i am ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. we start overseas, a powerful blast left dozens dead, hundreds injured and massive damage after a car bomb exploded in the diplomatic district. afghan officials say at least 80 people killed, more than 300 others injured in kabul after a suicide car bomb detonated near the german embassy and other foreign offices. the blast so heavy, windows shattered in buildings more than a half mile away. more than 30 vehicles damaged or destroyed. the embassy is a 20 minute walk from the center of the explosion. no immediate claims of responsibility for the blast. >>> back in the u.s., once more the world's attention on a tweet the president sent shortly after midnight. president trump sent this from his personal account, writing at 12:06:00 a.m., despite constant negative press, covfefe. that's a number one worldwide trending topic all night and still is this morning as you wake up. it remained the last five hours. the post raises questions about who, if anyone, is monitoring one of the president

i'm ayman mohyeldin along with louis burgdorf.h the morning's top stories. >>> this morning, former panamanian dictator manuel noriega died. he was flushed from power in 1989 after being an ally and informant to the cia for years. more on this story in a moment. >>> in texas, the final day of the state's legislative session turned ugly as a scuffle broke out between lawmakers. the incident was reportedly sparked after republican lawmaker said he called immigration authority on people who were at the capitol protesting senate bill 4, which bans sanctuary cities in texas. accusations flew of death threats between republicans and democrats. >>> the man charged in the fatal stabbing two of goo samaritans on the train in portland, friday. the city's mayor wheeler is calling on organizers of the two upcoming alt-right incidentso cancel them. wheeler asked the federal government t revoke or deny the permits for the events. >>> president trump and his advisers are gearing up for an allegations against russia. the planned established a war

i'm ayman mohyeldin along with louis burgdorf. alex witt is on assignment. >>> president trump is scheduled to speak with vladimir putin. it will be his third call with the russian president and first since air strikes in syria. this as trump comes under scrutiny by extending his hand. yesterday the president told bloomberg that he would be honored to be the first president of the united states to meet with the ruler of north korea. >> if it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, i would absolutely -- i would be honored to do it. most political people would never say that, but i'm telling you, under the right circumstances, i would meet with him. >> this weekend the president said kim jong-un is, quote, a smart cookie for hanging onto power. sean spicer expanded upon what the president meant by right circumstances. >> we've got to see their provocative behavior ratcheted down immediately. there are a lot of conditions with respect to its behavior and to show signs of good faith. clearly, conditions are not there right now,

i'm alex wi alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf.g joe" starts right now. >> was there classified information on former congressman weiner's computer? >> yes. >> who sent it to him? >> his then spouse, uma abidine appears to have a regular practice of forwarding e-mails to him for him to print out to her so she could deliver them to the secretary of state. >> look, this is terrible. it makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election. but honestly, it wouldn't change the decision. everybody who disagrees with me has to come back to october 28th with me and stair at this and tell me what you would do. would you speak or would you conceal? i could be wrong, but we made a decision between those two choices that even in hindsight -- this has been one of the world's most painful experiences -- i would make the same decision. >> fbi director james comey said he would do it again despite the

i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin and louis burgdorf. >>> president trump is trying to set the record straight about the expanding investigations into special counsel with not transitioning his investigation into a criminal approach. yesterday morning he tweeted, fighting back against, quote, the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. later wrote, with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and obama administration, there was never a special counsel appointed. in a joint news conference with colombia's president, trump spoke about the appointment of robert mueller to lead that investigation. >> was this the right move or is this part of a witch hunt? >> well, i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt. there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can always speak for myself and the russians. zero. i think it divides the country. i think we have a very divided country because of that and many other things. so, i can tell you that we want to bring this great country of ours together. believe me

ayman mohyeldin is in washington, louis burgdorf is in studio. with this morning's top stories. >>> this afternoon deputy attorney general rod rosenstein is expected to brief the full senate on the firing of james comey. it was rosenstein's memo on comey as the white house first cited as the reason for the firing. it comes one day after he named robert mueller as special counsel for the russia investigation. more on that in a moment. >>> just in this morning, rocker frontman chris cornell has died. he was known for soundgarden and temple of the dog. he also sold millions of albums in the early 2000s with "audio slave" and wrote and performed the theme song for james bond movie "casino royale." he was 52 years old. >>> the appointment of former fbi director robert mueller as special counsel in the russian investigation, the first major move from deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and something democrats have been demanding. some republicans oppose bringing in someone from the outside but as nbc news news justice correspondent pete williams, mu

i'm ayman mohyeldin. we are up early as president trump has historic meeting with pope francis on his world tour. >> rome is part three of the official trip. pope francis welcomed him at the vatican. they ahad a brief meeting at th papal library. he will go to the sistine chapel and leave for brussels for the g7 summit. despite not officially meeting before, the pope and president trump had a contentious relationship considering his rhetoric and climate change. pope francis treated dialogue allows us to plan for a future in common. through dialogue, we build peace taking care of everyone. >> we have chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. this had a chance of being an awkward stop on the tour given the fact there has been through social media an exchange of the views on the pope and things he said at press conferences on the campaign trail. how did it go? how diit play out? >> reporter: as scripted i think is a fair characterization at this point. we know this is a carefully choreographed exchange

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf.ht now. >>> we are not here to lecture. we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do. >> i have been very, very direct in saying nato members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations. >> instead we are here to offer partnership based on shared interests and values. >> but 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they're supposed to be paying for their defense. >> i also promise that america will not seek to impose hour way of life on others. >> this is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the united states. >> i stand before you as a representative of the american people. >> the best of times, it was the worst of times. >> keynesian. >> good morning, y'all. how are you doing? it's friday. it's good to be here. >> it is. >> president trump, he kind of struck a

i'm yasmin vossoughian, with ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. >>> during a dinner where comey wasconvince the president to keep him on as the fbi. over dinner, he says president trump demanded his loyalty and comey did not make. the ousted director believes that meeting was the beginning of his downfall. >> democrats are calling for an investigation into the firing, the letter to the committee chairman calls the decision abrupt and says it undermines the russian investigation. chuck schumer has invited deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to the hill to brief all 100 senators on the firing. of course, it was rosenstein's critical memo of comey that the white house first cited as the reason for the firing. >>> the white house scratched visiting the fbi headquarters. while many of them voted for the president, few are happy about the decision to sack comey and the way it was handled. >>> many are questioning the timing of the decision to p fire jim comey with the russian investigating heating up. here is the president addressing that concern with nbc's lester holt. take a listen.

i am yasmin vossoughian along with ayman mohyeldin.mp arriving in italy's presidential palace moments ago for a bilateral meeting with italy's president. >> once that meeting wraps up, he will head to the ambassador's residence and meet with italy's prime minister. let's bring in claudia from rome. the president meeting with the pope earlier, give a sense how that played out in what i am sure was a well choreographed meeting. >> reporter: it definitely was. what was amazing to see, how president trump and the pope bridged differences. they started on the wrong foot last year with the pope saying whoever builds walls and not bridges is not christian, and president trump back then count erred it, replying it is disgraceful with the pope. they met at the vatican all smiles, and made a joke when he met with melania. he asked melania what do you feed this guy, pizza? apparently we are told is slovenian dessert. bold move. i am sure there were no diplomatic incidents, they were all smiles. in all seriousness, then met privately for 28 minute

i'm alex witt along with ayman mohyeldin. we're starting out with the morning's top stories. that testy phone call with the prime minister australia earlier, president trump says we have an iron-clad relationship with our australian ally. the two leaders also met earlier in the day. however, president trump was three hours late after staying back in washington to celebrate the health care vote. the white house says the president did phone his guest to let him know he was running behind. >>> georgia governor has signed a bill to allow students and faculty to carry a concealed weapon on college campuses. he vetoed it earlier in the year but now he says it's needed. >>> republicans overhaul of obamacare has passed the house and although another major battle looms, the president and house were jubilant. politico reports, quote, at their final prevote meeting, gop leaders kud up the theme from "rocky" to get lawmakers in victorious mood. cases of bud light were rolled into the capitol. "the washington post" reports the president was calling lawmakers right up until the vote began.

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin on this business tuesday morning.mp meeting mahmoud abbas. >> we'll have more on that throughout the morning. the president is responding to breaking news overnight from manchester that at least 22 people were killed in a terrorist attack at a concert in that city and its arena. here's the president earlier this morning talking about it. >> so many young, beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by eefl losers in life. i won't call them monsters because they would like that term. they would think that's a great name. i will call them from now on losers because that's what they are. they're losers. and we'll have more of them. but they're losers. just remember that. >> joining us live from manchester, england, nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley. bring us up to speed on the investigation. let's talk about where the investigation goes forward. more importantly, what are authorities saying this morning about the potential for any other attacks? do they have the situation under control?

i am ayman mohyeldin. though flynn has been gone from the white house, sally yates testified. president obama warned president trump about michael flynn as well. nbc's peter alexander reports. >> reporter: nbc news has learned that president obama delivered that personal warning to then president-elect trump against hiring michael flynn just minutes before this joint oval office appearance. less than 48 hours after the election. >> we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed. >> reporter: at the time, flynn was already a key adviser to mr. trump. and the obama administration had fired him from his post as head of the defense intelligence agency in 2014. the white house suggesting that backstory prompted president obama's advice, which mr. trump essentially dismissed. >> it's true that the president -- president obama made it known that he wasn't exactly a fan of general flynn's, which is frankly -- shouldn't come as a surprise. >> reporter: but president obama's unusual move was one of two warnings the white house received about flynn, the incoming nat

. >>> for more now on president trump's foreign trip, let's bring in msnbc's ayman mohyeldin, the co-anchor of "morning joe" and "first look." what is the president trying to accomplish on this first stop of saudi arabia? >> can you look at it from a few different perspectives. there's the u.s./saudi relationship, what that entails, there's the broader gulf council, and then also the united states and islamic world. if you take a look at them from different layers, the first one is strengthening that bilateral relationship with saudi arabia. we expect the saudis to announce a potential arms deal, billions of dollars. strong economic prospects on the horizon between these two countries. more importantly, strengthening that relationship. with the broader gcc countries and countries of the gulf, look for them to discuss the issue of iran. that is something that is going to come up repeatedly. gulf countries are concerned about the rise of iran in yemen, activities in syria. they think iran is a destabilizing factor. they're trying to convince president trump to be more engaged and have a robus

i'm vf alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf.>> welcome to "morning joe." i'm kind of confused -- i don't know where to begin, you know what i mean? this is like a veritable cornucopia. we can start with the story that happens every day, you never get tired of it. a guy is asked about congressional budget office scoring. so what he does is he punches a reporter and throws him to the ground. that happens all the time, especially on the last day -- actually it doesn't. all three papers overnight took their endorsements away from this republican guy. we'll talk about that. we can talk about the cbo score itself which i guess is causing havoc in the street. people going crazy over this thing. or recould talk about comey and answer the question whether comey is russian for dupe. that's not the end of it. "the new york times" headline

i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf and ali y yassouvian. >>> nobody dies because they don'tlth care. >> oh, boy. that was republican congressman raul labrador during a weekend town hall. speaker of the house paul ryan says republicans have nothing to worry about in the midterms, but tell that to the two dozen members facing attacks over health care in their home districts. >>> meanwhile, the center holdes and dominates as voters in france reject the far-right candidate and elect the country's youngest leader since napoleon. >> this is more than a hold. wow, katy kay, the beast. if the beast was slouching toward bethlehem, the beast got chained to the radiator a little while longer. and also, merkel, her party, a surprise victory this weekend. >> yes. so i think the message from the french elections and the dutch elections back in march is if you can produce a viable candidate, somebody attractive and appealing to moderates, you can start the wave of

i'm ayman mohyeldin at the msnbc headquarters.s marking the nation's holiday at the tomb of the unknown soldier before delivering remarks honoring fallen service members. we just heard the 21-gun salute meaning president trump is on the grounds there at arlington. we'll also hear remarks from defense secretary james mattis and chairman of the joint chiefs joseph dunford. we'll bring you all the comments live. you're seeing the vice president there. joining me now is colonel jack jacobs and medal of honor recipient and military analyst malcolm nans, retired chief and msnbc terror analyst, kevin barrett, and military analyst and executive editor of defense one in allen lickman, distinguished history professor and presidential historian. gentlemen, good to have you with us. you see there, the secretary of defense, james mattis, as well. malcolm nance and colonel jack jacob, i'm going to start with you, retired military, talk about the importance of today and what today means to both of you. colonel jacobs, i'll begin with you, sir. >

. >> ayman mohyeldin, thank you to you. hallie jackson, thank you to you.us throughout the week during the president's overseas trip. you can check on her travels on social media. and be sure to catch nbc nibtly news with lester holt tonight as he anchors from israel as the president continues his first international trip of his presidency. and we'll be right back. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ p3 planters nuts, jerky and whaseeds.at? i like a variety in my protein. totally, that's why i have this uh trail mix. wow minty. p3 snacks. the more interesting way to get your protein. aleve with direct therapy- tens device- a relief from lower back pain. i put it on my back. i feel this electrical pulse grabbing at

i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin and louis bu

palestinian negotiations now the executive vice president at the brookings institution and anchor ayman mohyeldinmbassador, first to you. the president has said that middle east peace may not be as difficult as some have said. you've been there, done that. what advice would you give to president trump? >> well, i guess one of those have said it's very difficult. so it would be good to know why he thinks it's not difficult. we don't have an indication of that. i think that the president has not been immersed in the details. he's got people who are immersed in the details. his own envoy jason greenblatt and his son-in-law jared kushner. so it's not a criticism of him to say he's not involved in the details but because he's not involved in the details i think he doesn't understand how far apart they are. there's some value in him creating the impression that it can be done because after 18 years, without any agreement between the israelis and the palestinians, despite three previous presidents having tried hard and failed, there's a lot of despair out there. if he can generate a bit of hope, that's

i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf. now. >>> when you heard in the last 48 hours about the deal, did you think we could build this? i bet you didn't. nobody did. is it a replacement for existing wall? yeah, that's fine. is it new wall? no. this is what's out there right now, this is what's going to be put in as a result of this bill. that is better border security. you can call it new wall, you can call it replacement, maintenance, whatever you want to. this construction you see here, i don't know if it's this exact construction because i don't know where this is, this wall is being installed in the southern border today. >> i can't mime right now. pick a wall, any wall. it's a wall. that was amazing. the trump administration spent

i'm ayman mohyeldin. are up early as president trump has historic meeting with pope francis on his world tour. >> rome is part three of the official trip. pope francis welcomed him at the vatican. they ahad a

. >> i want to bring in msnbc's ayman mohyeldin.resident trump's approach seems to be the one he's had over and over. let me meet with these foreign leaders. i'm an entertainer, i'm a dazzling personality, we can get it all worked out. peter mentioned those comments mike pence made yesterday and i want to share a bit of that. >> the president of the united states as we speak is giving serious consideration to moving the american embassy in tel aviv to jerusalem. >> yesterday being israeli independence day. a statement like that cannot possibly bode well for the palestinian leader. he can't like that. >> it's a statement that has been heard before by palestinian leaders. it's something that american politicians have made repeatedly on the campaign trail. what you're seeing now is after president trump has come into office is going to be the real test, the actions. as we constantly hear, don't measure it by the words, measure it by the actions. a lot of arab leaders will be looking at the actions of president trump very closely to see

. >> ayman mohyeldin has covered that part of the world for years and join us ahead. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engineple and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ...to a new world.s... deeper than the ocean. as unfathomable as the universe. a world that doesn't exist outside you... ...but within you. where breakthrough science is replacing chemotherapy with immunotherapy. where we can now attack the causes of disease, not just the symptoms. where medicines once produced for all, are now designed to fit you. today 140,000 biopharmaceutical researchers go bodly to discover treatments and cures unimaginable ten years ago... ...and are on the verge of more tomorrow. when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. >>> joining us now from jerusalem, nbc correspondent andrea mitchell, and aym

tuesday, i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. >>> there are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the communist world. let them come to berlin! >> freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to pre vent them from leaving us. >> all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of berlin. >> the lateader of the free wor, john f. kennedy, speaking to the people of berlin in 1963 when the city was on the front line of the cold war. yesterday marked 100 years since kennedy's birth, he was the first of his generation to become president and upheld the bipartisan tradition of stand up for western ideals on the world's stage, a stark contrast to president trump who came home last week from his foreign trip with at least two key european allies wondering if the days of american leadership are over. who will offer america's strategic vision now

alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts now. >>> his tweets speak for themselves. the president was very dealer in his tweet. >> the president was very clear and i think there's continuing to be a literal interpretation of his tweet. >> the president's tweets stand for themselves. >> i think the tweets speak for itself. >> sometimes you don't have to read too much into it. he stated a fact. the tweet speaks for itself. i'm moving on. >> what i just said speaks for itself. >> white house press secretary tactic over the past few months when asked to defend a questionable trump tweet. so i'm wondering what his explanation is going to be this morning of the odd tweet that the president put out last night because apparently it speaks for itself. >> covfefe, if you watch star wars. >> i thought it was a spanish soft drink company. >> it's down now, if you can believe it. it was up for a good six hours, five hours. >> he posted at midnight. i think he fell asleep in the middle of it. and they took it down. >>

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. >> this week he's met with muslim leaders, jewish politicians and now the head of the catholic church. president trump will soon wrap up his quick visit to the vatican where he and pope francis met for the first time after publicly sparring on a number of issues, but there is no salvation from washington where the former cia chief gave the most compelling testimony today on russia's potential influence on the trump campaign. all of it coming as the terrorist attack in england raises threat levels dwide. we'll go live to manchester. welcome to "morning joe" on this wednesday, may 24th. along with joe, willie and me, we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle. washington anchor for "bbc world news america," katty kay, and co-founder and ceo of axios, jim vandehei with us. we're going to begin with the testimony from the former director of the central intelligence agency john brennan. speaking yesterday before the house intelligence comm

. >>> i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. >> have a great weekend. >> did you ever urge former fbi director james comey to close or back down the investigation into michael flynn? >> no, no. next question. >> that was quite a press conference, by the way. we're going to get like a four-minute chunk of him. i'm going to straighten my tie first and then we'll get a four-minute chunk of him contradicting himself. check mark on the tie. this white house, they can't keep up. is willie up in new york? >> yes. >> llie, how are you doing? >> it's like home alone 2, the one where he's left in new york alone. >> that's the one where he meets trump. >> it's very sad. jen is here, joe is here, a few of the guys, but just me and donald trump in the lobby of the plaza. >> go to the plaza, maybe you'll see the donald there. maybe michael jackson will wander around, all of your friends. anyway, the white house is so bad at what they're doing -- everybody is trying to think there's a grand conspiracy, there may be. just on the surface, they're so bad that donald trump

i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. >>> when you heard in the last 48 hours about the deal, did you think we could build this? i bet you didn't. nobody did. is it a replacement for existing wall? yeah, that's fine. is it new wall? no. this is what's out there right now, this is what's going to be put in as a result of this bill. that is better border security. you can call it new wall, you can call it replacement, maintenance, whatever you want to. this construction you see here, i don't know if it's this exact construction because i don't know where this is, this wall is being installed in the southern border today. >> i can't mime right now. pick a wall, any wall. it's a wall. that was amazing. the trump administration spent yesterday on a last-minute pr push trying to reframe the narrative out of thin air that they got rolled by the democrats. good morning everyone. it's wednesday, may 3rd, willie's birthday. >> back-to-back birthdays, mika. >> yes, but there's a wall between us. >> yo