good morning, everyone. i am dara brown in new york at msnbc world headquarters. it is day 185 of the trump administration. pardon talk. a response from the white house legal team about how seriously the president is considering the issue. veto dilemma. congress reaches a deal on russian sanctions that could put the president in an uncomfortable spot. headed to the hill. what to expect when the white house senior adviser jared kushner appears before the senate intelligence committee this week. and deluge, places hit by

severe flooding after getting almost a foot of rain. we begin with a live picture of capitol hill where gop senators are getting renewed pressure to pass their health care bill. this time it is coming from vice president mike pence. here's what he said at a fund-raiser hosted by the high school republican party last night. >> the opposition has been -- some people harbor the belief the democrats will help us clean up the mess they made but as i said and the president said this morning, republican senators must step up the plate after seven years and vote to repeal and replace obamacare. >> meanwhile, one of president trump's personal lawyers is defending one of his tweets yesterday in which he appeared to assert his power to pardon himself among others. jay sekulow told people at a conference in denver that trump's private legal team is not researching it because it is

not an issue. i don't know where this came from. there's nothing to pardon. what's going on in washington is an attack on the president. sekulow was referring to a "the washington post" report that president trump's legal team was looking into his ability to pardon himself and those in his circle amid allegations of his campaign ties to russia. president trump frsh off a shake up in the communications team hopes to shift focus to policy like defense, health care and taxes. nbc's kelly oh do'donnell has t latest. >> reporter: with cinematic flair and military precision, marine one landed on the deck of the new uss gerald r. ford. commissioned an aircraft carrier bearing his name. >> may good bless and guide this war ship and all who shall sail in her.

>> reporter: there were tributes to those in uniform, a nod to former vice president dick cheney and defense secretary donald rumsfeld. >> they look great. they look great. >> reporter: getting down to business, president trump urged congress to deliver on higher defense spending, but added another political plot. >> by the way, you can also call those senators to make sure you get health care. >> reporter: the president launched a twitter blitz, ten tweets, from commanding action on health care to attacking hillary clinton. he even noted that a president has the complete power to pardon. a power famously exercised by the president trump honored. >> will grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto richard nixon. >> reporter: but trup insisted the only crime is leaks against us. his frustration involves a new intelligence leak involving jeff sessions.

"the washington post" reports that u.s. intelligence officials intercepted russian ambassador kislyak telling moscow he discussed the trump campaign with sessions. a sessions aid disputed that and said sessions stands by his testimony that he never discussed interference with any campaign. the president publicly described afraid relationship with sessions over his recusal overseeing the russian investigation. the most visible shakeup happened inside the white house where a new communications director, wall street financier anthony scaramucci is taking over. that was kelly o'donnell reporting. let's bring in the co-author of the daily play book and reporter for bloomberg news. great to have you here. >> thank you. >> i want to talk about anthony scaramucci's tweets yesterday, saying he was deleting old tweets because he didn't want them to be a distraction. an hour later, this one. the politics of gotcha are over.

i have a thick skin and we're moving on to @potus serving the american people. what happened to the air kiss he blew friday. are these tweets some loyalty oath to president trump? >> the old tweets in washington could come back to haunt people. there's chatter about anthony scaramucci, whether or not he previously donated to hillary clinton's campaign. similar to his boss, president donald trump who was once a political outsider in new york city and gave to democrats and republicans, this is someone from that cut of cloth, so to speak. these are political outsiders. how he meshes with washington, anthony scaramucci is a well known force in wall street and in wall street circles, he is a little lesser known in washington circles. how he has forged a relationship with washington will be interesting to watch. >> daniel, anthony scaramucci is making the rounds this morning on the sunday shows.

what's his first order of business reshaping the messaging coming out of the white house? is he expected to bring in his own people, for example? what's his strategy here? >> rumors we hear are that he wants to clean up shop in the white house and put in his own people. we don't know who his people are because he doesn't have any communications or government experience, but i think the first order of business is to reassure the president that he has an attack dog who is also very nice and has relationships with reporters. the president felt like the white house communications shop was too overly focused on defending reince priebus because they were all rnc people. i think in scaramucci you have someone who is slick and a friendly face as we saw friday during the press briefing. this is a guy who understands the role of the press, he knows that reporters want to do their jobs but he has to defend trump in front of these people and

reassure trump that scaramucci can overhaul the white house communications operation. >> kevin, what challenges lie ahead for scaramucci, what sense are you getting as to howl he will handle them? >> this is someone that's backed by, quote, unquote, the original, so to speak, original staffers, those who were originally staffed by then candidate donald trump, and there was tension between the original staffers versus the more establishment type republicans. and make no mistake, sean spicer will be well connected even outside of the white house when he leaves it. this is someone with ties in the washington world and he will be okay. in a sense, anthony scaramucci with that business background is set to shake up the west wing, is set to bring in some of the new staffers, some of those folks who worked with him and within wall street circles, business community circles and take it on.

should know press secretary sarah huckabee sanders getting that promotion, someone well liked not only in the white house and on capitol hill, seen as someone who will be more at the forefront of some of the communications offerings. i am hearing from sources at the rnc, people like the rnc chair ron a romney mcdaniel and kellyanne conway and sarah huckabee sanders taking a more visible approach outside of the white house. >> i want to ask you about this. one of your colleagues is reporting on what the shakeup means for everyone in the west wing, notably reince priebus. what are you hearing? >> so in the private press briefing scaramucci gave a shout out to dan ska mean oh, those people are keeping their jobs, the other people have to reapply for their jobs. with reince priebus, you have harshly opposed scaramucci's pick, didn't think he had

government experience that was necessary and he needs to reassure scaramucci who has a better relationship with the president than rains does that priebus can keep his job and also reince faces a lot of internal bickering from inside the family because ivanka and jarrod, they don't think he is doing the best job. they brought in reince priebus to get wins on capitol hill and yet we haven't seen any major legislative victories. his knew the you afuture is in . he wants to make it a year. don't know if he canon th on th >> jay sekulow is down playing reports of lawyers looking into his pardoning power. what is the strategy for president trump bringing up this issue of pardoning? he was tweeting about it

yesterday. >> he was tweeting about it. he also was asked in a "new york times" interview, fueling speculation about whether or not special counsel robert mueller should be looking into his business assets. he told the times he didn't think so. next day, blook berg exclusively reporting the special counsel has expanded scope of the investigation into the business dealings, and of course it comes as jared kushner is set to testify behind closed doors on capitol hill with the u.s. senate intelligence committee. we received word over the weekend that paul manafort, former campaign manager and donald trump jr. will likely testify behind closed doors and meet with members of the senate on wednesday in a nonpublic hearing. all of this comes as the investigations are continuing. the president's comments continuing. and the president's legal team getting somewhat of a shake up as they look to develop a strategy.

look for them to try to focus on the intelligence communities, what they perceive to be conflicts of interest, try to politicize this as the investigation continues. >> daniel, let me review what gop congressman michael mccaul told andrea mitchell friday on whether president trump would fire robert mueller. take a listen. >> sort of looks paranoid to me and the fact is i know bob mueller a long time, i worked the justice department, he is a man of integrity, highly respected in washington. when he was picked, very bipartisan support for this man. we need to let him do his job, wherever that may lead. if he fired bob mueller, he would see a tremendous backlash from democrats and also house republicans. >> daniel, is he echoing sentiment on the hill or taking it a step further?

>> i think mccaul is totally right in echoing what people on the hill feel, if trump fired mueller. remember when trump fired comey, he thought things would kind of go away with the russian investigation and it totally heated up. if he did the same thing to mueller, it would be a bigger mistake because you could see capitol hill even though it is controlled by republicans reappoint mueller to be some independent counsel with the same powers as he has now, and it would totally back fire on trump. i think the president would be wise to let mueller do his job. if there's nothing to hide, he has no reason to fire mueller. >> great to have you both this morning. thanks for joining us on sunday. >> thank you very much. happy sunday. >> you too. and a standoff over security at a mosque in journalism turer.

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breaking news. in texas at least 8 people found dead in the back of an 18 wheeler in san antonio. 30 others taken to area hospitals, many in critical condition. >> air conditioning was not working, paramedics and firefighters found each of them had harlt rates over about 130 beats per minute which again, they were very hot to the touch, so these people were in that trailer without any signs of any type of water, you're looking at a lot of heat stroke, a lot of dehydration. >> police say all of the victims appear to be undocumented immigrants. they believe there were more people in the truck but escaped to nearby woods. immigration customs enforcement

is taking over the investigation and will search for them. happening now in california, 8 wildfires are burning across the state. the largest just outside yosemite national park, burned 75,000 acres, damaged more than 150 structures and homes. the fire is about 40% contained, officials say it could still burn for weeks. in the midwest, residents are cleaning up after heavy rain caused severe flooding. this is video from wisconsin and iowa. some areas are seeing nine inches of rain in a matter of hours. happening now. escalating violence in jerusalem and another day of protests. clashes erupted between muslims worshippers and security forces at one of the most sacred mosques. matt bradley joins me with more. what can you tell us? >> good morning, dara. these sorts of escalating tit

for tat attacks, it is never clear from the outset how much worse the flareups can become. the latest round of deadly violence shows no real signs of ending soon, the israelis may be look to go releesburg tensions. they installed video cameras at the entrance to the holy site. those could be an alternative to metal detectors used to scan worshippers for weapons. remember, it was arrival of the metal detectors that sparked days of violent protests that left at least four palestinians dead. friday, three israeli settlers were stabbed to death by a palestinian man that invaded their home in the west settlement. they imposed metal detectors and other security measures last week after three israeli arab gunmen opened fire and killed

two israeli police officers. since then, israeli police made dozens of arrests in a sweeping crackdown across the west bank. just this morning, benjamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, announced the home of the palestinian would be torn down. >> thank you so much for the update. jared kushner gets ready to be interviewed by the senate intelligence committee, what he is likely to reveal and what he will likely keep secret.

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jared kushner lied on his first two security clearance forms. they're not memory failures. these are very important meetings with the russians, one involving a secret back channel.

another one involving getting dirt on hillary clinton. you don't forget about those meetings. >> that was democratic congressman ted lieu, weighing in on the financial disclosure form that jared kushner amended. the revelation comes days before he returns to capitol hill to meet with lawmakers leading the russian investigation to sit down with the house yin tell committee tuesday. let's bring back daniel whitman, coar author of the daily play book. kevin certificate i will ee. thank you for sticking around. i appreciate it. >> of course. >> kevin, what should we expect from jared kushner's meeting with the house intel committee. is there a sense this will be different than the meeting with staff this past week? >> he will be pressed on the financial disclosures, particularly those that he has had to amend to get that national security clearance. there's been reports about his

financial ties, his amendments to these financial disclosure forms. that's really not just democrats but republican lawmakers on the committees are going to focus on. >> daniel, is there any gauge what it would take grassley and feinstein to force donald trump jr. and paul manafort to testify in public and what are they expecting in private this week? >> i think they want to get to the bottom of any meetings that trump junior and manafort had with that russian lawyer and ask if there's anything more that hasn't been reported. they want to know if they think those meetings are to get dirt on hillary clinton from a foreign government adversary. i think for them to testify in public, i think they're waiting for the mueller investigation and hill investigations to get further along because if you ask a lot of questions in public,

that might jeopardize those investigations to reveal stuff they want to keep more private. >> kevin, turn to the russian sanctions, this deal on the house that they'll vote on tuesday. reporters for "new york times" say mr. trump could face a decision he hoped to avoid to veto the bill or sign legislation imposing sanctions his administration has opposed. which outweighs the other from a political standpoint? >> this is a fascinating issue. this sanctions bill passed nearly unanimously in the senate and was kicked to house of representatives where there was some more jockeying in terms of just whether or not u.s. businesses would negatively be impacted by it. there was slight tweak to language in the bill. but democrats come out in support of the house version, including the top democrat and senate minority leader chuck schumer. now essentially what this would do is require more congressional

control and force the vote from congress, if they wanted to object to the president in any way weakening russian sanctions. it is a check on congress to the executive branch, should the president at some point decide to weaken russian sanctions. so now the president is faced with the decision to give up some of his power to congress or veto this bill. it has nearly bipartisan support from top lawmakers in both parties on capitol hill. >> daniel, real quick, what can we expect on senate health care this week? >> so they're going to try to start debate tuesday on a possible bill but what i would expect is that motion will fail and they're going to have a tough decision to make in how long do they want to keep pursuing this issue when clearly there are not enough votes as some of the party leaders openly

admit to even starting debate on health care. i think there's a lot of concern on capitol hill they're wasting legislative time that would be spent more productively on tax reform where you can get more support. >> we have to wrap. thanks so much. that will do it for me. i am dara brown. thanks for watching. at the top of the hour, politics nation with his guest mark morial. stay tuned. carrying flowers that signify why we want to end alzheimer's disease. but what if, one day, there was a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor? j.j. ramberg. join us for the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's. register today at alz.org/walk. and when youod sugar is a replace one meal... choices. ...or snack a day with glucerna... ...made with carbsteady... ...to help minimize blood sugar spikes...

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