Made headlines worldwide. We got Team Coverage of the president s trump. We begin with nbcs kelly odonnell, who is in brussels. The president arrived with baggage of the remarks he made about the european union, nato and the city of brussels itself. Thats right. Candidate trump, who always seems to leave some landmines for President Trump to tidy up when meeting with some of these World Leaders. On air force one, secretary of state Rex Tillerson talked to the reporters who were traveling with the president. I came in separately in advance. He talked about some of the ambitions of this meeting for President Trump. It is high stakes. It is the first time that this convention of 28 nations is coming together, noting a new american president. Theyre also going to be unveiling a new nato headquarters. Secretary tillerson said expect donald trump to be tough on member nations that are not reaching that full percentage of contribution of defense. 2 of their gdp. He says the u. S. Is at 4 . Only five nations are at the 2 they agreed on. That has been a theme weve heard from President Trump. Secretary tillerson says expect him to hammer on that. He will also try to get the full bodies to be part of an isis kind of coordinated effort. While nato has been fighting terrorism, they have not signed on to a specific Isis Coalition that the United States is hoping they will do. Secretary tillerson says its ultimately up to the secretary general of the organization, if they want to take it to that level. And this will be a chance for President Trump to meet frances new president , macron. The first time theyll have a chance to see each other. Of course, macron defeated someone who was at least in the big, Broad Strokes of political dialogue and rhetoric more like trump. So in a way, france was sending a message, moving away from the trump style of politipolitics. So this is a lot for the president to take on. These nato meetings are historically very dense on policy, very detail oriented, and the president will have a chance to build some relationships and to sort of make his point known. He does it unabashedly. His criticism of nato in the past. He says hes turned the page and sees that it is an organization that is vital in the world, but he wants it to keep changing and evolving with the threat. Manchester puts that into kind of a new light when we had expected russia and ukraine to be a big part of the conversation. We also now expect isis and threats like what we saw play out in manchester to be a big topic here. Ali . Kelly, good to talk to you. Kelly odonnell in brussels. Lets go to President Trumps historic meeting with pope francis earlier today. The president already changing his twitter background. Check this out. To a picture of him and the pope. Were joined now from vatican city. Claudio, the president and the pontiff hold different views from issues like immigration, Climate Change to arms sales. Did they discuss any of those issues . Well, the vatican issued a statement right after the meeting, and they said they talked about three particular issues. One was health care. The other was immigration. The other was the problem of the persecution of christians in the middle east. They didnt say what exactly was said during that meeting, but you can guess that pope francis, of course, lets talk about health care. Pope francis may have raised the concern over how the new Health Care Bill may affect the most vulnerable families and most vulnerable americans who may be left without health care. Because he is seen as a champion of the poor and the downtrodden. On immigration, well, they have different views on that, too. The pope is a champion of migrants. He asked the World Leaders to welcome migrants any time they can and anywhere they can. Even set an example a couple years ago. He flew to a greek island and flew back in to meet migrants. He took seven families of migrants with syria from him and relocated them in and around the vatican. Of course, the persecution of christians in the middle east is a topic on which the fight against the persecution of christians in the middle east is a topic they agree upon. What was not discussed was Climate Change. Another issue they really differ in views. The pope is a staunch supporter of the view by the wide spread Scientific Community that think that Climate Change is, of course, caused by human activity, while trump doesnt. But among the gifts that the pope gave to trump was a book that he wrote on the protection of the environment. You can see that, ali, as some kind of veiled message to the president. So in the past, the messages between these two men have not been all that veiled. Its been contentious. In the Campaign Last year, the pope said about thencandidate trumps border wall with mexico, he said, quote, a person who thinks about building walls, whenever they may be, and not building bridges, is not a christian. This is what donald trump said in response. The pope is being told that donald trump is not a nice person, okay . Donald trump is a very nice person. For a religious leader to question a persons faith is disgraceful. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another mans religion or faith. Interesting, claudio. When i watched the two of them together, there was no sign of the personal animosity or tension between them. Definitely looks like they bridged their differences, doesnt it . They met and they were all smiles. It was a warm greeting. The president even said, the first thing he told the pope was, it is a real honor to meet you. But there were some even funny incident there is. Funny moments. When melania was introduced to the pope, and the pope clearly wanted to greet her with some kind of small knowledge, trivia over his knowledge of slovenia cuisine and traditions, he told her, what do you feed him . A slovenian delicacy, a cake. Melania clearly didnt understand what he was saying and said, yes, pizza. It was a lost in translation moment there. Serious moments but also funny moments during this meeting, ali. Claudio, thank you for joining us. I always appreciate talking to you. Joining us now is a Senior Advisor for the catholic. And Senior Vice President at the Theological Seminary here in new york. Welcome to you both. Thank you for being here. What were catholics hoping would come out of this meeting or even did the church have a particular aim in this meeting with President Trump . Well, i think catholics can feel very encouraged after todays meeting. The vatican statement said that the meeting was very cordial. You can see from the body language, if youre watching the footage, that the meeting was indeed very cordial. And the vatican statement said that they focused on areas of agreement, on areas like the sanctity of human life, the protection of religious liberty, and on the protection of persecuted christian communities. Reverend, i want to ask you, the president tweeted after his meeting by the way, hes been pretty hasnt been tweeting a whole lot during this trip but tweeted, honor of a lifetime to meet his holiness pope francis. I leave the vatican more determined than ever to pursue peace in our world. Do you think there was any other movement . Claudio talked about the encyclical he was given about Climate Change. Was this being nice to each other meeting or one that got is somewhere on policy . Id love for President Trump to have gotten down on his knees and repented and embraced what pope francis clearly has made his central point, which is the service of the poor. Unfortunately, our president has a budget that was just released yesterday that is the antithesis of that. While i think they want to be cordial, and i think, certainly, President Trump has a lot to gain by them being cordial, i think what i would love is for President Trump to actually read the encyclical that pope francis gave him and understand Climate Change and the importance of the poor. All of these things that pope francis has been emphasizing, which are not represented in the budget that trump has just offered, which cuts the Environmental Protection agency, cuts aid to the poor, cuts aid to the elderly and aides the military and military solutions, which pope francis has been very strong against. Theres more distance between them than one would think, given the pictures weve been looking at. Maureen, exit polling from the election showed President Trump won the catholic vote. About 52 to 45 for hillary clinton. White catholics voting 60 for trump versus 37 for hillary clinton. Almost reverse of hispanic catholics, which we can see there. Catholics find themselves in a quandary, sticking the pope with religious obligations or sticking to donald trump with their political desires. How do you bring those together . Just going back to the previous statement, i would take issue with that very overly political reading of the vatican statement. The vatican statement talked about areas of cooperation, in health care and education and care of immigrants. The Catholic Church wants to partner with government in these areas. Yet in the United States, we face a situation where Catholic Hospitals are being sued just because theyre catholic. Because they dont do abortions. Catholic schools thats a distinction that is important. I think it is important. Theyre not being sued because theyre catholic. Theyre being sued because of abortions. Because they hold to cathogc life. But it is not because theyre catholic. That is a political statement youre making there. A Catholic Hospital, one in five beds in the United States is in a Catholic Hospital. A Catholic Hospital is going to adhere to catholic Ethical Principles and theyre in the business of saving lives, not taking lives. So the first area of agreement that the vatican statement referred to was on that sanctity of life and on education and other issues. Just again on health care, we have a situation where nuns like the Little Sisters of the poor who take care of the elderly poor should be partnering with the government to take care of elderly poor people. Yet, theyve been threatened with heavy government fines. I think these are the types of reasons that the vatican statement after the meeting today said that the pope and the president focused on issues of c con conscience, religious liberty and the issue of christian genocide. Vice president pence just last week gave a very strong speech on the persecution of christians, labeling it genocide. We know that President Trump has talked about the beheadings, the church bombings. Pope francis just traveled to egypt in the wake of those Palm Sunday Church bombings, right in the middle of mass, and gave a very strong speech to the university, the central Teaching Authority of sunni islam im going to ask the reverend to get in here so we dont run out of his time. Reverend . I think shes absolutely right. They do have a lot in common, as far as religious liberty issues. However, the Health Care Budget that was passed under trump actually will lead in the death of thousands of americans. We really have to get to the basis of this. On whose part do you stand . Trump stands on the rich and the powerful. Pope francis stands with the poor and the marginalized. I would hope americans would see that pope francis is holding up a moral vision we can all get behind, and that is very important. By the way, the fact that latino catholics voted overwhelmingly against donald trump is not insignificant. Thats the growing edge of the Catholic Church. Also, they are hearing this attack on them, as far as immigration very personally. Lets not forget where pope francis is from. Argentina. He is a latino himself. Latino Catholic Community is very much with pope francis on this. Right. The white Catholic Community seems to be aligning with President Trump. I just want to let the viewers know, we apologize, the graphic we put up is wrong. Latino catholics voted against donald trump, not in favor of, as the graphic indicated. Reverend, thank you. Maureen ferguson, thank you for being with us. Lets move to washington and the search for a new fbi director. It appears former democratic Vice President ial nominee Joe Lieberman may no longer be at the top of the list. Nbcs Peter Alexander joins me now. What have you learned on this . Good day to you. There have been reports today suggesting that lieberman is no longer in the mix for fbi director. The white house pushing back on that today. Despite the president a matter of days ago saying he was very close to a decision, it appears they are broadening their search right now. That according to a Senior Administration official. This official telling me that leieberman remains in the mix more broadly going forward. He seems an unlikely pick, given other news weve learned. Nbc news confirming President Trump is expected to hire his longtime manhattan attorney. For his counsel for the russia investigation. It is notable. His firm is the firm where lieberman has worked for most of the last four years. It would at least optically provide what would appear to be a conflict of interest here. Mark has represented trump for at least 15 years in a variety of cases. He was the one when President Trump came under fire from an article from the New York Times about inappropriate relationships with women, acc e accusing liable and requesting a retraction. No retraction was taken. The Senate Intelligence committee issuing two new subpoenas for former National Security adviser Michael Flynns business records, threatening to hold him in contempt of congress if he refuses to turn over the documents. This comes as former cia director john brennan publicly acknowledged for the first time yesterday his concerns that Trump Campaign associates were coordinating with russian operatives. By the time i left office on january 20th, i had unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the russians had been successful in getting u. S. Persons involved in the campaign or not to work on their behalf, again, either in a witting or unwitting fashion. Joining me now is the washington posts adam who has been helping break major stories about this investigation. Particularly this part of it. Good to see you. We have heard a lot from current and former intelligent chiefs in front of various committees. Yesterday, they were talking to them. Brennan told the House Committee about what he knew. The house Intelligence Committee. Listen to this with me. I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and inter actions between russian officials and u. S. Persons involved in the Trump Campaign. All right. That may be, adam, as explicit as weve heard from someone who would actually know. Youve been reporting this sort of thing through your sources but a lot of people were surprised its finally come out, that not only did brennan and the cia know this, but they knew it well before the election. Right. Basically what brennan is doing is basically saying for the first time publicly, from his mouth, you know, what he had been saying privately to senior members of congress and to Administration Officials when he was the cia director, which is that basically, they were seeing these contacts. When he says that, what he, in part, means, is that the United States government, the National Security agency, the fbi, the cia, they were spying on the russians. As they were spying on the russians, they saw the russians either directly communicating with members of trumps team or after such communications with members of the trump team, the russians would discuss among themselves those meetings and those contacts. And what was happening was u. S. Spy agencies were picking up on that. But brennan stopped short of calling it collusion. He called it contact. Whats the implication there, that some of it might have been inadvertent on the part of the Trump Campaign, or they dont have the evidence to prove there was collusion . Well, i think to get at the issue of collusion, you really need to understand, obviously, the intent of everybody involved and what the point was. What were the russians seeking by having those contacts . What were the