those people in the virgin islands and in puerto rico need our help. bill, thank you so much. >> thank you for watching this hour of "velshi and ruhle." ali will be back at 3:00 p.m. today. check us out on social media and connect with our show at #velshi rhule. right now the woman is in the building. the one and only andrea mitchell for "andrea mitchell reports." >> great to see you, stephanie. welcome back. and right now, world stage. president trump making his debut at the united nations after campaigning against the organization in the past as a club where people just want to get together and have a good time. >> in recent years, the united nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement. rocket man. the u.s. buzzes north korea with a show of force and military exercises with japan and south korea. as the president fires up a new nickname for kim jong-un out of

elton john. >> if the united states has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, north korea will be destroyed. and we all know that. none of us want that. none of us want war. and cheap shot. as president trump tries to play diplomat, he tees up an old political controversy. retweeting a fake video showing him hitting hillary clinton with golf ball. and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in new york. covering another big first for president trump. the world has gathered as he is taking center stage at the united nations hosting world leaders facing major conflicts from north korea to the iran nuclear deal and, of course, mr. trump's controversial withdrawal from that land narc climate change treaty. kristen welker is outside trump tower. welcome to busy new york, traffic is a mess. the weather will not be good. and there you are outside of

trump tower where everyone is braced for what is going to happen at the united nations. >> reporter: andrea, i'm having a little bit of trouble hearing you, but to pick up on what you were saying, obviously high stakes here as president trump prepares to host his first u.n. and the big topics that are at the forefront are those that you mapped out. north korea and iran. but specifically, north korea. president trump is expected to press these world leaders to really turn up the heat on north korea beyond just talking, and he wants see more than tough talk. he wants to see them choke out north korea economically, diplomatically. so that is going to be a recurring theme that you hear from this president. but of course, it comes in the wake of a president trump who has been very critical of the united nations as a candidate. at one point, saying that it was essentially incompetent. a very different tone once he took office. and we heard a more conciliatory

tone today when he held that first meeting which focused on ways in which he wants to see the united nations change and reform. he said that this is an organization that has great potential but that has not lived up to its great potential. he called on a number of world leaders to try to cut through the bureaucracy and the mismanagement to really try to live up to the high ideals of the united nations. so expect that to all be on display. of course, he has critical meetings later on today with the leaders of israel and france when all of it will be on the table, andrea. >> thanks so much to kristen welker powering through that and those dump trucks you see behind kristin. that's all for security around trump tower. this place is in lockdown. richard haass is the president of the council on foreign relations and the author of a world in disarray, american foreign policy and the crisis of the old order. and joins me now. i know you wrote that book awhile ago, maybe a year ago. boy was it prescient because the world is in even more disarray.

>> i'm sorry that's the case. thank you, andrea. >> the key issues here are how does donald trump who was such an opponent of the united nations and of global multilateral organizations, how does he change his demeanor, if he does as he meets today with netanyahu to talk about iran, he's talking about trying to blow up the iran deal which the rest of the major powers still want to continue. and also how to deal with this very difficult question, perhaps the most difficult existential that our allies face as well as the u.s. potentially which is north korea. >> my hunch is he'll probably try to have it both ways. to his base, he'll continue to be critical of the united nations, not a lot of support for that in certain parts of the united states. at the same time, he's used it quite effectively in ratcheting up sanctions against north korea. is he going to have to decide whether he finds a way to get back into the paris climate change pact and he has to decide whether he actually pulse out of the iran nuclear deal.

on the climate pact, this ought to be the one agreement he embraces. it allows every country to set its own ceilings, its own targets. it's totally consistent with u.s. sovereignty and it's a red herring to suggest anything but -- >> in fact, that seems to be a holdover from some of the advice he got during the campaign from steve bannon, from mike flynn which completely mischaracterized what the deal was. and to try to reel him back from these notions that he has now campaigned on is a tricky bit. >> exactly. it's the tension between governing and campaigning. and we'll see where it comes out here. it's also possible in the aftermath of the two hurricanes, you're beginning to see even in republican circles some rethinking about climate change and its possible connection to the severity of storms. so again, but this ought to be the sort of agreement they would embrace. this ought to be a precedent for a kind of multilateralism they can support because again, it allows sovereign governments to

decide exactly what it is they do and don't do. and this ought to be something that the trump administration likes. >> how much of a problem is the president's favorite form of communication which is twitter rather than a teleprompter and a speech, a set speech before the general assembly? how much is this a problem in that he tweeted in the last couple of days something that really offended theresa may in the uk about scotland yard and what they were doing after the an apparent terror attacking? and then to nickname kim jong-un rocket man seems to me to kind of diminish the sense of urgency about what threat kim jung un actually poses for the u.s. >> i think it doesn't just diminish that. it diminishes respect for the president of the united states or it diminishes respect for the united states. it goes consistent with certain things that others have observed. you know, charlottesville and other issues. people forget that the most important thing you often do in

diplomacy is not what the state department says. it's the example you set as a society. and this president is now operating against a backdrop of diminished respect for the united states. we've seen in any number of polls it's most acute in europe. it's essentially true in every part of the world except the middle east where people essentially prefer this president to his predecessor. but the tweeting, the domestic policies and the like all have distanced the rest of the world from the united states and in some ways he's brought about a world of diminished american influence. that will be a play at the u.n. this week. >> the secretary of state most recently when he was in london last thursday he told the embassy staff there he considers his main goal by the time he leaves office and it's questionable when that will be, is to create more efficiency at the state department. is efficiency the highest possible goal for america's top diplomat? >> andrea, you can make the state department 20 times more efficient and the amount of

money you save would be a rounding error in the u.s. budget. it is baffling. given all the challenges the united states faces around the world from north korea to ukraine to iran, given the need for nonstop consultations with allies and others, i truly find it baffling why this or any secretary of state would make reorganization and downsizing the department a priority. if anything, we ought to be expanding it, resourcing it properly. diplomacy is one of our essential tools. we do not want to end up overrelying on the military. i really would hope that this entire approach to had the state department would be rethought because i really do believe it is inconsistent with the national security interests of this country. >> and the continued vacancies while there's a job freeze and a management study, i've heard that even someone as important as the foreign minster from cloxia has been unable to get a meeting with the secretary of

state. >> and they don't call it foreign relations for nothing. it's about relationships. it's about consultations. it's about negotiations. you need people to do that. one day maybe robots will take on the task but not yet. so we need to increase the number of diplomats we have. there's more than 190 countries in the world. dozens of international and regional organizations. plus you need senior state department people at interagency meetings to decide what the policy of the united states should be. here it is, take north korea. we're eight months into this administration and unless you and i have missed it, the united states has yet to come forward with a serious diplomatic initiative. we need diplomats in order to have diplomacy. >> at the same time, secretary tillerson is considered one of the so-called grown-ups in the room along with secretary mattis. stressing that diplomacy is important before you start talking about military options. >> that's fine as an abstraction. we need it as a reality. again, if we want -- where is the initiative vis-a-vis north korea? we want them to freeze their

testing. what is it the united states is prepared to do in exchange for that freeze? what specific steps are we willing to take? and again, unless i missed it, i have not seen the united states table a sing is diplomatic initiative vis-a-vis north korea other than to call for them to get rid of their nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles which is not going to happen. we need a diplomatic dimension of our policy lest we end up overrelying on the military. >> is it realistic to expect anything to come out of these meetings this week on north korea without the leaders of china and russia being here in new york? >> the short answer is no. we've kind of run out the string. we've put all the emphasis on ratcheting up sanctions. they're not going to work soon enough to get north korea to reconsider its policy. we have to decide whether to use military force in one form or another or we're going to have to decide to live with a north korean missile and nuclear capability which will mean deterrence and missile defense. i essentially think the u.n.

venue, the u.n. phase of north korean diplomacy is essentially played out. and now it's going to have to happen elsewhere. >> and there's a perceived rivalry denied by all of the players between nikki haley who was considered for the state department job initially and said she preferred to start out at the united nations because she didn't have diplomatic experience. but there was a question to her yesterday on cn florida whether she wanted that secretary of state job and she said it's not vacate. that secretary tillerson is not going any place. do you see a jockeying for position here behind the scenes? >> i only know what i see and read. i assume at some point, the odds are better than even she will be the next secretary of state. the real question is right now, what is secretary tillerson going to do at this job. i think he's envisioned it incorrectly. he should not be approaching it he's the ceo of the state department or the diplomatic corps. he is the principal steward of american foreign policy and diplomacy.

he can't do that without resources. he can't do that without people. and he is simply i believe misunderstanding the nature of his job and misplacing his priorities as a result. >> richard haasse, thanks for being with us today. a busy time in new york and in london today, police are questioning two men arrested over the weekend in connection with friday's subway attack. the partially detonated device that injured more than two dozen people. this new video obtained by our british tv partner itv shot outside of a house south of london and turned over to scotland yard appears to show what could be one suspect. the man carrying a bag similar to the one used similar in the attack and was recorded just an hour and a half before the bomb detonated partially in that tube train. the owners of that home, by the way were, honored by the queen herself for taking in hundreds of children. they've recently been helping young refugees from syria and iraq. we'll continue to bring you the latest on the investigation. and coming up, teed off. president trump igniting a

firestorm with his tweet of a doctored video showing him hitting hillary clinton with a golf ball square in the back. we'll discuss. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong. you myour joints...thing for your heart...

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president trump spark controversy once again with his tweets. this time after he retweeted a fake video from a twitter user with an obscene name we're blanking out appearing to show the president hitting hillary clinton with a golf ball and

knocking her down. yes, you saw that correctly. joining me now is michael steele, former republican chairman and msnbc political analyst. as a deep analyst of politics, michael, when you're going on the world stage for your first big speech to the united nations is it smart to be appearing to drive a golf ball through the back of the opponent you defeated? defeated in november. >> andrea, i promised myself i wasn't going to laugh, that the but okay. it is silly. it is beyond silly. it is not appropriate but it's trump. you know, it's how. >> isn't it also very aggressive and i mean, it's. >> of course, it is. everything about him is that way. and i think i said this last week and i think it's still true. he's finding himself. he's at a cruising level he's comfortable now a little bit more in his presidential skin. and he knows that he doesn't have to conform to the

traditional behaviors and you know expectations of the office. which is unfortunate. and so you know, this tweet that he retweeted on the heels of his going before the u.n. is just one more way in which had he creates two separate images of his presidency, one in which is all through the twitterverse and the other is how he functions and performs in the office itself. he'll go to the u.n. and the question is, does he throw down some tracks there and break with some conventions or does he stay a little bit closer to the script. and that's part what we'll have to find out. >> and going from the inappropriate to the completely and totally unprofessional, let's talk about lawyers. chatting about their client who happens to be the president of the united states in a sidewalk cafe right next door to "the new york times" bureau and only two blocks from the white house. >> yeah, that one is even more problematic. and difficult for the president because here you have his

lawyers speaking in a voice as ken vogel noted that could be heard very clearly. about subjects that should have remained confidential and certainly you would not want a "new york times" reporter to overhear and then talk about. and so the president can't be happy with that. the lawyers should be embarrassed beyond words. and should get an appropriate dessing drown. look, in this town, we all know and you know very well, you've been in this spot where people run their mouths because they want to be heard, they want to be seen. the price you pay for that is when an intrepid reporter picks it up and starts taking notes and then writes the story. then you've got to explain it to your client or to your boss. and that's not a good spot to be in. >> and what does it tell us about the investigation itself? we had this weekend dianne feinstein saying in an interview on cnn that the senate investigation alone could take

another year or year and a half. you've got one of the president's long-time lawyers testifying this week or answering questions this week. there's a lot of action. michael flynn setting up a legal defense fund by his -- from his brother and his sister. according to his attorney in an e-mail to me. so there's a lot going on in terms of robert mueller investigation. and these lawyers should be at the top of their game, not spilling the beans about their problems. >> right. no, you're absolutely right. it speaks to a couple things. one that the lawyers are creating problems for the trump team and themselves. but there's also the problem that this investigation is not slowing down. it is not in idle. it has a constant steady speed. mueller and his team have been very aggressive and now starting to get their witness lists together and go after certain aspects of this investigation which as we've now been able to

determine goes beyond just the initial claim about the russia hacking. i think that's a problem for the administration which gets back to your point about the lawyers, all the more reasons to keep your mouth shut when out at lunch at a cafe. >> a good lesson for all of us on the acela or any place else. thank you, michael steele. up next, triple threat. three storms brewing in the atlantic this hour threatening to hit caribbean islands devastated by hurricane irma. we'll have the very latest on the storm's path. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. endless shrimp is back at red lobster. and we went all out to bring you even more incredible shrimp and new flavors. like new nashville hot shrimp, drizzled with sweet amber honey,

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we are watching two hurricanes and a tropical depression churning in the atlantic. the caribbean is not beginning to recover from irma and is now in the crosshairs once again as hurricane maria has the potential to be another catastrophic storm. joining me is dave price and nbc's tammy leitner in san juan, puerto rico. dave, first to you. what he the big picture here as to what this region is facing once again? >> well, we have certainly three storms we're watching right now. jose which is affecting coastal, the coastal u.s. all the way

from let's say the mid atlantic states through new england. then of course, we have maria which is on a path directly for puerto rico at this point. and then we have lee at this hour in the central atlantic. so let's take a look and go through the details right now. tropical storm jose, again, as of 8:00 a.m., 270 miles east-southeast of cape hatteras, north carolina. winds 85 miles per hour. keep in mind, this storm, this storm is going to make a right-hand turn, but what it's going to bring to sections of the northeast and new england are high waves, winds which could be tropical storm strength, beach erosion and significant danger right along the eastern seaboard. that's number one. then as we widen the picture, of course, we take a look at those impacts right through the midweek as the storm continues to churn its way off the new england coastline. that is an issue but the major issue, the thing we're watching most definitely is maria. and maria at this hour is

potentially going to roll through the same islands that were ravaged by irma. st. lucia, martinique, dominica, guadeloupe. if we look right here, andrea, this is where we see the eye just beginning to develop from this storm. winds at this hour upwards of 120 miles per hour. let's track maria right now as it rolls through potentially a category 4 storm as it makes its way to puerto rico. wednesday morning. with wind speeds potentially upwards of 150 miles per hour. then rolling by hispaniola, turks and caicos, so devastated by the last storm. the issue here is that people in these islands and along this chain have not even had time to recover yet and they are facing what could be potentially a storm as strong or stronger than the last storm system which rolled through.

we're watching all of that and lee continuing to develop in the atlantic. >> dave price, thank you. i think for such a grim forecast. tammy leitner is in puerto rico where people are trying to recover. just beginning to rebuild and recover. what are you learning from your time down there? >> reporter: hey, andrea. i don't think anybody is taking this hurricane lightly because it's being described as possibly catastrophic for this island. i'm here in home depot. empty shelves everywhere we look. they are running low on plywood. people are boarding their homes. they are run out of gas cannes, run out of generators. they have run out of batteries. nobody is taking this lightly. now, over here, this is ricciardo rivera. you live in ohio. >> i live in ohio. >> you also have a home here in puerto rico. and you survived irma. what are you doing here today to prepare for maria?

>> right now getting more supplies. maria looks like it's going to be more of an intense storm. so i need to get more supplies and board up doors and windows. >> reporter: are you concerned? >> i'm concerned about this one. yeah. >> reporter: and did you have any damage from irma? >> i had very little damage. it was mostly landscaping damage, broken trees, branches, but nothing to the house at least at the time. >> reporter: thank you. we wish you the best of luck. >> thank you. >> reporter: stay safe out there. one of the biggest problems, when irma came through about a million people lost power here in puerto rico. it's a very antiquated power system. about 40,000 people are still without power. so imagine being without power, trying to recover from one hurricane and having to prepare for yet another that could hit here within 48 hours. back to you. >> thank you so much, tami. it's hard to imagine and especially also the u.s. virgin islands and british virgin islands and other smallieward

islands out there. thank you very much for your report. up next, running out of options? the trump administration fletching its military muscles. and the president blasting off a new round of tweets. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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rocket man is doing. long gas lines forming in north korea. too bad! national security adviser h.r. mcmaster tried to explain his boss's insult this way on fox news sunday. >> have you heard that from the president before or is that a new one? >> that's a new one i think maybe for the president. it reminds me of a cover of the economist a few years ago. portraying him as rocketman. but of course of recent that's where the rockets are coming from. rocks we ought to probably not laugh about because they present a grave threat to everyone. indeed. joining me now is refired four star knave admiral, a former nato supreme allied commander and chief msnbc chief international security and diplomacy analyst. also rick stengel, also has a long title. former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs under president obama and msnbc political analyst. welcome both. first of all, let me ask you, rick, about calling kim jong-un

rocket man when you're the president of the united states, you're about to go before the world forum, you're trying to show that you are now a serious diplomatic player even though you're pushing the u.n. in a particular direction of reform. how does that play? >> it's a little unfortunate. although i have to use mcmaster's citation. that was an economist cover after the elton john song. i was so jealous when i was editor of "time" i did a cover called lil' kim after the rap artist. sold pretty well. >> you're not the president of the united states and the commander in chief. >> it's inappropriate. and by the way, that's why people are here this week trying to take the measure of this guy is that is this really what he's like? is he more sober behind the scenes? is his staff compensating for him? that's why this week is important to people around the world. they see the president of the united states tweeting rocket man and want to see is that the guy we'll see in the rooms at the u.n. >> and admiral, we were talking earlier this hour with richard

haass who said the problem with the north korea diplomacy is we have not seen a plan. we talk about you know, diplomatic meetings. you hear that from tillerson and from mcmaster but there's not been a plan put on the table of what they should do, what they need to do, what we would offer to them. what do you see in terms of the diplomacy? >> i agree completely with richard. there is no plan in place. but we ought to recognize there's also no silver bullet. there's no single thing that will solve this. i think what we need is i coordinated series of things to happen and that would include enhancing missile defense, more surveillance and intelligence, more communication with the south koreans. we spent too much time talking about north korea and not enough time talking with south korea. we need china to get in the game. i would argue as i have in a couple of places we need to look more the an cyber and need to be thinking about maritime options,

a nautical, if you will, a blockade. a maritime blockade, a marine interdiction operation. i think if you coordinated those things together, your plan then becomes to put pressure and get to four part of your six-party talks. richard's correct. i don't see indication of that as a plan. >> let's break that down piece by piece. what about a blockade, the maritime option? people push back and say you can't do that unless china were to agree. how do you do it without getting china and russia to agree? >> well, let's recall during the last time we did one which was the cuban missile blockade. the russians did not agree. we went ahead and did it. i think and i'm currently the dean of a school of international law. i think we have sufficient legal authority to do this. and let's recall that 95% of the merchant ships in the world are not flagged to china or russia. so i think there's a potential downside very unlikely that

china or russia would militarily oppose it. i think that's highly unlikely. i think it's just one of a group of options that ought to be on the table to include cyber, for example. all of that is better than a massive military strike. >> and richard, when we talk about talking with south korea and listening to south korea, that means not threatening to pull out of a very popular trade agreement that we have with south korea. >> yes, and you know, the admiral is always admirably reasonable. but i would disagree with the way the administration has phrased we've run out of road. we can have these conversations. we can begin to have the four to six-party talks that admiral stavridis is talking about. when richard haass says we haven't put out a plan, that's fine as long as we're talking to all the parties involved. i suspect we're talking more behind the scenes. people are trying to figure out, is there a decision junction between tillerson and mattis and the president? is the president kind of an

outlier and can we do business with these other folks. >> in terms of doing business, the u.n. is the forum right now. and this is what the president had to say back in december of 2016. so not that long ago just before he took office, a month before he took office about the united nations. >> the u.n. has such tremendous potential. not living up to its potential. there is such tremendous potential, but it is not living up. when do you see the united nations solving problems? they don't. they cause problems. >> united nations causes problems. admiral, he's got to live that down as well as some of his more recent insults on twitter. including what he said last week which upset theresa may and other allies or concern about other things he's tweeted. he comes here to try to start over? >> it's a mistake. and i recall he spoke about nato much the same way during the

campaign. and i think increasingly, andrea, the global community is paying less attention to the tweets and actually looking at what the policy actions are of the united states. and that's unfortunate. when the word, the message of the president of the united states is kind of discounted out of hand. for the record, the united nations has many flaws and challenges but in ten years as a very senior military officer, i saw them do extraordinary work on the humanitarian side, on the security i'd in plays like haiti and in the creation of the law of the sea treaty, for example, which governs the world's oceans today. there are challenges for the united nations but there is a great deal of good going on. the president is wrong to simply dismiss it in that format. >> you referred i think twice to cyber. what are our options on cyber as an offensive weapon against north korea's nuclear and missile program, given how

talented they seem to be at their own offensive use of cyber around the world? >> they are very aggressive offensively. when you get below, if you will, the big three in offensive cyber, u.s., china, russia they're in the next tier along with several other small to mid sized is nations that have invested in this capability. our options are quite good without verging into classified material, i think it's fair to say we can impact not only the nuclear program but also the broader running of north korean society. you want to be careful and judicious about using those tools. but it's probably time to start deploying them in advantage over again a massive military strike where this otherwise might trend. >> and that's of course, exactly how we got iran to slowing down their nuclear program. according to everything that's been publicly reported was the u.s. and israel combining to slow down and get those centrifuges to misfire.

>> yes, and i suspect as the admiral knows, as well that we've already started some of those actions. again, the thing is to do these offensive slightly aggressive actions at the same time having conversations and having diplomacy, you know, diplomacy doesn't work without a stick behind it. and right now, we have to do both. we're not really doing both. >> and the final piece of it, of course, before i let you go will be defense. and stepping up what we're doing in terms of strategic defense against ballistic missiles. correct? admiral? >> that is absolutely correct. and andrea, as you know, there's kind of three phases to this. it's the boost face as the enemy rocket takes off. there's the cruise face as it moves along and the terminal face as it comes down. we're pretty good at the terminal phase. we've got a decent shot at the cruise phase. going after the boost phase as they initially come off the rails is an upgame we can play.

we need to get better at missile defense. that's the zone to focus on. >> and just so you know how great this crack team is, we've got both covers now to show you. we've got rocket man from the economist" and "time" magazine lil' kim. >> that is really an amazing accomplishment. if we could do diplomacy that fast, we would be able to solve things. >> if my producers were in charge of diplomacy, we would be in great shape. thank you so much. admiral and rick stengel. >> coming up, loose hips over lunch. washington has ears everywhere. our inside scoop next. you're watching andr"andrea mitl reports" on msnbc. causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown

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abracadabra, bro. the bank of america mobile banking app. the fast, secure and simple way to send money. and now for our power lunch segment. "the new york times" exclusive report on the clash between president trump's lawyers over how to handle the russia investigation stemming from the paper's reporter happening to overhear the lawyers arguing at a sidewalk table publicly debating their tactics over lunch. ken vogel described his fortuitous encounter at a major d.c. restaurant on "morning joe." >> it's perhaps doubly astounding they would have this conversation at this restaurant where a number of power players

are known to lunch, but also reporters are known to lunch and times" reporters in particular. and yeah, it was -- i was surprised that they were -- that they were going into such detail about the russia investigation. >> why does that never happen to me? the inside scoop from susan page, "usa today" washington bureau chief and robert costa, national political reporter moderator of washington week on pbs and msnbc political analyst. i'm here for lunch so i don't have any of these encounters. susan, you can't make this up. >> it's unbelievable. i mean, not only is it where reporters go, it is next door to "the new york times" washington bureau. it is one block away from the "usa today" washington bureau. and, of course, if not a reporter overhearing what about other lawyers? you never know who is -- it's quite an extraordinary breach it seems to me. >> and robert costa, what does

it tell you about the conflict inside the white house among these lawyers and you know donald trump better than any of us. what must he be thinking about the just the propriety of his lawyers talking this way? >> well, first, it's making me rethink going to jimmy john's every day for lunch. i have to start going to a different place. the broader point, i think this lunch and ken vogel's reporting is reflective of a lot of tumult inside the white house. you have the white house council don mcgahn working with the president on campaign, with these outside lawyers from washington who have come in. there's real disagreement how to handle the special counsel, how to move forward, what to reveal, what not to reveal. what's the line in terms of handing over documents. i think that lunch really tells you about that tension. >> the tension which you describe in which ken vogel reports is -- how much to

cooperate with robert mueller what, to turn over. you see these washington lawyers coming, you know, right head-on against the long-time don mcgahn loyalty whose father was acgahny whose father was a lawyer for the trump casinos in atlantic city. this is family. >> i think there's a divide between some of these lawyers who have dealt with special counsel and other justice department investigations in the past and those who come to this from a different perspective, from a business perspective. i'm sure there are con flinecti flikts how much to bring forward. this is an issue the white house will be dealing with months and months, maybe even longer. maybe we're talking another year or two. who knows how long this investigation will go on. for them to have these basic divisions has got to be concerning as they're trying to deal with all the consequences of these russian investigations. >> and the other word we had on that front is michael flynn's

attorney saying that michael flynn's brother and sister have set up a legal defense fund for the former national security adviser to pay his mounting legal fees. obviously, this is a long-term challenge, not only for the white house but for former aides, particularly michael flynn and paul manafort, who are clearly being pressured by mueller. robert, back to you on the congressional side of things. how close is lindsey graham getting with the vote, the whip count on trying to get something through the senate on repealing obamacare? is there one last shot at this? >> there is one last shot. they're trying to get it in before the end of september. it remains to be seen whether leader mcconnell wants to bring this piece of legislation to the floor. he wants to have a win. he doesn't want an episode like we had earlier where they brought the bill to the floor and it didn't pass. they have some real hurdles because senator murkowski of

alaska, senator mccain, senator collins in maine has her own problems with the graham/cassidy bill, so does senator paul from kentucky on the right. getting to that 50 number seems to be a challenge. they also to signal to the republican base they're trying, even after the failures, they continue to try. i think that effort is a signal even if it doesn't necessarily end with passage. >> at the same time you have the president clearly trying to satisfy the base with the tweet showing him -- the doctored video showing him driving a golf ball into hillary clinton's back, other ways to try to satisfy and placate the base after all his uproar over the meeting with nancy and chuck. >> nancy and chuck have problems with their groups. we hear groups like moveon.org are concerned they might give away too much and they're normalizing president trump, the word of the day. so, there are some liberal

democrats who are concerned about this move toward accommodation. have i to say, congressional democrats see a lot of opportunity to get something done, like protection for the d.r.e.a.m.ers. also, it puts the congressional republicans in just the worst possible spot. not at all clear how they're going to handle this. >> and then you have the possibility of cabinet changes down the road. nikki haley was asked about whether she was angling for rex tillerson's job, by our colleague, our friend dana bash on cnn yesterday. >> at the time that i went to trump tower, they were asking me to come there to talk about secretary of state. and i just knew at that time, he could find someone better, so i took myself out of the running. i will tell you now that secretary tillerson continues to work hard. he's not going anywhere. and i continue to work well with him, so we're going to continue to do it that way. >> if he does go somewhere, would you want the job?

>> he's not going anywhere so i'm not thinking about it. >> robert costa, she's not thinking about it. >> i can't read her mind. based on my reporting, she's seen inside the administration as a savvy political player. even though she opposed the president during the campaign, went with a different candidate in the primaries, she's built a rapport with president trump. she's become a dominant presence in foreign policy, at times even overshadows the secretary of state. as she's in new york this week, it's nikki haley, the u.n. ambassador, rather than secretary tillerson grabbing the headlines and who's the center of attention. >> well, that is something to stay tuned on. it's also that she does interviews, which he has done less frequently as well. thank you very much, robert costa, susan page, thank you both. >> thank you. and politics did take center stage in another venue at the 69th annual emmy awards last night in hollywood. host stephen colbert and several winners pulled no punches, turning emmy spotlight on president trump throughout the

broadcast, starting with the monologue. >> and we all know the emmys mean a lot to donald trump. because he was nominated multiple times for "celebrity apprentice," but he never won. why didn't you give him an emmy? i tell you this. if he had won an emmy, i bet he wouldn't have run for president. so, in a way, this is all your fault. but he didn't because, unlike the presidency, emmys go to the winner of the popular vote. >> and the emmy goes to alec baldwin for "saturday night live." >> i suppose i should say at long last, mr. president, here is your emmy.

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edition of "andrea mitchell reports," follow us online at facebook. >> just moving the gang up to new york. quiet week. good afternoon from msnbc headquarters right here in new york city. i'm peter alexander in today for my friend, craig melvin. we begin this president with president trump's debut at the united nations general assembly. any moment now we're expecting him to meet with the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. around likely the focus of that conversation. later today the president will meet with the french president,

emmanuel macron. all of it leading to his first ever speech before the general assembly tomorrow with the anticipation building about what he will say about north korea, about iran, frankly, about a variety of other regions around the globe. syria, venezuela on his docket as well. earlier today the president focusing on the need for reform at the u.n. >> to honor the people of our natio nations, we must ensure no one and no member state shoulders a disproportionate amount of the burden, and that's militarily or financially. >> nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson parked out front in front of the sand trucks of trump tower. security is at a prime. walk us through, if i interrupt you it will be because we see the president arriving with the prime minister. give us the significance of these two meetings today, first with netanyahu, later with