Pentagon right now. A rare briefing for him, with plenty to talk about, including negotiations with north korea falling apart. We are going to bring you the latest, as soon as we get news from the defense secretary coming up. Well also have former cia director john brennan live with me on set next. Plus, in a d. C. Courtroom right now, could two for Paul Manafort and his lawyers, hammering out issues for his next trial, less than three weeks ago. Word that the man praised by the president for not flipping actually tried to. We have our team all across the country. The death of john mccain is once again a headline. Perhaps not the one he or his family want. For a president who seemed to want nothing to do with john mccain in life or death, its become about the president. One of john mccains closest friends, senator Lindsey Graham, seems to be unbothered by that. Watch. How the president feels about senator mccain is his right to feel the way hed like. I know how america feels about senator mccain. I know how the senate feels about senator mccain. I know how the world feels about senator mccain. On monday, the president was given no fewer than three opportunities to comment on camera on the late senator. Each time, sitting in silence, as reporters asked him for his thoughts. Overnight, he finally gave in, for 17 seconds. Our hearts and prayers are going to the family of senator john mccain. Going to be a lot of activity over the next number of days. We very much appreciate everything that senator mccain has done for our country. Thank you very much. What took so long . The wall street journal reports the president thought the News Coverage of mccain was, quote, over the top, and more befitting of a president and not a senator. Let me start at the white house with nbcs hans nichols. Talk more about some of this reporting on the president and john mccain. As we know, your other double duty is covering the pentagon. With secretary mattis speaking you, the secretary will be one of the administrative representatives there at mccains services, unlike President Trump today. Reporter welcome, we know mattis had a close relationship with mccain. They worked together on a lot of issues. Youd see mattis go down and visit mccain at numerous points throughout his tenure as secretary of defense. What youve seen from the president , and what we know, is there is internal and external pressure to change his position, and it finally got to him. Listen to how you mentioned the three opportunities. Listen to how the president had stony silence when asked about mccain. Mr. President , any thoughts on john mccain . Mr. President , any thoughts on john mccain . Lets move it. Thanks, everybody. Lets go this way. Any thoughts on the legacy of john mccain . Mr. President , do you have any thoughts on john mccain . Do you have any thoughts at all about john mccain . Lets go. Lets go. Do you believe john mccain was a hero, sir . Nothing at all about john mccain . Okay. Mr. President , the American Legions asked you to lower the flags to halfstaff. Any reaction to the American Legion . Make your way out. Thank you. Its over. Come out. Any proclamation about john mccain. Why wont you say anything about john mccain . Reporter the flag was lowered after the order came out from the white house around 4 00 p. M. Yesterday. It took a little longer at the pentagon, but eventually it came down there, as well. What we should watch for at this press conference thats taking place now at the pentagon is how do secretary mattis and chairman dunford raise the man mccain without running crosswise to the president they serve. They always have apentagon. Today is no different. Hallie . We are watching that Live Press Briefing with secretary of Defense James Mattis. Hans nichols, thank you much. Well turn around any news from him as we get it. Stick with us. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is over on capitol hill. We are hearing from lawmakers, particularly those close to mccain, and especially lind dse graham, who was on the today show this morning, really john mccains best friend. Reporter hes been a spokesperson for the mccain family. Grahams comments today were interesting. What he did was address how mccain might feel about this back and forth with President Trump. Frankly, defended himself a little bit against accusations that hes been too close to the president , by comparing the way he is trying to work with donald trump to the way john mccain tried to work with barack obama after that election in 2008 that he lost. Felt like it was his duty to the country. Here was Lindsey Graham on the today show this morning. Ill be a bridge when i can. Senator mccain never got mad at you for that . Wouldnt have mattered. I would have done it anyway. Im too much like him. The bottom line is, john has shown that it is not about you. Country first. It means that even if it is inconvenient for you, and it makes you uncomfortable, you do it anyway. Country first hurts. Reporter hallie, talking to senators last night, especially after the white house decision to lower the flag back to halfstaff where it belongs, i heard a lot of relief from republican senators at the white house, choosing to do the right thing. Bob corker said, look, this is the pettiness that john mccain would have been above and is quite literally above now. This is not the kind of thing he would have been in any way interested in getting into a back and forth with the white house on. Garrett haake on capitol hill, thank you. Let me bring in political reporter alexi and nbc news political reporter josh letterman, as well. Alexi, you report on this white house. You know the inner workings of this. We know, based on our reporting, there was an all hands on deck meeting aftbefore the decision made to relower the flag. 99 , Sarah Sanders and john kelly involved in this, as well. What was it that convinced the president to final lly bow to pressure . Was it the veterans groups calling on him to do this, the American Legion . I think it was the mounting pressure against him and the decision he made. We saw a similar thing after helsinki. He saw mounting pressure, especially allies on fox news, calling him out for his reaction and comments. I think we saw a similar thing here. The end of the day, it comes a little too late. We see how the president feels, plain and clear, in the way he reacted initially. I sort of think it almost discounts when he comes around at the end. Theres a lot of angst and consternation in washington related to this. Look at whats happening in arizona, josh. Mccains family has made very clear but their public and private comments, they dont want the conversation to be about President Trump. You know what . If you look at the front pages of newspapers, we do this thing where we look outside the beltway at the front pages of papers in red states like alabama, for example, not a red state, florida, where there is a key primary today, this is not on the front pages. This is not above the fold coverage out in the actual, you know, universe, where voters live. Nafta and trade is, josh. Thats why im not convinced that President Trump didnt want this controversy, at least to a degree. This interesting moment started over the weekend, when senator mccain died, that lasted until really monday, where the whole country was focused on him. It was the first time that you could remember in a long time that President Trump wasnt the top headline. President trump, one way or another, found a way to bring it back to that. He wanted to allow a day or so or not making a statement, of allowing it to become more about him, before he did what eventually he was going to have to do and Say Something nice about john mccain. I am going to have you two stand by. Alexi and josh, i want to bring in no josh brennan, the former cia director under barack obama, who serves as msnbcs Senior National security and intelligence analyst. Pleasure to have you on the show. Good morning, alley. Let me get your thoughts on the way the white house and, specifically, the president has responded to the death of this longserving senator, john mccain. Well, im glad they finally came out and acknowledged the tremendous contributions that senator mccain has made to this country. We should all honor the mccain family request, to keep this focus on the senator and celebrate his life. Celebrate his patriotism and his counsel courage. Thats what we should do. Im glad to see, finally, the white house came around and acknowledged the tremendous, tremendous work of john mccain. Were you surprised by senator graham this morning . You saw the sound bite that garrett hoaake played, where he said the president does what he wants to do. Seemed unbothered by this. Lindsey graham is probably the closest person in the u. S. Congress to senator mccain. The two of them had great Mutual Respect and even love for one another. They didnt always agree. Didnt see eyetoeye. They had different approaches on issues. I think this demonstrates a different approach. Senator mccain would call it the way he sees it. In fact, he criticized himself whenever he was being politically expedient. Sometimes, i think, Lindsey Graham takes the politically expedient route. It doesnt mean he is in any way making light of any of the things that senator mccain had done or stood for. He was an exceptionally principled individual. My last engagement with him was contentio contentious. He hurled profanities at me over differences in policy. Though it was heated, i had the greatest respect for senator mccain because he was a principled individual. Stubborn, feisty, yes. But principled, patriotic, courageo courageous, someone who loved this country before all else. As senator graham said, it was country before self. You did have policy differences with mccain. Gina haspel, for example, as a recent thing. What was the recent fight over, what policy . We were talking about things going on in the middle east, specifically, syria. Senator mccain wanted to bring that conflict to a halt. Also wanted to make sure the United States was able to demonstrate its great influence and might, and do what we could to try to bring that conflict to an end. You reference that senator mccain did sometimes pay a political price for being a straight talker. Does that sound familiar to you, as somebody who sometimes paid a political price for being a straight talker . With mccain gone, who replaces him, someone who can serve as a check on the president , or a voice as a check on the president . Great question. We see that senators flake and corker have spoken out, but theyre leaving the senate. Id like to think there are going to be senators now who will be thinking about senator mccains legacy and what he stood for, and adopt some of the same principled positions and speak truth to power. It is not just the intelligence community. It needs to be members of the congress who will speak truth to power, especially in this white house today. Heres what senator graham said this morning about the final words mccain had for him, as he was cin arizona. He had a romantic view of our nation to his last breath. Literally almost the last thing he said to me was, i love you. I have not been cheated. He was not cheated. I dont knjohn mccain was no. His life was a great example of what a lifetime of service means. I think we should all look up to him as a shining example of what an american can be. I want to move on, but before i do, you have been somebody who hasnt been afraid to criticize this president , but what im hearing from you in this discussion is youre not going to criticize the president for how he responded to the death of john mccain. Right now, im celebrating john mccains life. Okay. Ill ask about Something Else happening on capitol hill. Bruce ohr is appearing before closed doors, this doj official the president has threatened to strip his security clearance. Obviously, your security clearance has been stripped. Youre a former official. Bruce ohr is not. Yeah. Let me play what mark meadows had to say seconds ago on the hill regarding this closed door meeting. This is something conservatives in particular seized on. Watch. Based on what ive seen, and unless bruce ohr was up instructinstruct instructed to do what he did, he should be fired. Not only was he coordinating with christopher steele, who had been terminated by the fbi, but coordinating with him multiple times after the termination. Ohr, of course, referencing his work on the rish ussia investigation, et cetera. It is my understanding that everything ohr did was approved and known to senior officials. Coordinated close with the fbi. I think this is something that, you know, will have to be looked at. I dont know the facts here. I think some of the facts being purported by some members of congress may not, in fact, be the actual facts. President trump threatened to strip your security clearance and then he did. President trump has threatened to strip bruce ohrs security clearance. What happens next . I dont know. The only thing i heard about it is when Sarah Huckabee sanders said at the podium my clearance had been stripped. Ive not been contacted by anybody before or since then. Whether or not my clearance is stripped, im uncertain about. She said it. She read something from donald trump. What would the process be . World you normally hear from some sort of intelligence official saying, hey, fyi . Id think thatd be the process. In this current administration, process seems to be thrown out the door. The process for revocation of clearance has very clear guidelines. So the Trump Administration did not follow the guidelines that they, in fact, affirmed last year, about how to deal with security clearance revocations. Do you think theyre walking it back . I have no idea. You can keep the clearance . Given i think everybody believes that my clearance is bogus, i think people are skrar scratching their head, who have to put together the memorandum to say why i was stripped, other than mr. Trump may not like me, which is not a valid republican. Im wa reason. Im waiting to hear. Thank you very much, director, for sharing thoughts and memories of john mccain. Appreciate. Thank you. Jimmy carter joins Andrea Mitchell to talk more about john mccains legacy. Dont miss it. Noon eastern time, less than two hours, here on msnbc. Heading for round two. Paul manaforts lawyers back in court, prepping for a second trial. What we know now about the last ditch push to try to cut a deal, and why that ultimately failed. Beyond repair . Thats ow ohow one senator is describing the relationship between the president and his attorney general. How long can Jeff Sessions hang on . Can Jeff Sessions hang on with the new chase ink business unlimited card i get unlimited 1. 5 cash back. Its so simple, i dont even have to think about it. So i think about mouthfeel. I dont think about the ink card. I think about nitrogen ice cream in supermarkets all over the world. I think about the details. Fine, i obsess over the details. Think about every part of your business except the one part that works without a thought your ink card. Introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase. Chase for business. Make more of whats yours. Ive had the good fortune to serve this land. I have been repaid a thousand times over, with adventures, with good company, with the satisfaction of serving something more important than myself. Being a big player in the extraordinary story of america. And i am so grateful. Lets talk about whats happening right now in d. C. Federal court. Lawyers for Paul Manafort are in front of a judge. Theyre making motions ahead of his next trial, just three weeks away. As his lawyers do that, were learning manafort tried to cut a deal with special Counsel Robert Mueller ahead of his last trial. The wall street journal reporting plea talks happened last year and broke down, as the federal jury in virginia deliver rated his fate. He was convicted on bank and tax fraud charges then, by the way. Im joined by justice analyst matt miller. Former spokesman at the doj. And former Deputy Assistant general, tom dupree. Tom, what do you make of the reporting from the journal, about this lastditch effort to try to get Paul Manafort a plea deal here . Interesting in light of the fact that the president praised manafort for not flipping. He was trying to, apparently. It is intriguing. All along, weve taken the approach, or taken the view, at least its been my view, that one reason manafort was willing to roll the dice is because he wanted to stand strong and possibly earn a pardon down the road. If fact hes going on trial in virginia, hes trying to negotiate a plea with muellers team in d. C. They didnt strike the deal. Something torpedoed it. The very fact that he was willing to entertain the possibility of cutting a deal is pretty significant. Let me get you on what michael avenatti, Stormy Daniels attorney, said to ari melber last night. Overplayed his hand. Ive been doing this nearly two decades. Rationality does not always rule the day. I think that it was ego. I think that he thought he had a better defense case than he did. Now, hes in a very difficult spot. I mean, if youre bob mueller, why are you going to give this guy much credence . Why are you going to cut a deal with him in light of the verdict you got in virginia . Is he right . Is there incentive for Robert Mueller here . Depends on what Paul Manafort could give up. Look, one of the Unanswered Questions is, what kind of plea deal were they negotiating . It could be a deal with no cooperation. Like the plea deal Michael Cohen took in new york. He could have been trying to plead, get a slightly reduced sentence, not the full reduction youd get if you cooperated. Maybe hold off on some of