community, they're part of our society and economy, and last night with those remarks roy moore gave in alabama, he was speaking out against the lgbt community, saying there was nothing like transgender rights and president trump stood by him. complicit is going against something you stand for. >> we're out and andrea mitchell is up. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," stood up. they cancel their meeting with the president after he slammed them on twitter after wanting refugees to be weak on crime. the president tries to save his tax reform today. >> we need more information, but we'll keep working on this. we need to pass tax reform. >> we're still working on it. i have some concerns on the deficit side. >> no republican ever, generally

speaking, of course, is going to vote for a tax increase. this is not the party of reagan anymore. code words. donald trump uses a racial slur at a bhit houwhite house ceremo aiming it at elizabeth warren, but also insulting the world war ii native american heroes he was there to honor. >> you were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in congress who say was here a long time ago. they call her pocahontapocahont. >> it is very unfortunate that the president of the united states cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur. good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump faces a showdown in congress only days before time runs out on a budget

and his tax cuts. nancy pelosi has canceled the meeting they would have with the president after the president slammed them on twitter. joining us is garrett haake and kristen welker. first to you, garrett, nancy pelosi cancelling the meeting this afternoon. >> reporter: this is part of a tweet that the president wants to get done today. you had the president tweeting about this meeting saying the democrats wanted more borders and less crime, and he said, why would we want to go to a show meeting at the white house if there is no real deal to be discussed? and their statement says as much, that they don't see much value to go to the white house to essentially be a photo op for a president who a lot of folks

on capitol hill can see, especially on the democratic side, has not been especially involved in this process, especially on these spending deals, from the get-go. so you have chuck schumer, nancy pelosi saying we would rather just go ahead and meet with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell and continue some kind of good faith negotiation rather than be a pawn in a presidential political gain. >> and, garrett, to kristen welker at the white house, the other side of this argument. the president had already created another kind of new controversy insulting the native american world war ii heroes. they were 90 years and plus, and they were at the white house for this honor. he slammed elizabeth warren, using a slur of pocahontas to their face. that caused a reaction. i want to play for you what you did in questioning sarah sanders immediately afterwards at the briefing. >> do you think it was

appropriate for the president to use a racial slur in any context? >> i don't believe it is appropriate for him to make a racial slur or anybody else. >> he did make a racial slur, so why is it appropriate for him to do that? >> like i said, i don't think it is. >> does he see political value in calling out racial slurs? >> look, i think senator warren was very offensive when she lied about something specifically to advance her career. i don't understand why nobody is asking about that question and why that isn't constantly covered. >> kristen, you tried to pin her down on that, but the answers were only creating more problems for this white house. >> reporter: there is no doubt about that, andrea. you saw the white house really try to shift the focus back to elizabeth warren. but bottom line, republicans close to the white house acknowledge that, look, that statement yesterday about pocahontas came out of nowhere, it came at a ceremony that was aimed at honoring native american world war ii veterans,

and it also came at a time when this president wants to be focused on tax reform, wants to be focused on his end of the year agenda, trying to strike a deal with chuck and nancy, which, as you ask garrett were just talking about, has taken a major step backwards. so this really did overshadow the president's messaging. i'll point out, andrea, the fact that the president has sent out a lot of tweets today, none about elizabeth warren. it's possible he wants to try to turn the page on this controversy and redirect the focus on tax reform ahead of his big visit to capitol hill where the taxes have not been higher. will that continue to be the case? i wouldn't bet on it, because elizabeth warren has not only been critical of this president, how he has handled the transfer of power at the consumer protection bureau, but she considers to criticize him on a whole range of issues. i think that's part of what prompted yesterday's comment, andrea, so he might stay quiet

when it comes to elizabeth warren today. will that hold in the coming weeks if she continues her criticism of him? not clear that that will be the case, andrea. >> and thanks to kristen and to garrett, but of course the president has not stayed quiet on chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. and that could potentially blow up his tax plans as well, because he could use some democratic votes if he loses those deficit votes on the republican side. so garrett, i know you'll be standing by for the president's arrival on capitol hill in the next hour. we'll see what he has to say going into the republican caucus. joining me here, republican national committee chairman michael steele, both nbc political analysts. the president is going up the hill to meet with the republicans. he already has a problem with the deficit hawks, the corkers, the flakes, lankford and others. he needs to hold as many of them together as he can and not lose,

you know, any more on that side. there is a possibility of picking up some democrats who like some parts of this tax bill. now, what has he done in blowing up the meeting with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi? >> he obviously has made it much harder to win over democrats on what could otherwise be a bipartisan opportunity for him to get particularly those democrats in the united states senate who are facing tough reelection campaigns in 2018. there are a number of democrats who represent states that the president won by large margins. you would think clair mccaskill, joe donnelly, these would be targets for a common sense mainstream tax reform proposal. that is not what republicans have tried to do. there is not a proposal they've put forward in this senate. they have been passing these proposals behind closed doors. every time we get a report about a change, a quote, unquote

improvement they made to the bill, they are making enhancements to corporations and reducing the benefits provided to working people. that is an indication of where the president's true preferences are, and it's going to make it harder to entice democrats to vote for that proposal, any democrats. >> i want to play for you what was actually said by peter mcdonald, the navajo tribal leader. honoring these heroes in the white house yesterday, what he said in his very moving speech before the president's slur that attracted all the attention. let's watch. >> we hit the beaches of guadalcanal with 15 navajo talkers. these were the first where to never hold code was to be tested in national battle, to test how our memory would be under heavy

enemy fire. well, three weeks after the landing, general van degrift, general of the first division, sent word back to the united states saying, this navajo code is terrific. the enemy never stood it. he said, we don't understand it, either, but it works. send us some more navajos. >> as lawrence o'donnell made clear last night, these native americans were going to battle for the marines, for the united states in world war ii only some years after the u.s. army, up until world war i, had been fighting and killing their native american brethren. >> yeah, the contrast and the symbolism from yesterday is powerful, and at the same time, very disappointing. powerful in that you see these

individuals who represented our country served our nation at a critical time, in the battle, as he said. nobody understood it but it worked. we need more navajo. and overlooking the ceremony, of course, the history of andrew jackson perjurying native americans across the country. and, nask, in the president's own mindless response by bringing up senator warren and pocahontas. it was a contrast in, sort of, history and silliness. i think the president trying to be quippish or cute or whatever he was thinking went to a space he didn't need to go to. just stay with the script. don't ad lib, because when you

do, your ugly comes out and here we are. >> there is again going to be a 4:00 federal court hearing this afternoon on competing heads of the consumer finance protection agency. when have we ever had a time in washington where an independent, one who is the omb direct to recall with his day job. . two different heads claiming to be running an agency, one of whom had promised to destroy that agency. >> it's not just what you would expect nick mulvaney, weeks before a government shutdown, weeks before he used to be chiefly responsible for delegating on capitol hill, and the ability to.

he is ruining an agency that they seek to destroy. it is disconcerting that the trump administration is taking their eye off the ball when it comes to a government shutdown, but they're taking their eye off the ball to tear down a fight of an agency that's supposed to be independent and supposed to protect working people from big banks and other corporate agencies. this is an agency that's been successful. they have succeeded in helping 10 million americans collecting $20 billion total. this is an agency that has a track record of success. i imagine they'll see the same type of success. >> in fact, josh, when sarah

huckabee sanders was asked at yesterday's briefing to give one example of where that agency has messed up, she said, i'll have to get back to you on that. she had no answer to that. to the merits or demerits of the tax bill, you saw corker, flake and others. you saw the deficit hawks. nick mulvaney on "meet the press" said to me, well, it's a gimmick to get that number under the budget rule so we only need 50 votes to pass itme. he acknowledged it could be closer to 2.2 million. what corker was talking about in a late night meeting was some sort of trigger where, michael, they could put the tax cut in as envisioned, but then take it back if it turns out it doesn't produce the revenue t.

>> this is such a farce, andrea. i can't believe republicans are so desperate that they are willing to sacrifice the core principle that they have advocated for lo these 10 to 15 years, certainly during the obama administration, that they would spend a dime more of the nation's money on things that they thought were frivolous were willing to shut down the government, and did shut down the government, because of the spending priorities, spending too much money, raising the national debt. >> they're now comfortable with spending $1.5 trillion minimum that we don't have. they're like, oh, our fix will be -- it will just be a little trigger. if it looks like it won't work, we'll just take it all back. >> recalls. >> they have to answer specifically to their base. if a ton of bricks.

many there are donors desperate for this legislation who will enjoy the benefits of it and the last election. >> have to leave it there. thank you. coming up, state of chaos. the top official in charge of revamping the state department calls it quits after only three months on the job. he joins us to talk about state department death function. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. stay with us. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse.

they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters. that was just a'ight for me. yo, checi mean,t dawg. you got the walk. you got the stance.. but i wasn't really feeling it. you know what, i'm not buying this. you gotta come a little harder dawg. you gotta figure it out. eh, i don't know. shaky on the walk, carriage was off. randy jackson judging a dog show. i don't know dawg. surprising. what's not surprising? how much money lisa saved by switching to geico. wow! performance of the night. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

a top official that rex tillerson -- who rex tillerson brought in to redesign the state department and justify tillerson's controversial job freeze has now quit after only three months. she leaves the secretary of state before a long-planned

stream line. today the share was, shall we say, diplomatic. >> i have a very good relationship with secretary tillers tillerson. we meet fairly often. he knows we're concerned about the vacancies. i think he's concerned about the vacancies, but the redesign has, let's face it, been problematic and hasn't occurred, and we're going to have a briefing over the next couple days just to sort of understand why that is. >> joining me now is senator ben cardin, the top democrat on the senate foreign relations committee. senator, thank you so much. rex tillerson has been over at the wilson center speaking about foreign policy, and he was asked about all these reports of the hollowing out of the state department. here was his response. >> we're keeping the organization fully staffed. we've had over -- we're still running our foreign service

officers' school, we've hired over 3 million this year. so there is no hollowing out. the numbers people are throwing out are just false. >> what is your take on that? >> well, andrea, first of all, this is now the 11th month of this new administration, so it's no longer new, and the reorganization plan is nowhere to be found, which is causing in and of itself a morale issue within the state department. we do know that there has been an exodus of experienced, key, high-level officials at the state department, there are a lot of unfilled positions at the state department, we know that people are not getting the direction they need in order to carry out foreign policy. our diplomacy and development assistants are critically important to our national security, and it's clear we don't have our team in place, and there is a lot of just information out there that is uncomfortable for people who look at a career in state department. >> and i've been told, in fact,

that applications to even take the foreign service exam are dramatically down. so the pipeline is also being cut off. the other problem is, he's complaining about the confirmation process, but you had a hearing today on a couple nominees, but in fact the nominations are so backlogged that you're not holding up nominees, they just haven't even nominated people to fill these jobs. another issue is ivanka trump. there has been a lot of talk about jared kushner taking over the middle eastern negotiations, ivanka trump now traveling in india today snubbed by the secretary of state, reportedly, because she is not being staffed by any high-ranking people when she goes to this summit which has been covered by the secretary of state, kerry and others, in the annual meeting. let's listen to her discussing this global entrepreneur summit in india today. >> in some countries women are not allowed to own property, travel freely or work without

the consent of their husbands. in even more countries, the cultural and family pressure is so great that women do not feel the freedom to work outside of the home. our administration is striving to promote greater opportunity for women around the world, both through our domestic reforms and our international initiatives. >> is she the best ambassador for women's empowerment in these countries when the company that still bears her name hires below market paid women to manufacture her goods in india, bangladesh and elsewhere? >> it's clearly a mixed message, because we do know that part of her tour is she sells women's apparell under her name. there is a conflict here, but you're absolutely right, it would be a lot more credibility if she spoke out against some of the practices in india concerning women and labor. we know there is a significant trafficking issue there in labor. she didn't mention any of that, and she talks about the trump

administration. president trump just came back from a trip to asia in which he hardly even mentioned anything about human rights and all the problems we're having in asia. it is unclear about what ivanka trump was doing as far as foreign policy in the united states and india. >> getting back to the secretary of state also, what can the congress do to try to change his mind about these policies, the job freeze, which he's denying the reality of the numbers that have been recounted not only by nbc news, the "new york times," today nick bruins. there is no one more experienced going back decades. in the "washington post," which was retweeted by john mccain, we have a problem here and no one at the state department seems to recognize it. >> you're exactly right.

. there's no reason for a hiring freeze in the stapt. they imposed it on them. the 76 positions that need to be filled are not being filled. i listened to senator corker and his desire to hold meetings and briefings. we need to do that, but we also need to speak loudly. the hiring freeze must come to an end. these buyouts he's been talking about could be used in a way that could drain even more the experienced leadership in the state department. congress needs to exercise its oversight function. >> senator ben cardin, thank you very much. thank you for being with us, sir. coming up, is flynn flipping? reports that the former national security adviser met with

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the overachievers. we know our best investment is in ourselves. we don't take no for an answer. we fight for what we want. even for the things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner. we have breaking news from capitol hill. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and house speaker paul ryan putting out their own statement moments ago saying, we have work to do, and if democrats want any input, they will be there. the president tweeted they were in favor of widespread

immigration, crime -- and were weak on crime and senator schumer is now up on the floor. let's listen. >> we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our republican counterparts in congress instead. rather than going to the white house for a show meeting that won't result in an agreement from a president who doesn't see a deal, we've asked leader mcconnell and speaker ryan to meet with us this afternoon. we don't have any time to waste addressing the issues that confront us, so we're going to negotiate with republican leaders who may actually be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement. if the president, who already earlier this year said, quote, our country needs a good shutdown, if the president isn't interested in addressing the difficult year agenda and wants to make the government shut down, we'll work with those

republicans who are interested in funding the government as we did in april. we have so many things to do. we have to fund the government. we have daca, we have the children's health insurance program. we must reinstate cost sharing for health premiums and out-of-pocket costs. we have to deal with disasters. we have to defend our defense and non-defense sides of the government in a nonreasonable way. there is so much to do. we're eager to get that done in a bipartisan way. obviously the president isn't, but hopefully leader mcconnell and speaker ryan are, and we look forward to sitting down with them to resolve this in an amicable way as we did in april when the president wasn't involved and we got it done. now on the tax bill, mr. president, the republican tax bill. we're only a few days away from a final vote, but from all reports, the republicans are

still debating significant changes to the text of the bill. some are ang liling for a chango the pass-through provisions, feeling a gargantuan new tax loophole for individuals need to be widened even further. right now it's reported that 70% of these pass-throughs go to the top 1%. the changes that are being proposed would make it even worse. help small business, yes. don't open a giant loophole for wealthy hedge funds, big shop law firms, lobbyists. we don't need that. others are rightly worried about the impact this bill would have on the deficit and debt. what i would remind my republican colleagues is that with any more changes, it's virtually certain you'll be voting on a bill without any

expert analysis of its impacts. you'll be voting without any estimate of whether it will grow or shrink the economy. you'll be voting without a good sense of the long-term impacts of the changes you're making to the tax code. certainly one week of markup in the finance committee with only one expert witness is not a satisfactory process. particularly considering the changing nature of this bill. changing the tax code in broad brush is a difficult thing. >> chuck schumer as the tax bill debate continues on capitol hill. they have not had hearings on this yet, and as he points out, it is still being worked on in committee to satisfy both the deficit hawks on the republican side and the concerns of some democrats who might have been willing to vote for it. as we speak, the president has been rolling towards capitol hill. garrett haake is standing by outside there, garrett, where i believe the president is about

to arrive. he has clearly created a firestorm here with his tweet today against the democratic leaders and them now refusing to attend this meeting. >> reporter: yeah, it's a mess, andrea, and sort of a juvenile one all starting with this tweet from the president and now the democratic leaders pulling out. listening to chuck schumer's speech there, the first part was essentially reading from the statement he and pelosi put out earlier today. then he breaks down all the issues they have to get done before the end of this year. and it is a daunting list, but the politics of this are pretty strange, and i'm not sure what the democrats think their end game is here on this, because we've already seen a statement from paul ryan saying he's going to the white house to meet with the president, and that's why they'll work on solutions. so the democrats removing themselves from a seat at the table, but it's unclear what they expect mitch mcconnell and paul ryan to do. it would be unusual to box him

out of this process going forward, so i don't know what the next step of this is going to be, but i suspect there will be more tweets and more name-calling before we're done. >> as we pull out to a wide shot of the capitol, we've seen the presidential motorcade pull into that carriage entrance underneath there where, on the senate side, he's going to go out, he's going to go to the second floor and go into the meeting room for lunch with a republican caucus. tuesday is caucus lunch day, and all of this taking place, as you pointed out, that we don't know whether that bipartisan meeting is even taking place, garrett. they don't have many days. they can stretch that. there are 11 or 12 legislative days. they can stop the clock, they can do all sorts of things. they can work up to the new year but they are up against a budget deadline. we've seen middle of the night

resolutions keeping the budget open to stretch the debt limit. all of these things can be done, but those are band-aids, they aren't solutions. >> reporter: right, and if you're having those conversations while simultaneously trying to work out the final details on this tax plan, then things get really complicated. this lunch today will be interesting because it feels to me a little bit like a picture event with the president coming to try to sort of cheerlead this across the finish line. when you talk to republicans who are on the fence about this bill, like bob corker who i spoke to earlier this morning, he's not having conversations with the president about this. the concerns right now are in the weeds, in the details of this bill. those are not things being worked out by the president. so i don't know if this is a cheerleading event here, if there is intent to put public pressure on some of these republican senators coming to the hill when this is close to being done, but it's hard to see how his appearance here puts this over the top when you've got a number of republican senators, some from serious

business backgrounds, bob corker and others, who have very technical concerns with this bill, that the president is not going to walk into lunch today and solve over a buffet. >> good, garrett, and while we keep an eye on capitol hill and watch for any sign of the president inside, perhaps stopping, taking a shouted question, with me here is steve hadley, former security adviser who knows what's normally happening when a republican president comes up to capitol hill to meet with a republican caucus. behind the scenes, there is respect, there is a standing ovation generally for this president as well in past times when he's gone to capitol hill. but right now you've got people, as garrett was just pointing out, with solid business backgrounds. bob corker, the chairman of the foreign relations committee, who has other concerns. he's trying to be diplomatic about rex tillerson and other issues. but he was an early ally of the president, even considered on the short list for secretary of state. now these people are not reliable votes. what does donald trump have to do when he goes into that

republican lunch? >> i think what he'll probably do is make a broad case case about the administration generally to reach an agreement on the tax bill and get it to his desk so he can sign it so the republicans have something to run on when they go into the midterm elections in 2018. i think it will probably be a general rallying the troops, trying to do solidarity, encourage them. >> the picture we see now is the second floor of the senate where d they frequently gather. you can see kasie hunt is there and the president will be walking down the hall and into the room where they will be caucusing for lunch. kasie, as you know well, the

president has a caucus there who wants to be behind him, but they have seen him on twitter and other ways also get off the text too often and they have to be very nervous about what he might be saying any day of the week. >> yes, andrea, i do think they typically are. i think that the statement that mitch mcconnell just put out, and they're talking about tax reform here at lunch is what we expect, so we're about to see the president walk down this hallway, and i know you and i talked the last time the president did this just a few weeks ago. they are, or they were, rather, scheduled to also go down to the white house later this afternoon with democratic leaders basically to try and hammer out a spending deal, and of course chuck schumer and nancy pelosi -- i'm now struggling not to call them chuck and nancy on the air -- basically said, sorry, we're not going to do it. if you're going to tweet that you're not interested in a deal, we're not interested in it. there was some speculation that maybe republicans would say, actually, okay, it may be possible for us to do this without the president.

but mitch mcconnell's statement came out a few minutes ago. he said if they want to come to any deal involving the president, you have to come to this meeting or we're not going to work with you. it sent up the temperature on what was already going to be a tricky month. the senate negotiations about the spending deal were basically perhaps stalled but certainly not at an impasse that was going to prevent them from coming to some sort of agreement. there was the big question of how much defense spending, the border wall and daca, the dreamer kids, for example, but they were potentially on their way to resolving them if not at a slow pace. this seems to take the temperature up quite a bit and potentially put that at risk. we had sensed that a government shutdown was unlikely and that may still be the case, but this certainly, i think, raises the

stakes considerably. we'll see what republicans say when they come out of this meeting with the president. there seems to be overwhelming political pressure on republican senators to pass a tax reform bill right now. they all feel and they all say, look, i really want to figure out a way to get to yes on this. i don't want to have to vote against this. but on the other hand, there are several who have major issues and they're trying to resolve them. there are a couple who are worried about small businesses. that's when you hear the term pass-throughs. for viewers who don't necessarily dive into tax policy on a regular basis, that means these small businesses and the tax they'll be hit with, ron johnson a small business owner himself, that's his concern. then you have groups worried about deficit spending. andrea, as you know well, the rhetoric and the discussion around just how much economic growth they're assuming from this package is pretty unrealistic by the standards of republicans from a couple years ago, and this is senator orren

hatch. he is the senator of the committee in charge of writing this bill. a lot at stake here today for the president and republican senators. andrea? >> and kasie, the white house has put out a statement from sarah sanders which says, it's disappointing that senator schumer and leader pelosi are refusing to come to the table and discuss urgent issues. the president's invitation still stands. he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, put aside the political grandstanding and get to work. this meeting will go forward as scheduled. speaker paul ryan and officials who are dedicated to getting things done, if the democrats think this is as important as we do, they should attend. kristen welker at the white house, i'm not sure who is responsible for the political pettiness, but it now seems we're at a full-on political standoff, and i don't see chuck and nancy, as they are referred

to, backing down here. >> reporter: i don't see that happening, either, andrea. no surprise that sarah huckabee sanders had very firm words for them. president trump, of course, earlier today tweeted his own strong language at chuck and nancy, of course, the nicknames he gave them after they had struck a deal three months ago on a short-term spending deal. there were some discussions about adding a fix to daca, to dreamers, essentially, those who were brought here undocumented as children who were allowed to stay in the obama administration. the president ending that but saying effectively that congress has until the spring to come up with some type of fix. democrats wanted to attach that fix to this spending measure. a number of republicans opposed to that. so that's why you had president trump tweeting what he did earlier today, which is that he doesn't think that a deal is coming together. but there is no doubt that chuck schumer and nancy pelosi pulling out of this white house meeting

is a slap to the president. so that's why you're seeing sarah sanders, the press secretary, respond very strongly. i wouldn't be surprised if president trump sent out a tweet or perhaps responded to some shouted questions there. i can tell you, andrea, that part of the talking points here at the white house, and they just sent out some of this information, is back in 2013, democrats, including nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, were very opposed to attaching any other language to a spending measure. they were opposed to dealing with health care, for example, as a part of a spending deal, opposed to dealing with immigration. i'll read you some of the comments that they are sending out from 2013. this is from chuck schumer who said, shutting down government over immigration would be government chaos. pelosi said, shutting down the government is an unthinkable tactic to use in a political debate. again, those were quotes sent out by the white house. it gives you a sense, andrea, of the line of attack that the

white house will be taking today. but the stakes couldn't be higher for this president who is looking for his first legislative win on tax reform, and who doesn't, by all accounts, want to see the government shut down on december 8th, andrea. >> and we're seeing, of course, the capitol police and secret service all gathering there on the second floor. steve hadley, you've seen this many, many times with presidents coming down that corridor. presumably they most likely do not want him to go past the press corps close enough to land on the president. >> perhaps not going into the meeting. they might have something for him afterward. >> they face these incredible deadlines on the budget and taxes. what are the implications for the way the white house is functioning? in the middle of a government shutdown or threats of a shutdown, does everything else get put aside? >> you can't put everything else

aside, and there are cones within the white house that are managing the very issues that are coming before the president. if you're the united states of america, you got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. h.r. mcmaster and the national security crowd are still managing the international crises they had before them. at the same time, the domestic oriented folks are dealing with issues of immigration reform and daca and tax reform and all of that. >> i don't want to let you go without asking about syria. this administration is now in a warm embrace to both what turkey is doing and what russia is doing, and it seems as though the literal hug of assad means that assad is going to stay forever, and you can blame the previous administration, too, for not having observed red lines, but the way this has been handled by this secretary of state and this white house is puzzling, to say the least. >> well, it's difficult, because we have, through a number of years, opened the door in some sense by failing to invest in

syria to the russian intervention, and the russians then paired up with the syrians to support assad, and they have largely taken a regime that was on its back foot nearing collapse, and it has now taken back a lot of syrian territory. and the united states regrettably is playing a very weak hand. the strongest hand we have is this democratic group that includes the kurds, which has most of the territory east of the euphrates river, but there is a question of how long we will be there, what will be the mission and how much support we will provide them. >> now the president has reportedly abandoned them. >> he's talked about whether he will provide additional military weapons. we'll see how that plays out. on the other hand, secretary of defense mattis has talked about how our forces will be there for a period of time, that they will have a role not only in defeating isis but have an interest in stabilizing syria so

isis does not come back. i think it's fair to say that administration policy on syria is still a work in progress. >> steve hadley, thank you so much. kasie hunt, the president is arguably -- must be downstairs. is he meeting with leaders? is he inside, do we think, meeting with mitch mcconnell trying to work out their strategy before going into this meeting with the entire republican caucus? >> reporter: well, andrea, i'm not 100% sure how to answer that question right now because we have not seen him come by. as you well know, we are standing on the second floor here of the capitol building, so we would expect him to take this walk along this tiled corridor and turn. it's to my right. it would be to their left as they walk down this corridor, and mitch mcconnell's office is right around this corner. we have not seen them go in there to chat, but we were just talking, saying we would have expected to see the president by

now. we got a heads-up two-minute warning, so we'll see if that is the case. again, we are waiting for the president to come into this lunch. you may have seen bob corker just went in to lunch over here. one note i would make, andrea, and this has been something we've been grappling with since the last time that we spoke, and we're in this situation. they have really clamped down on the security in a situation like this after those russian flags were thrown at the president on his last visit to capitol hill. you may be able to see some of the police officers standing here. we've been dealing with several issues, really, with moving around the capitol. now, here you can see mitch mcconnell walking down the hallway. he seems to go as he is heading to meet with the president. >> other members are coming in. it's very clear they've been in mitch mcconnell's office trying

to work out what to do about this afternoon's session as well. now they've got chuck schumer and nancy pelosi refusing, and what to do about mitch mcconnell still attending this meeting, and i'm sure mitch mcconnell is giving them an update on where they stand with this delegations with the hawks, because the question of whether or not this is really paid for is a big deal to corker and langford and danes and flake. flake and corker have less to lose with all of this, and also john mccain. >> forgive me, andrea, i may have misunderstood your question at the top. if you were asking me whether republican leaders were huddled in mitch mcconnell's office, yes, that was the case. as you pointed out, they are leaving his office. you're right, they had to make a

decision about how to approach chuck schumer's and nancy pelosi's decision to pull out of that meeting. they seem to have gone with a sharp laying of the gauntlet, saying come to w this meeting without you. as of now, the plan for the speaker and the leader both to go to the white house without nancy pelosi and chuck schumer and that is, as you point out, is about the spending deal for the end of the year, republicans need democratic votes to keep the government open. they need democratic votes to come up with some sort of broad spending plan. right now the funding runs out on december 8th. that's remarkably soon. there's been sort of the widespread conventional wisdom on capitol hill when we run into these situations. typically you'll see one or two week extensions. so we're expecting to work here basically right up until the christmas holiday because that's really the only kind of deadline that tends to force them to actually make a deal. that of course is separate from the tax reform questions. and that's what you were referencing with those deficit

hawks. and this is the focus of the lunch that brings the capital -- the president to the capital here today as opposed to leaders down the hall, or down pennsylvania avenue to the white house. and as you point out, there are small business concerns and there are deficit hawk concerns. so that larger bloc of deficit hawks now kind of the focus of negotiations, andrea. >> outside, garrett haake, you've got some insight into the timing of when they're going to unroll this tax bill. >> well, i've got some insight into the other part of that negotiation. the small business folks. i just saw steve danes and ron johnson, the two republican senators who are no votes on this bill, because of their concerns of how it treats small businesses. walking into the capital together, deep in conversation, i tried to interrupt that conversation, which wasn't especially well received, but i asked senator johnson there's a budget hearing this afternoon, it's essentially the last sort of deal to get this thing on to the floor -- >> garrett, i'm going to interrupt you. garrett, the president is

walking down the hallway with barrasso and mitch mcconnell. kacie. >> mr. president, did you seal the deal on tax reform? >> mr. president, do you have the votes on tax reform? >> andrea, as you can see -- >> not surprisingly, he would not talk going into this political meeting. as garrett was pointing out, they've got a lot of negotiating to do about small businesses versus the big corporations and how to try to dress it up as a middle class tax cut when there's a lot of evidence that it actually would raise classes on the middle class and certainly people who make less than $10,000 a year. we're going to let this go and come back to you guys as soon as we get something. you want to finish what you were saying about the pass throughs? >> only if there's not a solution to this by about 2:30 today, there's this budget vote that ron johnson or corker could vote no and make this difficult for leadership. they can't stop the bill from going to the floor. but it would take just the kind

of procedural shenanigans that have been the things that john mccain has spoken up so loudly about in the past. there's an opportunity here at about 2:30 today for this to get even weirder before this bill even gets to the floor. >> speaking of things getting weirder, they also have to imagine what is going to happen two weeks from today when roy moore is voted on, perhaps elected as a senator down there in alabama. so we're bringing in now jonathan dayport and ruth marcus, both writers from "the washington post," deputy editorial page editor with marcus and columnist and contributor for msnbc, jonathan kayport. chuck and nancy, as they are known, refusing to attend the meeting. because of the president's tweet they say, slamming them for wanting to raise taxes, not really wanting a deal. so they said it was for show. you know, understandably. now the response from the white

house is there's political grandstanding by the democrats. ryan and mcconnell saying they're going to be there, ruth, notwithstanding. >> so getting even weirder is probably like the motto of 2017. covers all situations. we always knew that december was going to be the toughest month. that there's just an incredible, incredibly difficult and controversial slate on the congressional to do list. this tweet and then the pretty predictable response to it doesn't make a difficult situation any easier. and there's always going to be this -- you know, grand standing is what washington is about. of course everybody's manufacture nufring for advantage. but what did the president expect when he had the meeting with chuck and nancy and the deal when they were all kumbayaing a few months ago and they agreed to this short-term funding solution. what did he think was going to happen in december? they were just going to roll

over and say don't worry about immigration and the dreamers? >> usually if you're going to tweet and slam them, wait until they're outside and have finished and, you know, get back into their cars and go back to capitol hill. you've got the platform of the white house plus a briefing this afternoon with sarah sanders where you can spin it any way you want. to blow the meeting up before it takes place is another whole question. >> a whole other thing. this is in keeping with what the president does. this is a bit of preblaming. he knows the tax deal is in trouble. he knows he and the republicans are in trouble when it comes to negotiating the new spending bill. he knows that they're in trouble on a whole host of things that they have to get done in just 12 congressional working days. so when you have a president who is all about not taking responsibility for any failure, for anything that goes wrong on his watch, to put it out there early, that it's chuck and nancy's fault that something doesn't get done is in keeping with who he is and what he did, and kacie hunt asked the right question as the president walked through on capitol hill.

mr. president, do you have the votes for tax plan, silence. and i think we know why. >> i think if he had the votes, he would say yes, i do. >> preblaming is a great phrase. love it. but is it going to work? i think that people out there who are paying attention understand that republicans are in control of the senate the house and the presidency. so if there's preblaming to go around, i think you tend to blame the majority when they can't even do the basics of getting the government funded if it comes to that. or passing a tax bill with a simple majority. >> now, having both of you here, i wanted to at least bring everybody up to speed. our viewers on what is happening with roy moore and doug jones down in alabama. so finally roy moore comes out after not being seen on the campaign trail. he refuses to take questions. reporters and camera crews are pushed back. he comes out and says he's in a fighting form. he's putting up his dukes. he's got his gloves on. at the same time, "the

washington post," which did such fine reporting on -- and meticulous reporting on this whole investigation. "the washington post" uncovers a sting. i know the editorial page is different from the news pages. let me pause at that. from what we know from "the washington post," this woman approached them and said that she had been impregnated as a teenager b teenager by roy moore. her story didn't add up and it turns out they saw her going into one of these groups. >> john and i work for the opinion section and the opinion section has issued its opinion on roy moore. our incredibly diligent and skilled colleagues in the newsroom not only uncovered the woman accusing roy moore but they were smart enough because they're great and responsible reporters to uncover this woman who was trying to scam them in

pretending she'd had this relationship, being impregnated. she said roy moore took her to get an abortion. it's a really -- it's a very scary thing for journalists to think that you could have people trying to trick you in this way. thank goodness they were too smart to fall for that, too responsible to fall for that. i think it should reinforce for everybody that when they -- when our colleagues in the newsroom get to the point of publishing a story, they have every reason to have confidence in their work because they go through the kind of processes that elaborated on and exposed this hoax. >> we just have a minute left, jonathan. but this is a whole new war with scam artists trying to trick credible reporters into publishing bad facts in order to undermine their credibility on all of the accusations. >> right, this says a lot about the reporters who did this story. it says a lot about our paper as an institution. but i also want to say it says a

lot about the editor. about marty baron. >> so this is a great moment for journalism. i want to give a shout-out to rachel maddow who sent the alert this summer by saying we were just sent these fake documents, journalists, be on the lookout. >> it was uncovering the sexual abuse in boston when he was the editor there. thank you so much. ruth marcus, jonathan kaypart, my colleagues here. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. thank you for being with us. craig melvin is up next with all the breaking news on capitol hill. what a day. >> what a day indeed. thank you so much. craig melvin here at msnbc headquarters in new york. we start with that breaking news. a make or break day for republicans. tax reform agenda. and possibly their 2018 prospects. president trump just a few moments ago, you saw it here, arriving at the capital for that

closed door meeting with senate republicans. however, it was his itchy trigger finger that appears to have led to a democratic walkout of a leader meeting at the white house. the president trying to secure passage of an agenda making tax reform bill while also securing democratic votes to avert a government shutdown. that also now seems to be in jeopardy. reports and analysis of this big meeting on the hill on this tuesday. with kacie hunt who is on capitol hill, she was there when the president arrived. kristen welker at the white house. msnbc's garrett haake is also on capitol hill. kacie, you were there as president trump strolled by. i heard you scream a question at him. what did you scream? i don't think we got a response, did we? >> we did not get a response. we did get a thumb's up. the president is currently in mitch mcconnell's office and there are quite a few still photographers who are