where blood, sweat and tears would have soaked into the earth. right now on msnbc, andrea mitchell reports. historic steps for the first time the leader of north korea crosses the world's most heavily fortified border to shake hands with the south korean president and signed the declaration to reach peace. ending the 67 yearlong war on the korean peninsula. president trump reacting to the news at the white house this morning. >> when i began, people were saying that was an impossibility. they said there were two alternatives. let them have what they have or go to war. now we have a much better alternative than anybody thought even possible. >> nbc news exclusive speaking with the russian lawyer at the center of that infamous trump meeting. >> would that be an obstruction

of justice? guilty. bill cosby convicted of sexual assault as the comedian vows to appeal. several of his accusers speaking out this morning on foptoday. >> i'm hopeful his sentences will reflect the damage and magnitude of the damage he wreaked on women. >> other women who have not yet found their voice and this is just the beginning. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we'll bring you new video from president trump's oval office meeting set to take place shortly with angela merkel. just a moment on that. we begin with the stunning images we all woke up to this morning. kim jong-un shiel imiling, shak hands and worked toward a

nuclear free peninsula. kim becoming the first north korean leader to take a giant step. the two leaders shaking hands on both sides of the worder in an unprecedented event being met with hope and some skepticism. if the kim regime will really give up their nuclear capability. >> on the occasion of this week's meeting of president moon and kim jong-un, i want to express my hope that all of the people of korea, north korea and south can someday live this harmony, ros pprosperity and pe. it looks like it could happen. >> joining me now nbc national correspondent peter alexander and bill neilly this seoul. let's talk about what happened. what you witnessed today. i've been there so many times. none of us have ever seen anything like this.

>> yes, it is a day when the words historic and extraordinary really are appropriate but also a day to knowledge the limits of those words. a day when skepticism is in order. when we wake up tomorrow morning and policy makers in washington and elsewhere will be aware of this, look through the declaration and really you'll see it's long on promises and pledges and very short on specifics. right at the very end of the declaration is the bit about denuclearization. it's almost this the final paragraph. there's to mention of a timetable. there's no mention of what denuclearization actually means to north koreans. we need to be realistic as well. let's just knowledge right the beginning this was historic. the very first time any north korean leader has set foot inside korea. kim jong-un walking across that

small concrete divide, the handshake. immediately a warm, fuzzy pose. president moon into north korea. that was unscripted. the rest of the day care fly -- carefully done. some quite extraordinary things but remember we have a pledge to seek a peace process to when the 65-year-old korean war and on denuclearization again short on specifics. >> bill neely with appropriate cautionary flags. history is being made as we speak. it's being welcomed at the white house. peter alexander. the president only a few months

ago january 2nd was trading tweets with kim jong-un about whose nuclear wut on the was bigger than the other. >> reporter: the president used phrases like fire and fury. the threat he spoke with so fiercely and when he spoke before the united nations he talked about rocket man. we heard him refer to kim jong-un in an honorable man. a way he's been handling the summit. as we have been speaking the president has been in the oval office meeting with the german chancellor angela merkel. we now know among other things when you greated her outside the west wing, this time a handshake and a kiss inside the oval office. last time there was the awkwarded with language when the two met last march. this time around they did shake hands in the oval office and the president did suggest as it

relates to kim jong-un they have narrowed it down to two or three sites where the historic summit would take place. we know the front-runner a week ago according to multiple u.s. officials have spoken to nbc news included places like sweden and singapore and switzerland. there's been some real concerns where kim juong-un has the capability to fly. you may have to stay closer to home. that certainly be will among the topics. as the president said angela merkel and reporters will gather as well. all of this following up on the visit by the french president. that visit was greeted with a 21 gun salute. a private tour of george washington's home. a state dinner. this one. that one three days on this one, just three hours what they are describing as a working lunch. >> merkel trying to reenforce

macron's message about not breaking out of the iran deal. also arguing against the aluminum and steel tariffs. thank you both to peter alexander. joining me now msnbc diplomacy expert chris hill and victor. a great expert on korea. chris, first to you, there's so many dynamics here between both macron and merkel pleading don't break out the iran deal. the president pointing to his hard line with north korea resulting in kim's change of heart, if you will, and ro poprl on denuclearization. >> the president is excited by

the north korean south korea summit. he may also realize the issues of denuclearization kind of tucked this there in the rear and need a lot more definition and he'll probably try to seek that in his talks with kim jong-un. the issue will be how can he say the iran deal is the worse deal in the world when any kind of thoe north korean deal will be preliminary. he's getting an earful from angela merkel and from president macron on where this is going -- how the europeans will regard the iran deal. i suspect the results of the three events of the last few day will with a president who takes harder look at him implaquable opposition to the iran deal. >> he does have a new secretary of state who is in brussels at

this hour. mike pompeo, his first trip as secretary of state. victor, you've got a hard line national security advisor john wo bo bolton. what macron was trying to offer him a path from trashing the deal. perhaps that may have some faction of macron when we talk to him before he left did not feel he persuaded the president. what about the credibility of what kim jong-un is doing with south korea's president? >> first on the iran deal. i think what you're saying makes perfect sense. the thing that worries me is president trump may walk away from the iran deal and see that as putting more pressure on north korea by saying to the north koreans the iran deal is not good enough. you have to do better than the iran deal. it's a form of leverage.

this declaration of peace is a fine, it's a great thing. nobody wants a war. we look like we were headed in that direction last december. there's still a lot left to be clarified and particularly on the nuclear peace. this really has become the drum roll for the trump-kim summit because peace on the korean peninsu peninsula, none of this is possible without the united states agreeing. whether president trump has wanted or not this has set up and heightened the expectations even more in the states for the trump-kim summit. >> last friday what kim offered was to take down a nuclear site in the north which has already collapsed which is a fake offer, if you will. the details of what he's put on the table so far are very vague and unsupported. >> they are very vague and unsupported. the danger of walking swoo a summit of this nature is summits 99% of this is agreed to and

concluded before the summits happen. 1% will be agreed to. the rest will be left to the two leaders with a conclusion that's not at all pre-determined with the states being incredibly high. >> everybody stand by. we see the president in the oval office with angela merkel. >> i like you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. it's a great honor to have chancellor merkel and i will say that you can rest assured she was going to win that election and congratulations on winning. a formal congratulations to a great victory. we're working on a lot of different subjects including trade, including nato, including military of all types and we have a really great relationship and we actually have had a great

relationship right from the beginning but some people didn't understand that. we understand it. that's what's important. very extraordinary woman. it's an honor to have you at the white house. thank you very much. >> thank you very hutch. thank you very much for this warm reception and the words of congratulations. you know, it took some time to build the government. that is true. i thought it was very important on this first visit outside of europe to come to the united states, to come to washington in order to yet again underline we wish to deepen our relationship further and i hope and trust very much looking forward to the very good talks that i trust we will have today. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> we were honored. it was a great report. no collusion, which i knew any way. no coordination. no nothing. it's a witch hunt. that's all it is. it was no collusion with russia. she probably can't believe it. who can? the report was very powerful. very strong. there was no collusion between the trump campaign and the russian people. i've always said there was no collusion but i've said there's been nobody tougher on russia than me. with that all being said, if we can get along with russia that's a good thing not a bad thing. there was nobody tougher. i was very honored by the report. it was totally conclusive, strong, powerful. nobody knew about and said in a strong way. they were forceful in saying the clinton campaign did contribute

to russia. maybe somebody ought to look at that. what we really should do is get on with our lives and get on with a lot of things. we have a lot of great things happening including with north korea. we're in total touch with north korea and south korea. we'll be setting up a meeting very shortly. we have it broken down to two or three sites, locations. hopefully we'll have great success. we'll see what happens. president moon and i are speaking. we're speaking with north korea and south korea. the relationships are billing strongly. this will be a great thing for the world.

a lot of positive things are happening. >> any agreement on iran today? >> i don't know. i think we'll be talk about iran. we'll be having discussions on iran. we'll have having discussions on trade. we'll have having various discussions. i don't think he's playing. it's never gone this far. i don't think it's had this enthusiasm for them wanting to make a deal. the united states in past was played like a fiddle. money going in and nobody knew what was happening the day after

an arrangement was made. that's not happening to us. we leave the room with great respect. we leave the room and keep it going. i'll tell you that president xi of china has been very helpful at the worder. president xi has been extremely helpful to me. we have a very good relationship. he's been extremely helpful to me at the border. we'll see where it all goes but this isn't like past administrations. we don't play games. thank you, everybody. >> let's go. thank you. >> you said you weren't

interested this meeting with the doj but that might change? >> thank you very much. thank you. >> as you saw the president in the oval office with angela merkel saying he will not be played that other administrations he believes have been played by north korea and also denouncing the russia probe saying that the house intelligence report, which came out today, found no collusion. which is not exactly the fact. let's do a little fact checking there. the fact is the house republican report, the disputed report, cut off subpoenas. did not permit the democrats to follow their leads and look into the area of russian collusion. it didn't really address the issue was a they didn't investigate. >> i think what this report documents is really end of

bipartisan intelligence oversight which has been a feature of our government for many years. >> on the house side. >> this was a partisan report put out by the majority, by the republicans without participation of the democrats and without participation of the democratic staff and there were many witnesses, i think some 30 witnesses on the witness list not interviewed. there were subpoenas not followed up upon. many came in and claimed some nebulous executive privilege and the committee never pressed them. you have the essence to defendant the president's position on russia. let me give you one example which is finding 32, it says that donald trump junior, jared kushner and paul manafort swe attended the meeting. they attended the meeting but

didn't receive it. they would inject it into the sfooe atmosphere and that's what the russians did. the fact they didn't receive the information themselves, that is the evidence that there was no collusion. >> it shows you just how thin all of this is and how discredited it has within by critics on woet siboth sides of aisle. we know how they cheated this the past, would move things around. how good is our intelligence if mike pompeo goes to pyongyang and does not know, we know from the president's comments on fox and friends yesterday, didn't know until he showed up that he was going to be meeting with kim jong- jong-un. that doesn't speak to a who tle

lot of intel. >> our intelligence channels seem to be the better ones. north korea is a dark spot for us. we don't know a lot about the way the regime works. this is an encouraging sign we saw last night but it's merely a handshake. i know you remember well the handshake on the white house lawn in 1993. what have we seen in the middle east since then. we have seen the second lebanon war. the north will still retain a nu nuclear arsenal. >> the president just said that prior administrations were played. he's got a point there. >> this any agreement if the oversight cheats it's going to look like the counter part was played. he is playing the same tools. the same instruments.

peace treaty, normalization, economic assistance, energy assistance. he's still playing with the same pieces. the big differences that usually you have in negotiation before you have a summit. we're having the summit first and if there's a negotiation that follows that, that's fine. if the summit fails then you really have no place else to go. this korea summit itself, the inter-korean summit has really raised the stakes because kim jong-un offered nothing on denuclearization. the stakes are much higher now. >> ambassador, how tough is it to sit across the table from the north koreans. you've done it. >> you have to have a lot of patience. you have to be prepared to listen to the same thing a thousands times. sure, the president could walk out. he could always walk out. it's not clear as victor said where we go from there. what we have is some heightened expectations in south korea so the president as he sits across

the stable from the north koreans have to be mienldful of not creating a huge crisis. that's the relationship we really care about. as for being played, i mean what you try to do with these things is you try to lay out what you need. the other side lays out what they need and you try to se kwee sequence these things in way nobody is left out there. we did a good job this terms of sequencing we did not give them everything first and wait for something in return. we haven't heard much from john bolton. let's see what happens. >> mike pompeo as well. another hard liner. thanks so much.

the russian lawyer who met with the trump campaign officials at the trump tower on june 2016 has insisted she's a private citizen and didn't work for the government. in an exclusive report, richard engel has discovered she's much deeper tieing to the russian government than previously admitted. >> you said that you never tried to dictate the case that the russia propertier was given. would that be an obstruction of justice? >> joining me now from estonia is richard engel. welcome. tell me your take aways from your conversation.

>> reporter: she was very angry when we presented these e-mails. she said they had been stolen, hacked. she accused us of being part of a grand conspiracy. she was sticking to her guns that she was a private lawyer and wasn't doing anything wrong and wasn't trying to offer any quid quo pro at the trump tower meeting. trying to offer compromising material this exchange for help from president trump to get elected. we've within digging. we've been interviewing and spent several hours with her and spent more time going through documents. the documents do suggest that she had this role. this role where she could communicate with senior level people in the russian administration and coordinate what was a russian government response to the u.s. justice department.

that doesn't suggest just an avenrage citizen who is there representing her clients and suggest a much deeper role as does the fact that she was meeting with the most senior people in the trump campaign at a very important time in the trump campaign. >> absolutely. it was june 2016. you're talking about the top leadership. you also have paul manafort with her his other russian connections through ukraine involvement. >> reporter: going wac to what you were just talking about, the intelligence report that just came out from the house says that there was no collusion because this meeting took place and the trump team doesn't walk away with any compromising material. set the stage here. they went into this meeting at trump tower. the three you just mentioned. they expected to get compromising material on hillary. instead, they got an earful

about sanctions. they were told how the u.s. sanctions on russia are unfair. they are based on bogus material and lies. they left. is that conspiracy? is that an offer of an exchange of goods and services? not in a court of law but that's not the way influence operations are. imagine a business deal where i'm looking for something or imagine you're going in to the chairman's office and you say we have to really talk about these photographs. you have to see these photographs. you show up and he asked where are they. instead you spend the next hour or so talking about your contract and all the things that you need and he doesn't leave with the photographs wu he might have left with a clear impression of what you're trying to say. >> jeremy, to richard's point, this was a set up from the

start. the fact is the house intelligence committee never investigated the russia connection. they never went there. they didn't bring in the right witnesses. >> that's right. they looked at what russia was doing but did not look searchingly at what u.s. citizens were doing. they did not subpoena documents, did not interview witnesses. to understand wa was this mind, the swent of those people. this was not an investigation in was an effort to exonerate the white house. >> the democrats are put out their counter statement. jeremy, you have angela hmerkel in the oval office and it strikes me, we saw the body language. merkel has such an uneasy relationship, very tense relationship with donald trump. she's here because the steel and aluminum tariffs are really bad for germany. the tariffs on china are

impacting germany. she's really upset about the iran nuclear dealing with blown up. she's a party to it. macron set up this possible exit ramp where they build it up and then strengthen it. do you think she'll have any traction with the president? >> i don't know yet. i think it's too soon to tell. there's the issue of russia and that's the elephant in the room. in fact, the president has basically give putin a lot of running room to do what he wants. >> you can see more of richard's

reporting. thanks so much right here on msnbc at 9:00 eastern. mike pompeo in brussels as they discuss what to do about russia. we'll talk to the first world leader to meet with him. the nato secretary general. coming up next right here. we have got a problem. a few problems actually. we've got aging roadways, aging power grids, ...aging everything. we also have the age-old problem of bias in the workplace. really... never heard of it. the question is... who's going to fix all of this? an actor? probably not. but you know who can solve it? business. because solving big problems is what business does best. so let's take on the wage gap, the opportunity gap, the achievement gap. whatever the problem, business can help.

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now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. secretary of state mike pompeo hitting the ground running. he's in brussels. he just arrived there today. joining me now is the nato secretary general. thank you very much. mike pompeo has just told the press he thinks it's unlikely that president trump will stay in the iran nuclear deal at the next deadline on may 12th. what is your reaction to that? >> well, nato's not part of the the iran nuclear deal but we welcome the deal when it was agreed.

no ambiguity if it's not implemented so stressed very much importance of full implementation and express concerns about many activities. destabilizing countries in the region and also iran wall listic missile program which is no way covered by the deal. these are issues that are concern for all. >> president macron told a number of us if h u.s. got out of deal it would lead to unrest in the region where nato is engaged. >> thnato supports the effort t defeat isis. we're part of the global coalition to defeat isis.

we have to make sure that isis is not able to come back. that's the reason why we continue to support efforts of the coalition and why we're meeting in brussels. decide to start the training mission in iraq where we train iraqi forces and stabilize isis terrorism. >> what can you do -- what can nato do about russia? russia's aggression throughout the region and cyber attacks? >> what we can do is what we have done for almost seven years. that is to be strong, send a messa message. that the ally is attacked it will trigger response from the

whole alliance. that's the core of nato. one for all and all for one. we're now in the process of implementing the biggest reenforcement since the end of the cold war. more troops in eastern part of the lines in the baltic countries and poland with forces but also first time we see increase defense spending across europe. it's shotgomething we are strengthening by improving technology to help improve their cyber defenses. >> thank you very much. thanks for shares the outcome of this nato meeting to plan the nato summit. very good seeing you, sir. thank you. coming up next, guilty on all counts. a jury convicting bill cosby for sexual assault. i'll talk to one of his accus s accusers. stay with us. is mom here yet?

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30 years in prison. he will be added to sex offender registry. cosby's attorney say fight is not over. they are appealing. he be back in court for two to three months for sentencing. joining me now is lisa green. a cosby accuser who was a jane doe in the 2005 case. welcome, both. first of all, your reaction to the verdict. >> it was a stunning verdict. i prepared myself for an i qu acquittal or hung jury because these cases are so difficult to prove or win. it took me quite a while to process the reality of what happened and i began to cry and my husband embraced me and the two of us stood crying for a while. >> how do you reconcile cosby's public image with the demon that was described in this trial? >> you know, for years since this happened to me in 1978 to 1980, i knew who he really was.

that he was hiding behind a mask and that he was not who he pretended to be so seeing him everywhere on television all the time was very difficult for me and i'm sure it was for the other survivors. he had quite an impressive public relations and imaging campaign going on and it's very difficult to truly know other people. people can hide large portions of who they are and he did a very good job doing that. >> lee sisa dwreegreen the defe appeal. they will appeal because the testimony of other women was permitted in. explain the legal ruling and how unusual that was. >> it's always a struggle between deciding how much evidence can come in of prior bad acts. obviously, patricia and other women come forward describing a situation that was very similar to what constand described. the judge made, i think many people made a prudent decision

to allow five women to speak. we don't know what the jury found most powerful. the defense will use that for appeal. one more observation, i think the defense ought to look in mirror as it considers what went wrong. i think they dusted off a 20th century play book for a 21st century jury. they attacked constand's credibility. they attacked the other accuser. that used to work well wu maybe not so more. >> do you think the metoo environment has helped reach this conviction that the jury was influenced the way the culture has changed this the past year? >> i think it had an impact on the jury even though the judge admonished them not to let it interfere with their deliberations about this case. the jury didn't live in a bubble.

noun none of us do. the culture has change and people have changed perceptions. >> in terms of you having any kind of peace about this, you're still surrounded by relics of his very positive public image and you have to deal with the whole trauma of what you went through. >> that's true. i've had some good therapy about that and many years to work on myself spiritually about it. truth is this verdict makes an enormous difference for us was a whether it changes people's minds or not those people who still support him, most people now will know who he really is and he revealed that in the courthouse when he yelled at the da the way he is. that's who bill cosby really is. now people know that. that gives me a great measure of peace. >> just to clarify, lisa green that was him using profanity

twice after the verdict came in to saying the da was an a-hole. >> the judge add momonished peo and what i think she's discussing so profoundly is the difference between someone a massive role model to so many people and what had gone on and finally a jury using due process and prosecutors brought justice to bear here. >> thank you so much. thank you very much for sharing your thoughts today. really appreciate it. >> thank you. overnight, allegations have surfaced against tom brockaw of incidents involving a former nbc correspondent 23 years ago. he denies any misconduct. nbc news national correspondent kate snow reports. >> reporter: linda vester was a correspondent for nbc news in

the 1990s. overnight variety published her allegations that tom brokaw harassed her. he put his fingers on her lips and grabbed her. >> he took the same head, reached behind me head an tried force me to kiss him. >> reporter: she claims he tried to kiss her again wfr leaving. >> i stood there for a couple of minutes and just shook out of sheer panic. >> reporter: she kept a diary of the incident and told friends. she said a similar incident occurred in london a year late r accusing brokaw of turning up at her apartment uninvited and tried to kiss her. he said i messiah with lyt with

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the "wall street journal" is shedding new lied on michael cohen's relationship with president trump. cohen said he would once take a bullet for mr. trump was reportedly -- excuse me -- upset he was overlooked for a white house job at one point telling people he expected to be appointed chief of staff. during a phone call cohen said to the president, boss, i miss you so much. wish i was there with you's it's really hard for me to be here. let's get the scoop from the nbc analyst and also bureau chief for vice news. and while i deal with allergies, jonathan, your reaction to the "wall street journal"? >> certainly, mr. cohen is somebody who has loomed large in the president's life a long time. well before he started running for political office. he was his fixer and his lawyer, but he was more than that. he would make -- he would be, played an instrumental role in the trump organization, making international deals.

someone who on the fringes of the campaign, when, though he didn't get an official position, brokered coalitions with the now president and members of the evangelical community. we'd see him day after day on the campaign trail and did, indeed, expect a job here in the white house. was blocked by then chief of staff reince priebus, someone who still tries to talk to the president from time to time and now feels isolated in the midst of the fbi raids on his office and hotel room. >> and with all of this going on, shawna, you were on the hill covering scott pruitt yesterday, may be the luckiest man in the world. less attention fide that hearing because the president went off on "fox & friends" and so much was happeningality the white house. >> i agree. scott pruitt and members of the cabinet, we know president trump has personal issues with jeff sessions and other things. he personally seems to still like scott pruitt. >> may be the only one in the

white house backing pruitt? >> true. scott pruitt is rolling back the regulatory things president trump wants him to do. yes, on the hill a ton of questions. at least five government offices and committees investigating him, real investigations. not the sauce flfalse flag the up at the media yesterday. to be honest, watching the first hearing i did, democrats went after him. got good shots in, but because of the nature of the hearing he didn't really have to answer any questions, because they kept talking over him. i don't know if we learned anything about the investigations into scott pruitt but he wasn't front page news as they thought he would be. >> speaking of front page news and things that get thrown off into the backhand of the shows, the chaplain. how does the house chaplain, a jesuit priest, get fired by paul ryan, arguably, according to democrats, because of an

invocation he gave on the house floor when the tax bill was being voted? >> one of those stories that feels very d.c. always a bipartisan support for the chaplains in congress, and suddenly he's wrapped up in politics in a way i'm not sure we would even have imagined when he became chaplain when speaker boehner was still the speaker in 2011. politics is infused in everything, and we don't know why speaker ryan did this. he has not totally said. speaker ryan is technically his boss and doesn't want him to serve, that's speaker ryan's prerogative but weird that this congress can't even separate politics from at least some idea of faith. >> and we've come full soccerinsoccer isoccer -- full circle. never politicized before, the house committee, and now basically destroyed. let me share former colleague

and friend luke rust's tweet. this chaplain was hired by john boehner. a republican hire. luke testified -- rather luke has tweeted when i was on the hill father conroy was an invaluable source of clarity and guidance in an often bewildering environment. this is petty and speaks volumes what the institution has become. i pray that's not the case. >> certainly we live in now a hyperpoliticized even more so than before world. that's wra washington is right now. you mentioned the house intelligence committee. the president is, of course, taking a victory lap off that report further politicizing it. not only in a tweet this morning but sitting next to german chancellor angela merkel in the oval office. praised it. no collusion. suggesting the nation would be stronger now that the verdict has come down. very little now in this d.c., in trump's d.c., that doesn't immediately turn to politics.

the chaplain is the latest, if perhaps most surprising, variation of that so far. >> and thank you both. more ahead. we'll be right back. once there was an organism so small

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>> garood afternoon to be. craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york city. historic step. consume jong-un making history on the korean peninsula. the promise of peace that seems to be on the table and the big process that hangs over the process. what is the north korean leader's motivation here. also, triumph and contradiction. the white house had a big week on the global stage. that agreement in korea, the french state visit, but it also had a big week of problems with its cabinet members and its nominees. the cosby effect. bill cosby found guilty, the first criminal conviction of this #metoo era. what's next for his case, and what long-lasting impact could it von our culture? we get to news stories in a moment, but we start with that historic meeting some 53 years in the making. north korea's leader kim jong-un taking one step across the border into south korea earlier today. the step