thank you for staying with us here at msnbc. president trump will hold a int news conference with the japanese prime minister in about 30 minutes. right now in the bilateral meeting starting about 30 minutes ago and of course covering the deadly shooting at a texas church. the very latest on that for you right now. 26 people confirmed dead following the mass shooting at a church in sutherland springs, texas. small town, just 35 miles outside of san antonio. the victims were between the ages of 5 and 72. one of the victims was 14-year-old annabelle pomeroy. police identified the gunman as

26-year-old devin patrick kelley. law enforcement officials searched his home tonight and he was previously a member of the air force from 2010 to the discharge and received a bad conduct discharge, confined for 12 months and demotion to the grade of e-1. gun fire began around 11:30 this morning local time. that's central time. the gunman walking into the first baptist church and firing a semiautomatic weapon, wearing a bullet-proof vest. during a press conference sunday, texas governor greg abbott spoke about this tragedy. >> this will be a long suffering morning for those in pain. we ask for god's comfort, for god's guidance and for god's healing for all those who are suffering. as governor, i ask for every mom and dad at home tonight that you

put yourrm around your kid and give your kid a big hug and let them know how much you love them. >> president trump addressed the tragedy, as well, in tokyo. here's what he had to say about that. >> we offer our thanks to the first responders, the fbi, all of the many people involved, both federal and otherwise, ultimately they stopped the suspect and rendered immediate life-saving aid to certain victims of the shooting. i will continue to follow the developments closely. all of america is praying to god to help the wounded and the families of the victims. we will never, ever leave their

side. ever. >> joining us on the phone now, tony from the austin statesman there in texas. tony, what do you know? what are you learning right now there locally on the ground? >> well, authorities here are still just trying to figure out as well as the townspeople, their big question tonight is, why does this gunman would have attacked this church in this town. of course, townspeople are kind of putting together a number of theories, none of those being confirmed by law enforcement tonight. but that is the big question as people try to come to terms with what has happened in their town. and also, trying to, richard, learn who the identity, learn the identity of the people who lost their lives inside that church today as well as the who were injured and are being treated at hospitals tonight, as well. >> when do we expect to hear from officials next? as you know, that key next day

early morning briefing often has a treasure trove if we can say that of information that may not have been available at sunset. >> that's right. i mean, authorities in cases like this, we have covered through the years, they want an entire investigative day to learn all that they can about a suspect, a gunman before releasing a lot of information to the public so we are hoping to learn more about the gunman, why he may have chosen this location. you can rest assured, though, this is an investigation that, of course, is being led by the fbi because it did happen at a church and involving the texas department of public safety as well as local officials here in this area, as well. but they are going to be working throughout the night to learn, again, all they can about the gunman. but also, richard, to remove, begin the process, painstaking process of removing the bodies from the church and go about

making formal identification and formally going through the formal process of notifying the next of kin. again, tonight, names were being shared among friends, among people within the town as they try to piece together information about whether or not their friends, their loved ones are among the living or are among the dead, richard. >> tony, do we know if all of the bodies have been removed? >> we have not been told that. and it was, frankly, a little bit difficult to see. authorities went about kind of setting up a perimeter, a fairly significant perimeter to, you know, keep things like that from occurring within public view. but we have not been told that that process has actually begun tonight. >> this being the bible belt, you know so well, this being at a church, this happening during a church service, this happening

on a sunday, no doubt the outpouring of sump think from other leaders of fah, from other churches, from other parishers of other churches have moved upon the small town and you have been reporting on that, too. for instance, just tweeting how two chaplains drove to the very location. they got on their knees and they prayed. >> absolutely. i mean, obviously, and i would -- you know, listening to some of the what they were saying to each other and to me, which is, and the governor, governor abbott, you know, said this, as well. we think of churches as somewhere we go to have solace and to seek solace from what happens in the outside world. that churches, obviously, are known as a safe haven for people. and in a small town, small town usa today, small town, usa, like

where today's incident was, of course, churches become your extended family. you see these people at least once a week. you lived your life with them. they're there for you. when their children are born or when you get married, they're there for you. at the highs or in the lows. and to have something like this impact an entire church family and the town that's already small to begin with it's just breath taking for people here and just so, you know, they're just riddled with grief as you can imagine. >> the vigils that have happened there in texas for this very tragedy, there's often not much said and at the vigils where they put flowers and notes and more candles, often the silence that's saying so much. but then there are the prayers that you said you were privy to, able to listen in to. what were they praying for and what were they asking for?

>> you know, they're basically turning to god for comfort and for strength. you know, as you mentioned, they were, you know, had candles, singing songs. they were, again, just really trying to seek support from each other, but also, turning to god for that support. i think that this is obviously much greater than what they feel, almost even that they can give each other and it really is -- they're going to have to get strength they feel from a power even greater than themselves. >> so well said. and no loss is more understandable but when we see 5-year-olds, all the way up to 72, many reasons why the pictures we show here candles are being held up high and people are embracing and clearly emotional. thank you so much, tony, for your reporting and for stopping by. >> yeah, richard. thank you.

thank you. >> thank you, sir. i want to bring in rick swine, fbi special agent in charge. we got a sense of the complexity, right? of the story on the ground from tony. we're waiting for more information. next 12 hours will be key and it is really heart-wrenching to think there may be still some victims in the church and this is important. as you know, being formally a fbi special agent in charge, they want to get all of the key pieces of information and get it documented. what might they be doing right now in the church? >> well, richard, you're exactly right. it's going to be important that law enforcement gets this right, that they do a thorough examination of all the crime scene, using all of the techniques and procedures to document it efficiently and effectively. they're mindful of the next of kin and all the people who are

grieving and mourning right now. they're going to want to release the bodies as quickly as the investigation gaitive process will allow them to do that. so, it is a pain-staking process. that's going to be focused on the crime scene but is also going to extend to the subject's home, to where the vehicle was crashed, to interviews of anybody that had come in contact with this subject over the immediate days and weeks leading up to this horrendous attack. they're going to be looking at the social media. they're going to be interviewing and trying to put together a behavioral profile of this person. they're going to be contactg the military to get his military records. and they're going to be doing that s hopefully we can learn yet again from these mass murder active shooter events. you know, the fbi did a study after the sandy hook elementary

shootings and they looked at 160 incidents, active shooter events, between 2002 and 2013 and they found that these things are becoming more and more common. the first seven years in the study there were about 6.4 a year. the last seven years 11.4 a year and ensuing years since, about 20 of these events in the united states every single year. they've occurred in 40 states and the district of columbia. they have occurred in big cities and very small towns like sutherland springs, texas. it's hard not to become immune to these things because they're happening so frequently but we continue to learn every time and there's no one profile. >> there is no one profile. what did the study teach us, rick, about why? >> yeah.

so that's the toughest question to answer because people motivate that do the events are motivated by many, many different things. what did come out of it is 40% commit suicide. most 30% are the event is endeby law enforcement. and in about 13% of the time an unarmed or armed citizen intervenes and appears that was the case in today's tragic events. the common motives can range from extreme age tore a perception of persecution. there's often a paranoid'd yags. there's depression issues. anti-social and narcissistic behaviors. sometimes the subjects feel like they need to preemptively strike against an individual or an organization or society, whoever they have this grievance with. they externalize blame. oftentimes they're delusional and many, many times there's an underlying mental health issue

with these subjects. >> also in the study that the fbi conducted here, rick, you brought up the idea of for a sy schism. the idea potentially of going out famous. this because of the way that modern-day media can cover these stories, on all different platforms, this included, how's that discussed? >> they didn't get the details. the real purpose of the study was to provide information to law enforcement and first responders so that they could better mediate these events as well as to provide information to policymakers. so they didn't really get into the role that the media plays but it's no accident that the 24-hour news cycle and now social media and the rise of these events coincide. so people with this sort of

narcissistic tendencies can see the media and social media as a platform to gain some sort of 15 minutes of fame or in this case infamy. so i think there's probably a correlation because we live in this information age. >> have you been able to speak with any of your former colleagues at the fbi that might be involved in what's happening on the ground there in texas and what did you learn? >> yeah. so, i have spoken to some folks who are involved in the investigation and it's no different than any of these events, you know, after sandy hook, again, congress passed a law that allows federal agencies to get involved in the investigation or response for any violent crimes or acts and shootings occurring in a place of public use and mass killings if requested by local law enforcement or state political

authorities. so, as a matter of course, any time one of these events occurs there's a massive federal response from the atf, the fbi, department of homeland security to assist state and local agenci. even if there isn't a specific federal crime o federal nexus. so this is going to be -- unfortunately, every police department in america now trains for aboutive shooter events. the fbi is involved in conducting a lot of this training and working hand in hip with our state, local, federal and tribal counterparts so this is pretty routine. they work through the night, they try to do this crime scene effectively, efficiently, accurately and they're going to try to do it as quickly as possible because they do want to be able to release the bodies to the next of kin and provide some closure.

there' also a witness assistance program that will kick in to provide counseling to the victims and their families. so unfortunately, this drill has been repeated so many times that the authorities have it down pretty pat. >> rick schwein, thank you, sir, so much with that information from the study, from the fbi in these mass shooting events, thank you, sir. if you're watching, we expect the president, president trump, to come to those microphones along with shinzo abe, the leader of japan. they'll both be part of this press conference. we expect texas, obviously, to be part of the discussion that the very topic discussing all day here on msnbc. i now want to bring in nbc's law enforcement analyst jim cavanaugh and been here today. jim, you may have been able to listen to tony who was on the

ground. tony pohletski and rick schwein discussing that fbi report and seeing a doubling on the frequency these mass shootings. reflect on any of that that you were able to listen to. >> well, i recall that report. the fbi did a real good job on that. they dug deep into the mass shootings. they tried to look across the board do give law enforcement some idea, you know, what they could look for or expect. of course, there's no one profile as richard said. and that's why it makes it hard. the shooters do fall into certain categories of discussing all evening and i think this shooter will fall into one of those categories, as well. your discussion, richard, about infamy is a key one, too, because a lot of times these shooters do seek infamy but they don't get infamy. if we asked the average viewer, i think the ms viewers are some

of the smartest out there, really. they pay attention to the news and want good facts and many of our viewers here couldn't name all of these mass shooters. if we were to go down and name each one of these incidents, maybe they could name the mass shooter in a few of them but most people can't. i'm talking about most very smart people can't. so the effort of the shooter to gain infamy is not always achieved, you know. when we tend to not want to refeet guys' names is a very good idea. first 24 hours of the event, it's going to be required that law enforcement and journalists, professional journalists, will have to talk about the name of the person. and that gives us a measure of safety, as well, richard because we need to know who the person is, you know, how they can be stopped if there's any other confederates and so forth. but after that, you know, this guy's name should be written in dust and, you know, the texans

that were killed, i mean, their achievements should be written in stone. that's how we go forward. the infamy is not achieved by the losers. we have to do a better job of spotting them and asking our legislatures at every level, not to give us a bunch of hugs but to give us some really meaningful laws, whether that's mental health laws on the one front, some reasonable gun laws, background checks, noump stocks, you know, revisit magazine capacities, some reasonable laws. won't take guns away from anybody and quit listening to people about the government getting the guns and the crackpottism that seems to drive us into a place to live in the united states where the second amendment is a suicide pact and can't go anywhere because everybody's running in with the military rifles and shooting everyone. it's kind of crazy. the arguments against reasonable

gun laws are even crazier. so legislators really, the hugs are getting old. the community can deal with that. how about doing something? what you're elected to do at every level, try to do something. mental health-wise. resources-wise for the key law enforcement agencies that deal with this. the studies like richard talked about what the fbi did. letting medical professionals look into gun violence. break away from being totally controlled by the gun lobby and voters will have to decide, will they elect people controlled by the gun lobby? this is the america you get. when the gun lobby won't even let one sentence get into the congress to outlaw the bump stocks. not even to outlaw them but put them under the provisions of the national firearms act. so they can be regulated as machine guns are. so it's not even an outlaw. they won't do that. so, you know, we are at a place

in america where unless we get leaders elected to do small things we have to continue living with this over and over. can't stop everyone no matter what laws are passed. can't stop every one but we can stop more than we do and do a better job and we can, you know, be smarter, recognize these people when they pop up. maybe change some things, maybe get an evaluation, mental evaluations. you know? restraining orders and mental defective cases, some states enacted that. i think those will be very effective. we should have that across the country. some people's going to -- slip through. but others won't. and then also, get the message out you won't be infamous. everybody's going to forget you. you're nobody and will be nobody if you do the cowardly shootings. >> always our steady hand, always our steady thought. jim cavanaugh, been here hour

after hour. after midnight eastern time. thank you for your analysis all day today on this tragedy there in texas. i know that we'll see you back on air early tomorrow morning right here on msnbc so thank you, sir, so much. thank you, jim cavanaugh. >> thank you, richard. >> all right. we'll continue to track the latest developments in the texas church shooting here on msnbc and shortly a live event, president trump and japanese prime minister shinzo abe. live pictures out of japan. they'll hold a joint news conference, one of the questions may be about the new nbc news reporting on potentially a huge conflict of interest of a key trump cabinet official and the issue of texas. more on that next. now i'm turning into my dad. i text in full sentences. i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers defense wins championships. -well, it does. -right?

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some breaking news we're

watching coming out of the tokyo. there in japan, joint news conference about to start with president trump and japanese prime minister shinzo abe. this will be the first time that the president will face reporters since he arrived in asia for his 12-day visit. will have to answer questions coming from the press and so we'll be watching this picture. we expect it to happen at least scheduled initially on sensibly here at the bottom of the hour. might be running late and getting straight to that when it starts. now, one of the topics that the president may face questions on involves a new report about the russia investigation. nbc news now reporting federal investigators gathered enough evidence to bring charges now in the probe centered on former national security adviser michael flynn and his son, as well. this according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. sourcealso saying that investigators are speaking to

multiple witnesses in the coming days to try to get more information surrounding flynn's lobbying work, including whether he laundered money or whether he lied to federal agents about his overseas contacts. and then this comes in the wake of the indictment of campaign chairman paul manafort and his business partner rick gates. for his part, michael flynn jr. tweeted the social justice warriors are out in full this morning. the disappointment on your faces when i don't go to jail will be worth all your harassment. and here's a subplot. mueller's team also examining whether flynn attempted to orchestrate the removal of turkish cleric. this in exchange for millions of dollars. now, he currently lives in the state of pennsylvania and turkey's president accused him

of orchestrating the coup against him in 2016. this just part of the reporting on a sunday. want to bring in the panel, kevin, chief washington correspondent at bloomberg and jonathan allen national reporter at nbc news. jonathan, a lot to cover here. the big one, michael flynn, if this reporting comes out to pass, this is the first member of the administration, before we were talking about campaign ties, this would be different, right? >> absolutely, richard. you have identified one of the big keys to this developing news here reported by our colleagues today. this brings it inside the white house before you were talking about folks who had been involved in the trump campaign. michael flynn who was an adviser to the president on the campaign then came in as national

security adviser. this is somebody who was close to the president, not only when he was running to have power, but also, when he actually did have power, as president of the united states. so that's a big leap. the other thing here, of course, is what you're watching with the mueller invesgation which is an obvious attempt to put pressure on potential witnesses to cooperate with the government in the case of michael flynn. there is some sug yegs that his son might also be charged with crimes. michael flynn jr. as you noted with the tweet you showed a few minutes ago. so that's another thing that you have to watch here is which of these potential witnesses are going to cooperate to get themselves or people they're close to out of trouble? >> yeah. when the reporting came out, kevin, on paul manafort the discussion point at that time was, was mueller and his team now trying to flip somebody? and who might that be and michael flynn, right, in that

discussion? at this point is it now i try to trip michael flynn because potentially his son might be indicted, in order to save his son he will then work for mueller and his team? >> well, the investigation still's very much ongoing and i would agree with what jonathan is saying and the message that robert muler is spending if you won't cooperate with the authorities, we'll force you to in order to get justice, to get to the bottom of this situation. now, just a couple of days ago, richard, i interviewed senator susan collins, a republican of maine, she told me despite the administration's best hope that this be completed by the end of the year, it's really looking like this is going to continue well into next year. we just got word just the other day that the trial for rick gates and paul manafort will actually be in may. and so, the issue now in terms

of just the seriousness of this is something that no one, no politician, or no staffer can avoid. and i would anticipate that very much to continue. >> yeah. we are getting indications of the breadth as well as the speed that mueller and his team is working at. there's, of course, the story that you're following. pru president trump and may be asked about this, a special investigation of nbc news and others has found that previously undisclosed financial links of the president's commerce secretary and wilbur ross and a business and others of the inner circle and the information comes from what's become known as the paradise papers and many pages to this, 7 million that were leaked from a law firm in bermuda. in these papers, they show that ross continued to control a major stake in the shipping

company called navigator with close business ties with companies owned by members of putin's inner party and that this did not come in the confirmation hearing and ross said he recuses himself as secretary from any matter regarding transoceanic shipping and works closely with ethics officials in the department to ensure that highest ethical standards and went on to say that no funds managed by his company ever joined a majority of navigator shares. jonathan allen, this also coming out from nbc ns on this sunday. and where would this put the commerce secretary? what sort of peril does this put him in? >> richard, the commerce secretary serves as the pleasure of the president so it's really up to president trump as to whether this puts wilbur ross at any peril at all.

i sense that it won't. he is not the only trump administration official with close ties to russ or had financial dealings with russian oligarchs or friends of vladimir putin. so it doesn't make him unique. however, i think that, you know, maybe potentially will expose him to be interviewed. >> that was certainly the first thought coming from both of you, i bet, here is we mentioned russia again. now then is this part of mueller's investigation? might this be part of mueller's investigation? >> well, you know, i think from a procedural standpoint, the fbi has to look at any cabinet level official for their -- ahead of the confirmation process. i remember back during the confirmation hearings then the nominee wilbur ross and democrats really pressed mr.

ross in terms of financial disclosures trying to get more information about them. he's, of course, involved with the bank of cyprus when ch ich w has a storied past and connected to the investigation in terms of financing regarding it. but, you know, to take a broader step back, i would agree with jonathan that this ultimately is going to be up to president trump. from the reporting tha i have gathered, he's not under any pressure to step down. this is someone when's very much in the inner circle, someone very much working on tax reform and republicans want to get done by the end of the year and this statement that was put forth stating that he's recused himself from this we'll see if that leads to many pressure. but i think it just when you take a broader step back, i think it really just speaks to the level of intensity surrounding each person's serving in this administration right now.

and every source that i have spoken with from senior level officials as well as to low level staffers working with the white house on a strategy all telling me, noting separately about that intensity surrounding this administration as the backdrop to the mueller investigation continues onward. >> all right. we have some live pictures here that we're just getting in. coming out of tokyo. and this is president trump as you can see here, kevin and jonathan. he had just finished speaking with family members there in japan who have individuals from their family that have been kidnapped or being held in north korea. let's listen. >> and see if we can bring them back to japan where they want to be. thank you very much. >> all right. it looks like he was just finishing his commentary. he is there with the leader of japan shinzo abe. they will what we believe move

from that no ro phone, from that particular addressing of those members, those family member who is are standing by them, holding pictures of individuals of their family members that have been held in north korea. and then they'll make their way from that picture on your left from that live video, to the live video on the right side of the screen and then be the press conference that will begin very shortly. kevin, jonathan will be with us as we cover this press briefing. when it does start, we'll take a short break. kevin and jonathan, please stand by. we'll go again to the joint news conference. president trump and prime minister shinzo abe expected there. we'll be right back.

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japan. this is as they make it from one room there after the bilateral meeting lasting an hour and moving to this room where a press briefing is about to start. like to bring in our chief white house correspondent hallie jackson who's there traveling with the president as well as nbc senior national correspondent chris jansing with the president in tokyo. first to hallie jackson and just about to move into the press briefing room. what can you tell us that you know and what is about to happen? >> sure. so this is going to be the sort of two and two as they call it in the white house parlance. see the prime minister, president trump side by side and each give remarks and then call on a couple members of the media on japanese and american side. so we're here waiting for that. i'm on the phone and cannot do live shots here from where the president has been live meeting with folks here including the families of japanese people who have been abducted by the north korean regime.

this is i think an interesting moment. that's what just wrapped up for the president in the last couple of minutes and i had an official saying that the president has an emotional connection and that is when he really feels affected by something. i think back to, for example, otto warmbier and likely came up in the meeting and the way that the president had that emotional connection to his family and sort of visceral response of let's get this person out, basically. >> right. >> reporter: so i think that's notable coming out of that meeting we saw. you are probably more ahead of the game than i am. i'm in the front row waiting for the press conference to begin and looking for a couple of things here. the theme of the trip so far, i think you continue to see that as the president make it is way through asia. the threat of north korea and the president working to establish what he's often called a more fair and more reciprocal trade relationship with the countries. he had fairly harsh words for the japanese coming to trade. and on north korea, that's come

up in their conversations today and yesterday. we'll get an opportunity to ask these leaders about that in just a couple of minutes and assuming that the press availability is delayed a little bit because the meetings have been running late. this is the president's last day, last full day here in japan. he heads to south korea and delivering what officialing said is a centerpiece speech of the trip. the one in seoul, across the border from north korea, while not visiting the dmz, he'll speak to this press conference, looks like it's about getting under way, richard. i'll hang up and let you go to chris jansing standing by in tokyo. >> thank you for sneaking in moments before she was commenting there the president as well as prime minister of japan about to make their way just right in front. you can see hallie on the left-side of the screen. chris jansing with us, as well. it is early on. any seasons of a readout an about how the bilateral went and

the mood and tone so far between the two leaders? when we were speaking most part, getting together, at least new friends getting together again and then in the to las. palace. >> reporter: yeah. this is a lot of time that both of them spent together, very much since the president landed here and they obviously had developed a relationship. abe came to washington twice including a visit to mar-a-lago and both golf fanatics and golfing in florida and yesterday. having said that, there's differences and trade is a big one. there's been no secret about the fact that prime minister abe was unhappy when the president deto withdraw from the tpp, transpacific partnership, the trade deal as part of the asian pivot by president obama among 12 nations. other 11 nations trying to figure out a way to move forward and heard the president saying today that doing it his way will result in more trade than

anybody ever thought. and, you know, acknowledging that the other people in the room, these other business leaders from japan, were skeptical. he said he would be proven right and had as hallie said harsh words of what he sees as the massive trade deficits and uses the example of millions of japanese cars coming in the united states and not reciprocated and while there's warmth shown and there were some photo-op moments, the two of them standing over a koi pond and feeding the fish, there's serious underlying problems and as he heads to south korea, as well, obviously, the other big issue is going to be north korea. such a spate of missile launches, two of them directly over japanese territory. and a concern that both in terms of trade but also in terms of north korea the president if he doesn't show strong leadership on this 12-day trip creates an opening for president xi and

china. xi, obviously, along with abe, both coming off elections that gave them a mandate in their home countries so we're going to be listening very carefully for what the president and the prime minister might have to say about that. finally, of course, we'll see whether or not he will continue to address what is the big story back home and that is the rrific shothatoting occurred in the church in texas. the president did make the comments at the first appearance this morning before he met with the u.s. and japanese business leaders calling it an act of evil in a place of sacred worship but the questions are likely to be, again, depending on who the questioners are, about what the president plans to do about it, the fact this he treated the whole case of immigration and the immigrant who was accused in the deadly incident in new york city last week very differently than what we saw in las vegas and very differently than what we see today and some of the topics

surely going to be talking about before they go to palace for that dinner a little later on, richard chris jansing with myself, watching that camera on the left-said side. we do expect both of the leaders to address the cameras and the press very shortly. we are going to take a short break and then we're right back in tokyo live, chris jansing, stand by. accumulations up to 8 inches... ...don't know if you can hear me, but [monica] what's he doing? [lance] can we get a shot of this cold front, right here. winter has arrived. whooo! hahaha [vo] progress is an unstoppable force. brace yourself for the season of audi sales event. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event. but on the inside, i feel like chronic, widespread pain. fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real.

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live in tokyo, japan, they're a little bit behind. president trump as well as prime minister shinzo abe about to come to the microphones and we expect them to answer questions from the traveling press with them as well as japanese press that are there. nbc's senior national correspondent chris jansing is there in japan with the president, traveling with the president. chris, just before we went to break, you were filling us in on some of the story lines coming out of the now second day,

right, of the visit that president trump is having there in japan and it was about economics. and that story arc you have been telling us about, the important relationship the united states has with japan. fourth largest trading partner. from the perspective of the united states, over $60 billion in the negative in terms of how much trade goes back and forth and then president trump criticizing or mentioning if you will unfair trade policies and trade ties with japan. what's been the readout, though, from japan and the press there as the president has really kind of nudged, if you will, the issue of trade and japan and not believing that it's in the best situation? >> reporter: yeah. i think there's a level of frustration, a level of frustration by the leadership and you see it certainly on the

editorial pages and here's why. because both tpp and the paris climate accords are two examples where a lot of leaders feel they had come to very difficult decisions, that there awere a lt of ongoing negotiations and pushed by president obama and now the withdrawal by president trump, but also, something that the other 11 countries felt was moving in the right direction, something that actually was turning out in many ways, how they had hoped it would turn out. now, president trump never made any, you know -- never had compunction on the come pain talking about tpp. he said he would get rid of tpp and putt them in this situation of, again, as i said, trying to move forward without it. but in the larger scale, wondering if whatever negotiations they might have with this president who has been

known to contradict, for example, his secretary of state who's been known to tweet something only to have it pulled back by sarah sanders in the briefing room, whether or not any agreements that are made here, any conversations that are had, are conversations that can be counted on and so that's really one big part of this trip for this president, not just here in japan, but as he moves forward for the rest of the four countries and remaining ten full days after today. and that is whether or not he leaves the impression he's someone who is, indeed, a world leader, someone in charge and not leaving an opening for president xi of china. >> watching pictures now, chris. i believe i see the secretary of state rex tillerson coming in and the rest of -- melania trump, the first lady entering. >> reporter: yeah. >> go ahead. >> reporter: no. i was just going to say he's had with him and came out of the

meeting that bilateral meetin rex tillerson, hr mcmaster, his son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner. a very long table of both u.s. and japanese delegation. she was the only woman who was there. the president did make brief comments at the top saying that he felt they were making tremendous progress with the japan and the president does speak in those terms and i guess the devil will be in the details when we get a more complete readout and also hear from the japanese side. surely that's the first thing they do. as you know in the press conferences we call the two-two, they generally come up first and make a statement and nice words to say about each other and thanks on both sides and also then their impressions of what they have or have not accomplished at this point before they open it up two questions each from two

reporters of each country, richard. >> as we have been noting in the last 24 hours, the amount or lack thereof of any freelancing or off script remarks by president trump has been very closely watched. chris jansing, they have just closed the doors and expect the two leaders getting readied to have the official entrance. very quickly, what has that been like? how would you answer that question? this president on script or off script and what's been off script, if anything? >> reporter: no. i think he's been very much on topic here. he very much started before he landed when air force one coming in, he had that -- wandered back to the press area of the plane and given an opportunity to respond to some harsh words from former president h.w. bush who called him a blowhard and said he didn't need headlines and not talk about that.

on other occasions, when people thought perhaps he might have, again, some things to say that they were hoping he wouldn't say, particularly when it comes to kim jong up -un, there's a lf concern in asia and the korean peninsula, about him calling him names and making threatening bellicose statements. things that folks in this part of the world have thought have not been helpful, ratcheted up the tension and want it to deescalate, given the number of missile tests and major underground test and may have damaged their mountain there, the underground testing facility. so i think so far it's been very much -- the speech that he gave before the troops, at the base here, just outside of tokyo, again, very traditional, very measured so far on the second day, into the second day of this trip, richard.

>> maybe 40 seconds. we have been told. the elephant in the room, clearly, the next stop. also, china. because in the absence of a tpp, of a multilateral trade agreement, then there is a void. filling that void, making moves is china. and certainly, japan worried about that. >> reporter: yeah. the third stop in this trip will be china after south korea. this is going to be, obviously, extremely closely watched. president xi, i mentioned this just a little bit earlier, who had such a resounding success in the last election and is feeling very much empowered and when you listen to a lot of analysts, the question was, the comparison. both between abe who we're going to see in a moment and xi and then president trump over the course of the last 24 hours or so. we saw these record low approval ratings of 37%. there's no otherresident at this point who's had an approval

rating in modern history below in the 50 percentile. the fact he's facing with members of his campaign staff, two indictments and one person who has pled guilty who's a volunteer for his staff. and also, the inability to get a lot of things done on capitol hill, that there's been no major legislative accomplishment and struggling with taxes and whether or not they'll be able to get tax reform done as they had hoped by the end of the year. so the perception here has certainly been and certainly in china and we have heard it from the government there, that the president they view as very weak. they view their own president as very strong. and in a position of leadership. we heard him many months ago, you and i were talking about this at the beginning of the year when he was at davos and essentially presenting himself as the economic leader of the word, not backing up by reality,

and yet, a concern there's an opening if the united states doesn't take it for president xi. >> chris, great timing. they have just announced the two leaders. the two leaders now about to walk in to this briefing room. we see shinzo abe, the prime minister of japan, followed by president donald trump now moving to the microphones. let's listen in. >> translator: first we will have the joint press conference by sprm abe and president donald j. trump of the united states. first, mr. abe will speak which will be followed by president trump. floor is yours, mr. abe. >> translator: ladies and gentlemen, at the outset, may i begin by offering my condolence to the victims who lost their lives as well as my sympathy to the people injured in the recent shooting incidents in texas. i'd like to express my

heart-felt solidarity to the people of the united states in this time of difficulty. it was only one year ago, november last year, that i met the president for the first time in the trump tower, new york. since then, i have had numerous opportunities to converseith the president on the margin of international meetings as well as countless talks on the phone. indeed, how many hours of dialogue did we have? i believe that there's never been such close bonds, intimately connecting the leaders of both nations as we do now in the history of japan/u.s. alliance of more than half a century. in particular, he received me with great hospitality last february on my visit to the u.s. at his villa in florida. it became my unforgettable memory that we were able to

discuss a variety of noble issues over so many hours, quite frankly, including several rounds of golf. and it is my particular delight that this time i'm able to welcome my dear friend president trump and madame melania trump to japan. melania trump to japan. this first trip of president trump to asia is an historic visit in the current regional situation, which is ever more tense. and his first nation to visit on his tour is japan. this made this historic significance even greater. in this way, two of us were able to show to the rest of the world the unshakeable japan/u.s. alliance. thank you, donald. for the last two days, i was able to have an in-depth discussion with donald on a plethora