>> interesting move from mitt romney to vote with democrats, yes, both on the republican proposal and that one. we will see if this -- all of this unfolding drama on the hill today gets leaders back in a room together. that will wrap up a busy hour for me on capitol hill. please tune in sunday to "kasie dc," 7:00 p.m. eastern, right here on msnbc. "deadline: white house" with my friend nicolle wallace starts right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. first sign of surrender, that's how a source close to the president described his capitulation to house speaker nancy pelosi over his coveted state of the union address, which is now canceled, as nancy pelosi said it should be until the government shutdown ends. on day 34 of the shutdown, federal agencies are languishing, furloughed employees bracing for a second missed paycheck and donald trump appears to have retreated to the comfort of his cable tv habit and social media to live tweet

along with his favorite tv shows. negotiations between congress and the white house all but off as the two proposals that could have reopened the government failed in the senate just in the last hour. the president's slow motion catastrophe so grave and so potentially dangerous that his former chief of staff john kelly is piling on. these joining other former homeland security chiefs to put out a letter warning that the shutdown now poses a serious security threat. they write, quote, dhs employees who protect the traveling public investigate and counter terrorism and protect critical infrastructure should not have to rely on the charitable generosity of others for assistance feeding families and paying their bills as they sit fastly focused on the information at hand. this is unconscionable. we're awed by the sacrifices the men and will of dhs and their families make every day in their extraordinary service to our nation. we call on our elected leaders to restore the funding necessary to ensure our homeland remain

safe and that the department's critical national security functions continue without compromise. the department of homeland security, one of the scores of vital government agencies, now in peril under the partial government shutdown. also among them, air traffic control, which just put out one of the most alarming statements yet. quote, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the he tientire system wi break. it is unprecedented. that's the agency that keeps airplanes from falling out of the sky. haoer to break it down, our national political reporter from "the washington post." from capitol hill, our reporter from "the new york times" and former obama deputy chief of staff jim mussina is back and corinne jean-pierre from move on.org, called back in service. we didn't get enough of her yesterday. robert costa, please bring us the latest and greatest from capitol hill this hour. >> a few minutes ago, nicolle, i

asked senate majority leader mitch mcconnell what's next, what now after these two votes failed in his chamber that he runs? he was as usual stone-faced, no comment. but if you watched him on the senate the last hour, he was huddling with republican senators. senator schumer said mcconnell called him to his office. now because these bills failed and the democratic got more votes in the--controlled senate than the republican proposal the president support, it's now time to noeregotiate based on my conversations with senators. >> what you just said is so important, the politics of this has been clear as day to those of us who cover politics, the president's wall, more unpopular than the president, the president, more unpopular than the democrats, the president's bill got fewer votes than a democratic bill that would have reopened the government. just underscore how damaging that is for the president and how much that weakens him moving forward in these negotiations.

>> it does and the reason for that is someone like senator cotton from arkansas, a conservative on immigration, said no thanks to the president's proposal. to him it's too moderate to have tease protections for the daca recipients. at the same time senators like mitt romney of utah, senator collins of maine, senator isaacson of georgia, they're part of this bipartisan discussion going on, they say it's time to get the government reopened so they're okay with the democratic proposal just as a way to open up the government. the white house's leverage here is on the brink and you have house democrats, the speaker saying we're going to move forward with an offer to the white house on friday. $5 billion in border security measures, not a wall but border security measures, just to see what the president does now that these bills have failed. >> be rot costa, one more for you, a source close to the president telling me today that donald trump's capitulation on the state of the union, something he values more than just about anything else, television time, was the first sign of surrender in his observation. >> it's fascinating

relationship, speaker pelosi and president trump, two people of the same generation. president usually likes to use bullying tactics but speaker pelosi, someone who's been in the trefrms of political war, policy war and discussions for decades, she brings a tough personality, a lot of political capital to her negotiations with the president, and he sees in her, based on my conversations with white house officials, a formidable opponent. >> robert costa used the perfect word, donald trump tactics are all bullying tactics. if there's one thing about nancy pelosi, she will not -- she cannot be bullied. >> right. she has bested smarter men than donald trump in her political career, smarter, savvier, more strategic than donald trump is. not only that, donald trump was bluffing yesterday and clearly she was not. she was not going to allow herself to be intimidated by donald trump. honestly, what we're seeing right now is nancy pelosi is donald trump's worst nightmare.

and because -- >> and maybe the country's best hope. >> exactly. i think that's the perfect way to say it because he finally gets a no. someone is finally saying to him, n-o, you're not getting your way, this is a divided government and we're a co-equal branch. she's taking that on and she's not afraid of him. she's, like i have said, she's seen a lot worse than donald trump. >> jim, in talking to people inside the administration, they all privately describe dealing with this president -- and i invite robert costa and nick to jump in if their reporting deviates from this, in their private discussions they talk about managing him and his impulses any way the parent talks about managing their child but it doesn't spill over in the public. publicly they try to fall in line what he seems to want at any giften moment. pelosi's strategy seems to be treat him like the child he acts like and go public with that. ? it's a really smart strategy and i agree with corinne.

she's not someone to be trifled with. she will go straight at him. we have very early in preschool learns impulse control. president trump doesn't have impruls control and he's always about tactics. nancy pelosi can play the tactics game but she also can play the big-picture game and understand how to get this done. but a place youp and i used to work for a very long time, u.s. senate, pelosi and trump are wailing away with each other, the senate is the place to cut a deal and figure out how to move forward. >> are you sure? there's no reporting that suggests donald trump sees an end to this shutdown as an imperative. >> but you brought up the best point, i worked in the senate 15 years, the amount of time the minority bill got more votes than the majority bill, you can count on one hand. that is unprecedented. that's why the first thing mitch mcconnell said is get schumer in my office. we have to figure this out. in a functioning divided government, which america wants and now america has, the senate is usually the place you go to cut the deal. >> that's right. it used to be that men and

women, but men like ted kennedy and john mccain, the late ted kennedy and mccain, used to be the people in the room that could do that. is it within the sort of skill set of mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer to follow in that model? >> absolutely in their skill set. what's happening here though is a breakdown of american politics. you can't solve an intractable problem where there's no consensus by trying to solve it at the worst moment possible, and that's on the cr. so what they've done is saying, i'm going to hold this whole thing hostage to solve this one problem that we have not been able to solve for ten years, through periods of unified control and single control. >> you mean immigration? >> yes. >> been more than ten years. george bush addressed immigration with the support of john mccain and ted kennedy in 2005. >> here's the thing with trump, pelosi is not a condo buyer. i think the president sometimes

does deals the way in the private sector, where there isn't any repeat business. and if he gets the better of somebody, he can go on with his life. that's now how this works, repeat deal making with the same people over and over again. she's looking down the road. she knows if she lets him do this shutdown and get an unpopular policy through with it, he will do it over and over again. it's bad for democrats. >> they heamy favorite thing i l day, nancy pelosi not a condo buyer. jared kushner, who still gets a lot of criticism from people inside and outside of the white house for his lack of experience and as the shutdown shows, if this is a point man, this is not going to end up on his resume. ? there's a fundamental problem. they've been meeting with democrats arguing there's a good deal to be had and keeps coming to the white house saying there's a big compromise he can cut, he can bring his business skills and main this all end but the house democrats are watching

kushner with a wary eye and saying what is kushner talking about? nancy pelosi, this house speaker, is not going to let her members drift. the members are with pelosi. the white house keeps trying to poach democrats on the moderate side and invite them to the white house, the problem-solvers group, all of that. the democrats continue to hold firm. and the white house still believes the president somehow can get the democrats to bend and get a big deal to happen. but pelosi has -- the speaker has framed this in moral terms and she also said to her members, we have the leverage, do not bend. kushner will just continue to offer things. democrats privately tell me pelosi -- the speaker's message is look what the kushner's continued to do and the trump white house has continued to do, put things on the table. daca protections. all we need to do is sit here and wait. >> the president, you reported, disparaged jared, belittled him and said he's become an immigration expert all of a sudden. tell us about that andic dote. >> the story leads with an

anecdote where the president said, well, jared, you've become an expert on immigration in the last 48 hours. make it clear, different white house officials have different characterizations of that exchange. but we're confident in the reporting. and it underscores how the president sees jared as not only someone working on jared kushner working on middle east peace, he's working on issues with the russia investigation, he's working on mexico and trade policy, but he's also now the real leader, along with vice president pence and acting chief of staff nick mulvaney on the shutdown. that tells you where this white house is at, kushner, vice president pence, mulvaney, the power trio so to speak. >> another way to look at is where the white house is is woefully understaffed, woefully underresourced and even the president knows it's a joke that kushner's in charge. >> it's unbelievable. let's remember five days ago, only five days ago kushner's grand idea was to put the president out on saturday to offer the house democrats something they didn't want and had not talked to, and now he's going to be the guy that fixes

this? it's crazy. the other thing i think people need to remember, for nancy pelosi this is an imperative time to teach donald trump a lesson because we're going to be right back here in march again. the debt limit ceiling happens, we're going to be right back here. trump already said he will demand more money for the wall and she's got to teach him we're now in divided government and that's exactly what she's doing. trump's playing tactics and she's playing long ball. >> one thing i wanted to ask you since i saw this on social media last week, george w. bush, people that have served in the white house, have this sort of institutional knowledge of just how dire and grave it is with these agencies, even if people are having to work to work. i understand a lot of folks at the justice department, it's been a complete shutout. but not being paid, missing two paychecks, puts any person under great duress. you're worried about your spouse buying groceries and checks bouncing and rent checks and babysitters and whatnot.

what else can be done to sort of make the point that this is deadly serious stuff? i thought john kelly, the president's last chief of staff, signing on this letter about the security concerns suggested to me no one can pick up the phone and talk to donald trump. they can only speak to him through the media. what else can they do? >> it's interesting you know see today the airlines coming out, talking about similar things. trac traffic controllers doing this thing. kelly is teaching donald trump a lesson as well. one of the best dishes in washington, d.c. is revenge and this is him saying how do you like me now? let's be very honest. >> served cold though. it's been two weeks. >> piping out! exactly right. it's also unprecedented but he doesn't have his former chief of staff on board. and you're seeing more and more normal people. you and i worked in white houses, one thing you do not do is screw with the national

security. 80% of americans live paycheck to paycheck. what about border control? what about everyone at the airports? >> where more dangerous people come through airports. you're laughing. >> it's absolutely right. i think what's amazing about this moment is -- and for everyone watching the show, it's not usually like this. and we're actually in this aberration. usually you would have contentious policy fights separate from this process. we don't have to do this over a government shutdown. that's become the normal course of business in washington. it's never what anyone envisioned as a way to handle these disputes. it just goes on and on. i can't believe it. >> i want to skip over what nancy pelosi accomplished but even making a round of calls to some of the president's allies outside the white house today, they were surprised he capitulated on the state of the union address. i want to talk to you about what was happening in democratic circles. some people were critical of her. they say she's playing his game by not inviting him. she was right. do democrats have the stomach to

be as steely as nancy pelosi? >> they better because we have her as speaker. i think she proved yesterday why she should be speaker, right. she proved exactly everything that many of us were arguing and fighting back and forth why she should be given the gavel again. one of the things donald trump said in her statement is it's her prerogative. it's like he realized finally, wow, i do not have any power here. oh, yeah, okay, it is your prerogative. i will do this. >> and he read his pbd or showed up before noon. >> she shows power and she's a woman, that's another part of it, and she's his peer as well. so all of that matters. going back to john kelly for a second, it shows how much of a weak hand donald trump has. john kelly, who was in the white house when the shutdown hand, and now outside of the white house, what, two weeks later he's saying oh, yeah, you need to end this shutdown. >> that's a great point. we're living dog years. it seems like forever ago this

started but i guess it was on the heels of jim mattis' resignation and january feels like it's been 142 days long. i'm going to ask you what my 7-year-old asks me all the time, what happens next? >> what happens next? senator susan collins of maine told me she's going to stay here over the weekend, she thinks senators have to come together, pressure leader mcconnell and leader schumer to work with speaker pelosi, to work with president trump and find an end to this shutdown, to include daca protections at some level, maybe change some green card policy, include billions in border security but not a wall, and find a way to go to the president and say we've cobbled something together. nothing else can pass the senate or the house. it's time to put this on the floor and it's time for you to signal you sign it. >> robert costa, always grateful to have you. your reporting on this has been awesome. >> thank you. >> after the break, it's subpoena time for michael cohen. news today the senate intel committee will require cohen to

testify, this as the president is undeterred by accusations he's engaged in witness tampering, today continued his attack on cohen. >> also ahead, a new report from the nation's top spy agencies says russia's efforts to weak oun oen our democracy is ongoing. it's ominous news after we know now about the investigation into donald trump based on concerns he might be a russian agent. the so call team of vipers singles out one of its own after a harsh accusation she's a leaker. we'll have the natty exchansty coming up. sty exchange coming up. i'm a veteran

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this is called witness tampering. this is a crime. and the congress of the united states has to exert its authority against a president now who's acting more like putin every day. >> i don't know of any time the president threatened this individual. i know cohen to be a liar and why he's going to jail. so i don't agree with any premise. i have not seen the president do anything about that. >> this is something that should upset every single american. this is the united states of america. this is not russia. >> i would love to have cohen in congress answering some of these tough questions. whether saying he's getting threatened seems pretty silly to me. it makes no sense he's using the excuse he's been threatened. that doesn't make sense. >> the headline there, devin noons and kevin mccarthy do not follow donald trump on twitter. mr. president, do something about that.

did donald trump intimidate a witness or not? will welcome to earth year 2019 where democrats are sticking up for a prison-bound fixer who helped get a president elected. go figure. michael cohen's attempts to postpone his testimony has been overruled by a sense of urgency from the senate intelligence committee which today subpoenaed him to testify february 12th. that committee calling him to, quote, correct false testimony he delivered last year about a proposed trump organization project in moscow. msnbc national security analyst frank figliuzzi, former assistant director at the fbi and msnbc contributor john rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official, join the conversations. frank, let me start with you, why is this so important not just to robert mueller but the senate intel committee? >> well, it depends on where we're going with this, nicolle. the senate, as you know, and your viewers know, still controlled by republicans. so the intent of this subpoena is still up in the air from

where i sit. i want to know what this is all about. i fear that it's going to turn into an attack on cohen, and we're going to have posturing and we're going to have leaks from both sides on this. and i also have to tell you that i think cohen is using this i'm being threaten, my family is being threatened defense, probably prematurely. we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and cohen hasn't shared specifics of what threat means to him. so it's very hard to make a threat case a tampering case just based on the public comments and twitter posts that we've seen from this president. >> chuck, let's explore both avenues then. let's give the senate intel committee the benefit of the doubt and if they're exploring the substance, just talk about

why this trump tower negotiation is now at the center of questions about whether donald trump was on the take or working for russia? it seems to be sort of the comment denominator with every revelation we had in the last six to eight weeks. >> i agree with you, nicolle. here's why i think it matters so much and less to do with the criminal investigation and much more to do with the counterintelligence investigation. when donald trump was running for president, in those eight, ten, 12 months leading up to the election, was he trying to curry favor with the russian government and vladimir putin? the time line matters because the timeline encompasses not just his campaign but also his efforts to build that project in moscow. and so was he taking positions? were they changing platforms? were they doing and saying things to appease the russian government? and if that's the case, frank knows this far better than me, that would be very interesting

to counterintelligence investigators. >> frank, is think on the substance side -- and we're explore the political side too because you raise a good point -- on the substance side, is there precedent for the committees in congress to do the kind of work that would maybe make it more tricky if the house impeaches the president, the senate intel committee has some of this evidence that their own committee has generated, does that complicate the political picture for the president? >> yeah, i think it does. in an ideal world, nicolle, we do things in proper chronological order. we would have mueller finish up his report. i hope and i believe the senate intelligence committee will cord nature wi nate with each other. i'm not sure they coordinate with the house. i hope that coordination is there. i don't know what the rules of the road are yet with regard to sharing, declassification, whether or not we're talking about certain portions of this being done on a classified level

and whether or not the fbi and intelligence community are sharing classified intelligence to allow and inform the senate intelligence committee members to ask intelligent questions. all of this remains to be seen. all of this complicates both the political picture and the special counsel picture. >> chuck, i know just enough to be dangerous here, but it seems like cohen is so important to the obviously, to the investigations out of the southern district of new york where he's implicated the president in the hush money scheme, which as a former politico, that's a pretty straightforward campaign finance regulation, but can you talk about the importance to the occlusion investigation and what it signals senate intel really taking the aggressive step of subpoenaing him to testify? >> yeah, i think he's important in a lot of ways in a lot of different directions. he's clearly important to the financial investigation going on in the southern district of new

york. for goodness sakes, he was president trump's lawyer for a very long time. he seemed to know a lot about the financial machinations of mr. trump and the organization. the senate intelligence committee, which by the way has sort of functioned in a more bipartisan way, that's damning with faint praise, than most of the rest of the congress, clearly they want to talk to him about this timeline. not to beat a dead horse but the timeline matters for counterintelligence purposes. and remember, cohen isn't there negotiating for cohen. cohen isn't building the cohen tower in moscow, right? cohen is there on behalf of his boss and on behalf of the organization. so that's why he matters so much. they want to know -- look, in the best case scenario, they want to nail down the facts and understand it. in the worst-case scenario, it's politics and nothing else. i agree with frank, we need to be very, very careful not to step on bob mueller's investigation here. it is at a sensitive moment.

this is sensitive stuff. and i really do hope both the senate and later the house that they talked to mr. cohen as well, coordinate their interviews with the mueller team. >> jim, is this something else? this is one of the committees -- it's my understanding this is one of the committees cohen may have lied to. one of the reasons he's going to jail is lying to congress. and i have to believe there are at least a few institutionalists left on both sides who want that record cleared up. the other cohen piece that we haven't talked about yet is cohen potentially incriminates people like jared kushner or donald trump jr. or other family members. he's reported -- there are organizations that reported he briefed the family and president at least a half a dozen times on trump tower moscow. he seems like an important fact witness with nothing to gain by telling any more lies except more time in prison. >> yeah, it's interesting, the senate intelligence committee has been now working on this investigation for two years. they have a responsibility to

figure out what the truth is. if you're the staff director or chairman or ranking member, you're going to call him in and say this is what you said last time. let's talk about this time. now we've learned a bunch since you were here last time. i do hope he's -- they're coordinating with mueller because mueller knows more than anyone. now let's ask some of these tough questions. and the fact mark warner, the ranking democrat on that committee, signed off on this subpoena, it is right now bipartisan. i'm not as worried about this as other people. i think they're trying really hard to get there. the question is going to be, does mueller help them and what kind of coordination is happening? >> this does also sort of signal perhaps even in the republican-controlled senate some realization that this stuff is getting serious. the house may very well with democrats running those committees may start to run circles around any effort. it's hasn't been a full investigation to this point. that seems to be another pressure on this committee. >> it is. i think it's easy to view all of

the subpoenas and moves as part of a chess game involving all of the players but it might be safer in this instance to look at the senate as its own institution, which is defending its own prerogatives and its own investigations. so he is under indictment or he's pled guilty to lying to congress and the senate has been trying to get him back. obviously, look, trump tower, which he was intimately involved in, is the sep trcentral piece evidence, the family interest for the trump family, that could play into some type of conspiracy. if you're them, of course, you want to know all you can about it and you can't be held back by other investigations in other jurisdictions. after the break, it may turn out to be a good thing that the president doesn't read his daily intel briefing. we'll explain after the break. your mornings were made for 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.

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the president read his daily intel briefing, he may have

noticed his intel community recognized russia as one of the nation's biggest threats. this came in a new report released by 17 of trump's own intelligence agencies that says, without naming him explicitly, the president's policies are threatening the world order. the report begins like this, quote, traditional adversaries will continue attempts to gain and assert influence, taking advantage of changes conditions in the international environment, including the weakening of the post world war ii international order and dominance of western democratic ideals. increasingly isolationist tendencies in the west and shifts in the global economy. this report comes as we've learned trump has been the subject of a counterintelligence investigation about whether or not he had been working on behalf of russia. just in the last hour, nbc news is reporting the president is defying the law, having not yet imposed tough new sanctions on moscow, triggered by the poisoning last year of former russian spy. so it seems the president is

saying yes to sanctions for russia, making the fbi look awfully smart for looking into who's calling the shots. frank and chuck are still here. chuck, if you wanted to make a case publicly that the fbi was really, really, really, really, really, really smart way back in early 2017 to just open a counterintelligence investigation, just dot the is, cross the ts, make sure he's not an agent to vladimir putin, here you go, another piece of evidence they were pretty smart to do that. >> that was seven reallies, nicolle. i think you're describing it accurately. here's the thing, the latest reporting, the one you just mentioned that came out about an hour ago, just falls into line with all of the other stuff we keep hearing about delegitimizing nato and echoing putin's line about why the soviet union went into afghanistan in 1979, critical remarks about montenegro,

focusing on a poll threatening belarus. nobody in the world says that other than the russians and our president. and so it makes sense to me that there would be a counterintelligence investigation. i've said this before, i think on your show, it's an astonishing thing for us to say that makes sense. but it really does. you have yet today another reason why the fbi was really, really smart or really, really foresighted when they opened that investigation. >> what's so crazy, i don't know whether to laugh or cry, is that it's now out there, and they continue to do things as though moscow is calling the shots. why wouldn't somebody say to him, hey, these sanctions, not just that we promised theresa may we would do them and they passed congress, how strong must that pull me to moscow, to putin, for trump to be so reckless?

>> very hard question for me to answer. i don't know why people -- his national security council is not getting lieu to hi getting through to him. perhaps they need to be on fox news in order for him to listen. it seems clear he charted his own course on russia. unless there are others in the administration that think this is the way american foreign policy ought to sort of head. that would be very fright anticipating, nicolle. i will tell you this, it is really astonishing for us to have this type of conversation. whatever our differences have been with past presidents nobody ever seriously believed they were an agent, whether witting or unwitting, of a foreign power. by the way, this national intelligence strategy that was just published really only echoes what our intelligence community has been saying for years now about russia. and they've been saying it with

unanimity. there are not parts of the intelligence community who do not prescribe to this. this is a unanimous view, except for one person important. >> frank, let me ask you what this looks like. i think when the report came out in "the new york times" a couple fridays ago that a counterintelligence investigation had been opened up into the president, there were some questions, it was reported mueller took it over but questions about whether it was ongoing, whether it had been absorbed and wrapped up. it would seem with this decision, with this news in just the last hour he hasn't imposed the sanctions as passed by law, there would be new evidence coming into that probe if it's under mueller's roof or not that would at least warrant exploration and investigation? >> absolutely, nicolle. look, the president acts like someone who's compromised, talks like someone who compromised, tweets like someone who's compromised, and i have to tell you, i don't think the counterintelligence case is over. i think it gets refreshed. there's a phrase in the legal

world, evidence can become stale. well, he refreshes the evidence almost on a weekly basis, that he is compromised in some way. whether that feeds into a criminal charge by the special counsel or others or whether that goes towards impeachment or whether it's straight-up counterintelligence question that needs to be answered, it's got to still be going on. look, this national intelligence report from the dni's office, this just sets up the stark contrast between the geopolitical realities of the spy world that we live in today and what the man occupying the oval office actually believes. and it couldn't be more contrasted than that. the entire intelligence community saying, we're getting spied on. the russians are doing it. and by the way, a definition in that report of insider threat that now includes those who wish to degrade or erode the resources and capabilities of the intelligence community, that's the president.

that's president trump. >> it gives me chills to hear frank and chuck describe this, but the evidence that they are correct is also laid there in the congressional testimony of his national security officials. when christopher wray goes to capitol hill and is asked by democrats or republicans, are we being aggressive, are we countering russian efforts, they have a hard time saying we're doing all we can do. now admiral rogers i remember being up this and the body language said it on. elizabeth warren pressed him about whether we were doing enough. you have had other officials up there not able to answer the question when asked if donald trump ever asked him to be more aggressive in combatting russia because he hasn't. >> people sometimes say how would the president act differently if he was actually a russian agent for real? and it could be hard to figure out what departure there would be from his actual behavior because they seem to line up so clearly with putin's interests, with china's interest in some cases. the one answer is okay, it's a spy. the other answer is he's layered

a world view that these institutions we have built to magnify our own power, influence is bad for us. he's botten that and gotten others to buy into it. it just so happens our own establishment is saying, look, we are weakened when those things are weakened and it's hurting us and helping our adversaries. ? are you surprised when you see democrats sort of grabbing the -- national security, i'm old and i remember when republicans used to do well on questions of national security. it is now republicans have handed it over. >> absolutely. >> it looks like they handed the country over to vladimir putin. >> they have certainly put party over country. and it's been shocking to see because they were not that party not too long ago. look, donald trump likes to talk about how it's a national crisis. he's always talking about a national crisis. here's the thing, he is the national crisis. he's a clear and present danger to our national security. and it's not a one-off. this has been happening two years. let's not forget in the oval office he gave classified

information to the russians. he ripped up notes that were taken during his meeting with vladimir putin. and it is -- you know, it is incredibly scary to see this. yes, the fbi is doing the right thing. we need to make sure we're protecting the country. and to your point, republicans need to wake up. they need to do something about this. democrats can't do this alone. they need the republicans to step in as well. >> and to your point about the senate, we're back to the senate intel committee, it seems to be it's not the dominant strain. certainly doesn't show up on fox news but it seems like there's pockets where there may be a handful -- i don't want to give more than a handful of republicans credit because i don't think there are more, honestly, but is that sort of your theory on the case? >> historically the intelligence committee is very bipartisan trying to fight for america's interest. i think this report is a big deal. >> me too. >> you cannot get the 17 layers of intelligence community to agree on very much, having tried to do that in the white house.

it is really hard. the fact they went and did this is a very big deal. i guess it shouldn't surprise us, to your point, yes, he's going to do whatever he wants on russia. he overturns generals decisions all the time because he thinks he knows better than they do. >> that's one theory or maybe someone wants him to. >> i agree with nick, you cannot look at his decisions and think other than he's doing what russia wants over and over again. and donald trump is about as subtle as a hammer. i don't think we should think he's playing some master game. he's just doing what the russians want. >> i'm going to send my bill for ambien to frank and chuck this month. i thank you both for joining us. you scared me today. when we come back, it's a long, long, long way from lincoln's team of rivals. what's being called trump's team of vipers and who they're attacked for leaking. cked for lg i used to book my hotel room on those travel sites but there was

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simms' new book "team of vipers" comes out next week but in an exclusive act in "vanity fair" he discusses one vipir in particular, kellyanne conway, who he calls a cartoonville brought to life. he writes, her agenda, which was her survival over all others, including the president, became more and more transparent. once you figure that out, everything about her seems so calculated. she seems to be perennially cloaked in a invisible fur coat, casting an all-known smile as she collected 98 dalmatians with only three more to go. he describes an instance where he discovered her tendency to leak, a lot in his words. kelly ann was sitting at her dechg texting away. since their aye message account was tied to her phone and laptop, i could inadvertently see every conversation she was having. in 20 minutes or so she was having simultaneous conversations with no fewer than a half dozen reporters, most from the outlet the white house frequently trashed for

publishing fake news. journalists from "the new york times," "the washington post," cnn, politico and bloomberg were all popping up on the screen. these weren't policy conversations or attempting to defend the president. she bashed jared kushner, steve bannon and sean spicer all by name. rick, jim, skill here. let me read the statement in fairness to kellyanne conway. the real leakers, past and present, get more acknowledgment than i do. i preforeto see it from the front so i know it's coming. this was drafted in consultation with her husband george conway. i got nothing. >> i'll say something, this is a guy, for those who know him, he's attacking for somebody being leaker in a tell-all memoir about the white house. pick a lane, dude. i think probably a lot of people in that white house talked to

reporters. i'm sure conway does. >> we thank god they do. >> the whole world is better informed for it. but the memoir, the only thing that strikes me is in normal times, these memoirs have scores settling like as a subpart or sub theme. it's very trumpy for the whole memoir to be about the score settling. >> let's pull back the curtain a little bit how we do our jobs. we did our jobs as government officials and political operatives. there is a line of communication between people in the white house and the press. and what's interesting, put that excerpt up again. the list of people she trashes doesn't include the president. she's accused of trashing reince previous, steve bannon, who both had been fired, so maybe she had a point. again, i'm staying in the den of vipers theme. i'm not saying this is a good place to work. i'm saying you make a good

point. someone writing a tell-all and profiting by accusing someone else of telling all is sort of -- it's sort of like what they say about michael cohen, right? >> and, look, if you worked for president trump, i suspect there are times it is institutionaliz. i ought thought that conway kept a low profile in some respects. they're juicy and fun, i'm sure it will sell all, but they are not -- >> again, how we do our jobs, we reach out to people in the white house, one of the times that my phone did not stop ringing was the rob porter scandal when a white house staffer with some of the most confidential information literally in his hands, a terrible name for the job, staff secretary, everyone was blaming each other, and this

white house, one of their problems is what keeps a white house from not leaking is loyalty, and this is not in that white house. >> she no loyalty to them, either. he is doing all of these things, but his without leaks to high he heaven, that is not really news, but it is a dysfunctional without that can't make a deal on anything. can't run the government, can't have a message, can't figure out what it is doing, and that is the bigger story here, right? it is kind of salacious. >> it is a dysfunctional white house, and they all leak. >> even the president. >> yeah, they leak to attack their opponents.

they leak, they leak for every thing to save it for their lives, but it is incredibly dangerous what they're doing. it's not safe or good. it might be good to understand what is going on with the white house, but we should not be hearing about it because it creates a dangerous atmosphere for us. >> but don't stop calling. >> yeah, i know. >> when we come back what might be the soundbite of the day showing an administration completely out of touch. admini completely out of touch. but i'm relentless too. mbc doesn't take a day off, and neither will i. and i treat my mbc with everyday verzenio- the only one of its kind that can be taken every day. in fact, verzenio is a cdk4 & 6 inhibitor for postmenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer, approved, with hormonal therapy, as an everyday treatment for a relentless disease. verzenio + an ai is proven to help women

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some federal workers are going to homeless shelters to get food. >> well, i know they are and i don't really quite understand why. the 30 days of pay that some people will be out is no real reason why they should not be able to get a loan against it. >> this is ten stations past out of touch. that is cruel, that is despicable. what is wrong with them? >> he is just out of touch, it's not surprising. this is trump's administration. the creatures are all over the place. that is what happens when you reach a level and you're disconnected to every day people. i saw that and tweeted about it because i was so blown away. i heard that from wilbur ross.

>> the problem they have is there is no -- when you see e interviews like that, you see that what goes on behind closed doors, i don't think they care. >> i think it is a problem in this country that people of extraordinary wealth, who are acclaimed billionaires, can they don't have any idea how the economy functions. even people like my sometimes have a hard time understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. the idea that you can get a bridge loan nap is cluelessness, not malice. >> most people at many income levels, not even at poverty, cannot miss two paychecks. the american way is to spend what you earn. >> it is just a fundamental

difference in like how the economy works for rich people that he doesn't understand. >> i think it is also a despicable lack of humanity. >> yeah, it is also -- >> you don't have to understand what it is like for other people to have empathy or sympathy. >> 80% of people are paycheck to paycheck. it is just another bad part about having a cabinet that looks like the bar scene from "star wars." >> whiter and older, right? when you put all of your rich buddies in there they're out of touch like this and it is just indetermi indemnable. >> why can't somebody, why can't kellyanne conway get everybody on the phone and cut with the incensety jerk talk. people that voted for us are in

pain. the trump base includes federal work es that are likely badly pinched. >> i will say this again, the fish rots at it's head. he is holding 800,000 people hostage who are saying they may be out of a home in two days, next week, or whatever it is because they can't pay their rent, day care, or child care. he doesn't care. only thing he cares about is just his rhetoric, his awful political rhetoric and watching fox news, listening to rush limbaugh and ann coulter. that's the only thing he cares about, not even his own base. >> let's be fair to kellyane. you cannot instill those messages to the president -- they're going to look at her and say get your posz to say it. >> nick, what do we know about sort of the lack of alarm about the shut down and what does it say about how and when it ends?

we saw the cory garner start to break. i think it was a signal that time is running short, and that creates pressure for a deal, but what the democrats are doing is saying look we will throw you a bone on border security, and it ends because you can have money for this, we'll call it a wall, it's not a wall, but open the government first. >> that does it for us, "mtp daily" starts right now. >> hi, i can always see new york from my house. thank you, if it is thursday, are we really on the verge of a breakthrough on the end of a shut down. ? good evening, i'm chuck todd