here's andrea mitchell. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," blowback. donald trump insulting the nation's top intelligence chiefs after they contradicted him on the most pressing threats facing america right now. >> i ended the horrible, weak iran nuclear deal. >> is iran currently abiding by the terms of the jcpoa in terms of compliance? >> at the moment they're in compliance. >> we're knocking the hell out

of isis. >> isis is intent on resurging and commands thousands of fires in iraq and syria. cold brew. democrats are in a bitter battle with the former starbucks ceo who insists he won't sour the 2020 presidential race if he jumps in as an independent. >> i've also been criticized for being a billionaire. let's talk about that. i'm self-made. i grew up in the projects in brooklyn, new york. i thought that was the american dream. and frozen. the polar vortex subjecting 90 million americans to a deep freeze today, already killing five people. and it could get dramatically worse. >> these windchills dipping down well below 50 degrees below zero. >> it's negative 17 out here but the windchill is negative 37. >> it's really cold, guys. good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump is lashing

out at his own intelligence appointees, pushing back on their testimony from tuesday from the cia director and the director of national intelligence before that senate committee, both contradicting the president on subjects ranging from north korea to syria and isis. president trump's morning tweetstorm ending on an iran and a clear message. he wrote, the intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive and perhaps intelligence should go back to school. really? joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker and reuters white house correspond he want jeff mason, welcome both. kristen, first to you, this is not the first time he's taken on the intelligence committee. hasn't done it in a while. this is pretty disparaging against, obviously, dan coats and gina haspel. >> andrea, you're absolutely right. this is not the first time we've seen this type of vitriol from president trump directed 59 his own intelligence community. of course it started during the early days, frankly, of hits

administration, when he broke with them on a range of different issues including and especially russian meddling in the u.s. election. this is really extraordinary, though, because here you had yesterday these various intelligence chiefs testifying under capitol hill and breaking, contradicting with president trump on all of those different key issues that you ticked through. so president trump today firing back, as you pointed out, on iran, on afghanistan, on isis, on syria, also on north korea. i think his tweets on north korea were among the most notable, andrea, because of course president trump had declared over the summer that the nuclear threat was over from north korea. now just weeks away from what we expect to be his second summit with kim jong-un, the president is lowering expectations in his series of tweets responding to his intelligence chiefs, saying, "time will tell what will happen with north korea." essentially saying, look, we believe ultimately this is the

best track, but again, really trying to lower expectations. so it is a striking moment certainly, the fact that you have this significant divide on display yet again, andrea. >> and on north korea, let's play a little bit of dan coats, because what you've been pointing out, kristen, as well, on that one issue the president's tweets seem to be moderating his previous claims that they are denuclearizing. >> north korea will seek to retain its wmd capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities. >> so, jeff mason and kristen, first to you, the president does, only weeks ahead of his next summit with kim jong-un, we don't know, i don't think, when it will take place, i think toward the end of february. >> right. >> he seems to be no longer claiming, oh, they've denukize

denuclearized, he's trying to lowball expectations going into the summit. >> and he feels he's already done a lot about north korea, and that tone comes out in the tweets. he's drawing a comparison to the state of the relationship at the end of the obama administration. but as you say, also trying to bring down expectations a little bit ahead of that summit, which we expect at the end of this month. i don't think you can underscore enough how unusual it is for the silting president of the united states, despite the history that we've seen, as kristen rightly said, since even before he came into office, this break with the intelligence community and the intelligence officials who work for him. it is unusual to have the president of the united states in such a public way break with the people who work for him. and as mark warner said in a statement, the intelligence community and intelligence officials have probably died

getting that intelligence that he has dismissed. >> and just to give you another example, on the iran nuclear deal which is a bedrock issue with this president, he claiming that they had violated it. let's watch what gina haspel said in answer to questions from angus king about the iran nuclear deal and their compliance with it so far. >> they have abided by the terms, at the current moment? >> yes, they're making some preparations that would increase their ability to take a step back if they make that decision. so at the moment, technically they're in compliance. >> and the president tweeting today, the intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of iran. they are wrong, exclamation point, when i became president iran was making trouble all over the middle east and beyond since ending the terrible iran nuclear deal they are much different but a source of potential danger and

conflict. they are testing rockets last week and more and are coming very close to the edge. their economy, misspelled, is now crashing which is the only thing holding them back. be careful, iran. perhaps intelligence should go back to school, exclamation point. kristen, this is a classic, he wrote it himself, this is not a dan scavino tweet. >> and this tweetstorm clearly written by the president, in his language, and clearly what he saw and what he heard yesterday, increasingly roy increasingly roiling him recall getting under his skin. it was notable that the intelligence chief said that iran is essentially in compliance with the deal. the president points to the fact iran did launch a satellite last week, it failed to reach orbit. but bottom line, andrea, all of this is coming, think about the backdrop. these talks that the administration is having today

with chinese officials. the fact that the president is heading overseas to meet with kim jong-un. and what message does it send as they are trying to carry out this very high stakes diplomacy all across the region, when he's having this critical break with those who have been put in place to keep the country safe, andrea? >> and one of the other conclusions of the threat assessment from yesterday was that allies around the world are uncertain about the u.s. and about u.s. leadership, particularly, i should point out parenthetically from my own reporting, after the president's precipitous announcement that they were withdrawing from syria. that left our nato allies as well as allies in the persian gulf really flatflat-footed. thanks to you, kristen welker, jeff mason from the white house. joining me now is congresswoman jackie speier who serves on the house intelligence committee. thank you, congresswoman, very much for being with us. i want to ask you whether or not house intelligence under democratic leadership now has

been able to meet, because so far, despite promises from kevin mccarthy, again repeated on "meet the press" on sunday, they -- last i checked, which was a half hour ago, they had not appointed their republican members. >> you're absolutely right. no republican members have been appointed. kevin mccarthy said he had met with all of the persons that would be appointed. he has yet to appoint them. he is sabotaging the work of this committee at this point, i don't think there's any way you can sugarcoat it. he is trying to more than slo-mo the operation of this committee. meanwhile, the democrats are continuing to have briefings on hotspots around the world. and we are going to take our responsibilities very seriously. i am deeply concerned that kevin mccarthy doesn't recognize his obligation to put people on that committee to help us guide the intelligence communities. >> i'm going to ask you about the potential impact on the mueller investigation, but my primary focus here is that

normally, what the intelligence leaders do is brief the senate and then the house or vice-versa. they give this threat assessment to each house intelligence committee. i'm presuming you all have not had that scheduled yet. >> that's correct, because we were waiting for the republicans to be appointed to the committee so we could do it in a bipartisan manner. there has been an effort, an fig leaf, i should say an olive leaf, offered to the republicans to say we want to work together, we don't want the kind of backbiting that went on during the last two years. but it appears that they have no interest in working together. >> adam schiff has tweeted a response to the president's tweets today, writing, it is a credit to our intelligence agencies that they continue to provide rigorous and realistic analyses of the threats we face. it's deeply dangerous that the white house isn't listening. what is your reaction to the

president challenging his own intelligence leaders? >> it is not normal. it is not normal for the president of the united states to disparage his intelligence experts or his military experts. and yet that's what the president does day in and day out. he is becoming a national security threat himself. and i think we have got to step back now and recognize that he spews out toxic information. he spews out lies. and we're not going to accept that. his intelligence community has now stated very clearly what the threats are, where we are succeeding, where we are not. he chooses not to recognize that. on the one hand, iran is complying with the agreement. on the other hand, north korea has 19 additional sites of nuclear weapons. he gets an "f" for comprehension of what the national security

issues are. >> now, at the same time, he -- in the threat assessment that was given yesterday, there was no mention of justifying a border wall. and the threat on the southern border was encompassed in the normal page and a quarter that was written about drug int interdictio interdictions, including chinese fentanyl, so it was not just from the mexican border. so the threat that caused the shutdown, the most severe threat that he was claiming was not even mentioned until page 18 of a 42-page report. >> once again, it's all about theater with him. and he thinks that the immigration issue is his secret weapon. unfortunately, it will become the noose around his neck. >> i also want to ask you about a report that was in "the financial times" that we at nbc and msnbc have not independently confirmed. there was talk of a pull-aside

between the president and vladimir putin at the g20 in the fall. but what the ft is reporting is that it was more than that, it was a substantive meeting, and once again, there was no american official present, no american note-taker, they relied only on vladimir putin's translator, not even the state department translator. if that's the case, what concerns do you have? >> the concerns that every american should have. what is the president hiding? what is it he doesn't even want his closest advisers to hear in his conversations with vladimir putin? why is it the president continues to defend vladimir putin? why is it the russian sanctions that the congress recommended be imposed were lifted after a mere four months? why is it there was talk of a trump tower in moscow all through the election and the president denied it? there are a lot of "why"'s as to why this president continues to

take his cues from vladimir putin, whether it is getting out of syria or if it's denying that there was an intervention by the russians in terms of our election. this is really getting incredibly serious. and unfortunately i think we've gotten so accustomed to it that we just think it's normal now. it's not normal and we've got to start speaking out about the fact that this is not helping our national security. >> and that brings me to the mueller probe, because without having republicans on your committee, adam schiff and all of you democratic members cannot vote on turning transcripts of witnesses before your committee over to robert mueller for possible action to see if they lied. and that's to follow up on the roger stone indictment and whether there were other witnesses, you've had other witnesses from the trump organization who might have talked to you about the trump moscow operation, and they can't -- they have to have those

original transcripts in order to proceed legally; is that correct? and what witnesses could we be talking about? >> i think robert mueller has a lot of independent information, documents that probably provide him with a great deal of documentation that will be helpful in terms of bringing indictments. there is a willingness on the committee on both the republican and democratic side to make those transcripts available. they have been going through a security clearance through our intelligence community so that there isn't anything that's provided that is classified. >> and who might be among those people? are there other witnesses that are part of the trump organization that have been publicly reported to have testified? >> there are many witnesses, many in the trump organization, many others, who have been interviewed by the committee. >> okay, jackie speier, thank you very much.

>> thank you, andrea. coming up, mt. everest, the south pole, siberia. what do these places have in common? they're all warmer than minneapolis right now. al roker joins us next with the latest on the deep freeze crippling the midwest. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. isn't what goes into your soup... just as important as what you get out of it? our broccoli cheddar is made with aged melted cheddar, simmered broccoli, and no artificial flavors. enjoy 100% clean soup today. panera. food as it should be.

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it's 30 below here, where i'm standing. this is the winter carnival in st. paul.

we're surrounded by snow and ice. so i'm basically standing in an ice box. it's no-joke kind of cold. >> no joke indeed. dylan dreyer. a once in a generation polar vortex sweeping across the midwest, claiming the lives of five people including a 9-year-old in nebraska. chicago is set to have its coldest day in 34 years. the chicago river is frozen, flights canceled, schools closed. amtrak suspending service in chicago. look at this frozen shut door aboard one train. it's so cold, commuter rails had to literally be set on fire to keep the trains running. let's bring in the one and only al roker of the "today" show, of course. al, bring us up to speed on what we're expecting. i'm glad to see you indoors. >> thanks so much, andrea. actually we're talking dangerous windchills, deadly windchills so far. 62 million people at risk. and as you look at our current conditions right now, windchills dangerously cold. minus 45 in chicago, minus 42 in

minneapolis. bismarck, minus 23. cincinnati, it feels like it's minus 17. minus 7 in beckley, washington. 24 degrees. this is when frostbite can occur, within 30 to 10 minutes, freezing of ears, fingers, face. you have frost nip, that's a superficial frostbite, then deep frostbite when the tissue below the skin freezes. you have to get the person inside, get medical attention, don't rub those body parts. worse is hypothermia, when you have a dangerous drop in body temperature and the windchills can speed that up. if you know somebody that's shivering uncontrollably, weak pulse, confusion, even loss of consciousness, you can really have major medical issues. get the victim out of the cold, cover the person with blankets and make sure you provide warm, non-alcoholic beverages. so tomorrow morning, we bottom out. 44 below, the windchill in

chicago. pittsburgh, minus 22. in new york city, minus 13. burlington, minus 18. friday morning, still cold, but it's starting to moderate. that's the good news. and then, as we get into the weekend, we'll be seeing that cold, the extreme cold departing in the east, in the midwest. we'll start to see temperatures warm up out west. saturday, minneapolis will be 39. st. louis, 37. new york city still seven degrees colder than usual but at least warmer than it will have been. then on super bowl sunday, d.c., you're at 51. chicago, look at that, 46 degrees. 13 degrees above average. new orleans will be at 71. they will be watching but they won't care at that point. austin, 73, and about 11 degrees above average, andrea. >> i understand new orleans not watching or not caring. but seriously, al, this is scary for dog walking, for children coming home from school, those places where schools are still open. the postal service canceling

service in 11 midwestern states. and then we have president trump taking advantage of this, this week, tweeting, in the beautiful midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. in coming days expected to get even colder. people can't last outside even for minutes. what the hell is going on with global warming? please come back fast, we need you. and then in response, a federal agency that reports to the president, noaa, tweeted a cartoon, winter storms don't prove that global warming isn't happening. i don't know how to even break that down. >> it's a common misconception. by the way, on the president's tweet it said "global waming," i'm not sure what that is, but global whararming is a part of climate change. climate change creates the

possibility of extreme weather conditions. that doesn't mean you won't have them. it doesn't mean they go away. "the new york times" put it perfectly, they said if somebody who is well off loses their wallet, for that moment they don't have any money but that doesn't mean they're poor. if someone who is not well off finds $200 on the street, they're doing well that day but that doesn't mean they're now no longer poor. one really has nothing to do with the other. just because you're seeing weather happen, that is separate from climate. >> exactly. and just to warm everyone's hearts, al, in cleveland, i believe, winter clothes for the homeless and the poor are being hung on a wall of love started by a woman who used to be homeless herself. so you have to love the people in cleveland reaching out to fellow sufferers. >> i used to work there, and everybody is very good hard ear

in cleveland, i love that town. >> and we love you, al, stay warm. ahead, stirring it up. former starbucks ceo howard schultz' potential presidential run is off to a rocky start. "the washington post" columnist eugene robinson is next. stay with us. i knew about the tremors.

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president trump is opening a new salvo in the battle over border security, calling out a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are scrambling to come up with a deal in the next three weeks to meet his border wall demands. just hang on here, because i wanted to also talk about the 2020 elections, because i'm back to the congressional negotiations in a moment. meanwhile, former starbucks ceo and possible independent candidate for president howard schultz is punching back on "morning joe," fighting back at critics including former new york mayor michael bloomberg. >> i respect mike bloomberg but he is not the proxy for what's going to happen in 2020. if he would have run in 2016, he might be the president today. he probably regrets that. what if republicans and

democra democrats, lifelong, looking for a home? they're not going to vote for a left wing, elizabeth warren, kamala harris candidate. i don't affiliate myself with a democratic party who is so far left it basically wants the government to take over health care, which we cannot afford. elizabeth warren wants to criticize me for being successful? no. he came to see me a few years ago and asked me for a contribution for her senate race. >> did you give it to her? >> i did not. >> why? >> wow. >> i don't believe what elizabeth warren stands for. i don't believe the country should be heading towards socialism. >> here with the inside scoop is msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. eugene has a new column in "the washington post" today entitled, "this is no time for howard schultz's foolishness." tell us how you really feel. >> may i elaborate? one thing we've learned in the last couple of years is that the

conventional wisdom is often wrong. in this case i'm pretty sure the conventional wisdom is right. if howard schultz runs a nationwide independent candidacy, well-funded, spends his own millions of dollars on it, gets to all 50 states, he can only help reelect donald trump. if it's a binary decision, donald trump versus the democratic candidate, even if the democratic candidate is a ham sandwich, right now polls indicate the democratic candidate is likely to win. you put a third candidate in that mix and you can only increase trump's chances of reelection. >> as you wrote in your piece today, just what we need, another ego-crazed billionaire with zero experience in government who thinks he is destined to be president. what could go wrong? actually one of the things that elizabeth warren's team is apparently very happy about is that she's being attacked by two billionaires. this helps her in the democratic primaries. >> it helps her a lot. he would be going after kamala

harris this morning, and i'm sure she's happy about that too. he's not sounding like today's democratic party, that's for sure. and i think he's firing up democrats who see his potential candidate is a threat and who i think are more sort of motivated to mobilize democrats and get him out. >> mike bloomberg has really studied this, he's polled this independent run, not once but twice, actually. >> exactly. >> and decided if he's going to run this year, it's going to be as a democrat, because, he says, it would reelect donald trump. he doesn't see any way that a third party candidacy -- and this was his response yesterday about elizabeth warren's wealth tax plan. >> i think the constitution lets you impose income taxes only. so it probably is unconstitutional. we need a healthy economy. and we shouldn't be embarrassed about our system. if you want to look at a system

that's noncapitalistic, just take a look at what was perhaps the wealthiest country in the world and today the people are starving to death, it's called venezuela. >> now, in defense of the billionaires, some of them, warren buffett, mike bloomberg and others, the gateses, they're giving away their money, they're giving away their wealth. but $50 million in assets would pay a 2% on their net worth, which means if you're a school teacher who makes $50,000 a year but you inherited a lot of stuff, artwork, jewelry, whatever, from parents, you could be tax ed on those assets even though they don't have a great income. it could produce a lot of money but there is a question whether it could be constitutional. >> yeah, we would have to fight that out. this is a natural tension in american politics. how progressive should progressive taxation be? and some people wonder if we should have progressive taxation at all.

this is a normal political argument. >> it's actually a good argument to have. >> it's a matter of arithmetic. we can solve these matters of arithmetic, it's not so much a matter of ideology. and you're right that mike bloomberg has sort of gamed this out. i would expect that billionaire demographic to be against this wealth tax, right? i think that pretty much could be 100% against this wealth tax. but you know, the billionaire demographic is small, but influential. so we'll fight it out. >> one of them got elected. >> and see what happened, right? >> gene, it's always a treat to see you, thank you. >> great to be here, andrea. coming up, group project. the fate of the president's wall now in the hands of a bipartisan panel tasked with formulating a border security agreement in a very short number of days. two members of that group, a republican and a democratic senator, joining me next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. reports. stay with us ♪

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president trump's opening a new salvo in the battle over border security, calling out a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are scrambling to come up with a deal in three weeks to meet his border wall demands,

the president tweeting this morning, if the committee of republicans and democrats now meeting on border security is not discussing or contemplating a wall or physical barrier, they are wasting their time. joining me now are two of the members of that 17-member bipartisan working group, democrat jon tester and republican john hoven. now if we can just bring everybody together. has the group met yet to start negotiating? let me ask you first, senator -- >> we'll meet this afternoon. we'll meet in about 45 minutes or so. >> and is money for a wall, as far as you're concerned, jon tester, completely off the table? we heard nancy pelosi back in the day saying it's immoral, not a penny, not a dollar, rather, for the wall. is that something that would be considered, a fence, a wall, whatever you want to call it? >> what i really hope the committee does, andrea, and i think that senator -- there's a good people on this committee,

good, common sense people on this committee on both sides of the aisle. i hope they talk about things that will help secure the border in a most cost effective way. if we can do that, deal with the humanitarian crisis on the border, deal with some cost comparative analysis on what the best way is so we aren't treating the american taxpayer like an atm machine, i think we can come up with something that really does secure the border moving forward. whether that includes a fence or whether that includes technology, manpower, aircraft, whatever it might be. >> senator hoven, the intelligence leaders who briefed the intelligence committee yesterday on the worldwide threats didn't even mention a rationale for a border wall and they didn't talk about the southern border except midway through their report, their written report, not even in their verbal summary, and it was only in the context of drug interdictions, including china, mexico, worldwide drug interdictions. so it's not even one of their top threats.

how do you justify shutting down the government again or declaring a national emergency as the president is threatening to do? >> no one wants a government shutdown. that's why we're working hard to find a solution. if you talk to the border security professionals, the career professionals that are out there working every day on the border, they'll tell you that they need all three. they need people, they need technology, and they need a barrier. and, you know, we built a barrier under president obama, under president bush, under president clinton. again, i think it's going to be all three. and our job is to figure out how to do a good job of that and rely on the professionals in terms of what we fund and how we fund it. >> senator hoeven, as a member of the republican caucus, you all voice-voted an agreement before the shutdown and then discovered that the president wasn't going to sign it. how do you know that whatever you agree to will be agreed to by the president? >> well, we've got to come up with something that the house can pass, the senate can pass, and the president will sign. that's going to be part of the

ongoing dialogue and negotiation. we're used to doing that. we're on the appropriations committee, we work on these kind of issues all the time, and most of our bills pass on a big bipartisan basis. so that's what we're shooting for. >> but in time, and in the past, the difference is the president. the president of the united states, unpredictable. senator tester, doesn't that create a problem for both sides? >> look, i think we need to act like a co-equal branch of government with the exclusive branch. senator capito, chairman of the subcommittee, and i'm the ranking member of that subcommittee, put forth a template during the last congress that can work moving forward. i think it's just a matter of allowing the people in the room to have a good, honest discussion and move forward on how we best secure that border. both the southern and northern border too, i might add, and our ports. and i think if we're able to have a good, honest discussion, there's people of common sense in the room, i think we'll come up with something that works for

this nation. >> is there time left to do that and also include some protection for the dreamers, for the tps people who are here, for emergency relief, senator tester? >> i anticipate it's going to be a pretty simple border security bill myself, although, you know, we haven't met yet, we haven't set forth you know, how often we're going to engage. time is of the essence, we only have ten days to get this done. i don't think we want to complicate it too much with complicated issues. as senator hoeven said, in the end it has to be something that the house can pass, the senate can pass, and the president will sign. >> i want to play something that lindsey graham said yesterday about broadening the bill. >> broaden the deal makes sense to me. we've got to raise the debt ceiling in march. we should think about doing it now, get a budget deal for two years that secures defense funding, but recognizes you'll

have to increase nondefense so you get democrats on board. nobody wants to shut the government down again in their right mind. we pass legislation. >> senator hoeven, what about throwing the debt ceiling into that mix? >> there's a lot of ideas. we start with what senator tester just described, the basic deal we need to get done is a solution on funding border security, move the remaining appropriations bills for the year. now, what else comes into the mix, we'll have to see. at the end of the day, we've got to get something we can get people to agree to. >> when you talk about getting something that people can agree to, you've got these appropriation bills that everyone has signed off on. you're really just focusing now i would assume on the homeland piece of it, right, senator hoeven? >> that's really right. remember, the other thing that the president put out there, like what you just showed with lindsey graham, he said he would be willing to have weekly by the partisan meetings at the white house to talk about immigration

reform if we can get this deal done. >> jon tester, that could open the door to something that has been the holy grail for years now, going back to john mccain and others back in the day who tried to come up with a broad immigration bill. how great would that be? >> that would be marvelous. look, we've got an opportunity here to show some bipartisan working together and come up with a bill that works for this nation on border security. once we get past that, now we're back in the good old days when people used to work together and we would move things forward. then anything can be done. and i think comprehensive immigration is something this country needs. i think there's bipartisan support for it. man, if we could come out of this conference committee with a good bill that secures the borders of this country and then move into comprehensive immigration reform, you know, congress's approval rating might get out of the single digits if that happens. >> republicans always said secure the border first and then start that negotiation. so maybe this creates that opportunity. >> senator tester, i gather

there's a democratic senators retreat. is that something that's normally done or is this to strategize in particular about this issue or a broader agenda? >> look -- i didn't pick up the question that you said, but i think initially what we need to do have this meeting today, in about 45 minutes, set forth what we're going to be negotiating on, and then roll up our sleeves and get to work and move forward. and i've said this before and i'll say it again, i think it's really important that the legislative branch acts as a co-equal branch of government and does what we think is right to secure that border and move forward. >> well, senators john hoeven and jon tester together, a bipartisan moment. i think see your agreement right there. let's hope it can spread to the rest of you, and of course to the white house, importantly. thanks so much. >> thank you, andrea. >> i really appreciate you both being on. before we go to break, we have some good news, great news. during the government shutdown, nbc's mariana atencio introduced

us to a 33-year-old federal worker, mother of three, fighting cancer, who was without a paycheck and facing a devastating choice. >> worst case scenario, we lose our home, i'll be evicted, and i have to go stay with friends or family or something. and negotiate with my chemo. that has to happen. so it's chemo or the rent. >> chemo or the rent. after marianna and our local washington station told her story, a good samaritan leaped into action. >> someone actually called into the hospital and took care of my account. they wiped out my entire balance. it is a blessing and it is a bright side to this, i thank god for it. >> in addition to those hospital costs, the anonymous donor also covered her february rent. and it gets even better, the best news of all is that after 20 rounds of chemo, she had her

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leader juan guaido to reinforce the white house's support for what the white house calls venezuela's fight to regain its democracy. this as the embattled venezuelan president nicolas maduro, president trump is sending a hit squad to kill him. expressing gratitude for vladimir putin's support. a lot of posturing on all sides. joining me, correspondent for the washington post, former pentagon and state department correspondent as well. someone who knows this all too well. so, protests today in venezuela, you've got the diplomat representing venezuela has been designated as the opposition leader's representative in washington all over town. he's saying he's going to the white house today. and also maduro hitting back against john bolton. what could go wrong? >> yeah, there's a lot of moving pieces. avecchio was at the white house meeting with vice-president pence and other official who has been working this issue.

today, juan guaido tweeted about the call with president trump in spanish, taking a page straight from the trump play book and getting his own message out early before anyone else could describe it for him. and he has called for a street protests which we're starting to see happen now in caracas. >> we have live pictures that of now. i think in the helmet is guaido, which looks like a motorcycle hill mel, may be a security measure as well. but you can see him being mobbed by supporters. >> well, guaido is really in a vulnerable position here right now. he knows he could be arrested at any minute. and yet he feels that he has to be out within -- in the middle of these protests. and remember that a lot of this is taking place in the slum districts of caracas, which was originally the home base for

president maduro and his chavez brand of peasant populism. >> we saw john bolton at a white house briefing where he was holding up his yellow legal pad. we've got a tight shot of it there. he had reference in his handwriting to 5,000 troops going to colombia along the border. there were a lot of denials. maduro today on moscow television, which is state tv, mocked that and compared him to a sitcom character in latin american television who is known as dr. chap atin who is a quack doctor, mocking the national security advisor. i mean, this goes from, you know, ridiculous to the serious. but they're taking verbal shots at each other. >> and it becomes also a proxy fight because russia holds the

venezuelan debt. the treasury has frozen the venezuelan state oil company which is their main source of income. >> absolutely. there is a reason maduro went to russian state tv to have that interview. he knows that his largest backer and his greatest leverage was the united states, comes from the fact that he gets his major international legitimacy via russia. and he is going to play up that split as much as possible. and, you know, he was using classic cold war terminology there, accusing washington of staging a coup and going after the venezuelan oil reserves. by the way, the largest in the world. it's not for nothing that we're having a discussion about citgo and valero, the u.s. branches of the venezuelan oil company peravesa. >> which givesuous gives the

u.s. tremendous -- >> yes. they made a bold move. they essentially said go ahead, keep selling the oil if you'd like to. you're just not going to get the money for it. that puts the onus on maduro. the u.s. is where he gets his cash. >> thank you so much. and we'll be right back. but when it comes to colon cancer screening... i'm not doin' that. i eat plenty of kale. ahem, as i was saying... ...with cologuard, you don't need an excuse... all that prep? no thanks. that drink tastes horrible! but...there's no prep with cologuard... i can't take the time off work. who has two days? and i feel fine - no symptoms! everybody, listen! all you need is a trip to the bathroom. if you're 50 or older and at average risk, cologuard is the noninvasive option

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thanks for being with us. remember, follow us online on facebook and on twitter at mitchell reports. and here is ali develvelshi for "velshi & ruhle." >> thank you. i'm ali velshi, my partner stephanie ruhle is out today. let's get smarter. >> the air temperature 20 below. >> they lit the train tracks on fire to keep them warm enough to use. >> it's just so, so cold out here this morning and dangerously so. mail is not being delivered across 11 states. >> as the government's national oceanic and add monttmosphere i administration, global warming doesn't prove it isn't happening. >> 17 congressional negotiators tasked with trying to find out how to avoid another government shutdown. >> let's see if they were actually being truthful, once government was reopened, they