. >> john mclaughlin, thank you very much, long-time cia director. i'm talking with angus king, member of the senate intelligence committee. senator, i hope you were hearing as well about wanting to change the immigration system. what we know so far from our reporting, from pete williams' reporting, from sources, is that this was a man who was looking at a lot of. they don't know if there are connections at this time. how do we work on these issues in terms of the balance of privacy and getting america involved with what people can see and read on line? >> before we get this out, i think it's important to know that the program in which this fellow got in, the so-called lottery system that the president was talking about, we voted against and a bbolished i 2013 on the comprehensive immigration plan which passed the senate by a very strong bipartisan vote. i think it's important that that provision was voted against by most of the members of the senate, including myself, back when that bill came up. the problem of self-radicalization isn't as tough as

joining me nbc news carol lee and john mclaughlin, former kri acting director.t of your reporting. you're on the team that came up with all of this information with michael flynn. what's going on here? >> what's happening is the pressure is increasing on michael flynn, that the special counsel is sort of squeezing him. and there's a couple things going on here. they're using his son, michael g. flynn, as a way to apply further pressure on former national security adviser, but then when we've talked to people about this, the investigation is not just looking at what we would think in terms of, you know, did he lie to the fbi? did he properly file as a foreign agent or disclose -- have disclosures with contacts with foreign officials? it's also looking at his time inside the white house as national security adviser and whether there was anything untoward that happened during those 24 days, specifically as it relates to turkey. >> wow. >> so, there's a number of ways in which this can go. and i think we haven't seen publicly any charges in this investigation into t

. >> joined by acting director for cia, john mclaughlin, shelby holliday is here as well. business as usual? >> scary thing ari, these things come at you so fast and furious, weekend tweet and today the pocahontas business, i fear americans may become numb to this and think it's normal behavior. what is really going on, president has ab dictated his responsibility as credible spokesman for american values. just heard it from number of people. gives putin a talking point in a country that already has no free media, journalists are essentially sink fantic to the president. it endarjs lives of journalists overseas and sends a message to dictators around the world that president of the united states, normally representative of free media, doesn't particularly care. >> do you think he did this for putin? >> it's impossible to say, we don't know that. but in the realm of coincidence, it's the kind of thing you almost can't make up. if you put it in novel, probably wouldn't believe it or think it was too fantastical. we just don't know. they had conversations during his asian tri

. >> that's tricky >> it's not high >> thauk to john and jack mclaughlin, for example, seriously, thisling stuff depends on the sample. you know this. republicans, democrats, depends on the wording well, the mclaughlin poll show mid 50s to high 50s for the corporate tax cut. but it depends on the wording. i don't want to rest my case on that, but the wording -- >> tom perez, 30 seconds >> since when is growth bad? that's the whole point of this exercise >> larry, i just want to ask a very quick question, very quick. corporate profits have been very high the corporate profit margin has been very high it's sort of hard to understand why you argue that the tax is the wedge. i understand the overseas part of it, but the domestic part i'm having a hard time understanding, why tax is a wedge with profits so high between, a, even doing the investment, and, b, paying workers more i think there's people in favor of a lower tax rate, but the trouble is you go so far down into the 20% range, it creates all the political issues that you really have a hard time -- >> i'm not going to let no one els

john, about these upcoming nuptials. >> who doesn't love a wedding at windsor castle in may. erin mclaughlin london, thanks so much. the big news there, meghan markle going to become a uk citizen. >>> thank you all for joining us today. that is all for us. i'm john berman. "at this hour kz wi" with kate n starts right now. >>> thank you, john berman. hello, everybody. i'm kate bolduan. president trump breaking bread and twisting arms this morning. next hour he will be heading back to capitol hill for lunch with senate republicans behind closed doors. the big topic, you guessed it or maybe we gave it away, we didn't give it away at the bottom of the screen, tax reform. is this going to be more pep rally or food fight today? that we will know in a short time from now. this is a crucial day for republicans in both the hill -- on the hill and in the white house. the big legislative win that they need so much faces another key moment when the budget committee takes it up this afternoon. where a single republican

noted by two interesting figures, john mcclauf lynn, former fbi director and general michael hayden who used to run the nsa and the cia. they tweeted the following. mclaughlin you favor cnn or fox, you may be numb and no longer capable of outrage. scare kwi if that's our new normal. hayden said if this is who we are or who we have become i have wasted 40 years of my life. until now it was not possible for me to coop receive of an american president capable of such outrageous assault on truth, a free press and the first amendment. >> they're propagandists. they're agenda driven. putin is much more sophisticated about it than trump is. >> yeah. >> trump is essentially propagandizing to feed his own ego. putin prop pagan diezs to fit his agenda. trump is emotional and deeply needy. one of the reasons i think he obsesses have the media is because he has this reservoir of need to be the center of attention. >> he has in the past pretended to be his own publicist in order to plant positive what he saw as favorable media stories, including about his sexual affairs. >> that he was a man about town, richer than people thought. all of this stuff is a reminder that th