that wraps up this hour of "msnbc live." i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today." "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now with my friend kristen welker. >> hi, craig. it's another busy one. on "andrea mitchell reports," the former director of the fbi says he was so concerned with the president after he fired james comey that top officials seriously discussed using the 25th amendment to remove president donald trump from office. >> i was very concerned that i was able to put the russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion, that were i removed quickly or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace. >> coming up, the first reaction from the vice president in an exclusive interview with andrea mitchell. saber-rattling.

vice president pence slams european allies. >> does that mean regime change? does that mean war? >> i think what it means is nations across the middle east and here in europe need to be willing to follow the lead of the united states of america. >> coming up, more on the threat from iran in another andrea mitchell exclusive with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. and stuck in the middle. while the president looks for land mines inside the budget bill, the senate plans to vote on it later today. but federal contractors get stiffed, with no chance of back pay, all as lawmakers hold their breath, waiting to see what the president will do. >> let's all pray that the president will have wisdom to sign the bill so government doesn't shut down. and good day to you, i'm kristen welker in washington where president trump is pushing back on another bombshell book,

this one from former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe, telling his side of the story nearly one year after being fired by former attorney general jeff sessions just before his retirement benefits could kick in. mccabe, a career fbi official with a close relationship to former director james comey, was the subject of persistent public ridicule from president trump. the president calling his march 2018 firing a great day for democracy, alleging mccabe was aware of corruption and lies within the fbi. the former deputy director shares his recollections of critical conversations with his boss rod rosenstein, internal justice department debates over possibly removing the president from office, and his private discussions with president trump immediately after director comey's dismissal. take a look. >> i was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency, and won the election for the presidency, and who might have done so with the aid of the

government of russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage. i think the next day i met with the team investigating the russia cases and i asked the team to go back and conduct an assessment to determine where are we with these efforts and what steps do we need to take going forward. i wanted to make sure our case was on solid ground and if somebody came after me and tried to close it, they would not be able to do that without making a record of that decision. >> you feared they would be made to go away? >> that's exactly right. >> president trump out already with a swift and damning response this morning, tweeting, disgraced fbi acting director andrew mccabe pretends to be a poor little angel when in fact he was a big part of the crooked hillary scandal and the russia hoax, a puppet for leakin' james comey, an insurance policy in case i won. joining me now to discuss this

bombshell, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, the host of this show, andrea mitchell, traveling in poland with the vice president, nbc correspondent peter alexander and u.s. attorney paul charlton. pete, i do want to start with you and just get the big picture. some remarkable revelations in this book from andrew ma caccab. he talks about everything from discussing the 25th amendment to launching the justice probe. >> remember, he wasn't just deputy director, he was acting director of the fbi. he says the president called him the very next day after firing comey saying, everybody is proud of what i've done, what's it like at the fbi? from then on mccabe says he was very concerned about the president and his ability to tell the truth and that he was concerned that the russia investigation be put on solid footing. now, as for the 25th amendment, and this is the provision of the constitution that says a president can be removed from

office, you go to the cabinet members and the vice president, we've heard about this before. this meet took plaing, we know a meeting, that took place the day before mueller was appointed special counsel. we have two different versions of it. we get more on mccabe's version. he says that rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, suggested wearing a wire when he was around the president to record him secretly, and invoking the 25th amendment, and who in the cabinet might vote and how would they vote. what the justice department has said, pushing back against this, since the first revelations about this, were that, yes, rosenstein made some mention of this but that it was sarcastic. and the justice department has a statement out today saying none of this was ever pursued. so you have somewhat of a difference between mccabe and doj over that. the other thing the justice department says today, by the way, is that after mueller was

appointed special counsel, mccabe was out of the picture in terms of running the investigation, that he was formally taken off of it. that's a little more forward leaning than we've heard his role was. it was certainly diminished but woe haven't heard it quite put that way. >> a very quick response from president trump but also from the justice department as well. >> of course they had been contacted whiby "60 minutes," s they knew it was coming. >> andrea, remarkably, you were sitting down for an interview with the vice president really as this was all unfolding and you had a chance to ask him about discussions about the 25th amendment. what did he tell you, andrea? >> i asked him about it and whether he had been aware of this conversation at doj in real time or even knew about it. and this is what he had to say. what's your reaction to that? did you know about that? >> well, i never heard of it. i never heard any discussion of

the 25th amendment. and frankly i find any suggestion of it to be absurd. this president's been producing for the american people. and i couldn't be more proud to stand with him. and the words, the writings of a disgraced fbi agent won't change that fact for the american people. >> and you had never heard of this before? >> i had never heard any discussion of the 25th amendment by members of this government and i would never expect to. >> as you can imagine, the vice president was disparaging about andrew mccabe and defensive of president trump. >> and president trump has certainly made him a frequent target, as we've been discussing. paul, as pete just mapped out, we did get that response from the justice department saying that mccabe's recollections are inaccurate and factually incorrect. just put this into a broader

perspective for us. how stunning are these revelations, that you would have these high level officials having a conversation built 25th amendment at all? >> kristen, that's right, this is a stunning revelation. rod rosenstein and i served together as u.s. attorneys, he in maryland, i in arizona. i know rod to be a truthful individual. we should be cautious, however, about andrew mccabe's statements. the inspector general has found he was untruthful on a number of occasions and it was significant enough that the inspector general referred it for prosecution. that doesn't mean that these writings, this narrative is untruthful. it just means we need to be cautious. now, if it was discussed, if these discussions took place at a high level within the department of justice seeking to invoke the 25th amendment and remove the president, that is an extraordinary moment in our nation's history. >> during your time of service, would you have ever imagined being a part of any discussions like these,castic or

otherwise? >> that's a great question. think of the ethical and legal quandaries some of these people have faced. i could never imagine career prosecutors and department of justice officials would think to remove the president of the united states under the 25th amendment. >> peter, i want to go to you now and read an excerpt of this book. this is mccabe detailing a conversation he says he had with the president shortly after comey was fired. the president says, people are happy that the director is gone, are you seeing that? he went on, i received hundreds of messages from fbi people, how happy they are that i fired him. there are people saying things on the media, have you seen that? what's it like there in the building? and then mccabe adds this stunning detail, he says, this

is what it was like. you could go to any floor and you would see small groups gathering in hallways, some people even crying. peter, obviously you and i reported extensively on that moment, the fallout in the wake of that. just sort of paint the picture at the white house, the reaction, the mood as this bombshell dropped this morning. >> what was also striking, andrew mccabe describes, as we've heard other critics of this president, a scene that you would find in a godfather-type movie, a mafioso type scene, where the man who was then the acting director of the fbi is having the screws put on him. we're hearing this now from some of the president's allies including lindsey graham who of course is the chair of the senate judiciary committee, is the whole political situation that exists in this country as we anticipate the results of the special counsel's, robert mueller's russia investigation. lindsey graham, chairman of the

judiciary committee, put a statement out in the last few hours saying, after the "60 minutes" interview and the new information from andrew mccabe, that it is, quote, imperative that mccabe come before the senate judiciary committee. he describes what's increasingly apparent to him as, quote, bias guess president trump. so it's likely you will see the republican-controlled senate including the senate judiciary committee try to hear from mccabe to do some of the president's work, to push back on these accusations, these claims in these stories. similarly, it's likely you will hear from the democratic-controlled house in some of the committees there, that they will invite andrew mccabe up with a different political motivation, to get to the heart of why he felt it was necessary to begin this investigation, this counterintelligence investigation into the president of the united states. >> and peter, i think that's a great point. paul, let me have you pick up there, because there's obviously going to be renewed scrutiny of

rod rosenstein as well. and impleme want to read an exc from the book that deals with rod rosenstein. our viewers will remember he wrote that letter about firing james comey. he says he started talking about the firing of jim comey, he was obviously upset. he said he was shocked that the white house was making it look as if jim's firing had been his idea. he was grasping for a way to describe the nature of his situation. one remark stands out. he said, there's no one that i can talk to about this. there's no one here that i can trust. what does that say to you about rosenstein's mindset then and now, paul? >> it tells me that that's an extraordinarily human reaction. we knew jim comey, when we served as u.s. attorneys, he was our boss, a highly respected individual. i'm sure it's true that rod felt terribly about all the events happening to jim comey and must

have felt some responsibility, correctly or incorrectly, about jim's firing. that anguish i'm sure was real. >> did rod rosenstein actually speak about wearing a wiretap, authorizing the use of a wiretap? >> not a wiretap but a concealed microphone. >> yes, correct. does that issue move forefront again now, do you anticipate that? >> it comes back, i guess. but i'm not sure that we've advanced the ball that much. we still have -- we just have mccabe talking publicly about what was spoken about privately when this was first reported to "the new york times" and the justice department then pushed back against it, saying it was sarcastic. they offered up somebody in the room, a career justice department official who said that his recollection was that it was offered sarcastically. this brings it back up again. i don't know that it changes anything really, it's simply two

versions of events. i'm not surprised the vice president wouldn't have heard about it because it's not suggested, not even by mccabe, that it ever got beyond initial discussion. >> andrea mitchell, we'll join you in a few minutes for more on your interview with the vice president. thanks to all of you. this just in, amazon says it's canceling plans to build a new campus in new york city after mounting opposition there. in a statement, amazon saying, quote, after much thought and deliberation, we've decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for amazon in long island city, queens. while polls show that 70% of new yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envision. to help us understand this

breaking development, msnbc's ali velshi joins us from new york. ali, is this a surprise? >> i think we got a hint of it late last week with two things that happened. one, there is a state senator in new york, and he had been appointed to a board that could basically axe the deal. he's one of these people who really felt that the largesse that had been offered to amazon to bring them to new york was too much, about $3 billion in total. some of it was tax money, some of it was performance investment, performance incentives. he had sort of been appointed to this board. amazon then tells "the washington post" it's reconsidering its investment in new york. i think that was meant to be a shot across the bow of new york politicians to say, if you mess with us, we may take our money and our plant and go elsewhere. so we had an inkling on the weekend that either somebody able to axe this was going to in a position to do so or amazon

was going to pull out. he didn't get time to sit on the board that made the decision. amazon, sort of seeing the writing on the wall, said we're out of there. i don't think amazon or new york politicians understood how much pushback there would be. on the one hand there would be 25,000 new jobs in long island city which is just across the east river from manhattan. a lot of people live there, it's a simple subway commute, one stop into manhattan. but people writ large, kristen, were a little puzzled at how northern virginia and new york were chosen for amazon's second headquarters since it was supposed to be an economic shot in the arm to parts of the country that really need it, and people said, how did new york fit into that? >> ali velshi, thank you for helping us break down that breaking news. amazon certainly has been in the news quite a bit, another big twist. really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. and coming up, much more of

andrea mitchell's exclusive interview with vice president mike pence and another exclusive, this one with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. that's all coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. msnbcice for my shop. that's when i remembered that my ex-ex- ex-boyfriend actually went to law school, so i called him. he didn't call me back! if your ex-ex- ex-boyfriend isn't a lawyer, call legalzoom and we'll connect you with an attorney. legalzoom. where life meets legal.

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european allies, the day after israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu appeared to call for war with iran, a remark israeli officials criteria soften by altering the english translation by saying he said "combating iran." andrea mitchell interviewed vice president mike pence in poland a short time ago. >> because of what israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said last night, are you and the israeli prime minister and perhaps some of the other countries here talking about ways to wage war with iran? >> this conference is a direct result of the leadership that president trump provided when he made his very first trip overseas to riyadh. he challenged nations across the middle east to set aside old differences and to think new and to think in fresh ways about an alignment against a common

threat, namely the islamic republican of iran. >> does that mean regime change? is that war, at least as described initially by the prime minister? >> i think what it means is that nations across the middle east and here in europe need to follow the lead of the united states of america, withdraw from the iran nuclear deal and continue to isolate iran dip low what ical diplomatically. >> they didn't send their diplomats here. they are abiding by the nuclear deal and you slammed them today. this is opening up a new breach, is it not? >> president trump made it clear in the campaign and once we took office that the iran nuclear deal was a disaster. literally, the iran nuclear deal didn't prevent the leading state sponsor of terror from obtaining a nuclear weapon. it virtually guaranteed that at

the end of ten years they would be able to obtain the world's deadliest weapons. the president called him out on that, called out the deal, withdrew the united states of america, and is providing the kind of leadership that we think is changing the dynamics across this region. and today we called on leaders across europe and nations around the arab world to stand with us, to stand up for peace and security and democracy in the region, stand with the people of iran by withdrawing from the nuclear deal. >> joining me again from warsaw, poland, is nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and of course the anchor of this program, andrea mitchell, who has just done remarkable work. andrea, congratulations. you also spoke to the prime minister of israel, prime minister netanyahu, about all these issues essentially that you discussed with the vice president. iran, the divide between the u.s. and europe. what did the prime minister say

to you, andrea? >> well, it was happenstance really, because he and his wife sarah were touring this museum. this museum here is the museum of the history of polish jews and there is a significant memorial right outside to the heroes of the uprising against the nazi regime here. and so he was walking by and i got him to sit down and take a few questions to try to clarify this escalating rhetoric against iran. what are we talking about here? he did use the word "war" yesterday initially. the u.s. obtainjected, he then exchanged it to combatting iran. he gave him a chance to explain him. listen closely. >> the biggest threat in the middle east is iran's aggression and it has to be countered and it has to be countered now. >> how? >> well, i think first of all, the first step is to identify the threat, otherwise we can't do it. but first by joining the american sanctions. that was the call that i made, and that the foreign ministers

made to the european union. why are you not joining this effort against those that threaten peace in the middle east and threaten us? if you say you think the agreement with iran serves stability in the middle east, here we are. the countries of the middle east are telling you that's not true, it ain't so. it's in fact destabilizing the entire region, pouring billions of dollars into iran's coffers so they can continue their aggression. >> will it take war? because i mean, you used the word "war" initially in a tweet, then it was rewritten to be "combat." are we talking about regime change? >> it's either -- i don't rule out anything. but i say it's either -- it's a change of behavior of iran, cessation of its unbelievable aggression in every part of the middle east and well beyond the middle east, in africa, in asia, in latin america. how do you achieve this change of behavior? iran is an aggressive regime. if we learned anything from the

history of the 20th century is that if you have a fanatical, ideological regime that arms itself and begins to gobble up its names, the only way you're going to stop it is by confronting it. if you don't confront it, as in any form of human aggression, it just expands. how do you confront it? first of all, economic means. the united states pulled out of the iran deal, slapped very powerful sanctions. and the europeans should join this effort rather than circumvent it. the second is, we have to do more in concrete ways that i'm not going to discuss here. >> concrete ways including sabotaging missiles and rockets? they've had two failures recently. >> well, i think countering them in every possible way. i mean, this regime is bent on destroying israel. they say so openly, while they deny the holocaust, they're

preparing another holocaust. secondly, what they're doing is, for many, aggression, terrorism, sabotage, subversion in every single country in the middle east. i would say this to our european friends and others. when arabs and israelis are saying the same thing and agreeing with one another, pay attention, something important is happening, and something important happened here in warsaw. >> so the rhetoric is escalating. you can see that netanyahu feels empowered by having been here today in public with arab leaders, talking against iran. he also in his photo opportunity with vice president pence talked about the heroes, the jewish men and women who died in this place in the 1943 uprising against the nazi regime, and he said, and their collaborators. this is a very complex history but just to clarify, we're

talking about the nazi occupation of poland in which hundreds of thousands of people died, polish people, polish jews, and of course the jews were taken to the concentration camps and to the labor camps. and tomorrow the vice president is going to go to auschwitz, his first visit to auschwitz. he had been to dachau previously. this will be a somber day for the vice president tomorrow. >> somber indeed, andrea. what a remarkable pair of interviews. it was striking to hear the israeli prime minister saying he doesn't rule out regime change, certainly significant news there. andrea, we are going to be coming back to you for even more later in the show, for more on your wide-ranging interview with the vice president including his take of course on the bipartisan border deal. before i let you go, i want to show our viewers what you

referenced, your persistence, your tenacity paid off and you got that interview with the prime minister. take a look at how it all unfolded. >> something important happened here in warsaw. thank you. >> thank you, mr. prime minister. >> i didn't realize i was going to -- >> near tither did i. >> you hear the prime minister saying, i didn't realize i was going to do an interview. you ran into him and sat down and it happened, a lesson for young journalists everywhere, andrea, tremendous. >> well, luck has a lot to do with things. thanks very much. >> and we'll see you in just a few minutes. luck and perseverance for sure you. coming up, shutdown for what? why is the president now ready to accept the same border security deal he rejected just two months ago? republican congressman peter king joins me next. that's here on "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc.

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correspondent, kasie, it's expected he'll get kwirconfirme easily. what are you watching for today? >> reporter: we're keeping an eye on this one. as you point out, it is in fact expected to be a relatively easy pass for barr to get confirmed. i think the question on everyone's minds here on capitol hill is what does that mean in the context of all these big questions that we've been talking about today, and frankly for months, about the mueller investigation. we know from pete williams' reporting that rod rosenstein is intending to depart the justice department after barr is officially named attorney general. so that could have timing implications for the mueller report. of course everyone here in congress gearing up for when that happens. democrats preparing to jump on information there, republicans preparing their defenses, et cetera. we know that the house committees are staffing up to try and deal with whatever may come out of all of that.

so i would look at this as a potential start line for all of these events really beginning to unfold after so much speculation and anticipation on all our parts. of course, kristen, the more salient drama on the hill today, i would say, is around the funding deal. we had reported earlier in the day that chuck grassley prayed that the president would have the wisdom to sign this when he opened the senate. we just spoke briefly with senator lindsey graham who says that's always good to pray for the president. kristen? >> and on that note, kasie, thank you, and we know you'll continue to watch all of the developments from capitol hill. we'll keep checking back in with you as needed, thank you, kasie. the one person we want to talk to about all of this recall new york republican congressman peter king who serves on the homeland security committee, he joins me for you. congressman, thank you for being here. >> thank you, kristen. >> let me get your reaction to this breaking news as we're watching the senate voting to confirm william barr as the next attorney general. he now gets to decide what

happens to the mueller report, once it comes out. we've been reporting that it will likely come out sometime in february. so let me ask you here, congressman, because he has yet to commit to making it public. should the mueller report be made public? >> well, he shouldn't commit to making it public until he has a chance to look at it. there could be information there that discloses security. but otherwise, it should be made public, yes. >> correct, but don't you think it's important for the public, yes, you would anticipate some redacti redactions, but doesn't the public have a right, a need to see this report? >> they do. unless it's some particular items in there. but i assume that either 90% or 100% of it is going to be made public. but i can see why as attorney general he can't make that commitment until he sees the report and has spoken to

mueller. as far as i'm concerned, from what i've seen, there is no collusion. >> congressman, let me now ask you about what kasie was just talking about, what has been on your mind for days, of course. >> right. >> this bipartisan spending bill. all signs pointing to the likelihood that it is going to pass through both chambers. i've been talking to my sources who say, yes, president trump is going to sign it. but he's still a wild card because he hasn't committed publicly. some of your colleagues saying they're praying that he signs it. are you confident that the president is going to sign this spending by? >> i am reasonably confident. i think he realizes that there's no appetite at all for any more of a government shutdown. >> congressman, "reasonably," you're only reasonably confident? you're not 100% confident, i'm hearing you say. >> i never want to prejudge president trump, okay? again, he is his own man. but again, i'm probably as confident as you can be when you're dealing with president trump. listen, he's a very independent person and i don't want to be

prejudging anything and putting him in a position where we're expecting him to do something. i hope he signs it, i hope he approves it. certainly i think this is the end of the game here. this was a very poor decision that was made to shut down the president. i think the president took terrible advice from the people in the freedom caucus who somehow convinced him that this was a winning issue. it was a losing issue from the start. he couldn't win because the democrats hold all the cards with the house in democratic control. >> and just to put a fine point on it, he essentially accepted the same deal that was on the table before the first government shutdown. the one thing we know that was lost in this, pay for contractors, a month of it. so why shouldn't they get paid, congressman? we know that some lawmakers including some republicans are blocking that, they said they wouldn't vote for that. do you support that or do you think the contractors should get back pay? >> i think they should because it's not just the contractors not getting paid. there's many innocent civilians

who work for those companies and they depend on their salaries. i've spoken to some republican congressman, companies in their districts were almost going under because they could not afford to go five, six weeks without their employees getting paid or they had to pay their employees out of their own pocket and a lot of these companies are operating on the edge. >> there were a lot of headlines today, my apologies, i know we're ticking through a lot of different subject lines here, but on andrew mccabe, his book, his revelations we learned about on "60 minutes," he said talks of wearing some type of recording device were deadly serious despite the fact that rosenstein says they weren't. he also talks at length about discussions revolving around the 25th amendment. you know these people, congressman, what's your reaction, how serious do you

think this is? >> i've dealt with andrew mccabe for several years on the homeland security committee, the intelligence committee. i'm very disappointed in him. the inspector general referred him for prosecution because of various lies he told in his statements to the inspector general. so he's not a person to be believed. what really is shocking about this, forgetting about how anyone feels about president trump, he's the duly elected president of the united states. now you find these people at the top of the fbi talking about somehow removing him from office. when you think of the top five people in the fbi at the time of the 2016 election, four of them, maybe five, had to be removed and the people involved in the investigation had such a bias against president trump. if this had been holdovers from the bush administration doing this to president obama, i think there would be a revolution going on in the country. whatever grievance people have with president trump, i think the thought of having the fbi or people in the justice department somehow plotting to remove him goes against the very essence of democracy, and also rod

rosenstein, by the way, disagrees with everything mccabe has said. so again, i just think it's a sad moment for the u.s. and i don't believe andrew mccabe. >> very quickly, congressman, before i let you go, the revelations about paul manafort that he lied about his contacts with russia russian intelligenc person, what's your reaction, does that make you concerned that there was some type of collusion going on? >> that was at the very end of manafort's tenure with at that time candidate trump. i've seen no evidence at all, that anything was brought back to the campaign, to donald trump himself. i've sat in on the interviews of all the key witnesses. i'm not aware of anyone in the campaign having any conversations with manafort about what was going on in ukraine. this could have been manafort just taking care of himself, this was an old client of his and he owed people a lot of money. that could be part of it. >> i should clarify, it was a

business associate. congressman peter king, always appreciate your perspective. we'll be watching to see if that spending bill does in fact pass. thank you. >> thank you, kristen. meanwhile, president trump's 2020 political advisers launching an early and aggressive campaign strategy. politico reporting the trump campaign is zeroing in on who they believe are the president's most viable democratic challengers including senators kamala harris, elizabeth warren, and cory booker. but the president himself is keeping his eye on joe biden who has yet to decide on another white house bid. joining me now to discuss all of this is msnbc contributor yamiche alcindor, white house correspondent for pbs news, and msnbc political analyst phillip rucker, "washington post" white house bureau chief. thank you for being here, appreciate it. phil, we've been reporting, you've been reporting, the president has talked to his allies about joe biden, expressed concerns that he could be a real threat, he could tick off some of those voters who

helped sweep trump into the white house. what are you hearing and what would a biden run mean? >> that's right, kristen, there's a feeling that joe biden would be a particularly strong candidate in those upper midwestern states including pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, that trump carried in 2016 and that he would hope to carry again if he were to win reelection in 2020, that biden can appeal to those sort of working class white voters who gravitated toward trump last go-round. but the president's advisers are also keeping a very close eye on kamala harris, the senator from california. they thought -- the president has said he thought her announcement rollout over the last month was very strong. she had a big crowd in california and she has that sort of star appeal that makes trump a little bit nervous. but look, it's a big field, and i think the trump campaign is sort of beginning to adjust and will deal with whoever the nominee becomes. >> yamiche, let me follow up with you on the point that phil raises, because we know that the

president spoke to "the new york times" about kamala harris' rollout and said this, first of all ahe called her "kameela." he said, i would say in terms of the opening act, i would say would be her. he added, a better crowd, better crowd, better enthusiasm. this is a president who understands the power of enthusiasm. you've got to think he's got his eye on kamala harris as well. >> i think the president also likes big crowds. and the idea that his opponent could have this massive crowd in california, even though it is her state and a state that is largely progressive, to have this big enthusiastic crowd shouting her name and really ginning up the energy for her presidential campaign, i think president trump took note of that. i also think it's interesting that he's looking at these different candidates who have very different styles. you have a cory booker who is not as biting, i would say, as an elizabeth warren. you also have -- democrats at this point agree on almost 99% of what they want to do for the country. they all in some ways have

gotten on board with bernie sanders' platform from 2016, medicare for all, looking at college, looking at really expanding rates for people across this country, looking at criminal justice. so i also think what the president is trying to do is saying, i need to really prepare for multiple styles. there's elizabeth warren who is talking about fight, fight, fight, the cory booker who will be talking about really being a man of the people and having this kind of inner city home life. then you have someone like joe biden who will be more of a style that says, look, i should appeal to the middle class, i should appeal to voters who maybe voted for president trump, maybe voted for obama, that we should bring them back in the fold. then you might have someone who says, we need to go all the way left and not worry about the people who voted for president trump in 2016. >> we know harris is blowing up social media, something that the president understands as well. i quickly want to get your takes on beto o'rourke, who has gotten a lot of buzz, particularly this week after those duelling rallies we saw down in el paso.

chuck schumer met with o'rourke to talk about a potential senate challenge to john cornyn. we know that joaquin castro also told beto o'rourke that hey, he would support him, his brother julian is also running for president. phil, what do you make of that revelation and do you think we'll see o'rourke get into this race? >> we could see o'rourke get into the senate race, but he seems to be eyeing the presidential race. o'rourke had a lot of the stars aligned for him with ted cruz as an opponent, a polarizing figure in texas. he had a cash advantage in 2018. that would look a little different if he were to run against john cornyn in a presidential year with trump atop the ballot in a red state, it would be a difficult path to the senate. >> it's heating up early. thank you, yamiche alcindor, phil rucker.

wish we could keep talking about we're out of time. great conversation, thank you. coming up, deal or no deal? more of andrea's exclusive interview with vice president mike pence about a deal on border security. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. before i had the shooting, burning of diabetic nerve pain

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president trump has still not ruled out bypassing congress in declaring a national emergency to fund his long promised boarder wall. this as lawmakers move to pass a bipartisan security measure to avert another government shutdown. vice president pence weighed in today during his interview with andrea mitchell in poland. >> republican leader richard shelby is saying the contractors are not going to be given their back pay for five weeks two paychecks, two pay periods. you think that's right? >> it's one of the reasons i think president trump is taking his time examining the bill the conference committee has

created. the president is today spending his time and his team's energy's examining this massive legislation. the president made it clear he's not happy about the border wall number. but the fact there's $23 billion for border security in this legislation including many of the priorities the president advocated for will also assume the president's decision. we'll examine all the aspects and identify areas, whether it's in this legislation or future, that we'll need to address. >> he certainly hinted at getting unspent money or combining that with an emergency declaration. when you were house budget chair, how would you have felt if a democratic president spend it on something else in. >> the president of the united

states has the absolute authority and under the constitution and by at it of statute to declare a national emergency and reposition resources. previous administrationings have declared national emergencies. to be clear, we have an machine at o emergency at our southern border. a crisis of humanitarian dimensions. 60,000 people a month come in. the first time ever, the vast majority of those are families. our system was never designed to address. it's being driven by the cartelings. the president is going to examine this bill. not only wall funding but border security and homeland security. the president is absolutely

determineled to use his authority to make sure we address this crisis at our southern border. he believes he has the right to do that. >> the vice president defending what he says is the president's right to declare a national emergency. as we bring you back, we're getting some breaking news from the white house now responding to the bombshell we started this show with, the new revelations in that book by andrew mccabe. i want to read it. this is from sarah sanders who writes, andrew mccabe was fireled because he lied to investigators. including under oath. his destructive agenda drove him to open a baseless investigation into the president. his actionings were so shameful he wallace referred to federal prosecutors. this is the tactic.

this is the strategy we have seen from this white house when it comes to mccabe. >> they clearly have an opening here. i think it certainly is first of all very surprising and indeed your own guests earlier were talking how shocking it was to consider they were talking about the 25th amendment at that stage. it gives them a very strong talking point right now. something that they can say. certainly the vice president and now the president are taking advantage of it. they're fazie in facing a hoste environment on the hill. a lot of questions un'ed. so they've got a lot of negative publicity. they can counteract it by trying to blame mccabe for overstepping boundings.

>> andrea mitchell, tremendous interviews today covering a wide range of topics. and of course that back pay for federal contractors. we spoke to peter king. he seemed to agree it needs to be looked at further. thank you for all your reporting. urance so i only pay for what i need. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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reports. now ali velshi and stephanie ruehl in new york. happy valentine's day, guys. >> welcome, everybody, i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie ruehl. thursday, february 14th. happy valentine's day. happy birthday to my husband. let's get smarter. >> and my mom. >> your mom too. >> what a day of love. and andrew mccabe telling cbs news. >> the next day, i met with the team investigating the russia cases. i was very concerned i was able to put the russia case on sole hid ground that, were i removed quickly or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed