over. at the easter egg roll today, a reporter asking the president for his message to north korea. >> behave. and risky business. senator john mccain tells chuck todd on "meet the press," this could be the first real test of the trump presidency. >> to prevent north korea from having a missile with a nuclear weapon that could strike the united states and we would have to rely on our ability to intercept it and by the way, i'm told that we do have that ability is still awfully risky business. so this is really very serious. this guy in north korea is not rational. on a roll, the white house tradition continues today. >> we will be stronger and bigger and better as a nation than ever before. we're right on track. you see what's happening and we are right on track. so thank you, everybody, for

being here. but first, this easter egg from "saturday night live." >> by the way, the president's probably going to bomb north korea tonight. okay, spicy has got to hip itty hop and deliver these eggs east as much candy as you want because this is probably our last easter on earth. blug. and good day. i'm andrea mitch in washington. vice president pence putting the north korea regime on notice after visiting the demilitarized zone between north and south korea. the vice president said today if north korea does not get rid of its nuclear weapons, the u.s. will protect its interests by "whatever means are necessary to bring stability to the region." joining me kristen welker at the white house and janice mackey fryer in seoul, south korea. janice, you're right there in sk which is within artillery range

of the north. millions and millions of people, 28,500 u.s. troops in south korea. what does the vice president real mean about them getting rid of their nuclear weapons? they've shown no sign of doing that. >> reporter: well, they've shown no sign of backing down from any of the tests or provocations that have defined years under the regime and particularly in the past couple of months, we've seen the series of tests. they're ignoring all of the warnings coming particularly from the u.s. with the vice president in the region today, this is a plan that was -- this was a trip that was long planned. it just happened to coincide with this moment of crisis in the region. south korean officials in particular were looking for u.s. security assurances and to an extent they got them. the vice president issuing a very stern warning to the regime saying that they should back down from any sort of further

progress with their weapons programs. otherwise, they're going to get the aim treatment as syria or afghanistan. so that raising the specter this possibility of a preemptive strike which has rattled some nerves here. this is a country right now that doesn't have a president. there's an election coming up on the 9th of may. and there's a sense of vulnerability every time the north korea issue kicks off. so to an extent, people are feeling gratified or better about having the vice president here and making those stern statements. but really there's the sense that all options may be on the table, but nobody is still sure what those options are and how they difr from those that haven't worked for decades. >> and kristen welker, there was a noticeable silence on twitter from the white house, the statement came from general mat disat the pentagon saying that the president noted the unsuccessful missile test

saturday night and would have no further comment. that was considered extraordinary discipline on the part of the president of the united states not tweeting against north korea, not adding to the tensions of the moment. and it was actually considered very effective, the strategy of this is so unimportant, we're not going to give him the attention he's craving. >> reporter: that's exactly right, andrea. and the fact that it failed. that is part of why you got this very terse statement from the white house. now, the president just moments ago was asked by a reporter who shouted a question here at the easter egg roll what the message is to north korea. he said his message is got to behave. behind the scenes we know there is a high level of diplomacy going on in addition to the trip by the vice president. obviously president trump has not only been meeting with his chinese counterpart, they met two weeks ago in mar-a-lago but they've been on the phone. the sense is china is ramping up pressure in a way that has not been seen in recent years. and in recent decades.

making real threats threatening to withhold oil shipments from. when i spoke to a senior administration official about this, the sense was it seems to be moving in the right direction. clearly north korea continues to try to execute these tests but they think ultimately china is the key and they want to continue to try to make those diplomatic channels work before they consider any other options like a military option, for example, andrea. it seems like that's the last choice they have. having said that, you're seeing this president flex his muscles in other bapz for example, calling for air strikes in syria, dropping the mother of all bombs in afghanistan last week. to stomp out isis terrorists there. so they are hoping that those bold actions send a message to a leader like gym kim jung un. but again trying to make those diplomatic channels work before they really consider military options and otherwise. >> in fact, mike pence mentioned both of those military actions one in syria, one in

afghanistan, presumably unrelated but he mentioned them in his remarks in south korea. there was something else i picked up, as well. which was a comment by a senior policy adviser on the plane heading into south korea. saying that the deployment of the thad missile defense system in many south korea could be delayed pending the election next month in south korea. and then that was corrected or pulled back once he landed and the new statement was we refer all questions to the pentagon. so there did seem to be some disconnect. i don't know if they are delaying in deference to the is,ian politics of the moment. i mean the equipment has been delivered. it isn't operational. the question is how long would it take to become operational. i don't know whether that was somebody actually on the plane speaking the truth and then they decided that that was too transparent. >> yeah, i think it's still an open question here and president

secretary sean spice ser going to brief later on today. but what i also think you're seeing is that in some cases, the administration is struggling with its messaging. what specifically to signal to the press and the public and what to withhold. we've seen that to some extent in press briefings. that's one of the issues we try to get clarity on today. you're absolutely right. but certainly the administration threatening thank possibilities that they will move some of those types of what would be seen as a threat into the region, andrea. >> and something that the chinese have been so upset about they've actually been sanctioning the south koreans in retaliation for the american deployment of missile defense. janis, before i let you go, the north korean ambassador to the united nations has spoken today. i wanted to get your reaction. >> the united states is disturbing the global peace and stability and insisting on the gangster-like logic.

its invasion of the sovereign state is toodee sizive. and disproportionate. and to distribute to defending the international order. to apply it to the korean peninsula, as well. >> janis, there's been a lot of speculation. failed missile it's not the first time it's failed. there's a lot of speculation maybe it was american cyber activity that caused it to fail or it could be failure on its own. they can learn from that failure. it doesn't mean they're not progressing. could that embarrassment inspire some more aggressive actions such as the nuclear tests that people were anticipating? >> reporter: well, the regime has we know is unpredictable. on the one hand, we have the rhetoric calling for all-out war. certainly the provocations and the fortunatelies of missile tests and the threat of a nuclear test suggesting that the regime will not be held back in

trying to make even incremental advances in their weapons programs. moving some of these technologies closer to operational capability. at the same time, we've seen increasingly over the past couple of weeks more dialogue along the diplomatic channels. you have representatives of the foreign ministry, advice minister level making statements on behalf of north korea. the ambassador at the u.n., the an ambassador in beijing all calling for all blaming donald trump for being the instigator in this latest crisis. so it's not to say that there are mixed messages coming from the regime. there's always been some consistency but they really are trying to stress the fact that this is a standoff. this is the u.s., they see provoking the situation as much as their being an cues of doing so. the u.s., south korea military exercise examines every year

causes tension within the region. the different dynamic this time, of course, andrea, is this role of china and while yes, there will be increased pressure on pyongyang and they do have influence, china is fiercely as opposed to the thad system being ruled out in south korea and their foreign ministry making some comments today. the u.s. might get a bit of pushback from china on that. >> thank you so much. and, of course, kristen welker at the white house. let's bring in ambassador christopher hill, former u.s. ambassador to south korea. the lead negotiator for the six-party talks on south korea during president clinton's administration. now the dean at the joseph korbel school at the university of denver and ambassador mark lipert, on president obama's national security council staff. first to you, ambassador lipert. difficult to read the political situation on the ground but you now have an impeached south

korean presidency and acting president and there is some reporting from the region that the tensions right now might lead to this acting president having a better chance than the more left leaning challenging opposition party. i don't know what your read is. >> the acting president has decided not to run. he's not in the race. the left leaning candidate is ahead in the polls but what's interesting is a centrist candidate who ran five years ago, he's a billionaire doctor, came out of nowhere. he has surged in the polls. his essential message is progressive on social politics but conservative on foreign policy. that means a har hawkish and tough stance towards north korea and a closer relationship with the united states. that's been the interesting development over the past week in terms of the south korean presidential race. >> apologies for having misread that. does that mean that part of this whole equation is balancing what

happens with the chinese, pressuring them but not too much? also not misreading the cues from north korea and also trying to assess what the impact of u.s. policy is like the thad deployment for instance on the south korean politics and the election? >> i think you laid out the complicated nature of the situation at hand. we've got a presidential election in south korea that's unprecedented off cycle election, if you will. you've got the chinese, flrkians, the u.s. all converging. i think what that says simple political is that the trump administration has decided to go down a path of increasing the pressure. i think sending a clear signal to three audiences. first the north koreans that the trump administration is very determined to roll back this nuclear missile program. second audience is the chinese. they have moved over the past couple of years and appear to be moving even more but it's not fast enough. and the third audiences are

allies. you saw vice president pence at the demilitarized zone today sending a clear message of defense standing shoulder to shoulder with our south korean allies. >> ambassador christopher hill, when we hear the vice president and before that rex tillerson saying all options are on the able and even talking about military action, do we will actually have the ability to preemptively do something? what are the risks here given the nuclear weapons that the ot north has? >> well, i think many people have observed that the options we tends to have on north korea are all kind of not very good options. kind of bad options. so to say they're all on the table kind of reflects the fact there's no real good option we could use. certainly a preemptive military strike on say yong byong where they produce the plutonium and where we know they also have an heu facility would probably retard those programs but they would do nothing to get at where

the missiles are based nor would they address the issue of this new generation of missiles which are solid fuel meaning they could be fired at any time. but most importantly, any kind of move preemptively militarily would have to be done somehow in concert with the south koreans. i mean after all, they're the ally we're trying to protect. and they're the country with 20 million people within range of north korean artillery. so we would have to work with them. my sense is that the vice president is giving some well needed words of assurance. certainly the south koreans are worried about kim jong-un but also a little worried about the trump administration talking very generally about the idea that we have to do any and all options. so i hope that the dynamic is that pence has kind of calmed people down on that.

at the same time, i think he also needs to kind of give the south koreans a background on where we are with china right now because the south koreans don't want a situation where we discuss things with china, we specifically discuss elements of our u.s./south korean relationship namely the thad deployment and the south koreans are not at the table. i think their kind of mantra will be nothing about us without us. we need to be there when you talk to the chinese about any element of the u.s. rok alliance. i'm sure the vice president pence heard a lot about that. and i think you know, showing up is certainly part of the game here but sustaining it and the folling up is a bigger part of the game. so i hope the administration will continue to work this and by the way, it might be nice if they replaced ambassador lippeert with another ambassador at some point.

from what we can tell, there's none in the pipeline. >> we don't see the deputy secretaries. there's one named but not nominated there's no under secretaries. we've been pointing that out. it's something in fact, russia's foreign min industrial lavrov tried to embarrass rex tillerson bibi saying we don't know who to call. you haven't appointed anyone at the state department. there's a whole malohome alone that. turkey, an enormous issue with the election, the referendum. the voting in the last 24-48 hours and what's happened in turkey consolidates the power of erdogan and suspends a lot of democratic checks and balances. you've been ambassador in that region, as well. what should the u.s. posture be towards turkey? what are our concerns? >> it's no secret we've had a greater and greater difficulty in dealing with turkey in recent years. turk used to be a country very much focused on being a good

nato ally. now they seem more focused on being a regional power. and in so doing, they have not been easy to work with on places like syria and iraq and especially the kurdish question within issue. now we see erdogan, presidenter d erdogan is a force to be reckoned with. we need to have a kind of sit down yug among whoever is in washington and look at whether we have a policy adequate to dealing with that country. that guy is not going away. and we need to make sure we have a complete understanding of where turkey is going to be on these issues because as much as we're talking about north korea today, the issue of syria in fact the issue of the whole meltdown within the sunni arab middle east is still very much front and center. going to have to deal with that and especially dealing with our ally turkey, which has the key to so many issues relatin o in

that area arod syria. >> two ambassadors, christopher hall, mark lippert, thank you all so much for your experience in north korea and elsewhere around the world. on "snl," a new character from the trump white house. even though he didn't have a speaking role, son-in-law jared kushner in an aprentice style elimination round with steve ban. >> i was sitting in my little kush ball jared kushner. ♪ure you're ar unbelievable >> jerryd, steve, standing before we are my two top advisers. i only have one photo in my hand. that's right. tonight is elimination night. there's been a lot of drama in the house, and that's okay. but one of you must go. the person that will stay on as my top adviser is jarod.

have a seat at your new desk. i'd like to you just to fix everything, okay? if you need me, i'll be over here at my desk, okay? >> "snl" delivers again. up next, as the tax deadline approaches tomorrow, protesters demanding to see the president's returns over the weekend. that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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so far, unfortunately, there has been one fatality, one homicide on this entire scenario. we want to keep it that way. we're still asking steve to turn himself in. but if he doesn't, we'll find him. >> a warning from the cleveland police chief today. a desperate manhunt there continuing for suspected killer. 37-year-old steve stephens is the suspect who posted gruesome video on facebook of the fatal shooting of a 74-year-old man an apparent stranger in a broad daylight shooting. we should warn you these images are very disturbing. the posted video appearing to show the suspect getting out of his car, telling his victim he is going to die and blaming it on a woman that stevens was dating for making him snap he said. stevens then raises a hand gub at the man firing a single shot. nbc's ron allen is in cleveland with the latest. do they have leads in this manhunt? >> reporter: they're not telling

us, andrea. at this point they're saying the search is expanding because we're getting close to 24 hours since this happened on easter sunday afternoon. and so literally, this individual could be a great distance away from here or he could be very close by. he has ties to this community. he had a stable job, what appeared to be a stable job. he has friends and family. authorities are hoping that some of those individuals will come forward and help them with information. they say they're trying to make his world smaller and smaller. for example, there was a report earlier today unconfirmed by authorities that his cell phone was detects about 90 minutes drive from here in erie, pennsylvania. that gives you an idea what they're trying to do, trying to find these leads. now, they're putting up billboards in the surrounding communities that show his picture. steve stevens. 6'1", 244 pounds.. he's believed to be driving a light color white or cream colored ford fusion four-door vehicle that has temporary ohio

license plate tags on it. so they're piecing this all together. but the big problem is that this appears to be a random act. there seems to be no connection between stevens and olympian godwin, the 74-year-old man murdered on the street yesterday. that makes it more complicated. most homicides happen between people who know each other. there appears to be no connection between these two individuals. stevens is on the run. you have an all-out manhunt for him and it seemed to be expanding to pennsylvania is, indiana, new york and beyond as time goes by. >> ron allen, thank you. on watch this cleveland. coming up, home come. a raucous town hall in nevada for senator dean hiller next on "andrea mitchell reports." he's hiding a card!

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protester who marched in cities throughout the country. thousands took to the streets in a nationwide tax march on april 15th tax deadline. the extra days till tomorrow because of the easter holiday. the president tweeting the election is over and suggesting without any evidence that the protesters had been somehow paid. joining me now is charlie sykes,

long time conservative talk radio host and msnbc contributor from wisconsin and alisa monaco former white house deputy chief of staff under president obama and author of the new book "who thought this was a good idea and other questions you should have answers to when you work in the white house." great title. and congratulations on the book. charlie, first to you. the president lashing out at these tax protesters. is this an issue he needs to worry about? >> well, yeah, i would hope he needs to worry about it. this should not be a partisan issue that should not divide right from left. presidents of the united states ought to be transparent. the public does have a right to know what the conflicts are, what the finances are. for some reason, he thinks he's not going to pay a political price for being the most secretive president since richard nixon. he thinks winning justifies all of this. millions of americans are filing the forms and writing the check to the irs and wondering why

they have to do something that president trump is not telling them he's doing. >> and in terms of transparency, there's also the decision not to release the white house logs. alisa, i know the obama white house did except in some instances they redacted understandably the children who visited sasha and malia and also some others. we don't know whether it was on national security grounds or other grounds. but the trump decision to shut down everything is a pretty big departure from the obama years. >> it is. it's a pretty big departure. i think one of the issues, one of the reasons we wanted to be that transparent is because it's that much easier. it's the people's house. that's what the president and the first lady obama always felt. and so you know, if he wants the press to leave him alone, i would say who's coming to visit. it makes it seem really shady they're afraid to tell everyone who is coming to the white house. >> tell us some of the questions that you have cataloged in your book that people working in the

white house should ask before they go in perhaps. >> whether it's a good idea. the idea that you're present together president which was what the title of the book came from is that if you wanted president obama to do something and it ended up on his schedule or he ended up somewhere in the country, if he said who thought this was a good idea, one of us would stand up and say why we did. >> at the same time, some of the president's strongest supporters like senator dean hiller in nevada are discovering that going home for the recess, the work period that whatever you want to call it, spring break is fraught with challenges when you have a town hall meeting. this is what happened in reno, nevada, within the last hour or so whether he there were a lot of questions raised about some of the trump policies. >> let me be very clear with everybody in here. when i think trump is right, i'll support him. when i don't, i won't. and i am not -- [ shouting ]

>> and i will certainly -- and i will certainly try to change his mind on some of these issues. >> so he's getting a little bit of a going over there, charlie. what should these members do? either they run away from their students or they confront them. some of the best i think exchanges have been lindsey graham just showing up and taking it and using humor to deflect some of the concerns. >> yeah, absolutely. you need to show up and stay there. you need to answer all the questions. what's really interesting right now given the legislative agenda is the absence of any sort of a message from the trump administration or the republicans on issues like health care or tax reform. where are the speeches? where is the effort to convince americans that they know what they're doing and have a coherent governing policy. if they're going to be bringing back health care, wouldn't you think the president and other leaders would be making the case right now? republicans across the board are on the defensive and if they're

going to turn this around and have any legislative successes at all this year, they're going to have to start making the case. i really am struck by the absence of that case. either from trump or ryan or anyone else in washington. >> indeed. john mccain was on "meet the press" with chuck todd yesterday. i wanted to play a little bit of what happened when chuck was asking john mccain about the way president trump has changed some of his positions from the campaign. and become more sort of mainstream, if you will. since he's been in washington. >> i want to talk about the overall changes. you said he's growing. >> yes. >> in office. there are some that will say, no, the washington establishment sucked him in. >> i hope so. >> okay. >> no, on national security, i do believe he has assembled a strong team and i think very appropriately he's listening to them. that's the area, of course, where i and concerned.

>> charlie and alisa, on national security, that was john mccain's point. he's becoming more mainstream on china and a lot of other issues listening to mcmaster no, longer mike flynn. let me ask you both, is this a good thing or bad thing in terms of the base, the people who elected him though for him to abandon his criticism of china on currency, to support the exim bank to semi endorse the fed chair. charlie, you first. >> it's obviously risky to do all that. most of the trump base is probably going to stick with him. i agree with john mccain it's good news if you're listening to the grown-ups when you're talking about a possible nuclear confrontation with the north koreans. but this whole notion of growing, look, we ought to realize by now that basically donald trump is a man that never really had any strong opinions. never had any principles. hadn't thought through they have these issues. hadn't given more than five minutes consideration to these issues. i don't think we should be shocked there is some change but again, we have no idea where

this is going, what is the foreign policy, does he have a foreign policy. is it going to be shaped by jared kushner or general mcmaster? i mean these are all the reasons why i think some people are still nervous about this. >> and alisa, it's very different from the staff you worked on. >> absolutely. i mean, i don't think that trump supporters really care if he's flip flopping on his position on the exim bank. but i do think that for us, when we got into the white house, white house, we learned a lot. the learning curve is so steep. i hope this signals some of his shifts that they're taking the time to sit down and be thoughtful and learn sort of in-depth what they're talking about so that they make much better decisions and the west wing seems less chaotic. >> thank you both so very much. alisa's new book is, of course, and this is a great title "who thought this was a good idea and other questions you should have answers to when you work in the white house." i guess when the president asks

you who thought this was a good idea. thanks again. >> coming up, spoiler alert. even president trump is turning his attention to the georgia special election. the congressional election tomorrow where a democrat is trying to win an upset. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. various: (shouting) heigh! ho! ( ♪ ) it's off to work we go! woman: on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. and each job created by the energy industry supports two others in the community. altogether, the industry supports over 9 milliojobs nationwide. these are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen all while reducing america's emissions. energy lives here. all while reducing america's emissions. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change.

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it's been a republican district about the trump administration and about donald trump in particular. well, the atmosphere here is electric right now. we've got thousands of folks going out every weekend to knock on doors. there is huge intensity at the grassroots level. >> that was part of my conversation with jon ossoff, a 30-year-old democrat trying to capitalize on a crowded republican field in a district president trump barely won to score an upset for a georgia house seat long held by hhs secretary tom price. joining me now is boston globe political reporter james pindell, washington bureau chief susan page and kasie hunt in georgia outside of jon ossoff's murrieta campaign office. casey, i believe the candidate just spoke or is speaking. >> that's right, andrea. he just spoke. i'm going to keep my voice down because they are still teaching volunteers here lined me how to canvass. this is the final day before the

special election or at least the beginning potentially of this special election. clearly, jon ossoff, this democrat would have to get 50% of the vote if he wanted to win outright. otherwise it will go to a runoff and most democrats believe he has a much better chance of winning this seat if he can get over 50% today. and he is, as you said, he's young. he's 30 years old. he is kind of trying to channel that energy and i think this is really about -- you can feel here on the ground, we earlier earlier were at an event for karen handel, the leading republican in this race. we talked to her for a little while. she did not have too many people at her relatively small event. when we came here to pull up to this office where they are organizing to canvass, they've been towing cars because there, too many of them. everyone is excited.

there are a tyrannosaurus rex with a an ossoff sign outside. it definitely has feeling of a different time in a campaign season than a random seemingly mundane april for aspection election. i think that reflects kind of where democrats are generally on there, that $8.3 million he's raised a lot of it not from here reflecting how angry democrats are what's happened in the first 100 or so days of the trump administration. he represents a chance to try and do something about it. this district once held by newt gingrich currently or just till recently held by tom price, now the hhs secretary. a lot of symbolism here. it's still a relative long shot for ossoff. the trend line when we talk to people on the ground has been drifting away from him in recent days. there seems to be a sense he may not hit 50%. it's a small oh an lekorate in a small election. it's unpredictable. >> james pindel, what about the

backlash against people coming in fromming from connecticut, new york, from elsewhere in the president trying to capitalize on that saying the super liberal democrat and the georgia congressional race wants to protect criminals and raise taxes exclamation point trying to paint him into a box. >> that sort of tactic is very familiar here in massachusetts where the tea party rose earlier in 2010, we saw this with scott brown. a lot of people were criticizing all these ought of state people funding his campaign. that was a very big moment for the right. it was sort of a moment where you saw well, maybe later in 2010, could be a very big year for democrats. as kasie mentioned it's almost impossible to poll a special election for congress in such a small area and surprises happen all the time but i think right now the wisdom says jon ossoff is not likely to get 50bers. if that happens, he will go to a runoff and likely not win.

third, that is a huge punch in the gut for democrats very exsigh ford months over the seat. and susan page, keeping it in boston, susan, you were in boston over the weekend at elizabeth warren's house interviewing her. one of her first big interviews keying up where she stands going into 2020. >> you know, she's written a book. she originally thought it would be a message to president hillary clinton to embrace progressive policies. it turns out to be a warning to donald trump. i asked her if she came close to running last time around. she said not really that close 0 running although urged to. when i asked her -- she's running for re-election next year in massachusetts. i asked her if she would promise the voters she would serve all six years of her second senate term. she said that's certainly the plan. that is not exactly a denial of interest in the 2020 presidential race. >> he's 67 years old. she is plenty young enough compared to donald trump, hillary clinton to run four years from now. >> she is. she's got a huge base of support

among liberals in the democratic party who feel like if only she or bernie sanders had been numbered last time around, they believe they would have had a better chance of defeating the kind of campaign donald trump ran. >> a lot of this james, will depend on what kind of presidency we see with donald trump. it's too early to predict weather someone more centrist or more liberal and progressive/to use that mo men calculate tour would have a better shot against donald trump if he's seeking re-election. >> there are two interesting pieces in the book relating to her potentially running in the future. number one, she pulls her punches on the democratic party and never explains why she feels hillary clinton lost. she says they lost. she doesn't give a prescription where democrats need to go, more centrist or progressive. she gets into the weeds on a few policy issues. second, when you saw why she did not run for president last time, that conversation she mentioned

she had with her husband in her house in cambridge, where he said boy, that 2012 senate election was tough. the raise for president will be even tougher. so what's going to happen in massachusetts in 2018 if she has all of these national super pacs pummeling her, not with the goal of maybe winning, she would probably still win anyway but making the experience so bad and so vicious that it potentially knocks her from even running for president in the first place could be a win for a lot of people. they read that line in that book and say okay, here's how we prevent her from running in the first place. >> but susan, she is a prodigious fund-raiser. she outraised most other senate candidates. >> she's already raised more than $9 million for the senate re-election for a contest we don't think will be competitive. in the book sae says the toughness of her initial election was on her mind think bth presidential race. the more serious reason she chose not to run last time was because she didn't feel like she

had enough experience in government and politics and policy to be president of the united states. and you know if she's a second term senator, maybe she would feel like she had enough of that kind you have experience into although it will certainly didn't hold back barack obama whether he he was a first-term senator. >> or donald trump. >> thank you so much, susan page, james pinde leand kasie hunt watching an the georgia sixth where the action is down in georgia. meanwhile on a special day in boston, marathon monday. today marks it the 121st rubbing of the race victims of the boston bombing were honored on saturday the fourth industry of the horror. in today's race jeffrey and edna both from kenya were the top finishers in the race. congratulations also to a member of our team, haley talbot who is competing in her first boston marathon today. go haley. coming up, full-court. new supreme court justice neil gorsuch taking the benl for the first time today. pete williams is joining us next

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neil gorsuch joining his colleagues for the first time to start making his mark on an american institution. pete williams has the play by play, from justice gorsuch's first day. how did the chief justice welcome him to the court? >> reporter: he came on the bench at 10:00 with the rest of the justices. john roberts gave a very brief statement, welcoming him as the 101st associate justice of the supreme court. and then said, we wish you a long and happy career in our common cause. justice gorsuch replied, thanking everyone for the welcome. and then three cases today. rather technical ones. justice gorsuch didn't wait one. roughly 15 minutes into the first case, he was aggressively questioning the lawyers, asking a series of questions. at one point saying sorry i'm taking so much time. so he's hit the ground running here, andrea. he's here for the last two weeks of oral argument in this term.

13 cases, including three today. so he'll well established. the justices met last thursday. they do this regularly to keep a running list of cases they're going to hear next term. he didn't participate in that. the court said he wants to spend his time concentrating on these 13 argued cases. >> it's really interesting that he did take part. we know the contrast justice sotomayor is very verbal. clarence thomas, not at all. so he's obviously got a lot of confidence. >> reporter: we have to remember he come prs ts from the federal appeals court where lawyers get peppered with questions. it's not a style he's unaccustomed to. but it's a place and he's fitting right in. he may make a big difference in one of the biggest cases ofhe term. it will be argued wednesday. it comes from missouri where the state declined to give money to a church that wanted to

resurface its playground and preschool. missouri has a constitutional amendment that says no state money can go directly or indirectly to a church. and the church is challenging that, saying it's religious discrimination. late last week, the governor said, i'm changing the policy, so we'll have to see whether the case holds up, andrea. >> i hope when it's argued on wednesday the weather is better for you. thank you for staying there for us. in a rare interview, britain's prince harry opening up about his grief following the death of his mother. in a podcast, the 32-year-old prince spoke about finally seeking counseling after what he calls a few years of total chaos in his 20s, struggling to come to terms with his mother's death.

>> extraordinary interview. prince harry, with his brother and cyster in l er ier i er ier launched t charity of sunday's london marathon. we'll be right back.

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and thanks for being with us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us on facebook and online. hi, katie. >> good afternoon. kicking off a two-hour block of today's top headlines. at this hour, out of patience. vice president mike pence issued a stern warning to north korea not to test president trump's resolve. atax to grind. calls for president trump to release his returns are back in the news. and multistate manhunt. police across five states are searching for the man suspected of shooting and killing an elderly man in ohio and posting the video to facebook. the latest on the search and why the social media giant took hours to take that vid