. >> sam stein is here, senator. his mother is very angry at him for normalizing trump on our show this morning. >> sam! listen to your mother! sam! listen to your mother! >> hi, mom! >> okay. >> private text conversation! put on air. >> the most powerful men in washington! you better follow his orders, sam. >> senator, my mom wants to know -- no. let's talk about immigration for a little bit. i know what you're saying. you have to see a plan before you can actually engage in gorkgork negotiations. we were talking about a path to citizenship versus legalization. let's say theoretically trump comes to you and wants a talk and i can't get to citizenship but legalization. do you enter those talks and if so, what do you tell him? >> again, we have been through this movie before and you guys fall for the bait. >> i'm not falling for it. i'm trying to get a sense of what you would say. >> i think sam is falling for the bait. i think his mom is right. >> exactly. yesterday, he has these cosmopolitan reporters in. he says may

joining us now, sam stein, senior politics editor at the huffington post, jonathan swan national political reporter. sam, that exchange we just played right there, that is perhaps the best demonstration of why devin nunes says there's now a cloud over this administration. the confirmation of an investigation, no further details. not swatting down the idea that could be collusions there, no comment. what does that mean, practically there's a cloud. what is that going to mean for our politics. >> it's not a little cloud, but it's there. and it suggests -- i mean the suggestion is now out there. that the fbi is looking into the possible collusion between russia and the trump campaign. russian officials and trump campaign officials. we've seen enough circumstantial evidence to gather this by this point in time. what this does is it gives it sort of a formality that it lacked. i suppose. and i think you know you end up having to go back well before the campaign. james comey famously speaking out about the ongoing hillary clinton investigation in order to spell a cloud of uncertainty hanging ove

sam stein?that is the scuttlebutt right now, where paul ryan coming here obviously to talk to the president about the state of the health care bill. sources on the hill say they're getting further away from the necessary votes for passage, not closer, at which point paul ryan has a question, do you make your vulnerable members take a vote that isn't in their comfort zone? this bill obviously the polling speaks for itself, quinnipiac poll 17%. it's not a vote you want to take back to your district so if you're paul ryan and looking at this, what is the upside of forcing a vote when that vote will likely fail? is it just to show that you tried? i'm not sure that's a price you want to pay and soim fame for d trump. do you want to go down with a no vote on your first major legislative gambit or get it off the table. either way it's a bad situation for them. one of the situations doesn't involve having a vote hang over your head. >> and yamish, glenn rush your colleagues and maggie haberman last nigh

we have veteran columnist mike barnacle and white house correspondent sam stein.he george bush white house, but we would be remiss not to talk about john. the passing of your father last week, our thoughts and prayers certainly have been with you and had an opportunity to meet him. a wonderful, wonderful man. i know how difficult that had to be for you and your family. i hope you guys are getting through this time all right. >> appreciate it, joe. thank you very much. >>> let's begin with the breaking news on the president's executive order on the travel ban. a federal judge was hoping to narrow the ruling on the travel ban, but instead this morning the judge extended it. it's now a preliminary injunction. the president's order is going to remain on hold until the lawsuit is resolved. the president called the judge's march 15th ruling against the revised travel ban an unprecedented judicial overreach. mark, whether you like the president's travel ban or not or the executive order, whatever you want to call it, whether you like the president or not, it's hard to fi

pril writ political writer for "the new york times" nick confessore and also sam stein. the white house challenged congress to contest the claim that president obama tapped donald trump's phones. lindy graham and sheldon asked top law enforcement officials for evidence writing to the deputy attorney general and the director of the fbi, requesting the department of justice provide copies of any warrant applications and court orders related to wiretaps of president trump, his campaign, or headquarters. joe, they add that it takes spying for political purposes seriously and would be equally alarmed to learn a court found enough evidence of criminal activity or with a foreign power. so here is senator lindsey graham speaking yesterday to nbc news be. >> president trump claims that president obama administration targeted his campaign, trump tower. i have no knowledge of that. but he has challenged the congress to help him, so let's help. if they don't give it to us, yeah, subpoena. i'm not trying to compromise classified information. i'm not trying to compromise the investiga

as john mccain said, sam stein, both of them stepped over the line.med what he did was far more egregious. they believe this intel committee and the house are going to be able to conduct a fair investigation on the collusion that may have happened between the trump campaign and russia. >> it's such a bizarre trade off. in exchange for nunes giving donald trump coverage on the wiretap claim, trump is going to end up or may end up receiving an independent committee looking into the connections into russia. i don't really see how the white house benefited from all this. >> sam, underline that fact. you are exactly right. if nunez was trying to help trump yesterday, he actually -- this day trading actually makes trump stock fall even more and pushes them even closer to the one thing they don't want, which is an investigation. >> it's not only that, think about what was implied in nunes' statement. what he implied was that members of trump transition team were in touch with foreign powers, agents of foreign powers beyond russia. not just russia now. he sai

capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and here with me sam stein, politics editor at the huffington post. speaker ryan sounding, i guess, optimistic. >> reporter: yep. >> white house officials like mc -- mick mulvaney slamming the white house. >> reporter: i think you're seeing from what administration officials like the health secretary and budget secretary are saying, that the cbo report is essentially wrong, that they disagree with it. that's been a line that the white house has been talking about. strenuous disagreement here. that said, the president has indicated privately, according to you aour reporting, that he' willing to compromise on some parts of this bill. the president is saying, to some of these skeptical lawmakers and republicans, tom cotton, we're going to do x, y, z and work with paul ryan on that to actually work on paul ryan on that, the two of them have a phone call later on this afternoon to talk about health care and the way forward and potentially try to get some more republicans on board. another option -- andre's no indication that this is happening yet could be

i mean, i think the caution here, which i think eugene and chuck have sounded and sam stein at the huffingtonost has been tweeting headlines from previous moments in the campaign of donald trump softening, donald trump open to amnesty. i remember a meeting he had with dreamers when they came out of the meeting and said i'd like to see them stay in the country. javier palomara came in with donald trump saying he thought he was opening to a softening on immigration. so we've seen this time and time again. two things i would note here. one is, of course, legal status and citizenship are two different things and there's a big gulf on that. that has been one of the core kind of parts of the legislation that's been hard to get to. the gang of eight bill had citizenship. there are not many democratic votes for a path to something short of citizenship since it would be enshrine ago semiperm meant to permanent class of workers who have no voting rights. that would be a new thing in american modern life and something that hasn't worked very well in countries like germany, for instance, that have tried

sam stein?cy pelosi went through in 2009, because this stuff is hard. getting votes is hard. >> i think last night was a home run for donald trump on his tax returns, and the tax argument goes away for a little while for him. >> and the base, too. david? >> i learned three key members of congress are talking about a serious investigation, and i think there's going to be a serious investigation of russia and the trump campaign. >> it's getting really interesting. thank you. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thank you so much, mika. >>> good morning, i am stephanie ruhle. breaking news overnight, donald trump's taxes. msnbc the first to reveal a portion of the president's 2005 return. >> donald trump's tax returns have surfaced. >> what they say about his income and new questions about who leaked them. >> trump has a long history of leaking material about himself when he thinks it's in his interest. >> deadline day. the senate demanding answers t