policy collision between the intelligence community and its top client, the president, may be imminent and donald trump may be increasing our risk of war with iran or north korea by refusing to accept the assessment of the country's top national security officials. assessment based on facts in evidence, which we all know by now the president struggles with. one former senior intelligent official telling me today donald trump is overtly attempting to politicize intelligence across a continuum of issues. his depth of breadth is unprecedented. the stark warning as the president once again refused to confirm his own cia director and his own director of intelligence. >> i disagree with some of the things that they said. i think i'm right but time will prove that. i'm will prove me right probably.

>> the president then went on to dispute point by point the intelligent assessments given publicly by his own intel chiefs just this eck woweek, downplayi threats by i.c.e. and north korea. here are part and then contradicted by the president's fantasy version today. >> isis is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in iraq and syria. >> what happened in syria with respect to isis and the caliphate have grown tremendous in the past couple of weeks, at the same time we're consolidating a tremendous amount gf things are happening. >> north korea will seek to retain its wmd capabilities and unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons and capabilities. >> we made tremendous progress with north korea. when i came in, or let's say at the end of the last administration, we looked like we were going to war with north korea. now there's no missile testing, there's no rocket testing,

there's no nuclear testing. >> this same former intelligence official adds, this is the same tactic he tried with the fbi. demean the people and undermine the credibility of the institution. and he warns there is no safety net when you have such total disregard for professional judgments. the danger of making faulty decisions, he says, is very real and very dangerous. the seriousness of the situation not lost on lawmakers, chuck schumer tweeting it's past time for the intel community to stage an intervention with trump. here to talk us through the day's staggering developments, somewhere our favorite reporters and friends. harry litman, former u.s. attorney joining me here in san francisco. jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon. former chief of staff to vice presidents joe biden and al gore, ron klain is here and adviser from moveon.org and msnbc contributor is back.

the sort of state of mind and senior intelligent officials is something you know even better than me but they're not political people with highs and lows. they're among the steadiest of the steadiest career professionals. they see it all, scariest things facing this country. today i heard from my sources alarm as the president's conduct and statement in the last 24 hours. >> you can hear in the presentation at that annual worldwide threats hearing before the senate intelligence committee kind of the flat, monotone presentation of just the facts. that's the way gina haskell operations. that's the way the former republican senator and ambassador is operating. that's the way paul knock sony from the nsa and cyber command and cia director bob ashley as well. they all presented the facts. they don't care if the facts don't agree with the reports.

when they disagree with their judgments and the president saying he knew better than they do, that's when i saw a dark cloud roll over a lot of agencies located in northern virginia. as i take the temperature of people inside those organizations, there's serious concern. it's not that their morale is bad. let me make that clear, nicolle, they have high morale because they're doing really cool missions. but what we're worried about is what would we do in a real crisis? how would the president deal in crisis when he has to deal with facts and he won't listen to the people giving him facts? >> jeremy, let me press you on this point. i think it's really important. i think his war with the fbi is for obvious reasons. the investigation into him and his campaign and ties with russia scares the bleep out of him. what is behind -- what is does the intelligence community know that rattles him in some ways even more deeply?

>> first of all, exactly what they presented, they know iran is complying with the deal. they know north korea will not give up its nuclear weapons. the community knows isis will remain a significant and serious threat. perhaps more importantly, they know russia interfered in our election. they continue to interfere in our politics. they did it to benefit donald trump and will do it again. they know russia tried to recruit and run agents of influence inside of our government. i think the president is concerned the intelligence leads roll right back to the 2016 campaign and his inner circle. on his very first day in office, went to the cia, stood in front of the cia memorial wall and talked about how many times he been on the cover of "time" magazine. it was traced to him accusing the intelligence community of tapping his wires. of course, firing the fbi for attempting to enconduct a

counterintelligence association. and the kgb spy master through yesterday's hearing, it's part of a larger narrative of the president at war with his own intelligence community. >> ron klain, i think jeremy describes the president's side of this battle as well as i have heard anyone do this week. let me show you some of the former cia director john brennan describing who he's up against. this is former director brennan about his successor, gina haskell. >> i'm glad gina haskell and not mike pompeo is head of the cia because he will speak true to power and not just for the united states and others. >> ron klain, he seems cornered by people who do that. this intel said today these people don't derive their ability to do that because of any successful amount of courage but all of the people behind them, all of the analysts, all

of the people who gather intelligence, all of the american allies who share intel with us, it's our job to analyze it and represent it honestly to the policymakers. talk about what the president is up against in what seems to be a renewed war against the american intelligence agencies. >> nicolle, that's a great point. i think you look at the hearing yesterday and you see five people sitting at the table and it seems trump is just debating some political appointees. people he picked ironically. just debating them. behind them as you well know from having whorked in the white house are thousands and thousands and thousands of courageous men and women who serve our country that risk life and limb, and then billions and billions of dollars of the most advanced technology in the world that compiles and analyzes this information. look, it's not that the intelligence community is always right, it's we have the best system in the world up against what? donald trump says he goes with his gut.

so it's like this man's gut, filled with whatever hamburgers were left over from the clemson dinner, again, the most sophisticated system in the world for collecting and calling information. that's just the fact that he can't acknowledge that either suggests he's completely ignorant or undedicated or he has been corrupted and he has been compromised and he's following the lead he's getting from someplace else. >> ron, i want to tick through some of the examples listed today because we fight, rightly so, over the russian collusion because he made such a spectacle when he sided with vladimir putin ain helsinki over his own community. but this is tipped over the jamal khashoggi association, when donald trump was getting information from genia haskell about what actually hand, that

was trump. that was superseded by a personal rapport with the crown prince mbs. and he believes his love letters, pen pal relationship with, again, a brutal dictator -- john mccain got it right when he called him a short, fashion thug. and iran, perhaps most ominous for people who think this really is a part of the world where they're eager for conflict, that by downplaying the fact i think jeremy said it already, that iran has halted any nuclear efforts, that he may be watching us towards an avoidable conflict there. >> yes, i think those are very compelling cases and there are others too. trump you see him going along with his business influences in saudi arabia. you see him going along with his desires to build trump tower moscow and expand the trump empire. you see him going on with political objectives in claiming

this great victory with north korea and propaganda film he produced last time he met with him. you see politics and commerce on the trump side. you see facts, raw intelligence, technology and dedication on the intelligence side. that really shouldn't be a choice. >> shouldn't be. jeremy, i want to come back to you. something was just handed to me. the president taking questions, the press pool was there, says he talked to coates and haskell about his displeasure with the testimony and they claim they're misquoted and it's fake news. >> it is carefully vetted, reviewed by all of the intelligence component, 16 agencies and officer of the national intelligence. it's presented to the chairman and vice chairman well in

advance of hearing. it's delivered, read verbatim by the director. i don't know how it could be misquoted. they weren't misquoted. we should perhaps run some of the longer clips there. what the community is saying is the president's assessment of the iran situation, north korea situation of isis and russia, four key threat vectors facing the united states, his assessments are incorrect. we have information and we have facts to bring to this debate. the president can say i got it, i will take policy in a different direction. the intelligence community is not always right. they're not infallible. however, for them to attack him is naive, to launch a repeated broad side against integrity, against intellect and against their capability, i think undermines their mission and fundamentally leaves our country a lot more dangerous. >> harry litman, if you look at

the president's conduct, almost all of it is an embarrassment around the world. grab him in the bleep, his legacy he closed his campaign on. good people on both sides, which is just a reprehensible statement from any american president about the state of race relations. but you look at his very blatant public efforts to delegitimize the three pillars of national american security, publicly break with the secretary of defense over an ill-advised withdrawal from syria to attack on a daily basis and egg on his allies in the media, the justice department and all of its senior leaders by name and their family members and as jeremy described his dicey broad side saying what they said underoath in front of congress was fake news, it's no wonder the trump associates with crimes by robert mueller are being charged lying to congress. donald trump just accused his senior intel chief of doing just

that. >> it's really true. it's a bizarre as it is sort of sinister. it's confounding because he's taking this kind of battering ram to the most important institutions that should be everything trump knows by virtue of being president, everything he's privy to is exactly what he's ignoring. what is left? what's the possible basis of this cavalier dismissal of the analysis of the professional agencies? what on fox news or at breakfast with roger stone. it's not as if it's 10-1 and can he point to the 1. nobody, nobody in the professional ranks substantiated what he's saying. it's simply a fantasy mission

that is totally dangerous. >> if you look at sort of the revelations just this year, january feels like it's been seven weeks long already. we started this month with the revelation the fbi opened a counterintelligence investigation into donald trump because they were so worried he might be working wittingly or unwittingly for russia. you see him today two years later almost from that investigation being opened in a public investigation, is that war using words like that? >> it is. this started two years ago and nothing we've seen in the public eye anyway serves to actually rebut the basic concerns that led them to open this most remarkable file, counterintelligence investigation of the president of the united states. and he continues again and again to act consistently with it.

so that this crazy hypothesis, the man churen candidate scenario, begins to emerge as the least plausible for all of the lunatic gestures and opinions that are driving his policy such as it is. >> karine, i saved the best and lunatic, the best for last. following up on a blockbuster report last friday, a report from my colleagues here that the white house office -- you sort of look at the desecration of the office of the presidency, it isn't just the oval office. it's everything in that building. the office that approves security clearances was outed for overruling 30 background clearance applications, including one of jared kushner, the president's son-in-law. today that whistle-blower on that case has been suspended. this feels like the flashing yellow light of the scandal that

could very quickly move into center stage for this white house. >> that's exactly right. it feels like authoritarianism, that's what it feels like. there are no guardrails on this administration, on donald trump or his administration. look, you have a president who trusts fox news, "fox & friends," before he trusts his intelligence chief. that is incredibly problematic. why is that? because he's compromised by russia, because all he cares about is padding his pockets, because it's all about him, his personal -- what he wants in politics and not democracy and not about this country. so then you have this president living in an alternative reality, living in planet russia for all i know, and when you have a situation yesterday when you have intelligence chiefs in the hearing under own penetrating into his world, telling the truth, bringing facts, and you have those type of events, he reacts in -- he

attacks, right? he attacks them. and that's what he does. the other parts about this too, nicolle, is for years people have been telling us hey, don't worry, we have adults. we have adults in the administration. we have adults in the room. what we're learning now is there are no adults in the room. maybe some in the administration but not in the room. he doesn't want them in the room. he doesn't want to believe them at all and that is the situation we're in right now. >> just speak to the reality. we know from reporting it was really never -- no one at the white house ever disputed it, that the president doesn't sit down and read through a pdb and when you brief him, you can't say the r word for russia. and jared somehow over the intel community got clearance. it's more sinister than no adults being in the room. the people who have access to classified information maybe

shouldn't. >> that's exactly right. they shouldn't have access to the information. not only that, they have to draw pictures for him because he doesn't want to read the information. the story i have heard from presidents going into transition, whether you're republican or democrat, when they got that briefing, when they got that intelligence briefing going into the presidency, it sopered them. it made them realize what they were about to take on as commander in chief and he never went through that. they never experienced that. he would rather go golfing than do an intelligence briefing and that's where we are right now with this president. >> it is a sad reality indeed. after the break, the fbi raid of roger stone's home last friday, making more sense by the news cycle. special counsel robert mueller's office describing the evidence seized from stone as voluminous and complex, as they ask a judge for more time to sift through it all. also ahead, another trump/putin message collaboration, trashing special counsel robert mueller. surprise, surprise. and deciphering donald trump's border musings.

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when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you see them thrown in rough, i said please don't be too nice. like when you put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand up. like don't hit their head and they just killed somebody, don't hit their head. you can take the hand away, okay.

>> but when it comes to trump associates, be nice and be gentle and come all by yourself. former trump adviser roger stone was arrested on friday with charges of obstruction, giving false statements and witness tampering. the fbi went to his house without warning before dawn because they were worried he would flee or destroy evidence. stone accused authorities of using gestapo tactics and called his treatment worse than osama bin laden's. in an interview with the the daily caller, trump wasn't pleased either, saying, i'm speaking for a lot of people who were very disappointed to see that go down that way, to see it happen where it was on camera on top of it. that was a very, very disappointing seen. the daily caller then asked, would you ask the fbi to review its use of force, its militarization when it handles cases like this? and trump responded, i think that's a good question for you to ask and something i will think about. why might he be so upset about

this raid? a new court filing from mueller's office out today said they seized both voluminous and complex evidence including hard drives that contain several terabytes of information and span many years. and to top it all off, a new poll finds 62% of americans believe this president was aware that people like roger stone, michael cohen, paul manafort, tried to conceal information from federal investigators. harry, jeremy, ron are still here. what's amazing about that, you could put 10 people in an elevator, you can poll six of them and they will be circumstantial witnesses in an obstruction of justice case. it's amazing. >> yeah, and by the way, the criticisms are completely bogus. this is standard procedure for anybody who's been accused of obstruction and an arrest warrant, not just search warrant issued.

this complex designation both parties agreed to is super interesting. terabytes is a lot of info and usually consistent with trying to decode. there will be a lot of e-mails or words of stone's that he thought were deleted but weren't. it's likely to completely make the case with his own words and he lied to congress and it might make quite a lot more. then there are also bank and financial records. that's not something you seize to prove false statements. they obviously hold a magistrate they were going after bigger fish, bigger charges. and the designation shows it. the final thing it shows, it will be a while. a complex case takes longer to try if stone stays to his stance of making mueller go to trial. we're talking about the fall anyway. >> that was going to be my question for you, harry, i'm constantly warned by justice

department sources to stay away from timing stories, that, sure, robert mueller may be in the final chapter of all of this, but if someone commits a crime or if a new crime is revealed to the fbi looking into russia meddling, that crime will be investigated and then prosecuted. is that consistent with your analysis of what they seized in stone's home? >> completely. first, it may be the last chapter but that doesn't mean it's a very long chapter. secondly, yes, you never know look what happened with comey and the clinton e-mail is very prudent for whitaker to say it's almost over. as long as you're gathering information and evidence, you may be developing new charges. and that's not even touching on folks we know mueller will deal with one way or another such as kushner, trump jr. and possibly even ivanka. >> let me read something donald

trump said in the daily caller. it's amazing to me as a former staffer that he gets in trouble with the daily caller. as you and i both know, they're friendly interviews you do for opportunity. here it is -- they'll have to make their decision within the justice department. this is about releasing the mueller report. they will have to make the decision as to what they do. i could have taken a much different stance. i could have gotten involved in this and terminated everything and ended everything. i could have said that's enough. many people thought that's what i should do. usually imaginary people i'm told from sources including rudy giuliani, his old chief of staff, christie, other former prosecutors, telling him not to do that, that will put him on a path towards impeachment. >> many people might have included jared kushner, who turns out to be the george constanza of the trump administration, every piece of advice he gives is exactly and horribly wrong, including his advice to fire jim comey and his

advise firing him would end the russia thing. so i think he's getting horrible advice. the other thing about that quote, nicolle, is it's absolutely untrue. the truth is trump has done virtually everything he can to stop this investigation. he fired the head of the fbi conducting the investigation. he ordered the firing of the deputy head of the fbi. he's tried to eliminate all witnesses to obstruction from the fbi, demoting career officials in the fbi. he's gone down the path of just doing virtually everything he can to suppress the investigation, obstruct the investigation. the idea somehow he's kind of let the thing run on its own accord is one of the biggest lies of all of the trump lies. >> jeremy bash, they're not just lies meant to snooker the base and his supporters and signal to his allies in the media. they mean something in the context of an investigation. they can mean intent to kruk

construct or actual construction. what do you think of what members of the house intel committee have been describing for many, many months, what does that look like in a context of investigation into obstruction of justice? >> and one thing i will add, he fired the attorney general in that the attorney general conducted himself correctly based on the fact he arecused himself based on the advice from ethics counsel. the way he wanted to effectively end the investigation is installing his own individual acting attorney general whitaker to basically do what he could to starve the mueller investigation. it was only because of the ferocious backlash and public and among the hill that whitaker held back a little bit. the reason why you obstruct an investigation is you don't want the investigator to learn the truth. that's why nike flynn lied to the bureau, that's why michael cohen initially lied to the congress, roger stone lied to the investigative bodies on the hill as well.

it's fundamentally why the president has not been telling the truth about his own involvement and he didn't want the intelligence community coming forward with their assessment in january 2017 and doesn't want them speaking truth to power on the hill even at this hour. >> karine, i see the politics of this shifting with the democrats taking over control of the house and people that are in charge of the house intel committee, and i see his war on evidence and truth broadening to include the intelligence community, in part to encompass everything they might uncover now that these will be real investigations. >> that's exactly right. adam schiff, he is a professional former prosecutor. he has been really a voice of reason through the past two years, really caring about the country and talking about the rush investigation in a way that we can all understand. so that is the mandate of the democrats have winning in

november, absolutely, to make sure they put a check on this president. and that's what they're doing in the house. >> ron klain, is it weird at all to see the republicans totally cede any claim to being aligned with the mission, the purpose or the goals of the fbi? it's weird for me. >> nicolle, i was just thinking that. most cops in america are good cops, blessed to be served by law enforcement protecting us. but it is crazy the past ten years on average, a thousand people a year died being arrested, 600 in homicides, 70% are african-american or hispanic. donald trump and his allies, they have not spoken out a peep about that. now the governor comes to arrest roger stone and serve a search warrant and all of a sudden donald trump is interested in the topic of militarization of our police services. where was he after ferguson? where was he after the debate president obama tried to launch

here? he's just trying to protect his own people and protect his own flank. this isn't about law enforcement. this is about donald trump. >> nicolle, can i just add, they didn't complain about use of force on tammeer rice, a 12-year-old or all of the folks who were murdered. this is like spare me, spare me, cry me a river on roger stone. >> harry, i have to give you a quick last word. >> cry me a river. look, stone was intentional, we knew already he was in close communication with trump. you read that as the breadth of the evidence as characterized today. you have to think the odds are mueller is putting together a substantive case lynchiinking uh the july 2017 indictment of the russians, substantive case of conspiracy, campaign finance

reform, fraud against the united states. that would be the biggest development in the probe to date. >> only you, harry litman, can drop a bomb like robert mueller's getting ready to charge a conspiracy in your quick last word. we will have to pick that up again tomorrow. thank you for spending time with us. when we come back, trump and putin aligned in an effort to malign a common enemy again. that's next.

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we are back with some breaking news. this is the tape we told you about a few moments ago. donald trump in the oval office calling the testimony, sworn testimony under oath by his hand-picked chiefs of america's intelligence agencies, fake news. watch. >> mr. president, did you talk today about the displeasure you had -- >> i did. they said they were totally misquoted and they were totally -- it was taken out of context. what i do is i would suggest

that you call them. they said it was fake news. so -- >> we just ran exactly what they said to congress. >> excuse me. it didn't surprise me at all but we're here to talk right now about china. >> not that he tells the truth about china either when asked. but to see this in stark relief, let me show you the sworn testimony from the heads of the intelligence agencies earlier this week that he now describes as fake news. >> we currently assess that north korea will seek to retain its wmd capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production cape abilities. >> is it the assessment this country's adversaries continue to use u.s. social media platforms as a vehicle for weaponizing this information and spreading foreign influence in the united states? >> yes, that's certainly the fbi's assessment, not only have the russians continued to do it in 2018 but we've seen an

indication they're continuing to adapt their model and other countries are taking a very interested eye in that approach. >> is iran currently abiding by the terms of the jcpoa in terms of their nuclear activities? >> yes, they're making some preparations that would increase their ability to take a step back if they make that decision. so at the moat they're in compliance. >> while isis is territorial in iraq and syria, the group has returned to its guerrilla warfare roots by continuing to plat attacks and direct supporters worldwide. isis is intent on recouraging and commands thousands of fighters in iraq and syria. >> jeremy, so many moments in this presidency that justify just hitting pause and unpacking them, this is one of them. we just played the heads of the intelligent agencies describing north korea as ongoing num lar threat. donald trump's version of events

is it they are best friends, send each other love letters. you heard christopher wray, donald trump's handpicked head of the fbi after he fired his last head of the fbi, describing russia's ongoing interest in meddling in our elections, something so effective other countries now copying that conduct, and now describing iran. this to me is, iran in compliance with their negotiations on the nuclear deal. talk about what we just played, donald trump calling all of that fake news. >> the president was caught in a horrible, awkward lie there in the oval office with that videotape that you just played, nicolle, because he said that he had directly asked his intelligence chiefs what's up, and they said oh, we were misquoted, mr. president. of course they didn't say that. these are people with integrity. they would never have said that. of course, they know they testified in public. what their testimony was live on television for all of the world to see in front of the senate

intelligence community and entirety of congress. ridiculous statement he could quote them saying. of course they didn't say that. the president is embarrassed, it's a tail between his legs because the facts underline his fantasies. here he's not just eviscerating his own credibility but the c d credibility of people who go around the world and security issues that keep many people around the world safe. this is a very dark moment. i think it's time for the intelligence leadership of our country to stand up and say as dan coates did after helsinki, mr. president, you're wrong. >> i want to play this again. breaking news in the last few minutes, tape of donald trump calling the testimony from his own handpicked appointees of the nation's intelligence agencies fake news. it's because it contradicted his fake analyses of the dangers posed by north korea, russia and iran. i want to play it one more time.

>> mr. president, did you talk to them today about the displeasure -- >> i did. they said they were totally misquoted and it was tote tlan out totally taken out of context. i would suggest you call them. >> we just ran exactly what they said. >> excuse me, it wouldn't surprise me at all. but we're here to talk about china. >> ron klain. >> karine earlier used the word authoritarianism. it's a very serious thing to talk about but i think this is the key innisha of awe thor tarrismianism. what you saw on television with your eyes, he didn't speak it. and all of things are false, even if you saw it yourself. this is right out of 1984. we say it enough that it might seem cliche or trite but this is a turning point moment where the

facts and donald trump are in a hopeless conflict and where people have to believe what are they going to believe? what they saw these intelligence leaders say on television or the president telling them they didn't actually see it at all. >> karine, i'm not going to hold my breath but i wish i could for some republican lawmakers to come out and take a side. this is now -- it's exactly as ron described it. this is now a battle over what the meaning of truth is and you're right to invoke the illusion and patterns of an authoritarian. but donald trump in his own words has taken to his rally stage and said, don't believe what you see. don't believe what you hear. rudy giuliani, his lawyer, has said truth isn't truth. they're not even hiding the fact they don't want us to believe the truth. >> it's really unbelievable. here's the thing, nicolle, we know donald trump is a liar. he's the chief liar. he's like the chief liar of the presidency. and he never stops.

and we know that we've been talking authoritarianism. he must think we're all idiots as well because he doesn't think we can press a replay button and see what happened 24 hours ago or during the hearing and see for ourselves with our very own eyes. they were not just in a hearing in front of a committee but underoat under oath and it blows my mind. what i get to, it brings forth more questions and makes you wonder and continue to ask, what is it putin has on him? what is going on? every foreign policy decision he makes is what putin would want him to do. he's not telling his secretary of state. he's not telling his defense secretary about interactions he has with putin. it makes you wonder what is going on, what is the compromise? what is happening here? because it is truly, truly unbelievable every day, every moment of this presidency.

>> he went back to his office after that tape turned around and he tweeted. ly read thi will read that in a. i asked chuck rosenberg if the dossier didn't do a disservice, if we didn't chase the sordid aspects of it and lose sight of the what could be the more strangling compromise, do you have any theories on the answer to karine's question? >> look, as i said here on this program many times, i think this is a story about leverage. it's about political leverage and financial leverage the russian fedation had over donald trump in his inner circle. that leverage is causing him to do very strange things. they're mostly manifested in crazy foreign policy decisions like hasty withdrawal from syria which handed syria over to russia's client, undermining nato, resisting sanctions, failing to criticize russia for attempting to assassinate a

former intelligence officer on the streets of the uk that the united states helped win the free dom for, taking the word of a kgb spy master in helsinki over our own intelligence agencies. all of this is part of president trump holding up his end of the bargain. the bargain was financially we'll help you with trump tower moscow, we will part cash with you over the years so you can build your real estate projects. politically, we'll help you in the campaign. we will help roger stone, wikileaks, get these hacked e-mails out. and the payback under the bargain trump had to hold up were foreign policy decisions and that's exactly what he's doing. >> all right. for all of your listening pleasure, i'm going to read you donald trump's live tweeting of the news coverage of his own accusation that the testimony from his own intel chiefs was fake news. we're going to guess he turned on the tv and clarified. i just concluded a great meeting with my intel team in the oval office, who told me that what

they said on tuesday at the senate hearing was m mischaracterized by the media. note, mr. president, we aired it live. we're very much in agreement with iran, isis, et cetera. they're testimony was distorted. i suggest you read the complete testimony from tuesday. a false narrative is so bad for our country. i value our intelligence community. happily, we had a very good meeting and we're all on the same page! ron, this is trying to dig out before we have even sort of digging his own hole and jumping in it. this is so schizophrenic, is it almost makes the claim of fake news more mind-boggling. >> yeah, you said whole, nicolle. obviously, the first rule is when you're in a hole, stop digging. that's just a giant shovel trump took out on those two tweets and proceeded to dig even deeper. he can't reconcile what these people testified live on

television, we all watched it, about what believes about iran, north korea and other global threats. he can't reconcile it because he's not dealing with the truth. he's dealing with the talking points vladimir putin handed him. secretary clinton said in the last debate in 2016 that he would be putin's puppet, and that's exactly what's happening. you can't reconcile that with what his intelligence chiefs are saying under oath. so he says it's fake news. now he says we had a good meeting behind closed doors. we're all on the same page. it's not going to solve the problem for him or solve the problem for our country. after the break, defending the indefensible, part seven. with workers still digging out of the unnecessary and fruitless government shutdown that cost an estimated $11 billion and didn't yield a single cent for donald trump's wall, donald trump made clear he hasn't learned a thing from that experience. before i had the shooting,

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the only thing that is going to stop that is great border security with a ball or a slat fence or whatever you want to call it. >> we'll call it a barrier instead of a wall, i'm okay with that. i don't care, we need money for that barrier. >> i'm asking why when you're saying wall when he said you can all it whatever you want. >> let's just call them walls from now on. a wall is a wall. that is all you need to know about the wall negotiations today. he is meandering at times and

incoherent rambling us. it costs an estimated $11 billio billion. >> could we have done it differently? no, not really. i think by having a shut down we set the table for where we are now. now they understand the subject. they realize what a humanitarian crisis it is. >> joining our conversation the national political reporter, robert costa, he has to feel they did more than set the table. they didn't build any support for the wall. >> at this point, nicole, white house officials say the president has to make a decision the way he keeps talking about a wall is about existing fencing at the border. if they offer something can he

walk away and call it a deal or not. if not we fate's shut down. >> what are you hearing about anyone's appetite for speaking truth to the president? i heard that he is totally hostage to the loudest voices on right-wing media and he is more afraid of them than anyone that is in the west wing. >> the republican party is still in the president's grip but he is being assertive. you think about the action taken today by the senate republicans to push back against the president's decision to pull troots out of syri -- out of afghanistan and syria. he controls the party, the base is in his hand, but they are trying to slowly say this is our party, too. >> can you flush that out a little bit?

it seems like they had to acknowledge political gains, at least in terms of public opinion around some of these questions you're talking about. around this wall where democrats are still offering nothing. >> democrats continue to believe that the president may believe he has leverage, but they have the political better position. that is why speaker pelosi is telling her rank and file to hold firm, he is isolated from his own party on some of these issues. but he believes he needs to keep the base with him in 2019. 2020 on the horizon. so he is trying to navigate here to show the base, he is going to the extreme. trying to secure a funding for a structure, a barrier, even if it is not a wall, and walk away, but the white house is struggling to figure out a political calculation that they can claim as a win. so far the president who talks

about his deal making skills has been unable to cut that deal. >> you mentioned this vote on syria. itle really my understand ag rebuke. this is a place where the president exerts a lot of control. what kind of conversations are you having with folks up on the hill about this moment of the trump presidency. >> what i keep hearing from my sources is there is a gap in communication with this president. they fear other nationalists in this situation -- now with them gone they recognized that the president has these instincts, not a core or coherentizolo izd. you had them all sitting there in the oval office today with

juns bolton. robert costa, i have not talked to you since chris christie's book came out. i didn't see -- they didn't win, but the gist of this, any consternation about christie's vote that is sad it doesn't put much on the president, but it is unsparing on the west wing. >> inside the white house the president is friendly with governor christie. they will sit down here, but that is where this friendship had it's strains and moments over the years. the president believes he does not seek it out. >> robert costa, we'll be watching for the fruits of your

interview with chris christie. we'll be right back. w with chri. we'll be right back. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate helps you. with drivewise. feedback that helps you drive safer. and that can lower your cost now that you know the truth... are you in good hands?

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. my thanks today to jeremy bash, that does it for our hour, "mtp daily" starts now. don't have anyone on with bad blood today. >> who is his behaving, i didn't misbehave, neither did you. >> i think your friend misbehaved, but he had a lot that he didn't get punished for, but we will let that go. if it is thursday, who will you believe? president trump or your lying eyes? >> good evening and welcome to mtp daily. i would say this is an astonishing developing but yet