and employees have to be able to deal with understanding they are in a safe workplace. >> keep talking about it. it's important. we're out of time on this show. thank you for watching this hour of "velshi & ruhle." >> join us again tomorrow at 12:30. right now we take you to "andrea mitchell reports." right now, sounding of before taking a trip to asia. president trump sounding off on his attorney general. >> i'm not really involved with the justice department. i like to try to let it run itself. but honestly, they should be looking at the democrats, they should be looking at podesta and all that dishonesty. they should be looking at a lot of things. a lot of people are disappointed in the justice department,

including me. old wounds. president trump taking aim at hillary clinton in the democratic party after the former head of the dnc says the clinton campaign took control of the democratic machinery before locking up the nomination, exposing a rift in the party. >> what we have to focus on now as democrats is we recognize the process was rigged. and now it is up to democrats to build a new process, a process that really works and works for everyone. and breaking news. army deserter bowe bergdahl receiving no jail time. that coming to us. more on that is ahead. good afternoon, i'm peter alexander in for andrea mitchell here in washington. we begin this day with breaking news in the case of bowe

bergdahl, the u.s. army soldier who walked off his post in east afghanistan. now more than eight years ago, he was held by the taliban for five years. hans joining us now with the verdict coming from fort bragg, north carolina. tell us what it is and is this the end of the road? >> bowe bergdahl will be dishonorably discharged from the u.s. army. he will have to pay $500 a month for a period of 10 months, but he will not, as you say, serve any additional prison time. remember, he was tortured and held captive by the taliban. we had some indication the case may go this way. he pled guilty himself. he pled guilty to misbehavior before the enemy as well as desertion. remember, bergdahl opted for a judge to hear, not a jury. there is a military tribunal in

fort bragg. the judge said he should only be held for desertion for one day. he tried to escape numerous times after being captured by the taliban. he walked off his post in june of 2013. in 2014, the president brings him back and has a rose garden ceremony with his parents. immediately there were questions about the troops that went looking for him, the soldiers that were looking for bowe bergdahl, the injuries they sustained, and that's one of the issues we could hear more today on some of those individuals whether or not they feel justice was served. peter? >> we'll wait to see whether we hear from the president as well routinely through the course of the campaign. i was with them, so even as the president travels aboard air force one we'll get a realtime reaction from the skies above the united states.

hans nichols at the white house. hans, thank you very much. facing renewed scrutiny from democrats for comments in front of a senate committee in october for court documents sealed this week. the president's comments on the south lawn following a string of tweets over the last 24 hours, calling out the justice department for its lack of action against hillary clinton. also back in the headlines thanks to former dnc chairwoman donna brazil. her revelations about the clinton campaign, draws major interest from the president and likely from millions of bernie sanders voters. we want to break it all down now with nbc correspondent kristen welker, "new york times" washington correspondent michael schmidt. kristen, i want to play the president's response to your question this morning about george papadopoulos. let's play that first. take a listen. >> i don't remember much about that meeting. it was a very unimportant

meeting, took place a long time ago. don't remember much about it. all i can tell you is this. there was no collusion, no nothing. it was great, frankly, that they continued. >> this is a strategy to reflect, distract in this case. walk us through what we're hearing from the president and how white house aides of his have been trying to frame this. >> reporter: to your point, peter, the president has tried to put the focus on hillary clinton, on the democrats particularly in the wake of these new revelations in the book excerpt in the upcoming book by donna brazil. she essentially suggested that the clinton campaign didn't do anything illegal but did engage in some ethical behavior when it came to the democratic primary, pointing out that clinton spokesperson mick merrill dispeutz that on twittdi disputes that. this comes in the background

ofish ruof issues related to papadopoulos pleading guilty, that he lied to the fbi about contact with russian officials. we learned overnight, effectively, that president trump -- we knew he was in that meeting along with attorney general jeff sessions -- but apparently listened intently according to the account of one former aide when george papadopoulos floated the idea about a meeting between then-candidate trump and russia's vladimir putin. according to this witness in the room, jeff sessions dismissed that outright, said that wouldn't happen, and then you just heard president trump say, look, i don't remember much about that meeting at all. but it just underscores the fact, peter, that the questions keep mounting. this white house trying to focus on the president's foreign trip, five nations over what will now be 13 days. we learned that he has extended his trip by one day. he's going to spend an extra day in the philippines. he's going to try to put the focus on foreign policy and his

attempt to get tough on north korea, but russia will undoubtedly be at the backdrop, peter. >> thanks, kristen. you write about this today in the "new york times" and you really shine a light on this. here's what he said about that testimony in october. i want to play that for the audience. >> you don't believe that surrogates from the trump campaign had communications with the russians. is that what you're saying? >> i did not and i'm not aware of anyone else that did. >> is he right? he was aware, he was in the meeting. in fact, he suggested, hey, we better shut up about this right away. walk us through what you learned. >> this was in march of 2016. there was a lot of pressure on trump that he had foreign policy bona fides. the republican party was sort of running away from him. he needed folks. they were able to find these guys to create a photo op of sorts to bring him in for advice. trump listens.

sessions says this is a bad idea, but after they get into office and they're forced to answer the questions, their information is not accurate. >> fundamentally, sessions has a credibility problem. he's been called into the panel in the senate on multiple occasions now. they want to do it again now. what is the likelihood he appears back there and how problematic is this for the attorney general? >> if you'll recall, this is the second time he's had to clarify his testimony, answer questions about them. in this case, what will be interesting is they probably need the republicans on the committee, chuck grassley, to get him up there again, to get him under oath to answer these questions. my guess is that sessions will try and send a letter up trying to explain it, saying, look, this was not a big meeting, how am i supposed to remember this, this was a thing, we dismissed it, yet there was nothing to it. at the same time these questions linger about it. he was able to get out last time. remember, he recused himself from the russia investigation.

>> we learned in the last few hours that mueller's team said they're going to need, i think, three weeks to present their case against paul manafort. talk about what we should be watching, what the president will be watching, even though he'll be far, far away from here, and potentially the indictments that could be brought? >> it's interesting that the president actually criticized sessions today. the president blames sessions for mueller. he said we have mueller because sessions recused himself. and there's long been a fear within the justice department and even at the white house that as the russia investigation heats up, the president will go back after sessions again. we didn't see sessions by name today in those tweets, but we did see a lot of stuff about the justice department. i think we have to look in the next few days to see whether the president goes after sessions. >> you talk to folks in the justice department routinely. what do they say? what is their reaction? it's not new ten weeks in, these

constant attacks against the justice department, but how do they view it now in the context of what is an active case? >> i think they've gotten very good at dealing with this. sessions is literally almost fired and basically fired by the president early this year. they were able to work it out and keep him there. this is not new to them. these are folks that take the mentality, we're just going to put our heads down and go back to work. >> for the career folks, obviously. >> but even the folks around sessions. these folks have gotten a lot done around sessions' goals. they are very impressed by the job that sessions has done and the president wants to take out his anger again. >> thank you very much for being here. kristen, also to you. chuck todd is here. they get ready to host

anniversaries on "mtp daily." we heard president trump go after the justice department. this is harder for jeff sessions to navigate. what do you make of this moment for the attorney general? >> if i just came down from mars and you told me, the attorney general has been caught twice, it appears, misleading congress under oath, and his boss, the president of the united states, is not happy about how he's running the justice department, i would say, boy, i better keep my 5:00 resignation watch ready to go. but this is -- i think sessions is in this sort of political paralysis right now, because notice congress is not calling for his head. they're not calling for a resignation, they want more explanati explanation. but that's very important here, and i think it's because of the president's rants about the justice department, about the lack of this, i guess, vengeance

investigation he's looking for on hillary clinton or whoever, and that justice isn't responding. i think there is fear on capitol hill of what an attorney general, how they see that can be filled. jeff sessions has recused himself on clinton and on russia. it's putting him in this sort of paralyzed state politically, and the president almost appears to be wanting to humiliate him into resignation, but we know he's not going to do that, and i think congress is afraid of what might replace him. >> the president focusing heavily on the democrats right now. when you don't want to talk about your side of the aisle, go to the other side. he's had plenty of ammunition lately. i'll read to the audience what he said. he said, the rigged dem primary, one of the biggest political stories in years, got zero coverage on fake news network tv last night.

disgraceful. hillary clinton writes, today's lesson being quoted by donald trump means being misquoted by donald trump. stop trolling me. this is a problem. this is not the story that democrats want to be focusing on right now. >> donna brazil rolled a grenade into the democratic party, pure and simple. the bell cannot be unrung. she may try to claim she didn't say hillary clinton rigged the dnc in her favor, but she might as well have in the way she laid this out. and look, there are some that are pushing back on her privately, claiming, look, there's more nuance here. nuance is out the window, man. this is confirming the feelings of a lot -- thousands of sanders supporters, and it's reinforcing that narrative. look, this grenade has exploded inside the democratic party. there's going to be a lot of collateral damage. the current dnc chair, i think, has a big challenge on his hands. he was not a sanders guy, he was

a clinton and obama pick. so that's going to be a potential problem for him. and then if democrats blow virginia on tuesday and blow that governor's race, this grenade -- right, this grenade becomes radioactive. because if gillespie wins and beats northam, the credit will be given to gillespie going trump. meaning he basically won by advertising trump issues. and northam will be criticized because he was not part of the sanders wing of the party, he didn't go progressive enough, he wasn't tough enough on trump. the point is the grenade that donna brazil rolled into the democratic party becomes radioactive if the democrats lose west virginia. because then it's even bigger than just the fractures inside the dnc, it's about whether the party has any idea how to win elections anymore. >> we wish we had a live camera inside gillespie headquarters right now. the president going out of the

country for the rest of the campaign. as we know, he's on his way. i'll be chasing behind him when we finish this broadcast. what will you be watching? obviously words mean to this president. with him words have a different meaning. what do you think we'll see as he goes to north korea? >> we need to see if north korea decides to provoke a response from the president. decides to do some sort of rhetorical sabre rattling or missile sabre rattling. that to me is the biggest unknown of this trip, is how does north korea respond to mr. trump's visit to the region, and do they try to incite something in one form or another, or see if they could knock him off his diplomatic talking points on that front. i'll tell you, another thing i'm watching for politically is how

close does he make himself appear to chinese president xi? the reason i say that, the steve bannon wing of the republican party, steve bannon has all but wanted to declare war on china when it comes to trade and other things. donald trump highly talks about president xi. i don't know how well that will play even for his base who doesn't seem to care -- you know, ever seem to go away from him on anything. on this issue, i think he's playing with some political fire with his own base. >> he heads to the philippines, obviously. duterte is going to visit him there. >> there is diplomatic land mines all over asia for him.

our experience with this president, if there is a diplomatic land mine, he steps on it. >> what are you looking forward to? >> i'm looking forward to the fact that we'll have tom brokaw on the show. i wish we could be celebrating and doing a special of "meet the press" through the years -- >> too much to do. >> -- but there's too much to do. we owe it to our viewers. we have a news show we have to do on russia, the democrats, tax plan. we have a lot to jam in, but we're celebrating. we have a fun little thing for people, so we'll see you sunday. >> no lack of excitement in seven years. make sure to tune in to more chuck this afternoon on "mtp daily" at 5:00 and every sunday on "meet the press s" as well. nearly a two-week country tour across asia. that's next live on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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i'm a business person. i tell my people, you don't need to fill slots, don't fill them. but we have some people i'm not happy with their -- >> the assistant secretary you're not getting rid of. >> the only one that matters is me. when it comes to it, that's what the policy is going to be. >> president trump there brushing off any concern over the shortage of diplomats in rex

tillerson's state department in this critical five-country swing through asia with north korean threat looming over allies in that region. the state department's official focused on asia in condoleezza rice's element, in john kerry's state department. anye, we'll start with you. the president has made relationships with allies in asia. in your opinion, what does he need to do to do well? >> thapgs fnks for having me. this trip is all about a unified front with north korea. frankly, there's been some positive movement in that direction. with all the tweets that i believe were harmful, there is a slim silver lining here and that

is that china and the u.s. have the closest behind-the-scenes talks they've ever had, the most detailed on north korea. the other issue, of course, will be trade. i think you'll hear some tough talk. i've heard that behind the scenes, the u.s. administration hasn't quite decided what exactly they want to press china on on trade, but i'm sure you'll hear a lot about it. >> rick, let me ask you a similar question. words do matter, as anye just suggested. maybe there is a small silver lining for some of the president's tweets. but those tweets have been somewhat harmful, if not threatening, to our own national security about north korea. what are some of the countries going to be watching for as they hear from the president not just on twitter but in person? >> the thing is, what they're going to be looking at is what does america first need in asia order? the u.s. was the foundation of stability. we have troops all over the place. people will be looking at trump

and saying, is this guy really an autocrat? where he said only i matter, that's going to be important to president xi jinping. there is no charm with xi jinping. he has no personal feelings. he has interests like most countries do, and don't think you'll persuade him of something he doesn't want. it doesn't happen. but i think the president is in denial about that and doesn't realize it. >> rick, broadly speaking, i want to ask you about secretary tillerson who has been leading the diplomatic effort so far as one exists behind the scenes with north korea. what role will he be playing there and how does that meeting between the president and the secretary of state make this so challenging? >> this was always challenging since thomas jefferson was president of the united states.

people understand they can do business with him, that he understands the national order. he's not going to put in mine fields like chuck was talking about, so i hope people look at him as kind of a contrast to trump. the inside guy, the outside guy. tillerson can keep everything under control, i hope. >> on a similar question to you, which is rex tillerson, anye. what do you make of this secretary of state now traveling alongside the president. the secretary of state bakesicay told by his own boss, stop wasting your time when it comes to diplomacy. >> it is overwhelming that the president is undermining his own secretary of state personally. i think rex tillerson should be commended for all the behind-the-scenes work he has done bringing allies on board to commend the threat of north korea. that is really important.

it's unglamorous work. it requires a lot of calls to individual leaders and continually grooming those relationships. i think it's good that they're on this trip together, and i hope the president supports his secretary of state. >> just a couple days ago, anye, we heard from administration officials as i was in the briefing room preparing us for this trip. speaking of the president and duterte, this administration official saying the two men have a warm rapport. how would the bush administration, how would condoleezza rice have viewed any administration official referring to a person responsible for all the attacks on his own people that duterte is describing a warm rapport between the two? >> i can't speak for condy, but you have to speak for leaders around the world, including

human rights. the philippines situation is a little more complex, though. duterte has turned very much toward china. but the united states is incredibly popular in the philippines. we have a 90% approval rate. duterte and his own people do not want to have a tango with the u.s. i think you need to have a reasonable relationship, and i hope the u.s. administration, when they're there, can also say something about the human rights abuses in the philippines, which are serious. >> rick, should the president be taking this meeting in the philippines? >> i have to say, anye talks very eloquently about the complexity of the situation in the philippines. but the thing that stood out for me, that we have the values or we always had a value space for foreign policy. the president of the united states would stand up to dictators and autocrats and they

would be able to speak in two ways, talk about human rights and also talk about sports. the philippines is one of our oldest and best allies. you have to be able to do both. now what happens with autocrats around the world, they look at donald trump and they see a model. they don't see somebody who is chastising them, and i think that's really important for foreign policy. >> thank you, anye and rick. we appreciate our time with both of you. bernie sanders reacting to the dnc claim that hillary clinton took control before winning the primaries. this is peter alexander on msnbc.

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you want to look at hillary clinton and you want to look at the new book that was just put out by donna brazil where she basically thwarts the dnc. that's what you want to look at. >> donald trump asking to ramp up looking into hillary clinton.

gentlemen, nice to have both of you here. ron, let me ask you, the significance of this fight within the democratic party right now, what do you make of this moment for democrats, and how problematic is this for your party? >> well, it's certainly not helpful. you know, i think that we need to understand that these joint fundraising agreements are standard. they're done by every candidate. both hillary clinton and senator sanders signed one. donald trump signed one with the republican party. there is nothing untoward about it, but certainly this kind of dispute is not helpful for our party. >> here's what elizabeth warren said. she was on cnn and made the rounds. here's what she said. >> this is a test for tom perez. either he's going to succeed by bringing bernie sanders and bernie sanders representatives into this process, and they're going to say it's fair, it

works, we all believe t it, or he's going to fail. >> reporter: do you agree with the notion that it was rigged? >> yes. >> one of the party leaders saying the past election season for democrats was rigged. >> yes of t. donna brazil saying herself she isn't saying it was rigged. and there is no evidence that the controls hillary clinton put in place when she put $100 million in, it didn't change the vote. let's put 2016 behind us. focus on the election next tuesday in virginia and 2018 after that. >> you look at both parties. you have a hostile takeover in the republican party so you no longer have a central right party in america. you're seeing a strengthening of the sanders-jeremy-corbin wing.

that would be an increased polarization dramatically in the country and would be bad for american politics. >> what's the immediate potential? what's the fallout of this? ed gillespie and robert northam for folks at home, the gubernatorial race right now. northam leads in most polls. gillespie coming out strong in the final days. do you think this is enough, potentially, to be threatening to the campaign he's running? >> no, i don't. i think ralph northamir ran a gd campaign. any centralist positioning running a trump campaign talking about confederate memorials and gangs and all these horrible things, i think that will cost him the election in a moderate state like west virginia. >> what do you think of the campaign ed gillespie is running right now? >> i think surprised. >> surprised seems generous.

>> a moderate conservative who saw the way the winds were blowing in the republican party. that's a very bad sign moving forward, i think. >> let me pull up the new polling in the "washington post" and abc news. this is what the feds are looking at speckly on taxes. 50% oppose it, 35% support it. there is broad consensus, even among the wealthy, that this plan benefits the wealthy most right now. michael, is this plan sufficient? does the president care enough? or are we just going to take this one and tack up a win and they'll celebrate that? >> i think a lot of the components of the plan make sense. you add them up and it does terrible things to the deficit, which i think is going to matter in the senate. the context here is the republicans have a two-vote margin in the senate on this. the president just a week or two ago was attacking flake, was attacking corker --

>> corker being a deficit hawk. said if the deficit goes up a dollar he can't support it. >> it's madness the way this has been conducted. the president is trying to alienate the person he needs. >> there has been some confusion in terms of the democrats' pushback on this. what does the fundamental democrat take back on this bill? >> it gives relief to the wealthy, not the milddle class. it won't do anything to jobs in the way of huge tax breaks, and it doesn't create jobs. the plan is in trouble, and as michael said, the inside game, trump is alienating republican senators. so if the public isn't for it and he's made the republican senators mad, that's not a good path forward for this plan. >> on wednesday we're going to look back and say, one year to the day america voted for donald trump as president. this anniversary for you, michael, marks what?

what have we learned in the course of the last year? >> we learned we have a president with a score of zero when it comes to legislation. i think that really matters. i think a president that has no standing within his own party, i think he's alienated a lot of people in his own party. i think it's going to be a problematic anniversary. >> there are only so many members of his own party speaking out against him. >> there is an intimidation factor here because they don't know who the primary electorate in the party is and whether they'll be challenged. i think there is an intimidation factor. but this is a president that has had very few results and has made a lot of enemies. >> what does wednesday, november 8 mark? >> sadness. it turns out we thought it would be horrible and it's much worse than anybody would have believed. president trump has tweeted five times in the last 24 hours that his justice department should try to imprison his opponent from the last election. i think that level of

authoritarianism, just completely inappropriate behavior as our president and i think doubles down people's resolve to win some elections in 2018 and 2020. >> there is this impeach trump campaign right now. is "impeach trump" enough for democrats to win seats, to win back the white house in 2020, or do they have to come up with better messaging than just "get rid of this guy"? >> i think we'll have a bigger message with making the world safer, and i think that will win us back the white house in 2020. coming up, the latest on the new york city terror investigation. that's right here on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. i'm ryan and i quit smoking

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phone. the question is did he have ties to an isis group or any connection to it? president trump responding to a rogue twitter's request to deactivate his account. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. rs. with my advisor's help along the way, it's finally my turn to be the host. when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise your body was made for better things than rheumatiod arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra

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president trump making light of the temporary shutdown of his twitter account after a twitter employee briefly deactivated the president's page last night. the president, you may have seen, responded this morning. he said, my twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. i guess the word must finally be getting out and having an impact. i thought about that one for a little bit. joining us now, nbc contributor sam sty. sam, first of all, the president right now en route to asia. in the past we would have policy stories for days on end. instead we're talking about the president's tweets as he flies

above flyover country as the republicans would suggest the rest of the world calls him. what do you make of the president as he heads for asia and is still rambling about the justice department? >> this is pretty much par for the course for this presidency where there are huge consequential decisions, trade policy, domestic policy, foreign policy, that can come from this trip. whether deliberately or that he can control the impulse, the focus is on donna vertebra blbre russian investigation surrounding him. this morning he called for his justice department to go after his old political foe, which is a very abnormal and rather -- well, i don't want to put crazy words out there, but it's not normal for a president to do that. >> ned, let me pose to you, does the u.s. surrender its credibility, the u.s. government's credibility basically when you're trying to criticize other governments for

political retribution against their political opponents when the president is effectively doing the same thing here? >> we would surrender our credibility if they tried to make this case abroad. what we've heard from rex forceful in these one-on-one meetings but i think there's another reason behind that. we have so much of that at home. try to make the case against nepotism, corruption. try to hear that case from donald trump and see how that plays in your mind. i think when the president meets with rodrigo duterte of the philippines, they'll be kindred spirits and there won't be a lot of acrimony. >> duterte called president obama the son of a w hoar.

the president obviously, the common theme, strategy, is deflect, distract, focus on other things. the papadopoulos reporting you have right now that sessions eekt fively rejected this outright in the meeting, that the president we understand was listening intently to this at the time. the president this morning saying he doesn't remember much of that meeting. talk about where this leads us and why this matters so much? >> no one seems to remember very much. this is a common theme, if there is one. i don't recall, i don't remember, it's not that big of a deal? the president is on the record at a news conference, saying he was an unwear of anyone in his orbit having conversations with russian officials. that's what papadopoulos floated in this march 31st meeting during the campaign, that he was talking to people who might be able to set up a meeting with president putin. the president listened with interest and jeff sessions then shut it down. what's interesting about that is

now you have a series of statements from jeff sessions he said under oath that are contradictory to it the facts. and you have increasing calls on congress for him to come back and retestify. what you don't see is republicans or any big movement to have him removed. and i think part of the reason for that is, no one -- if you're a republican, you don't want another hearing for an attorney general. if you're the president, even if you're unhappy with him for a number of reasons, kind of don't want to give in. >> punctuating that point here's what the democrat from minimum manipulate, al franken, said on this topic. >> he has contradicted himself so many times in the last -- since january that it really is hard to believe that he's been telling the truth at any one -- at any one point. >> sam n your latest piece you write about the rise of george papadopoulos. we all got make sure -- we now say papadopoulos perfectly.

it took a while. it's now a household name. this is a trump adviser who you write make tremp's presidency. a guy was unforeeightabgettable somehow he was at the seat next to his ag. >> we tried to track down all these classmates he went to college and high school with. very few recall him. those say he was unremarkable. we talked to a college professor of us at depaul who on the record said he was a terrible student and shocked to know he had actually managed to find hi way to a presidential campaign, let alone a presidential campaign that won. the fact he finds himself in this situation where he can now potentially bring down a presidency is just utterly surprising to anyone who crossed his path. >> and the president, obviously, as he prepares to go overseas and show a force against north korea, as it were, right now is trying to show force against isis. here is some of his comments after the recent attack in new york city.

>> chain migration is a disaster for this country and it's horrible. just take a look at him. 23 people, potentially 23 people -- >> is that verified? >> it's what i heard. it's what i gave. whether it's 23 or whether it's 2 as far as i'm concerned -- >> it's a big difference. >> i know but it's 23. it's a lot of people. >> it's what i heard. it's not verified. this goes back in february when i asked him about the electoral college numbers. he said, someone told me. that's what someone tells me. what is the risk of the president of the united states, a commander in chief, spewing unverified numbers, figures, facts? >> peter, we've reached a low point when it is a fox news anchor that has to do a live fact check of the president of the united states. i think this does put the contradict of the president of the united states and the united states on the line, but this is nothing new for president trump. whether it's isil, what we heard about the russia hoax and fake news, this is consistently come

from this president. and it's one thing to do that in the domestic sphere and he may pay a price politically for that but it's quite another to do that in the sphere of foreign policy when the president is commander in chief and his word can start a nuclear war, his word can -- >> he's going to be 60 miles from the border with north korea. >> that's right. >> one point to add to that, what the president says when he's here in the united states has resonance. when the president goes to the region, what he says there matters so much more. you've been part of these trips. you go there with -- and have a president speak to send a message. and people are listening more closely, it matters more. what he says over there will matter but he goes at a weakened time for him. >> the president, i should note, i'm just being told in my ear, he's tweeted in response to a dishonorable discharge. he called it's a disgraice.

we have to leave it there. nice to see you in person. more ahead. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we're gonna hit our launch date! (scream) thank you! goodbye!

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that is going to do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports ". follow the show online on facebook and twitter. you can follow me on twitter @peteralexander as we head to tokyo to travel with the

president. katy tur is up next. >> i follow peter on twitter and i recommend it. have a good flight to tokyo. from msnbc headquarters in new york, i'm katy tur. a judge bowe bergdahl will serve no jail time. nbc pentagon correspondent hans nichols and nbc military analyst and retired four-star general barry mccaffrey join us. to hans, tell us what happened in this sentencing. >> bowe bergdahl opted for a trial by a judge not a jury. that judge said he does not have to do any additional time ruling those five years in captivity may have been enough when the taliban held him. we just heard from president trump. he tweeted about this. here is what he said. the decision on sergeant bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace