>> yes. >> surely not easy going for the children of dave and debbie hawk. >> we did the best we can. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." thanks for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown in new york at msnbc world headquarters. 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west, and here's what's happening. republicans on the offensive, targeting a former british spy and reigniting the probe into the clinton foundation. what a week from the explosive book about his administration to his twitter storm about north korea and the big fight with steve bannon. how the president handled the first few days of 2018. one winner. some lucky soul won the mega millions jackpot. we'll tell you where. plus, so, so cold. how cold will it get today and when it might heat up.

we begin with politics and renewed speculation on the fate of attorney general jeff sessions. the white house is pushing back on why he was not invited to this weekend's camp david retreat where president trump will host 23 top administration officials and gop lawmakers to discuss legislative and political priorities for this year. a white house official tells nbc the press should stop using a long-planned meeting with congressional leaders to take cheap shots at the attorney general. the white house stands firmly behind him. but sessions' absence grows amid growing calls for him to step aside. here's what jim jordan told me colleague chuck todd last night. >> when i had jeff sessions on the witness stand a few weeks back, he wouldn't answer a fundamental question like did the fbi pay christopher steele, the author of the dossier. he said there's an ongoing investigation. but then we're going to leak to "the new york times" four unnamed sources that, oh, forget about the last year and the

dossier, it's really papadopoulos in a bar in great britain smoothing his mouth off. come on. so do your job and everything is fine. if not, maybe it's time for someone else. >> here's democratic congresswoman karen bass, almost a member of the judiciary committee, on msnbc last night. >> the question is whether or not sessions is going to essentially compromise his integrity even more to keep his job and whether jim jordan is going to continue to be the attack dog for the white house. >> democrats also voicing outrage after two key republicans said they're asking the justice department to consider criminal charges against christopher steele, the author of the trump dossier. meanwhile, president trump ramping up his attacks against his former chief strategist steve bannon and the author of the tell-all book "fire and fury" tweeting shortly before midnight, michael wolff is a total loser who made up stories

in order to sell his boring and untruthful book. he used sloppy steve bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. now slop ji stepy steve has beed like a dog by almost everyone. nbc's kristen welker has more. >> reporter: president trump pelted with questions about the else plo explosive book, showing restraint but earlier taking to twitter to unleash some fury of his own, calling the book full of lies, misrepresentations, and sources that don't exist. mr. trump's legal team tried to block the book's release. in such high demand, it hit shelves four days early. >> where do i send the box of chocolates? >> reporter: in an exclusive interview on "today," author michael wolff said the president's threats will only boost sales and insisted the account is accurate despite some former top aides saying they were misquoted. >> i am certainly and absolutely in every way comfortable with

everything i've reported. >> reporter: wol if,ff noting h recorded some interviews and spoke with the president. >> i've spent about three hours with the president over the course of the campaign and in the white house. >> reporter: and when pressed by savannah on his assertion that those around the president question his fitness for office -- >> let me put a marker in the sand here. 100% of the people around him. >> reporter: even claiming the president's aides all describe him the same way. >> they all say he is like a child. and what they mean by that is he has a need for immediate gratification. it's all about him. >> reporter: the president's supporters fired back. >> it's absolutely outrageous to make these types of accusations, and it's simply untrue. >> reporter: and disputed several facts, including that now first lady melania trump cried about moving to the white house. >> melania, like the rest of us,

was ecstatic that her husband had just been elected the 45th president of the united states. >> did you flatter your way in? >> i certainly said whatever was necessary to get the story. >> reporter: that was nbc's kristen welker. let's bring in julie manchester, reporter for "the hill," and sean sullivan for "the washington post." great to have you here this morning. >> thanks, dara. >> sean, you and your colleagues wrote about former allies like rebecca mercer, severing ties with steve bannon as a result of this book. i want to put back up president trump's tweet from last night, saying bannon cried like a baby when he was fired and begged for his job. sean, is this more about just bannon attacking president trump's children here? >> well, i think what this is, is the president trying to make it look like he is the one in control of the situation. you have, you know, his book, where you have aides, associates, people close to him, people who used to work for him portraying a situation that's very chaotic, critical of people around the president, and we've

seen a pattern from this president of wanting to defend himself aggressively against those criticisms. oftentimes what he tries to do is go after the opposition and say, well, i'm the one in control of this situation. i think that's what he's trying to do here. we saw him do that, you know, in the presidential primary when he would get attacked by some of his rivals in that campaign. he would say, hey, these are people who came to me looking for donations before. i think this is him on the defensive, trying to make it look like he's the one in control, not the one that's, you know, in the middle of a really chaotic situation, which is what this book portrays. >> and julia, we want to remind our viewers that nbc has not confirmed most of what appears in the book, but let me play for you what michael wolff told savannah guthrie yesterday on the "today" show. >> i work like every journalist works. so i have recordings. i have notes. i am certainly and absolutely in every way comfortable with everything i've reported in this book. >> would you release any of those recordings since your credibility is being questioned? >> my credibility is being

questioned by a man who has less credibility than perhaps anyone who has ever walked on earth at this point. >> julia, this certainly won't be the last book written about the white house. might this administration be better served by doing what the former ones did, by not responding? >> well, it's interesting. we've seen that the administration has really pushed back on michael wolff, saying he wasn't actually around that much. they didn't talk to him. however, we have seen michael wolff around the west wing. he did have access to those close to the president. and as he said, he spent three hours in total during the campaign and in the white house with the president. so it's a little odd. it's normal that the white house is pushing back against this, but michael wolff did have access to those close to trump. so i think the white house is concerned because he was allowed that access. it's a little -- i question it

because if they're so concerned about these leaks constantly coming out, why did they allow this journalist in in the first place? we've heard michael wolff described as a part gossip columnist, part psychologist. other reporters have questioned his credibility. however, i question why he was even allowed in the white house if they're so concerned about leaks coming out. >> and sean, i want to take a quick turn back to attorney general sessions not being invited to this weekend's camp david retreat. meanwhile, we're reading recording threports that epa administrator scott pruitt is interested in the position if sessions leaves. we've been down this road before, speculated on how long before sessions is shown the door. does this time feel different? >> it does feel a little different. when you look back over the past year, you're right. it seems to have kind of ebbed and flowed. we've seen periods where this is intense speculation. is the president going to try to get rid of attorney general sessions? and then things kind of smooth out for a few months. we don't hear much more.

well, now we're in one of those periods again. what you're hearing now that makes this perhaps a little bit different is some republicans on capitol hill, as we've heard, raising concerns about him. and if that continues, if we start to see, you know, dozens and dozens of members start to talk about that, then that would make this really different. but i think in the senate, you know, you have a lot of republicans who don't want to have to go through another confirmation battle potentially. so whatever feelings they may or may not have about jeff sessions, the last thing they want right now is to go through another bruising confirmation battle with him. we'll see how this plays out, but sessions doesn't seem to be in a very good spot, at least publicly, right now. >> and julia, now to this justice department reopening the investigation into the clinton foundation. your colleagues were among the first to report this. what are they learning, and is there any indication that this was prompted by attorney general sessions at the behest of president trump? >> so basically my colleagues reported that this investigation into the pay-to-pay politics in

the clinton foundation has been going on for a few months. it started in little rock, arkansas, where the foundation was conceived. i think it's interesting the typing of all this because we've seen that ever since the campaign, president trump has called for an investigation into hillary clinton. and we've seen those calls ramp up in recent weeks in light of the developments in the mueller investigation. so it's interesting to see the timing of all this. and ei think critics are being very skeptical of the timing because it's interesting that the president's own justice department is going after his former political opponent, but it's bizarre because he beat her in 2016, but he's still going after the foundation that's tied to her and her husband. >> and sean, there's another big development yesterday. the gop senators grassley and graham calling on the justice department to consider criminal charges for the author of the trump dossier. what are they alleging here? and to the best of your knowledge, do democrats have the documents that grassley and graham are basing these allegations on? >> well, it's interesting.

we're seeing the fbi and the justice department take criticism from both sides in terms of, you know, people saying, well, you're politicizing these investigations. when you see this move by these republican senators on capitol hill, you have democratic critics saying, hold on a second, you're playing politics here, you're bringing something up that the fbi and justice department is already aware of. what you should usually see from members of congress is if they're doing their own independent investigation and need to bring up recommendations to the justice department for something they haven't known about. a lot of democrats are saying, hold on, you're just trying to undermine the credibility of the russia investigation. you're trying to undermine the credibility of what the justice department is doing. that's sort of what we have heard from the republican side when they look at some of the scrutiny that the clinton foundation has gotten. they want to see both sides being taken on here. so we're seeing, you know, both parties right now lob

accusations that this justice department is playing politics. >> well, stick around because we'll be back to you in just a few minutes. now to the brutal arctic weather shrouding the eastern half of the country. many areas this weekend will be shivering through temperatures near or even below zero. let's turn to the weather channel meteorologist jackie for the complete picture. >> dara, the bitter cold temperatures and dangerous cold across the east continues to grip this part of the country and will continue to be the big part of the story throughout the rest of the weekend. in fact, more than 100 million americans are under some type of windchill alert for today. the only bonus is at least we'll see plenty of sunshine. at least it will look good outside for today. the lake-effect snow showers will continue agrocross the gre lakes. we have a storm system tracking across parts of the west. this will bring rain into the four corners region, snow into the higher elevations. this will be tracking into the nation's midsection tomorrow and make its way to the east coast.

temperatures today in the 50s for denver. you're going to warm up in places like dallas. only teens in chicago. the northeast, teens too, but it will be feeling like below zero. tomorrow, that cold air meets up with some of that moisture, and icy conditions can be expected in kansas city, as well as towards peoria, illinois. this will move off to the east as we head towards your monday. it'll be a rough start to the workweek. back to you. >> thank you. up next, button diplomacy. a closer look at president trump's heavily charged threats against north korea. and before we go to break, just to mention there is one winning ticket from last night's $450 million mega millions drawing. and it was bought in florida. the winning numbers are 28, 30, 39, 59, 70, and the mega ball is 10.

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sir, it's a taunting tweet to say that he has a larger nuclear button. >> i think it's just a fact. >> there is no actually one nuclear button. >> the president's very well aware of how the process works and what the capacity of the united states is. i can tell you that it's greater than that of north korea. >> white house press secretary sarah sanders defending this tweet when president trump declared his nuclear button to be much bigger and more powerful than the one on north korean leader kim jong-un's desk. well, joining me now is adam bounce, senior fellow at the federation of american scientists and a nuclear weapons expert. good morning to you. if there is no actual nuclear button, is this just more rhetoric, and what kind of impact does it have on any potential diplomatic solution to the north korea problem? >> well, it is a great deal of rhetoric. it is out of step with how past presidents have talked about nuclear weapons. it's another example of a sloppy

nuclear threat that president trump has been delivering personally through twitter. it's important to remember that the size of the u.s. nuclear arsenal has absolutely no relevance at all for the north korean situation. we have many, many more nuclear weapons than are required to deter north korea or even to use against north korea. it's just not relevant. and every time the president makes a tweet like this, every time he makes one of these threats, it decreases the likelihood that they'll be able to do what they say they want to do, which is achieve a negotiated solution with north korea to limit their nuclear and missile program. >> and here's what secretary of state rex tillerson said yesterday about the president's rhetoric. let's listen. >> our policy is the complete,er have -- verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the korean peninsula. the president has demonstrated how high the stakes are. >> what has the president

demonstrated? how high are the stakes? and could this lead to war, even by miscalculation? >> well, it's clear that this is the president's top international priority. i take them at their word when they say the stakes are enormously high. they continually -- even as tillerson says that he's interested in a diplomatic solution, it's clear that donald trump has been deliberately trying to raise the risk of war, to create a crisis that can force north korea to capitulate. north korea's shown no signs of allowing that to happen. remember, north korea wants to be allowed to continue to test. they want to be able to complete their program, to improve the accuracy of the missiles, the number of types of missiles, to expand their arsenal, and so far the trump administration has allowed them to do that because they have not yet put on the table a credible and compelling proposal for negotiations to freeze those tests.

so for all tillerson's words, as long as the president keeps making tweets like this, it's going to raise the likelihood of war, raise the tensions, an keep them from achieving this negotiated solution. >> and let's talk about going to the table because on tuesday, north and southern korean officials are set to hold talks for the first time since 2015. they're expected to focus on the participation of two north korean ice skaters in the winter olympics. do you think this is a good sign for diplomacy? >> it is a good sign. i think we have to remember that talks like this between the two koreas have been held several times over the last decade. they're prone to failure. so far the talks are only limited to olympic discussions. defense secretary mattis agreed with that assessment. it's very much in the u.s. interest to try to expand these talks beyond the olympics, to try to include tensions reductions mechanisms, to try to seek some sort of solution, some

sort of reciprocal agreement on the limits of nuclear and missile tests, perhaps an exchange for limits on u.s./south korean joint military exercises that are coming up in the spring. now, we can't trust that we'll get to an agreement like that. we need to be ready to deter north korea in any event, but frankly that's the only chance that we have to slow these nuclear and missile tests. if talks don't make progress, we're in for a very, very busy testing season. >> and we'll see what tuesday brings. adam, great to have you here this morning. thank you. >> thanks, dara. coming up, president trump on the phone with a man who called him a fraud and phony. we'll tell you who, next. i have type 2 diabetes.

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get the inside account of the bombshell book "fire and fury" on tomorrow's "meet the press." democrats are pushing back on the trump administration's latest effort to build a border

wall. "the wall street journal" obtained documents outlining the administration's strategy, including $18 billion that they're asking congress for funding. let's bring back sean and julia. julia, i want to start with you because what does such a proposal do for efforts to avoid a government shutdown? >> well, we see that there have been bipartisan talks in congress and that those appear to have hit a roadblock in recent days. so the trump administration is arguing for increased border security. however, democrats in congress and even some republicans such as jeff flake have really questioned increased border security in fighting for daca, the obama-era program to protect young immigrants. so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. there's definitely some tension there. >> and maybe a trade in place there. sean, before i let the two of you go, senator orrin hatch's retirement has opened an opportunity for mitt romney to run for his seat. what kind of relationship might senator romney have with

president trump and his party in this era? >> well, if the past is any guide, it might not be a very good one. if mitt romney runs and wins, he's going to have to make a choice because i think a lot of republicans who are critical of the president are going to look to mitt romney because of how visible and how well known he is to lead the way, to lead the charge against trump when they think he's gotten out of line. romney will have to decide in that case, does he want to be sort of the leader of that movement, or does he want to find a way to have a better relationship with the president and work with him? it's a dilemma he's going to have to figure out if he indeed runs and is elected. >> julia, do you think romney will run for senator? >> we'll have to see. it seems like he's going in that direction. this is trivial, but he did change his twitter location from what was massachusetts to utah this week. so we'll definitely see. it seems like it's leaning in that direction. >> julia manchester, sean sullivan, great to have you here on this saturday morning. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you. and that'll do it for me. i'm dara brown.

thanks for watching. stay with us. at the top of the hour, don't miss hugh hewitt. first, it's "your business" with jj ramberg. (vo) i was born during the winter of '77. i first met james in 5th grade. we got married after college. and had twin boys. but then one night, a truck didn't stop. but thanks to our forester, neither did our story. and that's why we'll always drive a subaru.

we know life can be hectic. that's why, at xfinity, we've been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. now, with instant text and email updates, you'll always be up to date. you can easily add premium channels, so you don't miss your favorite show. and with just a single word, find all the answers you're looking for -

because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. download the xfinity my account app or go online today. good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business," the owner of this body cam company joined up with law enforcement to help them create a product that helps them do their jobs. let's go fast and work smart. that's coming up next. hi, everyone. i'm jj ramberg.