more "doing chores for dad" per roll more "earning something you love" per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty, the quicker picker upper a live look at the white house right now at the beginning of a busy day of diplomacy that begins in just one hour. president trump begins his second week in office with a working weekend. hey, everybody. good morning, i'm thomas roberts at msnbc world headquarters in

new york. topping president trump's saturday agenda is a series of phone calls with foreign leaders including russian president vladimir putin. it will be their first official conversation since the inauguration. president to president. and lit come a day after signing an executive order which includes an indefinite ban on syrian refugees. here's counselor to the president kellyanne conway last night. >> it's actually extreme vetting based on a country's history of exporting and training and harboring terrorists. the president said very clearly today at the pentagon and is right there, he said this executive order is meant to protect our nation from terrorists. i don't know who can disagree with that in premise. and in effect it means those countries that have this history. >> there was swift condemnation from democratic leaders including senator chuck schumer who tweeted with this picture saying there are tears run do you think the cheeks of the statue of liberty tonight. democrats also pufshing back

against repealing and replacing obamacare. here's house minority leader nancy pelosi during the party's weekly address this morning. >> tragically, the repeal of the affordable care act will lead to death, disability, and suffering and republicans will do all of this so give a massive new tax break to the wealthiest as they abandon seniors and working families across america. democrats will stand our ground to protect the affordable care act because as we and many marchers believe health care is the right of every american, not just the privileged few. >> those comments come as "the washington post" is in disarray, the post reporting it is based on an audio that was recorded and that the paper obtained. i want to bring in casey hunt at the white house for us. good morning to you. let's talk about the backlash against the executive order of president trump and what he signed.

>> good morning. growing backlash this morning to that executive order that president trump signed yesterday. it puts a temporary ban on immigrants from certain countries. he calls it s it extreme vetti critics say it amounts to a ban on muslims. fallout this morning from president donald trump's move to make good on a divisive campaign promise. >> new vetting measures to keep radical islamic terrorists out of the united states of america. >> reporter: at the pentagon yesterday trump signing an executive order to ban immigrants from these predominantly muslim countries for the next 90 days. >> we don't want them here. >> it stopped short of an all-out ban on muslims. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.

>> reporter: but it sparked outrage. the aclu calling the order, quote, a euphemism for discriminating against muslims. in an e-mail the deep of faculty at princeton advising colleagues and students from affected countries to, quote, defer travel outside the united states until further clarification comes. donald trump met with theresa may. the two trying to focus on what they have in common instead of their differences like whether russia should continue to face sanctions. >> we'll see what happens as the sanctions. very early to be talking about that. >> reporter: expected to speak by phone today with russian president vladimir putin accused by u.s. intelligence of directing a hacking campaign to help trump win the election. >> as far as again putin and russia, i don't say good, bad, or indifferent. i don't know the gentleman. i hope we have a fantastic relationship. that's possible. and it's also possible that we won't. >> reporter: and he's also expected to speak with german

chancellor angela merkel who he once tweeted was ruining germany, now trying to build ties across the world as commander in chief if not with the press here at home. >> i think the media is the opposition party in many ways. the opposition party is losing badly. the media is on the opposition party's side. >> reporter: trump also expected to talk today with the leaders of japan and france, and we also expect that he's going to sign additional executive orders after a very busy week of executive action in office, looks like the second week is going to be much the same. thomas. >> kasie hunt at the white house for us. thanks so much. joining me right nour two guest. gabby, let's begin with this flurry of calls we expect with president trump and foreign leaders today. especially this one that's coming up with the president of russia at noontime. vladimir putin.

potential for lifting the sanctions. do you think that will be the focus of this call president to president today? >> yeah. i think it would be foolish not to expect that the president and vladimir putin will discuss the sanctions that were imposed on moscow by the obama administration last month. you know, donald trump is under a great deal of pressure from republican and democrat lawmakers to keep these sanctions in place. john mccain said yesterday he would work to codify these sanctions if trump intend to override them or to eliminate them. so i think that russia is really placing a great deal of pressure on him as well, and they're looking at him carefully to see what he does after this phone call. and i would fully expect that the russian president is going to be speaking about these sanctions with trump to see what he does and what his next plan of action will be. >> if everybody, gabby, wants to come out looking like a winner and president trump wants to keep that special new relationship with uk going, especially when theresa may

expressed how she wants the sanctions kept in place, they're supportive of those sanctions, how do you think this delicate dance is going to go with president trump, the great negotiator? >> it's going to be interesting to see because he is kind of in a tough spot and one where vladimir putin put him in after deciding not to retaliate against the obama administration for imposing these sanctions on moscow. he's kind of waited to see what donald trump because because for most of the campaign trump had said my intent, my goal is to thaw the icy relationship between the u.s. and moscow. and so now this is the first opportunity he's going to have to really indicate how far he's willing to go to work towards bettering that relationship while also possibly ignoring the advice and the concerns of top lawmakers within his own party. >> while we unfreeze that relationship with russia, kate, we are definitely freezing out our neighbor south of the border. it's been a robust few days on this foreign policy and security issue with our neighbor in mexico and the tweets that went

back and forth between mexican president enrique pena nieto canceling his u.s. visit after the president signed the executive order about the wall. but the two leaders spoke yesterday. >> we had a very good call. i have been very strong on mexico. i have great respect for mexico. i love mexican people. i work with the mexican people all the time. great relationships. but as you know mexico with the united states has out-negotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders. we have a good relationship, the president and i, and we had a talk that lasted for about an hour this morning and we are going to be working on a fair relationship and a new relationship. but the united states cannot continue to lose vast amounts of business, vast amounts of companies and millions an millions of people losing their

jobs. that won't happen with me. >> so indicating there are big consequences from this but how do you see it playing out when these two leaders are diametrically opposed to a border wall and who pays for it? >> i can't blame pena nieto for cannesling the meeting. his approval rating is very well. i've seen it as low as 12% so, you can't blame him. president donald trump has had a lot of tough words for pena nieto and mexico that he's almost defending his country. donald trump's in kind of a sticky situation right now. he's saying he's going to start building the wall, he signed the executive order, but now the issue is how's he going to pay for this? republicans in philadelphia had their retreat last week and that was, you know, one of the issues to figure out, look, we have a spending bill coming up in april. they'll have to figure out how to come to a jesus meeting, how are we going to start paying for these things because republicans won't go along with shelling out

$10 billion to $20 billion to start building a wall in mexico and then hoping that mexico end up paying for it later. >> what do you think the odds are that donald trump is saying to pena nieto, look, i don't need you to pay for it, i just need you to say you're going the pay for it? >> i think that's definitely an option. donald trump is a master negotiator. that's what got him elected president. there's definitely the possibility he's saying say it for now, it's all about optics, but as far as optics go, pena nieto shouldn't be doing that. his approval rate rgs so low, he needs to worry about building his own country before starting to make himself look good in other countries. >> when we think about what that wall means, we also think about closing down america being open to other countries' tired, poor, huddled masses because of the executive order by the president barring muslims from certain countries. you wrote about this and how the president plans to give christians priority status.

do you think this will be more controversial than unprecedented presidential moves in the past? >> i absolutely do. if you saw the way this was treated by the immediate y but by the american public during the campaign when donald trump first proposed that total and complete ban on muslims, it was one of the most contentious issues in the election cycle. just in the last 24 hours since he signed that executive order to halt the syrian refugee program and to begin to implement these extreme vetting measures for foreigners who are coming from predominantly muslim countries like yemen and sudan and syria and libya, this is already drawing backlash, not just from democratic lawmakers and those across the aisle but from members of his own party who fear that this is going to lead to a religious test or that donald trump is going to fulfill that promise that he said he would create a muslim registry, force people to start carrying around identity cards. so i think that there are a lot of questions about what the

specifics of these extreme vetting measures would be and something that i am certainly anxious to see what comes out of the homeland security department and the state department in terms of fulfilling that order that he released yesterday. >> okay. i'm going to leave you both with this, the reflection of the first week as president as we start today, the second week of the trump administration. gab gabby, let me start with you. what would you rate the trump administration right now? >> well, you know, i would give donald trump an a-plus for actually fulfilling the promises he made on the campaign trail. whether you agree with them or not. we saw a number of orders this week and executive actions taken to begin fulfilling those protectionist and immigration restrictionist policies that he discussed during the campaign. >> kate, last word, last grade, to you. >> gabby, i think that was a pretty bold statement. i agree with what you're saying that, yes, he's gone along with his campaign promises but also i think i'd give him a b-plus. >> b-plus. all right. >> yes, his campaign promises

but at the same point he's never had public office before and i think it did show there was a little bit of growing pains. we saw him float policy issues and take them back, saw him schedule public meetings and take those back. signing executive orders without going to the agencies necessarily affected and advisers announcing things without other advisers knowing. i think we're seeing a growing period. it's been a strong week for him for someone wo's never been in office but we'll have to see how some of these issues kind of start to meld together and after the executive orders happen. >> be very happy to get in political science and humanities class in college. i will not get into a math grade for donald trump from either of you because we know what this week was like in math. lady, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> the white house is putting the brakes on the steps towards repealing obamacare. while republicans worry about scrapping the plan all together, is the repeal on the critical list?

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so it's a very important first for president president trump as he welcomed british prime minister theresa may to the white house on friday. and for those worried about the future of the special relationship, trump offered a few worlds of reassurance. >> i am a people person. i think, you are also, theresa, and i can often tell how i get along with somebody very early, and i believe we're going to have a fantastic relationship. >> lucy, what's the reaction today? this was a joint press briefing held with both american and uk journalists. how are the papers playing this out there? >> hey, thomas. obviously, front and center in the uk on the front pages of all the paper, we have "the daily

telegraph," hand in hand, the happy couple. "the times" of london, trump blesses britain. and then of course "the daily mail," love-in at the white house. there was a lot of talk between the two of them of the special relationship between the two countries. theresa may was all smiles, all compliments. they even held hands while walking across the white house lawn. there were some titters here across the pond over that. she praised trump for his stunning election victory, managed to extract a public agreement from trump on nato. he said he's giving the alliance 100% backing after don't forget declaring it obsolete just a few weeks ago. he also seemed to soften his support for torture during their press conference. that was a huge source of controversy in the uk. some big differences also over russia with may trying to nudge trump to take a tougher stance. that didn't seem to work. he did not rule out lifting sanctions on russia, eventually, and said he wanted a great relationship with vladimir putin. don't forget the two men are expected to speak by phone later today. he's also scheduled to chat with

other world leaders, the prime minister of japan, angela merkel of germany, putin and of course the leaders of france and australia. big allies but for theresa may the big goal was a post-brexit free trade deal with the u.s. this was priority one for her. trump yesterday promises to make good on that. she's come under some criticism at home for appearing too eager some would say to make good with mr. trump. one columnist said that her, quote, dash to washington was mortifying, questioning whether she will, in fact, be able to steer trump to respect a rules-based international system when he seems intent on making his own way. thomas? >> lucy, i think as long as that invitation from the queen holds up, that theresa may will have trump in the palm of her hands. we have no idea when that is going to be, correct? late they are year but nothing expressed about -- >> later this year -- that's right. we know that mr. trump and melania will be attending the state visit in the uk. they'll be meeting the queen. we'll have to keep you posted on

the details. >> on a personal level for president trump that is a big deal because his mother grew up in scotland and was a big fan of royal family. thanks so much. joining me is congressman john norwood, ranking member of the house budget committee. great to see you. what are your expectations, as we hear from lucy, first we have the prime minister of japan and then angela merkel and then on to vladimir putin. what do you think is going to be discussed especially with that call with putin? >> well, i think that's a great question and a great mystery and one of the things that concerns me is we probably won't know exactly wa he gives away. when he talks to vladimir putin. i'm concerned he's going to make some kind of a deal on relieving the sanctions and that's something that -- those sanctions are in the law. congress would have to act to relieve those sanctions. i'm frus just afraid about what

he's going to say and we'll never know. >> we know that john mccain has expressed the willingness to codify those sanctions into law if this moves forward in a direction that would lift those sanctions. but we know that certain folks on your side of the aisle like senator chuck schumer is back on the newest executive order, pushing back on it about refugees and what this means going forward, specifically for kentuc kentucky, your home state. since 2011 they've resettled 4,000 refugees from syria, iraq, somalia, and iran. this is perception being reality, this is a willingness of an executive order of what the administration wants to do, not so much law. >> it's heartbreaking to me. i've had the opportunity to meet a number of the refugees who have settled here and, you know, contrary to what i think president trump, how he would characterize them, i met one family, a woman in her midthirty

who was widowed because of the violence there, four boy, beautiful boys under 10 years old, and they're seeking a new life and away from incredible hardship. another family with a middle-aged couple probably close to 50 and five kwids the oldest being 13 or 14. these are the farthest things from potential terrorists. these are beautiful families who are escaping unimaginable hardships. and so we're thrilled to have them in our community. we also have a number of somalis and sudanese. they're great people, great citizens and contributing to the fabric of our culture. so not just to turn their backs on these people and keep them out of the country but also to create the illusion that these are somehow dangerous people is very unfortunate to me. it just goes against every bit of american tradition and values. >> again, this is trump's order being described, politico talking about extreme vetting although it could pose these big headaches coming up for the

state department about how these two agencies are going to be largely responsible for implementing the refugees from these specific countries and specifically syria being involved here. as we talk more about what the administration would like to see, you know, in terms of people not coming into this country, we have americans that are now under threat of losing their health care. and this administration's executive order about, you know, rolling back and replacing obamacare. we've got a quinnipiac poll saying 16% believe president trump and the gop should repeal all it will health care law. 51% say parts should be revealed and 30% say don't repeal any of it. i know kentucky with the connect system, correct, had a lot of success because they were one of the states that opened up the exchange and tried to have that kind of implementation of high promotion getting people involved. what's the leverage you guys have to fight back against this? >> well, the leverage we have is that there are a certain number

of republican senators who have said they won't pass anything without -- pass a repeal without a replacement at the same time, and you can't do a replacement and create new policy without democratic votes. and that's a lot of leverage. all they can do in the senate without getting 60 votes is to eliminate some of revenue or expenditure provisions, none of the policy. so they're going to need democratic votes for whatever replacement plan they can come up with. and as we saw yesterday and what i've been saying for weeks and weeks publicly is that they have not anywhere near consensus as to what they're going to replace it with. and we saw that with the secret recording yesterday. so i've been saying i don't think they're going to be able to repeal the affordable care act. what we ought to be doing is what one of the witnesses in a budget committee hearing said this week. she came and testified and she had about ten different ideas for how we could improve the affordable care act. that's what we ought to be doing. we ought to be debating ways to

make it better, to reduce some of the financial burden on some of the people who are disadvantaged by the law, and keep all the stuff that has brought insurance and protection to literally hundreds of millions of americans. this is a law that affects everyone in this country. >> is it the democratic wish to be obstructionist or is there a way to find compromise? any of the agenda moving forward? >> no. i think if the republicans joined us and said we're going to work together to make sure that we cover everybody who we can and find ways to lower the cost, we'd love to work with them on that. for instance, i suggested to a republican the other day, why don't you just eliminate the employer mandate? it doesn't appear to be necessary to make the affordable care act work. that would be i think very popular with small business people across the country, would actually be good for working

people because in a number of cases employers have messed around and cut hours for employees to try and avoid having to pay for their coverage so it would be good for those employees. there were lots of was i think we would work with them to make this a better functioning health care system. >> we'll be paying close attention. >> just to repeal it without meeting the standards of improving of what we have, we'll be fighting that. >> congressman john yarmuth from kentucky, thank you, sir. as president trump preps to speak with the leader of germany, people in that country are wary of the president.

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whfight back fastts, with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums good morning. i'm thomas roberts at msnbc world headquarters in new york. here's what we're watching for you. president trump no scheduled vents today outside of the white house but we have a full list of

calls he'll be making to world leaders that we have been talking about. that first call is scheduled to come up just in 30 minutes with prime minister of japan shinzo abe. then later this morning coming up he will have a call with angela merkel and then a noontime call with the president of russia, vladimir putin. now for latest reactions to the white house's border wall plans, president trump suggested 20% tax on mexican imports to pay for the border wall is elevating tensions between the two countries. idea said chief of staff reince priebus is one of a buffet of options. to marianna attention owe in mexico city. i know you've been checking the temperature on this the last 24 hours and there are folks there instituting their own ban. they are going to boycott u.s.-made products coming into mexico. >> that's right, thomas. it's this social media boycott that's going on twitter.

#adios walmart, costco. one person said she supported the boycott but i was just at a starbucks a couple minutes ago. whether that will actually translate into an actual boycott of american companies and products here remains to be seen. is mood is a mix of angry and defiant. many mexicans are calling for countrymen to unite. billionaire carlos lindsaying now is the time to focus on mexico and develop their own economy regardless of the united states. you then have leftist political leaders saying that we must now look to brazil, to spain and argentina to form new alliances and look for new markets. but, thomas, it is the younger generation that i found to be especially worried. this is a generation that grew up with nafta. they do not know of a time when the u.s. and mexico haven't been

friendly. and they fear for their financial future. i want you to meet a young entrepreneur. you have an organic plant food company. how would a possible trade war between mexico and the u.s. affect you? >> well, everybody is concerned about that. the company that i lead here in mexico, mexican and american companies are strongly related. every tweet that donald trump makes affects the current money exchange, so we don't need that. >> reporter: with your company, do you also need u.s. products that you import from the u.s.? >> yes, of course. the plastic that we import from the u.s., we use a lot in order to produce our product, in order to package our products. so we don't need additional expenses, taxes, that at the end the consumer, the final consumer is affected. >> reporter: thank you so much,

adrian. you heard it, thomas, young people especially concerned about that proposed 20% tax on imports from mexico you mentioned and concerned by every tweet that donald trump makes. it has a ripple effect here in the streets of mexico. thomas? >> we can report that donald trump has been tweeting this morning from his personal handle only about us in the media, folks at "the new york times" and "the washington post." so tell adrian he has nothing b to be worried about at least for now in terms of the donald trump tweets aimed at businesses in mexico. mariana atencio in mexico city. great to see you. coming up in a moment, does president trump's relationship with british prime minister theresa may reminiscent of that up with between margaret thatcher and ronald reagan? take a look at that picture. we'll break it down after this. hey, ready for the big meeting? yeah. >>uh, hello!? a meeting? it's a big one. too bad. we are double booked: diarrhea and abdominal pain. why don't you start without me? oh. yeah.

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we watched it play out in the last 24 authorities with british prime minister theresa

may's stance of taking tougher measures on russia with donald trump. here's what they both had to say from a joint press conference from the white house yesterday. >> as far as the sanctions, very early to be talking about that, but if we can have a great relationship with russia and with china and with all countries, i'm all for that. that would be a tremendous asset. no guarantees. >> as far as the uk is concerned on sanctions for russia in relation to their activities in the ukraine, we have been very clear that we want to see the minsk agreement fully implemented. >> joining me now, my colleague nbc's keir simmons. great to see you. >> good to be here. >> we know the prime minister is not as flexible about the sanctions and making that almost shoulder to shoulder statement next to president trump. what is the wiggle room donald trump is trying to demonstrate as he's building this relationship with theresa may? because it seems as if she is very firmly implemented in where

she need to be. >> yeah, and what's fascinating about what's watching president trump's relations with other foreign leaders is you kind of feel like you have to constantly refer back to the art of the deal, figure out what kind of negotiate stance is he taking. so he stood there with the british prime minister and allowed her to say she didn't believe the sanctions should be lifted. he didn't really answer the question. of course today he speaks to the russian president. if he does push through as he's indicated and pushes for sanctions to be lifted, how do the british respond to that? she today there and said we're with you, mr. president, and will be a very difficult reaction across other european countries. so he may, if you like one way of seeing it is he's got her in a position where she almost has to support him even while telling him i don't really agree with you. >> she can always take back that invite from the queen. >> we have that. we have that. >> the trump card, literally. we also have the phone call

coming up today with french president francois hollande with donald trump. obviously there is a common interest with france and russia, what they've been doing against isis in syria. is there leeway and leverage there in terms of what it means for the eu and nato countries about these sanctions having francois hollande on trump's side? >> i think it's really tricky. the french have made it clear they don't believe sanctions should be lifted. the germans have done the same. think about how many dutch citizens were on that plane that was downed over ukraine and all of the allegations are that it was downed by a russian missile. now, what happened? how do the dutch, the french, the germans react? after all, the dutch are a very important european partner. this is not easy, and having said that, of course, everybody wants a good relationship with the white house. i mean, it's absolutely crucial to every european government. and the europeans would have

watched the british standing in the oval office and they will be saying to themselves we need to rework this, we need to get our own voices heard. >> especially the fact that since the uk is going it alone, she is, theresa may, implementing the brexit. they also have to realize that the uk suk a pis a party of one into donald trump's white house and looking to build that special relationship not thinking so much about the eu and nato countries as it is the uk first. >> right. and what this visit was all about was about getting donald trump onside so that the british could go back to europe and have a tougher negotiating stance over brexit. that's fine for the british. but when you're sitting in washington, what does ma mean for your relations with many other trading countries around the world? so the british got what they want. the question, though, is what happens next. >> all right. great to see you. i want to bring into our

conversation john brown, a former member of britain's parliament and adviser to margaret thatcher. good to have you with me. the prime minister sought ashurpss about america's commitment to nato, which donald trump has the threatened to withdrawal from in the opening remarks we hear theresa may saying trump assure ld her he is 100% behind nato. but trump did not actually utter those word. to you, from working with margaret thatcher, see any resemblance to the birth of the special relationship here between reagan and thatcher to trump and may? >> i think not only the birth, i totally agree with you, i think it's going to be even better. i think theresa may and the brit risch committed. we had a rather nasty experience under president obama where it was the pushdown, in fact, they tried to get rid of the word "special" even in the state department about the relationship, and i think it's going to be enhanced greatly. i think slightly referring back to your last speaker, you know,

theresa may has to speak to several audiences. the british audience, the european audience, and of course the worldwide audience. and i think that she is 100% behind nato. i think that president trump is also -- it's just that we see nato as having to modernize. most of the countries, britain and america, about the only two. i think iceland and strangely enough greece are the only countries that keep their commitment to 2% of gdp and their troop levels. the others are grossly deficient in troop levels or force levels and in their spending. as part of modernizing, it means putting it up to strength and having a different orientation. how is it going to fight this new type of war of terrorism let alone a russian aggression? >> when you talk about obviously the nato modernization, folks

paying their fair share, but also what it means the aggressive work of russian president vladimir putin and what this kind of incursion coming to the west means. how do you think thatcher would respond to the option of a donald trump and a theresa may being at an impasse of lifting russian sanctions? >> i think it's going into renegotiation in return for the trade negotiation which is going to greatly strengthen the hand to get a soft brexit. i think we're going to agree in the end to suggesting to russia that we have a neutral country of ukraine similar to the one that the west negotiated with stalin over fin hand and austria and perhaps even berlin after the second world war. and i think you're going to end up with a neutral ukraine not in nato, not in war with russia, and maybe even a neutral syria.

we want to get russia onside away from china on our side even though it's trust and verify, and i quite agree with that, because we've got to concentrate on crushing isis first and dealing with the freedom of the sea in the southeast asia and also getting other asian countries in return for that to put pressure on china to bring north korea to heel. >> we learned of trust but verify in 1987. 2017 it's all about engage but beware. >> yes. >> from the uk p.m. john browne, former member of britain's parliament, thank you very much. we've got new signs this morning at home the republican unity could be breaking apart whooefr and why? in the next hour, the warning of the world from the new u.s. ambassador to the united nations. wait until you hear what nikki haley had to say. >> our allies and make sure that our allies have our back as well. for those that don't have wour

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soon to be everywhere. all right. welcome back. a live look at the white house where we expect at top of the hour, moments from now, president trump beginning the day of diplomacy by phoning the prime minister of japan, shinzo abe. one of the five calls to world leaders including the russian president vladimir putin. that call to putin coming up at noontime. for now the leaked audiotape, the republican leaders might not want you to hear, but we have it after this.

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in just minutes president trump is expected to begin a full day of diplomacy with phone calls and that begins at 8:00 a.m. with shinzo abe, the prime minister of japan. it's one of five different calls to world leaders today including russian president vladimir putin. that comes up at noon.

it ends with the call to the prime minister of australia. that call is at 5:00 p.m. a political minefield, that's what one republican congressman calls the effort to roll back the aca. in new audio obtained by "the washington post." in this recording taken on thursday at the gop retreat in philadelphia, lawmakers squabble over how best to repeal and replace president obama's signature legislation with several worrying it's going to hurt their chances in the next election. i want to bring in now morris reed, democratic strategist and partner at mercury and alese jordan, msnbc political analyst, former adviser to the rand paul campaign and a columnist for "time." nice to see you. alese, in a week the new administration, we have the republicans coming out from behind what was supposed to be this private retreat and showing that they are worried about what executive orders, about repealing the aca means and if they do something they will own trump care. how big of a problem is that? >> it's huge because you can't

just have 22 million people lose their health care overnight. they have to have a replace fmt they are really going to get rid of obamacare once and for all. this has been a problem that republicans are known about for years. they finally have realized, oh, political expediency requires they'll have to actually do something to give coverage to people. senator rand paul has put forward a plan that some are embracing but you can tell just from the behind-the-scenes leaks people are really uncomfortable about what this means for electoral prospects. >> i think for a lot of folks that can try and visualize this at home, like when you see the magician with the full plate of dishes on the table and they're going to rip the table choth off, you know, and do so single-handedly without messing up a dish, you want to envision that, but how do they replace that table cloth with something they feel is better for the country and do so without knocking everybody's glasses over? morris, you're a democrat in congress reading about what was on this tape. how do you see opportunities for

democrats to have insights that they might not normally get? >> well, listen, when your opponent is digging a stent out, let them keep digging. when you take on health care, you own the issue. when you look at what's happened with the democrats over this, we owned it once before with clinton, hillary clinton, and that sort of drug her down. obama owned it, drug his ratings down. now the republicans. when you own health care, get ready for your numbers to plummet because it's a very difficult issue to handle. the troubling thing is that for six years the republicans have said they wanted to replace it and repeal it and they have no solution. so the american people should be completely outraged and troubled because here's a party that's been waiting for power who's wanted to repeal and they've got absolutely nothing prepared. >> president obama, and i think people around him, elise, knew, that if they let the aca get roots, you know, the longer time

it had to ferment the harder it was going to be to repeal and also replace and they can fix problems as they went along. one of the big observations this week, not just about that executive order, is about the first week of president trump, that the stream of leaks out of the white house over the past week, he talks about a pattern from them time and again the image of trump pushed by his aides is one of a clueless child, someone who acts on impulse, disregarding the better advice of people who know better. have critics and journalists and everybody been just a bit too hard and a bit too negative, they want to look for every fault, every step of donald trump along the way? or do you think that people are being fair? >> i think that any president's going to have a high level of scrutiny. what i find more surprising than the press covering a president aggressively is just the volume, the sheer volume of leaks that are coming out of this white house. i was in the bush white house,

and, you know, number one priority was just message discipline. >> control it. >> and your loyalty to the president. and it really shows just kind of disrespect and a lack of loyalty to president that there are so many leaks but also that this is the only way that his staff seems to be able to communicate with him is through television, is through the press. it's not an effective way of governing and airing disagreements that need to happen in private. >> but it was an effective way of winning and -- >> this is the president. >> this is a chaos kind of guy. do you think that this is just what we should get used to? >> well, first of all, this is a president who has built his entire strategy around image. image is everything for him, so it's not surprising that this is what they're fighting over his behavior, this is not a presidency that was steeped in substance or a lot of issues. it was about imaging sound bites and how you communicate. it's not surprising they're doing these things so quickly and so fast. this is the new normal.

this is a guy who likes to throw a lot of spaghetti on a wall and see what sticks. this is a guy who likes to push the narrative. if you look at what he's done this week, this is a typical cycle of probably a quarter or six-month cycle for a president, he did these things in five days. so he's a guy who's very aggressive, who wants to push a narrative. he believes that all press is good press. one of those in politics, you're normally afraid of this, but this is a guy that likes to get out front of things and see if it sticks or not. >> morris, thanks for joining us. elise, great to see you. in the next hour, the doomsday clock moving perilously closer to midnight, but what does it really mean? and in north dakota, native american leaders have two reasons why they want pipeline protesters to leave their protest camp. and then as we've been talking about, 9:00 eastern president trump expected to begin a day of dialing for diplomacy, the first call to the japanese prime minister. one of five calls including one to vladimir putin.

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