tolerance. >> how about the question that i had, please. did the president reveal a city? the spin was that he would reveal a city that gave away information that undermined an ally. >> okay, so -- all of you are familiar with the threat of isis. if you said where do you think a threat would come from, you could name a few cities i would think. it was nothing you would not know from open source reporting. >> sorry, back to my question, sir, was this information shared with the russians also shared with our allies and specific to

the threat from airlines, was there an imminent threat? >> i don't want to get into the specifics, but information on this topic of the threat of avenuuation was shared with multiple allies. and you and many others have reported widely on this. >> in terms of the specifics, i can't -- i have no basis for comparison, but it our impression of all of us that what was shared was appropriate given the purpose of that conversation and the purpose of what the president was trying to achieve through that meeting. >> general, when you came out after the story broke, you said that the president did not

disclose any sources or methods. he did not reveal anything about military operations. why were you denying things that were not even reported. the president revealed classified information by one of our allies in the middle east, it is simply a yes or no question here, did he share that information? >> we don't say what is and what is not classified. what i will tell you again is what he shared was appropriate. the story combined what was leaked with other information and then insinuated about sources and methods. so i wanted to make clear to everybody that the president in no way compromised any sources or methods. >> do you have any idea how this got out, and what steps are you

taking by virtue of discovering this of what you did to try to limit the potential for any more leaks of national security. >> i think national security is put at risk by this leak and leaks like this. and you know there are a number of instances where this has happened, and making sure we have trusted organizations across our government that allows for the free sharing. what is critical is that you can assemble the experts you need. you want a bigger group, right? because you need their expertise, and the tools they bring to bear from different agencies and departments. we need to make sure we have a very high degree of confidence in all of our organizations and all of our systems and processes so we can do what we need to do for the president.

>> you can't have that ensure that this stuff doesn't get out. >> i think it is appropriate to take a look at how this leak occurred and how other breaches occurred as well. >> general mcmaster, is there now an active investigation into how this was leaked, and i would also like to ask you given that president trump is now going to be meeting face to face with literally dozens of foreign leaders, if there are sensitivities to his discretion in what information to declassify, what is that for how you're advising him? >> there are no sensitivities

for me or people who have been with the president. he shares information in a way that is appropriate. and i should just make maybe the statement here that he was not even aware of where this information came from. he was not briefed on the information, either. so i'm sorry this has to be the last question because we do have the president of turkey coming momentarily. >> we have more questions, general. >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where hr mcmaster just tried to explain what the president did or did not reveal. kristin well ker is at the white house. with the former director of the national counter terrorism center, and michael mcfall and

nbc contributor as well. first of all, they are saying that the president did not reveal anything that was classified or inproto, or he is not saying he is saying the president did not reveal anything that was inappropriate. clearly the president legally has everything right to declassify anything, but the issue here is whether or not he was revealing to the russians information that was classified and should not have been revealed to an adversary. >> that's right, and when he was asked very directly whether or not he revealed classified information, he did not deny that happened, andrea. he used that language that you talked about. he said that the president's conversation was appropriate. he still did not get to the central issue, did he divulge information that was given by an ally that an ally didn't want to be revealed. mcmaster saying that the he was

not aware of where the intelligence came from, and he acknowledged that they reached out. in the wake of that conversation. of course, that question is why would that have happened if there was not a breach of classified information. you heard him say it may have been out of an abundance of caution. so a number of headlines coming out of this briefing as this white house continues to be in damage control, andrea. >> and tom, excuse me, michael lighter, let's talk about what would have been briefed to the president. because it is very clear that if the president was saying things to the russians without realizing there was a classified basis to this, he was not properly briefed or he did not take in his briefing. they have been in meetings where they say this is something you

should not reveal, this is very sensitive information. >> it takes policy makers who are new, especially new to government, takes time to understand what is sensitive and what is not. undoubtedly the president has been briefed on the threat to laptops and safety measures, and he should not be talking to the russians and others at a general level at that threat and what we would like them to do as well. it comes when he starts to disclose information that would help an adversary identify the source of that. it is not just saying we got this information from bob smith, located here, just potentially mentioning where sources are located and how that information is collected. it all becomes sensitive and you have to have sensitivity to how sensitive the issues are. the president is new at this,

and unfortunately there is no time for a learning curve. >> when he is talking about isis in syria, to the russians, he is talking about the russians that are allied with assad and iran. you understand the way that president's are briefed, you have done this yourself, you were talking to the russians, let's take a big step back. why was lavrov in the oval office at a time when the u.s., when this administration had not cleared out the root issue of the russian interference with our election? >> well, you know, it is normal diplomacy that the foreign minister of russia would come to the united states to meet with the president, but that is what they should have been talking about. i'm glad you're bringing that up. there is no evidence whatsoever that the discussion of their violation of our sovereignty was part of the discussion. and number two, let's just be clear about what the president

has the right and not right to do. he has the legal right to declassify our intelligence, that is true. he does not have the right to declassify other country's intelligence. that is a brieech of how we wor with our partners. what was missing to me was a justify for it. if there was a national security interest, you might justify if, but there was no justification whatsoever. he was just trying to show off what we know and that is not in america's interest. >> let me play some of that briefing today to why he was talking to the russians about all of this. >> it is appropriate for the president to share whatever information he thinks is necessary to advance the

security of the american people. if that information was shared previously, i'm not sure about that. >> when did he make the decision? >> it flowed out of the conversation. not a tactical decision made going into the meeting. let's look at some of the pictures shot by the russian photographer and distributed by the official government press agency. and you see where the american press was completely kept out of the scene. if you take a look, they are shot with lavrov as the center of attention, these are part of russian propaganda. look at that picture with the president and kisliak. i guess we should have assumed it, but in all of these pictures, they're shot from the russian perspective, can you

comment on that? >> correct. you're absolutely right. and they played very well in the russian media by the way. not only is the foreign minister the focus, but the shots of them laughing and these jolly photos, that is what played in the russian media. and i want to come back to what general mcmaster said, he made an argue. he had no way of knowing that, and i just want to current score what also was said. russia is not our ally in the fight against isis and syria. they have not taken the fight at all to isis in years of trying to make that coordination. why are we sharing this information with them when they're not our ally in the fight against isis and syria.

>> he is the most credit person. you did see sean spicer, he is not going to be on camera later today, that is a switch, but he also, if we can play part of what he said, he is also trying to justify what he said last night which is in contradiction to some of the other information, let's play that. >> what i'm saying is the premise is false, the president had a conversation that was private and was not a lapse in national security. i think what i would like to see debated more is that national security has been put at risk by those violating confidentialty.

the president wants to focus on risks, but i don't understand how the leaks of information to the washington post, initially, could be a problem for national security if the premise of the conversation as general mcmaster is saying, did not violatviolat national security. >> and he is trying to pivot away from the nondenial and his issue of leaks, time and time again, we have seen the president try to put the focus on leaks, but the broader question remains what did the question reveal during that conversation. is a key ally burned by that? will it threaten the united states relationship with the allies moving forward. that is a threat.

these are questions that the white house is facing, as he was leaving the room, a number of us asked if they would make the transcript available. they are demanding that the white house do exactly that. no answer to that question, but i can tell you that we will continue to press that point. and mcmaster not the only top official to appear here in the briefing room on a range of issues. today it was mcmaster, the other day it was bossert, and you heard again just to reiterate his name mentioned at this briefing in the context of why did he reach out to the cia or nsa. those are the questions that we're really trying to drill down on today. >> what was really startling was the fact that mcmaster said he had not had a conversation with bossert about why he reached out. it is really pretty startling

that he would not have had that conversation. and why did the president call king abdullah of jordan today, a big intelligence partner, a neighbor to syria, a key listening post as well. and the king was added to the list today, it had not been scheduled. >> jordan is a key partner on intelligence matters. it is especially important for this region. it may involve that, it may also be related to this trip. all of this, honestly, would be a big nothing if this was the first instance we had where the president was loose with his language and adversarial with the intelligence community. that is not the case. the fact is the mt. sapresident things in tweets and in words and actions, and put him at odds

with the cia, fbi, and nsa. this is not the first word in the sentence, this is the exclamation point in the end. i'm concerned this will further erode trust between the key nun institutions. >> they're telling allies to keep their attention short. they are concerned he will blow up at the board because the meetings are really boring, and other aspects of the trip as well. >> the fact is that the national security community has to serve the president and adjust to his preferences and how to carry these things out. but what they also have to be able to expect is the president makes thoughtful reasoned, timely judgments and not just off the top of his head

decisions about what should and should not be disclosed. he has the right to do it, but is it the right thing to do? >> kristin welker there on the spot. e e elijah cummings is joining me now, do you think there needs to be an intelligence briefing for those on the hill? >> no doubt about it, let me be clear, andrea. as far as i'm concerned, this is indefensible. we handle in our committee classified information all of the time. and what the president did is very interesting as i listen to general mcmaster, he never said that the president didn't

release classified information. clearly he did. i would say to the american people that this is indefensible. and i say to my republican friends stop circling the wagon around this president, circle your wagons around the united states of america. and put country first. we have to get to the bottom of these mistakes. he did not consult with our security team. we did not consult with our intelligence folks, nor the sources that provided the information, and then he gives it out as if he is just talking in a normal conversation. it just baffles me that the same

person that our intelligence community takes the intelligence and gives it to a country that has not been our friend. this is not rocket science. i would hope that at some point, the republicans will join with the democrats and say look, we have to address this, it is simply indefensible. >>. >> does it reinforce your call for a special council? >>. >> this stuff is not happening day after day, it is happening hour after hour. we need an independent commission of americans that will deal with it in a bipartisan way of citizens that

will figure out how it happened, these interferences with our elections, and make sure they provide us -- >> i think we just lost our communications with elijah cummings. he made his point, coming um more on the damage assessment. ♪"all you need is love" plays my friends know me so well. they can tell what i'm thinking, just by looking in my eyes. but what they didn't know was that i had dry, itchy eyes. i used artificial tears from the moment i woke up... ...to the moment i went to bed. so i finally decided to show my eyes some love,...

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>> are you concerned that u.s. allies that do have these relationships will stop provi providing that. >> information? >> no, that is the expectation of our intelligence partners. >> joining us now is jeremy bash, and john mclaughlin, a long time director there at johns hop kins, welcome both. first to you, this has just been

confirmed that tom bossert, did call the national security and the cia to try to do damage control, or explain what happened in that meeting with the russians. that indicates to you and anyone watching that the president did not disclose anything that was inappropriate. he did not say -- he did not deny that the classified information was not disclosed to the russians. >> that is probably the single most important thing that we do know since that is now confirmed by the post and others. that tells me that whatever the president said it included some fact or bit of information that should not have been passed and

the russians used it to figure out more about the case. in my job i was authorized to release information to russia, but every bit of it was scrubbed, every word was waved and guidance was given about exactly how far you could go and how far you should not go and what to leave out. it is not something that you should do e rain yous---e e-e e. that is something that they should say to the president. >> yeah, i think in response to the question, he also confirmed that the president made up the decision to do this on the spot, there was no discussion

beforehand and just to take the trade craft issue one level deeper, there is something called a tear line. if you think about a piece of paper on top, the sources and methods, and it is the information that you would tear off and and over. he said here is the information you need to protect yourself or we need you to know about. this process was not followed here. but it is done pursuant to a very careful process. i think the implications that the president may not be able to be trusted, that is implications for the meetings he has around the world right now. >> what is the reaction from allies, jordan or the main sources and isis.

that whatever happened won't happen again. we know a lot of these countries provide us critical intelligence. the plot that was being hatched by isis that was revealed to us by the saaudis. it is hard information to come by. the hardest is information related to terrorism. these are not people you meet at the super market or a dococktai party. this is hard for anyone. so that is the kind of information that you want to guard with particular care.

>> just very briefly, the effect if on the up coming trip. >> yeah, i think they will be wondering if they can share information reliably. they will be astonishes that they are laning so far forward with their enmys. coming up, a white house in crisis mode as turkey's president is set to arrive at any moment. what's ahead there on andrea mitchell reports. on a trademarked trade platform that has all the... get off the computer traitor! i won't. (cannon sound) mobility is very important to me. that's why i use e*trade mobile. it's on all my mobile devices, so it suits my mobile lifestyle

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the secretary of state was extremely care less and negligent. >> we can't have common in the oval office that sunt understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified. >> that was then candidate trump slamming hillary clinton for her handling of classified information. and jennifer palmeri, director of communications under

president obama and a key person from the clin son campaign. i have o to come to you first. >> we can't afford to have someone in the oval office that doesn't understand the value and sensitivity of classified information. it is, you know, there is, i have in the last -- we're only in month four, right? i have seen a lot of moments of concern. this particular scenario where he is disclosing information that will gyp diez and have implications, that is something that i did not even contemplate, it just shows you a pretty frightened they are about what else could come. there is nothing else he said that contradicts the reporting.

>> there is no one on this white house staff on the top rungs of the ladder, who has any experience. but no one has done anything administratively before. including the current white house kreef of staff. >> the president is not exercising discipline, and the white house doesn't appear to be immoezing discipline, but i think this is to not overreact to this i think it was not right, but i don't think it is the crisis that everyone is trying to speed up. he was kind of comforting when

he came and spoke and that is legitimate. it is not a question of law. he could even declassify important things, should he have done it in a different way, maybe he should have but i don't think this is a constitutional crisis or a situation where the president has violated a law, i do think he has to exercise more discipline, he has to taste his words before he spits them out. there is great consequences, and there are bureaucracies and patriots to help you know what words to use and not to use. show more respect and not just at the white house.

>> and they have been saying he didn't have the right to do what he did, he can declassify anything. was he appropriately briefed and what was inappropriately shared with the russians along with why would he call the nsa and the cia to clean up the mess if i mess was not created in the first place. >> i'm immediately troubled by what happened in the intelligence community. someone working at the intelligence community should not be calling a washington post reporter act this.

>> so it is not just that there was calls may from the cia to the nsa, it was the administration argued about what they could report on because they said they would have potentially very damaging impacts on our ability to gather intelligence. so the administration is saying that can't report it and that it was not significant, but i think that it -- this one incident shows the damage that could be done there is not a check on him and we're not sure how many damage was done, but he could literally endanger lives and i find that scary. >> i was impressed by -- i was impressed by john mclaughlin who

was measured in his drijt of what happened and his critique. i think being measured is important. not overreacting and speaking with hiyperbole. we want the white house to recognize the responsibility to help the president from being so spontaneous that he might, through instinct, do something he should not be doing. >> at this hour, by the way, the leader of turkey, president erdogan, is arriving at the white house. we expect them to deliver a joint statement at the roosevelt room, we'll be right back. >> it's time for the "your

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joining me now is david, sam stein, and mike vicara. david, first to you, the meeting with erdogan, on top of everything else that happened, what issues do you think are raised by a meeting with turkey's president who we now know, belatedly know that mike flynn was lobbying for without having to disclose that in realtime. >> it's a meeting with a lot of difficu difficult, hard edges for the white house in a week in which they need the opposite. erdogan has a deserved reputation for growing authoritarian policies, his government's apparent contacts with mike flynn before he came into the white house, are being investigated, that is an issue. i think the most important thing

that will be discussed is the collision course over strategy for syria they're saying you're proposing to people that we regard as terrorists. they decided to go forward with a syrian grown, by the end of the day there may be one more big flap for this administration. >> it is no coincidence, and i want you to weigh in on the criticism of the leak from the intelligence communities, you know that area better than anyone, on the leak, not on the fact that the president did share without denial classified information that is his right

when he thinks it is appropriate. the question is was it appropriate for him to share that information? >> it has been so far confirmed that a senior national security council official, was concerned enough about what the president had said that he felt it was important to notify the two key intelligence agencies. that was his decision. so i think that hr mcmaster, a person of high integrity himself, widely respected, is trying to diffuse this saying he did not discuss sources and messed. th a simple way to respond is that there were concerns in the white

house on the part of tom bossert. >> let's talk about the opportunity lost. the schedule was to be cleared to prepare this president, and instead, asize from one meeting, there was so many self inflicted problems, that they have been in damage control for two weeks. >> yes, i can't help but think that the president has not been, you know, he has not had a real world crisis to deal with. they are their own enemy. i'm sure the white house would love to talk about something else. his first foreign trip is coming up and he will be dogged with questions about why he fired the fbi director, if was responsible

for him in any way to do the leaking. this is not a way to proactively governor. from our own reporting, we have foreign officials that are reassessing how much they can trust nichgs. that is not the kind of thing you want to be dealing with. it is having real world consequences now. >> some of the republicans are circling the wagon, and some are expressing concern. they want answers as well. even the speaker, paul ryan, wants this to be cleared up if this is true. >> you see they're developing a muscle memory here of the latest controversy bursting forth from down the street. many of them will take a cautious approach to this.

i think a common line that we heard, it is troubling if it is true. this morning about 9:00 where he said, we could all do with a little less drama from the white house because we have things we want to accomplish on our agenda and his very subtle understated way, mitch mcconnell is doing two things, generally concerned about tax reform and health care, and whether they will have time to get to all that. it's a dicey proposition at best on a good day. he's also sutley changing the subject from the underlying issue which is a breach of national security potentially from the president to the russians in the oval office to the sort of back and forth nuts and bolts of legislating here in the capitol. i think you're seeing republicans again struggling to try to come to grips with this. we talked to any some of senators today and the dirksen building we're going to in a finance hearing on an unrelated

topic on medicarend we heard a range of responses, tim scott the scalwart conservative from south carolina says he has no concerns to pat roberts from kansas who denied he was pat roberts. he was joking with us, but no question he wanted to talk to us -- didn't want to talk to us. it puts republicans in a difficult position not only in the macro political sense there's a republican in the white house and he's faltering but in a nuts and bolts sense they have things they need to accomplish legislatively but they're having trouble getting off the mark because of the noise around president trump. >> thanks to all of you going on now to senate democrats on offense this morning including a call from minority leader chucker for the white house to release the transcripts from the meeting. the senator joining me now from the hill, the senator representing new mexico. thank you, senator. what is your reaction to what has even been acknowledged by

the national security adviser? he's not denying that classified information was revealed to the russians. he's saying it was not inappropriate. >> well, i think what you see here, there's just a disturbing pattern of recklessness, and it's not a one off event. you look at the michael flynn situation, you overlay that with how they treated very sensitive information at mar-a-lago when president abe was there. this is the pattern. i think it's not a pattern that is serving our national security well. >> and what do you think the democrats should insist upon? you don't have the majority so can you try to get a briefing, a classified briefing, on what was released? can you see the transcripts. we know there were notes and transcripts from this meeting? >> my understanding is that the leadership on both sides of the intelligence committee are seeking some of those answers in terms of trying to find out directly from the white house what transpired. i also think there's a bigger

question here, why. was this just simply recklessness or is there actually some strategic justification and right now it appears to be recklessness. >> do we know anything about the president's decision to call king abdullah today of jordan, whether that's related to the trip, related to this or something else? >> i wish i had that information. i just simply do not. >> what is the potential damage from foreign partners when they can no longer trust what is briefed to the president of the united states? >> when commit to intelligence broadly, everything is built on trust and so when you take information that may be provided to you in confidence from an ally around the world, and they know that you're going to protect that, it's very easy to work with that ally. when you begin to divulge that information to adversaries that causes an enormous amount of friction with those allies. the very people we should be

working with in some of these situations. so this creates a huge risk for our national security apparatus and particularly -- in particular the intelligence community and it won't be easy to undo this damage. >> senator hinrich, thank you for joining us. moments ago president trump welcomed president erdogan to the oval office. let's listen. [ no audio ] >> it is a great honor to have president erdogan from turkey here. we're going to have long and hard discussions. i know that they will be very successful. we've had a great relationship and we will make it even better. so we look forward to having very, very strong and solid discussions. we'll be having lunch in a little while and we'll actually

be making a statement right after this in the roosevelt room. thank you very much. thank you. [ inaudible ]. >> thank you very much. [ inaudible ]. >> thank you. >> and as you can see, the president was not answering any questions there. there will be another opportunity later in the roosevelt room where he was welcoming president erdogan of turkey, who is a nato ally and, of course, an important base in turkey for all of these flights into syria and for the missions against isis. but there has been a great deal of tension in the last week since the pentagon approved funding to the rebels, the syrian kurdish rebels, who erdogan views as terrorists. we'll have a lot more coming back and we'll be right back.

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create safe places for every student to learn and grow. where teachers open minds to history... unleash creativity... and show our kids the future. some build walls to divide us. but the california teachers association knows these are walls that bring us together. because quality public schools build a better california for all of us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show on-line and facebook @mitchell reports. craig melvin is up next. >> good to see you. good afternoon to you. craig melvin from msnbc headquarters in new york. we start this hour at the white house. you can see the roosevelt room there. any moment we are expecting to see president donald trump and the visiting president of turkey, they will be making statements. president erdogan in town.

moments ago we just saw them in the oval office. we are, of course, waiting to see if the president addresses the controversy surrounding whether he disclosed class fide information to the russians. "the washington post," the first to report that sources inside the administration say the president shared highly classified information with the russian depp mats who visited the oval office last week. the only pictures of that meeting are pictures th were provided by russian media because u.s. journalists were not allowed in. few republicans coming to his defense yet national security adviser general h.r. mcmaster defending him for reportedly sharing classified information with the russians. lieutenant general mcmaster pushing back on parts of the story but also appeared to confirm pieces of it. >> why did his counterterrorism official contact the