at a music concert in manchester, england. back at home, new reporting says president trump not only pushed james comey to squash the russia investigation but also leaned on the head of the nsa and the director of national intelligence. joe, a lot of chaos this morning. a lot of chaos for this white house this morng. >> a lot of chaos for the white e. certainly, though, a lot of mayhem last night in manchester. terrorists that are being beaten every day on the battlefield choose instead to target little girls and their mothers last night showing just again the very nature of their depravity and their evil. i think you're going to hear tereheresa may, our allies acro europe and, of course, the president of the united states probably coming out today saying there's no peaceful co-existence

with this form of evil. there is no way we sit back and try to contain this type of evil. expect theresa may, our nato allies and donald trump to say there is either victory over this sort of evil or there is defeat. this really is depravity at its absolute worst, and it does show the very nature of who is trying to tear down our civilization. >> we are waiting for word from theresa may moments from now. we'll bring that to you live with us on this tuesday, may 23rd. we have washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay, senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc mark halperin, msnbc contributor mike bark curveball, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments, elise jordan and former treasury official steve rattner. with us law professor at george washington university, jonathan

turley. jonathan, we'll get to you in a moment regarding the russia investigation, but first we begin with the breaking news out of manchester, england, where a terror attack at a concert killed 22 people, some of them children, another 59 people were hurt. the explosion tore through the crowd as people were leaving a show starring american singer ariana grande. police say the attacker, a man, is among the dead after detonating the device. officials believe they have tentatively identified the bomber but are withholding his name. joining us from manchester, nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley. matt, what are we learning this morning? >> reporter: mika, there's a nationwide hunt looking not just for any accomplices but any network of people that might have been involved in this. one of the crucial things we haven't heard yet is a claim of responsibility. if you remember in past attacks,

in the couple hours that would come after the attack, isis, if they were involved or if they inspired the attack, would make an announcement, normally on twitter, normally on the news agency. we haven't heard that yet. if this was indeed an isis-inspired attack, we can expect to hear something along those lines within the next couple hours. in the meantime, british police and with some help from european officials and american intelligence officials have been trying to determine if this perpetrator who they say was killed in this suicide attack last night, if he indeed acted alone. that's now the focus of the investigation, but right now birmingham is trying to recover. there's been an enormous amount of people all over the world condemning this attack. this has hit so many people in this town so hard. i was down getting a cup of coffee at a hoe el the and i saw

some of these young girls still wearing their ariana grande t-shirts with their parents watching the news shellshocked. mika? >> nbc news's matt bradley live in manchester, thank you very much. katty kay, your reaction and also tell us about this part of the country. >> manchester is about three hours northeast of britain. it's britain's second biggest city. it has, of course, as do most british cities, a large immigrant and large muslim population. it is the kind of place where ariana grande would go and play up in the north of the country. and now the investigation will try to be on whether this person acted alone or whether there is some kind of cell behind it. it's particularly awful, this one, because it was girls. my daughter is 11. her greatest wish in life is to go to a ariana grande concert. she's coming to play in washington, d.c. in september. she really wants tickets for it. those are the kinds of kids that

were at this concert. it was family. the heartbreaking news we're getting from the manchester police this morning, the statements they're putting out of mothers they found still looking for their daughters and daughters they found still looking for their mouthers and they can't find the rest of their families. i think that's what's making -- europe is getting used to attacks like this, mika. we have to because we are never going to be able to totally wipe this out. as isis gets squeezed in syria and iraq, we're going to see more of these kinds of attacks takes place in europe. europe is starting to get used to that. none of us are used to having children targeted in this way, young girls targeted in this y way. >> katty, thank you. earlier this morning, president trump addressed the manchester terror attack during joint remarks with palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas. >> i would like to begin by offering my prayers to the people of manchester in the

united kingdom. i extend my deepest condolences to those so terribly injured in this terrorist attack and to the many killed and the families, so many familyies of the victims. we stand in absolute solidarity with the people of the united kingdom. so many young, beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life. i won't call them monsters because they would like that term. theyould think that's a great name. i will call them from now on losers because that's what they are. they're losers.

and we'll have more of them, but they're losers. just remember that. >> all right. let's go to 10 do you think street. prime minister theresa may is speaking now. >> the police and security services believe the attack was carried out by one man, but they now need to know whether he was acting alone or is part of a wider group. it will take some time to establish these facts, and the investigation will continue. the police and security services will be given all the resources they need to complete that task. the police and security services believe they know the identity of the perpetrator, but at this stage of their investigations, we cannot confirm his name. the police and emergency services have, as always, acted with great courage and on behalf of the country, i want to express their gratitude to them.

they acted in accordance with the plans they have in place and the exercises they conduct to test those plans, and they performed with the utmost professionalism. 400 police officers were involved in the operation through the night and many paramedics, doctors and nurses have worked valiantly amid traumatic and terrible scenes to save lives and care for the wounded. significant resources have been deployed to the police investigation, and there continue to be visible patrols around manchester which include the deployment of armed officers. for people who live and work in manchester, there remains a large cordon in place around manchester arena and victoria station. the station is closed and will remain closed while a detailed forensic search is under way. we know many friends and relatives of people caught up in the attack are still trying to

find out what has happened to their children, brothers and sisters, parents and loved ones. so please think of those people who are experiencing unimaginable worry, and if you have any information at all relating to the attack, please contact greater manchester police. the threat level remains at severe. that means a terrorist attack remains highly likely, but the independent joint terrorism analysis center, which sets the threat level on the basis of the intelligence available to them, will continue to assess this throughout today and in the days ahead. later today i will travel to manchester to meet with the chief of police, the mayor, andy burnham and members of emergency services who have come to m manchest manchester's aid in the moment of need. as i mentioned last night, the

general election campaign has been suspended. i will chair another meeting of cobra later today. at terrible moments like these, it is customary for leaders, politicians and others to condemn the perpetrators and declare the terrorists will not win. but the fact that we have been here before and the fact that we need to say this again does not make it any less true. for us, often while we experience the worst of humanity in manchester last night, we also saw the best. the cowardice of the attacker met the bravery of the emergency services and the people of manchester. the intent to divide us met countless acts of kindness that brought people closer together, and in the days ahead those must be the things we remember. the images we hold in our minds should not be close of senseless slaughter, but of the ordinary men and women who put concerns

about their own safety to one side and rushed to help. the men and women of the emergency services who worked tirelessly to bring comfort, to help and to save lives, of the messages of solidarity and hope of all those who opened their homes to the victims, for they are the images that embody the spirit of manchester and the spirit of britain, a spirit that through years of conflict and terrorism has never been broken and will never be broken. there will be difficult days ahead. we offer our throats and prayers to the family and friends of those affected. we offer our full support to the authorities, the emergency and security services as they go about their work and we all, every single one of us, stand with the people of manchester at this terrible time.

and today, let us remember those who died and remember those who helped, safe in the knowledge that the terrorists will never win and our values, our country and our way of life will always prevail. >> really moving statement by british prime minister theresa may as she walks back in to 10 downing street. she called the perpetrator the worst of humanity and president trump called him a loser. >> i think most americans and most british would agree with both of those assessments. katty kay, we just saw theresa may who probably more than any other politician in great b britain is actually prepared for this moment. she was home secretary, as you know, for six years in a position that is usually politically tenuous and usually

chews up and spits out people that hold it. she is uncommonly tough, was as home secretary, and i would guess very prepared for this moment. >> i thought her statement was interesting, wasn't it, joe. very calm and dignified by steely. the character of manchester will never change. the fact that we've been here before doesn't mean we shouldn't say this again, we're in the going to be beaten, our way of life will continue, sometimes those words can sound like platitudes. i thought hearing them from theresa may this morning with that very calm but tough delivery, they took on a new resonance. suspending -- the british election is only three weeks away. this is coming up very soon. all political activity from the major parties has been suspended. manchester is a special city. it has a very special -- it's the kind of big city in the north of england.

it's had a huge revival economically, artistically in terms of business, and she specifically called outman chester, the spirit of manchester will never be broken she said. we've heard -- as she again pointed out, the terrible acts of coward disalong with the acts of kindness. we her stories of muslim taxi drivers waiving fees, picking people up, making sure people were well in the city. it's a hard day for muslims, and many of them who live in manchester, a large muslim community there. just as we've seen muslim communities here tidy up areas devastated. >> i was in manchester i guess about six months ago, well, nine months ago on business. i was very surprised the manchester i grew up hearing about, was a post industrial decaying city. cat the is right. it's very young, very vibrant,

it is very diverse. it is a growing, thriving city of the 21st century. and i'm sure they will, as theresa may said and as katty said, they will all come together and show this sort of horrific act will not get the best of them. >> we're going to be following new developments on morning long on "morning joe." we have the stunning new reports that say two of the nation's top intelligence officials were asked by president trump to counter the fbi's investigation into russian meddling and his campaign. "the washington post" was first to report in march president trump reached out to both the director of national intelligence, dan coates, and the director of the national security agency, admiral mike rogers. the report says he wanted them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion

after fbi director james comey disclosed the investigation during a house intelligence hearing. quote, can we ask him to shut down the investigation? are you able to assist in this matter? one official told "the washington post" about the line of questioning from the white house. according to the post, trump's conversation with admiral rogers was documented at the time in an internal memo written by a senior nsa official. and nbc cites a former senior intelligence official confirming that rogers and coates exchanged notes about their conversation with the president. the former official says the two men did not believe they were being asked to do something illegal, but were sufficiently concerned that they took care to write it down. the white house told the post it will not confirm or deny unsubstance eighted claims based on illegal leaks from anonymous individuals. coates and rogers will both testify on capitol hill in

separate hearings today. joe, how do you break this down? this seems like this entire story is closing in on the president. >> yeah. it's hard to not go back and see all the other examples of how he inappropriately tried to kill the investigation. it's hard not going back to richard nixon and what richard nixon did. i'm not saying donald trump is going to be impeached. but his first article of impeachment had to do with obstruction of justice, and part of that was trying to get the cia to stop an fbi investigation. mark halperin, this just keeps building up. you have donald trump admitting to lester holt on national television that he fired comey thinking about stopping the trump investigation. you had the russian investigation, sarah huckabee sanders then said the same thing. we wanted this investigation to

end. we knew if we fired him, it would come to a speedier conclusion. you had trump admitting to the russians in the oval office he fired comey the nutjob to get him off his back and now he's no longer in the investigation. here you have him reaching out to the top two -- two of the top intel officials saying help me kill this investigation. how do you -- how do you even put a historical context on this, mark? this is beyond extraordinary, beyond inappropriate. >> in the wake of what happened in manchester, it's understandable we talked so long about that and all of us are so concerned about that city and the people who died and the implications of it. it's easy to be a nerd to all these leaks out of the administration and accusations against the president. that having been said, i think this is potentially the most serious thing that's happened in these developments. there are echoes of watergate here. to have these two senior

intelligence officials who are choices of the president to be in the government level this accusation through anonymous leaks, but at the highest levels of our government, it's clear that the people in intelligence and law enforcement positions felt the white house was trying to at a minimum delay an investigation or politicize intelligence and maybe significantly worse, kill or obstruct an investigation. as i said, there's a lot going on in the world, but this is one of the biggest stories we've seen related to the president's actions and a failure at a minimum to understand that there need to be boundaries between law enforcement intelligence and the white house. >> jonathan turley, we'll go to you. are we inching any closer to the possibility of obstruction of justice, or is this again just a president acting inappropriately? >> well, there's no question that this is a pattern of self-incriminating conduct. perhaps the first time in

history you find someone so self-incriminating in the absence of a known crime. it's like a guy running every time a car alarm goes off. you're sort of wondering why. in this case this is all inappropriate conduct, grossly inappropriate. that's one of the reasons these people are putting these things in these memos and recording the events. when we get back to what the crime is, the code is a little more demanding. i think this is still not there yet in terms of an obstruction case. you don't have -- the question is obstructing what? right now we didn't -- at this point when this happened, we didn't have a grand jury that was actively investigating that we know of. >> jonathan, we keep coming back to that. do we have to have a grand jury impaneled to have obstruction? because if you have somebody actively killing an investigation against them to prevent a grand jury from being

impaneled, then do we not set the precedent that if you were an executive, you have carte blanche to kill any investigation up until the point that prosecutor is about to impanel a grand jury against you and that's the new rule in the united states of america. executives can do whatever they want to do as long as they kill an investigation before a grand jury. doesn't that set a dangerous precedent. >> your point is a fair one, joe. what i'm saying is past obstruction of justice cases have been anchored in some type of judicial or congressional proceeding. you also have to show that this person tried to corruptly influence, sort of a curious term of art, what was occurring here. he can claim that this was harming the u.s. government's status in the world, defense distracting his government and he was asking whether anything could be done of these individuals. you usually need something stronger in terms of firing comey. he does have a lot of folks who

said he should have been fired. did he do the right thing in their view for the wrong reason? that's something we usually don't debate a great deal in terms of a criminal charge. you look for something a little more clear. you're also right, joe, that in the nixon case, the articles of impeachment did include an obstruction count. keep in mind those were anchored in pretty serious crimes, burglaries and slush funds. we're still in search of that crime. >> that, of course, mike barnicle is exactly what bob mueller is doing right now. but if this is a crime where you have to prove state of mind and corrupting cause, you certainly have that in his conversation with the russians, certainly his state of mind, that they were under pressure, comey was a nutjob, he fired him. now the investigation is over. you have that in sarah huckabee

sanders' statement from the white house press room. you have that from donald trump's statement. he was thinking about russia when he fired comey, donald trump, to lester holt. that's pretty good trying to figure out trump's state of mind when he fired comey. >> he incriminates himself nearly every day, joe, in one way or another. what about the defense that it's just complete ignorance of the process that's causing him to do this? >> i think that's certainly a piece of it. obviously he's used to being in a private sector where you call people up and ask them not to do things, especially people who work for you. there's been this many cases of him behaving inappropriately, it must have penetrated his brain that you have to at least think about these things or perhaps even more importantly, penetrated the circle of people around him, saying something to him like you shouldn't be doing this, you can't do this, can't

say that. some of this stuff has been happening in the last few days of realtime after all the intention that's been given to some of the previous stuff. it's inappropriate behavior, obviously. we'll find out in the next day or so exactly what he said to coates and rogers which will have more evidence. i think jonathan turley's analysis sounds about right to me. >> elise? >> ignorance of the law isn't a sound defense if you've actually broken the law. this is going to keep going on and on and on and swirling. every day we're talking about this, we aren't talking about serious policy issues and his agenda is completely hijacked. this means we're not getting tax reform, not getting health care reform. this means he's unlikely to get any major legislation through a republican-held congress. that really is going to be a huge problem in 2018 and when he's up for re-election. >> all right. we've got a lot to talk about. the questions i want to talk to

you and jonathan turley about when we come back, joe, what are we talking about here? obstructing what? how about obstructing the russia investigation and was he a corrupting influence? it appears so because he was trying to obstruct the russia investigation. i'm not sure why people are so afraid to say that because that's what we're looking at unless we get more information that puts that away. by the way, we haven't even talked about the michael flynn part of this. that part of the story is still ahead. later, the president defended himself against something no one has accused him of. we'll bring in nbc's andrea mitchell live from jerusalem when we come back. rd from capit. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line.

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you're looking at live pictures in jerusalem right now. that's the president speaking at the holocaust museum in jerusalem. we'll be monitoring that as he continues his trip. andrea mitchell is standing by and we'll be getting to her as well. joe, i'd like to now go back to

the meltdown that is washington, d.c. at this point. given the new revelations about more people that the president pressured or appeared to have pressured to try and back off the russia investigation. i'm so interested in your view as to what's happened and to the latest revelations about coates and rogers and the wording that was used in the memos of the conversations the president had with them because jonathan turley, and you can maybe go to him, is still asking what is being obstructed here, what the questions are. to me it seems like the answers are in those words. >> well, certainly we can expect the former fbi director and now the man investigating this case, bob mueller, to put meat on those bones, to see exactly why donald trump was so afraid, is so afraid of this trump-russia investigation moving forward. mika, the first thing you're

seeing here is a president of the united states putting everybody that works for him in an untenable position. think about this. he's told the fbi director in this investigation don't look into michael flynn anymore, stop it, give me a loyalty oath. and if you're the fbi director and you are told to end an investigation that involves the president of the united states, you have to write it down, and you have to report it to other people, the same with what he did with the head of the nsa, dni. they're put in a position where they've been asked to kill an investigation that is looking into possible criminal misconduct by the president of the united states and they are in as untenable position as

white house staffers who are in a meeting with the russian foreign minister and the russian ambassador when the president of the united states brags that the pressure is off, guys, i've killed the investigation, comey was a nutjob, he wouldn't stop. i'm no longer under investigation by extension. we are no longer under investigation. so whether you work for donald trump in the white house, whether you are the dni -- whether you're the head of the nsa, whether you are the head of the fbi, donald trump is asking you to engage in a conspiracy to stop an investigation, to end an investigation, to kill an investigation ainto possible illegal actions by him and members of his administration, people who are close to him. mark halperin, we'll get to jonathan turley in a second, but if you were a staff member in

washington, d.c. and you have this information that the president came to you and asked you to be part of this effort, conspiracy? i'm not exactly sure what you would call it, to kill an investigation against him, that's not something you can smile and then walk away quietly and not say a word. i know michael gur sin is talking to "the washington post" about the extraordinary number of leaks, but these are people getting information out of possible criminal wrongdoing by the president of the united states. >> we're seeing this through a glass darkly. we're not seeing very much of what's happening. we're seeing an unprecedented amount through these leaks of the president's activity, not anonymous bureaucrats or people who are at the point of their career who can't imagine standing up to the president of the united states, but rogers coates himself or people around

him who have seen behavior that warrants this thing, taking high-level discussions with the president, making them public, making public the fact that they were documented at the time. one could assume the most innocent behavior on the part of the president, ignorance, frustration, there's no underlying crime, et cetera, this behavior will be investigated and the explanation at a minimum will show a white house counsel's office and president of the united states who don't understand the necessity of having independence on the part of the intelligence community. he thinks they work for him. he's used to anybody on the chart below him doing what he says. the worst case scenario about what happened here will lead to extensive investigation that could end up the way richard nixon ended up because of lines that were crossed that people again already, without knowing in many of these cases if there was an underlying crime, they felt strongly enough about what the president did to go to "the

washington post." >> jonathan turley, this is chapter 2 of this story. chapter 1 was a series of trump campaign officials and white house officials lying about their contacts with russians. we're probably up to half a dozen trump members who actually could have told the truth and it would have been just fine for the attorney general to say, yes, i had several meetings with russian officials or mike flynn to say, yes, i was on the telephone with the russian ambassador. i can go down the list. so let me ask you does a prosecutor have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt an underlying crime to prove obstruction of justice? >> well, obviously not if it's the prosecution of an article of

impeachment. that doesn't have to be a crime. in terms of bringing an actual indictment, it usually is tied to that type of on going proceeding. we may create some new law here. the problem is, this question of what was trump trying to do here? he could either be captain kweeg or john gotti. we don't really know. right now he looks very kweeg-like, someone dispatching people to look for strawberries. that's something you don't normally indict for. i'm not even sure what the crime of collusion is. on the criminal code there's a collusion with the russians crime. that doesn't mean there's not a crime here. we need to articulate what was the underlying crime. i said from the beginning the place to look is prop in the aftermath of these allegations, people like flynn charging him with false statements in regard to his contacts. that's usually what ends up getting people in trouble in the

beltway. according to reports, he said he didn't have significant contact with foreign nationals when he had dinner next to vladimir putin. when i filled out my sf-86 for clearance renewal, i was detailing academics i met from other countries. i think i probably would have mentioned dinner with vladimir putin. those type of things can result in crimes, but that's still a bit removed from the president. i think what we end up with is very disturbing patterns here. he is it seems trying to derail this investigation. but if we need to tie it to a crime, it's going to have to be a little more concrete than he colluded. >> jonathan turley, thank you very much. >> mika, by the way, this is front page "new york times," the letter says flynn misled the pentagon, lied to the pentagon. and again, mika, i think again what bob mueller will be doing

is one of the things any prosecutor would do, try to figure out why -- what exactly is donald trump so scared of in this investigation, that he would -- that he and members of his administration would lie about russian contacts, would behave extraordinarily inappropriately and ask all the intel chiefs to kill investigations against him. that's -- mueller is going to be digging deep for that. if there were nothing there, he would not be acting this desperate and this inappropriate. >> it's strange. and there's so much that's come out of donald trump's mouth that he has to work with, and putting it altogether will certainly be fascinating. ahead, there's a chance that donald trump might have forgotten that israel is in the middle east. we'll show you the reaction from israel's ambassador to the u.s. that is ahead on "morning joe."

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so mark hl print, let me ask you, who was supposed to stop the president of the united states of his improper contacts and actions with the head of the fbi, the dni, the nsa?

who is supposed to stop donald trump from the hiring of michael flynn when they have information that he has done things illegally? who is supposed to stop people close to him from their failure to disclose meeting powerful foreign leaders and business interests? who is that person that keeps failing? >> we discussed before, white house counsel don mcgahn. in a normal administration, all contact with this kind of stuff goes through the white house counsel and the white house counsel is supposed to keep the president shielded from these kinds of things. you see a series of thing where the president who is hard to control, doesn't go through channels. there are now reports that they're thinking of setting up, as bill clinton did, an outside team with lawyers and pr specialist ts, communications strategists to try to keep this stuff away from the rest of the white house staff, the daily flow of business because it is

impossible to deal with the implications of an outside counsel, all the investigative and press demands and do everything else the white house needs to do, but this white house counsel, of all the people who are on the line now and all the people whose behavior is going to be scrutinized, he's the one who should be looking at what the president is known to have done and wondering is this -- is it possible for me to stay in my job given what my client is doing? >> mika, it's donald trump at the end of the day that picks up the phone, calls everybody. it's people close to donald trump who are arrogant and have been arrogant from the day they got elected saying we know how to do this better than everybody else in government. i've spoken to so many people over the past week who have the same story as me, that every time you were told you can't do this. they were like, you know what? we're real estate developers in manhattan, we know -- those people in washington don't know what they're talking about and

thank you for your warnings, but we're going to do things different because we're smarter than you. we're going to turn washington upside down. well, it ended up they weren't smarter than everybody in washington, d.c. in fact, they were by a margin of a thousand more stupid than everybody in washington, d.c. because no president has been stupid enough to get in the trouble donald trump has gotten into in the first four months. so far from being brilliant and above everybody else that the president and people around the president felt they were, they are dumber than any lot that's ever been inside the white house. >> it's really sad. >> if they don't want to talk to lawyers, don't want to talk to experts -- they wanted to cut the state department out when they were contacting all the foreign officials, they wanted to play by their own rules? well, they've made their own bed and it's going to be a thorny

bed to sleep in for however long they're allowed to stay in that bed. >> our thanks to mark halperin. next we're going to bring in andrea mitchell liech from jerusalem. as we go to break, here is the reaction from israel's ambassador when president trump i'm employed that israel was not part of the middle east. watch ron determiner. he's on the right. >> just got back from the middle east, just got back from saudi arabia, and we were treated incredibly well. or that you could book them right from your phone. a few weeks ago, you still didn't know if you were gonna go. now the only thing you don't know, is why it took you so long to come here.

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least 22 people dead, some of them children. police believe it was a suicide

bomber. we'll go back to manchester at the top of the hour for a full report. now back to washington, where president trump is offering a forceful defense, something he was never accused of. he actually addressed the recent controversy surrounding his decision to disclose classified intelligence to the russians, intel reportedly collected by israel. take a look. >> thank you. thank you. >> just so you understand, i never mentioned the word or the name israel. never mentioned it in the conversation. they were all saying i did. so you had another story wrong. never mentioned the word israel.

>> how is the visit so far, mr. president? >> intelligence cooperation is terrific. >> of course, joe, no one ever said the president mentioned israel in the meeting with the russians. the focus was on the secrets he was spilling to moscow and h.r. mcmaster said that trump never actually knew the source. >> mike barnicle, if you are sko scoring at home and trying to divide the actions between malicious and plain out stupid, you can put this on the stupid side. this is like running down to the police station saying my wife's missing and it's not my gun that's at the bottom of the pond in the back of our house by her body. and the police are like, hold it one second. can we just -- we're going to cuff you to the radiator here.

we need to go check your pond. admitting to something that nobody charged him of. and yet in so doing, revealed himself as the jackass that leaked top secret israeli intel. by the way, intel about somebody on the inside of a terror organization that killed 20 little girls and their mothers last night. >> well, that remains to be seen, joe. you're probably right on that. >> implicates himself by mentioning israel and the aspect of this, we just start with the clip and you see it and you watch netanyahu's reaction and

you're just wondering -- >> by the way, mike, let me ask you, on the malicious or stupid scale, file that under just plain stupid. do you know anybody of driving age that does not know that israel is in the middle east? >> no. >> how can you be almost 71 years old, president of the united states, and not know that israel isn't the middle east? >> we were just talking about the president in terms of his reactions and his statements. is it part captain quig, part john gotti. how much a part of it is chauncey gardner? that's where we are on this. israel has been in the middle east for quite some time. >> actually, a combination between chauncey gardner and lloyd christmas. i mean, i don't even -- i think we're moving from being there to

dumb & dumber very quickly. anyway, i want you to know later today i am leaving connecticut and i am going up to boston. and when i'm in boston, i'm going to let my red sox fans know that i just came back from new england and, boy, the weather was bad there. geez! lloyd christmas. look it up. >> it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. joining us live from jerusalem, nbc news chief foreign correspondent, andrea mitchell. andrea, what are your takeaways so far? have you ever seen a trip like this? >> well, i am in jerusalem. i've just come back from the middle east. so i'm now here in jerusalem. and one of the disputed areas, of course, between israelis and palestinians. there was some serious business done today. the president just laid a wreath and spoke.

earlier he was in bethlehem, first trip to the west bank. first trip as president, of course, to israel. in bethlehem he said all the right things to mahmoud abbas but left out what they want because he cataloged what has been true since camp david, outlines of a peace agreement that's been recognized by leaders of both political policies but not by netanyahu or president trump. president trump has reached out to abbas may 3rd in the white house and now here. our old friend, glenn kessler, former state correspondent on the fact check from the washington post today, he fact checked something the rest of us should have done. that white house claim that the president's air force one trip was the first flight from riaydh to israel, commercial and military planes don't fly

between the two states. if you check back on the schedule of george w. bush, not that long ago, may 16th, 2008, he flew from a meeting with king abdullah, in riyadh and came to israel directly to meet with shimon perez, the prime minister, to address the israeli parliament. facts do matter. and i would suggest -- and the president's set speeches have been really good this trip. really, they have, in riyadh and israel, and one more coming at the cultural museum. when he goes off teleprompter that's when you get into some difficulty. and it's not having any experience with this. secretary of state, by the way, experienced man in the arab world and middle east but acknowledged he had never been to israel until this flight. >> wow! andrea mitchell, thank you v much. >> we'll be getting back to andrea. it is approaching the top of the

hour, and the world is watching president trump this morning with america's closest ally under attack. and a white house facing striking and stunning new allegations of trying to influence u.s. spy services at the very highest level. just moments ago, the president took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the holocaust memorial in jerusalem. is he expected to make remarks at the israel museum at any moment now. that will be his last scheduled address in the middle east before leaving for rome later this morning. back at home, new reporting says president trump not only pushed james comey to squash the russia investigation but leaned on the head of the nsa and the director of national intelligence. joe, this appears to be closing in on president trump. i understand that mueller has a major investigation before him and there are many more details

to come out. but what are we looking at right now? >> well, what we're looking at is a president, and many people around the president, who seemed to be putting up neon signs, pointing to this investigation, saying double down here. look. we have done something terribly wrong. because a president of the united states would not demand from the fbi director three times that he kill the investigation of the president of the united states colluding with the russians. you wouldn't have the president of the united states calling the head of the nsa saying help me kill this investigation against me. that's exactly what richard nixon did when he tried to get the cia to stop the

investigations into watergate. we're not saying this is watergate and we're not saying that donald trump is richard nixon, but there is an awful lot of smoke that is going up. and it's so important to remember, because things have come at us so quickly over the past four, five months. it's important to keep all of this in context. this phase of the russian scandal -- and you can start calling it a scandal now when you have the president of the united states going to the head of every intel agency and telling them to kill an investigation that may be criminal against him. but that's act two. act one is going through the long list of people who now work for donald trump, in some of the most powerful positions in washington, d.c. who lied under oath, or who failed under oath to -- in written forms to actually lay out their contacts

with russian officials, russian bankers, russian business interests, time and time and time again. mika, maybe where there's smoke, there's not fire, but i think bob mueller and most of the people in the fbi understand you would not put yourself in this much political jeopardy. >> no. >> you would not break every norm of washington. you would not brag on national television about killing an investigation that was putting pressure on you unless you had something to hide and unless you ren't, quite frankly, very, very intelligent in how you're going about this. so we'll see what happens. but yesterday's bombshells, you just have to add them to everything else that's happen

the last four months. it paints a very bleak picture for the innocence of this white house. >> it does. it's at a level at this point where this scandal could bring down this presidency, at a time when the world is hungry for leadership from the united states of america. so with us from "morning joe" this hour, we have washington anchor for bbc, world news america katty kay, mike barnicle, contributor to time magazine and nbc political analyst elise jordan, former treasury official steve rattner and briana . manchester, england, a terrorist attack at a concert killed at least 22 people, some of them children. another 59 people were hurt. and just in, manchester police have arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the attack. we don't know anything other than that at this point. an explosion tore through the

crowd as people were leaving a show starring american singer arianna grande. police say the attacker, a man, is among the dead after detonating an improvised explosive device. and, last hour, british prime minister theresa may spoke about the attack, calling it callous and adding it is among the worst terrorist incidents the country has ever experienced. may added that while officials have identified the attack er, the investigation is ongoing. and for that reason, police will not name him at this point. she says that police believe the bombing was carried out by one man but officials are working to establish whether he acted alone or as part of a group. joining us live from manchester, nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley. matt, what do we know at this hour? >> thanks, mika. you just mentioned there was this 23-year-old man that manchester police announced they had just arrested in the southern part of this city of

manchester. now, this could be a lead but it's not quite clear whether this is going to be connected. this was something that, you know, clearly a lot of hearsay, a lot of scrambling going around. there's a nationwide investigation into whether or not this perpetrator, the man who killed himself in the attack on the manchester arena behind me last night, whether or not he had come polices -- accomplices whether this was a lone wolf attack as we've seen time and time again. police said he was arrested in connection with this attack. we still don't know that. after the westminster attack several weeks ago in downtown london a number of people were arrested throughout great britain and many of them were released days later and were found to have no connection whatsoever to the attacker. it's really quite unclear, these early days, whether or in the this investigation, whether or not this arrest will have any

bearing on the investigation. remember, this is a country on edge. there was just a shopping center here in manchester that was also evacuated hours ago. we're hearing that that wasn't necessarily connected with this attack either. as we're moving forward, theresa may just spoke. she offered fullsome praise to the rescue workers who came to helped those 59 people now thought to have been injured, many of them children. theresa may noted, of course, this is one of the worst attacks that have hit the british isles in recent memory. not just because of the number of victims. that makes it rank among the deadliest, but the identity of the victims. so many of them were children and their parents. mika? >> yeah. nbc news matt bradley, live in manchester. thank you. kat katty, your reaction also? manchester really opened its arms, homes, cabs, cars, everything to people trying to flee the arena. >> yeah. theresa may said it.

while amidst cowardice, she hopes we'll remember the kindness, free rides to get away from the areasona. sadly we're starting to get the names of the victims. we heard it there, many children, my daughter's age. georgina colandar was studying health care services at a local college. can you imagine for many of them this might have been their first-ever concert, an exciting night out in an exciting city. manchester is a vibrant place today, full of arts and culture. and nobody would think that your first concert experience would be ripped apart by this awful act. and i think the prime minister was quite right in her statement. we have to get used to incidents like this. they're going to carry on, happen in europe. as isis is squeezed in syria and iraq we're going to get more of these kinds of attacks and we

europeans, particularly, will have to get used to how to deal with them. the way we can do that is by remembering the acts of kindness and not giving into the fear. that means they've won. >> and we'll be following every detail of this story as it comes out throughout the show. earlier this morning, president trump addressed the manchester terror attack during joint remarks with palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas. >> i would like to begin by offering my prayers to the people of manchester in the united kingdom. i extend my deepest condolences to those so terribly injured in this terrorist attack and to the many killed and the families, so many families of the victims. we stand in absolute solidarity with the people of the united kingdom.

so many young, beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life. i won't call them monsters, because they would like that term. they would think that's a great name. i will call them, from now on, losers, because that's what they are. they're losers. and we'll have more of them, but they're losers. just remember that. >> president trump reacting. joe, what do you think the policy implications are here? >> well, um, we don't yet know if this is isis. certainly, it would seem to be inspired by isis, regardless of whether isis claims credit for this or not.

there's no doubt that both the trump administration and theresa may will certainly be focusing on isis moving forward. this attack is so heinous and so barbaric and so beyond the pail that it brings to mind the 2005 bombing in jordan, al qaeda in iraq launched three bomb attacks at the same time. and one of those bomb attacks slaughtered an entire wedding party. and it so repulsed people throughout the middle east, it so repulsed muslims in iraq that many people believe that that sort of extreme hatred that was being pushed by zarqawi -- osama

bin laden wrote a letter, you'll remember, czzarqawi wrote a letter, saying he had gone too far, been too extreme. there will be a backlash against this, not just in the west but also in muslim countries and i believe it will just cause the president, theresa may, james mattis, general mcmaster to double and triple down on their efforts to drive isis out of iraq and syria. i think this is going to be a day that many, many in our government and governments across the world will circle. and it's going to -- there can be no containment. they have to be driven off the battlefield.

>> but there are also these new reports that the president has to contend with, that say two of the nation's top intelligence officials were asked by president trump to counter the fbi's investigation into russian meddling and his campaign. the washington post was first to report in march that president trump reached out to both the director of national intelligence, dan coates and the director of the national security agency, admiral mike rogers. request to leaders of the nsa and dni are only the latest reported attempts by the trump campaign to get outside help in battling the russia investigation and stories. a memo from former fbi director james comey reports february 14th president trump hoped that he could let the michael flynn investigation go. also on february 14th, trump campaign aides had repeated contacts with russian intelligence, a story that cnn later reported. the white house asked the fbi to

public refute. sean spicer said, quote, we didn't try to knock the story down. we asked them to tell the truth. administration officials claim that then fbi deputy director andrew mccabe had pulled aside reince priebus to tell him that the "times" report was garbage. on february 24th, "the washington post" reported that the trump administration sought to enlist intelligence officials and key lawmakers to counter russian stories, including the chairman of the senate and house intelligence committees. senator richard burr said he talked to a reporter but that didn't breach my responsibilities to the committee in an ongoing investigation. and so did devin nunes. >> if the white house asked me to talk to a reporter -- by the way, it was one reporter. i don't know if the white house asked me to talk to you, would you think that would be okay or

not okay? >> on march 20th, james comey confirmed the existence of an fbi probe of the trump campaign's ties to russia, which reportedly prompted the request to the directors of dni and nsa for help. also during the march 20th hearing, the white house tried to use the nsa and fbi as validators, which comey knocked back. >> the tweet, as i read it to you, nsa and fbi tell congress that russia did not influence the electoral process. is that accurate? >> well, it's hard for me to react to that. let me tell you what we understand the state of what we said is. we've offered no opinion, have no view, have no information on potential impact because it's never something we looked at. >> the next day, march 21st, presidential appointees invited devin nunes to the white house

to view classified documents about spying. he held a press conference the next morning, announcing he was on his way to the white house to brief the president. mike barnicle, where do you begin with this? >> you know, mika, the conflation of the two stories, the events in manchester last eveni evening, which is an act of unmitigated, planned, evil derangement and this story involving our intelligent sources, there are better, more important things for our intelligence services and intelligence services of the countries around the globe doing rather than here, domestically, being preoccupied with what the president says or doesn't say. >> one of the alarming details that came out of "the washington post" story, it wasn't just the president who was trying to get the head of the nsa and dni to stop this investigation or de t defute it. there were other members of congress trying to pit the agencies against each other. instead of doing what they were

supposed to be doing, following this investigation and following counterterrorism hints from around the world, they're fighting against each other from the pressure of members of congress. it's not just the president being implicated here as well. >> i think devin nunes should be the cautionary tale for everyone. his reputation completely trashed after he went out on a limb with this story. and i think you're seeing, you know, someone like dan coates, you know, christian conservative. then you have admiral mike rogers, career military. they're unwilling to compromise their principles here. >> look, mike, you made a good point about it's really a shame in this day and age with everything going on in the rest of the world that we have to devote resources to untangling this mess that is the creation of this administration, quite frankly. but we have to, obviously. the country needs to know, wants to know what is going on here. to your point, and yours as well, people have to stop -- i

almost want to use the word obstructing about, but stop getting in the way. will let this investigation unfold and see what's what. we've got to get to an end to this. as elise said earlier, the shame of this for trump -- maybe not the rest of us -- his legislation agenda will be on hold. >> joe? >> mika, i want to look at what elise just said. talking about a cautionary note. devin nunes is a cautionary note. yes, he is. for members of congress, donald trump will use you, spit you out. you will be stripped of possibly your committee chairmanship. he doesn't care about anybody but himself. rod rosenstein is an example of that. he day traded on rod rosenstein's 27 years of hard work and tried to throw him under the bus in an instant just so he could win the next six hours of a news cycle. he tried to do the same thing

with general mcmaster when he trotted general mcmaster out to give a 60-second nondenial denial. it moves beyond that. it moves beyond just embarrassing people, trading in on their honor and integrity of over 27 years. it also has legal ramifications. there are people now in this white house that are young and idealistic and came to washington, d.c. to make a difference. they don't have a lot of money. and they're having to get lawyers. they are having to hire lawyers because an investigation is moving forward and if they don't hire lawyers, they could find themselves in legal jeopardy. the same thing happened during the bush administration. the same thing happened during the clinton administration. general flynn, regardless of how this turns out for general flynn, is he going to be wrecked financially for the rest of his life. >> yeah. >> because the lawyer bills are mounting up. he did serve this country his

entire life. he doesn't have a lot of money. and, regardless, because of what he did for donald trump, thinking that he was moving donald trump's agenda forward, he is wrecked financially forever. we saw people in bush's administration, reagan's administration in iran-contra having the same thing happen to them. so, donald trump is doing what donald trump has always done. he is day trading. he's using other people. he's chewing them up and spitting them out and they are the ones having to hire lawyers now. so, yes, there are a lot of cautionary notes out there. but everybody around this man needs to understand when the feds come after them, when the lawyers' bills come in, he will not have their back. because he's never had anybody's back but his own. >> and, as we know, it's bigger than that. because you pointed out, we learned the presidency has not changed the way donald trump

treated people during the campaign. and the big question is going to be how this impacts our relationships around the world, when the president cannot be trusted for five minutes with his word. we have much more ahead on this developing story. "new york times" reporter charlie savige answers the question many americans are happening. what exactly constitutes obstruction of justice? and did it happen in the white house? plus, more on the arrest of a 23-year-old in connection with the terror attack in manchester, england. we'll talk to senator claire mccaskill for what it means to threat heers at home.

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just got down into the main foyer and seconds later there was an explosion. it shook our whole bodies. you could feel it going right through you. i turned behind to check that

allison and carmen were there. and it was smoke, embers from the rooftops. everyone was trying to get out. >> it was horrible, watching people waiting outside, parents waiting to collect kiddies, just like what's just happened here. >> we have an update now on last night's terrorist attack at a concert in manchester, england, that killed at least 22 people, some of them children. a m a man detonated an ied. theresa may say that officials have identified an attacker, police are not naming him at this point. breaking minutes ago, a 23-year-old man was arrested in connection with the attack. but we don't know what role he may have played. a statement just out from queen elizabeth says the whole nation has been shocked. we'll go back live to manchester in just a matter of moments. now to the michael flynn side of the developments into the russia investigation.

lawyers for president trump's former national security adviser say that retired lieutenant general will not cooperate with congress. now the ranking oversight committee democrat says flynn appears to have lied to federal investigators about payment he received from russia. i lienlga cummings cites a report where flynn said he was allegedly paid by u.s. companies for his appearance in moscow alongside russian president vladimir putin when the actual source of the funds was rt, considered by u.s. intelligence to be the kremlin's principle international propaganda outlet. a.s. official tells nbc news that flynn left blank a line on his security clearance form asking him to disclose any business relationships or transactions with foreign entities. meanwhile, flynn's lawyers tell the senate intelligence committee that their client will

not cooperate with a subpoena for documents in their probe into russian meddling in the 2016 election. he will instead invoke his fifth amendment right against self incrimination and repeated his request for immunity. the senate intelligence committee, joe, will meet today to determine their next steps on flynn. meanwhile, new jersey governor chris christie, one-time head of president trump's transition said he advised him against hiring general flynn. >> i think it's safe to say that general flynn and i didn't see eye to eye in that i didn't think that he was someone who would bring benefit to the president or to the administration. and i made that very clear to candidate trump and i made it very clear to president-elect trump. if i were president-elect of the united states i wouldn't let general flynn in the white house. let alone give him a job. >> he was not alone. >> mike barnicle, i can tell you that chris christie is not

playing monday morning quarterback. i don't think he would mind, since he said that publicly. we had several conversations during the transition about what a disaster general flynn would be going in there. he offered his warnings. i offered my warnings. most of the people that went in from outside, generals, other officials, offered the same warnings to donald trump. and people close to donald trump. but neither donald trump nor anyone in the family wanted to hear that. they wanted him in position, no matter what. let's get to flynn, though. flynn and ump, both. michael flynn saying anybody that pleads the fifth is presumed guilty. very mccarthy-ite of him. donald trump basically said the same thing. why are you pleading the fifth if you're not guilty? same thing. they both said the same thing on the campaign trail, on "meet the press" and at the republican convention about the granting of

immunity. why does anybody have to have immunity granted to them? that said, flynn -- we will not repeat their mccarthy-like tactics. general flynn has every right to plead the fifth amendment. that is his constitutional right. and, obviously, this is a man desperately in search of a deal, a plea deal with the fbi. >> joe, i clearly recall those conversations that you and other people had with chris christie late november and december and hearing chris christie a few moments ago in that clip, that's the kind of chief of staff that donald trump needs in the white house today actually. not necessarily chris christie, but a strong, powerful voice with a power to exclude people from the oval office, keep the president out of trouble. on general flynn, he has an absolute right. and his lawyers are absolutely correct to invoke the fifth amendment. in an odd way, i'm told by two people yesterday who were involved in this investigation that he is kind of in a strong

position right now to get immunity because to move this investigation forward, you've got to speak to general flynn. he has a story to tell, as his lawyer said, and he has got to tell that story. >> and the story continues to unravel. we know that the president, just a few weeks ago, had been exchanging text messages with flynn, saying to stay strong. also interesting is the dynamic between flynn and jared kushner. it w the two of them that met with kislyak and didn't disclose that, two of them that met with the ceo of a bank and didn't disclose that. kushner voluntarily said he would testify. got to wonder if he would still do that today but the dynamic goes further than just the president and flynn. he had the trust of ivanka and jared as well. >> sure. it will be a wide net of people involved in this, in one form or another. it's completely right if you're general flynn to use your fifth

amendment. that's what you do under these circumstances. with respect to a plea deal, i believe they're going to want to make sure he knows stuff that is worth -- typical way -- >> to grant immunity. >> you get immunity. to be able to testify against people who are more important than you are, who did things more significant than you did, they're not going to let him walk free if he's the guy who did the worst stuff. he will have to offer a proffer to explain what he knows before they give him a plea deal. >> this was predictable. it was poor judgment to let mike flynn into the trump white house but it goes back to the family, like bianna said. they were really backing mike flynn. and as long as jared and ivanka have this much influence in this presidency, i think you're going to continue to see decisions being made based on emotion and not on reasoned political judgment that has been built over, you know, decades working

in politics and in government and studying history. >> as long as the president is the president, you're going to have decisions made on emotional grounds rather than necessarily thoughtful grounds. >> as it pertains to general flynn and chris christie's comments -- and we can just say it here. we've said it before. we've always been transrent abouour conversations with president trump and it was very clear on the airwaves of "morning joe" that we were trying to get the message to him as well, that flynn was a very bad idea. and the family would just not hear it. and jared kept saying, general flynn traveled with him -- travels with him during the campaign, sits next to him on the plane and calms him down. he's with him all the time. he's with him morning, noon and night, always by his side. that bled right into the oval office and really, i think, set the scene for what is now an epic meltdown of a presidency. >> well, i would hope -- you

hope against hope that the events of the last month actually illustrate to donald trump and his family members why it is so important to have an independent voice. they should have listened -- excuse me. they should have listened to chris christie back in the fall. he was the head of transition until he got muscled out of that position. but i hope the family understands, and donald trump understands that this is not -- he is not an autocrat that can surround himself with family members who rule the country, that they need a strong, independent voice to protect donald trump and family members from their worst instincts. they've only been in washington for four months.

they don't know washington. they have proven what people like chris christie and i politely said to them in the fall, that they are ignorant of the ways of washington. and being a real estate developer in new york city, where you inherit money and start building a company from that and play the tabloids for 40 years, that is not a transferrable skill to being president of the united states. and understanding the complexities. you know, i kept telling donald trump and people close to him, all you need to know about washington, d.c. and figuring out that it's not as easy as it looks is that one of the most powerful people in washington, d.c., if not the most powerful person is usually the minority leader of the senate. now that makes no sense to you. you're president. you just got elected. you can run over everybody. that's what every president thinks. no. no. we have a system of checks and

balance balances so complicated and so intended to prevent one man or woman from coming to washington and becoming a dictator that the system has been set up in a way where the minority leader of the senate can be one of the most powerful people when it comes to passing legislation or stopping investigations ortopping supreme court justices. it didn't happen this time but donald trump is now seeing that his power has been checked by the courts time and time again. and it happened again in the north carolina case this week from the supreme court. he has been stopped by bureaucrats. he has been stopped by -- you name it. he has been stopped by a republican congress. >> i just want to close out here. that strong, powerful voice that he needed in the white house, perhaps chris christie, needed

to be independent. the reason chris christie isn't in there, it's personal. look it up. the reason general flynn was in there, it's personal. the reason jared and ivanka wanted flynn? personal. the reason jared and iechka are in there, personal. personal is bringing this president down. he needs people around them who can speak for themselves. he doesn't have them. >> this is the last thing i'll say. the older i get, the more i admire dwight d. eisenhower and consider him a near great or great president. there was nothing flashy about him. but he did an extraordinary job. years of peace and prosperity. dwight eisenhower knew the most powerful people in business, the most powerful generals in the world. he played bridge with them. he spent time around them in augusta. and when dwight d. eisenhower selected his cabinet, he picked people he didn't even know.

it wasn't personal with ike. it was all business. and that's why dwight d. eisenhower will be remembered as a near great or great president and right now you put your finger on it, mika. that's why donald trump will go down as a failed president, if he doesn't start bringing independent vois into that white house, telling him no. and history suggests -- >> it's too late. >> -- he just is incapable, 70 years later, to start doing that, and doing what's in his best interest, the family's best interest and the country's best interest. >> ways done is done. senator claire mccaskill joins us live. her thoughts on the manchester attacks and on the reports that president trump asked intel chiefs to push back on the russian probe. plus president's commerce secretary marvels at the lack of protests to the president's visit to saudi arabia.

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hour. commerce secretary wilbur ross praising the lack of protests in saudi arabia during president trump's visit over the weekend. >> the other thing that was fascinating to me, there was not a single hint of a protester anywhere there during the whole time we were there. there was certainly no sign of it. there was not a single effort at any incursion. there wasn't anything. the mood was a genuinely good moo mood. >> yeah. bianna, there was also no beheadings for people who did protest. why was it so placid and calm? >> wilbur should just stick to commerce because most saudis are not suicidal. and protests andoming out with placards is punishable in saudi

arabia by beheading, by having your arm cut off. by death. so, yes, most people knew not to come out and protest because they wanted to live to see tomorrow not because everyone is so jovial and, you know, freedom abounds in saudi arabia. >> okay. up next right here, did the president's trip to israel move the needle on any significant issues? we'll talk to israel's ambassador to the u.n. next on "morning joe."

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all right. joining us now, israel's permanent representative to the united nations, ambassador danny dannon joining us from new york. very good to have you on the show. how is the president's trip playing in israel, especially when it comes to the potential policies and decisions that could emerge from the trip, that are on the table? >> good rning, mika.

we appreciate the visit itself, the first visit abroad for the u.s. president, coming to israel. we do appreciate that. it was a very short visit. as we speak, the president has concluded his visit, speaking in israel and will be flying in a few minutes to home. first, it was an important visit. he met with president abbas, prime minister netanyahu and it's only the beginning. we hope he will be able to convince the palestinians to come back to negotiations without precondition. >> joe? >> mr. ambassador, joe scarborough, the president also issued a challenge to israel, saying if you want peace, if you want to move forward in this region, that you are going to have to deal with the palestinians and you are going to to have to make some concessions. does israel understand that for there to be peace, this white house is going to push not only the palestinians and their arab

neighbors but also israel? >> we want peace, joe. we pray for peace every morning. and in the past we signed an agreement with egypt, jordan and paid a heavy price for those important agreements but with the palestinians, i think we demand they change the culture of hate. when i see the palestinians glorifying terrorism, when i see them paying salaries for murderers, government funds going to terrorists, that is a problem for us. they should change the culture of hate and come to negotiate with us. that is the only way to move forward. >> mr. ambassador -- >> mike barnicle? >> mr. ambassador, there is a mood, almost a euphoric mood about president trump to this part of the country. part of it, though, seems to some observers in a resentment of barack obama's administration.

can you explain the difference between barack obama's administration and his attitude toward israel and president trump's attitude toward israel? >> we had a good relationship with the previous administration. the relationship with the u.s. is a very strong bond but president obama went to egypt first without visiting israel. it's a symbolic thing but means a lot to israelis. u.n. security council adopted the resolution. we believe it was a bad move. we believe in direct negotiations and don't believe we should go to the u.n. to help the peace process but speak directly with the palestinians and president trump today said it again, that he supports direct negotiations. >> what's your present position? what's the israeli government's present position on beginning to build settlements? >> the settlements -- in 2005, we uprooted all the settlements from the gaza strip. look what happened. it became a hamas entity,

radical regime. we don't want to see the same happening. the prime minister has announced it over and over again. because you have jews living in jordan and jordan and somalia, you don't have peace. >> there was friction between president obama and netanyahu, but one thing president obama didn't do is reveal classified information, which president trump seemed to reaffirm yesterday in israel. we know the prime minister said that the relation is still very strong and they'll continue to share intelligence. there are reports that the intelligence community within israel was outraged and yelled at their american counterparts. can you talk about that in the future that this may have on intelligence sharing going forward. >> i will not comment on reports. our deputy minister of defense in the government of israel, and i can tell you we do share information. we will continue to share information with our american colleagues. that is the only way to fight terrorism. we saw that attack in london. we saw what happened here

9/. we need to work together against terrorism. and the israelis will continue to share intelligence with our american counterparts. >> mr. ambassador, one of the president's campaign promises he repeated many times was that he was going to move the american embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. now suddenly he goes to israel and there's no more talk about moving the embassy. how important -- what was the israeli reaction to that and how important is that to you as a symbol of america's commitment to jerusalem as being part of israel? >> jerusalem being the capital of the jewish people for more than 3,000 years. the president actually came now to israel. he came to jerusalem to meet the prime minister, to meet the president. it is the capital of israel. we want to see the american embassy moved to jerusalem. and i believe you'll see many other embassies that will follow the u.s. when they will take this important decision. >> did your colleagues make the point to the american officials, to president trump, that he made this promise, so why is the embassy not moving to jerusalem? >> we want to see the american embassy in jerusalem, period.

the sooner the better. we should not listen to those that are threatening, we cannot build a policy according to threats. that's what happened when we established israel in 1948, when we declared it is capital. we believe the embassy should move to jerusalem. its an american decision. we think it should happen. >> mr. ambassador, final question, donald trump just said that the palestinians are ready to reach for peace. do you believe they are? >> unfortunately, i think we need to see actions, joe, not talks. when abbas is talking in english in d.c. or when he met president trump, he's saying one thing. when he speaks in arabic to his people, it sounds completely the opposite. so, we want to see actions. we want to hear them condemn terrorism and educating the children for peace. i educate my children for peace. i expect the same that they will do that. once we do that, we will be hopeful about it.

>> ambassador, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. and still ahead, we continue to follow three breaking stories this morning. the terror attack in manchester, england, the president wrapping up the second leg of his trip overseas, which comes amid another damaging report on the russia probe. we'll ask senator claire mccaskill, a former prosecutor, if the president asking intel chiefs to push back on the investigation amounts to obstruction of justice. we're back in just a moment. my s built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? what's the story behind green mountain coffee and fair trade?

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so many young, beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life. i won't call them monsters because they would like that term. they would think that's a great name. i will call them from now on losers because that's what they are. they're losers. and we'll have more of them, but they're losers. just remember that. >> at terrible moments like these, it is customary for politicians, leaders and others to condemn the perpetrators and declare the terrorists will not win. but the fact we have been here before and the fact we need to

say this again does not make it any less true. for us, so often while we experience the wor of humanity in manchester lastnight, we also saw the best. the cowardess of the attacker met the bravery of the emergency services and people of manchester. the attempt to divide us met countless acts of kindness that brought people closer together. and in the days ahead, those must be the things we remember. the images we hold in our minds should not be of senseless slaughter but of the ordinary men and women who put concerns about their own safety to one side and rushed to help. >> president trump and british prime minister theresa may reacting with prepared statements to the terror attack in manchester, england. it's been an incredibly busy morning of news. already this morning, the president met with palestinian

authority president mahmoud abbas, calling for peace with the israelis. took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the holocaust memorial in jerusalem and later spoke at israel museum red dedicating the closeness of the relationship with israel to massive applause. back at home, new reporting says president trump not only pushed james comey to squash the russia investigation, but he also leaned on the head of the nsa and the director of national intelligence. joe, we're going to get to manchester in a moment for update on the dramatic story there, the terrorist attack there, but first your take on the new developments into the russia investigation and now word that the president pressured two other people. >> mika, it's one more example of this president using his position as a leader of the free world to try to end an investigation against him, to try to use his position of power

to intimidate james comey, the head of the fbi, coats, the head of the dni, and then, of course, rogers, the head of the nsa, the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. he used his position of authority to try to get each one of these men, each one of these leaders, to stop the investigation against him and russia. and identify got to say, we americans can be grateful that as he tried to turn them into his patsy, each one of these men put their duty and their honor and their country first. and they refused. and they wrote it down. and they reported it. and now we find ourselves in a position, after all of these

efforts to obstruct justice, to kill an investigation, we are all left with a single question -- what is donald trump so fearful of that we americans will find out about, that investigators will learn about, that he's willing to be self-destructive to a degree that he's basically setti fire to his entire white house operation, turning these administration officials against him, turning people inside the white house into liars. what's he trying to hide? there may be no fire yet, but there is so much smoke right now, political smoke engulfing the white house. he's down to 37% in the latest gallup tracking poll. republicans are on the run in

congress. their approval ratings are at record lows. we heard in georgia seven addition or six, i think, a predictably republican district, the democratic challenger is up by seven points in a poll that was released yesterday. what's he hiding? what's so bad that he is willing to throw the entire republican party overboard in trying to protect himself? >> i think it's more than the republican party, unfortunately, because everything is in question at this point. the presidency itself is in question. our relationships around the world, in question. trust in the president himself, in question. beyond in question. and it's truly his weak team and his personal connections that are literally doing him in. every problem he has has to do with a personal connection that he would not let go for the good of the country to have good

people around him. instead he has bad people around him that he's had to fire or weak people around him, which is almost worse. with us we have msnbc contributor -- >> well, let me just say, mika. ain, you have to talk about the contrast and ask the question, onof t great mysteries, why did donald trump surround himself with great leaders like jim mattis, general mcmaster, a strong ceo like rex tillerson? but yet inside his own white house he hasn't got jim mattis for domestic affairs? why not? why does he keep six or seven people around him who are scared to tell him the truth and instead only fight each other? why is that? >> well, there are -- it's personal. there could have been chris christie in there, who might have been able to speak truth to power. but it was personal.

jared didn't want him. jared is in there. ivanka has an office in the white house. what experience do they bring to the table? what do they bring to the table at all? what influence do they have on the president which is positive? none. why are they there? it's personal. all the others, weak links. can't speak to him, too scared. it's a complete cluster. it's a complete cluster. as we know, joe, from members of his foreign policy team, which is impressive, their reluctant to get out of their lane. all i can say is they may need to because they're all we've got. with us we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments alease jordan, yahoo! anchor bianca goladriga.

we have an update on the terror is attac in manchester, england, that killed 22, some children. theresa may says while they have identified the attacker, police are not naming him at this point. breaking this morning, manchester police have arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the attack. but we don't know what role he may have played. a statement just out from queen elizabeth says the whole nation is in shock. we'll go live to manchester in just a moment. joe? "the wall street journal," nbc has not confirmed that, but they say islamic state has claimed responsibility for the manchester attack as details of victims start to emerge. "the wall street journal" reporting isis has claimed responsibility for these attacks. >> nbc will work on confirming that. we'll have much more as details

evolve on this story. we'll bring them to you right away. now to the details from those new reports that say two of the nation's top intelligence officials were asked by president trump to counter the fbi's investigation into russian meddling and his campaign. "the washington post" was first to report in march president trump first reached out to director of national intelligence, dan coats, and director of the national security agency, admiral mike rogers. the report says he wanted them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion after fbi director james comey disclosed the investigation during a house intelligence hearing. quote, can we ask him to shut down the investigation? are you able to assist in this matter? one official told "the washington post" about the line of questioning from the white house. according to "the post," trump's conversation with admiral rogers was documentedt the time in an intern memo written by a senior nsa official.

nbc cites a former senior intelligence official confirming roberts and coats exchanged notes about their conversations with the president. the former official says the two men did not believe they were being asked to do something illegal but were sufficiently concerned that they took care to write it down. the white house told "the post" it will not confirm or deny unsubstantiated claims from announce mou aanonymous leaks. coats and rogers both testify today on capitol hill. joe, what is president trump doing? >> he's making his life and the life of everybody around him far more complicated and leading not only american voters but prosecutors to ask the simple question, what is this man hiding? charlie savidge, let's bring you in. a lot of questions over what is obstruction of justice and with every breaking news story, the

questionses are intensified. comparisons to watergate. watergate started with a crime. that was tied directly to nixon. i suppose we could say this started with the crime with the hacking of the dnc computers. there's a question about the connection. help us, from what you've seen, what is obstruction of justice and how does it attach possibly to the set of facts before us here in the trump case? >> absolutely, joe. obstruction of justice is an attempt to impede an official investigation that is corrupt. that corrupt part is an important element that people need to focus on. not everything you do that might slow down an investigation counts as obstruction of justice. it has to be done for the specific intent of ting to do it corruptly. not awering a question, taking the fifth if you're a witness is not obstruction of justice even if it impedes the investigation.

>> help me out here, charlie, because this seems to be, again, where we're having some problems understanding what jonathan turley is saying. it seems like circular logic, at least to me, to say, if an investigation has started and you tell witnesses to lie, or you try to hide evidence, that's obstruction of justice. >> clearly. >> but if you kill an investigation, if you're president of the united states and kill the investigation before it even begins, so there will be no reason to have witnesses lie, there will be no reason to destroy evidence, then you're off scot-free. to me, at least, that seems like that's setting a very dangerous precedent for presidents, governors and mayors in the future. kill an investigation before it starts and you're in the clear. >> well, you know, most of the

time the subject of an investigation isn't in a position to fire the investigator. this is really rare territory when the president himself, who's talking to the head of the fbi and asking him to drop an investigation into his former aide or eventually firing that investigation. there's not a lot of precedent to look to. on top of that, there's a certain way in which all this discussion about, well, you know, what are the legal elements and could it be proved in this case and what was he really trying to do may be slightly beside the point, because the prospect that the sitting president of the united states is going to be indicted, whether by special counsel or regular justice department, is exceedgllow. the justice department has ruled for itself that a sitting president cannot be indicted. bob mueller as special counsel is obliged to follow just department procedures and practices and can be fired if he does not. so, what we're really talking

about is will there be a case eventually? will there be enough information emerge that congress will have to take a look at impeaching the president or is this all just going to be a sort of slow burn of questions and slightly answered -- with some answers that aren't entirely clear that dog this president for months and years without ever having a clear resolution? it seemed like at the end of the day, this is a political question as much or more than it is a legal question. >> so, at its most basic level, ignorance of the law has never been a defense. it's like saying, i didn't know i was supposed to put money in the parking meter so please don't give me a ticket. the two words, specific and intent, you just used, is a president's -- donald trump's total ignorance of the process of laws, how they apply to the director of national intelligence or to the head of

the fbi, would that be a defense? >> again, in the political arena, i'm not sure that's a great defense, but it would be a political defense. like, congress, this is -- the president is new to town, he's a businessman, he's not a politician. he hasn't been in the washington scene long enough. of course, he should be surrounding himself, he does have white house counsel with people who tell him, you need to not call off the fbi director or nsa director and try to quash an investigation. it raises a lot of questions about either the quality of the legal advice he's been receiving or whether he's just been blowing it off. and so to the extent the question is, is this president doing a good job and is coness ultimately going to take a look at that, it's -- it's that kind of a question as opposed to, well, i can get off because of this technicality in court because it's hard to see how it gets into court in the first place. >> how much of the president's actions regarding these investigations are, you know,

not necessarily breaking a law but breaking a norm? >> a huge amount. a huge amount of norms. the whole presidency is constrained not just by laws in checks and balances in the form of absolute limits like a congress can override his veto or something, but is surrounded by traditions that you have a normal president that ranges from a republican to democratic in the traditional role we're used to, who acts with certain self-restraint, who respects certain norms. part of the extraordinary moment we're living through is having an unconventional president who is not come up through that system and whose whole campaign in some way was predicated on violations of norms, insulting his republican rivals, threatening to put his opponent in prison, not releasing his tax returns, not doing all the things that normal candidates do, and he you csucceeded. he won the president by breaking

those molds. he may be surrounded by advisers saying, sir, this isn't how it's done. but what do they know? if listen to those people, i wouldn't be president in the first place. i'm going to smashed through this. it worked in the past. part of what he may be learning or may not be learning, what's evident from the outside, its not working very well for him now. that's causing damage to both his white house and the people around him. >> charlie is going to stay with us. let's turn back now to the terror attack in manchester, england, and bring in nbc news correspondent keir simmons who is outside the arena where it happened. you have an update on isis claiming responsibility for the attack. >> reporter: that's right. nbc news confirmed isis is claiming that responsibility. plainly, that doesn't tell us exactly what the connection was or not with the suicide bomber who the officials here say was responsible for the attack behind me. but, you know, i think what we'll start to see now is

another discussion yet again about european cities and whether they are kind of a hot bed of extremism, if you like. i understand a 23-year-old who was arrested in the city, arrested in an area where other teenagers have gone to fight with isis in the past. then recruited each other from -- in iraq and syria to come and join them. meanwhile, another person is in a jail in the u.s. they were convicted of plotting to attack the new york subway. they were arrested here in the uk and spent a long time living in manchester. inevitably, this city will face questions, even while tre is also so many signs of hope and the way the community has come together, community of all faiths, to try and help each other in this difficult time. >> nbc's keir simmons, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," senator claire mccaskill

joins us live to talk about the latest developments in the russia investigation. plus, nbc's andrea mitchell live from israel as the president prepares to leave the middle east for rome. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. at bp's cooper river plant, employees take safety personally - down to each piece of equipment, so they can protect their teammates and the surrounding wetlands, too. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better.

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despite all the coddling, the trip seems to be taking a toll on trump. for example, after trump made a mistake on a speech, a senior white house official explained it by saying, he's an exhausted guy. its not like trump insisted repeatedly on the campaign trail, stamina is an important thing for the presidency. >> hillary clinton doesn't have the stamina. >> she doesn't have the stamina. i said she doesn't have the stamina. and i don't believe she does have the stamina to be president of this country, you need tremendous stamina. >> you have so many different things you have to be able to do. and i don't believe hillary has the stamina. >> sure. hillary doesn't have the

stamina, but he's the energizer bunny. after his high-sword dance, his fitbit said, likely dead. all right. in a short while ago, president donald trump spoke at the israel museum in jerusalem and addressed the united states' commitment to preventing iran from developing nuclear weapons. this is what he said. >> the united states is firmly committed to keep iran from developing a nuclear weapon and halting their support of terrorists and militias. [ applause ] so, we are telling you right now that iran will not have nuclear weapons. [ applause ]

>> let's bring andrea mitchell back into the consideration. she's live, of course, from jerusalem. andrea, you obviously are uniquely qualified to put what you've seen over the past 72 hours in context. with this president, this country, this region. put in context for us, if possible with all the scandals waiting for the president when he returns home, put in context how the trip is being received in that region. >> reporter: it's actually being seefd ve received very, very well in this region. i know we focus on the scandals following and the washington post report last night, just the latest thing that is adding to the baggage that he carries around. but i have to tell you that his scripted speeches, the speech he just gave at the museum, the cultural museum, was very well received in israeli media as well as among the people obviously,there the invited

gusts. but he hit all of the notes. his connection to netanyahu. netanyahu is not enormously popular but he's such a clever politician that he keeps winning and running circles around the rather inept political attempts by serious people to compete with him within the coalition. so, that be said, the israeli leadership and its focus on counterterror and its focus on iran as existential threat is very resonant with what donald trump is saying. he's also creating this coalition of sunni arab leaders, the saudis, uae and others in the riyadh summit. and that is very important to israel and his trip to west bank with mahmoud abbas, a weak palestinian leader, who recounted all of the commitments made over decades from republican and democratic

presidents, the u.n. international bodies, beyond the u.n., yet trump spoke very warmly to him. he said, you are on a noble mission here, mr. president, your excellency. so, the words that were expressed were all very, very nice. the substance, though, is a different thing. a lot of symbols, not a lot of substance. there's no real details that are going to get anybody closer to peace with the palestinians. and when he talks about going against terrorism, he's ignoring sunni-sponsored terrorism. isis and al qaeda are not shiite bodies. isis, yes, has some alliance with shiite entities, but iran is basically not responsible for the kind of terror that if it turns out to be international terror, is likely what led to manchester. yet the president spoke twice about manchester and has turned this visit into a counterterror

exposition, which fits very much with the israeli sensibility right now. >> so, andrea, even before january 20th, even before donald trump became president of the united states, a lot of foreign policy minds of both you and i greatly respect have said and have believed that because of obama's policies, president obama's policy towards iran, there is a unique responsibility for many arab states in the region and israel to forge a closer bond than ever before. again, with your historical context, are you sensing, regardless of o the president of the united states is today or over the next five years, that we do have an historic opportunity to see arabs and israelis come together in a way they haven't since the camp david accords? >> reporter: i think that is possible, for all the reasons you cite. it isn't just the iranian threat, although that's the most

important ingredient in all of this, but it was the way president obama treated mubarak, which did not go down well with the sunni arab leaders, and his failure to enforce the red line against assad over chemical weapons. all those things, which netanyahu is trying to capitalize on and create this bond. i don't agree necessarily with the brain trust in the white house that believes that's going to lead to palestinian peace because i don't think they have the components there. they have no willingness to compromise on netanyahu's part. and the palestinians feel they have already given up enough land unwillingly to the settlements. so, unless that is resolved, i don't see that coming together as an offshoot of what you're talking about. >> andrea, hi, let me ask you about what you're hearing. >> reporter: hi. >> hi. what your sources are telling you specifically related to

intelligence-sharing. >> reporter: oh, my gosh. >> i know from the surface, prime minister netanyahu said the two countries will continue to share intelligence. this obviously following the president confirms that it was israeli intelligence that he shared with the russians. we now know isis took credit for the manchester attack. we know the intelligence they shared had to deal with isis specifically related to bombs on airplanes and laptops, to be able to come on successfully on airplanes. what are your sources telling you? does this have any sort of impa or does it impede any of the developments they've made in going after isis and stopping these kind of attacks? >> reporter: well, there are two levels to that. israeli intelligence officials are furious. there was, indeed, a shouting match between israeli security officials and americans last week -- or the week before in the immediate aftermath of that oval office blunder, to put it

kindly. and then he doubled down on it and made it worse because he became the first u.s. official to confirm it was israel, something that had never been confirmed officially. bad on every count. they clearly do not think that the president of the united states understands intelligence and they don't appreciate, as, you know, officials and experts and professionals the way he speaks about the intelligence community. that said, the sharing continues. i think officer-to-officer, analyst-to-analyst, agency-to-agency, that continues. even overnight i was watching msnbc's coverage and we were seeing my colleagues, ken delaney and others confirms almost instantaneously from uk officials, a police officer in manchester, it had been a suicide bomber, they believed they had an identity. they had key facts coming from u.s. oials citing their british sources.

no matter how angry the brits were. believe me, i talked to some, they were really ticked off after that oval office russian meeting. they were sharing information immediately because they wanted to know if we could see something in our intercepts going back over electronic intercepts to see if we knew of a wider plot. we needed that for our own security. they needed to share with us to find out whether this was a wider plot. so, the sharing continues. it's mutually beneficial and that will not change. >> nbc's andrea mitchell. thank you so much. we really appreciate you taking time to be on the show this morning. last week senator claire mccaskill said it was too early to talk about impeachment, but does she still hold that position after the most recent reports about the president asking intel chiefs to try to stop the russian investigation? the missouri democrat who was once, as her son said, the best prosecutor in kansas city, joins

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let's bring in claire mccaskill, our good friend from capitol hill. claire, a senate democrat from missouri. also former prosecutor.

what did your son call you, the best prosecutor in kansas city, when he was young? >> that's kind of not what he said. he confused the word but we won't go into it on morning television. >> we will stop there. of course, the fifrs question i want to ask you before we get into washington business. let's talk about manchester and let me ask you, what is it -- and, you know, our show made the decision and we talked about it last night, we were not going to run endless loops of teenage girls screaming and running for the exits. we were not going to bring on experts to guess abo what happed and what might happen because we dideven know until an hour and a half into this show that isis had claimed responsibility. so, we're not going to glorify what the terrorist did and we're not going to give them what they want. but let's ask a policymaker. what can we do as a country to stop a depraved human being from walking into a concert filled

with preteen and teenage girls and set off a bomb that blows them up? >> well, first, let me just say that as a mother and grandmother, it takes my breath away to imagine the parents that were waiting outside of that venue for their child. assuming their child was safe and enjoying a rite of passage as a young -- as a young person. and so, really, difficult. i will say, i haven't been briefed yet, and i'm sure we will today by the department of homeland security. and so we don't know a lot yet about who this depraved person was, this person with no humanity in them. but we do know a couple of things. one thing i want to compliment the president on is by going to saudi arabia first, he was sending a very clear signal that we need friends in the arab world. we need muslim friends. we need friends in the muslim

world. i hope since the president sent that strong message he will come home and send the same message to the american muslim community because we know for sure that the attacks we have had in the united states have been radicalized individuals. and individuals many times who are here as american citizens, who are here legally b have be radicalized within the muslim community. it is, ifact, the peaceful, loving people who are american and also muslim that can help us the most. if the president would send the same signal to the american muslim community that he sent in the middle east, then i'm hopeful that might help in terms of us being able to capture people in this country who have, in fact, been radicalized. >> so, as far as law enforcement goes, and i have two older chish children and two younger children, the age of many of those people that were at the concert last night, so like you,

this does hit home with me, but what do we do? i'm remind of what tom friedman and others wrote after 9/11. do we lock ourselves in our homes or do we continue to go out? how much security does my teenage girl's friends do they have to walk through going to a concert? does this change things for us? >> well, i think there's a fine line between us making sure we have adequate security and us changing the way we live in america. and i think we have to be careful and not give terrorists that victory. so i do think we have to keep in mind we have thwarted a number of plots. we have a guy in the united states serving a 40-year sentence that was originally arrested in the uk for plotting a terrorist attack on the subway system. he was originally charged with plotting a mall attack in the uk, but they didn't have enough

evidence there, but we got him in american courts, by the way, with american prosecutors, and so, we've got to continue to augment our law enforcement capabilities in this area. we have to continue to work on cyber in terms of folks being radicalized. we certainly need to welcome more people of muslim faith into the fight in terms of people that are part of our effort, that are law enforcement officials that are also muslim americans because they have the ability to go places and do places in an undercover way and intelligence way that helps us gather information to catch people. i don't know we can stop ever gathering in big public places. i just don't think that's the answer. >> i want to move to donald trump and the revelations from yesterday. but before i do, what are we, we're two hours and 40 minutes into this show and there's been so much to cover, i haven't had a chance to talk about something i've wanted to talk about.

i know steve rattner wanted to talk about it as well. the proposed budget of the president's, the savage cuts to cancer research, the savage cuts to r&d, the savage cuts to education, the savage cuts to medicaid. i know you are a democrat in a red state. what's your position going to be over donald trump -- i just want to focus on the medicaid cuts because we have been sold this bill of goods by the president who said, listen,e're n -- and republicans in congress, quite frankly. my friends in congress saying we're not going to cut medicaid. we're just going to take it back to the states. well, no. now here the other shoe falls and we find out they are going to slash billions of dollars in health care funding from the poorest americans who can afford it the least.

what is your position specifically on the medicaid cutting that is proposed here? >> well, in my state, there will be disproportionate paint in a lot of rural areas. my state has limited coverage of medicaid anyway. they did not expand the medicaid program, even though they were entitled in missouri with billions of dollars. for political reasons the missouri legislature turned away from that. i do think it's going to have a dire consequence on rural communities. i just came back from doing a lot of town halls in rural missouri. i'm going to continue to do that because i think i need to show up, show respect and listen carefully, but what is really fascinating to me is the rural hospitals will take a huge hit with these medicaid cuts. >> claire, that is so critical. that is so critical. the rural hospitals will be -- and this is -- this is not an opinion. it is fact.

>> it's fact. >> rural hospitals will be obliterated by these budgets that will not only severely curtail health care for americans in rural america, but also as you were just saying, will also slash jobs from those communities, in communities that can't afford more job loss. >> and i think people forget what a large proportion of nursing home are paid with medicaid dollars. also, in rural communities. the idea we couldn't have nursing homes in rural communities. think about the consequences for the families and for the loved ones and whether or not they can visit. i mean, this is -- there are so many cascading consequences of these kind of massive cuts to medicaid. you know, there's -- there's certainly places we can trim our sales and be more fiscally responsible in the federal government, but this is a sea change in terms of how we would look at taking care of the most vulnerable in our country. and, frankly, it is really going to have a big impact on the

parts of my state that were the biggest supporters for donald trump. >> so, senator, we have had more than a decade now of people in nations lining up in the supposed global war on terror, but here, as you've been speaking about this topic, we have a concerted attack on the poor in this country going on right now in this budget. i don't know anyone, anyone who would love to be born poor in america. so, who's going to lead the fight in the united states senate against this attack on the poor? >> i think you're going to see a lot of people push back on this budget. by the way, i anticipate that's going to be bipartisan. i don't think there's vem republicans that have an appetite for getting rid of meals on wheels. i don't think there's vem republicans -- we just passed a big increase in research funding with the majority of the republicans voting for it in the budget bill we just passed a few weeks ago. so, i really don't think there's an appetite on either side of

the aisle for this president's budget. i think it will have massive changes, as most president's budgets do, but it's telling that they thought this was a wise thing to tie around their neck, this budget. because there's an awful lot to talk about in this budget that i think is going to really get the attention of a lot of voters in my state and states across the country. >> this is charlie up in new york. i wanted to switch topics a bit to this new report from "the washington post" that the president asked the director of national intelligence and the director of the nsa to put pressure on the fbi to end the investigation. into the russia probe. and i'm wondering -- apparently both of those officials wrote down memos contemporaneously about those conversations and traded notes about them. so, this adds to the pile of paper, along with whatever memos director comey wrote down about his various conversations with the president, that apparently exist. and i'm wondering as a democrat

in the senate, do you think that congress needs to see those memos? do you think that you should -- you have a right to see them? obviously, they have -- they relate to the direct conversations with the president, which raises executive privilege issues. and if you do have a right to see them, that would mean that further republican senates could also seek the same kind of paper from future democratic presidents. can you walk us through how you think through those issues? >> well, i think we are -- we should see all of the documents, all of them. this is too important for us not to have access to all of the evidence that would be available. i do think it's important that we deconflict the congressional investigations with th fbi investigation, because obviously, they are looking at crimin matters in terms of what they investigate. we are looking at conduct and policy matters. and, you know, i think we've got to see all of it. i have been really disciplined about this because i was trained as a young prosecutor to be very

disciplined about this. i'm not going to reach any conclusions until i see the documents, until i see sworn testimony, until i read sworn testimony. and once that happens, then i think we're going to be in a better position to really judge whether or not this president has gone over the line. we do know he's exercised bad judgment as it relates to calling people and asking them to shut down investigations in terms of the reporting that we have so far. but we don't know whether or not that conduct goes beyond bad judgment at this point. and i think we've got to be carefully looking at the evidence before we reach any conclusions. >> senator claire mccaskill, we always love having you on. go, cards. >> go, cards. you guys swept us in st. louis, joe. boston came in and stole two from us, so i goedon't like tha >> stole? stole? >> yeah, you did. >> i think it's the only series we've swept this year. claire, thank you very much.

we appreciate it. >> yeah, not good. >> having a rough time. thank you so much, claire. love you. up next, more on the breaking news that isis has now claimed responsibility for yesterday's terror attack. we're going to be back with more of that in a moment. you totanobody's hurt, new car. but there will still be pain. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels.

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now to an update on last night's terror attack at an ariana grande concert in manchester, england, that killed at least 22 people. a lot of them children. . by one report, 12 children were hospitalized in a single medical center. isis has claimed responsibility, saying that they planted bombs around the venue. one man detonated an ied and prime minister theresa may says that while officials have identified the attacker, police are not naming him at this point. also, a 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection, but his role is not yet known. coming up next, we're going to go back one more time to the

morning's other major story, reports that president trump pressured intel chiefs to push back on reports of collusion. we're going to be bringing in former justice department spokesperson matthew miller, when "morning joe" returns. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ what's the story behind green mountain coffee and fair trade? let's take a flight to colombia. this is boris calvo. boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm and invest in his community to make even better coffee. all for a smoother tasting cup. green mountain coffee.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪ (silence) ♪ let's bring in former justice department spokesperson now an msnbc justice and security analyst, matt miller. matt, more revelations from the

fbi director to dni, to nsa director. you know another shoe is going to drop because they keep dropping every day, it seems. what questions do the latest revelations bring up in your mind? >> so, for me, the question i really have is, what other conversations did donald trump have with people in the administration? if you look, you know, we keep seeing new reports so we know he called the director of the dni, comey before he fired him, it's hard for me to believe given that, he hasn't also called the cia director mike pompeo. i want to know what conversation hess had with jeff sessions. sessions is supposed to be recused from the russian investigation, but it's hard to believe after comey testified on the hill on march 20th, that trump didn't call sessions and complain. it would be great to hear what conversaons they had. one of the things to watch the next few weeks the budget is being reased this week, what happens on the hill after that, every cabinet official has to go up and testify under oath about

the budget but members can ask whatever they want and i bet you will see coats asked about it today, sessions asked about it in the coming weeks and those conversations, that testimony is under oath. they have to be truthful. >> this is charlie in new york, i want to ask you something that pins off something senator mccaskill said, that we don't know if this was bad judgment in having conversations with officials subboaordinates that shouldn't have. it occurs to me and earlier in the show as well, joe was saying what is trump trying to cover up he's setting his own administration on fire like this to avoid having that presumably worse thing come out? it seems like a premise of a lot of democrats and critics of the administration is that there is at the end of the day, going to be evidence that shows some kind of collusion or something dark that this administration was trying to obstruct and we're just not there yet but we'll learn it and that's the only scenario that makes sense here. it occurs to me there is another scenario. that's like the game of

throwns scenario. a tragedy, some kind of dark plan trying to be covered up and we'll figure that out. there's also the veep scenario, this is a farce and trump is annoyed by this investigation and undermines his legitimacy, he wishes white it would go awa stumbling and causing problems for himself. if it's the latter how does that change things? >> i would add one more scenario. it could be the underlying thing he's trying to cover up isn't collusion but investigators have been looking at financial ties to people close to him, maybe very close to him and potential financial wrongdoing. you're right, it's entirely possible that, you know, there is nothing that investigators will evere le tshow is a criminal act in 2016 durg the campaign, but tha in 2017, donald trump has obstructed justice to try to stop the investigation from going forward. that may change the way some people think about it.

that doesn't actually change anything from a legal perspective. as you know from covering the justice department for years, people go to jail all the time for lying to investigators, for destroying evidence, destroying documents, even when the justice department can't prove an underlying crime. i think we're going to have to watch and see. i think we will get a clue soon of what bob mueller is looking into based on what -- whether jim comey ends up testifying and when he does test fi what questions he's willing to answer. >> quick question. donald trump is soon to hire outside counsel according to reporting in "the washington post." what kind of role will the outside counsel play in the probe going forward? >> well, the most honestly, most important role an attorney can play right now is to tell donald trump to stop making mistakes. stop talking about this case publicly, stop calling people inside the administration and telling them to quash the case. i mean if anything, if this scenario that charlie laid out is to come to pass it could be

there's no underlying crime but he's messed up in the way he's handled it. a smart lawyer can get him to stop doing that. if don mcgahn is giving that advice he's not being listened to. the attorneys look, one of the attorneys named reed weingarten, if i were ever in serious trouble he's the person i would call. he's the kind of person that if donald trump isn't listening to his advice, my guess would walk out pretty quickly. >> well, we shall see if that happens. i think several other people should have done that a long time ago. thank you so much for being with us, matt. greatly appreciate it. >> thank you. >> and we appreciate you all watching this morning. we will leave you with pictures of donald trump preparing to leave israel from saudi arabia to israel, and now from israel he will be going to rome and tomorrow morning we will bring you coverage of the president of the united states visitings the pope at the vatican. right now, let's have continuing

coverage with stephanie ruhle picking it up right now. >> thanks so much, joe. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle. much to cover. we're watching br we're watching breaking news on three fronts. terror at the concert, isis already claiming responsibility after more than 22 are killed at an ariana grande show in manchester, england. >> oh, my god. >> the suicide bomber dead, one arrest this morning. >> this attack stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardest, deliberately targeting defenseless children. in the middle east the president weighs in. >> so many young, beautiful, innocent people, living and enjoying their lives, murdered by evil losers. >> the president taking off this hour for rome and then the vatican, after meeting with the palestinian leader trying to