What they might have asked, what he might have said all of it as the 11th hour gets under way. Good evening, once again from our nbc headquarters here in new york. Day 271 of the Trump Administration leaves the president choosing to keep gold star families in the middle of what become a nasty political conversation. And threatening an even ugler fight with a u. S. Senator who spent five plus years as a prisoner of war and tortured and injured for life. President trump was asked again about his false claim that president obama did not call the Service Members of u. S. Families killed in action. You want to clarify anything there . Theres nothing to clarify. Theyre just a bunch of fakers. So you ask me that question, and think for the most part theyve called every Family Member thats die immediate. Its the hardest thing for me to do that. As far as other representatives, i dont know. You could ask general kelly did he get a call from obama. About general kelly, the Washington Post is out tonight with a new piece headlined, kelly tried to keep his son out of politics. Trump had other ideas. The remark which was almost immediately derided as democrats and obama allies as politicizing a tragedy was was planned said white house officials. One said kelly may have mentioned some details surrounding his sons death to the president in private. And the president then repeated them in public, a relatively frequent occurrence with trump. Today the president also talked about senator john mccains comments last night from philadelphia that has generated quite a few headlines. At that event mccain talked about halfbaked nationalism pushed by people who would rather find scapegoats. He called them unpatriotic. Heres what the president said about john mccain followed immediately by our own nicole wallace. You heard what he said yesterday about senator mccain. Yausheah, i hear it. And im being very nice, but at some point i fight back and it wont be pretty. Nothing you do is pretty. There is a necessary post script to our coverage of all of this. The president , these gold star families of before American Special operations troops killed in an ambush in niger in africa. The white house confirmed tonight the president has called all four families. Tonight when he called the widow of sergeant la david johnson, she was in the car near her home, near miami en route to the arrival of her husbands body. She was surrounded by family when she talked to president on speakerphone but also in the car we believe unbekboes to the president was her congresswoman. Tonight the headline is this. The congresswoman said she heard the president say to the widow, a mother of two, six months pregnant, quote, he knew what he signed up for. And he reportedly went onto say but when it happens, it hurts anyway. Heres where the congresswoman expressed that heartache in an art view with cnn a short time ago. This is a young, young woman who has two children who is six months pregnant with a third child. She has just lost her husband. She was just told he cannot have an open casket funeral, which gives her all kinds of nightmares how his body must look, how his face must look. And this is what the president of the United States says to her . One can only imagine. To our lead off panel tonight, peter baker chief White House Correspondent for the new york times, Ashley ParkerWhite House Reporter for the Washington Post, with whos out tonight with that report on general kelly. And eli stokels. All three are msnbc political analysts. Peter, lets begin with you. Least of all this widow and her family in florida, no one needed this added post script to this nasty day where politics has somehow become intertwined with gold star families in our country. Well, thats right. And i would caution our viewers that we werent we didnt hear what he said the tone of which he said it and we havent heard from the widow herself. Our source was the Democratic Congresswoman, and she gave a compelling account which you played on cnn. We dont know ow the widow took it. Its a very unfortunate thing to say because it is open to misinterpretation at the very least. And i think one thing that president s learn that in these moments of grief, in these moments of great tragedy and heart break, your job is to bring comfort, your job is to hold hands and to wrap your arms figuratively at least around the people who have lost so much and not increase the heartache and increase the politics at the moment. And thats some of whats happened over the last 24 hours of whats normally a private and quiet act by president s obama and george w. Bush have now become politicized and out in the public for debate. And to our view, we repeat there were no journalists in this vehicle. Just members of congress and members of the family. This member of congress along with one other member from the state of florida is calling for an investigation into just what American Special operators were doing in niger in africa that led to this attack on them and the loss of four of these Young Americans in uniform. Ashley parker, im going to read a larger than normal chunk of your work because it nicely tells the story of general kelly, a gold star parent himself. Quote, for the past several years general john f. Kelly has gone out of his way to keep the death of his son free from politics. He did not talk about when just four days after his death in afghanistan, he found himself commemorating two other marines in combat. In fact he specifically asked the officer introducing him not to mention his boy, who was killed instantly when he stepped on a land mine while on patrol in 2010 according to the Washington Post report. Just last month kelly slipped away from the white house to attend a Marine Corp Scholarship benefit in his sons memory with little fanfare or attention. But on tuesday President Trump thrust his son into the public and political glare, invoking the younger kelly as part of a continuing attack on former president barack obama. Ashley, how do you process this as a journalist covering this story in realtime . Whats so striking about this is even journalists who have been covering general kelly for a very short period, one thing is clear his own service and the service of both of his sons, including his son who lost his life in afghanistan in 2010, weighs on him deeply and forms all of his thinking especially on Foreign Policy decisions, National Security decisions. Because for him its just not an intellectual exercise. He knows the cost. But for as much is this a part of his fabric of hilife, its not something he talks about. Hes private about it, and recoils at the idea his own son or even the children of any family would even be politicized. Again, we dont know specifically how general kelly reacted to the kind of offhand comments today. He did thrust his son into the spotlight. This is not a way he would like his son to be referenced in sort of a political attack on President Trumps predecessor, barack obama. And ashley, general kelly who of course was last seen in the Briefing Room complaining in partgently but still complaining about even well sourced journalism about this president in this white house. I dont imagine well have any chance to know how this has made him feel, the kellys, mr. And mrs. , general and missus, having their tragic loss of their son dragged into this. Y tell you from talking to other white house aides that they were very caught offguard by the president s comments. They didnt expect them. This wasnt part of a planned White House Communications strategy. And one of them said to me general kelly is so private about his son. Its not something they mention. He sort of surmised. But, again, wrthis is a theory hes not going to be comfortable with this either. The ongoing war of words this president has waged on john mccain, who by the way just happens to be in the toughest battle, this old naval warrior and former aviator has faced. Yeah, thats right. And just like the comments that he made about general kellys son and perhaps made to the widow in florida tonight that we havent confirmed yet, there is this pattern, this difficulty the president has in expressing empathy and identifying emp pathically with people going through a difficult time. Theres been no mention of mccains illness and this president going back over a month has expressed grievance on health care. And mccain stepping up really and speaking his mind unlike most of his colleagues in the senabout about this administration and what he sees as the dangers of this president , hat has agitated donald trump, and none of his comments in return has been tempered by any shred of empathy. You heard the president on the radio threatening he will fight back. Its hard to imagine what that is. A lot of people hear those words and that bluster, and it sounds as hollow as that rhetoric is. But to donald trump he needs to say these thing tuesday make himself feel good. You talked about general kelly who does not express his feelings all that openly and talk about himself, this is president who spends a day doing that alone. Peter baker, i dont mean this sarcastically, but what part of the trump agenda advanced today say from the white house to the hill . Well, there is a deal tonight. We hear a republican and democrat coming together to puts a twoyear fix on the health care subsidies, the order canceled just last week. This would stabilize the Insurance Markets if the president signs it. It sounds like the president embraced it, although he was a little vague about what he said about it. And that would be an important step forward. The question is whether that would lead congress towards a deeper engaged frt to address health care or whether well simply patch things over for now so they can return to the partisan fight theyve had over this for months. Ashley, peter raises an interesting point. There was a part of that press Conference Today where the president seemed to want to have ownership over this, the actual news of the settlement, of the bipartisan notion broke at the conclusion of the news conference. But this entire agreement goes at and attempts to fix a part of obamacare the president is trying to kill. Thats right. I mean there is sort of a little nuance there that one of the issues is that these payments need to be appropriated by congress. So what the president was doing was saying that president obama couldnt make this decision, congress has to make this decision. But the truth is as you opponent out, the president has stated that he wants to repeal and replace obamacare. Thats what his actions were doing. Thats what undoing these payments was part of that effort. And so i think it is an interesting question. He may sort of want credit for this deal or this win, thats something the president is always interested in. But as he said today and as the senators said, this is a shortterm fix. There remains a question of what happens in the longterm. And there could be the potential to reach a deal with democrats. But the president has been committed to undermining obamacare than improving upon it or fixing it. And it was very standard for a visiting dignitary, couple questions from the u. S. Press corp, couple of questions from the visiting press corp. One of the points the president made that had made scratching their head. He said we have the votes to repeal and replace obamacare. No one can name the votes to get them a majority as of right now. Another interesting moment came from a member of the greek press corp. And well play it here and the president s response and well talk about it. In march of 2016 you said that the potential for a donald trump presidency, quote, i hope we will not face this evil. And im wondering after spending time with the president you have changed your mind or if youre of the same mind. I wish i knew that before my speech. First of all, my error. John roberts is not nor has he ever been a member of the press corp. John very much a a an american tonight as when he woke up this morning. The response from the president , genuine . It seems to be. And again there was nothing about the greek Prime Ministers comments in his briefingdulate. If thats true, maybe the president didnt read the briefing documents. Theres more evidence his staff is trying to shield him from information that might set him off or perhaps evidence of him not being fully prepared or him trying to play it for a laugh and diffuse the moment. Clearly the Prime Minister did not want to escalate things. His response though was very careful. At one point he said i didnt feel threatened in my meeting. There was just a lot of platitude in his response, nothing really concrete. But clearly a willingness to accept the fact that donald trump is president of the United States, and hes going to need to work with him. We always ask our lead off panel some night were going to stop and count up the dizzying amount of topics we cover. But our thanks to our panel. Coming up as we take our first break, sean spicer facing questions from robert mueller. Well have the latest on the russia investigation. And up next, two political minds react to the president dragging the death of u. S. Troops into the inopen world of politics. Thats when we continue on a tuesday night. Anyone who calls it a hobby doesnt understand. We know that a persons passion is what drives them. [ clapping ] and thats why every memorial we create is a true reflection of the individual. Only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. Find out how at sanfranciscodignity. Com. I personally as a republican in the past few weeks have wondered is the republic safer as democrats take over the house in 2018 . I raised that issue last week, the remarkable thing, he had been thinking the same thing. This is a president that needs a greater check on his power that republicans in congress have offered. Former republican congressman david jolly in florida, who went onto say with our guest, the republic may be safer with the democrats in majority. Were happy to welcome david jolly back with us tonight. Gentlemen welcome both back to this broadcast. Ill give you a little while longer, to explain what must have been a discussion among your republican friends. Im not a republican who all of a sudden adopted Nancy Pelosis politics. But the question is, and the news worthiness is there are more republicans who agree with this. And its the principle of this. We know theres a matter of National Security, right . The fact that mattis, kelly, mcmaster, tillerson have somehow decided when to intervene should the president act erratically. We know there are measures from russia to matters of private travel. We know there are encroachments on free speech, free press, free expression. And so imagine if we have these concerns, what it would look like in a Democratic Congress who was providing accountability to this president. And so that a question i think some republicans are wrestling with. Are we safer first as a mesh of National Security with stronger accountability that were simply not seeing from capitol hill . And im certainly not somebody embracing the democratic agenda tonight. But we know the gender President Trump has created. And it is news worthy there are republicans wrestling whether or not there needs to be a greater check on his power than republicans on capitol hill are currently providing. And one more. Where do you put issues with the president dragging gold star families into the political realm . It doesnt impact our safety or National Security or the running of the country. It has been an awfully unpleasant news cycle to sit through. This is a matter of decency, and a president who lacks decency but has an abundance of audacity. One of the things were not looking at with general kelly, we know this is a gold star family who lost a son. But this is a general who had to make those phone calls and understand those are not political moments. The president himself politicized this, as a member of congress, i did not bear the weight of a general or soldier lost in battle. I had to make late night phone calls to families of injured soldiers, those are not political moments, there was one that i remember today, because the president has politicized this, there was an injured soldier, i called his father and i said, were going to get him home. We got him home, we worked with the family, weeks later, the father told me, not only did i not vote for you, but i worked with the labor union to defeat you. And we laughed about it, because those are not the political moments. Those are very personal solemn moments, we have a president who does not understand those solemn moments. He is a master at capturing the anger of the american people, but he is not skilled at capturing the hearts and the minds and the souls of the american people. Jason johnson, what if i had told you a couple years back, that some day a former republican congressman from the great state of florida and some of his colleagues, named or not, would come to this judgment that actually having an opposite party in control of the house of representatives may be a betterz heck period compmay be a betterz to what we have now . Brian, i wouldnt have believed you until you then told me, what if i told you trump would be president. Okay. Then i would have believed you. You know, this is its interesting, you can go back not just to this administration, you can go back to the constitution, go back to the federalist papers. Unfortunately, we dont have a government structured around dealing with this kind of corrosive leadership. The british do, they had kings. The brazilians do. But our constitution is based on the idea that we may have a morally corrupted president but at least a competent moralally corrupted president. In this case we dont have either. It is also a danger time to realize that the Republican Party has been comp