better not leak a thing but people close to him sure are to defend the fired fbi director. sources inside the agency are contradicting what the president said about the infamous dinner. with predictions this morning we have not heard the last of the former fbi director. could it be comey's revenge? for of the interview between the president and our own lester holt. and some foreign policy news you may not have heard, what he's saying about the troops in afghanistan and a pre-emptive strike in north korea. >> >> a lot of people are giving me high marks in terms of what i've done in terms of foreign policy. >> our team is here and ready to go. kristen welker at the white house, pete williams, thomas due bree, senior white house correspondent for bloomberg, margaret. and we've got to get to kristen welker first. the president seems to be tweet trolling, poking the finger in

the eye of the reporters. there is one tweet in plr that morning that really carries some weight. it's about james comey. walk us through this. >> reporter: it amounts to a threat against james comey. let me read you what the president tweeted and then we'll do spns on the other side. he essentially tweeted this morning, james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. that effectively a warning shot at the former fbi director after current and former fbi agents have come forward to dispute some of the details that president trump laid out about a dinner that he had with the former fbi director. i'll let pete get into all of those nuances. but the bottom line here is that the president seems to effect e effectively saying there may be proof of this dinner. that raises the question. are there tapes of this dinner, of their phone conversations. i reached out to a number of

white house officials about that. haven't gotten an answer. that will be the focus of the press briefing a little later on today. but i would note that also in that interview with lester holt president trump didn't mince his words about the former fbi director. he called him a showboat and grand stander. those were comments that got a fierce backlash on capitol hill. i was there yesterday speaking to senators saying that wasn't necessary. warner said it was offensive. there is a sharp fallout after the interview that president trump did with lester, particularly as it relates to some of those personal comments that he made about the former fbi director. >> so one of the pieces, the fallout has been the question of the shifting story, the idea that the president said one thing but when you look back at the last couple of days it's not the story that we heard from the podium. you and i are in that briefing room every day and now there's a question of what we hear from the people delivering that news.

you and peter alexander have some new information. >> reporter: this is the way that the white house can speak to the american public. let me read you what the president tweeted about the press briefing. he said as a very active president with lots of things happening it is not possible for any surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy. maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all press briefings and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy. let's take the tweets initially. i spoke to white house officials here who said look, the president is just being realistic. he's very busy and we can't get it right 100% of the time. although one top official said we certainly try to give the press the most accurate information that we have when we have it. so they are pushing back against this notion that the tweet in any way under mines their credibility. i think that's part of what you're going to hear a little later on today during the press

briefing. i asked if there was consideration given to canceling the daily briefings that you and i attend. the response from sean spicer was he wasn't going to weigh in on that. peter alexander reporting that there were top officials here who was concerned about the president sitting down for such an extensive interview with lester yesterday because there were so many difficult issues to sort through as it relates to this james comey firing. ultimately obviously he decided to go through with it and e it' driving the headlines today. >> one of the things the president wanted to talk about, he wanted to get his own message out. there o one of the topics is the dinner with comey prior to the firing. listen to what he said. >> he told me that. >> he told you -- >> i've heard that from others. >> was it in a phone call?

did you meet face to face? >> i had a dinner with him. he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. >> he asked for the dinner. >> a dinner was arranged. i think he asked for the dinner. and he wanted to stay on as the fbi head and i said i'll you know consider it. we'll see what happened. but we had a very nice dinner and at that time he told me you're not under investigation. >> pete williams is at our washington bureau. that is what the president said. what are you hearing? >> okay. a couple of things. number one, going back to the president's tweet, he implies in the tweet that what we're reporting about the dinner, differing from his account, this comes from james comey leaking to the press. to be 100% clear here, the sources we have for what is mr. comey's version of the dinner don't come from anything this week. they come from what these people say mr. comey told them in late

january right after the dinner. so as far as i know, james comey h hasn't said anything to anybody in response to his firing or anything else that hasn't happened this week. it's not that we haven't tried to get him to say anything but as far as i know he hasn't said anything, hasn't leaked anything. set aside the question about whether talking about having dinner with somebody is a leak. but nevertheless, this information doesn't come from mr. comey. what we're told by these people is that mr. comey told friends of his, associates, people outside the fbi that he was asked to come to the white house, not -- and the president says in the interview twice that mr. comey wanted the dinner. these people say comey was asked to come to the white house. he was a little reluctant do so but felt you can't say no to a request from the president. that he didn't tell his colleagues at the fbi about the time about going to the din. and they also say -- this was first reported by the "the new

york times" and confirmed by these people we've talked to -- that the president asked him a couple of times if he would pledge his loyalty, that's the story, michael schmitt story in the times. and comey said i can't do that but i can pledge to you my honesty, my honest loyalty. people we've talked to, varying accounts of what mr. comey said back. >> pete, that is some helpful perspective. i want to bring in the panel, tom, margaret and carol. tom, start with you. talk about what you heard from pete and the tweet that the president sent out this morning. what is your takeaway? >> i think the president does have good reason to be concerned that this whole situation could degenerate into a vaer rose of off the record comments, either about what the president said, about what comey said and the nature of the investigation. i think the white house is concerned that you don't want this thing to spiral out of

control. you don't want jim comey to be someone who is going to haunt the administration other over the next year saying here's what the president said or here's the truth. it is important to try to diffuse this koefcontinue verse and move forward. >> we're going to talk about what could come next as far as the fbi with margaret and carol in a speck. you bring up a good point. matt miller, a former justice official tweeted overnight one thing i learned at doj about comey, he leaves a protective paper trail whenever he deems something inappropriate happened. say tuned. how nervous should the amount be that comey has more to say. >> i would be concerned. there are a lot of comey loyaltyists within the fbi and the government who are going to be advancing his point of view. they're unhappy with the president's decision and they're going to do whatever they can to

get comey's story and narrative into the public. i think there's concern. i think comey is a smart guy. i think he's a meticulous guy. it wouldn't surprise me at all if some of these things that have happened, the russian investigation and his interactions with the president were documented. i think we're going to see a steady drum beat of leaks, not necessarily from comey himself but people loyal to him trying to undercut the administration's narrative. >> the president said he never asked james comey to drop the investigation, just the opposite. listen to that. >> did you ask him to drop the investigation? >> no. >> did anyone from the white house ask him to end the investigation? >> no. why would we do that. >> any surrogates on behalf of the white house? >> not that i know of. look, i want to find out if there was a problem with an election having to do with russia or anybody else. any other country. >> carol and margaret, the president called the russian

investigation, implied it was a taxpayer funded charade just this week. at the same time there is reporting that he asked for loyalty from the fbi director. how do you square that with what we heard? >> the message on this is problem mattic and the fact that there have been conflicting stories out of the white house this led to this morning's series of tweets from the president. what this is doing is raising all of the stakes for the upcoming testimony by a number of people, including comey himself, if he does in fact go -- >> if he accepts the invitation which is still an if. >> if he would publicly testify, go speak privately behind closed doors with the committees. but look, there are a number of questions to be answered. sean spicer cutting short his naval reserve duty to come back for today's briefing is going to be perhaps the first voice out of the white house on a lot of these questions today. >> let's talk about the briefing. as kristen talked about, there have been some questions raised

from the president as to what is said behind the podium. nicole wallace used to speak from behind that podium and here's what she said this morning on the "today" show. >> i worked if a white house that was far from perfect but i never was asked to go out to lie and never caught in a lie by a president who went out and cotra districted me. neither wu the vice president of the united states. we now have a vice president, a senior staffer in kellyanne conway, an entire press office with zero credibility. that white house podium used to mean something and now they send them out to say whatever. >> press aides suggest this conversation is simply a matter of semantics. >> it's not. step back for one second and look at 2000 things that have happened in the past two days, the erosion of long term norms and an institution. you have the president of the united states inquiring about an active investigation and you

have what happened at the white house podium. the white house podium is the most important communications platform in to country. >> particularly when the president doesn't appear publicly for six days as happen this week. >> for them to go out and have one -- this is not a small thing. the president fired his fbi director. you need to, if you're going to do that have very clear reasoning and very consistent explanations about why that happened. and what we saw was a continuing you know one day it was one reason, the next day it was another, the president's contradicting and that erodes the credibility of that podium which has for years, decades been one of the most important tools that the white house has. >> it's a false choice to say it's too hard to get the information right and suspend the briefings. there is a middle ground long tested across presidents from both parties. which is if you're the spoking

person and you're not sure then what you say is i'm sharing all of the information i have at this time and i will take your questions and get back to you as more develops. i think that these spokes people believe that they were giving an accurate account as they were authorized to do in most of these cases and it was the president himself who changed the story in that interview. >> before i let tom go i want to get on your reporting of the search of what happens next, the new fbi director. what are you hearing and is it going to be a loyalty test? will that fly? >> well, our reporting so far is on at least four candidates for this position. there are many other names being discussed also. but mike rogers, the former house intel committee chairman who had a talk video career, law enforcement and justice experience and he's interesting on a couple of counts. he's a republican. but he's well-liked by members of both parties, well tested and vetted.

he's willing to be openly critical of president trump's decision-making but on the other hand he's been critical of leaks and has said it's important for the administration to stop the leaks. >> which the white house -- >> that's revealing to the president. >> what is your take on how this flies if you put something like a mike rogers in place or like merrick garland. >> either of those choices would be good. the white house needs to find someone not only with great integrity but someone who is going to quell the partizan controversy over the fbi leadership. every time comey would come out and do something, the hillary clinton investigation, the republicans would scream, the democrats applaud. we need to deplot size the fbi, get someone in there serious about fbi, a man or woman of unimpeachable integrity to restore confidence and give everyone faith that the russian investigation is going to move forward. >> that is something that both tar pis would agree to. >> we can all agree to that. coming up, we're talking

more about what president trump revealed to leather holt about his foreign policy agenda in north korea and afghanistan. you may not have seen these parts of the interview. stick around. what vladimir putin is telling south korea's newly elected president on the phone call today. all of it just ahead. think again. this is the new new york. we are building new airports all across the state. new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendly environment. new lower taxes. and new university partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. learn more at esd.ny.gov "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours.

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so we are following new

developments in this nuclear standoff with north korea. the government there is threatening to hit the gas on its nuclear weapons program if congress follows through with tough new sanctions. in a pretty unusual letter to our house of representatives, north korea officials say quote as the u.s. house of representatives enacts more and more of these reckless hostile laws, north korea's efforts to strengthen nuclear deterrence will gather greater pace beyond anyone's imagination. the faceoff with north korea was among some of the foreign policy challenges president trump talked about in that exclusive interview with lester. watch. >> a lot of people give me very high remarks for what i have done in terms of foreign policy. i'm getting very very high marks on foreign policy. >> i would like to ask you about that. korea, you talked to the new president, president moon in south korea. he had has a different approach than in administration's approach with regard to north korea. he favors the idea of under certain circumstances, some dialogue with kim jong-un.

you've also mentioned that as well. does this change your strategy knowing that he has a more open orientation? >> he is. he's more open to discussion. i don't mind discussion. but it's under certain circumstances. i could probably give you a much better answer to that in a month or two months. we're going to see what happens. >> something happening in a month -- >> the moerk situation is a very dangerous one for south korea, for japan, frankly for china and for the rest of the world. and i think we've handled it very well, very firmly. it should have been handled by president obama. it should have been handled by other presidents in the past. unfortunately now it's very far down the line and i happen to be president. >> e with eve seen u.s. special forces in action in different parts of the world recently. in many ways you appear to be giving the military more authority to make the calls as they see fit. what is going to happen in afghanistan? >> well afghanistan is always a difficult problem.

it has been for many tions. no question about it. >> will you be adding more troops in afghanistan? specific numbers? >> we haven't made a decision. some people would like for me to. i have not made a decision. >> let's pick up there. back with my panel here. hans, how close do you think we have on any kind of announcement on troop increases? it seems like they're at the assessment phase. the conversation has not gone to the principle's committee. secretary mattis has not made his formal recommendation to president trump. i just checked in with some officials here. that has not changed overnight. secretary mattis was just in europe talking with counter parts about how big the nato contingent should be. it seems like we're a couple of weeks away on the formal announceme announcement. on this idea of 3,000 to 5,000 troops, that's generally in the right ballpark. they want to get the strategy right.

and it seems from everything that we've heard from the white house, most recently from president trump is that he also feels pressured to add more troops. i did not hear a lot of enthusiasm there from president trump about adding additional troops to afghanistan. one other note on afghanistan, we don't hear nearly as much about afghanistan here at the pen go pentagon as we do about isis. overnight you get updates. i'm looking at it right now, 23 strikes last night consisting of 40 engagements in syria. you get specificity on syria. you don't get that on afghanist afghanistan. >> margaret and carol, your thoughts on what hans is talking about, the president seems h hesita hesitant. he clearly has not made up his mind. >> what i'm hearing behind the scenes is there is unanimous support to slightly varying levels depending on the numbers from his foreign policy and security advisers that some

modest number like that could make a tactical difference, buy the government in afghanistan a chance to pair back. the exact number doesn't matter but the difference between 5,000 and 30,000 matters. the difference between 0 and 5,000 matters also. >> there's 8500 troops now. they're only talking about 3,000 to 5,000 and that number is fluid. >> the criticism that the president could come under is he promised to not send more troops overseas and to focus on, you know, nation building here at home. so that's where maybe some of the reluctance that we're seeing comes from. >> how about north korea? vladimir put untalked on the phone this morning with the new president of south korea who has not been overly supportive of the anti-missile defense system there. what is the pentagon saying about the strategy when it comes to the peninsula?

>> the simple answer is called the state department. their preferred option is diplomacy. you see that over and over. there frankly aren't good options. they want to make sure that china really pressures the north koreans. and you know every time the u.s. moves a piece of equipment, whether they do a naval exercise, that's a warning to china that if they don't contain the north korea problem or solve it -- we're out of the level of containment now. that allows the u.s. to change their posture in south korea and that worries the chinese. >> so on north korea, you heard the president say to lester, you know, hey, i'll talk to north korea too. sure, i'm open to having discussions. what's the off-ramp to take the temperature down a little? >> the strategy is to put a lot of pressure on china, to get china to do things that administrations have wanted them to do for years and they're giving them a couple of month to see that that happens and the eshl signs are positive that it is. and then if that doesn't they

move to the next phase which we don't know exactly what that is. could it be some sort of military force? could it be some sort of big threat to try to get to talks? we don't know. but we have a new president in south korea which could be complicating for the president's efforts because this is someone who criticized the president during the campaign because the president tried to say that south korea should pay for the missile defense system and b, it does not support the policy of total isolation and is warm to talks with north korea. >> so some question marks on ho how that get resolved. stick around. thank you for your discussion here. coming up, we want to talk about what regular people, what americans, what voters think about the president's dismissal of fbi director james comey. we're backing it up with some numbers from a new survey from nbc news next. i no longer live with

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because quality public schools build a better california for all of us. we're back now with a look at the morning' headlines. president trump is on a tweet storm this morning and his main target is james comey. the suggestion from the president there could be taped conversations between the two men saying he better hope there are not before he starts leaking to the media. >> the mt. is upset about the

coverage, his spokes people saying one thing, the president saying something different. he says it's not possible for the white house staffers to to be and rate all ccurate all of jeff sessions is telling prosecutors to push for tougher punishments on drug crimes. in is the opposite of what president obama wanted to do. sessions is making this move to combat what he calls an increase in violence. a russian fighter jet came within 20 feet of a u.s. navy surveillance plane on tuesday. big deal? not to a spokesman saying the encounter was safe and profession professional. this comes a month before the u.s. military kicks off a series of exercises in that area. we're getting a detail look at what you think of the james comey firing, including the breakdown right along party lines. here are the details of the new

nbc survey monkey online poll is mark murray. and back with me my panel. mark, i want to start with you. headline number here on what people think about jim comey's firing. walk us through it. >> the headline in our poll is that you have 54% of the country, a majority that think that the firing of james comey was not appropriate. that's compared to 38% who think it's appropriate. and that 38% is a really interesting number because that's exactly what president trump's approval rating is in the new gallop poll and a kwen pen yak poll. you have democrats who think that the firing was not appropriate. you have republicans who think that it was appropriate. but to me what's really striking here are the independents right in the middle that seem to be breaking more with the democrats that think that 61% don't think it was appropriate. now, when the firing -- the explanation is you have 46% of the country, a plurality who had

to think this has to do with the russian investigation. 20% think it was about hillary clinton's e-mail. but once again with you have democrats overwhelmingly believe it was tied to the russian investigation and independents close to 50% who think the same thing but just 22% of republicans believe that. and then hallie, when you say, well, how serious of an issue is it of allegations of the trump campaign's ties with russia. 54% think it's a sere yoious is. 40% think it's a distraction. that 40% is very close to where we see president trump's job approval rating in many polls. we heard from the ablthing fbi director on capitol hill mccabe saying that the firing is not going to impede the russian investigation. what do people think? do they buy that, believe that? what's the sense? >> you have 55% of respondents

our poll. the majority think they're less confident that the fbi investigation will be handled fairly. 36% who think it will be. this is for the most part a pretty rough poll when it comes to president trump and his white house's handling of this issue. eel have to see what the other polls show. >> mark, thank you very much. carol, margaret, what do you make of the numbers, particularly the breakdowns on the party line? >> i think we'll have to see over these settle in. it take as few days if are the public to get a grip on how they feel about a story like that, kind of confused and complicated. president trump has shown he's comfortable governing with that base and that's because the republicans are in charge of the house and the senate. possible slippage among independents could be cause for concern. it's safe to say if democrats were in charge of both or one chamber of congress this would be a different ball game.

but for now the president has been confident that up until now something in the high 30s or 40s he can govern. >> a poll came out in march that 3% of people who voted for donald trump were voting for him. >> his poll numbers are pretty low and that might be sustainable now but it might not help him in the mid terms or when he runs for reelection. obviously these polls are a snapshot. it could change. how the white house continue to handle this could change people's view and who he names as a replacement for james comey. much more to talk about after the break. up next, he said he said. what president trump told lester about his tie to russia in that exclusive interview doesn't vooif with jive with his relationship with vladimir putin years ago. we're going to play both interviews for you when we get back.

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listen to this. the associated press is reporting new information about president trump's tax returns. here's the deal according to the a.p. trump's lawyers are telling the news agency that a review of his last ten years of tax returns does not reflect any income from any type of russian sources with a few exceptions. what are those exceptions? income from the 2013 miss universe pageant and then a property sold to a russian billionaire in 2008. my colleague lester holt asked

president trump specifically about any business tie to russia. >> the senate intelligence committee wants information from the treasury department's crimes unit about your finances, your business's finance. can you tell us whether you, your family, your businesses, your surrogates have accepted any investment, any loans from russian individuals? >> yeah, in fact i just sent a letter to lindsey graham from one of the most prestigious law firms in the country, a tremendous highly rated law firm, i have nothing to do with russia, no investments with nobody property in russia. i lot of people thought i owned office buildings in moscow. i don't have property in russia. and i am in very -- i'm in total compliance in every way. now vi to tei have to tell you e hundreds of pages of documents with the federal elections bureau. everybody has seen them. i built a great company.

but i'm not involved with russia. i have had dealings over the years where i sold a house to a very wealthy russian many years ago. i had the miss universe pageant which i owned for quite a while, i had it in moscow a long time ago. but other than that i have nothing to do with russia. >> and one last question on this matter. >> can i have a certified letter just so you understand. i'm not just saying that. i've given the letter to senator lindsey graham, he has the letter and i think frankly i assume he's going to give the letter out. but it says i am not involved in russia, no loans, no nothing. >> so a couple things to break down here. nbc news asked senator graham's office for that letter obviously. as i'm joined with rick tie her, msnbc political analyst and former cruz campaign

spokesperson. you hear from donald trump acknowledging this. the a.p. has not seen the returns. it is hearing from this law firm that sent this letter from donald trump's lawyers, i should say. first of all, your reaction to this news that is just now breaking, the president saying no ties. and importantly he says no loans because that's another question too, not whether he's been paid but whether he's got loans out there. >> terrific. let's see the tax returns. i can play that game too. donald trump, i sent a letter from a highly prestigious law firm and i sent it to you certified mail. i don't believe you. show us the returns. >> he's really mincing -- i don't personally. because we don't know how his businesses are set up, perhaps his children do have the pieces of assets in russia that we don't know about. he's making it personal about himself. if we have the tax returns, we can figure out if he's being truthful. that is a tough place for the

american people increasingly having to question every single thing that comes out of the president's mouth. >> let's do a little flash back. what the president said a couple of years ago talking about his relationship with rush hand president vladimir putin. listen. >> do you have a leadership with vladimir putin, a conversational relationship or anything that you feel you have sway or influence over his government? >> i do have a relationship. and i can tell you that he's very interested in what we're doing here today. he's probably interested in what you and i are saying today and i'm sure he's going to see it in some form. but i do have a relationship with him. and i think it's very interesting to see what's happened. he's done a brilliant job in terms of who he represents and who he's representing. >> we've heard this sound bite before. it was three and a half years ago. a lot has happened in the last three and a half years. the president has talked about his relationship in a different way since then with vladimir

putin. walk through why this is so important and why what the associated press is reporting about the certified letter could have some implications here. >> first of all his sons have said repeatedly that they got a lot of money from the russians, the russians were funding them. either eric isn't telling the truth then or president trump isn't telling the truth now. in the last 48 hours we were given three different reasons why the director of fbi comey was fired and none of them turned out to be true and now we're expected to believe that because he sent a certified let frer a highly prestigious law firm. no. >> it's the shroud of darkness. had they waited and said we do not have a vote of confidence in comey, we're going to wait until after the investigation, i think we wouldn't be having this conversation. but this is becoming too close and too things are aligned for it to be coincidence increasingly. >> he said it to lester, it's our reporting inside the white

house that the president is incredibly frustrated about the conversation of the russian nair tiff. there are things that have happened to steer the conversation away from that. one of those things is the new executive order signed on voting fraud. executive order presidential commission on election integrity. here is the vice chair on that this morning. >> we do have a great deal of evidence about people voting in more than one state in the same election. we do have a lot of evidence about noncitizens. the federal government has that evidence about noncitizens who may be registered. but now we start digging into the faktss and see how wide spread various forms of voter fraud is. >> you're entrenched in this issue. what are your concerns? >> they're trying to do voter intimidation. the fact that mitch mcconnell came out in february and said this idea that there were allegations of 3 million people voting illegally and he said it was nonsense, we should take the

direction of mitch mcconnell. what they're trying to do is create a voter fraud case and then come to the midterm elections, actually do voter purging. that is the most dangerous for young people of color, people on disabilities, veterans because they may not be able to participate because they may have decided they didn't vote in this last election but they're going the say wait a second yb you don't participatparticipate >> is he the right person to lead this effort? >> i don't believe in this 3 million voter fraud. is there voter fraud? sure. goes back to the beginning of the republic. >> there is less tn 00.1% of voter fraud. and he has been the mastermind behind the terrible immigration laws that the court has thrown out.

>> how do you see the white house defending? you hear chris covac defending. >> people want to know when they go to the voting booth that they can participate and b -- >> so we should be talking about -- >> let me finish. their vote will be counted and my vote isn't taken away by somebody else. the reason i don't believe the 3 million is the way we do the elections is by counting municipal level. there would be a grand conspiracy to get to 3 million votes. is there voter fraud yes. >> enough to have a commission -- >> holly, when folk -- >> we probably 90% agree but i think there's too much protest about everybody can vote. no, everybody shouldn't vote. >> of course not. >> they should establish who they are, they live in the district who is going to represent them. >> american citizens are the ones voting. for example what they're trying

to say is an undocumented person voted. that undocumented person is basically trying to hide in the has do shadows and not going to come forward. if they were to do that, that's a felony. they could not become u.s. citizens. and if we want to take a tackle our voting system, we need to modernize our election, making sure that people are not waiting five and six hour to vote. >> like you said, it was a distraction. >> nice to have you. coming up, it's the topic republicans wish everybody was talking about. we're going to take you live to the rnc spring meeting in sunny san diego next. y dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business...

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>> as it all goes down, vaughn is where they are holding spring meetings. how are they mapping out policies given what we're calling a crisis here in washington. >> this is not exactly what they expected. this is the republican party that already had an issue with messaging out here with health care legislation. after that vote, the political report the standard bear for tracking these changed, and it was just a 21 skt approval rating. very few members are holding these events, but i was with dave brat in virginia on tuesday night and i asked about the

issue of messaging. back here, in san diego, you have the rnc, the governor's association, the senatorial in is the launch of the 2018 midterms. . there has been little backing on television. none of these outside groups have put any money towards number one defending members for their health care vote or promoting the legislation. and for the same republican district maybe why more of the members are going back there. there is not as much they can shepherd back to their constituents. they don't have a health care bill that the senate is going to be able to fully take up, so suddenly, with the republican party here what they're

discussing is what do we take back to our members as this chaos unfolds in washington dc. >> thank you very much, margaret, you were nodding your head while he was talking. >> this is what has been unfolding quietly. they don't really want to walk the plank on that. ironically the dismissile of jim comey and the fire storm it created brought all other legislative moves and it is really good if you don't the anything to happen on health care or really bad if you are in republican leadership and you feel like you want to show movement and gains. >> it reminds me of when we covered president obama in 2009 and all of those health care townhalls and it is very similar. the problem is that you're caught between opponents of

obama care, and those worried that this will change their coverage. and remember that we're only in phase 1, maybe point five, because it is just past the house, and there is a number of ways in which this will cut politically. >> lots to talk about, and someone that will be talking about it, but i think who they want to hear from is james clapper, an exclusive interview with the former director of national intelligence at noon eastern here on msnbc. stick with us. >> it is time for the your business entrepreneurs of the week. breaking up is hard to do, but reuniting has felt so good. the owners of fivestring furniture are back together after a two year break. for more, watch your business weekends at 7:30 a.m. on msnbc.

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tgif, man, and tomorrow night a new "snl" and guess who is in it? melissa mccarthy. she is rolling down 58th street on her sean spicer podium. something you will probably want to tune into tomorrow night. president trump is leaving a week from today on a foreign trip, he is under a lot of pressure to name that next fbi pick before he goes wheels up if he can. >> it is all comey, all weekend, all of the time until he names an fbi director. >> are you going to watch "snl"? >> yes, of course. >> thank you for watching this

hour of msnbc live. facebook, twitter, live, insta. coming up more news with chris jansing. >> right now, the contradictions pile up. president trump saying in something very different. including the vice president. now all of the challenges raising serious new questions. >> president trump is dangerous because he may be obstructing justice in terms of the investigation. >> the president launches a still scale attack in six tweets this morning and seeming to want to rewrite the rules for the people that speak for him. >> in this process, i gave you the best information that i had at the moment. i don't think it contradict's