i could not go down there and do what kristen welker did today. i could not. i would slit my throat after two of those briefings if i had to sit in that room every day. >> steve, let me let you back in. i heard you try to say something. >> well, i'll tell you the difference between sarah sanders and baghdad bob is that if baghdad bob didn't say what saddam hussein wanted him to say baghdad bob would have been shot. sarah sanders stands up there a willful participant. lying of her own volition. baghdad bob was a hostage. sarah sanders is an accomplice. as is the entirety of the political operation of the white house. they're all in it together. they serve in a debased administration that's dividing the country, hurting america, pitting americans against each other because obviously that's what they believe is the right thing to do for them to maintain the prerequisites and perks of their powerful positions. that's what the difference is. >> kristen welker, we applaud, i watched the whole briefing. we applaud your valiant efforts. we appreciate you spending time

kristen welker is on duty at the white house. kristen, it's stunning turn. >> reporter: it is. the president made it in a letter. he was worried north korea would pull the plug first and the state media saying the world wants this summit and they are willing to resolve any issues. the historic summit with kim jong-un had been on shaky ground. today that ground gave way. >> i believe this is a tremendous setback for north korea and indeed a setback for the world. >> reporter: a senior administration official says the president made the decision to cancel the summit after north korean statements overnight threatening the u.s. with a nuclear to nuclear showdown and referring to vice president pence as a political dummy. the president dictating a three-paragraph response to the north korean dictator, blasting kim's tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement. >> hopefully positive things will be taking place with respect to the future of north korea. but if they don't, we are more ready than we have ever been before. >> reporter: a senior administrat

kristen welker has details. >> reporter: tonight, presidential flip-flop, president trump pressed about why he's reversed the account about the $130,000 payout to stormy daniels. >> mr. president, why are you changing your story on stormy daniels? >> reporter: this after a bombshell. the newest member of the legal team rudy giuliani announcing he reimbursed michael cohen for the hush payment money made days before the 2016 election. >> it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation, so -- >> they funneled it through the law firm. >> funneled through the law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh, i didn't know. he did? >> yeah. >> reporter: the president initially claimed he knew nothing. did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? why did michael cohen make it? >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney. and you'll have to ask michael. >> reporter: but for the first time today tweeting he repaid cohen through reimbursement. daniels says the money was to keep her silent about a decade-old alleged sexual encounter with mr. trump which the president d

our kristen welker has details. >> reporter: from the daughter of one of america's most celebrated war heroes, a powerful message for the white house after a staffer mocked her father battling brain cancer. >> it is not how you die, it is how you live. >> reporter: meghan mccain speaking out on "the view." this week her dad senator john mccain a p.o.w. opposed the president's nominee for the cia gina haspel and three sources with direct knowledge tell nbc news special assistant kelly sadler said during a thursday white house meeting, he's dying anyway. >> i don't understand what kind of environment you're working in when that would be acceptable and you can come to work the next day and still have a job. >> reporter: today the white house confirms sadler still has a job and then tried to ignore the controversy altogether. >> i'm not going to validate a leak. >> reporter: now a growing chorus of bipartisan criticism, trump supporter joni ernst calling on the nation to treat this war hero and his family with the civility and respect he deserves and lindsey graham says nobody is laughing

i believe that's exactly what the president may want. >> reporter: kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. >>> now to hawaii, where a slow motion disaster is cascading into a potential catastrophe after one of the most active volcanos in the world erupted more than two weeks ago. tonight lava has moved to a geothermal power plant, and there are new concerns about toxic air. nbc news national correspondent miguel almaguer remains on the big island for us. >> reporter: the unstoppable force redefining this landscape is tonight on a collision course with a geothermal power plant, already destroying a warehouse. explosive fissures shooting fountains of lava and fireballs into the sky are now creeping closer to where toxic gases are stored. workers scrambling to shut down three underground wells. >> a lot of people are really freaking out. >> reporter: after another explosion at kilauea's crater, ash and volcanic smog are drifting. laze, when magma cascades into the water, creates a toxic haze that can drift 15 miles. meanwhile, the only man injured by a lava bomb while sitting on his po

kristen welker asked her that question. kristen's at the white house for us. kristen, this -- that was a moment in a press briefing that was really all about pushing back in h denials and deflecting reporters' questions. that was an interesting moment where we learned that the press secretary did not know about the revelation of this payment to michael cohen for stormy daniels. >> reporter: that may have been one of the most striking moments of the entire brief iing. it underscored the fact that sarah sanders, the press secretary, and clearly the communications department, was in the dark. they learned with the rest of the country last night when rudy giuliani, the president's new attorney, said that he did, in fact, reimburse michael cohen for that payout to stormy daniels. >> what was -- >> now, the president making the point that it was a part of a retainer. that he didn't know what the payment was for until about ten days ago, but it's still incredibly striking, and speaks to the fact that this white house had been scrambling to try to really get its story

nbc's kristen welker has the latest. kristen, good morning. >> reporter: phillip, good morning. president trump made the announcement directly in a letter to kim jong-un. aides say one reason he was worried north korea would pull the plug first, but late last night north korea's state media saying the world wants this summit and they're willing to resolve any issues. >>> the historic summit with kim jong-un had been on shaky ground. that ground gave way. >> i believe that this is a tremendous setback for north korea, and indeed for the world. >> reporter: a senior administration official said the president made the decision to cancel the summit after north korean statements threatening the u.s. with a nuclear to nuclear showdown and referring to vice-president pence as a political dummy. the president dictating a three-paragraph response to the north korean dictator, blasting kim's tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement. >> hopefully positive things will be taking place with respect to the future of north korea. but if they don't, we are more

our white house correspondent kristen welker has the exclusive details. >> reporter: tonight, nbc news has learned exclusively chief of staff john kelly is increasingly on the ropes, his relationship with the president souring, with four officials telling nbc news they have witnessed kelly calling the president an idiot behind his back, including around the time of these january discussions about an immigration reform bill which ultimately fell apart. >> because this should be a bipartisan bill. this should be a bill of love, truly, it should be a bill of love. >> reporter: according to multiple administration officials, mr. kelly questioned the president's grasp on policy, saying some version of "i'm the one saving the country." adding to the west wing drama, kelly has roiled some of the female staffers by telling aides multiple times that women are more emotional than men, and when it came to dealing with rob porter, the staff secretary who was ousted after allegations of abuse from two ex-wives, which he denies, kelly was consistently protective. >> at the time of the controversy, k

nbc's kristen welker is at the white house. matt apuzzo. and chris mcgeren is covering the special house investigation for the l.a. times. kristin, i've been gone for a week, trying to keep all this straight, this rudy giuliani news. i'm having a hard time. can you straighten it out for us? do we believe the wednesday night version of giuliani, the thursday night version of giuliani, or is it the sunday morning version of giuliani? >> it's a good question, katy. and it is not clear. still as of this monday. that's one of the things we are going to ask sarah sanders about. one of the headlines though i think from giuliani that remains is the fact that he says the president reimbursed michael cohen for those payments. that's significant because, of course he denied doing that. now in a conversation i had with mayor giuliani, he said the president found out about a week ago that those payments were going to stormy daniels when his lawyers informed him. so it was striking to hear him sort of reverse that over the weekend. i think the broader po

our thanks to michael lighter to charlie savage, kristen welker. >>> still ahead, the money trail. the attorney for stormy daniels tries to connects the dots between the president's personal attorney and a russian oligarch. if your adventure keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips you may have overactive bladder, or oab. ohhhh... enough already! we need to see a doctor. ask your doctor about myrbetriq® (mirabegron). it treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. it's the first and only oab treatment in its class. myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions. if you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or difficulty breathing... stop taking myrbetriq and tell your doctor right away. myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. myrbetriq may affect or be affected by other medications. before taking myrbetriq, tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. common side effects include increased blood pressure, common cold symptoms urinary tract inf

our white house correspondent kristen welker has it all covered. >> reporter: tonight is the deal dead? president trump tweeting late today i will be announcing my decision on the iran deal tomorrow and it may be the biggest foreign policy test yet for a president who campaigned on a vow to rip up the deal increasingly signaling he's now eyeing the exits. >> it was a terrible deal. should have never ever been made. >> reporter: the six-nation agreement that includes the e.u. required iran to reduce the nuclear stockpiles in exchange for lifting most economic sanctions. the president argues the pact isn't tough enough at preventing iran from advancing nuclear and missile programs. but proponents say it's the only way to keep iran in check. key global allies have been shuttling through the white house to apply pressure including the leaders of france and germany and today, the british foreign secretary in d.c. >> we got to fix the floors in the deal but you can't do that without throwing baby out with the bath water. >> reporter: foreign policy experts say iran will pull out of the agree

our white house correspondent kristen welker has details of what we learned about that money flow. >>eporter: tonight, stunning accusations, the lawyer for porn star stormy daniels alleging the president's personal attorney michael cohen was selling access to the president of the united states. michael avenatti claiming $4.4 million flowed through cohen's company after october 2016. >> they paid the money to michael cohen probably because he suggested to at&t he can provide access to the president and could act as a lobbyist. >> reporter: tonight nbc news is learning new details about the payments including some from companies that had business pending with the new administration, a senior official at a pharmaceutical company novartis telling nbc cohen reached out to the company's then ceo shortly after the election promising access to the administration. he says the company paid $1.2 million for advice on health care policy but soon realized cohen couldn't deliver. that official says special counsel robert mueller asked about cohen's offer of access. novartis says they cooperated ful

for more on the potential answers, let's go to my colleague, kristen welker, joining me from the white house north lawn. kristen, president trump making news this morning, right? you heard what andrea had to say looking ahead to what will happen this afternoon. then tomorrow will be a huge day, potentially, right where you are standing. >> reporter: that's right. he says, as andrea just understood kated -- indicated, he does expect to meet with the north korean envoy and deliver the letter from kim jong-un. and he struck a note of confidence, hallie, that this will move forward. take a listen to what he had to say before leaving for texas today. >> good morning. i just want to tell you, we are doing very well with north korea. our secretary of state has had very good meetings. he's meeting again today. i look forward to seeing what is in the letter, but it's very important to them. they are probably coming down to washington, d.c. on friday for the delivery of a letter. i look forward to that. the meetings have been very positive. hopefully we'll have a meeting on the 12th going along

first up, msnbc's kristen welker at the white house. kristen, where does the relationship stand as of today, wednesday? >> reporter: well, today, katy, was yet another moment where we saw this simmering tension between the president and his own attorney general bubble up into public view. in this case, in the wake of that "new york times" report, which you cited, which said that president trump back in march actually pressed his attorney general to reverse his recusal, just to remind everyone, katy, the reason why jeff sessions recused himself in the first place was because there were revelations that he met with russia's ambassador during the campaign twice. those meetings hadn't initially been disclosed, so he made the move, which, by the way, within the legal community, was broadly seen as the right one to recuse himself. but president trump, ever since he recused himself, has frankly lashed out at him in various different forms, on twitter, in public settings. so this was another flare-up of that. and he did, quote trey gowdy to take

joining us from the white house, nbc's kristen welker and in new york nbc news medical correspondent orres. kristen, what do we know about the first lady's condition and any plans for the president to be there with her as she recovers? >> well, i just spoke with the white house official, nicole who said the president is expected to visit her today. so, we are watching for when that will happen. i'm also told that president trump spoke with the first lady right before her surgery, and then spoke to her doctor immediately afterwards. an official saying she's been in good spirits through

nbc's kristen welker live at the white house. nbc national intelligence and security reporter kim dee len d outside the courthouse in d.c. where mr. cohen just left -- mr. manafort just left. more on that. kristen, start with you. president trump continuing attacks on the russia investigation as he was leaving the white house a short time ago. what did he say? >> reporter: well, you're right. he essentially defended the fact that we've seen these attacks from him in the form of those tweets that you just mentioned. witch-hunt, spygate. my colleague hallie jackson asking how he can continue to suggest there was an informant embedded in his campaign when, craig, there has been absolutely no proof of that. the president saying, well, look at the basics. the bottom line. looks like a serious event. we'll find out when they look at the documents. you'll see a lot of bad things happened. again, not providing real evidence but certainly digging in, standing by everything he has been saying. president trump also asked if he was undercutti

also today, rudy giuliani telling nbc kristen welker there's no truth that president trump is upset to his tv interviews. kristen, the iran nuclear deal. the president has just briefed his friends in paris. there are varying reports on this. we expect from all of our reporting that he's going to say he's reimposing sanctions on ie ro -- iran. that according to every expert means he's getting out of deal because there's no such thing as withdrawal from deal. if you're going to reimpose sanctions at any time that freezes economic activity and that breaks the u.s. agreement as part of this six-country negotiation with iran. >> reporter: that's right. that is what supporters of the deal argue. if you break that agreement, the u.s. is facing to live up to its part of the bargain and so the iran nuclear deal all but falls apart. potentially giving iran the green light to move forward with its nuclear program. as you know, there have been a parade of key allies here at the white house. macron and we're still waiting for a read out of that call. i spoke to administration official who said that

joining me now is kristen welker and phil rucker. the president sending every signal that the meetings have wrapped up today. they they continue in washington tomorrow. they may be heading your way. he had to get a waiver to come to the u.s. because he's under sanction and now he will have to get additional permissions leaving new york city area. >> reporter: it's an incredibly significant development. particularly the president saying the purpose is to deliver that letter from kim jong-un. that's how this meeting first got under way in the first place. a letter from kim jong-un or a sentiment or message that he wanted to hold this meeting with president trump. the president striking an incredibly optimistic note but also saying there might need to be a second or even a third summit to work through some of the very thorny issues around denuclearization. we reported earlier this week that according to a cia assessment north korea has no plans the denuclearize no time soon and tb phat process could e as long as 15 years. they're going

. >> that's right. [ cheers and applause ] >> joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, vaughn hillyard as well. kristen, let's talk about this. kelly sadler creating this controversy creating this reaction, for whom does kelly saturdayer will wo er wi sadler work? >> she's a white house staffer and the context of her comments, she was having a meeting, they were talking about the nomination of gina haspel and she effectively said it doesn't matter, senator john mccain is dying anyway. that a response as you pointed out to the fact that he said he was going to oppose her nomination earlier this week. lawmakers on capitol hill were infuriated. we know cindy mccain lashed out on twitter overnight as well but to your point, andrea, the broader context to here and that i take you to meghan mccain's question, she said how is it possible she still has a job. me it comes against the backdrop of president trump disparaging mccain when he was a candidate. he said he liked people who weren't captured. people thought that would be the end of his campaign but it wasn't. there have

let's get the inside scoop from nbc's kristen welker.white house correspondent, and dan stein, msnbc contributor. what are they saying, how is she doing? >> i spoke with the first lady spokesman who said, look, she is doing very well, she is resting at walter reid medical center, eager to make a full recovery. and of course what was striking was last night the vice president said this was a long-planned procedure. i asked the first lady's office if that was, in fact, the case. they're not commenting, andrea. what we do know, though, is this was a treatment for a benign kidney condition. that is how the white house is describing this. and, again, the president saying she'll be at the hospital for another two or three days. this surgery was essentially one week after the first lady unveiled her new initiative, her be best initiative, which of course aimed at children and anti-bullying, anti-opoid abuse, mental health initiative rolled out by the first lady. it comes at a time when we've really seen the first lady become more visible. she w

kristen welker is in the room for us. ten, we are expecting -- i mean there is a lot of thing to talk about today. the president would like it to be about north korea. reporters may have questions about have questions about iran or all the revelations of all of the money, more than $4.4 million paid to the president's lawyer, michael cohen. >> well, undoubtedly, ali. i do think north korea will be at the top of the list. the fact that the detainees are heading home with the secretary of state as we speak, expected to arrive overnight. that is a significant development for this administration, for president trump. he weighed in on that earlier today, said he'll be announcing the date and place of his summit with kim jong-un in three days. we'll try to drill down on some of the details with sarah sanders. what are the expectations? what are the terms going to be of those talks? and is releasing those detainees enough for the united states to now consider north korea an honest broker? also, of course, what is the physical sta

. >> let's start with nbc news kristen welker in the white house briefing room. kristen, the long list, as per usual of headlines to cover today in the briefing. jeff sessions, of course, roseanne, what stood oud to you today. >> some of the top headlines do relate to jeff sessions. in the wake of that "new york times" report, casey, that president trump asked jeff sessions to reverse his recusal in the russia probe. of course sessions recused him because there werel revelations he had met with russia's ambassador during the campaign and didn't initially disclose those meetings. today sarah huckabee sanders was pressed about the tweet that he wished he had picked a different attorney general. she said she has nothing to do add to his comments. she wast also pressed on trey gouty. who has seen the intelligence, saying he has no indication there was an informant embedded in president trump's campaign as president trump as suggested. listen to how sarah huckabee sanders answered those questions. >> kristen i'm sorry. it look likeby we don't have that sound. let's tal

i want to bring in nbc's chris ten kristen welker at the white house. well-oiled machine. how is the president handling this? >> steph, as you anticipated on twitter, lashing out. let me review the tweet from this morning, he writes there is no collusion, it's a hoax and there was no obstruction of justice. that is a setup and a trap. what there is goingses going on with north korea over nuclear war. negotiations going on over china. and negotiations on nafta. and the president making the issue that this issue is overshadowing his agenda. he lashed out yesterday, steph, in the wake of those leaks you talked about equally infuriated, we are told, when he saw the scope of the questions that his legal team thinks mueller's team wants to ask him. in terms of this issue, this potential showdown over a subpoena, i can tell you that, and this sort of echoes the statement you just read from rudy giuliani. according to a source close to proceedings, the president's legal team is getting into place. they're getting to ting up to s. they have not made a final determination about how

. >> kristen welker joins me now from the white house. kristen, good morning. giuliani and trump seem to be on two different pages about whether somebody infiltrated the campaign or not. what do you know about this? >> well, i think giuliani being very cautious in his wording there as you heard, making the point that it's not clear that there actually is an informant, which essentially lines up with all of the reporting about this, ali, is there, in fact, an informant or not? as you point out, this is something the president and some of his allies have certainly seized upon. i think the big issue and part of the explanation for why you might see the divide is because giuliani does feel as though there has been some movement in terms of his negotiations with special counsel robert mueller. essentially saying he feels as though mueller may be moving to limit the scope of some of the questions that would be asked if there is, in fact, an interview with president trump. i spoke with rudy giuliani overnight and he said maybe, just maybe, he repeated that word severa

nbc's kristen welker is over at the white house. there's a lot of moving parts on this just in the last couple of hours this morning. >> reporter: that's right. president trump retweeting comments by trade gowdy on fax news last night essentially saying that perhaps he should have considered picking someone else for his attorney general. the president has every right tto be upset. this is in line with the past comments that the president has made. he's infuriated by his attorney general's decision to recuse himself from the russia probe. listen to what gowdy said overnight. >> i think what the president is doing is expressing frustration that attorney general sessions should have expressed his concern for recusal before the appointment and not afterwards. it i picked someone for the attorney general and they told me later i'm not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, that's how i read that, senator sessions why didn't you tell me this before i picked you? there are lots of really good lawyers in t

kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. >> all right. thanks for that report. now on the phone professor at georgetown university and korean affairs analyst. thanks so much for joining us this morning. i know you're also the author of the book "the impossible state." first off, i want to start with your reaction to the news yesterday and did you expect this meeting not to play out the way it was supposed to and go forward? >> no, i think everybody expected that president trump was so enthusiastic about the meeting that despite some small bumps in the road that he would go forward with it. in the end it sounded like very practical things like the north koreans just not showing up for preparatory meetings, you know, required preparatory meetings to get ready for the summit may have been the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of trump deciding not to go through with it. >> give me your assessment on the white house's decision to pull out of this meeting with regards to what you know about how kim jong un negotiates things and do you think it was a good mov

with me now, kristen welker live from white house. let's start with the new report about jared kushner. the "new york times" saying he has finally been granted a permanent security clearance? >> that's right. nbc hasn't confirmed that but we are reaching out to our sources. but the "new york times" is reporting that after this very long process, jared kushner has been grant his full security clearance. let me read you what his attorney has had to say about all of this. saying having completed all of these processes he is looking forward to continuing to do the work with the president that the president has asked him to do. effectively saying that this long process, and frankly cloud, that has hung over jared kushner one of the president's top advisors, particularly when it comes to handleding the middle east, was operating without a full security clearance. as part of this "new york times" report we are also learning that jared kushner was questioned twice by special counsel robert mueller. the attorney telling the "new york times" ab

you have giuliani talking to kristen welker and other reporters, saying the president's just too busy on foreign policy. it's not the time. he's sending every signal to mueller, we're not going to do it. >> john heilemann, cambridge analytica, to take nothing away from the reporting of "the new york times" on this story, it stands to reason, correct, that mueller et al. would be taking a good, hard look at cambridge analytica? >> it does. look, one of the -- now we talk about the mueller probe in rumsfeldian terms. i've heard this recently starting to creep into our dialogue where we talk about the known knowns, the unknown unknowns. one of the known unknowns is that bob mueller is going to issue indictments for sure that relate to the hacking of the democratic party's e-mail systems and the hacking of john podesta's e-mail systems. >> expect it in the next round. >> the question is when. we don't know how many, of whom, how far reaching. we don't know a lot of things about it. but we know it's going to happen. and when you think about that piece of the puzzle, which is the -- you kno

with that let's get started at the white house with nbc use kristen welker. what have we heard from the white house about why these whout officials were at these meetings? >> look, john kelly had a hand in organizing all of this, he so i think the administration wanted a representative to be there. but here's the key part. they were only there for part of the meeting, not there for the entire briefing. i think they wanted to essentially get a sense of where these briefings were headed. and again, this came after a lot of rangeling over who exactly was going to attend these various meetings. as you pointed out, initially it was just republican and the white house never asked to be a part of the meetings but democrats cried foul saying they you this get the information as well even though they don't think there is a necessity for these briefings. adam schiff is among those that are going to get the information today the classified documents that speak to the informant that the president said was embedded in his campaign. of course, as we know, there is no of pr

kristen welker joins us and worked on this story with me and our colleagues. first, let's start with some inconsistencies. we report in the story that when defending john kelly, they said john kelly cares a lot about women. in meetings when people use profanity he often says please don't. he also says they're more emotional than men. let's go back one day. the story prints and within 45 minutes john kelly sends an emotionally charged response and calls our story b.s. last i checked, the s. and b.s. does, in fact, stand for foul language. that doesn't add up. and the other thing that doesn't add up is the white house is saying this didn't happen. the white house is also saying there's a group within the white house that may be out to get kelly. both of those things could be true, and the third leg is the president who says the morale in the white house is fantastic. moving like a well-oiled machine. >> it can't be there's a faction works against kelly and everything is working properly. >> that fell apart. >> that's right. and just to get to your first point, s

kristen welker, thank you much. good luck out there the rest of the day. i want to bring in dr.te. who is talking us through some of this. as kristen points out, melania trump is hardly the first first lady go through a procedure while in office. you had laura bush hospitalized in '06/2010, nancy reagan in 87. bet if i ford in 74, they all went through procedures while their husbands were president. so this in itself is not totally unusual, it's not totally unprecedented. tell us what you, you don't treat the first lady, but what mid help hap in this procedure. put that in plain english. >> that means that doctors went in and they had continue to tensionally partially oclued part of the blood flow to part of the kidney. and most like that i could have been from a benign tumor. a tumor, for example, like an angieio mayo lie poma. which say tumor that usually doesn't cause any harm unless it gets bigger and can grow and cause back pain, nausea, infections, it can cause one to have blood in their urine. but something would need to be done just based on size alone, even if you are a

and i want to start with my colleague kristen welker at the white house. we have a lot to talk about this morning because i know you spoke with the president's lawyer rudy giuliani. we'll get to that in a minute. walk me through where the president's head is at on iran right now. he's on the phone, right, according to a white house official with the french president emmanuel macron. what do we know? what are we hearing? >> reporter: one of his closest allies not only to the u.s. but a foreign leader who president trump has forged a very strong relationship with macron was just here last week pressing the president to stay in the iran nuclear deal. but all signs, hallie, all signs are point together possibility that president trump is prepared to follow through with that campaign promise and pull out of the deal. now, he's been hearing from a number of his allies, of course he also met with the german chancellor last week who was here at the white house, the british foreign minister boris johnson was near in washington, d.c. yesterday with a very strong mes

. >> kristen welker has it exactly right. the tone comes from the top down and the fact that a comment like that was left to stand. and they can't correct it, because donald trump has said, arguably worse about john mccain. with kelly sadler could do is to go out on her own and apologize. if she loses her job over that apology. it would be for apologizing, then so be it. but at least you leave with some sort of semblance and dignity intact. >> joe, begin your experience in the bush white house, i'm curious, a scenario like this how unusual is it, in closed-door white house meetings, we know they happen in other administrations and we don't hear about them? >> there really is almost no such thing as a closed-door meeting. even at closed doors there are ears listening and people are going to report it to somebody what was said during the course of the meeting. so you have to be careful what you say, choose your words very carefully. and there's never any excuse for talking that way about somebody. in a perfect world we're suppo

joining us from the white house, nbc's kristen welker and in new york nbc news medical correspondent dr. john torres. kristen, what do we know about the first lady's condition and any plans for the president to be there with her as she recovers? >> well, i just spoke with the white house official, nicole who said the president is expected to visit her today. so, we are watching for when that will happen. i'm also told that president trump spoke with the first lady right before her surgery, and then spoke to her doctor immediately afterwards. an official saying she's been in good spirits throughout this entire process. let me just read you the official statement, nicolle, from the white house, just so we're getting the medical language accurate. she said, the white house said this morning first lady melania trump underwent an embolization procedure to treat a benign kidney procedure. the procedure was success skpfl there were to complications. mrs. trump is at walter reed national military medical center. first lady looks forward to a full recovery so she can continue her work on behal

kristen welker in the white house. in the last hour president trump unveiled a plan to tackle an issue since he talked about since the presidential campaign. that is the rising cost of prescription drugs. >> the american people deserve a health care system that takes care of them. not one that taxes and takes advantage of our patients and our consumers and our citizens. these reforms are just the beginning. >> okay. here's what the president is calling for. stopping manufacturers were -- the regulatory process. disk medicare plan d sponsors more power when negotiating with drug manufacturers. requiring manufacturers to include list prices in advertising. this all sounds good. is it going to do anything to reduce drug prices? this is a subject i like talking about. let's look at the problem. according to the department of health and human services the united states spence $300 billion a year on prescription drugs. makes sense. we are an industrialized society and an aging population. medicare and medicaid account for 40

it does not come across that way to me. >> ken, one more thing that kristen welker tweeted that i findcinating how rudy guiliani says he had to tell the president this new narrative, okay. have you ever heard less trumpian language than oh, my goodness. >> they are playing into the plausibility of that being a busy month. we all remember that. and i think rudy guiliani is counting on that as part of the explanation for this. how much people will buy that, i don't know. you were talking about the challenge sarah sanders faces in simple believability. i manage prosecutors. i wasn't in the white house. but my view is simply that she can't do any better than the information she has. it's that credibility that is more brought into question. that factors in here going forward and doesn't help them. the history doesn't help them. >> in other news this friday morning, thousands are being evacuated from the big island. a volcano is spilling lava into the streets. the latest on the eruption next. here's the story of green mountain coffee roasters sumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew

rudy giuliani just wrapping up a phone call with nbc news's white house correspondent kristen welker. he went on the media blitz that led him to ultimately revial mr. trump did, in fact, repay his own attorney for that $130,000 hush money payment made to stormy daniels just days before the 2016 election. while daniels says the money was kept to keep her silent about an alleged encounter a decade ago, which the president is denying the claims head on. he calls the claims false and extortionist and acknowledged the first time he did reimburse mr. cohen for the payment. but this morning we are now learning just why giuliani surprised the political world by revealing that payment information. giuliani says he spoke out, quote, because i wanted to get out in front of the special counsel and the southern district of new york because at some point they would realize this information and leak it. giuliani tells nbc news he learned about $130,000 repayment from michael cohen after being told about the existence of documents that show proof of the reimbursement. giuliani tells nbc he shared tha

kristen welker has the exclusive details. >> reporter: nbc news has learned exclusively chief of staff john kelly is increasingly on the ropes. his relationship with the president souring with four officials telling nbc news they have witnessed kelly calling the president an idiot behind his back, including around the time of these january discussions about an immigration reform bill which ultimately fell a apart. >> because this should be a bipartisan bill. this should be a bill of love, truly, it should be a bill of love. >> reporter: according to multiple administration officials, mr. kelly questioned the president's grasp on policy, saying some version of, quote, i'm the one saving the country. adding to the west wing drama, kelly has roiled some of the female staffers by telling aides multiple times that women are more emotional than men and when it came to dealing with rob porter, the staff secretary was ousted after allegations of abuse from two exwives which he denies, kelly was consistently protective. >> at the time of the controversy, kelly wondered how much more porter woul

joining me now to sort all of this out, nbc kristen welker at the white house. it's great to have you here. kristen, let's set the stage. the president has been tweeting overnight. again retelling accusation offense a spy just by no evidence of any spy in the trump campaign. he seems to be certainly, according to that very non-response to a question about rosenstein, seems to be really closing in on the justice department and on the mueller probe. >> ramping up his attacks against the justice department and the mueller probe. they're absolutely right. asked yesterday if he has confidence in his own deputy attorney general, rod rosenst n rosenstein, the president saying next question. declining to answer. it was a stunning moment because just a day earlier the president directed rod rosenstein to launch an investigation into the informant that had contacted this campaign. there's no evidence that's the case what so ever. we have learned there's going to be a briefing set up by john kelly. republican lawmakers will be briefed by intelligence officials about confide

>> kristen welker at the white house. for more let's bring in nbc news legal analyst ari melber. russian money went to the exact same fund that paid off stormy daniels? >> that's right. this is a shell company, michael cohen is the only person known to be involved. set up in october 2016 to pay off stormy daniels, and now there's a line from michael cohen back to a company linked to a putin-affiliated billionaire, who as kristen just noted, was sanctioned by the trump administration. >> for election meddling. >> so you have this money that's going from an american company, that has ties perhaps to this russian billionaire. what are those ties? because this american company is saying we don't have anything to do with the russians. >> the ties are a lot of the funding goes all the way back to this billionaire, and he is in putin's good graces. if this were the last scene a movie, and the collusion evidence was money that came directly from a putin crony and went directly to the president's fixer's account -- this would be too obvious. it's incredible. that this is where it lands. a

. >> kristen welker. powering through. it's allergy center on the north lawn. the beautiful north lawn at the white house. thank you. >> reporter: thanks. >> mike pence was at the air force to welcome back the detainees. he said the homecoming could signal a real breakthrough. >> it was a powerful moment to see the president and the first lady bring the three back. think about how far we've come in the last year. >> even since the olympics when you were there, it was so tense. what do you think make the difference? >> from very early in this administration trump changed the policies of the united states from an era of strategic patience with north korea to move toward the kind of campaign that would bring economic and diplomatic pressure and all other options with the clear objective of achieving the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. >> you talked to otto warmbier's father. what did he say to you? it must be very painful. >> it's a very special family. the president reached out to the warmbier's over the weekend with the news these three americans were

joining me nbc white house correspondent kristen welker and nbc national political reporter. kristen, first to you on whether or not john kelly gets passed this given he was already on thin ice no matter what they say. >> reporter: it's a good question and remains to be seen. you saw the very firm pushback from the chief of staff and from the president i wouldn't be surprised if sarah sanders pushes back vigorously from the podium today. we know, based on our conversations with a number of current and former white house officials and administration officials, that in addition to disparaging the president behind his back, john kelly has made some comments that have concerned some of the female staffers, including saying they are more emotional than men can be. this is raised some real concerns. adding to all of that and compoundsing all of this is there's been some real tensions between the chief of staff and the president when it comes to determining staffing decisions, for example. policy choices and messaging. there's been some tensions that are at the backdrop to all of thi

kristen welker is joining me there. phil rutger is here with us today. this is a very important meeting. we can probably expect judge frg what the south korean ambassador to the u.s. has written today that they are going to be all in and try to persuade the president this is a hiccup on the way to the summit on june 12th. >> reporter: that's right. south korea's position will be that. south korea's going to work in concert with the united states to make sure that these talks do happen. that they get back on track but it comes in the wake of north korea flexing its muscles and backtracking to some extent threatening to pull out of talks after the u.s. and south korea pulled off pre-planned military exercises. they have said it was perfectly fine because these are routine exercises. that was seen by the president, by this white house as a reenforcement of the biggest concern which is north korea can't be trusted. they don't want a deal. the white house publicly saying we expected this from north korea all along but the reality is the president, the white h

nbc's white house correspondent kristen welker joins me now. kristen, just the second time that the president has been to cia headquarters. we remember the first time after the inauguration. stood in front of the agency's memorial for the fallen and delivered a political speech. highly criticized for that publicly insulting the agency for months. but after a weekend of bashing the intel community, i mean, was today any less awkward, showing up there at the cia? >> reporter: well, the backdrop certainly was equally as awkward, chris. you're right about that. in terms of his public remarks the president stuck to his script and put the focus on gina haspel. the fact she's the first woman to now become the cia director and the fact she was facing steep odds in terms of her confirmation process. skepticism and criticism about her rolepost-9/11 era and interrogation practices now deemed torture. senator mccain opposed her nomination but ultimately he was confirmed and won over six democrats. president trump focusing on that victory today. a political

i want to go first to the white house and nbc's kristen welker. okay, kristen, what is the president saying about all of this? the last 24 hours, that's like a tornado and a hurricane wrapped up in one. >> a good way to put it, stef. president trump is effectively trying to build on what you just heard from rudy giuliani. the fact this is now one year. time to wrap it up. take a look at his tweet earlier today. he tweeted out, congratulations, america, we are now into the second year of the greatest witch hunt in american history and there is still no collusion and no obstruction. the only collusion was that done by democrats who are unable to win an election despite the spending of far more money. basically making the argument, stef, that it's time to wrap it up. what you just heard rudy giuliani say when he told nbc news overnight and sort of hinting at that point that this is getting in the way of his official work here at the white house. to the central point though, can the president be indicted? did robert mueller, in fact, say that to rudy g

nbc's kristen welker is at the white house. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you.tormy daniels' attorney, michael avenatti, is stepping up his attacks, accusing president trump's personal attorney, michael cohen, of selling access to the oval office. now, for the first time, cohen is fighting back. this morning, the president's long-time fixer, attorney michael cohen, now being forced to defend himself. in a court filing late wednesday, cohen's attorney accusing stormy daniels' lawyer, michael avenatti, of circulating false information about cohen. on tuesday, avenatti produced a document, suggesting cohen collected millions of dollars from large corporations, with promises of access to the president. cohen pushing back. >> any response to avenatti? >> his documents is inaccurate. >> reporter: cohen's court filing argues some, but not all, transactions in the report actually belong to a different michael cohen. >> our report appears to be 99.35% accurate. if we were -- if this was an i election, that'd be pretty good for the popular vote . >> reporter: avenatti not

joining me now to talk about all this kristen welker and carol lee here with me onset. isten, first of all, have you heard anything at all whether the president will accept this inspector general's report from rod rosenstein as a way out of a real confrontation with the justice department? >> reporter: that's the key question. the white house isn't saying at this point in time. what i can tell you is his attorney, rudy giuliani, defending his calls to have the justice department investigate this informant. over the weekend, giuliani saying all he's asking for is for them to investigate it. he's not telling them what to conclude. so it's perfectly appropriate. but if rod rosenstein doesn't find anything once the justice department looks into this potential informant, what will the president do? how will he respond? what will the fallout be? and a lot of people pointing to the fact that several weeks ago, he said he wasn't necessarily going to engage with the justice department, so this really marks a shift. the fact that he, in his own words, demands that they look into t