we are back with hans nichols, jeremy barb, beiana goal riga and eli stokels. jeremy for the legal angle here set the scene for comey's public testimony. >> he's going to have to walk a fine line, brian, because on the one hand he has the venue there in front of the senate intelligence committee to lay bare everything he can speak about in terms of the president putting the arm on him to try to shut the investigation down. on the other hand, we now know this is a central line of inquiry for the muelle investigation. for the investigation now being led by former fbi director bob mueller as a special counsel. and we know that in part because one of the reasons rod rosenstein essentially recused himself and tossed this over to mueller is because rosenstein is now a witness in that matter because rosen tine stein's memo is a material fact in a will play into this issue. comey is going to have to walk a line here. it is ann clear how far he will go. but when he testified in 2007 about confronting the bush administration that was pretty dramatic. i expect some high d

nbc's hans nichols is in brussels this morning. how are belgians reacting to president trump and the reception there? >> reporter: there's a protest that greeted president trump when he arrived yesterday. today is the more formal stage of the trip. he's already met with president of the european union, donald tusk. he seemed to suggest there was a little daylight between president trump and the european position on where they are on russia. maybe a sticking point there. the big question today is when donald trump unveils this memorial to 9/11 at the new nato headquarters, outside of town, impressive glass building, will trump reiterate united states support for article 5 which says if one country is attacked, all members of the alliance will go to that country's defense. article 5 only triggered once in history, that was for the united states. that's why you see so many nato countries in testifying. listen to see if trz says article 5. s it's still an open question. watch to see to what extent donald trump presses nato allies to me

kate. >> hans nichols at the white house.hank you. >>> police in central mississippi are investigating what appears to be a deadly family tragedy that played out last night and early this morning, and a suspect is in custody tonight. we get details from nbc's morgan radford. >> reporter: a massacre in a tiny town of 500. eight people including a deputy killed in cold blood when police say a mississippi man went on a three-part shooting spree. one woman in tears, saying she's related to the victims. >> this here my daughter. >> i'm so sorry. >> he killed my two sister-in-laws, my niece. >> reporter: the suspect, 35-year-old corey godbold, seen here in cellphone video captured by a local reporter moments after his arrest. >> i ain't fit to live, not after what i done. >> reporter: teress april is the ledger reporter who took the video and says the suspect got into an argument with his wife over their kids. >> reporter: he said he had been there to discuss picking up the kids, taking them to his house, i think. that's when some

special correspondent hans nichols has late details. >> reporter: overnight u.s. special operators and somali commanders were dropped in by helicopter, targeting a compound with a local leader of the al shabaab terror group. as they moved in, they came under attack. the special forces returned fire and neutralized the attack, but not before suffering casualties. four were wounded and medevac'd out. a navy s.e.a.l. later died. pentagon officials could not say if they killed their target. the death of an american in somalia the first since 1993 when a somalia militia shot down a u.s. black hawk helicopter. in all, 18 americans killed, two of the dead dragged through the dusty streets of mogadishu. "black hawk down," the title of a major movie became shorthand for the dangers american forces faced when getting involved in distant, complicated conflicts. president trump signaling he'll make frequent use of special operators to combat global terrorism. >> we're a command at war and will remain so for the foreseeable future. >> reporter: but the general in charge of spe

joining me now is hans nichols. let's talk about this. know you get your head into the technology like i do. a fast moving projectile hitting a fast moving projectile in the sky. >> extremely fast rate of speed is not that accurate, but the figures are four miles a second. that's what they think this intercontinental missile travels at. what happened is it was different this time. they are shooting from the marshal islands. this is put down in the waters off of santa barbara. this is very challenging. when you get to the number of tests, i was speaking with an initial and what they like to think of is operational tests. of the 10, they are almost around 50%. if they knock it down today, they will be at 50%. this test could be taking place right now. hopefully we will find out quickly when it happened and whether or not it was a partial or full success. all morning the pentagon officials are saying even if it doesn't knock it out of the sky, they will think of it as a successful training exercise. they learned something every time. >> a bi

. >> nbc pentagon correspondent hans nichols is live for us in brussels. hans, i had another quote for you earlier and here's one for today. donald trump is saying nato is old, fat and sloppy. is that going to complicate things? >> reporter: that's not the way he described the new headquarters of nato and that's my artful way out of that question. i spoke to an official about this earlier today, and i think the word they're describing on their reception to donald trump is attentive. they really want to take a measure of the man, because so much of trump, whether it's domestic or national consumption, is trying to figure out where the bluster ends and the real policy begins. that's where i think they'll be clud i clued in, listening, looking at body language, trying to figure out what trump actually believes on nato. his secretary of state, his secretary of defense, his vice president have all assured everyone here that they believe in nato, they believe in article 5, they believe in common defense. they haven't heard those words from donald trump. one thing

>> hans nichols for us, thank you. bring you in and put the tweet back up there, steve because this is president trump's tweet a short time ago. earlier today i should say. north korea has shown great disrespect for their neighbor china by shooting off yet another ballistic missile but china is trying hard. steve, that tweet seems to imply that north korea is china's problem. what do you make of it? >> right. it's showing how erratic donald trump can be and how naive because the notion that china is going to share our same degree of strategic concern is a real problem and not correct. so i think that it is something where china is not going to basically take on north korea in a kinetic war and donald trump has repeatedly said if china is not going to do something, then the united states will. that he will. and so he's sort of fudging off of that right now. the one thing i would add to hans nichols' analysis, which is always excellent, is that u.s. senators, the 100 u.s. senators marched over to the white house to get a

nbc news/pentagon correspondent and my friend hans nichols joins us now. what are they doing? >> hitting a bullet a bullet. what will happen sometime after noon today pacific time, vandenberg air force base, let's set up an interseptcepteaccept intercepting missile. they're going to launch it from an island. what is different from this test, this is the first time they're trying to knock out an icbm out of the sky. in the past, they had something to approximate what it looks like. two things. one, north korea doesn't have, to our best knowledge, a functioning icbm and, number two, these tests are long planned, long budgeted for. what everyone at the pentagon is telling me this morning is if don't look at this as a response to the recent round of testings from the north koreans. this is us testing our system, and it was long planned. >> the american interceptor has a spotty track record. is this the only system to combat an international baa ballistbli -- ballistic missile? >> yes. it's been operational 11 years now. what this is, you have a battery in alaska. a battery in cali

reporters and analysts, including the reporter behind that "new york times" piece, but let's begin are hans nichols who is at the white house. hans, the president is about to leave on this foreign trip and he's going to try to be leaving behind a number of controversies, a little bit of a reset, the white house hopes. >> reporter: i'll try to talk over the sound of the helicopter just about to take off from outside the rose garden. this is a foreign trip, and you can sense white house aides eager to get going, get out there, change the scene and more importantly change the subject. all morning long we've been asking about comey and we've been met with mockery and contempt for our questions. they really want to change the subject, start talking about what's happening in terms of the president's international agenda. that first stop is saudi arabia. it's a chance for him to talk about what he might be doing for the sunni world, talk about an arms deal, talk about what he might potentially do to fight islamic extremism. at the same time we just heard from secretary mattis sort of r articulating this n

nbc's hans nichols is with the president this hour in new london, connecticut. , president trump is set to visit israel in just days. this foreign trip is expected. when i speak to people inside the white house, they want this to be a big win, a turning point. we know jared kushner has a very good relationship with netanyahu. what do we know about this call? >> reporter: well, we don't know whether or not president trump apologized or explained or what he actually said to netanyahu in terms of revealing code word information, code word intelligence to the russians. i think that's one of the urgent tasks, trying to figure out what was said in that conversation. there is another avenue for reporting here, stephanie. we learn this because overnight the russians said they may have released a transcript of this conversation with lavrov where this conversation happened. so there is a possibility that their media give us a readout. taking a step back, stephanie, we know this is a president that likes to negotiate and he likes positioning of power. he is heading off on t

nbc's hans nichols is live at the pentagon.nd phillip rucker also on the set at the white house north lawn. hans, when will the test happen? how significant is it? >> the significant thing about the test is what the u.s. is trying to do. shoot down an actual icbm. they're launching one from the marshall islands an atoll in the western pacific. they'll send it up and over around noon pacific time, 3:00 p.m. local and they'll try to knock it down sometime before it splashes into the water there in the pacific ocean west of california. so the significance really is the speed with which this missile is heading towards the states. it would approximate an icbm. in pentagon-speak that's hitting a bullet with a bullet. one thing -- a few caveats. number one, north korea doesn't have, as far as we know, an operational icbm. number two, tests like this are long planned. they're long budgeted for. don't think of this as a tit for tat conversation between what the pentagon can do and what north korea is attempting to do. >> i was going to

hans nichols at the pentagon and in d.c., a former u.s. ambassador to rusa and a nato deputy secretary general. a lot to talk to him about. chris, let's start with you. what's the latest from the white house on this possible troop deployment? >> we thought we might get an answer quickly because the president is going to that big meeting next week and the early word had been that he would make a decision by then. we heard from sean spicer there is no timeline. he asked for a comprehensive review to look at what their options are. the reports are he wants to start winning again. here's what sean spicer said about that. >> one of the things he has asked his national security team to do is to actually rethink the strategy. what are we doing to achieve the goals that you are asking about. how do we win? how do we eliminate the threat? i think doing that is not just a question of throwing money or people, but looking at the mission and the strategy and that's what the team has been doing not just in afghanistan, but the total beyond afghanistan

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hans nichols has more. >> reporter: president donald trump returning home late last night and wastingme to go on offense this morning. "it is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the white house are fabricated lies by the fake news media." his son-in-law and senior adviser is a major focus. "the washington post" saying on russian ambassador for a secret communications channel in december. kushner's lawyers say he's willing to speak with investigators. john kelly insisting that kushner did nothing wrong with russia. >> i don't see any big issue here relative to jared. i think anytime you can open the lines of communication with anyone, whether they are good friends or not so good friends, is a smart thing to do. >> reporter: former director of national intelligence james clapper asked on "meet the press" about kushner's reported contacts with the russians. >> just from a theoretical andpoint, i will tell you that my dashboard warning light was clearly on and i think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community. >> reporter: the white house bracing for a lon

for more, let's go to hans nichols.ive us the latest. >> what we're hearing from defense secretary mattis is articulating a policy that's been somewhat obvious on the ground now for several weeks, and that is the u.s. forces working with coalition partners will try to surround and encircle isis, and then annihilate them, and there won't be any chance for them to escape and potentially go to north america or northern europe and have a terrorist attack there. it's a little dit bit of a difference in mosul. they left a western route open. in syria and raqqah, they're trying to surround all of the villages and allow no fighters to escape so they don't then become foreign fighters in europe or the united states. >> and hans, what's the latest about this north korean missile test that we saw last weekend? we're learning more about it. >> reporter: it's very troubling what we're learning. this was a kn-17 rocket, a range of around 28,000 miles. what we learned is when it reentered the atmosphere, it looked like it reentered in

. >> hans nichols. thank you. keep us honest from the white house. >>> also watching what is happening on capitol hill. why? that's what's going to be driving a lot of the story line today as senators, congress members, get back into town and are really, frankly, forced to talk about this. some reaction already from mitch mcconnell saying he wants, quote, a little less drama from the white house and instead wants them to focus on the republican agenda. mcconnell speaking to bloomberg tv this morning. we're hearing calls from some republicans including congressman galdlagher saying te president should share a transcript. chris coons with us. quite a lot to get to today, senator. let's get your initial reaction to the reports that the president shared official material with the russians. >> it's very troubling. it suggests, if true, that the president does not appreciate how risky and dangerous it is to share classified information with one of our main adversaries, russia, with their foreign minister and ambassador

nbc news pentagon correspondent hans nichols joins us live from brussels.w about how this is going to impact what the talks will be? >> well, chris, it could potentially crowd out the other agenda item, and that was russia. for many of these 27 leaders here at this nato meeting, it is not an official summit. it is a meeting. it's their first chance to hear donald trump make his commitment on whether or not he can reassure them that the united states is committed to the nato alliance. remember during the campaign, he called it obsolete. he dispatched his desecretary o state in february, trying to reassure allies. vice president pence made the same point a few days later. there is a split between eastern and western countries. the western countries basically take him at his world, that he is committed to nato. the closer to the russian border, the less likely you are to see they feel trump has their back. they may want something more. i'll be very interested to see about the more spending from the nato countries. the ability to meet the challenge also on the

. >> with all the day's best reporting, we have nblsc's hans nichols, and peter baker with "the new york times." pete e i want to start with you, alternative allies were looking for those were some reassurance that if a member nation were threatened from, say, russia, we would be there and the president did not deliver those words that they were waiting to hear. what's the effect of that? >> yeah, it's pretty stunning. the bar was pretty low here. all the president had to do to make the european nato allies happy was to say that he would do what the united states is already legally committed to do under the nato charter, which is as you say, defend any ally that happens to come under attack. the only reason this is an issue is the president, himself, put it in an issue a year ago when he gave an interview to one of my colleagues of "the new york times" and said he would commit to the defense of nato allies only if they paid up, to use his phrase, that they spent enough money on their own defense according to the formula that nato has used and you just played on the clip here, 23 of the 2

we begin tonight with hans nichols at the white house. >> president donald trump returning home lateast night and raising no time to go on offense this morning. it is my opinion that many of the leaks, he says, coming out of the white house are fabricated lies made up by the fake news media. the white house is preparing a war room to push back on the russia investigations which have his son-in-law and senior adviser as a focus as first reported by nbc news. "the washington post" on friday saying kushner asked the russian ambassador for a secret communications channel in december. kushner's lawyers saying he's willing to talk with investigators. homeland security secretary john kelly insisting kushner did nothing wrong with russia. >> i don't see any big issue here relative to jared. i think any time you can open lines of communication with anyone, whether they're good friends or not so good friends, is a smart thing to do. >> reporter: former director of national intelligence james clapper asked on "meet the press" about kushner's reported contacts with the russians. >> just from the

for more, let's go to hans nichols. hans, tell us what this means. >> reporter: well, it means that it has initial intercept capability. it by no means that the entire korean peninsula is free and safe from north korean missiles. but it is the start of an umbrella. in some ways, the most important aspect is the speed with which it was deployed. it was a couple of weeks ago that you heard hints it would be coming in the coming days. then suddenly over the weekend it becomes operational. there have been a lot of talk about how difficult this was going to be. you had to send the equipment over there. you some of the batteries were going to be stationed on a golf course. you had to get permitting. when we talk about t.h.a.a.d., we spend a lot of time on north korea, t.h.a.a.d. is also a sign to the chinese if they don't resolve this issue, the u.s. is going to move more hardware into the region. the pentagon uses it as an use to pressure china saying look, if you don't resolve this situation, look what's coming your ways. a

for more on all of this, let's bring in msnbc's hans nichols and michael farwell as well. s, let me start with you there in belgium before we get to the nato stuff. we just got another ruling striking down the white house's travel ban. when can we expect to hear some reaction from the president on that, or has there already been some sort of response? >> reporter: there hasn't been a response. about half of the white house staff is up in the air heading to sicily right now, and within the hour, as you said, president trump will be leaving with his entourage on air force i as well. there is a chance trump could come to the back of the plane to talk or send sean spicer to give a statement. so there is plenty of day left in the traveling white house to respond the ruling that has obliterated them. >> it overshadowed the nato meeting to some extent, it would seem. at vthe very start this morning this was the moment that trae attrted a lot of people. i want to play it for our viewers at home. >> silence. did the alleged leaks remain the elephant in the room throughout the day? >

. >> nbc's hans nichols is at the pentagon for us. there's word of movement in the pacific today.n you tell us? >> a japanese destroyer is escorting a ship in the sea of japan. normal hi there are a lot of operations that take place. normally it's not that big of a deal when the navy is doing operations. it's not like they're out there waiting for the sun to go down. they're always doing operations. but when you overlay it on some of the rhetoric coming from the white house, it takes added significance. and the white house made very clear over the weekend that they have military options. >> we have to do something again with partners in the region and globally and that involves enforcement of the u.n. same-sexes thsame-se sanctions that are in place. it means being prepared for military operations if necessary. >> as far as preparations go, the u.s.s. vinson is in the sea of japan. before it has had been the philippine sea. there was a lot of back and forth about that. it arrived over the weekend. one final note an the anti-missile batteries. those will be operational in the comin

best team in the business here to break it all down and i want to take you first to my friends, hans nichols who has traveled to brussels ahead of the president. hans, walk us through the dynamic here. there's a big difference between the trip so far and what awaits president trump in belgium. tell us about that, nato, he's been hot, he's been cold. now he's in front of them all. >> reporter: what nato leaders want to hear, stephanie, i've spoken to a nato official, is a reiteration of what secretary mattis and secretary tillerson and mike pence has said, that donald trump does not think nato is obsolete. but there's really a spectrum here in europe. speaking to this official talking about how in the eastern part of nato, those 28 countries closer to russia, they want to hear it more forcefully from trump. when you get further west, some of them are content with what we've heard from pence, what we've heard from mattis and that is that this administration is committed to nato. underlying all this is a question about defense spending. we heard it earlier in february, this call for all nato co

nbc's hans nichols is on the other side of the potomac and joins us from the pentagon. esident was criticized for taking a trusted ally to task basically on the january phone call. people simply said why'd you do this? what are we expecting today? >> we expect a lot of pageantry today. there will be a dinner and meeting on the decks of the "uss intrepid" an important carrier decommissioned in the naval battle over the coral sea, marking the 75th anniversary. the offending issue at turnbull and trump had gotten in a ti was the refugees, looks like vice president mike pence smoothed over that issue, said that the u.s. would honor the obama era commitment to accept these refugees. but look for both sides to stress the importance of military to military cooperation. secretary jim mattis met with turnbull in afghanistan. turnbull making a surprise visit and when he was there you get a sense of how closely these two countries work. you look at australia's commitment to afghanistan, they have a lot of troops there, i believe some 270 there now. they also have troops fighting in

. >> let's bring in nbc news pentagon correspondent hans nichols and msnbc military analyst barry mccaffrey. general mccaffrey served as deputy u.s. representative to nato as well. hans, let me start with you, sir. this video that's starting to make the rounds on the interweb, especially of president trump there this morning, it appears to show him pushing a nato leader out of the way, we just showed the video. have we confirmed who that leader is and any explanation about what happened there? >> we think it's the prime minister of montenegro. we should note montenegro won't become an official member until later this week. this is his first dinner. i don't know if mr. trump was aware of that. a lot of times at these summits you have group photos, class photos, that they'll put on. it's clearr. trump wanted to get in the front of the line and wanted that visual. i mean you're an old football guy. you see a hole, that wouldn't have been a problem for you. trump created his hole there. >> indeed he did. let's turn to the business of the day. the white house reaffirming that the united states i

. >>> hans nichols, kristen welker at the white house. on set. former undersecretary of defense under president obama. washington burrow chief susan page. and "new york times" reporter and msnbc contributor, jeremy peters. hans, starting with you. what we're learning about numbers, locations, possible additional forces in afghanistan. break it down for us. >> the numbers, the range is 3,000 to 5,000. that's what we're hearing. i just got off the phone with a senior administration official. they're stressing this is still in the deliberation process. no final decision has been made. and president trump is asking some questions about this proposed policy. what we know about the policy, more troops to fight directly against the taliban. bolster the afghan national army. what trump is asking about is what's the regional approach. he is asking these questions namely because it's difficult to see a solution in afghanistan unless you have some sort of approach to pakistan. the hostages. the network holds them in pakistan. a great deal of fighters that go

hans nichols has more. >> we have breaking news here in and that is that jim mattis called his turkishrpart to explain this decision. think of it as an attempt to smooth it over. clearly turkey will be upset that the u.s. decided to directly arm the kurds. remember this is something the obama administration considered and the pentagon wanted to do it. the trump administration is doing it. you can expect this means they are encircling the capital of isis and the assault could happen more quickly. the goal of arming the kurds is they do most of the fighting. they are the ones shooting the most bullets at isis. the way they are trying to smooth it over is saying they are giving the kurds limited ammunition, teasing it out and having it done incrementally and the kurds will not be able to hold up once it is cleared of isis. >> you are also getting reporting on the afghanistan numbers we saw this morning. what are you hearing? >> nothing final on the numbers. when i listen to sean spicer talking about it, he was using the word eliminate isis and the terrorist threat, but not annihilate. tha

hans nichols is also on the scene for us. so what can we expect after hearing from president trump?rter: it's clear that president trump expects more defense spending from nato countries. that was crystal clear. i couldn't tell if we were listening to the president of the united states there or queens landlord telling his t tenants rent was due. you said three or four times that country needs to get to the agreed upon 2% level from 2014. what does that actually mean in terms of spending? take germany. germany is 1.25% and they spend about $40 billion per year, i'll do it all in u.s. dollar, $40 billion per year. if you want to get that up to the 2% threshold, it would be a defense budget of $60 billion a year. compare that to the defense budget submitted on capitol hill, it's $600 billion. so we're still talking much smaller number, but clearly trump wants to see more spending. he did a little bit on article v. he didn't goexcaplicitly endors, but you can take it at appearance to mean that he does indeed believe in the doctrine of common defense. a lot are nervous about how they wil

. >>> hans nichols, kristen welker at the white house. on set.ecretary of defense under president obama. washington burrow chief susan

. >> thank you, hans nichols,. we will take a quick break and when we come back, much more on the breaking news out of knot korea. ♪ ♪ korea. oknot korea. rknot korea. northknot korea. not kor t korea. t korea. korea. use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. oscar mawe went back toig the drawing board... and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of hot dogs. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of

mid-to long-range missile, a new type of rocket that north korea says can carry a nuclear warhead hans nicholsollowing the story from the pentagon. warninthe u.s. it has capabilities to hit the u.s. at home but you say you've heard something different? >> well, the assessment here the preliminary assessment this missile couldn't reach that far to the west coast but that's not to say this isn't a serious event. what officials here are telling me they believe this missile to be a kn-17. i won't bore you too much with the details. suffice it to say it's an intermediate range missile. it could have potential to have a nuclear tipped warhead on top of it. the important thing about it, stephanie, a successful launch and serious, what i'm picking up here, throughout the morning. one other note on this, this is the first successful launch of the kn-17 and the first -- second excuse me launch we have had since that mar-a-lago summit and that summit where president trump met with president xi was a chance to let diplomacy breathe a little bit and let it work. it doesn't seem to be working out. it may be

hans nichols keep an eye on that and report back.nk you, sir. >>> back with me now sarah and shannon for international headlines. i want to stay overseas. some striking moments in the last 24 hours and one of them is what sean spicer said in his press conference, his press briefing yesterday when he was asked about the relationship with angela merkel. you haveinternational fallt ready yet the press secretary says the relationship is let me listen to describe it. >> i think the relationship that the president has had with merkel, he would describe as fairly unbelievable. they get along very well. he has a lot of respect for her. they continue to grow the bond that they had during their talks in the g-7. and he views not just germany as an important american ally. >> now that we're hearing this reporting that we're all sort of triangulating here that no final decision made on pairs and he's looking to lean away from it. how is that going to impact the relationship with angela merkel, do you think? still fairly unbelievable? >> the comm

we've got wendy sherman and eliana johnson as well and hans nichols. are we going to a break? no. we're going to continue this. all right. the white house has responded to nbc. the white house did not jump to its normal response when it comes to reports often by the "new york times" that it is nonsense. president trump this morning talking about fake news once again. that this is all a campaign by fake news to sabotage his presidency. strangely, in this particular case with respect to the comments made to the russians by president trump, the white house did not refute the allegations. >> well, it could be that it is just a very difficult one to deny. it looks like the "new york times" has a transcript. if they have a transcript and the white house isn't denying it, then it is almost futile to try to spend your way around it. what they're trying to do is say this is a president that wants to work russia on a variety of issues and he's been very public about that. that's the brunt of the statement they released to us. i'm going on usurp your role and and matt a question if he is sti