here. you think about trade, counterterrorism, all the things on the u.s.-german agenda, it might come up but it won't be first on the agenda. >> that does it for us. i'm going to turn it over to my colleague ali velshi. >> i would ask her germany has done better than most industrialized countries at putting manufacturing works are back to work. he wants to put manufacturing workers back to work. that should be a topic conversation. let's hope he says her name right. i'm going to see you there next week. i'll be with you. >> yeah, come and hang out. >> i'm going to wear my coat and scarf. >> president trump preparing to hope german chancellor angela merkel. his first meeting after he accused her of ruining germany.

and the white house's allegations that former president barack obama wiretapped trump tower and providing no proof whatsoever. and secretary of state rex tillerson states that everything is on the table it north korea continues to fire missiles. >> in a newspaper interview in january the president called her letting syrian refugees into the country a catastrophic mistake. they've been divided on issues concerning russia, nato and climate change. they don't agree on a whole lot. they're scheduled to have a joint news conference where the president could face questions

that president obama ordered wiretapping although there's been no proof of that. >> i've seen no evidence of wiretapping or a court order or anything like that. >> we've seen no evidence. there's been no evidence from anybody in the intelligence community, from law enforcement. >> we don't have any evidence that that took place. in fact, i don't believe just in the last week of time the people we've talked to, i don't think there was an actual tap of trump tower. >> despite all that white house secretary sean spicer remains defiant in his defense of the president. >> personally he stand by it. we talked about wiretapping, he meant surveillance and that there have been incidents that have occurred. the bottom line is that the investigation by the house and senate has not been provided all of the information. >> now, also this morning british backlash after sean spicer repeated a fox news claim that british intelligence helped

president obama spy on trump tower. >> intelligence sources have informed fox news that president obama went outside the chain of kmant, he didn't use the cia, the fbi, the department of justice. each used gchq, it's the initials for the british intelligence spying agency. >> british media said the white house has said it will not repeat those allegations. peter alexander joins us from the white house. good morning to you. tell bus about this claim. you were there in the room when sean spicer made it as part of his several minute diatribe -- >> reporter: seven minute diatribe. this is one of the things that sean spicer quoted at the lectern saying there's all sorts of reporting suggesting that

what president trump said about president obama ordering the surveillance of trump p w in fact the case. he quoted a fox news analyst that president obama went through london, through the u.k. to use british spy agencies to spy on then candidate trump at trump tower. it is something we have heard from multiple sources is not true, not the least of which is the government communication headquarters in britain. it's their version of our nsa. a spokesperson for the prime's office and they have been very upset about this claim said the following -- they said behind closed doors so this was on background as it's described, they said all we can tell you very simply is that the allegations would not be repeated. those were the assurances they received from the white house, which is to say we know white house officials have now spoken to british officials. so for the first time they are at least privately backing away from some of the claims that they have made but publicly as

we wnitnessed here yesterday, ali, the president, via his team, his press secretary, is sticking to his guns. effectively he's on an island right now. we've heard from so much individuals denying this, saying there's no proof. the president, the fbi director, james comey, the republican house speaker and also the republican chairs of the senate and house intelligence committee. specific to the senate intelligence committee, they sort of appeared at least to put this to rest. that's the way the world read it yesterday, putting out a statement that said in part based on the information available to us we see no indication that trump tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the u.s. government either before or after election day 2016. but even after that statement from the republican and democratic leaders of that intelligence committee, the press secretary sean spicer came out and in effect tripled down on this very same claim. >> that was remarkable. it was a remarkable press conference to watch. it's one for the ages.

peter, are we seeing you at the press conference later on with angela merkel? >> we will be there at 1:20 today. we're requesting the president answer american media questions. we hope we get a shot. >> we're hearing more about former nash adviser micel pl flynn's ties to russia. they are documents showing flynn was paid more than $50,000 in 2015, two months before he became an adviser to the trump campaign. he failed to tell white house officials he had met with the russian ambassador. shane harris reports on all of

this today for "the wall street journal." he joins me now live. good to see you. here's the issue, there's nothing wrong with meeting with the russian ambassador, there's just nothing wrong with taking money for speaking from russian companies. there a seems to be an issue with government officials who don't disclose the stuff. >> there's nothing wrong to meet with russian officials when you're about to become the national security adviser. he had to disclose to the army where he is served as a general that he was going to be taking money from r.t., which is effectively a state-backed enterprise, democrats in congress saying he had to get permission to do that and disclose that. they're saying he didn't. and there's an open question of whether when he came back to work at the white house as part of a vetting for a security clearance that he did have, you have to say what recently since you left government are the

foreign contacts and entanglementsou might have had. and democrats want to know did he disclose this before he went to work for the white house. >> if you and i were giving a speech somewhere, our employ would want to know who was going to fay for it. what do we know about that? >> in 2015 he criticized u.s. and foreign russian policy, too, but particularly the policy of the obama administration. one was to a russian air cargo fleet that had done work with the united states before and also with the united nations and had had its contract suspended on that work following a corruption scandal. so two companies that clearly had eyes on doing business with the united states. they paid him roughly $11,000 to

give speeches in 2015. we still don't know all the details about how those arrangements came out but now we have at least thee these companies that are based in russia paying mike flynn for speeches in late 2015 right as he was getting ready to become a formal adviser for donald trump and highs campaign. >> the idea he's giving speeches is not a big deal. the people paying him for the speeches did know he was going to become a formal adviser to the president. >> right. the question is is he is getting money from any of these sources, does that affect the kind of advice he's giving to the candidate? and that's why we have the process of disclosure. that's generally why these things come to light so people can make that judgment for themselves. flynn of course was obligated to formally disclose that the military as well. we still don't know whether the white house or before that the trump campaign had an inkling of

his dealings with russia. he was lobbying on behalf of turkish government interests in the united states. so we may learn there are more things that mike flynn was doing. >> these are governments who would have interest over national security. let's bring in congresswoman elizabethestey. she has been calling for a full investigation of russia's interference in the election. congresswoman, thank you for joining us. this -- michael flynn for better or worse is a gift that keeps on giving to people who want a more fulsome investigation. >> absolutely, ali. we see these unsubstantiated claims by the white house that president obama was wa wabing

trump or trump tower. it's it's deeply concerning thaensd why i've joined with so many of my colleagues on both side of the i'll to defend e. >> so, congresswoman, the issue here is that many people were hoping that once the intelligence committee settled the issue of wiretapping, which many people think they have now, the white house would longer be able to hang on to that and would move on to supporting an investigation into russia. and weirdly that didn't happen. the white house is, as peter alexander said, tripling down on the idea that there was still some kind of surveillance at donald trump and trump tower. >> i guess we shouldn't be surprised any if you're if the

kous wants to have credility. >> how do you rank what has to be done? because what we now have in congress is a backlog of stuff that has to be dealt with, a budget, which, as you know, is always problematic for congress. congress has had a hard time keeping congress on budget. you've got the health care bill, the russia investigation. how does congress need to move forward? you can't get too stuck on fighting with the white house. >>. >> i will say that donald trump has signed eight bills into law. two of them have been my bills, to help women in entrepreneurship and help young girls in math and science and to get excited about that. >> there are and there's

widespread, bipartisan agreement across the country. make no mistakes, the american people are counting on us to get things done, whoever is in the white house, whoever is charge, american people are demanding progress and effectiveness. >> so one of the issues we have to term with. nothing is going to happen if donald trump wants it to happen. it's harder to prevent it because you don't have a majority of either house. what do you say to the democrats like strim strp americans are going to need their health care cost covered. we've got to deal with that.

we have to support seniors. that's not about the white house. that's about folks within congress working with each other and that's really where i'm pb. >> i'm working with my colleagues inoness, whichy the presidt can decide whether he wants to get things de or not. >> thank you forring me. >> congresswoman a -- come on the heels of donald trump criticizing merkel throughout his campaign. especially for her stance on immigration. >> the german people are going to riot, they're going to end up overthrowing this woman.

i don't know what the hell she's thinking. i used to think merkel was a great leader. guess what? she blue it, she blue it. what's going on there is disgraceful. >> today the white house said the two are going to work to put their differences aside. joining me now for an inside look into all of this is john emerson. he was the u.s. and and. >> yes, thank you both for joining us. is this going to be an awkward meeting? it seemed more successful than not. these are two world leaders. are they going to just make it wo

workand it's a huge challenge for the german g. they're really feeling happy when the european union is strong and unified and now the german chancellor have the feeling and mrs. may, the prime minister from england was here, he was really saluting the br-- >> hold on there a second. i need to take this camera to paw ryan. let's listen to him for secretary of defense. >> the bill doesn't take account of what's going o so this --

>> evan: chuck assumer kay the senate can't even consider the bill. they can filibuster even going on bill. that's why we have to write it this in such a way that chuck schumer can't blof it from coming to the floor and get that business passed. this a three-part plan here and all simultaneous parts. first is a bill we can use reconciliation for a that they cannot filibuster. that is where you repeal the sis and part two, and .

the enormous regulatory flexibility that he has, they wot this in sfwrrn and they basically said there's a lot of stuff we can't figure out, let's just have the secretary figure it out. they put 1,4 that say the secretary may or the secretary shall, if just gives frchk. >> stu: well, at the didn't think that drot was going to be president. >> and so what time price walked us through this morning was these are all the things we can do using that flexibility in reverse to basically open up the marketplace.

i see leah sitting right here, one of the brilliant state senators we have in wisconsin who is a nurse and a health care special is, the champion of hsas in washington. wisconsin now, this brilliant woman over at cms, they can basically say to wisconsin, you set up your own regulatory strurktier so way. can have whatever plants it want so part three are the other bills we would like to pass that we know we can't through regulation but aren't necessary to fix this better, but make it even better. that's what interstate shopping, reform saul about. what the president is eager to do is tossoss this country

making the case f those policies and i think it mht be interesting to know that he'll crisscross in those ten states that he carried widely where there is a democrat up for reelection in 2018. so in a nut shell, if i just repeat it back for the same of my own understanding. what you're saying is is because of senate rules we cannot fully deregulate obamacare in this legislation but tom price's administrative actions will be a big steps towards deregulating. >> that's the easiest way to sky how the that conform to the center rules. and then the administration in part two, pi they're caulking on and it lets the states go back

and set up their own market polices. we're bringing them to the floor next week. pass these other bills that you believe in and you know you can't put them in reconciliatio reconciliation. in what you'll hear from health care wonks, even health care wonks that are be. >> is that you're o -- >> all right, we're going to keep listening into that ourselves, but i'm going to bring you back to the conversation that we were having about ainge la merkel and her first face-to-face meeting. i'm joined about the do you say -- or do you just say something different all

together? >> i'm going to check that. ambassador, let me ask you about this. there really are grave differences between ainge la merkel's world view, union view, nato view, view on refugees and imgrabts and angel there these write wing movements they may have been checked the other day in holland. what do you think her goal is here? >> well, i mean a couple of thoughts. first of all, ainge la merkel is very chill. she's not going to let the statements that came out during the campaign get under her skin and she takes the long view and she gets the big picture here. and the number one goal is going to be to build and develop a personal relationship with the president of the united states. she did that with george w. bush, she did that with barack obama, she's going to work to do that here.

secondly, i've had the privilege of sitting in every one of these meetings for but there's alway one or two things that end council are terrorism, intelligen intelligencein our time, which is the vast and teep and mutually ben commission relationship between nrm and rn she brought two former ceos, that employ countries to tell that story as well. so i think you're going to see a little bit of education perhaps, not in a pedantic way but in a sense of trying to explain the

basis of the economic relationship, and you're also going to see some discussion about russian aggression and -- >> when donald trump said they're going to riot in the street, give me a real picture of how refugees handle a refugee or immigration. so popularity by donald trump is really no there. 80% asks thinks in -- she gave him a lecture and on the you are i'd, she has to find a work relationship.

so beside that, the problem is her energy is something which is very harming if. psh the and app, she is under pressure, under domestic pressure. >> ambassador, before i let you talk, we're seeing behin t left part of our screen, surrounding the imminent arrival of ainge la america eel. >> yeah, chancellor. i think the chal that she has is how do you want twrnk and she's up for reelection this year and her pin tral at wrrn and sprch

by the high negative rating even throughout the campaign and after the election that donald trump has in germany, which is quite unusual given the fact that he actuallies have german routes. b -- he actually has german routes. >> i think it's a lesson of how germany dealt with single products. if guff give us a description of how germany has been a world leader on that front. >> i was not only in nato, it a litary alliance. it a splus has and i think

they were going to have a deep constitution. new look at today's secretary of finance in germany, we saw that the persons, reing relson from mr. and that opened borders. no border taxes are in the interest of a free market and in the interest of the german-american relationship. >> ambassador, in a lot of ways the german model is what donald trump might want to emulate on some front as a manufacturing power house economy. >> no doubt about it. the answer to your previous question, the dual track in a

join public i have to have a five, six, seven year apprenticeship program. it results in a perfect job in 98% of the situations. that if anything has been the answer to your question. it's been extremely successful in germany, ondrad sfrrch and doesn't pay their workers well and controls and map i lats their currency. >> germany also has a very

interesting worker/employer model. speaking of foreign relations, there's another big morning relation shiengs going on today. secretary of state rex tillerson has issued a pa and he said he's focused on finding a new approach to dealing with north korea, if he continued to develop his words. >> me frm, we're sploing a now rang of kmint, disease and commune measures approximately. >>s will. >> hans is this a policy change or is this tougher talk? >> it's a little bit of both. the reason we have a policy change is because it's the first time we heard it from the trump administration, this idea that military options are on the table. and when you tweet what donald trump tweeted this morning, it

takes more significance. it's more of an arithmetic change. here what's trump tweeted morning. he said "north korea has been playing very badly. they have been playing the united states for years. china has done little to help." you hear a little bit of caution at the pentagon of the significance, the outcome of a military action in north korea. remember, there are some 25 million people in seoul within artillery range. you have 300 of you have 30,000 u.s. troopsed states in so you have great can but what we have heard from tillerson as he is about to head to china a very

clear warning and an indication that policy has indeed shifted. >> so you brought up china. donald trump tweeted about china and about china not doing enough about kneeia. china we do have a diplomatic relationship with. we sometimes forget that but we actually have diplomatic situations with china and we this that if you were to described up oup this comes out between military threat and workwhenever north korea does something, that gives the united states military an excuse to say to the chinese, okay, you're not putting enough pressure on it. we're going to move assets in the region, we're going to have a as to sfrrks that will be set

up and operational this year. the chinese don't like that. so everybody time north korea does something the international generally condemns, that puts diplomatic swash pressure -- situation pressure. >> we're awaiting the arrival of german chancellor angela merkel. as soon as she arrives we'll take you there live. once there was a little pig

that had built his house out of straw. one day a big bad wolf huffed and he puffed and blew the house down. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped the pig with homeowners insurance. he had replacement cost coverage, so his house was rebuilt, good as new. the big bad wolf now has a job on a wind farm. call geico and see how easy it is to switch and save on homeowners insurance.

glad forceflex. extra strong to avoid rips and tears. be happy, it's glad.

i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different. it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade,

but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to move up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪ very important meeting about to take place at the white house. what you're looking at is the old executive office building. the white house is to the left. the pomp and ceremony is for angela merkel, appearing for her first face-to-face meeting with a monday who criticized her a lot, called her a failed leader, said she was going to lead to riots in the streets of germany. we're going to go back to that in a minute. john emerson, you're former it's time for our daily segment,

an hour in the life of kasie hunt on capitol hill. it really does change every other, kasie. i was asking my producer, should i ask kasie hunt about angela merkel, the wiretapping, the health care budget, or something else? >> ali, you take your pick. the thing we have been most focused on this morning, this is a bit of breaking news, the house plans to vote thursday, which just happens to be the anniversary of the passage of the affordable care act to repeal and replace obamacare the word they're using for the president at the moment is the closer. they feel he's coming in near the end of the process in the house to try to convince people to get on board. he met with the republican study committee in the oval office. they talked a little bit about this. the president said he said to all of them are you yes votes on

this bill? he said he got commitments from all of them. these weren't necessarily the members are the most frustration for speaker ryan. they have the potential to be so it's good that they're on board, if you're speaking ryan, but the real problem is still potentially the freedom caucus and how they thread this needle without ma and making them happy without alienating moderates. that's what they're circulating around right now. >> we've heard a lot of noise from some senators about the fact that it sort of doesn't matter because there are some things that aren't going to happen in the senate. we're hearing this from tom cotton, from ted cruz, from rand paul. is that significant? is there a possibility they get enough votes in the house but something happens in the senate? >> of course. i think you're still hearing even from some house members we

don't want to vote for something that's not going to pass the senate. i don't think there's any question that even if they do find something that passes over here that the senate is it going to look at it side ws and say we're going to change it and do it our own way. at this point there are not the 50 votes for mitch mcconnell for this particular plan. the question will be if the house can get this done, what happens next, does the senate move forward on something? do they change it and manage to vote on it? then it would come back over here to the house and the house would vote on that plan or they could potentially go to conference where they would meet and a table, hash out their differences and both chambers would vote. it's potentially a more difficult way of doing it but something that's getting more chatter around here of late. this house vet is really critical. if they can't get it through here, the whole thing will die on the vine, at least in its current, large form. this is a big sweeping bill to

replace and repeal obamacare. i think no matter what they'll end up passing something but the question is the magnitude of it. >> kasie, i'm just drawing everybody's attention now to the white house. we have donald trump stand being right the -- standing right there, ready to receive angela merkel. you can't see her behind this big gentleman but -- there she is. can you just see the top of her head behind the flag. angela merkel, first face-to-face meeting with donald trump. he has been very harsh in his criticism of her during his campaign. she has not responded in kind. this is a leader who has had problems with prior u.s. leaders, incding obama, president obama, who had wiretapped her. she congratulated donald trump on his election back in november saying that germany and america are bound by common values. she has argued that there is more for them to discuss, more

in common than aside, democracy, freedom, respect for the rule of law, dignity for each and every person, regardless of their origin, skin color, creed, sexual orientation or political views. s she said it's based on these values i would like to offer close cooperation both between me personally and our countries' governments. i want to bring former ambassador john emerson in. she seemed to have been su underscoring some things that donald trump doesn't actually share. does that come up or are they just getting to know each other? >> i actually think they're getting to know each other but there are two pieces to this. one is that personal relationship. i think it was very nice that president trump stood at that door to greet her. typically the president sees the chancellor the first time when she actually comes into the oval office. so that was a nice gesture. but the second thing will be she

recognizes this guy's on a learning curve. and i think she's going to, whether it's the economic issues or in particular russian aggression or candidly given the breaking news you just talked ou with the north korean situation andhe fact that president chi is coming to meet with president trump in a couple of weeks, she knows chi quite well and i think that would be part of the conversation today. i think in a nonpoddaantic way e going to lay out the rationale for why they've been doing this for years. i know you can get past these things, these sorts of comments and move forward. >> but she didn't make a public thing about that.

how did that go over in germany when it was discovered that the chancellor was being bugged by the u.s.? >> oh, this was a huge problem for the german-american relationship, especially it was with barack obama. nobody really expected that barack obama would do that to angela merkel. they were such close political friends. they were really close in topics and content. they were agreeing on a lot of things. so a lot of germans were just disappointed. but i want to mention one more thing. i just saw the chancellor driving by, i could see her face and she has this classical angela merkel poker face, she was highly concentrated and i think youeally could, even for her, now 11 years in power, you n see this was an intense moment for her, just very decisive for the germanian-american relationship. >> let me ask you another question, ulf. if you are a german citizen, you have major concerns when it

comes to world affairs. you have issues having to do with russia, you have issues having to do with the middle east and you've got the issue of the eurozone possibly coming apart and the side issue of these right-wing movements. what are the german people motivated by at the moment? >> i think one of the really biggest concern is that the germans don't really know what donald trump, the president, is up to. he seems to be totally unpredictable. when he was giving his inauguration speech and he was basically screaming to the world america first, very nationalistic approach, this is something which irritates a lot of germans because the germans believe in multi-national systems, in the u.n., in the nato. and we have the feeling or the german government or the german people have the feeling that donald trump is something has a different perspective approach to the world, especially influenced by steve bannon,

which actually become a very prominent figure in germany and everybody is scared about him, too. >> can i underscore that? >> yup. >> when i got there, i'd been ambassador for six weeks before thechancellor's cell phone broke. bu that wasn't the biggest issue initially. the biggest concern of the german people was the whole concept of pivot to asia and the concern that the united states would somehow depart from europe and depart from the importance of europe as really a fundamental foundation of our national security and our alliances around the world. i can just tell you having started that way,i spent a lot of time reassuring the germans and helping to rebuild that relationship and then leaving at a time when you have the kind of unpredictability and the comments that ulf was talking about, this is a deep, deep concern that the german people have right now. >> all right. we're going to take a quick

break. thanks very much to all of you, john emerson, former u.s. ambassador to germany, ul ulf roeller and kasie hunt. >> let me know when you want to do the rest of the stuff? >> there's always a lot to talk about with kasie. angela merkel greeted at the door by donald trump. we'll bring you their comments as soon as we get them. ime to worry about a cracked windshield. so she scheduled at safelite.com and with safelite's exclusive "on my way text" she knew exactly when i'd be there, so she didn't miss a single shot. i replaced her windshield giving her more time for what matters most. tech: how'd ya do? player: we won! tech: nice! that's another safelite advantage. mom: thank you so much! (team sing) safelite repair, safelite replace. whattwo servings of veggies? v8 or a powdered drink? ready, go.

ahhhhhhhh! shake! shake! shake! shake! shake! done! you gotta shake it! i shake it! glad i had a v8. the original way to fuel your day.

i own my own company. i had some severe fatigue, some funny rashes. finally, listening to my wife, went to a doctor. and i became diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma ...that diagnosis was tough. i had to put my trusin somebody. when i first met steve, we recommended chemotherapy,

and then we did high dose therapy and then autologous stem cell transplant. unfortunately, he went on to have progressive disease i thought that he would be a good candidate for immune therapy. it's an intravenous medicine that is going to make his immune system evade the tumor. with chemotherapy, i felt rough, fatigue, nauseous. and with immune therapy we've had such a positive result. i'm back to working hard. i've honestly never felt this great. i believe the future of immunotherapy at ctca is very bright. the evolution of cancer care is here. learn more at cancercenter.com appointments available now.

a dangerous situation is developing in syria just days before the country of civil war. this morning israeli jets crossed into syria and launched a series of air strikes. the syrian government responded in what is described as an extremely rare move. also this morning the u.s. is denying that american forces hit a syrian mosquen a strike that witnesses say killed dozens. nbc's tehran bureau chief ali arouzi has the latest. what do we know about the tarkts targets of the israeli strikes and the response from syria? >> good morning. the israeli mission appeared to be name destroying a weapons convoy destined for lebanese hezbollah and marks one of the serious clashes since the beginning of this conflict between the two sides. both sides seem to have their own account of the incident. the syrian army said that four israeli jets crossed into syrian air space and one was shot down

and another one was hit. this is a claim the israeli military deny. they say that none of that iraircrafts were hit. they struck several targets in syria, enwere bag ck in israeli controled air space when the syrians launched anti-aircraft missiles toward the israeli jets. they were intercepted by the israeli defense systems and nobody was compromised. now, although israel does conduct raids from time to time in syria, as you mentioned, it's very unusual for assad's forces to fire anti-aircraft missiles at them. and the other report that you mentioned, ali, again conflicting reports from the raid this morning, and in the second incident in syria, which was much more bloody and involves u.s. forces, and observatory group says that 42 people, mostly civilians were killed in an air strike in a mosque in northern syria. now central command says the u.s. forces conducted an air strike on al qaeda in syria, killing several terrorists, but they didn't strike a mosque, a

mosque wasn't targeted. they struck an al qaeda meeting in id lib and the mosque only 30 or 40 feet away wasn't targeted and still standing after the air strikes which destroyed their intended targets. ali? >> that one we have to clear up. i want to bring you back for a little context. israel and syria are and have been almost forever in a state of war. they are actually in a state of war. israel doesn't like the assad administration, nor do they like isis, nor do they like the u.s.-backed forces that are fighting isis, so israel is always in a hard spot when it comes to syria because the enemy of your enemy is not your friend. >> no, it's not. another thing is israel has tried to not get too deeply entrenched in the whole syria thing, although they do conduct these air raids and things. they don't want to get too deeply entrenched. i think this incident this morning does highlight how much they take things seriously, they realize a convoy of weapons

which is probably supplied by the iranians because they back hezbollah was headed their way and they weren't going to have any of it so they took it out straight away to make sure that couldn't reach its supply line, and that is always very important for the israelis, but i don't think they want to go too far beyond anything like that, and get involved in a quagmire. that's the last thing they want. they're kind of letting people fight it out themsels there, and see how it all pans out. >> as they've said, could you fight it out, if it gets into syria, israeli space, we'll take action but otherwise not looking to fly over into syria, which is why this is as big a deal as it is. ali arouzi in london, thank you. up next we review this week's wild week in washington in this morning's "daily briefing in politics" when we come back. >> daniel houghton was only 24 when he was suddenly placed at the helm of iconic travel brand lonely planet, with declining

guidebook sales he knew it would take some innovative thinking to modernize this industry dinosaur. find out how he turned things around on "your business" sunday morning at 7:30 calcu... shall we initiate the restart sequence? ♪ thrivent mutual funds. managed by humans, not robots. before investing, carefully read and consider fund objectives, risks, charges and expenses in the prospectus at thventfunds.com. la quinta presents"how to w"

step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. it's about moving forward not back. it's looking up not down. it's feeling up thinking up living up. it's being in motion... in body in spirit in the now. boost. it's not just nutrition.

it's intelligent nutrition. with 26 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. all in 3 delicious flavors. it's choosing to go in one direction... up. boost. be up for it.

we are back with our daily briefing. first another action packed week in politics. take a look. >> if we get what we've got from ryan, obamacare-lite he will not have the votes. >> i have been briefed on the matter and seen no evidence the tap occurred. >> he has the power to clarify. why not? >> i can't comment on the private conversations he's had with his attorney general and other officials. >> the press is making it look so wonderful so if we end it, everyone's going to say oh, remember how great obamacare used to be. >> we disagree strenuously with the report put out. >> i'm encouraged by the report and exceeded my expectation.

>> how can they look their constituents in the eye when they say to them, 24 million people of you are no longer going to have coverage. >> what i have here is a copy of donald trump's tax returns. he paid $38 million, looks like $38 million in taxes, took a big writedown of $103 million. >> did you ever have a chance to brief the president on investigations related to the campaigns or did you ever give him any reason to believe that he was wiretapped by the previous administration? >> uhm -- look, uhm, my answer, no. >> when i say wiretapped, those words were in quotes but that covers surveillance and many other things. >> this supposedly neutral travel banhat' in his executive order is reall just a pretext to discriminate. >> an unprecedented judicial overreach. this ruling makes us look weak. i think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, with i is what i wanted to do in the first place.

>> this budget is not a at the same time statement of values that anyone president trump has shown that he does not value the future of our children and working families. >> come on, that can't be a week in review. that looked like a month. that was just this week. and i'm out of time. thank you for watching this hour of "msnbc live." find me on twitter, facebook, instagram, snapchat. right now on msnbc, chris jansing hosts "andrea mitchell reports." chris? >> ali, there's never enough time but right now on "andrea mitchell reports," international incident. german chancellor angela merkel at the white house right now, as the british intelligence agency pushes back in an unprecedented public statement saying the claim that they helped obama spy on trump tower is nonsense. but the white house still doubling down on president trump's original accusation. >> wiretapping he meant surveillance, and there have been incidents that have occurred. >> the chairman and the ranking members on both committees we've

not seen any evidence. >> the bottom line is that the investigation by the house and the senate has not been provided all the information. >> we've seen no evidence. >> we don't have any evidence that that took place. >> does the president still stand by -- zw >> he stands by it but you're mischaracterizing what happened today. >> the claims he was wifetapped by barack obama is bogus. >> reporter: was it phone tapping? >> no, it was surveillance. we've covered this ten times. >> i've seen no evidence of wiretapping as you say or a court order. anything like that. >> salesman-in-chief, trump convincing a group of skeptical house republicans today to now vote for that health care bill. his budget director passionately defending those controversial proposed budget cuts. >> $20 trillion in debt. we're going to spend money and a lot of money but not going to spend it on programs that cannot show that they actually deliver the promises that we've made to people. >> reporter: i'm curious what you say to those americans