hey there, everybody. i'm here at the brokaw news center in los angeles. the start of a new week and there is a new chief of staff at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. will john kelly be able to restore order at the white house that has seen its share of infighting in the past six months? >> what you have with general kelly coming in is somebody bringing a fresh perspective, very important, and the opportunity to bring the president's agenda to the staff inside the white house. >> president trump once again calling out republicans for

being able to repeal and replace obamacare. the president says the law will be left to crash and burn. >> i really think it's incomprehensible that we have a president of the united states that wants to sabotage health care in america and make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now. and a show of force by the united states after north korea fires another long range missile, one that could pose a threat to u.s. cities. begin at the white house where tomorrow begins a new era for a trump administration that often steams to be embroiled in chaos. john kelly, currently the secretary of homeland security, takes over as chief of staff for the ousted reince priebus. kelly is being asked to restore more discipline to the west wing. john podesta, who served as president clinton's chief of staff, says kelly has a tough job ahead. >> it's not like generals are used to dealing in the issues of national security, but he's a

very political environment. this has been a white house that can't get its act together internally, that it's a war internally with each other. and what they have to show for it is one of the most unproductive starts to a presidency. >> another white house begs to differ, with that, joining us from the white house is nbc's kelly o'donnell. i have to ask you, from out here in l.a., especially with twitter always at the president's fingertips, getting this white house to speak with one voice seems quite the challenge. is that the primary job that general kelly has to tackle on day one? >> it's certainly among the top missions for general kelly, soon to be chief of staff kelly as of tomorrow. the president's just returned to the white house here in the last five minutes after spending some time out at his virginia golf club, and last night he spent time with john kelly and presumably they are trying to get a sense of the structure and the mission going forward. a real turn of the page. this is a turbulent white house

in a hot political environment, where they've had a lot of things not go their way. they can certainly provide you the list of things they have accomplished, but health care is a big one they were unable to get done. look at the president's twitter feed, you'll see how much that is on his mind. also international concerns from north korea's capabilities and provocations with ballistic missiles, and russia now saying they want to have fewer u.s. diplomats in moscow because of sanctions coming from congress. that's a lot on a plate. and maybe a marine general with four stars is the right person right now to help the president kind of guide his way through this. you're also seeing that those who know the president well, like corey lewandowski, his first campaign manager, offer this advice to john kelly to not try to change the president, change the structure around him, but not the president himself.

the thing that general kelly should do is not try to change donald trump. chuck, as you know, i've said you have to let trump be trump. that is what has made him successful over the last 30 years. that is what the american people voted for. anybody who thinks they're going to change donald trump doesn't know donald trump. >> reporter: so, that's advice we'll see if john kelly will heed it and how quickly we'll learn if there is a new structure here. among the big questions, will every one of the big name, big personality senior type advisers from steve bannon, jared kushner, kellyanne conway, and anthony scaramucci. will they all report to the new chief or have direct lines to the president? that's part of the discipline that people talk about wanting to see this white house embrace more carefully. i have reached out to officials here to see if there is initial reaction to the new move by vladimir putin announced just a short time ago, where he is going to tell the united states 755 american diplomats will no longer be welcome in moscow. this comes at a time when vice president mike pence is in estonia today on a tour of

countries that were a part of the old soviet satellite nations. they have a lot of concerns about where russia is playing on the national and international stage right now. if we get updates from the white house on how the president will respond and when he will sign that sanctions bill overwhelmingly passed by congress to put sanctions on russia, north korea, and iran, we'll bring that to you. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell at the white house, thank you very much. we move on to breaking news. vladimir putin expelling 755 american personnel from diplomatic missions in russia in response to u.s. sanctions passed by congress. joining me now, former clinton campaign adviser, jess mcintosh, and nbc political analysis and "time" columnist elise jordan. let me start with you off the top here. what are your reactions to the first on the record comments by vladimir putin about the

expulsion of the 755 americans? >> well, it seems like donald trump's strategy of continuing to capitulate to russia and vladimir putin is not working in the best interests of america. we saw the sanctions bill pass. we don't know why he hasn't signed it yet. it's sitting there on his desk. it's one of the few pieces of bipartisan legislation that passed with an overwhelming majority, and he clearly doesn't want to do it. we saw the way that he behaved at the g20, where he was very preoccupied with making sure that the rest of the world leaders understood that he had a very special intimate relationship with vladimir putin and he wanted to publicly perform that at that dinner. i haven't seen anybody suggest that that is a worthwhile national strategy, national security strategy for us, and we haven't seen russia behave in a kinder, friendlier way towards the u.s. since he started making these overtures, so at some point we have to ask why he keeps doing this with putin. why the obsession with making putin like him. does putin have something on him, does he know something, is

he getting something we're simply not aware of? there's a lot of questions here. trump's behavior is very by d bizarre. >> december 29th i was on the air when the united states, president obama administration shut down diplomatic facilities in the united states, the russian diplomatic facilities. would this have happened far sooner, what we are seeing today out of russia, hearing from vladimir putin, had president trump not been the man to walk into 1600 pennsylvania avenue? >> well, you know, when president obama took the two dochs and expelled around 35 personnel, so you look at this proportionately and vladimir putin has definitely escalated, you know, his response to the sanction bill that is in congress that president trump, i believe, released a statement on friday saying that he did plan to sign it, which actually surprised me, because i was seeing -- i had predicted he would be contrarian on this

bill, given his previous deference to russia. but this, you know, we're seeing yet again as jess pointed out so many administrations come in to the scene and think that they will be the ones to change the relationship with russia, and yet again that just simply is not happening. this morning, earlier this morning on the abc network, the deputy foreign minister of russia discussed these sanctions. let's take a look at that. >> and i think this retaliation is long, long overdue after the senate the day before yesterday voted or rather on the 27th of july voted, so overwhelmingly on a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation. it was the last drop. if the u.s. side decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind. >> jess, how do you expect the

trump administration to respond to all of this, particularly with the ongoing, of course, investigation into collusion between the trump campaign and russia, both concurrently in congress and by the special prosecutor? >> i mean, trump has shown no inclination that he is aware how bad the optics are for him on russia, so i would expect that he continues to capitulate. perhaps this move by putin will make him not sign the bill after he had decided he was going to sign it. we don't know. anybody who predicts what trump is going to do, especially with russia, is going to be proven silly for having tried to do that, so i'm not going too far down that road. he has enough to worry about in his own white house. i'm not sure he has the infrastructure in place to make these kinds of important decisions right now. i don't know who would be pulled into the room or what process and channels those would be worked by. he might decide to handle it on his own and announce his decision via twitter. >> he very well might.

elise, 15 seconds left. important to reemphasize the president has not yet signed the sanctions, although vice president mike pence has indicated today the president is going to be signing them. what do we expect now from donald trump ginn this latest escalation? >> well, i mean, it would be surprising if he backs down now at this point, because he would be in a sense capitulating to putin, so i think it's going to be hard now that he's said he plans to sign the bill to back away from that, but as jess said, i would never predict donald trump's behavior when it comes to russia. >> i don't think any of us can. elise jordan, jess mcintosh, thank you both for being here on a sunday. >> thanks. still ahead, security increased at airports after authorities foil a terror plot to bring down a plane. but tensions rise as north korea launches another missile. how the u.s. is responding and the president's decreasing patience with china. ♪

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the united states is responding to north korea's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test. president trump blaming china, tweeting "i am very disappointed in china. our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions a year in trade, yet they do nothing for us with north korea, just talk. we will no longer allow this to continue. china could easily solve this problem." that's a donald trump tweet storm if i've ever seen one. earlier today the u.s. air force flew bombers in a show of force and also conducted tests of a missile defense system. janice is in seoul, south korea. janice? >> reporter: jacob, the u.s. confirms its successful test of the thad antimissile defense systems in alaska. they've been doing several of

these tests recently, as well as flying two b-1 bombers to meet up with fighter jets from japan and south korea. they did a low pass here in south korea before returning to guam. this is all meant to be a show of force against north korea. that 48 hours ago tested a ballistic missile that experts believe could reach most major cities in the united states. the problem, of course, that's causing a lot of anxiety within the region is the lack of clear u.s. strategy to deal with north korea and there seems to be a sense among u.s. allies that perhaps america won't be there to back them. so it's effectively triggering an arms buildup. south korea entering talks to get stronger missiles, as well the president ordered the swift deployment of antimissile defense systems that he suspended back in may. as well, japan is looking to add to its missile defenses, but this buildup is going to

infuriate china, which has been reluctant to help the u.s. to rein in north korea and diplomacy won't be helped by the tweets by president trump today, where he openly and publicly tried to shame china into doing something, so regionally there is a lot of instability and no clear path forward. jacob? >> janice in seoul, south korea, thank you very much. to protect and serve the american people, but only the way we're born. coming up next, the continued backlash over the president's decision to ban transgender people from the military. >> entire chain of command will always has, will today, and will tomorrow, and always should treat every single soldier, sailor, airman, marine, coast guard with dignity respect for their service and the cloth of our nation. mom,

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the pentagon is not making any movement to implement the ban until more direction is given and reports james mattis was blindsided by the announcement, who said he was appalled by the decision to unveil the directive through where else, twitter. the issue hits home to murkowski, who served in the army for more than 30 years. last week the washington post published her personal story in which she says her gender identity has nothing to do with getting her job done in the military. currently a member of the aclu board of directors, joins me now. good to have you, appreciate it. first, as somebody who served this country for as long as you have, i want to hear your reaction to the president's announcement and comments he made alleging cost burdens and, quote, disruption from transgender service members and what that means on the military's focus on victory. >> yes, first of all, thanks for having me. when i woke up wednesday morning, i was really shocked that our commander in chief

could turn his back on 15,000 service members that are, you know, get up and put on their uniform every day to go out and keep our country safe and free. the tweets really constitute a betrayal of longstanding trust between the commander in chief and the service members. and it's going to be extremely difficult to get that trust back, i think, because when you attack one of us, you attack all of us. >> i want to read from this piece you wrote in "the washington post" this week, you wrote, "when transservice members can focus entirely on their jobs, as a result their individual readiness increases, as does that of their units. you're essentially saying the opposite, serving openly as a transamerican increases military readiness. what doesn't the president understand from your point of view? >> well, i guess he doesn't understand that being authentic

helps you in multiple ways. it allows you to not be distracted by other things. you can focus entirely on your job, and as you said when individual performance improves, individual readiness goes up and has a result that unit readiness goes up, as well. >> you also mention the importance of getting the job done based on character ability, not based on gender identity, do you think you got any shot at changing the president's mind if he sees more stories like yours? >> i certainly think so. we have some very brave and very bright transgender service members that are out there. they are commanders, special operators, they are physicians, they are pilots, they are doctors, they are marines, and they are infantry officers just like me. >> you worked at the pentagon, and the pentagon is not taking any initiative to enforce this ban that was announced, again,

shockingly on twitter by the president. the army is also not taking any steps to implement this. take a listen to this. >> we will work through the implementation guidance when we get it, and then we'll move from there. and to my knowledge, the department of defense, secretary mattis, hasn't received written directives yet. >> that was general mark miller, u.s. army chief of staff. what happens next, and are their hands tied if the directive does officially come down the pipeline? >> yes, well, three tweets does not a policy make. we don't know what comes next or where this is going. is it conceivable that the president could go further? would he want to take a look at firing all the transgender civilians in the department of defense and the military contractors, as well, because they receive health care plans provided by the government. of course, they contribute to them, but, you know, you could take that a step further. what about dhs, who's charged

with keeping our homeland safe. is he going to fire all of those transgender employees? and the same could be said for the fbi, cia, and on and on. if the president does not do that, you would think the administration is valuing the worthiness of those transgender civilians more than they are than the transgender service men that put the uniform on to keep our country safe. >> the point's well taken. i want to briefly talk about "the new york times" report, i mentioned this earlier, jim mattis was, quote, appalled the president chose to unveil this decision through twitter and that was citing people close to mattis. after this report, "the daily beast" published a letter from 60 military veterans begging mattis to speak out, saying he cannot remain sigh leapt lent o policy. what's your take on that? >> well, i think the secretary knows the value of his transgender service members.

the president's tweet talks about disruption. the only disruption we're going to experience is if they give pink slips to 15,000 highly qualified transgender service members. >> all right, retired colonel, thank you so much for joining me on this sunday. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> you got it. both democrats and republicans agree something must be done, but will they come together? coming up next, a look at the chances for a bipartisan solution to health care. and sys of dry eye. one drop in each eye, twice a day. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. remove contacts before using xiidra and wait at least 15 minutes before reinserting. chat with your eye doctor about xiidra. oscwe went back toing bithe drawing board...s. and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat.

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welcome back, here is what we are watching at this hour. we're following breaking news out of russia, where vladimir putin is ordering the u.s. embassy to cut 755 people from its diplomatic staff. this move is in response to new sanctions approved by congress. the white house shakeup. tomorrow general john kelly begins his new role as chief of staff, which is expected to bring order to the white house, and australian authorities are

tightening security at airports after arresting four men suspected in a plot to bomb an airliner. prime minister malcolm turnbull said the plan appeared to be an elaborate conspiracy, rather than a lone wolf operation. now to the white house, where they are not giving in on repealing and replacing obamacare. budget director mick mulvaney said today the senate shouldn't vote on any other bill until it votes again on a repeal. president trump tweeted this morning, "don't give up, republican senators, the world is watching. repeal and replace." the president has repeatedly threatened to let obamacare implode, in his words. today health and human services secretary tom price said the administration would not allow that to happen on nbc's "meet the press." here's what he told chuck. >> yeah. no, our job is to follow the law of the land. and we take that mission very, very seriously.

as i mentioned, we've got 40 counties that will no longer have any insurance company next year. that's not a choice for anybody. >> joining me now, buddy carter of georgia. congressman, thanks so much for being her. right off the top, do you blame your republican colleagues in the senate? you were able to do it in the house for not being able to repeal and replace obamacare. >> well, you know, at the end of the day it's about finishing the job, and we did our part in the house, so, yes, it's very frustrating in the senate that they didn't get across the finish line, but look, we haven't given up hope. i hope that even though it would be a tough vote for them to open up debate again, a very tough procedural vote, i hope that they will do that and continue on. we're americans, and we don't give up, and we're not going to give up. >> does this defeat failure come at the hands of mitch mcconnell for not being able to build consensus within your own party,

or does it lie at the hands of mccain, collins, murkowski, who came in and made those no votes? >> well, certainly, you have to be responsible for your votes. you know, no one controls my vote but me, and my constituents in the first congressional district, so, you know, yeah, the three senators who voted against continuing the process, continuing the debate, they have a certain responsibility and we all have responsibilities as members of congress, as senators, as house members, of making sure we finish this. look, americans are hurting right now. this has been a failed experience with obamacare. we've got to resuscitate health care in this country. i'm a lifelong health care professional, and i can tell you that i think -- i still feel we have the greatest health care system in the world, but right now it needs to be fixed. and it's incumbent upon us as elected officials to do just that, to fix it. >> well, there's no doubt that

americans are hurting. as you've said, some have very high premiums, some don't have access to health care. we both know the president's threatened to stop forcing the individual mandate. this could destabilize insurance markets even further. that could hurt even more americans. are you in favor of those measures? >> well, you know, we have said all along that we were going to make sure that we did not pull the rug out from underneath anyone, that we were going to have a glad path, that we were going to have a transition period. that's been part of what we have said as republicans that we were going to do with health care, so, you know, the administration made the july payments for the cost sharing reduction. they've done their part. i don't know whether the president, if he says it, i suspect he's serious about it, but i can certainly feel his pain in throwing good money after bad, because essentially that's what we're doing with obamacare. look, we need to start over.

start afresh, and, yes, in a bipartisan fashion to get health care back to where it needs to be. >> sorry, so are you or are you not in favor of stopping enforcing the individual mandate? >> well, we in congress never approved it. the individual mandates, you know, listen, i'm opposed to the individual mandates. i don't think that we should be mandating from washington, d.c. -- >> but before a solution, should it -- before there is a solution, should they stop enforcing it? >> no. no, we should not. and i'll tell you why. we've said all along we were going to have a glad path. we were not going to pull the rug out from underneath anyone. we shouldn't do that until we have a replacement in place. unless we can't get that replacement, let's go ahead and repeal it, have a few years to get it into position, to get it to where we will have it in place for when the repeal takes place. >> all right, interesting to see what the president ultimately has to say about that. buddy carter, thanks for the

clarification, thanks for joining me. >> thank you. and let's stay on what's next in the health care fight. we want to bring in los angeles times reporter, curtis lee, also white house correspondent for mcclatchey newspapers. we heard secretary price say the white house is making clear that it is not done with that fight. we showed the tweet a moment ago from the president, where the president talks about getting 51 votes. kellyanne conway came on tv to explain what the president meant by that as his tweet translator. i want to talk about that. >> the president will not accept those who said it's, quote, time to move on. he wants to help the millions of americans who suffered with no con coverage. they were lied to by the last president, and when he talked about the 51 votes, the president is basically making the case that so many of the components of real health care reform, chris, require 60 votes, so he will. he will stick with it. >> he'll stick with it. so she's making the point that

many of the components of the health care bill require 60 votes. does he'll stake with it mean he's not going for the nuclear option? he just tweeted about it today. >> it's interesting to see this continuing on with health care and the push after friday's largely embarrassing defeat for the trump administration to see three republicans vote against this measure, and to see after seven years republicans have called on repealing obamacare, this has been in town halls, on the campaign throughout 2016. president trump was on the trail saying, hey, repeal this, and to see that defeat on friday, it was an embarrassing defeat for the administration. people inside the administration would say that. and now they are moving forward with it. will republicans change their votes? it remains unseen, but one of the things republicans and democrats don't want to rush this and seems this administration really wants to rush this repeal effort through and it just doesn't seem to be gaining traction. >> i think within a 24-hour span

you have the president of the united states let the thing implode, let's go nuclear. house minority leader nancy pelosi offered one side both sides could reach across the aisle. let's watch that real quick. >> i think that there is in senator mcconnell, one of his bills he had, repeal and replace, he had a provision that we can all embrace, and it was a provision to get rid of the cost sharing reductions, extend the reinsurance, which is very important, it has about short-term stability, long-term stability, and i fully support that and hope that he would advance that. >> so, is this a little bit of wishful thinking, how open, how quickly would mitch mcconnell be open to sitting down with democrats now? >> i think we still have a little ways to go before he's willing to sit down with nancy pelosi and the democrats, that's for sure, even chuck schumer.

this is a challenging issue. i mean, i think it showed how difficult it is, your interview with the congressman wanting to pull the rug from underneath the american people, showed how difficult it is for republicans to come together. but these tactics that he's making have a good potential to backfire. >> will mitch mcconnell stay in church, curtis? we have to go, but do you think he'll stick around? >> he puts all of his cards on the table with health care. i mean, right now does he stick around? he probably wants to move on to other things. they have infrastructure, tax reform. it's interesting to see the administration really staying on health care. >> yes or no, does mitch mcconnell stay as the leader? he can't seem to get anything done, at least for health care. >> i think he'll stay for a little while. i don't see an immediate replacement, but i agree, i think he wants to move on, but

can he? >> appreciate both of you being here on this sunday. >> thank you. we are following breaking news. vladimir putin responds to new congressional approved sanctions. more than 700 workers ordered from the u.s. embassy. next, what the move means for russia-u.s. relations. >> if the u.s. side decides to move further towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind. we will mirror this. we will retaliate. laquinta presents how to win at business. step one. point decisively with your glasses. abracadabra! the stage is yours. step two. choose laquinta.

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summit in germany, but now mr. trump is imposing tough new sanctions on russia in part because of the kremlin's meddling in our election last year. this is the first time we have heard vladimir putin confirming the exact numbers. he says there now will be an equal number of americans in russia as the russians have in the united states, 455 diplomats to be precise. right now, kendall covey, former u.s. attorney for the southern district of florida. thank you so much for joining me. of course, this skirmish is growing, but at the same time there are plenty of questions surrounding jared kushner, paul manafort, they were all in touch with congress last week. how much have we learned? >> well, what we're learning is this case may not be focusing, it may be growing and developing more tracks in the investigation than grand central station. that means one of the biggest challenges for robert mueller is how to focus this.

i don't think he intends for this to go on for years, but if in addition to the russian collusion or falsification or obstruction related to that alleged collusion, are they going to start examining a lot of different business transactions of donald trump or associates of donald trump, that could cause this thing to go way beyond, i think, what was intended and getting to the bottom of what happened in the united states election in 2016. >> this expulsion of american diplomats from russia, of course, not fit the narrative of donald trump and vladimir putin are bffs, as they say. how is this going to play into the ongoing investigation? >> all of this means the investigations with russia, which ironically folks on both sides of the aisle thought would improve are actually going to get worse and as we continue with what i think is unfortunately a more difficult negative relationship with russia, i think it's going to keep this investigation in the

forefront, and i think it's going to continue to be a cloud that for at least in the foreseeable future the trump presidency will not be able to shake. >> do you get the sense the worse is behind trump jr., manafort, jared kushner, that they are going to face more questions? at least in the case of donald trump jr., he's not faced any questions as of yet. >> i think up to now what we're seeing, the issue is if any of these individuals are other trump operatives in the campaign cleanly conspire with russians hacking into the computers, i think that issue is starting to subside, because we're a long ways into this and there's no evidence of that criminal conspiracy. what remains to be addressed is, of course, along the way did anyone lie, did, for example, general flynn fail to give information in a way that amounted to falsification about his contacts, his relations, and what happens and what are the consequences of that? and i think that until the issues of general flynn are

resolved and he has in some fashion had his issues resolved criminally with a plea bargain or whatever it may be and he has been fully interviewed by the authorities, it's going to be hard to get to the bottom of whether there was any collusion, because he is more centrally placed than anybody to know whether or not there was some degree of collaboration between the russian government and the trump campaign. >> as his situation, general flynn, as paul manafort is sorted out and their ongoing conversations with authorities, robert mueller, of course, is still on the job as special counsel. there's talk attorney general jeff sessions could be moved to homeland security and give president trump a new opening to name a new a.g. who could follow a trump order to fire robert mueller, special prosecutor. do you get the sense that would be perfectly legal in some way? >> well, some of it might be technically legal, but talk about a bad idea. and remember, the individuals,

respected republican senators that are saying, please, don't do it. you know, trump being trump might have got you elected, but those aren't just respected important political leaders. in a worst-case scenario, if robert mueller comes out with a very negative report, people like, for example, lindsey graham are going to be members or could be members of the jury that decides the fate of president donald trump. so it's a bad idea whether it's legal or not. >> all right, unfortunately, we're going to have to leave it there. kendall coffey, thank you so much. thanks for being here on this sunday. >> thanks for inviting me. the inconvenient truth about climate change and the man on the mission to share them. al gore's newest documentary about the state of the environment ten years on.

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>> the next generation would be justified in looking back at us and asking what were you thinking, couldn't you hear what the scientists were saying? couldn't you hear what mother nature was screaming at you? >> powerful stuff. that was part of the trailer for the new film "an inconvenient sequel: truth to power," a follow-up to the documentary "an inconvenient truth." a decade later and six months into the trump presidency we have witnessed a retreat in american leadership on climate change, including the president's decision to leave the paris climate agreement. joined now by the directors of the new film. i want to play a clip of the film that shows how local politics are leading the way to a clean energy economy. let's watch that, guys. >> how long have you been married? >> i have been married for two years. >> currently we're 90% renewable energy and when we go to 100% renewable we'll be the largest

city in the country that's real energy at 100%. >> i assume that the reason you did this is because you're rabid environmentalists. >> well, not exactly. the reddest city in the reddest county in texas and i'm a conservative republican, but our duty to our rate payers is to provide them with the lowest possible utility costs. >> money talks. >> wouldn't it make sense, the less stuff you put in the air, the better it is? >> yeah. >> i mean, common sense. you don't need scientists to debate. >> can i use that line? >> you absolutely can. >> i think i've heard the former vice president say that. i'd imagine, bonnie, this is going to be a hopeful film, you are on your way to the paris climate agreement, a huge accomplishment for the united states of america and the world, and then a guy named donald trump, president of the united states happened.

how'd that change things for you guys? >> you know, we did have to address it, because the film really spends a lot of time in paris and the real dramatic head of the film is about the paris climate accords and all of us agreeing to it and for the first time coming together and agreeing to get the carbon neutrality by a certain point at the end of the century. very complicated process that took a huge amount of effort, so, of course, when trump pulled out, it was tremendously devastating. we had to address it. we addressed it at the end of the film by acknowledging it, because it's important, but we also search to acknowledge all the incredible work we're continuing to do in the united states on a local and state level. you see this mayor, mayors, governors, ordinary american citizens are standing up and stood up in response to trump's pullout, which was really exciting for us to see. >> yeah, i've seen former vice president's gore's slide show, continues to change over the past ten years since "the

inconvenient truth" first came up, as consensus builds around this issue of climate change, particularly striking moment is when everybody's nay saying the idea that lower manhattan, world trade center can't be flooded, then boom, superstorm sandy happens and that exact event occurs. with everybody agreeing around the world now that climate change is an urgent threat, other than, i guess, the person in the white house, is there an audience of one for this film? >> you know, this film is really amazing in that you see just how bad the climate crisis has gotten. everybody around the world has recognized that. in fact, a lot of the film is made up of user generated videos of people noticing things in their own backyard. storms getting bigger, sea levels rising, droughts are more intense, but the surprising thing for bonni and me and what makes it hopeful for people who know this issue is just how close we are with renewable energy. the cost of solar and wind and how it's gotten to be a real

choice. in fact, it's now as cheap, if not cheaper to get your energy from solar and wind as from coal. >> no doubt about it, they'll tell you that and admit that and have to look for new jobs in that part of the country. bonni, part of the film is this moment when al gore goes and sees donald trump in trump tower during the transition, and you guys are there as he goes up, and then as he comes down. what happened in that room? what did they talk about? >> you know, al gore is, having been the vice president of the united states, he takes his relationship with sitting presidents very seriously. he keeps his conversations confidential, but afterwards he did tell us that, you know, he came out feeling somewhat optimistic that maybe there was about a 50/50 chance that donald trump would stay in paris, thought we had made some headway, but unfortunately, as al likes to put it, he did not come to his senses about it. >> yeah, what happens now? what happens in the united states? you talk about this, we saw the

clip of the mayor in texas. can the united states still meet the goals of the paris climate agreement without the federal government leading the way, john? >> absolutely. you know, in this film, i think audiences will be surprised. you're meeting a post-political al gore. he's not involved in politics anymore and climate change is becoming a nonpolitical issue in our country. most americans agree something should be done about climate change and we have the solution, so, yes, that's exactly what happened after trump made this paris announcement. you saw mayors, you know, ceos of companies, governors, the governor of california, the governor of hawaii and many other states have stepped up and said wait a minute, we disagree with our federal government on this issue. we want to stay in the paris accord because it helps our economy and helps, by the way, save the future of human civilization on planet earth. >> is there something al gore could have said differently that donald trump could have done to

remain in the paris climate agreement and still met the goals of his base, the people that elected him, that wanted him to pull out of this thing? >> you'll have to talk to al gore about it, but what we can glean from the conversations, he spent more than one meeting session with donald trump talking about the paris accord and all the complicated reasons why we should stay in it. and i think he really feels like he gave it everything he had and there was no sense of how president trump was going to respond. >> i have to say, it's an absolutely fascinating film, not just because it brings the last ten years into focus, but also because it's an inside look at ultimately what happened when this man became the president of the united states and these ten years of hard work were called into question. you do a great job. i recommend everybody see it, you can see it right now in some cities across america, opens nationwide on friday. thank you both very much, appreciate it. >> thank you for having us. i'm heading to polit-con in

a bit. coming up, more breaking news as vladimir putin kicks hundreds of americans out of russia. if you've got a life, you gotta swiffer

hi, everyone, here at the brokaw news center in los angeles and we begin with breaking news this hour from moscow. russian president vladimir putin is making good on his promise to remove more than 750 u.s. diplomats from his country as president trump prepares to sign a bill imposing tough new sanctions, in part because of election meddling. nbc's matt bradley is in london with more of the interview putin gave. it is now airing on russian state tv. we got a rough translation of it. talk to us about how angry vladimir putin is in this interview at donald trump and the trump administration. >> well, you know what's really fascinating about this decision, jacob, the american sanctions bill hasn't even become law yet, so he's made this decision, of