. >> with the nbc chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. how is the jay johnson testimony resonating at the white house? >> reporter: quiet day at the white house. the president has left now. he's headed to iowa. he's got that rally coming up later tonight. that's something we'll be watching to see if and how he responds to a lot of conversations we have been having on this. you heard jay johnson talk about

our chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. we're following a protest against the health care bill near senator marco rubio's office in doral, florida, where we find mariana otencio. what is going on there now? >> about 60 or 70 people were protesting on this very street in doral, florida, in front of senator marco rubio's office. the protest has since dispersed, but as you mentioned, we have been talking to protesters for the past couple of hours. and we heard from people from all backgrounds, all age groups, floridians concerned about obamacare being taken away. 1.5 million floridians are currently enrolled in obamacare. you had a lot of people concerned about these steep cuts to medicaid we have been hearing about with this new senate bill. 4.3 million floridians are on medicaid right now. so a lot of people arguing they stand a lot to lose and one of them is paul thomas. he is actually from an lgpt organization called save. paul, you helped organize this protest today. tell me what is the one issue for you as a floridian th

hallie jackson was references that. in a few hours, the president back in the rose garden, set to announce whether or not the u.s. will stay in the paris climate accord. staffers and family on both sides making last-ditch efforts to sway president trump. >>> good morning, everyone. i'm stephanie rhule. back with you. we begin with these dramatic developments in the russia investigation. you could say that any day. a source close to james comey telling nbc news that james comey is, quote, cleared for takeoff by robert mueller, the special counsel, overseeing the justice department russia investigation. also new this morning, new subpoenas issued by a house intelligence committee in its russia investigation. two sets of subpoenas, actually. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker joins us live. "new york times" is saying this comey testimony would be the most sensational development to the russia saga. >> there's no doubt that all eyes are going to be on capitol hill next week when former fbi director james come

let me check it over to hallie jackson who is on capitol hill. hallie? >> members of congress are still processing what happened, and the discussion now has turned to security and vulnerability for the lawmakers. kasie hunt is inside the capitol. we are outside. what are you hearing from folks as you see them in the hallways? see people you talk to every day about policy? this obviously very different tonally and emotionally too. >> reporter: this is normally a place where we have a friendly but adversarial relationship with the people that we cover, at least on our best days. i think that the mood here has shifted pretty dramatically to one of camaraderie. as we have talked about the course of this afternoon, members of the capitol police, lawmakers, reporters, aides, everybody works in the same set of buildings. we come in and out of the same entrances every day, and we see a lot of the same faces every day, and you can really tell among the members themselves, the way they are talking to their staff, the hugs i have seen exchanged at random between pe

nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has those details. >> reporter: new questions about whether the president's own words could come back to haunt him as he attacks travel ban, now in the hands of the supreme court, describing the current version as watered down and politically correct. and, yes, the president's reiterating, it is a travel ban. >> i don't think the president cares what you call it. >> reporter: his administration used to. >> its not a travel ban. remember, it's a travel pause. >> its not a travel ban. >> this is not a travel ban. this is a temporary pause. >> when we use words like travel ban, that misrepresents what it is. >> reporter: why does it matter what it's called? because the president's words can and probably will be used against him in a court of law. other judges in decisions to block the ban already pointed to the president's rhetoric on the campaign trail. even supporters like conservative lawyer george conway, husband of kellyanne conway, says these tweets on legal issues undercuts the president. >> many people would say it undermine

nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has details. >> reporter: tonight, more than a month after a mystery he made himself, president trump's putting it to rest, revealing he has no tapes of talks with the fbi director he fired. in a carefully phrased tweet, he writes, i did not make and do not have any such recordings. six weeks after implying he might have. quote, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> why the game? >> i don't know that there was a game. >> reporter: no games and no regrets, his spokesperson says, about the original tweet, which set off a 41-day stretch unlike any other in a modern presidency. the tweet may 12th, led james comey to give his memos he says to a friend that following monday to share publicly hoping that would trigger a special counsel. it did. may 17th. now, according to a former intelligence official, an investigation into whether the president tried to obstruct justice in his conversations with comey. tapes could have helped prove it or not. >> lordy, i hope th

i'll be back with my colleague hallie jackson on capitol hill. as we head for break, the prayer from the chaplain in the wake of the shooting. >> may we refuse to boast about tomorrow for we know not what a day may bring. lord, surround our lawmakers with the shields of your protection and favor. fill them with your spirit, causing them to walk in your statutes and keep your judgments. ♪ ♪ (vo) you can pass down a subaru forester. (dad) she's all yours. (vo) but you get to keep the memories. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. when a fire destroyedwith us everything in our living room. we replaced it all without touching our savings. yeah, our insurance won't do that. no. you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. p3 it's meat, cheese and nuts. i keep my protein interesting. oh yea, me too. i have cheese and uh these herbs. p3 snacks. the more interesting way to get your protein. (woman) there's a moment of truth.etes, and now with victoza®, a better moment of proof. victoza® lowers my a1c an

here's chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. >> reporter: one of the most important voices in the president's ear using it publicly for one of the first times today. >> this is technology week here at the white house. >> reporter: jared kushner, low volume but high profile. leading a series of tech sessions with some of the industry's biggest names, the leaders of amazon, apple and google. >> many warned me that the bureaucracy would resist any change that we tried to implement. so far i have found exactly the opposite. >> reporter: it's part of a massive portfolio for the president's son-in-law and top adviser which includes overhauling the federal bureaucracy and mideast peace. for that, kushner will head to jerusalem and ramallah this week to jump-start those negotiations with israelis and palestinians. >> there's a lot of audacity on the part of donald trump in tasking his son-in-law with achieving middle east peace, something that diplomats with decades and decades of experience have come up short in doing. but sometimes in american history the break-throughs are done

>> hallie jackson at the white house, thank you. >>> a second mistrial has been declared in the case of a former cincinnati police officer who was charged with fatally shooting an unarmed motorist in an incident caught on camera. he's now the third former officer to avoid conviction for a deadly shooting in the u.s. within a week's time. nbc's ron mott now with the story. >> do you have a license on you? >> reporter: what some see as a clear case of excessive force, former university of cincinnati police officer ray tensing opening fire on unarmed driver sam dubose has once again confounded an ohio jury. the case ending in a mistrial for the second time as prosecutors argued tensing claimed he was in danger. >> we've got a problem when the justice system doesn't apply equally to everybody. >> state of ohio versus raymond tensing. >> reporter: though tensing was quickly charged with murder in 2015 after a confrontation that began as a minor traffic stop, prosecuting the case has proven far more challenging. >> this is the most asinine act i've ever seen a police officer make. >> repor

hallie jackson has the details. >> reporter: more than a month after a mystery he made himself, president trump putting to rest revealing he has no tapes of talks with the fbi director he fired. in a carefully phrased tweet, he writes i did not make and do not have any such recordings. six weeks after implying he might have. quote, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> why the game? >> i don't know that it was a game. >> reporter: no games and no regrets his spokesperson says about the original tweet which sen set off a 41 day stretch unlike any other in a modern presidency. the tweet may 12th led james comey to give his memos he says to a friend that following monday to share publicly hoping that would trigger a special counsel. it did. may 17th. and now according to a former intelligence official, an investigation into whether the president tried to obstruct justice in his conversations with comey. tapes could have helped prove it. or not. >> lordy i hope there are tapes. >> reporter: the president and his team let

hallie jackson at the white house. thank you. >>> president trump today jumped back into the diplomatic crisis surrounding qatar, a key ally in the fight against isis. within about an hour of each other today, the president and his own secretary of state appeared to deliver contradictory messages about the u.s. stance on qatar and the crisis that has left it largely isolated. nbc's andrea mitchell now with more on that. >>> stop teaching people to -- >> reporter: today the president accusing a major u.s. military ally in the war against isis of financing terror. >> the nation of qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. >> reporter: slamming what he called qatar's extreme ideology. but only an hour earlier, mixed signals. his secretary of state urging calm, even calling on qatar's powerful neighbors led by saudi arabia to lift their embargo on qatar. >> we call on the kingdom of saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, bahrain and egypt to ease the blockade against qatar. >> r

hallie jackson has the details. >> reporter: more than a month after a mystery he made himself, president trump putting to rest revealing he has no tapes of talks with the fbi director he fired. in a carefully phrased tweet, he writes i did not make and do not have any such recordings. six week after implying he might have. quote, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> why the game? >> i don't know that it was a game. >> reporter: no games and no regrets his spokesperson says about the original tweet which set off a 41 day stretch unlike any other in a modern presidency. the tweet may 12th led james comey to give his memos he says to a friend that following monday to share publicly hoping that would trigger a special counsel. it did. may 17th. and now according to a former intelligence official, an investigation into whether the president tried to obstruct justice in his conversations with comey. tapes could have helped prove it. or not. >> lordy i hope there are tapes. >> reporter: the president and his team letting

>> hallie jackson in washington, thanks. let's bring in our political director, moderator of "meet the press" chuck todd. chuck, with all the information we heard from that statement today, talk about the questions that will likely drive the comey hearing tomorrow. >> well, look, i think the first question is going to be there are three conversations that comey had one on one with the president that he does not detail in the opening statement, so if that's probably going to be among the first questions, what about the other three encounters, anything of significance there. but look, on the big, i think the drill down that i expect a lot of, the code word satellite associates, that the president himself is at least introducing the idea someone with his campaign may have been doing something he didn't know about. let me tell you something else they will be looking for, lester, and i know we'll talk about this tomorrow when we're together. how do republicans question comey? how many of them look like they are questioning on beh

nbc chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has details. >> reporter: new questions whether the president's owns words could come back to haunt him as he talks travel ban in the hands of supreme court describing the current version as watered down and politically correct and yes, the president's reiterating it is a travel ban. >> i don't think the president cares what you call it. >> reporter: his administration used to. >> it's not a travel ban, it's a travel pause. >> it's not a travel ban. >> this is not a travel ban. this is a temporary pause. >> we use words like travel ban that misrepresents what it is. >> reporter: why does it matter what it's called? because the president's words can and probably will be used against him in a court of law. other judges in decisions to block the ban already pointed to the president's rhetoric on the campaign trail. even supporters like conservative lawyer george conway, husband of kellyanne, argues these tweets undercut the president. >> does it make their legal position harder but many would say undermines their credibility as well. >> d

those were lies plain and simple. >> hallie jackson reporting there. president trump's team was ready to fire back at comey just minutes after he finished testifying the president's outside counsel gave a public address rebuking the fired fbi director. nbc peter alexander has those details. >> the president feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda with the business of this country and this public cloud removed. >> reporter: kasowitz accusing qom me about lying about mr. trump's asking for loyalty. >> the president never in form or substance directed or suggested that mr. comey stop investigating any one. >> reporter: that dispute could easily be settled if the president released secret tapes he suggested exist but is yet to produce. kasowitz also seizing on other points including the statement that comey told mr. trump he was not personally under investigation. >> mr. comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told president trump privately. >> reporter: the veteran trial lawyer attacking come

here's chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. >> reporter: one of the most important voices in the president's ear using it publicly for one of the first times today. >> this is technology week here at the white house. >> reporter: jared kushner, low volume but high profile. during a series of tech sessions with some of the industry's biggest names, the leaders of amazon, apple and google. >> many warned me that the bureaucracy would resist any change that we tried to implement. so far i have found exactly the opposite. >> reporter: it's part of a massive portfolio for the president's son-in-law and top adviser which includes overhauling the federal bureaucracy and mideast peace. for that, kushner will head to jerusalem and ramallah this week to jump-start the negotiations with israelis and palestinians. >> there's a lot of audacity on the part of donald trump in tasking his son-in-law with achieving middle east peace, something that diplomats with decades and decades of experience have come up short in doing. but sometimes in american history the break-throughs are done by

>> hallie jackson at the white house, thank you. >>> a second mistrial has been declared in the case of a former cincinnati police officer who was charged with fatally shooting an unarmed motorist in an incident caught on camera. he's now the third former officer to avoid conviction for a deadly shooting in the u.s. within a week's time. nbc's ron mott now with the story. >> do you have a license on you? >> reporter: what some see as a clear case of excessive force, former university of cincinnati police officer ray tens unarmed driver sam dubose has once again confounded an ohio jury. the case ending in a mistrial for the second time as prosecutors argued tensing claimed he was in danger. >> we've got a problem when the justice system doesn't apply equally to everybody. >> state of ohio versus raymond tensing. >> reporter: though tensing was quickly charged with murder in 2015 after a confrontation that began as a minor traffic stop, prosecuting the case has proven far more challenging. >> this is the most asinine act i've ever seen a police officer make. >> reporter: in a statement

hallie jackson at the white house. thank you. >>> president trump today jumped back into the diplomatic crisis surrounding qatar, a key ally in the fight against isis. within about an hour of each other today, the president and his own secretary of state appeared to deliver contradictory messages about the u.s. stance on qatar and the crisis that has left it largely isolated. nbc's andrea mitchell now with more on that. >>> stop teaching people to -- >> reporter: today the president accusing a major u.s. military ally in the war against isis of financing terror. >> the nation of qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. >> reporter: slamming what he called qatar's extreme ideology. but only an hour earlier, mixed signals. his secretary of state urging calm, even calling on qatar's powerful neighbors led by saudi arabia to lift their embargo on qatar. >> we call on the kingdom of saudi arabia, the united arash emirates, bahrain -- arab emirates, bahrain, and egypt to ease the

nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has details. >> reporter: tonight, more than a month after a mystery he made himself, president trump's putting it to rest, revealing he has no tapes of talks with the fbi director he fired. in a carefully phrased tweet, he writes, i did not make and do not have any such recordings. six weeks after implying he might have, quote, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> why the game? >> i don't know that there was a game. >> reporter: no games and no regrets, his spokesperson says, about the original tweet, which set off a 41-day stretch, unlike any other in a modern presidency. the tweet may 12th, led james comey to give his memos he says to a friend that following monday to share publicly hoping that would trigger a special counsel. it did. may 17th. now according to a former intelligence official, an investigation into whether the president tried to obstruct justice in his conversations with comey. tapes could have helped prove it or not. >> lordy, i hope th

those were lies plain and simple. >> hallie jackson reporting there. president trump's team was ready to fire back at comey. just minutes after he finished testifying the president's outside counsel gave a public address rebuking the fired fbi director. peter alexander has those details. >> the president feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda with the business of this country wand this public cloud removed. >> reporter: kasowitz accusing comey lying about mr. trump's demapped for loyalty. >> the president never in form or substance directed or suggested that mr. comey stop investigating any one. >> reporter: that dispute could easily be settled if the president released secret tapes he suggested exist but is yet to produce. kasowitz also seizing on other points including the statement that comey told mr. trump he was not personally under investigation. >> mr. comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told president trump privately. >> reporter: the veteran trial lawyer attacking comey for m

nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson with the details. >> reporter: tonight an urgent warning from multiple government officials and outside experts. nbc news has learned that the u.s. may not be ready to stop russia or others from interfering in our next election. >> the trump administration is woefully missing in action. and we're going to need to figure out how to get them in the game and fast. >> reporter: current and former u.s. intelligence officials tell nbc news russia interfered with 2016 in three key ways. by spreading fake news online, by hacking and leaking embarrassing material, and by cyberattacking election databases. that never changed any votes. to stop it from happening again, experts say the government would need to coordinate with tech companies to top the flow of fake news. show vladimir putin there's a cost to interfering and give states more tools to prevent and recover from cyberattacks. >> certainly not clear to me that the president and senior levels of the administration have weighed in with the russians or made clear to the public our determ

chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has details. >> president trump punching back. pitting his word against james comey's. saying he lied and willing to swear to it under oath. >> 100%. >> the president prepared to talk to a special counsel, calling some of his former fbi director's testimony not true. and some of it? vindication, he says. like when comey acknowledged the president was not personally under investigation during his tenure. >> no collusion, no obstruction. he's a leader and frankly, james comey confirmed a lot of what i said. and some of the things that he said just weren't true. >> like that now-infamous loyalty pledge. >> in fact he asked specifically of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. >> i hardly know the man, i'm not going to say i want to you pledge allegiance, who would do that? it doesn't make sense. no, i didn't say that and i didn't say the other. >> comey said he felt the president directed him to let go of the investigation into fired national security adviser michael flynn. >> i took it as a very disturbing thing. very concern

nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has details. >> reporter: tonight, more than a month after a mystery he made himself, president trump's putting it to rest, revealing he has no tapes of talks with the fbi director he fired. in a carefully phrased tweet, he writes, i did not make and do not have any such recordings. six weeks after implying he might have. quote, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> why the game? >> i don't know that there was a game. >> reporter: no games and no regrets, his spokesperson says, about the original tweet, which set off a presidency. the tweet may 12th, led james comey to give his memos he says to a friend that following monday to share publicly hoping that would trigger a special counsel. it did. may 17th. now, according to a former intelligence official, an investigation into whether the president tried to obstruct justice in his conversations with comey. tapes could have helped prove it or not. >> lordy, i hope there are tapes. >> reporter: the president an

hallie jackson has the details. >> reporter: more than a month after a mystery he made himself, president trump putting to rest revealing he has no tapes of talks with the fbi director he fired. in a carefully phrased tweet, he writes i did not make and do not have any such recordings. six week after implying he might have. quote, james comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> why the >> i don't know that it was a game. >> reporter: no games and no regrets his spokesperson says about the original tweet which set off a 41 day stretch unlike any other in a modern presidency. the tweet may 12th led james comey to give his memos he says to a friend that following monday to share publicly hoping that would trigger a special counsel. it did. may 17th. and now according to a former intelligence official, an investigation into whether the president tried to obstruct justice in his conversations with comey. tapes could have helped prove it. or not. >> lordy i hope there are tapes. >> reporter: the president and his team letting the qu

nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson joins us now. hallie, some of the legal experts think the president is sabotaging his own case with these tweets. >> reporter: that's it, doreen. a question tonight whether the president's words could end up coming back to haunt him in the long run as the supreme court takes a look at the travan constitutional. let's break it down. why does it matter what the president called it, whether it's a travel ban or executive order. here's why. other judges in lower courts have used the president's words as reasoning to block that ban and so there is an expectation that tweets like this one, tweets like the ones he had today could in fact end up in some of those arguments. and it's not just outside legal experts too. one of the president's biggest supporters, a well known conservative lawyer, george conway, husband of kellyanne conway, was out today saying essentially that tweets on legal matters could hurt the president's argument down the road. the white house seemingly unconcerned about this, they said

here's chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. >> reporter: one of the most important voices in the president's ear using it publicly for one of the first times today. >> this is technology week here at the white house. >> reporter: jared kushner, low volume but high profile. leading a series of tech sessions with some of the industry's biggest names, the leaders of amazon, apple and google. >> many warned me that the bureaucracy would resist any change that we tried to implement. so far i have found exactly the opposite. >> reporter: it's part of a massive portfolio for the president's son-in-law and top adviser which includes overhauling the federal bureaucracy head to jerusalem and ramallah this week to jump-start those negotiations with israelis and palestinians. >> there's a lot of audacity on the part of donald trump in tasking his son-in-law with achieving middle east peace, something that diplomats with decades and decades of experience have come up short in doing. but sometimes in american history the break-throughs are done by the people who don't know what they don

we have complete coverage starting with chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. >> reporter: commanding a spotlight entirely his, james comey turned it on to the president describing donald trump as not truthful and not credible. >> i was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting so i thought it was important to document. >> reporter: those memos provided the basis of comey's testimony today. dramatic, compelling and controversial. >> did the president at any time ask you to stop the fbi investigation into russian involvement in the 2016 u.s. elections? >> not to any using no. >> comey was less conclusive when asked about flynn after testifying that the president said he hoped comey would let flynn go. >> i took it as a direction. i mean, this is the president of the united states. with me alone saying i hope this, i took it as this is what he wants me to do. i didn't obey that but th's it. >> there's not what he said. >> correct. >> he said i hope. >> those were his exact words, yes. >> did you think that the president was trying to obstruction justice?

>> hallie jackson in washington, thanks. let's bring in our political director, moderator of "meet the press" chuck todd. chuck, with all the information we heard from that statement today, talk about the questions that will likely drive the comey hearing tomorrow. >> look, i think the first question is going to be there are three conversations that comey had one on one with the president that he does not detail in the opening statement, so if that's probably going to be among the first questions, what about the other three encounters, anything of significance there. but look, on the big, i think the drill down that i expect a lot of, the code word satellite associates, that the president himself is at least introducing the idea someone with his campaign may have been doing something he will be looking for, lester, and i know we'll talk about this tomorrow when we're together. how do republicans question comey? how many of them look like they are questioning on behalf of defense of the president and how many of them are not

>> hallie jackson in washington, thanks. let's bring in our political director, moderator of "meet the press" chuck todd. from that statement today, talk about the questions that will likely drive the comey hearing tomorrow. >> look, i think the first question is going to be there are three conversations that comey had one on one with the president that he does not detail in the opening statement, so if that's probably going to be among the first questions, what about the other three encounters, anything of significance there. on the drill down i expect a lot of, the code word satellite associates, that the president himself is at least introducing the idea someone with his campaign may have been doing something he didn't know about. let me tell you something else they will be looking for, lester, and i know we'll talk about this tomorrow when we're together. how do republicans question comey? how many of them look like they are questioning on behalf of defense of the president and how many of them are not worrying about the

we have complete coverage starting with chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. >> reporter: commanding a spotlight entirely his, james comey turned it on to the president describing donald trump as not truthful and not credible. >> i was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting so i thought it was important to document. >> reporter: those memos provided the basis of comey's testimony today. dramatic, compelling and controversial. >> did the president at any time ask you to stop the fbi investigation into russian involvement in the 2016 u.s. elections? >> not to any using no. >> comey was less conclusive when asked about flynn after testifying that the president said he hoped comey would let flynn go. >> i took it as a direction. i mean, this is the president of the united states. with me alone saying i hope this, i took it as this is what he wants me to do. i didn't obey that but that's the way i took it. >> there's not what he said. >> correct. >> he said i hope. >> those were his exact words, yes. >> did you think that the president was trying to obs

>> all right, hallie jackson starting us off. thank you. >>> and the testimony has shed new light into the investigations into russian election meddling an his testimony has a loft people asking did the president commit obstruction of justice? our justice correspondent pete williams has that part of the story. >> reporter: robert mueller the special counsel who took over the russian meddling investigation now has the memos james comey wrote after his meetings with donald trump comey revealed today. comey says the president urged him to drop the inquiry into michael flynn, forced to resign as national security adviser, but is that obstruction of justice trying to interfere with an investigation? legal experts disagree it requires showing intent, hard to prove. >> i think it's certainly evidence of obstruction of justice, we won't know until the fbi investigation is over but i clearly think that this is very important testimony that will help in the development of the criminal case. >> reporter: watching closely today, congressman

it's all coming up today. >> thanks to hallie jackson for that report. >> meanwhiles, the government contractor charged with leaking a secret nsa report the media is due in court. reality winner is expected to plead not guilty. her lawyers fighting to have her released on bond. the leak suggested russian hackers attacked at least one voting software supplier just one week prior to the election. >> i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf and ayman mohyeldin. "morning joe" starts right now. >> the idea, the way, the tradition of these agencies is not something he's been steeped in. over the course of time, a we can talk about different examples, what you're seeing now is a president who is very publicly learning about the way people react to what he considers to be normal new york city conversation. >> that normal new york city conversation will take center stage today on capitol hill. today is the day that fired fbi director james comey testifies before the senate intelligence committee. it's turning into the equivalent of a world cup match. bars are set to open early in d.c.

hallie jackson is in the white house press briefing. tell us a little more about what sean spicer was saying when he was asked about whether or not he smoke to the president about russia hacking into the election. >> sure. regarding the issue of whether or not you heard it from a colleague of ours in the briefing room sean spicer talking to the president about whether the president believes russia meddled. all the intelligence agencies have concluded has happened. the press secretary has said he has not spoken with the president about it. it's been five months, this is an answer we heard before from sean spicer, i think about climate change, i think about the idea whether the president has seen a draft of the health care bill. these were all in the last 48 hours. i haven't spoken with the president about it. >> what is his job if it's not to answer those questions? >> that's a question for the press secretary. he's the president's spokesperson. he comes out here on a regular basis to answer the questions from reporters on the behalf of

my colleague hallie jackson is live on capitol hill. this hour on msn brks krrkbc li shooter opened fire. republican congressmen were practicing for a game. congressman scalise, who had emergency surgery this morning, he is now in stable condition. all of this taking place a mile south of the capitol in alexandria. chaos happened on the field. >> we were doing batting practice, and all of a sudden we heard shots. it was clear pretty quickly there was a shooter there with a high-powered rifle. >> a shooter came out to practice, started shooting. he shot at trent kelly, our third baseman, and shot at steve scalise. >> there were dozens, if not hundreds, of shots fired. it was scary. >> i looked up and saw is a guy with a pistol. i thought, oh, my gosh, is that one of our guys or a double shooter situation? it took me a minute to see that it was one of our guys and he was firing back at the shooter, and it was one of the best sights i've seen in my life. >> we were getting ready for a game and something like this happens, and you can't bel

i'm joined hallie jackson and susan pates. whatever spicer says for misdirection, the president has got to be worried about a man with a firsthand knowledge of what he said to him in private. >> everybody in the white house is talking about this testimony and thinking about it and knows it's happening on thursday, chris. i mean there's no doubt about that, right? this is a huge political event. that said, you're seeing what you could call the comey counterprogramming move by the white house. the president, they're going to keep him in the words of sean spicer at the press briefing today, very busy. he's got a speech at the faith and freedom conference. he's going to be talking about infrastructure as well, essentially trying to keep up what they're going to call the focus on the agenda. the question is, of course, you still are going to have james comey testifying on capitol hill. so what is the white house going to do behind the scenes? order to provide some kind of crisis management to conin any potential fallout from testim

here is hallie jackson from nbc. >> reporter: new this morning, president trump raising doubts about special counsel robert mueller in an interview with fox news. >> he's very, very good friends with comey, which is very bothersome. >> reporter: a former intelligence official tells nbc news mueller is investigating the president for possible obstruction of justice. >> there's been no collusion, no obstruction, and virtually everybody agrees to that. >> reporter: these comments coming after a 41-day drama. the president finally putting an end to a mystery he created when he implied there may have been tapes of his conversations with the fbi director he fired. he now says, i did not make and do not have any such recordings. >> can you tell us why it took so long, 41 days, for this to be laid to rest? >> you guys asked for an answer. he gave you one. >> reporter: the president had until today to tell the house committee about any recordings that might have existed in his talks with james comey. >> if the president didn't make tapes, then why did he hang the idea of tapes over james come

hallie jackson, thank you as well. worked in five terms as congress and republican strategist, and we have a reporter of the "new york times" and an msnbc contributor. gosh, stumping pete williams on something. that's tough stuff. >> "new york times" stumped on monday, pete wmore stumped on t. >> tomorrow we're going to see sessions go up and we're going to -- he's going to get peppered with a lot of questions. how likely is it that he is going to answer much, or is he just going to do what coats did the other day, and rogers, saying, i'm not going to talk about my conversations with the president? >> it will be a combination of both. i think we'll see him do that. what's particularly interesting is he decided to do this in an open session, which i think was twofold. one was because we know if he wants to set up a political fight, him going in as a former colleague, he'll have the democrats coming after him. he'll be able to set this up as a fight, republican-democrat fight. and he can also do the fallback to a closed

. >>> hallie jackson is nbc's chief white house correspondent and matthew miller the former justice department spokesman in the obama administration. good morning, guys. >> >> matt, let me begin with you. we will start with jeff sessions. he has now testified the invitation to testify before the senate intelligence committee. what specifically do you think he heard, matt, in fbi director comey's testimony that compelled him to step into it? >> i think there are two things. first of all, i think the reason he's going before the intel committee, it looks like he's trying to get out of public testimony. the problem that he has now is that jim comey moved the russia cloud that the president famously said was over his head, he moved it on to jeff sessions' head in two ways, one, there are now apparently reports of another meeting with ambassador kislyak and, two, there continue to be questions about what jeff sessions knew when he signed off on jim comey's firing. did he know that the president was concerned with jim comey's handling of the russian affair? we know he was aware of comey's concerns a

. >>> first, at the white house, nbc's hallie jackson is following the day's developments. hallie, let's start with this lawsuit that's been filed, what do we know about that? >> reporter: you ran through the nuts and bullets, ali, the idea that this group is suing, essentially these attorneys general, the president for profiting, getting rich they say, from payments by foreign governments, which violates the constitution's emoluments clause, a word that everybody has learned over the last few months. we learned from white house press secretary sean spicer 90 minutes or so ago here at the white house, this idea, as spicer said, that this is a politically motivated move. he pointed to both attorneys general, democrats both. and essentially made the argument that this is motivated by nothing more than pure politics. i want you to listen to what he had to say and then we can talk about it. >> the president's interests as previously discussed do not violate the emoluments clause for reasons at length the department of justice filing enumerates in their friday night filing with

. >> hallie jackson is at the white house. hallie, what is the white house saying? >> reporter: we're looking to the president at the rose garden in just under an hour. i have to run in there and get all set up and we'll talk to you on the hour. this is something where you talked about a lot of it, the facts internally at the white house, those pressing the president to stay in. obviously the voices of steve bannon, epa administrator, are urging him to stay in. that's where we're leaning at this point. it's never really final until it comes out of the president's mouth himself, and this is not necessarily a black and white decision. there could be room for caveats, room for shades of gray. i was just said inside a couple minutes ago. i expect to see a lot of people in the rose garden and i would note the president is not expected to take questions in this setting. it doesn't mean he won't get them shouted at him, but at least at this point it is not going to be a formal news conference. >> all right, hallie, i'll let you run over there. thank you very much. nbc's ha

nbc news chev white house correspondent just off the phone with her sources hallie jackson. let white house reporter for the "wall street journal." eli stokols. here in new york white house reporter for the associated press. jonathan le mere appear hallie i'll begin with you because of a piece of paper that came out of the white house communication shop tonight. and, again, germane probably this is a white house that ceased communicating with us at least on television and ceased communicating with the american people for now that way. statement from the press secretary, it reads, the united states has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians including innocent children. the activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its april 4th, 2017, chemical weapons attack. as we have previously stated, the united states is in syria to eliminate the islamic state of iraq in syria. however if mr. assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons he an

nbc's hallie jackson has more from the white house. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. this morning president trump is getting out of the white house. he is hitting the road and heading to ohio to talk infrastructure. it's day three of what the white house framed as infrastructure week. the president in the buckeye state is expected to talk about rebuilding the nation's roads, bridges and in particular inland waterways in cincinnati. back at home, the capital seems consumed by james comey, the firebi director set to testify on the hill i just over 24 hours from now. that discussion, that white hot spotlight seems to be in some ways jamming up some of the president's legislative agenda. that's the plan for today, lois. >> thanks to hallie jackson. >> as she mentioned, anticipation growing over james comey's testimony tomorrow. today officials will likely face questions on the fbi's probe into russia and comey's firing in a senate hearing. likely slated to collect laws for collecting foreign intelligence information. rod rosenstein signed a letter recommending comey's dis

let's go right to hallie jackson who is in that white house press briefing room. what happened? >> it never took off at least according to one administration source when you are talking about this in-house crisis management center a source close to the administration tells me there is no war room. it is not happening. expect the administration this week to shunt questions off to outside counsel led by mark kasowitz. the expectation is that will likely change. a person involved with that effort is telling me they are working to stand up their team, organize that this week. they are expected to be based here in washington out of the law firm offices as the comey testimony is happening. the expectation right now is that will come from these outside legal experts that are working with the president. i am told that the president has consulted with the outside legal team about the strategy and planning for how to respond and contain any potential fallout from that very highly anticipated testimony coming down on thursday. >> is he going to be live tweeting this? is the president going

let's start with our reporter, hallie jackson at the white house, justice correspondent pete williams and capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. pete, explain who this ban affects and how they plan on implementing it. >> so it affects all refugees and people who want to get visas in the six countries covered by the executive order in the middle east. anyone who now has a visa, who has a visa as of 8:00 tonight eastern time or tomorrow morning in that part of the world, will be allowed to board a flight and will be allowed to come here. so the government says don't expect the scenes of chaos that came with the first executive order when people got on the plane with a valid visa then got here and suddenly were told the visa was no longer valid. government says that's not going to happen this time. secondly, any refugees already in the travel pipeline with their travel booked as of july 6th through july 6th will be allowed to come in. so for the rest of visa applicants, what the government now says is you have to have a close family relationship before you can get a visa in you're in one

hallie jackson, kasie hunt, david knack what murrah thank you. joining me today is brett stevens, msnbc contributor. >> congratulations. >> so lucky to have you. >> elise jordan. and princeton university professor, just as happy to have you. joining me from washington, my friend, chief national correspondent for "the new york times" mark liebovitz. you have to join us at the table next time. >> i probably will. >> we'll call you and book you a flight as soon as this show ends. >> i'm ready. >> what do you do with the president who does not understand the conservative policy making impulses of a republican president when it comes to crafting legislation? i mean, what is mitch mcconnell supposed to do now? >> i think if i were in his shoes, i'd want the president to go away. talk about infrastructure. >> go where? >> anything else. golf. tweet. whatever. just stay away from health care. and i actually would want this bill to fail. i think whoever owns health care as a party is going to suffer for it. and people forget yes, obama was re-elected afte

hallie jackson at the white house. thank you very much. richard blumenthal, democratic senator from connecticut joins us now. senator, thank you for being here today. would you characterize this as a failed vote or a victory potentially down the line, a reprieve? >> it's a reprieve, and it's only a temporary victory, if it's a victory at all, because we have stopped something truly bad and evil from happening. but the republicans have now gone from total secrecy to total chaos. they drafted this bill in complete secrecy behind closed doors. now they are in chaos and are going back to secrecy. this bill that the majority leader says he wants to submit by the end of the week will be the result again of a failed secret process. what they really need to do is sit down with democrats and follow the normal democratic process that we know works, because it's worked before with hearings and committee mark-ups and outreach. they are going to have to go home this week and face their constituents as you rightly observed earlier, and more than themsel

nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has more on what comey is expected to say. >> reporter: less than three weeks after reportedly calling james comey a nut job, president trump sending a more magnanimous message. >> i wish him luck. >> reporter: luck to the fbi director he fired set to testify publicly. he's likely to lay out a pattern of what he believes were inappropriate conversations about the russia investigation according to sources close to him but is not expected to accuse the president of obstruction of justice. the president who's consulting with outside counsel will speak maybe more online, too. >> the president is expected to be tweeting on thursday in response to comey, not to stay quiet during the testimony because he himself wants to be the one driving the process. >> the president is the most effective messenger on his agenda. >> reporter: that agenda seems jammed up now with a capital consumed by comey. >> this one is going to take all the air out of the room for everything else. >> reporter: the white house hoping to start movement on the preside

first nbc hallie jackson brings us up to speed. >> reporter: less than three weeks after reportedly calling james comey a nut job president trumple sending a more magnanimous message. >> i wish him luck. >> reporter: luck from the president to the fbi director he fired set to speak publicly thursday. coaxy likely to lay out a pattern of what he pleved were inthe appropriate conversations about the russia vaes gags according to sources close to him but not expected to accuse the president of obstruction of justice. the president who is consulting with counsel will counterprogram comey with a speech in d.c. thursday and maybe something more on line too. >> the president is expected to be tweeting on thursday in response to comey, not to stay quiet during the testimony because he himself wants to be the one driving the process. >> the president is the most effective messenger on his agenda. >> reporter: that seems jammed up for now with the capital consumed by comey. >> this is going to take all the air out of the room. >> reporter: the white house hoping to jump start movement on the presiden