>> now, some took to the keyboard like president trump who since taking office has sent out tweets describing a federal jauj judge a so-called judge and calling senator john mccain a loser. how do we expect the world to look up to us, our own citizens and kids, this is how the people at the top act? sometimes i just want to yell, stop. thanks for watching. see you back tomorrow night, 6:00 p.m. eastern. russian roulette. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. it's getting a little wacky out there, don't you think? two days ago, president trump sacked his national security adviser, michael flynn, saying he didn't trust him. today 48 hours later, he said it was the media who booted him. or was it the intel community u? >> michael flynn, general flynn, is a wonderful man. i think he's been treated very,

very unfairly by the media. as i call it, the fake media in many cases. and i think it's really a sad thing that he was treated so badly. >> well, again, donald trump is the man that fired flynn, not the media. that's not fake news. it's just news. just yesterday, his press secretary, sean spicer, said flynn was terminated because he misled the vice president about his conversations with the russian ambassador to the united states. well today's wackiness comes on the day "the new york times" broke news about communications between russian officials and trump campaign aides last year. boy, that's getting intriguing. according to the "times'" report, "phone records and intercepted calls show that members of donald trump's 2016 presidential campaign and other trump associates," that's a great phrase "had repeated contacts with senior russian intelligence officials in the year before the election." well, "times" note s law enforcement officials found no evidence of collusion yet

between trump's aides and the russians and not known what was discussed in calls. and nbc news reports investigators have determined while some trump campaign aides and trump business associates were in contact with russians, there's no indication those russians were all intelligence officers. according to "the new york times," one person picked up on the calls was trump's former campaign chairman, paul manafort. manafort told nbc news he had, "no contact knowingly with russian intelligence officials." president trump responded to the story this morning on twitter, writing "the fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred." and "this russian connection nonsense is merely an attempt to cover up the many mistakes made in hillary clinton's losing campaign." like precious bodily fluids from dr. strangelove. and another setback for the trump administration, late today, the president's pick to be labor secretary withdrew his nomination. andrew puzder pulled out after it became clear he didn't have the republican votes he needed to win confirmation. joining me right now,

"washington post" white house correspondent jenna johnson. "the new york times" white house correspondent, mark. and of course, also joining us, columnist for politico and the daily beast, jeff greenfield. jeff, i want you to weigh in on this thing because i don't think anybody's seen anything quite like a president. this is strange because one day he puts out the fact through his press secretary he fired the guy through extreme prejudice, you must say, he didn't trust him. today 24 hours after the press secretary speaks the thoughts of the president, he said, no, it was the media, oh, yeah, it was the intel community. >> well, to paraphrase a question that will be asked during around a lot of tables next month, why is this event not different from any other event? in you watched trump in the last 15 months and you came out of that experience expecting a kind of studied, rational, coherent, consistent response to various realities, you just weren't watching what was going on. this is who he is. sharks got to swim. bats got to fly.

donald trump got a lot further than any of us thought he would do by constructing his own sense of what's real and what's fake and what two plus two equals. >> well said. let's go to the two newspapers that are doing a bang-up job. this is like the old days of chicago in the '30s. i just saw a front page, you know, with nathan layne. you guys are bat lg it out. aisle not goi i'm going to start with mark of the "times." this story, it just keeps growing. let's talk about your report. main story this morning on the right-hand side, is always the main story. these contacts between trump officials and russians. do we know what that means besides that those occurred -- those occurred? >> well, i minean, we have to stipulate there's a lot we don't know. we don't know the content of these conversations. there's no evidence as you said earlier of collusion between the trump officials. >> they weren't -- they were something. >> absolutely. they were coming at sort of key moments throughout the year before the election and after the election. so it suggests that this

communication was an ongoing thing. this is, of course, what democrats always suspected. >> yeah. >> in the walkup to the luxe electio election. i think the story has new moment momentum. it was i think a game changer in the story to establish that pattern of contact. >> we had the stuff over the super structure of this story, there you have presidential candidate sort of cheering on soviet intelligence basically. can you leak some more stuff about the dnc, can you get some more stuff out about hillary clinton? that's done on the surface. underneath, do we know how much waving on we were getting from the trump people to the russians? >> well -- >> to destroy the hillary clinton campaign as much as they could. >> this is the big question. what were these communications? and was there an attempt by the russians to influence the election through donald trump, himself? >> okay. let's talk about some people we know. jeff, you get in here because you're a new york guy, you know all this history of politics.

what is roger stone doing in this mess? what is manafort doing? how come trump knows manafort except through his russian entangleme entanglements. roger stone used to be a business partner with charlie black. why do they all know each other is my question to start with? >> you know, chris, i spent a fair amount of time writing political satire and when you list things like that and add about 90 others, i can't answer that question. certainly roger stone has been at donald trump's side, i remember him escorting trump onto a convention floor several conventions ago when he was going to run for president, we all thought that was a joke. >> yeah. >> the question about paul manafort, who was engaged in helping pros, you mentioned soviet, it's funny that i had that same instinct to call them sovi soviets, not ukrainiaukrainians. indeed, one of the things that has helped trump is the different skeins of this are so entangled and raise so many questions it's very hard to focus on any one strain and say that's what we have to know.

the question i think really comes down to are the senate republicans who have looked at trump as their instrument to get a lot of things done, are they beginning to see this as a series of questions institutionally that have to be answered? >> well, senator john mccain today along those lines said the white house needs to clean up their act and told cnn he didn't know if any laws were broken but serious questions, he said, were raised by that "times" report this northern. here's senator mccain. >> we know that the russians attempted to effect the outcome f our election. we know that. although we don't think they succeeded but the latest information in the media requires questions to be answered. >> do you think there's any evidence of coordination between the trump campaign and -- >> it's too early. i think it's too early, but it raises serious questions. >> well, there's mccain. anyway, a real patriot. also today senators chuck schumer, actually chuck

grassley, and diane fine stain, t feinste feinstein, sent a letter so the justice department requesting information about michael flynn's communications with russian officials. okay. we're not there. i don't see that element. let's start with the big one. jen, i'm going to give you the big one. >> okay. >> there were two campaigns going on simultaneously last year, trump's campaign for president, unlikely campaign, unlikely success. there was the russian campaign led by vladimir putin to rebuild something of the old soviet empire, to try to rebuild their influence to perhaps finlandize, take crimea, finlandize ukraine, regain that larger empire that they lost at the end of the cold war. these are simultaneous campaigns and the question historians are going to wonder, how were they working together? >> well, there are a lot of similarities between how putin thinks and acts and how donald trump thinks and acts.

and there's also a worldwide movement going on. >> nationalist thing. >> yeah, with a lot of people wanting to protect their borders and their way of life and that's playing out in a lot of countries. >> this particular thing, which is there's an ambition, the guy without the shirt on, the guy who thinks he's mr. macho man, the guy, maybe he is like trump, trying to rebuild what the soviets had and the russians have lost. >> well -- >> with the help of the american president, perhaps. or something. some indirect shot at him. >> and, of course, the big question here is leaving aside the personality traits that they do share in common, there is clearly a big question about why donald trump has consistently throughout, before, during and after the election, taken positions that appear to favor the russians, that appear to take a softer line. there was a very -- >> by the way, another soft line came from him because after obama's people slapped the sanctions on him for fiddling with our elections, he did nothing. >> well, yeah. >> after a conversation with

michael flynn, he did nothing which you night wonder, are they playing footsie? >> what is michael flynn saying to the russian ambassador? along the lines, don't worry, we're about to come in, we can maybe take care of this situation. >> donald trump attacked the intelligence committee today over leaks to the media, tweeted "information is being illegally given to the failing "the new york times" and "washington post" by the intelligence community, nsa and fbi, just like russia." here's more, "the real scandal here is classified information is illegally given out by intention like candy. very un-american." here he was earlier today. this was trump. >> from intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked. it's criminal action. criminal act. and it's been going on for a long time. before me. but now it's really going on. and people are trying to cover up for a terrible loss. that the democrats had under

hillary clinton. >> i'd like to answer this question the way the strongest trump supporter in thetrying to out because we all are. trump said it was the media and intelligence community that brought down michael flynn. the fact yesterday, his press secretary said this yesterday, what he said in sacking him, i'm doing it because i don't trust the guy. now the president is saying i wish they hadn't told me i didn't trust the guy then i have to get rid of him. this is strange for any super trump supporter to swallow. >> i think up to now, i was in philadelphia, in fact, talking to trump supporters over the weekend. on the big picture, they say he's doing what we want him to do, he has problems, we hope he gets more stable but that travel ban, that's what we want, the wall is what we want. the supreme court justices are what we want. i think what we're going to see, you know, it's hard to remember this is like 27 days, not 8 years, is is there a point at which trump's liabilities, the instability, the complete inability to recognize reality, is going to bother the people

who've been for trump because of what they think he will accomplish elsewhere? to the answer to that question, your guess is as good as mine, chris. >> yeah. gentlemen, both offinish in a m. i want to mind out where the story is going. you got a great bureau chief, leader in your paper and everything. you got all these people working you. where's the story going, jenna? >> well, i think the white house -- >> wrahat's it going to be next week, where are the headlines pointing? >> i've given up trying to prediblgpr predict anything with this white house. who knows what we will be covering next week. i think the white house hoped the talk of russia and flynn would end as soon as flynn handed over his letter of resignation but there's more information -- >> i thought nixon thought that when ehrlichman and haulderman went down. flood in the water. >> look, the ultimate question is is there evidence, will evidence emerge that links trump directly to these exchanges, conversations between flynn and the russian?

that would lift this to an entirely different level. and i think that's what all of us need to push to try to establish. >> we're going to keep working on this story. anyway, jenna johnson of the "washington post," mark of "the new york times" and, sir, thank you. coming up, trump's campaign aides were in constant contact with russian officials have democrats and republicans alike calling for a big probe. all this as the intelligence committee digs deeper into those connections and what they're about. that's ahead. plus president trump says the scandal over his campaign's connection with russia is nonsense and just a coverup for hillary clinton's mistakes. get out of the rearview mirror, mr. president. look ahead on the road where you're taking us. we're going to hear from a top clinton campaign staffer about that. while president trump didn't answer any questions about russia in his news conference today with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu he did talk middle east peace. this is the worst news of the day, bookeded the goal of a two-state solution and no one else on the earth has any route

to peace over there except through a two-state. finally let me finish with trump watch tonight. this is "hardball" where the action is. and now, i help people find discounts, like paperless, multi-car, and safe driver, that help them save on their car insurance. any questions? -yeah. -how do you go to the bathroom? great. any insurance-related questions? -mm-hmm. -do you have a girlfriend? uh, i'm actually focusing on my career right now, saving people nearly $600 when they switch, so...

where's your belly button? [ sighs ] i've got to start booking better gigs. welcome back to "hardball." last thursday, politico reported that donald trump once again claimed he was the victim of voter fraud. he told a roomful of senators that he would have won new hampshire if it weren't for, "thousands of people who were brought in on buses from neighboring massachusetts to illegally vote." anyway, white house senior policy adviser stephen miller repeated that claim this sunday. >> i've actually, having worked before on a campaign in new hampshire, i can tell you that this issue of busing voters into new hampshire is widely known by anyone who's worked in new hampshire politics. it's very real. it's very serious. this morning on this show is not the venn you fue to lay out all >> i'm asking you, hold on ha second, i'm asking you as the white house senior policy adviser, the president made a

statement saying he was the victim of voter fraud. >> and the people -- the president was. >> do you have any evidence? >> this is an issue -- if this is an issue that interests you, we can talk about it more in the future in i would gladly pay you on tuesday for a hamburger today. factcheck.org researched that claim and found no evidence to support it. the new hampshire secretary of state, office of attorney general, new hampshire reported receiving no complaints of voter fraud for t2016 election. in the 2014 new hampshire senate election which miller is referring to, jeanne shaheen defeated scott brown by over 15,000 votes. 2016, hillary clinton defeated donald trump by more than 2,000 votes. let's go right now, joining me right now, senior democratic senator from new hampshire, jeanne shaheen. senator, i'm not shining you up here. i'm simply establishing a fact that everybody knows, new hampshire's one of the clean states. this is not one of the states that have had problems and irregularities. you run a clean shop up in there in the elections. go ahead. >> you're absolutely correct. we've heard from the secretary of state, the longest serving

secretary of state in this country, bill gardner, who knows something about elections, that there's no evidence of voter fraud. we've heard from two former republican chairs who say no evidence of any voter fraud. we've heard from former attorney general tom rath, also a republican, no voter fraud. this is a totally made up charge. >> where do they get this busloads, serious -- because the busload idea, i know busloads of volunteers go up to help in the campaigns. it's all honest, above-board politics. people going around doing things along the highway. i've seen this all my life -- all my life, a long time. the idea of busloading in 16,000 people, dropping them off at particular voting stations, having them brilliantly impersonate local voters who are not going to vote that day and have worked it out individually, is zany to think that could have happened. zany. >> it's absolutely nuts. the fact is if that were going

on, don't can you think somebody, someplace, would have taken a picture with their cell phone of those buses that there would have been a supervisor of the check list who would have taken a picture of somebody voting illegally? this is something that undermines the credibility of our democracy, of our voting process and our elections and, you know what they're laying the groundwork for, they're laying the groundwork for laws that would suppress the vote. limit the number of people who could vote. in new hampshire, we have same-day registration which means that people can come to the polls on election day, students in particular, other people who may not be able to plan far in advance and can get there and vote. that's what our democracy is all about and when we try and undercut the ability of people to vote, then we undermine our democracy. >> okay. you know what, you won a big re-election because i was up there and you saw me up there. i got to tell you, we were going around your campaign

headquarters, all those young kids working their butts off on the phones including that young girl with the dealeybopper on. i hope she hears me. it's that kind of enthusiasm that wins election. not the sneaky peekky thing trump's talking about. you win elections, you get the most votes. thank you, senator jeanne shaheen of the granite state of new hampshire. up next, we're going to try to make sense of trump's intriguing statements over the years about vlad "the impaler" putin. putin. this is "hardball," where the action is. and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a medication... ...this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain... ...and protect my joints from further damage. humira has been clinically studied for over 18 years. humira works by targeting and helping to... ...block a specific source... ...of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain and... ...stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,

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welcome back to "hardball." recent reporting from the "washington post" and "the new york times" as you heard has brought new attention to the intrigue involving president donald trump and russia's vladimir putin. let's take a look back at some of the statements that mr. trump, himself, has made about putin so far. >> i think i'd get along very well with vladimir putin. i just think so. i got to know him very well because we were both on "60

minutes." i would get along with putin. i've dealt with russia. i think putin's been a very strong leader for russia. he's been a long stronger than our leader. that i can tell you. putin said donald trump is a genius, going to be the next great leader of the united states. my attitude, when people like me, i like them. even putin. i'm going to disavow a statement when somebody calls me a -- i'm not disavowing anything. russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. he does have an 82% approval rating, according to the different pollsters. >> putin's a killer. >> a lot of killers. we got a lot of killers. what, you think our country's so innocent? >> anyway, even prior to that candidacy, trump openly aspired to become putin's pal. in 2013, trump asked, "do you think putin will be going to the miss universe pageant in november in moscow? if so, will he become my new best friend?" this is grown-up talk.

he claimed to have a relationship with putin later that same year. here we go. >> do you have a relationship with vladimir putin? a conversational relationship or anything that you feel you have sway or influence over his government? >> i do have a relationship and i can tell you that he's very interested in what we're doing here today. >> well, mr. trump has denied business dealings with russia, his son told a conference in 2008 that, "russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets. we see a lot of money pouring in from russia." whoa. in terms of policy, trump's campaign broke with party orthodoxy during the republican convention and removed a platform plank that criticized russia for their seizure of m crimea. trump later said he wasn't involved. >> why did you soften the gop platform on ukraine? >> i wasn't involved in that. you know, the people of crimea, from what i've heard, would

rather be with russia than where they were and you have to look at that also. >> well now in light of more recent developments, trump's past behavior toward russia raises serious questions. i'm joined by malcolm nance, msnbc sbenls analyst and author of "the plot to hack america" and tim winer is an investigative reporter and author of "enemies: a history of the fbi and legacy of ashes." the history of the cia. gentlemen, i want you both on to tell us what you know. act like you're being investigators right now rather than journalists or commentators. i want you to know, malcolm, first of all, if you were heading up the fbi right now, in terms of counterintelligence, where would you be looking to try to find how these dots connect? >> well, since the fbi we already know has fisa warrants out there, i'd be doing exactly what we've already seen. we're coordinating, they're coordinating with the national security agency. they're coordinating with the central intelligence agency. however, getting that warrant also anow nollows them to take

intelligence from other foreign intelligence collectors. the ukrainians, latvians, estonians, french gchq in england. that's an enormous amount of collection power out it tl. i would scrub every connection these people had, personal, telephone, financial and try to determine exactly what they're trying to determine now. are these people connected to russian spies? are they being handled by russian spies? are they russian spies? >> can we tell, using modern electronics and data collection, if somebody's met, if they talked on the phone, if they e-mailed? can we basically get a universal look at all communication pretty much now? is that -- how -- what p percentage of communication can we nail down? >> well, not universal look at communications. what we get is a focused look at communications. target-oriented look at communications. if we are going after a very specific target, we won't do the vak yucuum cleaner. we will use very specific multibillion dollar systems to hone down on what we know about

their communications and branch out from there and see if it interconnects with any known intelligence assets. or intelligence agencies. and this is apparently what's most likely being done right now and it could be unwitting. they may not know that they're being handled by russian intelligence officers. however, the connections that they have regarding russia should have been suspect to anyone who was making those. you know, the fsb, formerly the kgb, never stops working. >> yeah. let me go to tim on this, same question to you. give me more of a historic -- what's been going on in the last several weeks, how far have they progressed in nailing down -- i mean, it's like google, the way, you know, malcolm just said, let's punch in paul manafort, let's punch in roger stone, let's punch in somebody else and see if that connects in any way to the kremlin. >> the american people are getting a look in realtime at the most politically charged

counterintelligence investigation since the soviets stole the secret of the atomic bomb in the end of world war ii. >> so, clous fukes involved here. >> that was a case that took almost ten years from beginning to end. this is smmoving a lot faster because technology has improved in terms of intelligence gathering. but we're in a case now, you were harkening back to watergaetwater gate, chris. >> no, i'm not harkening back -- the encryptions. i'm going back to venona, the way we got all the communications between moscow and america during and before the second world war. that kind of stuff. >> sure. now we have a case, it's not the cover-up, it's the crime. we know what the cover-up is, it's lying about the crime. what is the crime here? >> what do you think the crime could be? >> collaboration between russian intelligence services and americans to disrupt the united

states' electoral system and american democracy. >> could that be a prior simultaneous, or after the fact? can you be an accessory of the fact to that kind of fiddling with our election process or would have to be prior or simultaneous? crime? >> i think if you are conducting an operation wittingly with an agent of a foreign power, you are in for a world of pain. now, mike flynn, if he delivered flynn facts, that is, falsehoods, to the fbi during his interview, he's looking at slammer time. >> i'm calling it flynnstoning. we'll all have names for this. let me go to malcolmo this, i heard you were shaking your head. flynnstoning, not exactly telling people what you're up do in international dealing. what do you make of this potential here for a real, a real scandal involving u.s. -- american collusion in foreign

s intervention in our political season? >> well first let me tell you, tim has written two of the most -- the seminal books on the fbi and intelligence collection and what he said is absolutely right. but i'm going to take this one level further. i think that this scandal is unique in all of american history. this would be the equivalent of the british, you know, running abraham lincoln or actually funding jefferson davis to take over the united states. this is -- there has never been anything like this. >> well, malcolm, you know your history, the brits were rooting for the south. >> yes. >> that is no secret. >> sure. they were rooting for the south, but -- >> the russians were rooting for the north in that war. remember that? that was the russians, believe it or not. >> sure. but this is the equivalent of the queen of england actually handling jefferson davis as an agent. right? this is different. we are in a place where we are potentially looking at people

who were handled as assets or unwitting or wittingly for russian intelligence in order to affect an election of the president of the united states and disrupting the entire american electoral process to get that person elected. this is close to benedict arnold territory i'm afraid to say. >> let me go back to tim on this question. the number of dots is like the happy hunting ground. there's so many dots here. why manafort, why is manafort hooked up with trump, why is roger stone's name showing up here? the call publicly for russia to help hack hillary clinton's e-mail. all this, why does he want to meet him at the miss universe contest? the public bromance is just the souper structure to this, the underground involves people who have zone business and tdone bu. the son coming along saying we make a ton of money out of russia after the father said he hasn't made a nickel over there.

there's so much discrepancy here. >> chris, there are two people in this government who have the power and will to address those questions and get answers under subpoena. and they are jim comey, the head of the fbi, and senator john mccain, the last cold warrior left standing in the senate. >> well, we're watching mccain. tonight mccain is out there. we'll see how far he goes. i agree with you, if mccain stays on this front, things are going to break open. thank you, malcolm nance and tim weiner. up next, president trump says the reports about his campaign's contact with russian officials is just a distraction away from hillary clinton's mistakes of last year. he keeps looking in the rearview mirror, this guy. we're going to hear from a senior clinton campaign staffer about that next. this is "hardball," where the action is. look closely. hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. the microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn

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the great wall. rated pg-13. welcome back to "hardball." earlier today, donald trump defended the man he fired, michael flynn, by going after intelligence officials for what he said were illegal leaking information in an attempt to cover for secretary clinton's loss back in november. figure that one out. all these spills are really hillary-o-files. he tweeted "this russian connection nonsense is an attempt to cover up many mistakes made in hillary clinton's loosing campaign." an ironing twist, before the election, then-candidate trump celebrated the leaked e-mails illegally obtained by wikileaks. here he is. >> russia, if you're listening,

i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. all you have to do is take a look at wikileaks. this just came out. this just came out. wikileaks, i love wikileaks. amazing how nothing's secret today when you talk about the internet. oh, we love wikileaks. boy, they have really -- wikileaks. they have reveal add lot. >> well, russia's interference in our election plagued hillary clinton during the campaign, and now it's plaguing trump's administration ironically. i'm joined by jennifer palmieri, former communications director for barack obama and hillary clinton and john bray bend bren republican strategist and good fellow. you guys are not the kind of people that show up on some networks and shay republay repu strategist. you really are. you know everything that was going on in the clinton administration. as a human being, how much did it rattle the cage to hear, oh my god, what are they going to release tomorrow morning? what conversation, e-mail is going to go out tomorrow?

you don't have to be detailed here just the feeling of the russians are watching what we're saying. >> yeah, we did have, you know, i think by the time we got to june which i think was when it was first reported that the hack was russia orchestrated, we believe just because we're smart and we could observe how the leaking was going that the leaking was done in a manner to help donald trump and it also was into sophisticated to not be done without some american input. so we did have the moment in the summer we were like, wow, we are running against donald trump and vladimir putin and no one will pay attention to the latter. and on the wikileaks front, i'm proud to say i never did a search on my own name which i thought was a very healthy thing to do. >> that's like googling yourself. you never want to do that. >> part of what they're trying to do is distract us and pit us against each other. >> reminded me of the dirty tricks of politics which is you rent all the buses for the weekend when the other candidate is coming into town, has a rally. tie up all the lines by robo

calling their phones over and over again so they can't communicate. this seemed to be the russians trying to completely just create chaos in the clinton campaign. >> well, first of all i think there was chaos in both campaigns. this is american politics. here's the part i don't understand. how did they ultimately influence the election? like we're talking about manafort taking -- >> we can't tell. >> what's he doing, giving them polling date to? believe me, the american consul tants are better than the russian consultants. >> i'm not sure whether their role was definitive. you had -- wikileaks -- what i understood the damage wikileaks was doing day-to-day, there wasn't any one story that was going to stick but every day there was something new and every day there was something new to lead the -- to lead the morning show with. it just -- we had no oxygen so we -- >> where do you think this -- let's talk about the future. the russians know how to do this now. they pick one party this time. the democrats. they could pick the republicans next time to show their versatility. if they start putting out, you

know, people -- i hope people are not stupid enough to still use e-mail for anything sensitive. but people occasionally say something they shouldn't in an e-mail. cause another ruckus for another week and put the campaign back a week. they can do whatever they want to. >> first of all, i belief thve honestly, we're creating this russian hysteria. >> no, i'm just noticing the history. >> let me give you an example. if you've been -- >> she's not hysterical. >> you heard in the middle of the campaign there was a secret audio where donald trump had talked to the russians and said, as soon as the election is over, i can be more flexible on negotiating your missiles. everybody's head would have exploded. but that is exactly what barack obama did and it was like a one-week story. >> okay. >> i mean, what did the russians -- >> let me ask you, had hillary clinton been elected in a squeaker, had within won a coup industrial states, she had won and the word was out the russians helped here, the russians, former communists what would your party have done? >> depends what help means.

>> what should concern everyone is that the russians set out to initially, according to our intelligence agencies, to initially try to influence the u.s.purposes of undermining our faith in our democracy. that -- >> look. >> -- is a huge deal. >> i believe we should all have a love fest to stop this and make -- >> here's what i want to find out. >> i agree with that. >> i want you both to say it together, russia, stay out of our politics. one, two, three, go. >> of course. >> say it. russians, stay out of our politics. >> stay out of our politics. >> jennifer. >> but -- >> i wanted you to do it together. >> the only thing they did was to get bernie sanders voters to know that hillary clinton tried to stop bernie sanders. >> he's running again. be careful. he's running again. thank you, jennifer palmieri. you are a professional. thank you, john brabender, you're pretty evenminded most of the time. up next, president trump ends decades of policy in middle east, says we're going to live with a two-state solution or

one-state solution. well, that one-state solution is problematic and that's ahead. you're watching "hardball," where the action is. just like the marines did. at one point, i did change to a different company with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. we have switched back over and we feel like we're back home now. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. at bp, we empower anyone to stop a job if something doesn't seem right, so everyone comes home safely. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better.

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so i'm looking at two-state and one-state and i like the one that both parties like. i'm very happy with the one that both parties like. i can live with either one. i thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two, but honestly, if bibi and if the palestinians, if israel and the palestinians are happy, i'm happy with the one they like the best. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu today where the president refused to commit to a two-state solution to middle east peace. it was a key parture, of course, of a policy that guided the u.s.' role in mediating peace between the israelis and palestinians for decades. president trump insiszed he will

be able to negotiate a bigger or better deal than anyone thinks is possible. >> i think we're going to make a deal. it might be a bigger and better deal than people in this room even understand. that's a possibility. so let's see what we do. >> a start. >> doesn't sound too optimistic. good associater. >> that's the art of the deal. >> anyway, the world's reacting to the announcement, the headline on the bbc's website reads "u.s. no longer tied to two-state solution." i've been predicting that all day. that's going to be a huge story around the world. tonight, howard fineman of the "huffington post" and msnbc political analyst. jay newton-small, contribute tore "time" magazine. jarre and jeremy. i have to go to the expert here. i don't understand what trump's talking about. he's playing checkers next to a guy playing chess today. >> you're the only one who doesn't know what he's talking about. >> i don't know what trump was doing except pretending he was naive about a one-state solution which means the populations of

the arabs living in the larger area of israel and the occu occupioccupied, disputed territories is going to equal pretty much the jewish population of israel in a couple years. how can you have a one-state solution? i never thought that was possible. >> you can't. one sta one-state is the problem. you need a solution to this present one-state problem. one-state is 13 million people fighting for 100 years now over control of one piece of land. you need to separate the two people. you need to listen to every single military commander in israel who says israel can not be jewish and democratic if it's one-state for 13 million people between the river and the sea. >> howard, you start. 6.3 million jewish people, 6 f.2 million palestinians in israel in the territories. it's just a problem. >> well, i think jeremy's correct. i think what we saw today while on one level it may seem haphazard is in ilts own way kid

of historic. . it's been 16, 17 year the united states has been fully committed to the two-state solution. the united nations is fully committed to the two-state solution. most of the world is committed to it. it's more of a risk to israel in the long run, most people believe, if they don't grab that chance when they still have it. >> right. >> now, what's happening is that people are talking about an outside-in solution where the gulf states and other actors in the region are going to be on israel's side and help bring peace, but they're not going to do it. the emratis are not going to do it, the saudis are not going to do it. they're not going to do it without the two-state solution. that's a nonstarter. the israelis think they've got the gulf arabs on their side now. but they're not going to go very far without the two states. >> what happens to the palestinian leadership if they agree to autonomy?

if they accepted that, israeli sovereignty over zbaz ga gaza ae west bank, agreed to be basically a little state like montreal or something or quebec, part of a larger state but this arab part of it. >> first of all, it's not something either one of the arab groups would actually accept. abbas, the head of the west bank, has always said it has to be a two-state solution. hamas runs the gaza strip. >> what's trump up to with jared kushner? do we have any idea what his big deal could be? >> it's inside-out. >> everybody give me your idea what the deal is. >> i think the key is this isn't actually a moment of incredible opportunity in the middle east. you actually have the opportunity to bring together the sunni-arab states and state of israel to face their common threats. this is a moment of tremendous opportunity but you've got to include a resolution to the palestinian conflict. >> yeah. >> it's either like you said in

the beginning, oost eithe innin incredibly naive, abandonment of the one-china policy, all of a sudden he's on the phone in the middle of the night with president xi, of course i believe in one china. or doing it on purpose, floating it for kushner to say, let's see if we can policy, see if he can float this and see how the arab states react to this. >> the animating thing is that the gulf arabs have made some noises about saying, you know what, maybe there's a deal to be made here. israel's not necessarily our enemy. that's because the gulf states are looking at iran and are scared of -- >> which is growing and growing in strength. >> growing and growing in zre . strength. they're saying, wait a minute. as jeremy was saying, the possibility of a deal. you can't not give the gulf states a lot which is one reason why donald trump against what he'd said earlier during the campaign said, you know, i think you ought to slow down a little bit on the -- >> moving the settlements and moving the embassy. >> and moving the embassy.

there's got to be -- >> slow down the settlement. >> i wonder how king abdullah will be reading the papers tomorrow morning, oh, my god, no more two-state solution, i got two-thirds of my country is palestinian. they may not there's a lot more meds than there are beds in my country right now. anyway, the round table is sticking with us, up next, these thee will tell me something i don't know. this is "hardball" where the action is. their training is developed by the same company who designed, engineered, and built the cars. they've got the parts, tools, and know-how to help keep your ford running strong. 35,000 specialists all across america. no one knows your ford better than ford. and ford service. right now, get the works! a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more -- for $29.95 or less. ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo.

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house for a little get together, a dinner tonight, actually. rubio ran for the republican nomination against trump who repeatedly tormented him by calling him "little marco." remember that? the timing of rubio's visit is curious because the florida senator was an outspoken critic of using the information from wikileaks in russia during the 2016 campaign back in october, rubio warned fellow republicans not to capitalize politically on the leaks saying "today it's the democrats, tomorrow it could be us." well, that's prescient. we'll be right back. with every click...call...punch... and paycheck... you've earned your medicare. it was a deal that was made long ago, and aarp believes it should be honored. thankfully, president trump does too. "i am going to protect and save your social security and your medicare. you made a deal a long time ago." now, it's congress' turn. tell them to protect medicare.

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or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can be more active. ask your doctor about lyrica. we are back with the "hardball" round table. howard, tell me something i don't know. >> the key guy in what we were discussing in the middle east is the ambassador from the united arab emirates. his name is yousef otaiba. watch him, he and jared kushner have been talking. >> so for all the complaints during the campaign about the private server that hillary used, i've heard from sources, republican sources, that not only does the trump white house use a program called confide,

which automatically erases e-mails and messages after a few seconds, they also have to -- require external people e-mailing the white house to use signal, which is the same thing -- >> i know what that is, the white phones. >> no, no, signal is end-to-end encryption, it's what edward snowden uses. >> and they keep the metadata, don't they? >> there's no way for signal. >> i have signal on the app on my phone. >> david friedman is trump's nominee. hearing is tomorrow. the housing in the settlement that friedman raises money for and that his name one on one an illegal settlement on palestinian privately owned land and the israeli supreme court has asked for its demolition. >> they're good on that, the courts over there. thank you howard, jane, and jeremy. when we return, let me finish trump watch. you're watching "hardball."

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trump watch, wednesday, february 15, 2017. time for president trump to stop staring into his rear-view mirror. it doesn't matter anymore what he says about the election returns in new hampshire or anywhere else. mr. president, time to keep your eyes on the road ahead. you're the one driving the car now and the key to your success is a simple yes or no. will you increase the number of good-paying jobs in this country by the end of your presidential term or will you fail? yes or no. that's the question he must have a good answer for when the time of reckoning comes. not the whacky conspiracy theories about bus loads of voters sneaking intoconspiracy

theories if you got it right. what about the reason people voted you into the white house, creating good paying jobs for good patriotic americans. if you can't deliver on that, all the king's horses and all the king's men will not be able to put humpty-dumpty together again. that's you, by the way, humpty-dumpty. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for be with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> michael flynn, general flynn is a wonderful man. he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media. >> new questions about who in the trump campaign had contact with russian intelligence and when. >> i spoke to paul manafort last night. >> my exclusive interview with one of the operatives under scrutiny. have you spoken to the president since he's been the president? while he's in the white house? >> plus, the growing calls for an independent inve