that includes the gop alternative to obamacare. back to you. >> another long day for kelly. thank you for that. that does it for us on this monday. i'm louis burgdorf alongside >> well, today is deadline day for the white house to back up the, by all accounts, fantastic claims by president trump that former president obama tapped trump tower. also on the road again. >> millions and millions of women, cervical cancer, breast cancer are helped by planned parenthood. i'm going to protect and save your social security and your medicare. you can do it through medicaid and some other way, this has nothing to do with -- this has to do with humanity. this has to do with having a heart. >> president-elect trump says he'll soon unveil a plan that will provide insurance for

everybody. >> thank you. we will call it donald care. that's good. i haven't thought of that one. >> only this time, president trump is trying to sell a version of health care reform that looks a lot different than the one that he put out on the campaign trail. will his voters embrace a plan that could end up hitting them the hardest? this as everyone april waits the score of the republican's bill by the congressional budget office. we are going to speak this morning with someone who used to run that office, peter orzag. joe has the morning on. with us is on set is mike barnicle. form you're communication directors fted cruz campaign an msnbc political analyst, rick tiler and former democratic congressman harold ford jr. president and ceo of the aspen

institute, walter isaacson and in washington, mark halpern. in nashville, tennessee, which just got socked with a bunch of snow, pulitzer prize historian jon meacham. two storms are expected to merge into a monster nor'easter with almost 100 million americans under winter weather watches or warnings. look at this. bill karins is tracking the storm and we will bring him in in a moment. >> he is a horrible person. >> he is not a horrible person. he has horrible news and he is a horrible person. he says horrible things. this time, i wish he was wrong. >> he does too. >> he does too. let's get to the deadline. here we are. it was not last saturday but the one before where donald trump made those tweets alleging that former president barack obama is a felon. today is the deadline for the

trump administration to provide the house intelligence committee its evidence to back up the president's so far unsupported claim that president obama tapped his phones in the final months of the election at trump tower. the bipartisan leaders of the committee on intelligence congressman david nunez and adam schiff, sent a letter asking the executive brands to share what it knows by today. this as some democrats warned they would walk away from the republican-led house investigation if they believe it is more interested in protecting the white house than uncovering the truth. yesterday, house speaker paul ryan laughed off the president's tweets as just being unconventional. >> you had you're working hand in glove with the president on selling this new health care plan. but over the weekend before you were going to launch this sales campaign, the president sends out four tweets about his predecessor wiretapping him. did that help or hurt? >> that wasn't part of the

health care marketing campaign. >> how much off course did that take you? >> liked this is an unintentional presidency and i think he was just upset -- >> there is conventional and then there is really often new territory. >> look. this is part of what the intelligence committee is investigating. >> speaker ryan also looked to defer to the intelligence committee when pressed about the president's wiretapping claim. >> there has been a lot of reporting about this. there has been looven reportia reporting about this. >> not that barack obama wiretapped donald trump? >> well, that is what the intelligence committee is going to investigate there has been a lot of reporting about this all over the place. >> reporter: you're the member of the so-called gang of he eight and top leaders that get this information. have you seen anything to suggest there are wiretaps? >> no. >> could you clear up this question? >> i don't want to get ahead of the intelligence committee. i don't want to get ahead of the intelligence committee and their thorough investigation.

>> so it seems speaker ryan was having a hard time getting around that. i don't blame him. help me out here. >> you have the speaker of the house in some people's views is slowly becoming unclothed in public. supposedly supposed to be a smart guy and can't tell you how much the health care plan is cost and slowly stripped away from him his business own membership as each day goes by. he is asked about the wiretapping tweet issued by the president of the united states a week ago. he says we have an unconventional presidency. i would say so. you're accusing a former president of being a felon in. >> speaker ryan laughing it off, mark halpern. i've heard from people close, high up in the administration we should look at these tweets as like side bodily functions. i swear to god those were the word that were used. i'm not trying to be snarky. these are the words the president is using to shape the

way people think? whether or not he means to. isn't he, as the president of the united states, shouldn't this be taken at face value seriously and beared out for its truth, or lack thereof. >> on everything he says through twitter he can't erase and has to be responsible for. he didn't tweet anything controversial over the weekend. if you see a turtle on a fence post, as bill clinton would say, it didn't get there by itself. if he tweets and creates controversy and it does create discord with capitol hill. it creates enough distraction that health care can get through. they are trying to do an extraordinary thing and pass health care by basically saying don't listen to the cbo estimates but we don't have our own of the most basic things like cost and who will be covered. i think at this point their best chance to getting it through the house is a fair amount of distraction so people aren't honing in on the question.

i thought speaker ryan saying we don't know what an extraordinary moment. they are trying to take away something that was given to people by the affordable care act. if they have the courage of their conviction saying we don't know might be the right thing, but, boy, is that going to spook a lot of people who now have insurance. >> the president may face pressure within his own party. here is senator john mccain speaking yesterday. >> the president has one of two choices, either retract or to provide the information that the american people deserve because if his predecessor violated the law, president obama violated the law we have got a serious issue here, to say the least. >> do you have any reason to think that this charge is true? >> i have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but i also believe that the president of the united states could clear this up in a minute. >> do you know whether trump tower was wiretapped? >> what i can say there are many

ways to surveillance each other. there was an article this week talking about how you can trace somebody by their phones and certainly their television sets, any number of different ways and microwaves that turn into camera so we know there is a fact of modern life. >> different looks of shock around the table. walter, would you like to take this one? >> first, let's stress how important and just destabilizing to the country it is when you have a president saying a previous president can order wiretaps on people. we know that is not the way government works. >> yeah. >> they are trying to laugh this off. if you undermine this basic premise that we have courts of law that you can't just wiretap people randomly, you know, it's just devastating. so i don't think they are taking seriously enough how devastating

this is to the american system for one president to say my predecessor wiretapped me. >> jon meacham, on walter's point, how concerned are you that there is a form of history repeating itself that may not apply to this country and is there a danger to laughing this off as a distraction? >> of course, there is a danger an i'm worried about my microwave spying on me. we have been living through the trump campaign and unto this hour, this alternative reality where things that they say, which pretty clearly are tenuous at best, or factually wrong at worst, are reported endlessly. it's the nature of prongpaganda. you asked about analyses.

i worry about a propaganda state where people put things out there, the people in power say things, and by either the dent of sheer repetition or the fact that 35, 40% of the country really wants to believe what the administration says, you end up with a huge part of the public holding incorrect facts in their heads. we can disagree on opinions, that's fine, but these assertion are not about arguments about public policy. they are about president trump who is clearly someone who knows how to repeat patterns that have proven basically successful for him and repeating again and again the art of distraction. >> right we are going to get to questions now about michael flynn. we are going to get to this a little bit later about whether or not he was being paid by the government of turkey while he was advising the president on national security. we have huge questions about the stability of this administration

and of this presidency. go ahead. >> all of this feeds into jon's and walter's point you don't want cbo scoring of a health bill because you think their numbers are not accurate. if you have are senior adviser suggesting that the president orders for your television sets and your smartphones to tap you and to listen to you for the benefit of a political benefit for the president, not provide evidence, you have leading republican senators saying if you can't prove it, retract it, mr. president. and one would think a reasonable person would send people out to either put forth the evidence or begin to retract it. kellyanne conway took it to a whole new level on some network she was on. >> she has done that before. >> with the health care. you have nine republican senators, including the head of the republican senate campaign committee questioning whether or not this bill makes sense. not only on the medicaid front but now on the medicare front with $700 billion removed when president passed and republicans

plained about that and now the matter is absent from the conversation and feed to what jon and walter were saying. if you create not only distractions but concerns about government's liability and trust, then people will question whether or not these numbers make sense and perhaps donald trump's health care plan is the right way to go because the scoring is irrelevant because government can't be trusted to produce reliable numbers. >> if this white house is disseminating lie after lie after lie, it will be on the administration and congress to decide how much they think this country can take. >> i think one thing you have to keep emphasizing, this is is not just a health care bill but a massive tax cut for wealthy people. i don't quite get why you would sort of wrench on a massive tax cut for the very, very wealthy as part of a plan for people to lose their health care coverage. it would seem -- >> tax cut comes on the backs of people who are the least in the last many ways in society in

terms of being able to afford health care. i couldn't agree more. but when you question government, like they are questioning it, it makes people believe maybe they are not telling the truth. >> exactly. i think that is happening. mike? >> mark, this quote uttered months ago by steve bannon that the mission is to deconstruct the administrative state. . if you walk around and do your own grocery shopping and stuff like that, part of it seems to be taking hold. they have basically gone after the congress to delegitimatize things. the congress, the courts, the regulatory agencies, a large part of the federal bureaucracy, the state department has no one working this, practically. is this a plan that is constantly being implemented by the white house? is it something that viscerally

feel let's do this and go after this aspect and further weaken things? >> this is an evolving set of questions that you raise because there are some long-term goals about changing the culture of washington. some of them are pop lift and some to the right and some are power politics. i think they are submerged right now because the real focus this week unthey are dealing with the prospect of snow messing everything up. but the real thing this week is trying to get momentum back on health care. so i hear what you're saying about those kind of subterrainian ideas and i think they are part of the calculus. the big thing, front and center for paul ryan, is can they figure out a way to pass through the house, pass through the senate, conference committee, and get something to his desk. we can talk about a lot of other stuff, but i think the administration's fate hangs in the balance, to a large extent o whether they can do that most normal of things which is a new

president trying to pass his first big piece of legislation. >> right. >> he was shaking his head over kellyanne. >> i know. because she -- we won't have her on here live. >> a quagmire. >> it's impossible to watch without being shocked and horrified at the same time. >> i disagree with mark a little bit. this idea of this sophistication of distraction doesn't strike me that paul ryan wants to go out and be distracted by trump's assertion that he was spied on and have keyanne talk about people are spied on through their home devices. >> rick, i'm not saying that is the goal but i think an impact of it. >> yeah, absolutely. but i think paul ryan wants to sell this health care plan. the problem this is not repeal and replace. this is -- >> repeal and take away. >> if you took sean spicer's stack of papers this is the democrat plan and this is the republican plan, the republican

plan amends the democratic plan. just take that republican pile of paper and stack it right on to the other pair of paper and that is your health care bill and that is going on. >> they are repealing it. >> they are not repealing it. >> taking away. >> they are amending it. >> tax cut bill. >> tax cut bill. keep remember that. >> a lot more to get to. ahead we will dig into where the health care bill stands. john kasich sake vice president mike pence is not correct about something he said about the law. before running president obama's budget, peter orszag breaks down the republican plan to replace obamacare or call it something else or just take away health care. first, here is bill karins with a look at the incoming major snowstorm. >> it's a shut down tuesday storm. thankfully in and out in a hurry and maybe wednesday everything back to normal but shut down tuesday type of event. chicago heading into

indianapolis. here is the piece combining later today. 19 million people under blizzard warnings including the jersey shore and new england and southern connecticut and southern hudson valley and 44 million people under winter storm warnings. on the snow map it's easier for me to tell you who won't get a foot of snow than who won't. pink is a forecast for a foot of snow. a huge area. not a foot. maybe 6 to 12 areas out toward state college. d.c. and philadelphia and boston you're right on the edge. that is what we call the high bust potential. areas south of there toward the coach get a lot less. d.c. 4 to 8 and baltimore 6 to 8 and south a lot less and north of those areas 12 to 18. philadelphia i have you in the 8 to 12. further to the north, that is where we are talking new york city looks all snow. 12 to 16. national weather service is saying 20 inches for new york city! that would make it a top ten all-time snowfall for the new york city area. hartford 16 to 20 and timing is starting overnight and gang

buster type snows through southern new england and through the day tomorrow. airport delays and cancellations and school cancellations and everything that comes with a huge major snowstorm. this morning we could be talking about at time square thundersnow. heavy snow with lightning. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. can i get some help. watch his head. ♪ i'm so happy. ♪ whatever they went through, they went through together. welcome guys. life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced.

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than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business. can you say for certain that once this bill is passed, nobody, nobody will be worse off financially when it comes to paying for health care? >> i can tell you right now a lot of people are worse off right now when they are paying for health care and not getting the care they need. if you're an individual out there making 50,000 and 60,000 and your deductible is 8, 10, 12 bucks you may have insurance card but you don't have coverage. >> i notice you ducked the aspect you can guarantee nobody will be worse off financially. >> oh, i firmly believe that

nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we are going through. understanding that they will have choices that they can select the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not the government forces them to buy. >> folks, this just can't continue. and, i promise you, it won't. now, i know that not every politician in kentucky supports our plan to repeal and replace obamacare. i know steve sheers is defending obamacare throughout the country. for us to repeal and replace obamacare once and for all, we need every republican in congress and we are counting on kentucky after a good and vigorous debate, we know kentucky will be there and we will repeal and replace obamacare once and for all! >> the vice president in kentucky on saturday.

a seeming battleground state for both parties over the future of federal coverage. but even the republican governor of kentucky noted reservations ahead of the vice president's appearance telling reporters from friday, quote, senator rand paul is not impressed with what has currently been offered. truth be hold, i'm not either. so i'm with him. >> you say that speaker ryan is pulling the wall over the eyes of the president. really? pulling the wool? >> i think there is a separation between the two. i've talked to the president, i think, three times on obamacare and i hear from him he is willing to negotiate. you know what i hear from paul ryan? it's a binary choice, young man. what does that mean? his way or the highway. everybody is being nice to everybody because they want us to vote for this but we are not going to vote for it. >> of course, there is disagreement as to what we should do with it. this is america. americans have opinions. you can't be married to somebody for two days, let alone 20 some

years, as i have been and be in complete agreement on everything at every time. this idea that it's somehow working in kentucky for those of you part of the national media, i'm telling you it doesn't work in kentucky and you'll see our former governor yet yen try to maintain a semblance saying it's working but it's not not. only half of our counties have a single provider. >> here is republican ohio governor john kasich responding on "meet the press" when they showed him a sound bite from the vice president. >> i'm very confident that this legislation will give ohio both the resources and the flexibility that your governor, your legislature, will need to meet those needs going forward and literally offer our most vulnerable citizens even better coverage. >> is he right? >> no, he is not right. first of all, medicaid expansion covered 700,000 people in my state who are ill and have chronic diseases tend to churn

and move off of that program and then to an exchange that is broken. look. the built needs fixed. the current system doesn't work and why it's possible to get democrats involved but you don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. let me ask you this, chuck. if i put you on an exchange for your family and i give you a $4,000 tax credit what kind of insurance are you buying for $3,000. >> this could not only jeopardize coverage for millions but also republicans control of power in congress. >> i'm afraid that if they vote for this bill they will put the house majority at risk next year. i don't want to see the house majority put at risk on a bill that is not going to pass the senate. that is why i think we should take a pause, try to solve as many of the problems on both medicaid and the individual insurance bill in the house and allow the senate to take its work up. >> tom cotton, a senator from

arkansas, lindy graham, a senator from south carolina, have both said let's slow down. why go so fast? >> that is really puzzling to me. why go so fast? let me see. we ran for repeal and replace in 2010. we ran on reappeal and replace on 2012 and 2014 and 2016. this is a long process and deliberative process. suggesting this is going fast and going through committees and regular order and say we are doing this on order and on the cusp we are keeping our word? i think that is hardly rushing things. >> the president has said there will be a blood bath in 2018 if this isn't passed through the house and senate. >> i do believe that if we don't keep our word to the people who sent us here, yeah. look. the most important thing for a person like myself who runs for office and tells the people we are asking to hire us, this is what i'll do if i get elected and then if you don't do that, you're breaking your word.

>> mike barnicle? >> mark halpern, you just heard the speaker of the house saying seven years running and rereplace and can't tell us what it costs today and the cbo might estimate what it will cost later today. you heard senator tom cotton saying pump the brakes. how wide is the gulf, if there is such a gulf, between the senate version, a few republicans in senate, and the house intent on getting this thing slammed right through? >> today, it's so wide, it's unbridgeable. the health care before confusing and experience. what republicans are proposing, confusing and expensive. and when the cbo numbers come out, the coverage numbers will be looked at but so will the cost numbers. leach republicans the bottom line for them this just can't be a big, expensive plan and has to be changed. like all complicated initiatives go a step at a time and pass it through the house and it looks like they are on track to do that and move it to center of the senate and figure out how to

bridge the difference. with ryan saying we promise to do this p.m. yeah, they did promise repeal and replace. the devil in the details, right? what are they actually offering up? and somebody mentioned before the tax cuts. they promised to get rid of the affordable care tax increases. now they are dealing with the reality that those tax increases were largely on the wealthiest people and democrats have an embarrassment of opportunities here. just a huge target of what do they go after is in the cuts and coverage, the huge costs and so much for them to go after politically and republicans have a lot of defense to play here and try to sell people. i say finally on this being a great plan as opposed to just not the affordable care act. >> mike barnicle? what do you think happens if this whole thing collapses in the next couple of weeks? >> the reason i think paul ryan and the president are saying it can't collapse, i think it's very hard to restart their legislative agenda and move on to tax reform or double back to try to do health care nsome way.

if this can't be done with a new administration all republican control of congress, if they can't fulfill this promise, i think it's a very dire situation. that is why i think it probably won't fail because i think in the end, although rand paul will be impervious to this plea i think a lot of republicans will listen to the new president and say you can't let me down, my presidency is hanging in the balance because i think it is. >> jon memeacham, you have a bi on the table. i can't remember a time when a split between the party what mark described between senate republicans and house republicans over the paramount piece of legislation that they have been talking about for seven years. can you? >> no. and i think part of this is the price of an unconventional, a nice word, presidential leadership. they ran on a slogan not substance repeal and replace, right? so repeal is easy.

and replace, guess what. there is a reason we have been discussing this since theodore roosevelt. a mass proportion of the economy and requires healthy people to pay money to functionally subsidize unhealthy people and it's a social contract. we are at a moment where the social contract is really frayed. one of the reasons donald trump is president is he was able to capitalize on those broken bond. so one of the things -- you know, i admire speaker ryan but, you know, you listen to him and, you know, he's dancing around the reality that what republicans want is they don't seem to believe that health care is a right. they think it's a privilege. and they are trying to figure out a way to deal with their base in that sense and not blow a hole in the deficit. you just can't do it. the numbers don't add up.

>> i know people, like speaker ryan, have a lot on their plate but i would urge them to consider what their reaction would be if some of the things that came out of this president's mouth and on to twitter came out of president obama, his administration. how they would be acting this way and how concerned they would be about the credibility of the presidency and the future of our nation. i'm absolutely 100% dead serious. i ask that they think of it that i and think about what you're going to do and you're going to say and what you should be doing if you heard this from a president that perhaps was not in your party. we could be in big trouble. having said that, rick tyler and harold ford. on the reality of what this plan really does, rick. harold, on the opportunity for democrats. rick, go. >> let's start out with the fact this is all about republicans. all of the clips we saw were all about the divide in the republican party and this is essentially an argument who gets to pay for health care. and should other people pay for other health care? and over arching all of that is

the government the best vehicle to provide health care for everybody? a piece on transportation the other day. we can't take care of our road and bridges. we are going to design a health care plan that everybody is happy with. it's not going to happen. second key point is the bill, the american health care act is -- begins with this is a bill to amend obamacare. it is not a repeal. and it is very hypocritical, in my opinion, to put a bill, to take a bill that they put on a barack obama desk. >> give it a different name. >> repeal because they campaigned on it three years in a row and paul ryan saying we are keeping our promise. they are not keeping their promise. structurally this is the same. refundable tax credits asubsidis for people to -- >> trump promised during the campaign to build on rick's points, no cuts to medicaid,

medicare, or social security. he criticized paul ryan four years ago when the vice presidential nominee saying how can republicans expect to win if you promise to make cuts on those fronts? two. the town hall meetings held with republican congressmen and senators. i think they are shocked about the adversity of group of people not just democrats and progressives but republicans and all walks of people saying you're hurting me and my family. three. the massive cuts to medicaid. look at the counties that he wanted, pennsylvania and ohio and the makeup of those counties 50 to 74-year-olds in those districts. premiums going up for them if you take this away what it means for hospitals and providers. then the backdrop to mark's point he needs to get this through. you have wiretapping and investigation to russia. you have attorney general recusing himself. if this was the only thing happening that would be one thing but you have all of this going on. i believe republicans in the senate to mark's point i hate to disagree with but might be willing to say we will go a

different direction on health care because we don't believe you can bring this party and hold us together and hold these seats and help us win the seats we want to win in 2018. i think a critical moment but i'm surprised if republicans walk away from it. coming up, steve bannon is a fixture at the white house. before that, he was a lot harder to nail town. a new piece in "the washington post" explains how the president's chief strategist was, quote, a virtual no-man a few years earlier. that is ahead on "morning joe." it's an important question you ask, but one i think with a simple answer. we have this need to peek over our neighbor's fence. and once we do, we see wonder waiting.

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appointment. >> i thought they fixed that fence? >> i thought they did too. >> the president called the alleged intruder troubled and praised the set service for doing, quote, a fantastic job. also making news this morning. south korea disgraced ex-president park geun-hye has left the presidential palace two days afs she was officially removed from office and comes after months of political upheaval a massive corruption plan that engulfed her presidency and led to hoer impeachment. she faces possible jail time over bribery and abuse of her presidency. in an interview with the chinese tv station, assad said, quote, any foreign troops coming to syria without our invitation will invaders.

the syrian dictator also criticized president trump saying despite his pledges to increase the fight against isis, quote, we haven't seen anything concrete yet regarding this rhetoric. still ahead, "the washington post" writes that during his political rise, steve bannon was a man with no fixed address. and what is with the tub with acid in it and the broken doors? we are going to bring in the cowriter of that article to explain why. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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nomade. a lot of us have questions for you, sean. i'll just start with bring me to the house that has a bathtub that was cleaned out with acid and broken into pieces? talk to me. start there and we will wind around. >> sure. yeah. came across a lot of curious circumstances here. house you're talking about is one in miami that bannon leased with his ex-wife, his third ex-wife. we talked to the landlords there who said the house was left in disrepair, the bathtub appeared to be burned by acid. some of the doors had been removed. other interior doors had padlocks on them. about $14,000 worth of damage. there is actually e-mail accordance with bannon and the landlord at the time. ed, i'm out of town. can you have my wife, my ex-wife diane take care of this? >> go ahead, rick. we will just leave that hanging, i guess. go ahead. >> rick tyler here. it seems that bannon's life was a little bit complicated.

he lived in california wayne a movie producer and started with breitbart and andrew breitbart decide and he was put in charge of that. he this three marriages. his ex-wife lived in the house you're talking about in florida. no one seems to have seen him there. could this just be possibly a complicated life and there is nothing sort of nefarious here? >> oh, absolutely. you know, part of this is just simple basic biographical information about one of the most powerful people in our government. he clearly moved around a lot. he had a wrerestless energy but also some questions that arose in the course of our reporting. you'll remember that the trump administration made much about people being registered in two states and widespread voter fraud. this invited some scrutiny of bannon's voter registration information. when you look at his registration, him registering at three different addresses in florida over the course of three

years, the question becomes, you know, why? neighbors there said they didn't see him. he never voted in florida. so this raises some questions. >> mark halpern? >> what do you think -- a lot of unanswered questions in your piece because you guys can only get access to so much. what for you are the remaining big unanswered questions you couldn't get to the bottom of in writing the piece? >> one of the big questions, we went to mr. bannon and the trump administration early and said, listen, there is this tax question. florida has no state income tax. given that there is no footprint of mr. bannon in florida and you registered to vote there three times, can you just tell us where he paid his state income taxes? they haven't answered that question. so for me that is a big unanswered question. >> walter isaacson? >> one of the things we were saying, mika, is it would have been useful in cases like this, where people say defending bannon, to say, what would i think if somebody in the other party had done this?

>> right. >> it should work both ways. democrats should say that about republicans. i'm just trying to do the thought experiment of what if valerie jarrett had had three ex-husbands and not paid tax and moved around? republicans would be up in arms. and, likewise, i think democrats have to look at both sides. we just don't do that any more. >> sean, were there any sort of takeaways after putting all this information together? are you left with more question marks? or any conclusions? >> well, the conclusion is that he had a very light footprint in florida which raises the question, given the fact he signed an oath this is his primary residence. there are unanswered questions and we would love to hear from mr. bannon whether he paid taxes in florida or not, and why he took pains to register three separate times in florida but never voted. so i think, yeah, there are some unanswered questions we hope to hear those answers.

>> "the washington post" sean boberg, thank you so much. a fascinating piece and took you on quite a journey. coming up a purge of u.s. attorneys. ahead we will dig into the background of one of them, why he wouldn't resign and how he became known as the most wanted man on wall street. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ♪ why do so many businesses rely on the u.s. postal service? because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. ♪ that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority : you the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says, "you picked the wrong insurance plan." no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car

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snow is coming down in the midwest in places like iowa, but this storm is set to merge with another one, setting what could be a monster blizzard on the east coast. let's bring in bail caill karin more. >> no missing this storm. the snow is falling in iowa and illinois as you mentioned and come thirty-two the great lakes and ohio valley and tonight is the big storm. here is the snowfall prediction map. this pink is a foot. a huge section of almost all of new england and portions of the northeast getting a foot.

d.c. is on the borderline. boston may get a little bit of mixing and could cut totals down a little bit. there are the snow totals. the timing, d.c. snow starts 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. philadelphia right around midnight or so. 7:00 a.m. you do not want to be on the roads tomorrow morning. philadelphia to new york up to southern portions of new england. if you do, people will risk being stranded. it is going to snow very hard tomorrow morning. >> bill, thanks. new questions coming up over michael flynn's ties to turkey. we are looking into what president trump knew and when. today is that deadline for the trump admission to provide the house intel committee with proof that president obama wiretapped trump tower during the election. the ranking democrat on the committee says he is not holding his breath. we will get the latest reporting from nbc news white house reporter hallie jackson and "the

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from the planet zordate 9 ran on earth and they did not come in peace. >> let's get out there and destroy the aliens and save the human race. but, first, your commander in chief wants to say a word. >> hello, yes. what a beautiful day. >> mr. president, what about the aliens? they just vaporized the entire state of california. >> should i win the popular vote? >> please. everyone in california is dead! >> evenarnold. >> bombing in the base. >> troops, the time has come to fight. >> humans! resistance is futile. take me to your leader! >> it's him! >> oh, my god.

welcome back to "morning joe." i should be laughing, right, walter? >> right. >> you know what i need? the bbc guy with the kid and baby, i need that. that was the best thing in the world. the only thing that would make me -- have you guys seen it? >> yeah. >> it's so good. we will pull it up and show it to you. it's the only thing that made me smile all weekend when i was trying to think of work. and it's something that in any way, shape or form has happened to awful us. it's monday, march 13th. joe has the morning off. rick tyler and mike barnicle and harold ford jr. with us and president of the aspen institute walter isaacson. in washington senior political analyst for msnbc and nbc, mark halpern. in nashville, tennessee, pulitzer prize winning historian jon meacham and in washington,

robert costa of "the washington post." the deadline today for the white house to back up the, by all accounts the claims that president trump saying that former president obama tapped trump tower. the bipartisan leaders of the committee on intelligence congressman david nunez and adam schiff, sent a letter asking the executive brands to share what it knows by today. this as some democrats warned they would walk away from the republican-led house investigation if they believe it is more interested in protecting the white house than uncovering the truth. yesterday, house speaker paul ryan laughed off the president's tweets as just being unconventional. >> reporter: you said you're

working hand in glove with the president on selling this new health care plan. but over the weekend, before you were going to launch this sales campaign, the president sends out four tweets about his predecessor wiretapping him. did that help or hurt? >> that wasn't part of the health care marketing campaign. >> reporter: how much off course did that take you. >> like i said, this is an unintentional presidency and i think he was just upset -- >> reporter: there is conventional and then there is really often new territory. >> look. this is part of what the intelligence committee is investigating. >> there has been a lot of reporting about this. there has been a lot of reporting about this. >> reporter: not that barack obama wiretapped donald trump? >> well, that is what the intelligence committee is going to investigate there has been a lot of reporting about this all over the place. >> reporter: you're the member of the so-called gang of eight and top leaders that get this information. have you seen anything to suggest there are wiretaps? >> no. >> reporter: could you clear up this question of wiretaps? >> i don't want to get ahead of the intelligence committee. i don't want to get ahead of the intelligence committee and their

thorough investigation. >> is there a better way of doing this. here is john mccain. >> the president has one of two choices. either retract or to provide the information that the american people deserve because if his predecessor violated the law, president obama violated the law, we have got a serious issue here, to say the least. >> do you have any reason to think that this charge is true? >> i have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but i also believe that the president of the united states could clear this up in a minute. >> there is a worse way of doing this. here is kellyanne conway.

>> do you know whether trump tower was wiretapped? >> what i can say there are many ways to surveillance each other. there was an article this week talking about how you can trace somebody by their phones and certainly their television sets, any number of different ways and microwaves that turn into camera so we know there is a fact of modern life. >> the last time she was on television she said the president has access to information you all don't and therefore it might be true. now she is saying our microwaves can look at us, kellyanne conway in that interview. >> i don't have one of those. >> can anyone help me out here? >> mike? >> i talk to my microwave all the time! robert costa, what is the white house going to do today? ship anything up to the hill? >> well, they are all waiting on the cbo score for this health care plan to see if they can actually continue to make the sale to conservatives that it's going to be within the bounds of what they want in terms of fiscal measures. but i think this intelligence

question with kellyanne conway. >> yeah. >> is an intriguing one, because it would appear she is citing some of the wikileaks documents that mentioned a lot of these intelligence activities or alleged intelligence activities by the central intelligence agency. and the government is often frowned upon using wikileaks as a source due to the way that they acquire information. >> robert, the president, when he was a candidate, continually praised wikileaks. does he yet understand and wikileaks and julian assange are enemies of america? this guy does not like the united states of america. >> we have not seen an articulation of that. anecdotal evidence is anecdotal evidence. we have seen some trump associates like my jnigel farag

recently meet with julian assange at the ecuadorian embassy. >> i need to see that again, if it's okay. i'm not trying to have fun here or be snarky. jon meacham, get ready to help me out here. this is kellyanne conway talking about microwaves and i think doing something extremely destructive and using everything she can to sort of boost her own power within this white house, which seems to have a demented twist to at least one side of, that we all need to look at really seriously. here she is again. let's listen closely. >> do you know whether trump tower was wiretapped? >> what i can say there are many

ways to surveill each other. there was an article this week talking about how you can trace somebody by their phones and certainly their television sets, any number of different ways and microwaves that turn into cameras, so we know there is a fact of modern life. >> is she saying she believe trump tower was wiretapped through the microwave? what is the historical parallel here? >> well, there is actually -- i know -- walter would agree there is a french and indian war. >> that's right. >> but moving on from that. >> what about eleanor roosevelt's hairdryer spying on her? >> she was not answering the question and what chshe was

undermining the trust, trust in institutions. what she says is -- she doesn't answer the question. what i can say is all of this. people, again, who have more mental health than we do and who are moving through the world, oh, that is interesting. i wonder if obama turned on the tvs and the microwaves in trump tower. the historical analogy here is the birther conspiracy. we don't have to go back very far, right? >> right. >> senator mccain says the president need to retract this. he has never retracted that. remember, they had during the campaign, he doesn't want to talk about it any more because it had the effect he wanted it to have. >> she doesn't believe in what she is saying. the reason we won't have her on this show is because a lot of what she says is either not true or she has no idea what she is saying and it's debunked by the very white house she works for. during the campaign when she was very adept at transferring trump's message and talented

some ways an would get off the set and say she need to sta tak shower. and she had trump was her client. we show our viewers most of what they already know because our viewers are really smart, that she is part of something here that might be a serious strain of this presidency that could end unfortunate hurting our republic if washington doesn't do its job. fair to say? >> yes. that is was i was going to address on meacham's point of the historical nature of this. jon, i think it was richard talked about the paranoid style in american politics and this goes way back, which is stoking up conspiracy theories and believing in some paranoid thing. i know you've seen it as a strain in your writing ever since the 1840s. but i kind of feel it ties into that paranoid style in american politics. >> it absolutely does.

this is the way he rose, president trump, has rose to power, are these suggestions about deeper conspiracy. the hoffsteader argument is there is a world controlling your fate to which you do not have the key and he offered himself as the populace savior who would defeat that conspiracy. but, at the same time, this is a man whose lawyer was roy cone. we don't have to go very far here back to mccarthyism. mccarthy rose to power, as most of us know, with the suggestion of wrongdoing, the suggestion of communist affiliation and wouldn't worry much about following up once he got a headline. this is how this white house operates. >> so there are new questions emerging about when the trump team learned that former national security adviser michael flynn was being paid by the government of turkey while

he advised the president on national security. i think that might be a conflict. including flynn attending intelligence briefings while he was taking money to lobby on behalf of a foreign government. on friday, hours after vice president pence and the white house denied knowing that flynn was working as a paid foreign agent, reports reveal that flynn's attorneys told members of the trump transition team that the retired general might need to register his status with the state department. "the washington post" reported, quote, once in a conversation with don mcgan, trump's counsel and with another white house team during the administration's early days. nbc reports one of the contacts came before the election saying flynn's personal attorney contacted the transition attorney general asking advise about filing and he was told

they could not advise him. press secretary of state sean spicer said this about his earlier denial in the white house briefing room. >> there is a big difference between when he filed, which was the other -- two days ago, and what happened then. a personal lawyer of general flynn's contacted a transition lawyer, and asked for guidance on what he should or should not do. the lawyer was instructed that that wasn't the role of the transition and that it was up to the personal lawyer to work with the appropriate authorities or subject matter experts to determine what was appropriate and what was not appropriate in terms of filing. this was a personal matter. it's a business matter. it's not something that would be appropriate for a government entity to give someone guidance when they should file as a private citizen. >> general flynn's links to the turkish government were publicly known as early as november. amid reports flynn working for a company that appeared to be tied to turkey's ruling party.

democratic congressman elijah cummings sent a letter to vice president pence on november 18th, asking about the reports that flynn's company was being paid to lobby the u.s. government on behalf of a foreign government's interests. yesterday, senator john mccain said he is concerned about foreign influences on the president's inner circle. >> there is a lot of things about our relations about russia that trouble me a lot. for example, why was the provision in the republican platform that called for the provision of defensive weapons to ukraine, after being invaded by russia, why was that taken out of the republican platform? clearly, it was not the will of most republicans. there is a lot of aspects of this whole relationship with russia and vladimir putin that requires further scrutiny and, so far, i don't think the american people have gotten all of the answers. in fact, i think there is a lot

more shoes to strdrop from this centipede. >> he reflects swhaf a private consensus on the white house on this front. when they look back at the campaign and all of these questions about russia, paul manafort has deep ties with prorussian forces in the ukraine and general flynn who was really kind of an isolated figure in trump's inner circle, a confidant of the president-elect at the time during the transition who was able to operate as his own foreign policy player within this world. it was manafort during the campaign and then flynn doing all of these different calls and not consulting with the transition team that has become a cloud over this white house and not going away even though manafort and flynn are not not in the government and we are seeing with manafort this continued question what happened in cleveland that led to this change in the republican national committee's platform? still kind of a vague unanswered question of what changed the actual policy for the gop.

>> without getting ahead of our skis, mark halpern, what do you think that could be? >> well, there are a lot of unanswered questions and i think the test for the white house is compartmentalizing it and not from a pr point of view but the republicans on capitol hill as senator mccain showed they have real questions about this and saw it during the iran contraand clinton controversies during his eight years in office. can this white house figure out a way to let the investigations go forward to participate in them and occasionally try to obstruct them, unfortunately, without having it overtake the legislative agenda. i don't know what the answers to the unanswered questions are but i know there are people close to the president and certainly on capitol hill in both parties who think there is more there than it's come at so far. it could destroy the presidency if they don't compartmentalize it or figure out a way to manage this. >> someone has to answer this question. fountain transition team learned that he was representing some sort of turkish interest,

wouldn't it behoove him to take him down a notch or two in terms of participating in the national briefings and wouldn't it have raised involvement in the campaign and other points of the campaign matters that might affect turkey or russia might have been brought up? i heard what sean said but didn't make any sense. he said this is a personal matter. this is a person who is the chief adviser to a candidate for the president of the united states around foreign policy issues and was his designsdides attend the meetings with him. i think the transition team in the white house can't have as it easily and neatly as they are saying. >> robert, that leads to the ultimate question here this morning about this topics and other topics. who is in charge of the white house? is there a chief of staff with enough strength to close the door of the oval office to not let other people in and a chief

of staff to say to flynn, you're gone. is there someone in charge who the president of the united states listens to and respects? >> i think it's steve bannon. bob? >> bannon is by far in terms of foreign policy and thinking through the big picture is the most influential adviser and working with reince priebus. i think it's -- the question is not only is there a chief of staff but is there a lawyer? you look at all of these issues. the white house counsel from one inside of the white house now. he was the counsel during the transition and now the counsel to the white house. he came back during these russia questions who said -- this investigation questions. he told everyone at the white house, based on my reporting, to pipe down and make accusations about a fisa warrant. remember when this came out with the tweets? people inside of the white house were going along with the president's suggestion there could be a fisa court warrant but turns out no evidence of that at all. so you have mcgahn under siege as the white house counsel

because he has all of these different controversies he has to deal with. you wonder are there enough lawyers at the white house? >> no. no, there are not. robert costa, thank you very much. jon meacham, thank you very much. robert, stay with us. still ahead on "morning joe," we go live to the white house where the president holds another event to push the republican health care plan. as we await the score from the congressional budget office, this morning, we will talk to the man who used to lead that agency, peter orszag. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ back on the chain gang of gren mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen.

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consequences for millions of americans and won't deliver on our promises to reduce the cost of health insurance. could not walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the senate and have to face the consequences that have vote. >> seems like good advice, doesn't it? republican senator tom cotton warning house members not to go along with the gop leadership's health care plan. joining us now, nbc news white house correspondent hallie jackson. how does the white house view the first week of the rollout? >> reporter: well, listen. i think a sense there is still a sense there is work to be done. vice president pence went to kentucky to pitch this plan and this is personal for president trump who ran on it, obviously, for a long time repealing and replacing obamacare and getting voverl involved and rolling his sleeves up and reaching out and trying to convince the skeptical lawmakers to come on board and try to figure out what will get them to come on board and met

with senator ted cruz who has been doing some behind the scenes work on this as well. and i wouldn't be surprised if you saw outreach for example senator cotton who is very public with his criticism of the health care bill, particularly over the last week or so as it's been rolled out. remember, today, the president has a listening session. something on his calendar really every day and been for the last week and likely to continue that revolves around health care. the messaging from all of his senior advisers when they go on television and do public interviews has been about this bill. there may be some room for controversy and that something other party leader and elders would like to see. here is john kasich talking with chuck this weekend. >> reporter: do you think he is firm on this bill or is he negotiable? >> how can i speak for him? but if i were to guess, no. i think that he is very open to compromise. he has told me that. for example, he and i talked about the significant increase in pharmaceutical costs and drug costs and medicaid. i think we need to have democrats involved so that what

we do is going to be, not only significant, but will last and then get to the real problem which is the rising costs of health care. i think the president, by the way, would be flexible. i have no doubt he would be flexible. he just wants to get something through. >> reporter: so there you have it from governor kasich there. the president is heading to nashville later on this week we understand is a campaign event and put on by the campaign. when you talk to officials sort of on that campaign side and not the white house official said they say we are talking about jobs and talking about the economy and his agenda overall as well so not surprising to see him do a hard sale on health care there too. >> nbc's hallie jackson. thank you. bob costa, where does this go procedurally next and are we going to get that information for the intelligence committee about the claims that obama tapped the white house? -- or trump tower. >> the intelligence committee on capitol hill is one by the

republicans have a challenge in front of them because in some respects, they want to support this president because he is in their party. but it's going to be hard to see where the evidence comes from. we are going to really have to watch closely, are they providing any kind of backup to the president's allegations? on health care, major challenge this week for the white house. how does this congressional budget office and its report on the score really affect the debate inside of the republican party? you got -- this is not a trump style republican party on capitol hill. they don't want to do too much spending. they are also going to test the president on things like medicaid. the plan currently phase out the medicaid expansion by 2020 and many want to fade it out by 2018. they want to bring the bill more to the right as trump seems open to negotiation. >> bob costa, thank you. walter, final thoughts from you. i'm wondering how important it

is that the republicans today hold the white house accountable on these so far unconfirmed claims about tapping trump tower. how important would it be for them to get an answer or to require that the president actually say it's a lie? >> i think it's very important to figure out and to be able to say to the american people, no, presidents can't just order wiretaps. and i think it would be really good to clear it up. to get back to the health care bill for a second. when he is talking about compromise and that he'll compromise maybe, phase out medicaid more quickly to please the conservatives, you're also hearing people want compromise, like john kasich and senator dean helder who is a republican saying it has to be made not more conservative. i don't know if you can find a compromise that easily. >> nobody is talking about the massive medicaid cuts.

it's a lot of mess there. >> trump has built-in disadvantage in the sense he haever been dohas never been down for the cause. it requires reciprocal respect. they say i have to support my president they have to know they got your back and i'm not sure they believe that. >> could trump have done something different, which is go and bring in chuck schumer and others and say do it bipartisan? >> i think he can and i wouldn't wou count it out. >> the only way to get it done. we want to do the toddler is taking over the interview. this is the only thing -- i couldn't crack a smile. "saturday night live" couldn't make me crack a smile this weekend but these babies did. also ahead, before being fired by the trump administration, u.s. prosecutor pharara was a powerful figure in new york and some are wondering if the dismissal is setting him up for a potential political run. we at all about that next.

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♪ the trump administration has dismissed dozens of obama era prosecutors at the justice department. on friday, attorney general jeff sessions asked all remaining 46 u.s. attorneys appointed by president tomorrow so submit their resignation. while the analysis was bankrupt but far unprecedented for a incoming administration to clean house. janet reno replaced all of the u.s. attorneys in the country in 1993. preet bharara was appointed by president obama in 2009. in 2012 he was featured on the cover of "time" magazine with the headline "this man is busting wall street." it's not unheard for a prosecutor to stay on beyond their term.

in this case, ba regaharara sa wanted him to. >> we had a meeting and i agreed to stay on and i already have spoken to senator sessions is the nominee to be the attorney general, as you know. he also asked that i stay on. so i expect i will be continuing the work in the southern district. >> despite that meeting at trump tower, bharara received a phone call on friday instructing him to resign. sources tell nbc news bharara told his staff he planned to stay on and had no intention of resigning. the follow day, bharara announced on twitter he had been called. critics are calling in question the timing for the mass push of resignations. on the evening prior to the announcement, fox news sean hannity on his show appealed to the president and they are tight, hannity and trump, to conduct an extensive government purge and to fire anyone and everyone who is actively working against him in government.

they are very tight. maybe trump heard him? some are making that connection. i don't know. that would be ludicroalloweludi. republican congressman steve king tweeted, thank you for purging 46 remaining obamacare appointees. we can't restore rule of law for people who were tasked to destroy it. "the wall street journal" sources, a white house aide who said, quote, the u.s. attorneys are political appointees and all 46 holdovers from the obama administration received the same resignation letter. it is fair to say 45 of the 46 behaved in a manner befitting the office. the aide added as much as preet wants everything to be about preet, everyone was treated the same way. it was tweeted it was my understanding the president said anonymous sources are not to be believe. owner man. let me warn you about preet.

he is not going away at all. he just is not. joining us is sheila who is a writer for sustainable development at columbia university, also jeffrey sachs. sheila is the author of the new book "black edge inside information dirty money and the quest to bring down the most wanted man on wall street." which is about hedge fund manager steve cohen. also joining the table news and finance anchor at yahoo! bianna golodryaa. okay! wow! i want a taste of that lecture and also your take on preet since this timing of this book and everything else we are talking about all seems to be coming together at a very fast pace. >> preet's legacy is largely going to be about his wall street cases and his public corruption cases. and for the wall street cases in particular, he is going to be as well known for the cases he did not bring as the ones he did.

now, he brought the historic series of cases against hedge funds including the capital i wrote about in this book. he cracked down on insider trading that spread around the bush administration and wall street. however, he is widely criticized for not having pursued high-level executives at banks and wall street firms to crimes pertaining to the financial crisis. that is sort of a big blemish. >> what would the crimes be, though? we keep hearing this over and over. no one ever went to jail. what would they go to jail for? what is the intent? >> for example, lehman brothers which went bankrupt at one of the first firms to go under in the heat of the crisis. >> not really a bank. >> but a big investment bank. they had executives who were out there telling investors one thing about the health of their finances and amount of subprime mortgage said they owned and a

short time later, the bank went up. people who believe that somebody was saying something that was not true and it is a little startling to kind of the man on the street that no one from lehman at a high level was ever charged with anything. people don't understand that and i think a lack of prosecutions in that area has kind of directly led us to the current political -- >> the headlines seem like a lot out of the show "billions" but this is actually playing out in real life. how is wall street, in your opinion, reacting to the preet news, jaefeffrey? >> they are already on top. the truth is wall street was guilty and has remained guilty of massive numbers of crimes and financial fraud, and so they have been paying fines of more than $200 billion. but all of these fines have been against the companies. they haven't been against any individual charged. so there has been tremendous malfeasance selling securities

that are known to be toxic and then ending up paying fines on those price rigging and the market and others, insider trading. in the end, the big decision that was taken by the s.e.c. so a lot of consternation inside was don't go after names. go after the company. in the end, the companies just brushed this off. i think this is probably the most important reality that has remained from 2008. >> when did that direction come down to the s.e.c.? >> apparently, after -- >> apparently? >> wait a minute. let me finish. >> okay. >> let me explain. in the early 2000s there were cases against individuals in the case of tico and enron. then the decision, as judge raycoff on our panel at columbia university explained on friday, they thought, maybe this is more systemic and it's behavior within the firms and it's not

individuals, so maybe we should shift the emphasis of enforcement towards companies, rather than towards individuals involved. >> but is part of this -- and you're both right. people are walking around, how come nobody ever went to jail. everyone gets that. but is part of it the confusion, the definition between -- what is a hedge fund and what is a bank? >> well, they are very different but they are part of the same ecosystem and they live off of one another, but hedge funds are private pools of money, largely catering to very wealthy investors and institutions. they are lightly regulated. in changes for only taking money from very wealthy sophisticated invest o, they are given a lot of flexibility by regulators to invest how they want. bank is the official kamticapit market system to help channel money to businesses and they have become increasingly

involved in trading activity. >> her book explains beautifully that steven cohen was trading on insider information. >> right. >> but he was never charged. and he walked away with $10 billion of wealth. he'll be opening up his hedge fund again shortly, it seems. and that is the story of where is the accountability? >> lower level people ended up going to jail, but not the big names. >> the book is "block edge." thank you so much for being on. jeffrey sachs, thank you as well. we are reading your book "building the new american economy." president trump loves talking about the power of social media. >> i really believe the fact that i have such power in terms of numbers with facebook, twitter, instagram, et cetera, i think it helped me win all of these races where they are spending much more money than i spent. >> but it's not about friend and followers. we are going to you take the

ucla prefer who is traofessor w trump's cyberteam in cyberspace. "morning joe" is coming back. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss

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xfinity. the future of awesome. syrian president bashar al assad is speaking out additional u.s. troops being deployed to syria to fight isis. in an interview with a chinese tv station, assad said any foreign troops coming into syria without our invitation are invaders. the syrian dictator also criticized president trump saying despite his pledges to increase the fight against isis, quote, we haven't seen anything concrete yet regarding this rhetoric. his remarks come as dual bombings killed in damascus killed 40 people and injured 120 on saturday. amid the heart breaking news that continues to pour out of that region, we recently sat down with the director and one

of the main subjects of the new hbo documentary "cries from syria." >> regime starting to call us terrorists. >> reporter: we do not stray. bottles of water, he call us terrorists? >> that was a clip from the new hbo documentary "cries from syria." joining us now, the film's director, evgeni and one of the main subjects of the documentary syrian activist whoknew helme. we got a sense of what is in the documentary. what were you hoping to project

when you put this together? >> i think i was trying to tell the story of the refuges and started from the european union where i was following the refuges and realized the history is on the dark side of humanity and darkest point in the syrian history so i technical reconstructed the history from the beginning how it started to the torture and killing kids and up until today, the kid are the victims. so i try to tell the story of this. at the same time, revolution of a wall and then a wall of torturing over days. >> can you describe for people who only see syria occasionally in 30-second clips on tv on the news, what it's like to live under the lethal aspect of potential death? your death every hour of every day? >> i mean, it's really difficult just to summarize things, but on

a daily basis, like, you get up in the morning and the sound of the shelling, and you expect that that any moment, a missile will land over your house and kill people. people. it's not the problem that you will be killed. for example, i don't care if i was killed or not. it's my mom, my dad and the kids. >> why wouldn't you care whether you were killed? >> because i am fighting for a cause and i know bashir al assad is after me. icon firm with the security forces in the street. at the brisk of a moment they would shot me dead. i'm not afraid. itis the matter, if i die, i don't care anymore. if my mother died, then it will kill me or if i lost my father or my nephew, my niece. we live all together in the same house. if i lost them, i will lose my

mind. i lost my brother. they arrested him at home. it's either the death of the missile or the security forces break into your home at any moment and arrest anyone. >> tell me about your brother. >> he was born in 1998 doing economics and doing his masters degree in economics. he's a great guy. he is younger than me, but he was my mentor. he is highly educated. he has great hopes of change and bringing all the hopes and the dreams into our home country, but he was arrested from home. >> you were -- you have been following the anti-assad movement. a lot of people that we have asked that have been on this set why aren't we doing more in syria to help the anti-assad forces, they say we don't know who they are and they are too

scattered. is there unity there among the various groups? >> it's hard to say the unity. the unity began at the beginning of the revolution, they were all united. through the propaganda machines and situations, the assad regime, through the propaganda machines, they separated people in the groups. they still live the dream and they still live with the hope. so, people still dreaming about free syria and believing they will come back this year and reveal it. this hole is so the kids eyes brought into the movie. i tried, for the first time to put a comprehensive story versus segments of the news, like you mentioned, try to put it together in one context the images of the kids and voices of the kids and bring into the movie. >> vladimir putin and the russians are dropping bombs not

to go after isis like he claims, but to kill the syrian people? >> yes, i do believe this. because the russian air jets raid the city. i mean the position cities on a daily basis and kill large numbers of people. actually, to tell the truth, i know the syrian arms are russian made. but, i mean, when airplanes used to flew over towns and cities, because it's old arms. i mean they hit some things. it's one building or two buildings that are hit. so, the casualties are not in large numbers. when the russian air strikes, when i call my friends, they say that it's the sound of the jets coming over our heads, it scares us to death. we feel ourselves dead when we hear the sounds of the air jets.

then, no neighborhoods. >> cries from syria premiers tonight on hbo. thank you both for much for being on the show with us this morning. you know with all the concerns about it, we lose the humanity of this and what is happening in syria, the russian connection there. are we going to hear from rex tillerson or from somebody high up on the foreign policy team about a clear strategy a clear doctrine as to where we stand on these issues or are we mired in questions of corruption? >> we know rex tillerson is going to be in asia this week. russia's got its big foot in syria right now. president trump, throughout the campaign said syria would not be an issue under his presidency. this cornage wouldn't be going

on. i hope the president sees stories like this. this isn't just about war. this is about people, humans, innocent people suffering. >> you have to have a credible voice to be able to take on evil, right? >> a thousand marines on the edge of the syrian-turkey border. syria imploding from within. the secretary of state, the second most important voice in american foreign policy around the world without a voice. >> accusations of war crimes being committed by russia in syria now. >> on that happy note, still ahead, he made the claim and put the burden of proof on congress. now, time is just about up for the president to hand the house intel committee any evidence at all, any, that president obama wiretapped trump tower, which he claimed he did. >> a microwave oven. >> and kellyanne cony. kellyanne conway was just on the morning shows.

we are going to cut some fresh sound from that. i'm sure it will be -- what's the word? i actually don't think it is going to be fun, a lot of fakery. plus, is the trump administration nervous about the pending cbo take on the health care bill. >> they are not providing appropriate coverage statistics. >> i love the folks of the cbo, they work really hard, but sometimes we ask them to do stuff they are not capable of doing. estimating the impact of a bill this size is not the best use of time. sthak comment from the omb director had one of our next guests speechless. potter orzach joins us next.

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together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free. see you around, giulia today is deadline day for the white house to back up the, by all accounts, fan tast cal claims by president trump that former president obama tapped trump tower. also, on the road again. >> millions and millions of women, cervical cancer, breast cancer, are helped by planned parenthood. i am going to protect and save your social security and your medicare. you can do it through medicaid.

you can do it through some other way. i'm saying simply, this has nothing to do with -- it has to do with humanity and having a heart. >> president-elect trump says he will soon unveil a plan to provide insurance for everybody. >> thank you, we'll call it donaldcare. good. haven't thought of that one. >> only this time, president trump is trying to sell a version of health care reform that looks a lot different than the one he put out on the campaign trail. will voters embrace a plan that could hit them the hardest? this as everyone awaits the score of the bill by the congressional budget office. we are going to speak with someone who used to run that office, peter orr zach. good morning. joe has the morning off. with us on set, we have veteran columnist, mike barnicle, former communications director for ted

cruz's 2016 campaign and now msnbc contributor, rick tyler, professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman, harold ford jr. >> good morning. >> walter isaacson and in washington, senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc, mark halperin. in nashville, nashville, tennessee that got socked with a bunch of snow, jon meacham. natchville was hit with snow over the weekend. that storm is coming east. two storms expected to merge into a monster nor'easter with almost 100 million americans under winter weather watches or warnings. look at this. bill karins is tracking the storm. we are going to bring him in in a moment. he's not a horrible person, just horrible news. whatever. says horrible things. this time, i wish he was wrong. i don't think he's going to be.

>> he does, too. >> yeah, he does, too. let's get to the deadline. here we are. it was not last saturday, but the one before where donald trump made those tweets alleging that former president barack obama is a felon. today is the deadline for the trump administration to provide the house intelligence committee its evidence to back up the president's so far unsupported claim that president obama tapped his phones in the final months of the election at trump tower. the bipartisan leaders of the committee on intelligence sent a letter asking the executive branch to share what it knows by today. this, as some democrats warned, they would walk away from the republican led house investigation if they believe it is more interested in protecting the white house than uncovering the truth. yesterday, house speaker, paul ryan, laughed off the president's tweets as being unconventional. >> you said you work hand in

glove with the president on selling this new health care plan. over the weekend, before you were going to launch this sales campaign, the president sends out four tweets about his predecessor wiretapping him. did that help or hurt? >> that wasn't part of the health care marketing campaign. >> how much off course did that take you? >> this is going to be an unconventional presidency. he was upset -- >> there's unconventional and really off into new territory. >> look, this is part of what the intelligence committee is investigating. >> speaker ryan looked to defer when pressed about the president's wiretapping claim. >> there's been a lot of reporting about this. >> remember, there was an investigation by the intelligence committee. >> not from a wiretap dynamic. >> that's what the intelligence agency is going to investigate. there's a lot of reporting about this all over the place. >> you are a member in the gang of eight, the top leaders that get this information.

have you seen anything to suggest wiretaps? >> no. >> could you clear up this question? >> again, i don't want to get ahead of the intelligence committee. i don't want to get ahead of their thorough investigation. >> so, it seems speaker ryan was having a hard time getting around that. i don't blame him. does anyone -- help me out here. should he -- >> you have the speaker of the house in some people's views is slowly becoming unclothed in public. supposed to be a very smart guy. he comes out with this health plan, can't tell you how much it costs and it's slowly being stripped away from him by his membership. he's asked about the wiretapping tweet, issue by the president of the united states a week ago. he says, well, we have an unconventional presidency. yeah, i would say so, you are accusing a former president of being a felon. >> speaker ryan laughing it off. i have heard from people close, high up in the administration we

should look at these tweets as, you know, side bodily functions. i swear to god those were the words used, i'm not trying to be snarky. those are the words the president is using to shape the way people think, whether or not he means to. isn't he the president of the united states? shouldn't this be taken at face value, seriously, and beared out for its truth or lack there of? >> everything he says, including through twitter, he can't erase. he did not tweet anything controversial over the weekend. i don't think that's an accident. as bill clinton said, if you see a turtle on the fence post, he didn't get there by himself. if he tweets, it creates controversy and discord with capitol hill. i have to say, it creates enough distraction for health care to get through. they are trying to pass health care saying don't listen to the cbo estimates, but we don't have

our own of the most basic things like cost and who will be covered. at this point, the best chance to get through the house is having a fair amount of distraction so people aren't honing in on the question. i thought speaker ryan saying we don't know was an extraordinary moment. they are trying to take away something given to people by the affordable care act. saying we don't know is the right thing. is that going to spook a lot of people that have insurance? >> the president may face people from within his own party if he backs up allegations or makes amends. here is senator john mccain speaking yesterday. >> the president has one of two choices, retract or provide the information that the american people deserve because if he predecessor violated the law, president obama violated the law, we have a serious issue here, to say the least. >> do you have any reason to think this charge is true? >> i have no reason to believe

that the charge is true, but i also believe that the president of the united states could clear this up in a minute. >> you know whether trump tower was wiretapped? >> what i can say is there are many ways to surveil each other now, unfortunately. >> do you believe -- >> there was an article that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets, any number of different ways. microwaves that turn into cameras, et cetera. we know that is a fact of modern day -- >> there's different looks of shock around the table. walter, would you like to take this one? >> first, let's stress how important and just destabilizing to the country it is when you have a president who says a previous president can just order wiretaps on people. we know that's not the way government works. >> yeah. >> they are trying to laugh this off. if you undermine this basic

premise that we have courts of law that you can't just wiretap people randomly. it's just devastating. i don't think that taking seriously enough how devastating this is to the american system from one president to say my predecessor wiretapped me. >> jon meacham, on walter's point, how concerned are you that there's a form of history repeating itself that may not apply to this country and is there a danger to laughing this off as a distraction? >> of course there's a danger. i'm worried about my microwave spying on me and all sorts of things. they live in -- we have been living in really through the trump campaign and unto this hour, this alternative reality where things that they say, which obviously -- pretty clearly are tenuous at best or

factually wrong at worst, are reported. it's the nature of propaganda. you asked about analogies. there's a -- i worry mostly about the rise of a propaganda state where people put things out there. the people in power say things and by either the dent of sheer repetition or the fact that 35% or 40% of the country really wants to believe what the administration says. you end up with a huge part of the public holding incorrect facts in their heads. we can disagree on opinions, that's fine. these assertions are not about arguments about public policy, they are about president trump who is clearly someone who knows how to repeat patterns that have proven basically successful for him, repeating again and again the art of distraction. >> still ahead on "morning joe," we have been talking about the president's social media use as

a distraction for getting policy plans through. is there more to it than that? we are going to look into a report on how the president's team has been making the most of social media analytics to get their message across. first, the widening rift among republicans and what should be done about their party's health bill with key stress tests coming this week. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie!

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folks, this just can't continue. i promise you, it won't. [ applause ] >> now, i know that not every politician in kentucky supports the plan to repeal and replace obamacare. i know your former governor has been defending obamacare all over america. this is going to be a battle in washington, d.c. for us to seize this opportunity to repeal and replace obamacare once and for all, we need every republican in congress and we

are counting on kentucky. after a good and vigorous debate, we know kentucky will be there and we will repeal and replace obamacare once and for all. [ applause ] >> the vice president in kentucky on saturday, a seeming battleground state for both parties over the future of coverage. the former governor of kentucky noted reservations ahead of the vice president's appearance telling reporters, quote, senator rand paul is not impressed with what has been offered. truth be told, i'm not either. i'm with him. >> you that he is pulling the wool over the president, really, pulling the wool? >> i think there's a separation between the two. i spoke to the president about obamacare and he's willing to negotiate. from paul ryan, it's a binary choice. what does that mean? right now, i think there's a charm going on.

>> this is america. americans have opinions. you can't be married to somebody for two days, let alone 20-some years as i have been and be on complete agreement. this idea that it's working in kentucky, i'm telling you, it doesn't work in kentucky. you are going to see our former governor, yet again, try to maintain a semblance of legacy telling you it is working. it is not working. >> resources and flexibility

they need to meet those needs going forward and offer vulnerable citizens better coverage. >> is he right? >> no, he's not right. first of all, medicaid expansion, which covered 700,000 people in my state, a big chunk of whom are mentally ill and full of chronic diseases, they churn and move off that program, then they have to go to an exchange that is broken. the bill needs fixed. the current system doesn't work. that's why it's possible to get democrats involved. don't throw the baby out with the bath water. let me ask you this, chuck. if i put you on an exchange for your family and give you a $4,000 tax credit or $3,000 tax credit, what kind of insurance are you going to buy? >> party leaders warn this version of the bill could not only jeopardize coverage for millions but republicans control of power in congress. >> i'm afraid if they vote for this bill, they are going to put the house majority at risk next

year. i don't want to see the house majority put at risk on a bill that is not going to pass the senate. that's why i think we should take a pause, try to solve as many of the problems on medicaid and the individual insurance market in this bill in the house, then allow the senate to take its work out. >> tom cotton, senator from arkansas, lindsey graham from south carolina both said let's slow down. why go so fast. that's actually really puzzling to me. why go so fast? let me see, we ran for repeal and replace in 2010. we ran for repeal and replace in 2012, 2014 and 2016. this has been a long process. suggesting this is moving fast, going through four committees, saying we are going to do this for seven years, now come to the point, we are on the cusp of keeping our word, i hardly think that is rushing things. the president said there will be a blood bath in 2018 if it's not

passed. >> if we don't keep our word to the people who sent us here, yeah. the most important thing for a person like myself who runs for office and tells the people we are asking to hire us, this is what i'll do if i get elected. then if you don't do that, you are breaking your word. >> mike barnicle. >> you heard the speaker of the house running on repeal and replace and they can't tell us what it costs. the cbo will estimate what it might cost. you hear tom cotton say pump the brakes. how wide is it between the senate version and the house intent on getting this slammed right through? >> today, it's so wide, it's unbridgeable. the health care system before affordable care act was confusing and expensive. affordable care act, confusing and expensionive. what the republicans are

offering, confusing and expensive. the bottom line is going to be this can't be a big, expensive plan. it has to be changed. they are going to go a step at a time, pass it through the house. they are on track to do that. then move it to the senate and figure out how to bridge the difference. the big problem i think you see there with ryan is they are saying we promised to do this. yeah, they promised repeal and replace. the devil in the details, right? what are they offering up? you know, somebody mentioned before the tax cuts, they promised to get rid of the affordable care tax increases. now, they are dealing with the reality the tax increases were on the wealthiest people. democrats have an embarrassment of opportunities here. a huge target. what do they go after? cuts and coverage? the huge costs. there's so much to go after. republicans have a lot of defense to play and try to sell people. finally, on this being a great plan as opposed to not the

affordable care act. >> let me ask you a question. what do you think happened if this collapses in the next couple weeks? >> the reason paul ryan and the president are saying it can't collapse, it's hard to restart their legislative agenda, move on to tax reform or do health care in some way. if this can't be done, all republican control of congress, if they can't fulfill this promise, it's a very dire situation. that's why i think it probably won't fail. i think, in the end, although rand paul is impervious to this plea, they will listen to the new president as bill clinton did, george w. bush did. my presidency is hanging in the balance. i think it is. >> we'll have much more ahead on this conversation. the cbo director, peter orszag joins us. we'll get the appraisal of what's to come in washington and what it means for every day people to whom this isn't just

political football. we're back after this.

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a nor'easter. >> i don't see how this won't end up historic. the players are on the board. the storm is over illinois. a storm forming up the southeast coast. they combine for the nor'easter and blizzards tomorrow. blizzard warning, 19 million people in new jersey and new york city. we'll get to the snow map. this is today, this one, two to three inches in the ohio valley and southern great lakes. late tonight and tomorrow, we see a bulls eye here. the pink is a foot of snow. it goes from all of new england to the mid-atlantic. this is 18 inches of snow in this area of red. that's a foot and a half. this is areas that haven't seen that much snow this winter. d.c., you are on the border of the southern edge of the snow, 4-8 inches. baltimore, 6-10. north of that, you are getting foot. philadelphia, 8-12. areas of eastern pennsylvania, that's where you are dealing with 12-18 inches. new york city, 12-16.

the weather service has new york city at 20 inches. we may get sleet mixing in. that's a huge historic storm for new york this time of year. 16-20 in var vard. boston, 8-12. here is the timing. snow starts in d.c. by the time we get to 10:00 p.m. this evening. snow by 7:00 a.m. in southern new england. very heavy know in philadelphia to new york city. here is the mix line. that's what we will watch closely. new york city stays all snow. we have the possibility of an historic top ten new york city storm. still going strong in eastern new england. for this time of year, this late in the season, this is a very impressive snowstorm. this will be a shut down tuesday event for much of the northeast region. new york city, sunny, cold and nice, setting the stage for a very snowy tuesday. more "morning joe" when we come back.

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management budget office, peter orszag. they are married. that's why you see the tension there. >> no tension. >> they keep leaning into each other. that's good. i guess it would be worse if it was like that. >> peter, we are waiting for the stress test to come through. how important is it and can it be debunked? >> it's very important. i think it's difficult to debunk it. they are trying to raise questions about cbo in general. i'm not sure that's going to work. >> right. >> they are problem is going to be in the senate where you have a lot of senators raising questions and coverage number that is are terrible, premium number that is are terrible are obviously going to raise a lot of problems. >> right. >> when you ran the deal, anything like this comes out, here is the cost estimate. how unusual is it for a structural change in a potential piece of legislation as this is

to be issued and voted upon in committees without a cost attached to it? >> i have never heard of that. i mean it's very, very unusual. >> period. amen. so, kellyanne conway was on the "today" show and gma this morning. ma matt lauer questioned her. take a look. >> if we couldn't believe what he was saying during the campaign, if he was calling these numbers fake when they were real because they are real now, where is the credibility in that? >> he's talking about thing that is were fake, you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor and you can keep your plan if you like it. there's a lot of fakery going on. health care is the first major priority. he's out there saying to americans who feel like they can't get care and coverage. we have five states now, one in

five americans in this country live under one choice. it's not a choice if you have one insurance provider. >> in fairness, that doesn't answer the question. the jobs numbers, fake then, real now. >> fake then, real now. are they going to do the same to the cbo numbers an can they? >> they already are. you see my successor as omb director saying cbo is not worth their time to be evaluating this legislation. i think they are already trying to get in front of this. i don't think it's going to work. >> what was your reaction to that interview? you watched that on "morning joe"? >> i always watch. >> of course. i should have said it like as if. it must have been fan tast cal watching him. >> that's the whole point of the congressional budget office. that is what it is supposed to do. >> why it exists? >> the supreme court should not

say whether it's constitutional or not. it is why they are there. >> do they have gimmicks that might skew the score? >> there are a couple things worth paying attention to. one, they spent a lot of time with the cadillac tax against high cost insurance plans, but they bring it back into existence in 2025. i think the only reason for doing that is to make the budget numbers look better. the other thing they have done is, there's a requirement as part of obamacare that an insurance plan pays at least 60% of the total cost of your health care. what if, for example, they have eliminated that. what if a plan pays for a penny on the dollar? does that count as insurance? cbo said no, but we don't know where that line is. >> cbo decides that? >> cbo decides that. >> if you believe, as many people do, who are in the health care industry that one of the biggest reasons for the increase

in health care costs over the past 10, 20 years is among the poor, and the elderly sometimes they disappear in terms of health insurance, becomes too costly for them, yet, it seems in this particular bill, more attention is paid to giving the wealthy tax breaks than it is to addressing the inability of the poor to pay for health insurance. >> the people that are going to be hit the hardest in this legislation are low income or moderate income, right above the medicaid limit. low to moderate income in high cost states where the cost of care is very high and holder people. older, low income people living in alaska or north carolina where the cost of care is high. the numbers in alaska are horrifying because premiums there are very high. under obamacare, the subsidies vary with the local cost of care.

under the new approach, they don't. >> how do you go about costing out a bill prior to putting it out, which they haven't done. how would you have done it? how is it done? >> cbo uses a -- there's an economic model, basically. admittedly, there's been a lot of talk about this. models aren't perfect. there's a lot of discussion about cbo getting it wrong on the number of people who are on the exchanges. that misses the point. what they got right is the number of people who lack insurance. they got the mix wrong. fewer people are on exchanges. more people retained their employer provided insurance. if you look in 2012, after the supreme court decision, cbo projected there would be 29 million uninsured people this year. now 27 million. >> wow. >> that's almost spot on. >> okay. >> on this issue of questioning fake news and whether or not the cbo is credible. peter said one thing he loved about working at cbo is you were

able to focus on the data and statistics. you are a nonpartisan entity. you may get things wrong, but you are not political. this turned into a political issue. >> it has. i want to bring you in on something and sharing a story. you may be wondering why i'm showing soundbytes of kellyanne conway and i will not have her on the show. i absolutely will not have her on the show. it's important to look at it analytically. something important is happening through her and steve bannon. possibly not, but i'm beginning to connect the dots. we showed comments about government surveillance on trump tower. now she's clarifying what she meant. first is what she told the bergen record, followed by what she told good morning america. >> do you know whether trump tower was wiretapped? >> there are many ways to

surveil now. >> do you believe -- >> there was an article that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets, any number of ways. microwaves that turn into cameras, et cetera. that is a fact of modern life. >> sure. >> pretty explosive suggestion with the bergen record. do you have evidence that the cia techniques revealed by wikileaks were used against trump tower? >> the president is happy the investigation includes this aspect. the house intelligence committees are going to have this as part of their risha campaign connection. all i said was making a comment about the articles from this week where it is revealed one can be surveilled in any number of techniques, through microwaves, cameras, televisions. >> you were asked specifically do you know whether trump tower was wiretapped. you answered by citing a report.

why make a suggestion like that without evidence? >> i wasn't making a suggestion about trump tower. they are two separate things. >> that's what you were asked about. you have no evidence that was used? >> i have no evidence. that's why there is an investigation. that is what investigations are for. >> that's why my mom told me to stay away from microwaves when they were on. >> that is awful. she is really -- >> it's pretty -- >> it speaks for itself, america. >> yeah. >> come on now. >> even if it were true -- >> it's really awful. it's very, very, very sad what's happening. everybody has to sort of let the story speak for itself and understand the story as time goes by. i just hope not too much time goes by. >> someone so close to the president is held accountable

for every -- >> the president must like this and think she is doing a good job. >> inauguration day you had a story of something you saw. i'm letting it hang out there like i'll let it hang. there's nothing i want to attach to it. i just want to stay afar away as possible from trying to engage with someone who seems to have an audience of one who may not have the country's best interest in mind. weal put it that way. inauguration day? >> it was the first inauguration i covered. of course i wanted to see every aspect of it, what you see on television and what you don't. we had great positioning of where the yahoo! camera was. we could see everything, we were 200 feet away. i could wave at president trump at the time. it was a rainy day, as you recall. when everyone was going in, i told you this, the last two people, because i was taking all this in.

the last two people remaining who went up to the stand were kellyanne conway and steve bannon, side by side. it was such a visual to see. everyone was rushing inside to get out of the rain. they were taking in the moment. they were together and they were enjoying it. it was her birthday. nothing wrong with them but these two figures taking it all in. >> let's bring in sara yizen. what you got? >> after the strong surge in stocks, few key tests this week on the agenda. the big gi is going to come on wednesday, the federal reserve wraps up a two-day meeting. it is expected to raise interest rates for the first time since back in december. it would be the third time since the end of 2015. it's a solid signal. the economy is on good footing. we got another good jobs report

for the month of february, 4.7% unemployment rate, not bad, near the lowest since post recession. so, on one hand, it's great. on the other hand, it will raise interest rates say for your credit card loans. you will see your mortgage rate tick a little higher and eventually down to your savings rate. the big question is going to be, what does it mean from here? are the increases going to get more aggressive and dramatic with the improved outlook for the economy since president trump was elected? it's going to be a big focus for the markets and commentary. i also want to mention a big deal announced this morning, intel, a huge maker of chips that go into your phones and computers is buying mobile wi. an israeli company that makes the technology that goes into driverless cars. it's a $15 million company, one of the biggest high-tech takeovers for an israeli company

and the two are working together with bmw to work on a self-driving car. they will be combining. that stock which trades at the new york stock exchange up 30%. sara, thank you so much. >> thank you. president trump spent the weekend visiting another one of his properties taking members of his cabinet to his club in virginia. a report says he will bring another world leader to his estate in florida. mike allen reports the president plans to host chinese president xi at mar-a-lago next month. the president said he would seek to change trade policy for china and raise tensions by backing away from the one china policy before saying in february he would honor it. last week, president trump was granted preliminary approval for 38 new trademarks. last month, president trump bought japanese prime minister

shinzo abe to mar-a-lago as a gift. peter, final thoughts this morning? like, how would you sum up the conversation? >> i think it's not clear to me whether the republicans are going to wind up better off if this legislation passes or doesn't pass. they are in a bad box here. you need to do your homework ahead of time. >> tough be true to the truth. i mean, follow john mccain's lead right now. if the president says something, i would be very careful. >> the senate house split is interesting, as you pointed out. >> yeah. >> this is going to be -- they can only lose two or more republicans in the senate. they are back to square one. i don't think they can -- here is the problem. originally, they were talking repeal and delay. because they put replace on the table, i don't think they can fall back to that anymore. it's too transparent. the question was, what would the

replace be? we have seen enough of what replace would be. i don't think you can fall back to that. this is going to be interesting to watch. >> peter orszag, thank you very much. some say fake news helped donald trump win the white house. is the trump administration using fake news to keep him in the white house? we'll talk to a professor who accuses the president's team of exploiting social media to manipulate the american people. that's next on "morning joe." your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says, "you picked the wrong insurance plan."

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in a moment, is president trump's team manipulating social media to maintain his base of support? first, here is a look at the ground we've covered so far this morning. >> have you seen anything to suggest wiretaps? >> no. >> the speaker of the house is slowly becoming unclothed in public. >> i have heard from high up in the administration to look at the tweets like side bodily functions. >> if he tweets, it creates troefrgs and distraction that health care can get through. >> i worry about the rise of a propaganda state. >> huge questions about the stability of this administration. >> there are many ways to surveil each other, microwaves that turn into cameras. >> the analogy here is the birther conspiracy. >> she's part of something that might be a serious strain of this presidency that could end up hurting our republic. >> among the federal prosecutors to receive the phone call instructing him to resign. >> how is wall street going to

react to this news? >> probably with with relief, but they are already on top. >> the real thing this week is trying to get momentum back on health care. >> this is a massive tax cut for wealthy people. >> this is not repeal and replace. >> repeal and take away. >> they are not keeping their promise. >> democrats have an embarrassment of opportunity here. republicans have defense to play. >> i wouldn't be surprised if republicans walk away from them. >> they are on the cbo score to make the sale to conservatives. >> they are trying to get in front of it. i don't think it's going to work. >> that's the whole point of the congressional budget office. >> why it exists? >> supreme court shouldn't evaluate whether it's institutional or not. >> ramesh is the author of the book "whose global village" rethinking how technology shapes the world. studying how trump's team uses social media and exploited it to

control how supporters get their news, to control what people believe. >> absolutely. >> let's get to to point. what do you think is happening here? >> we have a transformation in how americans receive their news. we have more americans receiving news via facebook than any major media news network or television station. if you can manipulate the ways information is shared and prioritized on facebook by gathering data about facebook users so you can target them with various posts and ads, then you can actually impact their potential voting behavior as well as their sentiments. as an example, breitbart news, which i never see personally in my news feed is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful political websites, news sources on facebook. >> right. the obama administration, when they were campaigning, they used similar means, correct, to get

the word out there? >> right. >> what you are saying is that things are being manipulated, there are lies being spread. there's a difference? >> it actually turns out in the three months before the election, the top 20 fake news stories actually outperform the top 20 real news stories, which some of us remember. how is that happening? in the obama case, data was gathered on small scale demographic levels, understanding where voters were and where to get out the vote. in this case, you are gathering online data. you are gathering all your digital data. almost anything we do, we leave a digital footprint. if you can acquire that data and correlate it to what people like or what their behavior is on facebook, you can psychographically target them. >> and use the power of the presidency like kellyanne conway talking about microwaves spying on you and fakery.

you can amplify that. where does it begin and end. if they put on an incredible voice and if it's not telling truth and spreading fakery, it is amplified. tell me what happens next? how does it funnel through? >> this is a moment where the o p pasty of facebook. the fact they are not explaining to us why we see what we see. >> right. >> they don't have to give us the software code, but glimpses into visibility of content. otherwise, you can gain the system in this back end way. this is what marketers have been doing for many years. >> is it fair to assess this issue as the metrics that come to news. we break down organizations by

specific tastes, what you like and everything like that. who is the biggest culprit here? culprit may be the wrong word. what do we do to find solutions? is facebook the culprit? is it news organizations or is it the consumer of news this this country who no longer, apparently many of them, separate what is news and what's not real. >> it's a great question. basically, what we need is a level of literacy in our country around what data is being collected about us and how that data is used. facebook needs to be pressured to show and disclose some of the ways it collects data about us and how it chooses to organize and classify information. otherwise, this is a threat. in my mind, this is part of what allows trump and his team to actually attack traditional and classical and ethical journalistic methods. >> they have marketing experts working to funnel this through

the system? >> mark zuckerberg was defensive when facebook was accused of impacting the election or leading up to the election with fake news. what are they doing right now to address the situation? it seems like they have walked back from the claim that we had no responsibility what so ever. >> facebook needs to understand, it's a public face of journalism, whether they want to be that or not. they want to cover all our media experiences. zuckerberg did write a manifesto that describes the concerns they had around fake news. they are going to employ more people in different parts of the world, probably, to do more fact checking. they were going to try to correct the trending topics feed. >> the problem, this isn't our presidency. >> it's not new. >> no, what's new is we have a presidency and a group of advisers within this administration and perhaps marketers that have been hired who are staying around.

go ahod and say what i'm worried about, please. >> the major distinction i have, that i see in what's happening now with data is you are actually gathering so much data that we don't even know. not you, but actually these groups like cam bridge analytics which brought steve bannon on board. so, these kinds of groups can actually develop psychological profiles of us, right? profiles of us around how neurotic we might be. how open we might be. you can target different types of ads to different types of users. that reinforces our own political behavior and choices. this is far more opaque and far more underneath the curtain, if you will. this is different than traditional modes of media manipulation in my research. >> welcome to niche america. >> a dangerous game of modern technology and telephone. >> this is one of the most

important conversations we have had. ramesh, thank you very much. the book is "whose global village." please come back. >> it's my honor. >> as we watch this all unfold. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage now. >> thanks so much, mika. hello, i'm stephanie ruhle. so much to cover today. deadline time. two big reports coming out later. lawmakers demanding evidence of president trump's wiretapping claims. >> either retract or to provide the information that the american people deserve. >> a house that's all about data. the congressional budget office set to announce how many people the republican bill will cover and how much it will cost after this bold statement from the administration. >> nobody will be worse off financially in the process we are going through. >> fired! the new york prosecutor who refused to resign when the president asked him to. the mysterious