don't win as often as men, it's that women do not choose to run as often as men. these are maybe some of the things she was referring to as well. of course, on the panel of judges, there was not just liberals, not just conservati s conservatives, there was a mix of judges from all different political back groupds agrounds. they recognized her as a winner. she stood out among an amazing group of contestants. >> congratulations to her. thanks for joining me today. i look forward to seeing more women run for office and take seen year executive positions across corporate america. thank you so much. have a great day. that's going to do it for me for the hour. i'm going to turn to my colleague and friend, nicolle wallace. it is time for "deadline white house." hi, everyone, i'm nicolle wallace. we start with breaks news. teterboro, airport. i believe we have tom costello, nbc news aviation correspondent

on the phone to tell us more about what we're looking at. tom? >> reporter: hi, nicole, i'm in the washington bureau. this is we believe a leer jet that has crashed at teterboro airport according to our sources. a leer jet as you know is used commonly as a private plane for people who can afford it. generally it can hold up to eight passengers and leer jets have been around for the better part of 40 years now. what's concerning here beyond the crash, itself, is the what we believe is the fire on the ground. the call we have several reports now that at least one, maybe more buildings, are on fire at teterboro airport. for those of you not familiar with the new york city area, this is -- i would venture to say this is the main commuter airport that is not for regular commercial service. in other words, people flying private planes into and out of the new york city area will fly into teterboro, right there on the jersey side of the hudson river and so to have a significant crash, it would

appear, there at this airport, is not only going to, of course, affect operations dramatically for flights going into and out of teterboro, as i mentioned, there are quite a few, but you may as well see some impact on commercial air aviation in the area. we don't know anything more than that. we don't know who owns the plane. how many people were onboard, whether there are injuries or fatalities. but clearly it would appear that there has been a fire at least on the ground at teterboro involving a leer jet. we're going to be watching very closely for witness accounts, whether there is any video from the ground that would give us a better sense of what's been happening. you can expect that very quickly the faa will be also responding along with the ntsb and local fire rescue crash authorities will be monitoring the air traffic control conversation to see if there's anything there that we can glean from what's happened, but it would appear to be an aviation incident that is to come degree significant and serious there at teterboro.

nicolle? >> thoall right, tom, thank you much. obviously this is always a horrific thing to see. you're going to keep an eye on this and let us know, we'll break in with any new information you uncover. >> all right. >> terrible news this afternoon. it's been six days since donald trump fired jim comey and the aftershocks continue to consume the white house and frustrate this president. in today's press briefing, sean spicer dodged and weaved several attempts to get to the bottom of whether the president secretly taped his conversations with ousted fbi director james comey as he suggested he'd done last week in a tweet. here's some of what just transpired. >> several republicans have joined democrats in seeking additional information from the white house in writing about the existence of any tapes, producing the tapes and any further information about the potential taping of conversations. is the white house intending to cooperate with those requests and furnish that information as requested? >> i think i made it clear last

week that the president has nothing further on that -- >> wait. sean, does that mean that the president will deny the request -- >> i think i said, i was very clear that the president would have nothing further on that last week. >> the situation -- >> i -- >> with the five legislative branches' request. >> alexis, i made it clear what the president's position is on that issue. >> he's made it clear. amid reports the president is considering a major shakeup and blames his staff for botching the rollout of his decision to fire jim comey, we gathered three of the best reporters on the beef, the ones who cover the white house day in and day out. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker is here. "washington post's" ashley parker joins us. the great glenn thrush of "snl" fame, "new york times" correspondent. you have new reporting on the white house in turmoil. glenn, since you're right here, i have to get you on the white house's seemingly digs in over the tapes. does he have recordings or

doesn't he? >> i made it clear i don't want to talk about it -- >> you had all you had to say to me? the "snl" is going to your head. you're much more handsome than the guy who plays you. we've gotten sideways with the white house and "snl" in the last four minute. >> you're right about the tapes. spicer clearly doesn't want to talk about this anymore. >> they haven't backed down. they backed off by -- >> they never backed down. sean spicer still incidentally has not apologized as ned knows for essentially accusing british intelligence of colluding with barack obama to wiretap trump tower, which by the way, might warrant an apology, but i think their whole thing is they're not go going to deny this and going to hope the one hurdle they have to get past is this thursday testimony from rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general. >> who they pinned the decision on. >> who they pinned the decision on. they get on that plane and they're gone for eight weeks on, you know, what's it, the three-hour tour. >> exactly. gilligan's island. >> i think they're clearly

looking. the president, i am told, is not necessarily super thrilled about being away for eight days. >> right. >> the administration and staff are very much looking forward to resetting -- >> reboot. kristen welker, i followed your reporting all day of the atmospherics there, white house in turmoil. >> reporter: well, we know that as you pointed out, nicolle, president trump wasn't pleased with the messaging around his decision to fire fbi director james comey. now, he did take some of that blame publicly, you'll recall he said, look, my team can't be expected to have the 100% accuracy at the podium, they can't know every single thing that i'm thinking, but it has led to increased scrutiny around his press team. you have sean spicer who's obviously the press secretary. sarah huckabee sanders filled in last week while sean spicer was away. we know the president thought she did very well. at the same time, would he necessarily overhaul that position? not necessarily. what you could see is potentially sarah huckabee sanders play a larger role, perhaps, but in terms of some of those other positions, reince

priebus, steve bannon, we know that steve bannon learned about the ultimate decision to fire comey after the fact. reince priebus sort of trying to do damage control as well. he's obviously the chief of staff, knows he could potentially take some of the blame for this. there is a sense that the president is taking a hard look at his team, but nicolle, this is the major but, he's heading off on a foreign trip on friday, so i think it's unlikely, based on our reporting it's unlikely he's going to have a big overhaul before friday. this is a chance for him to reset the narrative, to focus on foreign policy. he perceives hthat as one of hi stre strengths. the question is is he going to blow off steam this week and get over it during the foreign trip? that's something that could happen. remember, we've had this conversation before. is this time different? that's the big question that remains unanswered, nicolle. >> ashley, my reporting is that with friends outside the white house, he talks about doing something quickly and impulsively and sort of getting rid of the people he doesn't

think are serving him well. sources inside the white house tell me it is not something that's going to happen before friday. is that consistent with what you're hearing? >> yeah, it seems like it's not going to happen before friday. there is a sense that is frustrated as he is with the communications team and especially sean spicer and the communications director that you sort of don't want to start a new press secretary on training wheels in, you know, saudi arabia or israel or any part -- >> why not? it's so easy over there with the times. the notion as a former white house -- what you're supposed to be doing before you leave on a trip is bringing in small groups of reporters, briefing them on -- i know some of them are. i actually came down -- kristen, i saw you when i was there. there is a wing of the white house that is functioning in a sort of normal way, but the rest of it seems sort of embroiled in chaos. how have they sort of firewalled off some of the more functional elements of the white house staff, ashley? >> i will say, so what's

interesting is sort of definitely this week leading up to the foreign trip and even last week, basically if you saw blocked off the president's schedule b and the goal was to have a lot of briefers, a lot of deputies, a lot of senior administration officials, coming in and preparing him for this trip. and then, of course, the comey news kind of took over and it occupied as we all saw a huge portion of the president's sort of mind space, but my reporting does show that they have been sort of squeezing in some of these briefers and some of these briefings still. it's a process that has sort of been overseen by jared kushner who's the president's son-in-law but started the administration functioning as a shadow secretary of state. now is largely basically also functioning as a shadow chief of staff. general mcmaster has been helping. dina powell who's also on the national security team. so these briefings sort of are going on behind the scenes and the president is getting information, but as you said when they brought in henry kissinger to do this foreign policy tutorial, that, too, is overtaken by the comey news and had dr. kissinger sort of

standing by for a photo op where president trump weighed in on comey's firing so it's been a little sort of shaky and blurred. >> blurred is a good word, glenn. he had the leader of the united arab emirates in today and he was answering questions about the hunt for the next fbi director stands. your paper has done an incredible job sort of getting inside the mind of the country's 45th president. what's your sense of his state of mind right now? >> i think he is unhappy. i think he's itchy and scratchy. i think he is angry. >> itchy and scratchy. i like that. >> i think he's angry at the people around him. >> yeah. >> which i think -- >> do you sense it's the campaign wing in the most peril, the reince, kellyanne, bannon and establishment folks rising or do you see it breaking down? >> i think it's broken down a lot of bunch of different -- it varies widely from day to stay. almost hour to hour. bannon, steve bannon definitely seems to be a little bit off in the corner. the thing about priebus and spicer, what they tell their

friends is, who wants these jobs? my sense is priebus is probably in a little more of a secure position than sean is. sean is more likely, again, i don't think sean is probably in imminent danger of being fired. it's more likely we'll see a hybrid of sarah huckabee sanders. as you see, we have a lot of special guest stars in the briefing these days. occupying a lot of time. we saw tom bossart from the national security staff, we saw mcmaster, by the way, who was very, very -- >> a central -- >> very testosterone. >> kristen, how about that? do you get the sense they're auditioni ining new sort of fac and characters if you get into trump's way of looking at this for the podium? >> reporter: what i think they are trying to do is redirect the narrative here and you have some of these other folks coming to the podium today. tom bossart as you were just discussing. that helps them to put the focus on the subjects they want to be talking about. today, obviously, dealing with that big cyber attack. it was a way for the president,

for the administration, to show that they're trying to get on top of this key issue, but nicolle, back to your point, look, we're having these smaller briefings so there is a part of the white house, i think, that is functioning smoothly in that regard as we head to this big all-important foreign trip where the stakes, frankly, couldn't be higher for the president. this is his first foreign trip. so i do think there's an effort among some top officials, jared kushner, mcmaster and others, to maintain that normalcy. and i think you're going to see more of that in the coming days. i think we will, for example, hear from mcmaster. i believe sean previewed that today. we'll probably have some other smaller briefings before friday. >> listen, kristen, i don't want to put you on the spot but i feel like we're saying the same thing. we all nodded when you talked about the smaller briefings. i think we should say, jared kushner, h.d. mcmaster, dina powell are running the preparations for the trip. isn't it obvious, then, those

are the three people whose stock is rising in the president's mind? to you first, kristen. >> reporter: i think there's no doubt about that. jared kushner continues to have an increasingly larger presence, i think not only with the press but certainly behind the scenes and the work he's doing. i also think there's a timing factor here because he has really been working on this foreign trip. so that's one of the main reasons that we're seeing him really kind of emerge as one of the key players, but certainly h.r. mcmaster, you know, a lot of people have looked at that situation. he came in and they describe him as the adult in the room. at the nsc in the wake of mike flynn leaving. and then certainly dina powell was emerging as a strong figure as well. i think that's only going to be solidified, nicolle, after this big first foreign trip. >> ashley, i know you're actually on deadline. it's our name. we joke about that. you have to go file a newspaper story. what are you hearing about what's up, who's down, not in the horse racing sense, but in terms of who's getting

additional responsibilities and from whom are responsibilities being taken away in this aftermath of sort of a slow-motion train wreck that was the firing of james comey? >> sure. i think the three names you just mentioned, jared kushner, dina powell, h.r. mcmaster, are all the point people on this foreign trip. i would add gary cohn into that trip. he's also been part of the behind the scenes briefings with the president, handling the economic component and trade component of this trip which is not insignificant. these names are all, of course, sort of the quote/unquote, democrats. that's not entirely fair. dina powell obviously worked -- >> the new yorkers is what i've heard, right? >> new yorkers, globalists, democrats. dina powell did work in the bush white house, but they're sort of, like, the less ideological, you know, certainly not the steve bannon wing of the, you know, the nationalist wing of the party. i will say the people who seem to be getting more responsibility in this moment, of course this can always change, are the people who are

largely viewed as, for instance, not leaking into the press, and sort of being functioning adults and making the trains run on time to the extent that that's possible in this white house. so i think even though you can sort of call them the new yorkers, the democrats, the globalists, it's less about ideology and more about they seem to have found a way to become as much of a trump whisper as one can be. kind of guide the president toward a potentially successful or at least gaffe-free foreign trip. >> all right. thank you, kristen welker and ashley parker, thank you so much for being with us. i love having you guys. up next, more on that bre breaking news of a plane crash near teterboro airport. still ahead, more on the trump white house at a possible breaking point. at least one prominent legal scholarsies impeachment isn't out of the question. the ill-fated travel ban that ignited spontaneous protests around the country, the president's earliest pr nightmares, well, it's back in court today. replacing jim comey. the white house works overtime

to name a new fbi director, they face a chorus of calls from democrats and republicans to produce any secret tape recordings of the president's meetings with the ousted director. >> if there are any tapes, they can't have to be turned over. you can't be cute about this. if there are tapes, they need to be turned over. i doubt if there are, but we need to clear the air. my unique needs. my dell small business advisor has gotten to know our business so well that is feels like he's a part of our team. with one phone call, he sets me up with tailored products and services. and when my advisor is focused on my tech, i can focus on my small business. ♪ ♪ testinhuh?sting! is this thing on? come on! your turn! where do pencils go on vacation? pennsylvania! (laughter) crunchy wheat frosted sweet!

kellogg's frosted mini-wheats. feed your inner kid

are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® it's starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. the shlike a bald penguin. how do i look? [ laughing ] show me the billboard music awards.

show me top artist. show me the top hot 100 artist. they give awards for being hot and 100 years old? we'll take 2! [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. we are following breaking news. a small plane crash near teterboro airport, new jersey. let's get back to nbc's tom costello. tom? >> pretty significant now, nicolle. this airport has now been closed. teterboro airport, one of the

main private airports for commercial aviation, i say, not commercial, let's say that again, for general aviation, teterboro airport is closed now in new jersey. this plane apparently went down about a quarter of a mile or so from teterboro. we are told it was approaching runway 1 and as you well know up there in new york, you've got significant winds going on today. in fact, so significant that our own helicopter cannot fly. there's a view out of another cockpit window looking at the smoke coming out of the area of teterboro airport. to give you a sense of, this is -- if you're out of state and wondering what the nearest landmark is, you might think about, you know, the meadowlands in terms of a good looandmark. this is an upclose look now. it would appear strictly from the video we've seen, this plane went down in a warehouse area really right there it appear in the parking lot or close to it. in the video i've seen, i don't see damage to any buildings and not to any homes, but you can see a significant fire has

broken out there on the ground as local police and ems responders are also on the ground. we have no reports of injuries, but the wreckage would suggest it would have been a very, very significant crash that involved fire. this plane left philadelphia at about 3:04 p.m., arriving into teterbo teterboro, or supposed to arrive at about 3:45 and that's when it went down. so is about 15 minutes ago or so, and, again, we do not know anything more than that, but i think the headline of the hour is that teterboro airport, this major airport for general aviation into and out of the new york city area, closed at this hour. nicolle? >> all right, tom, you're going to keep an eye on this for us and come back to you as soon as any new information is available. joining glenn and me on set, steve kornacki, nbc news national correspondent. ned price, also an mns msnbc contributor, a former spokesman for the nsc in the obama

administration. and ari melber. jill abramson with us. donna everest, former democratic congresswoman from maryland. bringing the girl power in remote. thank you, ladies, for being with me. i want to go back to this idea of the tapes. ari, i know we separate out the legal from the political, but how is it possible that the white house on day six is not answering whether or not there are recorded conversations of these meetings with jim comey? >> well, there are admissions that can be damning and the refusal to admit or deny i think, itself, is damning. if you want to give sean spicer the benefit of the doubt, he may not know. he may not be getting clear guidance or facts from the president that he serves. >> that's a great point. i mean, white house staffers, even in the bush white house, were sometimes on a need-to-know basis and sometimes the press secretary wasn't read in so they wouldn't be in that situation of having to lie, but this seems like a pattern, not a strategy. >> yeah, and in a sentence, you

know who should know? white house counsel don mcgahn. >> that's the question with mcgahn. there have been a couple of these situations where mcgahn, to use a hockey analogy, let a couple by. >> i know so much about hockey. >> well, the one thing you should know is the goalie should not be looking behind himself into the net, seeing the puck, and that's occasionally happened with mcgahn. you know, we've been told in our reporting that mcgahn was not necessarily thrilled with the comey firing, but we have seen, for instance, on the executive orders, not a lot of really rigorous legal vetting and he tends to do i think what the president is ask him to do. so i don't know where this thing will ultimately resolve itself but mcgahn, for instance, has not been like we know in the obama administration, bob bower was extraordinarily diligent about limiting what a spokesperson could say and what was being found in public to the annoyance of people like you oftentimes. but mcgahn does not seem to be following that pattern. >> jill, i have to bring you in here because you ran "the new york times" at a time when it unearthed a lot of stories that we in the bush white house

didn't necessarily want out there. things about metadata and whatnot. i have never seen the relationship in this state. i know you've written about it in recent pieces. what do you see sort of from your perspective of having been in those, you know, in the fight in the trenches and now having a little more perspective and sort of observing these times? >> i mean, the relationship now between the press and the white house, the press and this president, seems as dysfunctional as i've seen it. even at the height of tension, either between the "times" and the bush administration or the obama administration, both of those white houses pursued criminal leak investigations that touched on the "times." there was tension, but there was still, you know, a moticom of respect and some level of honest communication where each side

gave considered respect to the position of the other. and right now, there's just such a high degree of cynicism on both sides. you know, the press can't believe any -- the tweets of the president or what his spokespeople tell them. you can't, you know, depend on them being informed of what's really going on and, you know, it's very chaotic and, you know, very hard atmosphere in which to operate and make really good decisions. >> congresswoman, i want to bring you in and i want to ask, i really don't know the answer to this question, and i wonder if you can sort of, you know, stretch here. what else could democrats be doing? i don't think they -- they don't deserve any of the blame, but

could they sort of rise to this moment and play the adults in the room? >> i think, first of all, dysfunction is a really gentile way to describe what's going on in the white house. for democrats, the thing that democrats have been doing is calling for an independent investigation, which i think is a very adult call. i think democrats have been saying we really need to get together as republicans and democrats to come to some conclusion about what's gone on with russia interfering with our elections, and i think it's important for the republicans to step up to the table and say this is about our republic, this isn't about one president or one presidential spokesperson, it's about the republican. that is what hasn't happened yet. >> are you surprised sort of having been inside the government, inside the white house, are you surprised there isn't more bipartisanship around calls for russia? i mean, it started a little more bipartisan. you had mccain and lindsey graham, a little more robust than they are now. i thing that's fak that's fair .

are you surprised are aren't more republicans interested in getting to the bottom of this? >> i think we have to move -- >> i'm actually shocked it hand happened. >> go ahead. >> i'm shocked that hasn't happened. for some people who really are diligently paying attention to the conversation and what we have right now, i think is a real crisis and i'm looking for speaker ryan and for senator mcconnell to really step up here because it's so necessary in this situation. you've got a president saying that he's recording a conversation and on the other hand, you also have, you know, a circumstance where you've got, you know, the president saying, hey, i maybe did say to the fbi director that i'm concerned about russia. this is exactly the moment for an independent investigation. >> and i think -- >> go ahead. >> -- you've seen this born out in opinion polls. an opinion poll released yesterday, 79% of americans want an independent counsel to investigate this. i think the comey firing last week, president trump's

subsequent admission that this was, yes, in fact, about russia, even though he told you it wasn't at first. >> was in his mind at the same time as -- how about that, that opinion polls about -- >> i think the way republicans look at this is twofold. one, that finding on 78 %, 79% favoring an independent commission. if you ask the american people on any given issue, would you rather an independent nonpartisan commission deal with this issue or congress, about 80% of the country -- >> they'd rather. >> -- is always going to say an independent nonpartisan commission. i think republicans may take that one with a grain of salt. i think what they're really sort of -- what they're really looking at here to try to sort of hold off the calls for an independent investigation is who trump picks to lead the fbi. they want to be able to point that you're seeing especially when lindsey graham speaks up right now, he's clearly trying to push trump in the direction of taking somebody from the fbi, not putting a cornyn in there, not putting somebody who's an elected official. they want to be able to point to the fbi pick and say we have

full confidence, both parties can have confidence and therefore there's no need for a special investigation. >> go ahead, ari, last word. >> could i blow your mind just briefly? >> please. we should call this hour "blow my mind." >> we with have the duty to ask american people all sorts of things but shouldn't be polling whether -- >> i take your point. >> you served in an administration -- >> yeah. >> -- where john ashcroft did the right thing, recused himself. his deputy at the time, deputy attorney general jim comey, did what he felt was the right thing and had patrick fitzgerald, unem peach bl special processes cuter, in the valerie plame -- it was infused with politics. the point is the system worked. we have a president who's talking openly about putting a partisan in charge of law enforcement in the fbi for the first time in american history. that looks more like the history of venezuela than america. you don't need to poll it to know i think steve makes the right point, yes, the public generally is going to prefer independents to congressional

partisanship. we don't want polls. we want the justice deparetment to work. >> hold that thought. nobody go anywhere. when we come back, we're going to take you back in time to muslim ban 1.0 and 2.0. it's back in court. right after the break. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪ yasss queen! what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the national medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity? [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today...] ♪ [...rumors of the new discovery...] what if we lived in a world like that? (crowd applauding)

♪ we know a place that's already working on it. ♪ you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off. ♪

everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox.

donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> that was the campaign pledge heard around the world. donald trump's legal opponents say it lies at the heart of his executive order banning immigration from certain muslim majority countries. version 2.0 of that travel ban in court today. trump's commenting on the campaign trail, of course, the focus of the arguments. >> when he issued the first executive order, he read the title of the executive order,

looked up at the camera and said, "we all know what that means." indeed, when he issued both executive orders, he left on his website that very statement about the complete and total shutdown of muslims, a statement that just happened to disappear moments before the fourth circuit argument last week. >> has the president ever disavowed his campaign statements? has he ever stood up and said, i said before i wanted to ban all members entering the united sta of america, i was wrong? >> the president clarified what he was talking about were islamic terrorist groups in the countries that shelter or sponsor them and over time he and his advisers clarified what he was focused on with groups like isis and al qaeda. >> so, ari, what do you think is going to come of this? how do these arguments land with a judge like that? he seems sort of on to donald trump. >> i think the judges are skeptical of the administration, likely to continue blocking the

ban as it makes its way through the courts and probably the supreme court. these are fascinating arguments today. what you heard from the lawyer from hawaii that you just played is he says basically, look, lady ju justice may be blind but she ain't deaf. we've heard donald trump talking smack to muslims around the world. >> reading about himself in the third person. i mean, i remember that, remember watching it with my jaw on the floor. >> on the flip side, the trump justice department rolled out the big guns, acting solicitor general you normally would only see in supreme court litigation and he had a strong counterargument, even if you don't like this and this policy and this president, certainly it cannot be, that's what lawyers say right before they tell you what they don't want to happen, it cannot be that because people are interpreting or misinterpreting things the president said, perhaps in a political context, that he cannot exercise his national security powers. and he was really appealing to beyond trump, what we hear a lot of, which is the executive prerogative of presidents to make these calls. by the way, making a decision means you won't always be right.

courts do defer to national security. the argument, don't think about donald trump, think about presidential power writ large. >> steve? >> one of the questions here legally would be if he had never said this on the campaign trail, would this be a big court issue right now? and if -- i know this would be out of character for him, but if he were to come out and disavow it the way we just heard in those tapes and say, okay, let me make absolutely clear, i don't want to been all muslims from come into this country, that's un-american, but i do want to do this, does the legal issue disappear? >> yeah, i think that logic would certainly favor the president and if you pick other examples, if you said i want to ban certain countries, if someone came out on september 12th and said i'm banning saudi arabia and a couple other countries, that is to say, something similar to the content of this order, wovuldn't that b legal? the problem is not how he did it -- >> this is one of the countless issues where the administration has been its own worse enemy here. >> right. >> the defense is using -- i'm

sorry, the prosecution is using -- >> the president's words against him. >> the problem the administration has here, they twhal told the truth when it comes to this issue. stephen miller went out on tv the day the second revised travel ban was rolled out and said this is at its core fundamentally the same policy, a watered down travel is still a travel ban. >> glenn, you have 20 seconds. they're wrapping me in my ear. i don't know what that means so why don't you talk? >> the constitution is clear in giving to the president extraordinary and clearly articulated powers to control borders. >> right, that's their argument. all right. up next, the chilling warning from the former director of national intelligence who says american institutions are under attack and our very democracy may be at risk, after this.

more people than ever are making the move to nissan. because of rogue, the best selling suv in america. titan, with america's best truck warranty. and the most advanced safety features on alitma and our best selling models. that's why we're america's fastest-growing auto brand. get 0% financing for up to 72 months on 11 models. ♪

i am totally blind. i lost my sight in afghanistan. if you're totally blind, you may also be struggling with non-24.

calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. remember here at ally, nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. who's with me? we're like a sports team here at ally. if a sports team had over 7... i'm in. 7,000 players. our plays are a little unorthodox. but to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. we know what you want from a financial company and we'll stop at... nothing to make sure you get it. one, two... and we mean nothing. ♪ ♪ i think in many ways our institutions are under assault both externally, and that's the big news here is russian interference in our election system, and i think as well, our

institutions are under assault internally. >> internally from the president? >> exactly. >> a strong assessment from former director of national intelligence, james clapper. clapper also mentioning in that interview that he's spoken with comey since his firing, discl e disclosidisclos disclosing nothing from their conversation. i want to bring back in jill abrams, former executive editor of "the new york times," now lectur lecturer, author, all-around woman of wisdom. this is where you started the conversation on the show, the unraveling, crumbling of our democracy. i wonder if you could me why it feels like congress is, i don't know, bumbling around as usual. why isn't the hair on fire of every democrat and republican in congress over this question? >> it should be, nicolle. james clapper is someone i got to know fairly when well i was executive editor of the "times." he's a very sober and considered and careful person. he would never speak in

hyperbolic terms about our institutions being under assault, both from outside and from within. he's obviously carefully read the intelligence reports on russian attempts to interfere with the election and destabilize our democracy, and he sees them as, you know, really threatening the stability of the country, and i think that that he clearly is also taking a very dim view of the recent actions of the president. and, you know, the person who's laughing all through the chaos that we've been discussing on this show is vladimir putin. his whole end, why there was

interference in the election, is to destabilize the western alliance and to try and cause problems for our democracy, and i think that mr. clapper sees this in a quite clear-eyed manner. >> congresswoman, let me bring you into this and ask you, what are the bright lights that you see? who do you see in either party sort of able to rise to this moment that jill describes? it's not a time for partisanship from either side. my party obviously does not have clean hands. i think they could and should be doing much more. do you think your party is doing all it could be doing to get to the truth and get to the bottom and make vladimir putin stop laughing, to jill's point? >> i think this is a really complicated environment and i will say it's pretty sobering to hear the former dni, clapper, talk about the threat to our institutions because, you know, he's not somebody you view as partisan or hyperbolic as jill said, but i think we'll have to

step up to the cause here and it really concerns me greatly. i have to tell you, i mean, as somebody who's served in the institution, i know what it means to take that oath and i think it's going to be incumbent an every member of the house and senate to look back to their oath and, you know, to know that we're in 240 years of our history right now, we're, you know, the leading democracy around the world and others are looking at us and so the destabilization isn't just our democracy, but it really is throughout the rest of the world and it's going to make it very difficult, i think, for us to play that leading stage when it comes to human rights, when it comes to democracy, if we continue along this pattern and we can't let one president completely undermine that 240 years and so i'm waiting for those bright lights and for them to step up and i think the president is giving us every bit of evidence that we need to be able to take those -- for members to take those oaths seriously and to say it really has to stop here and to go back

to what we know to be our, you know, the important role of our three branchs of government, and right now we have one that is completely missing in action, and it's the legislative branch. >> all right. we have to let jill go. she's got a course to teach, important to do. i hope we can drag you back here. i want to pull up someone that is certainly a bright legal mind especially -- especially on the left. he's someone i admire as well. that's laurence tribe who had an op-ped over the weekend. >> thanks. >> i think we can put it up on the screen. he talks about whether it's devotion to principle or hunger for political survival that puts the prospect of impeachment and removal on the table. the crucial thing is the prospect must be taken seriously, that the machinery of removal be reactivated and the need to use it become the focus of political discourse going into 2018." steve kornacki, you and i sat up there for super tuesday after iowa caucus with sort of amazement and wonder at the political upheaval, but now we're talking impeachment.

do you think this is a bridge too far? >> laurence tribe is talking impeachment. i think the democratic base is talking impeachment. look, look at the issue of the comey firing and we know russia and the russia investigation was on trump's mind as he did that. i could make an argument, i could sit here and make an argument what this really is is donald trump is somebody who's massively insecure, prone to lash out impulsively and bluntly without any regard or forethought to long-term consequences and if ever there were a case where the cover-up is worse than the crime or the crime doesn't even exist, donald trump is the kind of person -- >> the kind of guy -- >> the problem -- >> i'm sorry. >> -- here is this, the problem is if that's the situation, what i just described, the actions he took are also the same actions he would take if -- >> if there was a crime. >> -- he was trying to cover something up. how do you discern between those two? >> as if on cue, i watched saturday night, reveals what a loser i am, watched fox news saturday night.

waiting for "snl"." i want to play something he said to judge jean. >> you've seen the ratings. everything on daytime television. what i would love to do is stop them. it's not fair to the people. i'll give you, look, i am a very active person. i have a lot of very positive things going on right up here for this country. it's impossible for a person or two people or three people who are press people to cover every aspect of what i'm thinking and what i'm doing. and i think it's unfair. >> okay. now obviously he's explaining his interest in curtailing or limits the press briefings, but you were about to jump out of your chair, go. >> i was about -- it's all in there. >> yeah. >> he gave his press secretary an hour's advanced notice he was about to fire the fbi director. the notion that this is a communications issue, that

people aren't keeping up with him, he gave them stories that were inaccurate then pushed them out. remember that great picture of nixon flipping ron ziegler around and pushing him out toward the press? this is what he did. he didn't only do it with his staff. vice president mike pence went up on capitol hill and told a narrative that was patently later proven to be untrue. so he puts people -- my colleague and i, maggie haberman, did this story. >> unbelievable story. >> he puts people in this unbelievably compromised position, as steve said, he thinks about 15 minutes into the future in terms of the implications of most of the things he does. >> can you imagine being in this position? >> no, absolutely not. let's remember -- >> imagine biding going on the hill with one story different from president obama? >> i can't remember anything like that ever happening for a very good reason. >> biden? >> well -- point taken. but there was transparency between the policy and the communications shop in the obama white house, but let's look at the absurdity of president trump's statement. this is a man who actually live tweets "fox & friends" in the

morning. >> and other shows. >> from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. to say he's too activist as sean spicer has been saying to keep his communications people in the loop, that's absolutely absurd. >> what do you think active means here? i'm trying to decode trump. he's too active to get anyone active information behind the trump. to me, it means skitzo. >> he's the first person we've ever had live tweets his own presidency. he's out there, does it in this voice, the old debate, how literally do you take these words that donald trump says? he impulsively fires off incredibly inflammatory words that if you read them literally could have grave, in many cases, legal implications. if you take them more figuratively, it's the guy at the bar blowing off steam. either way, it's the president of the united states. his communications team, how on earth do you decode that then go out there if the policy, overriding policy of donald trump when it comes to this communications team is never, ever, ever back off. >> right. >> never give an inch between

what -- yourn know, if that's t overriding edith you're getting, he's doing that, i don't care who the press secretary is, it's never going to change. >> does it matter who he installs in his press office? >> no. the of the answers has been substandard. i really like sean spicer personally, and sarah huckabee sanders is a professional. the fact she says a lot of the same things in a caller voice doesn't change the content. the issue in that room and people have focused on it for the entertainment value. i can't believe he's talking about ratings. >> what is he talking about? the ratings? like he looks at -- do you think he's going through and looking at the time? >> he thinks in tabloid terms. we are dealing with a one and a half year experience in politics piled top of a 45-year experience in new york dealing with tabloids. getting your name in the paper, steve knows, was his ultimate

goal. at some point people weren't returning donald trump's phone calls. all express good press sow maybe all press isn't good press is really proving to be a very difficult dilemma. >> up next, president trump is gearing up for what will be his biggest appearance on the world stage.

hey, here comes a last-minute suggestion. yeah, i'll pretend to write it down and then i'm going to circle it. great. wouldn't it be great if everyone said what they meant? the citi® double cash card does. earn 1% cash back when you buy, and 1% as you pay. double means double. when i feel controlled by frequent, unpredictable abdominal pain or discomfort and diarrhea. i tried lifestyle changes and over-the-counter treatments, but my symptoms keep coming back. it turns out i have

irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, or ibs-d. a condition that's really frustrating. that's why i talked to my doctor about viberzi... ...a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day that helps proactively manage both abdominal pain and diarrhea at the same time. so i can stay ahead of my symptoms. viberzi can cause new or worsening abdominal pain. do not take viberzi if you have no gallbladder, have pancreas or severe liver problems, problems with alcohol abuse, long-lasting or severe constipation, or a bowel or gallbladder blockage. pancreatitis may occur and can lead to hospitalization and death. if you are taking viberzi, you should not take medicines that cause constipation. the most common side effects of viberzi include constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain. stay ahead of ibs-d with viberzi.

starts with turkey covered in a rich flavorful gravy,e and a crust made from scratch. because she knows that when it's cold outside... it's good food and good company that keep you warm inside. marie callender's. it's time to savor.

what advice would you give the president before his first big foreign trip that bees to take? >> that's a good question. i think the key would be to limit spontaneity to areas that are fun or that sort of say something about you as a real person. i think when it comes to the issues, i would advise him to stick to the script. >> i love bob gates. he was a defense secretary for george w. bush and president obama, for your old boss, with some very wise advice. is that what you would be telling him? >> absolutely. there are few more taxing endeavours on any president than a foreign trim. they are choreographed to the second. it will take a level of planning and expertise and exhaustion i don't think we've seen from this white house to date. >> as we've been talking about all hour, this is first foreign trip planned by the grown-ups,

jared kushner, powell, mcmaster. is this a real test for them? >> oh, my goodness, is it a real test. has the group of people that have lionized before they have accomplished a single thing. >> they would say what they accomplished was to present policy options for the syria strike. >> probably president obama would have gotten and arguably he would have made exactly the same move on that. but this is an entirely untested group of people. we have imputed to jared kushner, ivanka, gair cohen and dina powell essentially all these attributes we're going to see if they can pull off. as ned said, this has to be planned down to the second. and i just love that. what was the expression? any extraneous the spontaneity?

>> i think the one thing that's for the trump advantage, the first stop, the saudis will love president trump. they are just like he is in some ways. he is transactional. he doesn't give a darn about values. he is not prone to nepotism as their own system there. so i think in some ways, they're kindred spirits. whether it is an arms deal or something else, the key will be how well the white house can execute this. >> in fairness, the relationship with saudi arabia is pretty important. i went to a briefing by the national security team and they talked about how eager our allies are to reboot and see america reengage. regardless of your partisanship, there are some people eager for a new working relationship with the united states of america. >> there's stuff that we're not seeing on the main stage. it is more complicated. i'm just chuckle at the advice of stick to the script.

does anyone at this point think donald trump, for better or worse, whether you're a fan or an opponent, he is not a guy who sticks to the script. >> to the degree there have been accomplishmen accomplishments, he did free a prisoner in just a minute. did he in his view make decisive packs president obama didn't make with the use of chemical weapons. when they talk about how foreign policy is working, i think it is a credible claim. >> it is on a relative scale. >> congresswoman, what opportunity does this white house have? take all partisanship aside, what opportunity do they have to make a first impression with world leaders who have not met or worked with donald trump before? >> i think there is an opportunity. the international community has been quite skeptical of this president. doesn't really understand where the foreign policy is leading.

so i think the president has an opportunity on demonstrate that. but a laser beam focus on the mission at hand. i think the danger is that he will go off script. and that will be out of control. so he has to control both what he says, how he says and it what he does. >> my favorite indictment of the media over the last two years has been how we lowered the bar. we didn't lower the bar. he kept winning. what are the chances that he'll exceed it? >> i'm going to the bar. >> we're all going to the bar. seriously. >> people say we've normalized. you know who normalized? pennsylvania, michigan, ohio. people who voted by this guy and he won by the rules. i think it is important to keep holding them accountable. we've scene a loop all day, reporter after reporter asking tough questions. i've been in the briefing room on and off for five or six years. i think this group of people is doing about as well as any group

of people i've seen. i appreciate the way reporters are starting to backstop. i think it is bringing the white house press corps together which is like herding cats. >> oh, i know. >> i think people are starting to understand it. i think it is time for whoever the next press secretary, is if there is one, it might be sean a very long time, to take seriously the public. >> thank you for being here myself thanks to former congresswoman, ned price, and that does it for this hour. i'm nicole wallace. "mtp daily." >> hey, i see you got red dress symmetrical memo. if it's monday, the white house hits the pause button on any secret tape talk. >> tonight