on this thing. >>sorry about that. that's alright. i got a box of 'em. thousands of opinions. one estimate. the earnings tool from td ameritrade. that's it for me. thank you for joining us. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. >> hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. donald trump today fielded a blizzard of shouted questions from reporters in the rose garden of the white house. making fresh headlines on the russia investigation. the federal response to the california wildfires. the nfl anthem controversy. and his relationship with mitch mcconnell. it would be an insult to hastily arranged events to describe this as one. according to peter alzonder, reporters were gathered in the press briefing room awaiting sarah huckabee sanders when they were told to run to the rose garden for a press avail with the president and mitch

mcconnell. today's media event was no doubt part of the pr offensive that began last week with john kelly's unannounced appearance in the briefing room to beat back the narrative that the trump white house has become an adult day care facility. so described by gop senator bob corker. unsurprisingly, at 6:00 a.m. today, a brand-new press account detailing the west wing as a place where aides spend a significant part of their day devising ways to rein in and control the impettuous president appeared in "the washington post." here's some of that press conference where the president hit every hot-button issue in today's news cycle. >> i would like very much to see it be done this year. so we won't go a step further. if we get it done, that's a great achievement. it took years for the reagan administration to get taxes done. i've been here for nine months. i can say the same thing for health care. if you look at obama, first of all, you look at clinton, they

weren't able to get it done. you look at other administrations, they weren't able to get it done. so you understand, the republican party is very, very unified. not even good politicians but they are good at obstruction. >> i femts very badly about that. it's the toughest calls i have to make are the calls where this happens. soldiers are killed. it's a very difficult thing. i'd like to see it end. the whole russian thing was an excuse. excuse me. the whole russian thing was an excuse for the democrats losing the election. puerto rico is very tough because of the fact it's an island, but it's also tough because, as you know, it was in very poor shape before the hurricanes ever hit. all i can say is it's totally fake news. it's just fake. it's fake. it's made up stuff. >> we have the very best of the best on board to break it down. our white house reporters from "the washington post," ashley parker, from the los angeles times, brian bennet, from "the

new york times," glen thrush and nbc's peter alexander who was at that news conference in the rose garden. peerk peter, you describe that run that you guys took from the briefing room where you thought sarah huckabee sanders would deliver today's message of the day from the white house, and the president had something else in mind. tell us about that. >> to be clear, when we saw the president in the cabinet room earlier today, he suggested, hey, i'll see you guys out on the stairs a little later. to be clear, nobody knew what the heck he was talking about. apparently it was this, which was in his head. we pressed folks here at the white house for a sense of what was happening. not until we gathered did we hear, oh, everybody go meet up. you're going into the rose garden for something that was so impromptu, so rare that there weren't chairs set up for the reporters. there was no microphones for us. it was literally reporters shouting questions, trying to get called on by making eye contact with the president. we've talked often about how this is sort of the great disruptor, the way he runs

things around here. at least in the course of the five years i've covered the white house, i have not experienced a moment quite like this one. >> peter, there was another role that you played. i'm sure you hate being made part of the story but you became part of the story when you did a little bit of rapid response in the moment. can you talk about one of the most stunning things i heard him say, turning even the process of consoling families who have lost loved ones into a story about himself. >> yeah, that's exactly right. this was a moment where the president was being pressed on whether or not, in fact, he had spoken to the families of the four american soldiers who had died in niger. here was the president's answer. take a listen. >> the traditional way, if you look at president obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. a lot of them didn't make calls. i like to call when it's appropriate, when i think i'm able to do it. they have made the ultimate sacrifice. so generally, i would say that i

like to call. i'm going to be calling them. i want a little time to pass. i'm going to be calling them. i have, as you know, since i've been president, i have. but in addition, i actually wrote letters individually to the soldiers we're talking about, and they're going to be going out either today or tomorrow. >> so you heard the big takeaway. if you look at president obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. you worked for president bush. you know well he made calls. i was here covering president obama. having spoken to many people this afternoon who worked for him during the last administration, he routinely made calls. speaking to these individuals. i pushed the president on that. his answer to me was, when i said why would you say that, make that claim? he said, well, that's what i've been told. i've pressed him on, who is telling him, when he made up his facts. he had no good answer. here's what i heard from those who worked for president obama in the past. we'll show you the statement that one former official provided saying president trump's claim is wrong.

president obama engaged families of the fallen and wounded warriors throughout his presidency, through calls, letters, visits to section 60 at arlington, visits to walter reed, visits to dover and regular meetings with goa s wit families. this former obama administration officials me that there was nothing that affected the president the way that he was affected by these conversations with the families of the fallen. this is something they take very personally, this accusation by president trump. >> i haven't been able to pull the words together to describe what these calls meant to george w. bush. but ashley parker, let me turn to you and ask you about what might have inspired this performance in the rose garden. i think it might have had a little something with which you reported this morning. tell us about your piece. >> sure. so we did a piece kind of going off senator bob corker's comments where he has likened the white house to an adult day care center and said it's an open secret. every republican knows this

president can barely be contained, and his aides spent all day trying to do that. was this true and what were some examples of this? and it turns out that privately certainly, aides will tell you that a fair portion of their day is devoted to trying to channel and constrain and restrain this president, sometimes using creative techniques. >> to say the least. which you write about. and the power of bob corker's indictment of this white house was twofold. one, i think that a lot of staffers are now afraid to talk. there's been a chilling effect on bob corker's words. in one regard, he took the burden off them by describing the white house as it actually is. that these staffers, the national security team, are what stands between the president and chaos. but he also made it a lot more difficult for people who normally have open lines of communication with reporters because they are all afraid now of being caught talking. do you sense that that's the

case? >> well, yes and no. the white house got a bit more buttoned down and disciplined when general kelly came on, but there's always been, and this is the last quote in our story, a big difference, a janning gap between what aidis will say publicly about the president which is this fawning and heaping praise which is one of the ways they try to control him and buoy his mood. what they'll say privately, i think the discrepancy between what some of these aides and advisers say publicly and privately is among the greatest i've seen in covering politicians. >> and glen thrush, let me bring you in on this. i cannot imagine what was going through chief of staff john kelly's mind when he heard donald trump say that presidents don't call the families of the fallen. what do you think about the fact that it's now all out on the table for everyone to see, that

general kelly does not view it as part of his job to manage the president while everything that ashley reported, i'm insure you find to be the case as well in covering this white house. that what they spend a lot of time doing is trying to cajole him into a more reasonable position by flattering him, distracting him and by delaying his instincts. >> well, look. first of all, i can't imagine what's going through john kelly's head because he's a goals st-- gold star father. he lost a son in afghanistan. his perspective on this is one i can't imagine. when looking at my twitter feed, i would turn all your attention to a former deputy chief of staff in the obama administration who loosened a sort of profane tirade that however articulated what she believed the president had said with respect to president obama. essentially she accused the

president of being a liar saying this is something that president obama had done with great regularity. look, the thing about these press conferences is they are twofold. these impromptu press conferences. they remind me of what ed koch used to do in new york. to a certain extent, this is president trump at his absolute best. he took -- i don't know how many questions did he take, 20, 25? mitch mcconnell was blending into the topiary, not to steal sean spicer's routine here, but i cannot imagine what was going through -- i would pay a million dollars to see a thought bubble from mitch mcconnell's head as trump was talking. that's trump at his best. free-wheeling, able to handle himself. talk about a guy who didn't need supervision today, trump. he was able to handle himself with reporters. on the other hand, when you go back and look at the transcript, he didn't say anything. your head is exploding saying look at all this news and none of it was really news. a lot of it were diversions, and

what's the headline on the niger, the four men who were killed in niger? he hasn't yet gotten to them. he hasn't addressed it on twitter. that's the headline and what he was trying to distract attention to. >> i think glenn just put his finger on one and, to me, the saddest thing about this story isn't that there are families who have paid the ultimate price. isn't that he lied about what his predecessors did. it's that he made it about himself. but he did that with the california wildfires as well. and he trotted out, you know, someone who was fema director maybe four or five fema directors ago and sides aid he s i'm doing a great job. there is nothing that happens on this planet in which he is not the leading character. >> that's right. there's nothing that donald trump likes to do more than to stand up and read his own positive reviews in front of an audience. >> or make them up. i hadn't actually heard them before. >> and so here he was standing

in this impromptu press conference where he answered questions for more than 40 minutes. and i think what today was about was a word that donald trump likes to talk about, which is momentum. he was feeling like he woke up this morning and the news stories like "the washington post" story about the adult day care center and how aides are working to control donald trump, that was dominating the news cycle and he wanted to mix it up and change that. so he came out and gave this free-wheeling press conference to try to divert attention away from some of the things that people were talking about, particularly this idea that he really hates, which is that he has to be controlled and managed by his staff. >> let me ask you, glenn, one more question, headline that was in the news. a big profile on pence and how trump sort of undermines and dare i say emasculates pence, makes fun of his religion.

is there a sense that pence is the backup plan, sort of grates on donald trump and annoys him? >> i think these guys are the ultimate odd couple. but mike pence is an absolutely brilliant apple polisher. no other way around it. joe biden was very lavish in his praise of president obama, but there's a lot going on in them apples over there. and i think pence is -- i was talking with somebody who had talked with pence offline and who was being very, very tough on pence in terms of asking him about trump's behavior. do you support his policies? what do you think of his legislative agenda? even in private, pence was remarkably calibrated. mike pence was, apart from the food tasters at this lunch with mcconnell and trump, pence was there to mediate because pence is the guy who goes up on the

hill and hashes out the detail. insofar as pence goes out there and constantly defends the president, oftentimes in ways that potentially could damage his brand up the road, that is what mike pence's insurance policy is. >> i want to ask you about something that susan collins said this week because it seemed to be on full display. she said there's no doubt this president has been unconventional in his approach and that's caused more chaos than is good for our country and our relationship with our allies and our enemies. she says i would urge the president to remember that every single word he says matters. if you analyze this briefing today where it wasn't all true, it wasn't all consistent with the things he said before, the things he didn't want to respond to, he called fake news or deflected. is that exhibit 434 for susan collins' diagnosis? >> it is. and we can see it constantly happen where his aides and cabinet secretaries are working hard to get a few things done and working with their

counterparts in congress and mitch mcconnell's office to try to line up getting a bill passed on tax reform or on health care and then at the beginning of the news cycle, donald trump is constantly introducing new invective or bringing up new issues that spin everyone off in different directions. and this 40-minute news conference, which is longer than most of the daily briefings sara sanders gives, this was a prime example of that. it gave the reporters standing there, you know, all kinds of different avenues to try to go down and fact-checking to do. but it took the main discussion away from the president's objectives. why he sat down in the oval office with mitch mcconnell right before going out there which was to figure out a way to get tax reform done and put some points up on the board which they haven't failed -- they've failed to do. and trump blames members of congress for that. and members of congress blame trump for not staying focused on getting their agenda passed.

>> i could talk to you guys the whole hour. something peter and i talked about, and we're going to talk about it during the show. the volume business that donald trump does and how that obscures everything else. thank you guys so much for talking to us at the top of the show and talking to me throughout the day. i appreciate all of you. peter alexander, glenn thrush, ashley and brian bennet. donald trump sayinging too, i'm just not going to blame myself for the lack of progress in enacting a gop agenda. we'll tell you who is left holding the bag. also, donald trump today leaning in on the nfl anthem debate playing chicken with the league that will likely look like they cratered to an unpopular president if they outlaw peaceful protests. and fired man talking. the president's former chief of staff spends hours talking with robert mueller's team. so what did the special counsel want to know from the man who was running the white house the day jim comey was fired? ld who are not in school today. girls are not in school because of economic issues and they have to work.

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peanut butter filled, plain. great. so what are we gonna watch? oh! show me fall tv. only xfinity x1 brings you the best hand selected picks this fall. not getting the job done. and i'm not going to blame myself. i'll be honest. they are not getting the job done. i can understand where steve bannon is coming from, and i can understand, to be honest with you, i can understand where a lot of people are coming from because i'm not happy about it, and a lot of people aren't happy about it. >> but you're the president. let's bring in our panel to make sense of this for me. joining us, msnbc senior national security analyst juan zarate, former deputy national security adviser to george w.

bush. donny deutsch. megan murphy, and jason johnson, politics editor at theroot.com also joins us from a remoets undisclosed location very, very nearby. i couldn't even get my thoughts together on the news the president made and the slander, really, against his predecessors to suggest they department call f -- didn't call families of the fallen. obviously, it's different. president bush took the country to war so it's a totally different thing. but it destroyed him, and he wanted to be destroyed by the grief that he felt for every family who made the sacrifice. he went to walter reed more times than anyone has a count of. it was with every fiber of his being that he sought to deliver comfort. i cannot imagine a scenario where he would have stood up and tried to -- i just -- explain

this to me. >> i don't know how you explain it. it's the most sobering of a president's responsibilities. he's put men and women in harm's way. they have fallen on behalf of their country. >> and donald trump has, too. he has ordered and greenlit missions in which people have lost their lives. >> that's absolutely right. he's like an observer. does he still not understand the job he has? >> there's a bit of a disconnect. that last clip does demonstrate that. at times the president seems removed from realizing he's the head of state, the commander in chief. he's ultimately responsible for these actions. the fact that four brave men died in niger on behalf of our country fight with our allies, that happened on his watch. he's commander in chief. he not only has responsibility to communicate to the families of those fallen soldiers but also to the country with respect to what they were doing on the ground. i'm disappointed. i'm hurt.

>> he owes those two presidents an apology before the end of the day. that's a smear and slander, the likes of which i haven't heard since maybe yesterday. but it's appalling he said that. >> he should give them a call. we both know president bush took this incredibly seriously. >> and president obama. >> he would take visits to dover to welcome back the caskets of fallen soldiers. and so it's very hurtful. this is the most serious and sober of topics for an american president. and for him to treat it kind of loosy goosy this way and in a way that insults prior presidents, i think is irresponsible. >> and it's just -- i know we don't diagnose him but it does put a little bit of steel behind your suspicion that there's something wrong with him. >> he has no soul. >> looking at a picture of your daughter. i think about this man leading

our country now who just in the past week said basically we shouldn't have free speech. >> or we'll take away their license. >> who basically went after the mayor of san juan who is trying to save her people and made it i'm doing a great job and gotten away at saving probably lives, and then today basically instead of saying, i haven't called them yet and i'm going to call them, basically did the reprehensible disgusting, soulless thing of lying that these past presidents hadn't done it. did we elect the worst person on this planet? any time you think you can't go lower. i want to cry. this is not about politics. there's something so deeply wrong, evil, soulless about this person that's got his hand on the switch and there's nothing else to say. >> two things about it is that this lie will live on. it will be that, oh, obama

didn't call, george w. bush didn't call. this is -- he feeds his base lies they respond to. he believes his own myth about this happening and this will get permetuated. >> when it happens, i think he's purely transactional. he's caught. i haven't caught them yet and his first response, oh, is in any kind of corner is to lie and bash out at the other guy. so i think it's -- >> i think that gives him too much credit for strategy. i think he goes out there to sort of show how in control he is and the wake of this story. we're talking about soul. john kelly had some soul searching to do. that's for sure. and looking at what he said, something so reprehensible about the military, about people who have lost their families, as glenn thrush says as a gold star family himself to hear that language come out of the president. a slander, a smear on past presidents is something he has to look in the mirror and work for this man and i question

sometimes when he hears language like that, loose talk, call it what you will, a smear on this president and it continues to do that. >> when you read the whole quote, the whole statement of president trump, it is appalling. it's all about him. i've got letters for the parents and look forward to talking to the families. you don't have to call them on the first day or two obviously. i want to pay tribute here to all the soldiers and airmen and marines serving our country and it's one of the great honors of my job to be their commander in chief, period. right? that's what any normal president would do. president obama, president bush. instead he goes on and uses the word "i" like 18 times in this about ten-line paragraph where he goes on about how he makes calls. it's very difficult for him. it's all about how difficult it is for him. it's not about the sacrifice of the soldiers or their families. it's all about him. >> jason? >> none of this is new. this president never takes

responsibility for anything. whether it's policy, whether it's foreign policy, whether it's domestic. he's like a 7-year-old. when he gets caught in a lie it's like they did it. >> 7-year-olds have more humanity. >> they have more responsibility because somebody would step in and hold them accountable which many republicans in congress don't seem willing to do. this goes back to, not just the khan family but even repeal and replace. this goes back to tax reform, where every single time, serious questions are asked of this president. his response is, nobody knew how difficult this was. that's your job. you can't claim no one else knows how difficult the job is that you're supposed to be doing. i'm not surprised by this. i don't think we've seen the bottom of what this president is going to be willing to do. if you are willing to sit there and chastise american citizens, 2.3 million who probably still don't have clean water in puerto rico, i don't really think there is a basement he won't be willing to dig into if it can

take him out of taking responsibility. >> your old boss, an incredibly elegant man. president obama, an elegant man. when is the time where they stand up and say, no, no, we called all those families n what the president said is a lie and incorrect? >> president obama's office did put out a statement saying that president trump's claim is wrong. president obama engaged families of the fallen and wounded warriors. >> come out and speak. the two of them come out and speak. >> i think -- i don't speak for president obama or president bush anymore. i think both men are at peace with letting their legacy speak for itself. when are enough of our democratic institutions under enough threat either -- you heard last week rush limbaugh worried about donald trump overreaching on the nfl. you had both presidents bush and obama worried about the first amendment and the attacks on the press. presidents bush and obama didn't like the things written about them in "the washington post" either. but they understood that a first amendment is what makes us different. and it's stunning to see -- i'm

just going to let you watch. you have to see what happened. and the result of this president, i won't use the expression again, but a grown-up man had to say to jake tapper, the anchor of a sunday show, this. >> you don't want to say anything about the senator calling -- suggesting you've been gelded before the world? it's not anything that bothers you? >> i checked. i'm fully intact. >> i guess it's funny, donny. >> no, it's sad. that's not a grown-up. that's a guy running a fortune -- ceo of a fortune 500 company. >> explain this story for anyone like me. so on -- we're now one week and one day into gop senator bob corker's diagnosis of this white house as an adult day care facility. he's been a defender of rex tillerson. i'm sure you are a fan of rex tillerson being part of the national security establishment.

you agree with corker's assessment that he's one of the people that stand between president trump and chaos? >> there's a cadre of -- the problem and challenge with the way the president has handled everything, whether secretary tillerson or attorney general or anybody on his staff is whether or not he's supporting them or undercutting them. and the question of what credibility he gives them and their mission as leaders in his cabinet is a fundamental question. i think the problem for secretary tillerson at this point is the question as to whether or not he has the faith and confidence of the president, whether or not what he's doing is on behalf of the president or something on his own. and now you have to question at every moment whether he's aprod or at home. >> is pompeo on his way in to the state department? >> i have no idea what's going on with personnel but you hear -- >> do you think that that's an option presented to the president? >> you heard secretary tillerson is not there for the long term,

right? he could be gone as soon as january. >> it's unavoidable. is that your understanding? >> that's what i've heard but who knows. >> we know that. >> it's so upsetting. he has his generals working for him doing their best to save the country from the trump president and advance foreign policy. advance policies and principles they believe in. general kelly lost a son in afghanistan. he doesn't raise it or play that card so to speak to get any kind of moral authority. he's very dignified about it. jim mattis was fired basically by president obama in 2013. and i -- he was out of office in 2016 and we had dinner in washington. he was talking about when he left. when did you get to hoover? he said, no, i took a little time and got there later. i later found out general mattis when he left command drove

across country, took 2 1/2 weeks and visited as many of the parents of parents of marines who served under him as he could who died. he was at centcom. this is often the case an officer will visit the parents of the enlisted soldiers and marines. but general mattis didn't have to do this, obviously. he drove by himself. didn't have a driver. didn't have a military gear. out of the military at this point. he thought it was so important. what does jim mattis or john kelly think any donald trump? >> i hope he calls them and asks them. >> as robert mueller's reach extends deeper in white house, could the president's old catch phrase "you're fired" come back to haunt him? i'm ryan and i quit smoking

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are you considering firing robert mueller? >> no, not at all. the whole russia thing was an excuse. excuse me. the whole russian thing was an excuse for the democrats losing

the election. there's been no collusion. it's been stated they have no collusion. they ought to get to the end of it, because i think the american public is sick of it. >> one man who isn't sick and tired is special counsel bob mueller. after they interviewed reince priebus on friday, a man who served as chief of staff during some of the defining moments of the russia story. also new numbers detailing how much the trump campaign is spending on its legal dchs. our panel is back. i imagine reince priebus envisioned separating from the trump white house in a manner more dignified than an uber being call for him after being fired aboard air force one with his replacement there and learning all about it on twitter. and i think it's interesting that he was the white house chief of staff when donald trump fired jim comey. and he was also the white house chief of staff when donald trump made up a fake cover story for

his son don junior's meet with russians and also chief of staff when a lie was told about why comey was fired. so i guess what i'm getting at, they probably had a lot to talk about. >> they have a ton to talk about. whenever you're getting in trouble at any sort of office situation, it's not the people working there you worry about. it's the last three people who got fired because they have things to say. they have things to share. and what we say, we saw this with james comey when he was fired. he took notes because he had a feeling this trump guy wasn't trustworthy and he was going to have to keep a record of what he did. does anyone doubt reince priebus didn't keep copious notes of his time in the white house? every conversation? everything he thought and experienced because he was probably afraid? if i don't get fired from this place, i might get indicted. it's highly likely he has some explosive revelations to make. i say this all along. no matter what happens in this russia investigation, we have to remember that collusion itself isn't illegal, but it is something that is impeachable.

and so this may all come down to whether or not anybody who was in congress has the backbone and the spine to actually hold this president accountable for what it seems many people in his staff were attempting to do with russia. >> and juan, collusion is one part of this. reince would be of interest if they're trying to get to the bottom of that. this obstruction case, and it's obvious that bob mueller is trying to answer the question. did obstruction of justice take place. you're a lawyer. if the president of the united states fired jim comey and tells lef lester holt, i was going to fire him all along, but he sends his staff, i remember kellyanne conway reading a lie, might that be the kind of thing that would raise more questions about obstruction? >> you're great at asking leading questions. >> i'm not a lawyer. i'm not doing it on purpose. >> you know, bob mueller is on the hunt for data. he's in discovery mode in

full-throated, full throttle mode here. he's trying to get as much information as he cannot only from reince priebus but based on what priebus observed and what he knew was happening at the time. what's going to be most interesting is what was the intent around what was happening in the white house? and i think that's the challenge for any prosecutor is to define what that intent is. mueller is going to know what's in the e-mails. he's going to know what decisions were being made when based on timelines and chronologies he's put together. he's going to want to know from reince priebus, though, what was really happening inside and what were people thinking and intending with the decisions being made? he's going to try to ferret out perhaps some information that may not be apparent based on the face of data and documents that you already have at his command. >> you can be loyal but if you perjure yourself you can have a desire consequence for you and

your family. >> trump had comey over for dinner one weekend into his presidency. kind of astonishing. a one on one dinner. the idea they'd permit that is jaw dropping if you think about that when there's an ongoing investigation by the fbi of the trump campaign. but what happened at that dinner? only two people there. comey testified to it and in much more detail to mueller. but presumably he told reince about it. e-mails and phone logs. maybe also conversations. and then there's the meeting where everyone leaves and comey testified about that where comey understood trump to be asking him to lay off. i guess he's -- laying off flynn was the january 27th meeting. so it's the contemporaneous. it's not just interesting gossip or reince was there. define the state of trump's mind. we're talking about actual conversations that priebus was a part of. >> and in a normal white house, a chief of staff arranges those meetings.

you don't call the fbi. >> what did president trump say to reince priebus? i want to have dinner with comey? call over the fbi director? did reince say y? what do you intend to discuss? >> not his biggest problem. the same way whitewater, ken starr, whitewater and ended up with a blue dress. the last -- this is going to go back to 20 years of one of the -- >> you can't impeach the guy for stuff ten years ago. >> if all of a sudden it comes out there's money laundering, that then starts to be the line that brings you to russia. he cannot survive a presidency when we see 10 or 20 years of illegal money laundering into his real estate empire. so i disagree with you. if i would have -- >> the only way you impeach a president in history is for things he did as president. the lewinsky thing was big because it was in the oval office. the fact he'd done things like that before. the money laundering, maybe

manafort -- >> we're going to get donny and bill a podcast because this is -- >> neither of us is a lawyer. >> i know a little bit about money laundering. >> we'll get you a podcast. none of us knows the law. my thanks. we'll go inside one of the highest stakes battles professional sports has seen in years. the nfl versus the players' right to protest with a whole lot of donald trump on the side.

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now that we have your attention... capri sun has four updated drinks. now with only the good stuff. do you know how to use those? nope. get those kids some new capri sun! it is very disrespectful to our country when they take a knee during the national anthem. number one. number two, the people of our country are very angry at the nfl. all you have to do is look at their ratings and stadiums. >> that was president trump today doing what he's done so often. talking about the nfl. not always telling the truth. the league's owners meet

tomorrow in new york. joining the table, the sports columnist with the new york daily news. >> it's so much more. >> thanks for joining us at the table. ratings are not down. >> no. >> and what do you think the league is going to do this week? >> if they try to legislate against dissent in this country, i think they'll be making a terrible mistake. >> why? >> because they'll be alienating so many other people who fill their stadiums and line their pockets, which are -- i'm so tired of hearing this is disrespectful of the country. my 93-year-old war hero father who flew a b-24s, i said, pops, what do you think? he said we went off to fight that war. we fought for all of it. we didn't cherry pick which freedoms we were going to fight for. and dissent is as patriotic in this country as the flag in which these people put themselves in every time it

suits them. >> colin kaepernick, i'm not a lawyer or sports analyst, but is he good enough to be the backup quarterback in the nfl? >> colin kaepernick is good enough februaryto be a smarting quarterback. he's never going to prove this collusion case. he's saying the owners of the league have conspired to keep him from making a living. >> isn't that obvious? what do they have to prove? >> they would together as a group -- >> but they all watch the news. >> as an owner, i agree with -- mike said it. having said that. if i owned an nfl team now. one thing if he was on my roster. i would not go out of my way to hire him because for my business, that in itself is making -- >> but you have teams like the baltimore ravens where you have the baltimore sun saying, this city needs him. he led the league. the number one selling jersey last year on a lousy san francisco 49ers. >> it just makes -- on the team

it becomes the center of that entire football team. >> what if it makes your team better? >> here's the thing. let's take this a step out too from colin. one of his closest advisers, bob kraft. he immediately came out and said what the president said. we're two weeks, three weeks on from this scandal, he's still raising it calling them disrespectful? you are exactly right. the day he won this debate was the day he conflated being disrespectful to the flag and the fallen with a -- it was a false narrative from the beginning. he continues to perpetuate it because he knows it's a 60% to 70% issue among people if you view it as disrespectful to the fallen and to the flag. this is the same president who, as we talked about all -- just recently who criticized a former president's outright lie saying that they didn't call the families of the fallen. >> let me ask you. so michael vick, what did he do? >> michael vick killed dogs and -- >> does he have a job?

>> yes. >> what did he do? >> domestic violence. throwing a former girlfriend down on a -- >> does he have a job? >> he had a job with another of the flag wrapper uppers jerry jones as did his star running back until he was finally suspended the other day, ezekiel eliot. there have been players who got behind the wheels of cars drunk and killed people and were able to get a job in the national football league. >> my thought is if you are a man, all the owners of football teams are men, right? are they all white? >> no. >> how many oar. >> one. the jaguars. >> so if you want to show that you are the one organization that is afraid of donald trump, go ahead and take oaway the players' right to protest. the press hasn't yielded to his will. you think the nfl is going to -- >> no, they're not going to. it's -- that would be bad for

business because now they're really making a statement. and, b, they are going to just kind of at this point stand back and let it go. >> i think there were 20 players yesterday. 20 players. some stayed in the locker room. some kneeled. one player raised a fist. ought to just leave this alone, because this happens to be american. >> and -- >> we don't need the nfl lecturing us given the history of players that still play. >> sitting on pause. much in more on the other side of this break. it's time for "your business" of the week. jenny britainour is credited with starting an artisanal ice cream movement, when wisteria was found in a pint of their ice cream they went into crisis management. rebuilding their reputation. for more, watch "your business" weekends on msnbc at 7:30.

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panel's back. coming up, an r-rated break for us. >> r is a step up. >> it's good for us. >> don't say r-rated break and then turn and say -- >> first and last time. >> i forgot everything we would talk about. nfl. how did this start? how many protested before donald trump got involved and how many are involved now? >> about half a dozen. >> ever. before donald trump's presidency? >> at the moment, when he went down to alabama and gave his speech, in front of a crowd that i imagine looked like an sec football crowd -- no. from the time colin kaepernick cook a knee after racial inequality and racial injustice -- >> in the police. >> in that moment i thought and

wrote at the time it was the beginning of the end of his national football career. i did not want that to be true. it has turned out to be true, and to me, the idea that this man cannot get a job in his chosen profession, having once quarterbacked a team to the super bowl is a shameful thing. >> it's even deeper than that. he can't get a tryout. there you lousy quarterbacks all over the league. in the nfl were not full of so many arrogant short-sided racially driven owners, the easiest way to solve the problem, bring him in and everybody rejects the guy. >> everybody knows, i'm a very, very progressive guy. play devil's advocate. i own a team. a team kind of a public trust, i want the team to be about football. whether it's fair or not, if i bring him in, the entire -- that team, colin kaepernick can do, plays line up, all of a sudden my team is a weekly political

show and i say as an honor, i support what he's doing i would keep him if on my team but i don't need to bring that here. i get the logic, but the unfair. >> the american people are better than this. i believe that. in they see through this and know the difference between respecting the flag and respecting the fallen and respecting our troops and understanding what a political protest is on a football field. the day we discount that ability of the american people to actually separate fact from fiction is -- >> here's the thing, and this that is true. anger out there. until the first win and then the second win. if he actually wins a game, everybody will forget about it. it always happens. >> a few seconds. >> this is the country of muhammad ali who once chose not to go to vietnam and ended up dying the most beloved athlete in the history of the country. >> amen. sneak in one more break and be right back. have come together to bring you more ways to help reduce calories from sugar. with more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie

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and how to work around your uc. that's how i thought it had to be. but then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control... when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. raise your expectations and ask your gastroenterologist if humira may be right for you. with humira, control is possible. we're back with a krexz and prediction. the correction -- >> so used to thinking of owners as the league of rich old white

guys and forgot 92-year-old martha ford is now the owner of the detroit lions. >> prediction, what would donald trump do if the league preserves the players' right to protest? >> i may be off. threat ton hold his breath. he'll move on. move on. >> all right. many more in the days to come. sign them all to daily contracts. my thanks to all of my panel. that does it for nicolle wallace. now katy tur is in for chuck todd and the fabulous "mtp daily." and if it's monday, president trump seems to be backing both sides in the republican civil war. tonight with friends like these -- >> steve is very committed. he's a friend of mine. >> senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell who has been a friend of mine for a long time. >> steve bannon declares war on mitch mcconnell. does have the president stand? and can anyone win thi