up our coverage on andrea mitchell reports. right now, under the radar. president trump confirms he secretly sentenced cia director no north korea to meet with kim jong-un. no one in congress knew but the senate foreign relations chairman expressing his support. >> i think it made a lot of sense for him to meet with him. i hope we have other officials that are doing the same thing and setting this meeting up so it has a good chance for success. chain reaction. the president tweeting this morning that he did not fire james comey because of the russia investigation moments after savannah guthrie asked the former fbi director this. >> he told an nbc interview in lo lester holt the russia investigation was at fore front of his mind. >> do you have a pretty strong case of obstruction? >> you might.

farewell to a first lady. america remembers barbara bush. the former president paid tribute to his mother. >> here's the thing. she had great faith. she truly believes that she is -- there's an afterlife. she'll be wonderfully received in the arms of a loving god and therefore did not fear death. as a result of her soul being comforted on the death bed, my soul is comforted. good day. we begin with a huge loss for this country. the passing of former first lady, barbara bush. the host of this show has been covering the bush's for years. she joined me from houston where

i know you've been tracking all the political reaction. what are you hearing from the family and the political world? >> reporter: family and friends are really comforted as you heard george w say that she was a woman of enduring faith especially in recent years. she's been suffering ill health for quite some time. even though people were focused on the parkinson's disease that her husband has been suffering through, it was really barbara bush that was this declining health. when she made this decision not to go back to the hospital on good friday and easter weekend to decline medical treatment, further medical treatment on sunday was the way she was saying goodgood-bye. she said good-bye to her children and family and friends. they were reading to her. susan baker, wife of their good friend, former secretary of state, former secretary chief of staff reading to her. neil bush saying he was reading

to her. literacy being her important cause. at her side, her husband in the last 24 hours holding her hand until she passed away. very peacefully and really with the comfort of her religious faith. kristen. >> andrew ya, obviously some tensions in the backdrop between the bush's and the current commander if chief. we moe the firknow the first la extending the funeral. we remember candidate trump was very critical of jeb bush on the campaign trail. even mocking when barbara bush came to campaign for him. to what extent are those tensions this the backdrop now? >> reporter: very much in the backdrop. not this the fore ground. this is not a political moment but the fact is that this shows the divide in the traditional republican conservative party

and the trump party. it's no longer the party of even george w. bush. jeb bush losing so soundly and resoundingly in new hampshire to donald trump. it's not a close relationship. that's clearly the case but melania trump and the other former first couples will be coming as well to the funeral which is saturday. >> which i know you will be covering. thank you for that. i know you have a lot more coming up from houston. >> reporter: we do, indeed. we have a lot more coming up as we continue this show. we'll be back in a moment. the president is making big moves on the foreign policy front meeting with japan's prime minister today. he's been feeling odd man out. president trump welcoming this

summit and japan really blind sided by that. the president confirming there's been talking between the united states and north korea. confirming today on twitter it was his on cia director, mike pompeo who went to north korea. the highest level talks since we seen since october of 2000. peter, what are they saying there about the president confirming now that this u.s u.s.-north korean dialogue is under way. >> reporter: the president prolific on twitter making that confirmation. tweeting the meeting went smoothly. a good relationship wads fos fo. he said details were still being ironed out. indicating it's expected to

happen in late may or early june. for the first time on twitter addressing stormy daniels allegation that she had been threatened. the president saying it's a total con job. andrea. >> we'll be talking to you dp again. thank you much. joining me is tim kaine. thanks senator for being with us today. >> absolutely. >> your reaction to the fact that mike pompeo went secretly to north korea over easter weekend to meet with kim jong-un. >> my first reaction was i was heartened by it. it's lot better than just tweeting out insults at a foreign leader. dialogue does not guarantee success but the absence of dialogue usually guarantees failure. if there's high level discussions that are going on, i

was heartened to hear it. >> at the same time you're not favoring or you weren't favoring mike pompeo to be confirmed to be secretary of state. why not? >> i think he has a great intel background but he has a track record of statements that are anti-diplomatic during the discussion about the iran deal. many didn't like the deal but he was the only one speculating it would be to bomb iran's nuclear capacity. he advocated regime change this iran. i think the diplomat that represents this country has to have a strong orientation towards diplomacy and not someone who will exacerbate the president's worst tendencies. >> he's vowed to rehire some veteran diplomat who is have left under tillerson.

do you believe it might be better to have somebody there h than not have somebody confirmed? >> clearly it won't be. you send the signal to the world if you put somebody as a sharp ant anti-muslim statement, what about muslim nations around the world. we're seeing strong reaction about you can't put somebody in who views our religion as somehow second class. you've got to have somebody who speaks to american values like the freedom of lireligious worship. i worry about somebody coming into the role who has this long track record of statements. >> i want to ask you about the confusion in foreign policy

coming out of this white house. nikki haley on sunday said affirmatively that the treasurer was about to announce sanctions against russia. the white house said the president rejected that and he was angry she had gone out and said that. the new economic advisor said she must have been confused and she said with all due respect, i'm not confused. she had been really thrown under the bus with her ability on the world stage. what's your reaction to all of this? >> one of those interviews with nikki haley was on a show we were paired off against each other. she's pretty savvy. i don't think she will go out and say on four or five shows we're imposing sanctions unless she's been communicated directly from the white house that was going to be the case. i don't think she got confused. i think the president either changed his mind or decided to

overrule consensus advice of his top advisors. that will be consistent with what we see from this president. an unusual pension to back off stern consequences from russia and pararaise them when they ha done nothing to be praised or congratulated for. >> the white house has contradicted its own u.n. ambassador, hurting her, damaging her on the world stage. there's the issue of russia. the fact the president is ignoring the advice of his national security team and walking back sanctions against slad hvladimimir putin. >> that's very troubling. it just feeds into a deep concern suspicion on the hill shared by members of both parties why does this dpie who doesn't mind picking a fight from anybody with a peaceful nfl

ro testers to women's march participan participants, he doesn't mind picking a fight, why is he so reluctant to draw a hard line against a russia we know attacked american democracy. there's something so unusual about it that it raises real suspicions here on the hill. >> you have been one of the leaders to try to get new congressional authorization of military force since there hasn't been one since 2002 with the wars in iraq now syria. we learn defense secretary mattis to go for authorization but the president wouldn't do that. where does this whole debate over military authorization and congressional approval stand? >> we'll have a meeting in foreign relations today. to try after 17 years to finally pull back some of the war making power to congress.

presidents are not supposed to be able to start wars without congress. i assert the missile strikes were illegal because he had the time to come to congress and he chose not too. i was heartened to see that secretary mattis understood that getting congressional approval would be a good thing. we're working on an authorization and to clarify it's an authorization for the military action against non-state terrorists groups. it would not allow military action against a syria or iran or north korea without the president coming to us directly and saying we need to engage in military action against a nation state. it would put duration and geographic limitations and find who the enemy is in the war. >> thanks very much. >> absolutely. >> let's go back to kristen

welker in washington. >> thank you. great interview. we'll come back to you with a lot more coverage. fired and fury. how president trump is contradicting his own explanation for canning fbi director james comey. this is andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. so, what's new? we just switched to geico and got more. more? they've been saving folks money for over 75 years. a company you can trust. geico even helped us with homeowners insurance. more sounds great. gotta love more... right, honey? yeah! geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more.

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comey is raising the possibility that president trump may have obstruct eed justice last year when he fired comey in the midst of the russia investigation. >> two undisputed facts. you were fire and investigating the president with regard to russia collusion and the campaigns connection to russia's interference and two he told lester holt that when he fired you the russia investigation was at the fore front of his mind. do you have a pretty strong case of obstruction is this. >> it might. it would depend the other facts around that about his intent that i can't see. my jumts dgment is it could be. >> this morning president trump firing back at those basic cue saigs saying quote, slippery james comey. the worst fbi director in history was not fired because of the phony russia investigation. here is what president trump told lester holt just two days after he fired comey. >> regardless of recommendation,

i was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said so myself, i said, this russia thing with trump and russia is made up story. it's an excuse by the democrat for having lost an election that they should have won. >> joining me now is ken delanian. thanks so much for being here. preer appreciate it. >> good to be with you. >> president trump said he didn't fire comey because of russia and yet we just heard him say it in that interview with loster ho lester holt. >> you say that's an open and shut case of obstruction of justice. he clearly said the russia investigation was on his mind. as comey is explaining and other legal experts have told me, it's more complicated than that. obstruction of justice is really difficult crime to prove. you have to establish clear

corrupt intent. for that you need other fact patterns. you need more insight into his thinking. it's not just good enough he had it on his mind, he had to have done it to impede the investigation. i don't think we have seen evidence of that as yet in public. >> ken, i know you have been talking to some of your sources, officials within the law enforcement community. what are they saying about come comey's interview, media tour. what are you hearing? >> president's rhetoric in attacking comey is without prez dent and it's bad hoemoment fore country. who would have thought they would see a president refer to a former fbi director as a slime ball. they don't think comey is without fault here. there really is some thinking he

got down in the getter a bit with trump making comments about the size of his hand, the color of his skin and really bearing down on those sordid allegations involving prostitutes in that moscow hotel room. a lot of people find comey's explanation of how he handled the clinton e-mail investigation utterly inconvincing. that's always going to be controversialing. >> did he get the green light to write this book, to release this information while the russia probe is ongoing? comey said they knew i was writing a book. could this impact the inve investigati investigation. >> my sources say it would. he's a crucial witness. his account of president trump s asking for loyalty.

his credibility is at issue and now he has gone out and established he has a really bitter personal an animosity to the president of the united states. legal experts said that could be used to undermine his credibility on the witness stand. >> i have to you about your exclusive reporting. you reported yesterday that the trump campaign paid trump's former body man, tens of thousands of dollars. what's the significance here? >> in the latest campaign filing, we learned the campaign paid the lawyers of keith shiler $66,000. we don't know that was for legal fees but it's in keeping with trump's pattern of using campaign funds to pay lawyers representing him, fund bs, his son in this russia investigation. th that's allowed because it's about trump activity.

remember, his account of being somebody offered to send five women to donald trump's hotel room and shiler said he thaulou that was a a joke. they can't see how that relates to the trump campaign and they are questioning whether it was kosher under campaign law for the campaign to have paid for those legal expenses if that's what happened. >> another big question hovering around those legal expenses. thank you so much for covering all those headline for us. still ahead, memories of a political matriarch. the life and legacy of former first lady. a live look at walkers point. the bush family compound in maine with the flag in half staff as they are at the white house as well. more with andrea in houston after this.

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there's a lot of condolences pouring in. laura and i and our entire family are grateful for people's prayers and sympathies. it's the end of a beautiful life. >> she was funny and fierce and said her mind. a great role model for he for sure. i learned how to be a first lady. >> we have this leadership forum and my who amother would say ma darn sure you participate fully. don't sit around and feel sorry for me or yourself but move on with life. >> the lessons from barbara bush. former president bush hosting that leadership summit at his presidential library on the campus of southern methodist

university. he said visiting last week he and laura both having been with her the last week. let's watch. >> laura and i went over to see her a week ago saturday. we had a wonderful visit. she was strong, lucid. >> funny still. >> she and i were needling each other. the doctor came in and she said you want to know why george with is the way he is. i said because i drank and smoke when i was pregnant with him. >> signature humor from have witty barbara bush. the author of the upcoming book the matriarch. welcome to both.

she was so smart politically. she was the matriarch, yes. she was the wife and the mother. also a great political counselor to three generations now of bush'. >> she is a conscious that will live with us for a long time even though physically she won't be present. i was privileged to be in her realm. i was impressive leprivileged t dinner with her and president trump. former chief of staff was just the five of us.

it was a remarkable dinner. we talked for two hours. it was great conversations. we talked about the present and predicted the future. i remember president bush said i'm planning to be 100 years old. she said said i'm ready to go when it's time to go. i don't want to be a dried up prune. ten days later i had lunch with president bush 41 in houston. he had just come from the hospital visiting his wife. we had a wonderful lunch. his chief of staff was there and communications director. we laughed and talked about the plans for the future. he said he'll go back to the hospital to be his wife. he said she still likes to hold my hand. they were a living love story for all of us to witness and learn from and i felt very

impressive le privileged to be in their orbit. barbara bush knew how to speak truth power. she was all about love. she was the most loving person i ever met. she made sure the love was there even when proceeded by a little tough love. we needed the tough love as much as we needed the kind, caring love that we saw her motivate and convert to a calling that all of us should have as points of light. >> i think all of us experienced the tough love if she felt we were critical of the men in her political world. the men in her family. you've seen how fiercely loyal she was and the strength of this woman through ups and downs

through 27 or more moves. 7 73 years of marriage. what strikes you most in. >> her public life was remarkable and her private life was too. one thing that people should know about barbara bush is the fame and the fortune and the glory and the big public works didn't shield her from the life's challenges and pains and grief. she also worked through the death of her 3-year-old daughter to leukemia. the very serious illness of marvin bush when he was 28 and 29 years old. the legal troubles of neil bush, divorces from her kids. her own struggle with graves disease were all examples of things where she had to persevere in the way everybody has to persevere. she had a very human life with these bill moments but also

these challenges she worked through. >> one of the things -- >> it was tranquility. she did bring tranquility to troubled times. wile she could be challenging you to do a better job. she also recognized when you the needed to have a little tranquility in order to do a good job. >> that's such an interesting s insight. the secret service loved her. they tweeted their gratitude to this woman expressing sincere condolences to the family. secret service detail knew she was the epitomy of class and grace. that family did not, for instance, travel on holidays because they wanted their detail

to be able to be home with their family. they were so considerate of the people around themflected throu the staff. i know you saw it in your service to them. one of the things that was very apparent is she was also very tart in her comments. very honest. in 2015 we recall when she was asked on the today show about jeb running in 2016. this is what she had to say about the whole dynasty issue. >> he's by far the best qualified man but no. i really don't. i think it's a great country. there are a lot of great families and it's not just four families. there are other people out there that are very qualified and we've had enough bushes. >> we've had enough bushes opinion when he decided to run, she jumped right in. she was in the snows of new hampshiham hampshire and with stood the

slings and rarrows coming from donald trump. >> she would be right in her political analysis in that comment for 2013. that the country was ready to move on from the bush's and clintons. i think that remark came as a surprise to jeb bush who was considering running and you saw her try to walk it back then afterwards. who can forget the picture of her in the new hampshire snows with her walker out campaigns for him during that very tough 2016 primary. >> you know, it also occurs to me that through all the ups and downs, 1992, that was devastating. they lost re-election and to these baby boomers. clinton and gore out on the road with the clinton-gore team. it was something of a generational transfer of power at that poemt.

>> it was very painful when the president didn't win. he was depressed but also unbelievably noble. the night he lost the election, he talked about how important it was to have a good transition. what was even more remarkable is the relationship that grew between bill clinton and george h.w. bush and barbara bush over the years. barbara really did treat bill clinton as if he was one of her sons. i was a witness to the candidate love between bill clinton and the bushes. it was remarkable.

she would bring people into her orbit and introduce us to them so they would be lifted up. it was barbara bush that talked about being a point of light and doing things for the people. she became a super nova that generated constellations of points of light of making a difference. literacy is her cause and was her cause. it was just a phenomenal gift she gave this country. she was a love machine and she

was contagious with her love and thankfully it made a difference to a lot of people. >> our condolences to you. i know how close you were and her devotion to the literacy project stems from neil's difficulty reading as a child. so well named. thank you both for joining us today. >> thank you. good to be with you. >> thanks. coming up here as well, secret agent. cia director mike pompeo's meeting with north korea's leader. you're watching andrea mitchell reports. stay with us right here on msnbc. and bigger, and bigger, it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything.

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or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. entresto, for heart failure. president trump confirming today that cia director mike pompeo met secretly this north korea marking the highest level meetings between the u.s. and north korea since 2000 when then secretary of state madeline albright met with kim's father. joining me is ambassador wendy ch sherman. what is your reaction to these secret talks and the way the president disclosed it today that, in fact, mike pompeo as cia director met secretly with

kim jong-un. >> it's hard know where to start. it's a good thing that some preparations are going into the summit between president trump and kim jong-un. it's not surprising that pompeo was the challenge. the last time we saw something like this was when the director of national intelligence went to north korea to get an american back home. i'm a little sprieurprised tha m pompeo hasn't done anything in regard to the three americans still being held. i'm concerned about a number of things in this instance. pompeo derided president over meeting with raul castro. he was tough on the iran negotiation. i think pompeo didn't tell

anyone on the hill even in the his middle of his confirmation hearing. i understand secrecy but that was quite concerning. one last point which maybe we have time to talk about. even though there's a commitment to talk about deknnuclearizatio it means a different thing to jong-un than donald trump. >> he was sidelined by the president's dpremt to this summit. japan with not part of the conversation. >> indeed. he really put on a game face in his presser with the president because he was blind sided.

he wants to make sure that's on the table. he wants to make sure that abductees, people taken by the north koreans over the years and no one knows what's happened to them this north korea. he wants all of this on the table and he wants to be part of any security arrangement that is devised here. he's in a tough spot. he understands a bit about the history here on the korean peninsula. >> does it concern you this was an intelligence initiative and not a diplomatic initiative. as far as we though he was supported and surrounded by his intelligence people. not by state department people.

>> i'm great fans of the organizations that are extraordinarily capable. when it comes to doing the nitty gritty, that should be the state department. they use the channel to open the door for the sum hit. it's not entirely surprising as it is. every day is unusual in this administration. >> one of the issues that's come up is nikki haley being undercut by the white house saying she was wrong. she was confused about plan for russian sanctions and she saying, she doesn't get confused. >> indeed. probably every woman watching this has been in a situation

where some guy throws her under the bus and said she was just confused. she didn't understand. she was a little nervous. she was over her skis. i don't think you do that to nikki haley. she stood up for herself and said with all due respect, i don't get confused. i think it's a lesson not only to larry but to others in the white house that when someone is doing their job and doing their job well whether i always agree with her or not. she's disciplined. she's a workhorse. she thinks about what she's doing. that she deserves some respect. >> wendy sherman, someone who doesn't get confused. i'll tell you someone else who doesn't get confused, kristen welker. >> thanks. we'll see you back here in washington. fantastic reporting from houston. coming up, what does the fox say? why some are saying sean hannity

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president trump has reportedly turned to an outside source to air his grievances. sean hannity, taking on a role in the white house dubbed by some staffers at the unofficial chief of staff. joining me to discuss all of this is jim messina, former white house deputy chief of staff under president obama and lonny chen, research fellow at the hoover institution. thanks to you both for being here. jim, start with you. is sean hannity basically the jim messina of the trump white house? >> seems like it. calling him the shadow chief of staff. the definition of shadow is darkness. the problem with operating in darkness is no one knows what's going on. talking today about the nikki haley controversy. had there been a white house policy process that never would have happened. a chief of staff who ran a process, understood what the decisions were and could go right into the cabinet saying this is what we'll do. the problem is when donald trump makes it up every night on the phone with his buddy the fox

news anchor, you have a real problem in process. i remember the day that george bush left the white house. he said to me, the day before i became obama's deputy of staff. what really matters is the process. the president needs to be given real process and real decisions to make and we need to make sure the decisions are moved, and we're not. >> we know that president has mused about not having an actual chief of staff. bringing you in on that point. jim is making the point that process is significant. we know john kelly was brought in to clean up the process, to streamline it. what does this say about john kelly and his effectiveness? >> exactly the right question. i agree 100%. process drives so much of policy in the substantive outcomes. certainly in any administration. the question, is there process. there's some. the issue of circumventing the process and second guessing once it's adjudicated the certain issue. the russia sanctions is a

perfect example. properly vetted then the president changes his mind. the wild card. the president, is he circumventing the process? usually actors are within the white house, within the administration trying to do this. that's unusual. >> clearly a huge miscommunication with huge foreign policy implications. shifting to stormy daniels. obviously, court proceedings surrounding it. stormy daniels released that sketch of the man she says threatened her nearly a decade ago. not to share her story about her alleged affair with president trump, which the white house denies. the president for the first time tweeted today basically knocking down the sketch saying that it's a fake. you see the tweet right there. a total con job, he says, jim. but were you surprised to see the president weigh in on twitter? >> really sproourprised it's political and legally stupid. why has he taken himself and the administration off message. this extends the stormy story

through the weekend. he's engaging with the porn star, which is unbelievable and you're in the middle of real legal maneuverings what cohen has, the fbi has, what's going on. why he would put himself further into the story is proof he should put down the twitter for good, but he's causing himself real political and possibly legal damage. >> on a day that he's meeting with and about to hold a joint news conference with the prime minister of japan to talk about the -- >> the first question will be about a porn actress. not the japanese prime minister. >> you make a point. let me shift on the probe, and there has been discussion about bringing legislation forward protecting mueller's job. mcconnell says he won't allow a vote on that. what do you make of that? he says it's not necessary. he's been offered assurances bep heard some slag from paul ryan.

>> and where the senate sis on this issue. i don't think they want to move forward with this legislation. he's reflecting that and in an election year, doesn't want to raise an issue dividing republican senators. another part as well. identifying the political area is understanding what he did. >> great conversation. appreciate it. more ahead. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. on "your business" we have your back. experts topics. each week we focus on ideas for growing your business bringing all the moving parts together. join me weekend mornings at 7:30 on msnbc or connect with us anytime on all your devices. don't make a first impression... or a lasting impression without it.

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and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." andrea will be back here in washington tomorrow, but for now, craig melvin is up next here on msnbc. >> good to see you. good afternoon to you. craig melvin here at msnbc headquarters in new york. shadow cabinet. president trump's pick to become the next secretary of state made a secret trip to north korea to meet with kim jong-un and the powerful senate foreign relations committee is weighing whether to give mike pompeo the job he wants. standing by, explaining why he just said he's voting no. plus, i don't get confused. that's u.n. ambassador nikki haley's message for the white house. the latest salve o on the back d forth. is this a sign of a growing rift? and sandy hook lawsuit. parents who lost children in the