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again, this is the largest abuse of power that i think we've ever seen. >> democratic congressman jim himes is pushing back on the accusations and he tweeted as a member of the committee on to which you've dumped this mess, i look forward to seeing your evidence, and here's republican senator susan collins. >> should he be talking about this on twitter? is this -- helpful? >> it would be more helpful if he turned over to the intelligence committee any evidence that he has. what we need to deal with is evidence, not just statements. at this point i see no evidence of what he's alleged, but i've also not seen collaboration as -- as director dna clapper also said today. >> and here are the comments by
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james clapper to whom senator collins is referring. we should point out that clapper's denial of any sort of wiretapping at trump tower. >> we did not include any evidence in our report, and i say our, and that's nsa, fbi, and cia with my office, the director of national intelligence that had anything that had any reflection of collusion between members of the trump campaign and the russians. there was no evidence of that included in our report. >> i understand that, but does it exist? >> not to my knowledge. >> meanwhile, democratic senator chris coons is standing by his calls for fbi transcripts of this alleged collusion. >> i don't have and i don't know of any conclusive proof one way or the other about whether there was collusion between senior levels of the trump campaign and russian official, but i believe that our intelligence community which is the most sophisticated in the world, has intercepts, has raw intelligence, and it's
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important that the senate intelligence committee which is conducting an investigation be given access to those intercepts to tnscripts of those intercepts so that they could get the bottom of this. >> let's go to west palm beach, florida and kasie hunt. what is the latest reaction to president trump's claims? >> reporter: well, frances, the latest here, of course, that donald trump is demanding that congress investigate the wiretapping on the part of the obama administration at trump tower. so far we have former intelligence officials saying there was no wiretapping, at least not under the authority that's granted to the national security community. jim clapper telling chuck todd on "meet the press" that he's not aware of any such warrants and the investigations, of course, would come into the senate and house intelligence committee investigations. that's what the president is asking for.
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vice chairman on the senate side, mark warner who was talking about this this morning. let's take a look at what he had to say and then talk about it. >> i'm not aware of any fisa court order regarding the trump tower. >> any other kinds of -- >> i'm not going to get into what ongoing investigations the fbi might be taking, but i think it doesn't take a sherlock holmes to realize with this litany of events and this drip, drip, drip of activities our investigation, i have to tell you i've been in public life a long time, there's nothing i've done in my life in public that is as important as trying to get this investigation done right and bipartisan and get the facts out to the american people. >> reporter: so again, warner talking about fisa court orders. those are court orders that would fall under the purview of people who are investigating foreign espionage, activities of foreign agents on u.s. soil. that's different from a potential regular order or court
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warrant for surveillance that would come in the course of a criminal probe vie at fbi, but warner also said that his investigation in the senate intelligence committee is proceeding. he's planning to go to langley this week. the cia headquarters at langley to review intelligence as part of that investigation. so that's kind of the next step in this investigation. they've set the scope of what they're going to look into. i should also note that on the house side, chairman devin nunes putting out a statement saying that they will follow the evidence wherever it leads if they end up uncovering such wiretap, then so be it, but at this point, it's not necessarily something that they'll make dramatic changes to these investigation, but we should over the course of the next three months or so be seeing more and hearing more information about what they're learning. frances? >> tomorrow you have jeff sessions who is set to submit amended testimony on his alleged contact between the russian ambassador and his meetings. how does that come into play?
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>> reporter: well, at this point democrats have demanded that jeff sessions come back in front of the judiciary committee and give testimony. it doesn't look like that's going to happen, but they have said that he's going to amend his testimony and he had no contacts with russians in the course of the campaign and then it was revealed that he did meet with the russian ambassador back in the fall. so we'll see him amend that testimony and he also says he'll take questions from members and that likely means he'll take written questions and respond to them in written form. so that's set to happen on monday at this point, frances? >> nbc's kasie hunt reporting for us from west palm beach. kasie, thank you. joining me now is msnbc political analyst robert costa. i'm hoping you can walk us through it. you write that steve bannon who is expected to fly from washington, d.c., to florida saturday afternoon and attend a dinner there with mar-a-lago with donald trump and jeff sessions and others. what more have you learned about
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that? >> well, my sources tell me that the president has been at mar-a-lago since friday, and he remains very unhappy with the idea that the intelligence community, in his view, may in some way be aligned against him and steve bannon issue his chief strategy has a view of the intelligence community and he phrases it as a so-called deep state and what he means by that is the obama administration allies and so there's this anxiety within the white house and in the president's inner circle that there could be lingering issues and that's what led to the president suggesting in his twitter account that certain things could be happening even though there was no evidence offered. >> do you think when it comes to these tweets and the accusation of wiretapping that steve bannon had any idea that this was going to come from the president? >> there was a sense that the president was pretty much on his own on saturday morning in mar-a-lago. he was there with his family, jared kushner, his son-in-law, his daughter ivanka trump, but
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bannon and priebus, reince priebus, chief of staff had staid back in washington on friday. the president left the white house, as we know, in a sour mood. >> i want to ask you about that knowing that that was what steve bannon was thinking about the oval office meeting with senior advisers and his aides there at the white house where the president, in your reporting, was fuming. he had left washington, d.c., on friday and just livid about the fallout from jeff sessions reusing himself. what more can you tell us about that? >> it came in a meeting on friday just before the president stepped onboard marine one. it was a meeting mostly about obamacare and finding a replacement figure and not a strategy from the white house, also looking over the upcoming travel ban, the revised executive order on immigration, but that conversation drifted into a discussion about attorney general sessions, his decision to recuse himself from any kind of russia investigation. the president was very unhappy. he's a confrontational sort. he's someone who relishes the fight and he was telling his
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aides in the view of some of those insiders of the white house fuming, angry, and others have said it was just really trump at the peak of his fury because he thinks his white house is under siege, and he was letting his staffers know it. >> so you have that meeting where he left, went down south to florida fuming, apparently, and then these tweet comes out and then you also in your reporting in this time line he hit a golf course when it comes to the time line here on saturday, and you write, quote, trump amended the schedule to add a late-afternoon meeting with jeff sessions and homeland security secretary john kelly at mar-a-lago. what was discussed? >> we are learning at "the washington post" is the president's instincts and how he's suggesting and guessing behind the scenes that there were some kind of activities perhaps by the obama administration in terms of looking at his campaign and possible connections with russian officials and russian
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figures. the evidence of this is not evident. we have not seen any evidence that has been offered by the white house. we saw sean spicer today taking those presidential instincts in the suggestions, and accusations and now saying they're going to leave it up to congress and the congressional committee. >> this is based on what? this is what a lot of people are saying, instincts based on what proof and what evidence? what could there be? >> i was the first one to report that that breitbart article that talked about mark levin and others making these lists of claims about the obama administration. that was circulating around the white house on friday and saturday. it was seen by president trump based on my reporting and so it is media reports, news reports from right-wing websites in particular that is fueling a lot of this rather than any kind of intelligence and evidence that we've seen so far.
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>> let me ask you this, when you have that coming from these reports and those commentaries and when you are the president of the united states and you have access to these intelligence briefings, wouldn't that come up? wouldn't that be something he would address? >> perhaps. most presidents, you are right, are reluctant to wade into intelligence claims in this manner. this is an unusual situation just looking at history, but this is something that is, i think, as someone who has reported on the president for quite some time in his style, he finds news reports and he watches things on cable. he digests information whether it's official information or not, as he forms his opinions. >> as he forms his opinions, but at the same time, you had mentioned that steve bannon and reince priebus were in d.c., working on health care and immigrations policies and immigration at hand. is this something that we'll see stalled as we mull over this and look for accusations and calls for an investigation?
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>> it is the key domestic concern right now for the white house and the open question is how will congress work with the white house on healthcare? we always hear about tax credits and individual health savings plan and one part of what we're looking at in terms of our reporting is the political ownership. who will own this? congress, president trump, will it be mulvaney, the new director of the budget? will he be the one taking the lead on this? tom price? we'll have to keep a close eye of on who will be the one to push the ball forward. robert costa, thank you for being with me. >> thank you. we are getting more reaction from capitol hill on the trump wiretap tweets and that includes a decisive word from one of the rising stars of the republican party. we'll have his comments straight ahead.
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we've already begun an inquiry on the intelligence committee and into russia's efforts to undermine our -- that inquiry will be thorough and we'll follow the facts wherever they lead u and i'm sure that this matter will be a part of that inkwir. >> that was republican senator tom cotton reporting on to president trump's call into an investigation into whether the obama administration wiretapped trump tower. with me in studio is caitlin hughey burns, and also msnbc's alex seiswalt. we heard from tom cotton, but what's the reaction from republicans when it comes to president trump's call and what can we expect? >> well, you have republicans kind of caught off-guard by what the white house has been saying this week in multiple interviews on shows this morning republicans have said that we don't quite have any evidence of this. we're looking forward to any
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evidence that the white house would like to put forward, but they have not seen anything which is really telling and that's going to -- and trump's -- the president's response from sean spicer this morning is calling upon congress to investigate this. so the white house is very much putting these allegations now that they've made, putting them directly in the court of congress, and so now congress is tasked with dealing with this sort of thing and they're pretty much caught off-guard. >> as we know, alex, when we heard from james clapper in the atement and in speaking to chuck todd that there was no wiretap of trump tower. so why is that not putting it to rest? >> well, i think this is classic donald trump. i mean, he is the president of the united states. so when he speaks you have to take him seriously, but he has many times, put out statements without evidence to back them up, and on his very first day in the white house when he protested the size of the crowds at his inauguration saying there was 1 1/2 million people even though the papers said
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otherwise. what he wants to do is muddy the waters and he spent the week in terrible headlines about his alleged ties to russia, jeff sessions and meeting with the russian ambassador and he's trying to turn this around saying this is a product of a conspiracy by the obama administration to make it seem like there's both sides involved here, and essentially muddy the waters. >> if you're going to muddy the waters and why muddy the waters with something that could muddy you even more. if it were true, you have the fisa order that was something and if not, then he's making this up. caitlin, your thoughts when you have something like that saying, yes, muddy the waters and it could be damning on either way for him. >> it's not quite clear, exactly what he's trying to do here. he heard this report presumably, reported lead and is now kind of reacting to it, but alex is right. we have seen this playbook play out in multiple instances and then it creates kind of chaos among people who really didn't
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want to be involved in this sort of thing in the first place. now congress has to spend several days this week reacting to this sort of thing at a time that they were trying to seize momentum that they thought they had gained last week with the president's address. they were trying to get obama care done before the next -- before the next recess. they're trying to at least get the ball rolling, i should say. they're trying to start legislation on tax reform. they have all of these sorts of things that they want to get done and then they are faced wi this day by day and not knowing what the white house will say or do. >> alex, after the conversation on "meet the press" you have no wiretapping and no collusion between the campaign and russia. how much weight do you put on that? >> he said no evidence of collusion. we have to take that seriously. it was not included in the reports that have come out so far, but what he also said were the questions remain open and more investigation is needed,
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and i think politically this is why it is so damaging and difficult for the white house because there is a new revelation that seems to come out every week or so, and you know, until we get to the kind of bottom of it, it's going to continue to be a lot of smoke. maybe there's no fire in the end there, but you know, we'll continue to see the smoke for sure. >> we are certainly seeing the dominos fall one by one. >> you look at the train of the dominos here and how much further does that have to go down the road, especially with republicans, caitlin, before they say, you know what? we're in this, and it hasn't been 100 days and we are done. could that happen? >> trump does still enjoy high popularity among republicans in republican districts and lawmakers are battling with that. also, in this past week talking to republicans what alex is mentioning kind of this drip, drip drip, drip of information pertaining to the trump campaign and russia and they're concerned
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about the continuation of this. remember, we are more than a month in, and they have not been able to pass legislation to make it to the president's desk. this is not the kind of scenario they really anticipated and yes, the various committees are dealing with this sort of thing and they also have lots of questions that they want answered, as well. some thaft trut the trump administration don't want them to be talking about all of the time either. they want to go to the fbi and cia and look at some of this information for their investigation, and those are still ongoing and what's problematic is this what comes next and this wariness, really, and people are exhausted by it. >> given that, alex. what does come next? what is the best case scenario to come out of this for donald trump? >> the worst-case scenario is if there was some kind of smoking gun to show that the trump campaign coordinated or was aware of russian government activity to hack the dnc into kind of sabotage hillary clinton. the best case scenario is for him to be exonerated with a
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credible investigation, but at this point, the credibility of that investigation is key because so many people are going to have questions about any finding, and i think in a way he's doing himself a disservice by continuing to stonewall and not lean into this. one approach would be to say investigate me and i have nothing to hide here and take a look and there's nothing here. when he doesn't say that it leads people to think that there is something to hide, whether there is in fact or not. >> is that going to be the turning point where republicans say, okay, this is the point of no return anymore. this is it? >> it's really tough. on one hand, they have all of this legislation that they need donald trump and the white house to pass, but if their own reelections come in doubt, if the sovereignty of the united states becomes in doubt then it could potentially get to that breaking point. >> caitlin hughey-burns and alex seitz-walt. thank you. >> thanks. what happens after the
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52 years ago tuesday this was the scene in selma, alabama, as police turned on a peaceful crowd marching for voting rights. the day now known as bloody sunday. msnbc's tremane lee is in selma for the an verniversary. why does this year hold particular significance? >> reporter: every year since that year, 1965, there's been special significance here in selma. they kicked off the voting rights and i am here at brown chapel which really was the staging ground where much of the planning for the selma to montgomery march had been staged. you can see behind me, there are a couple hundred people that in about an hour will rally outside of this church and march a half a mile to the edmond pettis bridge where as you mentioned, bloody sunday occurred where so many marchers who were pushing for voting rights were met by
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state troopers, bloodied and beaten. there's one thing that folks say over and over again is that the fight wasn't won 50 years ago. that the fight not only is just beginning for voting rights and now it's time to pass that fight on to the next generation. now i spoke to a woman named benny crenshaw. he was one of the original foot soldiers here in 1965 and she also served on the city council for many years. let's take a listen to what she had to say. >> i think about that, you know, back then, and i try to set in my mind have things really changed? and if i'm going to prepare some leaders for tomorrow to go through what i did in order to make things right in this country, then i must continue to tell my story. >> reporter: frances, asked why there's special significance now, every year people are x exuberant here and with ongoing
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voter i.d. laws from state to state especially in the south with republican legislatures that make it harder to vote, not easier. a new generation, teaming up with the generation that came before it are waging a new battle to secure the right for all american, that democracy is really at stake and reverend william barber of the naacp told me as much. he said what's at stake is our democracy. the more democracy you have the stronger and full our democracy. many of the people here today say that very same thing and again, in an hour folks will be gathering here and marching to the bridge to remember not just the victories, but the bloody struggles for voting rights. >> trymaine lee reporting for us from selma, alabama. thank you. in a moment, the president trump's wiretapping claims from the former deputy director of the cia who left two months ago and his claims on eavesdropping. ♪
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welcome back. i'm frances rivera here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. at just half past the hour here's what we're monitoring. new calls from president trump for an investigation into the obama administration that they wiretapped. a claim the administration has denied. donald j. trump is requesting that as part of the investigation into russian activity the congressional intelligence committee exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016. >> meanwhile, here is the nation's former spy chief responding on "meet the press" earlier today. >> if something like that happened would this be something you would be aware of? >> i certainly hope so. obviously, i can't speak officially anymore, but i will say that for the part of the national security apparatus that i oversaw as dni there was no
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thought to wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time or as a candidate or against his campaign. >> there is no fisa court order? >> not to my knowledge. >> of anything at trump tower? >> no. >> joining me now msnbc national security contributor andy cohen, former national director of the cia and form are undersecretary of the treasury for the intelligence. i appreciate you joining us this afternoon. does that essentially put to rest these claims from donald trump of the obama white house wiretapping trump tower or is there a possibility that as we heard from james clapper that he could not have known of this happening? >> well, i think as director clapper said as the dni, me believed he would have been in a position to know if a fisa warrant had been issueded for surveillance at trump tower, and i think if jim clapper says that no such warrant was issued, that
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is a pretty credible statement more so than some statement that appeared on a website somewhere. >> you hear it from james clapper where he says no evidence of collusion, does that lay to rest any questions or doubts about that? >> i think what former director clapper said was that the report that was prepared by the intelligence community and issued at the end of the year did not describe any collusion between the trump organization and the trump campaign and the russians. that wasn't part of that report. that is, obviously, an issue that the subject, as i understand it of the various congressional investigations that are getting under way. >> in your position as somebody formerly with the cia there and during the election and leading up to the election, could you tell us if there could be a scenario or any possibility where former president obama
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would have known about it and could have ordered the wiretap here? >> well, i think the short answer is no. just to be clear, the cia doesn't collect, doesn't engage in electronic surveillance in the united states. so if there were any such surveillance, any warrants it would have been obtained by the f fbi. to do that, the justice department would have had to go to a fisa court and filed an application certified by one of three senior official, the attorney general, the assistant attorney general for national security and to make a showing to a federal judge that there's probable cause to believe that the target of the wiretap is an agent of a foreign power. this is very important just to make the point, this is a very strict process. the president of the united states, the white house doesn't play a role in that. this is something that's done at
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the justice department and the fbi. >> on any given scenario when you have the daily intelligence briefings and say that the justice department is the one that ordered the fisa warrant, the president wouldn't know, and that he wouldn't be told or briefed that this could be a possibility? >> look, in a normal course, the president of the united states, the senior officials and the white house are not involved in any investigative activity including the be on take of a fisa warrant. it is conceivable that in a situation where there is a counterintelligence issue and where there is a concern that a foreign power, the russians, for instance, are engaged in some kind of conduct that rises to such a level that the president would need to know. he could be informed and that would be an extraordinarily rare circumstance. >> let me ask you in this scenario here, and i know what you said based on james clapper, that there was no wiretapping or in your belief that there would
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be no wiretapping done. how is information like this, and i'm not talking about commentary from breitbart that came across to donald trump, how could information like this, if there is anything, evidence or any other information come through donald trump for him to say okay, there is something that is making me believe that i was wiretapped by the obama administration at trump touer? >> honestly, i'm mystified. i don't know how in a normal course if there was such a warrant that it would be brought to donald trump's attention. that's not the way things worked in the obama administration. it's not the way things work typically with presidents. they're not informed of ongoing investigative activity and you know, as i understand it, it's breitbart that's the source of his information and not anything more reliable than that. >> you sounded definitive when you were talking about james clapper saying, yes, there was no wiretapping that happened, but talk to me about the collusion between members of the
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trump campaign and riussian officials. can you say based on that that that didn't happen? based on what you know in your experience? >> look, as i said, that is the subject of ongoing investigations, as i understand it with the senate and the house oversight committees, and i think we ought to just let that process run its course and you know, see what is uncovered. i will say what is interesting to me in just watching this now, having been out of office for close to two months is the vigor with which the folks involved in the trump campaign deny any communications with the russians only to then have to backtrack and acknowledge that these meetings took place. it is an odd circumstance where people would deny meetings that
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something untoward is happening and nothing to be ashamed of. why are they denying these meetings over and over again and then you find out, in pack, these meetings occurred. >> jeff sessions in recusing himself and now amending his testimony tomorrow. so we will see what he has to say without that amendment coming. >> i appreciate you being with me david cohen. >> thank you. >> up next, political strategists on how they would advise president trump right now and at the top of the hour, chuck todd's full exclusive interview with a former director of intelligence we were just talking about, james clapper. imagine if the things you bought every day earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes... priority boarding...
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in washington tonight. i want to bring in now morris reid, democratic strategist, and ryan murray, senior vp of communications and former deputy press secretary for the romney campaign. to both of you, i appreciate your time. morris, we heard of james clapper on "meet the press," after saying no evidence of wiretapping and no evidence of collusion, should that put an end to all of this? >> good afternoon. well, the fact is he's not relying on any fact pattern or fact basis. so the president is putting this information out there without either. most people would say when you make this type of bombastic and over the top claim against another president you should have some basis of fact or information or something concrete that you can point to. so just because clapper said it doesn't mean that trump will agree and he will see it just as another democrat, but ultimately, he needs to have facts to back up these statements.
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>> and are you saying he has none? what could they be? >> i would like to see some. next thing you know, you will have ufos, aliens, martians and all types of things. the president actually has an opportunity to move his agenda forward and he keeps tripping up by making these types of statements which are weird, frankly. >> especially with the momentum that he had over tuesday's speech to congress, and the consensus that he did relatively well, stayed on point and was presidential. >> ryan, if you are president trump why bother going after your predecessor this way who has been out of office for months and do it in a way where we've said to muddy the waters and muddy the waters by shooting yourself in both your feet. >> he's frustrated and he did have a good beginning to the week with the speech and it got clouded with the attorney general and russia. i think the president's at mar-a-lago this weekend and he's using his twitter to launch it. he's got an ambitious agenda and
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he has to work with congress, and that should be his focus and he should do more things like with his speech that was very presidential and well structured and that was one way to advance his agenda and not to focus tweeting at programmer president obama, and it's not a good thing at this point. >> a series of tweets with that and then a few minutes later tweeting against arnold schwarzenegger and "celebrity apprentice." morris, how is it to have a sitting president to accuse a former president in this manner? >> it's unprecedented even going after his predecessor on "the apprentice." if you think about it we're in uncharted water. i think they'll have to take his twitter account from him like they did on the campaign trail. he was much more effective. >> would that be it? don't you think he would find another way to get that out if he has accusations as serious as wiretapping from the obama administration at trump tower? do you think taking away a twitter account or his phone
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would do it? >> if he actually has this type of information he certainly should take that and put it out in a proper manner to congress or through his press secretary. >> to my colleague's point is the president has an opportunity here and he keeps stepping on his message. as a democrat, i want more of this, i want to see washington function and get something done. trump has both sides of the congress that maybe we can get the democrats and the republicans to coalesce around and get something done for a change. >> ryan, you had mitt romney's ear especially when you were working with his campaign. if you were advising president trump right now, what would you be telling him to do, and do you think really, with all of the advisers he has around him steve bannon and everybody else that he really defies them? is there something that, you know, is he the kind where you say something to him from his advisers and maybe even his son-in-law jared kushner and he's just not going to listen? >> i think he has some very smart people around him. i think that he just acts out on his own, and i do think the twitter account is a very destructive thing for this
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administration. i would take it away from him s and i don't think he would voluntarily surrender it. he needs to exercise more restraint and con toll over what he does. there needs to be a plan on how to stay on message, and the twitter account just really distracts from the agenda and the message that his administration is trying to push forward. so just stay in line and exercise some restraint when you can is the first thing i would tell him. >> when you talk about the agenda and the business that needs to be moved forward here, but you have this that we're talking about, let's talk about a definitive time line, how much longer can we discuss this? will it be a few months here or a few months there before we actually need to see policy enacted? >> i always said he had a honeymoon of 18 to 20 months. politicians are selfish. if the president can't help them get reelected they will start to move in a different direction.
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if they continue to have low ratings and have mve protests you will see people move away from him if he dsn't ha the legislative record to propel him forward. >> when it comes to members of his own party, the republicans, is it going to be some damning evidence when it comes to this or when will that point be especially when you have congress to enact these policies and see it come to life. when will they start saying, you know what? i don't know if i can do that anymore, and i don't know if he can have my support, ryan? >> i think republicans are very encouraged in both houses to get things done. i think they'll want to see this administration provide leadership and move the ball down the road on tax reform and repealing obamacare and on immigration reform and if things begin to trip up and if the administration gets distracted and they're not seeing that leadership, i think you might see some republicans maybe over the summer or in the fall start to get kind of fed up with things if they can't turn it around and focus on the agenda.
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>> we all know that obamacare is off the agenda now because it's too difficult for them to have for it. >> the >> meanwhile, we certainly have this, calls for investigation and other tweets along the way we'll all be watching and reading. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> a new book on president trump says at one critical point he considered calling it quits. we'll have the author joining us next. introducing flonase sensimist. more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your allergies.
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look, i think he is going off of information that he is saying has led him to believe that this is a very real potential. and if it is, this is the grtest overreh and the greatest abuse of power we have ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself. >> sara huk by sanders earlier
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this morning and why president trump wants an investigation on what he says is a wiretap ordered by former president obama. we are going to bring in doug reed. his new book is game of thorns. the inside story of hillary clinton's failed campaign and donald trump's winning strategy. we know the president has thrown out a lot of accusations this weekend, as we have seen. there is information that he's come across, but no evidence that we have seen so far to back them up. could he be muddying the waters before some other more damning news comes out? >> could be. but that's why his supporters love him. i once called over to trump towers. i had so many sources from the clinton campaign and the trump campaign telling me things i wasn't seeing on the tv or reading and i said you guys are
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way off message. they don't you seent know the message. they said the message is make america great again and the second part of the message is i'm not a politician. so they like these rough edges that reassured the base this guy is a more sinister devious politician like me would sit on it. >> we like it, especially when it comes out on tweets. but is there a sense when this president could lose any sense of legacy? over the weekend coming up with this and then at the same time bashing arnold schwarzenegger and the person following him on celebrity apprentice. but when it comes to getting something done, getting some actual policy, is that something we could even see? >> francis, you're right on the money in that. but in researching the numbers
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for "game of thorns" a lot of people in this country think we have had two great politicians as presidents. and the poor have gotten poorer and the rich have gotten richer. we have mr. speaker tickically eliminated free enterprise. we have had this huge transfer of wealth to china. they want things shaken up. >> you said trump considered dropping out of the race after that "access hollywood" leak. >> that's a disputed story. but the two sources i had said he was deeply discouraged. he said let me pass this on to pence. he didn't want to betray all these people he was meeting. they said it is not transferable. you have to take it all the way to the finish. so it didn't last long and he rebounded. >> so it was his family that turned him around. his family and it was reince
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this sunday, this sunday connecting the dots between the trump campaign and russia. after telling the senate this. >> i did not have communications with the russians. >> attorney general jeff sessions concedes he did meet with the russian ambassador. >> i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> the growing evidence of the trump/russia con nenection threatens to consume trump's presidency. plus, what happens next? many democrats are calling for sessions to resi.