good to be with you. i'm frances rivera. new concerns over north korea's ballistic missile

launch. president trump and prime minister of japan out with a strong message. how will president trump handle his first major foreign policy test? the trump administration will pressure china to reign in north korea. escalating fears in the immigrant community over the raids that are sparking protests. in mexico, protesters are taking to the streets. amid one of the big foreign policy tests of his presidency so far. yesterday, north korea launched an intermediate range ballistic missile into the sea of japan. this, happening as the president was hosting japanese prime minister shinzo abe at his home in florida. abe calling the launch, quote, absolutely intolerable, the president reiterating his administration's support for japan. >> i just want everybody to understand and fully know that

the united states of america stands behind japan, its great al ally, 100%. thank you. msnbc senior editor of politics beth fouhy joins me live in studio. we heard from the president. very limited from what he had to say. are we hearing anything more from the white house? >> that was last night, frances, and as you know, a president who has vowed -- those are fairly measured words from president trump, mostly talking about the relationship with japan. he didn't speak directly to what had happened with this missile launch. earlier today, his senior adviser, steven miller, went out to do the various morning shows and did have a few things to say about it. let's take a listen. >> last night was a show of strength. saying that we stand with our ally, having the two men appear on camera, worldwide, to all of planet earth, was a statement that will be understood very well by north korea.

>> so, he's promising further action or further discussion in the next few days. you know, frances for a president that's only been in office three weeks a number of foreign policy challenges for this president between the russian hacking situation that continues to hangover this presidency and then iran. the fact that national security adviser and president trump have both gone out to put iran on notice for potentially violating that nuclear trade agreement we have with that country. >> certain a lot we'll be seeing, prime minister abe and also tomorrow meeting with justin trudeau, canadian prime minister there. when we talked about how measured the president's response is when it comes to this, do you think there's a sense that there's a hold back that could have been more beneficial to him or are people expecting more from him? >> for somebody who tweets and is quite impulsive in many ways he has clearly decided that

something of this magnitude it's better to hold back, take stock of what is going on and speak to advisers and go from there. >> certainly measured. thank you, beth, for taking the time to talk with me. this new provocations from north korea could strain future relations between china and the united states, as china is key to influencing north korea. nbc's janice mackey frayer has the latest. >> reporter: beijing has been frustrated by the regime's prove objections. under kim jong-unthey've been able to less influence let alone reign in the north korean government even if they wanted to. this puts china in a very awkward position. while there is that frustration here there's the complicating factor of south korea. china is very strongly opposed to the tad missile defense system, u.s. defense system

deployed on south korean soil later this year. reiterating their position saying tad will kroms its own definitions in the region and do little to ease tensions on the peninsula. the white house will be expecting china to do more. president trump has said beijing is not doing enough. it shows the importance of that phone call a few days ago between president trump and xi jinping to break a deadlock in relations, where trump agreed to honor the one china policy. the call seen as critical to move beyond the impasse so there could be real progress on issues like north korea. the call here is still being framed as a victory for china. now the administration might be expecting beijing to give something in return by reigning in the north. now back to you. >> janice mackey frayer for us in beijing. thank you. the missile posed no threat to north america, the white

house says, but what does it signal about north korea's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon? professor of korean studies joins us. appreciate you being with us. talk about this launch and the intention of it being a show of force to the trump administration. how much was that meant to rattle the president? to what extent were they successful, if at all? >> as absurd as it sounds, north korea has tried to tame every new u.s. administration going back to the nixon administration in 1969. you know, to use the proverbial expression carrot and stick, north korea actually sees itself as the party wielding those weapons with means of power over its bigger adversary and north korea, over the years, has been able to get away with murder, really coerce the world's biggest powers into paying

billions of dollars for north korea's repeated pledges of lies, including denuclearization. this comes as no surprise. north korea will pr sue a -- they're not suicidal, not about to launch a missile at the u.s. mainland. through little controlled and sometimes lethal provocations like this, north korea is trying to state that this is the norm. >> we heard the president's response very limited, very measured as we're describing it. the president not mentioning south korea or the united nations in this statement, was that a misstep? >> i don't think so. you know, we've heard from various capitals with each north korean provokatiprovocation thi

intolerable, there will be serious consequences. we've heard this the past 25 years. i think it's actually better to not be too emotional to be forceful rhetorically but pursue a policy that can put pressure on north korea, principally squeeze north korean's finances, go out to the money trail. >> given what we've seen in recent months here, north korea launching two similar missiles just in june. if anything, what might this say about their nuclear tests in the country and what might they be planning, especially given in your words you see this as a gradual escalation? >> this is not business as usual, i'm afraid. for the past 25 years, many states in the region, including the u.s., have harbored the illusion because north korea is so backward, so dependent on aid perhaps we can coerce, negotiate with north korea, get them to give up their nuclear weapons program. precisely for that reason, because they have nothing else,

they are very much intent on advancing their nuclear weapons program. to go back to business as usual, to damage control diplomacy, return to negotiation after a decent interval with bigger blandishments in tow, the pattern over the past 25 years, that is a self defeating policy. we need a new policy right now. >> professor of korean studies at tufts university, thank you for your time this afternoon. >> thank you. coming up, concerns about the national security adviser michael flynn. could he lose his job for discussions sanctions with the russian ambassador before trump took office? hear the new reaction from the white house. and will politics steal the show at music's biggest night? we're live in l.a. ahead of tonight's grammy awards. busy your life can be.now w mom: oh no... 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.

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the white house did not give you anything to say? >> they did not. it's not for me to tell you what's in the president's mind. >> if you were caught misleading the president of the united states, would that be considered a fireable offense in the trump white house? >> it's not for me to answer hypotheticals. it wouldn't be responsible. it's a sensitive matter. >> one policy adviser steven miller on the future national security adviser michael flynn, under fire for discussing sanctions with a russian ambassador before president trump took office. something that other officials repeatedly denied. president george h.w. bush adviser and also cnbc contributor and national reporter for the no"the new yor times" and former managing director. appreciate all of you being with me. miller will say it's not for him to answer hypotheticals.

joe, how about you? i'm going to have you, if you can, answer that. is it misleading for the vice president? is it a fireable offense in your view? >> i think anybody that purposefully misleads the vice president should be considered to be removed from their position. the vice president depends on the aides around him to provide him with truthful information. he can't make a determination based on falsehoods. i would think that would be a fireable offense. >> the other question is when he says the white house didn't give him anything to say, what does that signal to you? >> it signaled to me that they really don't want to talk about flynn and they don't really want to have any attention on this issue anymore. of course, it is a very important issue and this idea that michael flynn could have misled mike pence. his credibility something he very much values. think about kellyanne conway and

sean spicer, criticism they've gotten for not being as accurate. you go to reince priebus and mike pence, the wing of the white house people tend to rely on, if they say something it's true. can you imagine that vice president pence is fuming at the idea that he had to go out there and be the public face of what we now know is a falsehood. >> is it enough to say they didn't give me anything to say? almost that awkward -- chuck was asking those questions saying, well, they didn't give me anything. >> he also -- i mean, it was also remarkable to hear him say, you know, i'm not going to answer hypotheticals f someone lies to the boss, if that's not for me to say. he is also in a position where he knows that the boss is watching him. if they didn't give him anything to say it's because they didn't want him to talk about. >> joe, i want to ask you about north korea, especially when it comes to the president's response to that luncaunch. did you find anything reassuring about his response and how he

could handle provocations about this. >> you know -- >> i -- >> sorry. go ahead, joe and i'll have tara respond. >> gave a measured response as to reassuring that the world, of course, that he's a strong supporter of japan. i thought that was the right thing to do. and i thought his response was appropriately measured. >> yeah. tara, your thoughts, especially given the fact that he didn't mention the u.n. or south korea in that statement. >> right, right. i mean, fundamentally, donald trump is at a crossroads with all these foreign policy challenges he's facing. he's got to actually, you know, show that despite all the criticism and all of his past behaviors that he fundamentally is fit to handle being commander in chief and to act in measured and thoughtful approaches. and so you could almost see that he was, you know, restrained,

right, and trying to say very little so that he could kind of continue to show that aspect. i just don't know that if donald trump -- how long donald trump will be able to handle that and temperamentally that he will be able to hold this line, especially as these challenges seem to only be increasing and we're only three weeks into office. >> three weeks into office, you're talking about watching the president, especially this week. it is crucial. yamiche, meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu wednesday. will the president be able to hit the reset button with israel the way he says he's going to? >> i mean that's a tough thing to decide. i mean, i think this relationship is something that's been very closely watched. when i was on the campaign trail a lot of people voted for donald trump because they felt like president obama didn't have the same close relationship that they wanted to see with israel. now they're hoping that this president will have a closer relationship with that. but we already see the trump administration backing off on this idea that they were going to be supporting more

settlements in israel. that tells me right there that the u.s. policy might not change that much with israel. there might be -- it might look like it's different. it might be a different person but if donald trump is saying you can't build settlements, it inhibits peace in the region, that's a big deal. >> what will that do to the relationship when you're looking at the relationship that president obama had with benjamin netanyahu, joe? now we have this meeting coming up. what can you expect when it comes to that? >> netanyahu wants very much to have a better relationship with the new president of the united states and certainly he has said a lot of things that they want to hear him say. but i agree with miss alcindor. you may not see as much change as may have met the ire early on before the administration started. but i think netanyahu will want to have a better relationship with president trump than he had with president obama. >> as far as the democrats, tara, how closely will they be

watching this meeting and what will they be specifically looking for? >> i think all eyes will be on him wednesday. i think they're trying to see exactly what promises he's actually backing away from, how far he's backing away from them, what is the actual policy that will come out of here and really how this relationship will go moving forward with israel. really how this comes out of it and the reaction will be critical. and that's why so many people are focused on it. that's the biggest move this week. >> big move and big focus on that relationship. but also on the president's son-in-law. jared kushner reportedly will be a main presence throughout netanyahu's visit. if kushner can't attain peace in the middle east, then no one can, he has said. what do we expect to see as far as his son-in-law, jared kushner? yamiche, what do you think we'll see, given the fact that he has a personal relationship with benjamin netanyahu. what can we expect? >> you expect jared kushner to

really be feeling out this relationship and be trying to figure out whether he can be as influential. the idea that he is the only person who can mend this relationship is something that's going to be interesting to watch from my understanding, he doesn't have that much foreign policy experience actually negotiating treaties or peace deals. but this is somebody that donald trump really trusts. this is somebody who is one of his closest advisers, if not really the family member in the white house with him. you'll see jared kushner really sticking to the president's side this whole week. >> squujust for us to see the dynamic and the son-in-law. we've always seen the side of ivanka but now with the president himself. thank you for joining me joe, yamiche and taryn. >> thanks for having us. >> sure. the president says he will file a new executive order tomorrow for the immigration ban. but what are his options? that's next.

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president trump says his next move on the travel ban could come as soon as tomorrow. white house senior policy steven miller on "meet the press" listed the ways that the administration may keep the fight going after the latest setback. >> we're considering all of our options right now, chuck. that includes, you can continue the appeal in the ninth, seek an emergency stay at the supreme court. you can have a trial hearing on the merits at the district level or take it on bonk for the emergency hearing also at the ninth circuit and, yes, pursue additional executive actions. the bottom line is that we are pursuing every single possible action to keep our country safe from terrorism. >> msnbc chief legal correspondent is here with me. the additional executive orders here. you've been looking at these fixes on this travel ban. so, what can they be in the form of? what may we see? >> that's the big question, right? he outlined several things he can do in court, playing out the

defense, and everyone knows you get all the way up to the supreme court eventually one way or another. the current fix is to look at all the things that they learned in what was, by all accounts, a hasty rollout. one thing you could do is clarify green card legal resident not affected by the order. that is literally the current policy but the judges in california there criticized the administration for not doing that formally for the order, leaving that confusion. >> a tweak then, that criticism coming from those judges. what were they trying to make as far as making it a little bit better? >> as folks may remember their point was, it said it didn't apply, then it did, then didn't again. those changes went through a white house lawyer mcgann writing that up. the court saying this is a problem. we're a democracy. the president's words mean something. you can't have staff coming around, reversing and then re-reversing what it meant. the president could do it today,

go to the oval office and write the green card part in. donald trump has made the case harder saying publicly he wants to help christian refugees. the text of the order does refer to minority religions and that has been interpret by some to focus on christians or perhaps ysidis or jews in these muslim countries. they could better draft that to make it clear that that could help anyone of any religion which theoretically wouldn't change the order but make them look less potentially zbrimtry in the eyes of the court. >> when it comes to the numbers, percentages of refugees coming in, i want to put those up to you. the president tweeted claiming 72% of the refugees allowed in the u.s. since the seattle judge's ruling are from countries on the travel ban list. yesterday he tweeted 77% have been let in, citing a washington times story. then nbc news fact checking here found the statistics to be very

misleading. first week of the ban it was less than 1%. average that with the following week it's well under half. not the same amount of refugees that's been arriving since last year. >> it is if at all it is even logical to count something from a week or two when all of this has been in flux. typically these numbers are counted annually. you could say percent changes really does leave people with a misimpression. the most important point, though, is what's not said there, which is why would it be a bad thing if more refugees were coming from those seven countries, right? as was an issue for the administration in court, there have not been deadly terror attacks from immigrants. and donald trump is good at tweeting. he gets us talking about it, the retweets. but is it true? that's what we care about as journalists. is it true the premise of the tweet, that it would be a bad thing if there weren't more

refugees coming from those seven countries? even if true, experts say that has not been a national security concerned in contrast to sawed a arabia or pakistan. the tweet begs the original question, one they may have to defend in court. was it rational to pick those seven countries? how did they do it? this is the most amazing part. covering this for weeks now. i have not heard nor did i hear from steven miller in the clip you played, the president or elsewhere why those seven countries? what's the reason? it would be interesting to know. it's not our job to assum the worst but they haven't said why. >> we'll be seeing a lot more of you, especially on sunday nights here, starting msnbc live 6:00 to 8:00 pm eastern time. >> starting tonight 6:00 pm eastern. i'm excited. >> what have you got? >> ambassador bill richardson will talk about the travel ban, alan gershowitz about the legality. a new segment "normal or not." sometimes you look at what's been happening lately and say is this normal? >> new normal, we should say. starting tonight and every

sunday 6:00 to 8:00. ari, thank you. >> thank you. still to come here, fears are growing in america's immigrant community as i.c.e. conducts raids. a campaign promise to crack down on criminals with major backlash. a dozen mexican cities protests broke out.

good afternoon. i'm frances rivera. president trump is wrapping up his weekend at the winter white house in florida. the president is expected to return to washington this evening after hosting japanese prime minister shinzo abe. the prime minister heads back to japan after what the president called very productive talks. the international community is carefully watching north korea, following the launch of the ballistic missile yesterday. the white house is expected to pressure china to get involved to avoid escalating tensions

with north korea. new winter storm is set to hit the northeast. while people are still digging out from last week's nor'easter. more than a foot of snow is expected for parts of new england along with strong winds and coastal flooding. rains car raids carried out are sparking outrage. in mexico at this hour, thousands of protesters across the country are marching against president trump's immigration policies. joining me now is msnbc's mariana atencio. i know you were talking with some of these protesters there. what did they have to say? >> reporter: that's right, frances. this march just ended. authorities estimate that 1,100 protesters made their way to the iconic angel of independence behind me. i spoke to a lot of these

protesters who were just venting their frustration, anger against president trump and their against their own president and his handling of this whole crisis with mr. trump. this was the first big nationwide anti-trump rally that happened in mexico today. similar protests in 17 other mexican cities, cities like guadalajara reporting more than 1,600 trump protests. i saw banners comparing trump to hitler and a lot of people frustrated at the deportations that we're seeing in the u.s. that you reference to. but it's not just mexicans, frances. this is a country where there are a lot of ex-pats, estimated million americans living in mexico now and people from all over the world. i want to introduce you now to a canadian woman, living in mexico. her name is mary. mary, you marched against president trump in mexico today. can you tell us why? >> i did.

because i'm very afraid. i'm very afraid for ourselves, for mexicans, for the whole world. there's been comparisons with trump compared to hitler quite often on this demonstration. and i can see why. >> reporter: can you tell us what your banner reads? >> my banner says get out, trump, and respect mexico. >> reporter: thank you so much, mary. respect mexico. call for the unity of all mexicans. that was the rallying cry here in mexico today, frances. a lot of people also came with their families. i actually spoke to a mother and her young daughter at the protest today and i want you to listen to what they have to say. let's hear it. >> we're not only talking about our president but also about our future. and she was born in the u.s., so i think it's important to be clear that this is not only against trump but also against pena, so they have to take responsibility on both sides.

>> reporter: what does your sign say, tina? [ speaking foreign language ] that means i'm also american and i don't like trump. >> reporter: so a lot of families here in mexico, frances, they have at least one family member living in the u.s. or several family members who are also u.s. citizens. the close family ties between mexicans and americans are something that are being tested, if you will, right now. many mexicans here are saddened by what they're seeing. they're appalled. this is actually the first time that they're living through a time when mexico/u.s. relations were this bad. frances? >> mariana atencio living in mexico city. thank you very much. undocumented immigrants in the country are wondering what will happen to them after the immigration nationwide raids. the advocacy cord narrate at the united we dream network joins us. she is an undocumented

immigrant. thank you for being with me here. we know that your family and yourself, you immigrated to the united states when you were very, very young. some of your family members experienced those raids during the bush administration. how are you feeling? what are your thoughts in light of all the raids happening now? >> thanks for having me. i think it's important to be able to note that donald trump's mass deportation agenda is in place and ready to go. we've seen it with 160 people detained in california, 200 in georgia, south carolina, north carolina. as an undocumented woman, as a daughter of an undocumented woman, i am deeply concerned. i'm concerned because -- go ahead. >> well, you certainly said that because we had talked to you even before these raids. you put it that you felt under siege. you were fearful for your family members and your loved ones. what's the case now, knowing that these raids have happened most recently? >> i was on the phone with my mother last week three times,

telling her to be careful. to not open the door. and that's the message that we're sending to our members all across the country, and our partners that are joining us in protecting immigrants. what we know is that immigrants are here to stay. people like myself are here to stand up against the trump agenda of mass deportation. so i called my mom and i said you need to be careful when you open the door. don't open the door if there's an i.c.e. agent unless they have a warrant. and, you know what, mom? you're not alone. folks at planned parenthood, human rights campaign have pledged to come and support us. so yesterday we saw marches nationwide of people saying immigrants are here to stay. we continue to be able to form an opposition against donald trump. >> i know you shared the story with your mother. but you have other stories here of people who are afraid to leave their homes. parents were children who are afraid to even send them to school. what are you hearing from these fellow dreamers? >> i mean, i think that the

conversation conversations, what we've heard from folks in arizona. a woman, her name was lupe. she was separated from her children after spending more than 20 years in this country and was separated and deported just last week. and what we hear from the children, this angst of cry, like why does this have to happen to my family? why is this donald trump attacking us? what we're seeing is that he's going against the places that have been organized against the places like austin, texas, that have said, you know what? we don't want to collaborate with i.c.e. that's exactly the places we've seen some of these raids. the question is, is trump using this i.c.e. police as his political arm against his enemies? >> there's question when it comes to i.c.e. saying that these raids were planned before president trump took office. there's a contradiction, saying it's routine, the president calling it a crackdown of illegal immigrants.

it's keeping my campaign promise, in his words. what's your thought on that, in knowing that there's disconnect? >> yeah. i mean i think that donald trump has presented himself as someone who handles lies and governs in lice and so i am not surprised that there is a miscommunication there or what appears to be. what i do know is that there's people all across the country signing up to the here to stay network with united we dream and saying we're going to stand up to trump, the lies and we're going to know that we're here to stay. >> greisa martinez, i appreciate you being here to share your story and that of your mom. ahead of prime minister benjamin netanyahu's visit to the white house, there are questions about the relationship after it took a hit at end of president obama's tenure. what future could hold for the united states and its long-time ally.

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how important is it to repair this relationship and what about that -- >> it's repaired. >> it's repaired already? >> got repaired as soon as i took the -- >> within five minutes? >> yeah, it's repaired. we have a good relationship. israel has been treated very badly. we have a good relationship with them. >> you're holding back the last-minute money that president trump gave to the palestinians? >> we're going to see what happens. yeah. i don't want to talk about it. >> where do you stand on the embassy from tel aviv -- >> i don't want to talk about it. >> not yet? >> no. >> days after his inauguration, president trump saying the relationship with israel is repaired. prime minister benjamin netanyahu is expected to visit the white house wednesday looking for a reset. relations hit an all-time low when president obama refused to -- president trump recently told an israeli newspaper,

quote, i'm not somebody that believes that going forward with the settlements is a good thing for peace. for more on this, i'm joined by co-director of the middle east center at northeastern university. professor, thank you for being with me this evening. we have heard the president saying it's repaired. but has he repaired that relationship with israel? >> well, first of all, i don't think the relationship between the u.s. and israel was really broken in the first place. let's not forget that under president obama, a military agreement between the united states and israel was signed that involved $38 billion package of usa to israel. i think the personal relationship between president obama and prime minister netanyahu was bad but behind the scenes the relationship was actually stronger than they often appeared to be. what we're going to see the difference now with trump and netanyahu is the public relationship, particularly the relationship between the two leaders, will be much closer, much warmer than the personal relationship that existed between president obama and prime minister netanyahu. >> we certainly knew that that

was frosty, one way to put it. that personal relationship with president trump and benjamin netanyahu, how will this come about, especially when you see -- you know the president's stance on settlements there. he doesn't support them. >> well, his position on settlements has changed quite considerably, just in the last few weeks. he has proven himself to be very unpredictable. so it's quite hard to know exactly how his attitudes will continue to evolve. but i think he has already indicated that his view on settlements, though not as supportive as those on the israeli right would like it to be is probably going to be more tolerant than president obama's was. president obama was opposed to all settlement construction and it looks like president trump will maybe allow israel to build within the so-called settlement blocks and perhaps have a harder line about israeli settlements building outside of those blocks. so he's going to make a distinction between what kinds of settlements israel is allowed to build.

president obama didn't make any kind of distinction. >> what do you think trump will do the embassy, considering to move it to jerusalem. >> looks s less and less likel that he will make that move. since he has come into office, he seems to be backtracking from that campaign promise, the risk that it poses to them, instability in the region. i get the sense that he may try to find some sort of formula by way of the next ambassador works from jerusalem but the ambassador remains in tel aviv. >> talking tough on iran after their ballistic missile test. how do you think that will play when it comes to u.s./israel relations and factoring in the iran nuclear deal here and what may be at risk for that? >> as much as the palestinian issue will be on the agenda,

iran will be the item that will really dominate this meeting. not only in terms of what the israelis want, which is to ensure that the nuclear agreement -- they're not wanting or expecting it to be scrapped but they want it to be really the iranians to really be closely monitored. also, iran's aggressive behavior across the region to be checked. in particular, they want to test out the u.s. willingness to impose more sanctions in iran. the other issue is what kind of agreement the united states might forge with russia and syria and to prevent iran from being allowed to remain in syria in the aftermath of some sort of agreement with syria and apprise the russians away from what is a defacto alliance with iran. that's one thing that the israelis will be asking trump to do. >> i'm glad you brought up the russians. their take on israel and how they're likely to view trump's praise for the russians. >> initially they were very

concerned about this. russia is effectively in alliance with syria, iran and hezbollah, who are die hard enemies of israel. so, they have been very concerned about the potential rapport between the united states and russia. israeli attitudes have seemed to change over the next few weeks. now they're hoping that trump could convince putin to essentially move away from iran and isolate iran in the region and get russia's cooperation on that. potentially a better relationship between the united states and russia could actually be in israel's interest. >> dov waxman, appreciate your viewpoint and being with us this evening. thank you. >> thank you very much. celebrity recent award shows, platform to speak out against the policies of president trump. so, what can we expect during tonight's dprammy awards? live report from l.a. is next. before fibromyalgia, i was active. i was energetic. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy.

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this instinct to humiliate when it's model bid someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. >> that was actress meryl streep, taking a stand against then president-elect donald trump during this year's golden globe awards. the president responded with his own criticism calling streep, quote, overrated and a hillary flunky. streep replied at an event, lgbt advocacy group. streep said yes, i empty most overrated, over-decorated and currently i'm the most over-berated actress of my generation. certainly not the first time award ceremonies have been the venue for political statements. musician pharrell used his performance at the grammys to

show support for black lives matter, with his backup dancers wearing black hoodies. bringing us up-to-date on all the action, steve, there's word that producers are urging these artists to get political tonight? >> main producer of the show, the guy that's been producing the grammys, this will be his 37th time. he's already telling artists, basically, to go nuts. the quote is "bring it on" for those not only performing but maybe may have a politically charged song, album or even a politically charged speech. if you've got the guy producing the grammys telling artists to put out your political message it's a fair bet we'll hear many more political messages tonight than we have in years previous. it's not a stranger to these politically charged, racially toned messages that we tend to

hear at awards shows. the only difference between meryl streep and what may happen at the grammys is that we're much more used to hearing it at the grammys. remember, these are artists that make songs that are often politically charged. beyonce has "lemonade" and "formation," expected to win big. very politically charged messages on that record. a lot of racial overtones on that record. and i think a lot of people have been celebrating the fact that these artists have a voice and they plan to use it. you mentioned pharrell. that was 2015. 2016, kendrick lamar came up and did a tribute to trayvon martin. and mclemore came on stage and married 30 people, gay and not gay as a show of solidarity for marriage equality. this awards show in particular,

but particularly with this political climate we have, it's safe to say we do expect to hear political messages tonight and it will not come as a shock. this producer of the grammys says he expects at least one political message aassuredly to happen on stage and with the possibility of many more. >> when he says that, "bring it on," do you think his motivation is political or do you think for ratings? just for the sake of he's a producer, an executive, he wants people to watch tonight. >> there is no doubt if there are more story lines at an awards show -- this, the big one, obviously, being adele versus beyonce. but so many of these in the background. frank ocean choosing to boycott. his album arguably one of the best of the year. he is going to sit it out because there hasn't been enough representation for people with his style of music. maybe racially as well. you have justin bieber who is going to sit out. kanye, you never know what he is going to say or how he feels. more people will tune in just to

see what people have to say. lady gaga avoided controversy at the super bowl. people are thinking tonight -- well, tonight may be the night where she comes out and says something. a lot of people will be watching for that. >> a lot of people will be watching it. if it's big enough, we'll see. we'll be talking about it after the fact tomorrow. steve patterson, thank you. >> you it. thank you. much more ahead. north korea reminding the world they are still relevant. the latest on last night's missile test at the top of the hour. ♪ why do so many businesses rely on the u.s. postal service? because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. ♪ that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority : you

msnbc headquarters in new york, test of wills, north yeea launches a ballistic missile. president trump's so far unusually measured. what could happen next? people take to the streets of mexico, demanded respect from president trump as his rhetoric on immigration gets more heated. clash of the musical titans, beyonce and