go on and live and be happy for molly because molly didn't get that chance. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning, i'm dara brown in new york. it's 7:00 in the east and 4:00 out west and here's what's happening. a former trump campaign aide pleads guilty and is now cooperating. and a new indictment for paul manafort. what this could all mean for the white house. we look at the legal implications. >> teacher would have shot the h h. >> elect more republicans, folks. this morning fresh perspective on the free wielding speech from president trump. plus, what's the hold up?

new reporting that says substantial issues are delaying the security clearance for white house adviser jared kushner. we begin with the two big stories we're following out of the white house this morning. a gnaw report from "washington post" suggests the white house's problems with security clearances particularly for one of president trump's chief advisors and that is far from over. the justice department allegedly contacted the white house two weeks ago and told them jared kushner's security clearance would be further delayed as a result of further issues. "the washington post" says a week after this warning chief of staff john kelly initiated an overhaul of the process including jared kushner to view top secret information. president trump came to the defense of his son-in-law after being pressed by reporters at the white house yesterday. >> jared's done an outstanding job. i think he's been treated unfairly. he's a high quality person. he works for nothing, just so nobody ever reports that. he gets zero. general kelly respects jared a

lot and general kelly will make that call. i won't make that call. i'll let the general, who is right here, make that call. but, jared's doing some very important things for our country. he gets paid zero. >> the white house also pushing back on the latest charges in the special counsel's russia investigation, which resulted in the third guilty plea of a trump campaign official, rick gates. tacking on additional charge against paul manafort. white house lawyer ty cobb released this statement last night. the white house as it has said from the outset, will not be commenting on matters involving mr. manafort and mr. gates, as the matters between are dated and have nothing to do with the campaign. notably missing from yesterday and haley jackson on the messages he deserved to deliver, instead. >> a public presidential push in the gun debate. >> we have to have offensive

capability to take these people out rapidly before they can do this kind of damage. >> reporter: president trump repeating his call to allow some properly trained teachers to carry a concealed weapon and denouncing the armed deputy who police say did nothing during the parkland school shooting. >> somebody who was outside, they're trained. they didn't react properly under pressure or they were coward. >> reporter: at a conservative conference the president arguing an armed educator might have made a difference. >> the teacher would have shot the hell of him before he knew what happened. >> reporter: in front of that friendly crowd no mention of a different he backs raising the age limit from 18 to 21. instead the president aligning himself with the gun rights group about democrats. >> they'll take away your second amendment. remember that. >> reporter: no sitting democrat has called for that, but some do want a ban on semi automatic weapons. so does at least one republican,

florida congressman brian mast who used to serve in the military. >> i spent my life trying to defend this country and i can't stand to see the weapon that i carried in order in defense of this country used to kill, used to kill kids and used to kill others. >> the white house has said the president would not support that kind of ban on a class of firearms. but the president does back stronger background checks. that is something the senate could consider when congress dwets back into town next week. it might take a little longer for them to get into that debate, if it happens at all. the president telling reporters that he has spoken with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell about all of this. back to you. >> thank you. let's bring in senior correspondent for bustle.com and sean sullivan, congressional reporter for "washington post." we have been trying to keep up with the president's ideas on guns this week and you heard hallie say president trump

avoided clashing with the nra in his speech. >> if you look at the timeline and what the white house has been engaged in since the parkland shooting one of the most memorable moment is the moment president trump sat down had with victims and parents and there you saw him voice compassion and support and come out and advocate for gun control proposals not backed by the nra. specifically raising the age limit from 18 to 21. but look at trump's speak at cpac yesterday. we're seeing little to no daylight. he is coming out with a typical right-wing nra backed talking point. the solution here being proposed is stripping away gun rights for law-abiding citizens like you. he says to the crowd and he's saying there is going to be a slippery slope here. if gun rights activists make their way towards victories on the ballot you'll see an effect. >> shawn, i want to put up your

colleague's report. take a look at this graph. trump spent the president's day holiday weekend at mar-a-lago with his two adult sons who assured him he had more political flexibility than others around him and to push for small, legislative changes that they viewed as common sense. so, shawn, walk us through your colleague's reporting there and is that what president trump is doing with support of background checks, for example. >> the main report is that the president wants to be seen as somebody who is taking action and spurring action when it comes to this tragedy. he wants to be seen as somebody, the tragedy happens and then he wants to try to do something about it. but it's not clear yet what that something is going to end up being because we have seen mixed signals from the president on the one hand saying, look, we should look at tightening background checks and raise the minimum age on rifle sales. but on the other hand saying we should arm teachers. he's advocating positions that

are both the positions that gun control advocates want to see, but also some of the positions that gun rights advocates want to see. it's not clear yet what he's ultimately going to endorse and say what he is going to sign. what is clear is that he wants to do something. we'll see in the coming days and weeks what that something end up being, if anything. >> nothing on the center line yet. >> erin, a new marist poll that shows 85% will affect their vote. including 59% who said such positions would be a major factor on their vote. is there a sense one side has more leverage than the other on this vote? >> when you look at some of these very publicly popular proposals like the ones you outlined and raising age limits and bans on high-capacity magazines or expanded background checks those are widely supported by the public and by a coalition in congress. where you don't find majority support is in the republican caucus. you have to remember that republicans control the house, the senate and the white house.

so, this is bound to be a key campaign issue among democrats. but when you see president trump get up in front of clouds and say, you need to get out and vote republican in november, democrats are trying to strip away your second amendment and we have to talk about how far fetched that particular idea is. that would take two-thirds of the house and senate to vote on. three quarters of state legislature. maybe not quite as divisive as politicians are laying out. >> sean, let's continue this. what exactly are the house and senate expected to take up when lawmakers return to d.c. on monday and what has a realistic chance of actually becoming law. >> it's interesting, when we look at the past week we heard president trump talk about the gun control and rick scott and we haven't heard much from the republican congressional leaders. when they get back next week, it's unclear what, if anything, they will move forward on. in the senate democrats see this as a narrow proposal to tighten

background checks and what we're also seeing more and more support in both parties for the idea of raising the minimum age requirement on rifle purchases. so, those are two things i would say we should watch next week. but, again, far from clear that we'll even get that. if you look back at the past few years congress time and again has tried to deal with the gun issue and time and again not been able to reach a consensus and not been able to pass a bill even as these mass shootings keep happening. it's possible that nothing happens in congress as a result of this or something narrow happens. not a lot of confidence among lawmakers that there is some big, sweeping proposal that they pass. >> certainly a wave in the public to make a change. erin, i want to turn to the latest charges in the russian investigation and what is the strategy in the white house now that another campaign official has struck a deal with the special counsel? >> gates the third associate to make a deal with special prosecutor mueller's office.

for gates it could be a positive. and now gates is required to cooperate fully with that team. it's potentially bad news for manafort. gates, of course, his right-hand man and he was with the campaign longer than manafort and he has a bevy of information that he could share that is impactful on the case. if it's bad for manafort, you have to assume there is a big tie on the white house. you see mueller's investigation getting tighter and closer to the inner circle. it's typical of how mueller works and typical of how fbi investigations work. as you get closer, you'll see more information come out. >> sean, i want to turn to you from this rick gates guilty plea and back to the 13 russia indicted last week, how much have these developments changed the course of the congressional panels? >> not clear how they change the congressional channel and the special counsel probe is really the main vehicle right here and this is the investigation that is going the deepest and resulting, at least publicly, in what we see with these

indictments and these revelations in sort of the most information coming to the forefront. so, we'll see how this investigates what congress is trying to do, but i think right now this investigation is really kind of the main one. >> sean sullivan, erin, stay with us. we certainly have more to talk about. what makes the latest charges in the russia probe, i will speak with a legal analyst, up next.

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a dozen individuals this week alone. throughout the course of his investigation, four americans and one dutch citizen have pled guilty, including three former members of the trump campaign. new charges against paul manafort came hours after his former business partner rick gates pled guilty. gates has an agreement with mueller. here to explain this for us now is msnbc legal analyst danny and, danny, why is gates' cooperation a key to mueller's investigation and potential impending charges? >> because this is a standard move by prosecutors to get the lesser person that they view as a criminal or part of the criminal enterprise, hit them with some very serious charges and allow them to plead to something less than they were indicted with in return for cooperation. and that creates a tremendous incentive in that defendant, like gates, to give up anything

and everything they know about the person up the chain that the federal prosecutors are really interested in. very, very effective technique. there is no tougher negotiator than a federal prosecutor when you are trying to arrange a cooperation agreement. they are fond of the take it or leave it it approach and that surely was the situation here and i suspect as time went on they wanted to show gates that they meant business. that's why they added these additional charges in the last week and those were enough to make gates finally reconsider, but to enter into any cooperation agreement. gates must have met with prosecutors in advance, told them everything he knew and prosecutors had to conclude two things. number one, that it was true. number two, that it was helpful tathem and worth striking this bargain. if gates fulfills his part of the deal later on when he is

ultimately sentenced, he will get the benefit of prosecutors asking for a reduced sentence and what we call a 5k1 motion to bring his sentence down somewhat. but make no mistake about it, gates does not get the benefit of the bargain unless and until he provides those prosecutors with information that they deem to be full cooperation and beneficial to their case. >> danny, paul manafort released a statement notwith standing that gates pled today. i continue to maintain my innocence. i had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue, for reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. so, here is what house intelligence member adam schiff

had to say. >> it was basically a love letter saying, please, give me a pardon. i'm not going to do what rick gates did. i'm standing by you. >> can anything legally be done by the president to save paul manafort at this point. >> he can issue a pardon. the president's pardon power is very strong. one of those is that he can only pardon federal crimes. he cannot pardon state crimes. so, if there are any pending or anticipated state crimes against manafort, he can do nothing to pardon those. he also cannot pardon future conduct. he can pardon past conduct. beyond that, the president can taylor a pardon in any number of ways. he can make it conditional, he can make it limited to only the current pending charges. if he does so, mueller has additional charges that he is held back on that he can bring in the future. you have to consider the consequences. if the president issued a broad

pardon for any and all crimes, that might foreclose any future prosecution. but if he only pardoned he's narrow crimes that he's currently charged with, mueller could come back and recharge him, again. the president could continue to pardon, but then we get into a political issue whether or not the public will accept the president successively pardoning over and over again one of his former aides. >> as you say, these charges may not be over. do these charges signal where the investigation is going at this point? >> they signal, it's hard to read the tea leaves of mueller's investigation. because like all federal prosecutors, they do not leak a lot of information to the public and you only find out their chess moves when the case is finally over. so, in a case like this, we can reasonably assume that manafort is the next target up the chain. the prosecutors have made it very clear that manafort is somebody that they want and they are willing to deal with gates to get to manafort.

the defense attorneys will point that out. they will say the prosecutors have done a deal with the devil. they have worked with a criminal and you, jury, are supposed to believe this other criminal as he testifies to save his own skin. he's not here for his health. he's not here for the benefit of the community. he's here because he has a deal with prosecutors. so, that is clearly the target, manafort. beyond that, is manafort the ultimate target? only time will tell. >> danny, thank you so much for joining us on this saturday morning. great to have you. and stalled. what to make of the new report that says there are issues with jared kushner's security clearance. e. but to help others, they first had to protect themselves. i have afib. even for a nurse, it's complicated... and it puts me at higher risk of stroke. that would be devastating. i had to learn all i could

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games. mrs. trump today attended olympic competitions and met with some u.s. athletes. she also had dinner last night with south korea's president at the country's blue house. and a new hurdle for the white house as it gets ready to implement a new process for staffers with interim clearances will have access to the top. let's bring back erin. how the white house warned that jared kushner's clearance is still in jeopardy. walk us through this timeline. >> it's interesting when you look at the situation. jared kushner is somebody who is, you know, a top and senior official in the white house right now. but still has not had his ultimate security clearance approved and, so, the key take away here is that john kelly, the chief of staff, is now implemented a policy such that for staffers who have not had their clearances approved.

they're not going tahao access tathe most sensitive information. that raises a question, will jared kushner no longer have access to senior material and, also, what is the source of this hold up. information out there that hasn't been fully clarified out there about what is the source of this delay. so this report, i think, raises questions on a number of fronts on how somebody at the top level at the white house is going to continue to do his job and how others and other officials will react to that. >> erin, you heard president trump at the white house yesterday express confidence that john kelly will, quote, make the right decision. not withstanding the decisions holding up this security question, the battle between john kelly and jared kushner could have been avoided? >> so many unusual factors at play. jared kushner is the son-in-law of president trump and this has gone on for a year. had access to the highest level

information in the white house. so, when you put those two factors together, you can determine this is no longer a case of missing forms or incomplete forms. this being some kind of bureaucratic hold up becomes smaller and smaller. when you look into financial dealings or deals with foreign officials you try to figure out what the hold up may be. it was rod rosenstein and not the head of the justice department jeff sessions. >> do we know when general kelly will make this decision? >> it's not clear yet when he will, but if the policy he has implemented, you know, continues to holds true when it comes to jared kushner, you know, it looks like kushner will not be able to have access to this information. when an exception is made and something else is done, then maybe things are different. what's clear from lisening to the president yesterday is that he's leaving this up to john kelly to decide and to figure this out. >> we shall see.

sean sullivan, erin, thank you so much for joining me on this saturday morning. that will do it for me. i'm dara brown. at the top of the hour, it's "hugh hewitt." you get... ...your precision... ...your grace... ...your drive. and now, with more than 150 ethnic regions to connect to, only ancestrydna can put your greatness on full display. save 30% now at ancestrydna.com. alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. ...and help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks! i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure. always be you. this new day. looks nothing like yesterday.

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good morning, everyone. coming up on msnbc "your business" avoiding family feuds. how owners of the million dollar baby crib company passed the reins on to their children. andrew rosen founder of fashion brand theory on how collaborating with other businesses can help your business. that, plus highly effective ways for business leaders to engender trust. that's grow fast and work smart. that's all coming up next on "your business." >> "your business" is sponsored by american express open.