go ahead. i want to find a friendly reporter. are you a friendly reporter? watch how friendly he is. wait, wait, watch how friendly he is. >> so, first of all. [ inaudible ] i haven't seen anybody in my community accuse you or any -- anyone on your staff of being anti-semitic. we understand there are those disgruntled. >> thank you. >> however, what we are concerned about and what we haven't heard you address is how the government is trying to take care of it. there is a report out that 48 of the bomb -- [ inaudible ] there are people committing acts or threatening -- >> he said he was going to ask a simple, easy question. and it's not.

it's not. sit down. i understand the rest of your question. so, here's the story, folks. number one, i am the least anti-semitic person you've ever seen in your entire life. number two, racism, the least racist person. in fact, we did really well relative to other people running as a republican. quiet, quiet, quiet. he lied that he was going to get up and ask a straight, simple question, so, you know, welcome to the world of the media. but let me just tell you something. that i hate the charts. find it repulses ive. i hate even the question because people that know me, and you heard the prime minister, you heard netanyahu yesterday, did you hear him, bibi, he said, i've known donald trump for a long time. and then he said, forget it. so, you should take that instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that. go ahead.

go ahead. >> lisa from -- >> this shows you about the press but that's the way the press is. >> thank you, mr. president. from the bbs news hour. on national security and immigration k you give us more details on the executive order you plan for next week? even its broad outlines. it will be focused on specific countries. >> very fair question. >> on the daca program for immigration, what is your plan. do you plan to continue that program or to end it? >> we're going to show great heart. daca is a very, very difficult subject for me, i will tell you. for me it's one of the most difficult subjects i have because you have these incredible kids, in many cases. not in all cases. in some of the cases they're having daca and they're gang members and drug dealers, too. but you have some absolutely incredible kids. i would say mostly. they were brought here in such a way -- it's a very tough subject. we're going to deal with daca

with heart. i have to deal with a lot of politicians. i have to convince them that what i'm saying is right. i appreciate your understanding on that. but the daca situation is a very, very -- it's a very difficult thing for me because, you know, i love these kids. i love kids. i have kids. and grandkids. and i find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do. the law is rough. i'm not talking new law. i'm talking the existing law is very rough. it's very, very rough. as far as the new order, the new order is going to be very much tailored to what i consider to be a very bad decision, but we can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything. in some ways more, but we're tailoring it now to the decision. we have some of the best lawyers in the country working on it. and the new executive order is being tailored to the decision we got down from the court,

okay? [ inaudible ] >> and she does a lot of great work for the country as well. can you tell us about what the first lady, melania trump, does for the country and those unique levels of interest in your administration by opening the white house visitor's office, what does that mean to you in reference -- >> now, that's what i call a nice question. that is very nice. who are you with? [ inaudible ] >> great. i'm going to start watching. thank you very much. melania is terrific. she was here last night. we had dinner with senator rubio and his wife, by the way, who is lovely. we had a very good discussion about cuba because we have similar views on cuba. cuba was very good to me in the florida election, as you know, the cuban people, americans, and i think melania will be outstanding. she just opened up the visitor center, in other words, touring

of the white house. she like others she works with feel very, very strongly about women's issues, women's difficulties. very, very strongly. she's a very strong advocate. i think she's a great representative for this country. and a funny thing happens because she gets -- she gets so unfairly -- the things they say. i've known her for a very long time. she was a very successful person. she was a very successful model. she did really well. she would go home at night and didn't even want to go out with people. she was a very private person. she was always the highest quality you've ever find. and the things they say, and i've known her for a long time, the things they say are so unfair. she's been apologized to by various media because they said things that were lies. i think she's going to be a fantastic first lady. she's going to be a tremendous representative of women and of the people.

and helping her and working her will be ivanka, who is a fabulous person and a fabulous, fabulous woman. and they're not doing this for money. they're not doing this for pay. they're doing it because they feel it, both of them. and melania goes back and forth. after barron finishes school, because it's hard to take a child out of school with a few months left, she and barron will be moving over to the white house. thank you. that's a very nice question. go ahead. >> mr. president -- >> this is going to be a bad question, but that's okay. >> no, it's not going to be a bad question. >> good. because i enjoy watching you on television. >> thank you so much. mr. president, i need to find out from you, you said something as it relates to inner cities. that was one of your platforms during your campaign. >> fix the inner cities. >> fixing the inner cities. what will be that fix and your urban agenda as well as your hbcu executive order that's coming out this afternoon? see, it wasn't bad, was it?

>> that was very professional and very good. >> i'm very professional. >> we'll be announcing the order in a little while. i would rather have the order speak for itself but it's something that will be very good for everybody concerned. we'll talk to you about that after we do the announcement. as far as the inner city, as you know, i was very strong on the inner cities during the campaign. i think it's probably what got me a much higher percentage of the african-american vote than a lot of people thought i was going to get. we did, you know, much higher than people thought i was going to get. and i was honored by that. including the hispanic vote, which was also much higher. and, by the way f i might add, including the women's vote, which was much higher than people thoitd i was going to get. so, we are going to be working very hard on the inner cities having to do with education, having to do with crime. we're going to try and fix as quickly as possible -- you know, it takes a long time. it's taken 100 years or more for some of these places to evolve. they evolved, many of them, very badly. we'll be working very hard on

health and health care, very hard on education and also working in a stringent way and good way on crime. you go to some inner city places and it's so sad when you look at the crime. you have people -- i've seen this. i've sort of witnessed it. in fact, in two cases i have actually witnessed it. they lock themselves into apartments, petrified it even leave in the middle of the day. they're living in hell. we can't let that happen. we're going to be very, very strong. it's a great question and a very -- it's a very difficult situation because it's been many, many years. it's been festering for many, many years. we have places in this country that we have to fix. we have to help african-american people that, for the most part r stuck there. hispanic american people. we have hispanic american people that are in the inner cities and they're living in hell. i mean, you look at the numbers in chicago, there are two chicagos, as you know.

there's one chicago that's credible, luxurious and all, and safe. there's another chicago that's worse than almost any of the places in the middle east that we talk about and that you talk about every night on the newscasts. so, we're going to do a lot of work on the inner cities. i have great people lined up to help with the inner cities. >> when you say the inner cities, are you going to include the cbc, mr. president n your conversations with your urban agenda, inner city agenda -- >> am i going to include here? >> congressional black caucus and congressional -- >> i would. you want to set up the meeting? >> no, no. >> are they friends of yours? >> i know some of them. >> set up the meeting. it would be grashgts the congressional black caucus, it's great. i actually thought i had a meeting with congressman cummings and he was all excited. and then he said, oh, i can't

move. might be bad for me politically. i can't have that meeting. i was set for the meeting. we called him and called him. we were all set. i spoke to him on the phone. >> i heard he wanted that meeting with you as well. >> he wanted it. we called, called, called, they can't take a meeting with him. i do want to solve the problem. but he probably was told by schumer or somebody like that, some other lightweight, he was probably told -- he was probably told, don't meet with trump. it's bad politics. and that's part of the problem in this country. one more. [ inaudible ] >> no, no. go ahead, give me the better of your two. >> your personality or your ways regarding -- [ inaudible ] some by supporters in your name. >> this has ho do with racism.

some of it written by our opponents. you do know that. you understand that? you don't think anybody would do a thing like that. some of the signs you'll see are not put up by the people that love or like donald trump. they're put up by the other side. and you think it's like playing it straight. no. but you have some of those signs and some of that anger is caused by the other side. they'll do signs and they'll do drawings that are inappropriate. it won't be my people. it will be the people on the other side to anger people like you. okay. >> go ahead. >> what are i going to do about -- >> who is that? >> what are you going to do about the tensions that have been discussed -- >> i'm working on it. i'm working -- >> to give a speech -- >> just so you understand, we had a totally divided country for eight years and long before that. in all fairness to president

obama, long before president obama. we've had a very divided -- i didn't come along and divide this country. this country was seriously divided before i got here. we're going to work on it very hard. one of the questions i was asked, i thought it was a very good question, was about the inner cities. that's part of it. but we're going to work on education. we're going to try and stop the crime. we have great law enforcement officials. we're going to try and stop crime. we're not going to try and stop. we're going to stop crime. it's very important to me, but this isn't donald trump that divided a nation. we went eight years with president obama and we went many years before president obama. we lived in a divided nation. i am going to try -- i will do everything within my power to fix that. i want to thank everybody very much. it's a great honor to be with you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. >> well, that was a doozy of a

press conference. 2:12 on the east coast. i'm katy tur, thanks for staying with us. that was supposed to be an announcement for donald trump's new nominee for labor, alex acosta. it turned into a meandering rant at times talking about morning shows, fake news, he was asked about russia, he was also talked about ratings, he was asked about michael flynn. it almost seemed to be an airing of grievances by donald trump, the president of the united states. the real story today and the big story of today remains general michael flynn, the former national security adviser, who was fired. donald trump was asked, and he made some news here with this, whether he directed general flynn to talk sanctions with the russian ambassador during the transition before he was inaugurated president, after president obama imposed those sanctions. and donald trump said he did not but he would have. take a listen.

>> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador -- >> no i didn't. >> -- prior to your inauguration? >> no, i didn't. >> would he be fired because of the information leaked snout. >> no, i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. mike was doing his job, calling countries and counterparts. it certainly would have be okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it, got 306 electoral college votes. i wasn't supposed to get 222. they said there's no way to get 222, 230 is impossible. to be honest, i inherited a mess. it's a mess. at home and abroad. a mess. >> that first question about general mike flynn coming from our own kristen welker. let's go into that room where peter alexander, our other colleague is standing by to talk to us about that. quite a press conference that was. peter, he would have directed

general mike flynn to talk sanctions with the russian ambassador? >> yeah, that's exactly right. the bottom line here, and you travel on the campaign so you and i both know this well from news conference, it's gobble pick a headline. there were so many from this more than hour-long news conference with president trump. he referred to the situation with russia as a rouse. he said the real story wasn't just fake news but what he described as the criminal acts, the leaks that have been out there as well. but despite making that statement, he also said that he fired mike flynn because he had misled the vice president. if that were the case, the only reason the president was alerted to this -- or mike flynn was alerted to this is because of the reporting by "the washington post" on that topic. in effect, he said here, in his own words on multiple occasions, that there are no crisis. as "time" magazine's cover story says this week, not going to see here, president trump himself said the administration, his white house is working like a fine-tuned machine.

we had an exchange that is one we've been hoping to ask him about as well that this idea his information is missxreptd things are hunky-dory, where i asked him about the misinformation he frequently provides in forums like this one, where he's speaking directly to the american people. it was about the electoral college victory he had. again today he said it was the biggest margin any president has had in the electoral college since ronald reagan. i asked him about the fact that not only did president obama have a bigger margin both times he won. he said it was the biggest among republicans. george h.w. bush had a bigger margin. the question we wanted to get is if you're providing misinformation about small things like the electoral college margin, why should americans trust you about big things as well? his answer simply was that the information that was provided to him must have been wrong, but that's what he had been told. that's the bottom line for this conversation. we're going to have to boil down everything he said over the course of this day. those are some of the things that struck me. >> it seems like the -- what

they're trying to do in the white house is get donald trump up on a podium, have him start talking, have him fight with the press, make that the headline, and they can push to the side the other very big news stories that are going on. one of them general mike flynn. the other one russia and whether his team or anybody that he knew during the campaign had contacts with the russians. what was his answer, peter? >> i was going to say in simple terms this is a guy who was the author of the art of the deal. what he proved again today is he may as well authored the art of the deflection, focusing on so many other topics other than the ones about which americans are focused on right now. i think that's the takeaway. please continue with your thought. >> i mean, i think the art. deflection is a good title that could come out at any point. peter, also talk to me about daca, the dreamers. does he make any news there? did he definitely say he's going to get rid of it or are they considering keeping it in place?

>> reporter: specifically on the issue of immigration, most broadly, first referring to the temporary travel ban what he said was news is next week he will sign the new executive order as i've told is being retooled, recrafted right now by steven miller, senior policy adviser, department of homeland security, and the new attorney general jeff sessions. on daca specifically, which refers to those individuals who came in as children to the united states, as the children of undocumented immigrants, he said, while some are good, some aren't good. we'll have a very big heart. we didn't ask him specifically about that case most recently in arizona where a woman who lived in the united states for, i think, more than 22 years, two decades, at least, was removed from the country, deported. he said the focus would always be on criminals. people who are committing illegal acts and violent crimes, which, by the way is similar to what president obama and his administration had said is their priority in terms of deportations as well. it's not entirely clear, even

based on what president trump said today, how he will respond to daca. >> did he ask april ryan, a reporter, to set up a meeting with him and the congressional black caucus? >> reporter: he said, hey, if you can get them in touch with me f i want to have a meeting with elijah cummings, is the name he mentioned, and others, then i'd be open it. mike pence was sitting in front of me. he was nodding his head. seemed the advisers were satisfied with that answer. it's hard to articulate the sort of contrast between the way that this president conducts himself, conducts these news conferences, provides statements to the public versus the former presidents. he obviously does it through the media. he does it where he always has a foil, and very often it's unclear whether or not he's doing it directly to the people with whom he really needs to be communicating. >> he doesn't have hillary clinton as his foil any longer. the press is still his foil, although he mentioned hillary clinton during that news conference. hallie jackson, you've fwoen a

number of press conferences. this is the way they generally go. donald trump starts to say a number of things. but the story today, and it cannot be emphasized more, general mike flynn and russia, was he successful in getting the news cycle to move past that? >> setting that aside, we can talk about is what he said about his campaign's interactions with russia, what he said about michael flynn, as peter explained. it was significant after being pressed several times and not answering as to whether any member of his campaign staff had contact with russia, he said to the best of his knowledge that hadn't happened. >> which is an out. >> he gave himself room. you talked about the other headlines. you look at daca, you look at obamacare, some news coming there that he's going to roll out his plan in early march. another piece of news, remember at the last press conference or three press conferences ago, he said monday or tuesday of this past week, so days ago, he was going to have this new immigration executive order come out to sort of replace the one

that is underneath this legal battle. now it looks like that is going to be coming out next week, he said, definitively. his administration had been giving us that hint. now you hear it from the president himself. there were other interesting moments as well. the moments about not being anti-semitic. you heard him pressed on that, kristen welker popped up and asked, what are you going to do about it? after the press conference with netanyahu yesterday, the president was asked that same question. and his response immediately was to talk about his electoral college victory. this time he said, i'm the least anti-semitic person. he blamed racist acts during his campaign largely on his political opponents, saying none of his supporters would have done that. and then said it was a very smooth rollout of his immigration executive order. it was not a smooth rollout just by facts on the ground, right in the airports were a mess, democrat of homeland security seemed to be unaware of a lot of the goings on there. one thing that he probably said that was true is he enjoyed doing this.

i think he enjoys it. >> yeah. i do think he enjoys it. kasie hunt on capitol hill, you were watching along with us. back to russia, though, back to general mike flynn which i think it can't be overstated what a story this is. general mike flynn had a discussion with the russian ambassador about sanctions the day after president obama instituted those sanctions. donald trump was asked, did he direct him to do that? that has been the big question. he said, no, but that he would have directed him to do that. what does that mean on capitol hill? >> reporter: well, katy, first of all, i want to take the lens out a little bit about what just happened, kind of collectively because i want to characterize for you the mood up here on capitol hill. as this news conference was going on, the halls -- they will often be bustling for a number of different reasons and there were some circumstances that led to this. but everybody that i was talking to, via e-mail, text, i wish i could include snapchat on this,

a million different ways was watching this news conference. basically with their jaws on the floor. republicans, democrats alike. republicans in particular. one member called it unbelievable. and these are, i should emphasize, republicans as well as democrats in many ways it's a predictable reaction from democrats. so, i think that the way that this is going to play out on capitol hill, and we've already started to hear the frustration kind of bubbling underneath the surface here is that every time donald trump does something like what we just saw, it makes it harder for them to do big things. like, repeal obamacare and like pass these major tax cuts -- tax reform that is the priority of republican leaders up here. and i do think that, you're right to zero in from a congressional perspective on what's going on with russia because i think that is one area where there is very clearly already division and where there is a potential for further widening based on how events

play out, how these intelligence investigations play out. i do think there's a lot of noise that comes out of a lot of these events with the president. you know that better than anybody. the on-the-record statements he makes about this particular issue are ones that are potentially going to be replayed over and over again in the context of these investigations. they go forward. so, putting those down on paper is critical for the work of the contest up here, particularly on the senate side. they've already said they have a willingness to investigate mike flynn and what happened in the context of their broader investigation. >> chris jansing, you've been in that room for other presidents. >> it's very different. unlike any of us has ever seen. look, let's not pretend this was anything but what it was. it was billed as, i'm going to introduce to you my new labor secretary nominee. >> who wasn't in the room. >> nowhere to be seen. >> not in the white house. >> apparently not in the white house, even though we were told at one point he was. this was donald trump, and the thing he said that i thought was

incredibly insightful is, i won this election with news conferences. he believes he alone can change the narrative. he talked -- he came out and first said about the incredible progress that this administration has seen, ignoring what has happened with mike flynn, ignoring he has to have a new nominee, ignoring all these questions that have been raised by republicans as well as others about the relationship with russia. he talked about watching television, watching cnn. he does watch cable. he does read the television -- does read the newspapers. he does not like hearing or seeing words like, upheaval and chaos. he believes that he can bring something else to this. he talks about numbers. he brings up a poll that's been an outlier for am, where gallup puts him at 41%. let's not overlook the fact that he talked about that he had

inherited all these problems abroad and domestically. the fact is there rrp 55, 56 million people that voted for the other candidate and especially saying, you don't get it. someone who promised to bring the country together. it's interesting to see the reaction. we're seeing it already on capitol hill. i don't think he gained anything here except for the people -- >> you gave me -- >> -- people always follow him. >> -- a perfect segue to joel benenson of the hillary clinton campaign talking about the 56 million people -- or 56% of the country that did not vote for donald trump. joel, when you look at -- >> 65, 66 million, sorry. >> 65 million people. >> 54%. >> i've always been very terrible at numbers. numbers are tough. >> that's part of my job. >> anyway, get to your job. when you watch that news conference and you hear him

rehash the electoral win and then sort of, you know, brush off the fact that this country is divided, does he fully understand what he needs to do to bridge the gaps in this country in order to maintain control of the house and the senate? and potentially to win re-election? >> i think you hit the nail on the head. in fairness, he said at one point the country has been divided and with all due respect it predates president obama. we had a 50-50 country. politically to chris' point, this press conference is not going to allay concerns there's a steady hand on the rudder of the ship of state right now. it was chaotic, meandering. you're going out in a press conference where your nsa head is set to resign, kind of been fired. have you to have a clear core message you're trying to drive throughout that press conference. and i will say politically, i don't think anybody is tuning him in who didn't vote for him

when he just completely berates the press over and over. that's not a message to get people coming together and coming to you. >> joel, he he won on this, though. his point is he won on doing exactly this. what impetus does he have to do anything different? >> that's my point. someone in the white house needs to be honest. peter alexander point out numbers i tweeted, when he said my electoral college was bigger than anybody since reagan. no, it wasn't. someone said, mr. president, 5 4% of the people did not vote for you. you cannot be the attack dog in chief every day and expect people who right now have a 55% unfavorable rating of you to come back to your camp. you need to reach out. you need to show you're sincerely reaching out. you can't just attack everybody who disagrees with you or criticizes you as being dishonest press, democratic rabble-rousers holding up signs. it's all them. someone needs to be straight with them. don't think anybody in that

white house right now is being 100% straight. >> he said, they're not mine. in reality it's america and everyone is your people. i want to bring in john dean in los angeles. let's talk about the culture of leakers. donald trump is facing quite a fair hose fire hose of leaks making it as he said sew can't get work done in the white house. is that a fair defense on his part? >> well, it's always difficult to deal with leaks. every president is confronted with them, though. this press conference, however, what's most striking to me is somebody who's been to press conferences since 1957 when i attended my first one when eisenhower was in office, i've never seen a more classless president, so i don't think he succeeded in selling anything today. >> so many people are trying to compare the general flynn stuff

to watergate. they're saying it's the biggest scandal since watergate. what's your assessment of that? >> well, we're not to watergate 2.0 yet, but we're getting -- some of the basics are out there. so, we'll see where it goes. >> when you say we'll see where it goes and you say there are some of the basics, what do you mean by the basics? >> i mean, the press is certainly in a state of high alert, looking for the very kind of wrongdoing is the sort of thing watergate was made of, abuses of the office, cover-ups, things of that nature. there's no question that the press is looking for it. the white house is not responding well either. they're on a very defensive posture. the attacks today don't really deflect the media. so i think we are not to watergate 2.0 but remember watergate took 900 days to play out in its full. and today news cycles are so

much faster that they're playing out so much quicker, but he's in trouble. he has problems. >> 25 days, to be exact, so far for this white house. kasie hunt, what is the status of the investigations that may or may not happen in congress? >> reporter: well, right now they're proceeding -- concurrently in house intelligence committee and senate intelligence committees. senate intelligence committee, as we touched on earlier, has shown a little more willingness to investigate this in a deeper way. i asked paul ryan whether he thinks flynn should be called to testify before the house intelligence committee. so far he told me he doesn't have an opinion on it. there may not be a demand for it to happen but it will be on the senate side. one interesting thing, you showed that on that slide, chuck grassley signed onto a letter with dianne feinstein, asking for more documents and briefings. this is something that has sort of slid under the radar a little

bit today but i think is very important. not necessarily for any headline that it generates in in moment for what could result from those types of actions. there are real teeth up here in congress should republicans choose to use them. and i think the risk for donald trump, and he of course cited rasmussen and polling showing his numbers go up, most in congress see the opposite effect. there's a lot of questions about, at what point do they step back potentially and say enough is enough? the answer to that question lies in his approval rating and fear of whether they'll hang onto control of the house and senate. the bet is they can get big stuff done with donald trump and they think his base is still with him. if those two things change, all bets are off. the more he does this, my republican sources tell me, the more their agenda is in jeopardy. if they start to feel they can't actually get what they want to get done done, it's potentially -- it's possible he'll lose them.

that is, i think, especially considering what we now know about what has happened behind the scenes with michael flynn and these other investigations as they proceed, a real risk for president trump. >> mitch mcconnell saying today that he believes the president is getting in his own way. the other big thing that came out of this news conference is donald trump using the term fake news and going after reporters. i'm hesitant to talk about this becae start dwelling on his allegations of fake news, ultimately we do ourselves a disservice and allow him to distract us into talking about something else but i'll hand it over to hallie jackson. >> here's what i think it might matter is not because of all the other distraction stuff but because the question that was posed to him on real leaks versus fake news. that illuminates something important here. the idea these leaks are happening. these leaks are how the public, as you heard kristen welker say, is finding out about the whole mike flynn story in the first place. so, is this a president who

wants it both ways? i think that point is important. overall, look what caskasie sai the republicans on capitol hill, how republicans play off the president, if it's about big stuff in his base, what did he do for the first 21 minutes of that press conference? he ticked through everything he's done. cut back on regulations, one in, two out, eliminating ttp. the other thing is you said he can't be an attack dog for -- why not? who is he going after? the media. >> his base is 40%. >> but going after the media is a successful strategy. nobody likes the media. i bet -- >> worked out well for nixon. >> okay. there's a lot of folks sitting out there going, go get them. you're right. they'll say he took 17 questions or however many questions from reporters so he's not scared. >> that's important -- >> he has a loyal base. that's the point i made before, he has a base of 40%. you can't govern at 40%. >> but he won with 40% and the republicans are looking at that and the democrats aren't coming

out, they're not excited for their democratic nominee and independents aren't coming out. i'm trying to mirror what happened in this last election. ultimately when donald trump needs his supporters to come out, what we saw is that every single one showed up. there was an enthusiasm there that i would assume mirrored the enthusiasm to president obama when he was first elected. >> no, no. president obama was elected the first time with 54% of the vote. not 46%. he was elected with 365 electoral votes, not 306. look, the challenge is a political one. i think that's what we're talking about. playing through your base is not what he needs to do right now. he's squandering credibility as president of the united states. he's alienating himself among the 54% of people who didn't vote for him. republicans in congress are going to get antsy about this. and i think the story of the day is not just flynn, by the way, and you mentioned mitch mcconnell. senator mcconnell also said the most serious question is, russia meddling in our election.

and the foreign policy chair, bob corker saying, russia is the elephant in the room. and their intelligence committee is going into this. frankly, that's where people ought to be focused. the implications of russia meddling in our election while we have a president who says, as you pointed out, the key thing he said was, i have no knowledge of whether any of my campaign aides were communicating with russia, that's going to be the hub of this story going forward because if they did, and russia was meddling, that is a very different ball of wax for this administration. >> john dean, you're a lawyer. you're the lawyer in the room, not the elephant in the room, the lawyer in the room. i have no knowledge of that allow donald trump to get away with, potentially? >> well, if indeed there is a crime involved, he'll say, i had nothing to do with it. i'm not a co-conspirator, anything of that nature. what's interesting is, he actually is paralleling nixon to the letter almost in saying, while i didn't authorize him to

go talk to the russians about whatever he talked about, i would have done so had he asked me. that's exactly what nixon said about the break-in into the psychiatrist's office me. they hadn't asked me but had they asked me, i would have authorized it. it's a gray area whether you can join a conspiracy after the fact but can you on a moral issue. >> doubling down on that, he would tell his national security adviser, incoming national security adviser, yes, talk to russians about sanctions flies in the face of a long-standing tradition we have in this country of one president at one time. this happened in december. that is a serious breach of a norm that everybody up until this moment, i guess, has lived by. and what is your take on that, john? >> there's nothing more troubling about this presidency than his tendency to break every norm and standard that's ever

existed about this office. he does it at press conferences, the way he handled it today. he's done it from the outset of entering the office, even during the transition. we really rely on these norms. they're sort of the unwritten rules of the game. and people come to expect them. and that shows that, you know, democracy is fragile. the office and its powers are not all carved out. he's hurting the office in the long run by some of the actions he's taking, including today's performance and just the way he's proceeding. >> let's get another voice into this conversation. roland martin, host and managing partner of news now, msnbc contributor katie packer, former deputy campaign manager for the 2012 romney campaign. you guys have both been sitting by patiently. roland, i want to ask you about an exchange we saw a little earlier between donald trump and april ryan. april ryan was asking him about diversionty and the inner cities and whether he was going to meet

with the cbc. he asked who? and then she explained congressional black caucus. he said, sure f you can set that up for me. he's asking a reporter to set up a meeting between him and congressmen? >> that's why you come up on with the phrase stuck on stupid. this is the same guy earlier who saw elijah cummings on "morning joe" and called him later in the day, hey, sir, trump, cummings is a member of the cbc. call cummings is set it up. the chairman of the cbc is cedric richmond from new orleans. he would appreciate the phone call. the congressional black caucus is the largest caucus within the democratic caucus. here's the deal with the whole news conference, and katy, you said this earlier, and malcox x said this, you've been bam boozeled, hood winked, led amuck. this whole news conference was to get us to focus on his attacks on media. to hallie's point, she's

absolutely right. his side, they love the attacks on media. what media should not do is chase this rabbit hole. willing to defend ourselves, flog ourselves. we should brush off our shoulders and go, back to mike flynn. that's what he wanted today. he threw out all kinds of stuff hoping something sticks because he wants us fighting amongst ourselves. it's not going to happen, president trump. we're going to focus on russia, period. >> let's focus on russia and mike flynn. katie, what are republicans saying behind the scenes? >> i think there's a sense that this is something president trump needs. he needs to be out there and attacking the media. it's something that makes him feel very empowered. makes him feel good. makes him feel like he's speaking to the people who elected him and still support him very strongly. it's the same reason he's going out to do a rally this weekend because he needs that response from the public.

but there is frustration among republicans who feel like at some point we can't keep relitigating the campaign that our party won. at some point he needs to govern. and this kind of behavior does not lend ichtsz to, one, bringing the country together. it's a very divided country. while there might be some very hardened liberal democrats that could never get behind this president, there are a lot of people that sort of have the attitude he's been elected and so let's come together, but they're not feeling a sense of outreach from the white house and from this president. there is some frustration that's making it difficult for folks on capitol hill to do their job, to actually execute an agenda, that the president seems to convey he wants to execute. at some point he has to dial it down and focus on the day-to-day governing of this country. >> but he's not. >> which feels very, very shaky at this point. >> he's not going to do it because this is simply not who he is. he likes the fight.

that is who he is. we keep somehow thinking conventional wisdom is going to happen, somehow the presidential attitude is going to descend upon him. it's not going to happen. accept who he is. he's a 70-year-old can tank rouse dude who sits around, watches tv and tweets all day on a phone that is not secure. >> and the -- >> that's who trump is. >> the danger in this is even the american public at some point i think will grow tired of the ranting and attacking and the public will say, you know, at what point are we actually going to start leading the country and governing? that's the point at which the white house will be in real crisis. >> we will see, guys. with that, it's always good to remind everyone, it's only been 25 days. that's it. >> yes. >> we've gone 30 straight minutes in this hour -- >> i want to question that statistic. >> -- without a commercial break, which means we need to go to a commercial break. thank you, guys. roland, indicate y hallie,

chris, joel, chris, thank you. we have so much more to talk about.

anyone with type 2 diabetes knows how it feels to see your numbers go up, despite your best efforts. but what if you could turn things around? what if you could love your numbers? discover once-daily invokana®. it's the #1 prescribed sglt2 inhibitor that works to lower a1c. a pill taken just once in the morning, invokana® is used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. in fact, it's been proven to be more effective at lowering a1c than januvia. invokana® works around the clock by reducing the amount of sugar allowed back into the body, and sending some sugar out through the process of urination. and while it's not for lowering systolic blood pressure or weight loss, it may help you with both. invokana® can cause important side effects, including dehydration, which may cause you to feel dizzy, faint,lightheaded,or weak, upon standing.

other side effects may include kidney problems, genital yeast infections,changes in urination, high potassium, increases in cholesterol, risk of bone fracture, or urinary tract infections, possibly serious. serious side effects may include ketoacidosis, which can be life threatening. stop taking and call your doctor right away if you experience symptoms or if you experience symptoms of allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, or difficulty breathing or swallowing. do not take invokana® if you have severe liver or kidney problems or are on dialysis. tell your doctor about any medical conditions and medications you take. using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. it's time to turn things around. lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers. there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name.

did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador -- >> no, i didn't. >> -- prior to your inauguration? >> no, i didn't. >> would you have fired him -- >> excuse me. >> -- if you information hadn't leak out? >>, no i fired him because of what he said to mike pence, very simple. mike was doing his job. he was calling countries and his counterparts. so, it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do

it if i thought he wasn't doing it. i didn't direct him, but i would have directed him because that's his job. >> president trump with an exchange with our own kristen welker just moments ago at the white house. that other sound you hear, crickets. that's because republicans are not talking about an independent commission to investigate flynn's contacts with russia, his conversation -- general mike flynn's conversation with a russian ambassador. what we're hearing instead is the leakers are the problem, not the content of what was leaked. auto a reminder of the content that was leaked is general flynn discussed sanctions with the russian ambassador just as president obama imposed those sanctions, effectively undercutting our long-standing policy of one president at one time. and not only did he do that, he lied to the american public about it. democrats want a 9/11-style independent investigation into this, but will they get it.

let's ask republican senator mike rounds, who sits on the armed services committee. first off, i know you didn't see that news conference with president trump, but i want to fill you in. i don't know if you were able to hear that answer he gave our own kristen welker but he said if general flynn was not talking sanctions with russia before the inauguration, he would have directed him to do so. do you agree with that? >> well, it was not my understanding he had told him to specifically discuss the sanctions. what i was aware of is when mr. flynn resigned it was at the request 6 the president because he did not tell the vice president the whole story. i think republicans are also saying that if there needs to be an investigation into either what general flynn had done or, for that matter, where the information came from that we're now talking about in terms of coming out of the intelligence

agency f those are actually correct facts, we think that should come from the intelligence agency and through the judiciary -- or to the intelligence committee and the judiciary committee. the reason for that is under the regular order, we've got those contest set up, republican and democrat, both the committee chairman and their ranking member. they work together. they understand exactly what's -- what's entailed in the classified information. and they've got staff already on hand. so, if you're not going to use an intelligence agency for something like that, what's the purpose of having these standing committees in the first place? >> back to my original question, donald trump said he did not direct michael flynn to talk sanctions with the russians but he would have done so if he -- if michael flynn did not do that. saying he would have -- he would have expected him to do it because it was his job so my question is, do you agree it's the job of the incoming national security adviser to basically tell the russian ambassador, don't worry about sanctions, we're coming in and we're going to take care of it?

>> first of all, i'm not sure i would agree that that's what the president meant. i caught a bit of the information you shared there. i didn't realize the president said he wanted him to talk about sanctions. i understood he expected him to talk to the other entities or other governments. >> he said specifically if he did not direct michael flynn to talk sanctions but he would have. >> and i'll let the president speak for himself then. >> my question is, do you agree with that, sir? >> i don't. i think we have one president at a time. and that that one president at a time should be the individual responsible for our foreign policy. if mr. flynn crossed that line and he was talking about what would happen or making changes to u.s. policy prior to the time that president trump was our president, then i think that that would be an inappropriate activity. >> what's the bigger problem here, is it the leakers or the

information that was leaked or is it both? >> i really think it's both. here's the reason why. first of all, i do take very seriously the fact that you have one president at a time and that if mr. flynn was directly involved in talking about sanctions and what would happen in the future, then i think that's a very serious charge, very serious issue. once again, i think that most appropriately goes to foreign relations or intelligence committee or to judiciary. but i think those are the appropriate locations. in addition to that, though, i do think there's a fair discussion to be had about whether or not those type of leaks f they really occurred. once again, we don't have the facts yet on it. we've been told there were leaks. if they actually leaked that information, that's a very serious charge. and anybody that works in intelligence understands the seriousness of it. they don't get to decide for themselves what should remain classified and what should be released.

there's a process in place for a reason. people's lives depend on a lot of that. so, you know, that's a very serious one. they're separate and i don't think we should discount either part -- either one of those two investigations. i just think we should be using the appropriate ready to go committees that are set up for these types of purposes. >> could those leaks have come from the white house? >> once again, you're asking me to make a guess, an assumption. i don't have any information suggesting that. once again i'm going to say, what we've had are suggestions. we've had reports there were leaks there. i'm not going to claim that somebody actually did make a leak until we actually have facts coming out that would substantiate that. once again, i think the appropriate place to go with this is the intelligence committee and the judiciary committee. maybe even homeland security. but most certainly, one of the committees staffed up, ready to go, knows those areas very, very well, doesn't have to be retrained and can step right in. >> senator, we're rapidly

running out of time. i want to put up on the screen the cover of "time" magazine out today. it shows a storm across the oval office with the title "nothing to see here." are you worried about the chaos in the white house? are you worried it will stop you from getting your agenda done? >> not really. we assumed there would be with a change in the administration, there would be some real growing pains, particularly with -- >> growing pains, is that what you call it? >> absolutely at this stage of the game. with a very dynamic president who's talking day to day with the american public, like sitting across a coffee table with them, using his twitter. some people love it. some people say, he has to stop. a lot of people are saying, this is refreshing. he's throwing things out and talking to people like he's sitting across a table at a coffee shop. from my perspective, i care about his results. i care about his actions. so, if he does good actions f he actuly appoints the right people to the different

positions, that's very important to me. i'll allow him to condition with his twitter feed if it's his way of communicating with the american people, which is like coffee talk. >> you would not agree with him when he would direct mike flynn to talk about sanctions with russia, who is not one of our allies? >> i would personally disagree with that. once again, i know he said he would do is it. it appears he did not do it. in this particular case, it's an opinion about he's looking back at what he might have done at that time. once he sits down and looks at that, he might have a reconsideration as to whether he would have had him do that or not. >> senator, thank you for joining me. break news out of chicago where pro-immigration protests are under way. nbc's blake mccoy is there. and he joins me live right after the break. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job,

or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. find out how american exanyone ever have occasional y! constipation,diarrhea, gas or bloating? she does. she does. help defend against those digestive issues. take phillips' colon health probiotic caps daily with three types of good bacteria. 400 likes? wow! try phillips' colon health.

i just want to find a used car start at the new carfax.com show me used trucks with one owner. pretty cool. [laughs] ah... ahem... show me the carfax. start your used car search at the all-new carfax.com. i did... n't. hat? hey, come look what lisa made. wow. you grilled that chicken? yup! i did... n't. mhm, lisa. you roasted this? uhuh... n't. introducing smartmade by smart ones. real ingredients, grilled and roasted using the same smart cooking techniques you do. you own a grill? smartmade frozen meals. it's like you made it. and you did... n't.

're opening more xfinityg, stores closer to you. visit us today and learn how to get the most out of all your services, like xfinity x1. we'll put the power in your hands, so you can see how x1 is changing the way you experience tv with features like voice remote, making it easier and more fun than ever. there's more in store than you imagine. visit an xfinity store today and see for yourself. xfinity, the future of awesome.

daca is a very difficult skuj for me. to me it's one of the most difficult subjects i have. because you have these incredible kids in many cases. not in all cases. they were brought here in such a way -- it's a very tough subject. we have to deal with daca with heart. >> that was the president talking about immigrants who were brought here as children, dreamers. he's saying this on the same day

that there are protests acrossb the country. immigrants rally across the u.s. many restaurants and other businesses are closed in support. nbc's blake mccoy is in chicago at one of those protests. blake, what are you seeing out there? >> reporter: well, katy, these protests are in driblgt response to president trump's hard-line immigration policies. one of the popular chants out here today is immigrants make america great. this is jorge one of the organizers today. what's the main message you're trying to get out? >> the main message is that immigrants are not the problem. the problem is a very old immigration system that doesn't give legal cease visas to international workers. the economy needs international workers. you want us to have papers, give us the papers. that's it. >> reporter: you said earlier, we are workers, not criminals. >> we are workers.

we are not criminals. we are in the fields. we produce. we distribute. and then we buy the products. we are an essential part of this economy. it's not possible to get rid of every u.s. immigrants. there are not enough u.s. citizens to cover those jobs. >> reporter: thank you very much. as i send it back to the studio to you. easily 1,000 people here in chicago and big crowds like this being seen in cities across the country. >> make bmake mccoy where all te action is. that wraps it up for me this hour. you guys know i like twitter better. kate snow picks it up. >> i know that because you say that every single time. >> i'm not a facebook person. >> they're all good. thank you. that's roland weighing in. i'm kate snow, by the way. you guys have to be quiet for just a second. listen, this all began as an announcement of the new labor secretary nominee, alexander acosta, then turned into what could beal