this morning, president trump meets pope francis at the vatican at the vatican. despite clark in the past, the two find common ground. learning more about the bombing suspect who u.s. officials say receive trorist training abroad. former hea of the cia testifies before congress about unresolves questions involving trump campaign ties to russia. good morning, it is wednesday, may 24th. rome part three of the first official trip. pope francis welcomed him at the vatican. they had a brief private meeting in the papal library, exchanged customary gifts. the president and first lady are taking part in a private tour of

sistine chapel. shortly will head to a palace for a meeting with italian president, before later meeting with the prime minister. in a couple of hours, the president will tdepart for the g-7 summit tomorrow. the president and pope at times had a contentious relationship particularly over rhetoric and climate change and immigration. before the meeting pope francis dialogue allows us to plan for a future in common. through dialogue we build peace taking care of everyone. >> with all of that as ts background, joining us hallie jackson. good to have you with us. this had the possibility of being one of the more awkward stops on the trip. i believe it is day five now. how did it go. what's your take on how it played out? >> reporter: i couldn't tell you what day it , it has been a whirlwind week as you might imagine. as far as how it went, listen, i

think about as choreographed and scripted as it might go. there's nothing overly unusual about this. both men did their part, played their part. saw president trump come in, sort of solemn. taking in the majesty of the vatican. you see the images. when the president walks in, he starts in the courtyard, enters the residence, up to the papal library. as he does, goes through the hall of ambassadors, decked out with renaissance fres co,s, artwork that dates back. a powerful, important place in history. you can see president trump taking it in. he had that face to face greeting with pope francis, and the two of them had a private audience. by our count about 28 minutes. haven't gotten the official number. the two of them talked briefly. let me side bar. that's less time than pope francis spent with president obama on their first meeting, the two of them talked about 52

minutes. the reason, pope francis was in a time crunch, he had to come out here to st. peter's square which we are overlooking now and deliver his weekly papal address that he does every wednesday with people that have come to the vatican. likes to be out by 9:30 in the morning. he had that deadline on his mind finishing this greeting with president trump. i tellou this, as the pope was talking with president trump inside the residence it was being projected onto jumbo trons, big tv screens in st. peter's square. when the crowd gathered and saw the first glimpse of pope francis, they erupted in a big cheer, a notable moment. inside the vatican, the pope meeting with members of the u.s. delegation and gift exchange as well. yes, big differences, specifically on immigration, specifically on climate change. saw the pope give president trump his -- we don't know yet the conversation they had behind

closed doors and what was brought up and how much the pope may have pressured the president when he heads to the summit stay in the paris climate agreement. working to find that out and bring details when we have them. back to you. >> joining us now, correspondent anne thompson covering the vatican. talk about the significance of the gifts that president trump received from the pope, what are the significance of these things. >> in the pope's case, you can see what's very much on his mind. peace, that's symbolized in the medallion, olive branches going apart, space between being war, trying to bring the branches together in peace. that's one thing. the other is obviously the environment work, calls for developing countries to get off fossil fuels, stop putting greenhouse gases in the atmospre because climate

change is going to effect the countries first around the equator, they're going to feel the impact of it. on the other side as i've said i was struck by the gift to pope francis. he gave him five first bound editions of books written by martin luther king junior. when the pope spoke to congress in september, 2015, he mentioned four american heroes, abraham lincoln, the monk, thomas myrrh ton, activist dorothy day and martin luther king junior. i think it is that kind of detail to attention that will stay with the pope as many as things that happened in 28 minutes when they met. >> i find insights remarkable about the personality of the two gentlemen. you met pope francis, traveled with him. in some ways they're similar, in some ways they're very opposite.

in what ways are they similar and in what ways opposite. >> both disrupters. both were elected because they're outsiders. pope francis was elected to basically change the way the vatican bureaucracy works, make it more responsive to the global church as opposed to the global church being responsive to rome. donald trump was elected to blow up washington if you will. i remember talking to people in ohio who were like we are sick of professional politicians. this is why we voted for him. we wanted somebody different. but the way they approach issues couldn't be more different. if you look at pope francis twitter handle, in latin, bridge builder, that's what he is about. think about what was donald trump's signature issue in the campaign. we're going to build a wall and mexico is going to pay for it. that's something pope francis is very opposed to walls. when he was in the middle east and he went to the wall that the israelis built to hem in the

palestinians, he prayed there. i'll never forget the expression on his face, such pain what that wall represented. >> that's why i'm interested to hear what went on in the 28 minute conversation as we all are. >> all right, anne, great to have you with us. turning to manchester, england under elevated terror alert as new details emerge about the man british authorities say carried out the bomb attack in manchester killing 22 people. officials say 22-year-old salman abedi carried out the worst attack on british soil in over a decade monday night. a u.s. official says he was identified by a bank card found in his pocket at the scene of the explosion and an id card was later found in the rubble. this is video captured of police raiding the suspect's home in south manchester yesterday. you can see officers slowly approaching a door before busting it down. amid that raid and search, u.s.

officials telling nbc news the 22-year-old was taken into custody yesterday. that was his brother. it is unclear if he is actually connected to the bombing or whether others may be involved in the planning or are at large. as the investigation is continuing, theresa may is raising threat level from severe to highest rating. >> on the basis oftoday's investigation the threat level should be increased for the time being from severe to critical. this means their assessment is not only that an attack remains highly likely but that a further attack may be imminent. >> the move by the prime minister allows officials to deploy thousands of british military to the streets, some cases placing police officers in key sites across the country. while isis claimed

responsibility, there's no confirmed proof to back up that claim. joining us, correspondent keir simmons. good to talk to you. what more are we learning about salman abedi, and any personal ties he may have to overseas terror groups, training he had, any country he may have visited. >> reporter: well, one of the issues we're learning is how little british security services had learned about him before the attack, claiming if they had known, would have been able to prevent the attack. parents of libyan descent, and he had been in libya at some point as well as multiple countries in the past year. one of the questions for british security services will be how exactly were explosives used obtained. it is a large amount of explosives. some of the parts quite difficult to obtain in this country. that will be worrying them, where was the bomb made.

was it made by him. those are the questions the intelligence services in the uk will be trying to follow up because, of course, answers to those questions may help prevent potentially another attack. that's what officials are most worried about at this stage as to how far a potential network connected to the suicide bomber who killed 22 young people in the stadium behind me here, how far those connections may reach. >> we know his brother was taken into custody by police, are authorities searching for possible accomplices given they raised that threat level to critical? >> reporter: yeah, they are. that's exactly why they have raised that threat level to critical. i was in the area where his brother was arrested last night. this is an area where a group of young people some years ago traveled from there to syria to join isis. they prayed at the same mosque where his brother prayed and we

think also he himself prayed. there may be a connection there. you get a picture in this city of a network of radicalized young people, it goes back 20 years, even to a point before 9/11 where in a raid with the fbi found an al qaeda manual in an apartment here. so connections are deep and there is a real concern about what kinds of radicalization is happening in these communities. >> when you think about the fact thathisoung man was able to bud a bomb, acquire material, hard not to think there were others involved in helping him get that material, make this bomb. >> teach him how to make it. >> exactly. >> keir simmons live in london, thank you. in spite of increased police and military presence on the streets in england last night thousands flocked to vigils across the nation. the fund for victims raised already 700,000 british pounds. meanwhile, stories of those inside the jam packed arena, families with young children and

teens continue to pour out. >> i thought we were going to die. it was just horrendous. i can't describe it. it was an awful smell and just alarms going off, sirens everywhere, people running, screaming. and it was just crazy. that was it. i thought we were going to die. everyone was running for the doors. obviously my little girl was absolutely hysterical. >> the group tasked with identifying victims carries on. among those slain, georgina callander, in her second year at university. two years ago met ariana grande, posting this photo to instagram. olivia campbell, 15 years old, mother made a desperate appeal to find her after a friend was

locad treated at a nearby hospital, but her daughter olivia unfortunately was later found dead. and saffie rose was 8 years old. last night, hillary clinton applauded the love in the wake of the attacks. >> my heart as i know you feel the same goes out to the families of victims and all who were injured and traumatized and to that city which reached for love, not hate, in such a dark hour. and i have to say that i hope our country will always choose resolve over fear, never backing down from our commitment to work with those who stand against terrorism, also to exemplify the

same compassion and caring we've seen over the last 24 hours. >> later this morning, we'll look at how the rest of the world is paying tribute to victims of the attacks. >> the more we learn about each of the young girls and people there, it is heartbreaking. >> heartbreaking, seeing the children and parents have to go home to their bedrooms and see they're no longer there. i can't imagine. ll ahead. testimony from t former director of the cia and the warning given the government before the election. kyrie irving dominates game four of the eastern conference finals, reminding everyone how crucial he is to the cavaliers defense. those stories and more when we come back. got it.

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welcome back, everybody. former director of central intelligence agency, john brennan, testified. first we want to go to the

president's palace in italy. you see president trump arriving there, expecting to meet with the president at any moment. all right. as we watch those live pictures there, want to turn to former director of central intelligence agency john brennan testifying before the house intelligence committee. >> he told lawmakers under his watch investigators had uncovered troubling information about contact between russian officials and americans in the trump campaign. take a listen. >> by the time i left office on january 20th, i had unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the russians had been successful getting u.s. persons involved in the campaign or not to work on their behalf, again either in a witing or unwitting fashion. >> did evidence exist of collusion, coordination, conspiracy between the trump campaign a russian state actors at the time you learned

of 2016 efforts? >> i encountered, am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between russian officials and u.s. persons involved in the trump campaign. i don't know whether or not such collusion, your term, such collusion existed. i don't know. but i know there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not u.s. persons were actively conspiring, colluding with russian officials. i studied russian intelligence activities over the years, have seen it, manifest in many counter intelligence cases, how they have been able to get people, including inside cia to become trees onnous, and people that go on that path do not

realize they're on that path until it gets to be a bit too late. >> and new developments in the report that president trump asked two of the top spies for help disputing the investigation into he and associates. he and mike rogers and director of national intelligence testified before separate committees on capitol hill yesterday. the house armed services subcommittee did not ask rogers about the report. coats telling senate armed services committee he would not confirm or deny the report. take a listen. >> i have always believed given the nature of my position and the

>> wherever we get thunderstorms later today, especially near small streams and creeks will be issues. as far as rainfall goes, this we love. florida has a chance for 1 to 3 inches of rain the next two days. that's great. they had drought and fires. a soaking rain tomorrow in the northeast. east coast, unsettled. we would like to get it out of here before the holiday weekend. >> thanks for that update. more on the president's trip to italy. right now, those pictures live out of italy, he is at the presidential palace, meeting with italy's president. >> later this morning will head to brussels, attending a nato summit. live coverage this morning. stay with us. i guess i was born with a crayon in my hand. i decided to see if there was a way for design to play a...

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welcome back. i am yasmin vossoughian along with ayman mohyeldin. president trump arriving in italy's presidential palace moments ago for a bilateral meeting with italy's president. >> once that meeting wraps up, he will head to the ambassador's residence and meet with italy's prime minister. let's bring in claudia from rome. the president meeting with the pope earlier, give a sense how that played out in what i am sure was a well choreographed meeting. >> reporter: it definitely was. what was amazing to see, how president trump and the pope bridged differences. they started on the wrong foot last year with the pope saying whoever builds walls and not bridges is not christian, and president trump back then count erred it, replying it is

disgraceful with the pope. they met at the vatican all smiles, and made a joke when he met with melania. he asked melania what do you feed this guy, pizza? apparently we are told is slovenian dessert. bold move. i am sure there were no diplomatic incidents, they were all smiles. in all seriousness, then met privately for 28 minutes. we still don't know what was discussed, haven't been told by the vatican yet. surely they must have touched on some of the differences that they had on subjects like climate change, refugees and migrants. >> despite not having officially met before today, the president and the pope had at times a contentious relationship, particularly over the president's rhetoric on issues like climate change and

immigration. pope francis is an outspoken proponent of pro-immigrant policies, often tweets support using bible references. in one instance during the campaign, the pope said about the proposed border wall with mexico, quote, a person who thinks about building walls, whether they may be and not building bridges is not a christian, to much trump gave a response at a campaign rally. take a listen. >> the pope is being told donald trump is not a nice person, okay? donald trump is a very nice person. for a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful. no leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith. >> trump expanded on that in a facebook post, writing in response to the pope, if and when the vatican is attacked by isis, which everyone knows is isis's ultimate trophy, i promise the pop would wish and pray donald trump would have been president because this would not have happened.

however, yesterday before the meeting pope francis tweeted dialogue allows us to plan for a future in common, through dialogue we build peace, taking care of everyone. >> let's bring back anne thompson. laughing about the pizza comment. obviously the pope has a sense of humor. >> he does. >> what do you feed this guy. >> he has a great sense of humor, it is one of the disarming things about him. he is pope, leader of the catholic church, $1.2 billion people, yet he has that ability to make people laugh. it's a very different kind of charisma. people that meet with donald trump privately, told this bombastic loud person you see in front of the cameras is very, very charming one on one. pope francis is a very humble person. his charisma i think is in his authenticity, if you will, and that draws you in. so it is kind of fascinating to think of these two people who have charisma in such very different ways meeting together.

but this is a meeting between two global leaders, two very powerful men who have things they want to british. one is pope, one is president of the united states. i think as you saw in that tweet, certainly as we saw when pope francis was asked about his meeting with donald trump a couple weeks ago as he was flying back from fatema, he wanted to find places to listen first, he would never judge a person without listening, and there's always an open door. where is there an open door for these two to agree. >> how much do you make of the fact when he met with president obama couple years ago was close to an hour, president trump was about 28 minutes according to the pool report that came out. talk about today and how important a day this usually is for the pope, the fact he is meeting with president trump. >> usually pope francis doesn't start to receive people until 10:00 in the morning. this meeting happened at 8:30 this morning. it had to happen at 8:30 because

the pope, this is the day of his general audience where he goes out into st. peter's square and addresses the crowd and anybody can come. he tools around in the pope mobile, loves going through the crowd, kisses babies, blesses the sick. >> that's an important thing for him and the church. >> absolutely. it is the outward expression of his ministry. that starts about 9:30. this was always going to be a very short meeting. ooic i'm not sure you can compare the two times just because the pope had a hard out here. >> a lot of chatter online about the fact that the first lady wore a veil to visit the vatican along with ivanka as well, and they didn't wear that when they went to saudi arabia. is there something to that? >> it is called a manatee a. it is something that any time that traditionally when you met the pope, you wore black. you look at pictures of jackie kennedy when she met pope john

23rd, wearing a long black dress with a huge veil. today it is not that kind of requirement, and certainly pope francis is not -- >> it was a choice. >> a choice by them. for example, when we're on the papal plane, we wear darker colors, nothing flashy, and don't wear mantias or head covering. it is a choice. it is out of respect more than anything. >> you have been to the vatican, it is a hum bling experience to see the pope and to be able to tour it the way president trump will tour it. >> if this is the first time he has been to the vatican, think of all that he experienced. he is going behind the scenes, up in papal apartments, going through the clementine hallway, spectacular fres kas. this is where the pope has his private audience when there's a glup. then he goes into the room of small thrones, into the papal

library and then meets the pope. i think that regardless of what your religious belief is, when you meet someone who is the leader of a faith and the pope does have an aura about him, it can be overwhelming to some degree. >> that's what we talked about. no matter muslim, jewish, christian, whatever you are, meeting the pope and visiting the vatican. >> a humbling experience. interesting to seehat president trump walks away from there, if it changes anything on his tweets. >> what we don't mention often, how the pope also likes tweeting. >> but here's the difference. the pope does not tweet. as he said, somebody tweets for him. he will write down what he wants tweeted, but he does not get up in the morning -- i'm really sorry, but no. >> anne thompson, thanks for that. following the latest

developments on the terror attack. lewis is following that. >> good morning. england is under elevated terror alert as new details emerge about the man british authorities say carried out that bombing attack in manchester, killing 22 people. officials say 22-year-old salman abedi, british foreign citizen of libyan descent is the one that carried out the worst british attack on british soil monday night. a body was identified by a bank card found in his pocket and id card found in the rubble. this is police raiding the suspect's home in south manchester yesterday. you can see officers slowly approaching the door before busting it down. u.s. officials tell nbc news that the 23-year-old man taken into custody yesterday was his brother. it is unclear at this point if he's actually connected to the bombing or wheer others may be involved in the planning or are

at large. britain's interior minister saying salman abedi did not act alone, according to reuters. as the investigation continues, british prime minister theresa may last night announced that she's raising the terror threat level from severe to its highest rating of critical. joining us live from manchester, england, nbc news correspondent keir simmons. keir, what can you tell us about the latest on the investigation, we saw the raids being carried out in the past 24 hours or so. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. the associated press reporting this morning that there have been three more arrests in connection with the attack that happened at the arena behind me here. that could be significant because we know that british intelligence and security services are hunting to connect with others, and they fear may be capable of carrying out further attacks.

we don't know where the explosives were made or who made them. they do appear to be a large amount of explosives, some parts according to u.s. officials are not easily attainable in this country. so if there have been three more arrests this morning, that could be a sign of the british authorities managing to track

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welcome back, everyone. we continue to follow the president's tour of rome, now meeting with italy's president after an audience with the pope this morning. next stop is to the u.s. ambassador's residence where he will meet with italy's prime minister. >> we're tracking these stories abroad, and tracking severe weather threatening some 38 million people today in the united states. bill karins is here with that. what do you have? >> yesterday was a little worse than expected. areas of north carolina hit by a tornado. hit a fire station and splin tered it apart, put it in pieces. also a tornado struck in areas of georgia, too, knocked over a mobile home with one injury. in all, 11 tornado reports. we have pictures of damage in the north carolina area. this is ought reville. that structure was just destroyed. today again we're going to have isolated chance for more tornadoes in the southeast and more heavy rain. that's going to be the issue. right now, the storm system causing the problems is over the top of mississippi, bringing

rainfall from memphis to mashville. 38 million at risk for storms. all of florida, georgia, south carolina and north carolina. let's time it out. there's light rain from long island to new york city through the mid-atlantic to washington, d.c. that will be exiting early today. then we will watch the next storm. going through the afternoon, peek heating, when you get sunshine in the southeast, that's bad, energy for storms this afternoon. if you get some this morning, better chance for stronger storms later today. georgia, a lot of storms orlando to tampa. the evening ride won't be fun. then by 6:00 a.m. tomorrow, just about over with with isolated storms in florida. middle of the country is fine. heads up for anyone traveling tomorrow in the northeast, that's when rainyeather will be with us and airport delays

expected from new york city northward. >> thanks. new developments on the russian investigation concerning the president and former national security adviser. we will have that next. hey allergy muddlers are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® it's starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®.

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by the time i left office on january 20th, i had unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the rugs had been successful getting u.s. persons involved in the campaign or not to work on their behalf, again either in a witing or unwitting

fashion. >> this investigation is to look at those contacts mr. brennan spoke about and see what they were, how extensive they were, and what they led to, reacting to the committee expressing concerns about the trump campaign's contacts with russian officials. meanwhile the senate intelligence committee issued subpoenas for records from michael flynn saying he could be held in contempt of congress if he continues to resist. >> we issued two subpoenas to the two michael flynn businesses that we're aware of. flynn intel llc and flynn intel inc. with a specific list of documents because while we disagree with general flynn's lawyers' interpretations of taking the fifth, it is even more clear that a business does not have a right to take a fifth if it's a corporation. >> if, in fact, there's not a

response, we'll seek additional counsel advice on how to proceed forward. at the end of that option is a contempt charge. i've said that everything is on the table. that's not our preference today. we would like to hear from general flynn. we'd like to see his documents. we'd like him to tell his story because he publicly said i've got a story to tell. >> chairman burr said it is still unlikely the committee would grant flynn's requestor immunity. his lawyers say they believe anything he provides will be used against him. president trump will maintain his long time manhattan attorney mark cass wits. he's represented trump for more than 15 years. he's mostly known as a litigator but his website lists white collar defense as an area of practice. when the president threatened to sue "new york times" last year,

it was cass wits who wrote the letter demanding the retraction which never materialized. when "the times" published his 1995 tax records last year it was cass wits who threatened . the attorney's most recent high-profile case, defending russia's largest state owned bank for alleged corporate raiding. we'll have much more on the russia investigation coming up on "morning joe" when senators chris coons and chris van hollen join the conversation. >> the president set to leave rome for brussels. another jam-packed edition of "morning joe" just minutes away. stay with us. so you miss the big city? i don't miss much... definitely not the traffic. excuse me, doctor... the genomic data came in. thank you. you can do that kind of analysis? yeah, watson. i can quickly analyze millions of clinical and scientific reports

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welcome back everybody. you're looking at live pictures of the president wrapping up his meeting with the president of italy heading next to the u.s. ambassador's residence to meet with the prime minister and on to the next leg of his tour in brussels, belgium. >> let's turn to business and get a check on the financial world and how it's reacting to the big news overnight that

moody's downgraded china's credit rating. cnbc's generjemaah act man join. >> moodies is downgrading on the back of rising debt levels and the slow pace of economic reform. this all coming in the context of moody's saying it expects on going slowdown in chinese growt the years ahead while the chinese finance ministry did not ta ts lying down at all. they hit back at moody's earlier today saying moody's used an inappropriate methodology which caused it to overestimate the scale of the challenges facing the chinese economy and underestimate how much the chinese government will be able to do to boost overall demand and also to affect supply side reform. what's interesting is usually markets don't react that much to what foreign rating agencies say when it comes to chinese equities and/or debt. in this case they actually did. we saw a big initial sell-off

this morning which largely corrected by the end of the session. by the end of the session we saw the shanghai composite close virtually flat. still trading pretty much flat to the u.s. dollar right now. what is still suffering a little bit, though, is the uk miners which is propping up the bottom of the european indices, thought to be on the back of the news from china. the new york stock exchange, stock closed about 4% lower after the u.s. government filed a civil lawsuit accusing it of illegally using software to by pass emissions controls on over 100,000 diesel vehicles sold since 2014. louis, back to you. >> the trump administration's 2018 budget proposal was sent to

congress yet, being criticized by both sides of the aisle. deepest cuts to programs for the children, poor, disabled including medicaid food stamps and social security disability insurance. while some fiscally conservative republicans found parts praise worthy like the boost in defense spending, many thought to distance themselves. several top democrats pounced on the proposal immediately. >> the president's budget is a recommendation. we'll be taking into account what the president is recommending, but it will not be determinative in every respect. we'll have to negotiate the top line with senate democrats. we know that. they will not be irrelevant in the process and at some point here in the near future those discussions will begin. >> senator, can i ask you about the president's budget. is it dead on arrival? >> yes. and the commitment to rebuilding the military cannot be fulfilled

with this level of spending. >> yes, definitely dead on arrival. this budget if implemented would call us to retreat from the world diplomatically. >> this budget exists somewhere over the rainbow where the dreams of nick mulvaney, paul ryan and the koch brothers do come true. of course, these dreams are a nightmare for the average working america. when you add it all up, the trump budget is comic book villain bad, and just like comic books, it relies on fantasy to make all the numbers work. >> this is a budget that is immoral, that will cause an enormous amount of pain for the most vulnerable people in our nation. >> we'll hear a lot more about the president's budget later today when treasury secretary

steve mnuchin and nick mulvaney testify on capitol hill. >> that does it for us on this jam packed wednesday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. >> this week he's met with muslim leaders, jewish politicians and now the head of the catholic church. president trump will soon wrap up his quick visit to the vatican where he and pope francis met for the first time after publicly sparring on a number of issues, but there is no salvation from washington where the former cia chief gave the most compelling testimony today on russia's potential influence on the trump campaign. all of it coming as the terrorist attack in england raises threat levels dwide. we'll go live to manchester. welcome to "morning joe" on this wednesday, may 24th. along with joe, willie and me, we have veteran