thing. >> from russia with love, as the senate intelligence leader has their first hearing on the prem lin. they are trying to channel an american president, but did is lost in translation. >> debating taxes and addressing the americans, watch my lips, no. >> and the family business, ivanka trump taking a position in the white house west wing. she will be the first child to work for the president in the white house. >> people think you will be part of the administration, ivanka -- >> i'm -- no, i'm going to be a

daughter. >> good day, everyone. on a sunny, beautiful day in belgium. i'm andrea mitchell. they complained about a record number of cease fire, apparently a very tough meeting. in turkey today, tillerson failed to resolve big reasons over how to combat ooiisis on northern syria. and president trump dropping a twitter bomb. calling on his followers to fight the welcome caucus. bob corker called out house speaker paul ryans saying

president trump should not work with democrats on legislations, speaker ryan responding moments ago. >> they are not for repealing obama care and we are. we work with democrats all of the time. so we have lock histories of working with democrats, but i don't think there is a stretch of the mind to suggest. >> all of this as the senate intelligence committee opened their hearings into the trump campaign collusion. they are holding down the fort in washington. also joining us, kacie hunt on capitol hill. and kier simmons are vladimir putin denied any involvement in the election. >> yes, i was speaking to someone close to president trump

who says he has two sort of competing thought processes. stubbornness and it is leading the way. a lot of people were talking a short time ago saying the freedom caucus will hurt the entire republican agenda if they don't get on the team and fast. we must fight them and dems in 2018. declaring war on just a few thousand house conservatives that were obstacles to his ability to repeal and replace balm care. the house members of the house freedom caucus, michigan a short time ago, mitigating circumstances s-- saying it didn't take long for the swamp to drain donald trump. >> most people don't take well to being bullied. >> do you think this is an actual negotiating tactic by the president or do you think this is a constructive way to do it?

>> it is constructive in fifth grade, but, it may allow a child to get his way, but that's not how our government works. >> there is the infighting among republicans, and the attack on the democrats is notable. a couple days ago, as he hosted chuck schumer among others, he suggested he would be willing to work across the aisle. >> he had not reached out to them and he was calling for the repeal of the obama dcs to be su -- democrats. tell us how it has been going. >> they wanted to set this investigation in the broad context of investigating russian

medali meddling in the u.s. election. so there are not people who have current access to this. anyone that is associated with the trump campaign directly. that will come later, but there are have been interesting moments so far. particularly one where one of the experts they lined up, a former fbi official talked about an example of how all of this played out during the election. take a look at what he explained. >> i think the answer is very simple and it is what no one is saying. part of the reason active measures have worked is the commander and chief used russian active measures against his opponents. on the 14th of august, his campaign chairman, his -- >> who is his. >> paul manafort sited a story

as a fake terrorist attack and used it as a talking point. and donald trump talked about a fake news story from sputnik news that disappeared. he claimed the election could be rigged. that was the number one theme pushed by sputnik news to the election. he made claims of voter fraud. that president obama is not a citizen, that congressman cruz is not a citizen. part of the reason active measures works and it does today, is because they parent the same wines. >> that is what they're sbefring to when russian investigation services take active measures in something like the election. this is the same in european elections, for example. so a pretty straightforward

recounting of those measures here. he was asked why did putin think this might work and that was his explanation for why. >> because it did work, no one is saying it affected the outcome, but democrats believe those kinds of covert actions did affect the outcome because it changed people's minds, but it did affect the vote count. next time, could they do more? and next time they could hit any party or whoever they happy to oppose. in russia today, denial, denial, denial. kier simmons, you're there and vladimir putin was in full force, full display. >> that is right, if there is drama where cakacie, there is plenty of drama around here. he was sounding threatening saying that people in the u.s. that he says were antirussian

were warmongers. at the same time, it is clear they would still like to approach more with the u.s. they talked about they would like to see a summit between president putin and president trump and that might happen before the g 20 if washington was agreeable, and then he was asked by cnbc that was hosting this event that crucial question about whether or not he accepted there was intervention by russia in the intervention. >> we regard the united states as a great ally with which we want to establish a good partnership and relations. always things are fissional, and provocations, lies, all of these are used for domestic american political agendas.

the anti-russian card is plagued by different political forces inside of the united states to trade on that and -- he was asked, andrea whether or not russia intervened in the elections, and he said read my lips, no. and sounding threatening talked about how this could playout, talked about the cuban missile crisis, and he said what are we going to do? get to the point we don't talk to each other at all? >> of course the cuban missile crisis was a great example of a way that a young john kennedy, after having the pay of bigs and everything else, a lot of people

making comparisons today and whether or not you have the same process which is a wonderful segues because since bobby kennedy, who worked with jack kennedy and john kennedy on that was the attorney general and his wingman in all of those talks. since then there has been antinepotism legislation, and that brings us to ivanka trump, the first adult child of a president to work in the white house since dwight eisenhower. >> she is the president's wing woman, as it were. she already had her father's ear, now they made it official, the is what they are describing as assistant to the president. in the course of the transition process, she has no intention in being part of the process. those close to her say it was an effort to show her commitment to

compliance for federal ethics standards. they want to follow everything that she promised voluntarily. her security clearance, she is expected to have that done as well. but she wanted to do it to try to guard gins disclosures. >> well, it is, i guess, a solution for the ethics perhaps but it is fraught with other issues along the way, and something that i know you will be watching closely. very powerful members of this white house team. i know you are staying with us throughout the show, and now i want to bring in eric. here you are with all of the home work you and your colleagues did, you don't have a hearing scheduled, do you have any information back from

chairman nunes for what his source was, what did he say? right now the house is in total disrepart as the senate sits down for their first public hearings today. >> we're continuing whether or not they want to go forward or not. and we have not, however, seen the evidence that chairman nunez continues to refer to. we think is rolling a smoke bomb into the progress that we made with this investigation. we're going forward to find the truth. >> i wanted to play some of nora mcdonald's interview, what did the speaker know, did he authorize this trip to the white house. nunes said he spoke to the

speaker and he didn't have time to talk to adam schiff. >> did you ask to see the documents. >> he didn't have them, so i didn't. >> did you encourage him to go to the president? >> no, i said just add it to the investigation. >> so you didn't say whatever you find you better go tell president trump about it. >> i already knew he was going to go and brief everybody. >> what should the speak's responsibility be here? >> devin nunes should be removed as the ahead of the investigation. it is at risk right now and it is the leaders call. regardless of whether or not a true conflict of interest exists or not, there is a wide perception of a conflict of interest. we were attacked. our constituents are expecting us to find out how it happened,

and they're seeing the person who is supposed to be leading this investigation seems to be more loyal to the white house than the duties that we have here in the house. >> at the same time, there is an internal war, friendly fire, the caucus saying they will go after him in the midterms and that he wants to work with democrats, are there any democrats willing to work with the president? >> we are once the repeal fever breaks. we thought it broke last week when they didn't have the votes, but they seem to want to continue to repeal the affordable care act. we're not going to play a role in that. once it breaks, we're open to bringing more competition to the marketplace, finding a way to make precipitation dr-- prescription drugs more affordable. >> will you work with him on tax reform? >> of course, as long as it

makes sure that every person in the country, every part of the country, has an opportunity to succeed and it's not just give aways to the wealthiest. >> let us know when you hear back and get some answers to the questions that have been raised. back to peter alexander. >> back to you in a moment, coming up from washington, speaker paul ryan a warning from his own party. more on that is coming up next, andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™.

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we can just work with democrats to try to change obama care and that is hardly a conservative thing. he is a can-do president, he wants to get things done, and i know he does with the republican congress, but if they allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good, i worry we will push him to working with democrats. >> house speaker paul ryan there issuing a threat to republicans to tanked his health care bill. he is saying the president will turn to democrats, and the president distancing himself, declaring war with the house freedom caucus.

jeremy, with this tweet, just a couple hours ago, president trump going after not just the freedom caucus, but also democrats. you can't get that far if you only control 200 seats in the house. one encouraging thing that would point toward maybe getting something down, is paul ryan and trump seem to be on the same page here with their blame of the free caucus. if you talk to democrats, are they willing to work with trump, it's crickets. they see no incentive to work with trump because he has gone so far right that there is no common ground there. >> they are witnessing weakness at this point, right? they don't exactly feel like they want to throw him a lifeline. i want to talk about your reporting, specific to health care and this effort. it seemed like it was flat lining. it might be resuscitated.

is there a health care deal to be done right now and how do you see it playing out in the near future. >> just look at the president's treat, look at what paul ryan said. the president is threatening to work with democrats. i don't see how you get a deal when there is so much blame being cast about. where every that trump looks -- >> also criticizing paul ryan that he doesn't want the president to work with democrats. >> it has always been a mess. this is what lead them to shutting dourn the government in 20 2013. it looks perilous. >> in an op-ed, there was something interesting about trumpim. it is different from

conservati conservatism. he says no office holder in washington seems to understand president trump's populism or have a theory of how to affect it in practice. you talk to these folks, you know the meetings that are taking place behind the scenes, is this a moment where the president recalibrates and goes back to the root. >> to the extent that it is a version of american populism, that is not really what we're seeing in the first few months of this -- >> that is way, way right. and populism is not about taking things away from people. if you look at the health care plan that the president stood behind, it was ultimately about taking things away from people. you can argue that some of the immigration stf is more pop list, but they have not really gotten to that yet, and it is hard to see consensus on that. so what is the trump agenda other than chaos, i don't know.

>> and you talk about the individuals involved in that process. the wing woman, the wing man, jared kushner, what value can she offer? >> i think to the extent that she can be a leveling influence on her father like her husband has been then that is a good thing. however if you look for evidence in the trump administration's appearance, it's hard to see how they have had that leveling influence. >> you would be in a position where you can't say no to your father. from the reporting i do, she is in a position where she can say no to him. she may be their best asset in the white house if they want to moderate. >> if she listens. coming up, secretary tillerson in turkey today meeting with president erdogan.

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washington. we will send you now to brussels and andrea mitchell at the nato head quarter. >> before heading here tomorrow, secretary of state tillerson, he is in turkey, a nato ally, but in the talks today he failed to resolve big differences with turkey's president erdogan. turkey is dead set against the u.s. plan to rely heavily on kurdish forces that turkey views as terrorists. the trump white house is not committed to replacing bah shshl assad. >> we discussed options available to us, they are difficult options. they are different option that have to be made. the conversations, very frank and candid.

i think the status, and the longer term status of president assad will be decided by the syrian people. >> joining us now is peter, the former british ambassador to the united states, before that to france and before that to turkey, and also nick burns, a former u.s. ambassador to nato. so, beater, let's talk about turkey, erdogan, and nato. this was a real gut check for secretary dillers tillerson, bu continue to hear president trump say we're going to defeat siisi it will be quick, and now he is seeing the complicated task. >> yeah, it looks like the mood

and the tone was okay, but the reality is that there is an issue about who the united states partners with, and the turks don't like the way in which america is working with the ypg. it is closely aligned with their own terrorist group. the turks want to see this gentleman extradited from the united states of america because of the involvement of the movement in the coup last july. and a number of difficult issues. so it was a tough. >> the entire nato alliance chanced so secretary dillerson could be here, he needs to be here at the summit. so they are showing a lot of flexibility. what if he comes here tomorrow, and continues to what president

trump tweeted after angela merkel left, complaining that germany is not spending enough that the other nato allies need to pay their bills. >> well, andrea, nato is the corner stone of american security in europe. it is important that secretary tillerson was able to change his schedule and the other leaders to accommodate that. the united states have traditionally been a leader of the alliance. and i think what the nato allies are waiting to hear is a sense of strategy in europe, of a trump administration, particularly on the issue of russia, an initiative to contain russian power in europe. on the issue of military spending, i do think the united states is well within it's rights to ask the nato al lilieo

spend more. they are spending above the gross domestic product. i think the trump administration -- is highly ineffective, the best way to motivate people in democracies is to talk frankly in private but not try to embarrass them in public, and i think that was part of the problem with how the government dealt with angela merkel. >> one of the things that came up today was in meetings with the russians, the secretary general told us there was very tough conversations about violations of a cease fire in the eastern ukraine. they are at record levels now. so peter, what is the likelihood that the nato alliance will hold together, europe will hold together on those sanctions despite so much pressure to relax the sanctions over the ukraine. >> i would like to just talk about the importance of

secretary tillerson to be there. so the fact that everybody can come together within the nato format, at a time when there was some anxiety about the commitment of the united states, the new administration, i think it is hugely important. i think we will remain firm on sanctions, there was a wobble out of some of what we were hearing, indeed the late faces of the campaign, but we had firm language on the importance of keeping sanctions in russia. i think the united di-- as they talk to the agenda today. >> i have been talking to a lot

of european leaders, and many who come through washington. and there is dismay about this white house, they feel they don't know whether or not to accept what the president says one day, or what the tweet says the next day, how can foreign leaders rely predictably on the u.s. as an ally. >> secretary tillerson, secretary mattis, it is very important. it is people who have been accustomed to positions of power. and i think if they can create predictability about american behav behavior, that is a great first step. president trump will be tested this spring. he will be introduced to all of these european leaders. he will have to sit down with vladimir putin. they will be looking for a

president who can lead in a positive way, whoimmersed in the issues. i hope they can meet that bar. and the other thing is there is 21% projected budget cuts in the state department. that worries people like me and worries the europeans. they know that america needs to be dro be strong diplomatically. >> peter, now back to you in washington. >> andrea, i was hoping you would call me sir peter, but coming up on msnbc, north carolina trying to come to a compromise for the bathroom bill. but why is the lbgt community slamming the compromise? per roll

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law. $4 billion could have been lost in the course of a decade right outside of the house chambers right now, what do we expect from that vote today and why now in terms of this repeal? >> peter, the house here is discussing the replacement bill, house bill 142 that replaces hb 2 after it easily passed the senate. i was just in there and it was facing a heated debate. especially because you mentioned you have house members saying they're in favor of repeals hb2 but they're not if favor of the replacement bill. one congressman said there was no lbgt people on the discussion table when this replacement bill was being drafted. they say it still legislates

restroom. others said this was so much bigger than basketball. they want to repeal it because they care about fairness and equity. they say we're facing a knew i did here in north carolina. it is facing a heated debate here in the house. we still don't know if we have enough votes to pass the house and go to the governor's desk. i want to talk about why it is facing so much opposition. it would allow transgender people to use the restrooms that coincide with their gender identity. but it will still leave the final say in the hands of the state web and it will keep other cities from enacting their own

ordinances. but they really gave way to hb 2 and starting this whole thing in the first place. it is still up in the air and it looks very tight. >> the deadline for the ncaa effectively on thursday. they nailed this all down before they make decisions for sports championships. so this is an urgent issue they're trying to sort out. now we're going back to the intelligence committee and trying to drill down on what we heard today. ari schwartz is joining us now. he served on the security counc council, good looking over your old offices here at the white house. i want to get a sense about what is happening here. i want to play some of the sound, specifically what we're learning about russia's involvement and the interference in the u.s. election. >> they simultaneously launched

false stories. within minutes prorussian mediato mediators forwarded this false story. going back to the active measures and counts we tracked in the last few years. they almost simultaneously amplified the fake news story in unison. the hash tags were nuclear, trump, benghazi. >> the level of coordination that we're learning about as they play the predicate for the circumstances and potential consequences of this. what is striking you? >> one of the things that came out that was stressed was trying to figure out ways to use america's democracy against itself. right? get disinformation out there, raise the amount of information

that was private, meant to be prooismt, mixing that in with the fake news, right? that confusion, using the democracy against itself. it works in the u.s. and others. >> i think something that had people asking questions. the fact that he wanted to go, and the obama administration said we don't want to do that right now, they didn't like the idea of an op-ed. what do you make about that and what do you know about your time and the kfgss you had with individuals working in that white house. >> i left the white house by that point, but from what i hear from my colleges is changing of information at this point, it's not entirely the way that news week story makes it house.

>> how do they say it? >> what is important here is we saw this time and time again from director comey. it is about internal government politics. it is about trying to assert the fbi's independence, right? and he did that time and time again, it frustrates republicans and democrats, but one thing that is troubles to me, it doesn't seem to tie into what is right for the american people. so it is, you see a story like this, and it happens again, is he trying to push back? that is not the way to read it, the fbi overall is how it is playing out. >> yeah, it continues as they are now in charge of this investigation into the trump associates and whatever ties

they may have to russia. >> appreciate the conversation. is the new administration test holding alliances from a former cold war adversary? >> going to extremes and coming back to the cuban christ. this is irresponsible behavior of some people, what are they leading us to? >> it's time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. inheriting a secret family res pi for high b ipe for tea. for lower back pain sufferers, the search for relief often leads here. today there's drug-free aleve direct therapy. a high intensity tens device that uses technology

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back now live here on msnbc. foreign ministers are gathering at nato headquarters for meeting this week. we want to take you back there where andrea is covering it from brussels. andrea, back to you. >> on a beautiful day at nato and that's right, tomorrow secretary tillerson arrives from turkey for a nato summit. recently president trump slammed germany's angela merkel the day after she visited washington tweeting germany owes vast amounts of money to nato and the united states must be paid for the powerful and very expensive defense it provides to germany. i asked nato secretary general about that and about rescheduling the nato meeting for secretary tillerson's benefit. >> would you expect that he

would not be criticizing nato members for their contributions and not making the case that they have been making that there needs to be a bigger contribution, that they need to move faster to the 2% of gdp. >> it has been a very consistent message from president trump and that is the message about strong transatlantic unity, strong support for nato, but at the same time expecting that all allies make good on the pledge we made together in 2014. and that is to stop the cuts in defense spending, gradual increase defense spending and move towards spending 2% of gdp on defense within a decade. >> they will be talking about that tomorrow and talking about the war on terror. on isis. ambassador is the former u.s. ambassador to nato and the current president of the chicago council on global affairs and joins me now. good to see you. tell me the state of nato right now? so much criticism during the

campaign, the president has tried to change his posture in recent weeks. have they -- can they come together? have they come together? >> well, this is the first foreign minister meeting of the new administration. we had a defense ministerial meeting in february where jim mattis attended. that by all accounts was a god meeting. i expect -- good meeting. i expect this will be a good meeting as well. there is anxiety. there is anxiety for two reasons. one, because russia is probing and testing and posing a more aggressive stance vis-a-vis nato. they're planning an exercise in the fall of 100,000 troops on nato's borders. and that's creating anxiety. among our allies, particularly in the east. at the same time, allies are worried about whether the united states will be there for them. clearly during the campaign, the president -- then candidate

donald trump called nato obsolete and argued that it was not dealing with threats that it needed to be dealt with. afterwards he has more strongly supported it, nato, which is important, but links it constantly to this notion that somehow allies owe the united states vast sums of money as he put it in the tweet you just had on there. so, they're worried whether the united states will be there. so the key mission really for secretary tillerson and then for president trump when he goes to the nato summit in may tiz to reassure allies that the united states takes its treaty obligation to help defend europe very, very seriously. >> and not to say the kinds of things, praising vladimir putin, that he has said in the past? >> well, that's right. and there is this concern that somehow a relationship with russia needs to be more important than any relationship with europe. and that was fed, frankly, when

secretary tillerson indicated he was not going to come to the foreign ministerial and, in fact, would go to russia later in april. i'm very pleased that was changed, that the secretary is now coming, that he is attending his first ministerial meeting, which is going to prepare the summit for late may and send a message that the united states stands with our allies, shoulder to shoulder, even as we expect, as we have always expected the allies to do as much, in fact more, when it comes to defense spending. >> and, in fact, the secretary general stolenberg repeated something that you know that i know, that only once has nato actually done an article 5 declaration of war and it was in defense of the united states. it was after 9/11 when they went into afghanistan at our side and they're still there. all these years later. >> that's exactly right. on december 12th, of 2001, nato invoked article 5 and, in fact, sent awacs air defense planes to

help police disguise over the united states and nato, all nato countries have been present in afghanistan for the past decade or more. many have paid a great price in blood and in treasure and that is the kind of contribution you would expect from allies, to be standing shoulder to shoulder when it's necessary. and that, too, ought to be recognized, that this is an alines in which our allies, whether they're from estonia or norway or canada or italy, are prepared to fight side by side alongside the united states in places like afgs. so it's not just about 2% of gdp on spending. it's about being good allies and in europe, there is a worry that the united states isn't willing to be a good ally anymore and it's a worry they're recognized that the allies in europe are doing their part. they need to have spent more on defense, but at the same time, they've proven to be allies when

they stand shoulder to shoulder with us in afghanistan. >> evo, thank you so very much. >> my pleasure. >> back to you, peter, peter alexander, in washington. >> thanks so much. as we were listening to your conversation we were listening to adam schiff the top democrat on the house intelligence committee with the latest on an investigation that's already been paralyzed by politics. here's part of what congressman schiff said moments ago. >> look, i'm determined that this investigation go forward, whatever obstacle we may encounter. it's just too important otherwise. and i think the step that we have to take right now is to figures out okay, are we in agreement on next steps, next steps being what hearings are we going to have, what witnesses are we going to call. we also did discuss the fact that we need to obtain documents before we have the witnesses come in so we can be well prepared and have a full outline of the questions we need to ask

each witness. that was really the heart of our discussion. >> have you talked with democrats on your committee yet? a lot of them are very upset with the chairman. are you trying to ease them saying, okay, the process is moving forward? how are you counseling them? >> all of our members, we certainly meant to discuss this today, all of our members recognize the importance of going forward with the investigation, not and just the investigation, but all of the work of the intelligence committee. that needs to take place. the problems around the world haven't gone away. the oversight we need to do hasn't gone away and the need to conduct this investigation hasn't gone away. we're carrying on and we will carry on. ultimately the speaker and chair decide who they want to run this investigation and they'll have to articulate why and how they feel that can be done credibly. our job is to do everything in our power to be responsible and to go forward and be constructive and that's what we're doing.

>> did you see senator warner and senator burr's press conference and any reaction to that? >> great sense of nostalgia, similar to what the chair and i had been doing until events of last week. whether we can get back to that i don't know, but i do know this, one way or the other the investigation has to take place. both the house and the senate had very limited staff to devote to this, right now until the speaker approves an independent commissionion these are the only investigations going on and we're determined to do our part to make sure they're thorough and professional and again, as we did last week, where we run into obstacles, where things impede our ability to conduct the investigation, we intend to be very public about it. >> so yesterday at the senate intel or the chairman and the ranking member said that they've called upon i think 20 witnesses and at least five are coming up. where are your numbers on that? >> you know, we're not going to

make public our witness list but i think we're looking at equivalent number of witnesses in the initial, and i think we certainly had agreement today that the witnesses that we feel are appropriate they won't stand in our way. we feel the same way about witnesses they want to call. so i think that was an encouraging sign? are paul manafort and jared kushner also on your list? >> you know, i don't want to go into all the specifics of the list but certainly those are two witnesses we would fully expect to want to bring before our committee. >> thank you very much. >> you've been listening to part of that conversation with congressman adam schiff on the house intelligence committee saying his committee has decided to reschedule a closed hearing with mike rogers head of the nsa and james comey the fbi director. that's going to do it for us on this edition of "andrea mitchell reports" an dre what will be back there again tomorrow. thanks very much. >> see you tomorrow. >> we'll see you tomorrow.

remember to follow the show on-line and facebook, follow andrea on twitter @mitchellreporters i'm at @peter alexander. craig melvin is up. >> not too tough at all, thank you. and a good thursday to you. craig melvin here from msnbc headquarters in new york city. another busy day on capitol hill, though. party's over. president trump threatening his own party with a mid term fight if they don't fall in line. what happens now? russian probe the senate intelligence committee holding its first -- holding its first hearing on those allegations that russia tampered with the presidential election and daughter in chief, ivanka trump now an official federal employee. she won't get a paycheck, but is it still a serious conflict of interest? we'll get to that in a bit. first two big stories happening right now, there is of course that senate intel