senate. jeff sessions has a history of backing out of public open testimony, right before he has to do it. but right now as of tonight he's still on the calendar for tuesday morning. so -- plan your sick days accordingly. see you again on monday morning. msnbc live is next. good morning, everyone. i'm dara brown, at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's 7:00 a.m. in the east and 4:00 a.m. in the west. the president strikes back, saying parts of james comey's testimony at a hearing this week are simply not true. plus he gets asked directly about whether there are white house recordings from meetings with james comey. you'll hear his answer. both houses of congress are demanding two potentially explosive pieces of evidence in the russia tampering probe. is the president at odds with his secretary of state over middle east conflict that's boiling over? brace yourselves, those in the midwest and the northeast are facing a heat wave that

could be a report breaker. details now on msnbc live. president trump welcomed romanian leader to the white house yesterday. but just one day after the bombshell testimony of fired fbi chief james comey, it was russia and not romania that dominated the questions from the press. >> he did say under oath that you told him to let the flynn you said you hoped the flynn investigation -- >> i didn't say that. >> so he lied about that in. >> well, i didn't say that. i mean i will tell you i didn't say that. >> did he ask you -- >> and there would be nothing wrong if i did say that, according to everybody i've read today. >> so if robert mueller wanted to speak with you about that -- >> i would be glad to tell him what i just told you, jim. >> the president hinted he would give more details about the alleged recordings of the meetings with comey. a promise met with skepticism

from capitol hill. >> if there are tapes, you can believe they won't set the light of day. now the president is setting up he said/she said. it's a matter of trying to get to who's telling the truth. i believe on this one comey is telling the truth and the president is absolutely lying. >> meanwhile, the senate judiciary committee has formally requested copies of comey's memos, detailing his meeting with president trump. comey testified that he asked his friend, daniel richmond, a professor at columbia law school to leak the notes to the press. taking a hard look back at 2016, former vice president joe biden. politico reports that at a private event in utah last night. biden said he knew hillary clinton would lose a month before election day. after seeing a reaction to her in several key states where he was campaigning. for some, that's not a loss. here's counselor to the president, kellyanne conway at the faith and freedom conference

yesterday. >> i thank god every day, i click my heels three times and say she is not the president, she is not the president, she is not the president. and it helps. >> and president trump breaking his silence on the james comey testimony, claiming vindicaon and saying that he's willing to testify under oath about the russian matter. chief white house correspondent hallie jackson has details. >> president trump punching back. pitting his word against james comey's. saying he lied and willing to swear to it under oath. >> 100%. >> the president prepared to talk to a special counsel, calling some of his former fbi director's testimony not true. and some of it? vindication, he says. like when comey acknowledged the president was not personally under investigation during his tenure. >> no collusion, no obstruction. he's a leader and frankly, james comey confirmed a lot of what i said. and some of the things that he said just weren't true. >> like that now-infamous

loyalty pledge. >> in fact he asked specifically of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. >> i hardly know the man, i'm not going to say i want to you pledge allegiance, who would do that? it doesn't make sense. no, i didn't say that and i didn't say the other. >> comey said he felt the president directed him to let go of the investigation into fired national security adviser michael flynn. >> i took it as a very disturbing thing. very concerning. >> at the moment, it's he said/he said. but tapes might settle it. if they exist. something the president alluded to in a tweet last month? >> i'll tell but that maybe sometime in the very near future. >> he didn't say when. >> i'll tell you about it over a very short period of time. >> when will you tell us? >> over a fairly short period of time. >> ahere tapes, sir? >> you'reoing to be disappointed when you hear that answerdon't worry. >> defiant and aggressive alongside the romanian president, classic campaign trump. toying with the media. >> i look at the hands up there,

president, do you have this in romania, too? i don't know. >> leaving for his bed minister home. surrounded by his campaign crew. >> what we saw from him was visible, clear, relief and a sense that he could get himself back on offense by saying jim comey didn't take me down and a special counsel can't, either. >> that was nbc's hallie jackson reporting. joining me now, kevin vili from bloomberg politics reporting and jonathan allen, co-author of "shattered" about hillary clinton's 2016 loss, thank you both for joining me this morning. so kevin let's talk about the news conference yesterday. the president said 100% that he would speak to the special counselor under oath about what he told james comey. do you think that will actually happen and can he refuse if robert mueller asks him? >> well of course the president will have the right with his attorney to do what they feel is legally justified. the bottom line is that this white house, this administration, this republican-controlled congress cannot move beyond this issue until the results of the russia

probe are made public. and i got to be candid here. i've spoken with several top republicans in the senate and the house of representatives who have privately and now increasingly publicly expressed frustration at the notion they're not going to be able to get to things like tax reform, health care reform. financial policy. until all of this is done. yesterday i interviewed house freedom caucus chairman, mark meadows, ultraconservative in the house, who said he was unveiling tax principles. there seems to be an assertion, whether or not you think the president obstructed justice, republicans clearly don't think there's enough there. many legal experts say the same thing. there's without question the fact that the russians did meddle in the election in terms of cybersecurity. and that's really the big question now, when are democrats and republicans going to move forward to address that and to protect political institutions, health care initutions, military institutions and

institutions of american entities of all sorts? >> jonathan, i want to turn to what the president said. he said he was vindicated by comey's testimony. no collusion new york city obstruction. that's his take. do you think that's also the general consensus? >> no, i don't think that's the general consensus. what jim comey said backed up what the president had previously said. one of the big things was, that the, that comey had told the president privately, repeatedly, that the president wasn't under investigation but what you heard from comey in the testimony, if you don't have to make too big of an inference, to see what he was saying is that the president wasn't yet under investigation. i think that there, it was interesting that comey did say some things that backed up the president, he said some other things that did not. what's, what's fascinating about that is that the president wants the public to selectively believe that comey is truthful, when he's saying things that are helpful to the president. and untruthful when he's saying that aren't helpful to the president. and he basically got a president

here who has said a lot of things that aren't true in the past. and an fbi direct who seems to bend over backwards to make sure his reputation is preserved by telling the truth. even when it ends up back-firing on him. >> jonathan, i want to ask you about that "yet." because what's perceived as the most damaging part of comey's testimony. is there one line that could sink the president? >> you know, i'm not sure there is one line. i didn't think there was a smoking gun here. i think the problem for the president was that what comey did was open up a whole lot of, a whole lot of new questions or at least give us more mateal, more fodder on existing ones, so the interestingly, the person who might have suffered the worst from that attorney was attorney general jeff sessions. who apparently was in a position where he was going to have to recuse himself according to comey. long before he actually did or at least a couple of weeks before he actually did. which means the fbi knew something that, knew something about sessions that was not yet public at that time. i think the attorney general is

in deep jeopardy right now. >> and kevin, now to the talk of possible white house recordings. here's a bit of reaction on that. >> i've seen the tweet about tapes, lordy, i hope there are tapes. >> can you say definitively where there is a taping system that allows the president to record his conversations here at the white house? >> i have no idea. >> i can't comment on that and actually the president himself has said he won't comment any further on that. >> when will you tell us about the recordings? >> over a very short period of time. >> are there tapes, sir? >> you're going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer, don't worry. >> kevin, is there any conventional wisdom on the existence of recordings and could the senate judiciary compel the white house to release them? >> top house as well as senate officials are requesting not only the tapes, should they exist, but also the memos, which we should note that the former fbi director is saying that he doesn't have any more, or he

doesn't know where they are. this notion that the two pieces of evidence on both sides are somehow missing or they don't exist, that needs to stop and it's really been quite frustrating according to the aides i'm speaking with on the senate intelligence committee about that pace. that they haven't been able to get this evidence. and so that i think is the frustration that's really starting to bubble over. you have a president who is toying with the idea of whether or not audio recordings exist, you have a former fbi director who is, the histrionics of the whole situation, playing out before our very eyes. if there are memos that exist, they should be made public. and if there are audio recordings, they should be made public and that will allow this investigation to move forward but until that happens, it's like we're caught in the circle of a guessing game. the president says, refusing yesterday, defiant president trump, refusing to put a timeline to when he will say he will release the audio

recordings, if they exist. and the former fbi director not saying he's going to release those memos, either. >> absent actual recordings, this ends up as a he said/he said. because he says comey lied about him trying to influence his investigation. how do you face that? >> there's a difference, dara, between what trump has said, is there might be tapes and seemy, hinting that there weren't yesterday. certainly not having released anything like that to the public. and comey not having released memos to the public in that comey has turned over those memos to robert mueller who is conducting the real investigation into, into all of these matters. so the special counsel. so those memos exist and have been preserved. and whether the public sees them or not, you know in the short-term, certainly the special counsel is reviewing those. >> but congress should review them, too. >> well -- >> look, kevin, you know i don't disagree with you on that. it's perfectly reasonable for

congress to get them as well. but the truth is, that congress is a much more political body than the special counsel is. and ultimately the special counsel's investigation is going to go to congress. the solution here is not some sort of prosecution of the president, but rather if something is found, that congress finds objectionable, a political solution, which would be the impeachment, removal route. we're a long way from any of that happening. >> this is to both of you in the end it's all about politics, right? with the gop holding both houses of congress, what are the chances that a republican president actually faces even the beginning of impeachment proceedings? quickly, jonathan? >> low. >> kevin? >> slim to none. but again, you got to wait to see the results of these investigations, it's why i totally agree with jonathan that we've got to get more information out there. >> kevin developi, jonathan len, great thave you this morning. mixed messages from the president and the secretary of state. how could this hinder the fight against isis? that's coming up next.

turning to the situation in qatar, within 90 minutes of each other, the president and his own secretary of state appeared to give contradicting messages about the u.s. stance on the conflict. nbc's andrea mitchell has the latest. >> the president accusing a major u.s. ally in the war against isis of financing terror? >> the nation of qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism. and a very high level. >> slamming what he called qatar's extreme ideology. but only an hour earlier, mixed signals. his secretary of state urging calm, even calling on qatar's powerful neighbors led by saudi arabia, to lift their embargo on qatar. >> we call on the kingdom of

saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, bahrain and egypt to ease the blockade against qatar. >> rex tillerson saying the blockade is hurting military operations, with qatar home to 10,000 u.s. forces. >> the blockade is hindering u.s. military actions in the region and the campaign against isis. >> but the pentagon says that is not true. the embargo is not creating problems for the u.s. military. and more confusing signals since the saudi summit last month. on tuesday the president siding with the saudis against qatar on twitter. >> these messages are not in sync and sometimes when you're not in sync, it could cause confusion dangerous escalation in the region. >> that was nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. after a cool spring, a heat wave is coming. the northeast just one of the places where it is warming up. next, look atow the temperatures are rising today, and how it will be warmer in maine than in las vegas.

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would you be willing to speak under oath to give your version of -- >> 100%. who would ask a man to pledge allegiance under oath? think of it, i hardly know the man. it doesn't make sense. no, i didn't say that. and i didn't say the other. >> so if robert mueller wanted to speak with you about that -- >> i would be glad to tell him exactly what i just told you, joe. >> president trump refuting some of former fbi jim comey's testimony and expressing his willingness to testify under oath about his conversations with him during a joint news conference yesterday. the president is at his bed minister golf course in new jersey this weekend. and our kelly o'donnell is nearby. is there any sense from white house advisers that the president went a bit too far in his comments yesterday? >> actually, dara, no. they are not contradicting the president. that's one thing the trump team has learned sometimes through the hard knocks of politics. to not separate themselves from the president.

so it is unusual for the president to pledge such a thing to go under oath. presidents typically do not do that. but he is taking a very strong position, saying that he was truthful. contrasting himself with james comey. and we'll see where it goes. now of course the white house is trying to also separate itself from the particulars of the investigation by pushing all of our questions to his outside lawyer, mark kasowitz, who has made a public statement and he and his team will really be representing the president in all of these details. it will be curious to know if marc kasowitz thinks the president should have volunteered that. but he has done so and it's very typical donald trump in the sense that when he feels there is something he wants to say, he says it. d doesn't always take the advice that would be more traditional abo saying less than more. not tweeting, those kinds of things. so the white house is trying to get back on its agenda. the president was clearly trying

to say that he and comey see things differently. and that he is trying to also seize upon some of the things james comey said before the senators. that work in his favor. the idea that he was not under investigation at any point while comey was acting as the fbi director. and that that was something that had long bothered the president. that he had been told this by comey. which comey says is true and yet it had not been made public. so the president picking the things that comey said working for him. disregarding or refuting some of the things that don't follow what the president thinks is the script that he remembers. dara? >> kelly, the white house is hoping at least some of the russia questions will be put to rest and we're hoping to move on on to infrastructure this week. but that is not really happening, is it? >> well, you have to look at that in a couple of different ways. i talk to four governors who were at the white house. as a part of an infrastructure meeting. at the end of the week and they said that the president and his

team were very focused on the details of the particulars of infrastructure. i traveled with the president, to the cincinnati area where he was talking about infrastructure and meeting with local officials there. so if you look at the full day of the white house, they are moving on some of these issues that are their agenda items. they would much prefer that that would be the focus. of course in this parallel track, all things russia and the russian investigation have constantly dominated and competed for their attention and the public's attention as well. it's a problem for the white house without question. it's a challenge for them. they would love to be able to compartmentalize. and more and more, we're seeing the white house trying to direct everyone's attention back to the things they want to talk about. that's not an easy thing to do. we've certainly seen how the russian investigation has hampered the legislative agenda. other things that the president would much rather be talking about. but they are moving on those issues, even if they're not getting as much attention as certainly the white house would like or allies of the president would like.

>> kelly, you said that the president is in bed minister for the weekend. are we expected to hear from him at all this weekend. is there anything scheduled for him to be speaking? >> well he has a home on his d bedminister property so it's part golf course, part family home on the property and we're told by advisers not to expect him to leave the grounds there this weekend. but tomorrow he is hosting a, a fundraiser for a republican congressman from new jersey named tom mcarthur. and if that name rings a bell, he was one of the key players in the health care passage on the house side, trying to get republicans to come together, more moderate republican, who had not necessarily had a national reputation. but was instrumental in trying to help bring house republicans together, to pass that first piece of a health care overhaul or reform. so the president is in a way saying thank you by hosting a fundraiser for tom mcarthur

tomorrow afternoon. there will be people attending an event with the president, but it is not an open event. so chances are we will only hear after the fact what the president may say or how he might interact with those who are contributing to that campaign. >> kelly, thanks so much for that. i appreciate it. kelly o'donnell in new jersey for us. happening now, summer-like heat and record temperatures on tap for much of the midwest and northeast and the weather channel's janell klein has more. >> the midwest expecting a hot weekend. and the national weather service has now issued a heat advisory for greater minneapolis st. paul and much of minnesota. temperatures here will reach the mid to upper 90s with dew points in the 60s, producing a heat index, well over 100 degrees. a lot of concern here about keeping people hydrated and safe. mid-dot saying the heat could cause the roads to buckle and they're concerned about traffic congestion with people congregating at lakes and rivers and pool. the same system could produce

severe weather with, high winds, severe thunderstorms, and flash flooding. dara, back to you. >> janell, thanks so much. that will do it for me, i'm dara brown. thanks for watching, at the top of the hour, thomas reports takes over. "your business" is up next. go! go! go! [ girl catching her breath } [ bees buzzing inside vehicle ] the all-new volkswagen atlas. with easy-access 3rd row. life's as big as you make it. "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business.

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