it is 2:00 p.m. in the east, 1 11:00 a.m. out west, and the word of the day? boundaries. the president is expected to depart washington in just a few minutes. he'll leave the boundaries of the u.s. this afternoon for the

first foreign trip of his presidency. from the white house to the hill, deputy a.g. rod rosenstein at the capitol for a second day. the russian probe has crossed the boundary from counterterrorism to criminal investigation. >> i think the american people deserve the scope to be as broad as necessary to regain confidence. >> is mr. mueller on a witch hunt? do you share the president's view? >> i don't personally believe in witches. >> we're dancing with angels. the question is, will people look back and say, what did you do? this is about the fight for the soul of our democracy. >> replacing james comey. could the president's pick for fbi director come any day? this as the "new york times" details a lack of boundaries, claiming trump made comey uneasy. comey reportedly even tried to blend in with the blue curtains and hide from trump during a white house ceremony. let's deprebrief with our team

reporters and analysts, including the reporter behind that "new york times" piece, but let's begin are hans nichols who is at the white house. hans, the president is about to leave on this foreign trip and he's going to try to be leaving behind a number of controversies, a little bit of a reset, the white house hopes. >> reporter: i'll try to talk over the sound of the helicopter just about to take off from outside the rose garden. this is a foreign trip, and you can sense white house aides eager to get going, get out there, change the scene and more importantly change the subject. all morning long we've been asking about comey and we've been met with mockery and contempt for our questions. they really want to change the subject, start talking about what's happening in terms of the president's international agenda. that first stop is saudi arabia. it's a chance for him to talk about what he might be doing for the sunni world, talk about an arms deal, talk about what he might potentially do to fight islamic extremism. at the same time we just heard

from secretary mattis sort of r articulating this new strategy which is you surround cities and annihilate from within it. >> over on capitol hill, rod rosenstein was there for a while today, addressing members of the house. we caught a couple of them as they left that chamber including chairman darrell isa. >> the scope again of director mueller includes any questions about referrals related to any misconduct, any interference, and there were questions well outside the russian scope in there and repeatedly acting director said that he would feel that his job is to make sure others have the freedom to send it where it may be, including any judicial indiscretions. >> pete williams is in our washington bureau. pete, talk to us about what the scope of this investigation

could be. no one is saying definitively that it is a criminal investigation, but give us your expertise. >> i think it's probably not really changed since the beginning, except in one sense. it started out as a purely counterspy operation, a counterintelligence investigation to see what the russians were up to in their meddling of the election. then itooked a whether any americans were involved, sto the extent that that's always been or nearly always been in the purview, that always raises the possibility that a crime could have been committed. so i frankly think a little too much is being made of this idea that it is now suddenly a criminal investigation. it's always had that possibility and, in fact, darrell isa said as much today in that briefing that you heard with members after the rosenstein session was over. >> and you heard the helicopter in the background of hans nichols' live shot. that is donald trump getting on

his helicopter and going right here. he'll be getting on air force i in just a few minutes to depart for that trip. pete, let's also talk about rosenstein releasing a statement for the public as well, saying, quote, it was not a statement of reasons to justify a forecaused termination. and he's talking specifically about the memo he wrote and the recommendation he wrote to fire james comey. >> reporter: yes, i thought the most interesting part of that thing that was released by the justice department is rosenstein saying that he told members of the house and senate, as we look at the security people there waiting for the president and members of his staff, that he had decided as of last fall that james comey should go. he says in this statement that he met with then senator jeff sessions during the transition, and the two of them got together and decided last winter, he said -- not last fall, but last

winter -- in other words, well before the inauguration, that james comey should go, that the fbi needed new leadership. this is consistent with a story we've heard since from the white house and the justice department, that when sessions and rosenstein met with the president earlier this month and he said he thought comeyd shoul go, they said at the time they agreed. >> and well before either of them were confirmed for a.g. or deputy a.g. hans, you're still out there in front of the white house for us. talk to us about the fbi director. donald trump not making an announcement today before he goes on that foreign trip. >> earlier white house officials told us there was not going to be an announcement today. the president is up and away on marine i. he will be landing at andrews in about 20 minutes. there was no announcement today. the president could always make a statement under the wing under air force i, but he is up and away. we think he has four finalists. the frontrunner is joe

lieberman. some say the announcement wasn't today, that lieberman was no longer the frontrunner. that's speculative. the president's wheels are up. we can start drinking here at the white house, katy. >> and hans, just one other point. >> go ahead, pete. >> if this white house follows the pattern of the last several announcements of fbi nominees, it would be like the supreme court nominee or cabinet level nominee, they would have the person at the white house so it's possible the president could put out a written statement, or, as hans says, keep it under the wing, but it seems they would make more of a ceremony about it. >> hans nichols, i'm sure you'll have more of a live shot so you have some time. i guess that's your decision. he put the onus on the press to flush out the truth. take a listen. >> if there is any moment that

the press in our country's history has a major role, it is this moment. this is your moment. you have got to put it out there so people can understand what is goinon. i have said it before, and i'll say it again. this is about the fight for the soul of our democracy. we cannot afford to lose this one. >> joining me now is michael schmidt, a reporter with the "new york times" who has been at the forefront, and we don't say that lightly, of the reporting about comey and wrote today's story. our analyst matt miller is a chief spokesman for the justice department and an nbc justice and security analyst, and malcolm mans, the plot to hack america and the terror asymmetrics. you've been talking to comey and

know him well. benjamin wittes spoke with you and then spoke to pbs this morning about an uncomfortable moment james comey had with president trump early on after he was inaugerated. take a listen. >> if you watch the video of it, he's wearing a blue blazer, and he stands in the part of the room that is as far from trump as is physically possible to be and also against blue drapes that are the same color as his -- >> he chose that spot? >> he chose that spot because it was, you know, almost like a chameleon. trump had not singled him out. and then at the end, right at the end, trump singles him out, extends his hand kind of preemptively, and trump grabs the hand and kind of pulls him into a hug. but the hug is entirely one-sided. >> that's benjamin wittes. michael, comey's 6'8", it's kind of hard for him to blend in,

tell me why he was so uncomfortable about being there? >> comey was uncomfortable about being seen close to any president, whether it was obama who he once said he wouldn't play basketball with, or if it was trump, someone that a lot of democrats had blamed comey for getting elected. and comey didn't want to go over to the white house for this because he wasn't sure what trump may do or say to him in public. and he thought he had gotten through this ceremony without trump noticing him, but trump called him out, said there is jim, he's more famous than i am, and they had this embrace which made comey very uncomfortable because he thought it jeopardized the independence which he is nearly almost obsessive about trying to protect. >> you can see in that video there donald trump opens his arms and jim comey reaches out his hands before he can get to donald trump, i guess, to try to, in wittes' estimation, stave off a hug.

michael, i had hugh hewitt on in the last hour, and he was saying he wants to see any sort of notes jim comey may have taken about president obama, because i guess republicans are starting to feel that comey may have had it out for president trump before he took office. what do you know about the meticulous notetaking that comey had done, and is that a reasonable measure of whether or not comey was doing his job or actively trying to find a way to undercut the president? >> i think what we know about what comey did in his notetaking is that he wrote memos at moments -- when he was fbi director, when he thought that down the road or at the time there was something going on that he felt uncomfortable about, or he thought may be an issue going forward. so what we don't know is what moments in the obama administration did he sit down and write memos about? we know that under the bush administration when comey was the deputy attorney general, he wrote a memo about a torture

meeting that he had, and he had done that on his phone and banged that out on his bla blackberry so he had contemporaneous evidence of what had gone on. we haven't obviously seen comey's memos, congress wants them, and it's my guess at some point here we will see them because comey has taken an enormous amount of criticism from democrats, from republicans, from people in the justice department, but we do know that he is fiercely proud of his independence and is someone who is not afraid to be transparent, and as we saw with some of the hillary clinton e-mail stuff last year. >> we're looking on the tarmac right now. we can see the hair of one of the secret service members start to flow. i don't know if it means air i is about to land or maybe it's just a windy day in washington. we will see any moment now. matt miller, why is there usually such a giant wall between the fbi director and the white hous >> well, for precisely the reasons we've seen in the last femonths. so there can't be any political

interference from the white house. the idea is traditionally that the fbi and the justice department, while they are part of the executive branch, they operate with a degree of independence so criminal investigations cannot be influenced by politics. the idea being that every person in america has the right to a fair and full investigation, eventually has the right to a fair trial. so the president cannot both urge investigations and prosecutions of his or her political enemies and can't quarterback investigations and prosecutions into his or her allies. which, of course, now is what's being alleged that donald trump tried to do in his conversations with jim comey. >> you can see him pull up to air force i. president trump is going to get onto the plane and start his long journey to saudi arabia. he's not going to get there until tomorrow and they won't be giving a speech until sunday. matt, what do you make of deputy a.g. rosenstein again today invoking the clintons in trying

to describe why he wrote that memo recommendation to fire james comey? >> i have to be honest, i find his explanation a little disingenuous, or in the best interpretation, leaves out a very significant fact. i think it's true that you can very much argue that what jim comey did in handling the clinton investigation was a firing offense. but what rosenstein didn't explain in the memo and apparently what he didn't explain in each of his briefings was whether he knew with his conversations with jeff sessions or with the president why the president was going to fire jim comey. we know the reason he was being fired was not because of the clinton e-mail case, it was because he had the russian investigation on his mind. we also don't know if rod rosenstein knew about the memos jim comey wrote or about the inappropriate conversations that president comey had with jim comey. if rod rosenstein knew either of those two things and allowed himself to be used and allowed the memo that he wrote to be

used to justify jim comey's firings, i think there is still some very real questions about his role at the justice department and whether he can continue as deputy attorney general. let's remember, while the russian investigation has been handed off to bob mueller, that's not likely to be the last investigation into this president and the president's associates over the course of the next four years. >> matt, are you concerned that the deputy ag or the ag might somehow interfere with the investigation that robert mueller has now been charged with leading? >> so i think it would be very difficult for them to do. bottomal letter, as we've seen over the last few days, anyone who has ever worked with him as i have, he is a man with the utmost integrity. he will handle this investigation fairly. he won't push things into areas they shouldn't be and he also won't hide anything. for him to interfere in the investigation, he wouldn't stand for it for one second. we're in an environment where

donald trump just fired the fbi director who wouldn't do what he wanted on the russia investigation. so even though it would be politically explosive, we do have to wonder whether donald trump, if he decides he doesn't like where this investigation is going, does he reach into the justice department and insist he be fired? >> they're going over to air force i, walking over on the tarmac right now. deputy attorney general rosenstein didn't necessarily say this was a criminal investigation. pete williams says he doesn't think anythinghanged with that. what would this mn to be more than a counter terror investigation, for this to be additionally some sort of probe into donald trump's associates? >> i think pete williams was correct, that right now a lot of people have started to glom onto the word "criminal." from the very beginning, any

counterintelligen counterintelligence, that means at some point, and i think rod rosenstein has sort of dropped a hint that they have evidence that has already broken the legal code and that reaches criminality. when you consider this is espionage, that there may be people in the trump campaign who may be in the white house or associated with the white house who now may possibly be linked in this investigation to russian spies that this story is only going to get bigger. >> i want to bring in richard haas, public counsel on foreign relations. this is an important trip president trump is about to embark on. he said a number of things in the past that's going to make relations with the various nations he's going to complicated. in addition, revealing, reportedly, highly classified information that came from

israel. talk to me about what the u.s. hopes to get and why exactly saudi arabia is going to be sob welcoming towards him, they like the fact that he's bias, they're not going to pick on his lack of human rights and all that. also, more than anything else, i hate to say it, they like him because he's not barack obama. this was a strange relationship because of what the united states didn't d in places like syria, so the whole orientation of the saudi is to make this trip a success. >> it's no secret that donald trump said a number of controversial and is explosive things about muslims during the campaign. take a look at just a few of them. we don't have that sound bite unloaded, nerl. . he talked about seizure valg

mosques, questioned whether. is there a difference between welcoming donald trump and the general puz, i think all speeches should be carefully crafted. i'm pm. that this is a threat to places like saudi arabia, to the dozen other governments that will be represented there as well as ourselves. they'll call for a common purpose against it. so i think that part of the trip will probably go fine. i think the bigger question in places like saudi arabia is what happens on other issues? the saudis are heavily involved in what could be their vietnam in yemen. the united states is being pressured to do more. how will we react to that?

what are we prepared to do? syria, can the united states and the saudis reach any common ground on what ought to be done on the israel-palestinian issue? but prepared speeches are usually the least of your problems. >> if this goes, is this enough in order to strengthen relationships with these other countries, especially when he questioned so heavily saudi arabia and its role in 9/11. is there a sense that people in the public domain back here at home are not going to see such close relations with the. they're harboring of the folks who did bring down the twin towers? >> let me go out on a limb here, katy. what happens in saudi arabia may not be issue number one around dinner tables in the united

states over the next couple days. i think the president probably has quite a large space in order to do what he wants. domestically is what you've been getting out over the next few minutes. . the question is how does the trip play here against a backdrop? but there his hosts lz do nothing to make i am for their purposes. that's basically more than anything else to enlist him. so. that's their agenda. again, i think in some ways this trip is doomed to success in terms of u.s.-saudi relations. >> do you think this nation is adequately prepared to make sure they don't get manipulated by foreign powers?

>> this president has a reputation for many things. being a careful student is probably not one of them. plus he's had all sorts of distractions, shall we say, the last few days. so how much actual preparations he's been able to do, and he didn't enter office with a whole volume of experience. . everything you say or don't say, how long you spend when you go to the western wall, how you deal with the rhetoric of the, quote, unquote, peace process in the west. i think that's a trickier spot as is europe. the europeans, unlike the saudis, they're not inclined to like donald trump. he's a departure from the tradition of american presidents. a lot of what he said about nato and the european union is not welcome. that could be a more difficult part of the trip.

>>. >> we have chief legal correspondent bill neely. tell me about the optics of this here. >> the optics are important. . as -- plus there is that huge arms deal to be signed of a million dollars or more. the muslims are aimed at harming the israeli world, but remember, it's from a president that has used anti-islam rhetoric in his campaign and he tried to slap a travel ban from muslims traveling from other countries. there is a danger to be seen here, a western christian leader and maybe not the perfect

christian electric to lecturing. they do need to be perfect. then it's off to try to solve the world's most intractable dispute. every gesture he makes will be scrutiniz scrutinized? did he spend more time with netanyahu? is he being properly respectful? what about his demeanor at the western wall, so on and so on. these are culturally highly sensitive moments. you remember, katy, with trump refused to shake the hand of angela merkel. that was seen as a huge offense, even in germany. even the croptix. they're trying to bring israelis

and palestinians closer to the conflict at a time when they're very far apart. and thodonald trump will be fly for many hours on that plane, landing in saudi arabia tomorrow. he's not going to be giving a speech until sunday. after all, it is a very long flight. nbc's bill neely, thank you for your time. up next we turn to a very different set of stories. one of them new developments in the sexting case against former congressman anthony weiner. he admits he has a problem. he soon could be sent, though, to jail. yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe?

you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. 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. whuuuuuat?rtgage offer from the bank today. you never just get one offer. go to lendingtree.com and shop multiple loan offers for free!

free? yeah. could save thousands. you should probably buy me dinner. pappa's eatin' steak tonight. no. at lendingtree, shop and compare loan offers from top lenders and in just 5 minutes, you could save thousands. lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. i love date night. somebody's ruining it. yeah. well you could leave if you wanted to?

befi was active.gia, i was energetic. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. he also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. for some, lyrica can significantly relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve function, so i feel better. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions... or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem

may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can be more active. ask your doctor about lyrica. breaking news in the anthony weiner case. wnbc is reporting that huma abedin has officially filed for divorce. this after he pled guilty to sending sexual materials to a 15-year-old girl. it not only ended his political career but put the campaign into turmoil after it was discovered that clinton e-mails were discovered on anthony weiner's laptop. kristin -- kristen dahlgren is

here. what happens now? >> he was actually breaking down in tears, apologizing to his victim, apologize to go all those he hurt and he admitted he has a problem. he is now in some type of extended care for this problem and he talked about how it's just devastated his life, his political aspirations. he always wanted to serve. and obviously, he just can't get away from scandal. then as you said, his bad day got even worse. his estranged wife filing for divorce today. as part of that agreement, he is now a registered sex offender and he had to give up his iphone as part of that agreement. he is waiting for sentencing september 8th. it will be up to a judge. it could be up to 27 months. the charge actually carries between zero and 10 years. the judge will decide. prosecutors are asking for between 21 and 27 months. >> any family members in that courtroom? >> we believe his brother and father were there with him. huma abedin not with him there

today. >> they have a son. any word on what happens to the son if he is filing as a sex offender? >> no, and that's obviously probably the most tragic victim in all of this, is their son. i believe he's four or five now, so as far as it will be a custody battle, assuming, and as far as the dad filing as a registered sex offender, we would imagine that counts against -- >> it will make it more difficult. >> yeah. >> kristen dahlgren, thank you, and thank you for being our eyes inside that courtroom today. appreciate it. and wikileaks founder julian assange appeared in public today, defiant as ever as swedish prosecutors dropped a 7-year rape investigation against him. he hailed it as a personal victory and said he would not forget attempts to arrest him. assange is holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london where police said they would still arrest him on a lesser

charge of jumping bail if he ever tried to leave. assange also faces extradition to the u.s. to stand trial over his weeks of thousands of diplomatic documents. emerging from a closed door briefing with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. this is a second day of meetings with rosenstein with the senate and this morning with the house. not all of them heard what they wanted to hear. congresswoman maxine waters from cafornia is here. maxine, thank you for joining us. i see you pout on your glasses o read something there. is it part of your reading of rod rosenstein? >> no, i thought it was a waste of time. we didn't learn anything new. he was very cautious. he basically answered very few

questions, and so it was a classified briefing. but much of what, you know, i think we were looking for we were not able to. >> what were you looking for? >> well, you know, i think we were looking for some answers to a lot of things. i want to just make sure that everybody understands the appointment of special counsel to investigate russian interference with the 2016 presidential election and related matters. and while the media basically knows this, i'm not so sure if all of the listeners understand that the special counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-fbi director james b. comey in testimony before the house permanent select committee on intelligence on march 20, 2017, including any links and/or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of

president donald trump and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation and any other matters within the scope of 28 cfr 604. if the special counsel believes it is necessary and appropriate, the special counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters. well, basically that was what we already knew- >> what are you reading from? i'm sorry to interrupt. >> okay, this is the actual appointment special counsel to investigate russian interference -- >> so that's from rod rosenstein? >> yeah. that's right. this is what he put out. so we don't know any more than that. it was a classified briefing. i thought it was a waste of time. and all i'm interested in now is that mueller will go ahead and do his job. i hope that we can strengthen

the investigations of both the house and the senate. i've been very disappointed they've not had the resources, they've not had the personnel, so i want us to continue to do what this congress has a responsibility to do. that is fact buying and getting -- >> congresswoman? >> yes. >> former fbi director james comey has been invited to testify on the hill by a number of your colleagues out there. what do you want to hear from him, number one, and number two, are you worried that this appointment of a special counsel might somehow stop him from testifying? >> no, i understand that he has been invited, but i have not been told that he has accepted. everybody is anxious to hear what he has to say. everybody wants to hear him talk about the memos, et cetera, et cetera. i, too, am very curious and want to hear all that, but i don't

know whether or not it's going to happen given that special counsel has been appointed and whether or not somehow that gets in the way with special counsel's investigation. i don't know what is going on between special counsel and comey at this time. >> so house minority leader nancy pelosi has been telling her fellow democrats to dial it ba when they use the impeachment word. you've been calling for impeachment since the very start of this. what's your reaction to pelosi saying back off for now? >> well, i think she has a special role to play as the leader of our democratic caucus. she's got to look out for the concerns and the interests of all of the members of that caucus. there's some members who are hesitant, some members who had trump's vote emerge pretty significantly in their districts, and so she has to balance all of that. i have decided that i believe that we should be investigating a collusion because everything

that i've learned about that group that i have dubbed the kremlin clan which includes manafort, which includes flynn, which includes roger stone and others, it tells me that there is something going on, something has been going on for a while, that they're connected in many ways to the ukraine, to putin, to the kremlin, have involvement, some of them, with the honor guards of russia. so i think there is enough there to make us want to delve into it to determine whether or not they attempted to undermine our democracy in collusion with some of those from the trump campaign and his allies. so we do approach this rather differently. i am saying i do believe that we should connect the dots, that we should get the facts, and if we do our work that it will lead to

impeachment. as a matter of fact, i've said, and i've said it several times, i think this president will lead us right into impeachment. i'm confident the way i'm seeing this is the best way for the american people to deal with this extraordinary circumstance that we have with the president, who evidently does not respect government, does not respect the members of congress, determined to do whatever he wants to do however he wants to do it and we cannot stand for that. >> congresswoman, what do the democrats stand for other than being against donald trump? what do you stand for other than trying to get donald trump impeached? >> well, everyone knows that i am the ranking member of the financial services committee, and that i have spent many, many hours and days implementing the dodd-frank reforms. we fought very hard to deal with what happened to us in 2008 after that recession, almost depression, where the predator

lending was the art of the day. we pushed back on the republicans, we fought against them, attempt to go get rid of the consumer financial protection bureau before we came up with the reforms under dodd-frank. consumers had no protection. when you asked me what do we do, first i'm going to tell you what i do in my role as the ranking member of the financial services committee as a strong democrat who is responsible for carrying out the values that we have, protecting the american people and making sure that we have an economy that works for everybody and that we rely on, depend on and respect the constitution. now, what else would you like to know? >> well, i personally wanted to know if you think democrats are getting out there and giving their message enough? are they telling you what they want to do to fix things, like the economy, as you said, making sure the government is working for them instead of coming out and reacting to donald trump day

in and day out? >> listen, if you have not been keeping up with the town halls that have been going on where we have basically organized america around the aca and protected obamacare and the thousands of people who have come out who now are very much informed about the difference between obamacare and trumpcare. and that has been, you know, a very, very positive thing that has been happening, and so many thousands of americans have been involved in that. i think people understand that we are fighting and that we are working on the issues of health care and housing and transportation and all those issues that are very dear to us. i think that's very clear. >> congresswoman maxine waters from california, appreciate your time. happy friday. hope you have a great weekend. >> thank y so very much. i will, and you, too. if you were president trump, wouldn't you want to fly away? but our world leader is preparing to welcome donald

trump with open arms. two foreign policy veterans join me right after the break. ♪ 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. even if you're trying your best.be a daily struggle, along with diet and exercise, once-daily toujeo® may help you control your blood sugar. get into a daily groove. ♪ let's groove tonight.

♪ share the spice of life. ♪ baby, slice it right. from the makers of lantus®, ♪ we're gonna groove tonight. toujeo® provides blood sugar-lowering activity for 24 hours and beyond, proven blood sugar control all day and all night, and significant a1c reduction. toujeo® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. it contains 3 times as much insulin in 1 milliliter as standard insulin. don't use toujeo® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar or if you're allergic to insulin. get medical help right away if you have a serious allergic reaction such as body rash or trouble breathing. don't reuse needles or share insulin pens. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which can be life threatening. it may cause shaking, sweating, fast heartbeat, and blurred vision. check your blood sugar levels daily. injection site reactions may occur. don't change your dose of insulin without talking to your doctor. tell your doctor about all your medicines and medical conditions.

check insulin label each time you inject. taking tzds with insulins, like toujeo®, may cause heart failure that can lead to death. find your rhythm and keep on grooving. ♪ let's groove tonight. ask your doctor about toujeo®. ♪ share the spice of life. you're going to be hanging out in here. so if you need anything, text me. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night,blind. and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com.

it's about moving forward, not back.t. it's looking up, not down. it's being in motion. in body, in spirit, in the now. boost® high protein it's intelligent nutrition with 15 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for when you need a little extra. boost® the number one high protein complete nutritional drink. be up for it president trump took off for saudi arabia just a couple minutes ago. he is leaving the country for

the first time as president. you can see air force i taking off right there. that's video from a few moments ago. hanging over his head is the investigation into russia's involvement in last year's electio election, questions about his potential interference in the election and his firing of fbi director james comey as well as his advisement about the investigation of michael flynn. i'm here with the secretary of defense and also the senior adviser to europe. evelyn, let's start with you. it's quite a bit of turmoil to be hanging over the president's head as he embarks on a pretty important trip and a pretty big one at that. >> right, right. katy, i think it's really important to notice first of all this president took the longest to actually take a trip than any president has in about 50 years. normally most presidents have taken office and they've gone

pretty quickly to canada or mexico or both. trump took, as i said, a long amount of time and now his first trip is what i guess i would call a makeup tour because he's going to saudi arabia where he's going to kind of have to take back the words that he used against the saudis, calling them essentially freeloaders. also, of course, all the rhetoric he used against muslims, the muslim ban himself which is widely seen as anti-islamic, anti-muslim. then, of course we have during the campaign a lot of anti-semitism and kind of catcalling of anti-sem titism b his campaign so he'll have to deal with that in israel. then he essentially will have to make up with the pope as well. they will do their best to work with donald trump, but frankly speaking, i heard from quite a few europeans just last week who were in town in d.c. for a conference that they don't feel like the united states is on their side when it comes to russia.

>> evelyn, what does that mean, though, in real life terms? what does it mean if they're skeptical of donald trump? after all, there is reporting that seems to suggest that foreign leaders are bending over backwards to try and find a way to either relate with this president or make him happy. >> yes, and i think that they will again. they'll try to make the optics as best they can in all of these countries. but i think for the europeans, they're not expecting to get much except maybe more tough talk from him about paying more for their own defense, because they pay the nato budget the way that they're supposed to, it's really the extra they pay into their own defense, their extra budgetary outlay that he'll probably raise with them. but it's really about ukraine, about russia, what are the policies going to be on sanctioning russia for its ongoing military operation in ukraine as well as its occupation of crimea and then parts of georgia. the trump budget, there was a

leak of the trump budget. i don't know if this is accurate or not, but if it's accurate, it's forecasting big cuts to u.s. assistance, big cuts in u.s. assistance to eastern europe. and our european allies wld be pretty concerned to see that, especially the german chancellor. if the leaks are correct, there is about a 70%, as much as a 70% cut of assistance to ukraine which is our economic and development assistance to them. not the military part. that's probably also decreased, i don't know, we'll see. but i think there will be alarm, there will be concern. is the united states going to stick with france and germany in its effort to stand up to russia and say no more invading neighboring countries? >> michael, there are two contrasting reports out right now, one about how the president prepares and one about how foreign leaders prepare. bear with me, i want to read the first one from reuters. he likes single-page memos and visually maps, graphs and photos. they include his name in as many paragraphs as they can because

he keeps reading if he is mentioned. he also likes to look at a map of a country involved when he learns about a topic. on the other side of it, here's how foreign leaders are preparing, according to the "new york times." keep it short, no 30-minute monologue for a 30-second attention span. do not assume he knows the history of the country or major points of contention. compliment him on his electoral college victory. contrast him favorably with president barack obama. do not get hung up on whatever was said during the campaign. stay in regular touch. donald trump is not a diplomat, he doesn't have any military experience, he doesn't speak any of these governmental languages, these diplomatic languages, but he does have a sheer force of personality. those who have met him in person, even those who don't like him, will attest to that. is there anything to be said about his ability to connect with people, or is at defse

from the white house way overblown? >> well, first of all, that was quite a list of how to prepare. in president trump's defense, i brought maps into the oval the office when i used to brief president obama. sometimes people called me professor mcfall for doing that. i found them very useful and i think the degrees, too. i would say a couple of things. number one the bar is really low for this trip. you just heard what evelyn said about expectations. so just showing up and not making mistakes will be a victory for the trump administration. number two, everybody wants to get along with him. and as you read, forget about the campaign, focus on the present. everybody thinks they can develop a special relationship president trump that will be good for their countries. and we've already seen instances of that before with his meetings with other leaders.

so that's the play book they're going to run and therefore are not going to want to embarrass him or bring up difficult issues nuxt three to your point, he has big personality. you know better than i do. he has a presence. he wants to bond. he thinks that foreign policy is about personal relationships. i think that's a huge mistake in terms of our american national interests. that's his mind set and therefore my prediction is leaders will react that way with him as he goes into the meetings. >> thank you, guys. always enjoyed hearing your points of view and your expertise. next up, joe biden unplugged. we'll ask tom perez for his take. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of. researchers of technologies that one day you will.

some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. 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

brtry new flonase sensimists. allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist changes everything. ready or not, here i come.ek.) ♪

anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us.

joe biden unplugged. the "washington post" quoted him as saying of hillary clinton, i never thought she was a great candidate. i thought i was. those comments made at a hedge fund conference in las vegas. democratic national committee chairman tom perez joins me live from sacramento. thank you for joining me first off. joe big biden saying he would have made a better presidential candidate. how helpful is that right now? >> as president obama said several times during the course of the campaign, hillary clinton is one of the most qualified

candidates in history. i agree with that. >> so joe biden is not one of the most qualified candidates? >> the president said that hillary clinton was one of the most qualified candidates in history. there are a lot of lessons we can learn if this election. as dnc chair, we're building a party that speaks to everyone. that's what our focus is. >> what lessons have you learned? >> we have to continue to make house calls. we have to be in every zim code. howard dean implemented a 50-state strategic, he call it a 57-state strategy to include the territories. when we are out there building strong parties, helping to elect people from the school board to the senate to the waterboard to the white house. when we are working in partnerships with folks in the progressive movement, telling our message of economic opportunity, good jobs for everyone, access to opportunity.

when we're out there making those house calls and capital liesing on it. >> so there's talk among democrats that the democratic party will be underestimating donald trump the same way they did during the 2016 election. do you believe that is something that you should be worried about? and could you just be believing that his outrages, and his very many controversies will be enough to sink him without the democrats coming out saying, here are our ideas, here's what we believe in. not just, here's why we think donald trump is not a good president. >> well, listen. nobody is underestimating donald trump. he is the president of the united states. what we are doing is two things. we're helping to lead to resistance. we're taking them on at every turn. when he implements the unconstitutional and undemocratic muslim ban. we take help on. when he fires comey because comey is investigating his involvement with putin. we take help on.

we ten to do that resistance. in addition, we are out there articulating what we stand for. our vision of an american in which health care is a right, not a privilege for a few. in america where everyone has access to good jobs and ladders of opportunity. we are doing both. when we get out there, in every corner of america and talk about what we stand for as democrats, he think our values are the values of the vast majority of the american people who understand climate change is a real threat. who understand the efforts to undermean the clakt wreak havoc on their families and who understand that donald trump's broken promises are hurting their economic security. not helping them. >> i see the democrats trying to fight for obamacare and say that the american health care act is not good for regular citizens. we have seen it in the town halls as well. what are the democrats doing to

make sure that it is as effective as it possibly can be and to fix the problem that's even many in your party admit are plaguing it? >> as president obama has said many times, and i agree. if you have ideas that can help improve the affordable care act, we are all ears. we know there's room f improvement. the challenge is they don't want to improve it. why? >> because when you repeal the affordable care act, you gave massive tax break to wealthy people. and you impose a tax on people over 50. and you wreak havoc in the eyes of the millions of americans other have pre-existing conditions and the seniors who are benefitting from the $2,000 a year in prescription drug relief they get under the affordable care act. i would love to conservative

down and talk about how we can improve health care in this country. we've made tremendous progress. it has helped reduce the ranks of the uninsured by millions. more than any other provisions since medicare. do you know what? they don't want to do that. >> i'm running out of time. i have one second. joe lieberman, yes or no? yes or no? >> no. we don't need politicians. >> thank you very much. that will wrap it up for me this hour in ten seconds. catch our new show debuting tomorrow afternoon called velshi and ruehl. er and speaking of ali velshi, he will pick things up right. now it is one to see you. i'm sorry we're not in the same studio to say hello. >> i thought i would be taking over right near you. have a fantastic afternoon. we begin with preside