hi there, everyone, i'm alex witt at msnbc world headquarters in new york city. it is 1:00 in the east, 10:00 a.m. in the west. we begin with reaction from the white house pushing back on reports that officials tried to get the fbi and lawmakers to clamp down on russia stories. here's sarah huckabee-sanders a bit earlier. >> the fbi has already said the story is b.s. those are their words so i

apologize to my mom, but literally, those are the words from the fbi that the story is b.s. they came to us and they approached us. we're putting that story out there. i think the american people deserve to know the truth, and that's exactly what it is that there's nothing here just because reporters say something over and over and over again doesn't start to make it true. >> also new today, newly elected dnc chairman tom perez on what's next to unite his party. >> we didn't invest enough in our state party infrastructure. we didn't invest enough in grassroots organizing. we ignored rural swaths of america, we can't do that. we need an every-zip code strategy. we need to redefine the role of the dnc so we're helping to elect people from the school board to the senate and the best way to do that is to build that strong infrastructure and to strengthen our partnerships with people in the labor movement with planned parenthood and others who are involved in that grassroots organizing infrastructure.

>> senator bernie sanders appears to be reluctant to share his campaign mailing list with the dnc in order to help build the infrastructure that chairman perez was just talking about. >> we're going to work to support progressives who are running for the senate and who are running for the house and tom perez made this point for school board, for city council and state legislature. that sounded like you were saying that you will keep the elms to support the candidates that you think are progressives and you will not give it to the democratic national committee. did i interpret that incorrectly? ? well, where we are right now is that we are going to support and have supported and it will continue to support those candidates who have the guts to stand up for working families and take on the big money interests. the people around donald trump. >> as president trump gets ready to address a joint session of congress tuesday, a new nbc news/wall street journal poll shows him with a negative

approval rating of 48%. here's nancy pelosi on whether she thinks she can still work with the president. >> i call him the deflector in chief. he has no -- so he's got to talk about the press. he has no jobs bill and he has to talk about kids, transgender kids in school. he has no jobs bill so he has to talk about immigrants and have a ban muslims coming into the country. so all of this is a deflection from the fact that he's done nothing. >> let's go now to the white house and nbc's kelly o'donnell. another welcome to you, kelly. we know the president is slated to give his first address to congress on tuesday. how is he preparing for that? >> reporter: well, we've been told, alex, behind the scenes he has been working this weekend on the drafts as they currently exist. there are a couple of key top officials who have been helping to craft it along with a handful, four to five speech writers that are part of the process and this is one of the most ambitious speeches any

president will give in a year because it is to the joint session of congress and by extension to the entire country and it is intended to be ideas about what a president wants to do, and what we've been told about president trump is that he will describe some of the things he believes he's accomplished in the first 30 days. a lot of those have to do with executive orders and regulations and things like the transpacific partnership trade deal and removing the united states from that and we'll look toward how can we look to congress on their shared goals whether it's tax reform or changes to the health care law. things like that. one of the issues that will be interesting to see the president in yet a new venue, never addressing congress before. 535 leched officials in the room with him there in the house chamber and lots of guests primarily invited by democrats who represent some of the opposition to president trump. of course, the first lady will be in her first lady's box, and there will be all of the theater around there of the national

conversation politically right now, and a lot of pressure on the president to be able to outline what he wants to do, and will he sound more sort of forward looking or will there be some of that campaign rhetoric coming there you again? that will be a real thing to watch for tuesday night. >> we have heard from the white house about the president saying he's not going to attend the white house correspondents' dinner. what's the latest on that? >> reporter: the correspondents association extended the invi invitation to the president. this organization has represented white house reporters who cover administration after administration going back. it's got to be more than 100 years and this is one of the deep traditions of washington. it does a couple of things. there are awards given for good work, there are scholarships that are given to students up and coming journalists and there has been in recent years some of the celebrity aspect, the must-ticket quality of it because the president would speak and be funny and there

would be a very prominent comedian who would be there, as well. a chance for the adversarial relationship for the press and the president to take a night off and salute the role of the first amendment. that's its purpose. obviously, president trump has had a very contentious relationship with the press, wages a war against the media on a daily basis, and so he has declined to accept that invitation saying so on twitter. today his principal deputy spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders was asked why and she had a very folksy answer for why the president will not attend. >> i think it's kind of naive of us to think that we can all walk into a room for a couple of hours and pretend that some of that tension isn't there. you know, one of the things we say in the south, if a girl scout egged your house would you buy cookies from her? i think this is a pretty similar scenario. there's no reason for him to go in and sit and pretend like this is going to be just another saturday night.

>> reporter: i had never heard the girl scout analogy before. >> neither have i. >> reporter: that was memorable. >> yeah. you know what? to back you up, you said that the white house correspondent association is almost 100 years old. indeed, it was started in 1921. calvin coolidge in 1924 was the first of 15 presidents to attend those dinners. so much for tradition i guess this year. >> reporter: it's really a change and normally with obviously the tension that always exists between press corps and the presidents that is part of the free society. there is a toast to the president and where the president can poke fun at the press and at the same time almost always presidents at the end would salute the work of a free press in an open society. not about the individuals, but about the institution of a free press, and so the president will miss that this year, but that dinner will go on without president trump. >> all right. kelly o'donnell, thank you so much from the white house. >> joining me now caitlin hughey

burns and nicholas confessory, political reporter for "the new york times." >> the white house is pushing back on the heightened call to investigate the alleged ties between the trump campaign and russia. at what point would a special prosecutor have to get involved and what do you think it would take for republicans in both chambers to push for that? >> it's the call for the justice department to appoint ta specia prosecutor. the pressure would be intense and there would have to be more concrete investigations coming out in press reports to trigger that. there has to be a credible argument that's impossible for justices to handle this on their own. i think members of congress are trying to talk about it and we saw darryl issa the california -- with a pro from the outside, but it would be a hard thing to get the justice guys to sign off on it right now, i think. >> caitlin, how big a deal is that? darryl issa being the one who is

making the call for a special prosecutor? >> think we have to think of it in a couple of ways. >> on the one hand darryl issa used to be the person in charge of investigating these kinds of things and on the other hand, he barely survived his reelection in 2016 and he is from a district that democrats will be targeting in 2018. so we have to kind of keep an eye on, you know, 20, 24 districtser so that hillary clinton won, that democrats are targeting or districts that trump barely won and democrats are targeting, too. so you will have this little bit of a divide considering lech ral politics and the next administration coming into play and i don't think he represents the broader republican party because most of those districts are pretty safe and supportive of donald trump when you look at the polling in those districts. >> take what caitlin is saying, nicholas, and look back on cpac, what is your sense of the future of the conservative movement after this apparent enthusiasm

over president trump and his administration's speeches? >> power is a great attractor, and i think the entire movement is trying to rearrange itself around the reality of a trump presidency and seeking opportunity from their perspective to shape his presidency, to put meat on the bone. this is not a president who is deep on policy, whose ideas have a lot of depth right now and there's a real opportunity for the conservative movement to say trump is a and b and x, y and z. we'll see a real effort by conservative efforts and people on the right to take ownership of trumpism. the trumpism is donald trump at its core. >> so the obamacare replacement, the repeal, whatever it's going to be, caitlin, if you heard john boehner after serving a quarter century in congress say i think it will be basically some tweaking. those aren't exactly the words that he used, but that's when he

said because you could never get everybody on the same page. what do you think lies ahead for the aca within the republican party? >> you have this really interesting dynamic where republican lawmakers were faced with backlash at their town halls from people in their districts who had positive things to say about health care, about obamacare who had lots of concerns about change to health care. health care is a very personal issue for people so any time you introduce some kind of change to it, we saw that in 2009, as well when we were trying to introduce the bill and we were having this backlash and i was talking to heads of conservative groups and those involved in the tea party movement in 2009 who are now starting to put pressure on the other side, pushing these conservative lawmakers to hold to their word that they would repeal the law, and so you have this interesting dynamic where these lawmakers are basically squeezed from both sides here, and they're realizing how complicated this actually is, and so i think when you're looking forward to what we might

hear this week when trump addresses congress if he outlines any kind of priorities as it pertains to obamacare, that will be interesting providing any kind of directive that we haven't seen specific plans from him yet and they're realizing the political dynamics of this and any change they make whether it's repeal and replace and whether it's fixing. they're going have to own that politically and that's a stark realization for a lot of these lawmakers. >> i'm curious, nicholas, what do you know about preparations of the president's speech to congress? do you expect it to be dram atticly different from the cpac speech which kind of appeared to be a somewhat standard stump speech for him. is he capable of giving a different speech? >> it's possible, but don't count on it. i think every time you see trump with a big moment like this, a big speech and people talking about a modulation or some nod to decorum, it never happens. it never, ever happens. it's always pure trump. he could use the speech as a chance to lay down some markers

on a jobs bill, on a roads bill, on the wall, on the health care bill, right? but it's more likely that if he can't get into bits and pieces on those bills because they haven't been arrived at yet, we'll see more attacks on the media and the establishment and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. >> blah, blah, blah. caitlin, do you expect the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah or what do you think will happen on tuesday? >> i was thinking about the inauguration speech as nick mentioneded. we've heard this before, this kind of new tones sort of thing and we saw the inauguration speech had some very dark tones. he also stood in front of lawmakers then railing against both sides -- both parties in the establishment. so i think this, i'll be looking for what kind of message he's sending to lawmakers and particularly to republican lawmakers. remember, lots of them did not support him. they are balancing support in their areas for him versus their own reservations about some of

the things that he wants to do. some interested in what directive he's sending lawmakers in congress, and i'll bet he's talking about the support that he believes that he has as a presentation of the man that he believes that he has compared to what we're seeing in the polls which is very low approval ratings, very low favorability. >> caitlin hughey burns and nicholas confessory, appreciate seeing you. happening now in louisiana, police are investigating the suspect behind last night's crash in new orleans when a driver plowed through a large crowd in a mardi gras parade. sarah dallof is there, and what do we know about the status of the victims? >> reporter: let's start with the victims. amazingly, there were no deaths last night when that truck driven by a suspected intoxicated driver went over that median there behind me and plowed into the crowd that was enjoying one of the city's famed mardi gras parade.

21 people were taken to the hospital. they range in age from just 1 year old to into their 50s. they also include a female new orleans police officer who is still in the hospital right now. we are told several people actually kept overnight with moderate to serious injuries. at the time of the crash witnesses described to us just a scene of chaos and confusion. >> it happened just a matter of seconds. we heard the impact and people were scattering. >> i saw a dark truck run a white car off the road, swerve, lose control and just run into people. >> reporter: 25-year-old neilson rizzuto was taken into custody at the scene. he is now in custody facing at least four very serious charges as officials continue to investigate just what led up to this horrific crash. they say they had prepared for

crowd safety, keeping in mind some of the terrorist attacks of recent month, but they say, alex, they just couldn't predict that this would happen. back to you. >> sure. >> sarah dallof in new orleans. thank you so much, sarah. president trump making one declaration only to have his cabinet members say something complete completely different. the effect that could have on wor relations with world leaders. and we came up with a plan to help reduce my risk of progression, including preservision areds 2. my doctor said preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula the national eye institute recommends to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd after 15 years of clinical studies. preservision areds 2. because my eyes are everything.

going to undertake in a bipartisan fashion an inquiry into everything that russia tried to do in our election process last year. if that leads to potential contacts between trump associates and the russian government then we'll explore those, as well. >> republican senator tom cotton on "meet the press" this morning pushing back on a call to

investigate alleged ties between russia and the trump campaign. joining me now former ambassador to the u.n. for special political affairs, stewart holiday, now the president and ceo of meridian international center. >> stewart, welcome to you. this investigation into russia's election hacking is in its very early stages, but as it unfolds and there could be possibly damaging information on the president or his campaign, will republicans really let the probe lead them to places they may not want to go? >> i think they will, particularly if you look at people like senator cotton and others in the congress, and you heard, of course, what congressman issa said, and he's obviously going to the extreme of calling for an independent prosecutor, but in this case, i think that there are certain members of congress who are really more interested in the question of russia's influence than they are in connecting the dots on the trump campaign. campaigns are big and operations with a lot of informal advisers and it appears from the fbi that there's not necessarily, you

know, a smoking gun there. that said, they really want to get at this question of what russia tried to do to infiltrate and destabilize our election. >> do you think that warrants a special prosecutor? >> i think the congress has the power to undertake the investigation at this point. obviously, if more evidence emerges they can ratchet that up and at this point they'll be able to handle it within the congress. >> i just want to put out what the president is just tweeting right now about this, and he writes russia talk is fake news -- sorry about that, put out by the dems and played up by the media in order to mask the election defeat and the illegal leaks. you want to respond to that? >> well, he seems to be very preoccupied by this notion that the agency such as the fbi who may privately tell him that, you know, there's not a lot there that he wants to go out and talk to the media and correct the story. that's a very hard thing for, you know, an independent agency

to do, in effect, picking and picking winners and losers in terms of where the evidence goes, but i think obviously, there is evidence that russia and the president has admitted this that tried to move into our election and more to create probably the impression of undermining the democratic system which we are so proud of and frequently lecture them on in terms of our civil society. >> a discussion and investigation continues on that. i want to talk with you about another matter as we are continuing to see some in trump's cabinet express contradicting views from the president. let's take a listen to this. >> we're getting really bad dudes out of this country, and at a rate that nobody's ever seen before and they're the bad ones, and it's a military operation. >> listen to this -- no, repeat, no use of military force in immigration operations. none.

>> and then we have new national security ress security adviser h.r. mcmaster, that terrorists are unislamic. what do you think this could have on u.s. relations? do you think world leaders will start to think that the president's words don't mean anything? >> i don't think so. i think if you looked at president reagan or even president george w. bush you frequently had these statements that basically represented the way they felt. in military operation, this will be an all hands on deck affair and we'll take it seriously and it's up to the professionals to walk that line about what are we actually talking about here? we're not talking about using our military. we're talking about, you know, taking an aggressive, focused view, law enforcement view on focusing on criminal elements within the immigration community, and i think what you

see on the international cabinet spectrum, mattis, kelly and obviously the secretary of state is they're having to walk into situations where they're going to have to implement and be very precise. so as they refine, you haven't seen the president contradict them. the window is much narrower in terms of flexibility for what some of these cabinet agencies and heads are going to be able to do. they're going to be talking about as steve bannon said deconstructing the administrative state and deregulation, if you saw a philosophical difference on that front you'd see fireworks. >> if you see the status of things there and you compare that with the new york times article and trump demanding loyalty and then it goes on, how much tolerance do you think the cabinet will have from his cabinet breaking on important issues like terrorism and immigration. >> i think if you go back to

what the president said when secretary mattis disagreed that enhanced interrogation techniques were effective. he said i want him to tell me what he believes because i gave him that authority and as long as it stays within the construct and these are people that he selected and obviously, he's given them, and invested in them the expertise, and i think he thinks in tillerson and mattis and h.r. mcmaster who has a reputation of brutal honesty in power that he will feel like he in effect has created this way to get advice whatever that advice is as long as they're not disagreeing with him on major fi philosophical matters. thank you very much for joining us. we look forward to seeing you again. a london landmark sending a message to the white house. we have a live look next.

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for tonight's academy awards and the big question is whether politics will figure into the event's speeches. we'll have more on this coming up. trump voters won't like it if they do. 66% in a new hollywood reporter poll said they stopped watching an awards show when it got political. 43% of voters want it. he and the first lady will be hosting the governor's ball at the white house tonight. welcome back, everyone. i'm alex witt at msnbc world headquarters in new york, here's what we're monitoring for you. the president is spending the day at the white house where he will be preparing for tuesday's address before congress and the governor's ball. the president has a negative job approval rating of 48% which is a record low for a new president. in a question about the travel ban, americans are equally divided and 44% calling it necessary and 45% disagreeing with it. happening now overseas,

thousands packing the trafalgar square in london for the biggest open-air cinema screening in a voice aiming opposition for president trump's travel ban. matt bradley is there. set the scene for us. they're watching the film, it's call called "the salesman." they have to be far into it, right? >> reporter: we're a couple of hours into it. there are hundreds of people here and they're not here just for the film. there are other places to be watching it more comfortable than here. it's cold and people are huddled up and the reason people came here is because this is an act of defiance against donald trump and they're trying to show their support for this iranian filmmaker who wasn't going to be able to make the academy awards this evening. he addressed the crowd a couple of hours ago before the movie began, explaining why he was here and why he made this film

and i spoke with mayor sadiq khan and the one who convened all of this and he gave us an explanation about why people are turning out today. take a listen. >> some people are coming here because this is their way of showing their unhappiness with the policies of president trump. there are some people who are coming because they want to see a great film in trafalgar square. there are some people coming because they're disgusted with what their leader is doing with the travel ban. my motivation for showing the film is to show the world that we are the cultural capital of the world, to show the world that where others are talking about bans, we're going to welcome people. >> reporter: so this big event is coming under #londonisopen and this is what mayor sadiq khan is trying to impress upon not just the american public, and not just donald trump and the british public, that this is about opening up to cultural differences and making an inclusive london and projecting

that to the world and just one more thing, alex. what's interesting here is this film is made by an iranian filmmaker who said he wasn't able to go to the united states because of the immigration limitations, but there is an interesting american element to this film. much of this plot actually revolves around a group of iranians staging arthur miller's "death of a salesman" that's where the title comes from. there is a strong american wrinkle to this film that's being screened here as an act of defiance against american policy. >> it's a pretty cool way to see an american -- a film nominated for an academy arc ward. that is interesting. thank you very much, matt bradley this in london. >> talking to cpac is one thing is one thing, but addressing congress is altogether different. coming up, how important is president trump's tuesday night's speech at this early stage in his presidency? we invite all of you to watch all-day coverage of the president's speech beginning with "morning joe" at 6:00 eastern on msnbc. into your day..

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on tuesday, president trump is set to deliver his first speech before congress and many are wondering if he'll stick to the tone of his inaugural address which painted quite a bleak picture of what he called american carnage, but eight years ago another newly elected leader went before the two chambers to deliver a very different message. >> clean up the credit crisis that has severely weakened our financial system. i want to speak plainly and candidly about this issue because every american should know it directly affects you and your family's well-being. you should also know that the money you've deposited in banks across the money is safe, your insurance is secure. you can relies on the continued operation of our financial system. that's not the source of concern. the concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins. you see -- [ applause ]

you see the flow of credit --? let's bring in rick shafrpgman, publisher of the history news network and professor at george mason university. i always love talking presidential history with you. traditionally, rick, what does a new president need to a, pleasure in this first speech to congress and what kind of notes, really would donald trump specifically have to do it? >> well, this is his oscar night, and the question is is he going to walk away with a little statue or not? i don't think he is, but who knows? we'll see if he's up to it. here's the problem that he faces. while an overwhelming majority of both democrats, republicans and independents hate washington. that's the one thing the entire country is united on, they hate washington. you can't govern washington as an outsider. jimmy carter figured that out, finally, i think after a couple of years. bill clinton took him six months

before he finally figured it out and he brought in david gergen to try to rebalance his administration. donald trump has this same problem as the outsider. if you play to the american people's hatred of washington you get a lot of people cheering him, but you can't get anything done. the smartest thing that he could do right now would be to let as little light as possible between him and the gop establishment in d.c. i don't know if he's going to do it. we'll see if he's up to it. >> according to politico, rick, white house insiders are hoping this speech could be a reset for president trump after bumps in the road, really, during his first month. is there precedent for that or is there a warning sign for president trump that he has to change course so soon? >> well, no president in american history since modern polling began 60 years ago has been in the same kind of toilet that donald trump is in. his poll numbers are just horrible as you reported earlier in the show. so that's unprecedented, but

what's not unprecedent side that a president needs a reset very early. bill clinton needed a reset very early and sam donaldson on abc news was arguing within weeks of clinton's inaugural address that his presidency was almost done for. so it's not unusual that you have people saying, you know, this president you have to write him off already so who knows what will happen? i've got my personal predictions. i don't think that he's got a long-term future as president of the united states. i think he's going to be impeached or something terrible will happen before his term is up, but he has an opportunity here. let's see if he's up to it. >> but, rick, if we take a step back and we look at the president's first month and all of the missteps and controversies so far, are these all normal growing pains for the new administration or do you think there's something more than that? >> no, this is something more. this is not just a president who

came in with a botched transition. this is more than just a rookie president making rookie mistakes of an outsider who doesn't realize you actually do have to hire people in the white house who know what they're doing. he didn't do that. he's sticking to loyalists though he hasn't got a full cabinet yet. the sub positions in the cabinets haven't been filled because he's not allowing in anybody who is a trump critic during the campaign. so these are all rookie mistakes, but on top of this, he's declared war on the media. steve bannon has said the media is the enemy. okay, that's unprecedented at this stage and that's disastrous because you can't run against the media from day one. it doesn't work. >> but when you put him up against previous presidents, is he getting a fair shake from the press or a fair shake from the pub and is he being held to a

tougher standard because of who he is and the temperament. >> the media has been critical of him because the guy lies all of the time. i'm sorry, the media has to call him out every single day. according to the review, every ing single day of his presidency, he's told a whopper or three or four whoppers. presidents of the united states have to have the trust of the american people and they have to be trusted by the media and other politicians to tell him the story straight. he does not have the trust. so, of course, people are going to criticize him, and he deserves it. >> all right. rick shankman, tell it like it is if your opinion there, appreciate that, and we'll see you again. thank you. he's an activist and doing all he can to make california a separate country and why does he live in russia? that's next. up next, "meet the press" and town hall politics. it only takes a second for an everyday item

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a country. the group yes california is trying to collect more than half a million signatures to place a cessationist question on the 2018 ballot. with me now is louis marinelli founder and president of the yes-california independence campaign. with a welcome to you, louis, we'll get right to it because in the quest of independence, yes, california argues its case saying the state has the sixth largest economy in the world and has a population bigger than poland, and its values conflict with the rest of the country, california subsidizing other states and has not effected a presidential election since 1876. it's easy to dismiss this as nonsense for some. how much support do you need to d get this cessation question on the ballot? >> thank you for having me on the program, alex. we need to collect 600,000 signatures before the end of july to get the question on the ballot and we're hard at work to do that. we have thousands of volunteers

in california to help us collect sig matchures as we speak. is it brexit? is it the election of donald trump and california overwhelmingly voting against him? >> there are a lot of different motivations. we have a diverse group of supporters in california and it depends on who you ask, and it boils down to the general consensus that the idea of the american union is dysfunctional and the government in washington doesn't serve the interest of the people of california anymore. >> here's the question. you live in russia and you're spoke ben this, and you have the national party who recently told politico, yes, california is a movement whose optics are all designed for a russian audience to reinforce vladimir putin by talking about how terrible america is, and i know, louis, that you held a news conference in december that was covered by russian state-run rt television. you declared the opening of a california embassy in moscow. do you think people might grow

skeptical and concern this movement is a part of a bigger stra strategy by the kremlin to destabilize the west? >> sure. we believe that it's a reasonable skepticism for people to have, but the fact is the american government has tried to rail the american public against russia. no matter what the issue is. there's always something that they try to align our people against and it's nonsense, in our opinion. our embassy here in people is the people's embassy and a culture center and tomorrow we'll have an important exhibit there, exhibiting california's civil rights and we'll use the california embassy as a platform to demonstrate to the people of russia our values in california and the history of our culture. >> what about from a logistics standpoint, louis. you're talking to a california girl here. i'm curious what happens when there is the next big earthquake and the next set of wildfires and you can't turn to the government for help.

can california the country handle that? >> sure we can. we're a donor state and we're losing tens of billions every year subsidizing the rest of the country. if we are able to keep our taxes in california we'll be able to keep the federal agency jobs in california and the agencies and the programs and grant, you name it. we'll have them be under the control of the state government as opposed to the federal government. >> sure. i'm an american citizen. i was born in new york, but i emigrated to california in 2006. i have studied and lived in russia on and off during that time period, but i'm a californian first and foremost, and just like the majority of our supporters consider themselves californians first and foremost. a third of californians come from other places outside of california. i'm with the people of california that originate

somewhere else. >> do you have a sense if it were to come to vote today how it would fare. >> if the entire united states were to vote today? >> for the state of california, let's look at it that way. do californians want this? >> sure. recent reuters polled 32% of californians are in support of it and up from november. we are seeing a massive support of cal-exit, and it's growing in the last couple of months and as we continue to collect signatur signatures and get the message out. frankly speaking, every morning people wake up and see what donald trump is up to and he serves as a daily reminder as to why we should look at becoming an independent country and to support the cal-exit referendum in 2018. >> being a california girl, i will study this further. louis marinelli from moscow. which films will get the gold statue next.

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two options: you either follow my rules or follow my rules. >> thank you. >> i could do it a different way. >> that's fine. thank you. >> and that was a quick clip from "la-la land." tieing the record held by "titanic" and "all about eve" and making it one of the critics top picks to watch at the awards tonight. joining me to talk about this and all the oscar picks, my gorgeous friend nikki novac. look at you. we'll get to your dress in a second. but the biggest questions people are asking is how many oscars "la-la land" is going to take home. what do you think? >> it is interesting. record tieing 14 nominations.

i think what people are predicting, people are saying there could be a sweep. i don't know if that's going to happen. the one thing that "la-la land" has working against it is it has been popular so long and they love to sneak in an underdog in the end. i'm going to guess, i'm going to give you a number and say around eight or nine. >> you think there could be an upset based upon that reasoning for best picture? if so, who's the upsetter? >> it's happened in the past. it happened last year, you know, the "rev nant one." and then "spotlight" came out and stole it in the end. it was a smaller movie. this year "hidden figures" did phenomenally at the box office. that's always a good indicator what's going to happen at the oscars. but don't discount "moonlight." i still think "la-la land" is going to edge everyone out.

>> you might get something remember the artists back in the day. it was so different? that could help "la-la land" as well. let's talk about best actor. clear favorite there or no? >> it is interesting you bring this up because this is the tightest race in my opinion of the entire academy awards. casey after flex. 18 out of 22 times the winner of the screen actor guild awards goes on to win the academy awards. so denzel could take it. he's denzel washington. i still think casey affleck is going to win though. >> who are you picking for actress? >> emma stone. i think this is her year. she's the it girl of the moment. everybody talked about jennifer lawrence a few years ago.

she is having her moment. this was just a break of out roll for her and the academy loves movies about itself. a big voting member, most are actors and who doesn't love to see somebody humiliated in an adugs scene. >> throw out the names of your choice for supporting actor and actress? >> davis will win for actress. that one is already over and ali is my choice. he was phenomenal in "moonlight" and he gave such an incredible speech at the actor's awards. i think he's the one to beat. >> okay. as i said, i have always wanted to do this. okay. so who are you wearing? >> well, jovadi couture. i have to give a shout-out to my

stylist. he gave me the love. he gave me the love. i got the slit and the whole thing going. >> listen, enjoy. have a great time and for all of you watching the oscars tonight, enjoy that as well. but that's going to do that for me this hour. up next, "meet the press." 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. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation, in case i decide to go from kid-friendly to kid-free.

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which one's your favorite? come home with me! it's truck month! find your tag for an average total value over $11,000 on chevy silverado all star editions when you finance through gm financial. find new roads at your local chevy dealer. this sunday media bashing and the russia connection. president trump thrills supporters with his attacks on the press. >> a few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. they are the enemy of the people. >> but could his media attacks be designed to distract attention from those disturbing russia stories that just won't go away. i'll ask republican who sits on the senate intelligence committee. also, those angry town halls. can republicans afford to ignore the growing opposition to repealing and replacing obamacare. plus,