mitchell for "an andrea mitchell reports." how long did they know? multiple reports top white house officials knew robert porter didn't have a full security clearance because of domestic abuse allegations and still allowed him to keep his job. this as one of porter's ex-wives is speaking out on the "today" show. >> we had been fighting and rob followed me to the shower and pulled me out of the shower to continue the rage and immediately saw how scared i was and recognized what he was doing and released it but that was the moment when i realized he didn't have control. while you were sleeping, the government shut down for just a few hours for the second time in as many weeks because one republican senator objected. to dramatize his opposition to ballooning deficits, although he voted for the trillion dollar plus tax cut. >> i ran for office because i

was very critical of president obama's trillion dollar deficits. now we have republicans hand in hand with democrats offering us trillion dollar deficits. frozen. as the world watches, vice president mike pence gives the cold shoulder to kim jong-un's sister while he tells lester holt the olympic games won't break the ice with north korea. >> we'll make it crystal clear that our military, japanese self-defense forces, our allies here in south korea, all of our allies across the region are fully prepared. >> military -- >> to defend our nation and take what action is necessary to defend our homeland. i'm andrea mitchell where john kelly's job security is an open question with the white house navigating yet another

controversy. kelly feeling the heat after three separate responses to outgoing staff secretary rob porter. the latest, a memo trying to convince white house staffers the trump administration does take domestic violence accusations seriously. porter's lone public defense in response to the allegations against him, a statement reading in part that these "outrageous allegations are simply false, i will not further engage them publicly with a coordinated smear campaign." . today a new reporting from the "washington post" and "new york times" detailing how much senior staffers knew about the allegations against porter, when they knew about them and the pressure kelly is feeling from the oval office. joining me, mac mcclarty former chief of staff to president clinton kristen welker and jonathan lemire. john kelly was brought in which was perceived to be a white house out of control. he closed the door to the oval

office to outsiders and installed some discipline but big questions about what he knew, when he knew it and whether he chose to overlook these allegations against rob porter. he knew the fbi had to acknowledge these problems. >> that's right, andrea. based on my sources the chief of staff john kelly was made aware of the allegations against rob porter several months ago. now raj shah was asked about that by peter alexander about what kelly knew. raj shah made the case that while he may have been a ware of some of the allegations, it wasn't until we saw the picture of porter's first ex-wife with a black eye that the entire picture came into view. that's the case the white house is making.

according to a number of sources with this matter, the president is very frustrated by kelly's handling of the situation. the fact that he had the effusive phrase of rob porter after the initial media reports then the walk back. there have been a number of headlines related to john kelly specifically on the issue of immigration, john kelly saying the president's views had been evolving on the border wall then this week saying some dreamers were too lazy to sign up for daca status. remember, this is a president that moves on very quickly, we

saw this with secretary of state rex tillerson this is a white house in damage control dealing with the fallout. >> so many negotiations have been making its through the hill. it's clear from the president's tweet he doesn't like the substance of the budget deal that he signed without fanfare to formally end the shut down. a budget deal ballooned the deficit, he gets spending but doesn't get everything he wanted. at that stage, there's hope hicks in the middle of this and concern that she at the white house communications director signed off on the statements that were initially defending porter with whom she is reportedly romantically involved? >> we heard raj shah from the

white house podium say that mysteriously he said hope hicks has recused herself from some portions of the porter response. he did not elaborate but others know hicks and porter have started dating. we've learned from administration officials that she was involved with part of the response, she did help craft that initial statement and then removed herself from it. the president does uz definitely have some frustrations with how this is being handled in the west wing. hope hicks has been there from day one. she's the ultimate survivor so far in the trump white house. it remains to be seen whether this would the moment that would cause the president to lose faith in her. that remains to be seen. we know he has been frustrated at john kelly. for months he's chafed against the restrictions kelly has put on the oval office and how he used to like it more free wheeling resembling the first months of the administration but even his life back at trump tower. we know he doesn't like it when any aide gets more headlines than the president himself, ask

steve bannon about that. and in particular he's been frustrated by, as was just said, that kelly seems to have suggested that on the border wall that the president's views may have been evolving and our reporting trump has told people around him that he doesn't like that, he doesn't like it when any aide thinks he's managing the president, a subject he's sensitive about after the unflattering portrayal of trump in the michael wolff book. >> and john kelly has very few supporters in the white house top staff, especially the family because he's been controlling their access and establishing more order. >> right. according to sources, he has sort of been frustrated with jared kushner and ivanka trump, the president's daughter and son-in-law who of course have very powerful positions in the white house. he has curtailed -- he's done his best to curtail their influence in the west wing. now people around that couple

suggest that they have not been behind any effort to push kelly out, they're disputing that line of report iing but there's no question this isp precarious how kelly's hold on this job has been. he came in to clamp down on who the president could see and talk to and to get policy rolling in a better way. our reporting, the president isn't ready to make a change but there's no question his frustration level has grown. >> mack mcclarty, as a former chief of staff to a white house that had its own share of controversies in the first year, would you or nip around you have tolerated having someone in that post seeing the most top-secret documents without a full clearance but who had been credibly accused of domestic abuse by two former wives,

according to the fbi? >> andrea, i would hope not and i do not believe we would. i do think a chief of staff has to rely on his staff. the general counsel, that was our point person with lloyd cutler and joel klein who got that backlog of security clearances cleared up but when someone doesn't have a security clearance in a critical position like staff secretary that is controlling all of the paperwork going to the president and seeing the most sensitive material, i don't think there's any question that would have been brought to my attention if i would not been aware of it. theed have demanded my immediate attention and i believe we would have taken action. >> joining us as well, ruth marcus, "washington post" deputy editorial page editor. ruth, the fact of keeping him on the job, don mcgahn must have told kelly, kelly had to know he didn't have a full clearance

because there had to be moments when he couldn't enter the sit room so how does this happen? >> it happens when you have a white house and a chief of staff that is so desperate to have competent, capable people staffing the place and to -- so desperate to bring some order to the kay yot that i think general kelly walked into that i think you are willing to ignore and kind of not -- see no evil in the rob porter story. this notion that he wasn't fully aware. if he wasn't, it's only because he didn't want to be aware. if he didn't know, he should have known and i think it's a combination of the absolute imperative that he has felt to have some capable people in the place he was running and also, quite honestly, and this is from

the man who told us that he longed for the days when women were sacred, an absolute failure, no matter what he says now, to understand the significance in a workplace context of domestic abuse allegations in your personal life. >> he had already shown an extraordinary lack of sensitivity, i'm putting it kindly, involving the dispute with the gold star widow and that whole blow up in october and hiere's what you just referred to back then about how he said women should be honored? >> when i was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. women were sacred, looked upon with great honor. that's obviously not the case any more as we see from recent cases. >> now, according to the "new york times," however he did appear as a character witness in an abuse case or sexual

harassment case when -- back when he was in active duty in the marine corps for a marine corps -- i believe it was a colonel accused of sexually harassing two female subordinates or colleagues so there is a question about his sensitivity all along to these issues which are major issues in the military as we've seen from a number of hearings that have been held on the senate arms services committee and the subcommittees led by kirsten gillibrand and of course claire mccaskell so this has been an issue for quite some time. and there are real questions about his willingness or his ability to even see this as a proble problem. >> when he says he remembers the day when women were sacred, i know that was not said with animus towards women, but women don't want to be put on a pedestal, women want to be treated fairly and equally in their workplaces and honestly at least in my house at home.

that notion of women as sacred is linked to not taking domestic abuse seriously or allegations of sexual harassment seriously. it sees women as sort of a group of the other. there are the guys who really run things and the military more to the white house and then there are these women who sometimes we have to tolerate and sometimes they cause problems by speaking up about treatment that they don't think is adequate and i might be being a little hard on general kelly but there is a pattern that underlies this behavior that we're focusing on right now. >> i just want to remind everybody what this is about. jen willoughby, who i believe is the second former wife of rob porter, talked to savannah guthrie today. >> you met colby holderness who is rob porter's first wife. she has come forward publicly and is actually also put out an image that shows her with a

black eye she says rob porter gave they are that black eye. do you believe her? >> of course i do. of course i do. >> you think he's capable of that? >> i believe her. >> you talked to jen willow by. tell us about that conversation and your take on this covering the white house. >> well, you're absolutely right. jen willoughby made it very clear she'd made her concerns very clear to the fbi and that i asked her if she was pressed on whether she thought he could be subject to blackmail and her response to that was effectively if anyone was going to blackmail rob porter it would be one of these women who he had been in a

relationship with and her final answer was maybe. i spoke to colbie holderness, his first ex-wife, who said she was more affirmative in her answer to that question. that she felt he could be subject to blackmail. she has been very open about th this. she made it very clear that the reason she made it public is not because she and colbie holderness went to news outlets but because they were tracked down by the media so they're speaking out about their experiences. i think this is a challenge for this white house which has had to answer tough questions about treatment of women in the past. the me too movement particularly you'll recall in its defense of roy moore, that was a very thorny issue for this white house and it could potentially become not only a moral issue, an issue for the white house right now but potentially an issue that voters think about when they go to the polls in 2018, andrea.

>> mack mcclarty, as a former chief of staff where you have to face every crisis that comes in across the transom, the ones from capitol hill as well as unexpected ones from abroad, how does this white house function if there were another disruption at the chief of staff job. >> that would be a tragedy. this white house has to govern, it has to address the international issues around the world and that's certainly starting at the top, but the chief of staff is critical to that and in this case i think it would be very disruptive if it happened. we'll see but another issue is this is going to distract from governing in the president's agenda. that's the last thing you need at this point in time. the chief of staff is the chief

javelin crusher. it's best to avoid those javelins if you can rather than catch them. >> mack mcclarty who's been there, done that and knows of what he speaks. thank you so much kristen welker, ruth marcus and jonathan lemire. coming up, stadium seating. vice president's mike pence's awkward olympic moment, giving the cold shoulder to north korean dictator kim jong-un's sister seating right behind him at the opening ceremonies which pyeongchang. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. no, please, please, oh! ♪ (shrieks in terror) (heavy breathing and snorting) no, no. the running of the bulldogs? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money aleia saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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all the pageantry of the opening ceremony for the winter olympics playing out today against a diplomatic freeze as the first member of the north korean ruling family, kim jong-un's sister, led their delegation, a joint delegation, and sitting directly behind vice president mike pence and his wife karen. this one day after kim jong-un's show of force for the world, an extravagant military parade on the eve of the olympics. nbc's chris jansing joins me now from south korea at the olympics. chris, quite an extraordinary moment, you had the highest level -- well, first member of the kim family to visit the south and sitting right there an arm's throw away, barely, from mike pence. >> yeah, close enough to touch, andrea. it was extraordinary. we gasped when we saw how closely they were sitting so you have the sister of kim jong-un, who has been rising in power and

influence very close to her brother and then you have the pences and, of course, mike pence over the last several days has been talking tough against north korea and, in fact, there was no interaction at all, no words were exchanged, the same thing that had happened earlier, there had been this reception, andrea, and there was a picture that was taken with the leaders of japan and south korea, questions were raised about whether mike pence had snubbed a larger picture and the spokesman for the vice president said no and the way he described the lack of interaction was -- and i'm quoting here -- the lack of interaction was mutual. also worth noting that the vice president could have sat with the u.s. delegation, he didn't, but there was otto warmbier's dad, of course, a very pointed message being sent by the u.s. here bringing the dad of the man who as you well know, andrea, died after he was held in north

korea for more than a year, brought back in a coma and eventually lost his life but there you siemens, karen pence standing, cheering for team usa during that entire time kim yo jong looked steely, andreandrea >> a lot of symbolic or visual cues there at the opening ceremonies which are incredible, i hear, and we can't wait to see them back here tonight. >> they're amazing. >> now, there's a lot of other side stories. the usoc chairman opening his press conference with a real apology about the victims of larry nassar and usa gymnastics but this took a lot of the q&a, can you fill us in? >> about 70% of this press conference. you expect to be talking about the athletes, maybe the doping scandal with the russians and most of it focused on larry nass

nassar. he's in prison for the rest of his life as a serial child molester but the head of the board of the usoc opened up by speaking directly to those victims. take a listen. >> to the women, both those who chose to testify and those who did not, who have demonstrated tremendous bravery, poise, and strength in the most difficult circumstances imaginable, let me say this, the politics system failed you and we are so incredibly sorry. >> he was asked if the usoc would step down, they said they had their own investigation being done by a boston law firm and until the results are final nobody at the usoc are going to be fired. >> joining me now is the former nato supreme allied commander and an msnbc chief international security and diplomacy analyst.

there's a lot going on here besides athletics and politics and more importantly the military standoff between the u.s. and north korea very much in play. >> indeed, andrea. kind of two reactions. one is there is a sliver of hope here. a little engagement between north korea and south korea. you have to feel your heart beat fast when you see that unified korean peninsula on the flag under which these joint teams are going to compete. it's a sliver of hope and frankly i think it will get better before it gets worse again, i'm sorry to say that. because the fundamentals here, the disagreement over the nuclear weapons program above all is going to make it very difficult to take the next steps. right now we have two party talks at the moment, north korea, south korea, the key step is to turn them into four-party

talks, u.s. and china involved. this is not about the u.s. versus north korea, it's about north korea and the world. we need china, all roads to pyongyang lead to beijing. >> and lester holt sat down with mike pence exclusively today let's play art of that interview which will be played out on nightly news. >> we're going to continue to put all the pressure to bear economically and diplomatically while preserving all of our military options to see that that happens. >> let's talk about the military options. did that come up in your discussion with president moon. has he explicitly said please don't? please don't launch a military strike? >> well, president trump and our allies in the region have agreed to delay our military exercises until after the olympics and president moon has appreciated that but we're going to make it crystal clear that our military,

the japanese self-defense forces, our allies here in south korea, all of our allies across the region are fully prepared to defend our nation and take what is necessary to defend our homeland. >> there's been a lot of talk about the so-called bloody nose about some -- what they call limited nuclear military deterrent strike, a first strike, and i don't know what you think of that but james mattis, secretary of defense was also talking in answer to a question about the nuclear posture review about expanding the arsenal to include more low-yield nuclear warheads as a specific deterrent against north korea. let's watch that. >> remember that what we're talking about here is the nuclear deterrent and in that nuclear deterrent we believe that some nations could miscalculate, one in particular,

and that nation could assume that if they used in a conventional fight a small yield bomb, we would not respond with a very large yield bomb. our response to this is to make a small yield bomb and say don't miscalculate, it's a deterrent. remember, deterrence is dynamic, it changes from year to year, from decade to decade, we have to address deterrent in its current construct so we do this, the idea is to raise the threshold. >> do you think that we could be backing into an arms race here? >> i'm quite worried about it, andrea. i think jim mattis whom i've known for decades lays out a reasonable intellectual case but walking down that path to increase the number of nuclear weapons and, of course, the nation he's talking about somewhat obliquely is russia.

it's very concerning to me. it's too soon to rush to judgment on this. let's see what is in the nuclear posture review when it comes out. in terms of your first question, the so-called bloody nose strategy against north korea, a limited strike that might include a low-yield nuclear weapon, i was asked if that 50s a good or bad idea, it's not a good idea, it's not a bad idea, it's a terrible idea verging on an apocalyptic idea because you can't control escalation once you start down that path. we have to work this diplomatically. >> and as far as you understand, how seriously are they considering that? is this rhetoric or reality? >> i think it is a reality that options are being developed and they are being presented to the nsc and therefore to the president. again, my intuition and my

sourcing tells me we are not within days or weeks of a bloody nose kind of attack but it's an option being put on the table in front of the president. i would rather see us do more in cyber, in maritime interdirection operations, increasing sanctions, increasing missile defense. i think that package along with pressure from china is the best path to resolving this. >> admiral, thank you very much. good to see you again. coming up, the shut eye showdown overnight. the second government shutdown in two and a half weeks. where do we go from here? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. (whispering) with the capital one venture card, you'll earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, every day. not just airline purchases. think about all the double miles you could be earning. (yelling) holy moly, that's a lot of miles! shh-h-h-h!

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well, what had been expected to be relatively routine senate passage of a budget compromise to avoid a government shutdown at midnight turned into an all night standoff with one republican senator, rand paul, keeping his colleagues up all night and government workers, of course, in suspense for hours to make his point against ballooning deficits. the only problem is he voted for more than a trillion knand a ha

dollars in new tax cuts none of that paid for. finally the senate was able to vote, the house quickly followed. three hours later president trump tweeting he had signed the bill into law calling it a big victory for the military. nbc's garrett haake joins us from capitol hill. i hope you got a little rest? a small nap along the way? >> a little bit. >> clearly rand paul was unpopular with his senate colleagu colleagues. >> this didn't go over well for rand paul but many senators acknowledge this is his right for a senator where anyone can slow things down at his or her own discretion to make this point and he underscored this deep division that exists within the republican party who especially for the last eight years of the obama administration decried deficit spending, set debt was the biggest existential threat to the united states and now has been continually adding to that same debt under a republican control of both houses.

so uncomfortable truths from rand paul directed at his party but not changing the votes in the senate or house. >> and it wasn't a filibuster, it was just that he was going to keep them until midnight and that would mean another day had elapsed before they could proceed to the vote so it was procedural and therefore a lot of them were angry, they had flights to go home, it being a thursday night/friday morning. there were those other personal issues? play. >> and rand paul set during one of his speeches, and because it wasn't a filibuster he wasn't required to keep talking the whole time, there were breaks in the action, other senators spoke, other times no one was speaking. he said "i didn't come to washington to make friends" and in that he was undoubtedly successful last night. there was not a lot of support for this effort.

he did have two conservative house members come over, freedom caucus members to provide some degree of moral support to this effort. this was a delay tactic. it was a promotional tactic on this issue, some would say on rand paul himself but regardless designed to draw attention to this budget deficit issue and we'll see if it does in the long term or if this is another thing that gets swept aside by the next crisis of the moment in congress. >> garrett, quickly, the next crisis is likely to be the dreamers. nancy pelosi and is voting against this because it didn't include the dreamers, they needed democratic votes and the president made the point that we should elect more republicans because we needed too many democratic votes to get through. it's hard to fathom the reasoning but the dreamers, there's no guarantee, paul ryan has said yeah, you'll get a vote but it's an open ended thing and

there are a lot of amendments possible. >> next week in the senate will be fascinating because we will see something we haven't seen in a long time, it's going to be a wide open process on an immigration bill, the majority leader is going to bring what amounts to a blank sheet of paper to the floor monday night and let senators from both parties essentially take turns offering amendments until they can come up with something. in the house there's not an agreement to have an open-ended process. democrats want one but this is the difference between the house and the senate, the minority party in the house has almost no leverage to force something like that and that's the position democrats find themselves in right now. >> garrett, thanks very much. i hope you get some rest. coming up, scandal, why the trump administration can't seem to shake the controversies that have been plaguing it all year. you're watching andrea mitchell reports. stay with us.

>> reporter: what is the white house's reaction to comments made by former white house aide omarosa on "celebrity big brother" where she said she is haunted by the president's tweets, she described the situation inside the white house as bad and said it is not going to be okay. >> not very seriously. omarosa was fired three times on "the apprentice" and this was the fourth time we let her go. she had limited contact with the president while here. she has no contact now. >> these are statements you do not expect to hear from the

white house podium. "omarosa was fired three times from "the apprentice."" sarah sanders' deep tdeputy slaa former white house official. it's a familiar pattern. rick tyler joins me now. rick, we've seen a lot of white houses, you and i both, democratic and republican. we have never seen this kind of turnover from the chief of staff to the national security adviser. i mean we could just put up a satellite of how many people have had to resign under fire, most recently getting very little coverage if you look at the graphic. the cdc head, who had to quit under fire had after she took over the agency was investing in tobacco stocks and health care stocks, a complete conflict of interest and the resignations and the fact that we've had cabinet secretaries not only from the campaign, the paul

manafort and jogeorge papadopous scandals overhanging but also rob porter being the last and tom price over his plane travels, secretary zinke has had to apologize for plane use. who's in charge? >> ultimately the president is in charge. i have to think back because it fits back into a pattern. if you look back into the new york city skyline, you can't pick out trump buildings in the skyline unless you look carefully because it's dwarfed by other real estate there yet he always makes himself to be an outsized players but his real business is a relatively small business and the people who are close to him are family members. now, notice the family members have all survived and everybody else seems to come and go which was his role in "the apprentice." i hate to say it, it sounds so trite, but the only way i can explain it is the president runs his oval office like a reality show. he tweets like it's a reality show, many of his actions are like a reality show, calling the

democrats treasonous is like a reality show. all of these characters -- and they are characters. i would binge watch anthony scaramucci if he had a reality show. i would binge watch stephen miller all day because some of the things that come out of his mouth i say "did he just say that? rewind that, i have to see that again." so to trump it doesn't seem like this is the way he does business but the family has stayed mostly in place. kelly has provided a buffer but notice what's happening now, jared and ivanka where trying to push out kelly because kelly has restricted their access and they believe they are the two who can run the country. >> don mcgahn is under increased scrutiny he got that report from

sally yates and permitted flynn to stay on for 18 days after being told that the national security adviser was seriously compromised by the russians. >> sally yates was fired because she was trying to save the president from embarrassment over general flynn. if the white house can't vet someone who, a, was actively involved in lobbying for the turkish government and b was involved in a form kidnapping plot how would they catch rob porter porter? kelly clearly knew this was going to be revealed and this white house is failing in the most fundamental level which is its internal staffing. >> to be continued, unfortunately. thank you so much, rick tyler. coming you have, all about that base. how the bipartisan budget bill might play with midterm voters. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

after signing the budget compromise approved by an all-republican congress, president trump is suggesting on twitter he would not have had to

accept the compromise if there were more republicans elected to the house and senate and they didn't need so many democratic voters to pass it. without more republicans in congress, we were forced to increase spending on things we do not like or want in order to finally, after many years of depletion, take care of our military. sadly, we need someday demvotes for passage. must elect more republicans in 2018 election. that's a twisted theory of politics. let's get the inside scoop from karen tumulty, "washington post" columnist and charlie cook and nbc news political analyst. so charlie, you've got republicans in control of both houses. the white house negotiating with them all day yesterday, mark short and john kelly there. they get a compromise. a two-year budget deal and the president clearly doesn't like it. >> i think he wants to have his cake and eat it, too. he doesn't want to embrace it but wants to benefit from the fact there is a budget deal. so i think it's not, you know, i

think it's pretty much that. but keeping all these republicans on the same page is pretty hard. a pretty wide span of members there. >> the fact this lifts the cap. rand paul congratulated by mark meadows. the house members coming over last night. karen, as we look ahead according to charlie's cook political report, the democrats can win the house by winning the very close races there as charlie can weigh in here. 24 republican-held seats in the report. leading democrats and toss-up columns. and democrats no longer need to win any in the lean republican column to win a majority. this is a big change. >> it is, but it's also, for one thing, a long time between now and the election. and one big question is whether the improving economy is going to be something that republicans can run on and that they can claim credit for in their policies, including this tax

bill that they passed in december. the evidence appears to be that, you know, as people are beginning to feel the effects of it, more money in their paychecks, this bill may become more popular. there's going to be many, many bounces of the ball between now and november. >> charlie, what are you looking at when you try to go behind the numbers here and look at the way public mood might be changing? >> we try to look at the macro and micro. and the macro or the national polls, the president's approval rating in relationship with midterm elections. the generic ballot test, that sort of thing. then the race by race. in the house and senate. and it's true the president's approval rating has ticked up about two points in the last month. it's true that the democratic lead on the generic ballot test has narrowed. but the underlying numbers we're seeing in individual districts are getting worse for republicans. or i should say, they are worse than we thought it was last

fall. and the significance of these rating changes is we now see that, you know, if democrats were going to win all the solid likely, lean democrat, they needed to win all the toss-ups and break into the lean republicans. well, that requires a huge wave. if you don't have to get those. if you can do it just getting through toss-up, that requires a smaller wave. so -- but karen is right. we have 270 days to go, and a lot can change. and if you -- if you hypothetically had six quarters of growth at, say, 2.7% or higher, you know, you would think that that would help a president's approval rating or maybe there are so many people that viscerally disapprove of him that the economy may not have an effect. >> how many, if you can figure, how many of those seats where you have republican retirements are in districts that will end up in republican hands no matter what happens? >> half of the retirements are

in solid republican areas so they don't matter. the other half, those are the ones that are jumping -- >> high tax states where california and a couple of other ooze. >> more suburban. the thing is democrats, their path to a majority is not through the south. it's not through districts with a lot of small town rural people in it. it's through suburbs. and the democratic wins in virginia last year was a map. you go suburbs and you go particularly college educated white suburban women. >> when you talk about women, these stories about domestic abuse allegations beightolerang tolerated in the white house don't help. >> i do think suburban women are the name of the game here. and the fact is that there's a whole different issue set here and the white house's apparent

disregard of something, you know, that should have been so disqualifying on the part of rob porter, i think, is a very, very big signal to particularly suburban women. >> karen tumulty, charlie cook, thank you. more ahead. business is in my blood. i'm the daughter of two entrepreneurs and so i had a front-row seat to the excitement but also the demands that come with running a company. as a business owner myself, i know the challenges are ever-changing. on "your business" we'll learn from decisionmakers whose experience can help your company grow and prosper. weekend mornings at 7:30 on msnbc or connect with us anytime on all your devices. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff.

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as we wrap this up, the

president has just spoken in the oval office to the white house pool. nobody better to take over than peter alexander here. and with all this controversy he was asked questions. >> he was asked about rob porter. good afternoon to you. from here in washington, d.c., i'm peter alexander. today in for my friend craig melvin. under pressure, john kelly under fire for his defense of that trusted aide rob porter accused of domestic abuse. is kelly's position now in jeopardy. fiscal flip flop. the republican congress passing a bill with billions of dollars in new military spending and eliminating strict budget caps. is the republican party no longer the party of deficit hawks and small government? close encounter. vice president mike pence overseas watching the opening ceremonies of the olympics. just a few feet from the north korean dictator kim jong-un's sister. details of that unique moment coming up.