i'm stephanie ruhle. right now on msnbc, "andrea mitchell reports." >> and thank you, stephanie. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," up in the air. donald trump's travel ban in legal limbo as the president denounces a federal judge. now ten former senior u.s. diplomats, mostly democrats, two former heads of the cia and nearly 100 tech companies are adding to the growing chorus slamming the ban. among those caught up in the chaos a translator for the u.s. government during the iraq war and his family finally arriving in their new hometown of nashville. >> your presence here and the amount of support that you have showed and your open arms make this day very, very exceptional day for me. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> defending vladimir putin. president trump compares the russian president and his murderous record with u.s. foreign policy, sparking swift

backlash from all sides. >> do you respect putin? >> i could respedo respect him. >> why? >> i respect a lot of people but that doesn't mean i'm going to get along with him. will i get along with him, i this have no idea. >> putin is a killer though. >> there are a lot of killers, we got a lot of killers. what you think our country is so innocent? super surprise, a catch for the ages. julian edelman. >> oh, that's a catch. >> my god. >> that's incredible! >> the turning point in an epic fourth quarter comeback performance for the patriots and five-time super bowl champion tom brady. >> the great tom brady had completed ten in a row, now second and goal. >> tossed to white, he's in! patriots win the super bowl!

>> and good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump is now meeting for the first time with centcom leadership in tampa and will be addressing the troops after a weekend spend fuming over a federal judge's decision to block his temporary ban on travelers from seven majority muslim countries. the restrictions from that judge remain in place this hour as travelers fearing that the gates will again close hurrying to arrive and are being met by family and friends in airports around the country. adding to the president's problems, a declaration filed with the court of appeals from former top dip he will low mats and intelligence officials including prominent democrats and former cia and nsa head michael hayden. the ban is not based on any security threat and in fact will harm the nation's security. kristen welker is in tampa. busy couple of days, capped by the first meeting with the troops that he now leads. kristen? >> reporter: significant, andrea, because this is his first major meeting with u.s.

troops. he's going to have lunch with them, first he's going to get briefed by top defense officials here at central command, and then he's going to address the troops. he's going to deliver a speech. the big question is, will he address the flap and the legal challenges now to his travel ban, which you just mapped out, as you know, you've been tracking this president and candidate for quite some time, andrea, as well. he typically does weigh in on news of day topics so we'll be listening closely for that. i anticipate he's also talking about the strategy to defeat isis and those broader national security themes. meanwhile, in terms of how the administration is dealing with the fallout politically, the president, no surprise, digging in this morning, tweeting again andrea, let me read you one of his tweets which really slammed recent polls which showed a majority of americans are actually opposed to the travel ban, he tweeted any negative polls are fake news, just like the cnn, abc, nbc polls in the election. sorry, people want border

security and extreme vetting. chuck todd pressed vice president mike pence over the weekend, as you know, you were on "meet the press" this weekend whether he would scrap this executive order and try to get something done legislatively. at this point in time andrea, no indication that president trump, that his administration are going to go that route. instead, they are digging in, trying to uphold this travel ban, which is being now legally challenged. andrea? >> we have to wait to see whether he says anything as he addresses the troops today where you are. thanks so much, kristen welker. both president trump and the opponents of the temporary travel ban are waiting the next steps on the appeal of court of appeals decision. pete williams joins me now, we're waiting for briefs from all sides. there's a 6:00 p.m. deadline for them to file, 6:00 p.m. eastern. >> right. >> then we have to see what the court does and the timetable is up in the air. >> yes, although the court will react quickly, this is an emergency panel of the ninth

circuit court of appeals, judges carter, obama and george w. bush appointee and they'll act quickly. the government is the last to submit its briefs at 6:00 tonight and any point after that the court could act >> once the court acts i know it's very difficult to play this all out but all of the scenario, they could continue the hold and actually wait for arguments to be made before the court? >> the best way to think of this is the two states and possibly a third, hawaii wants to get into the act here, have gone to a federal judge in seattle and said we think this program is unconstitutional and illegal, but before you get to that, in the meantime, put an emergency temporary hold on what the government's been doing while we get ready to duke it out in court. that's what the judge did friday night, what's before the appeals court. whoever dunt prevail in the appeals court can ask the supreme court for a stay. this is still before the judge and still a mini trial on whether the judge should issue an order to either preliminarily

or permanently stop the government from doing this. >> now the supreme court is tied 4-4. justice kennedy i believe has the immediate jurisdiction over requests for stays from the ninth circuit from california >> right. >> what is the possibility that this actually gets deadlocked in the appeals court or -- >> it won't get deadlocked in the appeals court because it's either unanimous or 2-1, one way or the other. it goes, you're right, technically speaking it goes to the circuit justice in the u.s. supreme court, that's kennedy but the longstanding tradition is he refers it to the full court. he's not going to decide this on his own but if the ninth circuit says to the government, no, we're going to leave that ban in place, basically they asked the same question of the supreme court and they have to decide whether to leave the ban in place or not. >> and they are tied 4-4. >> well we'll see. there are only eight justices. they could be tied 4-4.

by the way, it takes five votes to issue a stay so which ever side will prevail on the u.s. supreme court needs to get to five. >> that was my next question the five vote for granting this. >> right. >> the bottom line is also the president's attacks on the federal judge. it's not unprecedented in history, you can go all the way back before the civil war and even since the fdr cases. >> president obama criticizing the supreme court in his state of the union speech. >> but at the same time, him going after the supreme court in this case, after rather the federal judge in this case, it ups the ante, as he's got a nominee who is being brought around and being questioned. this is certainly fueling the democrats and chuck schumer saying over the weekend that we now have a bigger test, a higher bar. they don't have the votes technically, because if they can filibuster and mitch mcconnell has already signaled what's going to happen with that.

you only need 51. >> right. >> so this increases the toxicity, if it's possible, over that nomination. >> well, you know, it's odd, because in the case of merritt garland, the republicans were always saying it's not about him, it's the principle. the democrats saying it's not about neil gorsuch it's the principle. we don't like the way they handled merritt garland. the democrats are looking for any kind of arguments they can make along the lines. they'll get around eventually to say we don't like some of neil gorsuch's rulings. for the most part this is about everything except the nominee. >> a quick question about the silicon valley ceos and the others who are joining in this ninth circuit case. >> right. >> do they have standing? >> it's not a standing issue for them. they're friend of the court briefs. additional things we'd like to you know. the state's argument is that this is hurting the state's economy, especially washington state. hurts the company's ability to recruit and train and get the best possible talent, sell the products overseas, universities

faculty can't travel, the 97 companies are basically adpreeg wi agreeing with the state's argument it hurts them economically. >> thank you so much. as the patriots are flying home this afternoon for a big reception, just in a few hours in boston, key moments are too many but here's a few. that coin toss by former president george h.w. bush joined by former first lady barbara bush just out of the hospital, so great to see them. atlanta's dominance going into the half with historically insurmountable super bowl lead 25 points. and lady gaga the showstopping halftime performance showing more athleticism than the patriots had in the first two quarters with an inclusive patriotic theme and the roof opening to feature 300 coordinated drones and of course the miraculous tom brady comeback in the fourth marked by especially miraculous fourth

quarter catch by julian edelman. can't stop looking at that one, pushing the game into the first super bowl tiebreaking overtime period. brady driving 75 yards in eight plays, sending shock waves to atlanta and the rest of the sporting world. the 34-28 victory giving patriots owner bob kraft the sweetest revenge of accepting the lombardi trophy from a clearly deflated nfl commissioner roger goodell who left the podium with only a perfunctory congratulatory handshake to superhero tom brady. today brady had this special message for his mother battin e battingling cancer. >> she's been through a lot, way harder than what i and our team went through last night and my dad's been there every step of the way. they set such a great example for me, you know, and you know, all families go through challenging times personally, but you know, she has a lot of support and a lot of love and

just happy last night to be able to celebrate with her. >> whether you love or you hate tom brady, you have to celebrate the human emotion and the incredible achievement of what he did last night. coming up next here, legal limbo. could the travel ban keep the best and the brightest from coming to the u.s.? "new york times" columnist tom friedman, author of a new book, joining me next right here on "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home,

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the nightmare is over. i would say it's just the worst experience that i've ever had and i hope it won't happen again. >> reporter: do you plan to stay in the u.s.? >> definitely no. i was planning to do my masters but now, no. i'll probably go to canada to continue there. >> reporter: because of all of this? >> yes, definitely. >> that captures it, after a week in limbo, a student from libya arrived at dulles over the weekend after being stranded for a week by the president's travel ban. the senior at george mason university now plans to find a school as she said in canada, a country more welcoming to immigran immigrants. joining me is tom friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the "new york times" and author of the best selling book "thank you for being late." thanks for being not only on time but on point with your new book. this gets to the whole question that we are now looking at. you look at the global situation from the standpoint of your

childhood in minnesota and how globalization helps us. there are net losers as you point out but the drain drain of these students coming from muslim, you know, majority countries and it's the message that we're spreading also to students from india and other countries, which have benefited us so greatly. universities, silicon valley companies, all concerned about what we're losing. >> well, you know, the essential argument of the book, andrea, you have to connect the main dots, climate, technology and globalization. they're all really reshaping the world so if you think of checking boxes, not connecting boxes you're going to have a problem. so just taking that libyan student, here's my iphone. this iphone was conceived by steve jobs. steve jobs was conceived, his biological father, by abdul fatah al jindali, who was a senior student at the university of wisconsin in the 1950s.

and so who knows what incredible wealth of knowledge and talent and energy we are now sending the signal to stay away. of course we want people vetted. i mean, but who said the vetting system had failed us? what is the proof of that? the orlando attack was done by an american-born muslim, boston basically the same thing. there was a case obviously in san bernardino. that's one out of how many. of course we want vetting but the signal we're sending is, stay away. and when you send that signal, lord knows in a world where there's -- what makes us great as a country over the years, andrea, we've attracted more high iq risk takers than any other country, over 250 years basically. if we now, global brains are divided equally. if we tell people basically to stay away we'll revert to the global norm, about a quarter of our gdp. >> in your book you write that

one of the "our democracy can work only if voters know to make -- excuse me, how the world works, so that they are able to make intelligence policy choices and are less apt to fall prey to demagogues, ideological zealots or conspiracy buffs who may be confusing them at best or deliberately misleading them at worst." >> one of the points i make when people ask me what i do for a living, i'm a translator from english to english. i try to take complex subjects and break it down as far as i can understand it and i have a quote from marie curie in there talking about that process and she said now is the time for us to understand more so we will fear less. that's really point. when people don't understand the world they're easy prey to those that make them afraid of everything. >> you and i have both at times

before you were the eminent author and columnist you covered the white house, you know what the importance is of things coming out factually from the white house. >> yes. >> when the white house demeans jungz and judges and the president attacks people by tweet, we're reaching a critical mass of confusion and clearly people on social media are going to respond to what they see and not know what the real facts are. >> it's again about connecting dots, so the president says we're going to build a wall on the border with mexico. we're going to urge all companies who are producing things there to move to america. one of the things that is done hammer the mexican currency which has made it much cheaper therefore to produce in mexico. at the same time say american companies are forced to move their operations from mexico to america. therefore raising their costs, especially if the president carries through with the threat to add a 20% tariff. what will the companies do?

they will roboticize everything. they're not going to hire more humans. the joke i tell in the book is that today's modern american factory just has two employees a man and the dog. the man is there to feed the dog and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines. all of these have unintended consequences. right now net immigration from mexico to the united states is zero. where is the immigration coming from? it's coming from central america, three states, honduras, el salvador and guatemala. they're hit with drought, climate issues, gang warfare and population explosion. same with sub-saharan africa. those migrants are trying to come to america. what's the first thing the administration did, basically deep six climate science and announce we're getting out of the business of promoting family planning technology in the developing world. the idea that you can control immigration with a wall and not by understanding its connection to all these other forces, you know, i would say to the trump

people, is your wall higher, deeper and wider than the mediterranean? because that wall hasn't worked for europe. >> and one of the things that has not been reported is what was the quid pro quo for australia agreeing or president obama, john kerry agreeing to take 1250 refugees from australia. it was australia taking central americans that we didn't want passing through mexico into the southern u.s., and that was -- >> perfect example how all these things are connected. >> and the connections are really important to see. one other question that is connected is, the national security officials largely democrats from the previous administrations but also mark hayden and others from the cia filing a statement an affidavit, a declaration overnight with the appeals court saying that there is a national security issue here with this travel ban, that not only was there no threat described from the seven countries, to the contrary, these countries are not largely the contributors to terror

attacks here, but that this will increase the threat to the u.s., because isis is already using this ban as a propaganda tool. >> it's a great propaganda tool for them. there's a larger point and i've said for a while, some things are true if donald trump believes them. that's something we can have a respectful debate with him about but why have we had less jihadist terrorism in the country because we're a melting pot, we welcomed muslims as our brothers and sisters as we welcomed so many other immigrants to the country. at the same time with work with saudi arabia, turkey, with these countries creating that network has made us safer since 9/11 so

you'd think that 9/11 happened yesterday and basically we've been defenseless. in fact we've reacted to 9/11 and the leader in that was george w. bush and what was the first thing he said, we're not going to attack muslims in this country. we're going to welcome them. that's worked for us. where is the fact-based evidence that we should be adopting a radically different approach? it's not there. >> george w. bush in fact right after 9/11 as you point out, jeh johnson at homeland security, the first american homeland official to go to the convention in chicago of the muslim-americans and declare we need you, and nowhere more than in minnesota. >> can something happen in tomorrow after we leave? of course. crazy things will happen but you have to take the long view here. >> someone who takes the long view, thank you, tom friedman. the book is "thank you for being late" appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. coming up president trump under fire for the response to vladimir putin's murderous record. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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. president trump is coming under fire even from his own party for that comparison of vladimir putin's record for murder and invasion of neighboring countries to america's past foreign policy. >> do you respect putin? >> i do respect him. >> do you, why? >> well i respect a lot of people, but that dunt and mean i'm going to get along with them. >> putin's a killer. >> there's a lot of killers, we got a lot of killers. what, you think our country is so innocent? >> senate majority leader mitch mcconnell quickly tried to distance himself from the president's comments. >> well look, putin's a former kgb agent. he's a thug annexed crimea,

invaded ukraine and messed around in our elections. i don't think there's any equivalency between the way russians conduct themselves and the way the united states does. >> joining me now ambassador nick burns, former undersec stare of state for political affairs, now prove vor at harvard's business school. >> thank you. >> your reaction initially to the comparison which did sound like a moral equivalency between vladimir putin, his record with opponents in hospital right now after recovering from organ failure in the past, and of course to say nothing of the eastern ukraine, and past u.s. policies? >> well andrea, i was startled along with everybody else, because there is no moral equivalency. it's so objectionable on so many levels to assert somehow russia and the united states play in the same field, in the same way. they're an authoritarian ti

dictatorship. we're a democracy. they kill their political owe points, we honor them in a separation of powers in the united states. we are the leader of a democratic alliance worldwide and the russians, of course, have occupied and annexed crimea, as the majority leader mcconnell said. i think what i've been thinking today is we've not heard from donald trump as candidate or as president over the last couple of weeks any articulation that he's the leader of the west now, that he's the leader of the nato alliance, that, like ronald reagan and harry truman and bill clinton, all these countries are going to be looking to him for moral leadership, and that the greatest difference between the united states and russia is that we believe in human freedom, and the russian government does not, and president trump seems to focus on transactional agreements. he criticizes angela merkel, our great friend in germany, an ally, more than he does putin. we need to see him embrace these alliances, because they're the foundation of american power. >> russia has responded to the

bill o'reilly fox interview, the question that bill o'ro'reilly asked russia wants an apology from fox news over what it said were unacceptable comments. so this could not be stranger and stranger, also mike pence was on "meet the press" trying to explain it saying it wasn't moral equivalencequivalency. what the president meant to say was. at the same time former national security colleagues of yours, republicans, as well as mostly democrats filing a statement to the court in california, the ninth circuit court of appeals saying there's no national security justification for the sweeping ban on people coming here from seven different countries. >> well, i think that's exactly right. we already have extreme vetting in place. it already takes at least 18 months for a refugee to come into the country, because they're so thoroughly vetted.

there is no record of a syrian refugee committing an act of terrorism in the united states and as you and tom friedman were discussing, andrea, by closing our borders to refugees and immigrants, we give the terrorists groups a propaganda advantage and we are not present in meeting the great moral crisis, which is 12 million syrian homeless, all these millions -- that europe is taking in, in big numbers and the united states is not. canada is taking in big numbers and the united states is not. so part of being, this gets back to the question about the russians and the americans, the hallmark of american leadership is that we're strong militarily but we're strong morally, that we keep our doors open to welcome the most distressed people in the world, and president trump is failing that test. i think that's why you're seeing republicans and democrats who have experience in government speak out so strongly against the muslim ban. >> and before i let you go, i

know you're coming to us from boston. i know your views on the patriots and red sox having traveled with you many years and we've had many arguments over new york versus boston. i give you your due, tom brady did it again. >> you know, i'm just about to go teach a course on leadership here at harvard, the business school, and i'm going to use brady as an example. leadership under stress, it of a brillia it was a brilliant victory, we are reveling in patriot nation this morning. >> congratulations, quite a night from lady gaga through the third and especially the fourth quarter. so you've got a lot of leadership arguments to make. >> we never gave up. >> a lot of lessons. >> thanks, andrea. now a quick update to a story we brought to you last week a syrian family turned back from philadelphia was allowed into the u.s. today. the asali reunited with their

family members from allentown, pennsylvania. congressman charlie dent helped negotiate their return and there for their arrival, 17-year-old matthew asali spoke shortly after landing. >> i'm so grateful. i just want to say thank you to all the american people that support us, to all the attorneys, to the congressmen. >> everybody. >> everyone that supported us. . . retiring retired tires. and i never get tired of it. are you entirely prepared to retire? plan your never tiring retiring retired tires retirement with e*trade. i'm in vests and as a vested investor in vests i invest with e*trade, where investors can investigate and invest in vests... or not in vests. sign up at etrade.com and get up to six hundred dollars.

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the white house chief strategist steve bannon on newsstands across america not in this flattering picture of "time" magazine cover and subject of swirling rumors and media reports about the size and scope of his power which may be catching the commander in chief's attention. the president making it clear in a tweet "i call my own shots." robert costa is a veteran trump watch per. thank you for joining us. is steve bannon and the publicity surrounding him which has been on all of our air and all of our paper and magazine covers, is that getting under the president's skin or does he look past that? >> well there has always been just one name on the marquee for the donald trump show, that's tr donald trump. in spite of his coverage on magazine and newspaper covers bannon is low key trying to build a relationship with chief

of staff reince priebus, a long time party insider and bannon clashed with the rnc during his time at breitbart and trying to build a relationship with house speaker paul ryan as they get working on the legislative agendas. you have this bomb thrower to be sure but he changed his ways since he's entered the white house. >> maybe changed his ways since those executive orders because all of our reporting is that it was bannon's influence to include visa holders, green cardholders, contrary to the guidance from the professionals that state were unaware of that and homeland who had thought it had been taken out. there's a lot of controversy over this and afteraction reporting but that seems to be what precipitated the reordering and reince priebus given more clear-cut authority over how the executive orders are supposed to be processed. >> that's a sharp point and we reported this at "the post" as well. if bannon sees himself as the keeper of the flame of the trump campaign, that hard line

populism and nationalism and in particular the immigration policy, so he has a lot of authority given from the president to push through those ideas, but working within washington, he has to work with priebus and there has been a push not so much against bannon but against the current fast moving process to make sure things are checked with the department heads to make sure the cabinet is consulted, so even though bannon and steven miller, the policy adviser, feel like they're doing everything trump wants, the time lines have to be adjusted and so do the expectations. >> and i know the pushback from the white house is that they didn't have people confirmed, but a lot of this is at the feet of the nfc parts of confirmable positions goes back the progress was disrupted when chris christie was fired and not in contention anylonger. my mullen his op-ed saying

having mr. bannon will have a negative influence. i fear that it will have a chilling effect on declinerations and potentially diminish the authority and prerogatives to which senate confirmed cabinet officials are entitled. the nfc is the nfc. all presidents put out memos as to who will be seated members of the nsc when the president is at the head of the table. the principals committee that was the change putting him not against the wall like axelrod was issues involved with congressional approval and rollout of communication strategy but making him one of the deliberateors at the principals committee. according to one report that was not fully understood by the president. >> i did see that report. my sense is that bannon makes many people uncomfortable, because of his past, his controversial comments, republicans privately tell me they don't particularly love the

idea of him being part of this national security council. inside of the white house, if you don't have a deep relationship with you're not sure how to handle him, how to approach him. the thing about bannon, he does have the confidence of the president, and that's why he's part of this national security discussion, and whether the president was fully briefed on that or not remains somewhat of a vague question. bannon is at trump's side. he's seen as someone who reflects trump's core views, not the republican party and right now, this could change, that's how trump wants to stack up his white house. >> and of course, he has the advantage of having helped get the president elected against all naysayers. robert, thank you as always. appreciate your insights. >> thank you. and coming up live from new york, it's the white house press briefing. >> i'd like to begin today by apologizing on behalf of you to me. for how you have treated me these last two weeks, and that

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this weekend "saturday night live" delivered some of its sharpest jabs yet, ripping into president trump's first two weeks in office. but it was comedian melissa mccarthy who stole the show making a surprising appearance as white house press secretary sean spicer. >> glenn rush "new york times"

boo, go ahead. >> yeah, i wanted to ask about the travel ban on muslims. >> it's not a ban. the travel ban is not a ban, which makes it not a ban. >> but you just called it a ban. >> because i'm using your words. you said ban. you said ban, now i'm saying it back to you. >> the president tweeted and i quote, if the ban were announced with a one-week notice. >> yeah, exactly. you just said that. he's quoting you. it's your words. he's using your words when you use the words and he uses them back it's circular using of the word and that's from you. >> any resemblance to the mad hatter's tea party? joining me chris cillizza and karen tumulty, national correspond enfor "the washington post." right to sean spicer's tongue-in-cheek response responding to the melissa mccarthy takedown. >> look, i think melissa

mccarthy needs to slow down on the gum chewing. way too many pieces in there. >> he does have a sense of humor. karen, you've been in that briefing room so many times, as have i. the tension and they did try to get past that first day, that unfortunate saturday performance without any questions, that wasn't a briefing but the briefings have been contentious as well. >> they have and i think that they have from the podium more personal in terms of the pushback than any time at least that i can recall. >> how is it reflecting this president. >> exactly, we're making a list and taking names, and i think that that's one of the sort of aspects of this that the "saturday night live" skit really caught. >> now, chuck schumer just a few moments ago signaled that they are in for continued arguments on the floor over betsy devos, the education nominee.

few moments ago schumer spoke, i think we have that. >> the american people are speaking in one loud voice against this nominee. i've had many people come up to me in new york said i voted for donald trump, but i'm making calls about this nominee. we need just one more vote and we can get a lot better secretary of education. >> so they say that now they are going to talk all night, not technically a filibuster but keep the senate floor going. chris cillizza, they don't have the votes. it's 50/50. mike pence has the tiebreaking vote. >> that's right. >> they are seizing on this nominee because of her performance at the confirmation hearing and because they've got a lot of support around the country. >> that's right. look, i think democrats would like to take down one of donald trump's cabinet nominees. betsy devos' showing at her confirmation hearing was weak, to say the least.

there was a bit in the "saturday night live" they bring betsy devos out, too. she struggled. i don't think there's any question and democrats have seen activism grow up around in particular this nomination. the senate switchboard overwhelmed with calls. the problem is exactly what you just said, they don't have the votes. susan collins, lisa murkowski, two republicans voting on the record saying they're going to vote against betsy devos. you heard chuck schumer say they need one more. my guess is after a weekend of not getting one more it's hard for me to see there's anyone else out there. deb fisher from nebraska said she's going to vote for devos, pat toomey from pennsylvania said he's going to vote for devos. this may be an attempt by democrats to elongate to satisfy their activist base but when the vote happens i think she's going to go through by the narrowest of margins. >> at the same time, when the president does an interview with bill o'reilly it should be a

comfortable setting but his questions about vladimir putin and the answer are just creating a big stir and i wanted to play what barry mccaffrey, retired general, had to say to our colleague hallie jackson just two hours ago. >> i am actually incredulous that the president would make a statement like that. one can argue that's the most anti-american statement ever made by the president of the united states. >> and this as the president we see is arriving in tampa for his first meeting with the military. karen he's got a lot of support in the military, but this is really resonating with his opponents and we know what the protests have been growing and continuing around the country. >> when you think about how the conservatives, how the republicans attacked barack obama by saying that he was not a firm enough believer in american exceptionalism, it

truly these comments by the president essentially saying this country has blood on its hands, too, has to have been really jarring, as barry mccaffrey said. it sounds much more like something you would have heard from leftists in the 1970s than would you hear from a republican president in 2017. >> and this as vladimir putin's role in the election as mitch mcconnell pointed out the hacking of the election which mitch mcconnell is not questioning, not the results but the hacking of the election. >> the problem -- >> i was going to say now we see evidence that the russians are also hacking into european elections. >> i was going to say andrea, the problem is, this remark is not made in a vacuum. donald trump is well aware and if it he's not, he hasn't been paying attention to cable tv which i know he has, he's well aware of the fact that he's made a lot of statements about russia that are not condemnations. well he's not my friend but i hope that we have a good relationship.

he knows that by saying, well, a lot of people kill people, that's not anywhere near a condemnation. it's not anywhere near what you've seen out of bill o'reilly, frankly, in that interview, what you've seen out of a lot of senate and house republican leaders. it is atypical of the party and will only go to stoke further wonders about what did russia do, how did they do it, all those sorts of things, not that he could put it to bed but he could certainly put himself firmly on one side and he continues to refuse to do that. >> chris cillizza thank you so much and karen tumulty as well. coming up, legal battle over president trump's travel ban just getting started. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ all sounds come to a crashing halt ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops.

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the justice department comes as lawyers for washington state and minnesota are telling a federal appeals court in a filing this morning that restoring such a ban would "unleash chaos again." matt miller served as spokesman to former attorney general eric holder for three years and joins me now. thank you for joining us. lot of attention is being placed on the president's comments. first the white house comments when they first commented, they issued a statement saying that the federal judge's order in washington state was outrageous, ten minutes later took the word

"outrageous" out. when the stay came through, the appeals court agreeing they issued a statement they're going to issue a stay from the white house which clearly hadn't passed muster with the legal counsel office because white houses don't issue stays. they apply, they file motions for stays to the court system. it just doesn't seem to be a process in place yet for executive orders or these comments on legal rulings. >> there's an odd combination of incompetence and the level at the white house, the comments they issued from the press office completely inappropriate for a white house to say about ongoing court actions, and those are actually, you know, the most mild things that they've said, nothing compared to what the president said in some of his tweets over the weekend. i think they're going to find that these are the kind of actions that backfire on them, possibly with the public but certainly can backfire with them with the courts and with judges. >> let me ask you that, the president tweeted initially the

opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law enforce amount way from our country is ridiculous and will be overturned. then two days later tweeting just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. if something happens, blame him and court system. people pouring in, bad. does that have an impact? should the judges ignore tweets from the president? >> i don't think they will ignore them. judges of course make the decisions based on the briefs that are presented and make it based on the arguments that happen in their courtrooms but judges are human, too, and they hear what is said outside the courtroom and see what participants in the case, the president s the ultimate client for the justice department see what he's saying and what he said is also relevant in one very particular way. one of the arguments the administration is making to the court is that the president has the constitutional power by himself, and that in some manner shouldn't enbe reviewed. >> he has very broad powers over immigration.

>> he does have very broad powers and that's their argument. the courts aren't in a position to question his power here, an argument administrations have made in the past. when you have the president then come out and question the legitimacy of the courts, the legitimacy of a judge, calling him this so-called judge it makes me think a court nigmighty if the president is going to question the functioning of our government we need to draw some lines around his power, and make sure we assert the supremacy of the judiciary, one of the longstanding tenets of our system of government. >> matt miller, that's going to have to be the last word to paraphrase lawrence o'donnell. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports," a busy weekend and a busy monday. remember, follow us online on facebook and tion twitter. ali velshi is up next on msnbc. >> good afternoon andrea. i am ali velshi in for craig melvin this afternoon. lots of stories we're following

at this hour. commander in chief president donald trump meeting with senior officials at u.s. central command in florida this hour. we'll bring you his remarks from there a little later. immigration ban battle, the justice department has just five hours to file its briefs to reinstate president trump's executive order on immigration. meantime, two more states tell an appellate court that the ban on travelers from seven predominantly muslim countries will unleash chaos again, and inside the white house. an explosive new report alleging an atmosphere of chaos and confusion in the first two and a half weeks of the trump presidency. we'll talk to the "new york times" glenn this thrush who broke the story. first at macdill air force base in tampa, florida, any moment he's scheduled to deliver his first public speech before u.s. troops. we'll wait to see if he comments on the legal challenges to his travel and immigration ban. later today the justice department is expecte