Steven miller detailing thousands of recent immigrants from afghanistan. Quote, haiti had sent 15,000 people. They all all aids. He grumbled according to one person who attended the meeting and another person who was briefed about it by i different person who was there. 40,000 have come from niej and once they had seep the United States they would never, quote, go back to their huts in africa. We called the two officials who asked for anonymitiy. Sarah huckabeesanders denied the meeting and denied the used the word hut or aids and other said they didnt recall him using those words. General kelly, general mcmaster, secretary tillerson and secretary kneel sep and those in the meeting deny these outrageous claims. It is both sad and telling the New York Times would print the lies of their Anonymous Sources any way. Lets go to Garrett Haake in West Palm Beach florida covering the president on this day for you. The president at maralargo estate. And garrett, the white house as we were just mentioning, denying the report. What do you know about the story and back and forth. Reporter well, obviously there is no good time for the president to be quoted disparaging nations full of people but this comes at as particularly inoff or tune timeinor or tune time in passing the tax bill and that pushes that down the ledger and in part because the president s travel ban continues to wind through the court system and any comments by the president that could be perceived as broadly antiimmigrant could become fodder for anyone any one of the lel cases that the president and his team faced. You mention the white house pushing back against the specifics in this report and the language used by the president but when you consider the broader context this would not be unusual language for this president who started his campaign for the office describing mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists, richard. Garrett haake in West Palm Beach. Thank you for the latest on that very story. Joining us now is peter baker from the New York Times and peter, the white house, as you know, pushing back on this report saying these things were not said. And saying there is questions about sourcing. What would you say about what youve heard so far . Well, weve been confident in our sources obviously. This is my partners mike sheer and dual july davis spent time on this story and talked to a lot of people and in the end we feel confident that what our sources were telling us were true. Now regarding the very language that wasued according used according to the report, it raised a lot of eyebrows. I hate to bring up the debate happening at the moment because of the travel ban, because of the ninth District Court saying no, this is not good. But we will obstain. We will wait until the Supreme Court makes its decision. And then we have daca on q 1. What might be the implications of this reporting. I think the implications are it reinforces the way this president approaches immigration. We thinks weve had too much period. Even legal immigration, he thinks that the country been hurt by immigration in the last few years and hes got a very raw understanding and evaluation of the people who have come into this country, whether they be permanent residents or in the case of the numbers he was reading from this particular list, short time, one time visa travelers. These were not people moving to the country, simply people who were visiting. But he thought that it meant that it would show people that he want keeping up his Campaign Promise to begin closing the borders to a lot of people who want to come in. And peter, this has to do certainly if this reporting does come to pass here and nbc has not independently verified this, is the ability for the chief of staff here, general kelly, certainly probably looking at reporting like this going, oh, this is exactly what ive been working against since day one, since ive taken this job as chief white house correspondent. What do you know about how this affects on the act to control message . Well general kelly said any number of times it is not his job to control the President Trump. It is his job to give him the best information he could to make the best decisions possible. But you certainly understand that in the circumstance like this, he understands the damaging nature of the comments, whether they be made public. In fact he was he cleared the room after his comments were made of other staffers that the conversation could continue with just a handful of really top senior advisers and even then people who had left the room could hear through the doors of the oval office the president very irate and very upset, very even belligerent to the top people about why people kept coming in the country despite his orders to restrict travel. Peter baker, thank you for taking time to get on the horn and talk to us today. Lets great straight to molly hoop of politics reporter for the daily beast and Betsy Woodruff and editor for the atlanta and national jurn, Steve Clemens and Campaign Manager to martin omalley, liz seth meyers and ben gelis and maryland gubernatorial candidate. And betsy, the white house saying no, this reporting not good but we heard from just a second ago peter baker saying they worked on this story for some amount of time here. But will this push back actually work based on the narrative they are trying to craft here and that is that are equating certain countries with terrorism. This story is a significant problem for the white house and the damage it could do to the president s reputation would be amplified if other outlets are able to confirm the reporting. My understanding is other major outlets have not yet confirmed what the New York Times has found. That doesnt mean of course that the New York Times story is incorrect. That said, look, these are st extraordinary narrative, happening about six months and again, if confirmed, just highlighting the extent to which the president s under view of immigrants is radically different from the way of bulk of americans view them. Particularly the president s comments about nigerians are telling because they are so out of step with the type of nigerian immigrants who come to the u. S. The counsel on Foreign Relations that nigeria has a brain drain problem because the doctors are immigrating to the United States and to the u. K. Ni nigeria is sending the most talented citizens here to the u. S. So the fact the president would say they are living in huts besides being factually inaccurate, devoid of the experience. When i was there in west africa, that he had a lot of very talented doctors, medical te technicians coming to the United States and that is a story resonated over the years. Lets go to you on this, ben, you heard the words said, your reaction . Look, this is totally consist consistent with what the president has done. He called people rapists and murderers because they were born in mexico and attacks president obamas citizenship because his father was born in kenya and so why shouldnt we think he said these things. And what is troubling about it is that it stands in contradiction to who we are as a country and frankly what has made us one of the richest and most powerful countries on earth, which is us having an open door to the best and brightest of the world to come here and to help build our nation. That is why we have to make sure that our states do whatever they can to resist this president and to ensure that the spirit of the statue of liberty is upheld. We weve got to keep an open door to the world. Weve got to keep on being who we are. And quite frankly, this president threatens all of that. Liz, how does this translate . You heard the discussion. How does this translate to the very debate on the hill about daca and a lot of pressure on democrats right now, to get something done as a as they look past the c. R. , what does this mean in terms of schematics there. There is a lot of pressure and there are a lot of people in the Democratic Base and in the democratic Donor Community who are very disappointed that democrats were sort of unable to get a deal on this. But there is a lot of pressure also from the right, especially on the business community, to get a deal on this. Because if you see study after study, showing there is a huge economic benefit to having keeping d. R. E. A. M. Ers in the country. So these comments are very unhelpful for donald trump, they are very unhelpful for the republican party. Which is struggling with young voters and suburban voter because theyve taken on this nativist front and it is important to push back on this and maybe Something Like this could light a fire under republicans and convince them they need to be a voice of reason and take some action and protect d. R. E. A. M. Ers in the upcoming month. Theyve already been challenged as you know when it comes to Foreign Affairs, steve, you look at these words and take a step back again into the sphere of Foreign Affairs and scratch your head at what that might mean. I think it is shocking nativity bigotry. But what really intrigues me about this, is i talked to john kelly at the end of april about Donald Trumps efforts on the the 90 day and 120day ban depending on the kind of either immigrant or Refugee Status that you were at because we were already at that point where despite what the courts had done, the provisions of saying well we were going to look at the vetting procedures and strengthen those vetting procedures, enough time had gone by since the administration had been in and fred hyde was there asking about these questions and he intimated that his job as then secretary of Homeland Security was to create the structures that let good people into the country and kept bad people out. And he intimated that the vetting procedures during his tenure have h improved and he didnt say it clearly, but intimated that there wasnt a need for this kind of measure. And i found it a very striking moment. Because what you see and what weve seen in the New York Times reporting is that it was never, ever, about vetting. It was just about keeping everyone out. That is nasty words are one side of this. But the deeper part of the story is, people were coming in for business, for education, for shortterm stays under normal visa processes and Steven Miller fed him these numbers and donald trump is opposed to all entry from these countries an that is radical and incredibly dangerous for this country. And molly, as you cover the hill, and you look at this story evolve, one of the questions might be as a ninth District Court as it moves forward on friday saying that the again the travel ban basically not level not legal. Not consistent with the law of the land. Might they bring in these very words and say it is not only that the args argument this is not a vetting process but instead a reflection of a bias, a prejudice coming from the white house. I think that what you are going to see has to do more with daca. And when it comes to taking action, congress and capitol hill, it is going to be whether the republicans can take what theyve read and if they believe this article, the reporters are very good reporters, you know, whether or not they are going to take that and be able to do something substantial with the dreamer, the socalled d. R. E. A. M. Ers in this country, because when the funding the temporary funding runs out on january 19th, that is kind of the big day. Initially it was last week. But right now the congress is able to move to january 19th. And so there is a group on capitol hill from what ive understand, my sources are telling me, serious republicans and serious democrats who are working on a daca deal. Very close to getting it that would deal with Border Security that would deal with what to do with these the kids in the country now. The kid who are kids my age with kids of their own, what they will do with parents, whether they could get work pirmitipir pirmity permits and this article and if it is true and how republicans react to that, whether it really pushes them to work with democrats and get this taken care of before the election, because keep in mind, you have an we have an election coming up in november and republicans are really worried that many t might be a it might be a wave election and if democrats take over congress, the president may think and say one thing, but hes going to have to deal with an entirely different body of people in congress. That is one of the them attics over the weekend. Be careful about what might happen in 2018 of the reporting coming out this weekend that you are alluding to there, molly. And on this, liz, adding that to the pile here, that log on to the fire, is this another reason where you might say the democrats are look pretty good if 2018 or with the story like this to add to it . Yes. And make no mistake, this is bad timing for them. Recent polling shows democrats leading 13 to 18 points on a generic ballot, which outstrips the lead do going into the 2016 election. And this is not just about winning back the house or potentially winning the senate, it is about winning governors races and state races and those are the people drawing congressional directs for the years to come and determining the makeup of congress for the next ten years sox those races are important to keep in mind as well. Certainly a hope for democrats. No data as of yet in terms of showing that will happen but we special something that is being discussed. Thank you all. We are just Getting Started this afternoon. When we return, inside the growing battle on capitol hill. To discredit the russia investigations and that man there. Then later, well talk about some more of the business being put off to the new year. Billions of aid for states like florida are hanging in the balance. You are watching msnbc live. Well be back. Like stop worrying about your boss fast, like wow, youre already asleep fast. When life keeps you up. Zzzquil helps you fall asleep in as little as 20 minutes. Next year the fbis leadership will look a lot different it appears and new headline of a new report from the Washington Post reads facing republican attacks, the fbi Deputy Director plans to retire early next year. Now that is according to people familiar with the matter. Justice Department Official telling nbc news there has not been any formal notification of mccabes intent to retire. But the official confirms his eligible to retire with benefits in march. Mccabe was on capitol hill this week for hours meeting with house lawmakers and a target of republica republicans and the president as james comey right hand man. In the last hour after the news broke, the president went to twitter saying, how can fbi Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe, the man in charge along with leaking james comey of the phony Hillary Clinton investigation including her 33,000 illegally delet delet deleted emails be givenp 00,000 for wifes campaign for clinton puppets during the investigation. And fbi Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. And a top lawyer direct Christopher Wray moved jim baker, a man described as one of the most trusted longest serving National Security officials in the government, and now raised predecessor jim comey tweeting, sadly we are now at a point in our political life when anyone can be attacked for partisan game. James baker who is stepping down as fbi general counsel served our country well for 25 years and deserves better. He is what we should all want our Public Servants to be. Still with us from washington, security and justice reporter Julie Ainsley and Betsy Woodruff and Steve Clemens. Julia, to you first and lets lets get more information on the bureaus climate, the reporting happening today and then the responses that weve heard so far. In general, what ive heard from people inside of the fbi is that the moral within the building is pretty good. He is a new director and allowed to shake things up a little bit. Jim brake e baker was put baker was put in that space by comey to be the general counsel and it looks like hell continue to stay there just in a different capacity. Reassignments happen all of the time and when people come into a leadership position, they are allowed to shuffle who their senior adviseser are around them and the same for mccabe. It was known that Andrew Mccabe was waiting until hes eligible to retire and there is a lot of money for his amount of experience in the private sector. Where the moral is low is when the president is attacking the fbi and undermining its credibility. Those have been very low blows, a lot of people have said recently, and that has really gotten under the skin of a lot of people inside of the fbi. But as far as wray goes, the report has been pretty good so far. If this does happen, if this does happen, what does this mean for the culture and the face of the fbi . What were hearing so far. If baker is reassigned or mccabe retires, i think mccabes retirement, both of them at the same time leaving does present a bit of a vacuum. And it would definitely make people think, well, is he stepping is mccabe leaving because it is hard to work in this political environment. Im sure those questions woul