Criminal acts basically said it was an effort to sort of distract from Hillary Clintons, quote, terrible loss. Notably as you just hit on, he basically said it was the fake news as he described it, that was responsible for treating Michael Flynn so unfairly, which raises a question that donald trump didnt have to answer because it never got posed to him, but the question we would have liked to ask is, if it was fake news, then why did you fire him just a couple of days ago . Its a question that remains unanswered right now, even as the white house is looking forward to trying to find a new National Security adviser with acting National Security adviser Keith Kellogg in that role right now. Another question not answered because it wasnt posed to President Trump today was a question focused on the new reporting from a variety of outlets suggesting that there were contacts between donald trump, his campaign, and its officials and more broadly some senior russian intelligence figures. The reporting we are hearing from a senior Law Enforcement official is that these were not necessarily repeated contacts, but that there were contacts of some kind. Katy . Peter, he made this claim that it was the medias fault at a News Conference with Benjamin Netanyahu. Do we have any clearer picture of where this white house stands with its relations to israel . It seems like he was a bit all over the map today. Reporter yeah, you could say he was a bit all over the map with some of his comments but i think the imagery is something that will be read across much of the arab world in such a way that you had the Prime Minister of israel, his wife arriving with donald trump and his wife there to greet them with embraces here at the west wing. The two stood side by side. Effectively saying there is no better ally for one another than the other. What was notable in terms of the inconsistencies were the comments specifically about a one or twostate solution. President trump said he wasnt too concerned. Heres part of what we heard from the president. Take a listen. So im looking at twostate and onestate and i like the one that both parties like. Im very happy with the one that both parties like. The chinese are called chinese because they come from china. The japanese are called japanese because they come from japan. Well, jews are called jews because they come from jedea. This is our ancestral homeland. So unfortunately the palestinians not only denied the past, they also poisoned the present. Reporter donald trump effectively predicting he can help broker an end to the tensions in the middle east and try to find some solution that creates a lasting peace. On the issue of settlements, there was a striking moment when the president looked over at the Prime Minister and basically said, i need you to hold off for a little bit on the expansion of developments which is notable, most notably because jared kushner, who donald trump has effectively said will help sort of try to broker this Peace Process, is someone whose own family had supported the expansion of jewish settlements and the gentleman, david friedman, who has now been named at the next u. S. Ambassador to israel with hearings beginning tomorrow is someone who, himselvhimsel himself, has funded the expansion of settlements. Katy snr katy . Peter, thank you. Were going to talk more about israel later in the hour. First back to the news of the day. General mike flynn. Lets go down pennsylvania avenue and talk to kasie hunt. The white house is obviously trying to tamp down on this but the democrats are doing squaujue opposite. What is their next step . Reporter katy, the democrats dont have options on the teenage bauds th table, because theyre in the minority in the house and senate. Theyre trying to figure out how to go about in a whey that puts as much pressure as possible on the Trump Administration, on this issue. Senator Chuck Schumer huddled with his caucus behind closed doors after votes today. He was on the senate floor earlier talking about this. He spoke to reporters earlier. Take a look at what he had to say. General flynns resignation, the outright lies coming from his administration from this administration, and the reports of Constant Contact between the top officials in the Trump Campaign and russian intelligence are chilling. Ive been in congress for a long time. Ive never seen anything like this. These reports and revelations should not pit the two parties against one another. They should unite the parties in pursuit of the full truth. Reporter the question here, of course, with democrats united in talking about this this way is what kind of pressure does Republican Leadership come under . This, you know, this is basically the largest of a series of daytoday distractions, missteps republicans will say privately behind the scenes on part of the Trump Administration. That many republicans on capitol hill feel is distracting and damaging their attempts to move pretty ambitious agenda on health care, on tax reform, on other issues. And so far, republicans in congress have mostly stayed out of the way, partly because they know that trump will sign President Trump will sign the legislation they sent his way. But whats been going on in the white house has prevented them from making significant progress and i think between that and the outside political pressure around these russia stories could potentially cause Republican Leadership to change course, perhaps use a select committee to investigate this instead of keeping it in the senate and house intelligence committees. The democrats arent all alone. There is some republican support. Take a listen to Lindsey Graham earlier today. If there were trump officials, campaign officials, collaborating with the russians, that is a bigtime bad move on their part and i want to punish russia for interfering in our Campaign Even more agregressive than i do today and any trump person who collaborated with the russians if they did, they should be punished. Lets get into this a little bit more with joan walsh, msnbc pli political analyst. Charlie sykes, author and msnbc contributor. Charlie, i want to start with you. Lindsey graham has stronger words, john mccain has stronger words. What point does Mitch Mcconnell feel enough pressure to, himself, come out and say, listen, we have to figure out something out about this . Next time a shoe drops or the Public Opinion polls go down theyre down pretty low. Theyre going to have to make a political calculation the smart political move might be to create an independent 9 11tip commission to just get it off of their plates to insulate themselves from political pressure. So that they dont have their fingerprints either on something that is damning to President Trump or looks like somehow theyre providing cover for him. So at some point, it might actually be the most prudent thing for them to do to go along and create an independent and opt for an independent investigation. Were not at that point yet. Were not at that point yet. Why are we not at that point yet . Because of the hope, because of the carrot, the football is still there for, you know, to kick. To dederegulate, appeal obamacare. Get their agenda done. As long as theres a possibility this legislation they have dealt with for years and years and years is going to get to President Trumps desk, hes going to sign it, theyre going to be extremely reluctant to pull the trigger. Theyre going deal with it until they cannot deal with it any longer. Exactly. President trump calls these leaks very disconcerting. Are they leakers or whistleblowers . I would call them whistleblowers. I would say this, i think as a reporter, as a person of the right, as a person of the left, all of us should be a little bit uncomfortable with the fact that right now, the Intelligence Community does control this story. We have kind of a spy versus spy, except i dont think theyre fighting with each other more, buzz it is leak, whistle blow, whatever we want to call. We dont have the whole story. I just dont really understand why someone like paul ryan came out yesterday and said, well, this is all taken care of, yuan, donald trump took care of it, well let the system work and, you know, the Standing Committees have it and were good. Well, actually, donald trump today said that, you know, poor general flynn was hounded out by fake news. Either paul ryan should care that he was hounded out by fake news or he should care that something really went wrong. This idea, i almost think they would get more of their agenda done if they kicked it over to a 9 1 9 11style commission. Exactly. This is taking up so much of their time, so much of their attention. To be able to say we washed our hands of it, it is in the hands of something that will be credible, you know, why not . Let me play devils advocate. First, i want to remind our viewers that joan walsh and Charlie Sykes are on the complete opposite side of the ideological aisle. Well once again debate. Here were mostly agreeing so for. Let me play devils advocate. How much there is there when it comes to the Intelligence Leaks . The New York Times story started with a bombshell lead but most of it was a rehash of what we already knew. There was not a smoking gun to say that the Trump Campaign did deal directly with the russians to collude with them to somehow effect this election. But theres a lot of smoke. We dont have the fire yet but theres an awful lot. Theres an awful lot there. And the body language of the way this is playing out doesnt make any sense unless theres something deeper and i think thats got to be the concern on people in both sides. How deep does this go . How high does it go . What did the president know, when did he know it . All of that. You get the sinense that the firing of general flynn is the beginning of an unraveling process. We dont know the answer to your question except the hint is out there and clearly we do have an Intelligence Community that is in full absolute revolt against the president. Theres no question about it, there is a flood of leaks. So this is not going away and it has a potential to get much, much, much worse. Kasie, lets go back to you, you have your hand on the pulse of capitol hill. People talk to you behind the scenes and maybe say things they wouldnt say in front of a camera. What is your sense of the tide and how far it is going out right now in terms of support among republicans for this white house . Reporter look, katy, i do think they are on thinner ice than they have been at any other point. I realize its been 20something days since the president has taken office, so, you know, maybe that statement feels a little bit off kilter, but the reality is, there has been sort of crisis after crisis after crisis that have, you know, resolved themselves. The administration has continued forward. I think this is really the first time where there is a very real sense that it could go one way or the other. If this, you know, takes a turn, i think that there is a very real possibility that the president could lose support among Top Republicans in congress. They are not at that point yet. Just to underscore. They are still kind of on this, you know, sense of, okay, were just going to keep our heads down, were going to keep doing our work, were not going to respond to things that seem silly to us, every tweet, but i do think the way that withdrew s you saw the speaker respond yesterday, the fact he said this was the right thing to do, he responded to something that happened at all instead of offering the typical, hey, im not going to respond to every twist and turn, and then you had Mitch Mcconnell essentially say the Senate Intelligence committee was going to expand the scope of its investigation to include looking at these contacts that flynn had and since then, you know, behind the scenes i talked to a republican aide who used the words, drip, drip, drip, and the damage fch for all these leaders in congress is they were all quite frankly taken by surprise by the fervor in Donald TrumpsPolitical Base to a certain extent a lot of them still dont understand it, and so theres a reluctance to oppose him publicly, but i do think that if things continue this way, there is some very dangerous territory ahead for the trump white house. And peter, is that what this white house is still banking on that hes got his public support in place, theyre not going to move, so it doesnt really matter what is happening in washington . Reporter well, hes trying to rally some of that public support, we learned within the last few minutes that donald trump this weekend when he heads back to his maralago property on sat durday is going to host rally. Youve been to plenty of them. This is going to take place many melbourne, florida, which is interesting given the fact tonight at the white house President Trump and his wife, m melania, going to host the rub b rubios. Rubio has obviously been over the course of the Campaign Season a very fierce critic of donald trump and even after president candidate trump became President Trump, marco rubio has been among the fiercest critics of his position, his poll citi policie russia. Interrogator, questioner during the hearings of the now secretary of state rex tillerson. Rubio said a short time ago in a tweet basically it is his Senate Intelligence committee thats going to expand to include the conversations surrounding mike flynn and its investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. So all of that, the backdrop or donald trump who obviously even on this occasion, katy, you wrnsed wrns witnessed it when he was standing side by side with Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, asked to basically condemn aint semitism and ultimately he did speak about how his daughter, ivanka trump, converted to jude ism, spoke fondly of his soninlaw, jared kushner, his desire moving forward to try to get rid of racism in this country, also began his remarks by touting his own Electoral College victory which fuels so much of his confidence as he talks about all these issues. One note on melbourne, florida, specifically where donald trump you said is going, that is a fervent base of support for him. It was hit hard by the aerospace industry. Went there a couple times, once during the campaign and got a giant crowd. Peter alexander, interesting news coming from you in the white house today. Kasie hunt. Joan walsh. Charlie sykes. Thank you, everybody. Ahead ill talk to someone who says the Intelligence Community is out to get this president. Republican congressman steve king on what hes calling a political assassination. Coming up. But first, todays microsoft pulse question. Were asking, can peace in the middle east be achieved if the u. S. Abandons a twostate solution between israel and the palestinians . Cast your vote at pulse. Msnbc. Com. That College Experience that i had. The classes, the friends, the independence. And since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, im glad shell miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise if you have moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis like me, and youre talking to your rheumatologist about a medication. This is humira. 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