while. thanks for watching this hour of "msnbc live." you can find me on twitter, facebook and instagram and snapchat. i'll be back at 1:00 p.m. eastern. right now on "andrea mitchell reports." >> thank you so much. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," on the spot. vice president mike pence in brussels today to reassure allies about the u.s. commitment to nato, but the first question addresses the elephant in the room. >> who should european leaders listen to, you or president trump, and can they be certain that what you say, at assurances you give won't be contradicted in a tweet or a statement at a press conference tomorrow? >> well thank you for the question. let me say it's my great privilege to serve as vice president, for the 45th president of the united states, and the president directed me to go to munich and come here to brussels with a very specific message. >> we'll have that message coming up. oil and water in a surprise

visit to baghdad, defense secretary james mattis promising there is no plan for the u.s. to seize iraq's oil despite president trump's repeated act to do the same thing. >> all of these gentlemen paid for our gas and oil all along and i'm sure we'll continue to do so in the future. we're not in iraq to seize anybody's oil. >> and enemy of the state? a top republican parting company with the president's strongest attack yet on the press. >> when you look at history the first thing tidictators do is st down the press. i'm not saying that president trump is trying to be a dictator. i'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history. >> good presidents day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump is spending the

weekend at mar-a-lago, replacing leading candidates, john bolten and h.r. mcmaster. this is his vice president defense secretary trying to explain the president's comments and tweets in multiple appearances from brussels to baghdad. join me is be inning's kristen welker at the white house and kelly o'donnell in florida. kristen, first to you. there is still no national security adviser. what do we expect today, possibly other interviews down there? >> that's what we expect, andrea, and one top official characterized these meetings as follow- on meetings to the one the president had over the weekend. i pressed this source on whether there is currently a front-runner in terms of the president choosing a new mash security adviser. it doesn't seem there is a clear front-runner although we do know that he has had glowing things to say about john bolton and

lieutenant general mcmaster. those are certainly two names to be watching for and it comes after his likely pick harward, over the weekend or actually it was last week, said that he wasn't going to take the position. the white house saying that was for family reasons, but of course behind the scenes we know that he was concerned he wouldn't be able to choose his own team, those similar concerns expressed by david petraeus, who is apparently no longer in the running. so over the weekend, the white house trying to reverse that narrative and say look, whoever accepts this position will be able to choose their observe tea own team. there's consternation about that. this is a key post and the president still hasn't filled it so i am told there is a desire to get that key position filled within the coming days. andrea? >> and kristen, kelly also, the vice president was asked about mike flynn and this was the first time we've heard him

actually asked, this was in nato this morning, he was asked about having been misled by mike flynn and not having been told for two weeks by the president, this was the response. >> did you feel like you were misled by members of the trump administration or were you frustrated you were left out of the loop in this situation? what assurances have you received from president trump that something like this will not happen again? >> let me say i'm very grateful for the close working relationship i have with the president of the united states, and am -- i would tell you that i was disappointed to learn that the facts that have been conveyed to me by general flynn were inaccurate, but we honor general flynn's long service to the united states of america and i fully support the president's decision to ask for his

resignation. it was the proper decision and handled properly in a timely way. >> so kelly, how awkward is this clearly for mike pence to be defending the administration there but undercut by what the president says at rallies and tweets and at his news conference? >> reporter: we've seen the vice president from the time he was a candidate through to his new role in the administration on this first overseas trip. he has had more practice than most vice presidents do in having to find a way to defend the president on his policies, on what he says, and at the same time do it in a measured, subdued way, and here we really heard the vice president's i think true feelings based on talking to advisers, but he packaged it in a way that kept everyone's heartbeat at the same easy pace. he said he was disappointed. he reinforced his closeness to the president and fully supported the resignation of flynn so there was a lot in that answer from mike pence that gives you an idea that it was

pence who wanted to exert his relationship with the president, his ties,nd his servi really as candidate pence and n as vice president and often helping sort of dig the president out of a jam by being able to convey his views not upsetting to international partners or republicans on the hill or americans more broadly. pence has done that a lot and doing it again on the flynn matter, and of course he did not address the fact that there was a lag in time between learning about the fact that he'd been given bad information from when the president knew the information was bad. he did not address that today. it was pence really being pence in a way that is useful to the trump white house. andrea? >> and kristen, what about the immigration memos? there are some drafts that have come out. we've seen copies. these are altered immigration and deportation memos apparently

the secretary of homeland has signed off but they're not final. when should we expect to see is that? >> reporter: likely within the coming day this is week and you're right, these are draft memos so they're not final yet. the white house saying these are among the proposals that are under consideration. some of the head lines coming out of the draft memos call for 10,000 more enforcement agents, would call for deputizing local law enforcement officials to help with deportation, as well as expediting the removal of undocumented immigrants. so the goal is showing the president is getting tough on immigration and deportation. over the weekend he suggested he'd focus on those with criminal records as well. already the draft memos are creating a backlash particularly among immigrant rights groups who say these types of proposals will break up families and are going to be overly harsh so there's a lot of focus and a lot of attention on the specific

language when in fact these immigration memos come out and executive orders come out. >> thanks to you, kristen and kelly o'donnell at mar-a-lago. join me is richard baucher, retired from the title of career ambassador, senior at brown university and mark lippert, former chief of staff at the obama national security council. welcome. i can't think of a better time to be with two professional foreign policy experts when we have a lack of foreign policy experts. we have not had a state department briefing since this administration took over. secretary tillerson wants to get comfortable with his own people. by cleaning house as they did so precipitously at all levels they're kind of left home alone. he was not president at two heads of state meetings not with prime minister netanyahu, not

with prime minister abe of japan. the state department has been shut out of the trump meetings. >> that's why people around the world are questioning the message the vice president is trying to deliver. you can't keep saying here is what our policy is if they don't see you asart of the policy process and state department briefings are so important to the process. i went through a number of transitions, make clear what the new secretary wants and president's policy is. unless you're out there every day, things build up and become huge problems. >> tillerson is the first secretary of state to come with no experience on either the military or diplomacy or politics, so he's got ceo experience which many would say is badly needed to shake things up. there's a lot of goodwill toward the foreign service as well but it's beginning to be a challenge

in that he doesn't have a deputy. elliott abrams, you worked alongside him. he's controversial with some but a lot of people thought he was the right person for this job. >> people did. i don't think it's for me to pick the president's appointees. i don't think i can really say, you know, my politics is probably a little different. >> what is the lack of a deputy though? >> at the same time you need people there to run the shop when the secretary is on travel. you need people to go to the policy prep meetings and other meetings that formulate a policy that's fleshed out, not just whac-a-mole or let's say this, let's say that kind of policy. so if you're going to have a strategy, you need a policy apparatus and that's what's missing. >> and mark lippert, you've been in the white house and the pentagon, when we talk about not having the deputies meetings, the principles meetings to tee things up for the president of the united states he's getting his information from cable news and from steve bannon, steve

miller and others, jared kushner, his son-in-law, but he's not getting his information from any kind of deliberative interagency process. sounds weedy and nerdy but tell us why it matters. >> the most important thing, andrea, ultimately is leads to policy development and goes hand in glove with what richard was saying. you need the nfc interagency process to grind through the issues of the day, grind through the larger strategy so you can deliver clear coherent vat geez to allies and partners around the world and that is not happening. >> what difference does it make that we don't have a national security adviser? >> obviously the national security adviser, save the president, is the captain of the ship at the nsc, and without the captain at the ship the meetings aren't happening and again the policy isn't being made and guideance, clear guidance to the agencies as well as messages to friends, partners, allies around the world are not being developed and not being sent out to both here in washington and in capitals around the world. >> your chief of staff also to secretary hagel at the pentagon.

this is what general mattis had to say on his way to baghdad about the president's comments, most frequently on january 21st at the cia, why don't we take the oil. we fight the words and spend the money and don't take the spoils, this is what general mattis had to say today. >> i think all of us here in this room all of us in america have generally paid for our gas all along and we will continue to do so in the future. we are not in iraq to seize anybody's oil. >> seizing the oil would be a war crime, it certainly would set off alarm bells throughout the divisions already in iraq and this, as we are about to try to support the iraqis in a key initiative to try to take back part of mosul from isis.

>> this is longstanding policy under the bush administration and obama's administration considering iraqi oil. it is for the iraqi people and government to distribute as they see fit and i think general mattis, secretary mattis, excuse me, his statements were on the money and essentially trying to ensure policy continuity going forward in this administration. >> one of the things that mike pence was having to deal with from the question from the bbc, reporter, richard, was who do you believe, you here or the president of the united states. this was the president of the united states at his rally about sweden. >> here's the bottom line. we got to keep our country safe. you look at what's happening in germany, you look at what's happening last night in sweden, who would believe this, sweden, they took in large numbers, they're having problems like they never thought possible. >> well, first of all, the swedish government has asked the state department what the heck is going on, a former prime

minister, negotiated with our involvement of course, the solution in the balkans was saying what was he smoking to talk about terror in sweden? there was no such thing but there was, in fact, a report on fox news that he was clearly referring to, some erroneous news. >> he got the right question, who would believe this? don't believe it, if it's not believable. don't we teach kids not to believe what they see on tv and read on the internet? it really raises questions once more about this policy process. the president sees something on tv that he wonders about. he calls, you know, the sit room, he calls the operation center and wakes up the national security adviser and says what's going on in sweden? they wake up ambassadors and search all the intelligence and they get him two hours later when he wakes up in the morning,

they get him, here's a rundown of what's going on in sweden, not i saw it on tv, let's make some policy about it. >> you've been the person waking up the op center to tell the president or colin powell or condi rice to tell a president, this is what's going on, what's note going on. that was your job. >> yes, we woke up george schultz to tell him hostages were being released in beirut. you can bet we didn't call him at the first possible newspaper report. you get one of those every night. it was when we knew something was going on, we check it out, talked to our people in beirut and we'd wake up the secretary and wake up the president. >> and richard, the value of state department briefings, because there's an international community that would read the briefings, there's a reason why the state department briefings are different from white house briefings. you get guidance and reading foreign policy statements that have been carefully worked

through, because it is viewed as the voice of the united states of america. >> the state department briefing does three things. one it serves the policy process. if it helps the policy process to talk, you talk. if it helps it to shut up, you shut up. the second thing it does is it keeps you accountable to the american people. they deserve a complete explanation and there's a third thing not widely appreciated, it makes the policy process better. the criticism we took, questions that i took from the press meant that i went back into the bureaucracy and said hey, we better think about this more carefully. we better figure out a better way of doing this or at least a better explanation for what we're doing, and unless you have that sort of testing against the process of the press, i don't think you get as good policy as you would just making it up yourself. >> from your experience you both served here and overseas, the press is the enemy of the american people? >> no way. no way. especially now that i'm on the

outside, i rely on the press to figure out what's going on. >> not at all and in fact, it one of the values as ambassador we promote overseas, your former colleague don oberdorfer, he was rewarded and recognized outstanding journalism in south korea. these are our friends, these are our values, these are critically important for the united states not just in the united states but around the world. >> let me just add pran thetically in the places you serve at a moment's notice, you can be under fire, you survived a knife attack in south korea, and presumably are well healed from that but we all lived through that with you, and that terrifying moment so we think again of all of our ambassadors and diplomats and foreign service officers, many of whom have not survived their duty overseas. thank you. >> thank you. and coming up, help wanted. more on why the trump

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secretary of state rex tillerson is still navigating one of the toughest jobs in government without a permanent deputy after his first choice, elliott abrams, was vetoed by the president at the last minute because of a column he wrote during the primaries. >> the president vetoed it,

which one has to say it's his absolute right to do. these are presidential appointments, but he looked back to the campaign and decided i'd been too critical of him during the campaign, during the primary fight and sd no to tillerson. >> abrams' criticism of then candidate trump was in a column in "the weekly standard." bill kristol is the editor at large of "the weekly standard" and joins me now. it's all your fault elliott abrams is not secretary of st e state. >> people are pulling their articles right and left, we have no content for next week. >> you get the praise and the blame for him being vetoed. it was hardly one of the toughest columns you ran but that was enough to persuade the president once it was drawn to his attention the sequence as i understand it, they had dinner, the president and tillerson and elliott abrams were at the white house tuesday night almost two weeks ago and then on wednesday, someone, could have been bannon,

could have been somebody else on the staff, pointed out to him the may column during the primaries where he criticized. he was not a signer, a signatory to the never trumpers on national security. >> he thought it was inappropriate to sign letters you would never serve this man. he felt the country might benefit from one service and keep an open mind. he was somewhat critical, not the most critical piece we published on donald trump and elliott also said a few other things. i think he met with him, he and tillerson went to meet the president tuesday afternoon. the white house mistakenly announced elliott abrams would be at the meeting, everyone knew about it, put tillerson in the position this was his candidate obviously. the funny thing is a third party was told after the meeting it went well, great, no problem. >> i was told the same. >> four hours later tuesday night i'm told phone calls were made to secretary of state tillerson saying i got a problem, the president's become aware of some stuff that elliott abrams said.

i think tillerson went back and said i've met with him a few times. elliott first came in to brief tillerson for his hearings and i don't think he intended to be a candidate for this but other people fell by the wayside, elliott has a lot of experience in the state department and tional security council. tillerson liked him very much, got along. thought he could use someone with experience and tillerson went back a peeled the call by the president, the president was stubborn on this. >> this goes to the whole issue whether you can be a critic, many of the foreign policy experts were of donald trump during the statement during the primaries, nuclear weapons for japan and south korea and a lot of other things he's pulled pack from. it eliminates a lot of people. >> mattis and tillerson i don't know if they were huge fans of donald trump before the primary. some of the people who gave advice he should pick tillerson for example bob gates, wrote a

tough piece about trump so he seems selective who he vetoes and doesn't. how much of it is trump himself, i think he has a thin skin, or steve bannon. i have heard at lower levels way below deputy secretary of state people in and around the white house are looking at every name that comes over and applying a loyalty test. they're entitled to do it for political appoint geez, they're entitled but is it wise? you need to have competent people. if precisely if you care about trump you should want him to have people who know how to execute his policies. there's not much question people at the levels below the deputy secretary will be executing the president's policies, but it's not easy to do that and having people that know what they're doing is generally speaking a good thing. >> one of the impediments to getting a new national security adviser is the whole parallel national security strategic groups set up by steve bannon, not only does he have a seat at

the table at the principals meetings but set un. a parallel national security apparatus to funnel policy choices to the president. >> that's a little startling. generally the white house staff is being incredible lay gresive. people like me weren't big fans of trump, maybe the administration could be okay because you'd have a competent state department, hhs and justice department. i think you have competent people but if the white house keeps butting in, how will that work and how appropriate is that? steven miller who works in the white house, came out over the weekend directly called the u.s. attorney for brooklyn i think it was when the executive order was being challenged in court the next day. i was a senior staff, vice president quayle, never would occur to me to go around and call a u.s. attorney i guess it's legal but there are procedures in place why white house staff political appointments are not supposed to call a line of attorneys in the justice department.

they seem to routinely do that sort of thing and not think much of it. i think they're asking for trouble, not legal trouble but certainly political trouble. this is my general sense for the president on down haven't internalized what it means to be in the white house, what the ethics rules are, the norms of propriety are. you're allowed to devise policy, when you should work through cabinet secretaries. they're freelancing as i said i'm not sure anything will come of that. >> quickly on the press, and enemies of the american people, we heard from john mccain speaking up very strongly and some say that's personal between mccain and the president. i don't think it's personal. mccain supported him as often as not. i think this is engrained in john mccain. you were chief of staff today and quail you've had your own problems with the press, potato, potato, you've had plenty of

problems but i love the fact trump was cherry picking with thomas jefferson said about the press to reinforce its enemy message without saying were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, i should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. january, 1787. >> enemies of the people has bad associations, trum doesn know them but says something about his mind-set, he's president of the united states. not a private citizen popping off on twitter and says the media are enemies of the people. he chooses not to take seriously the fact that he's now president of the united states and thinks he can do what he did as a private citizen, a guest on talk radio and even as a candidate. we'll have an experiment of whether that works. i don't think it will. his followers think it's great, you look at the press conference so different from all previous press conferences. >> that's for sure. >> but i think reality is now

taking hold and there's a reason presidents usually try to behave like presidents. >> bill kristol, thank you very much for being with us. we have some breaking news, it is sad news an experienced diplomat russian foreign ministry has confirmed the russian ambassador to the united states, well-known here for ten years at the u.n. vitaly cherkin died at the hospital. long time diplomat, at the u.n. since 2006, involved with key issues with the u.s. but working with the u.s. closely on the iran nuclear teal and other issues as well. we'll be right back. you get used to food odors in your car. you think it...

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>> as the president continues his search for a new national security adviser today, the "new york times" is reporting that a proposal from a group including president trump's long time personal lawyer that could lead to lifting sanctions on russia over ukraine was delivered to former national security adviser michael flynn before he was forced to resign. this as nbc news reports exclusively that the kremlin is preparing a psychological profile on mr. trump for vladimir putin. joining me from moscow is nbc's chief global correspondent bill neely. thank you so much. you've been talking to officials there about their reaction to the trump whois and the profile they've been working on of truch because he's not the same trump they were anticipating during the campaign. >> reporter: no that's correct. as you'll know andrea, before any major summit meeting or any meeting with a rival president a president will get a dossier, a book on policy and so on.

what appears to be at the kremlin is a dossier on president trump's mental strengths and weaknesses. it's said to be seven pages long and the details of this have been revealed by a former deputy foreign minister who has been partially involved in this. it's the product of kremlin insiders and political consultants outside the kremlin. what the kremlin seems to be learning is that president trump can be politically naive certainly in foreign policy, as we know president putin is interested in world affairs and they detect a weak innocence president putin. he relies on intuition far too much based possibly on his business career and also that he's a risk taker from business but this is obviously very dangerous they believe in world

affairs, and they're particularly concerned that he's picking fights with the mass media and with the intelligence community. interesting that the kremlin here does not want donald trump to fail, and they are concerned that he is weak at the minute domestically and they want that first meeting with president putin, to be from a position of strength. ultimately their number one priority here is that they get u.s. sanctions against russia lifted and that of course was one of president trump's campaign promises. andrea? >> bill neely in moscow, thanks so much. joining me is dr. evelyn farkas, former deputy assistant of defense for russia, ukraine and eurasia. now msnbc foreign policy contributor. you were in munich as well for the conference. >> i was. >> the question what europe is going to believe, are they going to believe mattis and tillerson and pbs patience or believe

donald trump who is president of the united states? >> donald trump as the president. i think if i can make one comment about billy's story the information they're seeking on the personality and the psychology behind president trump that tells me buyers remorse. why is this public? why did bill get access to the officials and get this information? the russian media pulled back from covering president trump favorably. that's one aspect of this. the other aspect for our european allies wanted to hear from vice president pence and general mattis. they heard from them, heard reassuring words but all said listen to what we're hearing back in washington. we think the president might make a secret deal with ukraine on russia although i'm skeptical. they want to hear from president trump himself. we don't see a real articulation of the u.s. policy towards

europe, nato and russia will be. the russian aspect worries europeans the most. >> someone who is ace private lawyer organized with this group of people supporting russia. >> some of the same people under investigation currently by the fbi for the kind of relationship so the fbi is looking what kind of relationship do these people have with russia, how was this relationship conducted during the campaign. those same people put together a proposal together with a ukrainemember of parliament which i found outrageous. if a member of our congress gave a proposal to a born president in addition with other private citizens we would have a problem with that. this ukrainian politician banded together with americans who have close eyes to president trump and gave this proposal to the white house. it's freelancing and i think the white house needs to immediately come out and say look, everyone is welcome to send a proposal, a

petition, whitehouse.gov but we have experts that help us make foreign policy. >> this proposal was handed to the national security advisers term, the former national security advise per. >> they're not disavowing it and they have access. it's a real problem. it gets back to the fact there's no policy and president trump himself is not coming out clearly and saying what the approved boundaries are, if you will, of our policy towards europe and towards the international institutions, towards the entire structures, the rules that we set up after world war ii which frankly speaking have kept us safe in munich at the security conference that i went to with members of congress, senator mccain gave a strong speech. he said we want this international order to remain strong. america will be there with you, but frankly speaking, the europeans needed to hear that our president is there, too. because this order has served

america really well. it's kept us out of another world war. it's by and large kept the peace. it's created prosperity for us and our allies, and we need a president who speaks out strongly and says i'm going to continue this work, with our allies, to keep the world safe. >> evelyn farkas, thank you so much. >> thanks. coming up, anti-trump demonstrations taking place in cities across the u.s. today. an update next on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. across new york state, from long island to buffalo, from rochester to the hudson valley, from albany to utica, creative business incentives, infrastructure investment, university partnerships, and the lowest taxes in decades are creating a stronger economy and the right environment in new york state for business to thrive. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today at esd.ny.gov

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in cities across the country demonstrations planned for today, this presidents day speaking out against president trump and his policies. you're seeing live pictures a rally in los angeles, organizers are calling today not my presidents day from coast to coast. and in london, rallies also outside parliament today as british lawmakers hold a largely symbolic debate whether to rescind an invitation for president trump to visit the queen. petition signed by nearly 2 million people demanding the uk not invite trump for a special visit. details of the visit have not been announced. coming up, immigration skrakdown. homeland security memos previewing a potential sweeping change to detentions and deportations. a former homeland security official joins me next right here. stay with us. if you have medicare

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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. general kelly, now secretary kelly, he's really doing the job. you're seeing it, the gang members, bad, bad people. i said it, day one and they're going out, or they're being put in prison, but for the most part get them the hell out of here, bring them back to where they came from. >> president trump back in campaign mode over the weekend firing up a crowd of florida supporters with his get tough message on deportations. joining me is marco lopez, former chief of staff of the

department of homeland security. thanks. very good to see you again. the new policy as it's being amended we're seeing a couple of draft memos trying to clean up some of the legal problems in the first that the ninth circuit objected to. do they have the ability to deport anyone they want? they're planning a tough crackdown. >> that's an interesting point to try to clarify because i think there's going to be two memos, someone clarifying the ban on the seven countries and the travel to and from the united states for those individuals from those seven countries. the second memo goes to the heart of the deportation discussion is, what extent is immigration and customs enforcement and customs and border patrol have the leeway and dispress who they an tend and really the construction of the situation internally. what i'm hearing is that the administration hopes to increase

the number of beds so currently they're detaining about 38,000 individuals in detention facilities across america. with the directive from the trump administration has been to increase and double that number to about 80,000, so that puts a big strain on the capability of immigration in customs enforcement and north to immediate that number if this is simply a numbers game as what is probably the discussion that's taking place internally, then they're likely to round up and we're likely to see raids and the types of roundups that you did not see during the last eight years of the obama administration and that's what's worry some for many people. >> one of the things they're trying to do is expand the crime, the felony to include the felony of coming in illegally and that of itself rather than an act of violent crime is the predicate for being rounded up. >> exactly right, and so even if

you take the increase in numbers, so even if you do have the ability to identify and pick up 80,000 individuals, it does nothing to the discussion that there is true reform that needs to take place to understand and do something with the 8 million people that are here. so it still doesn't get to the root of the problem, which is actually where we will see the most benefit, so you can't enforce your way out of this problem, andrea. i think that's what they are trying to do, instead of working hand inandith our partner to the south, mexico, to try to get to the gains that you actually need and i think that's fundamental. when we were at hopeland security it was a close relationship with mexico. in order to provide the level of security that you need on both sides of the border, you need to be having an understanding and a working relationship with your neighbor that shares that border with you. today we have zero. we don't have any ability to

work and communicate with one that we've been hostile to. this administration has been hostile to mexico since the campaign and we don't see signs of increased cooperation and puts us at a disadvantage. i was mayor in nogales, arizona, largest border between arizona and mexico. you need strong relationships in order to make the security progress we need all over america so to focus on the enforcement element i think only solves half, you only consider half of the equation. you really do need to have a strong effective smart border security strategy that includes the neighbor to the south. >> and of course the local communities here as well along the border, as the one you used to represent as mayor. thank you very much. to be continued. >> absolutely. and coming up, freedom of e press, more fallout after president trump labels the media the enemy of the american people.

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i hate the press, i hate you especially but the fact is we needs you. we need a free press. we must have it. it's vital, if you want to preserve, i'm very serious now, if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. >> john mccain of course from

munich, talking to our colleague chuck todd on "meet the press." this tweet from president trump set it off labeling the press as "the enemy of the american people." joining me two enemies, ruth marcus and "new york times" political reporter yamichel cinder. welcome both. he's criticized the press before but this was a step beyond and some said crossing the line because it's rhetoric that is ridolent of dictators past. >> past and present and it crosses the line because the constitution tells us it crosses the line. the first amendment doesn't say just freedom of speech. it says, and of the press. and that is in there for exactly the reason that senator mccain so perfectly explained. we are a thorn in the side of lots of politicians and lots of presidents, that's our job, the founding fathers understood that. we're going to continue to do it

no matter what president trump calls us. >> and yamish i love the way reince priebus and others are cherry-picking jefferson the president of the united states when they're ignoring what jefferson said most moment rabblely between choosing between governments and newspapers. >> i think what ruth said and what you just sai really get to the heart of what this issue is about. reporters are not the enemy of the people. in some ways they're the eyes and ears. when i became a journalist it was to be, shine a light on all the different issues in our government and in our world and explain to the american people what's going on but also explain and chronicle what people are going through all around the country and i think it's really, one thing to say we're the opposition party and they're not being fair to us, it's another thing to call us the enemy and i think that's really going down a road that's going to be really scary if he continues to do this. >> and at the same time, we're being so criticized, the administration is lacking a

national security adviser permanent deputy at defense. ruth, there are no briefings at the state department that we've talked about earlier. there is a vacuum here. >> this is -- look we've covered a lot of transitions, you and i, and so every transition has its nominees who flame out, there's always complaints about slowness, but this one is particularly slow and particularly worrisome especially in the national security area. because the rest of government kind of can go on autopilot. the government needs to be going, the president complained that his press conference about the problem of being holdups in his cabinet nominations and he's got some grounds to complain about democrats slow walking things but he's also to blame in terms of slowness of getting not just the nominees but their

ethics paperwork in place and in terms of the vacuum of nominees below the cabinet level that we've yet to see and we really need to see it for the good of the country. >> i read somewhere there's really only a handful of confirmed positions and 116 yamiche that have not been filled so these nominations we're waiting on him. >> you're waiting on him and i think this conversation that we had they were having about the media, and also when we tacked certain reporters in some ways it's filling this void because he knows that if reporters are talking about the idea of all these different empty seats or if we're talking about the resignation of michael flynn or looking at the idea of what this administration's ties are to russia, there are so many other things we could be talking about. it's important for journalists and me and you to look at the things you're talking about. >> especially in an administration where the white house has steven miller, steve bannon, the son-in-law of the president of the united states,

people who are not accountable and don't take questions from the media. >> i counted it the other day three deputies named or not officially nominated for the cabinet departments. that is not a lot. home alone and as you say home alone at this white house can be a little unsettling. >> ruth marcus, yamiche alcindor thank you very much. follow "andrea mitchell reports" on facebook and twitter. ali velshi is up right next, right there. there he is. >> nice to see you again, andrea. you have a fantastic afternoon. good afternoon i'm ali velshi in new york. busy presidents day for the trump administration, vice president pence trying to reassure its european allies that the u.s. supports nato. he said today that president trump stands behind the agreement. >> on saturday, as the secretary-general mentioned at the munich security conference i brought a message from president trump, the same one i bring you today. it is my privilege here at the