analytica? >> are you answering the question where is cheryl sandberg? >> i would like to know, too. we haven't heard a thing during this whole mess. >> that's it for this hour of velshi and ruhle. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," not again. days before a student-led march for gun safety, a student allegedly opens fire inside a southern maryland high school sending two fellow teens to the hospital. the local sheriff voicing every parent's fear. >> this is the realization of your worst nightmare is that in a school that our children could be attacked. texas on edge. a fifth package exploding early today at a fedex outside san antonio after a string of bombings around austin has already killed two people and injured four others in the past three weeks. >> this is a very fluid investigation and we want the general public to know that their safety is our number one priority. and the social network,

facebook, under fire today as senate judiciary leaders demand that mark zuckerberg explain what his company knew about the hijacking of the data from 50 million users. >> we'd actually like to hear from all the social media ceos. we in the government have to start looking at it differently, just like you protect people from rotten tomatoes or you protect them if their credit card information is stolen? we have to protect them when they innocently go on the internet. and breaking news. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where we begin in texas and the fifth bombing in three weeks. this one at a fedex distribution center north of san antonio. authorities are investigating if this package was bound for austin and if it is part of the four other attacks in austin that officials believe were the work of a serial bomber. nbc's gabe gutierrez is in austin with the latest. gabe? >> reporter: hi there, andrea. good afternoon. well, yes, this is a very fluid

investigation, as you just heard, looking into this latest explosion at this fedex distribution center about an hour's drive south of boston. now just within the past hour or so we also heard from the san antonio police chief who was asked by a reporter, was this the only package that was found at that fedex facility. he said that there was a second package that had been at that fedex facility in shirts, texas but it was fno longer there. then he was cut off saying he couldn't get into that an describe more information. but investigators are looking into more than one package at this fedex facility near san antonio. now i should also point out that right now there is an active hazmat situation at another fedex facility here in the austin area right near the airport. so certainly a lot of concern here from investigators. more than 500 federal investigators, both fbi and atf, working this case right now. andrea, of course this comes after those four previous explosions and that huge concern in this neighborhood where i'm

standing at where a package exploded not far from me injuring two young men in their 20s, one was riding a bike, the other on foot. and there was a trip wire that apparently was triggered and hurt -- seriously hurt those two young men. this comes after those three other explosions over the last several weeks, the first one starting on march 2nd. one of them so far has killed a 39-year-old man. and then a 17-year-old boy. those first three explosions were packages that were left on door steps quietly throughout the night. but investigators say it is much more concerning here that things seem to be escalating. and right now they are looking at whether all of these explosions are linked to one bomber or perhaps maybe some of the latest ones could be cop cats. they just don't know at this point, andrea. according to dispatch logs from this morning, the initial call suggests that the explosion at the fedex facility just north of san antonio, that there were

nails in that package and that it was bound for austin. again in the news briefing about an hour ago, authorities were very tight-lipped and wouldn't confirm any of those details. again, andrea, there is now concern that this investigation is spreading no yw to fedex facilities. the first explosions were not mailed through an official delivery service. now if this late esst explosion this fifth explosion is linked to the other four, it suggests now the serial bomber, as authorities are calling it, that this person may now be using the delivery service. very concerning indeed. this is certainly a city on edge. >> a city and in fact a country. it recalls the unabomber case many years ago and how they finally had to go through so many investigative techniques to try to narrow that down. here we flow that bombs have signatures and that the others were related, according to

officials, and that there was an appeal from the fbi to this bomber in austin, you know, cop te -- come tell us what you want. reaching out to the bomber. of course it is too early to know what's happening north of san antonio is at all related or could be copycat. >> reporter: that's right, andrea. the authorities just in that briefing were very careful not to make that link just yet. that is different than what we had seen in the previous couple of instances. the austin police chief here has been very quick to get the word out to the public that whether they believe these explosions were linked. they are being a little more cautious today with this latest explosion. again, atf and fbi agents, this is very early in their investigation, they say, and they're still trying to piece this together. but as you mentioned, yes, that fourth explosion, the one in the neighborhood where i'm standing, that one came barely six hours after the austin police chief on sunday came forward and made this urgent personal me,

speaking directly to the bomber, asking that person who come forward and to -- that they would hear his message out, whatever that message may be. but right now, andrea, there is no suspect we're told, police have no suspect, and no arrest yet, even as this investigation moves forward. andrea? >> gabe gutierrez, at the center of the action. thank you so very much. i know you'll come back if there's any, any information at all about these latest -- this latest explosion. meanwhile, more breaking news. another horrifying morning for high school students. this time in southern maryland at great mills high two shots were shot on campus. gunman killed after being confronted by a school resource officer. both victims are now being treated at nearby medical facilities. one is in critical condition. federal agents are assisting local law enforcement. let's get right to msnbc's garrett haake in great mills. garrett, i know you've spoken to students on campus. what do we know? >> reporter: well, andrea, we

know this started essentially as the school day was beginning at 7:45 in the morning. one student said he and his friends were just hanging o you the in the hallway when they heard the first gunshot, people scattered running. authorities say a student walked into the school and fired at least one slot at a fhot at a s. at some point he fired at a male student. then in a very quick reaction the school resource officer engaged with the shooter. the shooter is dead, we can report, said the sheriff though the investigation will continue as to whether it was by a shot by the school resource officer or perhaps a self-inflicted shot. one local hospital has said they are treating a 16-year-old girl who they said they have stabilized and a 14-year-old boy who is in good condition. right now the students who were in that hospital were placed on a lockdown all morning. they're being transported to another high school where they can be reunited with their families. but a lot of these kids, including the student i just talked to, did not bother to

wait for any kind of official word from the school. they just took off running. the student i talked to said they ran down the hallways. they first tried to hide in a bathroom but decided they would be stuck if they went to a bathroom. they ran out of the building and this student said he immediately called his mom. mom said she put on her shoes and started praying and drove to the school to get her son. just a very, very scary scene at this high school this morning. which, by all accounts, appears to have been over in a matter of minutes. andrea? >> now let's just locate yourself. i know st. mary's county is quite a distance from washington, d.c. it is not really suburban as ex-urb ex-urban. we are talking about southern maryland, a community like all high school communities and people around the country are preparing for this massive march this saturday. notably in washington and elsewhere in the country. hundreds of thousands of kids. people throughout our region are preparing. parents are preparing to take in

some of the kids from parkland and other place whose are coming so that they have free places to stay. we are all engaged in preparing for this weekend, then horror. >> reporter: it is interesting, this is a larger small in a more rural community about 50 miles south of d.c. students at this school, some of them, participated in that walkout just last week. i asked the student i just interviewed. he said they do do lockdown drills, but this may be something sort of for the policymakers down the road. the lockdown drills are all based on students sitting from a classroom. he said they were standing in the hallways walking in for the day. there was nothing in their drills that prepared them for this moment. it was sort of a shocking thing. that sounds so cliche. but before they were even in their seats, before anything like a drill or any kind of preparation could have even gotten this em in the mindset. the student's mom says she thinks about this thing all the time. again, we're beyond the point of

thinking "it can't happen here." everyone, the sheriff, the parents, students, recognize that these things can, and do, happen in schools of any shape, of any size, in any part of the country. >> and just very briefly from what i know of southern maryland, having covered that area, there is a big hunting community there. a lot of people have guns. so guns are not at all as infrequent as in the immediate washington, d.c. area. i know you'll be on top of this, garrett haake. thanks so much for getting to the scene. here in washington, probable more turnover on the president's legal team after the hiring of former u.s. attorney joe digenova with his attacks on the fbi on television. >> senior fbi and doj officials engaged in conduct that was designed to corrupt an american presidential election. it wasn't the russians who corrupted the presidential election. it was the american officials at the department of justice and the fbi. >> in that picture there was joe

digenova and his partner, often very involved in political investigations here in d.c. joining me now from the white house as well and here on set, nba national security analyst jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the pentagon and cia. kristen, first of all, the president's legal team, joe digenova very high-profile but also accord doing our friends at "the washington post," they are in conversations with a very well known republican former solicitor general, ted olson, who also is an expert on appeals, expert on supreme court argument, famously, of course, won the case for george w. bush in 2000, bush v. gore. and then teamed up with david boyce, his former counterpart from that and helped win the defense of marriage legalizing gay marriage across the country.

so this is a very high-profile add if he is able to join the team. >> reporter: let me start with the ted olson piece of this. former solicitor general under george bush and that very wide range of experience you mapped out. if he were to be added, again, this would be seen as taking a tougher stance, someone who's got a lot of experience in these kind of high-profile legal cases. i tried to drill down on whether or not this is actually going to happen. i can tell you jay not commenting on this but bottom line, he says ted olson is a great lawyer and a great patriot. not necessarily waving us off of the reporting, andrea, or the fact that this would potentially be a move that he would support. then to the other piece of this, the fact that we did learn late last night that they are adding someone who has accused the fbi of essentially setting up the

president. this is someone who engages in bare-knuckle tactics. represents the fact, andrea, that the president is looking to toughen his stance when it comes to dealing with this ongoing russian probe. i've been talking to sources who say he's becoming increasingly frustrated with the fact that this is dragging out. remember his attorney, ty cobb, said this would likely be wrapped up by the end of the year. that hasn't happened. i think what we're seeing more broadly is this real divide within the president allele team. john dowd over the weekend said he wanted to see the probe wr d wrapped up. ty cobb says stay the course. let's just get this over with as quickly as possible. then the backdrop that the president's legal team is in conversations with the special counsel's team as they weigh an interview. that's really the backdrop hanging over all of this. what would that interview look like? would it be in person? i know there's been some push-back to that. what's happening right now at

the white house, president trump meeting with the crown prince of saudi arabia. the pool reporters have just gone back there, andrea, so we may have an update on all of this in short order if they can get some questions to him. >> kristen set the stage. jeremy bash, first of all, let's talk about ted olson. this is someone who is an expert at presidential law, constitutional law, appeals before the supreme court. this could involve a whole range of issues, not just your typical criminal defense lawyer. >> there are a couple reasons to bring in ted olson. number one is i think it makes more sophisticated the president's legal defense that's under the issue of obstruction of justice where ted olson could argue under the theory that the president has the power to dismiss an fbi director, lass the power to fire jim comey and that notwithstanding what the facts may have been, that legally the from ez president i

authorized. secondly? this goes to the supreme court, ted aolson has the experience t argue before the supreme court. digenova is the yin to the yang. they'll try to lit zbigate this fox news and breitbart. if you remember, when jim comey confronted the bush administration at the bedside of then attorney john ashcroft over nsa warrantless wiretapping, who did jim comey call to be his witness in his conversation with the president in the oval office? had ted olson, solicitor general of the united states at the time. >> what great memory you have, jeremy bash! that's a great detail. ted allison's former wife was killed on 9/11, i should point out. she was in one of the planes that took off from dulles airport so the plane that went into the pentagon, i believe. so there is a whole mix of feelings about ted olson but a lot of us know him very, very well. certainly the supreme court justices know him very well and personal relationships matter in this town as will, of course,

his legal expertise. let me just show you something that happened today. you and kristin welker. paul ryan speaking out now about bob mueller after a weekend when bob mueller was under attack by the president on twitter. this was paul ryan today. >> the special counsel should be free to follow through his investigation to its completion without interference. absolutely. i am confident that he'll be able to do that. i've received assurances that his firing is not even under consideration. >> jeremy and kristen, this is important because we've heard him speak through his spokesperson yesterday but this is the first time in quite a while, especially since the weekend events, that the speaker of the house is laying down a line for the president of the united states. it is politically important. >> politically important and you are hearing more and more republicans come forward and say the special counsel should be able to finish his investigation. some have gone even further than that. trey gowdy saying, look, if you have nothing to hide, if you're

not guilty, let this investigation move forward. stop criticizing the special counsel publicly. so i think what you're seeing is an attempt by republicans to counter these harsh tweets that we saw from the president over the weekend. yesterday again referring to the investigation as a witch hunt. but again, this comes as the president is toughening his stance. what will congress actually do about it though, andrea? there doesn't seem to be any real appetite for passing legislation that would actually protect special counsel bob mueller. republicans saying they don't think ultimately that's going to be necessary. that's in essence the point paul ryan was getting to as well. >> thank you so much kristen welker. stand by, everyone. coming up -- the prince and the president. what's on the aagenda for the meeting now under way at the white house. the president's with the controversial crown prince. stay with us on msnbc.

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saudi arabia's revolutionary young crown prince is meeting with the president at this hour. it is the first of an unprecedented cross-country trip -- the first day, i should say, two drum up investment in this country and to try to improve his -- the image of his kingdom. known as mbs, the future king has locked up fellow princes, expropriated more than $100 billion of their wealth in the name of cracking down on corruption, giving women new

rights like the right to drive and attend sporting events, but also mired his country in a civil war in yemen consequence iranian militias. david me is "washington post" columnist david ignatius. his book "men delandela's way" being re-released today. nbc national political reporter carol lee is here and still with us, nbc national security analyst, jeremy bash. you have perhaps the most important arab leader in line with donald trump against iran but also looking for foreign investors, trying to communicate that this is a new saudi arabia despite the harsh tactics he has used against fellow princes to gain power and also fellow investors. >> yes. he's an extraordinary figure. he's a mix of good and bad. i met with him during the last year of the obama administration at a midnight meeting at the

palace, which is the saudis, as most of you know, have very late meetings. he has done some extraordinarily good things about allowing women to drive, allowing the return of movie theaters. but what he's doing in yemen approaches war crimes. so he's head-strong. i think one of the things i would say to our viewers is one of the reasons that we are different than saudi arabia, for a million reasons, is that there are checks and balances on the power of any leader in america. there are institutions -- >> and rick, while we talk about checks and balances, one of the important ones, of course, is congress. the senate intelligence committee investigation, the first stage of it into the election hacking, is wrapping up. this is their presentation. this is richard burr, the chairman on the bipartisan unclassified version of their report. we'll get back to saudi arabia in a moment. >> -- or go to the right person in every case. alerts were actionable. they provided malicious internet

protocol ip address to i.t. professionals, but no clear reason for states to take this threat more seriously were given. russia was trying to undermine the confidence of our election system. we are here to express concerns, but also confidence in our state and local governments. now i think what's important to understand is that tomorrow we will have an open hearing specifically on election security. mark and i will be joined by four of our members who are taking the lead on the recommendations that we will post. i think they have maybe in the last five minutes gone out but they will officially be public today. let me distinguish. we very much support state control of the election process. we think there are ways that the federal government can support those states, but clearly we've

got to get some standards in place that assure every state that at the end of the day they can certify their vote totals. so i think what members will share with you today is the recommendations that we will come with. they're not recommendations that you should expect legislative action from our dmcommittee. we have no jurisdiction. it just lapse to be part of the investigation. jurisdiction within the congress is probably the rules committee and the united states senate, and we will work very closely with them sharing all the information that we possibly can so that they can process our recommendations, add to it, delete from it. but also with the agencies that are most appropriate to make sure that they bring the resources and the partnerships to the states and localities and the individuals that are single most important to the election process. let me just draw a few conclusions. we need to be more effective in deterring our adversaries.

the federal government should partner with the states to truly secure their systems. that will also be in possible grant funding. dhs and fbi have made great strides, but they must do more. dhs offers a suite of cyber security assistance, but we've heart that they do not have the resources to you will if fill all the requests. we will work with appropriators and authorizers to see if in fact we can't fill that gap. we need to take a hard look at equipment that actually records and reports votes. we need to -- we all agree that all votes should have an audible paper trail. and in 2016, five states used only electronic machines with no paper trail. nine used at least some of these machines. we realize all of this security costs money, and we want to make sure that the federal government not only says we're a partner, that we are a partner.

and i hope that will be expressed maybe as early as the omnibus spending bill. with that let me turn to the vice chairman for any comments he might have. >> thank you, richard. i also think it is an indication of who's got better eyesight that you can read from this and i have to read off of this. let me first thank all of the members for being here and the way this committee has performed to date and i think will continue to perform. you're going to hear from four members who have worked actively on this issue of election security. but i want to point out as well that senator rubio has some very important legislation with senator van hollen that i think bears consideration as well. senator klobuchar i want to acknowledge as being active in the piece of legislation we are working on. i think one of the consensus that we all came up with was we were all disappointed that states, federal government,

department of homeland security was not more on their game in advance of the 2016 elections. as the chairman has indicated, there were 21 states that were attempted to be intervention in. at least one state that was full hacking that got through the protections. and one of the most frustrating things were that in the aftermath of this information coming out, that it actually took the department of homeland security nearly nine months to notify the top election officials that their states systems had been messed with. i want to again thank the chairman and the whole committee. i think our hearing last june was -- >> we're going to get back to this in a moment as we hear about the election hacking and attempts to prevent it from hacking again. here is the president in the oval office with the saudi leader. >> -- get to the bottom of it.

this is obviously a very, very sick individual or maybe individuals. these are sick people and we will get to the bottom of it. we will be very strong. we have all sorts of federal agencies over there right now researching what's going on in austin. a great place. tremendous place. is absolutely disgraceful. so we have a lot of power over there. we're looking. it is not easy to find. but these are sick people and we have to find them as soon as possible. we have to find them really immediately. i will say working with texas, working with the local governments has been great, but we have to produce, we have to find this very sick person or people. thank you all very much. i had a call with president putin and congratulated him on the victory, his electoral

victory. the call had to do also with the fact that we will probably get together in the not-too-distant future so that we can discuss arms, we could discuss the arms race. as you know, he made a statement that being in an arms race is not a great thing. that was right after the election one of the first statements he made. and we are spending $700 billion this year on our military and a lot of it is that we are going to remain stronger than any other nation in the world, by far. we had a very good call and i suspect that we'll probably be meeting in the not-too-distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control. but we will never allow anybody to have anything even close to what we had. and, also to discuss ukraine and syria and north korea and various other things. so i think probably we'll be seeing president putin in the

not-too-distant future. [ inaudible question ] >> well, we're going to see what i'm going to do. iran has not been treating that part of the world or the world itself appropriately. lot of bad things are happening in iran. the deal is coming up in one month and you will see what happens. >> your royal highness, should the president pull out of the arms deal? >> well, we talk about that today. >> okay? thank you very much. thank you. >> as you saw, the president commenting on austin saying that they have to do something, to do more against a sick person or persons. interestingly, he acknowledged his phone call today with vladimir putin. he said to congratulate him on his re-election, his sixth term. the fact that he did not say that he criticized president

putin or brought up the whole subject of the attack by the kremlin, according to the uk, the united nations and other nato countries, is pretty extraordinary. to have this friendly congratulatory call with putin is pretty amazing, pretty stunning. we were talking, as well, with rick stengel, david ignatius, and others here as we resume coverage about this saudi meeting. let's talk about putin as well. david ignatius, be the iran deal, he said, we'll be deciding in the next month but there was a warning to iran. as we know, iran and the crown prin prince, opposition to iran, is one issue on which he and the president strongly agree. >> i'm sure in the meeting with crown prince mohammed bin salman their mutual antagonism toward iran is a significant topic. president trump has embraced mohammed bin salman as a saudi

disrupter, a change agent. i think he must see him as a trump-like figure. this is very much in saudi arabia a top-down directed series of reforms. i just was in the kingdom several weeks ago and the changes are real. i just would note, andrea, think the president's statement that he is going to meet soon with vladimir putin may be the day's most important news. the relationship between russia and the united states, russia and the west, has deteriorated so badly. it's disturbing that president trump didn't say anything critical about russia after this attack on the former spy that was hit with a nerve agent in salisbury, england. but i think many analysts are likely to see the opportunity

for discussions about this arms race that really is spiraling out of control, a serious situation that now is becoming very ragged again with isis in danger of coming back into business. this may be a time which constructive u.s.-russian discussion about problems is something that people would think made sense. >> but doesn't it depend, david and rick stengel, also weigh in here. doesn't it depend on which posture the president takes with vladimir putin? if he takes an excessively pr d friendly posture and doesn't confront him on the conditions in syria and the russian-backed mercenaries as well, it could make things worse rather than better. >> if trump takes a supine posture, if he embraces putin as his pal without reference to these egregious russian actions, it would be very negative.

there is such strong feeling now in our military and i think in the intelligence community about russian misbehavior that i -- it would be very hard for the president to get away with just kind of a arm around the shoulder. if you talk to people in the pentagon, the joint staff, they are as concerned about russia as i've heard them any time in decades. that will drive some of how this meeting goes. >> i'll take your point, of course would be if confirmed, the first major summit with the new secretary of state, mike pompeo, if he is confirmed, and they are planning early hearings in april, i understand, after the congressional recess. rick stengel, one of the reasons why the precipitous firing happened this weekend, we understand, was that one of the final blows was that very strong criticism of russia by rex tillerson on the eve of his firing being announced. >> yes.

and that was a strong statement that secretary tillerson said. he said it was unmistakable that the russians were behind this. and to go to david's point, one of the things that's so disturbing and peculiar about the way president trump talks about russia is that there's never any mixture of good with bad. he never says anything critical of vladimir putin. even during the cold war, even during the periods of detent, american presidents said positive and negative things. a president can do both. as john f. kennedy says, you can hold mutually conflicting ideas in you're head. the fact that president trump has not once ever said anything critical about vladimir putin is astounding. >> validated by this bipartisan senate intelligence committee report going forward and we are hearing a lot more, of course, about what happened with facebook. we'll discuss that in another segment. but carol lee, you've got the saudi young leader whom you have covered extensively, as well as

the whole question of russia's interference in our election. all of this conflated in the oval office in one moment. >> yeah, it is pretty remarkable. the one thing that i find interesting about the president saying he's going to meet with vladimir putin soon is what we've seen in recent years since relations really soured between the u.s. and russia was that these meetings tend to take place on the sidelines of summits. so it will be interesting to see if there is a special sort of occasion in which the president intends to have a meeting with president putin. when it comes to the crown prince, i spoke with someone in the white house last week who summed it up by saying, we've all pinned our hopes on him. this is a white house that really has strongly backed this crown prince and sees him as the individual to facilitate any sort of change in saudi arabia. and there's increasing concern, however, within the administration among some folks that they've put too much stock in him and that they're ignoring certain things that he's doing in terms of his aggressive

tactics for carrying out some of these reforms that they have supported. >> the war in yemen with be jeremy, as former chief of staff at the pentagon, what we are hearing from the u.s. military is increasing concerns that he needs to extricate himself. he did recently change his whole military cabinet, but he is also the first crown prince who is defense minister as well, so he controls it all. >> well, the saudis lack basic capability to fight comprehensively in yemen and the united states and others are trying to help them. but here's the issue that ties together the russia issue with the iran issue, both of which were mentioned by the president in the oval office, which is that the saudis and others are saying, hey, the russians have allowed iran to go into syria and build a land bridge all the way from tehran to the mediterranean sea. it's given the russians, the say

s -- the assad regime a lot of leverage. if the crown prince delivers one message to the president, i hope it is that we got to get tougher on russia because if we don't, iran will feel emboldened. >> but the irony is here that they're criticizing iran for what it's doing without criticizing russia. the united states goes after iran for its involvement in syria, but never criticizes russia for its involvement in syria. >> that's right. in fact, russia's been a kind of umbrella protector of not only iran but syria and lebanon. >> we have more breaking news now from texas. the bombing investigation in austin and now san antonio. police are actively working on three separate locations involving packages. this is a third location now since we last talked to gabe gutierrez in texas. a third possible explosion or bomb at that fedex facility where a bomb exploded only earlier this morning.

gabe, tell uls ts the latest. >> reporter: well, this is how this is breaking down right now. we told you this is very active federal and local police investigation. right now there are three scenes that authorities are working on. there was the shirts facility, fedex facility down near san antonio. that's where that blast happened overnight. you recall when i last spoke to you there was talk of a second package that may have been at that facility. well, we now believe that according to a source briefed on the investigation, that package may have ended up at another fedex facility near the austin airport. right now there were two packages, one that exploded down near san antonio and another one that ended up at this fedex facility near the airport. we are told by this source briefed on the investigation that police are getting ready to detonate that package at the fedex facility near the airport. that's two locations. there is now a third location, we're told, where investigators are looking at.

that is a fedex drop-off center on brody lane. and that is where investigators believe that these two packages may have been dropped off at some point. we're still working to fill in some of these details, but again, according to the source briefed on the investigation, what investigators are looking at right now is that this suspected bomber may have dropped off these two packages at this fedex drop-off center and they ended up at two fedex sorting facilities, and that they were each bound for austin. now we're told by a source that the way this works is if a package is dropped off in austin, as it moves through its sorting facility, through the fedex facility, it would have gone down to shirts, texas to the san antonio distribution center. then if it had an austin address, it would have come back up here. certainly a very fluid investigation at this point. this is something that investigators are taking very seriously working to try to find out if there could be any more packages out there, and if they now have a location where they

believe these packages were dropped off, perhaps looking at any surveillance video to see who may have dropped these off and who were their intended target, andrea. so certainly this is very fluid at this point. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you. coming up, caught on camera. what an undercover investigation is exposing about cambridge analytica and facebook. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. cedric, i couldn't even bowl with my grandkids 'cause of the burning, shooting pain in my feet. i hear you, sam. cedric, i couldn't sleep at night because of my diabetic nerve pain. i hear you, claire, because my dad struggled with this pain. folks, don't wait. step on up and talk to your doctor. because the one thing i keep hearing is... i'm glad i stepped on up. me too, buddy. if you have diabetes and burning, shooting pain in your feet or hands, step on up

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book now at lq.com an undercover video shows a reporter posing as a prospective client of cambridge analytica which is the firm that ran the digital operation for the trump campaign. this video shows this undercover reporter and an executive from the company talking about their business practices. let's listen. >> our job is to get -- is to drop the bucket further down the well than anybody else, to understand what are those really deep-seeded is underlying fears,

concerns. it is no good fighting an election campaign on the facts, because actually it is all about emotion. >> cambridge analytica is responding to the undercover investigation in a statement reading, in part, we entirely refute any allegation that cambridge analytica or any of its affiliates use entrapment, bribes or so-called "honey-traps" for any purpose whatsoever. facebook has banned cambridge analytica from its platform after coming under public pressure only in the last few days and the social media giant denies any wrongdoing. michael steele, former spokesman for house speaker john boehner. first to you, jim messina, you've worked on both sides of the atlantic. you know these kinds of groups as well as anyone does. how unusual this cambridge analytica approach which they say they did not use in the trump campaign, which is now under suspicion. and they had other clients,

including lukoil, they held meetings including russians. there is this whole complex of connections here. they were involved, of course with steve bannon. he came from cambridge analytica. they were involved with the mercers and involved in this digital prat digital operation for the trump campaign. >> the things on that video are like using iranian hookers to entrap politicians, clearly violating the law and facebook rules. just this one tape is enough to bring a whole bunch of people down, and they openly brag about some of these techniques being used in the trump campaign. >> michael steele, you have the senate judiciary bipartisan leaders, grassley, as well as others on the committee -- amy klobuchar's been demanding this for some time -- demanding mark zuckerberg come in and explain. in 2011 they signed a consent decree with the federal trade

commission not to do -- to better protect user privacy. and if nothing else, this is a breach of that potential breach of that consent degree. >> i think testimony from mr. zuckerberg is at some point inevitable. they've briefing committees on the hill starting tomorrow. so i think that they're going to tell the story that they have to tell. they have to get facts out there. >> when various major social media companies came and testified in front of the senate judiciary last year, zuckerberg sent his general counsel. even though they wanted him, he did not come. let me summarize some of the intel intelligence findings from this committee report. we'll have more on that tomorrow. but they found that 21 states were targeted for penetration by outsiders, including the russians. principally the russians. that one was penetrated. that dhs did not inform states for nine months. that dhs and other fbi and

others are working with the states but not quickly enough, that five states, jim messina, do not have a hard paper trail at this point going into the go 2018 midterms for their voting machines, which could be at risk. >> we've known a lot of this since 2016. instead the federal government hasn't done anything. congress last year gave $120 million to the state department to start doing some of these things. what the state department decided to do was build a new global engagement center to deal with russian meddling. in 23 staffers, no one speaks russian, not one single person. it's a joke. most of the recommendations that came out today were stuff, michael was saying this earlier, exactly right, came out during the bush/gore. we're still talking about paper ballots and securing new technology. it's the same old stuff on a different day. none of it's going to go at the heart of the entire deal, which is figuring out how to stop

russia from doing this. >> michael steele, the republicans in the house and senate have been sort of missing in action here. today, finally we heard from paul ryan. we have yet to hear from mitch mcconnell. >> the speaker's been pretty clear about it. i think the real absence here is presidential leadership. until the president is willing to admit the extent of russian interference and its goal, it's going to be difficult to give this the priority it truly deserves. >> michael and jim, how at risk do you think our infrastructure is to russian targeting? we know they're still at it. yet we have yet to see the alarm bells go off. >> andrea, it's worse than any of this. there was a hack a on ththon wht took some smart american hackers under ten minutes to get inside some of these election systems and that's not using the entire weight of the russian government. in a bunch of countries i

operate in, you know, we know there are other state players playing in these elections. it's unprecedented. it's going on every single day. you continue to see russia engaged in some of the social media disinformation. in some of the big fights that are happening. including the gun debate happening. there's been really credible reports that some of the russian bots are sewing discontent. that's happening every single day. >> jim messina, michael steele, thanks. we go to the white house where the president is hosting his lunch with the saudi leader. >> -- was made by saudi arabia for the purchase of equipment and other things. and the relationship is probably the strongest it's ever been. we understand each other. saudi arabia's a very wealthy nation. they're going to give the united states some of that wealth hopefully in the form of jobs,f anywhere in the world. there's nobody even close, as i

said before, when it comes to the missiles and the planes and all of the military equipment, there's nobody that even comes close to us in terms of technology and the quality of the equipment. and saudi arabia appreciates that. they've done tests of everything. and they appreciate it. they understand it very well. probably better than most. so i just want to welcome you. it's a great honor to have you back again. some tremendous things have happened for you since your last visit to the white house, where you were with the crown prince, and now you're beyond the crown prince. i think your father made a very wise decision. and i miss your father. special man. and i know he's coming over soon. but we do miss him. and that was a very incredible two days. and we appreciate the investment in our country. and thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. we believe the same. we believe that opportunities are huge and we're trying also opportunities and to prepare the

visit of his majesty as soon as possible with the new waives of opportunity in different area. we believe we can do all the great things. >> thank you, thank you very much. thank you, everybody, thank you very much. >> mr. president -- >> -- mr. president, the iran -- >> do you want mueller fired, mr. president? >> thank you very much. >> let's go, make your way out. let's go. >> terrible. terrible thing. >> keep moving. let's go. >> and as the cameras are being taken out, you heard the question ignored, a question about mueller. you could see the back of the saudi arabia, under this administration, they don't permit a second camera, which is a departure. but very interestingly, rick perry, the energy secretary, sitting next to the president, not one of the more senior cabinet secretaries. there's a reason for that.

the united states is trying desperately to sell nuclear power plants to saudi arabia. they are in competition with the russians, the chinese and others around the world. one reason why the u.s. is less likely to make the sale, which would be a lot of money, is that the -- under u.s. law there are requirements that we do not sell power plants unless we also require the purchasers in these foreign countries to agree not to enrich uranium, the fuel that powers these plants, for use in potential weapons. that brings me to my panel here. sam stein joining us, the politics editor for the daily beast and msnbc contributor. we of course have michael steele and jim messina. sam stein, they're trying to buy power plants with the crown prince said in an interview on "60 minutes" if iran gets nuclear weapons, the saudis will also get nuclear weapons. for him to buy nuclear reactors and potentially not affirming

they won't enrich uranium that can be used for nuclear weapons is pretty significant but we're still trying to sell them power plants. that's why rick perry is sitting there. he went to london and had a meeting with the saudis last week. >> a difficult, odd standing here. the nuclear deal could potentially be blown up in may. that's what the senate leader said his expectations were. at the same time, we are potentially selling nuclear power plant material to the saudis. we don't know whether we'll get the firm commitment to stop enrichment. we have the lingering possibility of direct talks with kim in north korea over their own nuclear weapons program. i don't see how you can juggle all these three simultaneously, especially if you're going to get out of the iran deal if you're trying to convince the north koreans we can uphold our own nuclear deal. made even more difficult by the fact we don't have a confirmed secretary of state right now. >> and, nor a confirmed cia director -- >> a bunch of different --

>> you still have a cia director but he's also the nominee to be secretary of state. >> sure. >> jim messina, as part of this triang lation, if you will, the american position on iran where the president certainly hinted in a meeting with the oval office today that the decision next month on the iran deal might be to break out of it. but all reports confirmed by the u.s. intelligence, confirmed by the state department, by the international atomic energy agency, iran is complying with the terms of the iran deal. they're not building nuclear weapons. it is verified. if we had not had the iran deal in 2015, they were a year away from having nuclear weapons. so we're at a stage where we don't have an iranian weapon per se. they have a very active program. and they cheated. but they don't have an active weapon right now. whereas north korea does. north korea, as sam just said, is looking at what we do with iran in may for -- at the end of the month, a sit-down with a leader who has nuclear weapons

and wants to see whether or not we live up to our deals. >> you know, why should the koreans cut a deal with us if we're going to walk away from a deal that works, has been verified? even donald trump's former secretary of state rex tillerson in part got fired because he said the truth, which is this iranian deal is working and we should keep it. instead in this administration, where facts don't matter, trump got rid of him because of politics and now the worst kept secret in washington is trump's going to get rid of this deal right before he goes and talks to the north korean leader. >> finally, in the minute we got left, paul ryan today saying they're not going to permit -- nobody's talking about the firing of bob mueller but the president of the united states is talking about the firing of bob mueller. >> at the moment, that seems back in the cage. seems as though he's moving ahead with the strategy of cooperating. we hope that remains as is. i think we have to go back to the nuclear point. i just remember as a candidate and as a president, trump has

been blithe about the dangers of proliferation. he seems unconcerned about the possibility of a nuclear-armed saudi arabia, additional nuclear powers in saudi arabia like south korea or japan. it's a much different calculus like any different american president in the nuclear age. >> when he talked about it in the campaign, sam stein, he discussed, you know, why are we paying for this, why are we doing this in asia, let them, you know -- let japan have their own nuclear weapon. >> i suppose he believes in the ultimate form of deterrence. if everyone has a nuke, no one will nuke another person. it's a -- how do we say this? it's a gamble. it's a risky gamble to take. it's definitely different world vision than a prior president has had. but it looks like we're heading on a blapath at least with iran will back out of the deal, and i'm very curious to see how the europeans react. i'm curious to see how the saudis react in addition to the north koreans. >> later today, they'll be more on cambridge from our partners in the uk. stay tuned to msnbc for that. that does it for us for this

busy edition. remember, follow us online, on facebook and twitter, 59 mit twitter, @mitchellreports. chris jansing is up next. >> hi, andrea, thank you very much. i'm chris jansing in for craig melvin. serial bomber. breaking right now. officials are about to blow up a sixth device in that series of explosions that have rocked texas. the bomber mailed the last two devices. plus, any minute now, investigators will update us on yet another school shooting. this time in maryland. a student opening fire just before school started. shooting two classmates. and best defense. a second day, a second report of president trump shaking up his legal team for the russia investigation. it comes as, just moments ago, we heard a strong warning about the threat to our elections in 2018 from top senators on the intel committee. so a very busy afternoon indeed. let's start with those residents in austin, texas, on edge right