>> people that are frustrated most isn't the president, it's the american people. they're sick and tired of being inundated with russia fever. >> memo mess. the same day the deputy fbi director is pushed out, republicans vote to release their controversial russia investigation memo and today duck all questions. >> you'll have to talk to the democrats. they talk to you. i don't. >> coming up, we'll ask the committee's top democrat adam schiff right here. and whiff of watergate as we navigate an unprecedented presidency nbc's tom brokaw sees some historic parallels. >> there's beginning to be a whiff of the tactics in place in this white house we saw during the days of watergate. how it all turns out, i can't say. it's clear the white house is

trying to create an alternative reality is how i would describe it. and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where a controversial memo under review at the white house and the deputy fbi director's early exit are dominating the headlines ahead of donald trump's first state of the union address tonight. joining me now msnbc political analyst robert costa, national political reporter at the "washington post." msnbc national security contributor as well as "new york times" washington correspondent michael schmidt, and national political reporter carroll lee. first to you, carroll lee, your reporting on the conversations with andrew mccabe when the president first complained to him after the firing of james comey. this is the backdrop for this forced exit, early exit of andrew mccabe. tell us what you know, what you reported. >> andrea, it's one of the first we know of.

we don't know every conversation the two of them had. what sources have told us is the president was very frustrated watching james comey take this fbi plane back from california to washington, d.c., after he was fired and so he called andrew mccabe the next day and demanded to know why he was able to do that. mccabe said he didn't authorize that but he would have if he'd been asked. in the process of the conversation the president brought up something that has frankly bothered him for quite a long time. it's no secret, but the way he phrased it mccabe was taken aback and saw it as offensive. ask your wife how it feels to be a loser, reference to mccabe's wife's failed campaign for state office in virginia which, as president trump has pointed out multiple times, she received donations from a super p.a.c. tied to terry mcauliffe who is close with bill and hillary clinton, about $500,000.

so that's the kind of context of all of this. and it shows two things. one, what it was like for andrew mccabe to work under this president who clearly saw him as somebody biased from the beginning and, two, how the president sees leadership at the fbi. >> and, robert costa, let's talk about the memo and the back story you have been reporting on paul ryan and the doj and how the fbi and doj went to paul ryan and tried to get them to stop this republican memo or at least edit it and what happened last night was a partisan vote with releaguse of a memo. >> fbi director christopher wray expressed concerns to members of the house on the intelligence committee about publicly releasing this memo. the ranking democrat, adam schiff of california, told me

yesterday he had a frank conversation with mr. wray about his concern, but yet the committee decided to move forward. >> this is paul ryan being asked about that, exactly that, this morning. >> this is a completely separate matter from bob mueller's investigation. and his investigation should be allowed to take its course. >> some reporting of the president would fire rod rosenstein. >> i think rod rosenstein is doing a fine job. i see no reason why he should do that. >> that's an important endorsement of rod rosenstein as a lot of people see this gathering storm on all sides. are republicans on the hill backing the president and going against their own fbi? >> yeah, and that's the real question, what will the consequences be for rosenstein? will he have to step aside? will the president put even more pressure on him? rosenstein is the one who oversees mueller and that's because the attorney general

recused himself several months ago -- actually, last year. this is an issue the president has repeatedly obsessed about, obsessed with who is running the investigation. he said publicly he wouldn't have made sessions his attorney general if he knew he would recuse himself. he's skeptical of rosenstein. rosenstein was not part of the campaign, not someone close to him. he can't believe there are republicans from baltimore. this has been a long-standing issue and the president has deep, deep concerns about mueller and if mueller were to go he'd need someone in rosenstein's spot who would do it for him. >> michael, you've been around for a long time as an investigative reporter, and i will ask robert costa and carroll lee about this, are we reaching critical mass of our institutions? it feels different in the last 48 hours. i want to share with everyone james comey's tweet when he referred to, of course, andrew mccabe leaving early. special agent mccabe stood tall over the last eight months when small people were trying to tear

down an institution we all depend on. this followed by sally yates who was acting ag, deputy ag and removed as well. she writes on twitter, despite relentless attacks on our democratic institutions and norms, our resilience has kept our country strong. but we will remain so only if we strive to live up to the american values that make us who we are. we're better than this. >> all i can say is it's highly unusual. you have the government operating and an administration operating in a way i've never seen before where the justice department and the white house are not on the same side of things. the justice department is trying to stop the release of this memo. they think it could be dangerous but the president for political reasons really wants it out there. he has found folks to help him in the house republicans. it just seems like if you imagined the justice department and the white house weren't even on the same page on such an important issue that cuts at the core of the russia investigation

and what the president's involved in. we just see the government operating in ways and people not agreeing on things we would never ever have seen before. >> and, carroll lee, we also have a deadline on russia sanctions that was imposed by congress in a bipartisan way. the administration kicking that can down the road making all kinds of excuses saying, well, there's a classified part of it. they basically came out with a list of russians to be sanctions at 11:50 last night and the list, we all looked at it overnight, were talking back and forth on twitter with michael mcfaul, he was at stanford, and people were saying why are these people on the list? they took the list of rich russians out of "forbes" rather than doing their own investigation on it. >> yeah, you know, andrea, this just feeds the serpgs this is an administration and a president who will be soft on russia. people who believe he is approaching it that way because there's something nefarious in

terms of his ties to russia. there are others who just think the president has a blind spot when it comes to russia. one interesting piece of this you haven't seen this sort of outcry on the hill including senator corker who released a statement and said he was okay with the way this administration was proceeding. even if you peel all that away, it still feeds this perception there's something wrong or there's something there when it comes to russia and this administration. >> and, bob costa, your reporting about the back story with paul ryan, for people who thought paul ryan, because he was semi independent after the "access hollywood" tape, he has completely rolled over on this issue of the memo, and why is he protecting devin nunez? >> it's an interesting dynamic here. i'm outside of the house chamber at the capitol and they have been long time friends going

back over a decade together working together on fiscal issues and other conservative fronts. you also have a lot of pressure from rank and file house republicans who are urging the speaker to get behind this release the memo campaign that has caught hold on the right. there are dynamics at play beyond the white house position that are fact touring into ryan's position. >> well, a great way to start off with the best reporters right here. bob costa, carol lee, michael schmidt, thank you all so very much. and we now have california congressman adam schiff, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee, that committee voted to release the memo and refused to release the democratic alternative memo. congressman, you've had a late night so thank you very much for being here and being here on set. try to explain what you think is going on with devin nunez. a lot of people are asking why wasn't he recused from the russia investigation. i think the answer is the ethics

committee cleared him of any impropriety regarding that unmasking diversion, but is he now front and center and pushed his colleague over to the side? >> the chronology is march 20th we had an open hearing to kick off the investigation with james comey. comey announces at that hearing there's an ongoing investigation of the trump campaign and its contacts with russia. the white house viewed that as a disaster. the committee of republicans viewed it as a disaster. the next day the chairman went on the midnight run and would later go back to the white house and present what he claimed was classified information showing corruption of the obama administration on unmasking. he got that information from the white house and it didn't support any of the claims he was making. but from that point on this has been his mission, protect the white house, throw up distractions, because it was exposed as a charade, he was forced to recuse himself.

the reason he gave at the time was there was an ethics complaint filed against him for disclosing classified information. the real reason he had been discredited with that charade he did for the white house. now the ethics committee decided not to go forward. but the fundamental problem remains, and that is he is a proxy for the white house. you can't run a credible investigation that way. yesterday to all of our astonishment in addition to publishing this memo, he announced that he is investigating the fbi and he's investigating the department of justice. >> late last night or after most people had stopped paying attention, you all came out and you said it and then they wouldn't confirm it. the fact is this was the one committee in the senate and the house which was always 50/50, a split. it was not partisan. they, like the ethics committee, would come out with very clear nonpartisan decisions. and now it has become really a

completely politicized institution. >> well, it's a great tragedy for the committee, but this is the direction mr. nunez decided to take us. and in terms of the minority, we can go along for the ride or fight this abuse of the committee process and we've chose tone fight it. they have, as the department of justice said quite aptly decided to start declassifying information without regard to the investigation or source of methods. to make a political point that is, as they said, extraordinarily reckless, but that's what they're doing. now this whole crowd that was pushing to release the memo has voted not to allow the democratic point of view to be shared with the public. that, i think, betrays what this is all about. it's about setting a narrative, about the defense strategy that says when the facts are really bad against their client who they view as the president put the government on trial and

that's what they're trying to do. >> now they're trying to say the judge, the fisa judge, who had repeatedly ruled in favor of extending the surveillance of carter page, someone who had worked with the campaign, and whose connection to russia had been picked up not by the steel dossier but by an earlier wiretap, incidental wiretap, because he had been dealing with one russian who was later convicted as a russian spy handler in the united states. that's all been reported. there were several russians. two got away before the fbi got to them. one spent time in jail and had mentioned in a conversation that was picked up as well as on paper as an energy consultant in manhattan who turns out to be carter page. this preceded the steel dossier. >> i can't comment on what's in their memo until it's been unclassified -- >> my colleague rachel maddow has done some extraordinary

reporting. >> you're right, in the public record russians were indicted for an espionage ring in new york. there was an unindicted person referenced as male number one who carter page would later admit was carter page and that was obviously well before christopher steel or the dossier or any of that. so while i can't comment yet on what's in the gop memo, it is a very misleading spin designed to attack the fbi and the department of justice. it has a lot of flaws in it. they wouldn't allow the fbi to come to our committee to tell us the problems with it, and they wouldn't allow the house to be briefed in a closed session tells you all you need to know about whether they're interested in the underlying information which the chairman himself hadn't even read. >> what did you think when you heard carol lee's reporting the president of the united states on the day comey was fired called andrew mccabe, who was then in charge as the acting fbi

director, and demanded to know why comey, who had been fired without knowing it while addressing fbi people in l.a. was permitted to take the plane home after he'd been, you know, basically shocked by this and that then the president said to mccabe when mccabe defended having him take the plane home said, tell your wife, how does she feel about being a loser? >> it shows tragically how petty a spirit our president has, how petty and vindictive. what is even more troubling to me, frankly, the reports that on the plane the other day the president was castigating the department of justice sending his chief of staff out to castigate the department of justice for saying quite accurately that what the republicans were doing was reckless. this is the guy attacking hillary clinton over e-mail practices every day.

but here the committee is prepared to do something reckless and he's perfectly fine with that. >> do you think anyone in the republican house will stop him? >> this has been the most disappointing realization of the last year and that is many of us, i think, knew what kind of president we would get with donald trump. what we didn't fully appreciate is how completely so many members of congress would roll over and capitulate, how much this president could remake the party in his flawed image, how much members of congress would fail to stand up for the institution. there have been a few like jeff flake. none in the house. and the speaker, as you said, has completely rolled over. and that's a grave disappointment but also fully undermines the whole institution. >> adam schiff, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> and coming up, the democratic response, the democrats turn to an old family name with a new face. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports."

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frankly the people frustrated the most isn't the president, it's the american people. they're sick and tired of being inundated with russia fever. they're ready for the media and the rest of the country to be able to solely focus on how to move us forward. that's what the president has been trying to do and that's certainly what you're going to see him do tonight. >> white house press secretary

sarah sanders trying to steer the message back to the president's agenda as the cloud of the russia investigation still looms large over this first state of the union address. joining me now former white house press secretary under president obama, msnbc political analyst. the white house right now scurrying around briefing people, going over the speech. he actually read through the whole speech in a practice session, and he does that well. these are the moments, the davos speech, other speeches he's given. but what about all of the other issues overhanging the presidency? >> the thing we should keep in mind it's not hard to do this well. this is the grandest stage in american politics and this is when the attention of the country and official washington, d.c., is focused on the president and what he has to say. and the question is what are you doing as an operation to try to maximize the impact of the message? when i worked in the obama white house we spent months, literally months, going through a policy

process to develop ideas that could be included in the speech and would spend time in the weeks leading up to the speech previewing some of the plans and then would have a constructive or specific strategy rolling out of the speech to make sure we could spend some time even after the president had spent an hour and a half giving that speech talking about what he had talked about the night before and putting together that kind of coherent plan makes it harder for other stories to encroach on and cloud over what you're trying to drive that day. and so it's not surprising to me we're seeing some of these other stori stories plead into coverage i think the president would prefer would focus on his speech. >> the campaign will be flashing on the screen the name of campaign donors. >> it's pretty revealing about the administration's priorities. democrats in congress who are fighting for working people and republicans who are in the pockets of the wealthy and their biggest contributors. i don't think there's any clear illustration than the rnc's

decision to put the names of donors rolling over the screen as president trump delivers his state of the union address. other democratic white houses have managed to have unified messages. here for the democratic response the party has picked a young kennedy, a congressman who is very effective, very strong. the fact, though, is that he is a young, white man at a time when a lot of democratic women feel women should be responding. and then you have virginia delegate elizabeth guzman, bernie sanders, maxine waters, former representative donna edwards. you have every part of the party and it reminds me of the tea party when republicans were disorganized.

>> it was an unauthorized response of the state of the union. when you are in a party like ours, we draw our strength from the diversity of voices. we benefit from having different voices making the public case. congressman kennedy is a young father and he is somebody who already has a track record of fighting for the kinds of issues and values. i think he's a good messenger. some of this is about people like bernie sanders looking to cultivate his own base. you have figures in the democratic party target and message two in the party. is there common ground to be found in the messages? if we find the messages are at cross purposes that will be a problem for the democratic party and will limit our effectiveness

in being able to present a coherent contrast tonight. however, if we can find if there is common ground and they are broadly similar messages that will be good for the party and will be useful in engaging the different elements of our party. we'll stay tuned. >> someone who worked heart and soul, how about berkshire hathaway, warren buffett, amazon, jeff bezos, jpmorgan chase coming up with their plan to compete and fill the gaps and potentially take over? >> look, what we have seen and this is what motivated president obama to pursue health care reform in the first place, we have a system that is inefficient, too expensive and delivering subpar results. the goal of obamacare was to encourage innovation and to encourage entities to go out there and look for new ways to provide health care to people at lower costs and that would

generate better results. so this kind of innovation we're seeing being announced by amazon, berkshire hathaway and jpmorgan chase is a testament to the foundation put in place by the affordable care act to encourage companies to try new things. this kind of innovation can only be good for the process and it's a testament to the real kernel of idea in the first place to take our health care system, make it more transparent, more accountable to customers, force companies to compete for that business and see what the results are. the results thus far have been good and hopefully this kind of innovation will provide further benefits to people across the country. >> josh, great to see you. >> thanks for having me. and coming up, russian roulette. how the trump administration is dancing around congress' new

law. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports."

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the threat is not going to go away. the russians have been at this a long time. i fully expect they'll continue to be at it.

>> do you have concerns they my trite to interfere in the u.s. midterms? >> of course. i have every expectation they will continue to try and do that but i'm confident america will be able to have a free and fair election. they will push back in a way that is sufficiently robust, the impact on our election won't be great. >> cia director mom pompeo warning despite that continued threat the trump administration has decided not to punish moscow with new sanctions mandated by congress last year saying the threat is serving as a deterrent. joining me now the president of the council on foreign relations and msnbc contributor and the author of the book "a world in disarray" now out in paper back and the former national security adviser to president obama who chairs the national commission on cyber security, a major threat as well coming from russia. richard, first to you, this whole denial by the white house,

not by pompeo who briefs the president every day but this denial russia is behaving badly, the inexplicable trump/putin detante, if you will, and this decision at 11:50 we get the sanctions list under that mandatory legislation and the state department says, well, it wasn't mandatory. it's just a deterrent. the treasury gets this list out of "forbes" magazine rather than a list of the real bad actors. how do you explain this? >> so now you're going to ask me to explain the inexplicable. there's been a pattern. it's been a pattern for a couple years now where this administration has had this benign, passive attitude towards russia which is using all the tools and power from energy to cyber to military.

it's doing it in europe. it's doing it in the middle east. it's obviously doing it here inside the united states. and we haven't pushed back to publish what looked like the telephone book of "forbes" magazine list of russian oligarchs was silly and insulting. if we're going to criticize, let's go after those who deserve it. we haven't introduced new sanctions even though congress gave the administration the discretion to recommend new ones, so i end up where you began. there's just a hollowness and russia is anything but a status quo country. it is a spoiler and in many parts of the world has set out to oppose american interests. >> and, of course, it is fundamental to the russia investigation and the president's attempts to retaliate against the investigators themselves. i want to ask you about something that happened on

holocaust remembrance day which is saturday. secretary of state tillerson was in poland and made a stop and gave a speech. the state department says it was a cold and rainy day, and that's their explanation for the fact he gives a speech, mentions john paul ii, the polish pope, pays tribute to victims of the holocaust, but it was the morning after the lower house of the polish government, this new right-wing government, had overwhelmingly decided to vote that it would be a crime punishable by three years in prison to mention war crimes by poland, and he does not mention the jews. the warsaw ghetto was an uprising of jews who were slaughtered. that is the signature moment. the state department is giving a lot of excuses about this, but we don't have an ambassador in poland to say nothing about our embassies lacking in

intelligence on the ground. can you explain this? >> it's obviously a mistake, it's inexplicable. it shows a real insensitivity to history. and it's not in the u.s. interest given what else is going on in central europe. i want to go back to rich's point on russia. you played director pompeo's statement about the russians tending to go after the u.s. elections in 2018. you had a direct contradiction yesterday between the state department and the cia when the state department and the administration, president trump, refused to put sanctions in place here that the congress intended them to put in place. they said the russians were being deterred. i don't see any sign of deterrence and the director of the cia said yesterday that he had seen no diminishment in their activity and didn't see them deterred. we've seen this all over the world including in mexico where

the national security adviser indicated the russians were meddling there. so this is inexplicable and richard got to it. it's from the beginning been inexplicable, nothing we can get to the bottom of it where we have an actively hostile power recognized as such and we are not engaging them as such. and the list is long for authoritarianism to crimea to cyber attacks, busting sanctions against north korea. so i wanted to come back to that. i think that is the big, important point to focus on which is this big, strategic problem we are not addressing. >> and at the same time as the president is going to give a speech tonight, will talk about immigration, trade, the booming economy, he told the u.n. security council visiting in the white house for lunch how wonderful the economy is and their economies will follow because we're leading the world. no question about that.

in davos china was the major player. the president accounted his victories but macron of france are proposing new deals and new information about how they can play on the world stage. and with us out of tpp and asia we're creedi icedeng to territo russia. >> i expect we'll hear elements of it tonight that sound like the chamber of commerce and he'll take something of a victory lap which will do slightly better in the aftermath of the tax cuts. what's missing is the vision or strategy of the united states and the world. howell we make a difference not simply as a favor to others but as a favor to ourselves. and that's where america first runs up against the realities of the 21st century and the president hasn't made that connection or more broadly

dealing with everything from climate change to migration issues. i simply don't see anything coming out of this white house which suggests american leadership or america working with others to essentially stabilize the world that's being hammered by globalization and in ways we can't insulate ourselves from. >> to coin a phrase the world is in disarray. at your bookstores, get it. richard, thank you so much. tom, great to see you. coming up, state of distraction. will the russia probe steal the headlines. we'll preview that next. this is frank. sup! this is frank's favorite record. this is frank's dog. and this is frank's record shop. frank knowns northern soul, but how to set up a limited liability company... what's that mean? not so much.

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fault, were fixed. what are the other potential pitfalls? "washington post" and white house reporter ashley parker and msnbc political analyst and nbc national correspondent peter alexander at the white house. peter, first to you, they're prepping, planning, he's rehearsing. it's all choreographed. we'll see the pomp and circumstance but a lot of things can go wrong with any president's speech. >> i think that's exactly right, andrea. a lot of conversation about whether this president sticks to the script as evidenced by what he did in the joint address to congress and the speech in davos last week. when asked to do that he generally does a pretty good job at it. new details about the speech tonight, that it's expected to be without applause, roughly an hour long that the president has been meticulously involved in the process that he over the course of the last several months has been handwriting ideas, excerpts, lines he would like to see used that this will

be his voice as it's described. there's certainly a lot of other voices involved in this process. h.r. mcmaster, gary cohn, the head of his economic team here at the white house, and the vice president as well, the guy leading the writing process, the senior adviser here at the white house. this will be an interesting room because we'll be watching the president. but for those, including the president who are looking back in that chamber a lot of people he has clashed with over the course of his first 360-something days in office. you'll remember last year he basically said the time for petty fights had passed and there have certainly been plenty of those in the course of the last year. >> and ashley, this is the first time we'll see melania trump since, well, the first time other than her visit to the holocaust memorial, she did not go to davos, went to mar-a-lago. a lot of speculation vigorously

denied by her spokeswoman there was any connection to her being upset about the revelation that the president had paid $130,000 to a porn star right before the election to quiet any reference to an affair that happened ten years earlier. ashley? this is usually a very big moment for a first lady. >> you're exactly right there has been almost from the day he took office there's been a lot of speculation about their relationship and even from some people inside the white house in the past week since that revelation came out have said their understanding she is actually furious with him. so it is her recent silence and low public profile is notable as is the fact she is appearing tonight at the state of the union, one of those moments where the cameras will pan to her. she will likely be called to stand up at some point.

i will point out that throughout the campaign in a number of instances where the president has needed her as a character validator including when that "access hollywood" video came out, she has not always been happy about it but she has shown up to support her husband. and if feels like another one of those moments even if she's doing so a bit begrudgingly, perhaps. >> peter, there will be some protest guests as well as guests in the box for the white house issues that they want to promote to their guests but there's going to be the mayor of puerto rico brought by kirsten gillibrand and others to promote democratic alternative agendas. >> reporter: not to mention the lawmakers who will be wearing black, many of them, tonight to show for support the me too movement right now. it's not expected the president would address that. no one here at the white house has indicated as much. it will be an interesting backdrop.

the white house wants to focus on, this renewed american spirit that they credit in large part to the president and these tax cuts. one of the items that's formed the president's framing of this speech were those tax cuts and as they prepared to make the statement on the south lawn surrounded by so many republicans learning that at&t would announce it would be giving bonuses to some of its employees and suggesting that is evidence of some of the progress made. we should note the president practiced in the map room yesterday. he will do the same today. >> thanks to both of you. we'll all be watching. the inside scoop, a former trump white house official sharing what's going on behind the scenes. ♪ it takes a lot of work to run this business. but i really love it. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i don't eat the way i should. so, i drink boost to get the nutrition i'm missing. boost high protein nutritional drink

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expert tech support. and this week all dell pcs are up to twenty five percent off! save even more when you purchase a dell monitor. and make sure you protect your investment. office depot® officemax. officedepot.com ♪ taking care of business now there's beginning to be a whiff of tactics at least in this white house that we saw during the days of watergate. how it all turns out i can't say. but it's clear to me that the white house is trying to create an alternative reality is how i would describe it. >> tom brokaw has been reluctant to make this analogy.

on morning joe today. now offering his assessment about the white house's efforts to undermine the russia investigation. joining me now is the former spokesman for the vice president. one of those saying slow down, slow down, this isn't watergate. this is the first time i've seen him today saying the combination of the pressure on mccabe and the release of the memo from devin nunes, which will have to be determined by the president, but the president's saying he's determined at least it should be released, all of this adding up to tactics that are troubling to those who believe there should be a normal separation between an administration under investigation and the justice department and the investigators. >> i think speaker ryan said it well today that these are separate issues. from the allegations, or the potential, that there was possible malfeasance by a small handful of people at the fbi.

congress is exercising its oversight of the executive branch and that's what congress is supposed to do and so in this releasing of the memo, if it does come out, and i've seen some additional reporting today that suggests the fbi's concerns have been addressed and they no longer share the concerns from letter addressed a week or so ago. and let the american people make the decision in terms of what they think if there was anything done inappropriately. >> the counterargument was nunes was part of the transition and has been criticized for being so partisan that he should have been stepping back from this investigation. you have a house intelligence committee that is no longer working in sync whereas they always have in the past. >> it's difficult when you have partisans from one side accusing partisanship on the other side. i think we have examples from both sides where this is a change from what we've normally seen in term also of the intelligence committees. but i think in the aspect of

full transparency, let's let the information get out there, make sure it's done so in a way that's responsible, respects the fib's methods and sources. we do not want that compromise. and let the people, let the media vet this and make the decisions themselves. >> what do you think -- what do you make of reports people inside the white house are concerned that the president should not sit down with robert mueller? you have outside advisers gingrich and christie both on camera today. let's watch. >> my strongest advice to the president is to never be interviewed by mueller. >> robert mueller is not someone to be trifled with. he's not someone who takes lightly the words of anybody he's looking at. >> should the president sit down with him face-to-face? >> no. >> the president may not have a choice because there's supreme court precedent for a subpoena to be issued against a president

who does not want to testify. what concerns are you hearing about the president and, you know, how focused he would be to avoid any kind of traps in an interview? >> i think that's what the lawyers are working through right now. the president is very -- he's been very up front. he said it last week. is he wants to be able to make sure that people hear his side and know, as he has said, there's been no collusion, there's been no obstruction. but you also have to be very careful from a legal standpoint. that's what the lawyers are there to do. they always give the best advice to their client and i trust the president's lawyers will work with the special prosecutor and with the president to reach an accord in terms of the appropriate way to handle it. >> what we're told is the president will be, you know, understandably bragging about the dow and about record unemployment. but the dow, in fact, is down more than 300 points today. apparently a reaction to the new private health care proposal that has been made. >> when you look at all of the metrics, they're very strong. the dow obviously is down today. it goes up and down on a normal

basis. i think the overall message he's going to have tonight is look how far we have come, you know, are you better, say, now than you were two years ago. and he's also going to issue a call for congress to keep working. work on immigration. he's offering a deal out there. a deal, you know, the democrats shut down the government four a few weeks back. they now have some options there to move forward. infrastructure. let's see if we can get something done together for the american people. >> we'll be watching together. thank you so much. more ahead. we'll be right back. in control. i need to shave my a1c i'm always on call. an insulin that fits my schedule is key. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, swtiting, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening. injection site reactions may occur. tell your prescriber about all medicines you take

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that does it for us on state of the union day and night. craig melvin is here. take it away. >> going to be a long day for you. >> long day, long night, a lot of fun. >> good afternoon to you. craig melvin here live in the nation's capital where in just a few hours president trump will be delivering his first state of the union. typically a big night for a first term president. instead though republicans have pushed the russia investigation into the headlines. house republicans fighting to publicize a memo based on classified information taking some heat for delaying the release of a similar democratic memo. house speaker paul ryan today swears that this is about protecting civil liberties, not the president. >> this is a completely separate matter from bob mueller's investigation. his investigation should be allowed to take its course. >> let us start with our justice correspondent pete williams. nbc white house correspondent jeff bennett. and intelligence and national se