reports," she'll be talking live with arizona republican senator jeff flake. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," friendly fire. nbc news reporting that president trump chew ed out his generals including defense secretary mattis, demanding the general in charge of afghanistan be fired. and comparing war strategy to the renovation of his favorite new york restaurant, the 21 club. is it any wonder the jgenerals were stunned and angry? >> if the president doesn't listen to the generals like general nicholson, and he goes down the road that president obama went, afghanistan is going to collapse. >> it is frustrating that we waited six months and there still hasn't been a plan laid out. >> coming to america. the white house unveiling a hard line plan to slash legal immigration in half over ten years, sparking an explosive briefing by the president's top policy adviser, challenged by the son of cuban immigrants.

>> this whole notion of well, they could learn -- they have to learn english before they get to the united states, are we just going to bring in people from great britain and australia? >> i am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from great britain and australia would know english. it is actually -- it reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree. >> and call me maybe. president trump's claims about flattering phone calls from the head of the boy scouts and mexico's president turn out to be fake news or perhaps alternative facts. >> i wouldn't say it was a lie. that's pretty bold accusation. it is -- the conversations took place. just simply didn't take place over a phone call that he had them in person. >> and today another leak, transcripts of those early trump phone calls with foreign leaders back in january were even worse than we imagined.

good day, everybody. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump's frustration with his generals over the war in afghanistan is exposed in exclusive reporting from nbc news. the revealing story from senior administration officials, detailing a situation room meeting two weeks ago where president trump blew up over the failure to win the war, demanding defense secretary mattis fire general john nicholson, the current commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan. on wednesday, general mcmaster, the nfc adviser, defended nicholson in an interview with hugh hewitt. >> do you have confidence yourself in general nicholson? >> of course. i've known him for many years. i can't imagine a more capable commander in any -- on any mission. >> does secretary mattis, does the president? >> absolutely. >> joining me now is nbc's kristen welker at the white house, national political reporter carol lee who broke that story about the infighting

over afghanistan and msnbc military analyst general barry mccaffrey, former four star u.s. army general. thanks to all of you. first, carol, to you. you and your team broke this story and it represents an extraordinary argument, debate really, heated debate in the situation room, from a man who -- when he was running said, i love the generals, but then at some points he said i know more than the generals, i'll have my own generals, and here he -- as president obama in fairness is a new president frustrated over the failure to make progress in afghanistan. >> that's exactly right. it was president obama, going back from 2009 to the end of his presidency, and president trump inherited that, and you see similar frustrations emerging with him. the difference was that -- how critical he was of the advisers seated around the table in that meeting. they went into that meeting hoping he would sign off on a strategy, this is something that was expected several months ago. and what they thought was a

really frustrated president who was agitated who didn't like the options on the table and who was questioning whether or not they were giving him the best advice. >> general mccaffrey, as a four star, and someone who has all this combat experience, you know all the players involved, what would general mattis have been thinking when the president compared winning the war, a battle plan for afghanistan, with the renovation of the 21 club which the president said according to carol's reporting took a year and the consultant came back with a plan to fix the kitchen. and he should have been listening to the waiters who would have known better. >> well, it is unsettling, unprofessional, doesn't make much sense. i think presidents grasp the situation as completely infantile in a way. afghanistan is slowly going down the tubes. and the answer may not well be more military power. it probably ends up with some

regional accommodation between pakistani, iranian, central asian republics, how do you paper over an ongoing ethnic civil war. but the least of the problems is general nicholson, who i've known for years, spent half of his adult life in combat, he understands the situation. he's asking for more resources, which may not be a good idea. because that's the only solution at hand right now. i think it is unsettling, seeing the president respond to this situation in that manner. >> and kristen welker at the white house, ground zero for all of this, senator mccain, the armed services chairman, has issued a statement just now pointing out that general nicholson testified, said six months ago even, and said over the past months and years that we're not winning that war, that he needs more resources, that he has served our country, says senator mccain, with honor and distinction for 35 years. he earned the trust an

admiration of those he served with, earned my full confidence. six months ago, again, general nicholson testified before the committee, warning the u.s. was not winning the war and the reason for that failure is a lack of successful policy and strategic guidance from washington over many years. but he has continued in first several months of this administration, so he's urging, kristen, a plan from the president and his advisers. not blaming this white house only. this is an inherited problem. but it is six months in. they need a solution. >> they need a solution and you go back to candidate trump, andrea, who said he wasn't going to reveal his strategy for fighting isis, for the afghan conflict. and, remember, he also said he knew more than the generals. and what is being exposed with carol's reporting is the fact that, in fact, there is no policy, there is no plan moving forward. i can tell you based on my reporting, since day one, they have been focused on the longest

running war now in afghanistan, trying to determine what the next steps will be and it exposes that lack of policy and some of the divisions here behind the scenes in the white house. steve bannon, for example, someone who is a nationalist, who wants to see the u.s. really end its engagement instead of expanding its engagement in foreign wars. so this has certainly been one of the issues at the forefront, but, again, underscores that the president who as a candidate said he knew more as the generals. >> i can only imagine what is going through john kelly's mind. here he is, a general, who sacrificed a son, gold star father, in afghanistan, who has another son, a marine going over there, general mccaffrey, he's now the chief of staff, he has asserted some order. we're told that people now have to come to him with plans and proposals before they walk in and out of the oval office. he's tried to, you know,

famously limit the advisers and clearly was involved in firing scaramucci. but how -- he's also reassured secretary treasury -- excuse me, attorney general sessions that he's not about to be fired despite the president's continued wrath over his recusal. what is going through his mind over this debate, especially the war in afghanistan, that he -- >> i worked with john kelly over the years. i tell you he's one of the finest people i ever met in my life, in terms of good judgment, integrity, a life of service, this is working class irish catholic value s at work. he's in an unbelievable position. i think both secretary mattis and hr mcmaster are delighted he's over there. he can't control the president. that's not his job. but there is a couple of thousand people working the white house. i think what he will be able to do, i hope, is provide some

sense of structure so that the decisions get made, not by tweet, but by policy analysis. so we ought to be hopeful that he succeeds for the country's sake. >> carol, the president also has been tweeting today about russia after that extraordinary signing, two signings on statements that came out yesterday when he did reluctantly sign the sanctions bill and blamed congress, not vladimir putin. today, he's tweeting about putin a relationship with russia is an all time low and very dangerous low. you can thank congress, the same people that can't even give us health care. >> there is one thing congress agrees on, something that the president does not agree with at all. and to me what that reflects is the legislation reflects is this deep distrust between lawmakers and the president over russia issues. they had no confidence that he wouldn't just roll back those sanctions and cut some sort of deal with russia. but this is all happening against a backdrop of where the president's very lofty goals of

cutting some sort of grand bargain with russia and resetting relations just started to deteriorate over time. and tweeted today that relations are at an all time low and that's true. >> and kristen, the white house trying to combat leaks. a big anti-leak event with the attorney general jeff sessions tomorrow. but the same time, another leak, we don't know from where, but the washington post has transcripts, we'll go into more detail later. the transcripts showing that the conversations back in january with both the prime minister in australia and the president of mexico were devastating. >> devastating. and just to characterize them, in the conversation with the president of mexico, president trump digging in on the issue of the border wall, trying to get the president of mexico to stop publicly opposing and saying out loud he's not going to pay for the border wall and then with the prime minister of australia saying that former president obama struck a really bad deal

to take in a number of refugees. they had a deal struck with the australian prime minister. i think what is striking about both conversations, one, you have the issue of deal-making, the president as a dealmaker, the prime minister of australia saying mr. president, to make a really good deal you should actually stand up to the bargain that was struck before you got into office. and then number two, on this issue of immigration. but these leaks are only going to, i think infuriate the president, his top officials here, this has been one of their big, big issues. i reached out to the white house, they're not really commenting except to say they're not going to corroborate the authenticity of leaked information. we're still waiting to hear whether or not they will be a daily briefing today. >> we'll be standing by for that indeed. thank you so much. thanks to kara lee. congratulations on great reporting and our expert general mccaffrey. coming up, cleaning house, general mcmaster ousting more flynn and bannon hires.

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welcome back. there is a number of signs that the new white house chief of staff john kelly does have some clout, at least now. first of all, a purge of several top national security council officials who had been hired by ousted national security adviser michael flynn with the backing of steve bannon and in the case of ezra cone wattnick, hr mcmaster tried to fire him

earlier to be overruled by the president himself. he is now reportedly being moved out. he was reported to have been involved in that very unusual midnight briefing of house intelligence chairman devin muniz, trying to blame the white house for targeting campaign officials. his ouster is the third in recent days of flynn hired officials, supported by bannon. joining me now is michael steel, former senior adviser to jeb bush and former spokesman for former house speaker john boehner and michael carpenter, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, eurasia and russia, now a senior director for the pen biden center for diplomacy and global engagement. these moves at the nsc, these are people who aren't widely known, but these are big moves in that it shows that john kelly certainly as chief of staff is gaining some control and maybe

backing up some of the efforts that mcmaster lost previously to go up against bannon. >> i think that's absolutely right. he's backing up hr mcmaster to clean out some of the ideologues hired by flynn. you read the memo written by rich higgins, it becomes one of those -- >> another one that moved out. >> comes from the mind of a timothy mcveigh. crazy stuff. to have the guys inside nsc must be toxic. i think general mcmaster is able to move some people aside. >> there is a report that mcmaster might be under fire and there is a potential effort to move him to afghanistan and replace him, potentially, with mike pompeo, the cia chief, very popular with the president. >> mike pompeo is a talented public servant. >> former congressman from kansas who you know well. >> exactly. there is something almost roman

about the idea of exiling an official you don't approve of or don't agree with to the distant provinces to fight a war. it is very troubling in a lot of ways. doesn't seem like the way things ought to be done in america. >> john mccain weighed in on the criticisms of general nicholson, leading the afghanistan effort. i don't know if you interacted with him over the past years. he has a 35 year record and it seems unfair to blame the current commander in afghanistan for a war that has been going on for 16 years without any kind of remedy. >> from what i understand, president trump has never met with general nicholson. he's unhappy with the strategy. he hasn't spent a lot of time studying the strategy or understanding what is happening in afghanistan. one of the reasons why the effort there is not going as well as it could is because russia is coming in in a very destructive way and supporting the taliban. that's something that hasn't been raised. it is something that ought to be considered going forward. >> the president seems to be

still avoiding blaming russia for anything in the sanctions signing statements, not criticizing russia, speaking of the rogue regimes in pyongyang and tehran which were add ones. >> i think you're seeing the system work in the sense that congress is placing guardrails on the actions of the president. this is a massive bipartisan majority in both the house and the senate, warning the president that his view on russia is not the view of the congress or the majority of the american people. >> and on russia, it seems that all the way back in january, when the president first spoke famously with the australian prime minister it was a contentious conversation, now a transcript from that call. he says that he says i've had it with these calls. he expresses frustration with the call, with the australian prime minister. he praises putin, he says i had it, i've been making calls all day and this is the most

unpleasant call all day. meaning with you. putin was a pleasant call. this is ridiculous. doing my worst imitation. i'm not alec baldwin. you can only imagine the way this prime minister of australia took this call. >> the stuff is hard. these decisions are hard. getting things done is hard. this is not a matter of slogans. this is the reason that donald trump was opposed by most of the people who have experienced dealing with national security and foreign affairs during the campaign because he was reducing incredibly complex, complicated issues to sound bites and slogans. that's not a way you can accomplish things and govern. >> his tweet blaming congress for the state of u.s./russia relations is just outrageous. look at what russia has done in ukraine, in georgia, in our own country, the attack on the election. this all goes by the way side in terms of his analysis of where our relationship is. >> really struck with tom cotton, the conservative, the

senator, a republican, who was at the president's side with his immigration proposal, which, by all accounts, he's not going anyplace. he was also on morning joe today, very critical of the posture on russia. he has no question about the intelligence concluding that russia was responsible for the election hacking. >> well, everything the president does just leads us to question why is he so intent on appeasing putin, why at all costs does he want to improve the relationship when the russian side is showing no intention of making any moves towards either withdraw ing from ukraine or doing anything else that would be in our interest. >> there is one person responsible for the state of the u.s./russia relationship and the one person that our president seems intent not to blame and that's vladimir putin. >> and by the way, secretary

tillerson is going to be heading to the philippines for an asean summit and this weekend along the margins of that meeting is going to meet with foreign minister lavrov where at a point where he himself, the secretary said, the relationship was at an all time low and has gotten worse. thank you so much. michael steel, great to see you, and michael carpenter, the michaels, appreciate you being here. the blame game. president trump slamming congress for bringing relations with russia to an all time low. well, democratic senator jeanne shaheen sits on the foreign relations committee and joins me ahead.

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welcome back. now more details, new details about what the president actually said to the mexican and australian that set him off in january after mr. trump took office. transcripts reveal that in a call with mexico's president, president trump slammed mexico about the illegal drugs flowing into the country, saying, quote, up in new hampshire i won new hampshire because new hampshire is a drug infested den.

it is coming from the southern border. well, joining me now is new hampshire democratic senator jeanne shaheen, former governor of new hampshire who serves on the foreign recessilations comm. you've been all over twitter today as has maggie hasan. your response to the president's remarks. >> the president is wrong. and it is outrageous that he would say that about new hampshire, any other state in the united states of america. the fact is what we need from the president is what he promised when he campaigned in new hampshire, help for us to address the heroin and opioid epidemic. instead, what he tried to do is take away treatment for those with substance use disorders, taking away -- trying to take away funding for law enforcement to address this. it is time for the president to start weighing in, in a way that is helpful. >> you also were at a classified briefing yesterday, with secretary mattis and tillerson. i know you can't discuss the

classified briefing. we're reporting, nbc news, carol lee, our national political reporter, has been reporting and her team, that there was really tough national security counsel meeting two weeks ago and the president tried to fire general nicholson, not happy with the progress of the war, the lack of progress with the war in afghanistan. it wants to shake everything up. what are you hearing about this? >> well, what we heard is that the white house hasn't made a decision about afghanistan. what we first heard is the president outsourced that decision to secretary mattis and our generals and we heard, well, he was going to make the final decision. the fact is we don't have an afghanistan strategy. the president hasn't produced one. and general nicholson has been there working on the ground as have all of the men and women who are still stationed in afghanistan, trying to make sure it doesn't, again, become a hotbed of terrorist activity, so

i think what we need out of this white house is a strategy for afghanistan, a strategy for syria, and i hope that's what they will focus on. >> would you support, if this is the recommendation, would you support more troops or do you believe that it is time to draw down? >> i think we have a huge investment in afghanistan. what we don't want is for it to once again become a stronghold for isis or any other terrorist group. and so i think it is important for us to maintain support for the afghan government, they are making reforms, we need to see faster progress, but i think we have seen progress and we don't want that to get undone because we have taken our eye off the ball. >> speaking of afghanistan, terrible tragedy there, you met with the girls from the robotics team. i met with them when they were competing and now the father of the 14-year-old team captain,

54-year-old man, has been killed in the latest suicide bombing in harat, a real tragedy for this team and this young woman, one of the teenagers who thanked her parent and the support, an unusual situation the way these afghan fathers rose to the challenge and let their girls travel across the world. >> it is such a tragedy. my thoughts and prayers go out for all of the young women on the team, but particularly the captain who lost her dad. it was such an inspiring story to see these young women overcame all the obstacles they got to the united states, they got the silver medal for courage, and then to have this kind of tragedy happen is just very sad. and, you know, the importance of the empowerment of women in afghanistan has been one of the real success stories out of our

engagement there. and i would hope that we continue to see that kind of empowerment on the part of women in the country. >> and finally, along those lines, jim jeffrey, the former ambassador to iraq and other countries, has written a devastating critique of the plan and the budget to zero out funding for the institute of peace. next door to the state department and which he says has been so successful in its efforts against isis and we should find the money. are you going to get into this on the foreign relations committee. >> absolutely. not only does it zero out funding for the institute of peace, but also for a number of democracy initiatives that have been so important as we have looked at what we can do to support countries who are trying to move towards democracy, end corruption. the institute of peace helped to develop a new strategy for iraq. so when we need to do is support

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the statue of liberty says give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, it doesn't say anything about speaking english. >> i don't want to get off on history here. this is not part of the original statue of liberty. >> stephen miller missing the point that the sonnet was written to raise money for the pedestal in which the statue of liberty was placed, even though he corrected it was added 20 years later. joining me jeff flake, author of the new book "conscience of a conservative, a rejection of destructive politics and return to principle" with an echo of barry goldwater from arizona. one of your mentors. >> homage to barry goldwater. >> as we talk about this, is this your declaration of

independence from the trump republican party? >> no, an affirmation of what conservativism means, i believe. barry goldwater in his time thought that republicanism, conservatism had been compromised by the new deal. i think today it has been compromised by populism. provide sectionism. we have to get it back if we want to be a governing majority. >> are you considering, first of all, running for president. something that -- >> no, i'm running for re-election right now. >> running for re-election. there was a question at the white house briefing yesterday as to whether the president would want to primer you because of your independence. this was sarah huckabee sanders' response. >> i'm not sure about any potential funding of a campaign. but i think that senator flake would serve his constituents much better if he was less focused on writing a book and attacking the president and passing legislation.

>> your response to her, to that. >> senators aren't meant to be rubber stamps of any president. i agreed with this president. he put forward a great supreme court nominee. i helped shepherd that through the judiciary committee and the senate. i think he's done good things on regulatory policy. instincts on tax policy are good. other things i disagree with, on free trade, i'm very much a free trader. i believe nafta served us very well and ought to be continued. i'm disappointed we withdrew from the tpp, transpacific partnership. i haven't always agreed. still, i've supported most of the things he did. i think that's what voters of arizona expect me to do. >> one thing you wrote in the book is donald trump is not the source code for our obsession with the politics of personal destruction. our crisis has many fathers. so it precedes him.

>> you bet. you bet. i served in the house for 12 years. 2001 to 2012. during that time, i mean, we had republicans standing up during the state of the union address saying you lie. we had, you know, a lot of things which were breaches of d decorum and bad manners before this last campaign. i'm concerned about the level it has gone to now. we know we have big issues to tackle, our debt and our deficit, health care, and foreign policy, we know that we need to sit across the aisle, work with our colleagues across the aisle, and if we assume the worst in them, and ascribe poor motives to our political opponents, we'll never do that. we won't achieve conservative ends. >> one thing the president has perhaps unwittingly managed to do is unite congress, both houses, both parties.

and nearly unanimous vote on sanctions. the signing statements yesterday, he criticized congress more than he criticized vladimir putin, the sanctions are directed against. he also, we now know in the first phone call with the australian prime minister in january, said very angrily, i had it, i've been making calls all day this is the most unpleasant call all day. putin was a pleasant call. this is ridiculous. >> it means something in terms of comportment and demeanor. in foreign policy, it is important that we have a steady posture. something consistent and predictable. that's conservative. and i'm concerned that we strayed from that. >> and what concerns do you have similar to the concerns that were expressed by the sanctions vote about any attempt to get rid of bob mueller. there is no talk of legislation, i talked to chris canes yesterday about it, possibly

bipartisan legislation, to either hire him or put some language in the appropriations. >> i think that if he were to be removed, however it is done by the assistant attorney general or new one, congress would assert its prerogatives. >> there is also reporting nbc news reporting exclusively that there is real agreement, the president getting angry at the generals, mattis very upset after national security meeting two weeks ago, where he's demanding the -- the president is demanding that general nicholson who is running the war, the commander in afghanistan be fired because he's not winning the war. >> i haven't heard that. we did have a briefing yesterday with general mattis. and secretary tillerson. i'm glad they are where they are. they are -- they were stellar choices and i think they're doing a good job. >> at the same time, of course, john kelly trying to reassert

some discipline at the white house and reassuring attorney general session he's not about to be fired. >> those reports are true , i'm heartened. i think we all are. it would not go over well in the senate if geoff sessions were removed because the purpose has been stated for which he would be removed, because he recused himself. i think he did the right thing. he didn't have a choice. i hope that he stays. >> is there concern in the senate about the lack of accomplishment as you're about to leave for the work period or whatever we want to call the break in august. you bam comebacome back in sept have the debt ceiling, you have appropriation bills pending, you have one more vote today before you leave town.

what is the spirit in congress now? >> we would have liked to have achieved more things obviously. we need to have a busy fall. but i think if there is any silver lining in all of this, we recognized on health care the limits of what one party with do on its own and that will force us, i hope to sit down, go through regular order, sit down with our colleagues across the aisle and solve something. the bigger issues are debt and our deficit that will require some kind of grand bargain. something along the lines of the simpson bowles kind of approach. no one party in control of both chambers in the white house is going to risk that on their own. you have to reach across the aisle and it is a conservative thing to solve that problem. but we won't do that if we continue to believe we can do it all by ourselves as republicans. we have to reach across the aisle. >> want to close with another quote from the book.

the conscience of a conservative, the homage to barry goldwater. you wrote we conservatives obtained an unnerving silence as instability ensued as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy requiring a suspension of faculties and tremendous powers of denial. >> the essence of conservatism is steady comportment. you take the timeless principles that worked in the past and you stick to them. and the kind of chaos that we have seen and the chaos in the white house and frankly dysfunction in the house and the senate that has stretched over a couple of decades, that's not a recipe for a bright future. i hope we can change and settle down and go back to the principles that served us well for so long. >> you return to arizona in the coming days, if you have the

occasion, give our best to your colleague, john mccain. >> i will. >> thank you, senator jeff flake. coming up, the inside scoop on the president's new immigration proposal. how did the statue of liberty get caught up in the debate. that's next here on "andrea mitchell reports." it does not say rsvp on the statue of liberty. thank you very much. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?

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let's use common sense here, folks. at the end of the day, why do special interests wanted to bring in more low skill workers and why -- >> i'm not asking for common sense. i'm asking for -- >> i think it is clear that you're asking for common sense. if i could just answer -- if i could answer your question. maybe we'll make a carve out in the bill that says the new york times can hire all the low skilled less paid workers they want from other countries. maybe it is time we had compassion for american workers. >> the white house is combative senior policy adviser stephen miller at a heated press briefing trying to build public support for the president's embrace of a plan from senators cotton and purdue to slash legal

immigration. how did that work out? let's get the inside scoop from ann gearen and sam stein, daily beast politics editor and msnbc contributor. contributor. well, stephen mill aer strikes again. he's trying to build for this. several several misstatements all around. jim acosta, his father game here when he was 11, did not speak english and green card holders do not have to speak english before they come. >> is miller trying to build support for this or did he emerge as someone who does well on the president's behalf, in

their view throw red meat. this proposal stands almost no chance, it doesn't have support, even among republicans. a number of republicans came out against it immediately, including lindsey graham, and the primary purpose of that theater yesterday at the white house briefing appeared to be to kind of taunt journalists and make a show out of it. it was entertaining. >> and to show the boss, who is watching presumably, that he can beat up on reporters if he's got the podium. >> the audience of one. >> i wanted to play a little bit of tape that the new yorker has released, they're going to play all of it this weekend apparently. this is the interview by ryan lizza by scaramucci. this is just part of scaramucci's rant. >> reince is a paranoid

[ bleep ] schizophrenic, and what he's going to do is, oh, maybe he's bill shine's coming, let me leak [ bleep ], something and see if i can [ bleep ], block these people the way i [ bleep ]. >> i wanted to ask you if you wanted to be profiled. >> i don't want to be profiled. >> what you're trying to do -- >> i'm not steve bannon, i'm not trying to [ bleep ] my own [ bleep ], i'm not trying to -- >> so that conversation recorded legally. scaramucci said it was off the record in spirit. i don't know what spirituality has to do with on or off the record but he's a communications director and that's supposed to be job one, are you on the record or not on the record. sam? >> it's tough to make sense of it between the beeps.

he accused reince of being paranoid and he's paranoid about who is leaking, about his perceptions. i miss him. i miss him. he was such a nice character. he was gone from our lives too soon. i wish he'd come back. he's doing this thing on friday. i don't know what it is. some sort of communications effort on behalf of trump. i do miss him. >> you and seth myers and colbert and jimmy fallon. >> "saturday night live" didn't even get a shot at him. >> sarah huckabee sanders was also during her part of yesterday's briefing also trying to defend what seemed to be clear misstatements by the president where he claimed that the head of the boy scouts and the president of mexico had both called in very flattering ways and she was challenged about that. >> multiple members of the boy

scout leadership following his speech there that day congratulated him, praised him. >> the president specifically said that he received a phone call from the president of mexico -- >> they were direct conversations, not actual phone calls. >> so he lied -- >> i wouldn't say it was a lie. that's pretty bold accusation. the conversations took place, they simply didn't take place over a phone call, he had them in person. >> so there's a broader question here, a serious one, about the president's reputation for truthfulness and also his spo s spokespeople and it becomes corrosive. >> i think it speaks to the kind of life that donald trump had and a public figure. he has a history of being an

exaggerateor. does that mean he lied? there have been allegations he has lied in other parts of his life. but sarah huckabee sanders has to convey the best she can doing her job. what he meant when he says things that are demonstrably false. >> and to this point, ostensibly the job of the government is to push their agenda and get it implemented and enacted by congress. that is their goal. it becomes increasingly hard to do that when you cannot be trusted to say the truth, when you lie or exaggerate on the small details because they add up. and when your spokespeople come out and berate the press. if you cannot effectively communicate a message and be trusted from the podium, how are you supposed to convince the public, the congress that your

agenda is accurate? >> we'll have to leave it there. we'll be out at a rally in virginia in his most comfortable setting. we'll be right back. stay with us. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we're gonna hit our launch date! (scream)

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and that does it for us for this edition of "dreandrea mitcl reports." follow us online. chris jansing is here next.

hi, chris. >> hi, andrea. i am here in new york. we're talking about the tale of the transcript. president trump's transcripts leaked. did his purposely mislead the voters? all about the base. the president, can his visit stop his base eroding. and president trump fuming that the u.s. is losing the war in afghanistan and word he's considering firing america's tom military commander there. how is he going to change the strategy? so much to talk about. let's talk about president trump headed to the one state that arguably loves him more than any other, even as a new leak to the "washington post" shows him not only getting caught unable to make good on a promise to his base but now new