stocks having their worst day since last september. what is obstruction of justice? what constitutes that impeachable offense? what's the likelihood there are other damning memos? we'll ask those questions. and proof from putin? the russian president offering to release the transcript of the president's meeting with serge lavrov if the white house says it's okay. it is all moving so very fast. let's bring you up to speed. president trump spoke at the commencement ceremony for the coast guard. he talked about the border wall, health care, money he saved the country, and also the way the media has treated him. >> no politician in history, and i say this with great assurety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. i didn't get elected to serve the washington media or special interests. i got elected to serve the

forgotten men and women of our country, and that's what i'm doing. >> meanwhile, back in d.c., congress is trying to figure out precisely how to handle the latest in a series of presidential scandals. the latest that the president may have attempted to obstruct the fbi's investigation into his then national security adviser michael flynn. sources saying back in february the president asked to meet with director comey one on one about flynn who had just been fired. the sources tell us that comey wrote a memo of the discussion for posterity, and that the director characterized president trump's comments the following way -- >> if true, that appears to some, not all of them adversaries to the president mind you, to be obstruction of justice. the wide array of scandals, which include the reported

release of classified information to russian diplomats have made the drumbeat for an independent inquiry even louder in congress. >> so there's plenty of oversight that is being done. >> of course, speaker ryan has shown he has zero, zero, zero appetite for any investigation of president trump. >> the house of representatives has a duty that it can take up, and that is of impeachment. i stand for impeachment of the president. >> it's now accelerated. watergate took a few months. this seems to be taking hours. >> peter alexander is at the white house once again. mike, let me start with you here. i want to get to the republican response in just a moment. but there's been a development in the past hour from the senate intel committee. what can you tell us about that? >> one thing that republicans and democratks agree on in pursuing this investigation is they want to wait until they get

all the facts. where they differ is how fast and far to go in pursuing those facts. perhaps the most bipartisan effort so far we've seen in congress comes from the senate intelligence committee where we have just learned that richard burr, the repuican, mark warner, the democrat there of virginia, have just today sent out a letter to jim comey asking him to appear before their committee either in closed or in open session, or in both. warner spoke with reporters just a few minutes ago. he intimated that comey would be up on the hill to testify, probably in open session sooner rather than later. he says he wants to know if there's a memo, he says he wants to know about secret tapes. he says he wants to know a whole range of things in trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened and the events surrounding the firing of jim comey. craig? >> what are congressional republicans -- >> is there something to it? either way, i don't see there's

an obstruction of justice. >> do you favor a special commission or special prosecutor in this matter? >> it may come to that, but at the moment i have confidence in the two intelligence committees. >> are you concerned about the possibility of obstruction of justice from the president? >> no >> do you favor a special prosecutor or a commission? >> no. >> so craig, those are republicans i talked to. they had a closed door meeting at the republican national committee this morning. you saw a lot of conservative republicans who come from districts with strong support for president trump, who have no interest in a special prosecutor, have no interest in a special commission, would like to see this whole thing go away so they can get back to their agenda eay that's not happening. the republican chairman of the oversight committee jason chaffetz threatening subpoenas to get to the bottom of what the james comey memos said. >> michael, thank you. peter at the white house, we heard from the president last hour there in new london,

connecticut at the coast guard academy graduation. other than that, haven't seen a whole lot in terms of social media today. we heard from the press secretary yesterday off camera. what's going on inside the administration this afternoon? >> reporter: i think you heard publicly from the president in that speech, the commence tent -- commencement to the u.s. coast guard, he said fight, fight, fight, then keep fighting. that's the way the white house views this situation. they fought back at that reporting about the memo from james comey, not questioning whether it existed. they dispute the accuracy, the veracity of the portrayal as it's being communicated. here is part of that statement from the white house. >> reporter: i was struck by the conversation you just had with mike a second ago. obviously there's been some bipartisan agreement about this potentially being concerning or

troubling. but now we're hearing for the first time from a republican member of the senate, lisa murkowski, who is saying basically that based on her understanding of events, she said we may need to begin thinking about an independent commission or special prosecutor. that's a significant crack in the senate right now on this topic, as we go forward. specifically as for the comment regarding that memo, i spoke to a white house aide this morning, who didn't dispute again the memo's existence, but disputed the way it's being cast and characterized saying in effect, this is the way the president speaks, that the president was not trying to basically shut down an investigation io michael flynn. he was just trying to offer his personal affinity for flynn. back to you. >> peter, how did they explain this reporting that the president actually asked jeff sessions, the attorney general, asked him to heave the room to have this conversation with

comey and vice president pence, as well? >> it's a good question. not one that they have addressed head on so far. we haven't asked sean spicer or any member of the administration on camera. i reached out to the justice department, to jeff sessions' spokesperson who declined to comment. suffice to say, it is that very moment, that moment where the president suggests, asked those who were in that room for what was a counterterrorism briefing. mike pence, jared kushner, reince priebus and the attorney general jeff sessions to leave, asking comey to stay behind, that some critics of the president suggest that may be where he crossed a line. >> peter alexander from 1600 pennsylvania avenue and mike on the hill. thanks to both of you gentlemen. david millbank is an opinion writer for "the washington post" and evan thomas is a former editor at large for "newsweek" and larry o'connor, a

conservative radio talk show host. i want to start with something that senator mark warner, this is what he told andrea mitchell last hour. >> have you asked andrew mccabe, the acting fbi director, for those memos? >> we have asked him for those memos and any other documents that he may have that is relevant to exchanges between comey and the president and relevant to our russian investigation. >> have you asked the white house for any tapes or any notes? >> we are in the process of trying to find out whether the white house has any of those documents or tapes, as well. >> how real is the possibility at this point that there are perhaps other memos, as well? >> well, we certainly don't know what we don't know, craig. and if anybody would have guessed 24 hours ago that there would be contemporaneous notes

taken by the fbi director of these sessions with the president, nobody would have believed it. but here we are. so i think it's widely believed that the president was using tapes in quotation marks the way he was wiretaps. i don't think there's a lot of expectation that there's something there. but surely there's more information to come out. what's clear is wherever the white house is on this, or even house republican leaders were this morning, there's no way to put this back in the box now. it clearly has too many avenues to be explored, bringing comey up to the hill, getting those memos up on the hill. it's just not going to be put away. >> evan, defenders of this white house today are pointing to something that the acting fbi director said last week in open testimony. this is an exchange between senator marco rubio and andrew mccabe. take a listen. >> has the dismissal of mr. comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped, or negatively impacted any of the

work, any investigation or anything ongoing projects at the federal bureau of investigation? >> as you know, senator, the work of the men and women of the fbi continues despite any changes in circumstance, any decisions. so there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date. >> no effort to impede the investigation to date. how do you square that, evan, with this memo that was reportedly written by james comey? >> president trump shoots from the hip, so you know, whatever comes into his mind, and it may have just been an impulsive suggestion. it's very hard to turn off an investigation, a federal investigation with u.s. attorneys and the fbi. it is really hard. remember, nixon failed at that.

he tried to stop the investigation using the cia to try to stop the fbi in 1972. he failed. the investigation went forward and resulted in his losing his presidency. >> but what about this idea, evan, that maybe he wasn't trying to impede the investigation, that this is just how this president talks? that this was in no way meant to be malicious? >> both are true. this is the way the president talks. he shoots from the hip, he says whatever pops into his mind. but that could be obstruction of justice, if there's intent. we're at thor i have stae early this, so we have a long way to go, a long, long way to go. we need to hear from a lot of different investigative agencies. if the total picture of all the dots connect, this could be maybe not a smoking gun, but a serious piece of evidence. but we have to wait and see. >> we're going to talk about the term "obstruction of justice" in

a few minutes. i want to read something here from nbc sources about what happened immediately prior to that one on one meeting. >> if this, larry, is just a casual conversation, why ask the attorney general and the vice president to leave the room? >> i don't know. that's a question the trump white house has to answer or the president himself might have to answer. i have to say, for a lot of people observing this from not within the beltway or manhattan, this story really doesn't square well with them. what you heard from the president there at the commence tent address how the media has

been against him since day one, that resonates with them, because they see a president who, in their minds, hasn't gotten a fair shake from the beginning. craig, you just asked a really good question about acting director mccabe. that would have been a great moment under oath when senator rubio asked him if there was any impediment into the investigation, he could have said there was this memo i got from director comey. he had that opportunity and he didn't. neither did director comey when he was testifying about any concerns about a need for a special prosecutor. he didn't mention this. why? >> larry, these listeners that you talk to who feel as if there's been this pile-on, do some see anything wrong with the president of the united states revealing classified information to russi leaders? how do they elain that? is that just -- >> well, again, this is all based on these anonymous reports that come out. so they're dubious and skeptical of it from the beginning, but they recognize legally the

president does have the right to declassify information in his judgment at that time. and they have great respect for general mccaster w cmst master, up and said this report is false. >> dana, so far, no prominent democrat, no prominent republican in leadership is talking impeachment. but this is what politico writes so far as republicans go -- >> is that the reality? or is what larry is mentioning there, is that the reality? is this one of those stories that just goes away in a week or two, or is this an instance where president trump may have pushed it a bit too far? >> craig, i see no way in which this goes away. that doesn't mean it's leading

to impeachment or resignation. that's wildly premature and i think it would be unwise and premature of any democrats or anybody to be saying that right at this moment. but it doesn't go away. it is true that a lot of americans, the whole russia story hasn't been registering. but when you fire the fbi director who is overseeing the investigation, when these memos coming out suggesting you were trying to do something, if not impede the investigaon and don't forget that investigation was denied the funds that comey thought. when you have the information, the secret information being handed to russia, at some point, it gets critical velocity here. i think we're at the point, as i was saying earlier, you can't put this genie back in the bottle. it doesn't mean it leads to impeachment, but it does lead to an extensive and lengthy public investigation. >> we have the first sitting gop

senator, lisa murkowski here -- before i get to that, larry, what -- >> i'm shaking my head. the fbi director mccabe said he doesn't have problems for resources of this investigation. this whole question -- >> it's not my opinion. comey asked for additional money and was turned down. >> that's been denied by the justice department and denied by again acting -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> he was under oath and he said that's not true. >> we're actually out of time, larry. but i want to get you back on. thank you so much. >> good to talk to you. >> i do want to bring up lisa murkows murkowski's tweet, if we can, senator from alaska here becoming the first gop senator to call for this independent investigation saying she's

concerned about the continuous and often conflicting reports about president trump, the fbi, and russia. again, that's senator murkowski there. gentlemen, thank you. that brings us to our microsoft pulse question of the day. do you believe that president trump obstructed justice? that's question. you can cast your vote at pulse .msnbc.com. the stock market having its worst day since september right now. you can see the arrows are down. looks like about 258 points, as the chaos is starting to affect the markets. and vladamir putin to the rescue? putin offering to release transcripts of trump's meeting with lavrov. my next guest says the russian president is laughing at us. their leadership is instinctive.

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with the watergate comparison, do you think we're inching towards impeachment proceedings, or is it too early? >> i think it's too early, but i was using that and iran contra and other similar situations, not just watergate. iran contra. the way ronald reagan was able to overcome iran contra was he got everything out. everything out so there were no more questions so the country could move on.

>> arizona senator john mccain there, as talk of impeachment starts. new questions as to whether the actions of president trump's conversations with james comey may give rise to criminal charges. republican congressman telling the hill if details of the memo are true, they would merit impeachment. ari melbourne is our chief legal correspondent. and legal analyst ted williams joining us from washington. ted, good to see you, as well. ari, let me start with you. nbc news reported that director comey in this memo, at a meeting with president trump, said that he was -- >> does that constitute obstruction of justice based on what we know right now? >> alone, probably not. it is, however, the kind of thing that is bad, that if you add other bad things, intent and action, it could make a strong

case for obstruction. this is in the context of the white house getting negative information about mike flynn, including the view of the justice department that he was blackmailable by the russians. and what is the response? first to keep him on. then to fire him reluctantly. then to ask for all of this to be quashed. a more reasonable fact finder would look at that information and say gosh, let's get to the bottom of it. not gosh, let's go after the investigation of the bad behavior. so all of this coming together could look bad. the question is why was jim comey terminated? if the white house has other good reasons, they might be able to say it's not obstruction, because we had a sloppy conversation, which looks bad. but ultimately we fired him for a good reason. the problem here is, they don't have the credibility right now, i think, with a lot of people. >> you mentioned intent. this is something we've heard

ban wantied about over the last 24 hours. how would investigators try to prove the president's sfwhenlt -- intent? >> like when the president told lester holt, that makes him look bad. you look at circumstantial evidence and third party testimony. look, this is a president of the united states, he's not subject to normal criminal prosecution. so it's a very high bar. but it's very problematic right now. >> the three investigations that are happening right now, are those investigations capable of getting to the bottom of what's going on, ted? or do we need an independent investigator? >> craig, i think we definitely need an independent special prosecutor or independent commission. and the rational behind that is, they're stepping over each other.

these political implications that are there, they're not doing the job for the american people. they're not getting anywhere but spinning their wheels. let me just say from the beginning here, i am not a jim comey fan. i think president barack obama really suld ve fired jim comey when he cameut 11 days before the election with this weiner debacle. but having said that, i have to agree with ari here, there needs to be cooperation. we know that this conversation took place in the oval office. but, and we also know that the vice president pence and the attorney general sessions were asked to leave the room. well, guess what? a few days ago when we had this security breach, h.r. mcmaster was out front right away. guess what? we haven't heard from pence. we haven't heard from the

attorney general sessions. you've got to wonder why are they -- what are they trying to cover up? and one more thing, craig. here it is, the president of the united states is appearing to cover for mike flynn. this is not one of his boys. he didn't grow up with him. he doesn't really know him that well. and by the way, i'm a former federal agent. and it leads me to believe that there's some fire here with this smoke, and that he's trying to protect flynn because he doesn't want flynn to come out with testimony against him. >> can anything be inferred from the fact that the president wanted to speak with jim comey alone? >> ted raises an important part. do we think the president was acting to help michael flynn or himself or some mixed effort of the two?

because again, investigators would look more -- if you're trying to help yourself, it's more incriminating. you're saying what do we infer about people leaving the room? >> yeah. >> well, in theory, attorney general jeff sessions is recused from campaign inquiries, so we don't know what all the facts that flynn is being investigated for. but if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, the recused attorney general probably should leave the room. then you have the leftover of mike pence and it looks really bad. we need all the facts as an investigative person, my mindset is open, because we haven't heard from the vice president. but it doesn't look good in the context of everything we've discussed to have people leaving. it makes it look like you want to say something you don't want people to hear. that's the natural inference. >> this could be considered consciousness of guilt in asking the vice president and the attorney general to leave the room. so ari is right on point on this.

>> ted, good to have you on board. good to see you. ari, always good to have you, as well. stocks continuing their plunge. they've fallen a few points since we've been on air, having their worst days since last fall. is the trump market rally over? and democrats talking impeachment ad republicans are starting to crack in their defense of the president. but as long as the gop holds the majority, is there anything democrats can do? hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. nosy neighbor with a glad bag, full of trash.

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to the markets right now. take a look. a dramatic dip across the board this morning, reacting to the latest turmoil in washington, d.c. there's the dow, down nearly 270 points. 1.3% almost. nasdaq, new york stock exchange, those indices down. the s&p 500 was on track to have its worst day since last september. stephanie is here to help us make sense of some of what we are seeing. first of all, what's behind the

drop? >> it's what you're not seeing. have you seen the republican agenda lately? tax reform, deregulation, health care, sflinfrastructure. you haven't seen it. and that's what drove the markets. president trump was about pro business agenda. there's this positive sentiment that he's going to make these changes but they haven't yet, and now that we are knee deep in comey, lavrov, russia, special prosecutor, we're a month away from the summer. so the question is, these business promises, are they ever coming? >> but to be fair, the market seems to be resilient despite the controversies. anything about this that has spooked investors? >> it's a culmination. north korea missile test, the market doesn't blink. it's just more and more. now that we're in this place, a

special prosecutor, mitch mcconnell saying yesterday this is really going to delay, these distractions are going to delay the agenda. that's a problem. think about this. who inside the white house is going to focus on this? president trump was a business guy.icies that are tripping him up, it's business management. the markets have confident in gary, the president of goldman. if he walks out of the building, who is going to focus on this? when a trader doesn't see anymore, or they can get their trade to work, they leave. >> steve mnuchin, we saw that wacky stuff -- >> the economist. >> the article the president was talking about, the economy. but mnuchin backed him up. >> exactly. putting more pressure on gary cohen. the president talked a whole lot of nonsense. >> are the good times over for

the market? >> who knows? the markets have been steadily climbing higher. maybe this is just taking a breath or maybe this is going to be a crack in the market. we'll see. >> stephanie rule, you an nor the 9:00 here. >>calls growing louder from democrats to impeach the president. an impassioned al green on the floor this morning. >> the house of representatives has a duty that it can take up. and that is of impeachment. i stand for impeachment of the president. >> congressman shawn patrick maloney standing by to join me on the other side of the break. and i'm being told it'll be another 15, maybe 20 minutes, and we will have you on your way. ♪ runway models on the runway? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money evan saved

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northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us. the latest comey bombshell. now democrats, several of them inching closer to the "i" word, impeach. this morning, house democrats held a news conference renews calls for an independent investigation, including democratic congressman from new york, shawn patrick maloney, who said i said this about comey's abrupt firing, and i'll keep saying it. congressman, your colleague from texas, al green, took to the floor this morning to drive home calls for impeachment. are we there yet? >> i think the most important thing is that we all take a deep breath and get the facts.

we shot nuld not have a predetermined outcome in mind. there are two serious things that have come known. first, that the president disclosed code word top secret information. i would have fired or prosecuted if i had done that. that's very serious. but the more serious thing might be the revelation that the president attempted to kill the investigation of michael flynn. and his motives were that and what occurred are essential to be known and we don't know all those facts. so i think it's not wise for the democrats to be jumping to the conclusions. we should get the facts. >> how do we go about getting those facts? >> the most important thing is to have an independent look at it. there are a number of ways that can be done. i would like to see an independent counsel named by the justice department. i also think it would be important to have a select committee on the hill. but whatever is fair, and gets at the facts. and all of us should take a deep

breath to recognize that this is a new president, in the early part of his term. and much of america is not going to put up with some political exercise that rushes to judgment. i lived through the 1998 impeachment of president clinton, and the republicans jumped way out ahead of the american people on that. democrats would be wise to simply follow the facts. we should be okay with knowing what the facts are. but the republicans are increasingly becoming aware tt they must go along with an independent process, an independent prosecutor on an independent committee to get those facts fairly. >> congressman, you just said this is a new president early in his administration. it sounds as if you think some of these stumbles are because of that, because he is new. is that a fair assessment? >> look, we are way past the time when this administration needs to take the training wheels off. there's no excuse for disclosing

code word information to the russians. that's outrageous. the consequences of that may be far worse than we understand at this point. so i don't cut him a lot of slack for that. i also don't think it's ever okay for the president to interfere with an ongoing fbi investigation. what i'm saying is that democrats must not rush to judgment on this or make it a political issue. we must investigate the facts in a way that is fair and neutral and that the american people could have some confidence in. if the facts warrant going further down the road, then let the facts determine that. >> congressman, we heard from the senate intel committee last hour. they want jim comey to testify in an open or closed hearing.cl. it would seem that general mike flynn would be able to share a fair amount of light on this. why aren't more people clamoring for general flynn to testify, as well? >> i think that's very

important, that we understand what michael flynn knows and what the president and michael flynn discussednd when they discussed it. because that will go to the heart of what the president's intent was in seeking to kill the fbi investigation into michael flynn. so i think you will see that be part of any thorough investigation. it will have to be an examination of what michael flynn was up to and who he was talking to. michael flynn, as you know, is seeking immunity from prosecution. so all of those issues have to be worked through. that's why an independent prosecutor would be the best way to go, because they would have the ability to not just develop the facts, but to take prosecutorial action. i think a lot of this has to happen in public, and that's why an independent commission could do that. you could put as many republicans on it as you want as long as it's fair. the american public needs to know the facts and have confidence that it's being done in a way that's independent and

fair. >> congressman maloney from new york, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> president trump preparing for his first overseas trip as president of the united states. what effect will all this chaos have on the trip? (vo) pro plan bright mind adult 7+ promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. (ray) the difference has been incredible. she is much more aware. she wants to learn things. (vo) purina pro plan bright mind. nutrition that performs.

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the latest controversy in the white house comes at a critical time for president trump. he's due to depart washington friday for his first overseas trip as president. he'll visit saudi arabia, israel, and europe as well, including an audience with the pope. our panel ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post." charlie savage for the new york tiles, and msnbc contributor deborah ruben. big thanks to all of you for being with me on this fine wednesday afternoon. let me start with you. we hea fro your colleague glenn thrush yesterday on the mood inside this white house, and a changing dynamic inside this white house. what can you tell us about

what's happening inside the walls of 1600 pennsylvania avenue this afternoon? >> a couple things are happening. one is that from basically the day donald trump took office, we always heard about sort of a potential staff shakeup or he wasn't quite happy with certain aspects of his staff. but that's hardened and solidified and it feels much more real and much more imminent. the question is sort of when and who? but that seems to be a given that someone is going. the other thing that i think is fascinating that we're hearing is as much as president trump is deeply unhappy with his staff, his staff is not that happy with him right now, because a lot of these problems are of his own making. and yes, part of it is because the staff can't control him. but a lot of it is donald trump doing something arguably quite inadvisable, giving his staff very little notice, expecting them to scramble and clean it up

and make it right and then being frustrated with them and then saying you demand absolute loyalty from us, and you're throwing us under the bus, and privately, they're not super pleased. that's why you're seeing most r impeachment isn't out of the question, which we've heard throughout the hour here that it's a long way to impeachment. why don't you think that the "i" word is still so far-fetched right now? >> well, i think inspector former fbi director comeyen us all on a hunt, and that is for the memos. what does it say? does it shed on the termination of the fbi director later on? what does it say about the president's role in terminating the employment of mr. flynn? what does it say about the conversations that preceded all of those? i think we have moved on from the underlying issue that began all this. remember, way back when we were talking about collusion between the campaign and the russians. that is still going on, but what has taken a life of its own and

what could now lead to the downfall of the president is what the president did about it once in office. what lies he told, what actions he took regarding personnel, whether he tried to pressure the fbi. that in and of itself is what people now are focusing on. and your previous guest, the congressman, was talking about an independent prosecutor, i think he said a special prosecutor and a separate committee. you could almost sever this in two, on one hand allowing the investigation into the collusion going forward and the other one looking at the president's conduct. because that, in fact, has taken on a life of its own. >> charlotte, there is an article this morning about the president's upcoming trip, and it says, quote, mr. trump will go abroad on friday less as an anti-obama figure than as a latter-day richard m. nixon or bill clinton, a wounded

president fleeing political storms at home. he's set dozens of meetings with middle eastern leaders. how has what we've seen transpire over the last nine days in this country going to affect this president's reception in other countries next week? >> well, i think that one of the challenges the president is going to face as he goes to these other countries and speaks to these foreign leaders is an element that this segment hasn't addressed yet which is the other big revelation of the week which came from the "washington post," not my paper, that he quade classified information to russian officials visiting the oval office without prior planning by his administration, without interagency vetting, just sort of blurted it out off the cuff, which led to a scramble because the ally, apparently israel, which had provided that information, did not want it shared lest it

jeopardize a very important source they had of information about the islamic state. that's a real no-no in the world of international cooperation and intelligence sharing in these highly sense itive contexts. and it underscores, i think, that other leaders may be reluctant to say things to our president lest they be passed on in ways they did not intend for that to happen. so this is all part of this swirl, all which of has some connection to russia in sort of an unreal way. it keeps coming back to russia in all different directions. all of this is complicating president trump's presidency at this particularly sensitive moment. >> jennifer, let me play devil's advocate for a second here, because what about this idea the president is going overseas for a number of ys. he'll be meeting with other folks, includi pope francis. won't this be the perfect way to change the conversation, to a certain extent?

>> it depends on who the president is. the examples you cited, richard nixon and bill clinton, were very comfortable on the world stage. here they could excel, they could demonstrate their knowledge of the world, they could be impressive. donald trump is a whole different ball of wax. first of all, he doesn't like to travel at all. he has done relatively little travel for a president. secondly, he doesn't like being in uncomfortable situations where he's not in control. in these other countries, he's going to be told where to sit, he's going to be told what the staging of a press conference is, he's going to be asked questions by the foreign press, so he's not going to be in control. and that's a problem for donald trump. and the third problem he's going to have is, has anybody thought about the idea of him giving a speech on islam in saudi arabia? this could be disastrous. this was the guy, of course, who enacted the muslim ban. this is just frought with the potential for really kind of a disastrous fallout. because we have a president who is so inexperienced and a staff

that is afraid to confront him and who themselves have no experience, we could really have some major faux pas. i don't see this as an opportunity, i see them as a whole other set of challenges for him to overcome. >> we'll leave it right there. thank you, all. coming up, much, much more on the fallout as it conditions. president trum revealing classified information. also, more on that comey memo as well. this is msnbc.

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time now for one last look this hour at our microsoft pulse question of the day. you might recall we asked, if james comey's memo shows president trump trying to shut down the probe into michael flynn, do you believe he obstructed justice? that was the question, and it is a bit lopsided on this wednesday afternoon here at msnbc. that's going to do it for this hour of msnbc live. we'll see you back here tomorrow. my colleague katy tur is up now. the word of the day in washington? impeachment. >> we have learned that if the reporting is accurate, that the president is willing to directly interfere with an active investigation. >> it is unacceptable that we continue ignoring these scandals. and that's exactly what they are. >> this is where i stand. i will not be moved. the president muste imhed!

>> democrats todayn the hill are trying to harness the outrage after the "new york times" first reported that donald trump asked james comey to stop investigating mike flynn, citing comey's own notes during a face to face meeting where trump said, you can let this go. the republicans have their own things to say. here's speaker paul ryan. >> we need the facts. there are some people out there who want to harm the president. our job is to be sober and concentrate on getting the facts. i want to get the facts and do our jobs and follow the facts wherever they may lead. what we don't do is try to meet the facts within some 24-hour news cycle. try to follow the facts where they lead and that will take some time. >> the president had his own words at the coast