watching at 3:00. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," what now? the backlash of the intelligence community is building today as the director of national intelligence stunningly breaks with his boss, the president, after he sided with the russian president. and now the former director of the cia is calling president trump's praise of vladimir putin tre treason us. >> i equate it to the betrayal of one's nation, aiding and abetting, giving comfort to the enemy. >> i think the outcry needs to be strong. it needs to endure. and they need to then also take action, whether it's a censure or whether or not they are going to decide that this is not the republican party that they once knew. pressure point. will republican criticism of the president's comments actually lead to any action? one gop leader who doesn't have to worry about reelection because he's on his way out, says things may change soon. >> it feels like the dam is

breaking. i was really glad to see people on both sides of the aisle condemning what happened yesterday strongly. and stranger things. barack obama with a big reference to the explosive events in finland, about the times we're living in. >> and they are strange. and they are uncertain. each day's news cycles bringing more head-spinning and disturbing headlines. good day, i'm chris jansing for andrea mitchell who is on her way back from hills. an unprecedented level of condemnation for president trump, including by normally

reliable defenders. his stunning defense of vladimir putin in finland causing a ruckus, after suggesting all his critics are wrong. "while i had a great meeting with nato, raising vast amounts of money, i had an even better meeting with vladimir putin of russia. sadly, it is not being reported that way. the fake news is going crazy." well, today new reports in "the new york times" that the president was in a very bad mood on the way home on air force one. and in the last 90 minutes, after a statement from russian officials suggested trump reached some sort of agreement on international security with putin, even his former presidential opponents, john mccain and mitt romney, called it disgraceful. house speaker paul ryan tried to focus on keeping attention off

trump and on to russia. >> russia does not share our interests and does not share our values. >> reporter: have you talked to the president about his remarks? do you think he needs to come out and clarify, retract, say exactly what he was trying to accomplish yesterday? >> i have not spoken to him. i put out a statement yesterday within minutes after that press conference, and i think that statement speaks for itself. >> joining me now, nbc national correspondent peter alexander at the white house, nbc's garrett haake on capitol hill, jeffrey smith, former general counsel at the cia, and msnbc political analyst peter baker, chief white house correspondent at "the new york times." good to see all of you. peter alexander, the mood of the senior staff at the white house today, are they in a bunker mentality? are they trying to brush this off as just another controversy? something you pointed out this morning, peter, the white house updating the president's

schedule, they removed the daily intelligence briefing he normally starts his workday with. >> reporter: chris, the latter was interesting. the public schedule originally put out by the white house said that he would have an intelligence briefing today. this would have been significant because it would have been the first opportunity for leaders of the u.s. intelligence agencies to, if they chose, confront the president personally about his comments, effectively putting equal weight on their word versus vladimir putin's on russia's interference in the election. but yesterday, as you noted, that was removed from the president's schedule, we can't say why, perhaps he was too tired or some other reason. but it was notable on this day. the mood in the west wing, i can peer down the driveway here as i speak to you and see that the president has yet to arrive in the oval office now after noon on his day back. he's not effectively at work yet, largely spending his time in the residence where he's been

likely watching television and coming up with the tweets pretty much in denial, frankly, of the criticism across the spectrum in terms of republicans. and frankly, from within his own west wing. i've had a series of private conversations where i think you could best cast the views of those people who work with the president as embarrassed by his remarks yesterday, effectively acknowledging they were not defensible. whether the president takes an opportunity today to publicly address them, he would have at least one chance at 2:00 today, he will be hosting seven republican lawmakers at an event that's supposed to be focused on taxes. will the president invite reporters in? right now that event remains closed. we've asked the white house if they will open it up to reporters and so far, no reply. >> a few minutes ago, an unannounced visit from rod rosenstein. >> reporter: yes, rod rosenstein who is overseeing the mueller

investigated was spotted, as you can see, by our slow-mo camera departing the west wing after a half hour or so. the president hasn't been in the oval office today so it's possible rosenstein was here for some separate meeting, that he didn't meet with president trump himself. it is notable given the fact that four days ago rosenstein announced those 12 indictments of the russian foreign military officers, their interference in the u.s. election, and given the president's own comments criticizing this as a phony witch hunt last night in an interview with fox news. >> peter baker, i mentioned at the top of the show this note in your newspaper, that aides on air force one steered clear of the front of the plane to avoid being tapped for venting session. literally minutes before that posted, i was in a meeting, talking with the show's staff, and i said, does anybody go to him after what happened yesterday and say to him, wow, we have ourselves a real problem here? clearly he's seeing that, at

least think morning, presumably on television, given his tweet storm as peter mentioned. but to our knowledge, does anybody attempt to give this president a reality check? >> reporter: yeah, no, it's a great question. apparently the mood was quite sour, quite unhappy on the plane on the way back. the president was stewing about all the negative coverage he had seen, you know, venting about the unfair fake news and so forth. no question, the aides understand the hole that he has dug for himself, and none of them wants to be the one to sit there and tell him how bad it is. you have people like john bolton and mike pompeo, the national security adviser and the secretary of state, these are hawks on a russia. the president is surrounded by people who don't agree with him on russia. how candid they are to him, how capable they are of challenging him, we don't know. but it certainly puts them in an awkward position. the question a lot of people are

asking today is how long will people stay in an administration if they feel like the president is so radically on a different page from them. >> garrett haake, i want to play a little bit now of what you're hearing and what we've been hearing this morning as people are getting back to capitol hill, how they're reacting. let's take a listen. >> i think the president had a missed opportunity to come down strongly in a couple of areas. i think only the president can rein himself in. i think we can do a lot in progress by passing legislation. >> i remain astonished that the president would choose to believe the assertions by president putin over the unanimous conclusions of his own u.s. intelligence leaders. >> clearly people on the hill, on the republican side, particularly those having to run for reelection, understand the incredibly difficult position they're in now. i understand nbc news have

gotten some republican talking points about how they want to spin what is largely recorded as an unprecedented foreign policy disaster yesterday. >> reporter: yeah, chris, i'll start with the talking points and work backwards. they're fascinating in part because of how few republicans are actually using them. the talking points distributed to republicans on the hill talk about the idea that this was just one meeting with muputin, it's part of a process. they've cited comments in the past where the president said "i think it was russia" or anything where he may have supported the conclusions of the intelligence community that it was russia who attempted to meddle in our elections. it says in these talking points that the president discussed this at length with vladimir putin in their private meetings, not in front of the camera. well, that's not what the american people saw. and those talking points are being, i would say, widely ignored by republican members of congress, at least those i've

been talking to in both chambers this morning. what i have heard, and you heard a little bit of it there from chuck grassley, which i think is kind of interesting, is perhaps momentum among members of congress to find way to come up with additional sanctions on russia. the republican-controlled congress does not want to get in a fight with donald trump. but if they can flex some muscle here, if they can push back on some of the ideas that the president espoused in that news conference yesterday, by going after russia, russian operatives, the gru, the oligarchs close to putin, in a more significant way, that's an idea that may be getting some traction up here, chris. >> and jeffrey, we've heard the words "stunning" and "unprecedented" so often over the last 18 months, but i think it is absolutely true, as i just mentioned, this is an unpress didn -- unprecedented foreign policy debacle by the white house.

give us your impression about the impact when we saw the president stand next to vladimir putin and take his side over the intelligence community. >> it's just breathtaking. it's hard to know where to begin. the damage he did yesterday is profound and will be lasting. what concerns me equally this morning is his failure to understand why people are upset. the idea that somehow this is all fake news and that we should be rallying around his brilliant diplomacy is frightening. it will adversely affect the ability of the intelligence community to collect intelligence because our allies aren't sure they can trust us. it will have a much broader impact on our position in the world with our allies. it is just a very, very bad day for the united states and a very good day for mr. putin and for russia. >> and we also have this, i think, vague statement that came out of russia this morning

saying that there will be some practical implementation of an agreement that we heard nothing about. what do you make of that? >> again, it's very disturbing. i know of no previous encounter between an american president and a head of state, the soviet union or the russian federation, anything remotely like this. two hours by themselves, terrible preparation. i think the staff prepared but the president apparently ignored it. just as an example, instead of playing golf on sunday, had he read the indictment, he cannot possibly, given the level of detail in there, have said publicly that he believes putin and not his own intelligence community. it really is disgraceful. now we don't know what he agreed to, what he gave up, and what he got. and we have only whatever putin says about it and whatever the president chooses to tell his staff he said. >> and peter baker, another stunning moment came yesterday when vladimir putin sat down across from fox news' chris

wallace. i just want to play a little bit of a clip of that conversation. >> they say that these units were specifically involved in hacking into democratic party computers, stealing information, and spreading it to the world to try to disrupt the american election. may i give this to you to look at, sir? >> interference with domestic affairs of the united states, do you really believe that someone acting from the russian territory could have influenced the united states and influenced the choice of millions of americans? >> i'm not asking that. i'm asking whether they tried. >> peter baker, he wouldn't even touch those bakers, he had to put them down on the little end table there. you have a reporter doing what

presumably the president's national security team wanted him to do, right? >> reporter: i think that's exactly right. what's fascinating about that indictment was the american intelligence community and the justice department and robert mueller decided to put on paper a lot of very specific details. the names of these officers, the specific dates and times and even google searches that they had made. they gave up a lot of information in that avoid because they wanted, i think, to say this is real. this is not just general abstracted accusations. we've got you, we have the specifics here. and the russians, having clearly read that indictment, understand that the american intelligence community has the details and the evidence there. you're right, putin didn't want to touch it. a former kgb officer himself, former head of the fsb, i think president trump said he wasn't expecting a perry mason moment in which he said, you've got me, and he didn't give him one.

he was asked by jonathan lemire did you support the president during the election, and he said, yes, i did, yes, i did, which contradicts what president trump had previously said about that. >> jeffrey smith, i want to end with a description by former cia director john brennan, a national security analyst at nbc. he tweeted about the president, "nothing short of treasonous." do you think the president's performance rises to that level? >> i don't think it was treason, treason is a legal term. but it was a betrayal of everything the american intelligence and law enforcement communities stand by and what they've worked for. i think it demonstrates that the president is manifestly unfit to lead this country. >> jeffrey, garrett, peter, and peter, thanks to all of you, appreciate your time today. this thursday you're going to want to watch a live interview with dan coats. andrea will speak with the director of national intelligence at the aspen security forum. the interview will be live at

nbcnews.com at 3:35 eastern time, then throughout the rest of the day here on msnbc. and coming up, secret agent? a russian woman charged in washington with carrying out a plot to influence american politics. the details next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. s were made for better things than psoriatic arthritis. as you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for psoriatic arthritis. taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain, swelling, and significantly improve physical function. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma, and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts, and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests.

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accused a former aide to a top russian government official with being an unregistered foreign agent. 29-year-old maria butina, a russian national who tried to broker a secret meeting in 2016 between then-candidate trump and vladimir putin, is accused of working with conservative lawmakers and the nra to carry out a covert russian effort to influence u.s. politics. joining me now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams and msnbc contributor joyce vance, a former u.s. attorney. this is filed by department of justice prosecutors and not robert mueller, pete. what more can you tell us? >> right. she was arrested and lives in washington, d.c. she's accused of secretly acting under the direction of a russian government official joining the nra, hoping to influence american politicians, especially republicans. the charges say she hosted

dinners, she attended conventions, she even managed to get her russian handler into the national prayer breakfast last year here in washington. the fbi said she was getting orders from him. he's a former russian legislator and top official of the central bank. her lawyer says she's not a russian agent but she's offered to cooperate, that she testified for eight hours before the senate intelligence committee. but as you point out, these charges are not brought by the mueller team. they were developed by the fbi here in washington. she's had a high profile for the last year or so so she easily came to the attention of the fbi. and as for the timing of these charges, law enforcement officials say she was arrested over the weekend because she was about to move out of washington and as joyce can tell us, if that happens, then the fact that the offense was committed here but was arrested someplace else, there's a whole removal process and they didn't want to go through that, so they decided to move on her before she left town. >> yes, joyce, pick up on what

pete had to say, what do you make of it? >> pete is absolutely right. there are some hoops prosecutors have to jump through. if, say, she had moved to california and they wanted to bring her back to d.c. those hoops are standard but not ultimately consequential. had she left the country, though, it's possible the justice department would have been unable to secure her return. obviously they're very interested, among other things, in talking to her and obtaining her cooperation or seeing what information she might give up, if that's a possibility. interesting to note that the avo affidavit the accompanies the complaint she's charged under indicates that the fbi agent who wrote that avoffidavit is not revealing all of the evidence he has in the situation, simply the probable cause that he needs for the charge of violating the foreign agents registration act.

that's the only charge brought against her. it's not tipping their hand but putting enough information out there so there is awareness that the government has the oligarch aleksander torshin in their sights, and two united states individuals who are mentioned but not named in this affidavit. one guesses that the fbi, if it hasn't already, will be knocking on their door and talking to them soon. >> do you think, joyce, this is interesting largely because this is happening as trump sides with putin over u.s. intel, or could there be something bigger here? >> i think both of those are true. this is interesting because of the timing. on friday, we saw an indictment. on saturday, the fbi became concerned that someone who they had been watching for some period of time was about to leave their jurisdiction. so that's possible, that she read that indictment friday, and that maybe accelerated her schedule for leaving. this also could connect to

mueller's mandate into looking into collusion, i'll use that word, but connection between the trump campaign and russia with an effort to influence the election. we know there's been a lot of smoke around nra fundraising and money sent out to candidates. we don't know that mueller has concluded that there's criminal conduct here. but this is the first time we've seen an indication of part of that ongoing investigation in a court filing. >> and pete, let me ask you about the mueller investigation. it's been going on for 14 months now. there's been a slew of guilt y pleas and indictments. what do we know about where that investigation stands now, are there any clues that could tell us what more to expect and when? >> we don't know very much. we think we do but we really don't. the trial of paul manafort was scheduled to start next week in virginia.

that's the first person that charges were filed against. there's going to be two trials, one here in washington in the fall, and this one starts first, across the river in alexandria, virginia. that happens next month. there are a number of guilty pleas that have yet to go to sentencing because the government has yet to obtain cooperation from them. there do seem to be signs based on the pace of court filings that this investigation is moving forward into its final stages. perhaps with the goal of concluding before the midterm elections. maria butina is charged with being an unregistered agent, but it's important to recognize at least in terms of the law what that means. this is not part of the intelligence statues. this is not accusing her of being a spy. it's basically that she was an unregistered lobbyist, an agent of the russian government,

acting at their behest, but not spying. the mueller charges look at people trying to affect you and me, voters, trying to affect the course of the election. this is influence peddling, if you will, or influence pushing, trying to affect the views of politicians and opinion leaders and organizations. so it's a different way of getting at the same thing, which is to try to get your will in the u.s. >> thank you, pete, thank you, joyce, appreciate it. and coming up, world weary. astonishment, disbelief, concern. how some of america's closest allies are reacting to the president's summit with vladimir putin. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. man: it takes a lot of work to run this business, but i really love it. i'm on the move all day long, and sometimes i don't eat the way i should.

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president trump isn't just facing domestic pressure over his performance at the summit with president putin. he's hearing it from all over the world. take a look. the headline in canada's "globe and mail," "trump's bear hug." a paper in the uae called the summit a bromance. "haaretz" called the summedit a

new low in trump's presidency. meanwhile, in russia vladimir putin is getting universal praise for how he handled things. i want to bring in nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel and retired admiral stavridis. richard, let me start in moscow. the russian defense ministry is already announcing they're ready to act on agreements they say were made with trump, something that wasn't brought up at all yesterday. do you know anything about what's going on? >> reporter: it is somewhat vague, what exactly they're trying to talk about -- what exactly these agreements are. if you listened to that press conference yesterday, and i think the whole world did, there weren't a lot of specifics. we thought maybe there would be specifics about crimea, about u.s. troop presence in syria. but it seemed like the russians want to go forward about denuclearization agreements that

had been in the works. russia is saying, we want to move forward, we had this summit and we want to keep moving and not necessarily get sucked into this debate on who did better and who performed worse. >> admiral, i think we're going to get a little more of that today, we literally just learned in the last 30 seconds from the white house pool that the president is going to allow cameras, a spray, as we call it in the pool parlance, at the top of the meeting he has with congressional leaders that he has at 2:00, that he's going to make comments. is there anything at this point that he can say or do to help undo some of the damage that it's widely believed he did yesterday? >> i don't think so. i don't think there is a road back for him, chris. he was so definitive in that meeting and so negative on our intelligence community, juxtaposed with his strong support of vladimir putin, whose denials were powerful. i really don't think there is a road back. i think his only choice is to

effectively do what he does frequently, which is to double down on his mistakes. so i think what i would look for at 2:00 is a president who is not contrite but is combative and who will come out swinging. i'm say, i had a terrific meeting, no one has ever been a better interlocutor with russia than i am, i've got fabulous deals coming. none of that will material. and this will go down as the lowest minute of his presidency. >> we get this statement from russia that i was just talking about with richard. and, you know, we remember that we first got word of this summit from russia. we got those pictures, remember the oval office, from russia. do you think this statement, that there was some sort of agreement, is propaganda from the kremlin, or could agreements have been made between the presidents that not only have we not heard about but maybe even his national security team doesn't know about? >> reporter: i fear that

greatly, chris. and i'll give you three things that would really worry me. one would be an agreement to reduce nato exercises around the periphery of russia. a second thing that would worry me a lot would be an agreement to cooperate in cyberspace. that would be roughly like go to eric snowden and asking him for advice on how to secure our secrets. a third thing would be a unilateral u.s. withdrawal from the middle east and syria. i'm sure those were kicked out, they're what vladimir putin wants. they would be mistakes by the united states. >> richard, we know that foreign minister lavrov called the summit "fabulous and better than super," which has been used a lot by late night comedians here. there was a reporter in the pool watching the spokesman peskov, he said he looked gleeful during the press conference yesterday. what does this summit mean domestically for putin and how does it set the stage

potentially for a next move? >> reporter: it has a great significance at home. this country, and it's not just about one day, having a great meeting and putin can come home and say, ah, i looked better on that world stage. this is a profound moment that vladimir putin has been looking for for his whole life, really. he is a child of the collapse of the soviet union. he was part of the kgb when the soviet union collapsed. he personally felt it very deeply. he sees it as one of the great can catastrophes of modern history. he's made it his job, his role in life to reverse that. many here believe, i think he certainly believes, that he's done, just with that meeting yesterday, gone along way to bringing russia back to the center of the world stage, making him and his position as leader of russia an equal to the president of the united states. so i think for vladimir putin,

this was a historic return more than just a super fabulous better than fantastic meeting that the foreign secretary described, very excitedly, after the summit itself. >> admiral, i don't know if you were listening earlier, garrett haake was reporting from capitol hill had put out talking points to help members of congress who were facing questions about this, and most of them were ignoring the talking points. let me get your reaction to something a senator said in an attempt to defend the president. >> i think the president was very tough on putin in the four-hour closed door meeting. i just want to make it clear in the closed-door meeting i'm expecting that the president did point out that president putin meddled in the 2016 elections and there was no punishing response, there should have been, and if they do the same thing in 2018, there will be a

punishing response. >> that's what republicans are left with, admiral? that they can't say anything else, even after he clearly on the international stage, in front of the world, sided with vladimir putin over intelligence agencies, admiral, but beyond closed doors he was tough on putin? >> yeah, that's in the secret room under the cone of silence, i guess. preposterous would be my reaction. and all i will take away from this press conference is that memory of vladimir putin flipping the soccer ball to the president of the united states in an almost dismissive way. and the other thing i'll take away, i'm old enough to remember ronald reagan turning and saying, mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall, in the most public moment of his presidency. where was that moment? ronald reagan didn't need a secret room. i'm not sure where donald trump thinks he does. >> and we'll hear the truth, once again, of what the

president thinks at 2:00 this afternoon. we will have the pool, the white house pool in with him before his meeting with members of congress. thank you so much, admiral, rich eni richard anglengel, always great talk with you as well. coming up, reaction from a former obama cabinet member, next. are you done yet?

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with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com i hold both countries responsible. i think that the united states has been foolish. i think we've all been foolish. i think we're all to blame. i think that the united states now has stepped forward along with russia and we're getting together and we have a chance to do some great things. >> that was the president, placing the blame on past administrations for the breakdown in u.s./russian relations. of course the mueller investigation also, that he frequently calls a witch hunt. the former energy secretary under president obama, ceo of the nuclear threat initiative. good to see you, mr. secretary. this obsession that the

president has with secretary clinton and president obama, that aside, when you hear him lay the blame squarely at the feet of the administration, you served in past administrations, what goes through your mind? >> well, first of all, we have to remember that certainly in the last years since 2014, russia is the one who had the incursion into ukraine. russia is the one who started military actions in syria. we could go on and on. but the president, president obama, always kept his eye on the ball in terms of the mutual threat that we have, u.s. and russia, in having over 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. so president obama had a very, very strong program to try to mitigate those risks. and here, in this administration, the trump administration, we've had very, very mixed signals. now, i want to say that in the

summit in helsinki, the president's actions are absolutely unconscionable and ultimately tears at our democratic institutions. i also want to say that there are suggestions to be played out over the next weeks that perhaps a process has been started in which the u.s. and russia can at the staff level, at the cabinet level, begin to address the existential risks of nuclear threats that we pose to each other. >> do you think something good could come out of this face-to-face meeting? >> potentially, yes, over the years, over the next months and years, in the sense that we can address our mutual nuclear risks. however, the president's performance unfortunately made that more difficult, because success there is going to require not only hard work at the staff level but it's going to require democrats and republicans coming together.

it's going to require the united states and our allies coming together. not only in helsinki but prior to that, in brussels with the nato meeting. the president unfortunately, for no obvious good reason, is just creating more and more divisions among those who he needs to help make something good out of a u.s./russia nuclear risk reduction discussion. >> i don't know if you had a chance to hear what your old boss, barack obama, had to say earlier today in a speech, but he called the times strange, uncertain, with each news cycle bringing more head-spinning and disturbing headlines. i'm wondering if that's how you see things right now. and for members of the current trump administration who are disturbed by what happened yesterday, and there are already reports about how upset they are with the way the president handled things, is this potentially some sort of tipping point and should members of the

administration consider resigning? >> last week we wrote that the trump hurricane had descended upon brussels. i think now we have the category 4 hurricane coming out of helsinki. it clearly is very, very disturbing. i have to say, dan coats, who heads our national intelligence, i believe is a straight shooter, and as you have seen, he has clearly stated that the president's statements on the intelligence conclusions on election meddle just are plain incorrect. so i'm not going to judge any individual's decision there. >> would you, under these circumstances, resign? >> we need republicans to push back. >> would you, under these circumstances, resign? >> again, i'm not going to comment on these speculative issues. i think what is clear under any circumstance, i would want to tell the truth and come out straightforwardly. and i certainly could not endorse any of the president's

statements, while still wanting to see a process move forward at a professional level to reduce our existential nuclear threats. >> former secretary ernest moniz, thank you. >> thank you, chris. who will save your soul? that's a question being asked of washington insiders today. we'll talk about that next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. introducing e*trade personalized investments professionally managed portfolios customized to help meet your financial goals. you'll know what you're invested in and how it's performing. so you can spend more time floating about on your inflatable swan. [ding]

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when will the senior people in the cabinet join together to confront this president? secretary of defense, secretary of state, the intel chiefs, the national security adviser, and basically say, mr. president, what you are doing is bad for the national security of this country we cherish. you're the president. you don't have to listen to us, but if you do not, we're going to resign en masse. >> rick hass, former senior white house official under president george w. bush calling for a collective intervention from top administration officials in the wake of the president's stunning press conference with vladimir putin. let's get the inside scoop from columnist and msnbc contributor

jonathan daypart, "washington post" writer. he's proposing first an intervention, but then he picks up on this, quote, everyone who works for president trump, quit now, save your souls. save your honor, such as it is. save your reputation, such as it remains. i would ask those who continue to serve trump what is the impact and message of your continued presence? are you mitigating trump's excesses or enabling them? well, it seems clear that those people, ruth who have said for a long time i'm sort of this, you know, shield between the president and doing something that could be really harmful. that argument went away yesterday. so what now? >> well, that's a really good question. and maybe the reality's even -- the potential reality is even worse than we know and maybe for the horror that we saw, there are nine other horrors that are

prevented. however, i -- while i think of richard haass, had a very good idea. i think we're beyond intervention here. because let's be clear, an intervention is trying to change somebody's behavior. donald trump's behavior is what we've learned through his presidency is, it is not going to change. and so what i think some senior cabinet officials and others do needs to -- they need to send a wake-up call. they need to send a wake-up call to congress so -- >> but do you believe there's anyone in this administration, ruth, who would do that, it would actually have the impact? >> you know, if you're me and a column nis and you don't think that anything you argue can have any impact, i guess you might as well pull the covers over your head in the morning. there are people who are agonized inside this administration. i believe there are people who aring an nitzed inside congress. and there are americans who are appalled by what they saw. so yes, we just need a wake-up

call. but this is -- some significant resignations could be a jolt because what else is working here? >> so your paper, "the washington post," reports, jonathan, that ahead of meeting, staffers provided the president with 100 pages of briefing materials aimed at laying out a proper posture towards putin. you could ask the question why do you provide 100 pages of briefing materials to a president who's not known to read or likes bullet points. are you trying to get plausible deniability in case the worse happens. and we know he was playing golf leading up to the summit. what do you make of that? >> maybe your theory is right, maybe it's plausibility denialability. maybe someone in the administration actually takes their job seriously in terms of preparing the supposed leader of the free world for a summit unlike any other when you're up against what's supposed to be the country's number one adversary. but, again, when you have a pupil who doesn't want to -- who

doesn't want to learn, who doesn't want to take in information, who thinks that it's his gut that all he has to do is trust his gut and he'll be just fine, who puts himself at the center of everything instead of putting the country and the national interest at the center of everything. those 100 pages mean nothing. to jump on what ruth was talking abouter in excellent column, we need to move those members of congress and particularly those folks in the administration from agony to action. i think if a lot of people were to -- >> how do you do that? >> well, if a lot of people were to resign from the trump administration, throwing up their hands and say, look, we've tried for 18 months to get the president to take his job seriously. he won't take it seriously. he won't take us seriously. i think sometimes you need a jolt to the system, a jolt to the american psyche, in order for the american people to get those hostages there on capitol hill who won't do anything, all

they do is murmur in the corners about how horrible things are. when it comes to actually doing something, they do nothing, if the american people rise up and demand they do something, maybe they will, but it has to start coming from the white house. >> jonathan, thanks. thank you, ruth. more ahead on "andrea mitchell reports." only on msnbc. we'll be right back. better. actually, it's bulkier. always discreet doesn't need all that bulk to protect. because it's made differently. the super absorbent core quickly turns liquid to gel, for drier protection that's a lot less bulky. looks like good things really do come in small packages. always discreet. for bladder leaks.

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that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports."

remember, follow the show online and on facebook and twitter. one hour until we hear from the president. >> one hour until we hear from the president for the first time since he stood next to a dictator man, accused of hacking into our elections, attacking our elections, and sided with him over his own intelligence community. >> correct. >> quite a day. >> yes. >> chris janice, thank you. we appreciate it. good afternoon from msnbc headquarters in new york. i'm katie tur in for craig melvin. the dam is breaking. the meeting between president trump and vladimir putin could be a breaking point for the gop. and in about an hour, the president will have to face the flood of backlash. he's meeting with republican members of congress and we'll talk to the press. plus, spy games. while standing next to the american president, vladimir putin