. >> also barnacle and mark hal pring host david ignatius. >> david ignatius, why don't you child in here, us being shocked and stunned, not deeply s lly sd but after a month have a team we wouldn't mind sending around the world. >> general mcmaster is the real deal, a warrior, a man who made a career speaking to power. almost didn't get promoted to brigadier general, passed over twice because he was his own person. he spoke out. wouldn't play the promotion games. i first met general mcmaster in ir iraq. he was really as much as anybody a shaper of the idea, push back, contain the violence. he was in a city called te tellafor. i've got to get them out, reduce violence, the big indeed in the surge. hotline r. mcmaster was a key person with petraeus. i then saw him in afghanistan he had the insight. the problem in afghanistan, it was a corrupt, broken society. unless you fix the corruption you couldn't fix the place. it's a terrific choice. when john mccain says you've made a good choice, that's a good sign. too little experience in national security policy but he's a smart man and he'

david ignatius, let's just stop for one second. because this bears underlining, the system works, david. >> yeah. >> labor secretary. we talked about the courts, we talked about the press rising up. and we talked about republican senators rising up and telling the president of the united states who is very popular in their states and -- no. no. that is a bridge too far. he's not going to be labor secretary. >> i hope they pop up more. >> and oprah rose also. >> absolutely perfect example how this is supposed to work. a nominee was not suited for the job. information surfaces. more and more senators say, i can't do this. there were 12 republicans at the last count who said, huh-uh. and mitch mcconnell says this nomination is dead. that's it. >>> plus, we go live to brussels as james mattis puts nato on notice. timing of that is pretty bad. >>> and tonight, "morning joe" music. the show kicks off around 8:30 if you're in the area. don't miss it! it's awesome. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. tech: at safelite, we

david ignatius, a moment we need to stop.hite house yesterday go out on all of the shows and say the power of the president will not be questioned. and then making matter far more concerning. the president of the united states tweeted his congratulations for that performance and staff members called all of us working aus an telling us what a great job steven miller did yesterday, when he basically sounded like a little autocrat on tv. >> fortunately, federal judges do not take orders from steven miller. and the judges who are reviewing this case, the district court judge who began it in washington and this ninth circuit panel, are trying to construct quite narrow rulings. what they said to the white house was you have enormous powers as commander in chief over issues of national security, over issues of who gets across our borders. but you have to present evidence of a threat that justifies what you're trying to do. that was essentially the core of the appellate court ruling. and when steven miller says this is ideological, t

columnist david ignatius and pulitzer prize winning historian jon meacham. good morning, everyone. >> good morning. mark halperin, a lot to unpack here. quickly, what are the big headlines here? >> almost everyone i knew thought from the day donald trump named general flynn that his days were numbered for a variety of reasons, including his ties to russia. that will continue to be investigated just because he departed. the people the president is considering are strong names to rebuild the national security team and overall national security team that does need repair. it does raise questions about the president's judgment and whous counsel that knew about this allegation he could be blackmailed. whether he did something or not, most people who had that job would have resigned had nothing been done about it. >> mika, you've been saying all along michael flynn will be the first to go. you started saying it before he was sworn in. you said michael flynn will be out first. >> i think this is good news for those who are concerned this white house has people not

i'm not sure david ignatius isn't right.hey may know exactly what they are doing as far as insiting this type of reaction and watching it work in their favor. very important to remember that from '68 to '72, there were constant protests out in the street. the may day protest. kent state. it was horrific. it looked like the world was coming to an end. richard nixon went from barely beating hubert humphrey in '68 to winning 48 states in 1972. this was a reason because parents like mine were scared to death what they saw across america. >> this is why with if the left and progressives make their march look like the women's march they are in great shape but if it starts to look violent, they are in bad shape. a bright line to me. >> we have an example of a persuasive protest this morning. the ceo of uber, travis kalanick, who was on trump's advisory board for business, felt the pressure, not violent pressure but felt the pressure from his consumers, customers who were dropping up the app and picking up the lyfs app so he dropped

. >> joining me to take a deeper dive is "washington post" foreign affairs columnist, david ignatius, john finer, former chief of staff for john kerry, and has dealt with other issues and ron zarotti, assistant sec stare of the treasury who is also an nbc/msnbc senior national security analyst and expert on sanctions. first to you, john feiner, since you most recently had working knowledge of the sanctions in the past, what is your reaction to the steps taken today and how similar are they to what president obama and john kerry did? >> thanks, i have nothing to amend to what you and kristen welker said. the steps are consistent not only with steps of the obama administration took with our tenure and the serious concern warranted about iran's missile program. this is a potential threat not just to some of our partners and allies in the region but if it gets advanced enough to the united states as well. so they're right to be concerned about it. the concern i have the steps they're taking are coming in a context of confusion and vagueness what exactly is the policy approach to iran and

david ignatius is a columnist post" and heington joined me a short time ago. is he on his way out or not on his way out? david: it appears after kellyanne conway's statement that he is here to stay, unless there is significant of evidence about what he said to the russian ambassador in his conversations in late december. it is apparent that at least some of those conversations were monitored by u.s. intelligence. if there was evidence that he said things that are contradicted by other statements, this could come back. for the moment, yeah, it seems the president stood by his man. katty: let's go back a little bit for our viewers around the world and talk about why this has been controversial, not just because of the conversations he had but what he said to the vice president and what the vice president told the american people. david: general flynn, the national security advisor, during the transition spoke to the russian ambassador to washington. on the day or the day immediately before, the united states announced the expulsion of diplomats, an unusual step t

we turn first to al hunt's interview with margaret brennan and david ignatius. >> this is expressive, that the range of possibilities here through the campaign, through this period of the flynn's contacts, then after. we're going to be dealing with this for months. people have to understand, this russia investigation is just beginning. >> we continue with tom friedman of the "new york times." >> there's something rather patient and i would say unadult about the chinese in the sense they've seen this before. democrat or republican when i get in i'm going to really give it to them and they get in and understand the real balance of power and they tend to back. >> we conclude this evening with my interview of damien chazelle, director of lawaw land. >> it's like a single statement which i think is hard with a musical movie you're trying to wrangle three things together, dance, music and then the language of the cinema itself. and the old musical make it seems completely cohesive, the vincent manelli is one in a seemingly way, it's him but also a by-product of that musical system. we try t

on january 129:reporter david ignatius publishes a column saying that flynn talked to the russian ambassador. on january 15th, vice president pence went on cbs and said flynn did not talk about sanctions in that conversation with the russian ambassador. a few days later, former acting attorney general sally yates, cia effector, john brennan, james clapper and fbi director jim comey discussed briefing president-elect trump about all this, about the phone call. comey apparently objected to that saying it would compromise an ongoing fbi investigation into russia. that's andrea mitchell's reporting. at some point, the acting attorney general, yates, informs the white house counsel of the concerns over flynn. january 309, sally yates was fired over a different issue. that brings us to this week, yesterday. kellyanne conway saying flynn had the full confidence of the president. late last night he then resigns. i guess given that time line that i just went through, does it -- david, does it me sense to you that this is the order of events? >> well, none of this actually makes a lot of sense. i thin

then david ignatius said michael flynn was in contact with the russian ambassador on the day the sanctions were imposed. flynn says he did not discuss the sanctions. that was the big question. what were you talking about? did you cook up some deal? did you tell the russians you were going to -- the trump administration was going to lift the sanctions? the reason this is important is the trump administration hadn't taken office yet. there's a law that says private citizens can't make foreign policy on behalf of the united states. the white house had their story and the vice president went on national television and said, no, flynn didn't discuss the sanctions. the fbi was listening and it turns out he did discuss the sanctions. now the white house has had to deal with how to clean that up. here we are resulting in flynn's resignation, alex. >> let's talk about a very interesting point which is sally yates, the acting attorney general who was ultimately -- who ultimately briefed the white house about the possibility that general flynn may have been compromised, she told the white house almos

. >> he gave inaccurate information to david ignatius of the "washington post" and others about the conversationse had with the russian ambassador. then he repeated that in his considerations with vice president pence who went out and inadvertently because he had been misinformed and spread that misinformation on "face the nation." he has two defenses. one is way was overwhelmed by press event and i forgot because it wasn't the central aspect of the conversation. either he was incompetent or deliberately obscuring what he said. the notion that this is some kind of failure of the media with -- that there were nine sources in the "washington post" story. >> not a single allegation is specific. >> but flynn is gone. >> flynn, pence and trump all tell the same story about why flynn is gone. they are on the record. >> flynn is gone for two reasons. one is he gave it wrong information to the vice president and the second is "the washington post" came out and made that clear. >> people are claiming all sorts of nefarious things. >> again, it was considered a firing offense. and i'm not saying the genera

nights i think "the washington post" published the fact they had nine sources confirming what david ignatius talked about. i mentioned yesterday it's less about what general flynn is accused of doing and more about the fact that he misled the vice president. let the vice president go out on the sunday shows and allowed him to think there was no conversation and allowed him to say that he thought there was no conversation. about the sanctions trade with the russians about the sanctions. if you listen to the press conference today. it was amazing for you learned a few things. sean spicer said that general flynn, he called it evolving and eroding trust. it was all built around trust. he also said he had misled the vice president and others. he was asked about it later and he said i'm including himself, sean spicer. he said that the president did not instruct flynn to discuss sanctions. i think that's important. that shields the president at least for now from any sort of implication into the discussion. he also said, and i think this is brand-new, that the president asked for flynn's resignatio

foreign affairs and white house correspondent for cbs news and the man who first report on this, david ignatiusrom the "washington post care post.""washington a goodwishing charlie recovery. you will be off the bench in no time. it just doesn't stop. did mike flynn have to resign or was forced to resign because of what he said or because he became an embarrassment or both? david: i think it is both. the fact that there was a record, it and intercepted conversation that he had and the transcript would have surfaced in a congressional investigation and now the fact that he was interviewed by the fbi and there was that evidence made this one that, in the end, the white house could not walk away from. i think they wanted to and tried to. al: because they've known for a couple of weeks now. david: they've known since january 26, soon after the inaugurated. there's every indication they were hoping to ride this out. in one of the stories several my colleagues wrote that roque the news that in fact, this phone ofl had involved discussion sanctions, which is the issue flynn had repeatedly denied both p

republican strategist and pollster kristen and david ignatius and white house correspondent for the "eet journal," carol lee. david, he is alleging the media does not cover terror attacks in europe and that we don't want to. do you have any idea what he's talking about? >> no, and i have to be honest. as a journalist i am really troubled by that. we have brave colleagues who every day are taking big risks to cover these stories, look at the "new york times" which the president demonizes often. the "new york times" this weekend had an outstanding piece of reporting about how isis has been reaching out, is more involved in some attacks in europe -- >> we're doing a version of that story later in the show with that reporter from the "times." >> it's particularly inappropriate when we have colleagues who are doing everything they can to bring this story to america. for the president to suggest we don't take the story seriously. i'd love to sit down with him. i have about a hundred examples to show him. >> i don't understand it. >> a lot of it has to do with donald trump views himself as b

"washington post" columnist david ignatius put it this way over the weekend "michael flynn's real problem isn't the logan act, a statute that bars private meddling in foreign policy disputes, it's whether president trump's national security adviser sought to hide from his colleagues and the nation a preinauguration discussion about sanctions that the obama administration was imposing. if indeed it turns out that mike flynn lied to the vice president who in turn went out and repeated that, in your mind does he have to go? >> he has to go if he in fact lied to the vice president and most likely to others in the administration. it seemed pretty black black and white to me. the report suggests that the evidence is there for president trump to see. it appears as if there may be a transcript of a phone call, at least one phone call that he had with a russian diplomat. if that's available for the president to see, then if it suggests he was trying to undermine obama sanctions, if he did lie to the vice president, then he should go and we should bring somebody into the national security cabinet w

and white house correspondent for cbs news and the man who first reported on this conversation, david ignatiusrom "the washington post." thank you for being here. all three of us are wishing charlie a good recovery. we hear he is doing great. be off the bench in no time. david, this story just does not stop. you first reported this. did mike flynn have to resign or was forced to resign because of what he said or because he became an embarrassment or both? david: i think it is both. the fact that there was a record, the intercepted conversations that would have surfaced in the congressional investigation. and now the fact that he was interviewed by the fbi and there was that evidence made this one that, in the end, the white house could not walk away from. i think they wanted to and tried to. al: because they've known for a couple of weeks now. david: they've known since january 26, soon after the president was inaugurated. there has been every indication they were hoping to ride this out. not in the story i wrote, but one that my colleagues wrote, broke the news that in fact, this phone call h

let me get david ignatius' reaction. what do you think?k and the apparent identity of the attacker shows that border security is not a cureall when you think about the terrorism threat. it's a reminder that good intelligence and ultimately law enforcement are what stops these attacks. here's somebody who was in france obviously unknown to authorities. then suddenly this terrible moment. but it's -- it reminds us that this threat that donald trump's so focused on, is one we're all going to keep worrying about. >> we certainly are. all right. everybody, stand by. >>> there's more news coming into the situation room. a top trump adviser tries to defend president trump's travel ban by citing a terrorist massacre that never happened. c'mon in, pop pop! happy birthday! i survived a heart attack. i'm doing all i can to keep from having another one. and i'm taking brilinta. for people who've been hospitalized for a heart attack. i take brilinta with a baby aspirin. no more than one hundred milligrams as it affects how well it works. brilinta helps

we turn first to al hunt's interview with margaret brennan and david ignatius. >> this is expressive,t the range of possibilities here through the campaign, through this period of the flynn's contacts, then after. we're going to be dealing with this for months. people have to understand, this russia investigation is just beginning. >> we continue with tom friedman of the "new york times." >> there's something rather patient and i would say unadult about the chinese in the sense they've seen this before. democrat or republican when i get in i'm going to really give

two weeks later, a column in "the washington post" by david ignatius, first reporting that the call occurredbetween flynn and kislyak an that day. days later vice president-elect mike pence goes on tv says flynn told him nothing about sanctions was mentioned on that call. >> it was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation. they did not discuss anything having to do with the united states' decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against russia. >> by then the fbi and u.s. intelligence knew from the intercepted conversation that that had been a discussion of sanctions, so that sets off alarm bells with the then director of national intelligence james clapper, cia director john brennan, acting attorney general sally yates. they wanted to alert the incoming white house on january 19th before the swearing in, but fbi director comey was objecting at the time saying it could compromise an ongoing fbi investigation into are urussia. on january 23rd sean spicer said he assured him the night before sanctions were not discussed. sally yates at justice persuades comey it's time to let th

the timeline is on january 12th, david ignatius in "the washington post" first reported that flynn maye spoken to the russian ambassador about sanctions and that in subsequent follow-up questions to the white house, that's when we got these -- we got these denials. then, of course, in late january, the acting attorney general talked to the white house counsel and said that flynn may be vulnerable to blackmail because he lied to pence and perhaps others. so they had to have started to look into this on january 12th, and investigate it. they had the transcripts. they had the transcripts of flynn's conversations with this ambassador. certainly by late january when the acting attorney general is telling them, hey, guys, he lied. they knew this. so i don't think it's accurate they parted ways because he lied. i think they finally accepted his resignation because it became a big explosive news story thanks to adam's great reporting. >> let's take a moment and listen to some new comments from republican congressman peter king of new york. he just spoke with our manu raju. he went further than

. >> david ignatius from the washington post. paul saunders said in the presentation, step one is a thorough investigation of what russia did and what they were hoping to achieve, and i would like to ask you both to take that further. we know that there is a second intelligence committee that is begun by the partisan investigation, and so far as we have been able to establish the remains and there remains open an fbi investigation, and apparently other intelligence investigations continued into the matters. and so the questions that i'd like both of you to address. are these investigations appropriate? should they be augmented? are they too much in your view? second, are they likely to arrive at answers that you think that are the essential ones that the country needs, and if not how should we seek those answers? and then third perhaps most important what would be the appropriate public response? what would be your response if there is some effort either by the justice department to stop the fbi investigation or an effort by the