t want to miss out on everything epix. that does it for me this hour of "msnbc live." craig melvin will be joining the "today" show from the super bowl tomorrow morning, lucky him. and i'm lucky because andrea mitchell is here, "andrea mitchell reports" starts now. >> the luck is all mine, thank you so much, haley. coming up on "andrea mitchell reports," show of force. donald trump says he's considering changing fbi policy after his long time political confidant made an issue of the pre-dawn arrest, supposedly for orri i terrorizing his dog. >> you have somebody charged with obstruction who threatened to kill a witness and you have a court-authorized arrest and search warrant most a close

call. coming up, we'll talk to former cia director john brennan. center field. are voters searching for a middle ground to force out donald trump? >> i'm really looking forward to somebody stepping up against president trump in 2020. >> i think for me, we need to make sure that americans understand what's at stake. >> i don't think either party needs another fringe candidate who doesn't have experience in washington. and deep freeze. dangerously cold temperatures across the u.s. taking the lives of at least nine people already. the question is now, when will it all end? >> changing climate makes the weather have these extreme swings. so we will be swinging back to more normal. and let me tell you, i can't wait. and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump is buying into roger stone's attacks on the fbi for their

predawn arrest at his ft. lauderdale home. the president telling "the daily caller," it was sad to see the disappointing scene last friday, 29 federal agents arresting him on seven criminal counts by the special counsel. when asked about the fbi's tactics, president trump said he would consider a review, adding roger is not a person that they would have to worry about from that standpoint. nbc white house correspondent kristen welker joins me now. how serious is he about trying to rein in fbi procedures, which the fbi knows what they're dealing with any arrest and apparently it wasn't that abnormal. >> addrendrea, it's not clear t president was being serious. we've asked white house officials whether or not he actually intends to try to push for some type of investigation into this. it does fit into a broader pattern of what we've seen from this president consistently lark out at special counsel investigation. and look, we have been speaking to legal analysts who say just as you laid out at the top, this

was in fact carried out exactly by the book and it said as much in the court documents that were filed on friday. the concerns that were expressed by prosecutors that he could be a flight risk or that he could tamper with evidence. and so there are a lot of questions around whether or not even such a request would get any traction. but again, andrea, this is a tactic by president trump. it's something he thinks is effective. i don't anticipate he'll let up in this regard. the pool has been called back, the president is going to sign an executive order related to american manufacturing. we'll be watching closely to see if he gets some questions, because undoubtedly he'll get some questions about all of this and that interview he conducted late yesterday at the white house in which he said he is going to leave it up to the justice department to determine what to do with the report once it is finalized. he also said, andrea, look, if he wanted to, he could have

essentially pulled the plug on this investigation but decided to let it go forward, yet another controversial comment that the president has made in the past, that he reiterated yesterday. so we're watching and waiting to see if he answers questions at the white house here today, andrea. >> and the other big issue is still more fallout from that extraordinary testimony two days ago by the intelligence community and most importantly, his reaction, his unprecedented reaction. chuck schumer, the democratic leader, writing to dan coats, the director of national intelligence, writing, i believe it is incumbent on you, director wray, and director haspel, to insist on an immediate meeting with the president to educate him about the facts and raw intelligence underlying the intelligence community assessments. i mean, they basically gave the assessments that were the product of all of the intelligence agencies and all of the thousands of employees who feed information up, and for a president of the united states to challenge them as he did all day yesterday and reportedly even face-to-face with the

intelligence officials who were briefing him yesterday, is -- it's never happened before. >> it's unprecedented, andrea. and it's not just democrats who are pushing back, it's republicans as well. roy blunt saying that it is important to believe the intelligence community. the bottom line here, the fact that you have this stark divide between the white house, the president, and his intelligence community, potentially raises questions about u.s. policy on the world stage as it relates to a range of different foreign policy matters, whether you're talking about syria, afghanistan, or north korea, andrea. and of course, as we know, as we've been reporting on so extensively, the president is, we expect, going to have a second summit with kim jong-un about denuclearization, what type of message does it send heading into a summit that's such high stakes, when you have this divide about what is actually happening in north korea, when you have the

intelligence community essentially assessing that they don't believe north korea is serious about giving up its nuclear weapons. the consequences are serious, disconcerting to many on capitol hill. andrea, on a slightly separate matter, it's worth noting that republicans are poised to rebuke president trump in the senate, to break with him when it comes to syria and afghanistan and to express a need to keep troops in those regions, yet another break that we're seeing between this president and some of the other top officials here in washington, andrea. >> kristen welker, thanks so much for starting us off. nbc's senior national security and intelligence analyst john brennan spent his entire career in the cia, in the field, and served as cia director to president obama and joins me now. let's talk about this incredible performance where the president is taking on the unified assessments of the intelligence agencies. >> and he's taking on his appointees. dan coats, chris wray, gina

haspel, these are all individuals appointed personally by donald trump to carry out the very important and solemn duties of the intelligence and law enforcement communities. and to publicly rebuke them like that and to disparage them, i think it certainly has made a number of people within the intelligence community give even more support to their leadership for speaking truth to power. i think mr. trump's support within those communities probably has taken a hit, because it's very dispiriting if the work that you're doing is not being appreciated. he can disagree with things, but to say that they have to go back to school? i mean, that was just being so insulting of these great professionals. >> and there are thousands of people in the field, around the world, without diplomatic immunity, working undercover, in danger, without wearing a uniform. no protections at all. and they are -- this all filters out as well as the message that is sent to allies and adversaries alike. >> yeah. and these are individuals who put themselves at risk. and also their families who are

back here trying to keep those home fires burning. how do they feel about a person in the oval office who talks about their loved ones and the work that they do day in and day out to keep this country safe, in such denigrating terms? it's quite disconcert to kon c many. what message does this send to the world, if donald trump basically says he is not going to use the considered views of the intelligence community to formulate u.s. foreign policy. that should unnerve our allies and partners and also give our adversaries opportunities to exploit, because clearly mr. trump is doing things for personal and political purposes. >> there is also an impact on policy, specific policy, for instance, iran. the opinion of the intelligence agencies is that iran has not broken out of the nuclear deal even though the u.s. quit the deal. they're doing other terrible things in the region, that's been acknowledged. but they have not broken out, although there are some indications that gina haspel

says they are talking amongst themselves, since they have not achieved the economic benefits since the u.s. reimposed sanctions, about whether they should start breaking out, enriching uranium is what we've been told. how does that affect policy? the secretary of state, a former cia director, is taking a very hard line on what are the alleged transgressions of iran, not proved by the intelligence agency he used to led. >> that's why i'm glad gina haspel and not mike pompeo is the head of the cia, because she will speak truth to power. it's clear that iran continues to be in compliance with the nuclear agreement. i don't believe that donald trump could explain any aspect of that agreement, other than just saying it was the worst deal. what we don't want to do is to push iran into a confrontation. the last thing we need is another confrontation in the middle east. but it's clear that donald trump is not paying attention to the

intelligence and to those intelligence professionals who can tell him more about what iran is doing and therefore what we need to do in order to ensure that our national security interests are going to be protected and preserved. >> nancy pelosi, the speaker, was asked about this today. >> one dismaying factor of it all is that the president just doesn't seem to have the attention span or the desire to hear what the intelligence community has been telling him. >> you're reaction to that? >> none of this is surprising. i think for over two years now we've had a very strong track record of donald trump not listening to reason, not using common sense, just continuing to carry out his campaign promises that i think ring hollow from the standpoint of intelligence and common sense and wisdom. and so i think what nancy pelosi is saying was certainly consistent with what anybody who

knows anything about national security believes about donald trump. he is not trying to understand the complexities of this world. he just continues to use his gut when he formulates our policies. >> one of the things i want to ask you about, his criticism of the fbi, but also the fact that he takes his intelligence briefing, this afternoon's is scheduled after 2:00 in the afternoon. have you ever known a president of the united states, except during busy moments of crisis, to routinely get briefed as late in the day as he does, after 11:00, just about every day, not wanting to start the day by learning what's happening around the world? >> my experience with the presidents i worked for, and i knew four of them very closely, they would start off their day with the national security briefing, the session in the oval office, because they wanted to understand exactly what were the threats as well as the opportunities for u.s. national security. but to put it off, if there's not a good reason to do it, as you say, they could be traveling. they would always make time for it, and usually it was the first order of business.

>> the president criticizing the fbi for the way they executed the arrest of roger stone. >> yeah, there's nothing inappropriate about a president asking a department or agency to review its policies and procedures. that can and i think should be done. and i'm hoping, though, that he is going to rely on a review that the fbi and the department of justice will conduct to decide whether or not there needs to be any changes to its protocols. clearly what happened with roger stone was in keeping with the standard operating procedures of the fbi. they were conducting an arrest and executing a search warrant. let's not forget, roger stone has a fair amount of, let's say, unstable activities and comments. stealing someone's dog, telling somebody, randy credico, "prepare to die," this is not somebody you want to trifle with. someone shouldn't be given a pass because they have political connections. it's appropriate to review the procedures but according to what is in the press, i think the way the fbi conducted itself was not

inappropriate, again, compared to what they did in other instances. >> john brennan, always, thanks very much. instanci thanks, andrea. you guys rolling? and coming up, hell freezes over. that is the town of hell, michigan, where temperatures plummeted to 13 below this morning. the windchills making it feel more like minus 40. it's not just a cold day in hell. most of the country under a deep freeze today. is there relief in sight? answers coming up next. stay with us. up next stay with us i couldn't catch my breath. it was the last song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? i knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. i needed answers. my doctor and i chose xarelto® to help keep me protected from a stroke. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. warfarin interferes with at least 6

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the big chill. america freezing today from coast to coast. at least 80% of the country now dealing with subfreezing temperatures. for tens of millions of americans, it is another day of canceled schools, canceled work, canceled flights. nbc's national correspondent miguel almaguer has the latest from chicago. >> reporter: hey, andrea. the windy city is more like a frozen tundra. it's a beautiful shot of the chicago skyline. over lake michigan, it's certainly very, very cold and chilly here. the temperature feels about negative 20 degrees right now. believe it or not, that's an actually a warm-up from yesterday when it felt like negative 50. you can see thick ice coating this sea wall here. it's the scene all across the city. this is several inches deep. you can see the cracks and veins here. it's a beautiful and spectacular sight.

there are some brave souls who are braving these temperatures, but it's also danger and you say deadly. the death toll from weather-related incidents is at about nine. that could rise. as a matter of fact in michigan it's so cold, they're asking people to turn down their thermostat to help save heat. in pittsburgh, schools are closed across the region, a sign that things have not warmed up yet over the next couple of days. we will see temperatures rise, we'll get a little more bearable hear. city officials across the region are asking people who can stay home to stay home and to keep off streets because of the ice and danger that lies across this region. andrea, back to you. thanks tour, miguel almaguer, please get inside and get warm. nbc's bill karins is with us. >> andrea, it's an unofficial

record. they had to go out and check the instruments and everything else, but potentially this negative 38 in mt. carroll, illinois, the all time record low for the state. no location in the state has ever been as cold as it was this morning in mt. carroll. that is an impressive statistic. of course chicago got down to negative 23 yesterday, it was negative 21 this morning. they did not hit their all-time negative low of 27. there's a whole bunch on the map. some of the ones that were very impressive, international falls negative 45. there's a little town of cotton, minnesota, typically one of the coldest spots in the entire country. this morning they registered as negative 56 degrees. that's not the windchill, that's the actual temperature. all time state record in minnesota, negative 60, it looks like they missed it by three or four degrees. earlier today we had 121 million, roughly one in every three americans under a

windchill advisory. d.c. and philadelphia, you've been eliminated. even minneapolis now for the first time in three days does not have a windchill warning. we have it in fargo. we have a live look at fargo, one of the poster children for negative numbers throughout the last couple of days. it's not exactly going to be a large warmup for you. let's talk about the actual windchill values as we go throughout the rest of the day. right now the coldest, still negative 30 in chicago, negative 38 there in fargo. a little improvement in new york city at negative 2, you did drop to negative 16 this morning. as we go throughout the ride home today, still cold in areas. it's improving. the winds get lighter. a lot of sunshine throughout the region. as we head towards early tomorrow morning i don't think we'll have as many school cancellations and airplane cancellations. the temperatures are a little bit warmer. in chicago, it's amazing, we're talking negative 1. as far as the big warm-up,

andrea, this is the amazing part of this story, the surge of warm pacific air heads for the areas that were just frigid over the weekend. st. louis, they'll be 62 on saturday, they were negative 6 yesterday. our friends in chicago, area, yesterday they were negative 52 windchill. they're going to be jump to 46 degrees on sunday. that's a 98-degree temperature difference. that's weather whiplash for you in the midwest. >> that's incredible. thank you so much, bill karins, miguel almaguer, just hang on there, it's going to get warmer in chicago. meanwhile, here in washington, talks to avert another government shutdown are heating up as president trump is taking aim at former house speaker paul ryan for supposedly reneging on a border wall deal,

telling the daily caller, i was going to veto the omnibus bill and paul told me in the strongest of language, please don't do that, we'll get you the wall. i said, i hope you mean that because i don't like this bill. the president adding, quote, and then he went lame duck and once he went lame duck it was really just an exercise in waving to people and power was gone so i was very disappointed. joining me now, msnbc political analyst fill phillip rucker, "washington post" washington chief. the president is saying what he believes caused it. >> that's right, andrea, the president is looking for a scapegoat for why there's no border wall funding for congress. the president's party controlled congress for the last two years and he was unable to secure wall funding. it's convenient for trump to blame paul ryan who is of course no longer in congress, no longer the house speaker, and he can

put the blame there. but honestly, the buck also stops with the president. if he really wanted to make a fight, make a stand on the border wall last year, when republicans controlled the congress, he could have. he could have issued that veto, he could have made a big fight for that funding, and he didn't. >> and today tweeting, let's just call them walls from now on and stop playing political games, a wall is a wall. so we're now retreating from fences, slats, whatever you want to call it. this really makes it clear that the negotiations between -- among the 17 republicans and democrats who met last night and are meeting going forward are not going to be easy. >> not going to be easy is an understatement, i think. these negotiations do not seem to be making progress toward a compromise. and increasingly we're hearing from those in the white house and within the president's orbit that president trump is looking at declaring a national emergency to get that border wall funding. that would enable him to use his executive authority to redirect

some federal funds for the wall without any congressional approval. that's because some sort of compromise to get to that $5.7 billion figure that the president wants for the border wall seems very unlikely given that democrats control the house right now. >> and republicans are really impatient with him as well. the republican senators don't want to go back to a shutdown for sure, although they are on different -- >> absolutely not. >> -- in different places. the speaker was asked about all of this today, phil. let's watch. >> there's not going to be any wall money in the legislation. what did he say today, congress -- it doesn't matter what congress does. he knew that he wanted it all to himself. i mean, really? a president who wants to have congress be completely irrelevant in how we meet the needs of the american people? no, come on. >> so i don't know where we're going. this is going to be a heck of a state of the union next tuesday, that's all i can say, with nancy

pelosi and mike pence sitting behind him there on the stage. >> it will be quite a moment, a real illustration of divided government. we have not seen that before during the trump presidency. and he's getting a real check on his power here from pelosi and from the house democrats. you know, they're not bunddgingn this border wall demand and i think we'll hear the president make the demand at the state of the union that he sees a h humanitarian and security crisis at the border and the wall is necessary to secure that situation at the border. but he's going to continue to face the opposition from the democrats. the people around the president feel his own option at this point to get that wall built is to declare a national emergency, which of course would provoke fights in the courts and a huge political firestorm. >> so buckle your seatbelt. phil rucker, thanks for being with us. >> thank you. coming up, sabotage. inside russia's attempt to

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in a shocking attempt by a

foreign government to interfere with u.s. law enforcement, prosecutors from the mueller probe say that russia has gained access to information provided to russian defendants, as is the normal procedure, and then distorted it on social media to undercut the investigation. a kremlin spokesman today dismissing the charge, telling reporters in moscow, there's been too much fuss over the mueller investigation. really? joining me now, msnbc legal analyst mimi rocah and nbc national security analyst cliff watts, a former fbi special agent. mimi, legally, first of all, the mueller team with these russian defendants, had to give them certain information, their attorneys are entitled to defense information that the defense would normally get. and the charge here is that they have been turning it over to the government, to russian hackers, and then distorting it on social media to discredit the prosecution. do i have that right? >> generally, yes. basically in any criminal case, when someone is charged, they

have a right to get materials that basically form the basis of the charge. any kind of evidence that the government would put in at a trial against them. and it's broader than that, also evidence that could possibly be exculpatory or material to the defense. so that's a basic and necessary right for a defendant in a criminal case. what the parties here, the defendant in this case, concord management, is doing is basically exploiting that right. and they are taking the materials so far, which have been nonsensitive, because the court has approved that, and turning those over to the russian government. they're putting them out on twitter and manipulating them in a way to try to make the mueller investigation look bad, so to speak, which is interesting, because, you know, that's basically been a goal of the president as well, to try and make the mueller investigation look bad. so once again, you have russia

and here, through attorneys in the united states, which i think is important to note, and we can come back to that later, but i think it's worth noting, through attorneys in the united states, they are trying to manipulate our basic democratic values that give certain rights to defendants and to use that against us. >> and hacking people associated with the special counsel's case, clint watt. this is right in the same kind of scheme that is the fundamental basis for the russia probe in the first place and for which these guys were indicted. >> yeah, it never stops. every piece of information, every step in the process is another point where russia will again try to lever a disinformation campaign to divide americans. and because our american population is so divided about the mueller investigation, you have the president out bashing the mueller team and its prosecutors, labeling them with names. this makes it ever more easy for

the russians to keep this program going, to keep this disinformation effort going. luckily for us, the media did not react to these stories. the reporter that received it did not report on it. that's really their goal, is to get this from alternative media into the mainstream media so they can advance this effort. we shouldn't forget they were actually supporting the mueller probe and bashing basically the white house in some of the troll farm tweets back in the troll farm accountant criminal complaint in eastern virginia. they're playing this game consistently and constantly and it's not going to change anytime soon. >> mimi, how does it affect the case for these people who were among the earliest indicted by mueller, the russians? >> because there's no party actually appearing here and actually going to trial, i don't think it really affects the case much. what mueller is trying to do, understandably, is to say, okay, we turned over nonsensitive

material, we don't want to turn over any further sensitive material because look what happened just when we turned over what the court had said we had to turn over. so he's trying to limit it. my guess is the court will rule in favor of that limitation. and i just want to pick up on something that clint said, which is, the media here did not take the bait, so to speak, and that was one reason why -- the mainstream media, why i brought up the lawyers in this case. russia is going to do what russia is going to do, but the united states lawyers who are members of a prestigious law firm, i don't know if they're witting or unwitting in this, but they have a responsibility to the court, to our system, and, you know, there were certainly some implications in mueller's brief that those lawyers are not living up to that responsibility. >> mimi and clint, stand by, because julia ainsley is joining us from the newsroom with a new filing from the mueller team. and this involves detailing what

kind of evidence they have or they seized against roger stone. julia? >> that's right, andrea. the way the prosecution is describing this, again, these are prosecutors from mueller's office in federal court, they just filed this today in the roger stone case. they say that the discovery, meaning the materials that they have seized, much of which came from the seizure, the search and seizure on friday when stone was arrested, they say that it is voluminous and complex. they say it is containing multiple hard drives with several terabytes of information, apple cloud accounts, bank and financial records, and the contents of numerous physical devices like cellphones, computers, hard drives. they say it spans several years. so we already knew that mueller's team had been seizing upon texts and e-mails that roger stone had used when he was corresponding when his intermediaries to wikileaks, like his colleagues randy credico. but at this point it looks like they have even more.

it's going to go back several years. and the amount of evidence here, they say, means that discovery will take so long that they are waiving the speedy trial. they say the court should exclude them from the 70-day speedy trial period because that is in the best interests of finding justice in this case. so two things. one, they've got a lot on roger stone. and second, this trial isn't going to be a fast one. >> and the other thing is, that explains, mimi and clint, exactly why that arrest was done the way it was, because they were also executing a subpoena, seizing materials that they feared clearly could have been destroyed if they had arranged a different kind of arrest. julia? >> yes, yes, that is right. if you think about it, roger stone has said that they sent, you know, way too many people to his house, there were 20-some-odd agents. but that's the way this is done. when you have to secure a house, send people in, you have

photographers, you have forensics analysts, you have people who can go through the bank accounts. they have to know what exactly to look for and where, and to try to keep all of that secure. in this case that's so high profile, they have to keep the media at bay. it actually makes sense, when you think about the level of information and materials that they seized here, they really needed to have that many people. so yes, that does put a dent in the argument from roger stone that they tried to overhype this. >> thank you so much for the breaking news, julia ainsley. and we'll be right back. be . you should be mad at forced camaraderie. and you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade, who's tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad. get e*trade's simplified technical analysis.

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and we have more breaking news to report. federal officials say they have made a huge seizure of fentanyl at a border crossing in arizona. they describe this as the largest seizure ever of fentanyl. nbc justice correspondent pete williams has the story. pete, we know fentanyl, a lot of it is coming from china and through the southern border. do you know where this came from or who produced it? >> yeah, in fact, andrea, most of the illicit fentanyl in the united states comes from mexico. that's what federal authorities say is the case this time. this seizure at the border crossing at nogales, arizona, a truck carrying produce, carrying vegetables, was stopped, and authorities discovered what they say is this huge amount of fentanyl. the previous record for a fentanyl arrest in the u.s. was i think 120 or so pounds. we're told that this is at least

twice that. so that would be an enormous amount of fentanyl. it is a synthetic opioid. you're looking at legal fentanyl here, which has long been used in hospital settings and surgery patients and so forth. but illicit fentanyl is a white powder, and it's often sold to look like heroin. heroin users think that's what it is. it's 100 times more powerful than morphine. and that's why it's causing so many overdose deaths, about 28,000 overdose deaths in 2017 blamed on fentanyl, andrea. so this is a big break, a big arrest. and we hope to learn the details in a news conference by authorities coming up here in about 20 minutes in arizona, andrea. >> we'll of course have all of that as well. thank you so much, pete. pete williams in the newsroom. meanwhile, president trump meeting with the vice premier of

china later today at the white house to talk about trade, as the tariff dispute between the two world's largest economies is nearing an important deadline in march. the president is tweeting today, no final deal will be made until my friend president xi and i meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the longstanding and more difficult points. tariffs on china increase to 25% on march 1st so all are working hard to complete by that date. joining me now is president obama's former ambassador to china as well as his former secretary of commerce. great to see you, ambassador. >> thank you. >> what do you think is the state of play on our talks with china, such an enormous issue economically for both countries and for the world? >> well, the stakes are very high for both countries. as you said, for the entire world. the chinese economy is slowing down. and of course when the chinese economy slows down, then sales of american-made products,

whether it's iphones -- i mean, products, whether it's boeing airplanes, caterpillar trucks and everything else, locomotives and even services will slow down. that will hurt the u.s. economy. our economies are very much interdependent. clearly a few points are of priority to the administration and to the u.s. business community in these rounds. more access to the markets. so many sectors of the chinese economy are off-limits to u.s. and foreign investment, whether it's in financial services, transportation, natural resources, and so forth. and we need to open those up. and in many other areas where investment is allowed, the u.s. or foreign company cannot own more than 50%. therefore you have to have a chinese partner. and when you have to have a chinese partner, you share your technology. that's why the force of technology transfer comes in. if the chinese government will

open up more markets and sectors to foreign investment and not require a chinese partner, that will address many of the issues. the other part is buying more american-made goods and services, from wheat and soybeans and apples and cherries, to industrial products. that's going to be harder. while the chinese want to buy more, oftentimes the united states government wants to restrict what they can buy and what they want to buy, which is primarily high tech equipment, for fear that it could be used for military purposes. >> how will the indictment of with a w huawei and their technology get in the way, if at all, in this relationship? >> let's hope it does not. the president has made some comments that are unsettling to a lot of law enforcement people, trying to link law enforcement investigations and criminal prosecutions with the political deal. we've always tried to keep the two separate. we value and pride ourselves as

a country of rule, of law, where prosecutions, criminal prosecutions are decided on the merits without political influence. this throws an monkey wrench into it. in the eyes of the chinese, they believe the arrest and indictment of the cfo of huawei was politically motivated. we need to keep those things separate. >> at the same time, the deadline, the threat of new tariffs on march 1st by the president, is that the way to go about it in negotiating with the chinese? everyone agrees they've done terrible things for decades in terms of trade and blocking access to our markets, but is the white house taking the right approach? >> i've never really agreed with the approach the white house has taken all along, but nonetheless we are where we are. let's hope that the two sides' understanding of the economies of both countries and the entire world will hang on the results of these negotiations. let's just hope that real progress is made.

i don't think we can expect that all the issues will be solved. reforming the legal system of china, tougher enforcement of intellectual property, developing a strong patent system in china, those will take some time, just as it took quite a while for the united states to develop its patent law system. nonetheless, i think there will be some concrete steps made, some first steps made. china is already beginning to open up more of its markets to foreign and u.s. investment. but i think the trump administration might keep some of the tariffs in place or threaten to restore some of the tariffs unless certain milestones are met to show that the -- to prove that the chinese government is following through on their commitments. >> we're about to hear from the president, he spoke in the oval office, answering questions. he was signing either a resolution or an executive order, i think, actually, about buying american. and in this case he was being asked about president xi, about

a possible summit which he's certainly hinting at. it could come after the summit with the north koreans, kim jong-un. he's also talking about the trade rip with president xi and the difficult negotiations to come. this is a pivotal moment. thanks very much, gary electronlocke, for being with us. here is the president not too long ago answering questions. >> reporter: do you have confidence with gina haspel and dan coats to give you advice? >> no, i disagree with certain things they said, time will prove my right, probably. i think iran is a threat. i think it's a very big threat. and i think i did a great thing when i terminated the ridiculous iran nuclear deal. it was a horrible, duone-sided deal that was $150 billion plus $1.8 billion in cash and lots of other bad things. if you remember, they took our

ten sailors out of waters that people are disputing and that made us look very bad. of course the payment was due the following day so they eventually let them go, which they had to. i disagree very much on that. you'll be seeing something next week, because you look at what's happened in syria with respect to isis and the caliphate, we took over a lot of area in the last two weeks. we've done tremendous in the last couple of weeks. at the same time we're consolidating a tremendous amount of good things are happening. you look at what's going on, and i can't tell you that this is a guarantee, because we're going into close to 19 years in being in afghanistan. and for the first time they're talking about settling, they're talking about making an agreement. and we bring our people back home if that happens. we'll see what happens. but they're in very serious negotiations for the first time. there's a reason for that. so i think we're doing so well

on a foreign policy basis. you look at north korea, many of you are going to be traveling with us to north korea. and for the meetings with north korea, most of you most of you the location is. we'll be anopsing the exact date. it will be the end of february. we've made tremendous progress. when i came in, or let's say at the end of the half the administration, frankly, it looked like we were going to watch with north korea. now there's no nuclear testing. we got back our prisoners, hostages. and we're getting back our remains. they're coming in. we've had some beautiful ceremonies in hawaii. so i just tell you that we're doing really well. our military's being rebuilt. it's very close to being

rebuilt. tremendous amounts of new aircraft. new weapons of all kind which we need. the stronger you get, the less you have to use it. the stronger we are, the less we're going to have to use it. we don't want to have to use it. we're going to have the strongest military by far we've ever had. i didn't see the report from the intelligence. when you read it, it's a lot different than was covered in the news. but i think that iran is somebody -- is a nation we have to watch very closely. they sent up a rocket the other day. and it failed. but it was sent up. now, they can say they're sending it up for civilian purposes, but i don't think so many people believe that. they're doing tests. we don't want to be in a position where we're behind. i have great respect for a lot of people. i don't always agree with

everybody, okay. [ inaudible reporter question ] this is going to be a very big deal. are it's goi or it's going to be a deal we'll postpone for a little while. we've been dealing with china. i have a great relationship with president xi. the relationship of my people to chinese representatives has been very good. we'll be talking to actually one of the top leaders in china as you know. i think probably the final deal will be made, if it's made, between myself and president xi. we're talking about theft. we're talking about every aspect of trade with the country. and we're talking about fentanyl

too. as you know, it comes through china. and in china, it was not criminalized and they've agreed to criminalizefentanyl. and give it the maximum penalty. the maximum penalty is the death penalty. that would be a very severe penalty. so i think it's going to have a tremendous impact. we put that one item into the trade fentanyl. i think it's an important item to put in. they've agreed. and agreed very readily. we really appreciate it. to criminalize the sale of fentanyl. steve. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't know. i can tell you, a lot of people are working. i can tell you we're charging

large tariffs to a lot of chinese products coming in. which hurts china. out of the 25 points, we're paying for four points out of the 25. they're paying 21. that's a big difference. we're taking in billions of dollars. frankly, we're creating a lot of industry. but rate goes from 10% to 25% on march 1st. we'd like to accommodate them. if we can get the deal done. this isn't when we're talking about, you know, they're going to buy some corn and that's going to be it. hopefully, they're going to buy lots of corn and lots of wheat and lots of everything else we have. they're also talking heavy technology. heavy manufacturing financial services and everything else. [ inaudible question ] >> i think we can do it by march 1st. can you get it down on paper by march 1st, i don't know. i can say on march 1st, the

tariff on china goes to 25%. that's a big tariff. [ inaudible question ] >> -- state of the union sir? and i don't know if you've seen stacy abrams who ran for governor, or just any thoughts on -- >> i campaigned against stacy abrams. i know president obama campaigned for her. michelle obama campaigned for her. and oprah campaigned for her. and all brian had was me. and he won fairly easily, you know, fairly easily. so i hope that she does a good job. i respect her. i don't know her. i hope she does a good job. [ inaudible ] >> i think it's unification. industry. it's also working with these people because they've been incredible. we have had some incredible

reports. we've had incredible republican support. the problem is the democrats, when they say, for example, we don't want to build a wall because it doesn't work and imimmoral. it's also immoral the people who come in our country and kill people too. that's a lot more immoral. i really think it's going to be a speech that covers a lot of territory. yes, please? >> nancy pelosi said this morning there's not going to be a wall in this deal, but she did say she'd be open to other kinds of physical barriers. would you accept that? >> no, because if there's no wall it doesn't work. she's just playing games. if there's no wall it doesn't work. and we're building the wall right now. a lot of people don't know that. we have a lot of wall under construction. we've given out a lot of contracts over the last three or four weeks. good contracts. a lot of the wall is soon doing gone under construction. the most important area, rigtheo

grande area and others. we're not waiting for this committee. i don't expect much coming out of committee. i keep hearing the words we'll give you what you want. the problem is, if they don't give us a wall it doesn't work. without a wall, it doesn't work. we have caravans right now comicome coming up from honduras. we give a lot of money to. which is stopping, by the way. but we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to guatemala, honduras and el salvador. and then they have caravans leaving their country coming up here. and, by the way if you go to tijuana and you take down that wall, you will have so many people coming into our country that nancy pelosi will be begging for a wall. she'll be begging for a wall. she will say, mr. president, please, please give us a wall. it will be very interesting. some people have suggested. let me take the wall along

california, let's move it to arizona, let's move it to texas and, you know, it will be a very interesting statement. about nancy, so in california, they wanted the wall built in san diego so badly and we built it. and probably i should have waited because as soon as it was finished they started screaming, we don't want a wall, we don't want a wall. but they wanted the wall so badly. by the way, it worked. nobody's getting through. but the minute it was built, they started saying, we don't want a wall. without a wall it doesn't work. it's very simple. i mean, i'm not saying this as a republican. i'm not saying it as anything other than a fact stater. without a wall it just doesn't work. yes. >> mr. president, after listening to the hardship from many federal government workers as well as those contractors and who relied on the federal government, employees finances

to fund their businesses, are you willing to jeopardize the economy again and also your presidency with people who are fearful of another government shutdown over this wall? i also want to ask you about jussie smollett, have you heard about that story? the chicago situation, the actor from "empire," who was allegedly attacked with racist and homophobic -- >> that i can tell you was horrible. i've seen it last night. i think that's horrible. it doesn't get worse as far as i'm concerned. as far as the people are concerned, many of those people wanted me to stay out, but i didn't want to do it because people were getting hurt. people -- what i think is the worst sin of all is the fact we're allowing people to come into this country and sell drugs and human traffic and do all these horrible things. that if we had the simplicity of a well-constructed beautiful

barrier or wall, they wouldn't be able to come into our country. that to me is the great sin. and everybody knows it works. i watched this morning earlier in the morning somebody trying to justify walls are immoral. i mean if walls are immoral, maybe we should take down all the walls that are built right now. you will see a mess like you've never seen before. so i only say this. i was elected, partially on this issue -- not as much as people say, but partially on this issue. nothing to do with elections. nothing to do with votes. only to do with common sense and only to do with security. and if we don't put up a barrier or wall, a strong one, but one that looks good. in the old days, they used to build them, they look terrible. now we build them, they look good. if we don't put up a physical