our full team ready to go, kristen welker at the white house, glen thrush in washington, jeremy with us on set. let's talk about what we know and then i want to dive into some of those budget numbers. >> reporter: it comes as the president is poised to unveil budg and his first joint dress to ngress. he will undoubdly discuss it with the governors. it's going to call for an increase in spending to the military, to dhs, to intelligence agency, not a big surprise there. those are things he talked about on the campaign trail. it's going to call for big cuts to domestic programs, agencies like the epa, humanitarian programs. of course those are thanksgiving th -- things that democrats are going to need to argue need to be protected. and interestingly, hallie, his budget calls for not touching

entitlements. for years that's been a key part of the republican proposals including house speaker paul ryan. so that could create some friction with his own party. he will undoubtedly discuss all of this with the governors and then he meets with the ceos of health care companies, aetna, among others, today. humania and he's going to discuss likely what will the key pillars of his health care plan be. what's the timing of that. we're waiting to get those critical answers. he said it's going to come out sometime in march so we're inching close to that hallie. >> glen, when you talk about a budget, a lot of where a politician stands on a budget tells you how a politician stands here in washington. you wrote about this with colleagues in the times just recently, these moves, is this him trying to come in and make a splash out of his first joint address in congress tomorrow night? >> and remember, what we're

talking about here is him not dictating the terms of any of this stuff. the hill is going to have a lot to say about there. this is a preliminary document that he's downsing obouncing of agencies. the numbers may or may not be true is a 50 to 75 or 80 billion dollar increase in the defense budget after years of it being flat lined with a commensurate amount taken out elsewhere. a lot of that is not going to fly on the hill. we don't really know what is ultimately going to happen but the bottom line is we're talking about a political imperative, not a budget imperative. this is a president who wants to transform his reputation as being a tweeter and a talker into being a man of action and this is the first time that we're seeing actual numbers, the numbers are really vague, they're probably not going to be durable but at least we're getting a little something specific here. >> we're talking about military spending. this is going to be a centerpiece of this political document moving forward. let's stay on the idea of the military here. back to you at the white house.

the father of the navy seal killed in yemen is calling for an investigation. this could potentially have fallout for the white house. what do we know? >> the father of chief pelty officer william owens calling for an investigation surrounding the circumstances of his son's death. that occurred during that military raid in yemen, and the white house saying over the weekend when they were asked about this that, look, the president likely wouldn't rule this out, this is sarah huckabee sanders being interviewed on a sunday show. she said she hadn't had a chance to actually sit down and talk to the president about it but she anticipates it's something that s he would be open to. it's casting a new cloud over that first raid that the president ordered here. as we've been discussing, there's been a lot of controversy surrounding that raid, not only because of the death of the chief petty officer

but as well as a number of civilian casualties as well as. the white house continues to insist that it was ultimately a success but this is going to raise some new tough questions, hallie. >> with me, david nakamura and jeremy peters. a couple of superstars in our new home for the day. david, you heard glen talk about his reporting in the "times" about this new budget proposal. it includes nothing on entitlement reform, which is to be expected, the president has long said he hasn't touched that. paul ryan's got to be looking at that going come on, man. >> as glen said, it's sort of an opening bid for this president to start talking where he's going to go. the big question on entitlements is this is a president who basically said while he was campaigning he supports these big programs, which are antithetical to typical gop orthodoxy. i think he's going to go to the mat to try to defend them, he's

going to look for cuts elsewhere to boost spending. >> cuts to the epa, cuts to state. how is this going to be met among republicans who want to see those programs bolstered and k kept where they are? >> they love that aspect. trump is going -- >> epa is an easy target. >> exactly. and the epa administrator he has selected was already devising the blueprints to dismantle it anyway. this is all part of what steve bannon called last week the deconstruction of the administrative state. now where it gets a little bit tricky and harder to predict how well this goes for trump is whether you starts having the disagreements of the conservatives on the hill and the populists in the white house. that's where you'll have fights over obamacare, tax reform, infrastructure.

we don't know what that looks like. >> does steve bannon care about the potential grenade he's about to throw over at capitol hill or is this all about his deconstruction of the status quo? >> what has steve bannon cared about throwing grenades? that's what the guy does. we wrote about he is reconstructing his relationship with paul ryan but there were some e-mails that were released last year that showed he didn't have such a great opinion of paul ryan and didn't want to see him in office. but i just think that this is them laying down a marker. what you guys were talking about in terms of the infrastructure stuff was really interesting. i think that is where you're going to see a lot of movement. but the bottom line is the white house right now doesn't necessarily have the staff to negotiate fully with the hill. a lot of the terms of this are ultimately going to be dictated by mitch mcconnell and paul ryan. >> nbc news has our new polling showing he's basically underwater.

you can see it here 44% to 48%. david, is that because people don't know what to make of him still? is that because we live in such a divided nation? what do you think? >> he entered office with fairly low approval ratings. i think we won elections with some of the lowest approval ratings across the board. and then he starts at that note and the first thing out of the box, there are executive actions that are fairly controversial. he's showing no sign of backing down. the muslim ban, the travel ban for muslim countries, i think put him on his heels and he's continued to sort of, you know, defend his position but i think these are not necessarily obviously policies that are going to look to unite the country. >> i can see the president railing against fake polls. on the other hand, he loves polls. >> when they validate and affirm his popularity, right? otherwise they're fake polls. to david's point, the travel ban was not only controversial, it was hastily implemented.

and we are talking about donald trump having to defend his policies in courts, we're talking about his tweets, his war with the media. now that he's put out a budget, we can start talking more about policy -- >> you know who's talking about his travel ban, former president bush bu george w. bush. listen. >> i think you have to take the man for his word that he wants to unify the country and we'll see whether he's able to do so. it's hard to unify the country with the news media being so split up. when i was president, you mattered a lot more because there was like three of you and now there's all kinds of information being bombarded out and people can say things anonymously and it's a different world. if that's the goal to defeat isis, which i think it should be, we reflect strength. and whether or not the domestic

politics help -- >> you for or again the ban? >> i'm for an immrati policy that's welcoming and upholds the law. >> that's the former policy trying to thread the needle there, right? >> george bush had a totally different point of view than does donald trump. both failed legislatively. trump's taking a different tone, popular among his base and it's what helped him get elected. he's going down that road but you saw him trying to walk a fine line, not criticize the current president. >> to george bush's point about the media, he's exactly right. there's nothing the conservative base likes to see more than a fight with the media. right now conservatives as a cause, as a group, doesn't have an opponent the way that they did when they were in the opposition. they need an enemy. that's what we saw at cpac last week. >> democrats don't have an enemy? >> not at this point. maybe later on when the policy fights get really -- and the line is drawn much bright are

between the two but right now they need a common enemy. that's fine to a point. i talked to trump supporters about just how thrilled he was that they picked this fight. i was sensing some reluctance. they like to see this but they don't want him to overdo it and the line i kept hearing over and over again is he needs to cut it out on twitter. >> kristen, your take from the white house there. we've talked about obviously the president's prolific tweeting. this is a habit he's been doing since the campaign. how is this going to play into his plans for health care reform? governor kasich was just at the white house and we're hearing more coming out of that meeting. what do you think? >> reporter: i think this is the way the president has conducted business since he was onhe campaignrail. there are some republicans that want himo tack a different tact, particurly as he looks

to unveil his health care proposal. you're going to see push back on it because now is the time he's going to try to push through these big legislate of goals. it gets a lot tougher, i think, from his perspective, from the perspective of senior administration officials to whittle that down into a tweet. at the same time, i don't think we're going to see him strange that strategy a whole lot, hallie. >> kristen welker, and my guests, thank you for being here. and tomorrow is the first address to the joint congress. and a surprise announcement calling for a special prosecutor oversee the russia white house investigation. we're talking to one of those colleagues on the committee next. plus exclusive new reporting

about the role of press secretary sean spicer to try to push back against the "new york times"'s russia reporting. this is the place to be for your morning political primer and really heck of a view. hang out. here's to the wildcats 'til we die... this i gotta try bendy... spendy weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there'a hiltonor you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders.

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just down pennsylvania avenue from where we are now, president trump tomorrow night will try to reset the narrative, you could say, talking about his

triumph so far, talk about what will come next as one of his supporters now says a special prosecutor should be added to this investigation into russia. we're talking about congressman darrell issa saying attorney general jeff sessions basically cannot lead this investigation without looking compromised. just this morning on "morning joe," senator dick durbin says he doesn't trust republicans to lead an independent and transparent investigation. listen. >> i can tell you, i sat on the intelligence committee for four years. you couldn't find the room that we met in. there was no sign on the door. and our meetings were in secret. they were classified. no one knew who was testifying, whether they were under oath and what they said. we need an independent, transparent investigation. >> this comes as an exclusive report details sean spicer's role in the white house push to try to discredit this "new york times" article on trump campaign aides' access with russia.

with me on set actionos executive editor mike allen, along with our friend from the new york times and the post. do you see this getting more traction as we see more members of congress getting back to the hill? >> reporter: i think it's interesting that congressman e issa was sayiechoing chuck schu. that may be some of the motivation there. i think this is what to watch as far as republicans kind of drip, drip, drip. so far not a lot of movement. senator cotton, republican senator fr arkansas who had faced down contentious town hall when is he was at home, he talked to chuck todd over the

weekend and he said there isn't a need for a special prosecutor. take a look. >> i think that's way, way getting ahead of ourselves here, chuck. there's no indication of a crime going and no indication there's criminal investigations under way by the fbi. >> cotton saying we haven't gotten to the point that we need this yet. there had been growing confidence in the senate -- we'll see if that changes that white house officials pressed congressional republicans to talk to reporters about what they knew to push back against the "new york times" story about contacts with the russians on behalf of the trump campaign. >> all of this is going on where you are right behind us. the president has been meeting with governors. we have tape. we're going to roll for you moments ago, this is the president speaking to a group this morning. >> and thank you to vice president pence. he has been so wonderful to work with. he's a real talent, a real guy and he is central casting.

do we agree? central casting. he's been great. >> good morning, everybody. and welcome back to the white house. the first lady and i were very, very happy last night to host you. we saw some real talent, military talent musicians who were fantastic and everybody enjoyed it. [ applause ] >> i'm very proud to have so many former governors in my cabinet. vice president pence, as you know, big governor from a very great state, a state i like very much, indiana. nikki haley at the u.n. is nikki here someplace? i think so, yes. rick perry is going before. we're trying to get people approv approved, we can't get them out.

rick will do a fantastic job. >> every time i spoke in iowa, terry would say please don't say anything bad about china. i said what do you mean? what do you mean? he said i like china and we do a lot of business with china and really, just don't. say i said, hmm, when it came time to pick an ambassador, i said, you like china and i can tell you china is very, very happy with our choice. thank you. and thank you, terry. these governors have been bold reformers and their success shows why we need to make states the laboratories are democracy once again. many of you have shared past frustrations with waiting for permission from federal government and agencies and i understand that and i've had many people tell me about it and it's been catastrophic for some of your states, you know your

citizens and you know they want things done but they don't get things done and it not your fault. sometimes it's your fault but they understand that but sometimes it's not your fault. we're going to speed it up. because that's not how a partnership is supposed to work. the governor should not stand in reform and services.ng needed and it wouldn't. we're going to move very, very quickly, envientally wit scott and so many others that are involved in the process of regulation, we are going to be cutting. we're going to be doing the right thing. we're going to be protecting people environmentally and safety wise but we're going to be moving it quickly, very quickly. and speaking of that, i know many of you and i've spoken to some of you last night about it have many projects that are -- just literally tied up because of environmental concerns and it's been in for years and years

and years that project your state wants, great for employment and they couldn't get them out of environmental protection and we will get them out. that doesn't mean they're going to be approved but they'll be rejected quickly, one way or the other. they'll be either rejected quickly or they're going to get approved. i would say most are going to be approved but you're not going to wait nine years or 11 years, some of the horror stories that i've heard. under my administration, we're going to have a true partnership of collaboration and cooperation. we will get to the answers and we will get them quickly and the flexibility you need to implement the reforms that you are going to have in order to make decision-making proper and decision-making fast. so we're going to do both those things, proper and fast. one of the most important responsibilities for the federal government is the budget of the united states. mile-per-hour first budget will be submitted to the congress

next month. this budget will be a public safety and national security budget. very much based on those two with pnty of other things but very strong. and it will include an historic increase in defense spending to rebuild the depleted military of the united states of america at a time most needed. [ applause ] >> and you'll be hearing about that tomorrow night in great detail. this is a landmark event, a message to the world, in these dangerous times of american strength, security and resolve. we must ensure that our courageous servicemen and women have the tools they need to deter war and when called upon to fight in our name only do one thing, win. we have to win. we have to start winning wars again. i have to say when i was young in high school and college,

everybody used to say we never lost a war, we never lost a war. you remember. some of you were right there with me and you remember we never lost a war. america never lost. now we never win a war. we never win. and we don't fight to win. we don't fight to win. so we either have to win or don't fight it at all. but where we are, 17 years, almost 17 years of fighting in the middle east, we're up -- i saw a chart the other day as of about a month ago, $6 trillion we've spent in the middle east. $6 trillion. and i want to tell you that's just unacceptable. and we're know where actually if you think about it, we're less than nowhere. the middle east is far worse than it was 16, 17 years ago, there's not even a contest. so we spent $6 trillion. we have a hornet's nest. it's a mess like you've never seen before.

we're nowhere so we're going to straighten it out. this defense spending will be paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government. we're going to do more with less. i got involved in an airplane contract, i got involved with some other democrats and we cut the hell out of the price ps weep saved a lot of money, tremendous amount of money, beyond anything that the generals were involved, they said they've never seen anything like this before. on one plane, a small order of one plane, saved $75 million and i would say i devoted if i added it up, probably about an hour. i think that might be my highest and best use. if we can do that, our budget will abe -- it might be my highest and best use. and in one way that's a good thing because we have an answer.

david is going to do a fantastic job. david is sitting there, shaking his head. stand up, david. so we can't get our people through cabinet butch who we he through was it 95-0? how the hell did you do that? you were the one. shows you, hey, we can do it. but but we have still quite a few cabinet members. it's like obstruction. it's obstruction. but eventually we'll get them and we'll put the people in and we'll get those agencies, et cetera, to work. we're going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people. we can do so much more with the money we spend. with the $20 trillion in debt, can you imagine that, the government must learn to tighten its belt. something families all across the country have had to learn to

do unfortunately. but they've had to learn to do it and they've done it well. my budget increases spending and the increase in all spending for federal law enforcement also and activities having to do with law enforcement will be substantially increased and we will fight violent crime. you look at what's happening in our cities, you look at what's happening in chicago, what's going on in chicago, we will fight violent crime ande will win and we'll win that one fairly quickly. once we give the local police, the local law enforcement the right to go in and fight it and we back them monetarily and also otherwise, we're going to win that one. we're going to win it fairly quickly, i believe. my budget also puts america first by keeping tax dollars in america to help veterans and first responders. so important. this budget follows through on my promise to focus on keeping americans safe, keeping out terrorists, keeping out

criminals and putting violent offenders behind bars or removing them from our countri l countrialtogethcountriay altogether. and the job general kelly has done at the border is tough, it's strong. i was talking to terry mcauliffe, he says you have to mention this. he met with general kelly and i think i can say you were impressed with general kelly. and he said you have to get the point out that they're removing the bad ones. that's where our focus is. it's the bad ones. we're getting some very, very bad players out of this country. drug lords, gang members, heads of gangs, killers, murderers, we're getting them out. th's what we're focused on. the press isn't covering that unfortunately. but it's something that is very important. we're getting the bad ones out. that's always where i said i was

going to start. i was going to start with these bad players and they are bad. they are rough and tough and we're getting them the hell out of our country and we're bringing them to where they started out. let their country do what they have to do with them. so the budget, which is going to be a very big part of tomorrow night's speech is going to be i think a budget of great rationality but it's going to have to do with military, safety, economic development and things such as that. great detail tomorrow night. we're also going to do whatever we can to restore the authority of the states when that is the appropriate thing to do. we're going to give you back a lot of the powers that have been taken away from states and great people and great governors and you can control it better than the federal government because you're right on top of it. you have something that's controllable. so i think that's going to be

very important. you see that already taking effect. we have to let the states compete and to see who has the best solutions. they know the best had to spend fl dollars and how to teak care of the people within each state. and state are different and people are different. so the governors are going to have a lot more dee dee signatures making ability than they have right now. we will reduce taxes very, very substantially and simplify the tax code. we're also going to make taxes between countries much more fair. we're one of the only countries in the world that can -- people can sell their product in to us and have no tax, no nothing. and they get rich. and yet if you want to do business with them, you'll have taxes i've seen as high as 100%. so they sell into us no problem. we sell into them because we don't sell into because the tax is so high that they don't want

us to sell into them. so i know that's always been a point of contention but to me it's just fair, it's just fair, it's reciprocal. we're going to be doing a lot of work on that and that's becoming a factor, fairness. i believe in free trade. i want so much trade. maybe somebody said he's a total nationalist, which i am in a true sense but i want trade, i want great trade between countries but the word free is very deceiving. because it's good for them, it's not good for us. i want fair trade. and if we're going to be taxed, they should be taxed at the same amount, the other countries. one of two things are going to happen, we're going to make a lot of money or the other country is going to get rid of its tax. like the product, like harley davidson, i was talking to them, the product will flow into other

countries where right not. we spend $6 trillion in the middle east and we have potholes all over our highways and our roads. i have a friend in the trucking business. he said my trucks are destroyed going from new york to los angeles. they're destroyed. he said i'm not going to get the good trucks anymore. he always prided himself on buying the best equipment. he said the roads are so bad that by time we make the journey from new york to los angeles or back, he said the equipment is just beat to hell. i said when has it been like that before? he said it's never -- he's been in the business for 40 years, he said it's never been like that, 40 years. never been like that. so we're going to take care of that, infrastructure. we're going to start spending on infrastructure big. and not like we have a choice. it not like, oh, gee, let's hold it off. our highways, our bridges are unsafe. our tunnels -- i mean, we have

tunnels in new york where the tiles are on the ceiling and you see many tiles missing. and you wonder, you're driving 40 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour through a tunnel. and you see all this loose material that's heavy, you know, it was made many years ago so it's heavy. today it's light. used to be better. the problem is you got to hold it up. and i say to myself every time i drive through, i wonder how many people are hurt or injured when they're driving at 40, 50 miles an hour through a tunnel and a tile falls off and there are so many missing tiles and such loose concrete. so we have to fix our infrastructure -- it's not like we have a choice. we have no choice. and we're going to do it and it also happens to mean jobs, which is a good thing. we're going to repeal and replace obamacare and get states the flexibility that they need to make the end result really,

really good for them. very complicated issue. we have tom price just got confirmed sitting here. stand up, tom. and i spent a lot of time with governor walker and governor rick scott the other day. we were talking about it. they're very expert on the subject and i want to thank them. they spent a lot of time with me. governor christie, who is here someplace. where's chris? governor christie. thank you. we have a lot of talent and a lot of expertise here i will tell you. we have come up with a solution that's really, really i think very good. now, i have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject. nobody knew that health care could be so complicated, statutorily and for budget

purposes, as you know, we have to do health care before we do the tax cut. the tax cut is going to be major, it's going to be simple and the whole tax plan is wonderful but i can't do it until we do health care because we have to know what the health care is going to cause and statutorily that's the way it is. for those people that say, oh, gee, i wish we could do the tax first it just doesn't work that way. i would like to do it first. tax cutting has never been that easy but it's a tiny little ant compared to what we're talking about with obamacare. and you have to remember -- and i say that to democrats in the room, of which we have many, obamacare has failed. you go to minnesota where they had a 66% increase and the governor of minnesota who is with us today said obamacare, the affordable care act is no longer affordable, something to that effect. i think that might be it exactly. but the affordable care act is no longer affordable.

blake h obamacare has failed. i say to the raspberry if you really want to do politically something good, doesnn't do anything. sit back because '17 is going to be a disaster for obamacare if we don't do anything. let it be a disaster, we can blame that on the dems in our room and we can blame it on obama. and doesn't do anything and they will come begging for us to do something. but that's not the fair thing to do for the people. not the fair thing. politically i think it would be a great solution. because as soon as we touch it, if we do the most minute thing, just a tiny little change, what's going to happen, they're going to say it's the republicans' problem. that's the way it is. but we have to do what's right because obamacare is a failed

disaster and it's interesting, it's sort of like when you see it with politicians, you see it with president obama, you know he's getting out of office and the clock is ticking and he's not going to be there, his approval rating goes way up, even though, you know, not that active in the last period of time, the approval rating goes up, that's not him, that's like almost everybody. i see it happening with obamacare. people hate it but now they see that the end is coming and they're saying, oh, maybe we love it. there's nothing to love. it's a disaster folks. so you have to remember that. and very importantly we are going to work to restore local control to our nation's education system. betsy's here someplace. and she is going to be i think fantastic. i think she's going to be fantastic. stand up, betsy.

belt bets ey feels so strongly. i can tell you i've had so many calls while she was going through that horrible process, that was a tough, tough fasty pr -- nasty process. so many people were calling betsy saying you will do such a fantastic job once you get it. it's like sometimes i'd say it's much tougher to get into harvard than it is to stay there. does that make sense? it tougher to get into the wharton school of finance. you can't get in. but if you get in, it's fine. you get through, right? i think you're going to do a fantastic job. we're very proud of you. you took a lot of heat but you're going to do great. she wants to bring the power back to the parents and back to the states. i'm looking forward to doing these projects, we're going to do these projects and so many

more. i thank you all again for being here. it's going to be a really productive discussion, so productive that i'm going to ask the press to start leaving because i wouldn't want them to see any great productive session but they'll be seeing it and hearing about it. again, thank you very much all for being at the white house. we'll do this many times. i want -- >> bars means that that is over. president trump speaking with the nation's governors at the white house, not too far behind me here from our new perch just overlooking the national mall and the white house. with me on set, mike allen, david maknacnakamura an-- it fea riff preview. >> i thought it was interesting

how he teased the infrastructure plan. that is going to be the biggest fight between him and -- well, there will be many fights but that has the potential to be the biggest ideological fight here. >> that will be potentially unveiled tomorrow night. >> in the remarks there, he called this a national security and public safety blueprint. that strikes the sense that he might create the idea that americans should be fearful. he wants to build a border wall, hire immigration agents and increase defense spending in the military. >> on the increase in defense spending, too, we know they want to spend $54 million more and counteract that with $54 billion in cuts to other agencies, he said in these remarks against the governors we want to start winning wars given. >> i agree,s that a great point

about him wanting to be fearful. i can remember my mom saying this to me, the united states has never lost a war. and he said we grew up hearing that but now he said three words that are real, and he said now we never win. really? we never win? the commander in chief saying that, the armed forces watching it around the world? there's going to be a lot of fallout to that. >> and as we look ahead to devon nunez on the hill, talking about this investigation into the russia and the white house, you have new reporting on pushback from inside the west wing there. >> we see how personally and how viscerally this white house takes the stories about russia. so this morning there are details about what was happening inside the west wing on january 15th -- february 15th, the day after valvalentine's day. i won't say it was just the "new york times" story. but a story on the front page of the "new york times."

your viewers remember this, it said that the trump campaign had had frequent contacts with russia. the white house was wanting to push back about this and we know why. we know that the president reads his crisp, print "new york times" in the morning just like all of us do. the twist here is that sean spicer, the secretary, in trying to get evidence that the story was questionable, got the cia director and the chairman of the senate -- the senate intelligence committee, richard bird of north carolina, got them to talk to reporters. so reporters called in and said to sean can you get us some pushback on this and sean said let's connect you, he got the reporter and the cia director on the line and the chairman of the senate intelligence committee on the line and they said we can't say anything more but we can just say that story isn't accurate. spicer staying on while they were talking. >> so unusual is that? >> a couple things unusual about

it. one is for a west wing to get this personally involved in something that they might want to shy away from but, second, we have a couple of washington's greatest reporters here, how often do you personally talk to the cia director? we talk to people from other administration very unusual for a reporter to talk onon-one to the cray director or to the chaman of the senate intelligence committee when, as we saw from casey, that they're going to be doing an investigation. >> any pushback from the west wing on your reporting? >> senior administration official told us that the reason that it was done this way was that it was getting toward the end of the day, it was getting toward deadlines and they said we were trying to help reporters, we were trying to connect reporters who had relative information about this story. >> i would note in that story that paul manafort, one of the officials alleged to have contact didn't exactly deny it very strongly when the question was put to him and i might also

add that sean spicer doesn't know whether there was con act with t -- contact with the russians. >> congressmwoman, let me pick p with this is ending, your reaction, particularly when it comes to the pushback from the white house on potential connections between the president's staffs are during the campaign and moscow. >> what has been the rallying call at all these rallies and these congressional members of congress, it is do your job. i know for a fact that the republicans have shown historically that they want to get to the bottom line and to the truth. we saw in benghazi, we saw in planned parenthood we shall saw in the fbi investigation and repeatedly i sit on oversight, i am a member of oversight and spoke directly in the hearing asking for a deep are dive iner

this responsibilities. we are elected by the people. so this veil that we're continuously seeing in the white house is very concerning. independent and prosecutor, investigator is so needed. i was shocked to hear the former chair. oversight committee agree with me, representative issa. >> that was my next question to you, congresswoman, was whether you were surprised to hear darrell issa saying he wanted a special prosecutor? how do you see this playing out on the oversight committee on which you you sit? >> the oversight committee has been saying the president is exempt from conflict of interest. you take the trump hotel. it is in black and white, no elected official of the federal government may enter into a

lease for profit and be able to hold a lease. it is clear donald trump holds that lease. so why are we sitting there saying that he's exempt when it's very clear? this issue with russia is not something for you to kick down the road or to act like you're going to turn your head to. do your job. we must protect our country and part of our job when we take our oath is to serve and protect. and this russia issue is very, very serious. we must investigate and it can't be in a cloak and dagger behind closed doors. we must do this openly and make sure that i as an elected official of congress, as a citizen of these united states, know that we're safe. >> congresswoman brenda lawrence, thank you for being here. we expect the reverberations for calls for a special prosecuteor

to come throughout the week. >> and lawmakers in at least 30 states call it a prebutt al to president trump's vaend heagend laying out tomorrow night. up next, we are live from the rooftop live in washington, d.c. thanks for hanging out. telling ingredients to showing where they come from. beyond assuming the source is safe... to knowing it is. beyond asking for trust... to earning it. because, honestly, our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex.

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so the president at the white house is now getting ready for his big joint address to congress tomorrow night and on the other side of the aisle, democratic lawmakers all across the country are getting ready for their own week of action. did you see the front page of the "usa today"? reporting that more than 130 pieces of legislate are aimed at pr president trump's working class vote voters, a few days after the democratic committee elected that new chair, tom perez, his opponent, keith ellison now his deputy chair. here is the author of that report. thank you very much for being with us. david and jeremy have remained wi us on set. walk us through your reporting hooe here. this is something of the democratic resistance come to life almost? >> we're seeing democratic resistance in terms of protest. this is the attempt to create a legislative spine all through

the history. it's something to push the grass roots in terms of pushing legislation on major, legislation on paid family leave, all of the things that the democrats think will create a juxtaposition with what the president is going to be talking about tomorrow night. they say in the first few weeks of his presidency, he has not pushed forward those populist economic policies and that it is the democratic party that is doing that at the state level. so it's messaging but it's also very much strategy and the strategy they're going to try to execute over the next four years to push legislation through the states. >> you see that being effective, jeremy? >> i do if they have the legislative numbers to enact these policies. republicans are so dominant at all levels of stage government from dog catcher on up to the u.s. senate. it's remarkable how much -- and tom per ez said this over the

weekend. he said we have to make sure we get back into people running in different positions. >> you have a different kind of fallout from the potential of some of president trump's policy when it comes to immigration. walk us through that. >> i have the story today talking about the dreamers, who are the younger, undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children. they've been to the priorities to be protected but a lot of them are concerned that a lot of donald trump's new immigration actions could even wrap up dreamers in sort of this bigger dragnet. this is a concern to both parties because politically a lot of republicans are concerned about what they can look like. a lot of lawyers are saying, wait a minute, these policies open a door to a broader dragnet. >> do you see democrats trying to mobilize that community, the immigrant advocacy?

>> they're giving so much more authority now to local immigration agents, it might be harder to decipher whether you're dragging out people like the dreamers or people who haven't been accused of a crime but are doing something that an agent thinks might be a crime. >> we saw over the weekend president trump wasting no time taking a shot at tom perez. keith ellison wrote back and said, hey, we're your worst nightmare. is that true? >> president obama went around the country talking about major and this agenda of the democrats but he had very little pick up. some states obviously moved on it but so few are controlled by democrats that the message has fallen short. >> i was at the conference and

quietly the thing that democrats didn't say on the stage was, look, he, meaning trump, is our best bet because we're expecting him to stumble, to fail and not push forward this populist economic agenda and then people will realize it is the democratic party. so that is i think a symbol of just how difficult it is right now for democrats because they don't control. despite what they're trying to do here, they control like six chambers in the governorship. >> so they're banging on something they can't control. that's interesting because they have -- the policies all look great on paper and everything but i don't see how they get anything done if they don't have the numbers and the numbers looking into 2018 are so daunting because the chances for retaking the senate at this point look almost nonexistent. >> we've got to take a quick break. heidi, thank you very much for for beingith us. from dawn to dusk here in

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fake news last night. >> thank you for being here and for hanging out with this hour. do not miss tomorrow's all-day coverage leading up to the president's first address to congress. we will be here but start your day at 6 a.m. with "morning joe," also in washington all day long. thanks for watching this hour of msnbc live. i'm hallie jackson. right now more with chris jansing in washington. hey, chris. >> thank you, hallie and friends. right now the obamacare battle. president trump is meeting with health care insurance ceos right now. he's pushing congress to repeal and replace the affordable care act, what the ceos want and the big budget dilemma. and the president just announcing the huge increase in military spending but the big cuts elsewhere. >>