my question to you jonathan swan, is this sally yates' revenge? >> well, she certainly sent the signal. and she was certainly someone who wasn't prepared to stay quiet within the confines of the administration. there is a lot of other people like her. they are doing it silently. she is the public face of this resistan resistance. but we are seeing it and the trump people are very aware of it. i was having lunch with someone over the weekend. they are really trying to find these people. she just happens to be the public face of the uprising. >> it feels a liblt like there almost a what could be called soft coup going on. the intelligence community is finding a way to get back at folks in the white house for perceived slooieights during th campaign, during the transition. there has been a target on general flynn's back for a time now. is this someone they were looking to take down from the beginning? >> when you talk to people who are in the intelligence community the level of animosity towards flynn is hard the overstate. this is someone who made l

. >> joining us from capitol hill, jonathan swan. jonathan, good morning to you.you this question knowing that we probably have two minutes for this whole segment. what stood out the most from the president's freewheeling news conference yesterday? >> there were a couple of things. firstly, it was telling to me that he didn't think there was anything substantively wrong with what michael flynn did. he thought there was no problem with him discussing sanctions. the only thing that i can tell is that the vice president was enraged of being cut out of the process. so we know that he only found out about it in the newspaper. i think if there was not that rage from the vice president, trump would have rode this whole thing out and i doubt that flynn would have been fired. i think the other thing to point out is that yesterday was the most fully realized version we've seen of the trump/bannon strategy to inflict maximum damage on theainstream media, and now it's not just breitbart who's pushing this line, can actually use the mainstream media to destroy it because they

. >> joining us from capitol hill, national political reporter jonathan swan. hey, jonathan, good morning to you. you were in on the briefing with the white house so set the tone for tonight. >> reporter: well, the tone they want us to hear, and to be clear, not a very detailed briefing. they gave us a lot of catch phrases, you know, renewal of the american spirit, optimism, et cetera. but the most important thing is none of that, actually. it's obamacare. and two things happened yesterday, which put a lot of pressure on the president's speech today. the chairman of the house freedom caucus mark meadows came out against the house's obamacare plan, the leak draft, and so did mark walker from the much larger republican study committee. so what the republicans need is for the president to come out and use that bully pulpit to pressure the house republicans who are saying they are not going to support the house plan. that's the most important thing of this speech. everything else is window addressing. oba obamacare is in a really fragile position at this point. >> l

back with our panel, kathleen parker and jonathan swan. 're seconds away from having a new secretary of state. what do you think? >> i think he impressed a lot of moderate centrist democrats as well as some more skeptical republicans with his appearance there. i think people underestimate in terms of the democratic caucus, a lot of people are sort of the idealistic approach to foreign policy and are actually craving a more cautious businessman approach to foreign affairs and i think he really ticked a lot of boxes there. >> he's the -- i mean, this president and the secretary of state seem to look at things through a sort of a business construct. a corporate construct. >> clearly. >> clearly, right. >> clearly. if we don't get the deal, we'll just nuke them. no, tillerson is impressive. when he goes and meets these people, our congresspeople are sort of impressed when they meet somebodyho's got a lot of presence and power and is obviously brilliant and can talk about things and i think -- i think seeing people eye to eye the way you and i a

jonathan swan and ben jealous, thank you to you both.it. >> thank you. >> and steve kornacki's going to pick up our coverage on the other side of this break. compy three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. yet up 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more. add one a day 50+ a complete multi-vitamin with 100% daily value of more than 15 key nutrients. one a day 50+. hi, i'm frank. i take movantik for oic, opioid-induced constipation. had a bad back injury, my doctor prescribed opioids which helped with the chronic pain, but backed me up big-time. tried prunes, laxatives, still constipated... had to talk to my doctor. she said, "how long you been holding this in?" (la

joining us now from capitol hill, jonathan swan, a good morning to you. your quick reaction to this debate that is now taking place around whether the president is condemning these acts enough, and some comments that come out from ivanka trump on this subject. >> this is one of those strangest incidents that has sort of come up with donald trump. he's spent his entire business career in very close relationships to jewish leaders, he's got very strong allies in the republican jewish community. and that moment in the press conference was just bizarre because this jewish journalist gave him the perfect set-up to just make a very easy denouncement. actually, it was a softball question, but trump personalized it to make it about him. and his daughter ivanka had to play clean-up. she tweeted the houses of worship need to be protected. so it was just a very, very confounding situation and shows that sometimes his paranoia and sort of animosity toward the press can actually backfire. >> jonathan, i want to switch gears here to talk about the tent pole event for c

. >> jonathan swan, thank you very much for being here. julie, jenna, it has been an honor having you on. coming up, we are talking much more about some exclusive nbc news reporting. in the meantime, keep it here on msnbc all day long for coverage of that first address to congress. tonight at midnight eastern, chris matthews is hosting a very special edition of "hardball." stick around. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. find out how american i did... n't. hat?services hey, come look what lisa made. wow. you grilled that chicken? yup! i did... n't. smartmade frozen meals. real ingredients, grilled and roasted. it's like you made it. and you did... n't. parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment win

republican strategist -- in atlanta darren johnson, and from washington national political reporter jonathan swan. theron, i want to start with you right out of the gate. tell me about this election of tom perez as dnc chair? does he have any hope of bringing the party together? >> absolutely. listen, this is something that we all worked together to get to this day. i thought if you listen to former labor secretary perez's speech, it was a speech of unity. he was calling for people to unite and let's go out here and really take our message to the voters and start beginning to really find the resources and the talent to really be contested in the midterms. now, the other thing that's really going on behind the scenes is that a lot of people from secretary perez's campaign, particularly emmy ruiz, the person who ran his campaign, they're already reaching out to keith ellison supporters making sure that they are in the room as far as putting together the plan as we move forward. >> evan, let me turn to you on this issue. you have compared the energy right now to the democratic party to likening it t

. >> and joining us is jonathan swan, the national political report for axous, and so what do we know >> well, we know why they are doing it, but are they making a grave miscalculation? they are doing it because they are desperate. we have got this steady stream of the news about russia connection connections, and they feel it is inaccurate. and the fbi is wink, wink, nod, nod, this is wrong to the white hou house. and of course, if you are a human being in this situation, and someone tells you that story is wrong, you will do whatever you can to defend yourself. but what it has created is a ginwin concerns about where this is actually an independent investigation. >> ben, what is the thought here in? why is the chief of staff talking to the drirector of the fbi? that is what came out of the press gaggle, because he said, yes sh, this did happen. i did have a meeting with the dep si director as well as the chief of staff yesterday. >> well, as much as the administration likes to the dismiss russia's stories as fake news, this is a sign that they are concerned about it. that they take

ted cruz, and executive director of the new york state democratic party, and last but not least, jonathan swan, national political reporter for axias. michael, i want to start with you. we heard from kelly o'donnell about the white house's response to this fbi story. nancy pelosi today is calling for an independent investigation into the white house and the fbi's communications about russia. nancy pelosi, obviously, has a reason to say this. one of the country's highest ranking democrats. we also heard from richard nixon's white house counsel john dean on twitter. he said, i have expertise on this matter. push back on fbi investigation of the white house is better known as a cover-up. so, the white house saying this is much ado about nothing. who are we supposed to believe here, michael steele? >> i think i fall a little with the white house on this one. let's get more information. i mean, you're talking about an approach to the chief of staff regarding a news article written in "the new york times" or wherever it was written. basically saying the facts in there just aren't true. and then as w

jonathan swan with. >> sean, thanks for the question. >> yeah. >> president trump still plan to immediately terminate president obama's executive -- [inaudible] >> with respect to what, daca and dapa? i've said this before, we'll have further updates on that. i understand -- go ahead. >> just you said immediately -- >> i understand. and i've said before the president will have further updates on both daca and dapa very shortly. we've been very cheer on immigration what -- clear on immigration what the president's priorities would be. there's going to be continued progress on the wall and on immigration as a whole, so we're going to have plenty of time to address this. right now he's trying to do it in a very systematic way in accordance to where we find the biggest problems. he's been very clear in the past that those who are in this country that pose a threat to us or with a criminal record are where his priorities are going to be first and foremost, and we're going to move through the rest of the folks in this country illegally. sarah. >> thank you, sean. the ayatollah khomeini said today

ann geren, national political reporter for the "washington post" and jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios. first to you, anna, the whole sort of elizabeth warren, i don't know how to describe, dustup. >> yeah, i think it was a giant political gift to elizabeth warren if she chooses to run for president in 2020. i mean, it was a galvanizing event for democrats. they were trying to raise money on it. today it was absolutely the talk of all democratic politics today. it touches gender, touches race, it's black history month. she was reading k inin ining sc letter and emboldens democrats to go after mcconnell harder. >> jonathan, do you think some the democrats, more moderate democrat, are a little worried because as she sort of becomes the democratic idol for the moment, push it all the way to the left, and if you look at the lekts of 2016, moderate democrats really felt left out in some ways have been responsible for the reason that secretary of state hillary clinton never became president clinton. >> i was talking to a senior democrat today and i was sort of -- i mention

jonathan swan. >> does president still plan to immediately terminate president obama agencies? >> with respect to dhaka and dapa? as i said before we will have further updates on that. >> just immediately? >>s as i have said before, the president will have further updates on dapa and daca shortly. we have been clear on immigration what the president's priorities will be. as you heard seth kelly before congress today there is going to be -- right now he is trying to do it in a systematic way in accordance to where we find the biggest problems. he has been clear in the past that those who are in this country that pose a threat to us or with a criminal record are where highs priorities are going to be first and foremost. and then we'll move through the rest of the people who are in this country illegally. >> ayatollah comain audio said that trump has helped iran reveal the true face of america. he said iran doesn't fear trump and he encouraged people to march in the straight later this week. does a president have a kpons response to those comments and does he plan to take actions

dickerson. ,,,,,,,,,, >>> scientists foe 'tissed th't noticed the annual migration of swans has taken a dive. jonathanigliotti reports. >> reporter: europe's majestic swans have an unlikely new co-pilot. 41-year-old sasha dench with the help of a motorized paraglider, is enjoying their seasonal migration south. it's a 4,000 mile journey that begins in russia's arctic north and ends all the way in england. the mechanical wings are part of an effort to save the endangered species from the growing threat before. hundreds are illegally shot out of the sky each year. we spoke with sasha via skype during the first leg of her expedition in the russian tundra. >> did it ever occur to carry out this research on foot or a car? >> it's not possible. >> reporter: and it's those reindeer breeders with fishermen and farmers she's come this way to meet, to speak with and share the story of the swan's decline. >> i'm able to tell them all the data where we know the swans are declining and they're really interested in that. >> reporter: at 35 miles an hour, sasha can fly just as fast as her feathered subjects. but at