yes, we are making an effort to specifically honor women because it is women's history month. grace hopper is an extraordinary and monumental american all day, every day, every month of the year. >> if you have a monumental american, tweet us. thanks for watching. i will be back at 3:00. time for andrea mitchell and "andrea mitchell reports." right now on "andrea mitchell reports," russian roulette. a former trump campaign aide putting on a show about cooperating with robert mueller while the real story could be in shocking new details about that controversial dossier. did russia manipulate the choice of donald trump's secretary of state? >> one of the things i think we will find with much of what's in the steele dossier, first of all, it's looking better and better every day, more and more credible, but i think it's going to take somebody like mueller who's got subpoena power to be able to really nail down a lot of the things that you need to know. time to talk? kim jong-un launching a major peace initiative with south

korea, but will kim meet the president's demands? his top spy today. >> hope springs eternal, but we need to learn a lot more relative to these talks, and we will. and tradeoff. house speaker paul ryan challenging the president's trade war over steel. >> every now and then, we're just going to have a different approach on how we should tackle these problems but it should be acknowledged that there is a problem that needs to be addressed here. we just want to make sure that it's done in a prudent way that's more surgical so we can limit unintended consequences. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington, where president trump is pushing back against reports of chaos. in a white house plagued by staff turnover and new revelations about the russia probe, with a morning tweet from the president today calling it all fake news. but hinting at more shakeups to come. joining me now, nbc white house

correspondent kristen welker and msnbc political analyst robert costa, national political reporter "the washington post" and moderator of "washington week." kristen, first to you. the president very strongly today pushing back against those reports, yet some of his hints of more turnovers to come only reinforces the narrative that there is chaos at the white house. >> reporter: the language is really striking. if you take a look at that tweet, president trump indicating with that tweet that he may be, in fact, making some moves soon. he says that he wants people to be doing their best work possible. there's always room for improvement, to kind of summarize the broader point that he's making. so it's really fascinating. of course it comes against the backdrop revelations that hope hicks was resigning last week, the fact that jared kushner, his son-in-law, had his security clearance downgraded. we know gary cohn has been quite vocal about his opposition to the president threatening to

slap new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, by some accounts maybe even threatening to quit. that hasn't happened yet, of course. so there certainly is a lot of discord behind the scenes here as president trump feuds not only with some within his own administration but within his own party over this notion of new tariffs. the president is going to hold a news conference later today with the prime minister of sweden. we will have a chance to ask him about all of that as well as, of course, the developments that you have been tracking out of north korea. >> on that point of north korea, this could be a major breakthrough. we don't know. we have been fooled before. kim jong-un meeting with the south koreans. those are historic meetings for the first time. and potentially driving a wedge between us and south korea, saying that he will halt all missile and nuclear tests, so keep that moratorium going, the post-olympics moratorium, but not saying that he will actually give up his nukes. what the white house is demanding is denuclearization.

the question that comes to mind, we will explore this more later, is, is the u.s. prepared to handle complicated diplomatic gambit, if you will, from north korea given the fact there's almost no one in the state department now with these new resignations of late and vacancies to be able to pick up the ball and run with it. kristen? >> reporter: well, it's a very good question. i can tell you i just spoke with a senior administration official who first of all says they are being very skeptical right now about what they are hearing, this offer from north korea that's being conveyed through south korea. so important to kind of point out that broader context. here within the administration, that's how they are approaching this. in terms of their readiness, you are absolutely right, that is a key concern, a key question. we know that the state department, rex tillerson, the secretary of state, has indicated he would be willing to have talks, even before the president indicated that he was

willing to do so, and so you would have to imagine that they were readying some type of realistic possibility to engage in those talks. but given their lack of staffing, the fact that they are not dealing with the numbers that they would like to be, it will be a challenge and of course, we have seen this president and this secretary of state not be on the same page on this issue. that may be one of the biggest factors undercutting a potential success if these talks do, in fact, move forward. again, this is going to be one of the big issues we try to drill down on today. >> then we go to the russia probe and the circus that was sam nunberg. robert costa, tell us about sam nunberg, because those of us who watched him yesterday on every cable network starting of course with katy tur and saying he's not going to, you know, obey the subpoena and then by the end of the evening, frankly acknowledging that he will acknowledge the subpoena, and experts pointing out you don't say no to a grand jury subpoena

unless you are taking the fifth. >> it's a difficult situation for nunberg but to understand the context of who he is, you have to go back to 2011, then businessman donald trump wanted to have a very small political shop as he teased a possible presidential run in 2012 and ahead of 2016. nunberg was a fixture, a media strategist connecting trump with people inside of the republican party that they both shared a penchant for gossip, for exaggeration, for bombast and that's how they got along and also why they saw their relationship fray twice over the years. nunberg got fired both in 2014 and in 2015. i really see him as someone who left the campaign in 2015 just before it got big, just like the drummer for the beatles who never got to be part of that stardom. >> he described himself as a protege of one of the most

controversial dirty tricksters, if you will, in politics and when we are talking about that, that relationship -- >> you are talking about roger stone and roy cohn. >> roger stone, he said was like a father figure to him and he said he was not going to obey the subpoena because he did not want to be trapped into implicating roger stone in some sort of perjury trap. >> the loyalty to roger stone is at the beating heart of this entire situation. sam nunberg mostly anonymous to the country, has this fierce loyalty to stone. they both fell out of the campaign in 2015. nunberg maintains that stone hasn't worked with the russians. stone is under scrutiny on different fronts in the russia probe. at this point you see nunberg trying to defend stone but also going after president trump at

the same time. it's complicated, it's messy. at this point, nunberg's associates tell me he probably has to cooperate with robert mueller but he also relishes the public drama, just like president trump does at times, just like roger stone have relished this kind of public drama. >> thanks so much to bob costa, thank you, of course, kristen welker. what a day at the white house. another what a day at the white house. bob bauer joins me now, msnbc chief legal correspondent ari melber, host of "the beat." first to you, ari, because you had the experience of dealing with sam nunberg. let me play a little bit of that interview on "the beat" at 6:00 eastern last night. and we were showing pictures of don mcgahn by error. we apologize. we will bring you that sound

momentarily. ari, tell us about your interview. >> sure. don mcgahn relevant as another lawyer in this mix. i think what was most significant legally about what mr. nunberg disclosed was these ten names we have now seen that are being reviewed as of interest by the special counsel, his statement that he believes he was offered immunity by the special counsel, and then the biggest bombshell that he says, i reviewed the documents on this, that they want him in the grand jury box which as you know, is a big deal and is a far stronger move than just doing the normal fbi interview. mr. nunberg believes that is, as we mentioned, because they are trying to build a case against roger stone, a long-time confidant of donald trump. so all of that comes out as legally significant above and beyond, however, mr. nunberg comported himself and whatever strain he's under which i think is understandable because these are high pressure situations. >> we do i think have that tape cued up now. let's watch a little bit of sam nunberg, who was displaying a

considerable amount of stress. >> i have spent money on an attorney. i've cooperated with them. and when i got something like this and then they wanted me to go to the grand jury next friday -- >> it's a requirement of, as you say, to get documents and material on those people and also for you to go in the grand jury room. why do you think after you did the other interview that they want to make you go in the grand jury room? >> because they are trying to set up a perjury case against roger stone and i'm not going to have it. >> now, bob bauer, you are both attorneys. bob, the point to sam nunberg is he doesn't have a choice unless he wants to plead the fifth, he has to go or he will end up in an orange jumpsuit. >> yes. he could also, even if he further resists on the grounds that he doesn't want to incriminate himself, be immunized and compelled to give testimony before the grand jury. if he resists still further, he faces civil and criminal

contempt. in some cases, prosecutors could even bring obstruction charges on the basis of this conduct. but there's no question that he doesn't really have a choice in the matter of cooperation. >> the name that comes to mind is from, you know, the ken starr investigation, susan mcdougle in arkansas refused to testify in the paula jones case, i believe, against bill clinton and ended up in jail for more than a year. >> that's correct. on a civil contempt charge. i believe it was 18 months that she served. >> so why do we think, ari, you sat across from him, that sam nunberg is feeling this pressure? only a week ago he was praising how fastidious the mueller probe was. is it because of the grand jury looming ahead of him? >> well, what we do know is something happened. i think you are putting the finger on it. he came on "the beat" previously and talked about how this was like a white shoe law firm, not a witch hunt and now he changed his tune.

it's fair to say based on what we learned that either some other outside event occurred, something that changed his state of mind about this, or, this is a reasonable possibility, or he felt that he did comply like so many other people doing the cooperative interview and then gets hit with this escalation which is scary, which makes him wonder what he did and whether the advice he followed was right or why he is getting treated differently than some other witnesses. that created a kind of extra pressure on him because nobody wants to go into the grand jury box, as we discussed in our interview, you don't get your lawyer in there, you are asked all kind of questions. bob mueller has shown he's willing to charge people with felonies for misleading investigators. so that is scary to anyone. i think it may be to some degree that he basically, mr. nunberg, saw that coming down the pike and had a reaction. i was able to speak with him and his father briefly last night, and he seemed to be evolving as people have reported over the course of the day in what he learned. he may be sort of living out

loud a process of understanding this. but again, regardless of mr. nunberg's words and performance, we have now learned that bob mueller's investigators do want to put nunberg in the grand jury box. they would either want to do that to put heat on him or to gather evidence to put heat on someone else. as i mentioned, that's something that's different than how many other witnesses have been treated. >> does the extent of the subpoena, bob bauer, tell you anything that you didn't already infer about mueller, the breadth and sweep of mueller's investigation? >> candidly not. i think most people who have followed the public reports on this so far or have looked at the indictments that have been issued in this case, would have immediately listed the names appearing on the subpoenaed documents that had been released that mr. nunberg made available, they would have put those names on virtually any list. i wasn't surprised by any of them and i doubt anybody else who has followed this story was surprised by them. >> there is already also, of course, an ongoing controversy

among democrats about why the obama white house did not do more to push back after the intelligence warnings about what the russians were doing. we've got a lot of information about what the administration, this administration, is not doing. the fact that we now see the state department has not spent all of this money, $120 million that was appropriated by the obama administration before they left office, to proactively go up against russian propaganda, they haven't spent a dime of it yet. in fact, they lost a good deal of that money when the fiscal year ended. >> the allegations here about inactivity in the obama administration are completely contrary to fact. i think it's a cover for the inaction in the current administration. by august of the end of the congressional recess in 2016, the administration briefed the congressional leadership. by early september, the obama administration had notified russia it was aware of these activities. by september 29th, the administration had worked with the congressional leadership to put out what was admittedly a

watered-down but still encouragement to the states to cooperate with dhs. by october 7th, dhs had put out a public statement with the office of the director of national intelligence to encourage state cooperation and eventually 36 states, 33 counties were engaged with dhs in bolstering their protection against cyberattacks. so the case against the obama administration is a purely political case by an administration and frankly, republicans in the congress who in 2016 simply did not want this to be an issue against donald trump. >> according to comments on "meet the press" this week on sunday, it was mitch mcconnell who insisted on watering down the statement that was made publicly. >> yes. >> all right. clarifying that. we will have a lot more on this coming up later with jane mayer who wrote extensive original reporting on the dossier in "the new yorker." thank you both.

be sure to watch "the beat with ari melber" tonight and every weeknight 6:00 eastern on msnbc. coming up, peace on the peninsula? will the u.s. come to the table to talk about denuclearization with north korea?

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with south korean diplomats and offering to halt nuclear and missile tests, and freeze the nuclear program. but is this going to drive a wedge between south korea and the u.s.? as the administration, are they prepared to deal with a major diplomatic challenge with its veteran north korea diplomat quitting last week. u.s. ambassador in south korea, and a president who relished issuing tough threats to north korea and ridiculing its leader while famously tweeting his secretary of state shouldn't waste his time when it comes to negotiating with kim. today the president did respond to kim's opening bid on twitter saying the world is watching and waiting, maybe false hope but the u.s. is ready to go hard in either direction. joining me is former deputy national security adviser under president george w. bush and msnbc senior national security analyst, that's a mouthful. great to see you, juan. this is fraught with all sorts of complications, not only because of this president, we

can talk about that and his on again, off again attitude towards north korea, with hard liners in the nsc including mcmaster, h.r. mcmaster threatening military action which is one of the things that led to the decision by victor cha, whom we know to be a veteran diplomat who you worked with at the white house who is approved and ready to go to south korea and be our ambassador and suddenly withdrawn. we have nobody to really carry the ball here in what would be the most challenging, difficult negotiation under the best of circumstances. >> without a doubt. this is fraught with complication. but with some hope, obviously. this is good news for anyone who obviously wants to avoid war. i think the u.s., even the most hawkish of members of this administration or analysts realize that any sort of conflict with north korea would be almost unimaginable from a humanitarian perspective, and to be avoided. so what you have seen from the administration all along has

been a much tougher line, no doubt has been a line that has attempted to pressure the chinese to do more, has been open at times to negotiation but with some trepidation, and you saw and heard that in the president's tweet, and a theme that maximum pressure needs to be placed on north korea even if there are talks to be had. so i think this is an important opening, a good question that you have raised though is are we prepared to do the hard diplomatic spade work and can we do that closely in coordination with the south koreans so this doesn't create a divide between the u.s. and south korea and even japan which has major interests as well. >> we just had the resignation of our most veteran diplomat, joseph young, our negotiator in this space. we really have nobody who is ready to deal with it in a deep, tough way. there you see victor cha, who of

course was our former ambassador. he has not been made our ambassador to south korea. so there's nobody to carry the ball. we saw what happened when they at the last moment canceled talks with mike pence at the olympics because they felt either they were planning all along to stand him up or they felt he was being too tough in his rhetoric. there's such a delicate balancing act here. >> absolutely. there is a bit of a vacuum here of experts on the ground. as you said. i'm very close with victor cha, worked with him closely in the bush administration. he's a real expert. it's a shame we don't have him representing us in south korea given his credibility and relationships and knowledge. i think there's really three components to this that the administration has to get a handle on. one is, who is going to do the hard diplomatic work. there are good seasoned diplomats in the state department.

there is the idea of bringing in a special envoy, perhaps, to negotiate. who is going to sort of drive this. secondly, what is our policy, what are the steps in this diplomatic dance that we want to take and finally, what's the end state, what can we live with in terms of a negotiated solution. the good news here is the north koreans through the south koreans have apparently declared that they are willing to talk about denuclearization. that's critical here, because that has been something the north koreans have not been willing to talk about and it's certainly something they have opened the door to at least based on what the south koreans are saying. >> of course, then how much trust is there between us and the south koreans, is there any space there. want to just point out something you know very well, the threat assessment that was presented to the senate armed services committee today before the north koreans made their offer, before this big meeting, but the threat assessment was to tell from defense intelligence agency, was to say that north korea now has three long range missiles

capable of hitting the united states. we are not just talking even of the west coast. we are talking about all of the united states. and will continue its nuclear and missile testing, according to the dia assessment, just today. of course, they are promising not to continue their testing if we talk and if we are willing to balance what they want, which is economic engagement and i think that what they want is a peace treaty finally. they are still at a state of war with south korea. >> that's right. keep in mind, the dia, defense intelligence agency, has been sounding the warning bells about the north korean program for some time and has tended to give the north korean program a lot of credit in terms of their ability to hit the united states with capabilities or to have more progress. but keep in mind the context here. north korea's under increasing pressure. the chinese have done more to pressure economically. the "new york times" had a good piece the other day about the reduced amount of border commercial activity, certainly

decreasing the coal trade. they have been exposed in terms of some of their activities, whether it's supplying chemical weapons capabilities to syria or weapons to the egyptians and sudanese regime. we have to be cautious in that the north koreans have a playbook here. they have often wanted to get into negotiations when they are under more pressure isolation to try to get relief from sanctions or pressure or to even get concessions. a final point, too. we shouldn't be too pollyannish about a potential pause in tests. although that's important, it can be that the north koreans have gotten enough from recent tests to be able to mine that information, to be able to develop further their nuclear capabilities, missile capabilities, even absent a test. it's good to gain time in these negotiations but we shouldn't be overly optimistic or pollyannish about the north korean intent. >> just to finish this triangulated circle, china,

south korea, the united states all involved, at the very moment we are pressuring china economically on trade and other issues, we are depending on them to keep applying pressure to north korea during any talks that take place. so it's all very complicated by an administration that tends to hit people with a hammer, not a scalpel. >> it's a delicate diplomatic dance with china, no doubt, with military, economic and political interests all at play. >> juan, great to see you. thank you very much for joining us from harvard today. coming up, harley davidson motorcycles, blue jeans, bourbon. how world leaders say they will fight back against president trump's trade war. retaliations in play. you tell your insurance company they made a mistake. the check they sent isn't enough to replace your totaled new car. the guy says they didn't make the mistake. you made the mistake.

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well, we're encouraging the administration to focus on what is clearly a legitimate problem and to be more surgical in its approach so that we can go after the true abusers without creating any kind of unintended consequences or collateral damage. >> house speaker paul ryan

trying to be diplomatic, but he is leading the republican opposition to the president's steel and aluminum tariffs. a threatened trade war dividing the president from the business community, from agricultural states, from much of the republican base, as well as his closest allies. joining me, ron klain, former white house senior aide to president obama and former chief of staff to presidents biden and gore, and rick tyler, republican strategist and msnbc political analyst. all those years after the gore, ross perot nafta debate, did we ever think we were going 20 some years later, going through -- more than that, 25 years later, going through this again? it is remarkable. you had readouts from both downing street now and ottawa completely disputing the president's white house versions of what his conversations were with theresa may and with trudeau in canada. our closest allies, our biggest trading partner is canada, and we are slapping them with steel tariffs and we are going to get hit, even the wine industry is going to get hit harder in

retaliation, than any jobs that will be saved in the 18th district of pennsylvania. >> well, look, i do think this may just be a political bluff by trump to get through the special election in pennsylvania. he changes his mind about everything. he may change his mind again. >> seems pretty determined on this. >> here's what i would say. aside from the dramatic economic impacts this could have, actually this will have very negative political impacts for this reason. the most important promise he made on trade during the campaign to the key states was to revise nafta. it was nafta that really was the point of pain for blue collar workers in michigan, in pennsylvania, in wisconsin, and if he goes forward with this steel tariff, there's no way canada will ever come to the table to talk about nafta. in one way he thinks he may be gaining with working class voters by doing this, but he's going to hurt himself on the number one thing those voters are looking for limb him to del on trade, change in nafta.

>> steve mnuchin today saying they will negotiate waivers on steel and aluminum for canada and mexico and do bilateral deals if they end nafta. we have heard promises of bil t bilateral deals with all of asia before and they have not materialized. those are very hard to negotiate. >> trade wars are not easily won and the people who pay the price are consumers. ron makes an excellent point. secondary to that point is jobs. let's pretend it all worked and they decided to build new steel mills in the united states. steel mills today are modern and automated. they don't have thousands of employees that they used to have so they are not bringing that back. i think the worst effects are the retaliatory tariffs that canada will put on the united states. it made china sort of the bogeyman here but china imports about 2% of our steel. canada imports about eight times the steel. always look at the consumer side. you talk about job side, talk about the consumer side.

now the airbus in france will be less expensive to make compared to the boeing aircraft. automobiles that are made in germany and japan will be less expensive to make compared to automobiles in the united states, and those will hurt jobs. >> at the same time, just let's do a tour of the political developments. kellyanne conway getting hit with a claim she violated the hatch act by speaking from the white house in interviews on cable tv or other television networks about the alabama race, when you are not supposed to talk politics from the white house lawn. is that basically the deal? >> that's basically the deal. the special counsel, the person who not bob mueller but a permanent special counsel oversees enforcement of the hatch act, determined today that she violated it twice. that's good for accountability. turns out the person who decides what happens to her is donald trump. so this is now referred to the president for any kind of disciplinary action. i'm counting on very low disciplinary action from the president of the united states. >> rick, i wanted to also bring

in our pal garrett haake, who is in a polling station in houston because it is election day. we all love election day. garrett, you are in your home state of texas. we are talking about turnout, talking about democrats running in more congressional districts than they have ever even fielded before because they are hoping that the activism that we have seen in other special elections will translate to what has always been a red state. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. you are seeing this sort of rising tide mentality here, kind of like we saw in virginia where democrats had all these candidates running in state level races, but they hadn't always contested before. then all of a sudden they started winning some of those races. you are seeing the same thing happening here in texas, where democrats have fielded candidates in every one of texas' congressional districts, for the first time that anybody can remember. that's drawing out democratic voters in places where there may not be a ton of democrats but maybe there were even fewer coming out to vote before. all that sort of helps push the

democrats' gubernatorial candidates a little higher, it's helping to push the democrat most likely to win the primary today to take on ted cruz in the senate race. i talked to a lot of democrats in suburban houston who really think he at the top of the ticket will he will some of these congressional races in places democrats think they might be able to pick up seats because some of these are sort of traditional bush republicans who have really turned against president trump. >> going to be fascinating. fascinating returns tonight in texas. thanks so much, garrett haake. thank you, rick tyler and ron klain. coming up, spy stories. riveting new details about the man behind the trump dossier. stay with us.

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incredibly detailed article "the man behind the dossier, how christopher steele compiled his secret report on trump's ties with russia." you have done it again. congratulations. it is an incredible piece of work. first, let's get to this which you acknowledge is single source, a russian source but in this memo from christopher steele who had long roots and a network of sources from mi-6 and was trusted by the fbi. he had single source suggesting that during the transition when trump was meeting over and over with romney and we were hearing romney could be secretary of state that the kremlin actually tried to intervene and that opened the door for someone well known in moscow, of course, rex tillerson. tell us about that. >> well, again, i think you have to sort of take it with a grain of salt. this is a memo based on one source who is talking about saying this is what people are saying in the ministry of foreign affairs in moscow. so compared to some of the other

memos which have numerous sources, this is just a one source memo. on the other hand, you have to say it's very eye-opening and the timing was really interesting, because the memo is the very end of november 2016 and at that point, mitt romney was kind of hanging by a thread about whether or not he would be chosen as secretary of state by trump, and he was having dinners with trump, he was making statements where he was saying i'm loyal to you, i think you now a great leader after having been critical of him during the campaign, so he was almost groveling, really, and after the end of this process which was kind of embarrassingly prolonged, really, finally on december 13th, trump named somebody else, he named rex tillerson, who is kind of a surprise to everybody. and you know, it may be that this is just talk in the kremlin and it's not really based on anything, but tillerson really did turn out to be a choice who

was considered acceptable to the kremlin in a way that mitt romney was not. >> let's talk about the fact the clinton campaign, even though they had commissioned the dossier, never knew steele had gone to the fbi which was part of the reason the fbi was already investigating, as we later learned, because of what had happened with a drunken conversation in prague with the australian ambassador, but the fact steele had also brought his information to the fbi. >> it's a crazy story. so i kind of dove into it trying to figure out is this true that there is some kind of conspiracy between christopher steele, former spy for the british government, and the hillary clinton campaign, to bring sort of opposition research on trump and phony stuff and start an investigation under false pretexts into trump that became the russia investigation. what it turns out to be is almost exactly the opposite. it turns out that christopher steele went to the fbi because

he felt he had a sense of duty to do so as a former government official, and that he had gone to the fbi, worked with the fbi in the past on numerous cases and gone to authorities in the past. this wasn't some kind of political trick. it was something that was consistent with the way he's operated for years. he was very worried about what he was learning about trump, and -- but he did not inform the clinton campaign about going to the fbi. so the clinton campaign didn't actually know there was an fbi investigation of trump all summer long. >> and the white house learned belatedly the extent of the investigation, not before january 5th, after the election? >> the white house was also so far out of the loop, it was just wild. so on january 5th in the oval office, james comey, director of the fbi, finally briefs him on the dossier and tells him the details of this sort of alleged

collusion between trump and members of the trump team and russia, and it's completely chilling to the people in the oval office that includes obama and biden, the vice president at the time. obama knew nothing about it, neither did biden. biden turns to comey and says you know, my god, is this serious? and what should we make of this? comey says yes, it's very serious and we know, he doesn't use steele's name, we know who the source is, he's been reliable in the past, we know his sources, his subsources, that network has been reliable in the past, and he says we have information independently that's consistent with it. >> the other thing that's so shocking, this did come out when dianne feinstein basically released part of the testimony from glenn simpson's lawyer from fusion gps who had commissioned steele in the first place, that someone may have been killed, some russian asset may have been killed as a result of all of

this investigating and revelations from the dossier? >> well, you know, you are getting into -- i mean, the story does, too, it just explains this is speculation, it is a concern to steele's company and steele. there is a rumor that there was a death after the dossier came out, sort of in retaliation. it's not just steele who is worried about this and speculating about it but there was actually a lawyer for fusion gps who, as you say, in the congressional testimony, said there has been a death as a result of this dossier. >> jane mayer, as i say, only you could have done this. it is amazing. a lot more to be learned, of course. but congratulations on another major, major break. >> thanks, andrea. great to be with you. >> you, too. we'll be back in a moment on benjamin netanyahu's trip to washington to see his great friend, donald trump.

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permanent military bases in syria. it's also seeking to develop to build precision-guided missile factories in syria and lebanon against israel. i will not let that happen. we will not let that happen. we must stop iran. we will stop iran. >> israel's prime minister bengman netanyahu addressing apac with explicit threats against iran. that the hour, he is at meetings at capitol hill. he is also celebrating trump's decision to move the american embassy to jerusalem, designating the holy city as israel's capital. which is a departure from decades of policy that jerusalem should be decided in negotiations between israel and the palestinians. joining me is the executive director of the u.s. campaign for palestinian rights. a political analyst at the arab center of washington. yusef, it's good to see you.

>> thanks. >> the palestinian question is not even front and center in this trip. it's really iran that the deadlines are with the threat to blow up the nuclear deal. >> i think the meeting between netanyahu and trump is something we've seen in the past. these are two leaders that have a lot in common. they are both very good with sound bites. they both love to perform in front of self-affirming crowds. they're both right-wing nationalists who have not hesitated to use racism to rile up their supporters. but what they also have in common now increasingly is that they are besieged by legal investigations. implicating not only them but those around them. and threatening very seriously their ability to continue to govern. and so for both benjamin netanyahu and president trump, this trip is about the optics of distraction. distracting from what president trump is dealing with here at

home. allowing him to point to his relationship with israel and prime minister beng man netanyahu and a distraction for netanyahu who's hoping to make the case to israelis in israel that no one other than himself is able to manage the u.s./israel relationship the way that he is and they should think twice before leading to any shake-up in the israeli government. >> the question remains, what will it take to get talks back on between israel and the palestinians? this precedes trump. because in 2014, the palestinians and the israelis broke off talks and the big issue for palestinians of course was continuing israeli settlements in disputed territory that palestinians believed should be part of their state. so how could you get the talks back when this administration has already taken jerusalem out of the equation and has canceled u.n. relief refugee relief that

had been in place for decades. >> right. i think one of the interesting things we've been hearing from this administration and was repeated in recent days is the united states would stand behind a two-state solution if it's something both parties want. effectively giving the israelis a veto over palestinian self-determination. >> your own leadership is also in trouble. as much as netanyahu's in trouble back home, has baeen bas is in trouble, you know how bad his numbers are. >> 70% of the palestinian people want abbas to step down but that's because he has argued to the palestinian people that engaging with washington, engaging in this peace process, will lead to freedom, will lead to independence, but all they have seen instead is continued settlement expansion and now the budding rosy relationship between netanyahu and president trump. >> we're going to have to leave it there. yusef, as always, it's great to see you. more ahead. we'll be right back. was not an option for us. i am taking the steps to own a home

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and that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. thanks for being with us. remember, follow the show online on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. craig melvin is up. back from south korea. it's good to see you. >> good to see you. thanks for having me back. good to be back. craig melvin here. msnbc headquarters in new york. cross the line. a new report finds counselor to the president kellyanne conway

violated the hatch act. now federal investigators are referring the issue to the white house to decide whether to take action. also, top targets. if democrats are going to flip congress, they'll need wins in texas where voters are at the polls right now. it's the first major primary test for the midterm elections. everything is bigger in the lone star state. democrats now wonder can they make everything bluer there as well. plus, nonsense. a former trump campaign staffer has that bizarre public debate with himself about whether to comply with a subpoena from robert mueller. what's he saying now after yesterday's display? but we start with that breaking news. presidential counselor kellyanne conway in violation of the hatch act. the u.s. office of special counsel, which we should point out here is not the mueller investigation, has now found that kellyanne conway did, in fact, cross the line in