conflating of the anthem and military police with social issues like racial injustice and inequality that the players are actually protesting like kaepernick 14 months ago. i think there is a middle ground to figure out what is the right way to deal with both issues. >> stephanie, if i could real quick, with the nba season about to start, i'm really fascinated to see what happens there because i think some of these issues could be more jermaiengi there. >> all right, we have to leave it at that. i'm stephanie ruhle. my colleague is on assignment right now. "andrea mitchell reports." moments now, president trump sitting down for lunch with his secretary of state less than a week after nbc news broke that story about rex tillerson calling the president a moron. a bigger concern over the widening rift of their

relationship. >> we have a president who despises diplomacy and yet a secretary of state who is carrying out diplomacy. this is unbelievably irresponsible. we are denying ourselves an essential tool. and after senator corker's tough comments to the "new york times." >> sometimes i feel like he's on a reality show of some kind. you know, when he's talking about foreign policy. he doesn't realize, you know, that we could be heading towards world war iii. >> tinderbox, massive wildfires tearing across california from wine country to disneyland, killing 11 people so far, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. winds making the fires almost

impossible to contain. we'll have a briefing this hour. >> your lives are more important than any piece of property, and our first priority is saving lives, then we move on to saving property. but lives are the most important piece here. first wives club. ivana trump taking on the president's ex after this from donald's first wife, a van a. >> melania is there and i don't want to cause any type of jealousy or something like that because i'm basically first trump. i'm first lady, okay? >> this is andrea mitchell in washington. right now the president with henry kissinger just moments ago. >> i don't think so at all. i think we're well on our way. the people of this country want tax cuts. they want lower taxes with t.

we're the highest taxed nation in the world. our companies aren't leaving so much now because we have them coming back. you see announcements from companies building car plants now in michigan, that they're going to various different states. they're actually picking some additional locations. but just last week five plants announced they're going to build in this country. i will say that with the highest taxed nation in the world, people want to see massive tax cuts. i'm giving the largest tax cuts in the history of this country. in addition to that, there will be reform. i think it's politically -- it's very positive. the people of the country want it. we're also bringing back $3 trillion from offshore. that's money that's been there for years that wants to come back into the country, but the tax situation didn't allow it to happen and the bureaucracy, and that's going to come back as part of the deal. $3 trillion. it could even be more than that. people want to see tax cuts, they want to see major reductions in their taxes, and they want to see tax reform, and

that's what we're doing. and we'll be adjusting a little bit over the next few weeks to make it even stronger. but i will tell you that it's become very, very popular. and i'll also be signing something probably this week, which is going to go a long way to taking care of many of the people who have been so badly hurt on health care. they'll be able to buy, they'll be able to cross state lines, and they will get great competitive health care, and it will cost the united states nothing. take care of a big percentage of the people we're talking about, too. so with congress the way it is, i decided to take it upon myself, so we'll be announcing that soon as far as the signing is concerned. it's worked out. it's very simple in one way but very intricate in another. but it will be great, great health care for many, many people. a big percentage of the number of people that we were talking about for failed obamacare. now, we're going to have to do

something with obamacare because it's failing. henry kissinger does not want to pay 116% increase in his premiums, but that's what's happening, and it's actually getting worse. it's getting worse by the minute. so we're going to have to do something with obamacare, and that will work out. but very importantly, a big percentage of people will be able to get health care and they'll be able to go across state lines. they'll be able to buy from many, many competitors, meaning the insurance companies, and it will not cost our country anything, but they'll have great, great health insurance again. >> did you undercut the secretary of state with the iq comment? >> no, i didn't undercut anybody. i don't believe in undercutting people. >> nbc white house correspondent kristen welker whose voice you just heard there in the photo opportunity joins me now. kristen, i think i heard you ask whether he was undercutting rex

tillerson. why don't you tell us what happened. >> reporter: that's right. i asked president trump if he undercut secretary of state rex tillerson because he gave an interview to forbes magazine, essentially saying, i don't know if the moron comment is accurate. he calls it fake news. of course, we broke that here on nbc. but he says, i guess we'll have to compare iq tests, and i can tell you who is going to win. the president effectively disputing that that comment undercuts his secretary of state. then you heard him say, i don't believe in undercutting people. which is a striking comment for someone who obviously likes to go on the attack on twitter. what you may not have heard as clearly, andrea, another reporter in the room asked him if he still has confidence in rex tillerson. his answer to that was yes. there is one part of the tape we haven't yet played and that was at the very top. i asked the president is senator bob corker and right, that he is in fact putting the united states on a path to world war

iii. the president disputed that characterization and said that we were on the wrong track before, now we are on the right track. i also asked that question of secretary kissinger. he declined to weigh in or comment. a lot of big headlines. and to put his answer on taxes into broader context, andrea, jeff mason asked him if his feud with senator corker could effectively derail his efforts at tax reform. you heard him there very vigorously state that is not the case. americans want tax reform and ultimately that is something they will be able to achieve. all of this sets the stage for what will be a very undoubtedly interesting conversation at lunch with secretary of state rex tillerson, andrea. >> stand by for just a moment, because as you alluded to, there was an earlier part of that photo opportunity. we're going to play it now. >> if you've ever been in the oval oflfice, and with henry kissinger, i didn't bother

asking that kquestion, because he's been in the office many, many times. it's an honor to have dr. kissinger with us, a man of immense talent and experience and knowledge. i'm going to talk to him for a while and we're going to learn a lot. but i can say from my world standpoint and with many of the countries that henry and i were talking about before the election, because i would talk with henry before the election. we've made a lot of progress with many of them. we have some outstanding and we'll handle that as we have to handle it, but we've made a lot of progress. in the middle east with isis and many other things. it's a much calmer place. but henry, i say often, i inherited a mess, but we're fixing it. you may want to say something, and thank you for being here, henry. thank you very much. >> mr. president, i didn't expect this opportunity. it's always a great honor to be

in this office. i'm here at a moment when the opportunity to build a constructive, peaceful order is very great. the president is leaving on a trip to asia, which i think will make a great contribution to progress and peace and prosperity. thank you for inviting me. >> thank you very much, henry. i appreciate it. >> mr. president, is senator corker right that you're putting the u.s. on the path to world war iii? >> we were on the wrong path before. all you have to do is take a look. if you look over the last 25 years through numerous administrations, we were on a path to a very big problem, a problem like this world has never seen. we're on the right path right now, believe me.

>> so that was the first part of that, kristen, where your first question about senator corker. you can hear very clearly. my expectation is that henry kissinger was brought in for a number of reasons, first of all, to try to give advice about this confrontation between the president and rex tillerson, but primarily because the president is going to china. henry kissinger is the author of the leading texts on china. he is the best-known american in beijing. he knows the chinese better than any other american and certainly better than any other american diplomat. and his advice would be very, very important. and i would also suggest that if rex tillerson still has his job after today, and every day it's a tillerson watch, it's because the president has his first asia trip. and the idea would be you don't fire the secretary of state right before you go to china. >> reporter: i think that's exactly right, andrea.

obviously the stakes could not be higher as the president prepares to go on his first asia trip. former secretary kissinger is exactly the person he would want to talk to and seek advice from on that front. and we have been discussing for quite some time that while it does seem as though his relationship with secretary tillerson has become untenable, he really needs him. he needs stability, quite frankly, before he heads to asia and grapples with a whole host of presidential challenges, north korea, of course, being at the top of that list. we've seen tensions mount in recent days with the president lashing out at north korea and essentially floating the possibility of some type of military action. of course, all of our reporting points to the fact that diplomacy is still the path they're pursuing here behind the scenes. this is how he will handle the

situation right now getting prepared to meet with the secretary of state. >> thank you, kristen, for meeting us on the lawn today. david ignatius, a columnist at the "washington post," and leader of political affairs at the state department. welcome both. ambassador sherman, first to you. as we face this relationship between the president and the secretary of state, the president disparaged him, his diplomacy and also the chairman of the foreign relations committee. >> i think richard haas was right, we have never seen anything like this to reflect diplomacy. the president is doing everything he can to make diplomacy not possible. >> to you, david ignatius,

you've had a very well-informed take on tillerson and his relationship with the president. can he stay on beyond, let's say, the asia trip given this public undermining by the president? >> we'll see, andrea, if the asian trip goes well. nothing succeeds, especially with this president like success. he could use one. if there are photos from beijing that make it look like mar-a-lago 2 and a positive relationship agreement on dealing with north korea, pup p -- upper regional issues, i could imagine tillerson staying on a while. him being in that job long term is hard to imagine because it's obvious from tillerson's body language that he doesn't like being in washington, dealing

with rebuffs from the white house and other issues. today damage control from the white house, having henry kissinger, the ultimate wiseman, come out. the way forward is part of that, i think. i'm guessing this will calm down now for a little while. >> of course, there's been a lot of rumors about mike pompeo. we know he is very close to the president. they spend an hour together at least every day. his background, west point, harvard law, congress politician. those are in terms of someone who could be over and more likely to be concerned. activist, demeanor in sync with this president. he has an embassy i can't

remember anyone having in terms of policy discussions. i would be surprised if they through tillerson off the mound to the dryer sheet. >> my reporting since last week, unless it's changed in the last few days, it still seems to be decertifies that the. they are living up to the letter of the nuclear deal and saying they've been destabilizing in the regions. going to congress and saying, do something to tough it um.

by just declaring with the iranian terror group. >> we're expecting it to happen this week. he is really bucking his responsibility as commander in chief, sending this to the congre congressmen, saying, i'm going to be decertified, but you decide whether to keep sanctions or not. for the life of me, i can't understand how stopping iran from getting nuclear weapons is anything but in our national stewart inverse, for the president of the united states to say, well, we don't think this is such a good idea makes no sense at all. we are putting american security at risk just at the moment we have north america on the plight as well. he's going to find out china will not be such a willing partner if the united states backs out of the iran deal which

benefited china as well. >> you negotiated the deal. we were with you along the way as you were doing all this with john kerry. arguably, yes, for a decade, at least, and longer in terms of some of the components, they can't do anything on the nuclear front, but has it empowered them with their misbehavior in syria and elsewhere in the region because they now have money from the unfrozen assets that they didn't have before? >> they were doing very malicious activity in the region before this deal. we always said they would probably get a little more money, the rigc, but quite frankly it doesn't take much to finance hezbollah and doing what they're doing in the region. there is no question they're stabilizing the region, and have been for quite some time, but we a wealth of tools we can use with our allies and partners. we should get to work on using them and making sure the deal stays in place, because iran with a nuclear weapon can inject

more power into the region and deter the following actions we all need to take to ensure the destabilization stops. >> wendy sherman david ignatius. there will be a lunch with mattis, tillerson and the president, so stay tuned. meanwhile, real tragedy out west as the fire travels through central and northern california. 11 people have died and many businesses destroyed. it has forced thousands of residents from their homes. >> it's horrible. i couldn't stay because i couldn't breathe. >> really nervous and scary. everything we worked so hard for is in this home. the thought of losing it is terrifying. >> in southern california, the fire ripped through anaheim hills, and the fire's fury could

be seen for miles in all direction, including at disneyland. but more urgently, the blaze tore through sonoma and napa counties, scorching vineyards, leveling neighborhoods and is being fueled by wind gusts of 50 miles an hour. thousands of people, including the sheriff, had to be evacuated there. steve is in napa. steve, what can you tell us? >> reporter: state of emergency in napa, andrea, is about as literal as that gets. as you just mentioned, the sheriff said 25,000 people without power. there are schools shut down, hospitals that had to be evacuated. cell phone towers burned to the ground so communication is at a standstill here. as you see all around me, homes are burned to the ground. we tried to be respectful and stay out of somebody's home right here. but i believe what i'm seeing is somebody's bathroom, followed by somebody's living room. just the ruins and the bones of

this home left in its wake. firefighters are now trying to contain what is at zero percent containment, a fire sweeping through this area. what we have is basically earlier in the year we had these fires, several of them, but they have them were static. with santa ana winds, you're talking about tropical force winds searing through these neighborhoods. we know two of the deaths were right here in the napa area. it was two of them, an older couple. they had just celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. their daughter simply said they couldn't make it out of their home. she said it would be far worse if one of them had lived and the other had died. a tragic situation here in napa. shelters are filled. there is an ongoing press conference with new information about 500 firefighters fighting this fire specifically, but there are several burning, up to

15, maybe more now, in about a dozen counties around this area. a horrific situation for firefighters who are trying to get a hold on this, and for families who are trying to get some communication to the outside world who have remained here because they fear looters. they also feared losing their homes because of the situation of the winds bringing fire to this area. firefighters trying to get some containment to push it back so it doesn't. sk skpl. >> what about those winds? i heard a weather forecast earlier today that the winds would die down today, good news, but then really ramp up for the next couple days starting tomorrow, and that that was very concerning that they would reignite some of those fires. >> reporter: extremely concerning. i can tell you right now, the winds have died down

significantly. also it's pretty cold, actually, right now. overnight the temperature dropped significantly, so that's helping with the fire fight as well. but again, as we've been hearing all along, zero percent containment on the fire. as we've been kind of walking around here, i can see different fire trucks whiz by, ambulances whiz by, police going the other direction probably warning people to get out of this area as they continue to fight this fire. the wind, as the sun drops, comes down much more heavily and brings fire to those homes in places where the fire hasn't already burned, andrea. >> steve patterson, stay safe and thank you very much. up next, as the world turns. you don't have to watch the soaps. the president sits down for lunch with his secretary of state less than a week after the news reported that the president called the secretary of staff a

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awkward is is probabprobablt

word to describe today's lunch between president trump and r secretary tillerson. the president had a war of words with senator bob corker, as you heard, who spoke to the "new york times." >> i don't think he fully appreciates that when the president of the united states speaks and says the things that he does, the impact that it has around the world, especially in the region that he's addressing. a lot of people think that there's some good cop, bad cop act underway, but that's just not true. i mean, it's like he's doing "the apprentice" or something. >> senator grassley suggested both sides should chill. >> i got more important things to do doing my job than to go tell corker to keep his mouth

shut or to tell the president something. >> joining me now, jennifer palmeri, former communications director for hillary clinton's campaign, and former white house communications director for prt obama. and political analyst. welcome to both of you. lindsey graham talking to make hague in indiana. let's listen. >> i don't think it does anybody any good to continue this. i like bob corker. the president and i have differences but we had a really good time on the golf course. i hate to see him go. he's a good friend and a smart-thinking senator. >> he talked about bob corker, of course, but the president tweeting about bob corker. quote, the failing any times set liddle bob corker up by recording his conversation.

was made to sound a fool and that's what i am dealing with. the president will have to confirm any number of people coming up, and can he remain until the tax cut? >> bob corker will remain senator corker through 2019. we have all the way through this year and into next year, and he is going to be a key vote on tax reform. bob corker said he's not going to vote for anything that he thinks increases the deficit. that's going to be a very tough challenge to meet. he's also head of the foreign relations committee. there are a lot of things that will come before that committee that will be important to donald trump. and donald trump, you know, shouldn't be the arbiter or he shouldn't be the cause of a rift between members of his own party. the art of the deal may be a great book to read if you're a real estate developer in new york, but it has no application to the art of politics.

the art of politics is actually finding out what other people -- and getting them to do something that's not actually in their best interests to do. then you build coalitions and move things to move it forward. >> jennifer, you've worked in the white house, you've worked in campaigns. has anybody explained to the president how this is done? it defies, as rick explains, any kind of legislative strategy to do this. >> i imagine people have tried to explain it to him. he obviously doesn't conceive how that should impact his behavior and restrain his behavior. i think it's gotten to the point where he is who he is. i think he is unfit for office. he seems to prove that every week. and when chuck grassley says something like, i have better things to do than try to mitigate a fight between corker and trump, you don't, actually. you really don't. the chairman of the senate

foreign relations committee says he thinks the president of the united states could start world war iii. and republicans act -- just because it's commonplace that the president behaves erratically and it's commonplace that even republicans criticize him, we act like it doesn't have an impact. this has an impact beyond our borders and it affects the united states, and senator chuck grassley, you need to take it more seriously. i'm really frightened at the prospect of war, of even the possibility of nuclear war, and god knows what's going to happen when the president goes to asia next month and goes to apec and what kind of standing the united states will have in that setting and what errors he may commit that would have a big impact. >> rick tyler, as to jen's last point, there was -- nick kristof recently was on a foreign ministry tour in north korea in

pyongyang and was on the "morning joe" this morning and it was chilling. i've been there myself many times. but the fact is the sounds of war, or the guns of october, if you will, are really sounding in north korea. people do not know how to read this president and we should not minimize the possibility of miscalculation. >> there is a risk of miscalculation. i do think the president tends to send kim jong-un mixed signals and keep him off guard. he's often described as irrational. i think he frankly is very rational. but this good cop, bad cop is stupidity. it doesn't work in foreign diplomacy. you either have smart cop and dumb cop, but what the president needs to understand is you need to have a unified foreign message. and your secretary of state is supposed to be communicating the intentions of the president of the united states. and when they are in direct

conflict, it means that every foreign leader dealing with the secretary of state understands he doesn't speak for the secretary. and if he doesn't speak for the secretary, then rex tillerson can't be in that job. >> meanwhile, in the east wing of the white house, we have the battle of the wives. let's play a little bit of ivana trump on "good morning america" talking about the former wives. no, her successors. excuse me. >> i had the direct number to the white house but i didn't want to call him because melania lives there and i don't want to cause any type of jealousy because i'm basically first trump. i'm first lady, okay. >> and she called marla maples a showgirl. if you were the communications director at the white house, what would you be telling the press director to say at the briefing? >> i think ivana was joking.

i was surprised at the east wing respondent because it seems to me that's a very off-the-cuff comment. maybe there's more to it. >> a back story, perhaps? >> maybe this isn't the first infringement the current mrs. trump has felt. >> thank you very much. coming up, one nation overdosed. what one elementary school principal is doing to fight back against the opioid crisis. kate snow's extraordinary reporting. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us.

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>> one girl i talked to is tori. she's 14 years old. she lived with her aunt and uncle who were addicted. she talked about taking care of herself, not seeing a doctor or dentist until she was 10, even dealing with drug overdose before she was eight. as far as a father figure? you can see how emotional this is for her. what happened to your uncle? >> he passed away november 20, 2015 from a drug overdose. >> heroin? >> uh-huh. >> that must have been super hard for you. >> yeah, because -- i mean, he basically took care of me instead of my mom. if my mom was asleep, he would take care of me. so it was just -- it was sad. >> do you want a kleenex? i have one. >> i have one over here. >> come here.

this is really hard stuff to talk about. at 14 years old, tori has seen enough pain for a lifetime, making her spirit and attitude today all the more impressive. here's a big question. >> okay. >> why are you talking to us? >> because i want to spread awareness of how drugs have not only affected my life but have probably affected a lot of other kids' lives, and i want to just, like, help people. >> tori is living with her grandparents now. she's doing really well. her mom has been sober for three years and tori is really proud of her mom. they see each other, andrea, pretty much every week. >> i'm choking up. i don't know how you got through that. i know that you have more reporting tonight on "nbc nightly news." tell us what you have to share tonight. >> tonight we look at schools. it's impacting the school that we visited in massachusetts, really all of their students. because when one kid is hurting it can affect the whole closs.

and kids in this school in falmouth, massachusetts on cape cod are coming to school late or not coming at all, others at home are acting with violence and hitting. what were your first clues that we have a really bad crisis here? >> i think when we started having parent deaths. at the elementary level you wouldn't expect to be losing families in the way that we have and having to enter a first grade classroom and tell students that their classmate has lost a parent. and then to have to do that again. and to do it again. >> in the fourth grade alone, they've had six parent deaths. what they're doing there, andrea, is remarkable. from the superintendent of schools to the district head of principals, they have redirected resources and hiring counselors even for kindergarten, they're teaching kids how to breathe, how to cope with emotion, and you're going to see a lot more of it. on a positive note, at least

they're doing some good there. that's tonight on "nightly news". >> kate for, for our viewers whd not see the entire report you did on tori, you talked about how her mother sent her out to do drug deals. tell us about that. >> she recalls it being one time, but that's enough. one time when she was seven or eight years old, her mother gave her what she now thinks were drugs in a napkin and told her to go to a door and take money for the napkin and bring the money back to the car. i have to tell you, her mother -- i said she's sober now and she doesn't remember a lot of this. so tori's memories are much stronger than her mom's are because her mom was high through most of this period of the first ten years of tori's life. but i have to tellandrea, that's not the only time i've heard stories like that. i'm talking to kid around the country who were also abused.

you really feel for these kids. i think it will come out in the story about falmouth, how much the adults in the community are trying to embrace these kids and help them grow up in a more normal environment. >> i mean, kate, it's obviously a national problem. i first saw it in 2015 when i was covering the campaign with hillary clinton in new hampshire, then we saw vermont. its governor declaring it a state of emergency in a state of the state message that year. >> yes. >> so what is happening? we saw chris christie in new hampshire during the campaign. the president, i think, said this is a national crisis. what else are we seeing from the federal government? >> yes, back in the summer the president said the opioid crisis should be declared an emergency. that actually hasn't happened yet, and i'm told that it's difficult to declare something like this as a national

emergency. usually that's dedicated to a hurricane or natural disaster. they're trying to figure out the legal parameters with which they could declare it an emergency and what funding would support that. also chris christie you mentioned, he's the head of a commission now named by the president to look into this issue. their report is due by november 1st, so mark your calendar because i think there will be a lot more conversation about this and what kind of congressional action and funding is needed come october 21st. >> kate's story will replay on nbc at the 3:00 hour. you have new reporting, as you alluded to, tonight on "nbc nightly news." thank you for your reporting today. >> thank you. a trump insider comparing the president to a whistling teapot who needs to blow off steam. that story next. our inside scoop.

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unpredictable president. let's talk to moderator of "washington week" on pbs and jonathan swann, political reporter and congressional times reporter. robert, your new reporting with ashley parker about the pressure cooker in the white house and the president having to blow off steam, please tell. >> we had quite a number of conversations with white house officials, people close to the president, people outside the white houseworking alongside phil rucker as well. what we learned is the president is unhappy with the agenda on capitol hill. he's constrained by restrictions put around him by the new chief of staff john kelly. you see him trying to break out again and again talking to friends beyond the oval office, with friends late at night, trying to get this cage, in a sense, politically that's been put around him.

>> according to a quote from your reporting, in a matter of days, you report, team trump has torched bridges all around him nearly imploded an informal deal with democrats in doing so, trump is labeling, excuse me, laboring to solidify his standing with his populist base and return to the comforts of his campaign." so, that is pretty much the -- the explanation of what's going on, robert, but the fallout is pretty profound. you've been reporting on the d.r.e.a.m.ers and daca and these compromises. completely blown up. blown sky high just by his tweets. >> but there are some members, of course, that really feel as though this is completely blown up. if you look at that list of principals that they put out, it's a laundry list of democrats said for a long time they're not going to support. i talked to lindsey graham about this in the hallway.

he told me essentially republicans can't say we don't want to do comprehensive immigration reform and essentially turn around and say actually i want to overhaul the entire immigration system. however, i talked to nancy pelosi on the phobe for 20 minutes yesterday. she told me she doesn't feel like the president has backed out of their deal, she hasn't been told specifically by them that the deal was off. she said the last time i talked to him, i convinced him to tweet the d.r.e.a.m.ers had nothing to worry about. some democrats the hill is saying this is stephen miller and everyone else putting out what they want to say but the president, himself, has not backed out. >> not just a leak, there was an on the record briefing, we all were on it. >> yeah. >> so jonathan, what does this do to john kelly? and all of your reporting about the chief of staff's efforts to try to contain these presidential outbursts. >> is well, it's pretty clear he's incapable -- it's not something he's capable of doing. what he has done is put in place a process for information flow to the president which is

definitely constrained and frustrated a lot of people who can't just wander into the oval office. i mean, back in the old day s amarosa used to hang out, people wandered in and out like grand central station. that has changed. what hasn't changed is the president, all the hours in the residence before and after the day which john kelly has no access to and no ability to restrain this president. >> robert costa, going forward, there's this lunch with mattis and tillerson today. tillerson scheduled a photo opportunity we expect later this afternoon. there is this big trip to asia. what is your expectation of thetithe timeline own rex tillerson? >> it's a limited timeline. my sources in the administration say they want to have this china summit go off without a hitch but that doesn't mean the tensions with the secretary of state have gone away. i'm told the president spoke with the secretary of state on friday. the secretary of state was the conversation with general kelly and others over the weekend trying to convince him to get to

a better place with the president and of course they're meeting today trying to repair a relationship that's really fallen apart. >> and by the way, jonathan martin, our friend and colleague over at "the new york times," has just posted in response to the president's suggestion that bob corker was somehow tricked by the recording by "the new york times," of that conversation, that's clearly not the case. all sides knew, party to that conversation knew that it was being recorded. jo as the members of the republican caucus now deal with how do you fl navigate this? saw what grassley said, saw what lindsey graham has said. the republicans led by mitch mcconnell all now being threatened by bannon to be primaried and you got leadership members like senator barrasso who's hardly a raving liberal. he's a member of the leadership. >> and did you hear the radio silence when bob corker went

after the president? you didn't have people like mitch mcconnell running out saying this is our president, you can't speak to him like that. you didn't have -- they weren't on capitol hill so people like me couldn't chase them down the hallway and ask them questions. >> they're on recess. >> yeah, they're on recess. there's this idea that republicans have silently been shrugging their shoulders and saying this behind the president's back for a while and sources inside the white house have told me john kelly is not used to getting screamed at as an adult male who was a general, he's not used to a president throwing tantrums and yelling at him much like jeff sessions isn't used to -- these are the most embarrassing moments of these men's lives, these men's careers and is straining his relationship with a lot of republicans. >> john kelly became a marine in 1970 and is a four-star general who has given the incredible sacrifice of his son's life to service. to this country. jonathan, i can't even imagine this very dignified public servant taking that kind of abuse.

>> he -- the president made a comment the other day that he believes he'll serve for seven years and it's his favorite job. that's just not true. he really doesn't enjoy this job. he has told associated he was, quote/unquote, drafted into the job, and just that word is quite telling. he sees this as the ultimate service to his country and i think it's pretty clear to anyone who talks to him that this is a job that he took under duress and not with great glee. >> well, he -- even the homeland security job when he was -- we were all in aspen for the security conference, he was on stage with pete williams, our colleague, asked why he went back into government after leaving, and he said, because, you know, he turned to his wife and said yowhen you have a chan to serve, his wife said to him, you always believed in serving your country. i'm paraphrasing there. clearly a man driven by public service, his whole family is dedicated to public service. he has a surviving son in the

military right now. >> there's one other wrinkle with kelly which is ideologically he really isn't involved with the trump agenda, my sense talking to people who are close to him, he actually is quite moderate particularly on sing like daca. served with people who were illegal immigrants in the military and i think is squit sympathetic. >> head of southern command so knows that region very well. and we'll be right back. curse you, he-man, you interfering imbecile! give us one good reason we shouldn't vanquish you to another dimension! ok, guys, hear me out. switching to geico could save you... hundreds on car insurance. huh, he does make a point... i do like to save money... catch you on the flip, suckas! geico. because saving fifteen percent or more on car insurance is always a great answer. this timyou haveis turn. 4.3 minutes to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. new philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries.

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this edition of "andrea mitchell reports. "follow the show online on facebook, twitter, @mitche @mitchellreports. craig melvin is next. craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york. meeting of the minds. president trump and secretary of state rex tillerson are lunching right now. it might be a bit awkward considering tillerson called his boss a moron which led to the president proposing an i.q. face-off. no, that is not face news. also accusers speaking out, explosive new accusations of sexual harassment, of sexual assault and now rape. those accusations made against media mogul harvey weinstein, told to the "new yorker" and there is an audiotape of a sting operation involving the nypd. we're going to play that tape for you. and california burning. just moments ago, officials updated us on those fires that are tearing through napa and sonoma