thank you for watching this hour, right now on msnbc "andrea mitchellesporportsreports." >> back channel, jared kushner is under fire for allegedly discussing a secret hotline to

the kremlin. >> i don't see anything wrong here. >> i don't think it is standard procedure prior to the inauguration of a president of the united states, but someone that is not in an appointed position. it becomes more and more and more bizarre. >> angela merkel warning of frosty relations after donald trump's behavior in europe says times when the allies could count on the u.s. are over. the communications director is out, who is in next? >> people in administrations tend to leave of their own volition as well. they find working 18 hour days in different environments is maybe not what is best suited

for them. good day, everyone. the white house is setting up a so-called war room to get out in front of the stories about russian russ russia's influence on the elections. he was trained as a spy and sanctioned as the u.s. treasury after the takeover of crimea. they both close ties to vladimir putin that go back decades. joining me now is peter alexander. you were first to break the story about jared kushner being under scrutiny by the fbi, but not a subject of investigation,

but what i happening now that mike dupkey is out. >> it is important to be clear about the stories and scandal that continue to grow and es a collate right now. he basically said the president stands by his son-in-law. as for the communications director, we know this is a decision made, a resignation letter delivered on the 18th of this month. the day after a special double ordered for this investigation. now they're sorting out plans for a tran sils. it is unclear if this is the first of shaking up items, but

it demonstrates how challenging it has been for the administration to get on one message and communicate that message. ultimately, it goes against the effort to drive their own message and control the narrati narrative. i asked what would you like to be talking about right now between the vice president and the president today, the individual said we would like to talk ajt how good the trip was and the budget, but it is not using the bully pulpit to redirect the conversation. >> speaking of how well the trip wept. they called a state department meeting with 20 minutes notice,

and it was a foreign service office that is apparently also resigning very shortly, and it was very strange. we have not had any at all and suddenly they're having a briefing to try to promote the middle east part, but not the european part of the trip. >> i just remember reading your tweets from the president about the president being completely a.w.o.l. for no availability. >> he is the first president of the united states i know of to travel on a trip like this in decades without have ever having a news conference when all of the other heads of states were having news conferences at n.a.t.o. and the g. 7. your latest reporting and team on what did jared kushner do and what is this back channel? >> well, you know we're still

pretty much unclear about this, and andrea, as peter true his great reporting has shown, we just need for people to understand that we're dealing with a white house in complete disarray here. not only only disarray. but parts of the staff are demoralized because they don't understand what will happen. kushner was going to be charge of this war room effort and now it is being attacken over by steve bannon who is his mortal enemy. things are shifting arnold, we know that his former campaign manager, and dave bossy have been in and out quite a bit. they may or may not come in. all we know is the president himself is extraordinarily angry. she increasingly dissatisfied with jared kushner.

i want have not really -- i covered a few white houses here, i can't remember a moment when there was so much uncertainty day today about who would occupy what job. >> back in the reagan day there was a lot of controversy, but the first lady moved to bring in the top democrat and persuaded the majority and minority leader as well, howard baker to come take over as chief of staff. is there any talk about other big changes including reince priebus and sean spicer. >> there is a lot of conversation focused for weeks and months on reince priebus, but what is more notable is the in fact two former campaign operatives, coreyli bewandowski

and dave bossy, they were discussing what role they might be able to play in combatting the narratives out there. and an effort to fight all scandals related to russia right now. bossy said it was an issue of addition and not subtraction, trying to fortify the ranks here but if you bring in some of the campaign officials, the folks who do hand to hand combat during the campaign season, they take over other factions. like dina powell, it will be interesting to see if they play any role in this whouls or

atached to it somehow. so it will be to see hold up they handle that as well. >> they were going to have the new outside lower monitor the twitter feed from the president so he can't just tweet off of the top of his head. there was a tweet today, russian officials must be laughing at the u.s. and how a lame excuse for why the dems lost the election last taken over the news. i don't know whoa is monitorin that, or the tweet slamming angela merkel again only the trade deficit, but they clearly not gotten ahold of the twitter account. >> you know this better than anybody. when you have significant problems emanating from the oval office, the first thing he does is blame his communication

staff. every issue here comes from the behavior. the issue is they don't know what will hit them next. jared kushner's revelations. and we're still uncertain as to what his league team will do, and these lower level -- you have this incredibly complex set of circumstances. and the other thing, andrea, is priebus in a statement about dubky -- as we see now, starting with not quite the positive reasons that the white house is portraying. >> thank you both for starting us off today. and senator john mccain speaking on a trip no australia trying to

serve as a reality check about vladimir putin. >> i think he is the premier and most important threat, more so than isis. he dismembered ukraine, a sovereign nation, putting pressure on the baltics, i view them as a far greatest challenge that we have. >> the former u.s. ambassador to russia is joining me now. let continue on the subject of supt and this very unusual approach by this president towards russia. what is your take away? >> i think the russians are laughing at how easy it is and the president is helping with their agenda. the nato and g7, those are our

clubs that we set up to advance our national security interest and our prosperity. and the result of the trip is discord in both of the groups including extraordinary things that the chance rllor said and about being unwilling to continue to cooperate with the united states. let me more clearly state it, we can no longer rely on the united states. that is music to putin's ears. >> you know as an ambassador to russia, how important is the european union market to the united states? >> it is our largest trading partner in the world. and security in europe is good for us, by the way, too. people just azoom that if latvia spends 1.7 versus 2.0 is important, but it's not. what is important is long-term

stability. absence of war, peace through strength, and it last all been damaged as a result of this t p trip. >> let's talk about who is sergey gorkov. he was sanctioned by the treasury. tell me about this kremlin banker and trained by the fsb or kgb. >> i know sergey gorkov. i don't nope him well, but he is a senior figure in the banking sector and when he took over a bank it was considered a stronger person for putin in that role. but i want to point out something else, andreandrea. if i were giving you a list of two dozen people that i think could open up an important channel to putin, gorkov would

not make my list. i think we have exaggerated the tight role he has with putin because he went to the fsb scho pipon't understand why he of all people was t one that met with kushner. i have theories, but i don't know why, it seems very odd. >> why would sanctioned to punish putin if he is not part of the circle. >> he is part of the circle, but not the inner circle. his bank was sanctioned because it is a russian state-owned bank. of all of the people that i know are close with him, and could stalk about things like syria, iran, or terrorism, gorkov is

not on that list for me. >> we don't want to speculate, but you have, you have some suspicions about what could have been involved. could this involve the private sector? let's say. >> here is my speculative story but i reserve the right to pull it back. an ambassador who i know very well, it is his job to make contact with everyone in the transition team. i think that gorkov happened to be coming to the united states. i don't think it was for a special meeting, and the ambassador said let's put together a meeting with a guy close to putin and mr. kushner said yet. they didn't think ant policy, they don't have experts on aff, think it was that kind of thing, and out of the blue,

mr. kushner said let's set up a secret dialogue with the kremlin for your communication system. neighbor is not as niaive as that, or irresponsible as that, but i think we need to know the answers. >> and we should point out that jared kushner's attorney is eager to talk and will share information with the investigators so he is supposedly not hiding any of these answers. >> can i say one more thing? >> yes, please. >> i worked in the obama transition, you know what we were doing? we were naming our team, an assistant secretary, a senior director for the national security council to deal with russ russia, that turned tout be me. that's what the trump transition team should be focused on. we're to june and they don't have a foreign policy team in

place. let alone to know what their policies towards russia should be. >> michael mcfall, thank you very much. >> coming up, the next domino to fall. who is in, who is out, as the west wing braces for a summer shake up. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of. researchers of technologies that one day you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel, i want someone who makes it easy. booking.com gets it. and with a book now, pay later feature, i don't have to pay for anything when i book. visit booking.com. booking.yeah.

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is today's resignation only the beginning in a west-wing

shame up? . joining me now is the form er tp aide to george w. bush. i don't know if you have ever seen like this in the former president's white house, but it's how many months in and we have a firing of the communications director. >> it is a trafd decisional problem to blame the communication staff. in the worse of the iraq war, people were having that problem on the ground. it is an unfolding scandal, now at the highest levels of the administration, and they will have to answer that, they can't just make personnel changes to address it. >> there could be a completely innocent explanation, it could be just not understanding what

you're supposed do to. >> n a transition, and not understanding pitfalls of a guy like gorkov. >> you would have to be pretty niaivigaive to try and protect . >> this is what washington post reported and we have not yet confirmed that just to "the post" reported it and the "times" picked it up with several sources as well. what does it mean when the whousz communication director -- white house communications director, how do they get it under control without having the ability to stop his twitter habit. >> they're doubles down on a

confrontational and aggressive approach. more nasty tweets and angry statements. that they see as the problem. they have not been significantly nasty enough. that is the diagnosis of the problem, you mentioned howard baker coming in, that was a change in direction to have a different approach. >> the tower report and everything else they did, they cleaned up the mess and the president left after a second term on a high, which never would have been predicted when this thing first broke. what about other crisis manage? from your former colleagues in the bush white house. >> there is real chaos rooted in the style of the president himself. it is not just a staff problem. it is how he intervenes and make

it's more random and unpredictable nap is tough for staff, they are sometimes defending something under mined by the president in short order. you have a circumstance where people are goes to the white house and they're losing reputation, not gaining. i think the administration is not somewhere people want to go, you go in respected and you lose standing. i think that is a real problem in recruiting. these are formally the jobs that anyone would want. the best jobs in washington, but i think it will be hard to recruit people given what happened and how the current staff has been chewed up by the process. >> we want to nose the passing

of zbigniew grzezinski. and honorary member of our extended msnbc family, dr. brzezinski chied on frid-- died friday at age 89. he was part of the panama canal committee. he steered the white house through times like hostage negotiations. in a former state, president obama said you always knew where he stood and said he was an accomplished public servant and a passion in about advocate. today on "morning joe" former president carter remembered him

as his most loyal and brilliant advisor and close friend. >> it has been one of the most availableb valuable things in my life. my friendship with him. his booms and interviews were always positive and sound. he had the best, most brilliant person that i have ever zone. he was completely dedicated to serving the united states of america and very loyal to me personally. he is a great friend and you can be truly proud of him. >> our thoughts are, of course with his family, his wife of more than 60 years, amelia, a renowned sculptor. and his son ian, a pentagon official and our friend and colleague, mika. baa baa black sheep,

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newly released documents show that tiger woods was asleep in a car on the side of the highway and had to be awakened by the police around 3:00 a.m.

on memorial day. he had extremely slow and slurred speech. woods stated he did not know where he was. he changed his story of where he was going from and coming from. he takes several prescriptions. as part of the field sobriety test, he could not walk in a straight line, could not stand on his leg and touch his finger to his nose, but he scored .000 on two breathalyzer tests. he said i take full responsibility for my actions. i want the public to know that alcohol was not involved. what happened was an unexpected reaction of prescribed medication. i didn't realize the mix of prescriptions would affect me so badly. rich, first to you, what does this tell us about tiger at this

stage in his career. he was already in rehab trying to get back into shape. is this a major set back? >> i think it is an enormous setback. i don't think this is about saving his career. this is potentially about saving his life. he was out on the road, heavily impaired, asleep behind the wheel of his car at 3:00 in the morning. pain management gone wrong is an enormous issue in this country and no one wants to see this end for tiger the way it did for chris cornell, prince, or michael jackson. this can get away, and what we know is he has always been shrouded in mystery. he seeked treatment 7 years ago for whatever behavioral issues he was dealing with. he never answered if he is continuing to seek stream.

this raises some red flags. >> cindy, what do we know about his family situation. is there anyone close to him, a mentor, a parent, somebody who could be intervening? >> well, honestly, that has been missing since the death of his father. his children are still very close to him, but they're very young. he broke up with olympic skiier lindsey vaughn a year ago. he is in intense pain even though he had four surgeries on his back. >> i always want to take some time, cindy and rich, to talk 5b9 fran about fran deford. he was more than a sports

writer, an essayist. >> yes, one of the best things that ever happened to me is when he hired me to work at "the national." we meet to many people in our lives that you think meh, but he was better than advertised. kind, giving, funny, and a wonderful, wonderful man. >> and rich, what was his influence throughout, beyond sports, throughout the culture? >> i think if frank deford wrote something, a four-page article, you read it, if it was a 44-page article, you read it. he was that good. a giant, a tall man to begin with, but a giant in the industry and humanized sports. he was a gentle so, too, wonderfully missed. >> it was no accident that

former president obama awarded him, the first sports figure, i think, awarded the national humanities medal. suture a beautiful and engalega man, thank you for your knowledge on both subjects, thank you for being with us and taking the time today. coming up, going it alone? angela merkel's tough talk after meeting with donald trump. [radio alarm] ♪ julie is living with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. she's also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor- positive her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ♪

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>> president trump tweeted another slam at germany today. saying we have a massive trade deficit with germany, plus they pay far less. he was adding insult to injury after upsetting angela merkel and other allies at the g 7 summit. thank you for joining us today, corey. he is still tweeting about germany and angela merkel's comments are dramatic for one of america's closest allies. >> yes, he is acting as in there is no conseences for his behaor on his part of the united states.

and i think clans lor merkel is showing that that is not clear. you have an alliance, and the president, not criticizing vladimir putin, but criticizing our german al lies, germany, the central economic power in europe, and the ur biggest trading power, it just doesn't add up? >> i think what the president doesn't seem to understand is that almost everything the united states tries to achieve in the world is more achievable, more affordable and more achievable, and it is america's closest friends, our allies, that volunteer to help us achieve those things in what he is doing and the way he goes about trying to do it.

>>. >> at the same time you have the new president of france meeting today in ver. >> narrator: >> i think president trump's behavior is leaving lots of space open for other leaders to set examples that we ought to be setting. calling out the russians for interferen in their elections and encouraging the european union to pull together and be stronger. that is what is needed for the aggressive behavior to undermine the free world. >> and we are confirming having spoken to michael cohen, the

president's lawyer, michael cohen that he has received letters from the investigators of those received by michael flin a flynn and others who have been looked at as part of this investigation that he is now a focus of the fbi investigation. this has expanded, not gone away. you would think the white house would handle it by saying robert m mueller is in charge. and his very aggressive posture. >> i think as they said earlier, the administration's reflectixe are to be more aggressive and sharp edged. we are seeing that in response to the investigations that they're -- the way the president

is going about it is latshing ot and not providing options. hes making itde for allies to cooperate and not offering alternatives to the wrecking ball of the transpacific trade partnership. the united states leads best and most effectively when we provide alternatives for things we don't like. and the president just seems to always -- his reflection is always just to double down. >> finally, the paris accord that you just eluded to, we don't know what he is going to do now, but indications are that he is leaning against continuing the u.s. involvement of 1600 nations and we're the second

largest emitter. >> your point is a very good one, andrea, fair enough if the united states doesn't think the paris accord meets our needs, but what will we replace it, and how will we get cooperation for what we think is in our interest. president trump seems to not be any good, frankly. >> thank you so much, coming up, moment of truth, what france's president is saying about that hand shake. and an unprecedented move by the president on his foreign trip. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports."

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just back from his overseas trip, he is home and tweeting at his favorite target, the media. when you see the words "sources say" in the fake news media, and they don't mention names, it is

very possible those sources don't exist. but they are made up by fake news writer writers #fakenewsistheenemy! joining me now is sam stein, an msnbc contributor and ruth marcus, a columnist. a gathering of the fake news writers. >> thanks, andrea. >> all said ironically. sam, you wrote at some length about the famous handshake. let's see the macaroon handshake. tell me what you tyke away from that incredible grip. >> so i got a little deep on this assignment. i think i may have written 3,000 words on handshake etiquette, but i think h thinks these thin through.

he gives nonverbal cues and he likes to establish himself as alpha mail in this routine. they prepared for the moment where they come in with a firm grip go until he lets go. that was followed by another one where he tried to tear the arm out of mack con's socket. a whole psychology behind the handshakes, fascinated to break it down with some of the psychologists and the takeaway trump is someone who is keenly aware of the optics, wants to show this is his turf and leaders are coming to him basically. >> and routh, this is such a male thing. this male domination by handshake. >> this dominance ritual. >> you don't see -- >> no. >> not all men. >> that's right. >> it's almost impossible to imagine what the female leader equivalent of this might be. >> theresa may and angela merkel. >> it's not just the handshake. though the handshake is

fascinating and i can't wait to read sam's piece, but it's the shoulder shoving and getting your way to the front and chest puffing and everything else that goes along with it and it's this classic dominance ritual but it also feels very juvenile to me. >> well, it's -- the pushing and shoving to get montenegro out of the way, but i think i heard you, sam, saying it's not all men. >> not all men. >> i certainly defer to you on that. the fact that press corps traveled for nine days and never had a chance to ask a question of the president of the united states, when all these other leaders are doing heads of state briefings, it's something that we at the state department get ed to becaus we have the same situation on a lesr scale with the secretary of state not doing on camera briefings for us when he travels but he doesn't even take us on his plane so that's another story. >> sure. the economic of this for newsrooms is one element, right, where the trips are not cheap,

you -- there is an expectation of access and, obviously, that didn't come to fruition here. but yond that, you know, the message it sends when meeting with world leaders and auto crates cracking down on the press is a pernicious one. if you are not allowing your press access, not taking questions, what message can you send to world leaders saying you need to have freedom of the press. i remember when obama was traveling overseas, robert gibbs had to put his foot in the door as they were trying to slam the door on the american press, one of these countries and that was a symbolic moment and important moment and said america stood for the freedom of the press. when trump doesn't take questions he's not just hiding himself but sending a message to the world we don't -- he doesn't specifically respect that type of first amendment access. >> former secretary of state condoleezza rice once in darfur, in sudan, on the way to darfur,

refused to go to the trip until she got an apology from the foreign minister for the way i had been manhandled in a photo opportunity with ba bashir with the dictator there standing on that principle. we have rex tillerson, and one of the things we've learned today, thanks to video that was captured of him with rolling thunder on memorial day, no notice to the press corps that's supposed to cover him, he did have diplomatic security when in full leather vest and denim jeans, he apparently was riding with rolling thunder. he said it was a tribute to the military. an odd place for the secretary of state. >> ruth? >> you know, i think some viewers could listen to all of this and make it -- and take away that we're just being kind of parochial and whiney here and i want to say that's not what's going on. it's really serious when you

don't have the access important people starting with the president to ask them really basic questions. there are endless questions that we would like to ask the president right now and i'm sure there are endless questions that you would like to ask the secretary of state and so on the one hand, they're complaining about reporters allegedly making up sources, reporters i do not know of a reporter who makes up sources, and fake news, and then not allowing us to do the very basics of our job which is to quote on the record people giving us answers to important questions. so -- >> let me raise a few very quickly of unanswered questions, what is the president of the united states going to do about the paris climate treaty. does he believe in climate science or not? why would the u.s. be one of only dunn -- one of 169 countries and second largest emitter in the world not to join the paris treaty, were to back out after it had been joined, and what is he going to do about

cuba, will he cancel the -- as has been suggested by some people cancel the overtures and travel relaxation with cuba that was initiated under his predecessor and also most importantly, what is the trade deficit and what causes trade deficits. those are just a few of the unanswered questions from the non-fake news media. we'll be right back. more ahead on "andrea mitchell reports." 'cause different sides of you struggle with which ones to make. well, what if you kept making good ones? then? you could love your numbers. discover once-daily invokana®, a pill used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. it's proven to lower a1c better than januvia®. invokana® works around the clock by sending some sugar out of your body through the process of urination. it's not for lowering systolic blood pressure or weight loss,

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finally manuel nor yeah go has died at the age of 83. he was a paid cia informant for years while also feeding information behind the scenes to fidel castro in cuba and selling illegal drugs. president george h.w. bush eventually sent 20,000 troops into panama at the time the largest u.s. military action since vietnam. noriega escaped and was found hiding at the vatican embassy in panama city. american troops blasted to torment nor yeah go what surrendered. convicted in the u.s. court in '92 in what was called the drug trial of the century he would serve prison sentences in the u.s. and back in panama for the remainder-is life. remember, follow the show on-line on facebook and twitter @mitchell reports. craig melvin is up next on msnbc. hi, craig. >> hey there, good to see you. good tuesday afternoon to you as

well. craig melvin live at msnbc headquarters in new yor and we start with breaking news. crisis mode. the white house now scrambling to manage the multiple investigations into russian collusion. we just learned president trump's personal lawyer has been asked for information in congressional russia probes that's in addition to the fbi's focus on son-in-law jared kushner. also this afternoon, staff shakeup, the white house communications director is out. that may be just the beginning. reports this afternoon that a massive staff overhaul is in the works. is president trump bringing once exiled advisors back into the fold? and asleep at the wheel, some startling new details from tiger woods' dui arrest. what police report says about woods' condition when they found him in his car monday morning. but we start with that breaking news this afternoon, on the congressional investigation into russia's interference in the