state house are calling for him to resign and walk away. >> kerry sanders, we'll watch it closely. thanks so much. and that brings our hour of msnbc live to an end. you can find me on all the normal socialmmediate places, twitter, facebook -- instagram, i'm @ali velshi at chat. >> right now, mixed signals. with escalating tensions over syria, secretary of state rex tillerson today heading to the first high stakes meetings tomorrow in the kremlin. but can trump's top diplomats get on the same page about the syrian president's future? >> in no way do we see peace in that area with as sad as the head of the syrian government. >> we can navigate a political outcome in which the syrian people in fact will determine assad's fate and his legitimacy. >> meanwhile, one top republican

pulling no punches about assad launching warplanes from the same airfield hours after the u.s. strike. >> here's what i think assad's telling trump by flying from this base. fu. >> team of rivals. the west wing plot thickens as president trump orders the warring factions, steve bannon and son-in-law jared kushner to "work this out," digging in after his ouster from the national security council a source telling nbc news, he ain't going anywhere. >> the president can get advice from anybody he wants. he does that. he asks a broad range of people who he trusts and steve bannon is one of them. and the supremes. it's official. neil gorsuch is sworn in as the next supreme court justice. >> i'm humbled by the trust placed in me today. i will never forget that to whom much is given much will be expected. >> i've always heard that the

most important thing that a president of the united states does is appoint people hopefully great people like this appointment to the united states supreme court. and i can say this is a great honor. and i got it done in the first 100-day. that's even nice. a nice day indeed for the white house. good day. i'm andrea in mitch in washington where where trump scored a major victory today, new supreme court justice neil gorsuch sworn in by justice anthony kennedy, the first time a sitting justice has administered the oath to a former clerk. the constitutional swearing in conducted by chief justice roberts hours earlier at the court. today's event is a welcome distraction for white house bombarded by daily reports of n infighting among staff with

reince priebus ordered to order a cease-fire between dueling players as the president is tested by his first foreign policy in syria straining relations with putin. starting off with nbc national correspondent peter alexander at the white house and nbc chief global correspondent bill neely in moscow. peter you were in the rose garden for that ceremony. that is a major landmark for this white house and one with such a young new justice of the supreme court that is going to last for a generation. >> yeah, i think you're exactly right. judge gorsuch now justice gorsuch. 49 years young. notably of the nine members of the court right now, there are three that are either 70 years of age or older so the potential is justice gorsuch is joined by some other new justices over the course of this president's term. as one conservative in the rose garden said to me, this is huge. this is the biggest triumph so far for this presidency. in effect, they hope it bes to

help refuel the conservative message they believe president trump campaigned on rightnow. they say it will helport of bind the coalition that the president came into office with right now with a message to never trumpers that you need to get behind this president and a message to other conservatives broadly that is a man who did deliver on one of the most important of his props. president trump himself as you noted today joked about the fact that hey, it ain't easy to get this stuff done in the first 100-days. that was sort of a hat tip to some of the challenges his administration, this young administration has faced most notably its failure so far to repeal or replace obamacare and the fact there's not been any movement on two other promises he prols would happen early in his administration, the issue of tax cuts and infrastructure. >> part of that is presumably because of the infighting and different factions and you've seen that break into the open with the kushner wing of the party and the steve bannon wing

of the party. what do we know about reince prieb priebus's success in trying to declare a truce in. >> well, the sense we're getting rights now is that the president was pleased by what was in effect an intervention. the dust has basically settled after a meeting that took place at mar-a-lago in palm beach late last week where jared kushner was there with priebus and steve bannon. the three of them hashing things out, trying to bury the hatchet in terms of a relationship has become not just challenging be very devicive, putting them in different corners here in the west wing of this white house. steve bannon we have heard from sources inside the west wing describing kushner among others as the sort of west wing democrats but again as we talk about that dust settling, we're hearing this there are indications there isn't going to be movement in terms of whether or not the president's son-in-law is ousted here. bannon, priebus and kushner are

expected to stay put. h.r. mcmaster was effectively down playing it. sources close to bannon said he ain't going anywhere. >> on the foreign policy front, billne hereou've got rex tillerson arrives in moscow tomorrow. there are differing reports as to whether or not he would be meeting with vladimir putin, that that unscheduled but presumably likely meeting before the syrian strike now may be very much up in the air or could be withheld as punishment. now they have scheduled a meeting on syria in italy before he gets to moscow for tomorrow morning. i want to play a little bit of tillerson today in italy going to a wreath-laying ceremony which is commemorating a nazi atrocity in 1944, and he was really making quite an effort to talk about this kind of massacre and we can sort of infer from that he's also talking about

syria. let's watch. >> we remember the events of august 12th, 1944 that occurred. we rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world. >> this is a man who never stops and chats with the press. i can attest to that, not in brussels when we wethere last w. he made a point of talking about these kinds of horrors signifying what happened in syria. >> >> reporter: yes, andrea, very, very significant that he made that ha stop and made those comments. russia will be watching what he's doing in italy closely. it's watching that g-7 meeting. it used to be the 8 before russia was thrown out over its annexation of crimea. watching for any evidence of that clear and coordinated message that rex tillerson might

bring to moscow when he meets sergey lavrov on wednesday. russia also wants to know, for example, it the u.s. policy after those missile strikes, is it one trik and we're out or is the u.s. now deeper, more deeply involved in the syrian war than it had been previously. one thing is for certain, andrea, this isn't the meeting that rex tillerson and sergey lavrov had anticipated when they thought it might be the preliminary to a summit between presidents trump and putin it possibly in the summer. then they thought on the table might be ukraine, nato, iran, u.s. sanctions, libya and, of course, syria. instead, what's going to be on the table, well, it's sarin gas, dead children, cruise missiles, and hanging over the table for the russians, the big question, what next. what is the u.s. strategy? just to pick one comment over the week by lavrov's spokeswoman, she said, this

missile strike is not, we think, part of america's strategy because america doesn't have eight strategy. and she said the only thing that's predictable about american policy at the moment is that it's up predictable. so they'll be looking for clarity from rex tillerson and they're looking at that g-7 meeting initially to see if anything clear comes out of it. andrea? >> andill, the other thing that we were told was going to be on the table and this was before the sia strike, was that he was -- tillerson was going to raze the issue of the russian hacking, something the president of the united states has never acknowledged happened. but he was going to bring that up with lavrov or presumably vladimir putin. now we don't know how that that will be received in russia. >> well, yes, you know, rex tillerson, of course, is known here. he was the recipient of a medal of friendship from russia. but he comes here in part of course, with his own agenda.

he can't appear to be moscow's man. he will want to be tough and that's what he's been over the last few days. of course, crucially accusing russia of either being complicit in knowing about syria's retention of chemical weapons or being incompetent because it did not know of those weapons. so rex tillerson has his own challenges here and, of course, he walks a fine line. he needs to be tough, but he also wants to achieve, i suppose, a central plank of president trump's foreign policy which is better relations with russia. or has that just gone away? did i mit industry medvedev, russia's prime minister said over the weekend, that's gone. that has gone just as trump's campaign has gone. we now have bad relations once again with the united states. so for rex tillerson, a real test,' real challenge, andrea? >> indeed for a novice diplomat at that.

thank you so much, bill neely. we'll see you there tomorrow. and maryland senator ben cardin is the top democrat on the foreign relations committee joining me now. senator, in the rare position where the lavrov spokeswoman, maria's comments might mirror some from members of the senate about a lack of strategy that is. >> andrea first, it's good to be with you. rex tillerson has to be very clear about america's concerns about russia's engagement in syria. the complicit in committing war crimes and the use of chemical weapons. their failure to bring the syrians to the peace talks, to end this civil war. he also has to be very clear that about russia's enxwangment in ukraine and in and neching crimia, that we will not accept. he needs to be clear about what happened in the united states elections in and our concerns about russia's engagement in

european elections. it's going to be the first visit for our secretary of state to russia and he's got to be very clear about our certains. yes, we want to have a more constructive relationship with russia. but it must be with a clear understanding that we won't allow that type of conduct to continue. >> and where do we stand on the syria strike 1234 do you think it was a one off from the briefing you've had, or is this beginning of a new syria policy? >> well, the president indicated through his representatives that it's a one off, that was a response to the use of chemical weapons. it was a limited response. what we've all asked for is what is your policy in regards to syria, how are you going to end this civil war, how are we going to get rid of assad. that's what we're waiting to hear. use of force is always controversial. there has been no congressional authorization for the use of force against the assad syrian government. i think that will be a subject

for discussion on capitol hill. bottom line, the president responded to an trosity committed by the syrian government. it was a limited response. and i think as long as it is narrowly focused, that he goes on, if he comes in with a policy, i think we all will want to see that. >> and finally, on china, the summit with chinese president xi and the north korean threat. we're told the "uss carl vinson" is moving closer to region, that there is real concern about north korea. what do you think was accomplished with the chinese leader regarding more pressure, getting the chinese to put more pressure on pyongyang? >> we haven't heard any concrete results. obviously, the only way to change the equation in north korea is if china will exert more pressure on north korea on the commerce side. we also of course, are concerned about chinese activities in south china sea because that

could cause some incident. we don't want to see that happen. there's major issues between china and the united states. not the least of which are the human rights issues and we haven't much at all about what was accomplished at the summit. >> do you think it was a mistake for the president to take action against syria which obviously involves the russians, as well? and to be blaming the russians while the chinese leader was there or was that a good use of a deliberate signal? >> i think he had to take action in regards to the use of chemical weapons. he had to take action. he has certain inherent powers. the article 28 powers. in regards to how he deals with the summit with the chinese, i don't think much was expected going into the summit. we didn't hear any real deliverables. i'm not sure whether the syrian distraction was caused that or not. i doubt it. it's not set up for deliverable.

that's unfompbt. whenever you have a summit, you like to see concrete progress. we would have hoped president would have been able to convince the chinese for it's in their interest for them to put more pressure on north korea. >> with you encouraged or discouraged or is there any reaction to what seems to be a minor shake-up at the nsc now that mike flynn is out, general mcmaster is exert is his authority and k.t. mcfarland will be nominated for ambassador to singapore. >> we feel more comfortable steve bannon if he was out completely not just off the national security council. that was welcome news but he's still in the white house. that concerns many of us who look at him as a symbol against america's strength and that is in our diversity night what about k.t. mcfar land, deputy national security adviser who apparently is being moved out. >> looks like she's going to be

nominated to singapore as the bam bass door. clearly, mcmaster is exercising some leadership in getting a team tooth that's more representative of the traditional role of the national security council, and i think that's welcome. we would like to see a more traditional role at the national security council. >> what about nominations? have you seen any sign of a deputy to be nominated or undersecretaries or assistant secretaries from the state department and others who would be confirmed by your committee? >> this is extremely frustrating. i'm sure for the trump administration, but for us in congress. we would like to have oversight hearings on what's going on in many parts of the world but don't have the confirmed positions in the state department that would have responsible for these areas. so right now, the state department is really undermanned from the point of view of confirmed position to deal with the world challenges. no, we haven't heard anything. there were some rumors that proved not to be accurate. so we have not heard anything

about the deputy secretary, nothing about the regional secretaries. there's a lot of positions that need to be filled and should have been filled by now. >> senator, thank you very much. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. and coming up, mending fences. the president trying to play peacemaker the ongoing feud between jared kushner and steve bannon. move on the west wing drama na coming up next right here on andrea mitchell reports. start here. or here. even here. and definitely here. at fidelity, we're available 24/7 to make retirement planning simpler. we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand. ♪ time to think of your future our proprietary material automatically adjusts to your weight, shape and temperature. so you sleep deeply, and wake up feeling powerful.

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welcome back.

the white house looking to turn the page the ongoing west wing power struggle between top aide steve bannon and jared kushner. of course, he's also son-in-law. that's a good title. according to "the new york times," the president ordered kushner and bannon to "work this out" on friday. reince priebus held an hour long meeting among the combatants to try and convince all sides to bury the hatchet. joining me julie pace, associate press white house correspondent and jeremy peters "new york times" political reporter and contributor. welcome both. jaromir, first to you, your reporting on all this drama, the west wing drama na which wofld what was said behind jared kushner's back when he was in baghdad last week with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and i guess they were all together cozily at the mar-a-lago summit for chinese. >> i don't know how cozy it was. >> exactly. what are you being told? >> well, part of the issue is

during the campaign, the differences between jared kushneand steve bannon, these deep ideological differences were papered over. they were all working to elect donald trump president. now that they're actually fighting over policy, these rifts have blown up wide into the open. so it's a problem. and i don't know that it's a problem that's ultimately solved without some reshuffling. trump has not decided weather wants to do yet. he's going to let this air out a little bit. as we reported on friday, did he tell them to work it out. there's a cooling of the simmering tension buzz by no means has it gone away. >> julie, you are there every day watching this in and out. clearly, these divisions had a role to play in the failure of health care, in a slow start on tax reform. not getting to infrastructure. there are big issues here. these are issues that will define the presidency of donald trump. >> and there's two ways that is affecting the white house.

one is they're basically in somewhat of a holding pattern in terms of deciding what to do next. the specific issues that they're going to try to pursue and then within those issues what the white house's position will be. and then the other way that this really hurts the white house is that it consumes a tremendous amount of time. if you go to the white house and tell them that you're working on a story about a certain player in this drama, you get a lot of senior officials who are willing to talk to you about it when they should probably be off doing other things. just the amount of time that this is taking for white house officials to try to bat back these stories or shape their own side of the story is astounding at this point in a presidency. >> and one of the quotes on all this from jeremy's reporting is that mr. bannon identified why they could not compromise according to someone within knowledge of the conversation "here's the reason there's no middle ground. mr. bannon growled you're a democrat." that's a pretty terrible thing to be calling. >> especially in a republican

white house, right? >> turns out it's factually correct unless he's changed registration. he was a democrat, jared kushner. >> that gets to the ideological divide i was talking about earlier. you have a group of senior adviser who have a lot of influence with the president who have a more liberal world view. and that is in direct conflict with the conservative nationalist view that steve bannon especially pushes. but you know, this is more than just a clash of ideologies. eventually this could become a political problem for the president if he's seen as giving in to the, quote unquote, democrats in his administration but you listen to talk radio and this is a real concern. like there are radio hosts out there howling how dare the president betray his core supporters and have these democrats telling him what to do. >> julie, icame to a head certainly over the syria action because there was pnty of reporting that bannon was against that and certainly what

we see and the alt-right is a lot of very public criticism from some of the president's strongest supporters alex jones and others complaining about that military action. we'll there's this irony in that donald trump ran for president not as an ideologue. he was pretty clear during the campaign he was willing to be flexible on a lot of policy positions particularly some of his more controversial ones he put out as a candidate. now he comes into office and problems he is flexible when it comes to foreign policy at least military action in syria. and yet, you are seeing a really harsh response from some of his really core supporters who have a lot of influence and have a big voice. and he had feel betrayed like this is exactly the kind of action that they would have opposed op his part if he were a candidate, pushing the u.s. deeper into a really intractable and stubborn conflict in the middle east. we don't know the how deep trump

was willing to go, if it was a one off strike or not. it has been off putting for a lot of people who expected despite everything we know about trump not being an ideologue, expected he would hold firm on at least this piece of his agenda. >> julie, is there any resolution on k.t. mcfarland, is there an indication she will accept thi nomination positive bam ambassador to singapore? >> yeah, what it sounds like is this is her best option. should she choose to take it is another question. whether she takes it or not, it doesn't sound like there's a future for her at the nsc, certainly not as deputy national security adviser. >> julie and jeremy, both of you all over the story. thank you very much. coming up, pete williams joining us on the instant the new justice neil gorsuch will be having at the supreme court.

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i have no doubt you will go down as one of the truly great justices in the history of the

united states supreme court. >> and the work starts this week. already for supreme court justice neil gorsuch. joining his colleagues to tackle critical cases on the docket and help decide what makes the cut for the court's next term. pete williams joins me now. a big day for the court. a 49-year-old new justice and importantly one who has a prior relationship with anthony kennedy as a clerk. that was something the president kept referring to in his ad libbed remarks in fact today. because clearly they at the white house are hoping that gorsuch will pull kennedy who's been in many cases the decider over to the right side. >> good luck with that. >> on the balanced side on right correct, you know what i mean. >> right. well, i think that maybe the hope of some. in any event, he'll get to work and his first influence will be this friday, the justices will meet in their usual closed door conference where had he vote on

kays to hear. it takes four votes to grant a case. and there have been a couple of cases that keep coming back on the list over and over with no decision. peaps he'll provide the fourth vote to hear those cases. who knows? but among those we'll be watching to see what happens there's a case from colorado that tests how much businesses can refuse to provide their services for same sex weddings for religious reasons. there's another case that is a very interesting issue that's been bouncing around the lower courts for years ever since the supreme court ruled in 2008 that the second amendment provides an individual right to have a gun in the home for self-defense. now the question is what about outside the home. there's a case from california that raises that question. then the court comes back into the courtroom next week to hear the final 13 cases of the terminate, the ones on which justice gorsuch will be able to participate and vote. and the biggest case in the next two weeks and one of the biggest cases of the term is the religious freedom case. it's a challenge to laws that

are in about half the states that say no state money can go directly or indirectly to churches. many of these laws date from over 100 years ago. this specific case comes from missouri. a lutheran church there applied for state money to resurface its playgrounds with a rubber coating. and the state said well, you otherwise qualify but we have this provision in our constitution that says we can't give you money. the challengers say those laws are discriminatory, they discriminate against religion. if everybody else, other non-profits can get the money but concted with churches theyay that's discrimination. the states say it doesn't interfere with their religious freedom. the state isn't subsidizing their religious practices. he he'll be able to vote on that case but will get right to work as this term comes to an end. >> according to protocols and traditions of the court, when they go into conference, what is the big change for the person who is the --

>> elena kagan doesn't have to open the door anymore. the record holder was stephen breyer. 11 or 12 years, he was the junior justice where there was no change on the court. by tradition, whoever is the rookie, if anybody knocks on the door during the conference, the only people in the conference room are the judges themselves and by the way, that's where justice gorsuch got the first of the two swearing in today, the chief justice giving him the constitutional oath but it's the junior justice's job 0 answer the door. doesn't happen very often but it does happen some. of course, the junior justice is the last to say how he or she would vote on a case. they go around the table on seniority after they've heard argument and everybody gets a chance to speak. and the junior justice goes last. so that's a long-standing tradition here. >> we should also point out in the rose garden today, sitting in the front row with the

justices not with the other spouses was maureen scalia and the widow, of course, of the late justice antonin scalia. he was someone so admired by justice gorsuch and by his fellow justices for whatever any political differences there were. >> they've been very careful to reach out to her, andrea. you may remember she was at the ceremony in late january when the president announced the gorsuch nomination. she was here at the court today for that first private swearing in by the chief justice along with the oldest scalia son eugene and then of course, at the white house today. >> a lot of tradition and a lot of change at the same time. thank you so much, pete williams, mr. supreme court. you are our associate justice. thank you, pete. and coming up, what's on the line for rex tillerson ahead of his trip to the kremlin? richard haass, the president of the council of foreign relations

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dude. your crunching's scaring the fish. dude. they're just jealous. new kellogg's raisin bran crunch with crunchy clusters and the taste of apples and strawberries. (excited) i got one! (jokingly) guess we're having cereal for dinner. new kellogg's raisin bran crunch apple strawberry tillerson is in italy at this hour meeting with the g-7 foreign ministers in the seven major industrialized nations which has scheduled a crisis meeting on syria tomorrow including arab foreign ministers, as well on the eve of tillerson's first diplomatic trip to moscow. earlier,ectary of state visited the site of a world war ii massacre of italians by nazi

soldiers saying the u.s. would hold accountable any and all who commit crimes against innocent people. richard haass from the state department under secretary of state powell is now the president of the council on foreign relations and the author of a very pressure yent bork "a world in disarray." richard, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> to start with, syria and the relationship with russia importantly, rex tillerson was not originally scheduled to go to the wreath laying and certainly not to stop and talk to the press. he rarely does that. he was the only foreign minister who didn't in nato ten days ago. it's clear he was trying to make a point about innocent lives and about the importance that he and the administration are placing on that. >> well, exactly. he really has twos things he's trying to accomplish here, andrea. one is with syria to make it clear why we did what we did to

make it clear also the united states would likely do the same thing or something more were syria to use chemical weapons again. he's also trying i think to reassure domestically and others that the united states has limited goals in syria at this point, that we're not looking at some large military operation in any way designed to force out this regime. he's trying to straddle that and with russia, again, he's not looking to pick an over all fight but trying to make it clear to the russians that their support or tolerance of syrian chemical weapons use is unacceptable. and i think over time what he would like to do iove the russians slighy away from this government. >> a viable strategy right now. the russians initially their response was muted. they could have used air defenses to try to take down some of the tomahawks because they had gotten that morning on

the deconflicting hot line but then it dials up, heard lavrov's press spokeswoman saying very tough things against the administration. is the relationship now soured or is this just noise to greet the arrival of the secretary of state? >> well, you have layers of problems here, as you know. you began with the fact that russia has been something of an outlier, a spoiler, first with ukraine, then in syria. and then with the interference in the american campaign using is cyber. so you will all of that. and now you've got this as an overlay on top of this. so the administration in some ways wants to show it's not coddling the russians. they want to be tough on the syria issue. yet they somehow have to also try to preserve the ability to work with these people whether it's in syria or at least keep open the possibility of an improved relationship and getting that mixed set of signals right shall we say is no mean feat. >> there has been some criticism of secretary tillerson because

of what he said in turkey almost two weeks ago when he suggested at the priority was 0 deal with isis and that iwould be up to the syrian people to take care of assad. that was seen by some critics as an incentive for assad to use chemicals. do you think there's any link there. >> i don't. i don't think that was quite right. my own hunch is he decided to use chemicals because he thought he could get away with it. we hants responded in the past and he thought it would intimidate various groups who might oppose him going down the road. i do think the u.s. policy needs to focus on isis and in particular, not just hammering them but how we are going to work with others in controlling any territory we ultimately liberate from them. getting rid of the syrian government is essential. it just can't be a near term option. it's not vulnerable right now given iranian and russian support and quite honestly, we don't have the means to put

anything there that could take its place. it's almost sequential. i think in the short run, we need to focus on isis and preparing for its defeat and in the longer run, we need to think about how we promote a change in regime and again, how we prepare for it. >> do you think that the focus on chemicals is well placed with this initial strike? and in the context of 500,000 people may have decide in six years over the course of the civil war from conventional weapons? so is the horror of what the president saw which clearly changed his mind justified given the fact that there has been so little focus on intervening or stopping this war? >> it's an important question. i think in the narrow sense, yes. there is something different and special about the use of chemical weapons or any weapon of mass destruction. and there the audience is not simply syria but it's anyone else including north korea or iran one day. i think it's important to

strengthen that norm, that rule in international relations because it's clearly gotten weakened over the last four or five years. to use an academic phrase, it's necessary but not sufficient. what syria's been able to get away with russian and iranian help is a war crime on a massive scale. again it, violates another norm, another rule or another set of principles of international relations and there again, i think ultimately the goal has to be protect to lives and see this regime out of power. what we want to do is not sixly stop them from continuing to do what they're doing but accepted a message that any regime that acts so badly can't expect to enjoy power for long. >> just briefly there was a horrific -- two attacks rlly in egypt on palm sunday, on coptic churches, the pope has spoken out against this horror. isis was claiming responsibility. we can't confirm that. but this real

presidencicy is sisi is. >> if people are prepared to die for their cause and kill others, you can't defendsner church, every synagogue, we're all somewhat vulnerable. as we saw in sweden the other day, whatever the instrument is, whether whether it's a car, a truck, a bomb strapped to one's vest this is part of the scourge of this world we live in and what we've got do is push back against it wherever we can and try to makue ourselves less vulnerable. >> richard haass former state department and author of "the world in disarray," from the council on world relations. coming up, the first 100 days. reports from inside the white house strategy session to get the trump agenda back on track. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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all umm...ed. you wouldn't want your painter to quit part way, i think you missed a spot. so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. you want this color over the whole house? with t 100 day mark rapidly approaching for president trump, the white house is scrambling to come up with victories to reshape the narrative. but congress is on recess for the next two weeks, so what is

actually possible to achieve? joining me now is a former member of congress, former minnesota congressman. thank you very much for being with us. so congress is on recess. they're now talking about big things that they can accomplish to mark the 100-day mark. i guess they can do executive orders, but can't get any legislation passed. >> i understand the 100 day mark is important historically. but it is not terribly meaningful. the fact that the congress went home is meaningful. what are they going to hear in the next two weeks in political terms? that's why the strike on syria last week came at this time, because members of congress will have something to talk about other than the failure of health care. if you want to look for a time that matters, let's get back to the congressional schedule. between now and the fourth of july recess, they ought to really be concerned about what those members are going to hear when they go home.

we've seen lots of examples in recent administration of congress going home and that's when politics heats up. if they go home then and hear what are you guys doing? nothinis happening, you're failinat everything, that is a bad deal. but there's time to put this together. don't worry about the 100 days. >> what should they do to have some deliverables consistent with his campaign promises and take the eye off of russia hacking. >> i think the president's agenda, which is bold, dynamic, and daunting, but it's the right agenda. tax reform, regulatory reform, that requires legislative activity, as well. and yeah, health care, although i think that's getting dragged into the quick sand myself. but one of the mistakes they've made, and i don't know if it's the administration or the congress' fault. they've allowed this to be viewed so se agaquen viewed so se agaquetialsequenti. we throw up health care,

everybody shoots it down. now we're going to throw up tax reform and let everybody shoot that down. the president should not get sucked into talking one issue at a time, which allows freedom caucus republicans, the media, democrats, all to focus on that one target. he should use the time between now and the fourth of july recess to talk about the entirety of his agenda, and to prod the congress into moving everything along. infrastructure, taxes, reglatory reform, everything. >> to use the precedent set by jim baker, there was a strategic group that met morning and night. at night, it was to check off what was accomplished and what to do the next day. >> i remember that very well. >> you were at the other end of that. >> i was at the other end of pennsylvania avenue. they did it very, very well. my -- i'm not inside this white

house. my understanding is that the legislative group is pretty competent, which leads me to believe that the problem is in their communication to other people in the white house. >> too many power centers. >> that could be the case. this notion that we're seeing the development of different factions within the white house, i presume that this president is going to put an end to that. there should only be one faction, the trump faction, not centered on personalities or ideologies. and that may be the problem. but i'm told that the legislative function is headed by competent people and they're doing that job well. so the problem lies some place else. and i wouldn't exclude congressional leadership. people i used to serve with, they need to think through their strategy better, too. >> good advice from an old hand. not old, but veteran hand. >> aging hand, how's that? >> thank you. experienced hand. >> from the current president

to the older members of the president's club, bil clinton visited george h.w. bush. president clinton gifting his predecessor with three pairs of colorful socks to add to his colorful collection. god bless to president bush 41. we'll be right back. was active. i was energetic. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. he also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. for some, lyrica can significantly relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve function, so i feel better.

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and turning now to the scandal involving the governor of alabama, robert bentley, at an impeachment hearing under way today. he's accused of having a romantic relationship with a former aide and breaking the law trying to cover it up. he denies there was any physical relationship saying he will not resign, he's done nothing illegal. here is what the special counsel investigating the case said today. >> governor bentley's actions from the around the middle of 2013 to the present day form an unbroken continuum of conduct that demonstrates motives and intent throughout and can be reasonably considered by this committee. the purpose of impeachment is to protect society from political offenses by an unfit office

holder. >> and with that, that's it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow i'll be live in moscow. remember to follow us online on facebook a facebook. katie is up next. kicking off a two-hour lock here on "msnbc live." white house war. tensions growing behind the walls of the oval office as the power struggle between steve bannon and jared kushner raises on. will the president's top advisers make peace? sworn in. a big victory for president trump as neil gorsuch becomes the 113th supreme court justice. how will he impact the court? and tough talk. secretary of state rex tillerson delivering some harsh wordsor russia ahead of his visit to the kremlin. we start with a bit of good news for white house for a change. today's confirmation of now