>> john mclaughlin, very important point.she was citing a previous precedent that actually james comey set when he appointed a special prosecutor that there was the guarantee could not be fired. that seems to be important in this situation. >> i think it is. again, anyone who hesitates to give that guarantee in this situation is misjudging the gravity of what we're dealing with here. this isn't pattycake. this government at its most dangerous moment. it's about an unprecedented situation in many respects, even though there are parallels to some previous scandals. so i think it was a mistake to not just make that statement unequivocally that bob mueller will not be fired. >> ned price, did you have the feeling that these administration officials misjudged what they were going to face with these senators today? they seemed unprepared to deal with senator harris, senator wyden, and others on the committee who were -- who were countering their points with much more force than they seemed prepared to deal with. >> it seems they co

one thing i'd add, i'm very happy john mclaughlin talked about the issue of intelligence sharing. very important. this is the first serious test whether or not there has been damage to that relationship in intelligence sharing or things are clicking back into place because of the seriousness of this the united states, the five eyes agreement of the close commonwealth countries with the united states are still sharing and coordinating as closely as they ever did. theresa may after the last bombing incident that in was going to stop with regard to that particular incident. we don't know what the major t f that is now. i'm sure we'll know soon, but it shows how vital to have a great relationship and how threatened the british felt by the united states just a week and a half ago. >> we are watching on the left side of our screen there some of the, as authorities would call it, some of the walking wounded. excuse me. making their way from the scene. steve clemons is with us now. steve what do we look for in the coming hours and what do we look for in the coming days? you talk about the

also with us, john mclaughlin and former u.s. assistant attorney nick ackerman, and jeremy bash, former chief of staff for both the cia and the pentagon. so happy to have all of you with us and so much news. i was strong by how strong nick burns sort of came after this president and calling it, nick, a dereliction of duty to not defend this country against russia. >> total dereliction of duty. i mean, it obviously is. he has done nothing to deal with this russia investigation or acknowledge it. i mean, it's as though it never happened. you've got manafort who got $17 million for running a campaign on a candidate in ukraine who was beholden to the kremlin. you've got his son-in-law, who suddenly couldn't remember that he met with the russian ambassador. you've got mike flynn, who was meeting with the russian ambassador and couldn't remember what was said. and then you've got the attorney general, "i don't recall" jeff sessions, who didn't remember anything. >> let me bring john into this. what is to be made at this point, we are,

thank you to shannon pettypiece, john mclaughlin. nick and jeremy are staying around.and coming up, it's lights out in the briefing room. we'll talk to the man who walks the line between the president, who starts most days with attacks on the media, and the press corps that cover him. new band-aid® brand skin-flex™, bandages. our best bandage yet! it dries almost instantly. better? yeah. good thing because stopping never crosses your mind. band-aid® brand. stick with it™ >>> if i could ask you about yesterday, you've had a day to sort of look back. did you go to the gym and hit the heavy bag? did you laugh it off? many of us have covered multiple administrations. you hear wars, you see wars. i was wondering what you were thinking and feeling a day later. >> i think the white house had a great day yesterday. >> that was deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders today. yet another white house audio-only press briefing. this white house goes to battle with the press corps every day over access and credibility. joining me is jeff mason, the white house correspondent fo

but i want to bring in our other guest here, john mclaughlin, the former acting director of the cia, all of them are msnbc analysts as well. and yeneral, i will apologize in advance if i have to interpreter you and go back to little havana there. but let's start with this tweet from philip rucker, "the washington post," this came out about an hour ago. i just asked vice president pence about hiring a private lawyer, and he said it's very routine, very routine. so the vice president has hired a lawyer. and a source is telling her that trump's long time lawyer has also hired counsel now. she's also reported that the campaign has told everyone to preserve documents. what's the thinking right now inside republican circles now? >> well, these are very troubling and disturbing developments. it would appear that special counsel mueller is asking people to preserve documents, and there's a lot of flurry about hiring lawyers. the only reason you would hire a personal lawyer inside the white house, and most notably and most unusually the vice president of the united states, is because they wan

john mclaughlin thank you, nick confessore ari melber, appreciate it. >>> another story in north korea where a short while ago, university of virginia student otto warmbier was released after being held captive in the country for more than a year. the 22-year-old was sentenced to 15 years hard labor last march after attempting to steal a propaganda banner hanging from a restricted area of his hotel. hans nichols joins us from the white house and one of the questions here is warmbier's condition. what can you tell us about that? and what what's next? >> we know he is in a medical coma, full coma, we don't know the severity of that coma and relying on the north koreans for when he actually entered that coma. they are saying march of last year. and that's what they're telling the parents. the parents have issued a statement, it's a difficult one but i'm going to read it for you when you think of the difficult time they've been through. sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told that he has been in that condition since march of 2016. we want the world to know how we and our son have been

. >> i'm joined by former cia acting director john mclaughlin, and thomas pickering, former ambassadorumber of countries. you heard mr. putin there say that anybody could have hacked into u.s. systems and made it look like russia was the culprit. none of us shocked that he said that. but we've got key people at the center of all of this, rosen stein, coats, rogers, in addition to comey testifying in a public forum this week. what are the chances we get closer to the bottom of this? >> well, first, chris, what you heard there was classic putin. very similar to what he says in most cases. what i've observed in my interactions with the russians over the years is that when they do something that you don't like, and you protest, they push back and accuse you of escalating, then call for discussions to trynd consolidate their gains. so pushback and denial is the classic strategy they follow in this case. as far as the hearing, you know, here's what is going to happen, i think. comey will be asked at least two things, did the president demand his loyalty, and did comey himself understand that

listening to all the reporters here tonight from the post and the times and john mclaughlin from the intelligence community, they think he's the key because he's probably going to be a -- if there is any obstruction of justice, the witnesses would be somebody like mike rogers or coats, who were certainly in those conversations close enough to the president if something was going on to obstruct justice, they would be the witnesses you'd go to look to. >> i think the questions aund this, chris, are going to center on whether or not those -- and we know that the nsa director was in front of the senate intelligence committee earlier in the week doing this closed session. whether they stonewall in that closed session the same way that they did in the open session because if they are willing to talk about this without invoking executive privilege, then i think there may be some ground for the senate intelligence committee to uncover here. so that's going to be my question tomorrow. >> let me go to kristen on this. kristen, i've never seen a white house so good at avoiding responsibility fo

and let me tell you why it's wrong and not only because i want to sound like john mclaughlin there, butare the numbers of the medicaid cuts. you can't fudge them. you can lie if you're donald trump, you can lie about whatever you want to lie about. if you're republicans, and you feel like lying about saying nobody's going to lose their health care coverage, you can do that, too. but you slash $750 billion, mike barnacle, from medicaid, after you slashed another 300 or 400 billion in an underlying budget, over $1 trillion in medicaid cuts, that destroys health care in rural america in trump america. we've said it again, let me say it again, not just for the poor. for the middle class and upper middle class, parents in children home, children in nicu units, you name it, it devastates health care for half of america. >> yesterday angus king, just had chris murphy from connecticut, math is the reality, that's why it's a no vote in maine. the regional hospitals, rural hospitals the employer. chris murphy talking about nursing homes in connecticut, state after state with the medicare cuts cho