grow. >> 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 at msnbc world headquarters. it is 7:00 on the east, 4:00 out west. here's what is happening. the democrats intelligence memo now out in the open. what it reveals in the conclusions now drawn from it. >> we shouldn't be fighting like this, we should all be on the same team. we should all come together as a nation. but i have to say this, we have to come together as a nation. the president in a new interview making a call for unify while urging an investigation of the other side. plus, what he had to say about the obama administration. and is change possible? congress gets ready to return to washington and face new hard questions about what can be done

about gun control. let's get right to new reaction from president trump speaking for the first time since the release of the democrats' memo. he called into fox news last night, first to air grievances against ranking member adam schiff, and then appearing to take a swipe at attorney general jeff sessions. listen closely. >> he's a bad guy. but certainly the memo wasn't nothing. a lot of bad things happened on the other side, not on this side, but on the other side. somebody should look into it because what they did is really fraudulent. and somebody should be looking into that. and by somebody, i'm talking about you know who. you have all these committees, everybody's looking, there is no collusion. no phone calls, i had no phone calls, no meetings, no nothing. there is no collusion. i say it all the time. anybody that asks, there's no collusion. >> democrats on the congressional investigation panels also weighing in on the schiff memo.

>> the dossier was not responsible for the fbi investigation. that is a myth that has been spread by republicans wanting to disparage the fbi as well as the dossier. >> if you think that carter page started this whole thing, where now robert mueller has multiple indictments and all these charges, then really, you're not paying attention. carter page was not the mastermind of this. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell has more reaction from capitol hill, including house chairman devin nunes. >> reporter: the democrats get their counter-punch. they're much-anticipated memo declassified. >> the original republican memo really was dubbed a nothing burger for good reason. >> reporter: ten pages with some secret information blacked out now public. challenging a republican-made allegation of partisan biased at the justice department.

it was a surprise announcement from the gop chairman applauded at a conservative conference. >> what you're not going to see is anything that actually rejects what was in our thmemo. >> reporter: the department of justice followed the rules fairly in the russia investigation. democrats say the fbi had ample reason to believe top campaign aid carter page was acting as an agent for russia when they sought surveillance on him. they also dispute republicans' claims of partisan bias about a key informant. former british intelligence officer christopher steele. when steele's salicious dossier was showing that he was hired by politically motivated u.s. persons, though not specifically that the dmc at clinton campaign had paid him. >> they are advocating that it's okay for the fbi and doj to use

political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against the other campaign. >> the top democrat, adam schiff, says the american people deserve to hear from both sides. >> these attacks on the hard-working people at the bureau are a disservice to them and their design to undermine bob mueller. they are designed to distract focus from the russia investigation. >> reporter: president trump had to green light the declassification of the democrats' memo just as he did with the republicans. but he also quickly went to twitter to criticize the democrats work, calling the ten-page memo a total political and legal bust. he went on to say it actually confirmed allegations of government surveillance abuse. and in his words, it was, quote, so illegal. dara? >> kelly, thank you. we'll bring in ali vitali and kevin sarelli from bloomberg

tv. ali, we'll start with you. the statement reads this politically driven document fails to answer serious concerns raised by the majority's memorandum about the use of partisan opposition research from one candidate. ali, can you walk us through their argument? >> it's not necessarily surprising, dara, that when the republican memo came out, it was obviously a very political scenario. the white house really did embrace the nunes memo. it's notable they would release the democratic memo given the level playing field for democrats to make their rebuttal. but it's also not surprising then that the republican white house would come out against the democratic political version of this memo. it's a key point that the white house is pointing to there, critical to the nunes memo was the idea behind the dossier was political in nature and that the fisa court may not have been made aware of that. the democratic memo says they were made aware of political tendencies and motivations behind the memo, but they don't specifically list the clinton campaign or trump campaign in

that. so that is kind of the white house's point here when they say the fisa court must not have been aware completely. but the democratic memo goes on to say the pushes to surveil carter page were not just based on the salicios dossier. >> and they are calling to investigate the democrats, but the justice department spent weeks to redact the classified info. so kevin, doesn't that weaken the white house strategy in this matt matter? >> it's quite interesting because just the other day at cpac, president trump again calling on authorities to somehow go back and investigate the clinton campaign. look, republicans released a nothing burger. it is hard to see that the democratic memo other than much of the nothing burger. no one is going to get any clarity until bob mueller's investigation releases the final

conclusions of this. and i think that really with the recent indictments that have come down just within the past week, last friday, most notably, but the russia businesses and the russian individuals being indicted. and then you had, of course, the fallout this week with rick gates. i mean, the repeatedness of this has intensified. when will this reach the ultimate conclusion? right now we just don't know. >> ali, here's a part of president trump's interview from last night. lest listen. >> obama was the president during all of this meddling or whatever you want to call it with russians and others, possibly. but obama was the president. he's the one that was supposed to take care of this. and he didn't. nobody brings that up. he was warned and he didn't, which makes it even worse. >> so ali, how much more mileage does president trump have with this argument before it starts to run out? >> so what about-ism has been the centerpiece of the trump

administration for the past year. every time they find themselves in hot water, the president and some of the aides point back and say, hillary clinton or barack obama. so that is really the centerpiece of their argument when it comes to russian meddling is, well, if they knew about it, if the obama administration knew about it, why didn't they do anything? on the flip side, now that president trump is president, he has not directly addressed the idea of ashoring. this will not happen again because i will not let it happen again. i will not let russian meddle. so when you talk about the intelligence agencies confirming time and time again, yes, russia did meddle in the election, there's really something holding back the president from saying, we will not allow this to happen again. and i think that as many people have spoken to before, it's because of concerns he may say, or by saying he believes russia meddled, which he has, it may take it one step further to talk about the legitimacy of the election results, which there is nothing there. i find it interesting that he goes after jeff sessions. and that relationship continues

to fray over the past year of the administration. it doesn't seem to be getting any better, when he continuously makes the underhanded comments to say someone should look into it, it's pretty obvious no one knows what he's talking about and that sessions has not undertaken that or hearing the underhanded cries. of course, it just stands to note that you ask how long the obama administration stuff can go, it really feels sometimes, when you have the president phoning in to judge jeanine's show on fox, that was an old campaign move. and the obama attacks were an old campaign move. and it seems with the speech at cpac, we're feeling a lot of the old campaign vibes coming back to the surface. >> right, it's cyclical. kevin, i want to ask you, when we weed out the politics of how this plays out, how much do the revelations matter to the mueller investigation? >> i'm not sure that the politicize politicized democrats and republicans, it's so politicized, i'm not sure they

do anything other than to create a narrative in the public. back to the policy quickly, the obama administration cyber security policy has been criticized by experts both in the republican and democratic party. the framework that they released, which is just that, after the target data breach, and just not drawing the public and private partnerships to adequately bolster security for u.s. financial as well as business institutions, you can't even -- what did they do? but for the trump administration, what are they doing? and i feel like we have this conversation week after week, but we're just a couple of months away. i spoke with senator langford, the republican on the senate intelligence committee just the other week, he's out there saying, what are we doing to better protect our institutions ahead of the midterms? that should be a nonpartisan issue. >> that's a good question. ali, real quick before i let you go, "the washington post" is reporting an intense phone call between president trump and president nieto of mexico.

what are you learning about this? >> that's exactly right. that's a "washington post" report. nbc has not yet confirmed that reporting. but the post said there was a tense phone call between the mexican leader of pena nieto and president trump this week pushing off a meeting that was supposed to happen this month or in march. the two leaders have obviously had opposing views on one of the president's key campaign promises, which was building a wall along the southern border and one of the key promises he made to his supporters. that mexico was going to pay for it. that obviously hasn't come to fruition. he's promising to build the wall, but the mexico paying for it portion is still kind of the sticky factor there. so of course pena nieto has his election coming up and doesn't want to like like he's being seen as bullied into playing for the wall that he obviously does not want. so that is a really big sticking point between these two leaders and something that has prevented them from having that close relationship they might have otherwise had.

the other side of this is, the president has been outspoken about the need to renegotiate nafta, one key deal between the u.s., mexico and canada. so that kind of really harsh rhetoric that he uses sometimes when talking about the trade relationship with mexico in the form of nafta is another thing to make the relationship a little strange. so yeah, this latest phone call reporting from the "washington post" is that that meeting is getting pushed off. obviously, no signs of that icy relationship thawing. >> ali, kevin, great to have you on this morning. thank you for your insights. coming up, a total and political legal bust like president trump says? we'll ask a former prosecutor up next. . paths aren't what they used to be. roads nowhere to be found. ( ♪ ) and it's exactly what you're looking for. ( ♪ )

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reaction from president trump over the release of the democratic memo has sparked a

legal debate over who, if anybody, is in the wrong. donald trump tweeted last night that government surveillance abuses is a total and political bust. and ranking member adam schiff responded, wrong again, mr. president. it confirms the fbi acted appropriately and that russian agents approached two of your advisers and informed your campaign that russia was prepared to help you by disseminating stolen clinton e-mails. lots of question this morning and here with answers is former prosecutor doug burns. doug, is this a legal bust as the president claims? >> no, you can't -- you can't just put like a game show label on it. basically, here's how i would score it, almost like a boxing match, seriously. the main claim, you know, is that the dossier was the critical centerpiece, that's the only reason why they went to get this, the democrats don't believe that's true from reading the two memoranda. next, the idea there wasn't an adequate disclosure about kr

christopher steele, his connection to the dnc and the democratic institutions, i score that lightly to republicans. then the question is, did they corroborate the christopher steele information enough? that comes down almost to a tie. it kind of goes back and forth. so all things considered, this is a political dust-up, obviously. much more than a legal one. these memos read like legal briefs that i have been reading for 32 years. once side paints one picture, the other side paints a starkly different one. it's almost like the old joke, are we talking about the safe fisa applications? but the point is, as i've said before, dara, i'll say it again, the only way for somebody like me or any expert to really meaningfully and conclusively give you an opinion is to look at the actual warrant application in the first place. and then the renewal application. >> let's talk about that because the president is revisiting the investigation into the justice department. here he was last night on fox

news. let's listen. >> a lot of bad things happened on the other side, not on this side, but on the other side. >> and what is interesting -- >> somebody should look into it. because what they did is really fraudulent. and somebody should be looking into that. and by somebody, i'm talking about, you know who. >> doug, he appears to be eluding to attorney general jeff sessions as the "you know who" here. is there grounds to look at this based on the new memo? >> putting aside the landing ground, i don't think that's a course that is even going to be sought, okay? once again, you know, this is really pretty unfortunate on many levels. and i've heard other commentators say that. i mean, you're airing out a political dust-up over a secret court application in a secret court, the fisa court. and you have claims going back and forth. and it really is a dust-up that shouldn't even necessarily be before the public. and it's nothing more than sort

of babyish back-and-forth political sound bites all over the place. so i do not think that jeff sessions will get involved in this particular trial. i will say one thing, i know you guys have touched on this, and that is in fairness, the democratic memorandum, you know, has a lot of conclusions. it's like, oh, no, we didn't rely exclusively on that. and then the part that would support it is redacted or blacked out. so it would be very helpful, obviously, to see what they cite in support of their conclusions. >> it was hard to make sense of that when i was reading it. the democrats' rebuttal comes weeks after the republicans memo. it was delayed because the president sent the first response back for redaction. was the delay enough to hurt them in the court of public opinion? >> it's a good question because you're highlighting the key, which was, look, you read this republican memorandum, which was

largely oversold. it was a blockbuster scandal bigger than watergate and it was not. but it raised concerns of what was put before the court. then when the democratic memo came back, i think it was important to the democrats, you know, to get their version in front of everybody. and i think they did score some points, honestly, calling it as i see it. scored some points about debunking the idea that the dossier was the only reason why they went to get the warrant in the first place. >> doug burns, great to have you this morning, thank you so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. coming up, president trump says things could get very rough for north korea, but just how close are we to phase two? that's next. we may be one of the world's most familiar companies, but we make more than our name suggests. we're an organic tea company. a premium juice company. a coconut water company. we've got drinks for long days. for birthdays. for turning over new leaves. and we make them for every moment

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we're following breaking news this morning that north korea is open to talks with the u.s. the north korean delegation visiting south korea for the closing ceremony of the winter olympics expressed tainterest i

talks earlier today. joining me is an expert on nuclear security. adam, what do you make of this overture? and should the u.s. seize the moment? >> the u.s. should seize the moment. and this is turning into a missed opportunity for the administration. that says that starting negotiations with the north koreans is the primary goal. they are trying to pressure the north into these kind of talks. and the u.s. delegation that the administration sent to the closing ceremonies is not equipped to conduct diplomacy. the north korean main delegate is an old intelligence hand. he's an insider. they have heavy hitters there on nuclear issues, on north american affairs. they're ready for these kind of talks. and if ivanka trump is there as a cultural envoy, that's perfectly appropriate. but nobody should expect her to be prepared to conduct diplomacy. that's irresponsible. >> let's talk about that. because she's there, she greeted

the south korean president on her father's maximum campaign and new round of sanctions against north korea. here's what she said in a new interview. take a listen. >> i spent some time with president moon, but my primary role as an american is to be here to cheer on team usa and show them the love and support we have so much as a country and can learn from the incredible athletes. >> adam, can ivanka and diplomacy work that in that part of the world? >> no, she doesn't have the expertise and credibility to conduct those kind of negotiations. senator rich is also there. his main contribution over the past couple of weeks on north korean issues has been to warn of a biblical attack that could be over in minutes. that is supposed to be a nuclear threat. so this administration in cop posing its delegation has essentially signaled that it's not taking negotiations seriously. it will further damage relations with south korea.

and it won't help them solve the problem with north korea. it won't improve our hand, it won't help to unravel this standoff. >> adam, the president said if new sanctions don't work, he may have to move to phase two, which would be unfortunate for the world. is this ominous tone part of his north korea strategy? >> yes, it is. they're deliberately trying to cultivate the sense of a crisis to manufacture a crisis in which north korea would lose its resolve, you know, lose its backbone and surrender and come to the table. that is clearly not going to happen. there's been a year and more now of maximum pressure. and it has not succeeded in altering north koreans' calculus one inch. these kind of careless nuclear threats, these insults have accumulatiined over the last si months all through the winter. and when tests start again in the spring and joint military

exercises, that makes it even more destabilizing. >> adam mount, great to have you. thank you so much for your time this morning. that will do it for me. i'm dara brown. thank you for watching. at the top of the hour it is "politicians nation." but straight ahead. it is "your business" with jj ramberg. flonase relieves sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose, plus nasal congestion, which pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. and 6 is greater than 1. start your day with flonase for more complete allergy relief. flonase. this changes everything. this time, it's his turn. you have 4.3 minutes to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. find them with the refrigerated desserts. with real strawberries. everyone has a thing. that binge watch over the weekend thing.

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good morning, everyone. coming up on msnbc's "your business," how you acquire another company and successfully assimilate them into your culture. the company of dog rover who acquired their biggest competitor tell you how they dealt with those challenges. and how the owners of cafes catered to our four-legged friends and how they dealt with government regulations. plus, what you need to know to evaluate if you're a good leader. that is all coming up next on "your business." >> "your business" is sponsored by american express open. helping you get