>> greg sanford with tractor supply. >> marvin with jcpenney. >> good job. >> all right. i read a good report on you. good job. >> thank you. >> so maybe we go around the room a little bit. we can let the press go now? thank you all very much. >> mr. president, were you aware the russians were talking to -- >> the russian contacts with your campaign? >> okay. we're listening in. you heard reporters try to get a couple of questions to president trump moments ago in the white house about the news of the day. we will see what the president addresses later on at that press conference with prime minister benjamin netanyahu set to begin in an hour. let's head over to my colleague chris jansing in new york. >> right now, a new bombshell report. "the new york times" claiming that president trump's aides have repeated contact with russian intelligence officials

before the election. this morning, calls for a broader investigation as we bring you the latest details and fallout, including new information on michael flynn's abrupt resignation. just moments from now we'll hear from house democrats taking on trump. we'll go live to that press conference with minority leader nancy pelosi on capitol hill. coming up, we'll meet an undocumented mother facing a very tough decision this morning. should she go to her check-in with i.c.e. officials or seek sanctuary in a nearby church. our exclusive look at the real-life consequences of american immigration policy. good morning. i'm chris jansing live from our msnbc headquarters in new york. and there is widening fall out this morning over that stunning new report on ties between the trump campaign and russia. and now the president is on defense. according to "the new york times," they cite current and former u.s. officials, american law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted communications between multiple aides and associates to then

candidate donald trump and russian intelligence officials. all of this during the campaign. the president tweeting this morning, this russian connection nonsense is merely an attempt to cover up the many mistakes made in hillary clinton's losing campaign. and the real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by intelligence like candy. very un-american. in the next half hour, senate democrats are planning to meet in an emergency caucus to discuss these reported ties. and today, renewed bipartisan calls for investigating team trump's relationship with the kremlin. >> if there is contacts between the trump campaign and russian intelligence officials, outside the norm, that's not only bigly bad, that's a game changer. >> i want to understand what's happened here, and if i were them. if i were the people leading the trump effort at the white house, i would want to make sure with all this suspicion that everyone fully understood what has taken place. >> it's not as if the

intelligence communicate has not already been investigating this. they have been and will continue doing that. the question is, can we trust russia? and i say the answer is no. >> nbc news has exclusive reporting vice president mike pence's press secretary confirms the vp did not know until this past thursday that flynn may have discussed sanctions with the russian ambassador. the president was told two weeks earlier by the department of justice. these new developments have a significant impact on the white house visit by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu today, the first since trump took office. netanyahu also heading to capitol hill. two visits that will set the tone to shape the future of american foreign policy in the middle east. peter alexander, kasie hunt and katy tur are following these latest developments coming fast and feurious. tweets from the president. he's seeing headlines about upheaval in the white house, demands for an inquiry. >> the bottom line, you read

part of that quote where he said this russian connection is nonsense. reiterating a point he made before he was president. remember that news conference where he was asked about his tax returns and what he was going to do with his business. he was walking to the elevators. we asked him about any connections between trump campaign officials and russian intelligence figures. and he said very briskly, no, as he day peered. mike pence punctuated that point a few days later saying, of course not. the white house yesterday tried to insist that they kept up with these denials saying there's been no connection of that sort. nonetheless, it is raising a lot of red flags and has a lot of people from capitol hill to the washington community talking about this today. paul manafort, the former campaign manager for donald trump, he's one of those who was listed, according to these new reports as having had past contacts during the campaign with russian intelligence figures. we'll put up on the screen his denial. he said i had no contact

knowingly with russian intelligence officials. i don't think it's possible i could have inadvert eptly had discussions with russian officials. it's not like they wear badges. the story is not true. manafort has said the fbi has not questioned him and law enforcement, a senior law enforcement official confirms to nbc news today that that is the case. we should also note a law enforcement official telling us some of the language that's being reported about repeated contacts is overheated but they do believe that there were contacts in some form. chris? >> thanks so much, peter. i want to let folks know that nbc has just gotten -- msnbc, ari mel ber has just gotten reaction to someone else named in that "new york times" story which is longtime gop operative roger stone who says the entire charge is categorically false. i'm going to katy here. so many questions about these conversations that happened between general flynn and the russians. what more are you finding out about this? >> the questions are many. and a number of them surround

just how much of a conversation did general flynn have about sanctions with the russian ambassador. they said they just don't understand how he could have forgotten this conversation because it was the subject of pretty much an entire phone call which is a big news. an entire phone call or the majority of the phone call was devoted to how they would deal with the sanctions. it's unclear exactly what was said because those transcripts are not out. there's a tight hold in the intelligence committee and with very few members of the white house right now about who is allowed to see those transcripts. there's questions in the white house about who knew what and when. from what i can tell you from my source reporting, there is a feeling, and this may or may not be accurate that there was attorney/client privilege between don mcgann and donald

trump. don mcgann saying this is something only donald trump, the president, was supposed to know. that's why the vp was not looped in. doesn't really make sense. don mcgann is white house counsel. not necessarily just president's counsel, but they are trying to say that governor -- vp pence, the campaign has stuck with me. i keep saying the old terms. vp pence was not furious about this. he was frustrated about it. but he was not as mad as maybe some might think he would be in this circumstance because, really, behintd the scenes, everything is harmonious. things are going smoothly. >> not the upheaval. >> the way it's being portrayed in the media is not actually accurately. things are running fine. they think this is a hiccup, it's a big deal but it's not going to derail any of their efforts in the white house and look at all the things they're doing on the side. he's taking away regulations. he's moving to repeal obamacare.

yes, those are happening in executive orders. no, they are not happening on capitol hill. legislation certainly has stalled. but there's a real effort. the big picture is there's a real effort to say, hey, no, things are not going as chaotically as people assume. >> there's disagreement about how big a deal this is when you talk to folks on capitol hill. kasie, even a disconnect within the republican party about how to handle these new allegations. senator graham wants separate congressional committee to investigate. senator mcconnell would disagree. take a listen to what he said. >> you still don't think there needs to be a select committee? >> no, i don't think we need a select committee. we have an intelligence committee. or the judiciary committee, lindsey graham has a subcommittee that's going to take a look at it. i don't think we need to go through setting up a special committee. >> where is this heading? >> regardless of what the white house thinks, as katy was reporting, i'm not sure all is

co copesetic on capitol hill. they are walking a careful line and keep in mind that mitch mcconnell made those comments before the latest round of reporting broke overnight of -- concerning contacts between the trump campaign and russian intelligence officials. and i point to that distinction pause that's a distinction lindsey graham is making when he says we should renew calls for a joint select committee to investigate what has gone on. you'll remember that originally, this conversation was around russian meddling generally in the election. that's where the focus was. and then, of course, around michael flynn's resignation, we were talking about his phone calls with the russian ambassador ahead of the actual inauguration. all major issues. graham made the distinction that this is about now potentially contacts with russian intelligence officials because, of course, this has been something that has been inside the house and senate intelligence committees.

now we do know that at least the senate intelligence committee is going to broaden the scope of its investigation to include flynn potentially calling flynn up to capitol hill to testify. but, of course, that's going to be all behind closed doors because that's how the intelligence committee does its business. and then, of course, there would be a process around what to release to the public. and that, of course, is one of the key things that democrats are focused on. they want more of this to be conducted in the public eye. chuck schumer, the leader of the democrats in the senate, he was on the senate floor this morning talking about this issue. take a look. >> it is now readily apparent that general flynn's resignation is not the end of the story. it is merely the beginning of a much longer story. there needs to be an independent and transparent investigation on two fronts. one, in the legislative branch, where we have an obligation to conduct oversight.

and one in the executive branch which has the responsibility for finding and prosecuting potential criminal liability. >> the reality, though is democrats have a very limited set of tools to do anything about this. they held something of an emergency meeting after votes today. that's ongoing. we're expecting to see chuck schumer come and talk to reporters here in about a half an hour or so about what happened there. that seems to center around document preservation. there are some steps they can take in the committees. but the reality is they need republicans to cooperate to investigate this. the question, will the pressure on mitch mcconnell, on paul ryan become so great that they have to change course on this. >> one of the many fascinating parts of this story is to see what happens there. thank you, kasie. i want to talk more about the alleged ties between the trump white house and russia. someone watching it very closely, former campaign manager for hillary clinton, robby mook who joins me on the phone. we've got the president bringing your campaign back into this.

he tweeted this russian connection nonsense, he calls it, is merely an attempt to cover up the many mistakes made in hillary clinton's losing campaign. your reaction? >> well, i think the potential cover-up here is that donald trump said to reporters that there was no contact between members of his staff and russian officials. and in fact, we now learned in the rooent reports in "the new york times" and from snen thcnne was briefed that there was contact between officials on his campaign and these russian officials. i think it's important to step back and look at this big picture. the dnc was broken into by russian intelligence. the materials that they stole from the dnc were handed over to wikileaks for the purpose of hurting hillary clinton and helping donald trump. the intelligence community has confirmed that. now what we're learning is that at the time this was taking place, officials on the trump campaign were speaking with

russian officials. and that was picked up by our intelligence community because they regularly monitor communications by intelligence officials in russia. everyone should be incredibly alarmed by this situation. >> we need more of an investigation there. two branches of government responsible for this oversight, obviously from the legislative branch, the executive branch as well. as far as the executive branch, the president has made it clear what he thinks about all of this, as far as the legislative branch, we just heard from kasie hunt on the hill saying it's going to take an awful lot of pressure and then only maybe that republicans can be pushed to do something. so realistically, you know how washington works, robby, and you know what it's like when all three senate, house, white house are all within one party. realistically, what do you think can and will happen?

>> i think the best thing that could happen would be that we have a 9/11-style commission that's independent. >> but you don't think that's going to happen, do you? >> i think it is possible. president bush eventually acquiesced to having a 9/11 commission. i think it is in president trump's own interest at this point to do this. we've heard change the shifting stories about conversations that his campaign had. we've heard shifting stories on general flynn. i think it is in the best interest of president trump at this point to get the truth out there because, again, the parallels to watergate here are eerie. there's been a theft from the dnc. first we hear today that staff were actively talk with the russians. president trump denied that. but now we've learned he was briefed on it and should have known about it. and, you know, my question is just how far -- how many more,

you know, chips are going to fall here? and so i think it's in everybody's interest and most importantly in the interest of our democratic process that we get to the bottom of what happened. and if anyone in our country and anyone in trump's campaign was conspire with the russians, aiding the russians, encouraging the russians to disrupt this election, they should be held accountable. >> robby mook, thanks so much. and joining me is former u.s. ambassador to the russian federation and msnbc contributor michael mcfall. good to see you. so the white house has made it clear as have some of the people who were on staff or are close to the president. they don't think anything happened that was wrong with russia. they said for example it's normal for someone like michael flynn to be in contact with foreign officials. but that is a very different scenario than what "the new york times" is reporting. a year of contacts between russia and the trump campaign. how significant would that be? >> it's very significant.

let's add the two big dimensions that are new. it's russian intelligence officers. russian intelligence officials. it's not chatting with the ambassador. it's not meet with government officials. russian intelligence officials. now i'm sympathetic to what mr. manafort said. maybe he didn't know they were intelligence officials. that needs to be investigated. the fact there's contact with them is significant. and second, it's constant, regular contact. it's not just a one phone call. according to "the new york times," this was regular contact during the presidential campaign. and as your last guest just said, robby just said, this is the same russian intelligence officials that stole data in our election from the democratic party and from mr. podesta, and then published that data in a very obvious way to effect the election. this is huge. how can people be complacent and

not think it's important that a foreign government intervened in our election. we don't know that fact but we need to investigate whether there was some sort of coordination. >> we don't know what was said on these phone calls. when the intelligence report came out last month, it concluded the russian government had intervened in the election to try to help trump but it did not address whether the campaign either knew that or were part of it. how do you get at that? >> you have to have a 9/11-like bipartisan, independent commission. >> so you agree with robby on that? >> it's fantastic with the journalists have been able to do with these anonymous sources so far. but at the end of the day, if we don't have a commission like that with subpoena power, with the ability to have people tell them the truth under oath, we'll not know the facts. and i think the american people deserve the facts. and i just would say president trump also, i think, would benefit from that.

most of these people, i think all of these people in fact, are not part of his government. so it can be a way to contain it and say that was then and now we're going to prepare for 2020 after we've done this investigation. >> michael mcfaul, always good to see you, ambassador. thank you. let me bring in democratic senator amy klobuchar. she is the ranking member of the rules committee as well. good to see you, senator. wow. so much happened so quickly, and you, i'm sure, heard everything that's been going on over the last several hours. the denials by people close to the president, what we heard from your leader chuck schumer, who talked about the legislative responsibility here. you're about to head into that caucus meeting at 11:30 to talk about all of this. what are you hoping to hear from leaders and what do you feel needs to get done here? >> first of all, we clearly have to get to the bottom of this. what happened, who did they talk to? and why did they do it?

why was the trump administration and the campaign before it so focused on trying to placate the russians? you have the intelligence committee doing a major investigation. that's important. but i was an early sponsor and was with a group of senators that introduced the bill way back in january for this independent committee -- commission which would be experts, kind of like the 9/11 committee, and i think we should be able to do both things at the same time. >> we just heard the same thing from the ambassador. we heard that from robby mook. democratic senator dick durbin. he said on "morning joe" there should be an independent commission. but i ask you the same question that i asked of robby which is this. given the realities of the hill and your numbers in the senate, what are the chances that that happens? >> first of all, senator mccain and lindsey graham have voiced some support for this early on, and they've been way out there on this. their focus, i went on a trip

with them to ukraine and the baltics. we reassured those leaders that our country stood still with them against russian aggression. and so those -- there are a number of members who may be interested in this going forward. the judiciary committee is going to hold hearings. lindsey graham is focused on that and we think senator grassley will as well. so i think the previous discussion was so important. yes, you need this intelligence committee to aggressively continue to get the classified materials to sources and to declassify whatever they can. but at the same time, we can do both things at once. you need this independent commission of experts like the 9/11 commission so that you can publicly get the information and also get ideas for how this can't happen again, in addition to going back to figure out what in the world was going on. this is not just mike flynn. it's not just the resignation of one person in the administration. this is as we've learned this morning, multiple contacts

between the trump campaign and russian intelligence. >> senator klobuchar, thank you very much. i want to go to another part of capitol hill where nancy pelosi is speaking. let's listen. >> the vision that makes america less safe, less strong and more fearful. every day, we see new evidence of the financial, personal and political grip the russians have on president trump. and the hand of the russian intelligence agencies in his campaign undermining our democracy. the trump white house has a lot to answer for. flynn is just a glaring example of the dangerous and incompetent conduct of the trump administration. by whose authority did he have these conversations, and who did he report to? it's just a glaring, again, glaring example of the poor judgment of the president of the united states. today we will have another opportunity for our colleagues to enable us to bring up the

bill co-sponsored by 100% of the house democrats to call for a nonpartisan outside, independent commission to investigate the russian connection. in that regard, i'm very pleased to yield to the distinguished vice chair of the house democratic caucus and command her and the work of other democrats on the committee yesterday to try to get the chairman to ask the secretary of the treasury for the tax returns of donald trump. perhaps seeing some evidence, some truth will shed some light on the challenge that we face as we go forward. with that, i'm pleased to yield to the distinguished vice chair, congresswoman sanchez. >> thank you. we are all here today because we have to speak up and speak out against the -- >> so that's pelosi echoing what we've heard from a number of democrats, including senator amy klobuchar. the trump white house has a lot to answer for. so the democrats clearly in the

mode of pushing for this 9/11-style commission. in the meantime, i want to bring in matthew miller, director of the office of public affairs for the justice department. he served as a spokesman for attorney general eric holder. good of you to come in for what's been a busy morning. i want to talk about the reports. you tweeted about it, quote, it is not an exaggeration anymore to say this is becoming one of the biggest scandals in american history. is that, due respect, but as the republicans might hear it, the sour grapes analysis of a deeply partisan former government employee? >> you know, i maybe somewhat hear that. you have more and more republicans on capitol hill, certainly in the senate saying this is actually something very troubling that we need to look into. one of the reasons why some of your guests and others have endorsed an outside, independent 9/11-style commission is that you -- we just can't trust what

the white house says on this issue anymore. they have a huge credibility problem. they denied during the campaign there were contacts between their staff, their associates and russian intelligence officials. president trump denied it during the transition. sean spicer denied it from the white house podium. and last night we find out they were untrue. it's why there needs to be now people who are put under oath to testify in public so if they lie under oath, there's penalty of perjury. >> you have also tweeted about jeff sessions, the current attorney general. you want him to have no part in this. why do you believe there needs to be a recusal there? >> if you were part of a political campaign, which jeff sessions was. he was a member of the campaign. you can in no way participate in investigating or prosecuting anything in that campaign, that organization. sessions so far has refused to recuse himself. he was asked by one reporter, the doj was asked by one reporter whether they've

consulted the ethics office which told him he had to recuse. they refused to answer that question. we can't, you know, rule out the fact that sessions actually, while overseeing this question, could potent yelly be a witness. he was a member of this campaign. deeply involved in the campaign. at campaign headquarters. on the road with donald trump. he was talking to paul manafort at the time. did he know anything about these contacts with russian intelligence officials. i don't think there's any allegation that he was part of those contacts, but was he aware of them at the time? there's no way he can oversee this investigation with all of these questions swirling around. >> matthew miller, thanks for taking the time. appreciate it. coming up next, i'm going to speak with democratic congressman raja from illinois, co-sponsor of a house bill to investigate potential russian interference in the election. i'm going to get his take on "the new york times" report. coming up this hour, the president and first lady set to greet israel's prime minister

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29 past the hour. we're keeping a close eye on washington right now. in just a few moments, senate democrats will head into a last-minute caucus meeting over the new reports about the trump campaign's alleged ties to russia. they'll also tackle general mike

flynn's resignation for misleading the vice president about his russian communications. take a look at this headline from "the washington post" earlier this morning. one afternoon, three investigations. the trump white house's ominous day. joining me now, raja krishnamoorthi of illinois who serves on the house oversight committee. thanks for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> besides being on that committee you have an interesting background. you were a special assistant attorney general in the public corruption unit in illinois. looking at it from all those different perspectives, give me your take on where we are right now. >> business was good in illinois when i was in that position, but in this current situation, we're seeing serious questions being raised that come out of general flynn's firing the other day. was he just one bad hombre who went rogue or directed by others to engage in these discussions regarding sanctions with the russian government? another big question is, what

was the substance of those conversations? why did they occur? was there a quid pro quo? and finally, what secrets, what national secrets were compromised in the balance that the russians now have? we need to get to the bottom of that because we need to be able to protect ourselves and our national security. the house oversight committee is the right place to do this. >> there is a break, obviously. the chair of the oversight committee, republican jason chaffetz, said yesterday your panel would not investigate mike flynn's resignation. and then steve king, another of your fellow congresspeople on the other side of the aisle, had this to say about mike flynn earlier today. >> i think what's most important here is the leaks that are coming out of the intelligence community that appear to be designed to politically assassinate some of the members of the trump administration or at least weaken the trump administration and if you cannot trust the intelligence community to maintain classified information that's protected by law and facing with a potential

ten-year sentence in the penitentiary, you have to do something to clean up the intelligence community. >> he says general flynn has been the subject of political assassination. what's your response to that? >> i respectfully disagree. i think the real issue here is, you know, what did general flynn say to the russians? who directed him to say it? why? and what secrets have been compromised? this goes beyond politics? i'm heartened that senate republican leaders, people like john mccain and lindsey graham and others have called for an investigation. now it's time for the house republican leadership to do the same and for mr. chaffetz to initiate this investigation in the house oversight committee. we need a full, transparent accounting of what happened. obviously, we need to closely guard sources and methods and classified information as appropriate, but you have to understand, you know this, more than half this country is now skeptical about the relationship between the trump administration

and the russian government. what's happened recently with general flynn only adds fuel to the fire of all the conspiracy theories that are abounding. we need sun light on this situation. transparency. and that's why we need an oversight investigation. >> congressman, thanks for coming on. >> thank you. coming up next, we'll hear from the family fearing an immigration hearing set for this morp t morning. the mother weighs her options. what if she decides not to show up for that aponpointment and wt her case means for others in similar situations. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently.

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what's the most important thing to your mom? >> her kids. >> if she was to -- if she was to be deported, what would happen to your family? >> we would quickly fall apart because our family doesn't run without our mom. >> the immigration battle hitting home for a family in colorado this morning. that boy's mom, a mother of three children, all born in the u.s., she is undocumented. and was scheduled to check in with i.c.e. just minutes ago. gadi schwartz is in centennial colorado, and the key question here, gadi, did she show? >> reporter: so far we have not seen jeanette check in. we saw her attorney walking in that building. but she was not with him. there are a lot of people that have showed up here to support her. you can see behind us this is a crowd gathered mostly of church members. we understand that she may be finding sanctuary in a church, a

nearby church in colorado. this is a case in which a mother of three american-born children has been checking in with i.c.e. periodically over the last few years or so after being caught with a fake i.d. she was convicted of a misdemeanor. but after what she saw happen in arizona with another undocumented mother who was deported when she came to check in with i.c.e., she has been conflicted on what to gop we talked to her last night about her decision. here's what she had to say. she says right now her heart is telling her not to do it but she shouldn't break the agreement she has with i.c.e. that she's been completing every year. but she's got to respect the opinion of her kids, what they think. and it looks like, again,

jeanette is not here. she was saying last night that she does not think that she would be able to walk into this building a free woman and walk back out freely. last night she was leaning towards finding sanctuary inside of a church. we should have confirmation on whether she is going to try to find sanctuary in that church or whether she may show up at the i.c.e. field office here in a few minutes. as for right now, she is still not here. >> help people understand what's changed. she's periodically been checking in with i.c.e. there was no problem with that. misdemeanor. what's different now that's made her so fearful? >> well, she fears that under the trump administration they have really kind of hardened the line when it comes to anyone that's been convicted of a crime. and so that misdemeanor, she fears is the reason for her deportation. she's been fighting deportation all the way through the obama administration as well.

this is all the way back to 2009, that fake i.d. conviction which was a third degree misdemeanor. she was allowed to stay in the united states after checking in with i.c.e. she has two stays pending right now. one of them is a private bill in the denver -- in the colorado legislature. another one is a u-visa which is granted to people who have been victims or witnessed crimes. she's cooperate with police on a crime that she may have witnessed or may have been a victim of. so those are two pending actions right now that denver police signing off on that u-visa. but it has not been granted or denied. there's a lot of loose ends still untied. for now, again, she has still not showed up for this appointment. >> those three kids waiting to see what happens to their mom. thank you, gadi. up next, we'll piece together all the alleged ties between the trump white house and kremlin. by new york it's quite a list. what the big picture means for national security. that's coming up in our daily

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take a look atting this live picture, a press conference we're expect with president trump and benjamin netanyahu. they have their first face-to-face meeting today since donald trump's election. he, obviously, has vowed to have a better relationship with israel and netanyahu. would be hard to have a worse relationship given the fact that president obama and the prime minister, by many accounts, were barely speaking toward the end

of the obama administration. we're going to be talking to the final ambassador to israel for president obama coming up in just a little bit. of course, we'll have that press conference for you live. in the meantime, we're back with our daily briefing on politics. "the new york times" reports, trump campaign aides and senior russian officials had repeated contacts during the campaign. nbc news has not confirmed that reporting. but our political team is piecing together the stories about president trump and russia. to give the full scope of the kremlin's ties to a trump white house. joining me, nbc news senior political editor mark murray. so what are all of these pieces involve ning the trump administration and russia? >> it's important to put all the pieces we've learned over the last few months together to take a broader look at the trump administration and their relationship with russia. of course, one on that list was donald trump's constant praise of russia during the campaign and the transition. there was that tweet, of course, he sent after the obama

administration slapped sanctions on russia. and donald trump ended up praising vladimir putin for delaying any type of retaliation. of course there was also russia's own interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to america's intelligence community. and that included trying to be able to help out donald trump. and then you had donald trump during the 2016 campaign praising and embracing the russian interference, talking on the campaign trail about wikileaks. i think we have some sound of donald trump from the 2016 campaign. >> this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. >> i love reading those wikileaks. >> other story has to do with michael flynn on what he said about sanctions and his conversation with russia's ambassador. whether he was authorized by the trump administration. all these different strands. isolated, fantastic stories but

taken together why some democrats and even republicans are calling for a deeper investigation into donald trump and his relationship with the russian government. >> which begs the question, and we had a stream of democrats coming on already this morning just in this hour talking about they want this 9/11-style commission. given the political realities, what are the chances that happens? >> republicans control the house and the senate. i think there is some reception on the senate side to be able to ask some of these questions. but if you are anticipating the kind of hearings we saw regarding benghazi or the irs when republicans ended up taking control of both the house and the senate, i don't think we're going to see that just quite yet. >> thanks so much, mark murray. we appreciate that. and everything that's going on, this upheaval in the white house affecting what is going to be a very interesting press conference here. and a meeting between the israeli prime minister. they just lost the shot. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and the president. we'll have that for you live when it happens. and we'll be right back.

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immediate ambassador to israel. you were in the room with benjamin netanyahu and barack obama many times, can we set the perimeters, it comes in the shadow of the resignation of mike flynn. what do you make of the timing of all this. how does it complicate it? >> it complicates it a lot. i was present in all the meetings with benjamin netanyahu and barack obama. this significa significantly impacts the meeting to be.

who briefs the president? who is able to structure the meeting to make it as productive as possible. with people in the white house so distracted by the on-going revelations that has resulted from general flynn's resignation. >> as we see, you can't make comparison to past white houses, as someone who has been inside of those meetings, what do you expect to be talked about? how do you think it will play out? >> i believe it will be a warm, friendly meeting. it should be. israel and the united states are close allies, and it is valuable when the two leaders get together. on iran, the prime minister and president trump talked about tougher sanctions of provocations, leaving in place

iran's nuclear deal keeping it at bay. and attract other arab nations, against iran, isis, to be warmer and more open about the relations with israel and use it as a way to try to lubricate progress on the israeli-pal tinnian trek. one of the things president trump has been consistent on, is a warmer relationship with russia and valdimir putin. russia will have demands, recognition of military presentation in syria, and their efforts to stabilize the regime in syria. a u.s.-russia warming, enables

them, it is dangerous for israel. that could be a source of tension in this meeting. >> thank you so much ambassador, we appreciate your input. right now, i want to hand over our coverage to andrea mitchell, and the press conference with president trump. >> momentes from now, president trump will be hosting prime minister benjamin netanyahu setting the stage for a dramatic turn in policy in the middle east. coming up, their first joint news conference, after the trump white house is abandoning four decades for supports a separate

state. without a national security advisor. relying on his son in law, jared curbener to lead peace talks, and steve banon. after reports with a russian input. president trump and the prime minister will be holding the first joint news conference shortly after they arrive. the sara netanyahu coming with the prime minister, unusual for the first and melania trump will be in the white house, hosting a foreign leader, joining the president as well. the choreography of this is unusual. chris matthews, and the host of

"hardball." they will be holding this joint news conference, before they hold their first meeting. it is backwards in all the time i have been covering washington, the news conference follows the meeting. they can answer questions saying, i haven't discussed that yet. you can see the formal arrival area for state visits, 9 pomp and ceremony of a state visit. this is not that. it is a working visit. usually, it is the front door, donnal trump has been coming out, and personally welcoming his visitors. this is a much grander welcome to this personality ally, israel. >> check with jared, he is very strong. the thing that makes me intrigued by him. he say hawk. part of the right, in middle

east politics, he talks about a deal. in trump style. what is the deal, if it is not a two-state solution? tiremember being in israel in 1971, how do you reconcile a jewish state with arab people not part of israel. >> the palestinian birth rate, that has been the argument, many looking for a two-state solution. arguing to netanyahu, your future as a demomeracracy is at stake. you can't be a democracy without it. >> and israel said they miss every chance to miss every chance. they would have had a human rights campaign years ago, all we want to do is be part of a one state solution. we want to vote, rights what the

jewish people have. there is no real hero in this thing yet. and good guys like john kerri have tried to do the best they can. the two state solution hasn't reached if you areig. it requires a two-state solution and end of terrorism. they haven't been able to do it. >> peter alexander is preparing for that white house, peter, this is a completely different approach to middle east, and the marine guard at the south portico. hoping to ask questions, up until now, the press conferences have been dominated only accorded, three in a row with

conservative, pro-trump news organization, owned by rupert murdoch or sinclair called upon. >> since the mike flynn scandal, we have not had a chance to ask president trump about his former national security advisor. there is only an acting national security advisor to discuss middle east policy. michael flynn is not out among the questions we would like to ask the president today. 15 days have passed since the president was told, and then acting attorney general sally yates said that flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. why did he wait to tell mike pence. and why was mike pence included in all of the foreign policy