e eamon?er: the president has been in a meeting on a different topic here at the white house this morning, but he was just talking to reporters. he told them that he's just gotten an update on london. he says some big news having to do with london has just happened. then he went in with his preplanned remarks on a different topic here at the white house, but clearly, this president has been briefed. this meeting started about a half an hour late, i would say, so clearly, they took some time out of the president's schedule here to update him. we'll see that tape of the president talking about this in a few moments, guys. >> eamon, thank you. kernel jack jacobs is still with us. you know, you were just discussing some of the logistical issues at hand here as we try to figure out exactly what just happened on that scene. >> say it again. i missed that. sorry. >> we're talking a little bit about the logistical challenges of handling an issue like this, not only the density of the population, but o

let's get an update now from eamon javers at the white house. eamon? >> reporter: hi, sarah. told the pool reporters have now gone on in, they're in there with the president and vice president and key committee leaders in the house of representatives. one of the key things i'll be listening for in this tape is what is the plan is the plan fo piece of health care reform the republicans are talk about here at the white house. it's moving now in the house of representative through committee. that part deals with reconciliation and then we'll have a regulatory piece. that's all the regulation that the executive branch can do on it's own and the third piece is going to be additional legislation. we'll wait and see if we can get a sense of what is going to be in that additional legislation. what is this repealing in the obamacare process that he is not doing in this first phase. all of those details being discussed today. we're told. so we'll wait and see where we land here but a lot going on behind the scenes at the white house. >> it will be interesting to see whether the members

eamon javers was there. eamon? >> reporter: sean spicer, white house press secretary is behind me.t to some of the president's top staff. when you heard that line from the president about wiretapping saying hey, at least we have something in common to angela merkel, i saw kellyanne conway reach up and tap steve bannon on the shoulder. i wonder if you can read into the body language any sense of where that line came from. the president was prepared to deliver it and did deliver it. on trade it's interesting to note what the president said. he said first of all i don't believe in an isolationist policy. the policy of trade should be fair. the u.s. has been treated unfairly and that's going to stop is what the president said. clearly, the president was prepared to talk about trade as well and wanted to make that point in front of angela merkel. we're also told separately that just before this meeting, while they were together in private, the president pressed angela merkel on this issue of united nations nato dues, saying that germany and the broader american community needs to pay th

let's get to our eamon javers with some breaking news out of washington. what now, eamon?yeah, hi, kelly. new development here in the saga of national security -- former national security advisor mike flynn's immunity. a senior congressional source telling with direct knowledge telling nbc news now that the senate intelligence committee has turned down the request by mike flynn's lawyer for a grant of immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. nbc news reporting the official said flynn's lawyer was told it was, quote, wildly preliminary and that immunity was, quote, not on the table for the moment. flynn's lawyers also conveyed the offer to the justice department. the official said in terms of asking for immunity. so there would be two entities who could decide to take that offer up one would be the senate and the fbi itself and they would make their own determination on whether or not they think mike flynn should get immunity or not, not clear what this means at this early stage. could be too early to make that determination. it could be that flynn himself i

eamon javers in d.c. with that story. high, eamon. >> reporter: hi, melissa.t wasn't all health care. the president had a couple of events on schedule that he did seem more enthusiastic than he did about the health care bill today, including the keystone xl pipeline final approval. he gave it the official go ahead in the oval office as you see there surrounded by members of his administration. here's what the president had to say at that meeting. >> transcanada will finally be allowed to complete this long overdue project with efficiency and with speed. we'll work out the final details as we speak. it's going to be an incredible pipeline, greatest technology known to man. >> he also had charter communications ceo tom rutledge in along with the governor of texas talking about charter communications bringing jobs back to the united states. this is obviously a key campaign theme of this president. he's happy to meet with ceos and make these job announcements at the white house as he did today. charter saying they're bringing them back, a lot of call center jobs f

our eamon javers is watching developments at the white house. eamon? >> reporter: yeah, hi, carl.kers are here. they just walked in behind me here a few moments ago. a few of them had never been to the white house before, so this is a big meeting for them. a couple told me that they have some legislative and some regulatory ideas they're going to pitch to the trump white house, and the expectation that they might be able to get some change that could help community banks ramp up their lending. they're also curious to hear what the president himself has to say about all this. they don't know what his message to them today is going to be. i can tell you that the secretary of the treasury's expected at this meeting. reince priebus, the chief of staff, is expected there. ga gary kohn of the national economic council and jared kushner all expected to be in this meeting, which should get under way here momentarily. >> eamon javers, thank you very much for that. your thoughts on this? again, more white house optics at play, working. >> this is an area where i do think there's a real oppo

eamon javers has been following along. he has more details on what was said today. eamon? >> reporter: bill, that's right. going into the hearing there was some question about whether fbi director james comey would, in fact, confirm that there is a federal law enforcement investigation into russian influence in the 2016 elections. james comey did exactly that today to the surprise of some. here's what he said. >> the fbi as part of our counter intelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> reporter: so there you see comby laying out sort of the scope of the investigation. what he wouldn't do is say specifically who is under investigation, what exactly the fbi's doing to conduct this investigation or when it might end. he said they're simply going to follow the evidence where it leads.

eamon javers in washington. eamon, we'll be talking to you later in the morning.> you bet. >>> meantime, stocks sliding this morning. all eight sectors are lower, but the market is of course coming off six weeks of gains. key question now, will investors continue to buy at these somewhat high valuations? joining us here to talk about that at post nine, deutsche bank's chief u.s. economist and brian belski of bmo capital markets. good to see you here. joe, you know, we heard in the last several days fed's not waiting. fed's maybe going to get on with things in terms of lifting interest rates. everyone now expects that for march. on the other hand on the fiscal side i don't know if we're now going to assess that maybe these policy help is going to be a little bit longer in coming. how do those things fit together? maybe it will be a test for how much policy's already baked into this market? >> the fed certainly made a concerted effort, michael, to announce they wanted to go in march. i haven't seen anything like that in a while. and sort of came out of left field be

we'll keep our eye on that, eamon.arlier this morning, guys, was market kind of moved past all this during the white house years, found other ways to find -- >> i thought they already did this as well. i mean, wasn't -- we've had the news about this being put into place. i know there's a lot of formalities here that really finalize it. >> jim's point is they don't need it, right? the market found other sources and better types of oil at lower production prices. >> you don't need it at all because under obama it became symbolic of another thing about energy and infrastructure and environmental policy. we already knew what the stance was going to be. >> is this the canadian sands oil as well? >> it includes that. >> there's been a lot of divestment from that because the permian is -- so a ton of companies sunk money into the oil sands had to walk away. so to your point how much of a boom this really is. >> we'll see if we get any additional wrinkles as the president speaks this morning. when we come back there's the othe

eamon javers in washington.or more on what we can expect from today's hearing let's bring in two cyber security experts, harvard kennedy school cyber security project and former director of cyber security for the secretary of defense. also with us is marc kerr, co-founder of sinac and former technical director of the nsa. gentlemen, welcome. good to have you both on our headline story here, michael. so what do you expect to learn from fbi director comey today? >> well, thanks very much for having me. i think the two main stories are going to be wiretapping and russia's active measures on wiretapping. i look for director comey to use more cautious language than has been used over the weekend, but to basically say there's not been any evidence discovered so far. and on russian hacking, let's hope he confirms that there is in fact an investigation underway. and look for the republicans to push the conversation more towards the leaks of information and focusing on that rather than russian activity and evidence of co

hans nichols, eamon javers, ari melber. catch ari melber this sunday 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. must see tv, in my opinion. >>> it's not just democrating calling for more information from jeff sessions. republicans are, too. i'll get republican congressman tom coles' take next. >>> we're keeping an eye on the president's visit to an orlando catholic school. he's there with education secretary betsy devos. what is in store for school choice? >>> that leads us directly to the microsoft pulse question of the day. would you support more federal funding to promote school choice? cast your vote at pulse.msnbc.com. also let me know what you think on twitter and facebook. cowards die many times before their deaths. the valiant taste of death, but once!! uh, excuse me, waiter. i ordered the soup... of course, ma'am. my apologies. c'mon, caesar. let's go. caesar on a caesar salad? surprising. excuse me, pardon me. what's not surprising? how much money matt saved by switching to geico. could i get my parking validated? fifteen minutes could save you fifteen per

our eamon javers watching all of that at the white house. hey, eamon. >> reporter: hey.d morning, carl. it's a german-themed st. patrick's day here at the west wing of the white house. as you mentioned, we are expecting angela merkel here in just a few minutes' time. about 11:20 is when we expect her arrival here at the west wing. you can see the doors ready for her. the media crews are out here ready to go. the honor guard has been up and running since very early this morning, so we're expecting a friendly visit here. obviously, germany one of the most important allies of the united states, but there is some tension in the air here, carl, because the president during his presidential campaign really went after angela merkel as a foil in the global political scene again and again, saying that she was ruining germany, she was allowing too many immigrants into that nation. so, the point of tension here is going to be how do these two leaders get past those comments and sort of move on to international diplomacy in this new trump era here in washington, d.c.? also, we're ex

thanks, eamon. see you later. >> maybe i've been watching press secretaries too long and learned how not to answer questions. >> good job. see you later. >>> let's get to the markets now. the dow losing some of its early gains this morning. it first went negative this morning after these comments from senator john cornin at the conference about tax reform. >> i think we're talking spring/summertime fra time fram. they're shooting for something in the august time frame. i'm thinking maybe sometime in the 2017 time frame would be more realistic but we're definitely committed to tax reform. >> so were concerns over the tax rally killing jobs? joining us we have with us chris cordero from region atlantic, steve bliss at post nine and rick santelli checks in from the cme in chicago. keith, i mean, some feel that oil was calling the shots today but wall street's always got its eye on washington as well, doesn't it? >> yeah, it sure does. that's been the case ever since donald trump has gotten elected. you

eamon javers at the white house.e have to talk about whether or not that does put the pressure on companies. we've seen it time and time again. they're able to go to the white house. have their picture in the oval office with the president. announce a hiring binge and it is all good. >> we've also heard many instances where they plan on doing something anyway and they are planning to you've it as a pr opportunity. and that's what they should do. it is in their interests and the shareholders' interests. as far as pipeline is concerned, that's important. this will be good for mid continent refiners. i think it is generally good for the energy industry that the president clearly supports it, whether you happen to support it or not. it will be good for that industry and oil services. >> i agree. look, i look at i and say the first part of question, face time with the president. is that helpful? we've seen with it a lot of industries. big cap pharma as well. i think the drug pricing issue is off the table for the most par

eamon javers joining us about a conversation that he just had with the spokesman sean spicer. >> that's right, scott. sean spicer just wrapping up an off camera gaggle here at the white house and i had the opportunities to ask him about dow 21,000 today. i said, does the white house believe that the president's speech last night had anything to do with the dow crossing 21,000 today. spicer was careful in his reply not to draw a direct line between the president's speech and any particular stock market movements today but he cited overall economic optimism as a result of trump's policies as playing a role in the overall rally that we've been witnessing here. and also, scott, i should tell you speaker of the house paul ryan just got here. in terms of specifics, underpinning some of the things the president was talking about last night in the joint session address, those are being worked out behind closed doors right now. we'll give you any detail we've got on what those members of congress have to say when they emerge from that meeting as soon as they do emerge. >> eamon, thanks. i think

. >> good point, eamon.nd whether it's about a commitment made fresh today, whether it's a regift -- i love that phrase. >> that matters, though. >> there is something ethereal, though, right, about companies thinking about domestic production, repatriation of employment, right? >> it's good! absolutely! and the idea that we're working with companies to do it, it's just not scaleable is the problem. we're talking about 600 jobs here. we need millions, so -- >> and context matters. this is something charter said they were going to do in the context of this merger, arguing for why this merger was going to be good for america, right? so, to then take that, repackage it and regift it to the american people as if it's something that newly elected president trump did, eh. >> kind of good politics. >> it is good politics. >> one thing of many. very clear, very consistent with him is you do him a favor, he's going to do you a favor, and this could come in handy later. >> interestingly this morning steven mnuchin tal

eamon javers has more on this troubling story. eamon?f briefings in this town but none like the briefing i went to yesterday at a large federal law enforcement agency here in washington with a federal law enforcement official. the conditions were we couldn't name the agency or the official. the official laid out a stark warning to american pharmaceutical companies and health care companies saying they're not doing enough to secure american's biological data. that's health information and dna information. here's what the official told a couple of us reporters saying that aish shan based companies are creating large datasets of u.s. dna and health info. that's a concern to officials inside the u.s. government. they say that that data could be used to create tailored bioweapons or specific vaccines or a vaccine for a pan dem anything before the united states can get to it. when they say asian based companies we're on safe ground assuming they're talking about chinese genetic testing companies but they did not specify china. it can be used t

eamon javers outside the white house.ll be bringing us the very latest breaking news throughout the hour. larry kudlow will be with us as well. we heard from president trump about the failure of the bill. >> a very different tone here from president trump in his first public comments about the failure of the health care bill onol

eamon javers, what did you find?ents ago the president tweeted out some compliments to exxonmobil saying "we're already winning again," talking about a $20 billion investment program. in its press release on that program today, exxonmobil says the investments actually began in 2013, not this year. just a few moments ago i asked sean spicer here on the north lawn driveway whether or not the white house is attempting to take credit politically for something that actually began under the obama administration. i believe we have tape now of what sean spice her to say in response. >> what i'm telling you is, to answer your question, it is the information that exxon provided us that they believe, based on what they see as a favorable business climate from the president and a commitment to help manufacturing grow here and commitment to american workers, they want to grow their investment here in the country. it is based on them telling us that they will continue to expand based on the president's vision and philosophy to hel

eamon? was whether or not attorney general sessions would recuse himself. that we saw that he, in fact, did, although he said he transmitted that information to the white house counsel. the white house might not be fully aware of the ethics rules at the department of justice so he feels a proper and just decision was reached here. another key question, though, going into this, if he didn't meet with the russian ambassador about the trump presidential campaign, what was that meeting on september 8th all about? there the attorney general was a little bit vague. he said normal things and he said i don't recall a lot of it. he did say that the subject of terrorism came up at one point, and the subject of ukraine come up at one point but he said that ambassadors tend to be gossipy sorts here in washington. they're always trying to find out things and gather information. he said he didn't recall any discussion or any significant discussion of a presidential campaign. so i think you might hear repo

press secretary sean spicer taking impromptu questions outside the white house moments ago, we go to eamon javers. >> reporter: that's right, scott, i had a chance just a few minutes ago to ask sean spicer here about a spears of tweets we get from president trump just in the past hour. i believe we have some of those tweets loaded up. the president here talking about exxonmobil, touting that company for a $20 billion investment initiative that the white house says will create thousands of jobs in the gulf coast region. interestingly, though, in the press release that exxon put out about this, you see there the president talking about jobs, jobs, jobs, thank you, exxonmobil, in the press release that exxonmobil put out about this, they say the series of investments began in 2013. so when sean spicer came out to take a few questions in the driveway, i asked him whether or not the white house is trying to take political credit for a program that actually had begun during the obama administration. here is how sean spicer answered that question just a minute or so ago. >> what i'm telling you i

. >> eamon javers, i think we're getting close.s know what you're seeing. >> the embargo is now lifted on the information they are about to present, and this is a fascinating case here of russian fsb. that is the successor organization to the kgb, allegedly working alongside russian computer hackers in a criminal sense. so, you've got an intelligence component to this, allegedly, and a criminal component to this, allegedly. i'll let you listen to the press briefing, which is beginning right now. >> -- general for the national security division at the department of justice. and with me here today is fbi executive assistant director la california and office of national affairs director vaughan airy. we're here to announce a major law enforcement action related to one of the largest data breaches in u.s. history. today we are announcing the indictment of four individuals responsible for the 2014 hack into the network of e-mail provider yahoo, the theft of information about at least 500 million yahoo accounts, and the use of that infor

>> reporter: as eamon just concluded his report, we don't have information. would leave 24 million people without health insurance and the premiums for low income seniors would go up. it might increase those numbers and make them more daunting. that he said -- if you can get it out of the house, it's very, very difficult moment for this portion of donald trump's agenda but may not mean all that much for when we get to tax reform as one house member told me today. god created republicans to cut taxes and you can bet that that will be a lot easier to coalesce on. >>> for now we turn to the panel. we're joined by bob pasani fresh off the floor. we watched some of the health care space turn negative. there are a lot of idiosyncrasies. >> what i thought was interesting about today, it turns out there is a plan b. sean spicer said there was no plan b. the plan b was they postponed it. all of us are market watchers. the market is saying either that the bill will go through eventually or that it's not going to dramatically impact what everyone's really worried about,

eamon, thank you.hite house. >>> meantime the white house and house gop leaders winning over some of their more conservative colleagues by granting some concessions in their health care bill to replace obamacare. let's get back to ylan mui with more on the story. >> reporter: hi, kelly. president trump met with leaders of the republican study committee today. they initially opposed the bill over how medicaid is funded. today the president said they cut a deal. they're turning repeal and replace into reality. >> all of these potential nos are all yeses. every single person sitting in this room is now a yes. >> here's what they agreed on. states look at the option of block grants to pay for medicaid under the current bill states get money on a per capita basis. this bill will allow people to see who can receive medicaid benefits. finally ensures that tax credits in the health bill cannot be used to fund abortions. that's another big concern for conservatives. there are 170 members in the republican study

eamon. >> a lot of americans putting together their tax returns. when the president put together his tax return this year will he release it publicly? it's not under audit. >> st. patrick's day is tomorrow. that's what i am more focused on. >> presumably his 2016 returns are not under audit yet. >> we'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. i think the president has been clear about his position on his tax returns. we'll see where it goes from there. he has been clear and consistent that he is under a routine audit. john. >> thank you, sean. reading the draft of the budget, listening to director mulvaney's comments yeste and today, it would appear that the natiol endowmt for the arts would be phased out entirely in two years. can you name any other government programs or even cabinet departments such as housing and urban development and education, in which its entire function may be phased out or reduced to another agency in government or even the state? >> john, who is here from omb, is the appropriate person to ask on that. they've done several

we'll see what happens, eamon, thank you. eamon javers at the white house.re on this speech and some of the economic points here including these strong wall street reaction that we are seeing right now, let's bring in president of the committee for responsible federal budget, and tom delay, former majority leader of the u.s. house of representatives and house speaker. great to see you both. thank you for joining us. maya, going to start with you on the budget and the spending impact of all these kind of policies, but instead, are you surprised to see these sharp market reaction? dow up 240, s&p up 1% after this speech. >> yeah. i'm not a good market predictor, that's for sure. so i guess the reason, i think you made a point that i agreed with in the last segment, i guess the reason that makes sense to me is i thought it was a very good speech in terms of message and tone. but when you get down to the details of which there weren't very many, that's when it gets a lot more difficult. and the one thing i took away from the speech with a long list of priorities

eamon? >> for the first time today fbi director james comey said there is in fact a law enforcement investigation into russian meddling in the 2016er campaign into whether or not there was any coordination by anybody inside the trump campaign with that russian meddling. here's what the fbi director had to say earlier today. >> our expert investigators will conclude that work as quickly as they can but they will always do it well no matter how long that takes. i can promise you, we will follow the facts wherever they lead. >> we also had nsa director mike rodgers testifying on capitol hill. he did his best to squash this suggestion that donald trump had made over twitter that president obama had had trump wire attempted. and then the suggestion sean spicer made from the podium that somehow the british intelligence service might have been involved in that. here's what admiral rogers said today. >> our relationship with british intelligence is one of the closest we have with any foreign service

eamon javers at the white house today. dow is down 47, close to session lows. when we come back, we'll talk to brian wiser over at pivotal with his early accelerating on snap and a $10 target, after a break. when you have $4.95 online u.s. equity trades... lower than td ameritrade, schwab, and e-trade... you realize the smartest investing idea, isn't just what you invest in, but who you invest with. ♪ termites. we're on the move. hey rick, all good? oh ya, we're good! we're good. terminix. defenders of home. parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supp

eamon javers wraps up the day. the meeting on drug prices and yvonne muy on the details of the infrastructure spending. >> one of the things the president has done today is met with people who disagree with him. one of them the meeting with elijah cummings. he is the top democrat on the house oversight committee, a committee often used to investigate the administration and the executive branch. he is potentially one of donald trump's biggest adversaries here in town. they appear to agree on the need to lower prescription drug prices. that's the stated topic of today's meeting. it was a meeting that took a while to come together. the president at one point accused cummings of backing out of the meeting. cummings said the president was making stuff up about him. they finally got it on the calendar. we saw mrs. jobs. she said she'll talk about both today. pyle jobs, who is worth more than $10 billion, was a big donor to hillary clinton during the campaign. we'll wait to see whether we get a readout on that meeting or

let's get right to eamon javers. >> reporter: we're expecting more on the u.s. side of this. in half an hour time sean spicer, white house press secretary is expected to brief reporters. number one topic at that briefing. no indication of whether we'll hear from donald trump himself later on today. we do know that the president was briefed at the white house on this incident. as he told reporters on a different topic this morning. >> we're just getting an update on london, as that just happened. >> not much detail from the president of the united states. caused that meeting to be delayed by nearly half an hour. we expect more this afternoon. questions on the u.s. side is whether there's any security implication for the united states, whether this is now over or, in fact, it might be tied to a larger group, larger entity that might be planning something else, guys. we'll wait and see what the white house has to say in half an hour. >> eamon javers, joining us. colonel jack jacobs, msnbc military analyst. welcome as always. good to have you with us. >> good afternoon. >> at tim

our good friend eamon javers has some new polling data to bring us. mr. headliner, eamon?> good morning. so we know we have new nbc news survey monkey online poll here to bring you some information on. this is the approval rating for the president as of right now. 42% approve, 56% disapprove. that is a slight worsening from last month, which was 43% approval, 54% disapproval. and then look at this number. this is the right direction, wrong direction. this is the question that pollsters rely on so often to get a general sense of where things are going in the country. 37% say right direction. 61% say the country is headed in the wrong direction right now. that is also a slight worsening from the last month which was 40% right direction, 57% wrong direction. guys, this is a little bit better news in this poll, this is a survey monkey nbc 6 new nel out this morning. in the gallup poll they have the president at 35% approval. the gallup poll organization is suggesting that that is among the worst performances of any president in their first year comparing it to bill bill who wa

eamon javers is there. this is an important meeting. trade, immigration, perhaps russia's relationship in the world including of course with germany. >> that's right. i'll tell you what. give you a sense of just how important this meeting is. i interviewed the irish prime minister earlier this week. he said that he and angela merkel had actually talked by phone to sort of compare notes about their meeting with donald trump. he said that she had called him to just gauge his temperature on this because they're both meeting with the president in the same week, and they've both been political opponents of the president. much to watch when we see the press conference with two leaders talking to german press here at the white house and american press in terms of the body language, words that they use. this is a president who on the campaign trail was harshly critical of angela merkel. we'll see if he continues with that kind of language today and see what her response is. she's more of an internationalist type figure. she's obviously pro-immi

i want to go to eamon jabbers. you've got all these democrats saying jeff sessions should step down. not going to happen, right? it's very clear that jeff sessions is not going to resign. but now you're hearing some folks say at least come back in front of the senate judiciary committee and answer questions to clarify your original testimony. what's the likelihood of that happening and what are the options here >> jeff sessions said yesterday he's going to in fact write a letter to the committee explaining what his. was all about. when you look at the exchange between franken and sessions, franken did not ask what his own contacts were, he asked what he would do if he discovered other members of the team have had contact with the russians. sessions unprompted offered up this denial. he was affirmatively putting out a denial he wasn't asked for. you saw sessions yesterday say very clearly, that was not my intent. he didn't mean to mislead senator franken because he was answering an entirely different question. very

we've seen intelligence information leaked before, eamon. i think it's the degree, when a newspaper can cite nine different sources has been the focus. let me ask you, the fact that comey was willing to acknowledge, yes, there is an investigation between the trump campaign and russia led to calls by hipoypocrisy by the republic. >> hillary clinton and her e-mail situation. ultimately, he did talk about that. that's what made democrats so angry during the campaign. here is comey, talking about hillary clinton. why won't he tell us anything about donald trump? now he says that he is conducting an investigation into russian interference in the election but he won't say today whether or not he is conducting these leak investigations. once you go down this road as an fbi director of confirming the existence of any investigation, you will be asked to confirm all of those investigations. and that's the box that comey is in, logically. >> he had gotten permission from the justice department to say exactly what he said about that investigation into r

eamon, we'll start with you.alk us through timing, what we expect today and most importantly what is in and what is not in this plan. do we know? >> hallie, we don't know right now. that's in terms of timing is what you can expect first, some leaks, of where republicans have landed on this bill. they are threading a very difficult political needle here. they've got to make sure this satisfy conservatives in the house of representatives who might be skeptical that enhanced tax credits for purchasing health insurance are not simply a government mandate, which they don't like at all. >> the tax credit issue is a big one. >> right. you have to satisfy the senate republicans who have to satisfy whatever they do people don't lose their health care and they have to satisfy the white house. that's a giant three-legged school here they're trying to put together. it's very tricky. >> so talk about prices. your guy who knows numbers very well, pull up the poll here. not a lot of people have a ton of confidence in health car

eamon javers in washington. >>> president trump expected to sign two executive orders today aimed atrade. one calls for a study of past trade agreements looking at whether they delivered on promised benefits. second order designed to improve the collection of financial penalties against other countries for dumping goods or illegally subsidizing companies. yesterday commerce secretary wilbur ross told cnbc that the trump administration wants to start the nafta renegotiation process before congress goes on its april recess. secretary ross will be joining "squawk box" again later this morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >>> secretary of state rex tillerson is in brussels today attending his first nato meeting. he is expected to press allies to step up defense spending. >>> still to come here on "worldwide exchange," spacex makes history with the launch of its first recycled rocket. the details of that coming up next when "worldwide exchange" returns. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ thanks for doing this, dad. so i thought it might be time to talk about a financial strategy. you mean pay him back? so let's start talk

. >>> let's get to eamon javers who will raise the curtain not just bilateral, eamon, with merkel andsident but some of these german ceos as well. >> that's right, carl. the honor guard from the u.s. military is here in the krdrivey at the white house getting in position to honor angela merkel as she comes to visit with donald trump today. we're getting a list now some of the german ceos participating in a roundtable discussion here at the white house, they're going to be talking about trade and also apprenticeship and job training for blue collar workers. the ceos that we have on the list today haralbmw, siemens, and abigail marie davis of schaeffler will be here as well. we have andrew liveris, ginny rimty and marc benioff, and i can tell you, guys, the last time they did a ceo roundtable here at the white house, one of the big topics of conversation was the way in which the germans do vocational technical education. that was something that a number of the ceos on the u.s. side raised here at the white house. they said that's a model for american companies as they consider how to bo

we'll see what the white house has to say this afternoon, guys. >> eamon, thank you.f course, bharara's tenure colored largely with his experience regarding wall street. let's get to leslie picker in new york with that angle. leslie? >> reporter: that's right, guys, news of bharara's departure was just as surprising for those on the inside as those of us on the outside. sources told me that prosecutors and other employees worked throughout the weekend to get their case loads in order. and separately, i spoke with a former assistant u.s. attorney under bharara, who talked about the loyalty that those currently in the office have for the now former u.s. attorney. >> i think that while the office has a long tradition of people continuing to work after changes in leadership, there's going to be an impact to him leaving, and i think some of the excitement that's associated with preet will certainly result -- certainly transfer into some uncertainty. >> reporter: that was randall jackson, who is now a defense attorney at boyes schiller. he also said that regardless of who t

eamon javers at the white house.rlier let's bring in republican senator from arizona jeff flake. senator, great to have you with us this morning. good morning to you. >> hey, thanks for having me on. >> let's start with health care, i suppose. cato is out with a statement, a well known analyst at cato calls the bill a new brand of paint. your colleague tom cotton basically told the house this morning to start over. what do you think? >> well, i'm from arizona, which is kind of ground zero for the failure of the current system of obamacare. there are 15 counties in arizona, 14 of them have one provider. and in every county you're paying for if you're paying on the exchange and you're a family of four, you're paying more for your health care premium than you are for your mortgage. in some cases twice as much as you are for your mortgage. so the old system certainly has to go. the question is is this the right way to replace it. we're still considering it in the senate. >> when the aarp comes out and throws out statisti

eamon javers reports from the white house. good evening. what did we learn about the future trade relationship between u.s. and germany? >> well, we learned that both sides want to continue to engage in this relationship and they're talking about baby steps here at the white house. remember, there was so much tension between these two nations because president trump, during the campaign, insulted lank merkel several times saying she was ruining germany and ruining their economy and he didn't know what she was doing in terms of bringing migrants into that country. so today was a day all about mending those fences and moving this relationship past that. i think on those terms you have to say that this was a success today. both sides got the opportunity to deliver the message that they came here to deliver. >> one of the points of sort of question points has been about nato and the european union and how the two powers relate on that. the president was really directing his support of nato on the european union, not so much. >> yeah. that's rig

let's get to eamon javers now involving business confidence which is the highest level, eamon, in a numbers. >> we saw this tape playback. the president, we'll talk about that for a second meeting with the deputy crown prince of saudi arabia. there you see the pictures which we just got from the white house a few moments ago. the president here is all about creating jobs in the united states. but he shares that in common with the deputy crown prince of saudi arabia who has said that one of his major efforts is going to be to move saudi arabia's economy off of its oil dependency and diversify and find employment for a lot of young saudis so we'll see whether there's economic stuffer for the to to talk about but also, of course, national security as well, scott. we saw h.,mcmaster in the room for that meeting. clearly u.s./saudi alliance so critical in the middle east particularly in the fight against isis but as you mentioned a new study out and we can talk about that if you would like to talk about that as well. >> yeah, the president tweeting about it about 45 minutes ago saying great opt

. >>> eamon?ast the president has referred to particular job reports as phony or totally fiction. does the president believe that this jobs report was accurate and fairway to measure the economy? >> yeah. i talked to the president prior to this. he said to quote him very clearly. they may have been phony in the past but it's very real now. >> changed his tune. you saw that was cnbc's eamon javers addressing sean spicer, jobs report that was better than expected. let's address the trump economy with mark wayne mullen, republican from oklahoma. >> thanks for having me here, michelle. >> you used to do something for a living. >> that's right. >> >> you ran a big plumbing company. >> a plumbing company which most people refer to but we have actually seven other companies besides that, everything from a restaurant to a couple property companies and, obviously, heavy in construction. >> so, what are you doing here? >> in short i got fed up. it's difficult for a small business owner to survive in a regul

i'm eamon javers at the white house. preet, has been asked to resign by the trump administration. he was asked to resign this afternoon by the department of justice. there comes as part of a housecleaning of sorts by the department of justice for u.s. attorneys broadly, 46 presidentially appointed u.s. attorneys asked to resign today. this is a fairly standard operation when administrations turn over. but bharara had a meeting in november in trump tower. he emerged from the meeting at the time and said he was asked to stay on. he had met with jeff sessions. at the time, he said he asked that i stay on so i expect i will be continuing. something apparently has changed between november and today. it is not clear exactly what. it is possible he may be brought back in, reappointed by this administration or simply that the administration has changed its mind. we're doing a little more reporting to figure out what's going on behind the scenes. >> coincidentally, he started his personal twitter handle just last week. er if he had one as attorney general and then he starts a new one on hi

eamon javers outside the white house. they'll be bringing us the very latest breaking news throughout the hour. larry kudlow will be with us as well. we heard from president trump about the failure of the bill. >> a very different tone here from president trump in his first public comments about the failure of the health care bill on capitol hill. the president going out of his way tonight place any blame on republicans. he said i won't speak badly about anyone inside the party. did he speak badly about democrats saying that he thinks nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are the real losers here today. even at the same time he said that, he said he homes the democrats will come around and work republicans to pass some kinds of reform to obamacare no, time soon though. he thinks obamacare needs run its course and fail before democrats will come around. and then he said he's willing to work bipart sandal legislation. he said he was surprised by some of what he saw in this process. >> we were very close. a very tight margin. we ha

eamon javers join us. >> reporter: we're told the president signed the executive order at the white house earlier today. the white house didn't allow reporters or cameras into the room for that. they did make a few high-ranking officials available for some comments on television about this. secretary of state rex tillerson described it this way. >> it is the president's solemn duty to protect the american people. and with this order, president trump is exercising his rightful authority to keep our people safe. as threats to our security continue to evolve and change, common sense dictates that we continually re-evaluate and reassess the systems we rely upon to protect our country. >> reporter: now, michelle, here is what we know about what's in this executive order based on what administration officials told us today, and some of the texts that have come out this afternoon. this is six of the seven countries affected by the january 27th executive order. they've taken iraq out of this. officials briefing reporters today, saying that the iraqi government has been very cooperative in getting

eamon javers has it. >> hi, michelle.spicer the white house press secretary was just asked about this at the white house briefi. this is the allegation from wikilea wikileaks. they say they have gotten their hands on cia documents, thousands of them which detail the cia's inner most hacking secrets. here's what he said. >> i'm not going to comment on that. i think obviously that's something that has not been fully evaluated. if it was, i would not comment from here on that. >> so here's what we know. wikileaks released thousands of pages of documents here. they say that these are the cia's secret hacking codes. they also say that the cia horded what are known as zero day vulnerabilities for apple, google, microsoft and other companies. zero day vulnerabilities are vulnerabilities that the companies are unaware of. they've never been used before. therefore, they have zero days to respond. they're some of the most valuable hacking tools out there. that's what wikileaks is saying they have here. the cia director is not comme

in the meantime it is a foggy start to eamon da monday mornin. >> foggy on i-66. 270 same situation. 66 at prince william park way. no problems, just want to warn you it is foggy. many spots. inner loop and outer loop of the belt way overall looking good. southbound 29 near colesville after the beltway we have the crash blocking the left lane. response out there on the scene. seabrook and forbes all lanes blocked eastbound. westbound one lane open. because of the house fire overnight. still have crews out there on the scene. aaron? >> melissa, thank you. depending where you live it could take you a little longer to get your tax returns. the delay might actually protect you. >>> it was a post that went viral. the only thing is, it was not true. what we've learned about a dozen girls who disappeared in d.c. >>> and it's the controversy that is sure to be filling up your news feed this morning. the airline under fire for not fios is not cable. we're wired differently. maybe that's why we've been ranked highest in customer satisfaction by jd power 4 years in

for "nightly business report," i'm eamon javers at the white house. >>> still ahead, conflicting signalshow you should manage your retirement savings in an uncertain market. >> wells fargo agreed to pay for a action scandal. it requires approval and will cover customers who put in a claim they authorized an account without their concept. in december, they settled with the government. >>> corporate america is always focused on policies out of washington and no more so than now. but for the fast food industry, the unanswered questions are starting to pile up. we talked to one of the biggest players in fast food. the ceo of young brand. ♪ >> the fast food industry is being pulverized on the failure to repeal and replace obamacare in the house, some hope to maybe gain health care costs for employees. the former ceo of cke restaurants, parents company of carl junior and hardee's no longer in contention to be the labor secretary and there have been recent executive orders cracking down on immigration, threatening one of the biggest industries that employ immigrant's labor, fred craig the paren

eamon, thank you. eamon javers at the white house.ebuilding america. one of the largest and most pressing of those infrastructure projects is amtrak and it comes with a $24 billion price tag. our morgan brennan is at newark's penn station. lucky you. with more on that story. >> hey, kelly, that's right. so the $24 billion gateway plan has been years in the making. this involves the building of a new portal bridge, the doubling of capacity at new york's penn station and the construction of a new tunnel under the hudson river between new york and new jersey. the current existing infrastructure is 106 years old. and the current tunnel which was damaged during superstorm sandy is cracking. even as 240 trains carrying 200,000 200,000 passengers pass through it. so they're all urging the federal government for the work to begin with starting with the prij replacement. but president trump unveiled a 2018 blueprint that would eliminate a future source of money for the project and gateway is on the line right now. with productivity in a region