i wrecked the subaru. i wrecked it. you're ok. that's all that matters. (vo) a lifetime commitment to getting them home safely. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. hello, everyone. i'm stephanie gosk. it's 2:00 p.m. here on the east coast and just after 10:00 injuin riyadh, saudi arabia. he's receiving a warm welcome in saudi arabia. a far cry from what is going on at home. today in houston, democratic congressman, al green, who took to the floor on wednesday and

ca for the president to be impeached doubled down at a town hall. >> no amount of threats and intimidation will stop what i have started. i promise you, we are going to continue with this because there has been an impeachable act. >> but right now the president's focus is on his first foreign trip. he's attending an official dinner with saudi arabia's king salman. you can see the picture there. it's the end of a busy first day since air force one touched down. he's received the country's highest civilian honor and met with the king, crown prince and deputy crown prince. president trump also signed a nearly $110 billion arms deal with saudi arabia, effective immediately. plus, another 350 billion over the next ten years.

>> that was a tremendous day. i just want to thank everybody, but tremendous investments to the united states and our military the community is very happy. we want to thank you and saudi arabia. hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the united states and jobs, jobs, jobs. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell is aveling with the president. she's inju riyadh, saudi arabia. what's the message he is sending with that as the first stop? >> reporter: i will give you that in a moment. but let me just explain what is happening here. we've been caught in the middle of a windstorm. there's actually rain in saudi arabia, which we did not expect. we've had a lot of gear falling over here and ten people immediately around me are holding everything down. so let me just give you that as a backdrop before i get to the substance. this is part of what life on the

road is like. you spent many years overseas. you know what it's like. now to your question. for president trump tonight, this is an opportunity to extend it beyond where many think the obama administration left off with saudi arabia. a short time ago we saw the president as part of the traditional sword ceremony doing a few dance moves with the royal delegation and that is part of custom here and he kind of went with the moment there. on substance, we have seen a big investment in several areas of importance between saudi arabia and the united states. they are calling this an historic visit because of the scope and scale that they have agreed to and the backdrop, the kind of pomp, ceremony and respect being shown to president trump at a time when we know back at home he has lots of issues of concern. here he was welcomed in a really honorary and ceremonial way. now, they are working together on business partnerships, which

includes arm sales. the intent is to beef up saudi's own capabilities, especially against the sengthsf iran while at the same time they say reducing the cost of u.s. taxpayers for protecting saudi, which is our ally. in addition to that, other investments so the president has been able to use his phrase jobs, jobs, jobs here on saudi soil. rex tillerson spoke to the reporters and talked about some of the things that the two countries will try to do to deal with terrorism, to try to get a better partnership with the saudi kingdom. of course, we know there's a checkered history with saudi's relationship in the world of terrorism. here's secretary tillerson talking to reporters about what this agreement will include. >> the king of saudi arabia is embarking on a number of new initiatives to counter violent extremist messaging. this strengthens the bonds between us and it does chart this new pathway forward and

will guide our path forward. >> reporter: and so whatever storms and relationships the saudi kingdom in the u.s. seem to be repaired and moving forward in a new way where president trump is getting some credit for that, based on the strength he has shown in favor of some of the goals of saudi arabia against iran and also taking action in syria. it is a time when the president has a huge cast tomorrow and that's an address on islam to about 50 countries represented here and we are told that the intent of that is to send a positive message and we know that candidate donald trump often spoke in many harsh terms about muslims and this is a chance for him to try to smooth some of that over and turn the page. it's obviously tough conditions here metaphor-wise. i'll throw it back to you. stephanie? >> kelly, you are navigating

them well. please keep your head down and your crew. that's nbc's kelly o'donnell in riyadh, saudi arabia. president trump may be off on his first international trip to the middle east but that doesn't push the pause button on unfolding buttons going on at home. here's a look back at the week that was. >> sean spicer is refusing to confirm or deny whether people are recording people in the white house without their knowledge. >> trump tried to shut down the investigation against michael flynn and his conversations with the u.s. ambassador. there is a special counsel that will be investigating. >> the president tweeting just now, quote, this is the single greatest witch hunt of a

politician in american history. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. believe me, there's no collusion. >> hold on one second. we have breaking news now. as the plane was taking off, two pieces of reporting came out from "the new york times" and "the washington post." >> "the washington post" is now reporting that the russia probe has identified a current white house official as a significant person of interest. >> "e neyork times" reporting president trump told russian officials in the oval offiha former fbi director james comey was a nut job. we just got this shocking, breaking news. jim comey is going to testify openly before the senate intelligence committee after memorial day. >> what a mind-bending week it has been. joining us now to discuss, josh dossey and laura, the congressional reporter for "the huffington post." josh, what for you is the big takeaway for this week?

>> you have an administration that day in and day out is moving from crisis to crisis. you have a lot of his aides that are exhausted, the president is exhausted and no one know what is is going to come next, from his allegedly trying to shut down the investigation to calling the fbi director a total nut job in the oval office to disclosing the classified info with the russians that the united states got with israel. it was a pretty monumental sweep even by trump standards. every week is pretty dizzying but this week has been something else. >> it certainly has. what was the headline that you think had the most impact? >> well, i would say all of them had a pretty big impact. we started, as you guys just mentioned, with trump supposedly sharing information with russians classified information. it took republicans a great deal of time to just wrap their head around that and the majority of

their answers were, well, the president has a right to do that, which he does, and they said they needed more information, that they weren't going to go, based off of headlines. i would say, i guess the one with comey, revealing that comey had written a memo saying that trump had pressured him to drop the flynn investigation. republicans couldn't defend that one. they had trouble coming up with they just continually saidhey would like a crisis-free day, if possible. >> you know, to move away from that, it's clear that the justice department and rod rosenstein selection of robert mueller as special counsel, josh, what do you expect will be the biggest impact of having mueller in this role? >> i think we're realizing it's going to be a long six months or more for the white house, you know. these things are not quick. i imagine they will subpoena

thousands of documents. there will be lots of interviews. everything will be under close scrutiny. what happened, any actions to cover it up. and i think you will see a lot of people who are jittery. inside while you're reminding people, hey, you have to save documents, anything you say now could be a piece of evidence. investigators may want to see. and i think the appointing of a special counsel shows that, you know, this is totally out of the president's hands now. it's no longer an fbi director but he's firing of this guy has got a bipartisan kudos for his track record and i think for the white house, saying that there is no collusion, this investigation is a witch hunt, if you talk to people behind the scenes, there's a worry and folks are saying we don't know what is going to happen next. >> laura, how does this new information from friday confirmed first by "the washington post" and now nbc news, that an unnamed current

white house official is under investigation. how does that change things? >> well, i guess i would just say it adds to the steady trickle that we've seen this past week and especially the last few months that is concerning the flynn investigation and russia investigation and it's something that is making it difficult for lawmakers on the hill to focus the issues that they want to focus on. >> let me stop you there for a second. up until this point, we were talking about mike flynn being a person of interest. we weren't talking about people actually in the white house. did you feel on capitol hill that there was a shift in people's perception of this investigation when that news came out? >> well, when that news came out, lawmakers were already leaving for the weekend, probably, you know, to their relief that we didn't have to answer questions about this. it's definitely on monday when they come back, knowing also that comey is going to be coming to testify soon, it's going to

be a big topic on the hill. >> josh, turning to you and president trumpb's tweet this week, calling this the greatest witch hunt, what's your take on that? >> listen, the stakes are much higher now. every word you make has consequences. >> hasn't there always been an effort to tone down the tweets? >> yeah, but there's a little bit more of a sense internally that this really matters now. some of this we can't just paper over. we can't gloss it over. but president his one for exaggeration. he always says that things are very, ver good or very, very bad, sayin that it's the worst in american history is not a surprise for those of us who watch him. he likes to talk in strong terms. several people have spoken to

him this week that he just feels like everyone is out to get him. he's seeing a lot of enemies. i don't think he's trusting a lot of people. i think he feels that people are treating him very unfairly. we will see if they are or not. >> it would be weeks, months, maybe even years away from knowing the answer to that question. josh, laura, thank you both for joining me. >> thanks for having me. joining me now is representative of california and member of the house budget and armed services committees. congressman, thank you for joining me today. >> thank you for having me on today, stephanie. >> the panel, what is your big takeaway from this week? >> well, i agree with what the panel said. i think the allegation that the president may have intervened in an independent investigation concerned both republicans and democrats because we're in a nation of laws and we've had a

tradition of the president not being allowed to intervene with law enforcement and those are very troubling allegations. >> i want you to take a listen to what lawmakers had to say about deputy attorney general rod rosenstein's briefing yesterday. >> will the special prosecutor have the ability to follow any and all leads. i was quite satisfied that that was answered with no hesitatio that director mueller will have that ability. >> i think we are still puzzled about the memorandum and who gave the directive to fire mr. comey and the reasoning for that. >> this is about the fight for t our democracy. we cannot afford to lose this one. >> the gop seems satisfied with the briefing. the democrats were not. has rosenstein lost the confidence of your party? were there questions that he should have answered that he didn't? >> it was a classified briefing so i don't want to discuss

anything in the briefing but i think there are a lot of questions and questions that need to be answered not only when mueller's investigation -- a lot of people have confidence in mr. mueller but there also needs to be an independent investigation in congress so we can have these questions answered for the american people. >> do you think the investigation being conducted by mueller is not enough? >> well, the problem with the mueller investigation is that it will be confidential and you could go, as you said, months or years without the american people having basic answers, such as, as mr. rosenstein directed to write the memo or was he not? why was there interference or was there not interference? i think the american people want to have these questions answered and they want us to get on with the work and the challenge with mr. mueller is that it's confidential and we won't have those answers for the american people. >> let me ask you this. there is a very public hearing coming up where you're going to

have james comey in front of the senate intelligence committee. what will you be listening to during that hearing? >> well, my big concern was, was there an effort to interfere with law enforcement? and again, that's not a partisan issue. we've had a tradition that we're a nation of laws and we would never want to see any president or any president's subordinate to interfere with that and is there credible evidence of that and that's really what i'm going to be listening for and hope to have answers and then i do want to emphasize this bipartisan independent commission so we can get the answers out there and move on. most people back home, back in california, they want us dealing with jobs, want us dealing with health care, wages and they see a washington that isn't dealing with their real concerns. >> let me ask you about that. speaker ryan came out and said to the american public, you know, there are lots of headlines but don't worry, we're behind closed doors doing the people's work.

did you do anything this week beyond just trying to deal with the news coming out over the russian investigation and the comey firing? >> well, we had votes on different issues but the reality is that the focus, as it has to be, is on a crisis where people need to know that there's a constitutional system, a government and there are serious allegations of that being violated. but that's not what folks want to focus on. they are concerned about, do they have jobs, do they have good wages? what is the jobs plan? what is the plan to improve people's wages and what are the plans in parts of this country that have been left behind to get part of the new economy? and that hasn't been the focus, being a freshman member of congress, that's not been the focus since i've been there. and i think that's the real frustration. i know in your earlier panel you had asked there's now a person at the white house who is a person of interest and what consequence does that have and the reality is it just makes the white house less effective and bogs them down with a very serious investigation when the country wants us focused on

solving their problems. >> and a real concern right now that that is not happening. congressman ro khanna, thank you for joining me. >> thank you for having me, stephanie. after this break, we go to montana. just days before a crucial congressional election, a race so important, bernie sanders is co campaigning there this weekend. what is at stake? stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. getting heartburn doesn't mean i means i take rolaids®. rolaids® goes to work instantly

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just three months in, the trump administration is completely disastrous. i think many montanans have seen that he pulled the wool over their eyes. >> that is montana residence

kyle talking about the seat left up for grabs by congressman ryan zinke. he joined trump cabinet as interior secretary. a special election is just days away. trump won montana. joining me now from missoula, montana is beth. how much of the support in this candidate is buyer's remorse for trump? >> reporter: as you mentioned, we got a ton of trump voters here but even in the conversations that we were having today and yesterday, you are hearing some of that buyer's remorse but also a lot of activism among progressive voters, democrats who say they don't want it to happen again. they feel like this special election is their opportunity to maybe have a second chance. that's why they are really

ttgeg behind this folk singer, rob quist, who brought bernie sanders here to speak to this packed crowd in missoula. bernie sanders is really putting his political muscle behind this little-known candidate in the hopes that rob quist could pull an upset. stephanie? >> what are people talking about there in terms of this election? >> reporter: they are talking about health care. the only person who mentioned the russia scandal, the russia probe was bernie sanders. and he basically talked about it to say that's not that important, really, in the great scheme of things. the things that important to americans are jobs and economy and health care. we had a very, very memorable conversation with a young woman named jenny who spoke to us. she was coming into this rally

with her two young kids and told us why she was here and what losing health care would mean to her. take a listen. >> i'm here because his health care is expensive and we need to stand up for health care that matters, medicaid matters. >> reporter: and so, again, what would happen if medicaid were cut for your family? >> we would be completely bankrupt. we would lose everything. it would just be devastating to our family. >> reporter: quite an emotional interview there. >> you see that woman with her two kids. she's gone to thi event. it means so much to her, the health care issue. let me also ask you this, too. how much attention are the candidates receiving from the parties? i mean, this is a congressman seat. this is not that big of a deal.

or is it? >> reporter: well, the democratic party, the national party only recently got involved in helping quist. they also got involved in the georgia special election and kansas special election. this is definitely a republican leaning state. they have put some money in fortunately national republicans and from the charles koch political network and dark money donors. stephanie? >> thank you very much, beth fouhy, in missoula, montana. next, pippa middleton gets married this weekend. we'll go live to this sort of royal wedding.

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>> pippa middleton and her f fiance were married today in a small church ceremony. kate was close by tending to her toddlers. guests are now celebrating at a lavish party at the middleton's country estate. prince hear arry is expected to attend with his girlfriend. she was not at the ceremony. i'm joined by lucy cavanaugh. i understand there was this no ring no bring rule. what does that mean? >> that's right. no ring, no bring. if you don't have a ring on it, you can't bring that other human being. basically, it means that it was an intimate, private ceremony. we don't know if that's why

megan didn't show up. maybe it was to avoid upstaging the bride of the day, which is pippa. this is being described the high society, wedding of the year. the future bride looked beautiful. her dress maker was charles deacon. they tied the knot at the middleton's local church with the hedge fund millionaire james matthews. while this wasn't technically a royal wedding. when you have the second, third, fourth and fifth in line to the throne at the ceremony, it's very much a royal affair. kate looked adorable in the rose-colored dress. megan was not on harry's arm but

we believe that she's already at the reception that kicked off earlier at this hour. let's talk about the party. this is back at the middleton family home. the parents installed this enormous glass marquise, a crystal party palace, if you will because, hey, when your backyard spans 18 acres and you have the future king and queen in attendance, why not? the big question on everyone's minds is who might be next? could we be in for an actual royal wedding? prince hearry has been spending more time with american actress megan markel. this is the first time that she'll be seen out with the other royals, not just harry but will and kate and the little ones. that's a really big endorsement. this is the couple that could be next to get hitched. stephanie? >> pretty exciting stuff. another royal wedding. i can barely stand it. thank you.

>> we continue to monitor president trump on his first day of his nine-day trip to the middle east. the president attending a dinner right now at an historic palace in riyadh, saudi arabia. what he must accomplish this trip to have it be considered a success. t to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes... priority boarding... and 50,000 bonus miles. everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. the united mileageplus explorer card. imagine where it will take you. just head & shoulders? (gasp) i thought it was just for, like, dandruff new head & shoulders. cleans, protects and moisturizes to... ...get up to 100% flake-free and unbelievably beautiful hair it's not head & shoulders, it's the new head & shoulders

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welcome back. i'm stephanie gosk live at msnbc headquarters in new york. president trump wrapping up the first day of his international trip. in just a few minutes, president trump is expected to attend his final event of the day. a tour of a museum with saudi arabia's king salman. tomorrow is expected to get a lot of attention. president trump will deliver a speech aimed at uniting the muslim world against islamic extremism. the question is, how will that hold up given his past rhetoric? >> and we have to look at the muslims and we have to do something. we cannot stand by and be the stupid people while our country

is destroyed. >> i think islam hates us. >> 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. >> i talked about muslims. we have a problem. nobody else wanted to mention the problem. i think we have to look at the mosques. i think we have to be extremely careful. >> joining me now to discuss, rebecca grant, president of iris independent research and lisa, editor-in-chief of the foreign desk. lisa, i'm going to start with you. you just heard the president say, does islam hate us? let me ask you about the speech itself. is he really the right person to deliver it and will he have the effect that he wants to have with it? >> i think he has an opportune

moment right now. once he leaves the united states, he represents you and me and everyone else here, meaning right now the arab world has experienced a large shift and that is with two main goals in mind. that's turning from the shiite dominated sphere of iran dominating the middle east and the second is to keep this extremist islamist terrorism outside of their borders. so here you have dozens of arab nations, sunni nations. we have saudi arabia wanting to have this relationship with the west and we're no longer in a nation of allies. our interests are aligned and we have a nice parallel. this is where we can actually see donald trump shine. he's a ceo and he's going to be sitting around with a lot of other ceos who have the same interests as he does. he's not a man of words, of nuance.

and i think that's where we see a lot of trouble in the past when he's spoken about islam with these blanket statements. but at the same time, if they know that he's coming here with this intention of curbi radical islam and with the intention of having a reset with sunni nations, i think he's going to have a very positive outcome. >> rebecca, the president's policy adviser, stephen miller, is writing that speech. he's also the one behind the travel ban. >> it's an opportune time and i'm going to be looking for the president to set the right tone. let's also remember, saudi arabia is a military ally. the saudis have been fighting alongside us in syria, the saudi air force participated in the relief of the siege of kobani back in 2014. this is a long relationship between military allies. i'll expect to hear trump acknowledge the work of the kingdom and some of the other gcc states in taking on the islamic terrorist threat and

isil up in syria. i'll expect him to set a particular tone and i think we'll hear more, too, about the recently concluded arms deals. those are all set to strengthen ballistic missile defense and other aspects of security in the gulf, all things that need to be done. >> lisa, let me ask you about that arms deal. the president, we've heard him today, emphasizing the business aspects of it. but we're still talking about arms to saudi arabia. it is obviously political as well. what's behind that? >> the state department already put out a statement this morning saying that this deal was meant to, a, strengthen that deal with saudi arabia and to validate them in our relationship but also to say that we've got your back if you should have to go against iran. and i think that those were the goals of this trip, to say to saudi arabia, we support you, we acknowledge the help that you've given us to, again, turn from this shiite eye lined foreign policy that the united states has had and we want to

strengthen our relationship with the more moderate countries in the middle east. it's a good step forward. it's also going to create jobs. donald trump was very, very vocal in making that statement this morning saying that we are creating jobs with this deal and this is what his forte is, deals. he's out there to do what he's good at and to represent the united states while he's at it. >> i think a lot of people perceive it a shiite aligned but there m be different opinions on that particular aspect. rebecca, let me ask you -- in talking about the speech itself and the way that it will be received, what's the critical issue for trump? it sounds like it's going after islamic extremism and can saudi be a reliable partner in that respect? >> yes, i think they can be a reliable partner. they have more than proven that,

among other things. we want them to continue with us. what trump has to do in this speech is, i think, prepare the ground work for whatever happens next. don't forget, he's going up to nato where we'll be dealing with more discussion about how to carry on with afghanistan, iraq and syria. he wants to present a very united front with saudi arabia and i think he wants to help lay the foundation for better security in the gulf itself. remember, iran is very close. what's the brifl flight time from iran to saudi arabia? it's about eight minutes. they have a lot of security issues there long term to work. islamic terrorism is one. he's going to want to get that squared away and go forward on a strong basis. >> all right. national security analyst rebecca grant and lisa duftari, thk you both. >> thank you. next, the many controversies and scandals plaguing president trump may be taking a toll on his overall approval rating. but are his core supporters, the

ones who put him in the white house in the first place really to bail? and yasmin will be with you in the next hour.

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i'm dr. kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. ♪ energy lives here. donald tmp deals with the fallout of dealing with james comey and all of the headlines do not sway his core conservative base. their support remains steady, even as the president's general approval ratings drop to 38%. the latest tracking also shows 56% of americans currently disapprove of how the president is doing his job. well, some may be regretting their vote and others believe the president can turn things around. >> we've got to give him a chance. he has four years to prove himself. >> now that i see him in action, it seems like he's more

impulsive than really strategic and that concerns me. >> joining me now is lanhee chen, former adviser. lanhee, thank you for joining me. >> thank you, stephanie. >> you know, as i mentioned, it's been a tough week at the white house. do you in the last week see conservatives rethink their support for the president? >> i don't necessarily think amongst base conservatives, you know, people out in real america, i guess would be one way to describe it. in general, they look at the president and they see exactly the person that was out there on the campaign trail that they voted for. the question, though, going forward, is going to be how much can the president actually get done in this environment because their support at the end of the day is going to be contingent on the president's ability to repeal and replace obamacare, to get tax reform done and get an infrastructure package done. and ultimately, i do think those

factors, how much the president actually does, that's what is going to influence support. both amongst base vers but also amongst independents. >> y know, the big question is, these multiple crises and whether or not they are going to get in the way of the domestic agenda. how much time do you think his supporters are really going to give him before they start to get angry that more isn't getting done. >> you know, i think in general the midterm election is going to be an important barometer. as we move towards 2018, towards the summer and fall of 2018, that's when you're going to start to see some agitation if things are not getting done because there's a very real danger for republicans here, stephanie. if they are unable to get things done on these core policy priorities and they don't have a particularly good midterm cycle in 2018, the opportunities to get things done after that are only going to decrease. so the opportunity to get things done is now and the president and the white house must realize that. >> there's also this question,

lanhee, does trump know the republican voter better than the gop and congress realize? >> well, to a certain degree, that's certainly possible. if you look at the districts across the country, for example, when the president outperformed the members of congress in last year's election, that would suggest that there is something there. perhaps the strain of populism, his rhetoric and policy, maybe that's what it is. but ultimately, a lot of this is going to come out in the wash when the president has an actual record to campaign on and, more importantly, when republicans looking towards 2018 have to defend whatever it is that the president is doing now, whether with respect to policy or just in general his performance in office. >> i want to have you take a listen to this. this week, senator john mccain compared the recent scandals to watergate. here he is. >> it's just another scandal that, unfortunately, continues -- it's now accelerated.

watergate took a few months and this seems to be taking hours. >> do you agree with his assessment and are there more people on capitol hill that agree with it, probably the more important question. >> i think as a general matter, there's a question of how much everything that is going on right now, all of the discussion around the investigation surrounding russia and the 2016 election, how much of that is going to actually interfere with advancing a conservative policy agenda. i think it depends on who you ask. some have said -- i think it was paul ryan that said we can walk and chew gum at the same time. but there is this undercurrent, this concern there that how much is the legislative calendar going to get eaten up by investigations. i think that's an open question. with respect to senator mccain, i think he represents, obviously, one side of the republican establishment on this. i think that there are many others still very much willing

to give the president the benefit of the doubt. >> is there a particular person you're looking to to see if the shoe is going to drop, the other shoe is going to drop, to change their mind? >> well, i think, look, you've got a lot of what i would consider mainstream republican members of the u.s. senate, people like marco rubio, who i think thus far have been willing to give the president some benefit of the doubt. but ultimately, if he changes his mind, that's going to be significant. >> keep your eyes on marco. lanhee chen, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. next, why hollywood's biggest stars will be dawning big noses this week and how you can join they. this sunday, "a.m. joy" is on from noon to 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we have a great show planned for you. make sure you tune in and don't forget to join the conversation online.

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this thursday, a 15-minute

sequel to "love actually" will air on nbc in honor of red nose day. nbc's savannah sellers got a chance to sit down with the creator of the event and its mission to end child poverty. savannah? >> red nose day was born in the uk that came over to america in 2015. richard curtis, the brain behind "love actually" created this with the hope of ending child poverty. we took a tour of a site in new york city. >> reporter: the tv special built around comedy and entertainment founded by richard curtis. but behind the noses, the faces of real children and teenagers whose lives are being changed through the fundraising effort. >> prior to coming here, have

any of you had to the spend the night out on the streets? >> i've had to spend the night in a car in walmart for a week and a half. >> have you been on the streets? >> i slept on the train. it was really embarrassing. i didn't know who was watching me and stuff. it was really hard. >> reporter: covenant house gives homeless youth across the country shelter, food and tools for the future. >> job readiness, training, mock interviews. >> reporter: they work with local law enforcement and does active outreach to teens and children on the street. in new york alone, they serve 400 homeless youth a day. >> it's kids trying to break away for gangs or whose parents have died. the first question we ask, do you need a shower, are you hungry? are you cold? >> reporter: it's raised $23

million in 2015 and $36 million in 2016. covenant house received $1 million last year from red nose day. these women did not want to be seen on camera. >> i decided to leave because it was unsafe for me and my child in reality, i was supposed to have twins so i know that at that point that i was really not safe. so i had to leave. i no longer have twins. i have one boy but he's healthy. >> you're fighting drugs, you're fighting disease, you're fighting domestic violence. >> reporter: profits from the event in america are split in half with 50% going to domestic charities like this one and 50% allocated tohe poorest communities globally. >> ready? >> it might not all be fun and games but the celebrity factor

has an impact. >> kevin, the president and ceo, said to me the least interesting thing about these kids is that they are homeless. they are trying to sign leases, gets job, interests in all sorts of things. it was very inspiring to see. it airs this thursday at 8:00 p.m. if you're interested in donating now, head to red nose day at nbc.com. >> my thanks so savannah sellers. that's all for me at this hour. i'm stephanie gosk. i'll be back at 4:00 p.m. eastern time. yasmin vossoughian has much more on day one of president trump's middle east trip. a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter v8 engine. a 10-speed direct-shift transmission. a meticulously crafted interior.

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