>> right, so that's a lot of -- >> a long way between here and there. >> thanks for breaking it down. the co-founder and coo of the economic research institute. find me on twitter, facebook and instagram and snapchat. right now on msnbc "andrea mitchell reports." >> thank you, ali. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," critical condition. now it's the republicans who are fighting each other over the white house plan to replace obamacare. >> this returns power from washington back to doctors and patients, back to states. this is what good conservative health care reform looks like. >> we've only had this bill in public for 36 hours, and to try to rush it through this week and then vote on it within the next few weeks really harkens back toment so of the problems that obamacare was created under. >> we can't pay for the current medicare.

it's $35 trillion in the hole. the current medicaid is unfunded and we're going to add new entitlement programs to that? can you hear me now? wikileaks revealing what it claims is the cia's full hacking arsenal. devastating security breach, if true. perhaps privacy concerns are no joking matter. >> is the cia listening to me through my wife wave oven and tv and cell phone? are they doing that, sir? >> no. >> if they were, would you say yes? >> yes. >> still no proof. five days after president trump first accuse president obama of tapping his phones at dump tower. the white house tries to lay the burp of congress. >> reporter: would would the president want congress to investigate information he already has. >> there's a separation of powers. >> reporter: we're talking about resources and time. why waste that? >> it's not a question of waste it. it's a question of

appropriateness. woman power, on this international women's day, rallies from coast to coast in support of women's rights. good day on this international women's day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where house speaker paul ryan is trying to push past major political headwinds from members of his own party to get the house bill through congress and onto the president's congress. >> are we going to let this law collapse and whatever happens happens, or are we going to do what we said we would do? are we going to repeal and replace obamacare with something better? i have no doubt we'll pass this because we're going to keep our promises. >> joining me now nbc national correspondent peter alexander at the white house and capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and "washington post" national political reporter robert costa.

kasie the speaker of the house is setting deadlines and says he'll have a bill on the president's desk or floor by easter. is that what mitch mcconnell said on the senate side but pushback from moderate republicans and from the freedom cauc caucus. >> reporter: unexpected amount of protest from conservatives in particular, who are arguing for a seat at the table here, and you played a little bit of this saying look, this just ats to new entitlements i think the key part of their argument and the question about whether them calling it obamacare light, them saying it doesn't represent repeal, is the key part of it, because the speakers' main argument what he has on his side is that look if republicans spent eight years saying this is what they were going to do, finally get into power and they don't do it, that's a major failure. so he in the caucus this morning asked for a show of hands from republicans who campaigned on repeal and replace. all the hands in the room went

up. that's what they're counting on and also counting on the president of the united states, donald trump, who they feel gave them a little more clarity than they maybe had before over the course of the last 24 hours. there's a lot of muddle about exactly what he wanted, exactly how they would try to sell this, were they waiting for the congress to come first. they feel like they now have some signals from the president that he is going to be all in on this and on helping them get to 218 votes in the house that's the critical first number for this health care bill to hit and now we know this morning i talked to congressman charlie dent who is a more moderate republican from pennsylvania, where they expanded medicaid and he said look, i'm concerned about how fast this moves and about this medicaid provision that could really hurt people in my state. so they have a lot of work still to do, but you know, that fundamental promise is there, and will work in speaker ryan's favor. >> and peter alexander at the white house, initially they were saying this is the starting point, we're willing to

negotiate but as kasie was just pointing out that does not give paul ryan and the leaders up there the kind of whipping power that they need to control a very divided caucus right now. >> andrea this morning i spoke to a source close to the president to says of this health care replacement bill it makes the president very happy, he feels strongly he is offering up basically delivering on a campaign promise early in his administration by offering not just repeal but also what will replace obamacare as it presently exists. as a demonstration of his sort of confidence in this bill, and in this plan i'm told there are active discussions right now at the white house taking place about travel for the president to go make the case on his own behalf in effect for this bill, still to be seen exactly where that travel may send him. we know that yesterday white house officials and other trump administration officials blitzed radio air waves talk radio shows across some key states trying to

reach out to lawmakers, constituents in places like ohio, sean spicer speaking on the radio there, kellyanne conway talking to the folks in kentucky which is notable at only because it's the home of rand paul who has been a critic of this, saying there's an agreement on repeal not replacement but home of the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> robert costa and the others, listen to sean pricer trying to defend what the president declared on twitter against president obama on wiretapping, and how they're trying to either get behind this or deal with what the president said off. let's watch. >> is the white house position that the president can make declarative statements about a former president basically committing a crime and then the congressional committee should look into that and basically prove it? >> it's not a question of prove it. they have the resources and the clearances and the staff to fully and thoroughly and

comprehensively investigate this. >> so president trump's twitter statement shouldn't be taken at face value? >> sure it is. >> do we take him at face value or is this just something that he was tweeting figuratively? >> well andrea, we've reported that president trump acquired some of this information from right wing websites like breitbart and mark levine over the weekend. it was not based on evidence or intelligence or intelligence we're aware of and officials in the white house background tell me they're not aware of any intelligence that fueled the president's conclusions, so they seem to be caught in a corner wanting to have the investigation moved to congress but they know that president trump has these convictions, these beliefs they don't want to get in the middle of and fight him on. >> but how do they walk away from something that he said

declaratively? i can see all the way they're spinning and bobbing and weaving but the bottom line is the president of the united states tweeted in 140 characters that he was being eavesdropped on the orders of president obama. that signal went to everyone in america and around the world. >> it did and there was confusion inside of the white house over the weekend especially about whether there was a fisa warrant or not when it came to some federal approval for surveillance of trump tower, and that evidence has not emerged, that backs up these declarations and these statements that we've seen here at "the post" or the white house has revealed but yet this is the white house communications office knowing they have a president who governs on gut instincts rather than solid information. >> 6:35 a.m. on a saturday morning on twitter indeed. peter alexander, there's talk that the white house budget office is looking to tsa and

other homeland security agencies for the budget cuts to pay for the wall that mexico is clearly not going to pay for. has anybody confirmed that from the white house? >> yes, we reached out to the white house on that. i want to add one thing to whoo b what robert was saying. i spoke to a source familiar to former president obama's tweets that president obama wasn't livid, in effect he rolled his eyes as he heard about those claims. moving on to what you were asking about we got a statement from the white house in effect said earlier in this process working with agencies on how to best meet their targets. they say they're trying to draw conclusions at this early point would be very premature. what is notable about this is that the conversation about how to pay for that wall would come from savings elsewhere, cutting back elsewhere as opposed to having as the president himself had said as candidate trump mexico pay for it. >> and finally, kasie hunt, as if this wouldn't already be an awkward dinner, trump's inviting

the cruises for dinner tonight at the white house, think back in the campaign all the things candidate trump said about ted cruz, ted cruz's father, the conspiracy theories the unflattering tweets about mrs. cruz, heidi cruz and ted cruz said as drafted i do not believe this health care bill would pass the united states senate. kase? >> that's exactly i think what this is probably designed to head off, because we didn't see ted cruz out there yesterday. rand paul has been in front of this, mike lee, the senator from utah often pals around with ted cruz appeared at the press conference with the house freedom caucus. we know that cruz was a de facto leader of this gang over in the house when they were kind of fighting as the opposition party so i think for him this is a relatively measured response so far, but if he is going to go to the mat with all these other conservative grassroots groups or what we used to call that

before donald trump, that's a bit of a problem for the white house. >> it would be a really interesting dinner to be a fly on the wall there. thank you so much, peter, robert, kasie. and meanwhi china warning of a head-on collision unless the u.s. haults joint military exercises with south korea, exercises that are held every year, and unless north korea stops its missile tests. the chinese foreign ministry delivering that stern message today after north korea of course test fired four missiles this week and the u.s. and south korea began deploying a new missile defense system. secretary of state rex tillerson will be jumping into the middle of this crisis traveling to japan, south korea and china next week. joining me is madeleine albright, secretary of state under president bill clinton, joining us from san francisco. madam secretary, great to see you. thank you very much. >> great to be with you andrea as always. >> well, here if you were still secretary, what would you do facing again a threat from north korea, a growing threat which has grown frankly under several

administrations, the nuclear threat as well as the missile advances from north korea and now china is still not doing what the u.s. has long expected it to do is really increase the pressure, ramp up the pressure on pyongyang to stop doing its missile advancement. >> well, clearly it's a complicated situation and i'm very glad that the secretary of state is going to the region because it's going to require prolonged activities in terms of talking about what the options are. i think the chinese need to understand that one of the reasons that we're putting up that missile system is because of the concern about what the north koreans are doing with their missile testing, and what their overall objectives are. so i think it's very serious. it's going to take very serious negotiation and i'm very glad that the secretary is getting involved in it. >> the new u.n. am bassor sitting in the chair you once occupied before you were

secretary of state nikki haley spoke outside the security council today. >> in terms of the t.h.a.d., with south korea, tell me why we wouldn't do the t.h.a.d.? we're going to protect our allies. we are not going to leave south korea standing there with the threat of north korea. this is not a rational person who is not thinking clearly. how we are going to handle north korea going forward, and we are making those decisions now. >> the t.h.a.d. is the missile defense system china and russia are objecting to but the other options on the table according to reporting from the "new york times" this weekend, david sanger and others is to provide nuclear weapons to south korea, to proliferate in the peninsula we've been trying to denuclearize, when talking to other experts about this, madam secretary, nothing else has

worked so why not consider options outside the box? what are your thoughts on this? >> we certainly have spent a lot of time trying to deal with the north koreans any number of ways. i did. i think that the issues are really partially to undo what candidate trump said was that these people were on their own in the region, and so i think it's very important for secretary tillerson to restate our commitment to our allies, south korea and the japanese, and i do think that there needs to be a lot of serious decision-making and a way of understanding what the possibilities are. i do think that it's not a bad idea to have a review. i would just like to see this administration actually begin to focus more seriously on the national security issues that are out there, and north korea's behavior is clearly one of the more complicated ones. >> i wanted to ask you about the state department, because there's no deputy secretary, there's no undersecretaries,

only three nominees to the ambassador. no confirmed positions. the first briefing was held yesterday after a long hiatus since the previous administration. there was no appearance by the secretary of state when the human rights report, the annual report was released last week, and there doesn't seem to be an appreciation of public diplomacy and of the role that the state department carries around the world, sending the message of american foreign policy. can you comment on that? >> well, i am troubled. i have to say we've been saying that it's kind of early but soon it will be too late, and i think the state department obviously is the key diplomatic department, the senior position in the cabinet, and i do think that it's important to get a sense where the secretary, where secretary tillerson is, what he thinks about this, and he is at a disadvantage i think in some ways not having a full repineau

of people, the people who are foreign services officers and civil service are ted indicated people who serve this country and there has to be a greater relationship. i was impressed with what the secretary did when he first came into the state department and gave a speech but i do think it's difficult to second-guess a sitting secretary of state but i do think that it's important for him to get out there. as i said i'm glad he's going on a trip but he does need to have a full group of people there and they need to get going before it is too late, and i'm very troubled by what i've heard about the cuts in the state department budget. it isn't a big budget in the first place and to think about cutting it more than 30%, even over as the secretary has indicated over a three-year period makes me very, very nervous. >> i know this sounds self-serving but the fact that there have been no interviews, no press conferences, and he is now planning to travel to asia without a press corps, that

raises questions about accessibility and about the ability of the u.s. to cover the secretary of state. i know there were times when i'm sure you didn't like having us on board but we always traveled with you. >> by the way they seem to have plenty of people to get you out of the room, but the bottom line is, i think that you do need to travel with the secretary. i think it's very important. i think the informal discussions that take place in the back of the plane and then in fact having you with us, the press, i think was always a very important message. we believed in the freedom of the press. the press has to report on what's going on, otherwise people will not understand what is going on in america. >> what do you think finally about president trump on twitter accusing former president obama of ordering eavesdropping tapping of his phones at trump tower? >> it's part of inexplicable behavior as far as i can see.

there is no evidence of this, and it's insulting to president obama, who did everything he could to make this a friendly transition, and i think it's appalling frankly. >> it is international women's day. i know you're going to be doing an event out there with your daughter, one of your daughters, katie, and i don't know if your pin today is of a significance. >> it is. we're all trying to wear red in some form, and later i will put on a red scarf in addition but i think we do have to support international women's day. it's very important. i keep being asked about whether the role of women internationally has improved. i think it has, but not enough. i'm concerned about the lack of women at the top of the trump government, even though he has tweeted that he respects women. i do think that we need to support each other. i have said that many, many times, that it's important for us to work together, and i'm

very glad to be out here on international women's day, and katie and i are going to do a program and we're going to talk about the advances that have been made for women but also what much more needs to be done, because we know that societies are more stable when women are politically and economically empowered. >> madeleine albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state, thank you. it's great to see you as always. >> great to be with you, thanks. coming up next, senate minority whip kick it durbin joining me live, the senator from illinois. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" right here on msnbc. but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. oh yes.... even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent.

it's good to be in, good hands.

if it is what it pretends to be, it looks like a very extensive file of the tactics, techniques, procedures, targets and political rules under which the central intelligence agency conducts its computer network exploitation and other activities. so if it is that, it would be very, very damaging. >> that's the former cia director michael hayden, former nsa director talking to me about wikileaks. joining me is jeremy bash who was chief of staff to lean leon panetta at the defense department and cia.

we need better confirmations and the cia is not talking but if true, just how damaging could this be? >> let's walk through andrea what a damage assessment would look like in this case. analysts want to understand what can our adversaries learn by looking at these tools? how will they shore up their own defenses and what tools have we lost? second they'll want to know who gave this information to wikileaks, was this an insider with valid access who walked out of the building or hacked from the outside and third, interested to know whether a foreign power in particular russia was in any way involved. russia has a connection to wikileaks. >> of course front and center in th pre of russian hacking, some cutouts but clearly direct connections so the other question is, how did the cia lose this stuff if they did? they should have been all over

wikileaks because they were already investigating the russia hack. how did they, you know, get surprised and from all indications to us they really did not know this was coming down. >> i think those are going to be the key questions in the coming days and weeks as the intelligence community tears this apart. this will be reviewed internally by the intelligence community, also be reviewed by the congressional intelligence committees on capitol hill, but again, i think their focus will be in part on whether or not an insider had anything to do with this. since snowden, since june 2013, when he left for china, then ultimately settled in russia, the community has been investing a lot in the insider threat problem. they've been putting resources behind it. they've been changing the way they vet and analyze people inside the community, and this is going to really test and stress test that system. >> let's talk about what the cyber both defense and offense are. i remember years ago talking to then incoming cia director leon

panetta about cyber being an important challenge. they stood up this whole new division and in recent years it became very robust. they arguably the bad guys to have our playbook. >> cyber is also part of espionage and that works to defend the united states. in other words, we use these capabilities to actually protect the country from terrorist attack, from missile attack, from our adversaries so i think viewers out there, americans should realize we are the good guys. we've got these tools we need to use them to protect the country. on the other hand, it's important to note because there's a lot of tongue wagging about can your smartphone turn on, no. the cia and the intelligence community collects on people overseas, not on americans and can people overseas reverse engineer these tools to say listen to your smartphone, not really, because once the vulnerabilities are out there on a public website companies that make the devices they can build the right defenses >> so the companies what you've got google and apple and samsung putting patches in maybe in the

last 24 hours? because of this? >> and i think companies are going to be analyzing what's out there publicly and they are working round the clock constantly based on this and other information to resolve any security flaws in their system. they want customers to know their systems are secure. >> but if wikileaks is actually publishing blueprints, the tools, terrorists out there first of all now know what not to say and they're going to find work-arounds from some of these encrypted apps they've been using and other bad guys and other foreign actors as well. >> that's right, why briefs like this is so damaging to american security because it basically gives the playbook to our adversaries and reveals our sources and method, why this is taken seriously and it will be taken seriously, in some ways it's comparable to the snowden disclosures if again this information is accurate, and in part because what snowden disclosed was the way we collect things this is kind of the same thing, it discloses how we in the united states collect

information overseas. >> there's been some argument that this is worse than snowden. snowden disclosed how we collect and who is being, angela merkel, others who were being eavesdropped upon. this is actually the code, the blueprint, the tools for how we do it. >> there appears to be a lot of technical information here. i think it remains to be seen just how damaging it is. wikileaks made some big claims but again they are part of the propaganda arm of the russian federation and others so we should take their claims with a grain of salt. i think only time will tell about how damaging this really was. >> this could be russia through wikileaks trying to say that we are really vastly weakened that we've been penetrated when in fact it's not that bad? >> i believe intelligence community analysts will look carefully at the russian connection and let's be honest, andrea, this didn't drop out of the clear blue sky. this happened in context. it happened during a season here in washington in which the russian connection is much being

discussed, there's a lot in the news about russia and the way they tried to undermine our election and it begs the question about whether this is an operation now again by russia to defer the tension away from that uncomfortable topic. >> jeremy bash, the world of spies, thank you. coming up more on the kremlin connection investigating the russian interference in the 2016 election. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ♪

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. at angie's list, we believe there are certain things you can count on, like a tired dog is a good dog. ♪ [ whimpers ] ♪ so when you need a dog walker or a handyman, you can count on us to help you find the right person for the job. discover all the ways we can help at angie's list. because your home is where our heart is.

will you commit that if you're confirmed you will not impede or shut down any fbi or justice department investigation into russian efforts to influence the 2016 u.s. presidential election? >> on the issue of foreign interference you and i are on the same side. i will certainly support any properly predicated investigation. >> i might say for the record that attorney general sessions was asked that same question at his confirmation hearing and he would not make that same commitment. >> that was of course dick durbin at the hearings for deputy attorney general nominee rod rosenstein expected to clear senate confirmation to fill the void at the top of the justice department investigation after

jeff sessions' recusal one week ago. senator dur kbin joins me now. are you satisfied mr. rosenstein will do everything possible to conduct an independent investigation? he refused to commit to an independent counsel or special prosecutor. >> yes, that's true but i would say this, andrea. i respect him as a prosecutor. once named under a republican president, he was retained by president obama. he is a professional by every standard, and every measure of his performance. we tried to zero in on the special prosecutor. now that jeff sessions the attorney general has taken himself out of at least part of this investigation we want to make certain whoever will initiate it and proceed forward is truly independent. ros rosenstein would not make that commitment yesterday. i hope he'll reconsider. >> as well there's now an

announcement from senator lindsey graham and sheldon whitehouse requesting any data about fisa orders or other warrant applications relating to the tweet from president trump against president obama about wiretapping. do you think they, others in the senate, the intelligence committees perhaps should get access to these highly classified documents to try to substantiate the president's claim? >> i don't know they even exist. let's be honest about this. this was a tweet at 6:30 in the morning. if this were a serious charge by the president of the united states it would be an impeachable offense against a previous president wouldn't he call a press conference in daylight and have people from the department of justice and intelligence agencies. it was a flight of fancy in the middle of the night and many of the republicans who are joining in this chorus ultimately will be embarrassed by this but we need to continue this investigation into the russian connection.

>> do you think this will end up slowing down the russian investigation by sending the congressional committees on the side track? >> sadly that's exactly what the white house is trying to achieve. one of its house intelligence committee chairs says we have to start talking about this wiretap and the leak, anything but the russian connection it's a clear indication they're trying to divert attention. leon panetta said a president who is engaged in this is not going to ultimately win. the president needs to step forward and say we did nothing wrong, we will cooperate fully and that's the best way to get ahead of it. otherwise he's going to be playing catchup all the way. >> i know you know how to count votes. what do you think the prospect for the health care originally proposed is? there's plenty of disagreement among the house republicans and even some sena republicans about the trtory of this legislation. >> the affordable care act was

the first time on a republican agenda with their new president. they were going to repeal it and leave without any fingerprints and it blew up in their face. now we know trumpcare as it's being characterized united america in opposition. i've never seen the kind of opposition come forward from doctors and hospitals and nurses and senior citizens and children's advocates, people who want to protect medicaid and medicaid and the millions of americans who worried their health insurance policies are going to be jeopardized by this new republican initiative. they've got their hands full. >> and finally, finally, i neglected to ask you about this wikileaks claim that they have an enormous dump if it's true of cia top secret information, the tools, the entire arsenal on cyber. >> we have to take wikileaks very seriously. as your previous guest noted they have a known connection with russia, another russian connection, during the campaign, the presidential campaign wikileaks was used as the medium

where they were releasing a lot of this information. i don't underestimate the possibility they have more serious information. what we have at stake is the national security of our country. we cannot play footsies with vladimir putin. we have to be serious with those that threaten us. >> should congress be investigating the appropriate committees? >> of course we need to have an investigation. that's something where the intelligence committee can do an important job for the country. >> thank you senator durbin. good to see you. thanks for being with us. >> thanks, andrea. marc morial, one of the civil rights leaders who met with attorney general jeff sessions tuesday will join me here on "andrea mitchell reports." with e*trade you see things your way. ♪ ♪ you have access to the right information

at the right moment. ♪ ♪ and when you filter out the noise, it's easy to turn your vision into action. ♪ ♪ it's your trade. e*trade. start trading today at etrade.com e*trade. hei don't want one that's haded a big wreck just say, show me cars with no accidents reported find the cars you want, avoid the ones you don't plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing i like it start your used car search at carfax.com termites, feasting on homes twenty-four-seven. we're on the move. roger. hey rick, all good? oh ya, we're good! we're good. termites never stop trying to get in,

we never stop working to keep them out. terminix. defenders of home. there's nothing more important than your health. so if you're on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b here's why. medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. you might want to consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any medicare supplement insurance plan, these help pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and, these plans let you choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. you could stay with the doctor or specialist you trust... or go with someone new. you're not stuck in a network... because there aren't any. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide

and find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. there's a range to choose from, depending on your needs and your budget. rates are competitive. and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. like any of these types of plans, they let you apply whenever you want. there's no enrollment window... no waiting to apply. so call now. remember, medicare supplement plans help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. you'll be able to choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. whether you're on medicare now or turning 65 soon, it's a good time to get your ducks in a row. duck: quack! call to request your free decision guide now. because the time to think about tomorrow is today.

she's noticing a real difference in her joint comfort... "she's single." ...and high levels of humiliation in her daughter. in just 7 days, your joint comfort can be your kid's discomfort. osteo bi-flex. made to move. jeff sessions met with civil rights leaders on tuesday to discuss a wide raping of issues. day with historical significance it was the 52nd anniversary of bloody sunday, the violent clash between police and marchers in selma, alabama, over voting rights an issue of course still being challenged today in many parts of the country, including texas, where attorney general sessions recently pulled back the justice department's legal challenge in the fight over that state's very strict i.d. laws. joining me is jenae gelson, associate director council of the naacp legal defense fund, one of the lawyers arguing the

texas voter i.d. case and marc mori morial, president and ceo of the national urban league at the meeting with attorney general sessions yesterday. tell me about the atmosphere. >> thanks for having me here. >> the objections that prevented jeff sessions from becoming a federal judge and accusations during this conversations. >> this was a candid and serious conversation. >> what did you all say to him? >> we had two purposes for the meeting, one we wanted to present to him the civil rights community's agenda. those things we think the justice department should emphasize and work on during his tenure as attorney general. secondly we wanted to raise strenuous objections to a number of steps taken by him already in his first several weeks as attorney general, one being the muslim ban, not only the first ban, but the second muslim ban,

which we think strikes into the heart of what civil rights and human rights are all about. secondly, we raised objections to the justice department's pivot and i know jenae will talk about this in the texas voter i.d. case, and thirdly, we expressed objection to any effort by the justice department to retreat from any of the 20 police consent decrees that exist where cities have been found to have engaged in unconstitutional policing and now on a corrective action course, as well as urging him to continue the federal criminal civil rights prosecutions and investigations in the walter scott and the eric garner cases, where those men have been victims of unconstitutional policing, and police brutality. so we raise these objections, but it was important because we're historic institutions, who have worked with the justice department, and also held the justice department accountable.

for us to go in, sit across the table from the new attorney general, and really speak truth to power. >> well, he's already said or been quoted as saying he believes that the police issues are anecdotal, suggesting there's no scientific basis for these police cases, loretta lunch most recently right before she left office took the case to chicago and chicago is agreeing they have a long way to go before they're in compliance. jenae nelson, you've been arguing the texas case. i wanted to talk about this dramatic change in the posture of this new justice department on that voter i.d. law, despite several federal judges having ruled it is unconstitutional. >> that's right, at this point we have 13 federal judges and several proceedings that have occurred over the course of years that establish that texas' photo i.d. law the strictest in this country not only has the effect of limiting and in many cases denying the right to vote

to hundreds of thousands of african-americans and latinos, but it was intended to have that effect, and there's voluminous evidence in the record that establishes this. the department of justice has in the past made eloquent and forcement arguments in support of an intent finding and we were before the judge revisiting this issue on tuesday when the day before we got notice from the department of justice that it sought to withdraw its claim. now this is an enormous about-face. it is a 180-degree turn in the prosecution of an incredibly important and well-supported claim of intentional racial discrimination in our election process. that can't possibly bode well for this justice department's commitment to equality in the election processes, and in protecting the rights of minority voters for the next several years. so we are extremely concerned and the meeting yesterday was

not meant to negotiate. it was meant to give notice that civil rights groups will be vigilant. we will stay on the scene. we will continue to prosecute the claims with or without the department of justice, but we will not let the department of justice go quietly into the night and simply abandon its charge to ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice for all americans. >> and marc morial, you laid out the issues that you presented to attorney general sessions. what was his response? >> we really didn't get any response. i don't think we expected a response. as janai mentioned our purpose was to put him on notice, but also our purpose was to make it very clear that these issues, these civil and human rights issues are ish issues for all americans and as the attorney general it's the department of justice, he think he has a solemn obligation and responsibility to be an

aggressive chief civil rights enforcer in 2017 and beyond. so that was the purpose, and the issues we raised certainly are not all of the issues. i should have mentioned that we encouraged and believed that the department of justice should not only speak out forcefully against hate crimes but prosecute those, we've got a challenge in america today, jewish synagogue and jewish community centers and day care centers are being assaulted by these awful hate crimes that seemingly won't quit. the justice department has a responsibility to prosecute the offenders, to investigate aggressively, and prosecute those offenders. so we wanted to basically put them on notice, but we also wanted to establish, if you will, this dialogue. we don't want there to be any question about where we stand, and how strong our resolution to fight for these issues is. >> and janai, when you in texas meet with the judge and you're

going to proceed with these cases but you don't have the justice department backing you up, what is the prospect legally without doj as a partner? >> well, we think the evidence in the record is equally strong, nothing about the department of justice's support of the claim changes the facts, so we feel very confident that the judge will find yet again that texas acted with intentional discrimination, but what is unfortunate is that we don't have the government and the civil rights division to provide the support and frankly the leadership in ensuring equality in our electoral processes, and that's really the most damaging and damning fact of this. >> janai nelson and marc morial, thank you so much. >> thank you. as we mark this international women's day an emerging movement organizers are d calling a day without a woman calls for a one-day strike to high ligt economic impacts of

women. rallies are taking place law lawmakers on the steps of capitol hill wearing red and nbc's anne thompson in central park where another demonstration is under way. >> reporter: i'm at 59th and fifth and let me show you how many people showed up to this rally at noontime. there have got to be a couple thousand people out here. they haven't stopped traffic on fifth avenue but they've certainly given people a reason to stop and look. the organizers here hope to march across central park south and over to trump international hotel. they want to send a message to washington that they want economic opportunity, that they want equal pay, and most of all, to president trump, they want to tell him that women they say will lead the resistance. andrea? >> anne thompson in central park, thank you so much. we'll be right back.

wrinkles? your time is up! new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with the proven power of retinol. reduces wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®

start here. at fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. it's your retirement. know where you stand. you'll always be absolutely...clear. the valiant taste times of death, but once!!

uh, excuse me, waiter. i ordered the soup... of course, ma'am. my apologies. c'mon, caesar. let's go. caesar on a caesar salad? surprising. excuse me, pardon me. what's not surprising? how much money matt saved by switching to geico. could i get my parking validated? fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. joining me is jonathan capehart "washington post" opinion writer. you have the president of the united states on twitter with his own staff not figuring out what the heck was he talking about. nobody is coming out and saying this actually happened. now we have a request to the justice department and others to

come up with the documents for the judiciary committees. >> this is an extraordinary moment that we're in, where the president of the united states gets on a modern communications tool, twitter, levels an incendiary charge against his predecessor and then refuses to provide any kind of documentation or backup to support that claim, and then when our fellow colleagues in the white house press briefing room push the white house press secretary, okay, so where is the evidence, they are mute. the president's tweet speaks for itself. that used to be not good enough, and i think for our colleagues in the white house press briefing room that isn't good enough and the white house needs to understand that at some point, someone is going to have to wrestle the president's whatever machine he's using to tweet, wrestle it out of his hand, hands before he does, says or tweets something that would be even more incendiary and maybe even more dangerous than

what he did over the weekend. >> this one was pretty dangerous even on its face and just briefly on health care, what they are now discovering in putting up this bill and wanting to get it rushed right through the way obama people did rushing through a bill that hadn't been properly read or examined some would say. this is what legislating and governing is all about. >> as president trump said, who knew health care was so hard? >> so complicated. >> yes. >> jonathan capehart, thank you. tech: this mom didn't have time to worry about a cracked windshield. so she scheduled at safelite.com and with safelite's exclusive "on my way text" she knew exactly when i'd be there, so she didn't miss a single shot. i replaced her windshield giving her more time for what matters most. tech: how'd ya do? player: we won! tech: nice! that's another safelite advantage. mom: thank you so much! (team sing) safelite repair, safelite replace.

or keeping a hotel's guests cuttinconnected.i to 35,000 fans... businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink.

the search for relief often leads here.s, today there's drug-free aleve direct therapy. a high intensity tens device that uses technology once only in doctors' offices. for deep penetrating relief at the source. aleve direct therapy. 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.

and that does it for this p unruly edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us on facebook and twitter. craig melvin is up next on msnbc. >> good to see you, andrea. good wednesday afternoon to you. craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york. bad medicine? right now, lawmakers are debating the details of the gop's new health care legislation, house speaker paul ryan guaranties it will pass the house, but a growing course of conservatives, lawmakers, activists, big money donors are against it. can president trump rally republicans to resuscitate support? jobs, jobs, jobs. president trump taking credit again for continued job growth this year. what about his plan to keep it going, to make it greater? i'll ask the union president who sat with trump to talk jobs and wages. and at risk.