you on all these programs. such a colleague. >> andrea, thank you. >> such a colleague. thank you. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," third time's the charm? president trump names john bolton his new national security advisor, the third in barely 15 months. how will the hawkish former bush official shake up foreign policy? >> the national security advisor, like all of the president's top advisors, serve at his pleasure. and he may be a different kind of president than others, but i think that's what the people voted for. the art of no deal. president trump now threatening to veto the bipartisan spending bill that already passed congress. a bill the white house, including the vice president, said he would sign. >> this bill is hardly perfect. far from it. and i'm here to tell you, folks, it is filled with one example after another that proves that when it comes to president donald trump, it's promises made and promises kept. >> let's go back to the chase.

is the president going to sign the bill. the answer is yes. >> well, maybe not. meanwhile, march on. hundreds of thousands of young people are arriving here in the nation's capital for tomorrow's march for our lives with one simple message for our country's leaders -- >> america, we are your future. why won't you protect us? ed a good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump is blindsiding congressional republicans and his own white house team with a stunning tweet this morning threatening to shut down the government tonight by vetoing the bipartisan spending bill touted by a top aide only minutes earlier. this on top of course his sudden decision to make john bolton his new national security advisor, announcing much sooner than bolton himself expected. nbc's kristen welker is at the white house.

anything happen in the last two minutes? >> aebdz ndrea, actually in the five minutes i was able to speak to a senior administration official and i said, is the government to going shut down? what's going on with this tweet? andrea, it was very clear, this official didn't want to discuss it because it is not clear what's going to happen. right now top officials here at the white house are huddled behind closed doors, trying to determine how to respond to the president's tweet. their talking point right now, the president's tweet stands. now what happened between yesterday and this morning? yesterday, as you just showed, mick mulvaney was out in the briefing room saying, point-blank, the president is going to sign this spending bill into law. they were getting a lot of pressure, andrea, about the fact that it funds the border wall but really the first steps of building the border wall. so you had a lot of folks in the president's base who felt like this just didn't go far enough. then that issue of daca. of course it is the trump

administration that put it on the table that they were going to rescind daca, they were blocked by the courts and the timeline they had in place effectively no longer mattered because of action in the courts. so there was really no pressure for congress to get something done on daca. democrats' calculation, they're going to try to get a better deal after the mid-terms at this point. but andrea, dh this is stunnin. congress is not here to address the tweets. negotiating is over. it is not exactly clear what his threat means, the practicality and whether he is serious or not, quite frankly. >> just two days ago -- day before yesterday, there was this emergency meeting in the residence -- it was a snow day -- right? remember when the speaker came to see the president. mitch mcconnell called in to try to get the president back where his legislative director mark short had been. they negotiated this with the republican leaders and signed off with schumer and the democrats. and then all of a sudden the president was not happy with it.

they explained that it had to be done. he was clearly reluctant. i think it was responding to mark meadows and the freedom caucus, the house conservative republicans, who are urging him on. >> urging him on. they say this adds to the deficit. mick mulvaney himself getting a lot of pressure, the omb director. of course, he is a former member of congress. he got a lot of questions yesterday during his briefing saying would you have signed this bill if you were still an elected member, as opposed to here at the white house? you're right, there was that emergency meeting here in the middle of a snow day, andrea, when the federal government was shut down. the house speaker huddling with the president speaking with leader mcconnell by phone trying to get him on board with this spending bill. and at the end of that meeting, it seemed like he was on board. there was no indication that he would issue this threat. so this is taking people off guard on both sides of pennsylvania avenue, andrea, and it is just not clear how it is going to get resolved. and again, the question looming

over all of this, is the president trying to make a point or is he serious? we'll have to wait and see. >> kristen welker, stay in close touch. stay tuned. >> i will. of course, this on top of the dramatic changes in staffing at the white house with john bolton being brought in precipitously. it was rumored, long rumored. but the fact is that he himself was not aware that it was going to be announced exactly when it was on twitter late yesterday. retired admiral james stavredes, form former commander. i guess the question is what does john bolton bring and how does this change the dynamic when you have such a sharp hawk and tillerson is gone. now with mcmaster.

now leaving, what does this do to jim mattis as the only brake, if you will, on the president's basic instincts? >> pretty worrisome, andrea. let's face it, we're going in h.r. mcmaster, a centrist on foreign policy, to john bolton who is a neocon, by any stretch. we are going from a team builder like h.r. mcmaster to an individual who, by reputation, just drives his team into the ground. and worse of all, we're going from someone who is a track t h practitioner who understands both hard power and soft power to someone who seems to only know the hard power tool. so we are going to see a shift in foreign policy. and you are absolutely right, jim mattis is kind of the last gun fighter standing at this point. let's hope he stays in place because the guardrails around this president are dissolving. . >> just to share with people

some of the background, this is a "nightly news" piece from the confirmation hearing when john bolton was being nominated for u.n. ambassador. he got that in a recess appointment because the senate just balked and it was republicans, as well as democrats, who would not confirm him for george w. bush. let's watch. >> john bolton derided by senate democrats today as the worst possible choice to represent the united states before the united nations. >> there is no touch thing as the united nations. >> to prove their point, democrats played portions of a 1994 speech showing what they call bolton's disdain for the u.n. >> the secretary's building in new york has 38 stories. if you lost ten stories today, it wouldn't make a bit of difference. >> it is hard for me to know why you'd want to work at an institution you said didn't even exist. >> now he has more recently talked about regime change in north korea, talked about military action there, tearing

up the iran deal, regime change there as well, military action against iran. so what is the brake? >> yeah. i think as we look internationally at this, andrea, i think this diminishes the chances of peace on the korean peninsula. it raises exponentially chances that the iran deal goes away which will create maximal tension in the middle east. it raises chances of tension in china and the south china sea. it raises tensions of a hard line with russia which is probably the only area i can agree on with john bolton but i'm not sure the president agrees on russia. so look for more confusion and la alarm in the center in the white house. that's very dangerous. secondly, andrea, the job of the national security advisor is to coordinate interagency process. john bolton may have a fuzzy mustache but he's got really sharp elbows and that is a

detriment in trying to bring together the cabinet to serve in national security. our allies, friends and partners in the world are not pleased about this change. >> neither are some of his former colleagues who had actually -- bush-era colleagues who had recommended against him being part of the administration. he was up for secretary of state. he was up for deputy secretary of state during the transition. he's a lock-time advisor. clearly the president likes what he seize on fox television. that's a clear credential. but the fact is, he's going to be right down the hall from the oval office and if mike pompeo thinks that his good relationship with donald trump is going to win the day, he's going to be on a plane someplace calling in and john bolton, as we've seen from past powerful national security advisors, from henry kissinger to zib knbrzezi

they have a lot more to say. >> for a president who doesn't even read the briefing book, doesn't even learn talking points when he's talking to world leaders like vladimir putin, "do not flacongratulate,o that personal engagement john bolton can deliver to the president hour after hour, day after day, i think unfortunately, not to make a bad pun, will "trump" the influence of people like mike pompeo and in the end i worry the influence of james mattis. we have a very challenging scenario ahead of us to create coherence in foreign policy. it is not going to come from the president, and i don't think it is going to come from the designee, john bolton. >> from what you know about jim mattis, clearly from reports i'm getting, he is disturbed. will he feel it is his duty to stay or might he, in

frustration, leave the administration as well? >> jim mattis is not someone who gives us on a mission. he sees the mission here as trying to do the best he can for the country to represent the men and women of the armed forces. you'll remember, andrea, that famous cabinet scene where all the cabinet officials were invited to applaud the president and talk about the enormous honor of being in donald trump's cabinet. what did jim mattis say? he said, "i'm honored to represent the men and women of the armed forces." that's jim mattis. he'll stay to the bitter end but he is going to have his hands full and he's lost two allies and partners, in my view, mr. h.r. mcmaster and rex tillerson. he is putting his pack on and getting ready for a long march. >> thank you so much, admiral. thank you for being with us today. coming up, deal or no deal? the president now threatening to veto that spending bill and shut down the government over a deal he had signed off on in person. now both parties are calling him

out. senator tim kaine joins me next. - i love my grandma. - anncr: as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. - she outsmarts me every single time. - checkmate! you wanna play again? - anncr: prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

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now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. i know at times it may seem like our words simply spill from our mouths, fall through cracks of our fingers, seep into the ground and become lost. but it is in the ground where things grow with determination, motivation, inspiration, passion, our words will sprout a stem of hope. and with that hope it will grow

into a strong tree. with roots that reach deep into the well of unity and solidarity and leaves that transpire into the leaves of justice. >> a global movement spearheaded by student activists in the wake of the stoneman douglas school massacre. organizers say more than 800 protests demanding action against gun violence are planned for tomorrow across the country and around the world. the main event is taking place here in washington. joining me now from florida as is he about to leave for washington, fred guttenberg whose daughter jamie was killed in the stone man douglugstonema shooting. fred, it is good to see you. >> thank you, andrea. how are you? >> i'm obviously doing much better than you. how is it as you prepare for the march? is this a healing moment? how are you handling this emotionally? >> you know, i guess maybe a

healing moment. i think the past five weeks for myself and the other families has just been horrible. but what has been accomplished in getting us to this point i think motivated is probably the better word. i think healing is just going to take a long time. but motivated. i think we have accomplished something that we're going to get done. i do firmly believe what's going to happen this weekend will be a tipping point and bring us to true gun safety reform. i think what the kids are doing, what the organizers are doing, what is happening around the country. people are demanding it. we're seeing the gun lobby has no place in our public safety and we're going to get true reform. i am really motivated to see this through with everybody else. >> did you ever imagine, knowing

the kids, your own daughter and of course all of her classmates, that they could pull this off, that they could lead this movement and organize themselves, raise the money, and do all of this on their own? >> so, andrea, the truth is, as the father of my son justin is 17, my daughter jamie was 14, so as the father of teenagers, and knowing all of their friends, i was one of those adults who had a lot of concerns about the youth of america. i thought they lived on their cell phones. we were wrong. these kids are amazing. and maybe we thought they didn't know how to communicate because of the time on the cell phone. but not only are they able to communicate, they are fierce, they know what they want. they're not afraid to ask for it. and the cell phone, which maybe we thought they spent too much time on it, became their weapon. they used it to record the

incident. i think that's part of what made this different. and they've used it to organize. what i am is just incredibly proud. these kids have been unbelievable and i'm inspired. because ever since february 14th, i'm watching all of these teenagers talk to each other. and just do amazing things. so i am over the top proud of what they are doing. maybe i was a little surprised early on. now that i've gotten to see what they are all capable of doing, not surprised anymore. they're pretty unbelievable. >> fred, i know you talked to joe biden, the former vice president, who had been a fierce advocate to do something about guns before when he was in the senate and after new town when he was vice president. he was on the hill again trying to organize. i know you talked to him but first let me show you a little exchange with our own reporters

in the corridors of congress. >> you've been speaking with parents of some of the victims. can you talk about some of those conversations? >> it's kinds of private. i can talk to you generically about them but i don't want to spend a lot of time. >> why is it important to you? >> because i know how important it was to me when -- and i know it is important to them. >> joe biden clearly emotional thinking about his own son. how was he with you? >> i could not believe what vice president biden did in terms of the time he gave me and the words he had to say to me. number one, he made a phone call several weeks ago and during that phone call never once said he had too go. just it went on as long as he and i both felt was appropriate. and then he met with me and another parent this week in

person and what was amazing about him is he had a room full -- probably several hundred people waiting for him. but he took us and spoke to us in private and gave us such an extended amount of time and just made us feel like we were the most important thing in his life. he was unbelievable. as a man who's been through some real tragedy -- everyone knows his story with his wife and child, and with the car accident many years ago, then his son, beau biden, a few years ago. >> right. >> he was able to talk to us about grief, how to deal with grief, how he dealt with it, how -- to be understanding of the fact that different people in the same situation may deal with grief differently, so don't let that come between you. he shared with us how mission and purpose has always been his way to get through grief. beyond that, a lot of other just

personal details. i'll keep that one. but i'm just so thankful that he took the time. it was for me one of the most healing conversations that i've had since this started. >> extraordinary. fred, we are joined now by some people you know very well so stay with us. we're talking to demetri hoth and florence, as well as florida state democratic representative who's been very outspoken as they marched on tallahassee and actually turned things around there. but first of all, thank you for taking the time to be with me. i feel like i know you because we've been watching and hearing you all. but first, let's talk about what you hope to accomplish and what's been done so far in this whole movement that you've created. >> i think what we're hoping to accomplish is to show the nation

and to show the politicians here in washington that the students of america, we are united and we have a common goal in mind and we're going to pursue that goal and do whatever is necessary to accomplish said goal. just because we're not here in washington marching every day or every week, we are still going to be trying our best to make sure that comprehensive gun legislation is passed because the things that we went through at our school shouldn't have happened in the first place. >> florence, you are the generation that grew up after these horrific shootings became endemic. you're the generation that grew up with the way my generation grew up with duck and shelter during the cold war so we could protect ourselves from nuclear weapons, you've had gun violence overshadowing your childhood. >> yeah. i still remember the day that sandy hook happened. i went home and my mom sat me

down and she explained what happened. and since then, it woke up something in my brain that told me like school is not as safe as you think it is and things can happen even though you feel like you're in a safe environment. sometimes something will make that safe environment not safe anymore. and ever since then, we've been having a lot of school drills and lockdown drills to practice, but we never really expected it to happen to us. so when it did it was a shock. >> do you feel that what you accomplished in tallahassee was extraordinary? a lot of us looking at the florida laws in the past and the nra's influence and rick scott and that change -- clearly he's running for election -- is that enough? >> it's definitely a start. i think it is great we brought up this conversation and things are happening and raising the age and creating that three-day waiting period is definitely a start but it is not enough. it is not going to help keep those children in school safe.

yet. but it is for sure a step in the right direction. >> representative moswowitz, where do you go next with this in terms of trying to lead, help, but obviously it is -- they're in charge. >> andrea, i just want to pick up what she was saying. the law we passed in tallahassee was necessary but it is not sufficient. but it was something that changed the tide in tallahassee for 20 years. we had not gotten any gun control on the books in 20 years, and that red flag law that we got passed has already been used twice, one in broward county to take a gun out of the hands who said he was in al qaeda and another in a student who said he wanted to commit a shooting. these kids have already made a difference. the parents who are grieving for their kids who had to become lobbyists have already made a difference. where do we go? well, in tallahassee we're only in session a couple of months out of the year. next session we're going to come

back to this law and figure out where we have to tweak it and we'll have to figure out how we can do more. i pledge to do that and i pledge to continue to work with the students and the parents as we try to make every school safe in the state of florida. >> fred guttenberg's been listening. fred, do you have a message here before you get on your plane to come and join them, a message for dimitri and florence? >> keep doing what you're doing and hang tight. we brought this conversation further than anyone else ever has. this weekend will be a tipping point. we are going to get this done. those who do not do the right thing and, for example, follow the lead of the business sector, we're going to fire you. these kids are going to be voting soon. and moms and dads who want their kids to be safe are going to come out and vote as well. so my message to the kids who have just been heroic is keep doing what you're doing, we're

going to get this done. >> and dimitri, your game plan for tomorrow? >> my game plan is to show my support for all of the victims' families and march along with my entire school, along with the rest of the nation who will be with us and show our representatives what true democracy looks like. it is not them seeking out to pursue agendas of interest groups. it is them seeking out to protect the best interests of their constituents. >> and florence? >> i am very, very excited to march along the thousands of people who will be here in d.c. but not only in d.c., but 800 marches around the world. my sister's helping lead the one in parkland. my brother is helping run the one in montreal, canada. they're everywhere and they're all coming to support the same issue and i'm excited that it's happening. >> we thank you all for taking the time to be with us. fred, safe travels.

hope to see you up here in d.c. thanks again for taking the time to be with us today. all day tomorrow, of course, our coverage, msnbc will be live from washington as student activists arrive for the march for our lives with on the ground reporting from our entire team of nbc news journalists right here on msnbc. senator tim kaine who just met with some of the students participating in tomorrow's march will join me in just a moment after this quick break. ♪ a wealth of information. a wealth of perspective. ♪ a wealth of opportunities. that's the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management.

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president trump is threatening now to veto a bill that would fund the government until september even though his own budget director and his own vice president both said he would sign it. in fact, the president did himself. joining me now is senator tim kaine who serves on the foreign relations committee and armed services. senator, welcome. thank you. i know you have been meeting with some of the students -- >> absolutely, andrea. >> -- which is hugely emotional, you as a parent and someone involved in this whole debate. but now we have this veto threat. the government could shut down tonight. do you think this is for real?

are we going to get some reality check from the white house? >> andrea, it is so hard to predict with this president. it is just impossible. i basically said he's like the art of the deal wrecker. his secretary of defense came up to us in january and spoke directly to us and said, quit doing the continuing resolutions, quit threatening shutdown, come up with a forward-looking budget so we can defend the nation and that's what we've done, a forward-looking budget, essentially for 18 months that not only funds defense and other important priorities like opioid prevention but it does it over 18 months to give people some flexibility. he signed it, then mick mulvaney, and this morning, i don't know what happened and he got mad. i just hope that wiser heads will prevail and a deal that's been carefully worked on, by democrats and republicans, for the good of the country, will not be wrecked by a chaotic

president. >> speaking of military funding, i also want to ask you about h.r. mcmaster. you also have a son who is a marine. >> yeah. >> you are concerned about foreign policy. about the hawkish foreign policy potentially of the new national security advisor and the way h.r. was treated, as well as the pressure this puts on defense secretary mattis now in terms of blowing up the iran deal potentially, taking action against north korea. what are your thoughts? >> well, this is a moment to be really worried, andrea, because general mcmaster was a pro and he has a superb reputation for speaking truth to power. and frankly, that's why he was let go. he was being candid based on decades of experience with this president and the president couldn't handle it. instead, the president is promoting john bolton to be national security advisor, a person who is just completely temperamentally, emotionally, judgmentally unqualified for the job. he does not understand the

importance of diplomacy. >> senator, let me just interrupt you because there is trump world. the president just tweeted he is going to hold a news conference at 1:00 eastern. so we're talking about only within this half-hour. he's going to be holding a news conference to discuss the omnibus spending bill. so either clear heads have prevailed given midnight tonight is the deadline and congress has gone home -- you're there but you're not -- >> i'm standing right here. >> you're there but we know who the leaders are on the republican side, and there's no house and senate. and nothing can be done in terms of a continuing resolution to get us through the weekend. the president is having a news conference at 1:00. i don't know if he'll walk this earlier tweet back or not. >> we've already seen the president destabilize the stock markets starting a stupid trade war. scare everybody with these changes to the secretary of state and national security advisor. i hope he's not going for the hat trick of more chaos with vetoing of a budget that the

military leadership in this country, andrea, has been calling me as a member of the armed services committee saying thank you you guys for what you have done. it is a challenging and dangerous world out there and we need certainty. we also need funding for opioids and we also need funding for the chesapeake bay program and for economic development and workforce training. that's what's in this bill. we've worked together to compromise. again, when the president tweeted it out this morning, he's got to show he cannot just wreck a deal but he can do a deal. he blew up a deal for d.r.e.a.m.ers a month ago where we basically did what he asked for d.r.e.a.m.ers and we gave him every penny of what he asked for for border security and after that he said it was unacceptable and he blew it up. he can sure wreck a deal. he needs to show the american public he can make a deal. >> let me point out the obvious.

if the government were to shut down at midnight tonight, where would the essential services be for a march that's scheduled to take place tomorrow? >> these marches all over the country and in richmond. i am looking forward to be in richmonders tomorrow. >> thank you so much, senator. also tomorrow, as we approach the 50th anniversary next month of the assassination of dr. martin luther king jr., a new nbc news documently, "hope and fury -- mlk, the movement and the media" explores new social movements and how the media have influenced each other from the civil rights throughout today. here is a bit. >> the body of michael brown laying on that ground for 4 1/2 hours shocked america back into its consciousness once again. it woke so many people up that thought emmett till was a figment of the past and not a very relevant figure of the present. emmett till is michael brown and

tamir rice and sandra bland and eric garner. >> it is an extraordinary piece of work. please do join us for it, "hope and fury -- mlk the movement and the media" airing tomorrow night at 8:00, 7:00 central. we'll be right back.

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going to be holding a news conference about that omnibus spending bill. his earlier threat to veto it even though he had negotiated himself. even though his vice president, his budget director had all said that he would be signing it. so stay tuned right here. we'll be carrying that live. meanwhile, the revolving door at the white house with the president's legal team raising big questions about the future of the mueller probe even as there were new reports white house counsel don mcghan wants out himself but has not yet figured out an exit strategy. former white house counsel to president obama, mike bower. no drama-obama, different from the one we're witnessing now. what about don mcghan? he's not just a president for the lawyer. he's a lawyer for the white house. he's also been a witness in the russia probe. >> his challenge if he leaves the white house is to find someone who will take that job. no reporting in the last 18

months is likely to bring outstanding lawyers out of the woodwork. >> you have joe digenova's being hired clearly had an effect on dowd quitting or leaving the team. there was no way that you could compare these two, two types of lawyers. >> the president has a chaotic management style across the board but the way he is managing his lawyers, for example, telling them he's going to keep them on while interviewing their replacements behind their backs. all of this is completely inconsistent with what a client needs to get the best possible work out of their lawyers. so we're seeing here in the legal team sort of a replication of the same i think self--defeating behavior we see with the president elsewhere. >> what does it tell us about highi i hiring joe digenova, bringing in his long-time lawyer, kasowitz, what does it tell us about whether he might talk to mueller

and what approach he might take to the probe? >> if you were to guess where all of this might be heading, if there is a rationale, seems like he's moving from a more conciliatory to a more combative style. the other piece about the kasowitz involvement from press reports -- and again going to management style -- he's apparently having conversations with kasowitz who's not a member of the legal team but who's sort of giving the president the advice on the fly. again without the knowledge of the formal legal team. again this is a recipe for disaster in the representation of a client. >> when while his own legal team here were negotiating terms of engagement with mueller, what kind of interview, where, whether it's with lawyers present -- which obviously they would want in the white house wi, not marching into some grand jury room. >> while they're negotiating with mueller he's reading tweets attacking the special counsel and the white house is at the same time sending out tweets he's going to cooperate. there's a degree of confusion

and inconsistency that cannot help him with the special counsel's team. >> do you think there is any connection between all of this chaos and these distractions, if you will, and the fact we are leading up to a big interview on sunday night, and there was another interview last night, embarrassing interviews, accusatory interviews from these women who say they had romantic relationships? >> yes. i think one can imagine two things. we can imagine the president being under tremendous personal pressure because this is all very unpleasant personal material that's being put out in the public space, and also these women are speaking out in a legal context. there are lawsuits pending against president and he's already lost one round in the defamation case in new york. pressure is really building on the president. it may well be he is trying to abruptly change the topic where he possibly can. >> bob bower on the legal muddle that's now trump world. >> thank you, andrea. next, why two women who claim to have had affairs with donald trump are now telling

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he's going to be having a press conference. we're not sure what form that will take, but it is supposed to start at 1:00. stay tuned, as we say. meanwhile, two of the women at the center of major legal battles surrounding president trump are now breaking their breaking their silence. stormy daniels and "playboy" playmate karen mcdougal. both claiming to have had affairs with mr. trump more than a decade ago. were allegedly paid to stay silent until now. they are suing for the right to tell their story. daniels will appear on cbs' "60 minutes" and mcdougal told her story to cnn last night. >> well, after we had been intimate, he tried to pay me, and i actually didn't know how to take that. >> did he actually try to hand you money? >> he did. he did. i just had this look of -- just -- i don't even know how to describe it. the look on my face must have been so sad because i'd never

been offered money like that and number two, does he think that i'm in this for money or why i'm here tonight? >> the white house has denied all of these allegations of affairs and sexual misconduct. joining me is ruth marcus and sabrina sadiki, political reporter for the guardian. well, does this raise any questions you'd ask the president today, ruth? >> i -- >> if you were sitting in that front row? >> i might have some questions about what the president did and what his involvement was in trying to make certain that these stories, which, by the way, i watched karen mcdougal last night. i thought her story was very credible, and i thought it was quite heartbreaking. i would want to know something about his involvement and his knowledge of the efforts to make sure their stories did not come to light. by the way, that didn't work out very well in terms of keeping it quiet. >> sabrina, what would you be asking?

>> i think this isn't really a story about the president's indiscretions. it's more so a story about an effort by the president and his allies to silence these women and bar them from speaking out. karen mcdougal had sold the rights to her story to american media inc. that publishes the national enquirer. the publisher is a close friend of trump's. they had paid that hush money to stormy daniels and no one is buying the story that the president had no knowledge of it. so i think that you had these alleged consensual relationships which are one piece of the puzzle and the way in which these women were paid off or potentially offered money and then the allegations from as many as 17 women of sexual misconduct. so the president's legal problems aren't going anywhere. >> in fact, that case, ruth, raises legal peril for him in different ways. it's a defamation case, and there's plenty of precedent with

president bill clinton that sitting presidents can be deposed in civil cases. and if they then perjor themselves. >> it's not a question of whether they purger themselves. first of all, he and his folks were desperate to try to make certain that these stories didn't come out so they paid the hush money or arranged for the payment of the hush money. where did that money come from? who was behind it? they ended up creating greater trouble for themselves because there's so much more money being paid to these. the president said all of these women were liars and they would be sued. he created the opportunity for her to sue him for defamation. now he's the one being sued because those threatened

lawsuits, everybody knew that was never going to happen. that's his m.o. he threatens and he doesn't sue. she gets to take the deposition of all sorts of people around him. she's got a credible claim. he called her a liar. it's not simply a question of whether he'll lie. it's a question of what information comes out in this. i'm really looking forward to reading those deposition transcripts. >> sabrina, this, according to a lot of people, you are there every day at the white house, this could be part of the erratic behavior recently in the white house in terms of tweeting he's going to veto a bill he said he would just sign. placing the national security adviser on a schedule surprising to everybody involved. >> certainly this comes at a time of great instability at the white house. it's been almost surprising that the president has refrained from tweeting about stormy daniels or now karen mcdougal. we'll see how that long lasts.

that raises an interesting point. part has to do with defamation. in the past he's branded some of his accusers as liars and that's backfired and given their cases more legal momentum. for now, he's steered clear of addressing some of the controversies. i find it hard to believe he faces cameras at 1:00 this afternoon. he's not going to be asked about what these women are sharing now with the public and what he knew and when he knew it. >> if he has a solo news conference, it would be the first in 400 days, since february 2017. he's more accessible than previous presidents have been, stopping on the way to the helicopter, but he's not had a sustained news conference where people can ask prepared questions without the helicopter or wind blowing or the rain. >> the ability to ask the question. the ability to do the follow-up. the sustained nature of it. that was not a successful press conference in february if you think back. lots of news was made and

strange things were said. this is not going to be one of those big free-wheeling news conferences. >> ruth marcus, happy friday afternoon. sabrina sadiqqi. more ahead.

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mitchell reports." follow me on twitter. craig melvin is up next on msnbc.

you may be seeing the president of the united states. >> we expect to see him any moment now. andrea mitchell, thank you. stick around for me, if you can. good friday to you. craig melvin here at msnbc headquarters in new york. we start with that breaking news at the white house. president trump promising a news conference on the government spending bill that his stafr said he was ready to sign yesterday. a few hours ago, the president threatened to veto that bill. at this point it's unclear whether he'll follow through on that veto. we honestly don't know what he's about to say. we don't know if this will be a traditional news conference with reporters where he takes questions or if the president is going to be making a statement. we are standing by for president trump. as we, do let's bring in our correspondents, geoff bennett at the white house and garrett hake as well standing by. geoff, what more do we know at this point? >> hey, craig. i don't know if you can see around me. this is a physical representation of the confusion he