president. i don't believe he's stated a certain in and out. the justice department is reviewing a list of candidates, and the president will study that and make a decision. >> someone asked after the testimony of andrew mccabe the other day, is that still -- >> i have not asked him about his -- generally i don't go through the list of covert employees and i have not asked him specifically about that. >> yesterday sara told us the president expects that the fbi investigation will be wrapped up with integr that's what the white house wants. today the president tweeted and called it a witch hunt. how does tweeting and calling it a witch hunt help wrap that investigation up with integrity? >> the president -- you know, no one wants this done -- he wants to know very clearly -- there's two pieces to this, right, which was what was russia's involvement? the president is obviously very concerned about any entities'

attempts to influence the united states election. that's one investigation. i think the second, this false narrative that we continue to fight every day that has been debunked by intelligence individuals, members of congress who have been briefed over and over again. that's where i think he's growingly concerned about the number of people who are growingly concerned about this false narrative out there. >> i talked to a former fbi official today who said the president has made an implicit threat against james comey and he thinks the president is the simply, quote, out of control. i would like your response to that. >> that is, frankly, offensive. john. >> thank you, sean. two questions about the fbi director and selection process. you said the names are coming from the justice department right now. is the president consulting with democratic congressional leaders as well or republican

congressional leaders on this? or is he just getting names out of doj? >> that's a good question. i know that he was -- obviously he's going to take input from them. i don't know what specific conversations he's had, so i would be glad to check on who he has spoken to or may be speaking to. anita. sorry, i forgot you, too. i got confused that dave stole one. >> now, i know you said you're not disqualifying anyone on this. you also know there has been considerable mention in the last 24 hours of former house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers as the new fbi director. does the president have a meeting planned this weekend with congressman rogers? >> i'm not aware of anything of that nature on his schedule. but we'll obviously -- as you know, we'll put out -- if there is a meeting, we'll put it out for you. right now there is nothing i'm aware of on the schedule, but generally we put out the next day's schedule later in the

evening, and we will do that as well. krist kristen? >> you already called on me. >> i'm sorry. >> i had a couple questions about the president's remarks to nbc about general flynn. he said that it wasn't an emergency or he didn't think it was an emergency and that's why the firing dismissal didn't happen right away. so a couple questions about that. why do you think it was an emergency? and was it because of the mes n messenger. was it because of information by sally yates or was it because the situation was downplayed? >> we went over this the other day and it's been asked and answered multiple times. the former acting attorney general said, i want to give you a heads up on something. counsel informed the president. they asked for the documents or materials she had referred to -- i forgot now, five or six days

to get those. th reviewed them and he was asked to resign shortly thereafter. but i think that there is a difference. there wasn't a review process. that was the review process. in this case, as the president noted yesterday during his interview, he had been thinking about this for a long time. the justice department had done a review. but, again, in both cases -- zrz what i'm saying is you asked if it was an emergency. he took time to do due process. someone comes to you with an allegation, i think everyone deserves due process to make sure that allegation, someone coming in and giving you a heads up. we did exactly what was necessary. the president made the right decision and he continues to stand by it. >> two follow-ups. one, we're still unclear, and you mentioned this several times. why did it take so long for the white house to get those documents? >> i don't know. >> you couldn't go get the

documents? >> you're making it sound -- with all due respect, it's not how it works. they're the ones who possess the documents. they have them in their possession. i believe they asked for them and it took a while. >> wasn't he fired in between? >> no. i think some of these things don't happen as easily in terms of where they're stored. i don't know the answer. but i think if you look at the course of action, you should look at the intervening days. >> just explain to us a little bit when you compare these two situations with general flynn and director comey. the memo came one day and he was fired that day. that was the review process and general flynn was 18 days. that's a huge difference. why was one so fast when one was 18 days? >> ihink to -- first of all, they both had a review. they both came and the president looked at the information in the reviews and made a decision. ult mal ultimately, as i mentioned, that's his job.

he's the desircider. he felt he had information in both cases to act, and he did. vivian. >> in the tweet about director comey, the president says he better be careful before he goes leaking to the press. yesterday on nbc news the president called him a showboat and a grandstander. does the white house acknowledge that mr. comey has a first amendment right to speak to the press to make a record-setting girl. >> everyone in this country has a first amendment right. sharing information that's not meant to be or authorized to be in the public domain in terms tft clarsz for sure. the president has become very clear about information that's been put in the public domain that's not meant to be. i don't think that those are -- everyone in this country has every right to speak their mind and express themselves in accordance with the

constitution. zmz until terms of the fbi's comments. is he concerned if he continues like this, it could be part of what he observes there? >> i think ept to go through the process in finding an individual that can lead the fbi and the men and women who served there so bravely and ably. he wants to make sure morale and the focus is as it's supposed to be. you have a leader who can do that. as he mentioned, it's the crown jewel of law enforcement. i think the reason that he wants to go through this process and choose a leader that can be -- restore leadership or ensures that morale stays where it needs to be and that there's a poke us. that's why he's conduct kg the process that he has. >> i take a question back. >> what's that?

>> you called on her first so i just wanted to give her the question you promised her before skpil follow up from there. i want to ask you, president trump seemed to rely on james clapper this morning when he tweeted that he and everyone else was knowledgeable of the witch hunt and said there was no collusion. james clapper today told andrea mitchell, i don't know if there's collusion or not, i don't know if there's evidence of collusion or not, nor should i. when he was asked a similar question, he said, not to my knowledge. can you describe the discrepancy and explain it? >> no. i actually think that that's a great question that you should ask director clapper. >> director clapper's comments and president trump, why is he leaning on clapper when he said, i have no knowledge of any collusion. >> general clapper said he has no knowledge of any collusion. that's it. that's the point.

>> he said he wouldn't know because he hasn't been briefed on the investigation. >> he was in the fbi until january 20th. >> he was very clear that he said, nor should i have in this particular context. he made it clear that he's not briefed on an fbi investigation, that that's not his purview. >> fair enough. he's the director of national intelligence. on multiple occasions prior to today, he made it very clear that he was unaware of any collusion. >> but his point is he wouldn't know. there's been no final conclusion. >> so the question that i would ask, then, kristen, is why didn't he say what he asked before? his testimony and comments on multiple occasions prior to today was, i have no evidence that there was any collusion, right? so to suddenly today shift his story, i believe that the question should be asked of him, you are the director of national intelligence. you said multiple times, including in testimony in front of congress under oath that there was no collusion. i believe that that's a question

for him. >> there wasn't a final conclusion made about this investigation, there is an ongoing investigation. >> i understand, but all we're doing at this point is the people, the former director of national intelligence, the head of the national intelligence agencies, makes multiple statements as others, senator grassley and others, talking about the involvement, making it very clear there was none. we took them at their word then and we continue to believe -- >> i want to ask one question. >> the question, kristen, before you move on, is why didn't he make the statements he did when he did? to turn around now and say months later, well, even though i made those comments on multiple occasions, i wasn't briefed? >> he said, it's not surprising or abnormal that i wouldn't have known about the investigation or the context of the

investigation. >> i just think in this case it is interesting how the story has changed. he made those comments several times over several courses of action. and to say that the director of national intelligence, who stated unequivocally what his position was on multiple occasions before today, and now suddenly is saying, i wasn't sure about it, the burden seems to be on him, not on us. >> moving on to the -- >> it's like a clapper spokesman. >> no, but i'm interested in the discrepancy. >> i think that's a great thing to ask him. >> no, on the pafrt of the president drawing the final conclusion on the investigation. should we take that tweet to mean that you don't have the full picture as you stand at that podium? >> as i said, we come up here not just to the podium, but we are here first thing in the morning until late at night every day saanswering your questions on a variety of subjects and throughout things

happening in the government. we workday and night to make sure we give you the most up to date and accurate information at all times. with respect to the president, he's an active president. he keeps an unbelievably and busy robust schedule. there are times we give you the information we have at the time and we seek to get an update. i believe you and others will attest to when we don't have an answer, we try really hard to either update you after the fact or get you the facts we didn't have at the time. but we work really hard every day to do that. i think the president's point that i pointed out earlier is that there are times when we're asked a question, we do our best to give you the answer, and every word is picked apart try to figure out how to make an issue out of it as opposed to allowing us to, you know, talk to the president, get his current thinking and updates if we hadn't had an opportunity to do that at this time. jennifer. >> can i actually pick up? i want to ask you about the road

summit that starts on sunday in china. you announced yesterday -- or secretary ross did, that you're going to send a delegation to that summit. can you talk about how you came to that conclusion, why it's important for the u.s. to be represented in what ostensibly is a major trade initiative in that country. >> there are a lot of ports and infrastructure that they're looking to do, and through those discussions that secretary ross and secretary mnuchin and others had at mar-a-lago, and part of this is that's something they have done. we're going to continue to work with them. obviously trade is a major issue for us, and what they're looking to do is of great importance to our economic and national security, and they've asked us to send people to that, and we have them attend things we're doing as well. as the president has shown in terms of the relationship he's built with president xi and the rest of their team built with a delegation, their relationships

are clearly paying dividends both on the national security front and the economic front. jennifer? >> do you know if the u.s. is going to participate in the coalition? >> we'll send a readout. that's all we have on one way, one road. >> this president does value loyalty. before you were hired, was there any sort of request or hint that you pledged personal loyalty to him at all? >> i pledged my loyalty to the constitution and to the american people, as has everyone who serves in our government and this administration, and we stand by that. >> isn't i true that the president was warned he might not be well received if the fbi were told he wanted to visit? >> not that i'm aware of. thanks, guys. have a great weekend. i will see on you monday. >> sean spicer is back. this hour on msnbc live, there is a credibility issue at the white house. you saw sean spicer speaking to

reporters for the first time since the firing of fbi director james comey. another day, another reason for the changing narrative of his abrupt dismissal of the president. not only that, and this is a really big deal. sean spicer is now not denying that president trump may have tapes inside the white house. this stems from a tweet he sent earlier. let's first get what sean spicer said to recorders just a moment ago. ma many. >> did president comey inform investigations to the president? why did he say that? why did he tweet that? what should we affirm on that? >> as i said, the president has nothing more to add to that. >> does he think it's appropriate to threaten someone like mr. comey not to speak? >> i don't think -- that's not a threat. he simply stated a fact, that tweet speaks for itself.

i'm moving on. >> is the president of the united states currently taping conversations playing in the metal office. >> that tweet speaks for itself. let's go right to that tweet. james comey, better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. no tapes. is donald trump actually recording folks inside the white house while he is meeting them without their knowledge of this? a source close to james comey spoke to our own can dalanian and said he hopes there are tapes. that would be perfect. we've got a team of reporters here to win. we have josh earnest, we have net price. so much to talk about. donald trump not denying he has tapes inside the white house.

kristen welker, walk us through that. >> you heard sean spicer, he greeld and he has nothing to do to the president's tweet. but you're slulgt. he would not confirm or drnl if many. but also when he was asked about this in the context of it being a threat, he denied it being a threat. you heard one of my conversations with those within the fbi. they say they did see it as a threat. so this is. this could interfere with the television community and the you law enforcement community. and raises a whole i also thought it was striking. i, of course, had a big back and forth with him over this nugs of

co lugs. that was sort of to make the case the investigation was ovr. ment he told mitchell that he hasn't been briefed on the situation so he has no way to know. sean spicer saying it's actually d and j clapper. ed, you're a former senior director at the national security counsel at the white house. talk again. when you hear that the president might have been recording conversations between themselves, what's your interaction. >> katy, it's taken now more than 100 days, but i think i identified a pie of ground

between there and the white house and sfl. it was very clear from sean spicer's responses today that he didn't know what to say. he had no answer. he had absolutely nothing to add. normally you would hear sean trying to offer some justification, some sort of context. he wasn't even going down that route today. when you couple that with what we've seen at the the american public was first misled. it's just another indication that even the president's closest aides are at a loss with how to describe him to the world. >> let's talk about that, josh. you know better than anyone e e else. credibility is something important to have behind the podi podium. you're talking to the american

public. in your estimation, does the white house have any credibility right now? >> katy, when you're standing at the podium with the white house above your head, you're representing the white house not skwus just to america but to the world. that includes a grave responsibility. there are days when sean spicer can't get into the oval office before he does the briefing. that is a basic fundamental responsibility for someone who is responsible for speaking for the president of the united states. that's not sean's fault. that's the fault of the president of the united states. he needs to empower his people and spokespeople to understand what's happening and be okay to legally communicate it to the world. that is a flaw at the top, and i've said this before. right now the white of thouse.

when there is a general national security crisis when the world is tuning in to thehi house briefing wondering what the president thinks about it, and there may be a spokesperson standing behind the podium that hasn't spoken to the president that day. that's going to be a problem. >> and sean spicer's words on that was, we're doing the best we can. here's what donald trump tweeted this morning. aed aid number of times. he is a very active president with things happening. it is not perfect for my surrogates to stand at a podium with my accuracy. . how would say those things if hillary clinton was present. >> obviously they would be.

i think the real issue is the longer this goes on, who and more it's looking like water gate. i don't say that lightly. you had a president that probably did something wrong. you showed an imagine addition that director comey's investigation was getting too close and the president. they don't know what's going on, either. they're not in the loop, they're not a position to and he will this well. i think both sides need to step out and speak out louder and take control of this. the investigation needs to go independent. congress can make that happen today if they want, and they need to take action. >> elise as our resident republican on the panel today.

republicans do control congress right now. what is their appetite to really get to the bottom of this? do they have one? >> i think the progression over the course of the week has been interesting. you know, at the beginning a lot of republicans were quick to come out and try to somewhat defend trump. and as the week has progressed and as president trump's behavior has been more erratic today with the tweet storm, you don't want to wait for information to come out. over 30 sources are quoted saying there's more to this russian investigation. i think you're seeing a quiet distancing. it's not a ton of people coming out. you have on the one hand, senator john mccain, you have director ammang -- you don't have republicans strongly in favor saying, oh, president trump is cleaning right on this. >> the question is, how much are

are donald trump and his wife trying to influence the investigation. it may be in another tweet that he sent out, when james clapper and everyone else are not concluding this, when does it end? >> he's making a trump campaign and the russians snz what message is that sending? not only that, kristen welker former dna counsel was on with andrea mitchell at the 12:00 hour trying to clarify what he meant when he was talking and russia. he had in r this year view it would just be where clapper came on and clarified himself.

>> jim and i spoke briefly and he mentioned he had been invited to the white house for dinner with the president, and that he was uneasy of that, because even compromising the optics, the an answer of independence of not only him but the fbi. >> i'm sorry, that was about the dinner the director and donald trump had with both of them. james clapper was saying there's just no y that the fbi director would have told drumpd, a, that he was not under investigati investigation. kristen welker, the time og this is also being questioned. howev however. list listen, an agenda of my plan is

lying to the white house. he's not being honest with what he spoke about with the russians. this is an issue. was the white house able to clarify, to explain, to help reporters and the public understand the timing of those two events and why they might be suspiciousment? >> we didn't sort through the timing so much as we did the details today. the fact that the president said james clapper -- i'm sorry, that james comey asked for the dinner when, in fact, based on our reporting, it was the white house who invited james comey here to have dinner. that notion that he asked for a loyalty pledge, sean was asked about that. he denied that that was the case. then you have a whole host of current and former fbi officials effectively saying they just can't see james comey telling him whether or not the president was under investigation. so all of those details being

questioned and spicer not doing a whole lot to clarify. given the timing, it is incredibly suspicious. as we know, the president looked into what he was told by his white house counsel don mcgann, the fact he says michael flynn misled the vice president. that, of course, continues to be a controversy that hangs over this white house and it is lost on no one that that dinner happened just one day after the revelations here at the white house, katy. >> and pete williams and ken delaney are reporting that acting director comey did tell president trump at that dinner, look, i can't get into it and you don't want me to. josh, the president having a meeting with the fbi director, that doesn't seem necessarily unusual. obviously the president would be in conversations with the fbi director. but the fact that they talked about the investigation, the investigation might have an effect on the president. after all, there is an

investigation into his campaign and his campaign associates. is that completely inappropriate? are people blowing it out of proportion? >> the fbi director is a core member of the national security team and the fbi has a national security role, both in terms of conducting counterterrorism investigations but also conducting investigations in the united states to keep the american people safe. it's not at all inappropriate for the president per se not to meet with his fbi director. but i know legal experts would tell you that it is entirely inappropriate for the president of the united states to be pressing the fbi director of details on investigations that may have a direct bearing on the president or people who are close to the president. that's entirely inappropriate. i can tell you, katy, when i was at the white house, even being asked about an fbi investigation is something that i was often encouraged and i followed this advice. it would give the appearance of

trying to influence an investigation one way or another. that was in a situation where i was speaking publicly on behalf of the president of the united states to the american public, not a situation where i'm the president of the united states myself speaking directly to the fbi director in private. it certainly looks a whole lot like the president is trying to influence the outcome of that investigation, and that erodes this notion that everybody, including the president of the united states, is subject to the rule of law. >> and here's sean spicer talking a little bit earlier about how hard it is for them to stay on the same page. take a listen. >> the president is an active president. he keeps a very robust and active schedule, as many of you are aware, as you can tell from the activities of next week alone. we don't always have the opportunity to get in to see him. >> they can't necessarily stay on the same page. i s talking to one of my sources in themp world clo to the president who said that this is a real problem, that

there is a big disconnect between the oval office and between the communication staff, that it is a mess that, it needs to be fixed. when you ask them how to fix it, the answer isn't clear. it's a bit of a shrug of the shoulders. it's unclear where exactly the problem lies. josh, do you find it to be clear where the problem lies? >> katy, this is a problem with the president of the united states himself. every president, probably dating back to george washington, have had a busy schedule and they have had to struggle and work really hard, long days, and i'm confident this is true of sean and his staff, to try to keep up with him. ultimately it is the responsibility of the president to empower his staff and show the american people his respect to show they are prepared. if the president offered me the job as secretary of the white house, the very first thing he

told me was if i was in a situation i need to do contact him for the briefing, i should get ahold of the white house before i stepped up on the podium. president obama knew how important that was. >> is it a situation where president trump just wants to be in control of the situation at all times? yesterday or two days ago they were saying this was all on the recommendation of the deputy ag and the ag to fire james comey. mike pence said that. when it was markedly not true is when he was talking about flynn not talking sanctions with kisliyak. your own vice president is being hung out to dry. >> there is a more fundamental problem here, and this is advice

a lot of people get when they're in elementary school. which is that one of the virtues of telling the truth is that it's easier to keep your story straight. and the fact is, when your story is changing and it's clear you're saying things not at all believable, you're constantly changing your story. so it's not just that the president has a busy schedule, it's that he keeps changing his story and he says things that aren't true that headaches it challenging for his staff to keep up. the other thing that's true, katy, is the president relies on not just himself but his entire senior staff to be in a position where they are ensuring that the communications team has access to the information that they need to communicate accurately to the american people. so in some ways it's not just the responsibility of the president of the united states, but it's also the responsibility of the president's chief of staff, the president's national security adviser, secretary of the treasury, other people who have important areas of responsibility. they also need to assume some responsibility for making sure

that what the press secretary and other people in the white house are saying is true. it's not uncommon at all. the national security adviser of president obama would stick their head in my office an hour before briefing and say, hey, josh, is there more of an explanation you need for what's going on here so you can help others understand what's going on? that was a daily occurrence in the obama white house and it certainly was when i sat in the press secretary's spot. in the current white house, some of that is because it's not apparent that president trump prioritizes the truth. it's not apparent that president trump has taken the time to ptr to empower his spokespeople. some of that is because he can't settle on the truth. >> this happened during the campaign, it happened during the

transition -- >> the stakes are much larger when you're in the white house. >> kelly ann connelly said it's much different when you're president of the united states. thanks for coming on this afternoon. did a lack of loyalty to trump cost comey his job? new reporting about what was said when they sat down to dinner that led to a threat from the president this morning on twitter. yeah. are those the pyrotechnics that are gonna startle me from a distance? yep. and my impractical wardrobe changes, those all set? not even close. oh, this is probably going to shine in your eyes at the worst possible time. perfect. we're looking at a real train wreck here, am i right? wouldn't it be great if everyone said what they meant? the citi® double cash card does. it lets you earn double cash back with 1% when you buy, and 1% as you pay. the citi double cash card. double means double. adult 7+ promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older.

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the dinner that the president had with james comey in january, did the president implore him to pledge his loyalty to the president? is that true? >> no. >> that did not happen? >> no. >> how important is it that the fbi director be loyal to the president? is that a quality the president wants to see in anyone, particularly his fbi director? >> i think the president wants loyalty to this country and to the rule of law. >> that was sean spicer moments ago at the white house, but today fbi officials are disputing the president's account, telling nbc news the white house not only requested the meeting with comey but the president wanted the fbi director's pledged loyalty. to which the "new york times" reports mr. comey declined to make that pledge. instead mr. comey has recounted to others he has told mr. trump that he will always be honest with him, but that he was not reliable in the conventional, political sense. for more on this, i have a

former special agent with the fbi and associate at a law school and an attorney in the southern district of new york. nick, let's talk to you first. donald trump is talking about loyalty, according to our sources. but also in the interview he had with lester holt, he admitted freely that the russia investigation came to mind when he was considering firing james comey, saying that he wanted someone, quote, competent to head that probe. james comey is investigating the trump campaign. it has to do with trump. he's admitted he is thinking about russia when he thought about firing him. what are the legal ramifications? are there any legal ramifications for that? >> extremely serious legal ramifications. what we're really talking about is the potential obstruction of justice of the ongoing federal investigation. i mean, you've got a sitting president who is under investigation to some extent. i don't care what he puts in his letter or what he says. the bottom line is he is, at my minimum, the subject of the

investigation. it was his campaign, the people work for him. he claims to be the great manager of all people, so he's obviously the subject of an investigation. he invites the head of the fbi over for dinner which in itself is probably inappropriate if they're going to be talking about the russian investigation. and then to demand from him loyalty is kmecompletely over t top. it's almost like asking, are you going to go to the mat for me? just to give you an example, in watergate you had people like that, like g. gordon liddy who actually called jeb mcgruger and told him he will be standing on the corner and you can send the hit squad to knock me off. that's what he is trying to extract. >> as if there wasn't enough reference to nixon, today he talked about having tapes in the white house. beyond that, you said there would be serious ramifications.

what would be the next step in order for officials to pursue those ramifications? >> the question goes to intent. was he trying to stop this investigation? was he trying to scuttle it? if he was intending to try to stop the russian investigation into this campaign, that is enough to charge somebody with obstruction of justice. it's a 10-year felony. it's extremely serious. >> there is a lot of talk in the white house that people in the white house were happy to see james comey fired, that countless people e-mailed or texted or spoke to sara huckabee sanders, the deputy white house press secretary, about how happy they were that the president decided to fire james comey. acting director mccabe disputed this yesterday. let's take a listen to what he said. we don't have that sound bite. >> director comey enjoyed broad

support within the fbi. i can confidently tell you that the majority, the vast majority of fbi employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to director comey. >> i've heard from countless members of the fbi that are grateful and thankful for the president's decision, and i think that we may have to agree to disagree. i've certainly heard from a large number of individuals, and that's just myself. and i don't even know that many people in the fbi. >> there you have andrew mccabe and you have sara huckabee sanders saying they were happy about it. there is also a lot of discussion about whether or not this is going to hamper the investigation, or at vet leathe least, slow it down. give us a reality check on that. >> my understanding is comey was very well liked in the bureau. he was a director who agents felt valued their work, and he took the effort to actually go and visit different field offices, meet with the leaders and really foster a relationship at all levels.

so -- and the reaction that i've heard from the people that i know in the bureau is that they are very disappointed to see him go. and i think one thing to understand about the fbi is that agents consider themselves a family, and so while there might be internal disagreement about decisions taken, when something is done that appears to be an affront to anyone in the family, i think everyone feels it very personally, and i think that's what's going on now. >> so what happens to the investigation now? is it going to move forward unimpeded? >> no, it will move forward, and, look, the b is in fbi for a reason. it is a bureaucracy. there are a lot of different layers. there are 56 field offices in addition to headquarters, and for an investigation of this scale, all of those layers and offices would be involved.

we have reason to believe that the are eleroc surveillance orders fro the fisa court involved, so there is another branch seeing part of this investigation. we have one of our allies, france, who has been targeted by the russians for similar kinds of interference efforts in their election, so we would have been sharing our intelligence with them. so this is an investigation that has a lot of different angles and stretch in a lot of different directions, and it is just not something that would be shut down overnight. >> asha and nick, thank you for joining me this afternoon. we will be right back. seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..."

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and he made a friend at the company. can i say it? go ahead! what's in your wallet? nice job dad. breaking news, there's been an extensive cyber attack across europe and asia that's affected 12 nations. nbc's keir simmons is live in our london newsroom. keir, what do you have? >> reporter: well, katy, this appears to be, as you say, extensive across europe and asia, countries affected that are being talked about include

turkey, japan, russia and many. there are hospitals that appear to have, according to social media, ambulances lined up outside, emergency rooms forced to divert patients and doctors being blocked from patient files. what this is is a kind of malicious software called ransomware. what it does is it locks your computer and then demands a ransom. in this case it appears to be $300 per computer. there is, katy, reporting suggesting that this software is connected to an nsa dump, a leak, a hack of nsa software earlier this year. that we don't know for sure, but there have been previous examples of this kind of ransomware being used back in l.a. late last year around $17,000 paid in a similar case. >> and keir, any confirmation on

which countries have been affected by this? >> well, it's hard to tell because it's happening across a wide swath of areas and not just in the public not just the publ health companies. turkey, vietnam, russia, many, many different countries. this software is described by some as a whir. it appears to be that kind of software. it will move from computer to computer. so unless your organization has had a software update from microsoft to stop this and has been left vulnerable, if that's the case, it is possible that computers are continuing to be affected. there is a real issue in man different countries, we know, but at this stage we don't know how extensive it is. >> we're going to keep an eye on this breaking story. we also have a little more on

breaking news. the president of the united states and his wife, first lady melania trump, are greeting military mothers. we just got that tape a moment ago. >> thank you very much. it is an honor to welcome to the white house active duty service members, military spouses. and mothers of our men and women in uniform. i especially want to thank the spouses of the military aides that i'm dealing with them all the time. they're incredible people. right? every hour of the day, rachel,

kelly, beautiful people. not easy, right? a lot of work. we appreciate it very much. thank you. and i have to say to all the folks that work almost -- right? we want to thank you. believe me. we want to thank you. for your daily service to your families and equally as important. we have a great nation. and i can say this to everybody, you get the first glimpse that we are getting very, very strong again. and we were on the depleted side, to putt mildly and we won't be depleted for a very long period. i can tell you.

that obligation begins the first day they put on a uniform and continues every day with the return to civilian life as veterans. and we are taking great care of our veterans. >> that is donald trump, the president of the united states, and first lady, for mother's day. we brought you some pretty significant breaking news before we brought you this about a massive cyber talk that's affecting both europe and asia. we'll be right back.

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i had nothing to do with russia. i have no investments in russia. i do have a relationship with him and i think it is very interesting to see what's happened. look. he has done a very brilliant job in terms of what he represents and who he is representing. >> that was president trump back in 2013 talking about how he did in fact have dealings in moscow. yesterday, he told lester holt that noted dealings in russia. a lot different than what he told thomas robert in 2013. this comes as the president's tax attorney general release ad letter showing his tax returns

show no income from russian sources with a few exceptions. and h.r. mcmaster went further to try to clarify president's policy on russia. >> i think what the president has made clear is that he will confront russian disruptive behavior, such as his support for the murder of the assad regime in syria. but the president is looking for areas of cooperation. >> let's bring in our contributor, a former fbi double agent. also the author of how to catch a russian spy, a true story of an american civilian turned double agent. over given what you just heard, is this trip going to help donald trump put this russian story on hold if not to bed? >> absolutely not. the term investigation is such a broad one.

the first question is this question about collusion. the second is much more tangible. that's what we heard from sally yates. did the president potentially cover up? we know that general flynn, people were aware of security concerns. the fact the president didn't act for almost 18th days is troubling. so when we think about investigation, there are multiple silos. this idea that perhaps there is no question of income from the russians. and it confuses the issue. there are so many different tentacle this is has that this will not go any time soon. >> trump said he wants to get to the bottom of russia but "newsweek" had a report that russia's meddling dates backs to 2007 during obama campaign. given that it goes so far back, are you confident that donald trump is taking this seriously enough in order to stop any sort of meddling in the future? significant meddling?

>> no. the short answer is absolutely not. i think there's a separate thing that we have to separate. that's the question of counter intelligence operations. when it comes to the detection and the neutralization of a foreign intelligence meddling or operations within the united states, that is what we have to focus on. if there is no investigation answering that question, we won't go anywhere. >> thank you for your time. it is 3:00 on the east coast. that wraps things up for me. chris jansing wraps things up. >> some answers, more questions when it comes to the firing of fbi director james comey. last hour, press secretary sean spicer giving the latest version of the white house view of things but it is the question he repeatedly refused to answer that is drawing the most attention. did president trump -- >> the president has