house speaker paul ryan telling matt lauer on the "today" show an investigation needs to be done but he says congress can handle it. >> the point is we need to make sure that nothing happened that shouldn't have happened as we go forward. that's exactly what we do in our jobs as congress but we think the intelligence community is the right place to do it. and breaking ranks, more than 120 top retired generals and admirals warning against the president's plan to slash the state department budget and other domestic spending in order to pay for huge increases in the military. >> 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 start winning wars again. >> coming up here, more on all of this in an exclusive interview with house democratic leader nancy pelosi right here

today on "andrea mitchell reports." good day everyone, i'm andrea mitchell. we are previewing president trump's first speech to a joint session of congress. with me is kristen welker and kasie hunt. kristen, first to you. what are the aides telling you about what's going to be in the speech tonight? >> reporter: andrea, senior administration officials tell me the president has been working on his speech overnight early into this morning putting the final touches on it. the theme is going to be the renewal of the american spirit. they tell me it is going to have an optimistic and unifying tone. andrea, that's significant because you recall that the president has criticized after his in all urlaugural address. critics say it was too negative, it didn't do enough to reach out to some of his opponents to try

to unify a deeply divided country. in terms of the actual content expect the president to talk about some of what he views as his accomplishments already on jobs, on trade, pug out of the tpp for example, and then the challenges that lie ahead, so he's going to talk about health care reform, his vision for repealing and replacing obamacare, also expect a heavy effort on defense because remember yesterday he rolled out his blueprint for the budget. increase in defense spending of $54 billion. how is he going to do it given he doesn't want to touch entitlements, he's calling for slashing a number of domestic programs from the epa, humanitarian agencies and as you mentioned at the top, andrea that's creating backlash. retired generals saying that is the wrong move.

heated backdrop as the president prepares to give deliver his first joint address to congress. >> already the president being asked about attempt by sean spicer to check the leaks by bringing in his entire staff and having them turn over their personal phones and work phones to check to see who might be the leakers. he was asked about that today on fox news. >> first of all sean spicer is a fine human being, a fine person. i would have done it differently. i would have gone one on one with different people and we don't have a major leak process here. we have a major leak process in government but i would have handled it differently than sean but sean handles it his way. >> did they figure out who the leaker was? >> we have sort of ideas. >> when we talk about leak investigations, that's always fraught but it sort of fits with the crackdown on the media as we well.

kasie hunt, matt lauer was interviewing paul ryan and he was also asked about health care. no firm profoesal from the administration or congress on health care. the president saying it's more complicated than he thought it would be. >> if you're asking did he give us a health care law that screwed up the health care system, yes. i'll give you that. >> i think that he's now behind the scenes organizing protests. >> i have no knowledge. there is the white noise i'm talking about. what i'm focused on is doing my job. >> and the president today seeming to blame president obama for both the protests, the leaks and also what do you make of that and what is the reaction on capitol hill, kasie? >> reporter: i think there has been some reaction to president trump's comments that turns out health care is a little more complicated than anybody thought, anyone who has been

through the health care wars here on capitol hill at any point in the last two decades really understands just how nuanced and complicated both the policy is but also the politics of building a coalition with all of these outside interests around the health care law and if you pull the lens back a little bit this is what republicans are looking for from president trump tonight, they want assurances they're going to move forward in an aggressive way. think about where president obama was when he was giving his similar first term joint address to congress they had already passed major pieces of legislation. they were further down the road, and you know, republican leaders here will say well, we don't want to rush through any of this. we want to do it carefully. the real sit they have not made as much progress as they could have like health care law, tax reform, like other things in part because of the white noise coming from the administration and paul ryan spoke to rormer r

reporters today and spoke to matt lauer and anchors and correspondents over breakfast and in a press conference this morning we're working on a blueprint, all on the same page, we'll keep doing the policy initiatives. there's some dissent within the conservative wing of the republican party his take on that is, well, at the end of the day they're going to be with him and that he's going to be able to pass the big priorities. real test for the president i think with these members here tonight. >> kasie and of course kristen welker, thank you both for teeing us up and joining me on capitol hill. "washington post" columnist michael gersen and former speechwriter for president george w. bush addresses to congress and michael steele, msnbc political analyst and former republican national committee chairman. both of you have perspective of the political challenges, the opportunities. michael you oversaw five of these bush speeches, not just the inaugural speeches but the

first one. you had a budget in place when president bush addressed congress. >> a detailed tax plan out, serious budget outline. this is a very vague set of commitments he talked about that are impossible to put together. you can't have the spending, no tax increases, no entitlements, and cut domestic discretionary spending massively. that's not going to work in congress. so the outlines are not working for people like ryan to put together the details. >> what about the messaging the steve bannon/steven miller it, the nationalistic rhetoric? we heard that in the inaugural address, we are hearing it might be a different tone tonight, more unifying. at the same time there's reporting from politico the new national security adviser tried to remove the terms "radical

islamic terrorist" from the speech tonight because it offends a lot of the arab and muslim world, something diplomats and military have long tried to get out of the trump rhetoric and the president and steve miller his speechwriter refused and it will be in the speech. >> that's not surprising. than language will speak directly to his base and while the overarching tone of this is going to be more national in scope and more unifying as they claim it, there will be specific areas of the speech i'm sure which will be direct appeals to the base, whether it's using terms like islamic terrorism, or something else that connects his base to the speech. i think in the end -- >> the guests for instance in the gallery, victims of crime by immigrants to try to reinforce that anti-immigrant -- >> right, so in some ways the trump message will be there and more direct ways as well but i think to what michael was saying the idea that particularly in

the budget, you don't have the specifics, you're not prepared to lay down the specifics and not prepared to reconcile $54 billion in additional spending against $54 billion plus in domestic cuts without tax increases, without really bringing the congress into that, i don't see how this congress, this conservative congress just spends that money as much as they want to spend for defense without reconciliation on other side. >> in fact, when the speaker was talking to matt lauer today about the lack of specifics and the lack of entitlement cuts paul ryan said when we reform obamacare that will be an entitlement cut but that does not begin to address where the money is. here is a little bit of what ryan did say about the president setting the agenda. >> i see him like a chairperson like many successful presidents,

gets people around him who are detailed and can execute the plans. >> delegate the details. >> debate details to people who have experience in these matters. >> one thing you have to do if you are just the chairman of the board is have people actually carrying out your policies. >> right. >> that brings us to the vacancies throughout the government particularly in defense, and in the state department, where there are no deputies no, undersecretaries because general mattis at the pentagon and rex tillerson at state have run up against this virtual loyalty oath where the people they are recommending are not loyal enough, not politically subservient to the trump doctrine and they've been vetoed by the president himself. >> it's the paradox here. you can't implement your agenda even if it's a different budget circumstance if you don't have the right people to carry out what you need to do. the problems are not just the details, it's the outline, does it work.

that's the most difficult thing. paul ryan has an impossible circumstance and the legs have been cut out from under him. he took the risk to raise this and now the president of the united states is essentially undermined that. so i thinkt'sore thanust the details. he's getting the big picture wrong. >> president was asked about those vacancies also on fox today, and here's what we to say about the jobs that have not yet been filled. >> you have 600 open jobs that you can appoint. what's going on? >> a lot of the jobs i don't want to appoint because they're unnecessary to have. you know, we have so many people in government, even me, i look at some of the jobs, and it's people over people over people. i say what do all these people do? you don't need all those jobs. you have to fill hundreds of jobs. >> i had no idea you didn't want to fill them. >> many of those jobs i don't want to fill. isn't that a good thing? >> michael steele, that appeals

to the base, it appeals to more than the base when you talk about cutting the federal bureaucracy bloated federal government. >> sure. >> i'm saying that with air quotes but the fact is there are critical people who are not appointed at key levels, all the work in foreign policy, national security gets done at, most of the work gets teed up at the deputies meetings in the white house. we don't have any deputies. >> there is without a doubt always redundancy, bureaucracy is bureaucracy for a reason so to the extent you can streamline that great, but to your point, you've got to recognize who does the work and where the work gets done. you need those bodies and you need those deputy, those undersecretaries in place. when he's traveling, when he's not at the white house, when the secretary of state or the secretary of defense is out on the road, they're the folks back at those departments making sure the machine continues to run.

i don't know if they've taken a strategic look at all the positions and said this is duplicative, this is unnecessary, we can streamline this department or agency to maximize the benefit. i don't get the sense that has been a part of this. i just think they're having a hard time getting boldyes because of the loyalty test that you referenced earlier. they have a hard time getting by because people don't want to serve so that's why a lot of the vacancies are there. that's a convenient response. >> in particular at the meant gol michelle furnoy has apparently rejected their appeal. >> it would be nice also to listen to them. you talk to military people they don't think foreign assistance for example is expendable. they think it's absolutely essential to create hopeful alternatives to the ideology of terrorism, and so not only do you need to appoint people you need to listen to them. >> in fact you've teed that up

perfectly because we are about to talk to one of the people, one of the retired admirals who signed that letter, the 120 who wrote to the congress and said don't do this, don't slash the state department. thank you so much michael gersen, michael steele. coming up, more than 100 retired top generals and admirals urging congress not to cut funding for diplomacy. and later our exclusive interview with house democratic leader nancy pelosi, stay with us right here on capitol hill. this is "andrea mitchell reports" live from the capitol.

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a big theme tonight from the president is to boost the defense budget hugely and slash the state department for diplomacy. exactly what the president's own defense secretary retired general james mattis warned against when he was centcom commander back i 2013. >> i would start with the department of state bget and frankly they need to be as fully funded as congress believes appropriate. >> and joining me now is one of the retired admirals who signed that letter, admiral james stavrides, what general mattis went on to say is that you need more ammunition if you don't fund the state department fully. admiral, why did you sign the letter and what point do you hope to drive home? >> well i not only signed the

letter i kind of helped organize it, i'm co-chairman of something called the u.s. global leadership coalition, which includes a lot of retired flags looking at issues like this. i signed the letter in the hope of encouraging congress to really look under the hood of this idea of slashing not only defense but agency for international development. ostensibly in order to increase the defense budget. i'm for increasing the defense budget but doing it on the back of development and diplomacy is a mistake, andrea. >> explain to us, because you know, a lot of people certainly a lot of trump supporters may feel that diplomacy is just guys in striped pants having tea and cookies in embassies. explain to us the value for america for america's strength of diplomacy. >> i can. let me give two really concrete examples if i could, andrea, where we used diplomacynd development in all these tools

of soft power, which are humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, strategic communications, literacy training, two concrete examples, one in colombia, very important nation just to the south of the united states, where a long-term insurgency was defeated not by just the military force, but by this combination of winning the hearts and minds of the people. the other practical example in the balkans, you and i can remember 20 years ago when the balkans looked like syria today what the europeans and the united states did there was apply the soft power tools in addition to hard power but both and really that's the key is getting the balance right between hard and soft power. you can achieve real results by doing that. >> how does that fit with the president saying america first, and suggesting we don't want to do foreign aid, we don't want to help people around the world? we have to focus first on america? >> it fits as follows.

what we are about here is not altruistically simply giving money away for the psychological benefit of it. we do it specifically because it creates security for our nation by creating stability in places like colombia, which then becomes a very important trading partner and a partner in counter narcotics. we want stability in the balkans because it allows our european partners to participate with us on other missions that we take on. we want stability in a place like afghanistan, so we don't have another attack like we did at 9/11. this is not about altruism. it is about pragmatically improving the security of the united states, andrea. >> one senator agrees with you lindsey graham is tough on wanting more. let me play an interview. >> it's dead on arrival, not going to happen. it would be a disaster. if you take soft power off the table you're never going to win the war. what is most disturbing about

the cut in the state department's budget shows a lack of understanding of what it takes to win the war. >> lindsey graham saying that the president's tline that broad outline is dead on arrival, thas from a republican. i want to also play you admiral the president's first comments when asked on fox news today about that raid in yemen, which nbc news has reported did not produce the intelligence that the white house has been claiming, and of course led to the death of a heroic navy s.e.a.l. and the father of that navy s.e.a.l. saying he didn't want to meet the president at delaware when the dignified remains were returned because he feels that that was an ill-thought, ill-conceived mission. this was the president's response today. >> the navy s.e.a.l. who died in that mission. >> yes. >> his father has said he didn't want to talk to you. your reaction to that? >> well, this was a mission that

was started before i got here. this was something that was, you know, just they wanted to do, and they came to see me, they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected. my generals are the most respected that we've had in many decades, i believe, and they lost ryan. >> that mission was approved only five days into this administration and from all of our reporting from former military and national security officials it was never green lighted by the obama administration. >> that's correct. with responsibility comes accountability. the president authorized that mission, and it did not go well. i think that's fairly clear at this point, neither in its objectives nor in the outcome on the ground where there was additionally collateral damage of civilians killed. so there needs to be an investigation. i agree with the father of the young man. we need to know why that mission

was chosen then, why it turned out the way it did on the ground and did we get the objective we sought in the intelligence. we need to understand that so we can improve and do better the next time. >> and finally, the new national security adviser general mcmaster has reported lay cording to politico argued with the speechwriter with steven miller tonight that the president should not keep talking about radical islamic terrorism, that that is counter-productive around the world but it's been a hallmark of the president's campaign speech in his rhetoric and that the president apparently overruled that and the speechwriters as well so we're expecting to hear it tonight. first of all, why is he right, the national security adviser, if you think he is, and the other piece of this is we hear he is the first national security adviser in recent memory that does not have walk-in privileges to speak directly to the president. is that a bad idea? >> taking the second question first, it's a terrible idea. the national security adviser

has to have immediate 24/7 access to the president. that's just a given in how you run executive branch and create security. to your first question i think it's very clear that someone like lieutenant general h.r. master who used hard and soft power together in northern iraq effectively understands that words have impact and power, and we don't want to declare war on islam. we want to go after the violent extremists but not the religion. he's right. >> admiral stavrides, thank you so much. always great to see you. >> thanks, andrea. >> you bet. and still ahead on this big day house democratic leader nancy pelosi joining me for an exclusive interview. stay with us on this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc, live from capitol hill.

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withal come pack. one democrat who says he wants to work closely with president trump is from a decidedly red state, west virginia senator joe manchin joins me now. you obviously have been one of the people who went over, you had lunch with him, you met with him. you want to talk to the president and work for your state? >> what i said was i was asked a question when president trump at that time candidate trump was running against hillary clinton, and i said, i was asked a question what are you going to do if trump wins? i said i'm going to do the same thing i would if hillary wins i'll do my job and my drop is trying to find a pathway forward to make things work. democrats and republicans working together to not act like political foes.

>> the signals he's sending trying to roll back an obama clean water action, you've seen the new epa head pruitt has had to say, which affects your state, a lot of the cuts would devastate some of the things that coal miners need in mine safety, environmental protections, the water disaster of elk river that affected 300,000 west virginians and had to be cleaned up back in i think 2014, sago mine, you voted against wilbur ross because of sago mine. >> and reardon steel. >> i'm suggesting that a lot of his domestic spending cuts affe your constituents. >> l's talk about this. first of all he wants to increase military spending. i don't know of a person here that doesn't want to have the strongest military to protect our country. if it takes more spending that's what we would do. i said before i do that i want to make sure there's an audit to the department of defense. i've been trying for fix years

to get an audit. >> taking all that money out of discretionary domestic spending and there isn't enough money there so unless he goes after entitlements which he says he won't. >> that's the telltale sign and only a small portion of the budget discretionary comes from. you can always tell what your priorities are based on your value, children, seniors, veterans, things of this sort. there's not a west virginian i know that wants to drink dirty water or breathe dirty air. we want the balance but we still want a clean environment. with that being said there's been an awful lot of redundancy. the clean water act and clean air act and see how much is piled on everyone was trying to go a different direction from the previous administration don't degrid ate what we have to keep the provisions in place. if there's two or three people doing the job they might have ten doing now, show it to me before you start cutting. don't say we made a mistake we

cut to the point we can't protect the people. i'm not voting in support of something like that but i'll be looking at a reasonable path forward. >> what do you want to hear from him tonight? there's criticism his inaugural address was not unifying, we're hearing from the white house it will be a unifying speech more optimistic in tone. >> that would be good. >> what do you and your constituents want to hear? >> we'd like that. the rhetoric is something i'm not accustomed to, not the type of rhetoric i would use but prident trump got elected using that type of rhetoric, people accepted it and vot for him. with that i think it would give an awful lot of calming nerves, calm a lot of people down it would be a calmer more uniting speech. the terrorist attacks that will continue to happen unless we're protected but we're the only country in the world that has the hope, we are the hope of the world. you can't take that hope away from americans or anybody else that wants to be here for the right reason. be smarter and use the technology we have to make sure

that protects us. >> do you think that the people in appalachia can relate to some of the big hedge fund wall street guys that he's put in his cabinet. >> they don't think the trade deals we have were working for them so this person is a businessperson, put businesspeople around him. some i voted for, some i voted against. with that being said i want to work with everybody to make sure they protect the working west virginian, the person who might have lost their job, there might be an unfair trade deal that should be more fair, they talk about free, make it fair and that's what we're looking at so we think he can do maybe a better job there and identifying the bad deals that we've made and correcting them, if you will, so they're looking for corrections, the overreach of washington putting them out of work or a great job, they were protecting the environment, the bottom line was is that people didn't want to do what they did and they overreached and

overreacted. they want to see balance. they don't want to see clear back to nothing. we're not going to have our streams degradated but can i work and satisfy and take care of my environment i'm responsible for? >> you've talked about the tone and that you wouldn't use some of the language the president uses. lot of that language is inspired by steve bannon, a report you met with breitbart and one of the few democrats meeting. >> i meet with everybody that comes in my office to be honest with you. >> what did you learn? >> just talking, he's very interestg, they explained their views and where they were coming from. it was just an interesting take on, a different take than basically the mainstream would be but i talked to all people on the right, the left, in the middle, anybody that wants to, because i would think this, i come here to serve. i didn't come here to be served. i didn't come here basically it's about me. if i can't go home and explain something i can't vote for it.

if i don't understand where everybody is coming from and form an opinion i can't explain why i am against that or for it. i try to learn as much as possible. >> being a former governor you know your state. >> i know my state and i love my state more than anything, and i know the people how good they are. i was born and raised with coal mining, 00, 400 people. these are good people, honest, hard-working, they just want an opportunity. probably the most patriotic americans you'll ever find. most of them are military, most of them are veterans, most would give their life for our country and aller this sea saying is give us a chance to be part of this country. let me explain how west virginia feels after this past administration and i tried to work with the obama administration everywhere i could but a lot of places i couldn't, we felt like the returning vietnam veteran. we did everything our country asked us to do, provided the energy, made the sacrifices, did the hard lifting, and then everybody kixz you in the teeth says we don't like that anymore. they still need us.

and we want to do it and do it the best way possible. work with us on research and development, let's find a new technolo technology. the rest of the world will use the product you tried to chastise west virginians for providing for this country for a long time. it's just not fair. it's just not fair what's been done to our state. >> joe manchin as always it's a great pleasure. >> always good to be with you. >> thank you. >> we'll be right ba. joining me next house democratic leader nancy pelosi on the special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line.

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i've been watching nancy's tape. i think she's incompetent actually if you look at what's going on with the democrats and the party. it's getting smaller and smaller. i hate to see it because i like a two-party system and we're soon going to have a one-party system, i actually think a two-party system is healthy and good but she's done a terrible job. >> she's wrong? >> i don't think she's a good spokesman. there are those that say i've done more than anybody in the 100 days, just the money i've saved. >> president trump slamming democratic leader nancy pelosi. nancy pelosi joins me now. madam leader, welcome. i see you're wearing your suffragette white. >> and purple. >> and dressed for tonight. your response to the president? >> well, he's commenting on my

statement that he made that nobody knew, nobody knew how complicated health care legislation is, and what i said was, it reminded me of a yogi berra joke, he brings home a report card and his father has to sign it and his father says yogi, don't you know anything, and he says, no, i don't even suspect anything. that reminds me of president trump and we've obviously gotten under his skin. >> in fact we had that all ready to play. let me play that now, the president yesterday saying how they didn't know how complicated health care was. >> nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. i see it happening with obamacare. ople hate it but now they see that the end is coming, and th're saying oh, maybe we love it. there's nothing to love. it's a disaster, folks. >> speaking of complicated, the president has a budget outline, he's going to be speaking to it

tonight. he's talking about $54 billion more for the military and really slashing domestic discretionary spending and the state department, diplomacy, soft power, you've got 120 admirals and generals retired top three stars and four stars saying writing a letter to you all saying that is a terrible idea that would really weaken america abroad. >> it is true, and what most people don't know is that the defense budget is strictly the military side. we all believe that our strength of our nation should certainly be measured in our military might, but also in the health, education and well-being of the american people. on the domestic side of the budget is where you find veterans affairs, state department, homeland security. so if he would, if you diminish the investments in soft power, you are in danger of the country, the generals made a very clear case for having the balance.

>> he is saying that he would except homeland from that and put homeland in the same basket as military but most budget experts maya maginnis from the committee for responsible federal budget says there's not enough money in discretionary spending in the state department to make up for $54 billion. >> there isn't enough. he's abandoning the agreement we have when we went forward post sequestration and the rest that any increases or decreases in one side would be matched on the other side, that there would be symmet symmetry. what the president said himself he obviously didn't know it would be complicated and also doesn't know what the budget is about. it's a statement of our values, it's how we create growth and jobs for people in ourcountry, it's how we educate people to ach their aspirations. it's about our military might.

so in his statements he's clearly indicating get another area where he didn't know and thinks nobody else does as well. >> if you don't take it from domestic discretionary and you do increase the military budget at all, even if not to the extent that he wants to, you've got to go to entitlements as speaker ryan deflected when matt lauer asked him about that today, the president ruled that out. are democrats willing to stand up and say to their constituents something's gotta give or else this budget deficit is going to be blown way out of proportion? >> well actually you hear different things at different times from the president, and from the speaker. the fact is the speaker's budget that members have voted on a number of times takes away the guarantee of medicare, takes away the guarantee, medicare is a guarantee. if you take away the dwarn tee you've changed the nature of it. you put seniors at the mercy of going shopping with the voucher,

a small voucher for their health care so that's not going to fly. public sentiment is everything. abraham lincoln. when the public sees what these choices are and how they diminish our strength as a nation do you think the president can sell increasing the military budget by 10% so that i can take it out of your social security, your medicare, your medicaid. he really doesn't know how complicated it is, because medicaid, for example, helps our poor children, that's one part of it but 50% of the money spent in nursing homes comes from medicaid. the whole opioid epidemic is well served on medicaid. don't take it from me, the governor of ohio has said, vernor kasich, thank god for mecaid, that money is going to help us, help in rehab. so these things are there for a

purpose. we always test them do they do the best job for the american people? certainly, yes. when you say the president is exempting homeland security from any cuts that means there are even further cuts on the domestic side. it would mean maybe 100,000 children would not have access to head start. it would mean over $3 billion in cuts at the national institutes of health. 1,000 fewer grants being made to our investments in science, science, the power, the biblical power to cure, and again a job creator. so this president has shown nothing in terms of jobs, job creation, raising wages, building infrastructure. he's put nothing forward and he thinks he could tell people he's done more than anyone, well that might work in his book, but it isn't real in our lives. >> you are a member of the gang of eight, the top leaders who get briefed on intelligence. is it appropriate for the house

intelligence chairman, chairman nunez, to be at the white house bidding trying to push back against the "new york times" and others reporting on the russia allegations of the russia connection? >> new york it's totally inappropriate. first of all, if he's speaking from information he received from a classified setting, th's really against the rules of the house. if, in fact, he's just catering to the whim of the president, then i think he has to be held accountable for that. >> sean spicer said yesterday this has all been investigated and is the investigation over? is there nothing there? >> hasn't started. what we are calling for is an independent outside commission, take it away from congress, take it away from politics, an independent outside commission to look into the political, personal and financial ties of the trump organization, him personally, his businesses, his campaign, to the russians.

>> do you have any evidence of anything, of any of those ties being real? >> whatever i can talk about here, the point is let's find out. the american people want to know the truth. he could begin by releasing his tax returns. why should every president since gerald ford in modern history have released his tax returns, but this president says i'm above not only the law but the traditions of the office that i hold. >> the attorney general and fbi director comey to do an independent probe? >> i think that the attorney general should recuse himself. his ties are so close to the trump campaign. he should recuse himself. it remains to be seen what the fbi director will do. we keep asking him, are you doing the investigations? are you following the path? american people want the truth.

why will they not investigate when they've been madly in love with investigating everything in the obama administration? >> there were reports that the democratic leadership advised democratic members to be polite, not to do anything untoward tonight, but certainly you've got the color, the white color. is that a silent protest? >> it's not a protest. it's a statement of values. associates ourselves with our suffragette mothers, the color of white, the color purple. >> so the women democrats are likely to all be wearing white? >> many will be wearing white, but the fact is our house democratic caucus will be very dignified tonight. >> thank you so much, madam leader. >> thank you. >> thank you, and much more ahead on the special edition of "andrea mitchell reports," right here on capitol hill. stay with us. american express open cards can help you take on a new job,

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addresses. >> i looked at the last five presidents who have given this initial speech to congress and all given very conciliatory speeches let's work together. that is not the tone president trump has been taking over the past 40 days and i'd be surprised if we saw a huge shift in his message tonight. i think he'll have a message that's appealing to republicans and really not appealing at all to democrats. >> and he's doing the revised immigration order tomorrow, among the guests he has families of those who have been victimized by illegal immigrants. >> right. parents and family members of two i believe different families who have lost loved ones to violence attributed to immigrants. not subtle. >> not subtle. let's talk about his progress report. he's claiming an a-plus on effort, a c-plus maybe on messaging. >> messaging.

>> not just messaging, they don't have, well a slim budget is understandable but they don't have any legislation up here when we look back at what president bush had accomplished and what president obama did coming out of the recession, they had actually passed legislation. >> obama had passed big legislation, equal pay legislation, a big stimulus package. president george w. bush sent up his tax plan, took some months to pass but president trump is behind the timetable on outlining legislation, getting it up here and also in terms of confirmations, a much slower process than we've seen this time before and the audience especially republicans in congress are looking for some guidance from him on exactly what he wants to do on their first priority, which is to repeal and replace the affordable care act. >> and already lindsey graham said to us today that the proposals for an increase in defense and slashing soft power state department diplomacy and all those other budgets is dead

on arrival, that soft power is as important as military power, which is what the generals and admirals were saying in that letter. >> absolutely, 120 of them. it was a fairly extraordinary letter yesterday and a lot of people think that it will be both democrats and republicans opposing it, if it goes up as stated yesterday. >> thank you both. we'll be watching tonight. let's review all of this tomorrow. we'll be right back. did you make that?

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that does it for this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" live from the capitol. follow us on facebook and twitter online. ali velshi is up next here on msnbc. >> good afternoon i'm in for craig melvin. all eyes on capitol hill today as americans wait for president donald trump's first address to congress. the president making renewal of the american spirit the theme of the night. after a tumultuous first month in office is he going to get a reset in this his first major address to congress? health care, who is in charge of that? growing concerns over the overhaul of obamacare. who is responsible for coming up with a viable alternative and are ey going to be able to do it? and immigration outcry, on the eve of president trump signing a new executive order on immigration, protests breaking out around the country as the threats of