headquarters here in new york. it's another day of freezing temperatures across much of the u.s. and the record shattering cold weather is b being blamed for at least 12 deaths this morning. plus after launching insults, president trump now claiming he's on the same page as his intelligence officials. this ase top republicans weigh in. and in a late night tweet session, president trump goes off on the russia probe. that comes after he sat down for an intervow for t"the new york time times". and he's thot a target of theer special investigation. good morning, it's friday,

february 1st. we begin with the record setting and deadly cold temperatures in some parts of the midwest. it's the coldest it's been in decades. the winter storm in new york is now being blamed for three deaths. officials say a 69-year-old homeless man was found frozen and deceased next to a bus stop. to other men were describe itted as older. it brings the total of weather-related deaths to 12. just a sense of how cold it's been b in part. s of the country. these are photos of a fireman and his crew after working in negative temperatures in hammond, indiana. for the latest onpa what to expt moving atforward. we bring in bill karins. >> good friday morning. it's losing its grip, but it's still cold. still some advisories out there for windchill. one spot here up in the catskills. but it's not half as bad as it

was yesterday. it was negative 50 in chicago. yesterday was negative 20. current lu in chicago we're negative 5. we're definitely heading up. it's a typical cold morning. new york city is at negative 3. boston at negative 5. d.c. at 12. we have really seen the in the midwest. st. louis feels like 23. this is the windchill. this is the feels like temperature. now let's talk about the actual temperature. this is the map we'd like. this is the 24-hour temperature change. in the the last 24 hours, in other words this time now to this time yesterday, we have risen 25 degreesrd in chicago, in st. louis. significantly warmer from d.c. to f charleston and many other areas. be careful in the ohio valley. there's a little bit of light snow. we'll continue to watch this. the weekend forecast, everyone is going to love it. >> we'll check back in in a

little bit. after calling america's spy chiefs passive and naive, president trump says he and intelligence officialssa have a common enemy. fake news. trump says they told him their testimony before the senate where they todisagreed with himn russian cyber threats, the nuclear ambitions and the state of the iran deal with no mention of the border was all twisted by the media. the president was defiant about his hand-picked leaders for cia. >> do you have confidence in them to give you good advice? >> i disagree with certain things they have said. but time will prove me right. i department see the report. when you read it it's a lot different than was covered in the news. >> shortly after the comments, haspel and coates met with the president at the white house. trump posted a photo, quote, just concluded a great meeting with my intel team in the oval office who told me what they said at the hearing was

mischaracterized byin the media. we are in agreement. the testimony was distorted press. i would suggest you read the complete testimony from tuesday, a false narrative is so bad for ourrr country. i value our intelligence community. happily, we had a very good meeting and we are all on the same page. now the president. remains set in his view, even as a reporter reminded him that the intelligence leaders disagreements with him were recorded on visdeo. >> mr. president, did you talk to your intelligence chiefs today about the displeasure with their testimony? >> i did, and they said they were s misquoted and were total taken out of context. so i suggest you call them. they said fake news. >> we just ran exactly what they said to congress. >> it didn't surprise me at all. >> multiple senators said president trump should not be so

quick to make his disagreements with the intelligence community public and also should consider their advice. >> i would just advise the president to move cautiously, to please listen to his military commanders. those on the ground and the intelligence community. >> with you come into public life and you face all these issues, particularly in foreign policy where every country is steep ed in history and tradition, there's an awful lot to learn. you have a steep learning curve. you have to et rely on the advice and judgment and the wisdom and just the experience of peopleg who have been in these forpositions for decades. >> says if you have a problem with intel, you have to talk to them in the office. i like dan coates. i'm not sure i agree on iran, but the point is he's well respected, highly professional and you don'tn want to air you dirty laundry in a fashion that would send maybe the wrong

signals to some people out there trying to persuade. >> president trump labeled the dpoft funding and boarder security negotiations a, quote, waste of time. not very encouraging to say the least. yesterday the president told reporters he would declare a national emergency. if there's no funding forerhe h border wall. here's where he and house speaker stand exactly two weeks before the funding deadline. >> there's not going to be any wall money in the legislation. it's a place where enhanced fencing would work. let them have that discussion. >> i think nancy pelosi is hurting our country by doing what she's oudoing. and ultimately, i think i have set the table very nicely. i think people understand. they understand. they didn't know what was going on with the southern border. now they know. they had no idea the amount of

crime or drugs. i have set the table. i have set the stage for doing what i'm going to do. >> i'm going to wait until the 15th. it's a waste of time. t >> could i have done it differently, no, not really. by having the shutdown we have set the table for where we are now. if i didn't do the shutdown, people wouldn't understand the subject. >> nancy pelosi said this morning there's not goingel to a wall in this deal. et shewa did say she would be on to other kinds of physical barriers. would you accept that? >> no, because if there's no wall it doesn't work. if you go to tijuana and take down that wall, you will have so many, people coming into our country that nancy pelosi will be begging for a wall.

she will be begging for a wall. she will say, mr. president, please, please give us a wall. >> president trump proclaimed he's not a target of the special counsel's investigation in the 2016 l'election. tell iing "the new york times" received reassurances from rod rosenstein. rod told me i'm not a target of the investigation, but later suggested he had not talked with him directly. lawyers say he's not a target of the vgs. asked if that also covered the separate investigation of his former attorney michael cohen by federal r prosecutors here in new york he nesaid, i don't kno about that. neither rosenstein or mueller has said whether trumpth is a target and the president could not recall when rosenstein would have assured him. he sent three tweets about the investigation last night saying this witch hunt must end. >> two of the tweets related to

this. reports fromhe abc and cnn that the blocked calls that donald trump jr. made before his meeting with russians in trump tower were not to his father but rather to business associates. president trump tweeted at 10:00 p.m. to amplify the reports, just out big deal, telephone calls after the innocent trump tower meeting that thel, media d dems said were made to his father were just conclusively found not to be made to me. they were made to friends and businessfr associates of don. really sad. last night house intel committee chair said democrats are pursuing the phone records after republicans on the committee dechiened to comment when they were in power. schiff said the outcome does not rule out other possibilities.d >> those conversations could have taken place over the phone

or taken place by don jr. walking down the hall to talk to dad, but t it's key to understanding the president's involvement in all of this. >> we already know that the president and his son misled the country about meetings the campaignet was having with russians. they denied they even took place. when they were confronted with meetings liex louk the meeting in trump tower, they misled the country again about what took place in that meeting. >> joiningoo us from washingtons white house reporter for politico gabi. obviously, we have been focussed on this trying to figure out who the phone calls were made to. now it seems according to the reporting that we have those names. what's the likelihood that we could get a phone log to see what it is they spoke about? >> i i mean, i'm sure that's

something theat special counsel already has in his possession. what's interest iing about thiss democrats have really wanted to press this issue for quite someg time. adam schiff mentioned probing this through the powers that the house democrats will have with congressional oversniegt sooigt. now oversight. now that this wasn't a phone call made to p his father, then candidate donald trump, we will have to wait and see if that's actually something congressional democrats pursue. this is depending on whether or not the reporting is true, which nbc has been unable to confirm and so has politico. >> walk us through what we have seen starting with the testimony on capitol hill and then the pa january try in the oval office yesterday as a couple officials were brought in for that photo opt to talk to president trump about the threat assessment. what are the lsting effects?

>> you have hard it from several republican lawmakers in the past 24 hours. many people said this was debt a detrimental to our key allies. they areie locking at the dispr sits. and it's a sign of weakness that's being signalled to those allies and adversaries. i think a this photo opportunit held yesterday at the white house and the comments that the president made to the reporters in the oval office afterwards were sort of a clear picture of the white house doing damage control, to sort of go over what the president tweeted rlier. it's worth noting that president trump said he would encourage every american to watch the full testimony to get a fuller

picture. he decried this as fake news, but the president is the one that tweeted this out presumably without watching the full testimony. he's the one whoth targeted his own intelligence chiefs in the first place and caused this controversy. so i do think the white house right now is trying to sort of smooth those relationships over even though the president admitted in the same breath yesterday that there are disagreements that he has with those advisers and top intelligence officials.th h >> stay with us if you would. still ahead, a security specialist gets suspended a week after jared kushner's security clearance. >> plus the by the. er cold could turn into an unusually warm weekend in some areas. bill karins is back with a check on what we can expect in the forecast, coming up. we can expee forecast, coming up. ♪

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welcome back. it's been brutal out there to say the least across a lot of the country. want to turn to meteorologist bill karins to get a check on everything that's going on. there's some good news for a lot of people. >> have you seen some of the trends hike the boiling water challenge? that turns into ice crystals. have you seen the frozen pants challenge? so this was the pants they walked out with them plain wet, throw them in the air. then watch the landing. boom, wow. >> that's actually kind of odd. >> it is. but that took more than wasn't take. you get a little stir crazy in the house. so windchill is still low. we have advisories in upstate new york. 11 below in buffalo.

we're still very cold in minneapolis. chicago is the at negative 5. it's not like it's warm. we have a little light snow coming through. ohio into pittsburgh, this is powdery stuff. but interstate 70 could have some issues. washington, d.c. between an hour from now you'll start to see snow flakes. you may get half an inch or so. the snowfall totals, the white is 1 inch. even philadelphia south wards could get an inch. could do a little better. let's talk about the warm-up. chicago is negative 10 was the high on wednesday. by the time we flipped to the weekend and into monday, up to 55 degrees. st. louis, 68 on monday. cincinnati, 62. these areas are going to be 65 degrees warmer that the high temperatures. the same for d.c., cleveland and new york. not as extreme. but the temperature in d.c. is 57 on monday.

the big. warm-up is upon us. >> frozen pants challenge. thank you. white house security specialist has been suspended without pay a week after nbc news reported that jah ved kushner's security clearance has been approved. she's been suspended for two weeks for defying her supervisor. clines of the sunt of an article that said he approved kushner's. top secret clearance after it was rejected by two career white house security specialists. two sources familiar with the matter say the specialist made the decision to deny after a background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him. the suspended specialist as a rare form of dwarf and considers her a whistleblower and says the charges were brought as payback for the decision to file the

complaint against cline. the interview yesterday president trump said he played no role this directing white house officials to arrange for jared kushner to receive a top-secret clearance. president trump tweeted thoughts about iran writing the democrats are fan of being weak with iran. they have no clue as to the danger they would be inflicting on our country. iran is in financial chaos because of the sanctions and iran deal termination. democra democrats put us in a bad place but now good. iran replains in compliance with the deal. it. comes as allies have opened a new channel for u.s. sanctions and conduct nondollar trade with iran. however, it's unclear if that trade tool will allow for the bigger transactions such as oil and gas trades. tehran needs to conduct in order

with the nuclear deal. still ahead, the king makes his long-awaited return and a massive trade is set to shake things up in the nba. all that next in sports. he t nba all that next in sports. i'm 53, but in my mind i'm still 35. that's why i take osteo bi-flex to keep me moving the way i was made to. it nourishes and strengthens my joints for the long-term. osteo bi-flex; find our coupon in sunday's paper.

welcome back. time for sports. lebron james made his return to the court last night. he missed 17 games with the groin injury. and as you'd expect, it was quite the return. the king nearly finish ed with

triple-double, 24 points, 14 rebounds, the 9 assists and the lakers had to work a little overtime to beat the clippers. l.a. beats l.a., 123- 120. now to san antonio where things got a little batty. officials stopped play mid-way through the opening quarter between the nets and spurs because a group of bats swooped down on to the court. the delay lasted three minutes during which fans began chant ing where in 2009 he swatted one of the winged creatures and removed it from the court with his bare hands. as for the game last night, the spurs beat the nets, 117-114. and to new york city and the dysfunctional knicks. the jersey burning has begun as fans react to the the decision to trade away forward chris port

cincinnati gus to the knicks. oh the knicks. and fans are gearing up for sunday's super bowl matchup between the patriots and rams. to go along with the snacks, the flagship samuel adams brand released a special limited edition patriots-inspired brew. this is a nod to tom brady. it pictures a goat clutching a football. g.o.a.t. stands for graets of all time. too old, too slow, still here. >> are you going to get one of those? i'll get you a six pack. >> if he wins again. >> come on. he's a talented guy.

he's 41 years old. >> move on. go do something else. >> can you believe that bat swatting? that's talent. >> no mosquitos in there. still ahazard, president trump claiming that isis was defeated in seyria. but there's a new warning. what roger stone b is saying about the raid of his home last week by federal investigators. president trump also has something to say about that. those details, coming up. shaquem get in here. take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. you got this. with the one hundred and forty-first pick, the seattle seahawks select.

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welcome back, everybody. it's the bottom of the the hour. let's start with the top stories. a new pentagon report details the consequences of president trump's withdrawal of u.s. troops from seethe syria. according to two officials familiar with the report, without continued mull tear pressure, isis could et regain its territory within 6 to 12 months. isis is intent on reconstituting a physical caliphate, such as what the terror group previously had in syria. the report is is expected to be released earlier next week. it comes less than two months after president trump proclaimed the terror group was beaten badly and defeated. later saying syria is nothing but sand and death. he also ordered the immediate withtrawl of troops from syria

and the pullout of 7,000 from afghanistan. although have been altered several times by the president and his national security team. >> the senate delivered a rebuke president trump's foreign poll us is agenda. in a 68 to 23 vote, lawmakers advanced a vote that's highly critical of plans to withdrawal troops from syria. it was sponsored by mitch mcconnell, who rarely breaks publicly with the president. the measure warns against a precipitous withdrawal of forces from the two countries. 43 republicans voted in favor of it along with 25 democrats. while the resolution is nonbinding t showcases a public riff between members of the republican party and president trump. president trump continues to defend his decision to pull troops out of syria draw down forces in afghanistan tell iing the "new york times," quote, i got elected on saying we're getting out of these endless wars. >> the trump administration is planning another surge in the number of u.s. troops stations along the southern border with mexico.

that's according to the chair adam schiff, who revealed the uptick. more than 3500 troops will be sent to the border bringing the number of troops stationed this to 5,000. defense officials have previously said more troops would be heading to the border starting in the middle of this motto build and reenforce 160 miles of barbed or razor wire. in his letter to shanahan, smith slammed officials for not revealing the increase during a hearing about the border earlier in the week. writing, this is a violation of the executive branch's obligation to be transparent with congress, which oversees, authorizes and funds its operations. it also raises questions about whether the department thinks the policy of sending additional. troops to the border is so unjustified that they cannot defend an increase in public. roger stone due back in

court later today for a status hearing as part of his criminal trial. we learn the special counsel's team seized what it's describing as a complex amount of evidence from roger stone. robert mueller's office revealed that probing the associate have seized multiple hard drives c containing years of communication records from cell phones and e-mail accounts. special counsel's team is asking the judge to delay the trial to give them more time to comb through the information found on those devices. speaking at a press conference, roger stone was asked about whether he was worried about robert mueller's team having that vast amount of evidence. >> my attorneys have agreed to that. it is so complex that a speedy trial is literally impossible. so et we stiplated to that in the hearing before the magistrate and both parties agreed to that.

>> new this morning, president trump is denying he directed anyone to contact wikileaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. on one week ago, the special counsel revealed that a senior trump campaign official was directed to contact roger stone about any additional releases and any other damaging information about the clinton campaign. in an interview, trump said he never spoke to stone or ordered o others to find out. >> did you ever talk to him about wikileaks? >> no. i didn't. i never did. >> did you tell him or other people to get in touch with him? >> i never did. >> so this despite president trump making wikileaks a center piece of his campaign mentioning it at least 141 times in the last month in the 2016 election. >> this just came out. wikileaks, i love wikileaks. >> this wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. it tells you the inner heart.

you got to read it. >> they want to distract us from wikileaks. it's been amazing what's coming out. >> wikileaks, nobody is covering wikileaks. >> another one game kames in today. it's like a treasure-trove. getting off the plane, they were just announcing new wikileaks and i didn't want to coop you waiting. >> i love reading those wikileaks. >> that's a lot of wikileaks. the president expressed sympathy for stone and criticized the fbi for the manner of his arrest. >> i like roger. he's a character. but i like roger. for a team of 29 people with ak-27s or whatever they were using, to charge a house like they did at 6:00 in the morning, i think that was a very sad thing for this country. >> so for clarification, the fbi

did not charge stone's house but knocked on the door and stone described them as extraordinarily courteous. joining us from washington, gabby orr. good to talk to you once again. what could an extension of the mueller probe be as team combs through the the evidence of the hard drives mean for president trump? >> it could have damaging effects on his 2020 bid. i think also congressional democrats include iing the alre several candidates who have announced for 2020 are eager for this to wrap up. they want a conclusion. they want to know what's found on the hard drives in roger stone's home. they want to know if anybody else was involved in conversations with russian officials. there's so many looming questions that need to be

answered in order for both democrats and the president to sort of carefully run their 2020 bids. i think both sides are really eager for this to wrap up. >> i want to return to this concept of the president being isolated when you look at foreign policy. there's the pentagon report with the potential consequences of troops being withdrawn from syria and afghanistan. there was the amendment where you had mitch mcconnell leading the charge there to keep all of this from happening. there was the piece in "the washington post" from the former ambassador to afghanistan cautioning this. where does this leave president trump as he makes this decision about what to do with troops? >> similar to what you just said, he's basically totally isolated on this issue. virtually, every republican opposes this with the exception of perhaps senator rand paul. his own national security adviser has warned against this strategy. secretary of state mike pompeo is very weary of troop

withdrawal. if you go back to the comments that president trump made during the election, where he regularly criticized president obama for sort of leaving this vacuum in iraq after pull iing out there d blaming had him for allowing isis to sort of expand their territory in that region. this is exactly what he's being criticized for doing right now. it's the same arguments that are being made. it's exactly what was in that pentagon report that nbc reported on yesterday. i do think that he's sort of taking in all of the criticism and figuring out what to do next. and if this troop withdrawal is going to be reversed in the coming days. >> thank you very much. still ahead, president trump gives his two sense on the list of democrats looking to take him on b in 2020. plus rumored hopeful michael bloomberg speaking out on his possible run. why joe biden may be a deciding

factor. >> bill karins is back with another check on your forecast including much needed warmer weather. including much needed warmer weather. [knocking] ♪ ♪

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vo: ask your doctor today, if epclusa is your kind of cure. president trump weighing in on the growing list of 2020 democratic contenders yesterday. during that expansive interview, president trump said democratic party has, quote, really drifted far left. the president went on b to say he was most impressed by senator kamala harris. campaign event drew thousands of supporters after mispronouncing her name, he called the kickoff the best opening act so far. basing his decision off crowd size and enthusiasm. as for senator elizabeth warren, trump renewed his pocahontas slur again before bashing her claimed heritage. he said warren has been hurt badly with the pocahontas. trap saying it was a big part of her credibility and now all of a sudden it's gone.

senator warren has not yet announced her 2020 presidential candidacy, but is expected to make that announcement february 89th. former may your michael bloomberg's decision to run in 2020 may hinge on former vice president joe biden. bloombe bloomberg's advisers have been carefully watching biden's moves and aids have continued asking for intel on whether he will run believing there's only room in the crowded democratic field for one of them. bloo bloomberg is not sure there's room for his centrist record. his team believes he will not run if the former vp decides to do so. let's get a check of the weekend forecast with bill karins. >> i'm tired about talking all the negative cold. let's go straight to the 24-hour temperature change. we like all the bright colors on

this map. 20-degree temperature uncreases widespre widespread. 24 degrees warmer in chicago than we were at this time yesterday. so we're heading in the right direction. so we're going to get a break from the cold pat herb as the jet stream heads out. we get a building ridge here over the west. this is pacific air instead of arctic air. that's going to be a nice warm-up. so for today, north platt can get to 59. dallas a beautiful 62. notice we're still below normal chicago to new york city. we have to wait to sunday in the northeast to get to the warmth. saturday, st. louis jumps up to 60 36 degrees in minneapolis is pretty warm this time of year. and dallas, that's shorts at 68. sunday the warmth starts to surge to the north. even d.c. gets up to 55 degrees. there's a good sign the 60s will make it all the way to the midatlantic by the time we get to monday and tuesday. so the only troublesome weather

you'll hear about this weekend will be in the west late tonight and all day tomorrow. pretty good california storm is coming in. very typical heavy rain and snow in the high elevations. we could get 4 to 7 inches of rain in the mountains outside of l.a. we worry about the fires saturday night into sunday. then super bowl sunday, not many issues at all east of the rock keys. we'll deal with the northern rocky snow and california showers. the worst of the arctic air is over. i'd like to say that's going to be the worst of the winter. it's hard to imagine anything worse than that. >> i'm going to quote you on that. >> i feel pretty safe considering that was the coldest of my 20-year career. >> have you checked the farmers almanac? >> everybody who has gotten married ever knows about the farmers almanac. >> still ahead, president trump gives a hopeful outlook about the road ahead for the trade war. why his administration is playing down the president's

optimism. we're just a few hours away of the release of the most economic reports. how the government shutdown may impact the jobs report. we'll be right back. he jobs rept we'll be right back. (girl) nooooooooooooo! (man) nooooo! (vo) quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker, and is two times more absorbent. bounty, the quicker picker upper. ♪♪ i'm 85 and i wanna lifego home ♪savannah ♪

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right now get fast, reliable internet and add wifi pro for a low price. comcast business. beyond fast. welcome back. president trump predicted the conflict between the u.s. and china but warn ed that higher tariffs were not off the table if demands were not met. touting a flattery-filled letter sent to him by president xi, trump spoke opt o mystically

about the concessions beijing was willing it to make including opening its markets to american companies and buying more american goods. that sentiment was immediately walked back by an american negotiator who said much work was ahead to finalize a deal including scheduling a meeting president trump and xi before the truce expires on march 2nd. should a deal not be reached, additional tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese imports will take effect. negotiations will pause next week in observance of the lunar new year. flitlils analysts are braci for surprises in the jobs report due out later this morning. any potential drag the government shutdown might have had on private sector gains. i shouldn't say could hear. this is going to have an effect on this report. what are you looking for? >> what's going to be interesting is we have seen 99 consecutive months of job growth. we're going to expect 100

months. they are expecting 160,000 new jobs. what they are saying is they are going to make it very difficult to interpret those numbers because of that shutdown. that's because all of these furloughed workers we have seen over the last few weeks may impact some of the numbers. typically that's based on household surveys. n household surveys. that's the best january gain since 1987. the best monthly performance since 2015. that trump story you mentioned there, that might be one of the reasons according to investors that there's more confidence about the trade resolutions and some good earnings from facebook and ge. >> all that is good and well, but the real controversy here is

these hershey kisses. y kisses >> back in december a lot of people were complaining on social media that herself shees were coming without the tips. >> it's hugs and kisses. >> one other question. it seems as if they were hanging out with someone missing from set for the last couple days. couple of days, ayman mohyeldin.

how is that guy? >> i took him to a nice persian meal near his restaurant. >> you guys went to a persian restaurant without me? >> i'm afraid so. >> that's it. it's all done. willem, you'll never be on our show again. coming up, axios' jonathan swan has a look at this morning's "1 big thing" and the president tries to do damage control. >> and he said the media's bid is to misconstrue their public testimony. >> debbie stabenow will have more on that. more on that tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor

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kick things off, tell us what the "1 big thing" is this morning. >> how trump's bills are coming down. in the first two years he could largely get away with extension of his campaign bluster, talking about how he's going to build a big, beautiful wall, get mexico to pay for it, fundamentally change the china relationship so china would stop stealing u.s. intellectual property and taking advantage of america in terms of trade, withdraw from foreign wars, deliver, quote unquote, incredible health care, slash drug prices, all these big promise, either off the rails or heading into real trouble. if you look at the wall, his only path now privately seems to be the national emergency going through the executive branch and a protracted court fight. china he deserves credit for throwing them off balance and getting coming and the business

community to be supportive of what he's doing largely but now he has to deliver. if what this all results in is a bribe, the chinese going on huge shopping spree in return for trump leaving them alone, then all of that will be worth nothing. and with the foreign withdrawals, he's heading into complexity. he said he was going to withdraw from syria you but now a lot are pushing trump for a long-term presence in syria. >> what do you suspect will be the messaging for the next two years for the trump white house and the messaging for the state of the union? >> the state of the union, conversations i've had so far with administration officials, they're telling me it's going to be, quote unquote, uplifting. uplifting it is in the eye of the buy holder. i don't know what that means. it's a meaningless word.

my guess is there will be a usual call-out to the troops and things of that nature, but i think they will pick some of the fights that they want to pick and obviously one of them is border security. that's something trump wants to keep talking about between now and the election. >> there was a move in the white house press shop as the white house begins to readjust here ahead of enough investigations into russian interference and the lot, help us understand how the white house is preparing more broadly for battles with bob mueller and the democratic majority in the house. >> the first thing is how late they began preparing. when it was quite predictable for senior staff early last year that the democrats were going to take over the house, it took them until really september, october as a senior staff to actually start seriously preparing for this. and the serious preparations only began after the midterm

elections because don mcgahn had a terrible relationship with trump. they have expanded their team, doubled the white house councilcounci counsel's office but all very, very late. >> we're going to see you on "morning joe" and our viewers can sign up for the news letter. >> that does it for us on this friday morning. i'm david gura alongside yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, february 1st, along with joe, willie and me we have donny deutsch, elise jordan, editor of commentary magazine and columnist at the new york post, john podoretz is

with us. the president also does damage control, blaming the rift on the media. and as a new pentagon report says, isis could regain its territory in syria within six to 12 months. at 7 a.m. we expect another high-profile democrat to officially enter the 2020 presidential race. we'll bring you that breaking political news when it happens. and at 8:30 a.m., we will get the monthly jobs report, which could have an impact due to the record 35-day government shutdown. we'll talk about that. we'll get reports from the department of labor and the new york stock