i want to shoutout to the companies and individuals doing things to help our fellow americans suffering during this shutdown. please continue to do that and i will continue to shine a light on those of you doing it. that wraps this hour for me. i will see you back here tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern and back here monday with stephanie at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. have a great weekend. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts now. hello, everyone, it's 4:00 in washington. without enough courage to buck the base, donald trump is all but broken down. donald trump gets death threats. "the washington post" reports, quote, the white house has begun laying a groundwork for declaration of national emergency to build trump's border wall, a move certain to set up a firestorm of opposition in congress and the courts but one that could pave the way to

are foar end to the three-week government shutdown. democrats blasted the president for manufacturing a crisis at the border where crossings are actually the lowest in decades. >> the president at this point is holding the american people hostage over his vanity project. that's what's happening. and this is a crisis of his own making. >> look, you don't get to declare a national emergency just because you didn't get your way. >> that's not democracy. that's dictatorship. >> and despite an attempt at reassurance last hour that he's not interested in declaring a national emergency, quote, right now, donald trump reportedly looked at funding his wall on the backs of victims of natural disasters. nbc news reports, quote, under the proposal the official said trump could dip into the $2.4 billion allocated to projects in california, including flood prevention and protection projects along the yuba riven basin and fullsom dam as well as $2.5 billion set aside for

reconstruction projects in puerto rico. even republicans are warning against the emergency declaration this hour. >> i don't want to see a declaration of national emergency. i think that's an action that would be taken in the most extreme circumstances. >> i think it's a bad president and it contravenes the power of the purse that comes from the elected representatives of the people. >> tomorrow the national security emergency might be climate change. so let's seize fossil fuel plants or something. and a one-time speechwriter for president george w. bush puts a fine point on this particularly galling moment in the trump presidency. my former colleague mike gursen writes in today's "washington post" -- this would be declaring a emergency if he makes that choice and then ignorance and stubbornness of one man turns a

budget skries into a constitutional crisis and turns the abetters of creeping athor tix, all to justify a fool's impulse. now here is with us nbc security national security robert brennan, journalist and msnbc contributor kim atkins and eli stoeckels, white house reporter for "the l.a. times." i first heard this parallel to authoritarianism from john howlman this week that if you can't muster of the will of the people to pressure the people's house, congress, to pass legislation, you simply reach for the authoritarian's toolbox and do it by emergency declaration. i thought that sounded like a reach at the beginning of the week but it makes a lot of sense now. >> i think donald trump has been reaching into the authoritarian's toolbox for quite some time in terms of delegitimizing the press, undermining the institutions of

government, trying to corrupt and control of the institutions of law enforcement and intelligence. so his opting for this right now i think is just very typical of him. and he's again fabricating crisis that leads to real crises, crisis of confidence in the government, crisis of confidence among federal workers. the fact 40% of the federal civil workforce is now furloughed, some of them working without pay but many are not working at all. and how much lost productivity is there? and all of those contracts and other people. so this is something i think donald trump really does not -- i think he come prehelpprehends doesn't care because he lacks that gene of empathy. he only does things that are going to benefit himself. i think that's been his way not just since he was inaugurated and long before that. the fact so many americans are going to suffer as a result of this, i don't think it bothers him. he's just looking at which way the political winds blow, which is what authoritarian leaders do. >> that seems to add to his problem because the political

winds are not blowing in a direction that aids him. if he had the political power behind him -- if this was popular, even if his whole base was behind this, he might be able to push legislation. the explanation for the cowardness among republicans has been oh, his base is so powerful, clearly, they're not. >> he hasn't thought through what his strategy is in terms of getting out of this mess and i think he now realizes the democrats in congress are not going to budge. so he's feeling even more pressure than i think he's ever felt before. so i think he's squirming and he gersson got it right -- >> he usually does. >> it's his stubbornness that is preventing us from moving forward and opening up the government and dealing with border security in a responsible way. >> i have to ask you something that i heard from a former senior intelligence official who said it was my job to know where all of the world's terrorists were and they were never on the southern border. >> i don't remember a single bona fide terrorist who came across the southern border in the eight years i worked in the obama add station as well as years i worked in the bush and clinton administrations. that's not the way terrorists

try to get into the united states. so, again, this is a fabrication of his own making, just to try to play to his own base and his own political wins. >> eli, it seems like the president addiction to lying has caught up with him here, in that now he's in a political predicament, director brennan is talking about the human calamity of this. you've got federal workers out of work, not getting their first paycheck, the american people more vulnerable to all of the things the federal government protects us from, air traffic control, tsa, food safety. but you have in terms of what the president understands a political calamity for him. >> correct. you think the president having a bully pulpit and you think of the donald trump thinking he can just bully his way and bully congress into submission, the bully pulpit doesn't exist for donald trump. you saw him get on national television earlier this week and speak to the country and try to move public opinion, and he just doesn't have the credibility on this issue or really any other

issue, to speak to people beyond his base at this point. that's the result of all of the misstatements, all of the lies and all of the sort of trap doors he leaves and gives us whiplash when he says, i never said i expected mexico to pay for the wall, he said that over 200 times. when you have somebody who plays it that fast and loose with the facts, everybody catches up to that. if you're listening to and believing what he said, it's a choice to listen and take what he says as the truth because it's obviously, in many cases, not the actual truth. i just think in terms of pushing the public and pushing public opinion to put more pressure on lawmakers and directly applying pressure on lawmakers, it just doesn't work for him and he's frustrated about that. you see he's not getting any moment from pelosi or schumer and i think that just speaks to why they're so tied up in knots. they just don't have any moves at this point in the things that traditionally a president can do, this one cannot. >> kim, i described donald trump as literally impotent earlier in

the week. and my guests collapsed in giggles. but i think the word also applies to his base. they're not as big and powerful as republicans thought they were because they're unable to move the needle an iota on the wall. there's no support in congress for getting a wall by any means. >> right. i think when we're talking about the president's base, we need to be clear what we're talking about. i think a lot of the time we're talking about the people that some folks in conservative media are telling the president his base is. and it's not always the case that even those who voted for him are fully behind him on every issue. certainly we know that republicans in congress are not behind him on this issue because they have already passed a bill that would have funded the government without wall funding, which put republicans in the even worse position, put mitch mcconnell in a terrible position, and sort of cuts against this idea the president is a master negotiator.

totally misinterpreted nancy pelosi and the position of the democrats thinking he could push them and he couldn't, he put the republicans in an awful position and now he's backed himself into a corner where the only way out is to make a declaration, the kind of unilateral a, that republicans have railed against for eight years during the obama administration. it's a really terrible position. >> it's striking to me the clips we played a little while ago, chuck grassley, marco rubio, mitt romney. you might expect mitt romney to be saying this, but we also have ted cruz, who has not been on board with this national emergency status. the fact that these republicans are coming out and saying this while this debate is still happening, the president views this potential national emergency declaration as leverage, as a threat to say if you don't give me this, i'm going to do this. the fact is those republicans coming out and saying they are uncomfortable with that is reducing his leverage. they can't even stick to his talking points on this. so i think the president has misunderstood the amount of leverage that he has in this

debate. i think he went into it because he has been talked out of it so many times before when he threatened to do this and now he's in a situation where he's basically trying to salvage something that could wiped up being very embarrassing for him if he has to back down. >> one other point on the national emergency, making the declaration, this whole week has been about laying the ground work trying to convince people there's a big problem on the border but when you have the president sitting there privately telling news anchors before the speech tuesday, this is silly. i don't think this is going to work. when you break the wall like that or you're out there and back and forth always talking to the press saying, i may declare a national emergency, i don't want to yet. if it's a matter of want to, it's not obviously that much of a national emergency. an emergency is something you have to respond to. so i think the president has undercut his own leverage just because he can't really be quiet and he sort of gives away the game. >> and the president branded this as something he would be proud to do weeks ago. let's watch him in the oval office.

>> we disagree. >> i am proud to shut down the government for border security, chuck, because the people of this country don't want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into a country. so i will take the mantle. i will be the one to shut it down. i will not blame you for it. the last time you shut it down, it didn't work. i will take the mantle of shutting it down. andly shut and i will shut it down for border security. >> take that and one more piece from mike gursen and i want to ask you what the world thinks when they watch all of this shaking out in our capital -- it's like the immune system dealing a virus it's never seen before, unpredictable to his staff, unconcerned about precious on his allies, contentious towards congressional opponents and with no apparent end game than total surrender. this is a case study in dramatic

failed leadership. is this thank sflus. >> yes, i think the self-anointed master emperor has no clothes. so many people around not just this country but around the world that he's full of bluster and rhetoric and i must say that he has fine-tuned that art in terms of being dishonest and being deceitful but now his words are hollow because he's not able to get himself out of these messes. i would like to think more republicans on the hill will separate himself from these positions and also kauts hcall because he's a danger to the country's future and prosperity as he continues to go down this road. >> what troubles an a lie moall, the utter incompetence which you just described, athor tarrism or the lies? >> e, all of the above. i think the very concern about his recklessness is a mercurial

nature. the fact he has all of these distractions -- >> he's so weak. >> right, the united states is not able to focus on the international stage and deal with the many issues that we have to. the fact he will just pronounce a policy or decision without thinking it through, like on syria, he announced one day jim mattis rightly was so upset because our allies and partners were not informed he resigned in protest. and bolton and pompeo are trying to recast what trump said and did because there's no coheerns to these policies and strategy. so i think a lot of our allies and partners around the world are worried about that and a lot of our adversaries and enemies are seeking to take advantage of it. what is russia and china doing because of the great distractions the oval office has right now? i think this is something that cannot continue if we're interested in trying to make sure this country lives up to its full potential and donald trump is undermining it. >> do you think, kim atkins, we have any chance of living up to

our potential? or are we at this point, you're right. you look at these, they look flabbergasted. the republicans in congress look like they're out of options because they know trump exactly as you describe him. democrats, they should just pop some popcorn. i don't know what there is for them to do because he's not at the table with them. are we going to sort of hope for the best or are we just going to try to survive this? >> democrats have had a plan of action that they're going to continue doing the work. they're passing spending bills that would open the republican. >> and some republicans in the house are voting forethem. >> right now there's great pressure on mitch mcconnell. he has a decision to make. he can put these bills on the floor and push. he can -- use a counter to count and get enough votes to override it. the impetus is on him more than ever to take action now in order to get the government running and to stop this major -- this is the crisis. this is not the one at the border, it's the one in washington, d.c. >> and that's how it ended in

2013. basically mitch mcconnell decided to humor ted cruz for a little while to do this whole defund obamacare thing that we all knew was never going to work in the first place, maybe more than we knew this was never going to work, and he humored him for 16 days and basically at the end of the whole thing he said we can't do it anymore, we be gave it a shot, the base, we tried, that's how this ends right now. if the rank-and-file republicans, if mitch mcconnell and republicans decide this will hurt them politically down the line or they have just drawn out the string too much and no chance of success, mitch mcconnell can go to the president and say i have a veto-proof majority to vote for the clean spending bill and we have to do this now or we can otherwise override your veto. >> is there an idea this is foolish and can't go on? >> i think they will give it a week and declare a national emergency. now we're at the end of the week, it doesn't seem from what

the president -- always could go back on his word -- but it doesn't seem that's happening this week. and there is a sense that inside the white house they're preparing for this possibly going on another week, possibly through the end of the month, possibly through the state of the union on january 29th. and so that is really remarkable. you hear lindsey graham saying, mr. president, do this now, declare a national emergency, end this. what he's really saying is we need to end the shutdown. he's just trying to say it in words the president will hear and understand. but i think there's just an insulation inside the white house from the impact of the government shutdown because the president is so focused really on his own base and that is something the republicans on the hill, especially vulnerable senators on the ballot in 2020, they feel the urgency. the white house just doesn't seem to. >> real quick? >> don't underestimate the president's pride in this. he's threatened this before and not gone down this road. he's now pot committed to the strategy. if he backs down, he will be losing to the democrats, unlike the first two years of his presidency. that's a recipe for something to stick this out for a long time. >> all right, buckle up.

eli, thank you for spending time with us. when we come back, why were ukrainian politicians crawling all over donald trump's inaugural celebration? robert mueller wants to know, looking at what went down in the huddles of pro-putin went down. and donald trump's treasury secretary attempting to answer questions about russian sanctions, what might he be hiding? and so much for leaving partisanship at the water's edge. donald trump's secretary of state leans in with his boss with the world's ought kratz while attacking politicians. take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused.

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from "the new york times" could get investigators closer to connecting important dots in robert mueller's collusion probe. it will also raise questions about whether trump's suspiciously pro-russia foreign policy may be criminal at its core. the story involves the biggest trump world characters already in mueller's crosshairs, paul manafort, michael flynn and michael keen. mueller's investigators now probing whether they and other members of trump's inner circle illegally pushed a pro-russia agenda potentially in exchange for profit and whether any agreement reached between the trump campaign and russians could be linked to election meddling. according to the report, mueller's team became suspicious

of an unusual number of pro-russian ukrainians at president trump's inauguration. that would be odd. and investigators began looking into whether there are ties to the trump team or related to an illegal lobbying effort. joining us, is jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon matt miller is back, former spokesman for the justice department. aaron black and david brennan is still here. i think we have to share responsibility if we ever normalize a sentence like robert mueller became suspicious at the number of pro-putin people at the inauguration. that's not normal. what do you think from an intelligence perspective you see ukrainians pushing a peace plan at the trump inauguration. >> i wasn't invited to the inauguration, so that's there. >> me neither. >> i think it's demonstrated trump cannot subordinate his own personal, financial interest throughout the greater good,

throughout his business life and also as he became president of the united states. >> on the day he was becoming -- >> so consorting, colluding or interacting, and some with questionable integrity, ethics and principle -- >> all three of those men convicted felons. >> yes. i think it's come to the attention of a lot of the authorities here about what actually was going on and whether or not there was any elicit, illegal, criminal activity that might have been taking place by anybody involved. >> jeremy, can you just pull this thread on what the president's national security adviser, mike flynn, what appropriate role could he have had in meeting with pro-putin ukrainians in and around the inauguration? we know michael cohen pleaded guilty to having pushed -- lying about his interactions on the business front with russians. and paul manafort now in a world of trouble. they're at the center of "the new york times" reporting and we know they're of interest to robert mueller >> this is a massive effort to

engage in unregistered foreign lobbying and foreign influence inside washington by pro-putin forces including ukrainian oligarchs. the fact they attended the inauguration is a symptom of this larger effort. what i found very interesting to build on director brennan's point is in the reporting by "the new york times" is the trump tower moscow project was predicated on loans, loans from vtb and gen bank, two sanctioned russian entities. so the obl of felix seder and michael cohen, engineering this financial transaction for the trump organization, was to relax sanctions. when the trump tower meeting hand in june, which we know now donald trump lied about, it wasn't just russians who wanted sanctioned relieved, the trump organization wanted sanctions relieved. so they were working in concert towards that mutual objective. >> let me stay here because i think this is lost on so many people who are looking for something more dramatic. this could be a simple sort of

pay-to-play, a simple corruption, bad business, simply donald trump doing business with russians the way he did business in new jersey, a low-tech crime if you will. >> he had financial interests and the moscow trump tower was in some ways for him the signature project of his real estate empire. it was his salvation. it was his way to basically monetize the relationships he had cultivated inside the russian inner circle for all of these many years. it's the reason he did the miss universe pageant, so he could have these business relationships. that was the payoff. this is definitively a financial deal. one more point, we keep using the term ukrainian peace plan, that's a euphemism. peace plan was a way to relieve sanctions on russia and give donald trump the business he sought. >> and matt miller, it's a great point because all of the meetings that the trump folks took were about this, the meeting at trump tower were about sanctions really. that's -- mike flynn was on the phone on the day of the inauguration with russians. he then lied about it to robert mueller. i want to just dig into this

piece because it's weavy but our viewers can mack out the case law of the mueller probe at this point. from "the new york times" report, the sanctions posed a potential obstacle, as you were saying, jeremy, for the trump tower moscow project. felix sater and michael cohen discuss the two banks mentioned, but the sanctions prohibited american citizens and companies from doing business with either of them, according to reporting from "the new york times." what does that tell you about what mueller is doing? is he following the way the money flowed to the banks? what does that tell us about the mueller probe? >> when you say ukrainian peace plan, it's clear they're not from the ukrainian government. this is one of two pro-russian ukrainian peace plans that hand to make its way into the trump administration early on. what that means, it's like when you see russian adoptions, it's about sanctions of the russians. in some ways that is the original sin the special counsel is investigating, whether the trump administration was promising or putting feelers out

to russians, probably through mike flynn, the incoming national security adviser, potentially to others, to release sanctions in exchange for something else. that something else could be business dealings for donald trump. that something else can be help in the election. it could be a number of things. that in a way is at the heart of this investigation, has been at the heart of this investigation ever from the very beginning. >> what do you think about the fact these are the kinds of things that are dripping out at this point in the mueller probe? in the beginning it was a lot of the threads the obstruction investigation, lawyers and white house aides and people around washington with information would come out, now it's all of these threads of the collusion. >> i agree completely and was going to make that point before you asked the question. i feel like there was a point in this investigation, maybe six to nine months ago, where we thought maybe the collusion stuff dried up. the trump tower -- meeting, not trch tow trump tower moscow, had been in the news for a while but not advanced. in the last several weeks here,

of course, we had the trump tower moscow situation, we have manafort giving polling to his russian -- alleged russian intelligence ukrainian business colleague, and now we have this. it feels like there are a lot of dots out there that we didn't know -- we don't know if mueller is connecting those dots f. that's ever going to lead to anything, but i think the idea this is mostly an obstruction probe, which is a perception that maybe was flawed to begin with but a lot of us had at one point in time as you mentioned is kind of being put to rest now. the collusion question seems to be very much on the table now and he's not abandoned that at all. >> i want to read you one more thing. individual one is the president. cohen discusses the status and progress of the moscow project withp individual one. a clear reference to trump, on more than the three occasions to which he lied and spoke with family members of individual one about the project. how much trouble could the president be in on the central

questions of collusion and criminal conspiracy? >> and money laundering. and evasion, tax fraud. >> keep going. don't stop. >> i think we have to remember the fbi investigation was initially opened on this in july 2016. we have the fbi investigators have been working this issue before the special counsel was established and then afterward for 2 1/2 years. the fbi's financial investigators are very, very good. for those of us who have worked counterintelligence issues in years past with the russians, you follow the money. that's the adage, follow the money. i'm sure the special counsel team has been meticulously pulling those threads most domestically and internationally to see what those financial transactions and efforts to try to avoid the different types of u.s. obstacles that are put in place in order to prevent this type of foreign manipulation of our political system. so i think what we are seeing now is indications of the things that the fbi has been able to uncover, and the information that they've been able to bring

together. we've seen some of it in the indictments already and i do believe in the next month or two, we're going to see a fair amount more that is going to implicate those who are very close to individual one. >> that was too good. what do you know, a month? what -- >> no, i think, again, this investigation is going on for 2 1/2 years. >> counterintelligence. >> yes, i don't think bob mueller wants to bring this into the start of the campaign season. i would anticipate within the first half of this year, if not sooner, it's going to be concluded. what the nature of his report is going to be, i think is subject to some question. but i do think he's going to try to at least wrap up his work. he may be feeding and seeding, you know the different types of investigations that he has uncovered or has identified, to the southern district of new york, eastern district of virginia, state attorney general of new york, but i don't think bob mueller sees this is his lifelong career. >> for the rest of his career.

>> exactly. >> feeding and seeding. that's too good. we're going to push on that in the next segment. aaron blake, thank you for spending much of the hour with us. more answers in the front, steve mnuchin is in hot water for saying nothing on the closed-door hearing on mysterious sanctions for mr. powell. ays. (dad) i think it's here. (mom vo) especially at this age. (big sister) where are we going? (mom vo) it's a big, beautiful world out there. (little sister) woah... (big sister) wow. see that? (mom vo) sometimes you just need a little help seeing it. (vo) presenting the all-new three-row subaru ascent. love is now bigger than ever.

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as wlern more about the except of robert mueller's scrutiny in the suspicious trump pro-russian policy, democratic lauer makers saying president trump's effort to make russian great again may be ongoing. democrats this week condemning the white house for lifting sanctions on one of vladimir putin's close allies, oleg deripaska, who has business ties to paul manafort. yesterday treasury secretary steve mnuchin was summoned to capitol hill to explain his testimony is less than

satisfying according to house speaker nancy pelosi. >> this stiff competition, mind you, is one of the worst classified briefings we received from the trump administration. the secretary fairly testified. he answered some questions but he didn't give testimony. they had an intelligence briefing, which i won't go into, and then they read a document that was unclassified, wasting the time of the members of congress. and i went in sympathetic to the process that has been established for sanctions and the relief of sanctions. i came out just unimpressed. >> so what would they be lying about here? this is lifting sanctions from the companies run by -- i can barely pronounce these russian names -- deripaska. why have the trump cabinet

members but their career and credibilities on the line to go in and tow the trump line? >> i think that's the question of the day, why so many people who are part of the cabinet or white house staff as well as the members of congress, why they continue to trash the reputation, sacrifice their integrity, lack of principles and ethics we expect of our government officials, both in executive and legislatives branches. why they're doing this for a person like donald trump? i can't figure it out. and i do give jim mattis a lot of question for trying to do his very best in terms of leading the men and women of the department of defense for so long in putting up with a lot of trump's antics. but at some point you have to say that i'm enabling this bad behavior. i'm not being the guardrail that i'm trying to be. and so i think a lot of people really should be asking themselves that question. >> i think we get the high road example from director brennan. ly give you the low road example, michael cohen had to go through the same process and he decided to stop telling lies for

donald trump and we're just beginning to learn he will testify on february 7th. but what do you think is behind someone like steve mnuchin, who seems to value his brand, his identity, to go up there and i think as nancy pelosi -- i say this as a compliment, as one of the most effective partisans i have seen in my career in politics and she worked collaboratively when the national security and interest was at stake with my old boss george w. bush around the financial collapse and around intelligence issues, to hear her come out and say it was the worse classified briefing she's ever heard is really a stunning indictment. >> and she's turned on the intelligence committee where an ex-official member for role in leadership the last 20 years, since the days of 9/11. she's heard her fair share of intelligence briefings. it's not that she always agreed with the intelligence community, there's been sparky relations. but when she said something like this, i think you can kind of take it to the bank. i think there's a larger point here, nicolle, while we may have to wait for the mueller investigation's report to answer

questions that director brennan posed, we don't have to wait for the report to see the effects of the russian covert influenced the campaign. the russian policy has been the most pro-russian in history and the relaxation of sanctions is the latest example, pulling out of syria abruptly and leaving in place the kremlin's handpicked client in basser assad is one example, undermining nato is another and taking the word of helsinki over our own men and women of the intelligence community is probably the most troubling example. in all of this you see a phenomenal pro-russian foreign policy as the fruit of their efforts. >> you talk about guardrails and jim mattis, it's not effort at reining in -- i think you ticked through all of the examples i was going to put up, sanctions, selling discord with u.s. democracies, syria, crimea. there's not much left on putin's to-do list for donald trump.

how else are we to look at it though than there's some quid pro quo? >> it's very hard to see. it's very hard to see any other reason. >> you know who stops and says, you know who got screwed? putin got screwed. nobody. >> and if there was a better explanation, steve mnuchin would have given it up at the hill. one thing i bet he didn't understand and few people in the trump administration understand is just how much the ruled changed january 23rd. a year ago after rolling back the sanctions, steve mnuchin could have gotten up to the hill, given a half-baked briefing, refused to answer half the questions and there would be no consequences. now things are different. you go up to the hill and do that performance, he may find himself in a subpoena with open cameras and the house putting a roll-back of sanction that's would put enormous pressure on the republican senate to follow suit. their days of being able to just treat congressional oversight as a nuisance they can ignore are

very much over. >> it shines the light on two things, how much opportunity the democrats have to be laser focused on this really specific issue of sanctions from treasury steve mnuchin and just how horrific republicans have been for the last two years. why don't they care? >> right. and it's going to be even more pressure once, if all of the reporting is correct, you have an end to the mueller investigation and there are more details that come out, it will be a lot more difficult for republicans to turn the other way and frepd thpretend this is happening continue will ramp up the oversight of democrats as they have already promised. i think it makes a very good point, that this is very different now. you see the white house staffing up with lawyers finally, something they should have done a long time ago, beginning to realize what's on the horizon. >> i have been to that movie, i know how it ends. step up, guys. when we come back, donald trump and his secretary of state have turned trashing u.s. politicians who disagree with them on foreign policy into an

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ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. we know this president really likes strong men. he's defied his own intel community's conclusions about russian meddling and who was behind the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi. he's boasted he and kim jong-un fell in love, his words. he praised murderous dictators like vladimir putin. and yesterday we heard this -- >> i find china, frankly, in many ways to be far more honorable than brian, chuck and nancy. i really do. i think china is actually much easier to deal with than the opposition party. >> mark land ler of "the new york times" puts that statement in context, in quote, mr.

trump's affinity for strong men well established as is contempt for his predecessor and his habit of gleefully ridiculing opponents regardless of party affiliation. rarely has the trump administration offered such a striking display of embracing autocrats as friends and those at home who disagree as enemies. this as a top diplomat made a speech in cairo rebutting trump's predecessor without using his name. >> remember it was here, here in this city that another american stood before you. he told you that radical islamist terrorism does not stem from an ideology. he told you the united states and muslim world needed, quote, a new beginning, end of quote. the results of these misjudgments have been dire. the good news is this, the age of self-inflicted american shame is over. and so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering. now comes the real new beginning.

>> pompeo also saying when america retreats, chaos follows, which suggests he forgot he works for a proud ice lacist who just promised to rip troops out of syria so recklessly he lost his secretary of state. the panel is still here. i hear him and it sounds like 2004 is calling and wants its republican secretary of state back. he's not speaking as though he has any attachment to donald trump's foreign policy, all we call them are impulses, they have nothing to do with the american idea. they have everything to do with randomly and impulsively retreating from places where lives are on the line. >> yes, and i think mike pompeo should be ashamed of what he has said in cairo and the way he has disparaged former presidents and policies, and the eyes of the arab and muslim world. it's very unfortunate that donald trump is proceeding on the foreign policy front with

the lack of coherence, the lack of strategic understanding of the different pieces here. mike pompeo, i think he is one of trump's biggest sycophants. so he's trying to make sense out of what trump is doing. so that's why you see the inconsistencies between what trump says, what pompeo says, what bolton says. i'm sure people in the region are confused, and so i don't know what's being said in the private meetings but certainly what is being said publicly is a source of great confusion for all. >> and we talk about this a little in the break but trump excuse is he's read not one book. he doesn't understand the middle east. what's pompeo's sclus? >> i think director brennan know because he lived in the middle east, i think people look at your actions, not words. i think the speech will be forgotten. why? our actions are speaking much longer. we established a brand bridge through iraq, through syria, through lebanon and

mediterranean. we abandoned our allies who found alongside of us including the kurds, and syrian arab forces. we caused great consternation inside israel's security establishment among our critical allies in the region. we freaked out jordan, even the gulf partners in egypt. we've done so many things with this announcement which, of course, secretary mattis resigned over because that was the ultimate straw that broke his back. >> right. >> we've done so many things those actionless speak much louder than these words. >> matt, i'm not a foreign policy whiz by any stretch but if you're so afraid of iran, why are you strengthening all of their allies? >> because barack obama took the opposite position. that's the bottom line. look, donald trump as you said, we know by now he doesn't really believe in fundamental liberal values. rule of law, strength of democracy, western liberal values. i think what you see from some of the people that work for him is you see them kind of trying to take his foreign policy or his impulses you call them, i think that's the right way to describe them, and try to fashion some foreign policy out

of them that makes sense. and what it ends up looking like is they mistake an opposition to liberals to america with an opposition to liberalism. and so you see people like mike pompeo, who really should know better and probably does know better run around the world embracing tyrants, embracing autocrats in the same way donald trump does. partially because they have to suck up to the boss and they have to do what the boss says, and partially because they want to do the exact opposite of what barack obama did in every instance. >> and there's no more drama king, no republicans in the congress who have that stature around the world. >> right, no. you don't have these people who are standing up, i'm still waiting for mitt romney to do what he said he was going to dosh. >> don't told your breath. >> in that op-ed. i haven't. but at the same time the point you make is right, there's this anti-obama bend but at the same time i remember being told by israeli officials how horrible the obama administration was and president trump's moves are still alienating this ally who

benjamin netanyahu embraced when he came into office. it's very incoherent and that's the problem. i think now we are seeing even someone as close to donald trump as mike pompeo is is showing how difficult rex pompeo was, it sh difficult the job is. >> almost sympathetic. >> coming up, a busy travel weekend had for candidates trying to get in early with democratic voters. ith democratic voters. r degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. my doctor and i came up with a plan. it includes preservision. only preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. that's why i fight. because it's my vision. preservision. also, in a great-tasting chewable.

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we have to reject these powerful voices that are trying to sell hate and division among us. >> my vision for the future of the united states is that we be the smartest, the healthiest, the fairest, and the most prosperous nation in the world. >> that is pamela harris awho apparently has a important anoun announcements to make in the next few days. sheriff brown has big plans for a big trip to iowa and e lilizah wa warren is ready for a big weekend in new hampshire. >> i think someone that can bet

trump is one of the biggest qualifications. >> are they going to vote that way, though? >> that is a big question, you will see it come out in the debates. i don't know if they're as motivated to vote against bush as they are against trump -- >> that is an incredible statement. >> we have candidates that are on the far left, in the middle, old, young, black, white, brown, there is everything that you can choose from, the democratic debates compared to the republican debates -- >> but look at what happened to us with 17 -- are you worried about that number of candidates? >> they weren't diverse, and i debt that, do you worry there are too many choices?

>> we need to have a big conversation about what the party believes in, what the policies are -- >> we need plenty of time to wrap it up for everyone to get behind one. >> remember the base of the democratic party looks very different. and they speak to all of those members of the base. they are essentially looking for the same thing. they are looking for a different field, it is what the democratic voters want. >> do you think the primary donors, do you think those things matter any more? >> that matter in terms of whittling down the field, getting people in place. i don't think democrats want a

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my thanks to kim atkins and jere bash, that does it for our hour. >> nicole, can you feel the urge, washington lawmakers really want to solve this, can't you tell? >> what is wrong with them? is it in the air or the water? >> it's as if they are like huh, whatever. it is crazy. >> i will go to my tv and watch. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington. this shut down is not just poised to break the record, but it could shatter it after what the president just said. just 90 minutes ago, he said he