house was kicking out dozens of russian diplomats over that hacking controversy. today the trump transition team's explanation. >> the call centered around, ah, the, ah, longistics of setting up a call with the president of russia, and the president-elect, after he was sworn in and they exchanged logistical information on how to initiate and schedule that call. that was it, plain and simple. >> was it plain and simple? we'll dig deeper into what else could have happened. under review, the justice department's independent watch dog investigating james comey's reopening. the clinton email issue, only days before the election. that prompted another early morning twitter storm from donald trump saying among other things, clinton was "guilty as hell" but nothing will change the election results for team clinton. >> it isn't like an nfl game where you can throw your challenge on the field and get a

do over because the ref blew the call. and his brother's keeper, joe biden's big surprise from president obama, and what the vice president told me about the tight bond he shares with the president. >> i don't deserve this. but i know it came from the president's heart. and i want to thank you all so very, very, very much. all of you. [ applause ] and happy friday, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell with developing news today on contacts between russia's ambassador and donald trump's national security adviser, contacts that would of course be appropriate, unless they discussed the obama administration's sanctions against russian diplomats over that hacking scandal, sanctions that were being announced only hours later. the transition spokesman says

they were routine calls to set up future contacts between trump and vladimir putin. david ignatius of "the washington post" broke this first in his column today and joins me now. david, take us through it, what would be inappropriate about calls between the russian ambassador and the national security adviser? is it the timing and what was the timing? >> well, what i reported in my column was that, on the day that the sanctions, the expulsion of russian diplomats in response to russian hacking were announced december 29, there had been calls between the russian ambassador, sergei kisliak, and general michael flynn, who is trump's designated national security adviser. i was told this by a senior u.s. government official. the trump transition team did not respond to my request for comment last night, but they did respond today, and they offered their own time line, which is

contemporaneous but not identical, according to sean spicer, the campaign spokesman, the call was made on december 28th, the day before sanctions were announced, and discussed as your introductory clip said arrangements for a trump-putin conversation after the inauguration. i was told additionally today by trump transition officials that k kisliak extended an invitation to the trump administration to attend a conference in kazhakstan in late january, the conference on syria and that's interesting because the russians have been very clear that they intended to exclude the obama administration, the u.s., in the initial discussions of this, so that would signal a change. basically to your question, is this improper or not? if there was an intervention

that affected the sanctions and the hacking issues, scandal that we've been discussing i think the argument would be yes. the trump team's account is that it discussed the future of the u.s./russia relationship when trump is president and it's hard to argue with that kind of conversation taking place. so we have two versions of this, and people are going to have to sort it out. >> when we talk about the timing, from our votes, actually on the 28th, the day before the sanctions were announced "the washington post" first had some reporting online that they were going to take place. so there was information that the sanctions were imminent. so there could have been a connection. we take them at their word, we'll be digging further. do you think that american intelligence had any monitoring that might have picked up the substance of these calls? >> andrea, i don't know how the u.s. officials who described

these conversations to me knew about them, one can obviously speculate. it would be surprising if the russian ambassador's phones were not monitored by anyone who wants to know what he's saying, including the u.s. government, but i don't know that to be the source of this information. the fact these sanctions were coming was known, you know, fairly widely and as you say, reported by "the post" on the day that the conversation by trump's spokesman, sean spicer's account, took place. >> now we have some indication from one of our nbc sources that the white house, the transition coordinated these kinds of contacts for flynn with the russians. to your, is it your understanding that those contacts were koorded through the white house and some sort of

official channel? >> no, i don't have that impression. i think that there had been a regular and fairly personal contact between flynn and kisliak christmas day, greetings, a response from kisliak, and then this conversation, and as we know from other reporting, flynn had been a visitor to moscow, it appeared on rt, "russian today," the russian tv outlet so there's a whole history. again, i think it is important to say that this is part of a big foreign policy issue, which is, what is the future of the russia/u.s. relationship. that's not a conspiracy question. that's a question about what's the right foreign policy. trump wants to improve that relationship. flynn strongly agrees they make arguments for why that's so. the obama administration has disagreed, as i think have

general mattis and other members of the trump administration about how to do that, so i think the policy issue here is really an important one, quite apart from all the other questions. >> and let me just point out why people are more than reading tea leaves here. flynn rp was part of the conspiracy described by the intelligence community to spread false information and disinformation as part of coordinated with the hacking scandal in terms of trying to interfere with the election. so rt is a player here. it's government-owned. >> it is. >> and it's propaganda and actively involved in trying to undermine the u.s. election, according to the intelligence community. the fact that flynn was a guest of rt's and attended that conference and has this relationship with the russians has made him controversial with people who are up for confirmation. this has been a big issue on the hill all week.

the other fact is the russians responded in an atypical way, lavrov and putin himself, indicate they're going to retaliate for the expulsion of 35 diplomats, that was unusual, that very weekend. >> i agree with everything that you said. rt has been identified in the unclassified report as part of this campaign of covert manipulation of the u.s. election that's important, and it may be that the expectation on the part of the russians through this phone call that an improvement in relations was ahead, led them to forestall their retaliation. i just note that we shouldn't lose sight of the policy issue, which is real, and i think one that really deserves a full

debate, in a sense, independent of the allegations. >> thanks so much, david ignatius, thanks for all of your reporting on this. the spymasters themselves are on capitol hid today briefing house members about the russian hacking. this as the fbi is coming under fire. joining me california congressman adam schiff. let's pick it up here. do you think that there is anything potentially inappropriate, something that needs further explaining for all of the communications back and forth between the russian ambassador, and the incoming national security adviser? >> well i think it should be fully explained what the nature of these contacts were. this has been said many times and i think it's true. we really need to have one president at a time, and i would certainly hope that no one on the trump team was trying to undercut what president obama was doing when he was sanctioning russia over their hacks interference in our election process. most of us i think on a bipartisan basis think what the president did was not only right but it was only a first step,

and i would certainly hope that general flynn wasn't in any way undercutting that or anybody else on the trump team. >> and we should point out, i mean, there is a never ever enforced law called the logan act from 1789, my colleague pete williams tells me named after a farmer in 1789 who went to paris and was accused of undercutting the official u.s. government position, and it literally says that if you are a citizen not working, not under orders of the u.s. government, you cannot interfere with a foreign government or an official of the foreign government in an issue that is disputed or contested between the united states and that government. this russian hacking schedule would be a contested issue. no one's ever been charged with violating the logan act >> i don't think you'll see it enforced here because that's probably a very difficult statute to enforce and there probably are some significant constitutional questions about

how that would even be done. >> let me ask you about the ig investigating mr. comey, the fbi director. how unusual is this? the fact they announced it, first of all, possibly to get it out front before the trump administration came in, get it under way, reveal that it has been started, but an ig investigation into the fbi director and all of those late calls, reopening the issue, not an investigation, but reopening the very issue of the emails 11 days before the election. >> i think this was very appropriate for the ig to initiate and i say hats off to my colleague elijah cummings for making the request for this investigation some months ago. it now has bipartisan support. we had a very serious and i believe very consequential decision by the director of the fbi to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation and in violation of the department's

longstanding policy, and do so right before the election, that ought to be the subject of a doj/ig investigation. i think they're the right party to do it. i have every confidence they'll do it objectively, and i'm glad the director said he will cooperate with that. i also hope that the ig investigates the numerous leaks that came out of the fbi and any contacts that the fbi may have had with either campaign. there have been a lot of allegations about that as well that i think need to be authth h thoroughly investigated. >> i want to ask you about donald trump's tweets on the intelligence and that i guess you could call it a russian counter-trump possible compilation that was addended to the intelligence brief. there's been controversy over how it was put together, who put it together, why it was even briefed to him by comey we now learn in the corridor.

this is what he tweeted today. "it now turns out of the phony allegations against me were put together by a political opponent and a failed spy afraid of being sued. fake news. russia says nothing exists. probably released by intelligence even knowing there is no proof and never will be. my people will have a full report on hacking within 09 days." general clapper has said it didn't come from intelligence. second of all originally we all know we've been told from republican primary opponents, then it was picked up by democratic opponents. your reaction to these tweets? >> my reaction is regrettably you cannot rely on anything the president-elect says in his tweets, certainly not on this subject, but on many others as well. this is, after all, president-elect who tweeted that millions of illegal immigrants voted and that's why he didn't win the popular vote, but it's all the more disturbing here because he's used twitter to attack the intelligence community. he's actually cites russia and

julian assange as sources of information before he cites his own intelligence community. so very disturbing. i think the american people if they want to know what director clapper has told the president-elect, they should look at director clapper's statement. we also saw in the open report when that was released about the russian hacking that the president-elect was willing to misrepresent what was in the open report claiming the open report found there was no impact on the election. of course that's not what the open report said. so all of the claims by donald trump that this file that was produced by this private security firm is either fake news or false or whatever else he said in that tweet, people cannot rely on that. the only thing people can rely on what director clapper said, it has not been verified and it has not been unverified. at this point there's been no public disclosure about what we know of the accuracy of anything in that file. >> was it a mistake?

this say question i asked joe biden. was it a mistake for them to even bring it up with either the president and vice president as they did in the presidential daily brief, the pdb or to mr. trump comey since it was verified and not an intel swrens document? ingly think the only thing the administration has disclosed is what i can say i think the vice president said he and the president were briefed on it and i think that is fully appropriate. these are obviously very serious charges and allegations and whether they are verified ultimately or not verified it's something that i believe the president should be aware of and the president-elect for that part. >> okay, adam schiff from the intelligence committee, thank you very much, and let's recap a crazy, wild week that we had here in washington. the first week of confirmation hearings, chuck "todatodd is he most of mtp daily and "meet the press."

you just came from the hill doing interviews. >> yes. >> i was on the hill all week, the confirmation hearings showing interestingly the nominees who did well are those who separated themselves from donald trump's tweets and other controversial positions following lines that were developed for them with the transition officials in their briefings, so they were following the party line of administration transition officials, but the people who did well, jim mattis and pompeo and a couple of the others, not so much some of those who really didn't seem prepared for the kind of grilling you get during the hearings. >> rex tillerson and to a lesser extent ben carson, although didn't rise to the certain level of scrutiny with rex tillerson, but look. i think that the thing that i took away from this week and the confirmation process was how powerful three senators are,

john mccain, lindsey graham and marco rubio. they expressed the most concern about the russian interference, marco rubio saying he will not look at wikileaks, he went that far, not many other people went that far when it came to refusing even to touch it. the point is they controled the agenda this week. that was the other thing i thought fascinating. the jim mattis confirmation hearing i don't remember a lot about the pentagon. i remember a lot about russia, and john mccain wanted to be sure that way. marco rubio has made russia a centerpiece of much of his questioning whether to pompeo or rex tillerson. let's not be naive. we're used to politicians saying whatever it takes to win an election and we shouldn't be surprised when politicians say whatever it takes to win confirmation. i say this not to be dismissive of this but there is a reality here. >> yes. >> so i think the rubber is going to meet the road here after they're all in place and that's when we're going to find

out, do these splits even matter? does it say more about where trump is headed or more where the cabinet is. >> and he's going to support mattis and oppose tillerson. tillerson was very dismissive in a q&a with mccain in particular. >> right. . >> the other thing that struck me is how powerless the democrats really are. you're talking about republicans controlling the agenda. >> right. >> the republicans peeling off on the russia issue. >> right. >> at 1:00 a.m. on the night of the vote-a-rhama, 1:00 thursday morning they called a roll call and by design the democrats all spoke out, which is not permitted on a roll call, so they all had statements on the obamacare repeal, and so you heard one after the other saying i vote no because of so and so in my state, and they were saying out of order, out of order and trying to gavel them down. by design all of the democrats

made floor speeches, which are not permissible. >> right. >> that was heard at 1:00 in the morning by whoever else besides me was watching on c-span or seeing it on "rachel" the next night. their votes don't count. >> democrats are still trying to figure this out. the one, if you think, and i think they seem to -- i think they decided their strategy was to score political points, not try to actually stop anybody. look at the jeff sessions confirmation. you could say that the democratic base, if you were to poll the democratic base and say which nominee do you want the democratic party to fight the hardest against, they would have, the base would have picked jeff sessions, even though maybe rex tillerson or steve mnuchin might be "easier" to cobble together opponents or something like that but the democrats seem to be, they wanted to get him on the record, or they wanted, but they didn't seem to have a strategy of truly trying, if

they were going to try to stop him, and i think they've gist -- look, trump makes it difficult. matthew conetti, editor at the "freebie con"in his weekly column did a terrific job today trying to explain trump a little bit. "it appears trump strategy is to be on offense everywhere. if you do it all over the place your opponents don't know where to focus." i think democrats haven't figured out do you fight him everywhere? it's like displaying the spread offense or zero in. >> we're not hearing a whole lot of complaints about the ethics issues which according to the ethics chief are profound. one final note of personal privilege. dianne feinstein, so she goes to the sessions hearing on tuesday, she had already been told she needed a pacemaker but went to work. then she gets it done, after work, and takes one day off, and is back in the chair to question pompeo on thursday. that's a surgical procedure. >> guess where she's going to be

on sunday? >> i teed you up. >> she'll be with me. >> on "meet the press." reince priebus chief of staff, a whole range of questions and follow-ups that didn't get finished and answered from the press conference, and then i'll tell you now a powerful interview with jon lewis. we're still bringing it in but you'll see a piece of it at 5:00. he said some things that i think will surprise a lot of people. >> "mtp daily" 5:00 just the beginning of chuck todd's day. and if it's sunday it's "meet the press." dianne feinstein and a whole lot more, we'll be all watching. coming up, hillary's team responding, i'll talk to brian fowler about that investigation into fbi director james comey's actions, right before election day. you are and watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. that means you can take a universe of data - in your case literally - and turn it into medical discoveries, diagnostic breakthroughs... ...proof that black holes collapse into one singularity.

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today president-elect trump was busy on twitter tweeting a message to the clinton campaign team "what are hillary clinton's people complaining about with respect to the fbi? based on the information they had, she should never have been allowed to run. guilty as hell. they were very nice to her. she lost because she campaigned in the wrong states, no enthusiasm." brian fallon was press secretary to hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. want to respond? >> well look, i think that the president-elect remains someone who is very insecure even in victory, not a very gracious winner, but i think he's really bothered by the increased number of questions that have been raised about the legitimacy of his own election between first the russian hacking of which we've learned more and more details that are very concerning and should be the subject of multiple independent investigations, and now this issue with the fbi director, which we've long complained about but now no longer just the

clinton campaign, the independent watch baug within the justice department agreeing this is worthy of an independent investigation. >> do you think james comey should step down? >> i don't think that's my place to say so i'm not going to join the call of the "wall street journal" editorial board today. i think director comey's actions were inappropriate. i don't think he was motivated by partisan bias. i think it's important to state that for the record. he was faced with a tricky situation and decided that his integrity, his own view of his own integrity was a little bit inflated and trying to please both sides so he acted inappropriate lean the bothersome thing to us, look at the different way in which he handled the clinton matter versus how we handled an ongoing investigation into links between the trump campaign and russia. there's been various reports confirming that federal authorities are looking into that, and yet he's refused to comment publicly at any point about that. they have not seen as many leaks about that as you did during the run-up to the election day about the clinton matter, and i think

that's very troubling and something the inspector general should get to the bottom of as well. >> could you know who in the clinton campaign jumped on this smear, this russian inspired smear that had been originated by republican opponents of donald trump and dropped after the primaries in some democratic big contributors then joined and sponsored more work by these people. >> i've seen the reports suggesting they were democratic elements that were pushing. i can never seen that dossier document prior to buzzfeed publishing it. >> i was told that after the gang of eight was briefed on it, that harry reid talked to someone in the campaign about it. >> there was search the case some of the elements contained in that document were rumors that were rampant among members of congress, among reporters and journalists try to confirm what was true and what was not. i learned a lot of what was in the document by virtue of conversations with reporters seeking confirmation wondering if the clinton campaign was

doing research that aligned with what they're hearing from their sources. my understanding of the origins of this, it was stuff commissioned during the republican primaries i think in the last couple days even some republican operatives admitting they were trying to get it out there. one of the things i heard and reporters were trying to chase down was this idea there were up to as many as four individuals connected to the trump campaign that were either under surveillance actively from the federal government or the subjects of requested fisa surveillance warrants and that was confirmed by "the guardian" earlier this week. that is an explosive allegation buried underneath this back and forth decision. all the salacious details that happened at ritz-carlton and moscow is beside the point. it's whether the federal government believes there's basis to think the trump campaign was in cahoots with the russian government they went before the surveillance court to seek warrants about individuals.

>> because of secret -- >> mike flynn, the ap report today suggested that mike flynn has had multiple conversations with russian officials. not just the day sean spicer had an explanation for. i think this investigation mounted on capitol hill as well as the one the justice department is undertaking needs to get to the bottom of all these contacts between trump associates and russian officials, find out what the trump campaign knew and when they knew it about the hack. >> what would be inappropriate about mike flynn talking to the russian ambassador? >> well, potentially nothing, if it was as innocent as sean spicer explains, although there is the added question of whether, we do have one president at a time and i would think even the incoming administration would want to observe the rules of deferring to the folks actively in those jobs now having those communications with our russian counterparts but if it is a matter of extending christmas wishes it's a strange coincidence it came at the same time the president was announcing the first of these

sanctions against the russians in retaliation for the hack that they understood. i find that suspicious but if it is as simple as what sean spicer is saying maybe there's nothing to it. the ap report suggested that according to intelligence officials, there's more than just that in terms of interactions between michael flynn and the russians. michael flynn strangely appeared at a dinner hosted by, they sat at the same table as vladimir putin. there's all kinds of connections carter paige, former senior foreign policy adviser to the trump campaign, paul manafort, former campaign manager, all kinds of links between trump and the russian government. i really do believe there's an active effort to get to the bottom of those connections, and the more we learn about it, the more concerning it is. >> brian fallon, thanks for being with us. >> thanks. the ultimate exit interview, lester holt joining me next to talk about his sit-down with president barack obama and rare access he got to the outgoing commander in chief in his final days in office.

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tell me what happened that night, watching those results, when you realized that donald trump was going to win. was there an unvarnished barack obama at that moment? >> you know, there was just surpri surprise. uhm -- you know, generally speaking, uhm, not just me, but my team have been pretty good at seeing something coming, and partly because just the polling was so off, the data was off, there was a surprise. uhm, you know, i think the president-elect would be the first to acknowledge he didn't run a conventional campaign, and it's not clear that he or his team thought they were going to

win, ah, and so, uhm, so i think more than anything it was just surprise. >> and that is just part of lester holt's series of interviews with president obama on tuesday. lester gained rare access to the president flying with him for the president's final jurn ri on air force one returning to chicago for that farewell address. more on "nbc nightly news" and special report "barack obama the reality of hope" airing tonight at 10:00 p.m./9:00 central on nbc. lester holt joins me now. >> good day, andrea. >> congratulation, this was extraordinary. i'm also fascinated by that night, election night, and the decision by hillary clinton, i was told that hillary clinton's decision to concede shortly after john podesta said we're going to fight on, 2:00 in the morning, after a conversation with barack obama. he knew it was over. >> i didn't get the exact timing but he talks about as you heard him say he was blind-sided by what had happened, and he did

take it personally. in this interview he goes on to reflect about what he could have done and talks about being obviously occupied with the duties of president and wishing he'd gotten more down into the grassroots, those places that maybe turned the election, so i think he's taking some personal responsibility for the outcome. >> there's so much to unpack here, and we have to see tonight's program, but you also talked to him about those poignant moments, his speech during the funeral service for the pastor killed in the charleston, south carolina, church shootings and a speech that resonateed across the country particularly when he talked about race. i wanted to play a little bit of that ex-change and talk to you on the other side. >> there was one moment that stood out to a lot of people, reverend pinckney funeral after the charleston massacre. you delivered the eulogy. i'll read the quote "maybe we now realize the way racial bias can infect us even when we don't realize it, so that we're

guarding against not just racial slurs but we're also guarding against the subtle impulse to call johnny back for a job interview but not jamal. >> jamal wasn't getting called back for that interview five years earlier. why did you not talk about things in that explicit way before? >> the truth of the matter is that there are going to be times where people will listen and times where they won't. there are going to be times where you got 15 issue answer you got to figure out what am i going to be investing the most effort and energy in, and where does it make more sense rather than to use the bully pulpit to just do the work >> that was the moment. >> and this was a moment when i think the entire country recognized not just the evil that had been perpetrated, but also this amazing response on the part of these people in this church. >> and andrea, obviously it was something he wrestled with,

being the first african-american president. what did that mean? we talked about a lot of expectations, some of them in his view naive that suddenly everything would change, years of history would suddenly be rolled back, but it's something that obviously he thought a lot about, and had to pick his moments in his presidency. >> well this is all extraordinary, and we can't wait to see it tonight and coming on a day, by the way, when the attorney general in chicago announcing the steps taken about the constitutionality of police actions there, and of course that's where you shot the interview as well as on air force one. thank you. we can't wait to see it. >> thanks, nice being on with you. >> and you. watch "nightly news" and then lester holt's wide-ranging interviews with president barack obama, the "dateline" nbc special, "barack obama: the reality of hope" at 10:00 eastern on nbc, 9:00 central. we'll be right back. ever try something so good,

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there is reasonable cause to believe that the chicago police department engangz in a pattern

or practice of use of excessive force in violation of the fourth amendment to the constitution. >> attorney general loretta lynch announcing the results of a 13mont long civil rights investigation into the chicago police department launched amid fallout over the court-ordered release of police dash cam video, showing the fatal shooting of laqwan mcdonald. gabe gutierrez bring us up to date. >> hi there, good afternoon. as you mentional attorney general loretta lynch announcing the department of justice found the chicago police department had systematically violated citizens' constitutional rights and also unfairly targeted minorities for use of force. they found that the department did not give proper training, failed to have proper accountability and did not adequately review use of force cases. now for the first time today, chicago mayor rahm emmanuel announced that the city had

agreed in principle to begin negotiations on an independently monitored and court-enforced consent decree. there are a lot of questions about this moving forward. donald trump has said that he favors aggressive police tactics but his nomination for attorney general jeff sessions has also shown a reluctance to use federal courts to bring about local police reform. however, the mayor of chicago today said that he had not spoken with the trump transition team, that he had been briefed on this yesterday so there are questions about how this will work out moving forward. the department of justice has opened about 25 such investigations over the last couple of years and is right now enforcing 19 agreements with cities across the country. andrea? >> gabe gutierrez in chicago, thank you so much and we'll be right back.

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joe biden received the presidential medal of freedom. what the vice president also told me about the relationship that has gone far beyond political partnerships. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. by simply enjoying it. boost® simply complete. it's intelligent nutrition made with only 9 ingredients, plus 25 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. and look where life can take you! boost®. be up for it.™

a week from today president obama leaves the white house and in an emotional farewell he had a surprise parting gift thursday for his vice president and his friend joe biden. >> this has been quite a ride. >> reporter: it's a bond like we've never seen before. >> the best vice president america has ever had, mr. joe biden. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: at times more like a white house buddy movie than a political partnership. >> this also gives the internet one last chance to talk about our bromance. >> reporter: and then a surprise parting gift for biden who thought he was coming over for a farewell toast for the obamas until he saw his whole family.

>> for the final time as president i'm apleased to award our nation's highest civilian honor, the presidential medal of freedom. >> i don't deserve this. but i know it came from the president's heart. he's a truly, truly decent man. i remember you know, when bo was first diagnosed, and he rushed to the hospital with me. he came literally running down the hall in his shirt sleeves. is he all right? is he all right? >> reporter: after years the bidens and obamas forging a friendship so close they consider themselves family. >> my family is so-called to call ourselves honorary bidens. >> reporter: in the darkest hour the bidens asking the president to give their eulogy for their son bo. >> i pray every day i couldn't

admire you more. >> reporter: their friendship reaching a fever pitch on social media. "happy 55th, barack, a brother to me, a best friend forever." >> to know joe biden is to know love without pretense, service without self-regard, and to live life fully. >> mr. president, i'm indebted to you. i'll indebted to your friendship. >> biden tells me he has no regrets about that decision not to run for president again, and that he has plans for an active life after the white house, the c cancer moonshot, teaching, establishing a foreign policy institute and who knows what else for a man who seems forever young. speaking of forever young here's chris cilizza, msnbc contributor. >> taking that i'm going to cut that up. >> every time i watch this i'm just watching that ceremony i was in tears. we are seeing so much dissension

and disruption in washington and around the country and to see this relationship, this partnership pretty seamless on policy, if they had disputes, they were over their, you know, lunches and breck fasts that we didn't see. >> two nice things happened yesterday. one was the bush sister's letter to the obamas. >> lovely. >> the other was this. there are very few, very few unscripted moments in politics, particularly that involve the president and the vice president. there's not a lot of surprise birthday parties. that's not what this relationship is. that's what made this so powerful, is that it's clear that joe biden didn't expect it and this is someone you have to remember who has literally spent his entire life adult life in public service. >> right. >> from the age of 29 to the age of 71 i believe he is now, this is someone who has been in -- so an honor like, this the greatest honor you can award a civilian

is hugely important and again, people have various opinions about joe biden. the thing i like about joe biden as someone who covers this stuff he's as close real person as you'll ever find. he shows raw emotion. he doesn't say everything perfecting at all times but he cares deeply about public service and has a joy in public service that you rarely see now. >> and the funny thing is that the drawback politically for him in past campaigns was he would say something that was politically incorrect. >> yep. >> he would make a mistake. that doesn't seem to matter anymore in politics. >> i feel like donald trump may well have rewritten all of this in a way, but look, i know that biden has said to you and to other people he doesn't regret his decision. i'll tell you after what happened yesterday there are a lot of democrats who think golly, someone like that would have been a really nice foil in

some ways for donald trump in the successes donald trump had in the places that he had them. so even if joe biden doesn't regret it, i do think there are a fair number of democrats out there who wonder putting all their eggs in hillary clinton's basket as early as they did in this campaign was a mistake. but hindsight as always is 20/20. >> and now to have the comey investigation by the inspector general of the independent inspector general, of the justice department,' just so painful to the clinton people, and painful to democrats who see they do not have the votes to stop a lot of these nominees. >> they do not. this will be i think the most conservative cabinet in modern presidential history for a lot of reasons. harry reid and chuck schumer agreed to get rid of the nuclear option which pertained to cabinet nominee. look at the scope of this week. chuck and mark murray wrote about this for you guys in "first read" today.

from jared kushner and can he legally represent to the press conference, to tillerson to -- the news -- >> no divestment. >> any one of these are a huge multiweek story, we packed them all into one week. i wonder is this the new normal where you have 15 pounds of news in a five-pound bag. >> twitter storm every morning. thank you. >> exhausting. interesting but exhausting. >> and we're only just getting started. much more ahead on "andrea mitchell reports." tech: this mom didn't have time to worry about a cracked windshield. so she scheduled at safelite.com and with safelite's exclusive "on my way text" she knew exactly when i'd be there, so she didn't miss a single shot. i replaced her windshield giving her more time for what matters most. tech: how'd ya do? player: we won! tech: nice! that's another safelite advantage. mom: thank you so much! (team sing) safelite repair, safelite replace.

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boost®. be up for it.™ when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. i just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company definitely doesn't have that... you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance and that does it for this edition this week of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online on facebook and twitte twitter @mitchellreports. peter alexander is up next on msnbc right across from me. >> just skarping down some food and getting energized for a full hour of news. >> when does pretzels count for

food? >> breakfast and lunch. we have a full plate of news ahead this hour, moving forward just a short time from now, the house set to vote on a measure aimed at dismantling obamacare. can anything derail the republican repeal plan? under review. the justice department's independent watch dog opening an investigation into the fbi director's handling of the clinton email probe. but is it enough? and policing the police. stunning new federal report finds the chicago police department has been systematically violating the civil rights of its citizens. we want to start with the house vote on obamacare, happened just moments ago. the republican and democratic leaders appearing on the house floor in advance of that house vote. we want to take a listen. >> my colleagues, this experiment has failed. this law is collapsing while we speak. we have