Katy tur picks things up. Im not sure that donald trump can speak fluent japanese. We have a team of reporters working on finding that out. We also have a team of reporters to break down Donald Trumps second bilateral meeting. That Press Conference that we justaw between donald trump and the Prime Minister of japan, shinzo abe. It has been a gruelling week for the new president. His major policy and major policy point, Executive Order struck down at least temporarily by the courts. That Press Conference we just saw touched on that. Lets get our viewers up to speed with the highlights and then well talk all about it on the other side. Im curious about yesterdays ruling in the ninth Circuit Court. Has it caused you to rethink your use of Executive Power and pow will you respond and will you sign new Executive Orders and perhaps a new travel ban . We are going to do whatever is necessary to keep our country
safe. We had a decision which we think will be very successful with. It shouldnt have taken this much time because safety is primary reason, one of the reasons im standing here today. You said earlier this week and im quoting for you, you said i learned a lot in the last two weeks and terrorism is a far greater threat than the people of our country understand. But were going to take care of it. Based off of what you have learned and now knowing that your Executive Order is at least temporarily on hold, do you still feel as confident now as you have been at any point that you and the administration will be able to protect the homeland. We will have tremendous security for the people of the United States. We will be extreme vetting, which is a term that i developed early in my campaign. There are tremendous threats to our country. We will not allow that to happen. I can tell you that right now. As i said, we have a team of
people to break this all down. Lets go over to Peter Alexander in the white house and was in that news conference. Peter, correct me if im wrong, we did hear donald trump say there is going to be some sort of new Security Measure in place by next week. Do we have any idea whatsoever what he could be talking about . We dont know exactly what that is. I think his word was that it will be put into place rapidly. Heres what we do know. We do know following the ninth Circuit Court of appeals decision, this ruling basically keeping the stay in place right now on his Executive Immigration order that senior officials at the white house tell me before and after that ruling they have been having conversations about their path forward that include continuing to pursue this case further. They tell me they believe they will be proven correct on the merits of the order itself but separately they say that they are working on potentially signing another immigration Executive OrderGoing Forward in their words so it can be put into place very soon. Thats one thing well watch right now. President trump today given this is a topic Many Americans have been focused on and given some of his past comments even last week on twitter he said basically if the court ruled against this that americans could never have the security that they deserve. He said he felt confident that americans would have the security they deserve and he basically said he had no doubt that he would prevail in Federal Court. Lets go over to pete williams, our nbc justice correspondent, who is in washington. Pete, what is the next step for President Trump and if he does go over and amend this Executive Order as peter just mentioned, is there a way to do so to get around the courts . There are a number of options. One is to go to the Supreme Court. There doesnt seem to be any rush to do that. Im not even sure thats going to happen today if they decide to do that at all. A second possibility would goo the full ninth Circuit Court of appeals. Doesnt seem to be much point in that. If they do pursue this in court as the president said, it would seem the logical thing would be
the Supreme Court. They havent, as i understand it, made a decision to do that yet. The other problem here is no matter even if they were able to persuade the u. S. Supreme court to lift the stay and let the government enforce this order, theres another stay likely coming from the Federal Court here in alexandria, virginia, which heard argument on a preliminary injunction and lawsuit brought by virginia which makes virtually the same claims that the two states did that prevailed in the ninth circuit yesterday. One possible way to improve its legal standing would be to narrow the Executive Order. Ninth Circuit Court of appeals in its ruling last night seem to point the way of this saying one of the reasons the states have a good case is that the Executive Order effects green card holders No Matter What the white house said. Thats what the Executive Orders said and people who have visas are visiting here faculty, students, people who want to travel for hightech companies, fa families divided and said theExecutive Order appeals to people overseas who want to come here from those seven countries for the first time, perhaps the Executive Order would have an easier time in court. I was reading the decision yesterday by the court and on page 27 or so there was the judges talked about the white houses defense. Said they didnt have a defense and they didnt think they needed to have a defense. They didnt have evidence, excuse me, and they didnt think they needed it. They said we disagree. The white house was basically arguing that donald trump as president , commander in chief, has the authority, No Matter What, to Institute Policies he believes are in the National Security interest. Is that what the decision was holding up or did the Decision Strike that down definitively . The decision rejected the claim that this wasnt reviewable. That it shouldnt be reviewed by a court and rooted that judgment
in some very big cases, including the case in 2008 where george w. Bush said, look, i can hold a bosnian foreign resident at guantanamo, and they dont get to come into u. S. Courts. That was a very compelling argument. Talk about law and politics. Politically the notion that someone who is not an american who is in gitmo because they might have been a terrorist doesnt get to come use our courts and our benefits. It was politically appealing. The Supreme Court rejected that said even with National Security, theres access to the court. That reviewable thing is something that has not obviously been accepted by the ninth circuit or even other courts. For example, they did get a positive ruling thats been talked about less by District Court in boston but that also did review and take the case. It didnt dismiss it for lack of standing and didnt basically say this is such a differential item of National Security were not going to touch it at all. They lost that round but theres a lot of other strong arguments
on their side when they get to the merits. I want to talk about Something Else that i saw not necessarily on the travel ban, but on Donald TrumpsNational Security adviser, Michael Flynn, who came in, sat down in the front row of that news conference. This is coming amid some serious allegations that hes facing. He flat out denied that he spoke to the Russian Ambassador to the United States about sanctions before donald trump was inaugurated. He denied it. Sean spicer denied it. Reince priebus denied it. Vp mike pence denied it. You see mike pence shaking hands with mike flynn a moment ago. Is this a big deal . Its a very big deal because we may have a case where as Andrea Mitchell said just recently, we saw russian behavior do something unusual. After we expelled russian diplomats, we shutdown two big russian facilities that were Weekend Homes but operations but
president obama said intelligence activities were going on there. Russians didnt escalate. In the midst of that, we know that mike flynn made a series of phone calls and had exchanges and i suspect somewhere we have the transcripts of those calls because the Russian Ambassador is someone who would fall under the National Security agencys watch list. I think that will be interesting to find out whether the Signals Intelligence on that activity produces transcripts that eventually see the light of day. And the big thing was we dont know whether Mike Pence Lied to the American People or mike flynn lied to Vice President pence. Thats the key thing. The legal part of this is that people keep saying the logan act was never enforced. The logan act basically is a provision that says that if you are a u. S. Citizen, you cannot go negotiate private deals with Foreign Governments particularly ones with whom we have an antagonistic relationship. This looks like a Textbook Violation of the logan act. Politically though, how bad is this for this administration to have sean spicer, white house spokesman, Vp Mike Pence and Reince PriebusChief Of Staff come out and say he never said it. He never discussed sanctions. Are they going to pay a price in congress . Are they going to pay a price in terms of trust with the American People . Its horrible for them obviously. The question of the price theyre going to pay is different. First of all, trump voters are prorussia as weve seen. They arent alarmed by this in the way you would normally expect. I think, if in fact, the problem goes back to flynn and not pence or staff, i can imagine them tossing them under the bus over this. The question of the transcripts which the New York Times reported do exist will put to the test his words. Was it a lie or not . Well know pretty quickly. The spies are always listening. We always have former governor of new mexico, bill
richardson. You spent quite a bit of time in the white house, not this particular white house. I know its hard to talk about what goes on behind the scenes in this one. Tell me in your experience if a high level adviser or the nsa frankly said something that was incorrect and maybe told the vp something that was incorrect and convinced sean spicer, the press secretary, if he did that, what sort of consequences normally would there be in place if it was found out that that was not true . Well, there would be very severe consequences. I would think that the National Security adviser would have to resign. I think what were seeing here is a Foreign Policy, National Security policy, in total disarray. The travel ban, damage control, of course there will be a plan b. This relationship with japan, damage control, its a good summit. Its a very important u. S. japan
relatiship that needs to be repaired and its on its way. But lurking on all of this is this mistake that the president made in taking the phone call from the taiwanese and putting aside the one china policy, which has been the cornerstone of American Foreign policy and now the chinese are wondering with abe is japan now the center of u. S. Policy in asia . You know, theres a Foreign PolicyNational SecurityDecision Making with the National Security adviser now with a soninlaw. Is he in charge of Foreign Policy. What about the Secretary Of State . The National Security adviser. General flynn. Whats his role . It shows that you cant make Foreign Policy by tweeting, by Executive Order, without sound preparation. What about the Secretary Of State . Rex tillerson. He seems to be a capable person. Is he involved in any of this . Im concerned. And dignitaries arrived, president obama wouldnt be at the door. It would be protocol in that white house that another individual would bring that foreign leader inside where they would meet the president in the oval office. Similarly today during the news conference, President Trump for the first ten minutes of shinzo abes comments was not wearing the translation headset. He wasnt wearing it. We reached out to the white house for more detail about that. He did appear to be engaged in the conversation. Its not entirely clear how much of it he understood. Tt was a big question that everybody had. Exactly. Pete williams, final word to you. Lets talk more about the ban. Just tell us what is next . Well, as i said before, the next option is going to the Supreme Court. I dont know that theyre going to do that. They dont seem to want to do it very quickly or possibly revising it. Pete williams, thank you very much. Our entire team, ton of people here to break this down for me. Thank you all. Next up, more on trumps National Security adviser Michael Flynn, who is in the hot seat right now. Did he actually break the law . The logan act you just heard steve mention. Well talk to ambassador to russia michael mcfall. He joins me next. Knowing where you stand. Its never been easier. Except when it comes to your retirement plan. But at fidelity, were making Retirement Planning clearer. And it all starts with getting your Fidelity Retirement score. In 60 seconds, youll know where you stand. And together, well help you make decisions for your plan. To keep you on track. Time to think of your future its your retirement. Know where you stand. Parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what . You could apply for a Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan whenever you want. No enrollment window. No waiting to apply. That means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Medicare doesnt cover everything. And like all standardized Medicare SupplementInsurance Plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. So dont wait. Call now to request your free decision guide. It could help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan that works for you. These types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Rates are competitive, and theyre the only plans of theirind endorsed by aarp. Remember these planlet you apply all year round. So call today. Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. A foreign diplomat. Lets parse it in different layers. Generally speaking in my View Americans should have the right and should not be illegal to talk to foreign diplomats. Thats the ambassadors job here in the United States of america. I just hosted him at stanford a couple months ago. That was my job when i was a u. S. Ambassador to talk to government and Civil Society people. So generally speaking, we shouldnt start to make that a problem. Thats my first point. Second, obviously u. S. Officials and u. S. Nongovernment officials and Oil Company Executives and former secretaries of state when they meet with russian officials probably are expressing different opinions about Obama Administration po