which has cinemas and casinos and shopping and restaurants, running in panic, plumes of smoke appearing above this shopping center. and people who have been running out have been covered in soot on their faces. that's some of the images we're seeing. remember, katy, as you just mentioned, this is a country that is under siege from isis. president rodrigo duterte has declared a state of emergency in the country, also in his area of mindenau. it's been covered by movements of islamist movements and now by the islamic state of isis. indeed, it's too early to say if this is even an attack at all. we can say that philippines right now is facing a state of internal war and lots of violence in the southern part of the country.

this means that the capital manila and any tourist spots like this place could be a major target. >> matt, it's unusual to call an isis attack so soon because isis doesn't usually claim their attacks beforehand. it usually takes about 12 to 24 hours for them to do so. is there any indication beyond what we're seeing on social media about what this could be and the images we're seeing, and we're seeing some right now. these images of what appear to be injured people. what more can you tell us? >> well, katy, we're trying to firm up a lot of this information. again, this is just happening right now as we speak. but some of the smoeshl media images ai am -- social media and some of the comments we've seen, there has been images of gunfire, explosion, and again, smoke rising from this shopping center and casino center. but at the same time, it's hard to tell whether this is even an attack at all. there's been no statements from the hotels that we've been calling around the area, and it

seems as though this is too fluid of a situation to really nail down whether or not this is actually a terrorist attack, who might be behind it, or whether it's an attack at all, as i mentioned. this could be just about any sort of accident, fire, some sort of industrial incident, and it's not quite clear whether this was intended in anger or in malice. so nbc news is trying to firm up all of those details. right now all we can tell you is what we're seeing and hearing from the scene from people who are there. those images are what you're seeing on screen now. katy? >> it is important to remind our viewers that nbc news has not confirmed any of this. so far all we know is what we're seeing on social media, and that is, you know, part of both the pros and cons of social media nowadays in our age where we can get information very quickly but sometimes it's hard to verify that information in as quick a manner. we're efforting a reporter on the ground there, somebody on the ground there in manila to give us a little more context about this. it is being reported at least on

social media again, and this is unconfirmed at this point, that it was an isis attack. but it is also important to remind our viewers that generally isis does not telegraph their attacks. they don't say what they're doing immediately beforehand, they don't claim responsibility, usually, immediately, either. they take 12 to 24 hours. generally when we see that same thing we just saw when it came to manchester, the bombing up there just the other day, we do have nbc's global correspondent, chief global correspondent, bill neely, here with us. bill, i'm hoping you can just walk us through a little bit about context. i know we don't know much at this point, but the philippines is obviously a region that hasn't been the most stable lately, let's put it that way. the president there is somebody who our president, donald trump, called relatively recently and praised him for his crackdown on the drug war. that president has been widely

criticized for his cracking down of that drug war. extrajudicial killings, basically executing people without giving them a fair trial. he's been called an authoritarian, a strong man, a dictator, any name in the book you can imagine when it comes to that style of leadership. what can you add in terms of what we have been seeing in that region of the world? >> well, the philippines is one of, i would say, three countries that you need to look at and that have been highly concerned about muslim populations possibly turning from groups that want more regional independence, for example, to fully fledged isis affiliates. those three countries are bangladesh, indonesia and the philippines. in bangladesh over the last couple years we've seen the insurgency, the isis brand really growing, and people who

are opposed to the regime or people who espouse western values being assassinated. in indonesia as well there is a concern that isis could get a foothold there and that's exactly the same in the philippines. as you and matt both said, we need to be very cautious here. we don't know what's behind this. were it to be an islamist attack, that would be deeply, deeply concerning. because as isis loses its foothold in some countries like iraq and syria, if it gains footholds in more popular countries, we saw what happened in kabul yesterday, isis isn't being defeated simply because it's being driven out of mosul or raqqah. if it establishes itself in more rocco, a whole now ball game. inky, can you tell us your last name and tell us what you're seeing on the ground?

>> reporter: hi, most of the reports are from local networks and social media. what this confirms are there e were definitely multiple gunshots that were heard in the area and people started running out. so the injuries, they're not confirmed fatalities, just injuries of the people who rushed out. some claim that they had to jump from the second floor to get out of the building. there are no confirmations on explosions, but there is definitely fire at resorts world now because there is smoke visible from outside the building. there are also, from the people who have been able to get out of the building, they mentioned that they saw several gunmen whose faces were covered. they weren't specific if they were ski masks or just other

masks. >> inky, i'm sorry to interrupt. this resort, this casino, can you tell us what this resort is like? is there any indication on the local media you're watching that this could be a civilian criminal? >> pardon me? >> could this be a botched robbery? we're getting images, and bear with me, because this is all happening as we speak. tell us about this casino and any information from local reports about whether this could be some sort of botched robbery. >> yes, there is no indication that this was a botched robbery. it's a bit more difficult to get information now because they've already locked down the area. and so all of the media and press cannot even go near the

entrance of resorts world currently. >> who goes to resorts world? is it locals, tourists? >> reporter: it's mostly local tourists, and especially in the evening. it's really just a casino that's open at resorts world. it's an integrated complex, so there are, you know, shops, restaurants, and then what's open 24 hours is the casino. if the gunfire started at midnight, then that means it was just the casino patrons that were running out. the vip area is on a higher floor, so i think they mentioned that is where the fire had started, on the higher floors. not on the ground floor. >> inky, do we have any confirmations of fatalities? i couldn't quite understand you before. >> i'm sorry.

no, there are no confirmed fatalities, just injured people who got injured on their way out. >> now, inky, tell me about the unrest in your country. >> currently there is the trouble happening down in southern philippines in ramawi city. there is a group that the military is trying to quell. they said that they have most of the area secured, and there's just a little bit more. i mean, there's just a smaller number now of these people. but they are in the area, so they are still trying to evacuate all the civilians who are still in marawi city.

that and there is still the continuing drug war of the president throughout the country. >> inky -- >> also, lockdown has been declared on the whole region. >> got it. thank you for telling us what is happening from your vantage point in the philippines, watching local media. we're going to continue to keep an eye on this breaking story, and we will bring our viewers any developments as they come in. but for the moment, we want to turn back to the other major story that's happening in this country, and that's political. and the breaking news that is coming out of washington. the president has been considering whether or not to pull out of the paris climate accord, and he's getting a lot of pushback from some big people in some big business sectors. 25 companies, including apple and facebook, took out full-page ads in major papers warning the president against exiting the deal. hewlett-packard was one of those

companies. ceo meg whitman, a republican, made an appeal on cnbc. >> please do not withdraw from the paris climate accord. this is not in the best interests of americans. we need to own the next generation of jobs, and whether that's clean energy or 3d printing or immunotherapy, this is an arena that america should lead and must lead. and i think this will be a big mistake if he withdraws from the paris climate accord. >> since it was drafted back in 2015, 195 countries have signed onto the pact. if trump withdraws, the u.s. would only join nicaragua, who didn't think the deal went far enough, and syria, who is currently embroiled in its own civil war, as the only countries refusing to commit to this deal. here with me on set, again, nbc chief global correspondent bill neely, who is playing all positions on the field for us. bill, this paris climate accord, i mean, the president wants to make this something of a reality

show, a will he or won't he build anticipation to a major announcement at the rose garden. but this is a lot larger than just a will he or won't he debate, this is the fate of this planet, it's also the fate of how the united states plans to live in a world with other countries. >> exactly. as mitt romney put it yesterday, this is not just about the future of the planet, this is about america's global leadership. the reaction we expect at 3:00, it's anywhere between deep, deep concern and complete horror. horror that the united states, which over the last 40, 50 years has been the world's biggest emitter of carbon gas is not pulling out and leaving the poorer countries to deal with the problem. china is now the world's biggest

polluter and it takes a lot to make china look good. china is standing up with the european union and the european union is saying they're ready to stand up to the vacuum created by the united states. >> i want to know why that's significant. donald trump said he wants to create jobs. that's what he said during the campaign and that's what i believe the argument will be if he decides to pull out. if china takes a leadership role and is the forefront of this, how is that going to affect the job market? are we going to lose out on technology? what is that going to look like? >> it's interesting that martin schultz, who is the candidate in the german election, has said this has trade implications to the united states, because if the united states pulls out, its companies will have a competitive advantage and it shouldn't expect the same trade agreements with the european union simply to remain as they are. so it's got political ramifications, moral ramifications, but trade ramifications as well.

and, you know, as you say, china is now investing in new technologies as the united states and donald trump looks like it's taking a giant leap backwards toward coal. so west virginia and the coal miners may be happy. the rest of the world isn't. >> let's bring in u.s. special envoy for climate change who is a top climate negotiator for president obama, and also former rnc chairman. michael, i want to start with you. the president says he wants to protect jobs. bill and i were just talking about this. i've had this conversation now with anne thompson as well, our chief environmental correspondent. do the republicans fundamentally believe that they can create more jobs by not being a part of a global alliance with countries to create new technology to move this country forward? >> i don't believe that's necessarily so. i think that in the long run, in fact, there are certainly

coal-related industries and companies that have asked that the president not pull out of this agreement because of that very point, the impact that it could have on clean coal efforts and a whole bunch of other things these industries are trying to move into, knowing the realities of coal. so i think that a lot of republicans would probably argue that the president should, you know, hold his powder here a little bit, stay in the game so you have the leverage to make sure that the concerns you have in the out years, beyond year 1 and year 2 of this accord, that all the partners adhere to it, which is voluntary, katy. i think at the end of the day giving up our leverage is something we as americans should be concerned about and the administration should be concerned about in the first instance but apparently is not. >> michael, why would he want to? >> i think there are other voices, other interests that seem to be that going down this

road unfairly positions the marketplace vis-a-vis the global marketplace and puts us at a competitive disadvantage. i don't know where all those facts bear that out. i've not seen any evidence of that since the accord really hasn't kicked in yet, so to speak. so i think a lot of this is worrying about what may happen, which is again why i made the argument to stay in the game so you can protect against that and actually position the american economy to be the global leader, particularly in this new and emerging market around renewable energies, et cetera. >> todd, this is as michael just said, as we've been reporting, a voluntary agreement. these are not hard and fast rules. the president, if he wanted to, could stay in the deal and roll back the commitments that this country has made to reduce emissions. tell us about the deal and do you believe that this administration fully understands

what it is? >> well, katy, thanks very much. it's a pleasure to be here. look, this is an excellent deal for the world and an excellent deal for the united states. we got pretty much exactly what we wanted in this deal. it's ambitious, it's built on a bottom-up structure so every country gets to design their own program. it's nationally determined. we broke through the firewall that had existed essentially between developed and developing countries for so many years where china and india and others were treated differently, and now they're fully in the game. it's transparent and it's built on a kind of legal hybrid where, as you said, the targets themselves are not legally binding. so it's an important -- really a landmark agreement, and one without which you can't really address climate change. because climate change is a fundamentally global problem. you can't deal with it the way that you would air pollution or water pollution which are local. you've got to have everybody in the game, and for the united

states to be out of the game is devastating. >> hallie jackson is at the white house. hallie, what is the white house saying? >> reporter: we're looking to the president at the rose garden in just under an hour. i have to run in there and get all set up and we'll talk to you on the hour. this is something where you talked about a lot of it, the facts internally at the white house, those pressing the president to stay in. obviously the voices of steve bannon, epa administrator, are urging him to stay in. that's where we're leaning at this point. it's never really final until it comes out of the president's mouth himself, and this is not necessarily a black and white decision. there could be room for caveats, room for shades of gray. i was just said inside a couple minutes ago.

i expect to see a lot of people in the rose garden and i would note the president is not expected to take questions in this setting. it doesn't mean he won't get them shouted at him, but at least at this point it is not going to be a formal news conference. >> all right, hallie, i'll let you run over there. thank you very much. nbc's hallie jackson, todd stern, and michael steele. also bill neely. thank you very much for being here, everybody. the president is set to announce his decision on the paris climate accord if you've already forgotten because we've been talking about it all day. in just 40 minutes at the top of the hour, brian williams is going to bring that to you live in special coverage. up next, so many headlines about russia, so little time. the data set for the fired fbi director james comey to testify before congress. stay with us. is to always keep track of your employees.r micromanage them.

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nbc capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt joins me from our washington newsroom. kacie, everybody has been waiting for this testimony. everybody will be waiting for this testimony. it's happening on thursday. what do we know about what he could possibly say? >> reporter: it really does feel like the calm before the storm here, katy. look, we had a sense that this was going to happen yesterday because we had been reporting here at nbc that he had been cleared for takeoff, so to speak, by bob mueller who is running the special counsel investigation into all this. there was concern about what comey will or will not be able to say publicly, will he tamper the investigation for the government, et cetera. it sounds like what we won't hear from comey is any detail about what the fbi was doing. that investigation into trump associates and connections to russian officials, that is something that, of course, he has been extremely reluctant to

talk about publicly. it was a huge deal and he simply acknowledged that it existed in earlier testimony while he was still the director of the fbi. now, what we think that we may hear from him and what our reporting indicates is that he is eager to talk about instances where the president may have engaged in inappropriate behavior around these investigations, so that potential obstruction of justice that we have talked so much about. i think that's going to be the focus, especially for democrats on this committee. there are, of course, people inside the white house who want republicans to focus on other questions, other problems. we've heard a lot about unmasking of names, leaking of classified information, that sort of thing. but remember, this is going to be the senate intelligence committee. so far they've shown a better ability to work and play well with others than the house side. >> that's putting it mildly. >> i think you're going to see some tough questioning from both sides. >> nbc's kasie hunt, always the diplomat, which is exactly what

you need to be when you work on capitol hill. kacie, thank you very much. >> thanks, katy. russian president vladimir putin again denied that his country was involved in this election hacking. >> translator: it is my contention that no hacker will have control in any country. in syria, it is possible. nevertheless, i must stress that at the state level, we are never engaged in these kinds of activities. >> this has the house intelligence committee issued seven subpoenas related to alleged ties with trump campaign officials and his associates. those also unmask trump associates in the administration. trump tweeted today that unmasking is the big story. joining me is jerry bash, department of defense. he's also an msnbc national

security analyst and "washington post" bureau chief phil rucker. guys, two of my favorites right now. i'm very happy to see both of you. jeremy, let's start with you. james comey testifying next week. your initial thoughts? >> yeah, a couple things. if you think of the investigation overall as having three main pillars, the first is were there any violations of feder federal criminal law. the second is what are the big counterconcerns about russia meddling in our election. think comey will stick to the third pillar as kacie was noting earlier. i think he'll try to do what he did in 2007. his retelling is one he took on with the bush administration of warning of vasurveillance. he was dispassionate and he was

careful not to give up the fbi integrity. trump tweeted that comey was a nut job and that he lied under oath. and i think for james comey, who is a federal prosecutor, he wants to take that on. >> we're also hearing the subpoenas are going to include obama administrations who, quote, unquote, unmasked donald trump associations. the president asked to refrain from tweeting, refrain from bringing this up because it could complicate a case against him, it could complicate an investigation. he's not doing that. but the white house clearly does want to make hay out of this idea that the obama administration may have done something wrong here. >> i think so that's exactly right, and this issue of leaks, the intelligence deep state, if you will, violating trust in the president, it's something that's been on his mind and gnawing at president trump for months now since he came into office. remember last week he was at

brussels at the nato headquarters where he put out a statement saying ef going he wao instruct the department of justice to investigate these leaks, to fully get through the classified information and he wanted those people prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. so the white house is trying to focus the story in that way. obviously the russia investigation is looking much more at russia activity and any possible collusion with the trump campaign. >> investigators, we're learning, is also looking at another potential meeting at the mayflower hotel. i believe it was may, april or march of 2016, donald trump was giving his first big foreign policy speech, and in a meeting beforehand with a group of diplomats, a small, private meeting, they are now looking into a potential interaction between jeff sessions, jared kushner and sergey kislyak, the russian ambassador. al franken is already going hard after jeff sessions, saying that

he misled the senate when he was in his confirmation by not mentioning any meetings that he did have with sergey kislyak. let's take a listen to what he had to say about this. >> his explanation was terrible. and senator leahy and i wrote a private letter to fbi director comey in march asking them to look at if sessions had other meetings, including this meeting at the mayflower. >> and he's talking about a letter. here is the letter. i'm going to read it to you. we are concerned about general sessions' lack of candor to the senate judiciary committee and his failure thus far to accept responsibility for testimony that could be construed as perjury. we are also disturbed that the attorney general has not been forthcoming about his contacts with the russian ambassador since he was forced to disclose the two meetings following press reports.

the justice department did issue a statement. she called it unfortunate that anonymous sources were bringing this sort of thing up, but the facts haven't changed. the then-senator didn't have any private or side conversations with administrators at the mayflower hotel. jeremy. >> yeah, katy? >> you know what, i'm going to hand it off to you. >> it seems like amnesia is contagious because everybody in this organization seems to get it from one another. meeting with russians during the campaign is not in and of itself problematic. not disclosing those meetings on security clearance forms is problematic. but what is actually most problematic are decisions like yesterday's decision that was reported by the "washington post" at the organization that we're going to be handing back to russia these intelligence bases that were closed after we sanctioned them for meddling in our election. if you remember, katy, on december 29, that's when kislyak and flynn had that phone call about the sanctions, and this is

payback. >> and the video we were just showing you with the red circle around a man, that was the mayflower hotel and that was ambassador sergey kislyak. you can see him right there. i was at this event. >> i was there, too. >> yeah, phil, you were. this was before we knew the fbi was looking into whether there was any coordination potentially between the trump campaign. they didn't start getting interested in this until july, right around the time that donald trump had a press conference talking about how he hoped russia could find hillary clinton's e-mails. this was even before that. phil, the other story out there today, there are so many it's hard to keep them all straight, was your story in the "washington post" talking about the trump administration potentially wanting to give back russian compounds here in the u.s. in maryland back to the russians. these were places and people within them that were expelled by the obama administration as retribution for trying to meddle

in the election. >> reporter: that's right, and the important thing that stuck out to me in that reporting, the very good reporting by my colleagues here, is that it's not clear that the united states is going to get anything in return for that deal. so the trump administration appears to be willing to give back those two compounds, one in maryland and one in new york to the russians that had been seized by the obama administration. but russia is not coming to the table to give us anything back. it's a really curious move. it's not finalized yet, and obviously those negotiations are under way still, but very curious. >> phil rucker, amazing reporting out of the post. just a fantastic job to everybody over there, including you, my friend. jerry bash, you're always wonderful to have on as well. appreciate your time, guys. we're going back to the breaking news out of manila and what has been happening there. explosions and gunfire reported from the area of resorts world manila. nbc news, it's important to note this, has not confirmed the reports right now, but joining

me by phone is aurora almendral, who is a freelance journalist on the ground there. aurora, talk to me about what you're seeing and hearing there. what is local news saying? >> reporter: the streets of resorts world are closed down, there are a lot of emergency vehicles coming into the area with sirens going. i think you can probably here it right now. emergency vehicles are entering. and i spoke to a survivor, a person who was there at the time of the shooting, and he said there was gunshots and explosions coming from the second and third floor of the casino, and he helped several people jumping down from the windows, climbing down with curtains or just jumping down straight from the windows. he said there were people with broken ankles, broken feet, and he saw at least one man walking away from him that was wearing a ball cap and carrying a

high-powered gun. so there's a lot of smoke here, a lot of thick, black, acrid smoke, and at the moment i'm not able to get close to see what the situation is right at the hotel, but the entire area has been cordoned off and put on high alert. >> aurora, are you in a safe place? >> reporter: i am. yes. >> i just to want make sure. >> reporter: i'm with the police. >> anyone talking about who this -- who could be responsible for this? and are the gunmen still on the loose? >> reporter: the gunmen are still there, as far as i know, though the information we're getting is pretty scant. most of what we're getting right now are from people who are leaving the premises on an ambulance, and at the moment the police aren't authorized to speak about what's happening. so we don't know who the gunmen

are and anything suggesting where they might be, which would be pure conjecture at this point. >> so what we were seeing a little earlier on social media were people trying to attribute it to isis. we're trying to remind our audience that this is not the way isis normally operates. usually they take 12 or 24 hours to claim some sort of attack. but is there any talk about terrorism or does this look like it is some local violence, potentially a part of the unrest that's been happening in the southern part of the philippines? has it moved up? >> well, i think that's the heightened concern of people who are on social media who are watching what's happening. there's been a lot of -- because of the sort of terrorist clashes that have been happening in the south, people have been warned

about this. there were warnings from officials prior to this happening that the terrorist threat might be moving into the rest of the country outside of the southern philippines into places like manila. so people are certainly worried because of the continued terrorist clashes that are happening right now, so this might be related. right now we have no confirmation whether it is or not. >> terror journalist, aurora almendral. thank you for your information and please be safe out there. we'll continue to monitor this story and bring you any breaking news updates as soon as we learn anything. we will be right back.

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this morning word that joe biden is launching a new superp superpac. which begs the question, is he planning to run in 2020? it's something the former vp has vehemently denied. >> i don't plan to run for president, but i do intend to deepen things i've done my entire life. there's a lot of speculation.

guys, i'm not running, okay? >> this morning word that joe biden a launching a new superpac. it all begs the question, will he do it or won't he do it? we have will he or won't the president with the climate deal, now we have will he or won't he run for president? >> reporter: just a month ago, the former vice president told me he was planning to run, and then a couple days later sort of begged off. i checked with a few people today and their answer is he never says never. but the purpose of the pac you announced is for him to have the availability to raise money on behalf of other candidates, to travel on behalf of other candidates, and to do work on behalf of the causes that he believes in. at the same time having a pac is also a way to sort of mark some territory in the democratic party when there will certainly be a very wide field of potential democratic challengers to president trump should he --

we presume he will run for reelection. not getting ahead of ourselves, but there will abe real appetite in the democratic party. we know biden wanted to run at one time, felt pressure from family crises not to do so. so this certainly clears a bit of a lane to say if there is an elder statesman of the party, if there is someone with the right of first refusal toward the nomination, perhaps joe coales. but in the short run, they say it is about promoting democrats who can help the party. always curious, always interested. he's one of the most lively, entertaining and head-turning personalities in politics because he often says things that get our attention. >> let's hear a little bit more from mr. biden himself from "cbs this morning." take a look. >> joe is not going away, and

you know that, all of you. he loves politics and he loves what he's doing. he said he would stay involved. >> i said mr. what i meant was mrs. biden, excuse me. kelly, this is -- there are those who will argue that this is not the democratic party moving forward, this is not the democratic party finding a new voice, something a little bit younger trying to turn the page. this is the democratic party falling on old habits because they don't have any fresh ideas. >> reporter: well, the challenges now for the party, we presume we're moving past the clinton era. we don't know what the obama era's legs will be because bid snbiden is a part of that, and you can certainly make the generational argument that the party needs new voices. at the same time biden will say he has been perhaps on the pulse of some issues, the working man issues, those who have fallen on

hard times. biden has always felt he had the right issues to run on, he just never got the timing quite right. he did run a couple times years ago. he was not successful then. becoming vice president certainly elevated his standing in the country and in the world. he's a beloved figure in the party now. once you put your toe in the water, that often changes the reverence people feel toward you as it gets competitive again. >> no doubt about that, kelly. >> reporter: the political animal joe biden is active and on the prowl to help his party. >> everyone liked hillary clinton when she was secretary of state, and then the appetite for her changed dramatically. not entirely, but in portions of this country, when she decided to run for office again. nbc's kelly o'donnell at the white house. thank you so much for your time, kelly. we have a date, guys, about what could be the most eye-opening public hearing so far yet when it comes to the russia investigation. the senate intelligence committee announced today that former fbi director james comey will testify during an open

hearing next thursday. that means we can all watch it. among the questions sure to be asked, did president trump pressure comey to drop his investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn? did president trump ask comey to pledge his loyalty? and what was in those detailed memos comey kept on his meetings with president trump? joining us now to talk about this is former fbi special agent clint watts and nick ackerman, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, also one of the watergate prosecutors. so, clint, a lot of questions about what jim comey can or cannot say, what he will or will not say. what are you going to be keeping your eye out for? >> it will be interesting to see which way the committee takes it. remember, the senate intel committee, the one that i testified to, was initially on to the russia meddling investigation. that's what they were looking at. now it's also spun into is it going to be about the obstruction of that investigation?

so which way will the committee take it? i think the other part that everyone is going to want to know on the obstruction is, one, what was said during that meeting at the white house between president trump and director comey, what was document in those memos, and sort of the underlying thing we've forgotten about or moved on from, remember president trump when he fired him said, you told me several times i was not under investigation. that was the question, did director comey tell him th-- ge that by the president. >> will the president invoke privilege on this? >> i don't think he can do that. >> why not? >> he's already given his version of these conversations. once he's done that, he's in effect waived executive privilege. >> so he could not stop comey from testifying? >> no, i don't think he could. on top of it all, there is the crime exception to the

privilege. if, in fact, as it seems that these conversations were in furtherance of an obstruction to justice with respect to the fbi investigation, that in itself takes away the executive privilege. >> as a prosecutor, nick, what would you ask? >> i would ask comey, i would want to know exactly what was said in those conversations with trump. i would want to know about jared kushner, whether he had conversations with jared kushner, did he have conversations with others in the white house. what did they tell him, when did they tell him? put it all in perspective in relation to everything else we know about this. >> clint, the likelihood we'll get those answers in an open hearing? >> i think because the president, as you just mentioned. because the president has talked so openly about this and we know so much about it from reporting, a lot of it, i think, is going to come out during the hearing. what i don't know is, is there anything else we're missing in terms of these discussions? i would like to know how many times did these conversations come up between the president and director comey, or how often did he document his interactions

with the president? and moving forward, is that consistent with other intelligence heads, like admiral rogers, for example? i think those are the key things that i'll be looking for, and whether it's anything new that we haven't already heard about in open reporting or it's just confirmation of what we've seen that's out there. >> and last question to you, clint. he met with bob mueller beforehand to make sure he could testify. he gave him a yes, you can do so. what do you make of that? >> i think they were trying to make sure the actual russia probe through the special counsel doesn't get sidetracked or screwed up in terms of any legal basis. and i also wonder if former director mueller is trying to figure out what the scope is of his investigation, where he's going to focus. is he going to be including that obstruction portion of t it, ors he going to mostly focus on the russian meddling? figuring they decided between the two of them what was good to get out there in public to sort of settle out the current volatility that's out there

versus the longer run investigation on the russian side. >> clint watts, nick ackerman, thank you guys very much. in case you haven't heard, megyn kelly will be sitting down for a one-on-one vladimir putin. it airs sunday night with megyn kelly can. 7:00 p.m. eastern. and a quick update on the breaking news out of the philippines on a terror attack in manila. white house secretary sean spicer just tweeted a moment ago that president trump has been briefed on the situation. nbc news is still to confirm what happened around midnight local time inside that casino but reports suggest it was a shooting. some sort of shooting attack. we'll continue to monitor the latest developments right here on msnbc. but for now, that wraps things up for me. after just a quick, quick, quick break, brian williams will pick up our special coverage as we await the president's announcement on whether america is in or out of the paris

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good afternoon from new york. on the other side of the screen you see honored guests and members of the cabinet already arriving and being seated in a beautiful day in the rose garden at the white house. we're on the air, coming up on the announcement of the president about the paris climate agreement. some information, not shocking to say, is leaking out. a lot of it from capitol hill where the leadership has been given a heads up about what the president is likely to say. you see the teleprompter in the distance. we'll hear from the vice president, from the epa administrator and then the president. kristin welker to start off our coverage with an indication of what we may here in a few minutes. >> reporter: administration officials confirm that the president is expected to announce that he is pulling out of the land mark paris climate agreement. this would be a major reversal of yet another obama-era policy. to those talking points, we

expect the president to cast this as a campaign promise kept. he will likely argue this is going to get rid of overly burdensome regulations that will hurt jobs. this is something his supporters wanted to hear. they're going to say this is proof that he is in fact putting america first. what you had behind the scenes here was a bruising battle between some of his top officials, including his daughter, ivanka trump who wanted him to stay in the paris climate agreement. on the other side of this, nationalists like steve bannon urged him to pull out. what we're seeing here is really underscoring the fact steve bannon's influence continues to be strong here behind the scenes at the white house. points are going to argue that this is not only bad for the environment but that it could be bad for america's standing on the world stage. not only hurting it with key allies of course, during the g-7 summit last week, a lot of the leaders urged the president to

stay in the paris climate agreement. the pope urged him to stay in the paris climate agreement. but you will hear that cedes ground to china. so politically this will be a lightning rod. but his supporters are going to be cheering this announcement later today. >> okay. as you see, her camera position not far from the podium and the rose garden. the rose garden there, the news may deal with a different sub plot. among the folks waiting to talk to us is nicole wallace who will be coming up on the air with her show this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. what do you think will happen today? what's the meaning of today? >> i keep hearing from folks behind the scenes that are former diplomats and people part of national security am rat us that making china great again is

what he's doing today. china thinks they've developed a personal relationship with donald trump that so far is establishing them as leaders in areas where they were not known to be leaders. sort of -- china, china or india, the second biggest polluter. what kristin said is important. they will think that this is what their supporters wanted. their supporters he wanted innovation. i think the calculation is wrong. i know from the bush years that americans the both parties dislike greatly feeling isolated on the world stage. part of what was so politically detrimental to bush was that that wars in iraq and afghanistan isolated america this almost every policy. in interrogations and american voters, not just democrats but

independents and some republicans hate feeling isolated in the world. it doesn't mean they want to live by an international criminal court. that's politically deadly. but they don't like feeling deadly. they do like the benefits of being part of a global community and i think has the miscalculation. >> normally at this hour we would be preparing to watch ali velshi. ali ali, the president would be prone to listen to these people. >> not only are there a number of businesses, many of which took out an ad in the "washington post", the "wall street journal" burks there are a number of companies on board with not pulling out. there are two very distinct reason. if you're an oil company, these are the companies that took out the ads but there are 1,100 companies that have signed on.

>> some recognizable logos there. >> but the oil companies are all there. one is that oil companies, utilities, companies like that need predictability. what they don't want to know, if this was not a consensus agreement to pull out of paris, will the next president get us back in. we have to build plants for the next 40, 50 years. we can bake it square or round. the other issue is that coal is filthy. and natural gas is less filthy. and all the oil companies are in the natural gas business, not the coal business. so they saw climate as deemphasizing coal. sms that donald trump said he wouldn't do. they saw the deemphasizing of coal to be good for the natural gas business. so there are all sorts of unusual bedfellows around here. it is interesting to note that other than little bits in the united kingdom, the climate skepticism is a unique problem to er