how he interacts with reince priebus. this will be an illuminating conversation. >> we'll, of course, have live coverage. we'll be anxious to hear what steve bannon and reince priebus have to say. stand by for that. thanks very much, phil. >>> i want to continue to watch live pictures also coming in from mexico city where the secretary of state rex tillerson has been meeting with mexican leaders. he's meeting with luis videgaray, the foreign minister. they'll be speaking and making statements in mexico city. i don't know if they'll be answering reporters questions but we'll have live coverage of that. just moments ago, president trump addressed the mexican visit by the secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security john kelly. he told business leaders that tillerson's visit to mexico, and i'm quoting the president now, is going to be a tough trip. his words. a tough trip. we'll, of course, have live coverage of that news conference. the statements that will be made by the secretary of state and the mexican fore

what could it mean for reince priebus? i speak to people inside the white house who say it is not smooth sailing in there. could this be a real problem for reince priebus specifically? >> it is a problem for reince priebus specifically, compounded by the fact this morning, minutes ago, the president of the united states took to twitter and also personally slammed the fbi. shutdown the leaks, stop causing me headaches. this is unexpected and unprecedented behavior. none of it is good. >> the idea, stop causing me headaches. checking the president is what other organizations, including the free press are supposed to do. barack obama learned that. george bush learned that. this ain't a dictatorship. >> that's part of the thing, donald trump, i'm going to come in here and clean up the swamp. there's a reason there's a swamp there. other presidents tried to come in and clean it up. the problem is, there's such a beaurocracy in place. donald trump is learn thag lesson very, very quickly. at's taking place on twitter is a lot of

dana, so interesting to see steve bannon and reince priebus side by side. so much talk about division in the white house, chaos in the white house, what did you make of what you saw? >> they were trying very hard to tamp down on that but coming out. the symbolism of just the -- whacked us by a 2 x 4 on the head. doesn't take a lot to read into that. we get along. got it. they called each other partner a lot. i know this is not new, the concept of the two of them trying to say they work well together, and for example, steve bannon told me last week that he was livid that his former publication breitbart did really big hit job, splashing front of the website on reince priebus saying that he was done. now, that very well could be that he needs reince priebus as a partner, not that they truly have a lot of love for one another ideally. this is kind of an arranged marriage. reince priebus has the trains running on time and bannon made very clear he sees himself and is the foundation for the trump brand. >> what is so interesting about that foundation is that it'

reince priebus says can you fix it, is there some way to fix it. can we get the truth out it. is that how you read that? >> yes, the way i read it parts of it were garage, reince priebus is saying you can correct part of it. we confirming story about classified information -- >> i would want something false about me corrected too. it's a big difference, is it t not, if the "new york times" says contact with russia, that's not a small mistake, that's a glaring one, right. >> i agree with you. we're in a world of national intelligence i agree with you. it's an important question to ask. >> at no time, in your reporting was the white house asking the fbi to do something wrong. we have reince priebus was asking to correct the story that the fbi after the fbi told them they were mistakes? >> that's correct. the democrats would say the fact talk about this and talking about how to deal with stories in the press is improper. the fbi is supposed to be independent. >> for me, on the other hand do we want incorrect stories or exzag rated out there. fbi does not want to jeopardize their

reince priebus saying eight years, not four. when we heard bannon talking about, have our backs but hold us accountable. a month into this administration they're already looking to build the support to keep a coalition behind donald trump to try to excite these conservatives, to stay with them against the headwinds of the larger political conversation where there have been protests against the president, where there have been questions about how smoothly this new administration is running. not so much from conservatives, although there have been questions from conservatives who are looking for that competency piece. you have these two top leaders in the white house, she's right, it used to be the white house chief of staff had no equals. in this case, putting the two men side by side, it shows a partnership. it allows us to see that they acknowledge they have different styles. they acknowledge that they might approach things differently but try to convey to everyone they can manage their own kind of working disagreements, hot an

certainly reince priebus, the trump campaign at the time had a different opinion. tim kearny, is the white house, is the trump white house right now asking for a benefit of the doubt that it was unwilling to gave the clinton campaign and loretta lynch over the summer? >> oh, absolutely. and i think what we're seeing is -- we see it in lots of issues, it's harder to do this job, and there's a lot more pitfalls than i think these people understood. a lot of these are rookie mistakes. i think trump saying this stuff what he said about reporters shouldn't be allowed to do x, y. he hasn't adapted and maybe priebus hasn't adapted when you're in that white house, when you're there, there's lots of constraints on you that they're not used to those constraints and stepping over them. rookie mistakes. >> all right. tim kearny at the cpac conference, sam stein at the white house, thanks for joining us, appreciate it. >>> and we are going to take a quick break here. coming up though, it is a big weekend for the democratic party. there's an election this weekend. members of the

obviously reince priebus wasn't going to tell cnn. how did you like it when the fbi was leaking about hillary clinton? >> well, how does the president like it the fact that when reince priebus is naming unknown sources and he doesn't want -- the newspapers and the media to report unknown sources. there is a huge hypocrisy. >> chris: wait. you are duc ducking the question. what do you think about the fbi leaking it. >> look, the fbi and others, there are so many leaks in this white house and in the intelligence organization because there is not a credible investigation that's going on people quote investigators. we need jason chaffetz. >> come on. >> chris: ed, you get the final word here. >> i think we have the fbi on the shot seat and rightsly so. the fbi works for the president. weave ought to have some protects on letting things go go forward. it sounds like reince was hung tout drive on mccabe a story a chief of staff's job is to manage all of the government, including law enforcement and he has to do that. he has to ask for law e

and you saw reince priebus represent it that the establishment gop represented by reince priebus, the two of them together is suppose the to create harmony in the white house and outside of it. describing bannon as a conservative movement is a papering over what's going on here. a few years ago steve bannon was not not vieted to cpac because he was so far out of the even the activist stream. he represents something more combative and more aggressive and their unity is more important for the white house functioning and as an institution but it remains an open question how long can this last and continue to work. >> it's interesting that at the start of the conversation that reince priebus had and steve bannon and matt schlapp was the chairman. we heard him joke about he used to be the uninvited. meaning he was never invited to these kinds of events and he is there and donald trump wasn't there last year as a presidential candidate and he's going to be well-received tomorrow. >> they've taken over. the establishment doesn't have a big presence. >> i think there is one senator speaking a

obviously reince priebus wasn't going to tell cnn. how did you like it when the fbi was leaking about hillary clinton? >> well, how does the president like it the fact that when reince priebus is naming unknown sources and he doesn't want the newspapers and the media to report unknown sources? there is a huge hypocrisy.nk >> chris: wait.ou you are ducking the question. what do you think about the fbi leaking it? >> well, look, the fbi and others, there are so many leaks in this white house and in the a intelligence organization because there is not a credible investigation that's going on people, investigators. we need jason chaffetz. >> come on. >> chris: ed, you get the final word here. >> no, look, i think we have the fbi on the shot seat and>> rightly so. the fbi works for the president. we ought to have some protectsn on letting things go go forward. it sounds like reince was hung out to drive on mccabe. a chief of staff's job is to manage all of the government, including law enforcement, and he has to do that. he has to ask for

steve bannon, reince priebus the white house chief of staff expected to speak any moment. leaders of the democrat national party will be picking their chair in the next couple of days. more about that on the other side of this break. nosy neighbor with a keen sense of smell... glad bag, full of trash. what happens next? nothing. only glad has febreze to neutralize odors for 5 days. guaranteed. even the most perceptive noses won't notice the trash. be happy. it's glad. there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. hey, it's the phillips' lady! try these delicious phillips' fiber good gummies, a good source of fiber to help support regularity. mmm...these are great! my work here is done. phillips', the tasty side of fiber. >>> receipt now a live look there, mexico city. we are expecting to hear from the secretary of state any moment now. also the secretary of homeland security as well. they are in mexico city for a series of meetings. we were expecting a debrief a short time ago. that has not happened just yet. when it does, we will take you there live. >>> we will also ta

so they say only after that contact from the deputy director of the fbi that reince priebus asked for the fbi to try to intervene, refute the stories. because according to them they were getting crushed. it was their way of explaining these contacts which as we described last night, go counter to the rules supposed to reduce the contacts between the white house and the fbi don. >> and just to be clear, multiple conversations between the white house and fbi. >> that's right. one of the things they were focusing on is they say andrew mccabe reached out and initiated contact but after that initial contact they kept calling the fbi, trying to in essence pressure to try to refute the stories. and didn't stop with the deputy director of the fbi. they also had contact with the director of the fbi, james comey, and burning up the phones here in washington, calling intelligence agencies, trying to get their help to try to refute these stories. trying to get these people to talk to journalists at least on background to tell them to say the stories were false. >> interesting. sara, you have new

and reince priebus said something telling. he was fond of bannon's loyalty to donald trump's agenda. who is run aring things in the white house more? >> the only person running things in the white house is the president of the united states. and everyone else supports his agenda. and reince, steve bannon wears seven collars at a time. i don't know if he thinks it is cold. i thought it was comical if you know steve and his dress code. honestly, there is one person running the white house. the man in the oval office and the american people voted to put in there and he's making sure his agenda is moving forward. it is important to understand in order for the president to be successful, you have to have people putting their egos aside and work together not for their agenda but the president's agenda wlaefr their agenda may have been before or now, it doesn't matter they are serving the president of the united states and his agenda. >> we don't see him speak pacifically very often and find the last time he stepped up to the mi coph

priebus, the new york times quoted christopher ruddy and said reince priebus is in over his head. mr. ruddy appeared on our air in the last hour and seemed to walk that back. listen to this. >> i gave some criticisms. i did not ask for reince to be fired. reince called me and said here are the things i'm doing. the buggest problem personally is the media attacks on the president. >> is it the media attacks on the president or the white house having trouble keeping things straight. >> chris ruddy is the rising conservative media, news max has been around for a while, gaining more attention and credibility. he knows trump from both new york and west palm beach. ruddy is saying reince priebus reached out to me as the chief of staff of the white house is reaching out to the head of a modest sized news organization, let me explain to you how i'm doing things, that guy is not feeling confident. most chiefs of staff would dress somebody down for doing that. i don't know what that conversation was how that went but i can tell you there's infighting here. brilliant piece in "new york," mag

official says this all began with fbi andrew mccabe and chief of staff reince priebus on the sidelines of the white house meeting on the day the stories were published. the white house official says mccabe told priebus that the story vastly overstated what the fbi know bs the cs about the co. mccabe did not discuss the aspects about the case and we don't know what he told priebus. priebus did later on reach out to mccabe and james comey asking the fbi to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. the fbi refused. fbi refused to kbhecomment on t story. the communication with the white house and fbi was unusual because of a decade old restriction on contacts. the request would appear to violate procedures that limit the communications with the fbi on pending investigations. the white house official says that mccabe initiated the conversations. either way, the white house asking the fbi refute the stories runs contrary to justice department procedure memos issued in 2007 and 2009 that are supposed t limit direct communications on pending investigations between the white house

white house chief of staff reince priebus denied that story. week ago on fox news. >> "new york times" last week put out article with no direct sources that said the trump campaign had constant contacts with russian spies. basically treasonous accusations, all kinds of people looking into this. i can assure you, been approved to say this, top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that that story is not only inaccurate but grossly overstated and it was wrong. there's nothing to it. >> and jim the investigation is still ongoing correct? >> listen, to say there's nothing to it is at minimum premature. we know the fbi is still investigating the communications. several members of the house and senate intelligence kmeets tell us. starting to collect records and documents and will call witnesses to testify to these questions. still open question what the contacts were and what the significance and meaning were. >> criticizing sources on background and that's what they're asking allegedly the fbi to do. evan why is this not typical back

priebus so much as the doing around reince priebus and when priebus stepped in, there's been an attempt to dial that back and come up with a pecking order. i do know this reflects the fact that there are folks who don't want to see mr. priebus as chief of staff. it may not reflect precisely what's going on. >> stephen miller is in the middle of all this, whether there's a discussion about the executive orders, he's in the middle of it. yesterday mixing it up on the issue of alleged voter fraud, unsubstantiated claims without evidence. he made more of them. let's listen. >> president trump again suggested in a meeting with senators that thousands of illegal voters were bused from massachusetts to new hampshire. do you have that evidence? >> i actually have worked before on a campaign in new hampshire, i can tell you this issue of busing voters into new hampshire is widely known by anyone who has worked in new hampshire politics. it's very real, very serious. this morning, on this show is not the venue to lay out the evidence. i can tell you this, voter fraud is the serious issue in this

>> i cannot tell you that. >> chris: wait a minute, reince priebus. you are complaining about unnamed sources, you are using an unnamed source. >> i did not ask for approval to use their name. when i say top-level people, i mean top level people. >> chris: so no disclosure whatsoever. anybody involved in trump or russia in the 2016 campaign? >> no. and if you look at the union says comments in the actual paper -- >> chris: in the intelligence committee? >> he was briefed on the fbi, and then he went on the record and said that this story is complete garbage. >> chris: here's the problem. i do not have any problem with you complaining about an individual story. they got it wrong, sometimes you get it wrong. i don't have any problem with you complaining about bias, but you went a lot further than that. to the president went a lot further than that. he said that the fake media, not stories, but the fake media are enemies to the country. we do not have a state run media in the country. that's what they have in dictatorships. >> okay, listen, chris. it is

reince priebus was involved in that campaign. multiple other people in the white use, obvious including the president himself were involved i the campaign so in no way should the fbi ever talk to the subjects of an investigation about where the investigation stands. i can think of no other case foreign investigating a bank, if you were investigating someone for fraud you would never, ever come to them and say "oh, yeah, there was a story that ran and by the way, we don't think that story is true." it does not happen and it's completely inappropriate. >> right. so the point here as i understand it is let's assume the set of facts -- that the reports were wrong and that, you know, this did emanate from the fbi. it still strikes me even in the most charitable set of circumstances as a totally improper communication. >> yeah. that's right. there is no other way to look at it. it's hard to know what mccabe was thinking when he had that conversation with reince priebus. and it's hard to know what he was thinking when he had the follow-

reince priebus was involved in that campaign. multiple other people in the white house, obviously including the president himself were involved in the campaign so in no way should the fbi ever talk to the subjects of an investigation about where the investigation stands. i can think of no other case foreign investigating a bank, if you were investigating someone for fraud you would never, ever come to them and say "oh, yeah, there was a story that ran and by the way, we don't think that story is true." it does not happen and it's completely inappropriate. >> right. so the point here as i understand it is let's assume the set of facts -- that the reports were wrong and that, you know, this did emanate from the fbi. it still strikes me even in the most charitable set of circumstances as a totally improper communication. >> yeah. that's right. there is no other way to look at it. it's hard to know what mccabe was thinking when he had that conversation with reince priebus. and it's hard to know what he was thinking when he had the fo

>> i cannot tell you that. >> chris: wait a minute, reince priebus. you are complaining about unnamed sources, you are using an unnamed source. >> i did not ask for approval to use their name. when i say top-level people, i mean top level people. >> chris: so no disclosure whatsoever. anybody involved in trump or russia in the 2016 campaign? >> no. and if you look at the union says comments in the actual paper -- >> chris: in the intelligence committee? >> he was briefed on the fbi, and then he went on the record and said that this story is complete garbage. i do not have any problem with you complaining about an individual story. they got it wrong, sometimes you get it wrong. i don't have any problem with you complaining about bias, but you went a lot further than that. to the president went a lot further than that. he said that the fake media, not stories, but the fake media are enemies to the country. we do not have a state run media in the country. that's what they have in dictatorships. >> okay, listen, chris. it is not just two stories. it is fo

the white house is defending chief of staff reince priebus following reports he asked the fbi to push back against media reports on the trump campaigns ties to russia before the election. this is one of our top talkers tonight at 6:30, we want to know what you think, it's friday we've had a long week and a lot of news. according to associated press, reince priebus asked deputy director andrew mccab to publicly dispute the media reports. the fbi represented that request. tonight, democrats are foul. they say the communication between priebus and the fbi is violation of justice department rules and may even be illegal. now they're calling for an investigation. >> here's seth wax man former federal prosecutor. how bad is this? >> it's an interesting question. really two parts to it. one is whether there's some sort of illegality that went on or policy or procedures, on the illegality side, there does not seem to be any cause of action criminally for the chief of staff's conduct. i'm reaching out to the fbi. does not cause or violate a criminal rule or statute. these are executive departm

i think reince priebus, good guy, well intentioned. but he clearly doesn't know how the federal agencies work and i think the president is not goating the backup he needs in the operation of white house. and sometimes the pushback that he needs, which you would have with a stronger white house counsel. -- white house chief of staff. >> ranee, you know rhines well. let me add in some of our reporting is that reince priebus is having to follow the president around be part of his conversations, linen stead of actually doing his chief of staff duties. is there a risk of reince priebus not then getting to do his job? >> i don't think so at all. i think rhines is actually doing a pretty phenomenal job. it reminds me so much, brooke of the first hundred days whenever speaker gingrich took over in 1995. which is it's a lot. first of alling you have got three dynamics at play. one is you have the peter principle, which is everybody wants the bring their people up. but congressional staffers don't always work so well in the speaker's office and

the president and his aids are also hitting back an reports that chief of staff reince priebus called on the fbi to throw cold water on a new story which linked the campaign to russians. this story is getting hotter. reached tight pressure them to kill this story in the new york times that the fbi had transcripts of contacts between campaign officials last year and people with intelligence. sayish it was an intelligence committee. came up to the chief of staff and said can i get five minutes of your time during which he said this whole story was a bunch of b. s., and that's a direct quote. the reaction was well, can we do anything to correct the record? mccabe said let me take you back to the office and think about it apparently told him the fbi doesn't get into commenting on stories, nunez from the house intelligence committee after an fbi briefing said he didn't have any information to suggest anything in the report was true. talked to james comey the fbi director and said we can't comment, priebus said do you mind if i do, and comey said yeah, go ahead. priebus went to fox and frie

on the left the president at the super bowl party at mar-a-lago, flanked by his wife and reince priebus. on the right, that would be our former president at richard branson's private island in the caribbean, where he spent part of the weekend kiteboarding. the burdens of office are real and often visible. it's serious business, it has sent grown men to an early grave, but there is a life after the presidency, and barack obama appears to be trying to live it. many people posited on social media that he already looks younger ins picture. while in office he complained to staff he wasn't allowed to take part in any water sports for safety reasons. when you hail from hawaii, that hurts. it appears he may be making up for lost time. as for that super bowl party, the president left with the falcons comfortably ahead 28-3, lopsided game, what could go wrong? that is our broadcast for tonight. thank you for being here with us. we'll see you tomorrow evening. >>> tonight on "all in" --. you know, this is a very >>> tonight on "all in" --. you know, this is a very dangerous period of time. >> the

you had reince priebus going on the sunday shows saying it himself. pam, why is this not a typical back and forth between the white house talking with the fbi and their own justice department. what makes this so odd and perhaps against regulations? >> there are decade-old restrictions, poppy, on such contacts between the white house and the fbi limiting those discussions only when it is important for the president's duties and where appropriate from a law enforcement perspective. now, if the deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe, said this to the white house, he may have overstepped since it is an ongoing investigation, not to mention an investigation involving the president's associates and russia. the request from the white house is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the fbi on pending investigations, poppy. >> right. this is an investigation that's still on going. >> it is very much still on going. the fbi's counterintelligence division, they are investigating the contacts between trump associates during the campaign as we

. >> what about this back and forth between reince priebus and the fbi? >> it was a story in "the new york times" that there were intercepts of the trump campaign last year and people connected to russian intelligence. turns out the initial tip-off on all that came from deputy director of the fbi who approached the chief of staff in a meeting last week. he was there as part of a group of intelligence people that were briefing white house staff. andrew mccabe came up to reince priebus and said can i have five minutes of your time. he said i want to tell you this story in "the new york times" is b.s., using the actual words. reince priebus said is there something we can do about it. correct the record. priebus called him back when he was at the fbi. he said no, there's nothing the fbi can do. we don't get into calling balls and strikes here. priebus talked to the director of the fbi, james comey who said the same thing. so priebus said can i go out and said what you told me? comey said we'll sign off on that. here's what reince priebus said on "fox and frie

do you think if reince priebus did what is being reported that he should resign? >> yeah, he has to go. this is a white house -- karl rove in the bush administration suggested some u.s. attorneys be replaced. he did it through proper channels, talked to the white house counsel about it and it was a huge scandal that led to the attorney general being replaced. for reince priebus to go ten steps further and ask the fbi himself, he has to go. he has to answer questions from the press, talk to congress, explain what he talked about, what he told them. and we have to remember what he said, the clip you just showed, he said he was briefed by the fbi. if that's true it's a question for the fbi. why were they briefing the white house on an investigation into the president's campaign? that in itself would be inappropriate. >> i want to be clear because this seems an important thing for folks to understand. everything you're talking about is guiding by essentially norms. there's departmental policy on this. the constitution -- there's nothing that clear, red letter that say

reince priebus denied the reports. >> know what they were told. i have talked to the fbi. i know what they are saying.g. i would not be on your show telling you we have been assured there is nothing to the story if i did not actually have clearance to make this comment. allegations of white house communications with the fbi during t the investigation have raised questions as to whether the trump administration has violated ethics restrictitions meant to protect such investigations from political influence. they have also drawn comparisons to former president richard nixon's 1972 discussion with aides who used the cia to push the fbi away from investigating the watergate burglary that later led to his resignation. will thehe constant chaos, confusioion, and conflicts of interest in the trump administration lead to president trump's impeachment? for more, we go to someone at the center of the unraveling of a presidency. whiteent richard nixon's house counsel, john dean. he is the author of several books including, "the nixon defense: what he knew and when he knew it" and "co

reince priebus denied the reports. >> know what they were told. i have talked to the fbi. i know what they are saying. i would not be on your show telling you we have been assured there is nothing to the story if i did not actually have clearance to make this comment. allegations of white house communications with the fbi during the investigation have raised questions as to whether the trump administration has violated ethics restrictions meant to protect such investigations from political influence. they have also drawn comparisons to former president richard nixon's 1972 discussion with aides who used the cia to push the fbi away from investigating the watergate burglary that later led to his resignation. will the constant chaos, confusion, and conflicts of interest in the trump administration lead to president trump's impeachment? for more, we go to someone at the center of the unraveling of a presidency. whiteent richard nixon's house counsel, john dean. he is the author of several books including, "the nixon defense: what he knew and when he knew it" and "conservative

reince priebus tried to knock down the report, i think he was trying correct the word. where do you stand on this reince priebus and white house talking to people to get truth out to the american people? >> the fbi should not be talk to the white house. they are regulations about it, there's no criminal statutes about it. they are regulations. and this is not richard nixon, this is not trying to get cia to cover for criminal conduct. this is four on a scale of 10. politically and 0 on scale. -- let's not turn it into partisan attack by the democrats or republicans. the american people are entitled to compare, full and complete investigation. let's us use our judgment to decide who to vote for in future elections. >> i assume when you are -- would you chair this commission? >> i'm too old to do that. i would serve on any commission. if my country called for me to serve, i would serve. people from none party, people with defense experience, people to get to the bottom of this, and tell american people the truth. we're entitled to know the truth. >> thank you. >>>till ahea

help us understand reince priebus and steve bannon. on camera they have a good working relationship, but some have been saying just the fact they have to appear together suggests something else. >> reporter: ayman, i don't quite want to call it a buddy comedy routine, but i almost think there were ways they were going for it, or at least reince priebus was. he was asked, what is the biggest misconception of the trump administration in the immediate gentleman media, and he said, actually, steve bannon and i get along pretty well. and if anybody embodies what was the accomplishment of the republican party, it's probably reince priebus. he was running the party. he was somebody close to a lot of the other people who ran against trump and lost in the primary. and even the way he talked about donald trump and the conservative movement yesterday. it had echoes of coming out of that world. take a look at how priebus kind of focused in on donald trump. >> president trump brought together the party and the conservative movement. and i have to t

priebus is -- there's issues between reince priebus and steve bannon. what have you learned about that? >> i don't believe there's any issue, i think they get along, actually. if i knew other wide, i would tell you. from what i'm hearing, they do get along. jared kushner's there now, he's been a really good influence coming in. he told me yesterday they have a great working relationship the three of them, and they're accomplishing a lot. and i believe jared. and i do think he's a straight shooter, so i don't think there's -- those are not the issues that i think people are upset about, that there's some sort of in fighting. they keep saying this, i don't see the infighting, i think there's been some krill six of the white house, and that's fair and appropriate for all the media to make, it should be done based on facts. >> let's talk a little more about reince priebus. here's what you said yesterday. >> i think there's a lot of weakness coming out of the chief of staff, i think reince priebus, good guy, well intentioned, he clearly doesn't know how the

reince priebus at that point, there is a gift to reince priebus, yes, but he has to say go talk to don, go down the hall to talk to the counsel then. please. i have to walk away because this is inappropriate. it's hard. it's a new white house. of all people in the white house, the chief of staff has to know the rules, especially he is the former party chairman. he has to understand the politics. >> the deputy fbi director mccabe should have known that as well. >> right. >> he should not have brought this up to priebus saying that he did not believe the "new york times" reporting or that it was overstated. we don't know exactly what mccabe said to priebus, but this is the white house's account of what mccabe said, but even if he did suggest that, that is a potential problematic thing for him. >> the deputy director skewed up. two wrongs don't make a right, and we have to understand the sensitivity of this. >> the chief of staff has to walk away and say, whoa, not me. that's the counsel's office. please. >> i do think this has been a communications challenge for this new bhous, though, b

now reince priebus is at the same situation. the chief of staff's job is to say whoa, the white house counsel's office is down the hall. take it up with the counsel, not with me. i'm the political gatekeeper, not the person who should be involved in that conversation. >> president trump tweeted today, said the fbi's totally unable to stop the national security leakers who have have on u.s., find now. not only is it his prerogative, but the obama administration was very aggressive in prosecuting leakers, why shouldn't he be as well. . >> if there are leaks that gener jeopardize national security or operations in the field, that is true. i'm not sure the chief of staff calling the fbi calling to quash stories classifies as a classified matter or national security. we have seen since the president took office a systematic effort to impeach all kinds of institutions. whether it's the courts, whether it's the news media, or in this case, the fbi, when he sees stories that displease him. and it is, you know, this very same organizatio

meeting led by white house chief of staff reince priebus. the fbi deputy director andrew mccabe asked priebus for we're told five minutes alone after the meeting end, according to administration officials, and called a report, this being the "new york times" report, linking campaign advisors to russian intelligence, in his words, quote, total bs. and asked mccabe whether we can do anything about it, what the fbi can to do set the record straight. they told priebus that the fbi cannot comment on the reports, priebus then asked if he could cite mccabe in pushing back on the stories in tv interviews on sunday and that's exactly what he did. >> this is unusual, correct? >> reporter: it is. direct communications between the white house and the fbi, unusual, there are decades old restrictions on some contact. donald trump tweeted today, the fbi totally unable to stop the national security leakers that have permeated our government for a long time. they can't even find the leakers within the fbi itself. this could have a devastating effect an the u

it's one of the reasons you saw chief of staff reince priebus make an effort to knock down the reports. but the fact there's communication between priebus and the fbi on a matter that the fbi is investigating is alarming to a lot of democratic critics. we saw nancy pelosi come out with a statement today about it. we also have seen a lot of democrats urging the attorney general, jeff sessions, to recuse himself from this investigation because he has personal connections, of course, to the trump campaign. he was one of the top trump campaign sure gates throughout the general election and could be compromised because of that. >> what a difference a year makes. donald trump didn't go to cpac last year. came this year. what was the reception like? >> reporter: sort of a victory lap. he opened with this diatribe against the press. he talked about cpac starting in 2011. this is a crowd he has spoken to before. there were protests threatened last time around and a lot of his primary rivals took the stage here. a lot of people in this room are people who have been committed to the conservative

how would he know that of reince priebus. who was the last person he talked to familiar with the runnings of the white house? a man named donald trump. >> he probably had a half hour drinks with donald trump. then he's on tv saying that. if i were reince priebus, i would be more than a little nervous. >> i think there are mixed impulses on the part of donald trump. he likes chaos. he thinks is benefits him. i think he enjoys a situation in which nobody totally feels the ground secure under them. and he has shown himself very willing to shake up his staff. he did it repeatedly in the campaign. on the other hand, three weeks into your presidency looking at a 55% disapproval rating by far the highest ever for a president this new. any kind of change looks like retreat, like you're conceding to the opponent. i am guessing his natural instinct is being offset by his reluctance to give credence to the argument of his critics. >> amy, do you think trump is delivering a message through his friend? >> you have to remember what reince

>> first of all, reince priebus i've known him since he was elected chair of the rnc, he -- the post mortem after mitt romney's loss which was to be about growing in the tent, bringing in gays, hispanics, and all the minorities not part of the traditional republican base the last few years and what i saw him and heard him do today is adopt trump's words, superlatives talk about the walls things reince would not have talked about before. the other thing obvious to me is that they are there trying to make a conservative movement their movement. trump is not a conservative. he is a populists he's a trumpist, there were something like eight members of the trump administration showing up at c pack, an enormous amount of administration presence, they are trying to court that base, keep them in their corner tell them it's us against them, us against the media, it's us against the world, against our enemy, and you are our army. >> does it work? >> well, it works with that base. >> during the campaign. >> does it a work in a general spectrum? no, his numbers are lower and getting lower, he's

reince priebus also reached out to the director of the cia. even though this has happened i'm sure in the past, these sort of off-channel conversations, in the midst of what's going on and the questions about russia, this is not good. >> i should say for the record, the fbi says the assistant director reached out to him first. i'll clear that up. i want to squeeze in another topic, trump's controversial senior adviser, you guys know steve bannon, made a rare appearance at cpac and offered his view on how government should work. let's listen to a piece of that. >> if you look at the lines of work, i kind of break it out into three verticals or three buckets. the first is kind of national security and sovereignty. the second line of work is what i refer to as economic nationalism. the third broadly line of work is what is deconstruction of the administrative state. >> elise, how should we interpret that? what is he saying? >> i think he's saying they're bringing in a wrecking ball to washington and this is what president trump had promised to do

in terms of reince priebus -- >> i think everything the president has done is pretty sensible. i don't think he's done anything crazy and the press keeps trying to -- even the so-called muslim ban. it was a 90-day review period on immigration policies and proper vetting. i think we all should agree that's a good idea. maybe there is, again, a communications issue, and that's what my problems with reince was. he says they're taking steps to fix it, and i'm keeping an open mind but i'm willing to criticize like you are when there is room for -- we will never have a president like this that is so much accessible, interested in information from the public and who will act and react to improve things as he goes along. >> i take your point there, just on friday night or thursday night he was talking to two of our correspondents just having run into them in the hallway. we love that kind of access to get his point of view, but the fact that he is tweeting that he has himself repeatedly called it a muslim ban in the last week, ten days reinforces that, so you know, a lot of the -- >> i

on the left the president at the super bowl party at mar-a-lago, flanked by his wife and reince priebus. on the right, that would be our former president at richard branson's private island in the caribbean, where he spent part of the weekend kiteboarding. the burdens of office are real and often visible. it's serious business, it has sent grown men to an early grave, but there is a life after the presidency, and barack obama appears to be trying to live it. many people posited on social media that he already looks younger ins picture. while in office he complained to staff he wasn't allowed to take part in any water sports for safety reasons. when you hail from hawaii, that hurts. it appears he may be making up for lost time. as for that super bowl party, the president left with the falcons comfortably ahead 28-3, lopsided game, what could go wrong? that is our broadcast for tonight. thank you for being here with us. we'll see you tomorrow evening. >>> this is turning out to be a very remarkable night in the news. within the last few minutes senator elizabeth warren according to mitch

what you're talking about is what reince priebus said last week. this is not something the white house has tried to conceal. >> it doesn't matter if it concealed. is it appropriate, though? >> let's take the cnn article on face value. i'm not going to confirm or deny anything on these stories because these leaks of classified information could do real harm to our national security, but let's take it at face value. the fbi went to president trump and reince priebus and said that reports of contacts between trump associates last year and russian intelligence officials were grossly overstated. isn't it reasonable for the chief of staff to then say to the fbi director are you going to say anything to correct the record on this since everyone is running around washington making these allegations? i think that's a perfectly reasonable response. the fbi have reasons why they don't call balls and strikes on the stories because we don't want to let our adversaries know what we know and what we don't know and how we know it. that's alarming. >> let's go to t

>> well, it tells me that the agenda is not going to change, that it's steve bannon and reince priebus are united in their efforts to get the president's agenda through. and the way they describe their relationship is that priebus is the one who makes the trains run on time and bannon is the one who reminds him of the campaign and what the president's promises were and how they are supposed to deliver. i think that bannon is clearly the visionary here. i don't think donald trump would like him to be called donald trump's brain, but he is the visionary. and from listening to him today, he is not changing or relenting at all one bit, even if some members of the republican establishment want him to, and including stop attacking the media, but he's not going to stop doing that either. this is who he is. this is how they won. and they're going to continue. >> you know, mark, bannon doesn't make a lot of public appearances. i think this may have been his first public appearance. why now? why at this specific conference? >> well, cpac is certainly a very friendly venue for steve bannon and fo

reince priebus committed breach of the fbi's independent. the ranking told associated press the white house is not permitted to -- joined by nbc news investigative reporter, ken. >> there's something there. nbc news confirmed that fbi did obtain there was contact between certain aides over the summer designed to favor donald trump in the election. the question was did some of the stories over step and describe contact it's with contact with russian intelligence officials. u.s. doesn't know whether there was russian officials. they don't know significant of this information. there's there there. this is not go to go away. fbi is investigating the contacts. question is whether collusion is open question. >> how rare would it be for the president to have chief of staff call up top officials to say put out word there's nothing to the story. >> the white house account is opposite of that. white house went to deputy staff to say the story is wrong. is there a way to correct it. no, we're not in the business of correcting record. the fbi did not wa

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they say when that "new york times" story broke, chief of staff reince priebus had a separate meeting with top officials at the fbi on a separate matter here at the white house and then deputy director andrew mccabe asked for a pull-aside with mr. priebus after that meeting. during that pull-aside, according to the white house deputy director mccabe said that "new york times" story is, quote unquote, garbage. and then according to the white house, priebus said what do we do about it and let it be known the reporting is not accurate. ultimately the fbi told the white house they're not going to do anything about it, they're not in the business of calling balls and strikes. the question becomes was it inappropriate for the white house and fbi to have any sort of conversation about the "new york times" report? senior administration official when i asked about that called that notion insane, saying that, look, t bottom line is they never discussed an actual investigatio instead they just discussed the "new york times" report. they say that conversation was perfectly acceptable, legal and w

what reince priebus did is questionable. other people are uncomfortable. white house officials are talking to the press about it. this is completely within trump's control. and he should look at himself. yes, i understand why he's questioning the leaks publicly, to try to distract from his own failings. >> again, we're waiting for the president to speak. i tend to think he'll address this at the top of his remarks at cpac, but we'll watch. brian fallon, to you, i can't help but think about the campaign and the comments from the trump team and other opponents of yours, obviously you worked with hillary clinton's team, about, you know, that moment when former president bill clinton walked on the plane on the tarmac in arizona and spoke with loretta lynch and she had to recuse herself from anything having to do with the fbi investigation of hillary clinton and the server. they were very critical of that. now this is a conversation, they're not saying the conversation didn't take place between reince priebus and the deputy at the fbi. >> that's right, poppy. a

steve bannon on stage next to reap ins pri reince priebus. he opened saying thank you for invite he me this year. we have gotten a lot of chest beating no one expected us to win, but look, we did. it put priebus in a bit of an uncomfortable position. you could see in the room. i was down in front with the audience kind of watching the two of them to see how they reacted and applause for both of them but some people in the room sat and watched and listen to bannon. didn't stand up, didn't clap. you could hear priebus making kind aftof a pitch to those peo in the room. take a listen to what priebus had to say about that. >> president trump brought together the party and the conservative movement and i've got to tell you, if the party and the conservative movement are together, similar to steve and i, it can't be stopped. >> you can see that he is kind of pleading with a lot of those people to say, hey, give donald trump a chance. and the other thing that priebus focused on a lot was the supreme court pick, of course. but bannon, as you guys hav