>> while no system can be made completely infallible, the american people can have high confidence we're identifying ways to improve the vetting process and, thus, keep terrorists from entering our country. fallout over president trump's explosive claim -- they don't know what he's talking about. >> he's the president of the united states. he has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not. that's the way it should be for presidents. >> look, i haven't had the chance to have the conversation directly with the president. and he's at a much higher classification than i am. so he may have access to documents that i don't know about. the american people deserve to know if this happened because if it did, this would be the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power we have ever seen. >> president trump put the country's credibility on the line. reporters and guests, we've got quite a few this hour, here to talk about it.

let's start with nbc's chris jansing, who is at the white house. it was very unusual not to see president trump today signing this executive order with a bunch of cameras and reporters and people surroundingim. am i wrong? >> reporter: yeah, stark difference from what we saw the first time, when they did it with great fanfare because this was going to be one of his signature promises kept. then all of it devolved into chaos. we saw people stranded at airports, we heard criticism from both sides of the aisle, from college and university presidents, i could go on and on. then, of course, the series of setbacks in court. so, this time very low key. they pulled back completely, more than not even seeing that signed, there were no cameras allowed in. we only saw sean spicer, who was able to tweet out a single picture of him sitting at his desk, the president sitting at his desk, and signing this. but no questions were answered when we had the big three who were there with this rollout at homeland security, the head of homeland security, doj and state. none of them taking questions.

even as we speak right now, there is a briefing going on, but it's not on camera. sean spicer answering questions. all of this meaning that the president is not faced with even a shouted question about the other big story of the day which, of course, as you have been saying is about his claims, unsubstantiated, that the obama white house wiretapped trump tower. i can tell you just from the very beginning of that briefing that i heard before i came out here, the white house continuing to double down on that. >> you know, it makes you wonder, chris, if the president is not allowed to be in front of cameras, is it the president deciding this or his aides deciding this, they don't necessarily trust what will come out of the president's mouth or don't want him to comment further? i know you can't answer that question. >> reporter: i can say this, you and i both know president trump is someone who believes no one is a better spokesperson for his

own ideas, presidency than he is. that's the first thing. the second thing is, there is so much pushback. we have talked to people in the intelligence community on capitol hill who are on the relevant committees. people who are involved in the obama white house and who are in a position to know. none of them coming back and saying, yes, this possibility, even possibility, serioly exists. i just heard again from sean sper what we heard earlier from other aides, is that they want a congressional investigation into this. they want congress to look into whether what the president said is true is, indeed, true. >> let's go back to the immigration order. pete in our washington news room, justice correspondent pete williams, how does this one differ from the last one? >> several ways. first of all, it covers only six countries, not seven. the first one included iraq. this one doesn't. the government says iraq has now promised and given assurances that it can give better background information for the government on vetting those people.

it doesn't apply to lawful permanent residents or green card holders. it doesn't go into effect immediately. it goes into effect march 16th. there's no preference given to any members of any religious group in refugees. there's no permanent ban on refugees coming from syria. those are some of the main ways in which it differs. it does say, however, those people who will be allowed in have to have had visas from those seven countries -- six countries now, by january 27th. so, that's something we're trying to clarify here about the state department says it's continuing to process visas, but the text of the executive order seems to say, you had to have a valid visa from one of those countries as of january 27th. the fact it goes into effect march 16th, the government hopes this time there won't be that chaos at airports. the other big deal here is it rescinds the earlier executive order. it declares it void. it's that earlier order that was

the subject of court challenges that stopped the administration from enforcing the original travel restriction on what was seven, now six countries. what groups that challenged the original order going to do now? the court order in place evaporating along with the old executive order. there's now nothing more to restrain. we're in a period here where there's no enforcement now because this new one doesn't kick in until march 16th. the justice department has formally advised the ninth circuit court of appeals what it's done here, but it did not tellingly in a letter today to the court ask them to declare the earlier case moot. we're not sure whether it will do that or go back to the judge in washington who issued the original order and ask him. >> ari melber joining us on set, msnbc chief legal correspondent, and lee, deputy director of national immigration -- of the national immigration rights project. lee, first off to you, what will

you foresee happening at airports? are we going to have -- it sounds like we're not going to have that same sort of confusion, but how is the aclu and does it intend to push back on this new executive order? >> right. well, that's a good first question about whether there's going to be chaos. if the implementation occurs the way the government's saying it's going to occur, there shouldn't be chaos. we hope there won't be chaos. there was no excuse the first time around. we hope there won't. we will continue to litigate the executive order, the revised executive order. we feel like it's been cleaned up in certain ways, eliminated certain problems, but the core nstitutional problem of religious discrimion, we believe, remains. we will continue with our lawsuits. we don't believe we have to file new lawsuits. we believe we'll just have to amend our existing lawsuits. >> ari, you're a lawyer. talk to me about racial discrimination. is that going to be -- >> religious. >> is it going to be a problem for the new ban? >> what's interesting is the new ban does explicitly say that whatever references they made to

religion before, they didn't mean to discriminate. then goes further and essentially wipes that off the books. they even use a term of art that matters in these cases that you guys are litigating. they say this was not motivated by, quote, religious anamous. there are things you can do that would be okay in the eyes of the court unless you do them for a bad reason. if you're doing something that would otherwise be okay, you stand over here, you stand over there, we'll let everyone into the building, fine up. stand over here because of your race, your religion. courts are much more skeptical of that. this goes to why this is such a debate. this is why so much trump supporters feel there is an assumption of neglect tiflt or discrimination made by people about the order because they say whatever he said during the campaign, the text of the order didn't then and certainly now even more so doesn't discriminate on its face, so it becomes a factual question. that's what you guys are going to be pushing in court. >> chris, let's get back to wiretapping because that's such a massive story, explosive

allegation. is there any more clarity from the white house at this hour of where donald trump got that allegation? did it come from breitbart or some sort of intelligence that no one else has been able to see? >> reporter: that's the point, right? one of the things we've heard from administration officials today, including on the "today" show, is maybe he's the president, he has information that the rest of us don't have, even though people in a position to know seem to not have any information that would lead to that conclusion, but here is what we do know. that at least publicly it seems to have started with a radio talk show, right wing radio talk show. let me play you a little bit of that clip from late last week. >> we have a prior administration, barack obama and his sure gats, hillary clinton and were supporting the democratic party, who were using the instrumentalities of the federal government, intelligence

activities, to surveil members of the trump campaign. >> reporter: but that was said with no proof. it went into a story in breitbart which, of course, was headed by steve bannon, senior adviser to president trump. and now we have a situation where the president not only tweeted about that but as you know, raising the hackles of a lot of people, went a step further, accusing a former white house of mccarthyism and calling the former president, president obama, a bad or sick guy. >> a u.s. official tells nbc news that james comey has asked the doj to knock this down. we had the former dni james clapper on "meet the press" yesterday saying he had not seen any evidence of that, that he would have known about a fisa wiretap. a spokesman for president obama denying that took place. despite that, here is kellyanne conway this morning on fox news.

>> i would point out for the viewers, that despite all the, you know, high-minded denials by former obama administration officials this weekend, a lot of them also kept the door open. you had mr. clapper saying anything in his purview would not have included that. he can say that. but he couldn't speak for other pieces of the obama administration or local and state authorities. if director comey has something to say, we're willing to hear it. he's just directing the department of justice to bat this down. >> let's bring in matt miller, former spokesman for eric holder and former director of the office of public affairs, as well as john dean, former white house counsel to president nixon. i'm sure you all know him at home. matt, first off to you, is there any circumstance where there could be a f sichisa wiretap wi james comey knowing, without the fbi director knowing and without the president knowing? >> of course not. the fbi director is the person who oversees those type of

investigations. he wou absolutely know in this type of case, the director of national intelligence would know, too. here's what we have to consider when you when you see what the president said, kellyanne conway spread it as an a rumor, for this allegation to be true, it would mean not just barack obama and loretta lynch and jim comey were involved in this conspiracy that all the civil servants, career-down that serve both parties were involved in this illegal wiretapping. it just defies imagination. what is possible is the government had wiretaps, fisa wiretaps, on russian officials or russian intelligence operatives and members of the trump campaign communicated with them or they overheard russian officials talking to themselves about interactions with members of the trump campaign. that would be a very different thing. i think that goes to the big underlying question that's being investigated still by the fbi and potentially by members of

the intelligence community, what actually happened during that campaign. we still don't know the answer to that. >> over the weekend donald trump, during his twitter storm said this, he said, this is nixon/watergate, bad, or sick guy, exclamation point, talking about president obama. you're the expert on this. is this nixon/watergate? >> this is not nixon/watergate. there's no evidence, never has been, i'm not exactly a nixon apologist, that nixon ordered a wiretap of his opponents during the campaign. all of his wiretaps were done through the department of justice, through the fbi, where he actually did order them. they were later removed. i think trump is confused, kind of projecting on himself the cover-up. that's really what's going on here, is they're not confessing

what they're doing. they're using misinformation to deflect attention and this is nothing like watergate in the initial act of where there was a bungled eort to wiretap but, rather, where there's a sious effort and successful effort to cover up. >> john, correct me if i'm wrong on this, but during watergate the public appetite for watergate stories was not necessarily so high at the time until it came out there were tapes and real evidence that the president was acting inappropriately. do you believe we're living in a markedly different time, in 2017, where the public -- maybe not the entire public but a portion of the public that doesn't seem to care if the president's doing inappropriate things? >> well, the watergate arrest occurred on june 17th of 1973. no newspaper other than "the washington post" really focused on the story. including "the new york times," kind of in and out, until april

of the next year, of '73. that's when things started -- the cover-up started falling apart. and then all of the world news media began paying attention. then again, nixon will survive until august of '74, so that's the way that story unfolds. and it doesn't end until january of the next year when his top aides are convicted. >> do you believe there's a real serious threat to undermining the authority of the office of the presidency, john? >> he is certainly weakening the office. he's treating the office unlike any of his predecessors. i suspect he's never read any of his predecessor's buy graefs or autobiographies but he's actually degrading the office. even richard nixon wouldn't try to do that. he wouldn't wear blue shirts because he thought they were not presidential. so, he was very, very smitten with making sure that he didn't do anything. in fact, i think that's one of the reasons he probably left office and resigned willingly

when the court ruled against him about his tapes, is that he just didn't want to do anything to spoil the office. trump, on the other hand, is playing with the office, pretending he's president and hasn't really figured out what the office is all about. >> well, donald trump has admitted himself that he doesn't read much, so, john deerngs you might have had him there. thank you, guys, for joining me. ahead, inside trump's fury, report that president trump raged over the weekend at leaks, setbacks and accusations that his campaign was engaged with russia. and we're asking you in today's pulse question, do you believe trump tower was wiretapped, as president trump says? you can respond at pulse.msnbc.com. we will check out your answers a little bit later in the hour, a well as dig deeper on that story. coming up. [car eine failing to start] [clicking of ignition] uh-- wha-- woof!

eeh-- woof! wuh-- [silence] [engine roars to life] [dog howls] ♪ dramatic opera music swells from radio ♪ [howling continues]

that just tastes better. fresher. more flavorful. delicious. only one egg with better nutrition- like more vitamins d, e, and omega 3s. and 25% less saturated fat. only one egg good enough for my family. because why have ordinary when you can have the best. eggland's best. the only egg that gives you so much more: better taste. better nutrition. better eggs.

better nutrition. i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different. it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to me up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪

the president of the united states put his own reputation, the reputation of his predecessor and the reputation of his nation at risk to get at least a draw out of the next 24-hour news. >> how do they go out and say if this just did happen -- they might as well said, if george w. bush -- >> in white house is a joke. >> -- helped o.j. simpson kill nicole brown, that would be the biggest scandal of all time. if barack obama had something to do with jonbenet ramsey's death, that would be the biggest

political scandal of all time. >> president trump tweet accusations that president obama wiretapped during campaign. chris ruddy, who saw trump in florida this weekend, told our andrea mitchell the president believes he's been targeted and he will be proven right. >> andrea, i saw him twice on saturday. once at the lunch hour and then again at dinner. i would describe him as not being a happy camper. he was pretty upset. i hadn't seen him this -- with this level of anger about something in a long time, and i think a lot of it involved the fact that he felt he was targeted by president obama or the obama administration. >> joining me now, rick tyler, msnbc political analyst and former ted cruz spokesman, and jeff weaver, former bernie sanders' campaign manager. do you think there's any reason

for the president to feel like he is being targeted? >> no. every time the president gets in trouble, and he was in trouble recently with attorney general sessions lying to congress, he releases a white rabbit and we chase it around for a while. this is the latest white rabbit. before this we had million and millions of people who shouldn't have voted, white rabbit. the crowd controversy. this is donald trump's way of distracting everybody from what's really going on in the white house. every time he does one of these things, you know, we put on a bunch of experts who talk about how it can't be true, it's not true. once he releases his aca program, which will take millions of people off health care, i garn tie he's going to come out and say the sky is purple and we'll have meteorologists and all kinds of scientists coming on saying it's not true. while we ignore what's really going on in that crazy white house. >> why is that effective for him to do just that, rick? >> well, look, i agree with jeff. i don't agree with the health care part. i agree with essentially what

he's saying. what clapper said this morning is he's traded in political currency. joe put it in day trading. the reason that's dangerous is because he has evaporated all his political capital. now there is effectively a margin call on his credibility. not just his credibility, the credibility of the entire administration. he won't have credibility going into the health care fight. worse, you see that the north koreans have just launched ballistic missiles. if we had to take some sort of action with north korea, he would have to persuade the country and our allies that those actions are necessary. and when you -- when you have diminished or depleted your credibility, that's very -- >> they'll think he's crying wolf? >> it's a dangerous thing to do. >> jeff, don't know if you read "the weekly standard "today -- >> it's not on my reading list. >> i assume it's not. there's an interesting story

about how this is -- well, while the voting fraud issue wasn't necessarily a constitutional crisis, it can be argued that what he is doing right now, accusing his predecessor of illegally wiretapping him as a candidate, is a constitutional crisis. with all the discord in wash and the in-fighting and partisanship on both sides, the only way to clean this would be a select committee, an independent committee, arguing sunshine is not only the best disinfectant, it's the only -- in this case, the only possible disinfectant. saying trump campaign officials, obama officials and the fbi, everybody needs to come out on the record and say what they do know and what they don't know, so the american public can find a way to trust our government again. >> well, you can't trust trump. that's the problem. we cannot have taxpayer money spent in millions and millions of dollars, congress tied in knots every time trump makes an

o route yaj rouse accusations. he's obviously lying about the wiretaps. i mean, to sully the reputation of barack obama, who carried on in his office, regardless of what you think of his politics, with dignity and grace and to have donald trump in there attacking him is reall an outrageous situation. what we've got to do is if we're going to have congressional hearings, let's have congressional hearings about something we do know is the russians interfering with our election and all the contacts that people in the trump administration, including the attorney general sessions, despite what he said to congress in sworn testimony, the contacts that they had with the russians. let's talk about things that actually are based in fact and not trump fantasies meant to distract. no more chasing white rabbits. >> what about this washington post report that trump is right now furious, raging mad, raging at leak setbacks and accusations. he called his adviser it is to carpet in the oval office on

friday. he left reince priebus back in the white house over the weekend, when initially he was supposed to be going down to mar-a-lago with him. steve bannon flew commercial down to mar-a-lago. what do you make of a president who is allegedly, reportedly, not getting along with those who are advising him? >> is that for me? >> that's for you, jeff. >> the president doesn't have the confidence of the american people. now increasingly he doesn't have the confidence of his own staff in the white house. there's clearly a lot of feuding going on in there. people are very upset about the outrageous tweets he puts out, the diminishment of the office of the presidency of the united states. so, you know, i think it's just one more element of the dysfunction going on in the white house behind his sort of blatant lying in his tweets about crowd sizes, voter fraud, barack obama wiretapping him. all ridiculous things.

>> it can be easy to cast aside and say we shouldn't be talking about this. we should be talking about the immigration order, wiretapping. but tell me why it really matters that the white house behind the scenes is not running smoothly? >> because they can't -- look, donald trump acts as if he is a one-man show, right? the reason he didn't ask anybody about saturday morning when he tweeted is because he thought he clearly would have thought his staff would go in the other direction. there's no reason to ask them, put out the tweet and let them catch up. look at the foolishness -- sarah sanders, sarah huckabee sanders, she looked foolish. >> what is her job? if she cannot answer for the president, she hasn't spoken to the president -- >> on national talk shows as spokesperson, you should have spoken to your administration and know the questions and have answers. >> how is it okay she doesn't have them? >> i don't know. it's not okay. even today we don't know where he got that information.

ey're all making it up. they're saying well, maybe he has access to documents we don't have. maybe. but why don't we know? that would be something you would know. that's something the president would have access to. i suspect since that didn't happen, he more than likely listened to a radio talk show, read breitbart news and went from there. it all leads you to believe the speech he gave was really the outlier. >> rick tyler, jeff weaver, thank you for joining me today. more often than not on capitol hill, republicans have had trump's back, but did the president's tirade of tweets against president obama go too far for some in his own party? i'll ask republican senator mike rounds of south dakota what he thinks next. ♪

across new york state, from long island to buffalo, from rochester to the hudson valley, from albany to utica, creative business incentives, infrastructure investment, university partnerships, and the lowest taxes in decades are creating a stronger economy and the right environment in new york state for business to thrive. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today at esd.ny.gov here's to the wildcats this i gotta try .. bendy... spendy weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders.

i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. my psoriatic arthritis caused joint pain. just like my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and i was worried about joint damage. my doctor said joint pain from ra... can be a sign of existing joint damage... that could only get worse. he prescribed enbrel to help relieve pain and help stop further damage. enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood sorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been someplace where fungal infections are common or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for... heart failure, or if you have persistent... fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu.

joint pain and damage... can go side by side. ask how enbrel can help relieve joint pain and help stop joint damage. enbrel, the number one rheumatologist-prescribed biologic. that goes beyond assuming beingredients are safe...ood to knowing they are. going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food.

i'm going to go into it eyes wide open. we've had experience obama administration has been notorious on this type of stuff. >> i have no insight into what he's referring to. i imagine the president in the white house in the days to come will outline further what's behind that accusations. >> i've seen in allegations of what we've seen in the media. >> i'm very worried that our president is suggesting that the former president has done something illegally. >> republicans not exactly on

the same page, and their responses to president trump's weekend tweet storm of unsubstantiated claims that barack obama wiretapped trump tower during the campaign. joining me live from capitol hill capitol hill, mike rounds, member of the senate armed services committee. first question, do you believe president obama wiretapped trump to youer? >> i think when president trump suggests it may be president obama, i think he may be talking about the administration. i'm assuming in a tweet he's probably not as accurate as we'd like him to be. my belief is that there is a possibility that he had personnel, whose phone conversations were recorded, but let me give you a scenario in which it might have happened. former attorney general mukasey indicated that he thought it was a possibility through the justice partment. mr. clapper, who was with dni, had indicated very clearly it would not have been through

military intelligence, but that still leaves the door open for this suggestion that it might have been through the department of justice. if the department of justice, which includes the fbi, was listening to communications with russian operatives or representatives from russia and they picked up on phone conversations coming with members of the trump transition team or his campaign staff, they may very well had incidental communication or picked up communications on an incidental basis. >> senator, let me ask you specifically about what he said in that tweet. he said the word wiretap. he wasn't saying surveillance by the obama administration. he was saying wiretap and wiretap alludes to something that would need a fisa warrant. and if that's the case, and the dni didn't know about it and the fbi director, james comey reportedly didn't know about it, and president obama is denying

it, do you believe they're lying or does president trump just not understand what wiretapping is? >> i think, perhaps, it's a matter that since so much of what we do today is not by wire anymore but rather communication by cell phones, it may very well have been communications picked up with someone who they could legally follow, which is someone from another country. if there were communications coming from the trump offices, that would be considered incidental. >> do you think as president of the united states he has an obligation to the american public to be full and forthright with the information he has before he lobs what would be and is the most explosive allegation likely in our nation's history concerning the conduct of a past president towards a current president? >> i think as several of my colleagues have indicated, this would be a very serious charge if president obama, if he was directly talking about president

obama specifically and personally, although at times i think in a tweet the suggestion of obama might very wellav been his administration and, thus, the justice department. >> he called him a sickguy, a sick guy, specifically, a sick guy. >> i honestly would not portray it that way. i think that's a mistake. but i do think there's a possibility that their phone communications might have been listened to legally. that would have been if it was incidental to communication with someone from -- who represented a different country. so, number one, i'm going to say, i don't think that it was said artfully. i think it could have been said a lot better. and it most certainly, i think, is not appropriate to do it the way that he did it with the tweet. but at the same time, if his accusation is there, i think we have to have the american people learn the entire story. that's the reason why i share with you, it is possible president obama is telling exactly the truth and mr. mukasey is telling the truth

and that down the line we have a lot of individuals identifying and limiting where this might have occurred. and the reality might very well be that there may have been incidental communications. we don't know that until the intelligence committees complete their work. i think that's where it should go. i think the intelligence committees should complete their work and then we should have an unclassified report that should come out to the american public to clear things up. >> republican senator mike rounds from south dakota. thank you for joining me. how conspiracy theories are driving the week. we're not just talking about the wiretapping claims. i'll explain right after the break.

it's the simple things in life that mean the most. boost® simply complete™. no artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners, plus 10 grams of protein and 25 vitamins & minerals. it doesn't get better than this. boost® simply complete™.

you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off.

everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products.

because no one kills germs better than clorox. as usual, nbc's first read put it best today when it said, welcome to our post-truth presidency. this weekend's explosive accusation from president trump that his predecessoretapped trump tower during the election isn't the first time mr. trump has trafficked in false or unsubstantiated claims. case in point, a few examples since trump took office. he misstated the size of his inauguration crowd saying, quote, it looked like a million and a half people. metro ridership, 103,000. the president alleged 3 to 5 million people voted illegally despite analysis that found very little fraud. he claimed his win was the biggest electoral college win

since ronald reagan, although president george w.h. bush and president obama had more votes. he claimed 94 million americans are out of the labor force, a figure that included both seniors and teenagers. if you go back to before he was president. there was the birther moment. he repeatedly claimed president obama wasn't born in the u.s. also his claim and accusation that primary rival ted cruz's father was somehow involved in jfk's assassination. finally this fiction that trump was always opposed to the iraq invasion. there's absolutely no proof of that but there is proof he suspected supported it, at least a little, in 2002 in an interview with howard stern. to join me politico's eli stokele. sean spicer just had a briefing a moment ago. he was peppered with questions by the press about where exactly donald trump got this idea he was wiretapped. he said, well, it may have been

fisa, it may have been surveillance. he also said there are a lot of reports out there that are asking these same questions. what reports? >> right. he said, or whatever. we need to know if it was surveillance or whatever. it is so loose the way they talk about these things. it's worth noting today's briefing was not an on-camera briefing. >> why? >> we haven't seen an on-camera briefing in almost a week. that's an interesting change for this administration. seemed like they initially wanted to soak up every news cycle. now sort of receding a little bit partly because the questions are getting harder. there's no good way to go out there and defend your boss's comments when your boss's comments have no relationship to the truth. >> so, if they have no relationship to the truth and the spokes people d't want to come out on tv to defend them, or maybe they don't know how to come out on tv to defend them, what risk is the white house running? do they risk losing the folks that voted for him, or is his

base so entrenched, it doesn't matter? >> he didn't win the election with just his base and the people who will never lose support for him no matter what he does. a lot of people took trump because they didn't like the binary choice, trump or clinton. those who think he wouldn't be so crazy. those are the ones he's lost in the first month or two of presidency. whether they're fickle or come back, that remains to be seen. right now it's bigger than politics. it's can you effectively govern? i don't care if trump's base supports him or swing voters, as a country we need to be concerned can this administration actually govern? can they maintain any credibility when it comes to sort of explaining what they're doing when they're willing to lie about things as insignificant as inauguration crowd size. >> i want to talk about that politico report and everyone going after reince priebus. because of what you just mentioned, i want to talk about this idea of a need for transparency across government right now.

a need for trump administration officials, obama administration officials, the fbi to all come out on the record and say, here is what we know, here is what we don't know, here is what is fact, here is what is fiction. right now it seems there's a whole lot of distrust on both sides. if the fbi says there was nothing having to do with russia in the trump campaign, a whole lot of folks on the left who are going to say, no, i don't believe you. and if they do say there's a connection, there's a whole lot of folks on the right who say, i don't believe you because of that. isn't there a need in washington right now for everybody to come out and just be transparent and just be honest about what they know? and sort of put all these old notions, you know, we have to protect our sources and we have to protect our information to rest just for a moment? >> right, but that's what's so difficult. that's where all this tension is coming from like thebi and white house,n you have a commander in chief sitting there making it up as they go and demand his agencies come up with

the rationale that they back him up. he was upset, yelled at everybody on friday because jeff sessions recused himself from the russia investigation. so, jeff sessions, when fbi director comey comes to him over the weekend and says, you need to come out with a statement saying that what the president said, this allegation, is baseless and we don't have anything to back it up, sessions wasn't willing to do it because he'd already gotten his hand slapped by the president earlier in the week. >> for recusing himself. >> for consulting with lawyers and recusing himself and not telling the white house what he was going to do. >> it is notable the fbi director did not come out publicly and say that himself. we know that because of unnamed u.s. officials who have relaid that conversation to us. eli stokols, always wuflt to see you in person. as for that politico article we were talking about, you should check it out online because it's full of a lot of interesting information about what is going on behind the scenes in the white house and how reince priebus is quickly becoming the scapegoat for all that is going wrong and whether reince priebus

will be staying in that role for much longer. of course, officially the white house denies there is any problems there. meanwhile, let's check out today's microsoft pulse question. do you believe trump tower was wiretapped as president trump says? so far, 88% say no, 12% say yes. there's still time to cast your vote at pulse.msnbc.com. what are you doing? getting your quarter back. fountains don't earn interest, david. you know i work at ally. i was being romantic. you know what i find romantic? a robust annual percentage yield that's what i find romantic. this is literally throwing your money away. i think it's over there. that way? yeah, a little further up. what year was that quarter? what year is that one? '98 that's the one. you got it! nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. ally. do it right. let's get out of that water. ally. do it right. "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem

loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. let's take a look at some numbers: 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health. we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries... for plaque which builds up as you age- and increases your risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease. and by getting them through this package, you're saving over 50%. so call today and consider these numbers: for just $149 you'll receive five screenings that could reveal what your body isn't telling you. i'm gonna tell you that was the best $150 i ever spent in my life. life line screening. the power of prevention.

call now to learn more. ♪♪ let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare

doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. these types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. rates are competitive, and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. remember - these plans let you apply all year round. so call today. because now's the perfect time to learn more. go long. dude. your crunching's scaring the fish. dude. they're just jealous. new kellogg's raisin bran crunch with crunchy clusters and the taste of apples and strawberries. (excited) i got one! (jokingly) guess we're having cereal for dinner. new kellogg's raisin bran crunch apple strawberry

developing now, a supreme court decision that lbgtq advocates call a setback. the high court rejected a case involving a transgender student from virginia, sending the case back to the lower courts. back withus, nbc justice correspondent pete williams, who is working overtime for us today. pete, explain to me what the supreme court's reasoning was here. >> well, we don't know what the reasoning is. they didn't say so in a short order. but it does seem to be a direct result of a decision by the trump administration to change the government policy on the transgender issue. the court had asked lawyers for both sides what it should do in light of that change, given that the case was going to be argued on march 28th. both sides said you should go ahead and hear the case, but today the court said it would not. it also in a further setback to the student at the heart of this

case, wiped off the books a lower court ruling in favor of the student. you're seeing him here, gavin grimm, high school student from gloucester county, virginia, transgender, undergoing hormone and other kinds of therapies. he wanted to use the boy's bathroom. the school said, yes, you can. the skeel board said no. he sued and fourth circuit ruled saying the department of education has a policy. it interprets the federal law here called title ix, that's the law that says schools can't sdrim nature between boys and girls on the basis of sex. that letter from the department of education said, as we interpret the law, it means you can't discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity. based on that, in part, the appeals court ruled in his favor. the school district appealed. then the trump administration took away that department of education letter. it said it was ill-informed, it

thought, needed to think about it further. so, it undercut gavin grimm's case here. now, what this means in the short term is that it's going to be several years before the case of gavin grimm gets resolved. but in the meantime, there are a number of lower court cases that raise similar issues. so, this is probably coming back to the supreme court at some point. >> nbc's pete williams with his looking glass. thank you very much, sir. >> okay. gavin grimm, the teen at the center of all this will join kate snow exclusively in the next hour. be sure to tune in for that. sources on capitol hill, meanwhile, say the gop's repeal and replace plan could be unveiled at any moment. but will populararts of obamacare stay or go? we'll find out next. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office

and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. find out how american express cards and services c'mohappy birthday! i survived a heart attack. i'm doing all i can to keep from having another one. and i'm taking brilinta. for people who've been hospitalized for a heart attack. i take brilinta with a baby aspirin. no more than one hundred milligrams as it affects how well it works. brilinta helps keep my platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. brilinta reduced the chance of another heart attack. or dying from one. it worked better than plavix. don't stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. don't take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. tell your doctor about bleeding, new or unexpected shortness of breath, any planned surgery, and all medicines you take.

talk to your doctor about brilinta. i'm doing all i can. that includes brilinta. if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. enou hit 300,000 miles.ere, or here, when you walked away without a ratc maybe it was the day your baby came home. or maybe the day you realized your baby was not a baby anymore. every subaru is built to earn your trust.

because we know what you're trusting us with. subaru. kelley blue book's most trusted brand. and best overall brand. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. if you're approaching 65, now's the time to get your ducks in a row. to learn about medicare, and the options you have. you see, medicare doesn't cover everything - only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so if 65 is around the corner, think about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. so don't wait. call to request your free decision guide. and gather the information now to help you choose a plan later. these types of plans let you pick any doctor or hospital that takes medicare patients. and there's a range of plans to choose from, depending on you needs and your budget. so if you're turning 65 soon, call now and get started.

because the time to think about tomorrow...is today. go long. a plan by republicans to replace obamacare could come as early as this afternoon. a draft of the legislation shows expanded tax cuts and health care savings accounts for individuals, reduced spending on tax subsidies and medicare, and also the elimination of individual mandates. joining me from d.c., msnbc contributor and "new york times" reporter jeremy peters. talk to me about this new reporting you have. >> well, so part of the issue here is going to be the pressure that republican lawmakers feel to repeal and replace. what i've learned ithat the are a number of conservative groups, including those backed by the koch brothers, that are

planning a pressure campaign. and essentially they're saying, look, you guys ran on repealing obamacare for four straight elections. you keep dithering, moving the goalpost, and there's no repeal. this was, perhaps, the single most important -- the clearest mandate you had from republican voters, repeal the thing already. and if that doesn't happen in short order, i think that you're going to see the threat of primaries in the next election, katy. >> is this a repeal or more like john boehner said, an amendment? >> well, it's -- basically what it does is it keeps in place a lot of the more popular provisions of obamacare, like the provision that allows children to remain -- or adults -- young adults to remain on their parents' plans. it does -- >> pre-existing conditions? >> yeah, pre-existing conditions. you put it that way, it is more

of an alteration than it is a full-out repeal, which i think is going to make a lot of conservatives uneasy. >> if it's making a lot of conservatives uneasy, how are they going to be able to pass it when folks like rand paul are not going to be for something like this? >> that's exact lit problem, ka katy. it's lining up all of your ducks when you are the speaker of the house, is an incredibly difficult thing these days. and this is, perhaps, the most contentious issue that republicans will face in terms of how it splits the conference. so, finding a plan that -- there's a reason we haven't seen a plan yet. that's because pleasing -- you know, getting 218 votes is not a simple thing to do. >> and i'm sure those feisty town halls, those angry, frustrated town halls did not help things. jeremy peters with the "new york times," great to see your face, buddy. for you at home -- >> thank you. >> good to see you as well, good to hear from you. that's why we're going to one last check of our microsoft

pulse question. on the heels of president trump's allegations that president obama ordered his phones bugged, we've been askingdo you belie trump tower was wiretapped as president trump says? so far, 89% of you say no, you don't believe it. thanks for weighing in at msnbc.com. i'll be back on "meet the press" daily at 5:00 p.m. in case you didn't get enough of katy tur today. you can follow me on facebook and yell at me on twitter if you like. kate snow, take it away. >> are you doing three different hours today? >> i might be. >> wow. katy, hardest working woman in show business. hi, everyone. i'm kate snow. top stories we're following, starting with the white house taking another stab at its controversial executive order. what changed this time around? breaking news in the last half hour, sean spicer speaking

to reporters off camera about president trump's wiretapping claims. a setback for transgender advocate rights. the supreme court says it will not hear the case of a transgender high school student fighting to use the bathroom of his choice. an exclusive interview with that student, gavin grimm, coming up. before we get to the latest surrounding the revised immigration order, there's a lot to talk about on that, but let's first get you caught up on the nuts and bolts. what is so different this time around with the new executive order? for starters, iraq is no longer on the list. the secretary of state calling iraq an important ally. there will be a temporary ban on travel from six countries instead of the original seven. syrian refugees are no longer specifically banned. the new order removed language that had given special treatment for religious minorities. anyone with a visa as of january 27th or a green card can now enter the u.s. it also instructs the department of homeland security to release information on the threat