For more, Halle Jackson at the white house. So halle, this came on friday, the president made a brief statement then and i think we sort of learned over the weekend as this was applied at one airport after another over the country, we really only learned then exactly what this entailed. Whats the white house saying right now . Any regrets over the roll out of this . Reporter no, and you heard that forcefully from sean spicer here not too long ago, listen, the president said over the weekend and reiterated again late yesterday that he believes this is not a muslim ban. This is not a test of religion that came out of that statement and as the president himself said on saturday himself as well. How this is being perceived in the muslim world. The administration will say there are plenty of muslim majority countries who are not affected by the immigration portion of the ban. The portion of the ban that affects those seven nations that include, yemen, sudan, others. The administration will point out they believe that this is not a religious test. The perception is a concern. You heard sean spicer address that criticism in the press briefing, kpeskically for example those who were interpreters for the United States in the middle east. Listen. We should make sure theyre helped out. That doesnt mean we give them a pass. The Obama Administration let two people through the Iraqi Program in. They came to the United States and tried to plan an attack in kentucky. People who have helped this country may not be citizens at the time to want come here, and we need to appreciate the service that theyve had, that doesnt mean we dont let them in without a certain degree of vetting. Reporter and it is our reporting from our Pentagon Team that the secretary of defense is currently writing off essentially a list of exemptions. People who will not be held to the standards of this new immigration executive order based on certain categories, for example, interpreters as you heard sean talk about there, steve. Hallie jackson, thanks for that. I want to bring in hugh hewitt, msnbc political analyst and host of the hugh hewitt show and jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst, columnist at the daily beast, hugh, let me start with you over the weekend, i think anybody watching the news saw these scenes, there were protests at the airport, there were stories here about interpreters, about people who helped u. S. Armed forces over in iraq, over in the middle east being denied entry into the country. People with green cards being denied entry. They just happened to be out of the country while this happened. The Trump Administration, talk if you would about their planning, their preparation for this, and what do you think that says about this administration . Reince priebus said it was an 80 , eight out of ten would agree. It could have been higher had they made the correction that secretary kelly made this morning and kept iraq off the list. I really do think iraqs got to come off of that list for a variety of reasons, including the fact that iraqi pilots are training in arizona as senator mccain pointed out. And i would also point out that when president obama did this in 2011, there wasnt this human cry when he did a six month on iraqi refugees and immigration. So a lot of this criticism is politically driven, but i hope they get better at roll out. If they spent six hours before signing the executive order like they did 24 hours after signing it, we would have had a lot loss human cry and a lot less manipulation of the story by trump hostiles. People who want to paint donald trump as an extremists, in fact hes keeping his Campaign Commitment and i do think priebus is right, its about an 80 policy properly understood and laid out. Well jonathan, let me ask you, hugh was making an argument similar to what sean spicer was making, sean spicer, we played the clip, there needs to be a sense of proportion here when you consider what the critics are saying. Do you think he has a point there . Theres very little truth. For instance, only 109 people were affected. Thats not true. 109 people were detained at american airports, but there were hundreds, if not thousands who were pulled off flights over the weekend, my wife witnessed firsthand two people being pulled out of the line. And prevented from boarding that aircraft. So, we dont know the full details of this pathetically incompetent rollout of the new policy. So before we can staesz, we first have to understand right, so heres and weve already had the issue obviously people with green cards, people who are permanent residents, they happen to be out of the country, it gets announced suddenly they cant get back. They are now dealing with that. The administration also says they are now drawing up a list of people who are exceptions to this pause of immigration from the seven muslim majority countries. If we put those issues aside and we talk about basically there is a freeze on all refugees, indefinitely freeze out of syria and pause of immigration from the seven muslim majority nations, the Administration Says these sort of hot beds of jihadi activity, thats why theyre on the list. They want to get information from the leaders of these countries about who these folks are who might be coming in. Thats on the twhabl you put the other two aside. Is spicer right when he says there needs to be a sense of proportion what that is compared to the critics. Sure. Im sure there are plenty of overheated critics. Indefinite ban on Syrian Refugees. Think about that. Were basically saying is that when emma louisiana reduce, the base of the statue of liberty says give me your tired, your poor, yearning to be free, the lamp of liberty, as an asterisk next to it, unless youre a syrian muslim. Who are these people . They are fleeing war. They are thoroughly vetted. There was a piece on 60 minutes about just how thoroughly they are vetted. Until donald trump became president , nobody checked these people is preposterous. We have not been attacked in the last eight years by anybody getting over the border because procedures have been so tightened. To now come along and say we are not going to let anybody in. We were previously letting 10,000 Syrian Refugees in, that was pathetic compared to the europeans and their generosity. Theres no evidence that terrorists are slipping in among those people its not compassionate and not consistent with american values. Let me ask you this question from a different angle, hugh, the administration you have sean spicer at the briefing today saying hey, everybodys got to calm down here. This is the rhetoric is out of proportion, but i want to play for you, how this issue was introduced in the very first place by donald trump when he called for a ban on all muslims entering the country during the campaign. This is what he said. Donald j. Trump is calling for now youve got to listen to this one. This is pretty heavy stuff. And its common sense, and we have to do it. Remember the poll numbers. 25 , 51 , remember the poll numbers. Okay. So remember this. So listen, donald j. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. [ applause ] whatever you think, this is not the order he put in place, a worldwide ban on all muslims entering the United States. Its not what he described on the campaign trail. I have to say, that campaign promise, he never renounced. He never said ive changed my mind. He never said forget it, and when i look at the protesters over the weekend, im thinking, boy, if they are reading too much into this, then is it actually there . Hes given them reason to, hasnt he . No, not really, steve, because over the course of the campaign, it was also made abundantly clear he was not going to install a muslim ban. Just like it was made clear he would not revoke doca, and he did not. Its not a muslim ban. As to the refugees, my friend jonathan needs to remind people that the average number of total refugees in the United States for every year from 2002 to 2015 was, wait for it, 50,000. Thats exactly what the executive order calls for. President obama spiked it last year, he also needs to remind people at the height of the syrian genocide occurring on president obamas watch in 2012, i believe, less than 30 sooe yans were allowed into the country. In 2011, less than 30 syrians were allowed into the country. President obama felt bad about the genocide that happened following the eraser of the red line. And he opened up the door, label the more in 2016, better that he enforced the red line. I think that in the overall total context of this, although bad rollout, and im not going to spare them any criticism for failing to brief and failing to alert, that Reince Priebus is right, its an 80 policy. As to the seven countries, minus iraq. I think weve got to get iraq off of that list. There are too many exceptions, even if general now secretary mattis makes a big long list of all the iraqis who have fought alongside our men and women and bled and helped and saved them in many instances, so poorly constructed, hastily written, perhaps, we need the senate to hurry up and confirm Rex Tillerson and Jeff Sessions so we can get some Additional Office holders in place in the obstruction by democrats in the senate is part of this problem and we should make sure to underscore that as well. All right. We will see. We do not have any poll numbers yet on how this went over. And obviously well see how the stories, the scenes over the weekend affect how people do this as well. Hugh hewitt, jonathan, thank you both for joining it. Joining us now, susan page, Washington Bureau chief. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us. Let me ask you, here was a thought i had today, and im curious what you think of this. We weve played that clip of donald trump in the campaign. He made a sweeping, absolute statement as a candidate that he was going to have a total, complete shut down on all muslims entering the United States. And when we took polls on this in the republican primaries, i think it surprised a lot of people how popular that idea was. When he won the republican nomination. The base of that party seemed to be with him on that. And you look at what he actually implemented in this policy, you could say its a very bad policy, but its not a total, complete shut down on all muslims entering the country. Im looking at the confusion over the weekend, sort of how vague the order was at first, all of those scene was protest, and it does occur to me, is that something politically that donald trump wanted . Did he want protesters out there in the streets, up in arms saying this is a ban on muslims because it sends a message to his base that he cant that promise . Thats pretty machiavellian, i never want to dismiss a Conspiracy Theory out of hand, it doesnt look like the white house had a carefully constructed strategy here to lead to big demonstrations. President trump has been in office for 10 or 11 days now and both the weekends have been marked by huge protests across the country protesting him. And while his base, im sure, is still with him, we saw him start with the lowest Approval Rating of any modern president , the highest disApproval Rating and its gotten worse in the past ten days. While this may have sent a message to his base that he said that, it is having costs for him in terms of support with americans, including some of those who volted for him and many who didnt vote for him. Its costing his support in congress. We saw republicans in the senate and the house breaking away from him today and yesterday on this immigration ban. And it has cost him some on the competency of his administration. So i think while theyre not backing down from this policy, they are defending it as you saw sean spicer do, it has been a costly rollout at the least and the policy itself is going to be under considerable attack in congress and in the courts. Thats the question, a with this issue and b sort of Bigger Picture going forward, you mentioned the republicans, and there was a bit there werent too many at first who were speaking out. We have more starting yesterday. I think there was sop confusion, also maybe waiting to see a little bit of what the public reaction would be. But i wonder, would in a republican criticism you think have been there if the issue of the green cards had not been left open over the weekend . And you had those stories, you know, from the airport, or if you had the issue of interpreters, translators being denied. Was there a way to keep those republicans on board and what risk is donald trump at of losing them in if democrats pursue action in congress to try to overturn this . You know the two most damaging stories were the iraqi interpreters who put their lives on the line for u. S. Troops acting on our with our government during the war there. And also the green card earners, unable to come home. Those were the most compelling stories. If you had a rollout that said these are the ways in which were going to do extra questioning, a little extra vetting for people coming from places that are associated with terrorism, that is indeed an 80 issue as Reince Priebus said. But when its portrayed as something thats tearing apart families and violating american values, the acceptance of any refugees, thats when ting becomes a risky, risky politically for the Trump Administration and the new president. It does occur to me that its to sell that or the way youre describing requires nuance, and again, donald trump did not campaign with any nuance on the subject, thats fair to say. Susan page, thanks for joining us. Squeeze quick break in. President trump bumped up the planned announcement of his Supreme Court pick. Now he says its coming tomorrow night in prime time. Up next, were going to look at the likely front runners and the political stakes. And also make no mistake, this was a terrorist attack. Ka nad yan Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau calling the massacre inside the quebec city mosque a terror attack. Coming up, what police are now saying about the suspect they have in custody. Whats the best way to get two servings of veggies . V8 or a powdered drink . Ready, go. Ahhhhhhhh shake shake shake shake shake done you gotta shake it i shake it glad i had a v8. The original way to fuel your day. Testinhuh . Sting is this thing on . Come on your turn where do pencils go on vacation . 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