and is not going to be over any time soon, nicolle. >> kristen welker, one thing it tracks with is the president's frustration over the existence of bob mueller. we know we had a notion at least to perhaps replace jeff sessions as attorney general. we know he's got his close surrogates in the media assassinating the character and the potential political conflicts of many of the attorneys working on muler's probe. talk about the white house reaction if the dread with which they would anticipate news like this today. >> that frustration that you map out can't be overstated. this is the number one issue that hangs over this administration. that continues to frustrate the president and to really complicate and stand in the way of i think to some extent his domestic agenda. i was talking to top officials here, they're still processing this information. no official word from the white house just yet and we reached out to ty cobb who has been tasked with being the point person really on all things russia related. no reaction yet from ty cobb, but let me read you what he told "the wall street

kristen welker, third time is a charm. walk us through this new reporting here and this apparent leak of this study, this sort of document put together by federal agencies. >> right. this is 13 federal agencies have essentially found, hallie, that americans are feeling the effect and people are feeling the effect globally of climate change now. and that temperatures have been warming significantly since 1980s. now, nikki haley again on "today" show was pressed on this and whether the trump administration would accept the finding. look, i haven't seen the report and i have no indication and no reason not to accept it. the issue is to balance business with fighting climate change. as you know, hallie, president trump when he was a citizen at one point referred to climate change as a hoax. he sort of walked those comments back. but his top officials have been pressed on whether he still sees climate change in that way. we haven't gotten a real definitive response. of course, as you just pointed out, he pulled out of the paris

>> listen, i trust kristen welker's reporting. if that was a factor, i'm sure thafbs the case but it would have been the factor in chief of staff kelly's mind. the window into donald trump's -- lays there in his twitter feed and indiscernible from steve bannon's ideology. john kelly is not known as a man with a big ego but he is known of a man of high and sort of unimpeachable moral integrity. for him to have allowed someone who trafficked in the isms, the most sort of primal instincts in donald trump's muddled ideology was probably intolerable for general kelly. >> with steve bannon out of the president's ear and i say that i guess it's not as if either one can't just pick up the phone and touk to the other. with steve bannon not within a few feet of the president on a daily basis, does that in any measurable way change the president's messaging at all? >> we'll see. i think what it does, it let's general mcmaster breathe a little easier. he's going to have someone stabbing him in the back now from outside the confines in the san

and kristen welker is there. we'll ask her in a moment whether we're going to get more on the opioid situation. but kristen, with respect to that, it's a little non-specific and remarkably chilling because as i was talking to admiral stavridis about, the concept of war, military engagement with north korea, is a very, very serious matter given that there are 28,000 u.s. troops in south korea, given that south korea is an ally, that seoul is in the range of conventional artillery, let alone nuclear war, and that the united states has a mutual defense agreement with south korea. what did you make of those comments? >> well, that's right. i think it underscores what we are hearing more from top officials, including u.n. ambassador nikki haley, which is that all options are on the table. including a potential military option. but it is an absolute last resort, ali, for all of those reasons that you just mapped out because there are so many tens of thousands of people in harm's way. and officials have been very clear.

kristen welker in the flesh. i thought you live in a television for a couple of months there. >> i do. good to see you in person. >> we never get to see knew the studio. thank you for coming over. camp david for the meeting and president trump is back for the night. chief strategist was an interesting title. a lot of people agreed he had no business on the national security council and he was eased out of of that early on. how big does he leave, i guess is the other way of asking. >> well, this was the president's touch tone to his face. he was the person who was there reminding the president of all of the reasons he got elected and all those promises he made out on the campaign trail whether it is trade or immigration, that was something that was very much championed by steve bannon and opposed by jared kushner and ivanka trump. in that sense, he lost his touch tone. the question is, how much does it matter? >> look at what we saw this week and the fact that he came out and made the controversial comment about c

we have it all covered starting with nbc's kristen welker. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: lester, good evening to you. this is president trump's eighth campaign style rally since taking office. and it comes as he's been openly feuding with the state's two republican senators. neither of them are expected to attend, but thousands of his supporters are and there could be fireworks. president trump putting a focus on his signature issue, immigration control, in yuma, arizona, today. just hours before holding a campaign style rally in phoenix, where protesters are already lining the streets, many fuming amid buzz the president was considering pardoning hard line immigration activist, former sheriff joe arpaio. no action is expected tonight, but tensions are high. >> things will not be tolerated in the state of arizona. >> reporter: almost everyone is bracing for the president to go off script, a sharp contrast from his teleprompter address last night. >> we are not nation building again. we are killing terrorists. >> reporter: the decision to

kristen welker in the flesh. i thought you lived in the television for a couple of months there. >> it is good to see you. >> and i'm reminded camp david with a day trip for an afghanistan meeting. president is back in bedminster tonight. so talk about bannon's baliwick, chief strategist was an interesting title. a lot of people agreed he had no business on the national security counsel, and he was kind of eased off on that early on. but how big of a gulf does he leave. is the other way of asking. >> in one sense, brian, that was the president's touch tone to his base. he was the person who was there reminding the president of all of the reasons that he got elected and all of those promises on the campaign trail whether over trade or -- when he announced he was pulling out of the paris climate agreement and that was opposed by jared kushner and ivanka trump and the question is how much matter. and look at what we saw this week. the fact that he came out and made this very controversial comments about charlottesvi

kristen welker, jonathan la mere. philip rutger and john swan, our great thanks to you for giving us part of your friday night in august. >>> coming up after the first break. remember when nothing ever happened in washington on friday in august. we don't either. our nightly chronicle of the new normal, the late night endeavor we like to call "the 11th hour" will be right back after this. >> welcome back. another shake up in the west wing and another of the president's top advisers to leave his side. the core around this president has dwindled to what you might call friends and family now. and ageneral. for example, i want to show you this. this is the gathering around the resolute desk in the oval office on january 28th. president was on phone with putin. all of the people in the photo are gone. except for the president and vice president. they've all joined the list of the vaporized. two great columnists are with us to talk about it. clarence page, chicago tribune is back with us tonight and endeara loxman on boston

elise jordan, i want to ask you what i asked kristen welker at the top of the show. as the story was sort of spreading like wild fire, the president was tweeting against some of his, i called them triggers yesterday, whatever you want to call them, he was raging against the polls. we've all covered the fact that he is at a historically low position for any president, i think he has an approval rating around 33%. he's enraged at the media won't fall into line and sing his praises. so enraged he's created his own news channel, while the story was breaking, at a moment when, you're right, when people that don't have access to the information, that don't have your depth of knowledge about how long this has been a challenge, he was tweeting about his personal pet peeves. why can't anyone ever get him to do anything presidential? >> i think it just isn't in his dna. and i don't necessarily see that changing. instead of, you know, obsessing over a huge philosophical and moral question that our skrnt going to have to grapple with, whether we prevent a war against north korea

let's start with the crisis in north korea and nbc news white house correspondent, kristen welker. >>eporter: a defiant president trump escalating his war of words with north korea. digging in on his threat of fire and fury. >> if anything maybe that statement wasn't tough enough. >> reporter: the president make the ominous comments after security briefings with his vice president, national security advisor, and chief of staff responding to critics who argued his earlier remarks crossed a dangerous line. >> it's about time somebody stuck up for the people of this country. >> reporter: north korea has ratcheted up its rhetoric this week, now threatening to launch missiles by mid-august aimed at the u.s. territory of guam. >> let's see what he does with guam. if he does something in guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody's seen before what will happen in north korea. it's not a dare. it's a statement. >> reporter: and on the specter of nuclear conflict. >> i would like to denuke the world. i know president obama said global warming is the biggest threat. i totally disagree.

kristen welker, jonathan la mere. philip rutger and john swan, our great thanks to you for giving us part of your friday night in august. >>> coming up after the first break. remember when nothing ever happened in washington on friday in august. we don't either. our nightly chronicle of the new normal, the late night endeavor we like to call "the 11th hour" will be right back after this. "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. and life's beautiful moments.ns get between you flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. it helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. flonase changes everything. >> welcome back. another shake up in the west wing and another of the president's top advisers to leave his side. the core around this president has dwindled to wha

let's go to nbc's kristen welker at the white house. matt miller is an msnbc justice and security analyst. megan murphy, editor of bloomberg business week. kathryn ram pell, opinion columnist at the "washington post," and allen gomez, "usa today" reporter to talk about the immigrations. kristen, let's start with the confusion surrounding this statement. i've never seen anything quite like it. what happened? >> reporter: the administration effectively put out two statements. one, the official signing statement, which devils into some of the provisions and the background of the legislation. and then a second one released by the president, which is effectively his statement about the legislation. look, bottom line, chris, this was a controversial piece of legislation here within the white house. why? because it effectively limits the president's authority to reverse or scale back any of these sanctions. and that's why you have the signing statements, both of them underscoring the fact that the white house is not pleased with this bill. now

our white house correspondent kristen welker has it all covered. >> reporter: the trump administration escalating its war on leakers with the doj saying they're pursuing three times as many leak investigations as the last administration. >> i have this warning for would-be leakers. don't do it. >> reporter: attorney general jeff sessions, who endured withering criticism from the president for recusing himself in the russia investigation, now doing the one thing the president is demanding, cracking down, creating a new unit inside the fbi to find leakers. and even ordering a review of the department's policy on subpoenaing records from reporters. >> anyone who engages in these criminal acts is betraying the intelligence community and the american people. >> reporter: the announcement against leakers has been long planned, but comes a day after the "washington post" published transcripts of the president's phone calls with two foreign leaders. mr. trump is also aiming to shift focus away from the russia probe, which is now entering a new phase. >> we didn't win because of russia. we won

>> kristen welker with the president in new jersey. thank you. >>> now to charlottesville where the violence claimed the life of 32-year-old heather heyer saturday. today a moving memorial service was held for her. the overwhelming message throughout the service, a call for racial harmony and justice, causes that heather herself was so passionate about. nbc's tom costello was there. >> reporter: wearing purple, heather heyer's favorite color, they came from across virginia. >> no father should have to do this. >> reporter: heather's father, grandfather, family and friends spoke of her fierce dedication to justice, and then heather's mother spoke of her daughter who police say was killed saturday, mowed down by a car driven by a white nationalist. >> they tried to kill my child to shut her up. well, guess what? you just magnified her. this is just the beginning of heather's legacy. >> reporter: across downtown charlottesville, tributes to an unlikely victim of saturday's violence. at the spot where she was killed, senator tim kaine and

>> kristen welker at the white house. thank you, kristen. >>> the navy says it's suspending search and recovery efforts in the pacific to find nine sailors who remain missing after the "uss john mccain" collided with a tanker near singapore. they will continue to search the flooded compartments inside the ship itself. the body of a tenth sailor has been recovered, all ten have now been publicly identified. >>> now to a hostage drama that played out for hours today in charleston. authorities say it started when a fire dishwasher shot and killed a chef in a crowded restaurant filled with tourists. he then locked the door to the restaurant and told diners to get down on the floor. all but one managed to run out another exit after a three-hour negotiation, the suspect was shot and wounded by police and the lone hostage was freed. >>> tonight a massachusetts mom has come forward to claim one of the largest jackpots in american history. one ticket worth a whopping $758 million. nbc's rehema ellis has the lucky winner and what s

>> kristen welker, thank you. >>> all this ramped up rhetoric is being followed closely by guam, the u.s. territory in striking distance from north korea. tonight the 160,000 u.s. citizens on the island have been given some grim warnings on what to do should the worst case scenario occur. after north korea threatened to land missiles just off guam's coast. nbc's miguel almaguer is in guam and has that for us. >> reporter: today on the sand-drenched beaches of guam, a tale of two islands. tourists enjoying vacation while homeland security officials issue stark warnings. what to do if north korea carries out its threat to lob four ballistic missiles in this direction. in the event of a missile attack, "do not look at the flash or fireball. it can blind you." "take cover under a concrete structure or below ground." "lie flat on the ground, and cover your head. it could take 30 seconds or more for blast wave to hit." and if caught outside, "shower with lots of soap and shampoo to help remove radioactive contamination." >> washing hair and taping windowsills and stuff like that. that's ki

kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. >>> i'm richard engel. just after 9/11, the u.s. went to war in afghanistan. the taliban there was sheltering osama bin laden. within months the taliban was defeated and al qaeda driven out. 16 years later, the taliban is resurgent and the afghan government only controls about half the country. and there's a new player, too. isis. it doesn't control much land, but it's aggressive and, unlike the taliban, which wants to govern again, isis has shown no concern for killing civilians. like most of the more than 100 people killed by a truck bomb in kabul's diplomatic quarter last may, or the patients and staff at a kabul hospital who hid on window sills as isis gunmen went on a room-to-room killing spree. back in 2009 president obama tried a surge of 33,000 troops. in april the u.s. military dropped the 21,000-pound so-called mother of all bombs against an isis tunnel complex, but little changed. >> i don't think we're going to get a military victory in afghanistan. i think what you might see is the opposition would simply fade away, the

the proceeding is under way. >> let's go to kristen welker at the white house.le to get any reaction yet? >> not yet. i can tell you that i spoke with some top officials here at the white house. they are digesting this information as we are. so i expect to get a reaction. remember ty cobb, the point person for all russia related matters now, an attorney, has begun his duties here at the white house in just a few days from his official start date. so he will likely be the point of contact on this. we have reached out to him. we have reached out to other top officials here. we're waiting to get their response. bottom line, this underscores the next step in this probe by the special counsel, robert mueller. and it underscores the fact this issen a issue that isn't going away for this president. this continues to cast a cloud. it has ensnared some of those closest to him, from his eldest son, don jr., and son-in-law, jared kushner. as mueller looks into potential links between the trump campaign and russia. the president continues to say this is a hoax, there's noth

joining me now, kristen welker at the white house and carol ann, part of a post team that broke the story. what are the ramifications of this, of the president taking charge, which is similar to the mo we have seen. he seems to be his own communications director. is this more important because it involved the russian investigation? >> absolutely, andrea. it is a lot of lawyers around town, including some of the president's own advisers, advisers to the trump team are scratching their heads because this was in the words of a person i spoke with unnecessary and it puts the president and his inner circle in more legal jeopardy. again, keep in mind this is the president directing family members and his son and aides to conceal a piece of information about the president's campaign and its contact with russians. and that is -- that effort to conceal is something that bob mueller, i'm told, will absolutely want to look at. anytime you mislead or attempt to lie about something, a prosecutor who is looking at obstruction is going to want to know why and how that came to be. >> and to kristen welke

kristen welker, trying to sort out just who is behind that statement with the president ad-libbing on his own, was it planned, he had talked to john kelly, my reporting and i'm sure yours as well is he had not talked to the secretary of defense. >> that's right. and secretary of state seemed caught off guard by that as well. and, of course, you had that very different tone when he landed in guam. it was a preplanned trip, a refuel if you will, andrea. but he obviously had a very different tone than we heard from president trump yesterday, trying to de-escalate the rhetoric, saying the american people should feel as though they can sleep well tonight. in terms of who was behind the statement, the reporting so far is indicating that the president really took the lead, was it written out before hand, we're still trying to drill down some of the facts and who looked at it, reviewed it before hand. again, that reporting is still ongoing. bottom line, the official word from the white house, according to one administration official we just spoke with is that the president and that his chief

msnbc's kristen welker at the white house. bloomberg news white house correspondent shannon pettypiece. "new york times" white house correspondent glen thrush with us and nick ackerman, former assistant special watergate prosecutor, currently a partner at dorsey and whitney, and msnbc media analyst gabe sherman. kristen, start with where we are. this is just a day after john kelly was brought in as the chief of staff to try to bring some order to this white house and of course communications director anthony scaramucci was ousted. what are you hearing? >> reporter: this is the last headline they wanted, another russia-related headline they have to respond to. i reached out to white house officials late last night who referred us to the president's outside counsel, and that of course led to that statement that you read by jay sekulow who essentially said that some of the details of the reporting are inaccurate and not pertinent but relevant to point out he doesn't knock down the basic premise of the article. the fact that presi

kristen welker joining me now from new jersey. has anyone explained out of the white house why he keeps repeating this? >> reporter: no. and i think the larger issue for white house officials for the president is that he's really stepping on his own message, andrea. they say simply the tweets speak for themselves. this is what we always hear from white house officials when the president sends out a controversial tweet. i take you back to his initial tweet yesterday in the hours after the barcelona attack, which was very sober. he simply said i condemn the attack, our thoughts and prayers are with you. this, obviously, brings up the credibility issues that this president has. the very credibility issues so many republicans have raised in the wake of charlottesville. you have bob corker coming out with some very strong language saying it all raises significant questions about the president's ability to lead. and could potentially peril the country. so not only is it a problem in terms of messaging, but it's a problem in terms of the

kristen welker in the white house. thanks to both of you. let's turn to the pentagon which is awaiting guidance from the white house on transgender individuals from serve is in the armed forces. a defense department official said that guidance could come as early this week. according "the wall street journal" a two and a half page memo being finalized by the white house is going to call on the pentagon to ban transgender individuals who are not in the military from joining rt military, to cease spending on surgeries and medical treatments for transgender service members, and to consider the deploy ability of transgender individuals in determining whether they should be removed from the military. the guidance will reportedly give defense secretary jim mattis six months to prepare to fully complement the new ban. i want to bring in former under secretary of the u.s. army eric fanning the first openly guy under secretary of the army. eric, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> we had a reporter ask sarah huckabee sanders about this and she

kristen welker is joining us. greg, since you have the story of the day, we'll start with you. we knew the broad outhikes of these transcripts, why is someone leaking these now? >> i think they have been interested in reporting on the qualities as being pretty rough, and i think you learn a lot from the transcripts. if gives you a more complete picture of how he approaching a very central aspect of his job. how he relates to foreign leaders and in this case to united states allies. >> david, who has not been a big supporter of this presidency, but a republican said this about these leaked transcripts, no leader will speak candidly on the phone to washington dc for the duration of this presidency and perhaps longer. no leader dare say anything to the president of the united states that he or she to get transcripts between the president and a world leader. what was the goal here in leaking these to the press and getting it out there. what are they trying to accomplish it and does he have a point? >> i don't want to talk to any degree about the sourcing for these documents. i thin

kristen welker is in new jersey near the president's retreat. the fact that he did have a one-hour conference call with secretary tillerson in north korea. >> >> reporter: he's making a point of being on these calls, being a parol of this conversation. as you point out, the white house has described this as a working va kwags. the president did have an hour-long conversation with his secretary of state and his chief of staff about north korea. and of course what you have talked about, the u.n. resolution to enact new sanctions against north korea, north korea's very strong indication that they want to retaliation. now president trump for his part also had a conversation with the president of south korea last night, he tweeted about that as well. said it was a very productive conversation. but andrea, this continues to be at the forefront and the top of the foreign policy issues that this president is dealing with as he continues on this working vacation here in bedminster. >> and what is the state of stephen miller who is on the heels of several

kristen welker has more on how the councils fell apart. >> reporter: facing a full-scale rebellion by the very ceos he once called colleagues, president trump announced on twitter today he's disbanding two of his advisory business councils rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the manufacturing council and strategy and policy forum, i am ending both. thank you all. the president trying to get ahead of a mass exodus from both councils eight of the business leaders previously announced they were out because of the president's reaction to charlottesville after mr. trump again equated white supremacists with counterprotesters yesterday. >> not all of those people were neo-nazis, believe me. >> reporter: the latest upheaval began this morning after conference call with members of the strategy and policy forum which resulted in a decision to disband. they then called the white house with the news. the president dumping those business leaders publicly before they had the chance to announce the decision the ceos releasing their own statement today. intolerance, racism and viol

>> it's a very misguided use of taxpayer money, of resources >> that was kristen welker >>> tropical storm harvey intensified into a category 2 hurricane on thursday as it hurdled towards texas. meteorologists forecast the storm could be a category 3 major hurricane when it makes landfall late friday or iearly saturday fears the storm could disrupt oil and gas production in the region have sent oil and gas futures higher a quick look at oil prices this morning. we're seeing them move to the upside to no surprise here as we expect supply disruptions across the gulf of mexico where the refinery activity is so heavy. brent crude up 0.9%, 52.50 wti crude at 37.82 up by 0.8% worth noting that according to one frequent viewer, this is the first hurricane to hit the u.s. refineries since the u.s. became a make procedure duct expomajorr >>> let's get out to sargalvest texas for an update. what's the latest? >> the rains have officially started azhar i has harvey barrs towards the coast of texas it's been more than a decade since this area has seen a major hurricane with winds topping 110 mil

kristen welker is in new jersey and ken delaney and nbc global correspondent bill neely in south korea and nbc national correspondent miguel almaguer in qualm. kristen, first to you, a lot of reaction because of the messaging that was not coordinated clearly. you had secretary tillerson saying cleanup on his way back towards guam. in fact, ironically and coincidentally the fact that the national security team, john kelly, as you have been reporting. knew the tone and the strength of the president's concerns about north korea had been briefed on the latest intelligence but did not clear the exact words? >> reporter: that's right. and there is a sense now in the administration that the message needs to be firm but more cab brighted, andrea, you we heard that from the secretary of state recollection tillerson, speaking from guam yesterday who said, yes, the united states was going to be firm but americans should sleep safe in their beds. then you we heard a very similarly firm message from the defense secretary james mattis, who said that north korea should stop its provocation or the uni

. >> joining me now is nbc's kristen welker at the white house, national political reporter carol lee who broke that story about the infighting over afghanistan and msnbc military analyst general barry mccaffrey, former four star u.s. army general. thanks to all of you. first, carol, to you. you and your team broke this story and it represents an extraordinary argument, debate really, heated debate in the situation room, from a man who -- when he was running said, i love the generals, but then at some points he said i know more than the generals, i'll have my own generals, and here he -- as president obama in fairness is a new president frustrated over the failure to make progress in afghanistan. >> that's exactly right. it was president obama, going back from 2009 to the end of his presidency, and president trump inherited that, and you see similar frustrations emerging with him. the difference was that -- how critical he was of the advisers seated around the table in that meeting. they went into that meeting hoping he would sign off on a strategy, this is something that was expected

and nbc's kristen welker at the white house. peter, first to you. what they said has a lot of warnings. what's behind this? it seemed to me they were trying -- jeff sessions was trying to send a message to donald trump. that he's on the job. >> i mean, i think you could suggest they may as well have pointed the podium to the oval office, that this was for an audience of one. ten days ago the president expressed his frustration about the justice department, specifically the attorney general jeff sessions' handling of the leak investigations. saying he had a week position on these intelligence leakers. here they insist this is the result of what they say is just an extraordinary number of leaks that have been taking place. this is something they've been focused on. there's a tripling in the number of investigations they are focused on. what they focused on in the course of the last seven months matches the number of investigations in the last three years. so the two real take aways were the reviewing of media subpoenas. obviously, that raises question

nbc's kristen welker on the ground in phoenix. kimberly a kimber kimberly atkins. >>> aides breathed a collective sigh of relief after last night's speech. how are they dealing with the fact that today in phoenix are all the dynamics that typically lead to the most off the rails performances from this donald trump? >> i think they're bracing for the reality of that, nicolle. we saw teleprompter president trump last night, and i think they're expecting tonight to be the exact opposite. he will be in his element. campaign mode. this is his eighth campaign-style rally since taking office, and this is, as you pointed out, a chance for him to get back to all the campaign lines that swept him into the white house in the first place. i wouldn't be surprised if we heard him revive a lot of those lines, like building the wall. after all, prior to this stop he'll be stopping in yuma, arizona. he will be touring a u.s. border and customs patrol station there. this is obviously one of the key issues that allowed him to win the white house. he

. >> joining me now nbc white house country kristen welker in new jersey kelly cobiella, and miguel almanguer in guam and courtney kubi at the pentagon. g the president has big meetings set up for this afternoon. we're talking about a big foreign policy strategy briefing. >> reporter: that's right. that's going to happen at 5:00 this evening, andrea. obviously, north korea will be the central topic of discussion during that meeting and that security briefing that they get later on today. but it does come after we have seen president trump escalate his war of words with north korea, both in terms of those sound bites you played and then in a tweet early this morning, which which he said that the united states is locked and loaded and ready to take action. the u.s. military is always locked and loaded. it's not clear if he's talking about some type of action that is being taken right now, or if he's just referring to the general posture of the u.s. military. either way, he's not backing away from these very tough comments that have gotten a lot of backlash from lawmakers and from some within hi

here's nbc's kristen welker with more. >> reporter: president trump coming out swinging overnight at a campaign-style rally in deep red, west virginia. >> we didn't win because of russia, we won because of you. >> reporter: once again trying to delegitimize the russia probe. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics. >> reporter: the fiery rhetoric coming not long after the "wall street journal report"ing that special council he will robert mueller is compiling a grand jury. but he made a statement overnight which brought him sweeping into the white house. >> most of us know there are no russians in the campaign. are there any russians here tonight? any russians? >> reporter: even taking fresh aim at his rival. >> what the prosecutors should be looking at are hillary clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. >> reporter: nbc news has not independently confirmed the existence of the grand jury. president trump's point person on russia says his legal team hasn't been made aware of a grand jury, stressing the white

joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker and nbc's tom costello in charlottesville. kristen, how did they explain these tweets and retweets? the retweets most controversially. >> well, we're not getting anything on the record yet, andrea. let's start there. so far the only retweet they have weighed in on is that retweet of a trump train crashing into a cnn reporter. one white house official who didn't want to be identified telling me it was inadvertently posted and as soon as it was noticed, it was immediately deleted. this official not explaining what was so inadvertent, who posted it initially and who decided to delete it. a lot of questions remain on the table at this hour. and it comes as there are some real world consequences to what a lot of people felt was president trump's inadequate response to the white supremacists behind the clashes in charlottesville over the weekend. three ceos dropping out of leaving his manufacturing council including the ceos of merck, under armour and intel and just this hour we're learning that scott paul, who is, of course, the p

kristen welker and phil rucker, from "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst. kristen, let's start with you. what are you hearing about the substance of what the president will announce tonight at 9:00 p.m.? >> hi, there, nicolle. this is what we are expecting. we are expecting the president to roll out his big picture strategy for afghanistan. that will include we think an announcement of an increase, a measured increase in troop levels. it is unlikely we are told he's going to get specific about that number. but of course the number we keep hearing up to 4,000. a defense department official saying that that is likely going to be the cap on how many troops he will add to the region. i think there are other components to his strategy. as well as rooming out plans for how -- rolling out plans for how he wants to crack down on officials in taliban and improving the training of the afghans forces. both of those were critical components of president obama's strategy for dealing with afghanistan and it's an engagement, a conflict that continues to just increase in te

i want to take you live to phoenix where nbc's kristen welker is standing by. kristen, we have got to break down last night. in my mind, i'm thinking what was general kelly thinking? dina powell, gary cohn. those who have been high fiving each other. now that steve bannon is out, we'll get a more moderate, controlled president. that's not what we got. we got defiant, unapologetic. i was saying this is trump unleashed. what was your takeaways. >> reporter: he was unleashed, unplugged, pick your word to describe it, steph, there's no doubt about it. if john kelly came in to get president trump on message, last night was a sign that the president is going to go off script when he wants to. this is a complete 180 from the night before when he unveiled his strategy in afghanistan, when he was on message, when he was on script, when he called for unity for the nation. total 180 from that. the president lashing out at just about everyone, including his favorite target, the media, accusing the media of misrepresenting his initial comments in the wake of charlottesville.

. >> and nbc white house correspondent kristen welker is in new jersey. kristen, the fact is that the north koreans have now rejected the idea of talks. they say they were going to build on the nuclear threat. today they have come out with a stamp commemorating their missile launch and showing the threat to the u.s. what more does the administration plan to do here. the fact is that the sanctions, while tough, a billion dollars worth of sanctions, still have a lot of holes in them if china and russia don't implement them. >> that's absolutely right. north korea also vow ing to retaliate a thousandfold. the administration is stepping up not only its actions, but tough talk. those sanctions that you pointed out, we also know that president trump spent an hour on the phone with his secretary of state, and new chief of staff yesterday and, of course, the secretary of state is in asia on a diplomatic mission, talking about this very topic and in thailand yesterday, he encouraged that country to really choke off the visa program to north korea, to take the lead,

you heard from kristen welker. the head of intel leaving and head of under armour. and these are people who will help implement their economic policy. does that hurt him? >> yeah, it does. it takes a lot of steam out of the engine. look, these were individuals who brought their gravtaus and their portfolios to the president's table to help them, particularly on his economic and tax agenda to lay down a new course for the country. and while a lot of them probably weren't necessarily supporters of the president during the campaign, they took up the call to serve the administration to help get big things done. but, this is not that. and what they're witnessing and what they're concerned about is getting involved in a hodgepodge of, you know, bad story lines that hurts their brand. i mean, they have to think about, you qknow, if you're undr armour with a very sophisticated market of, you know, users and clients, you've got to be concerned about your brand being associated with what went on in charlottesville in a negative way because the president's association and use

nbc news kristen welker is just down the road from president trump. i get out there next week. he might be talking about vietnam, but really russia in the spotlight and this mixed message now from the white house and the president's lawyer saying one thing and some of his other folks inside the administration saying something else. >> that's right, hallie, his lawyers are on one page and their strategy seem to be turn down the temperature and the heat on essentially taking aim at the russia probe and robert mueller. they have made it very clear that the investigation should go forward. they wanted to wrap up as quickly as possible. a very different message from the president himself and from a number of his top advisors. the president as you just pointed out there continues to refer to the investigation as a hoax. last week he called it a fabrication and his top adviser kel kellyanne conway had harsh words over the weekend. take a listen. >>ia have to listen to his special counsel who works in the white house now and said very clearly this week, gorge, that we will continue to

kristen welker and kasie hunt, we'll get to them in a moment. first i want to bring in our panel for the hour. bob, your paper is just out with this very interesting new report talking about transcripts, from phone calls the president made early on in the administration. and i want to set this up a little bit. we've been talking about immigration a lot today. the president was on a phone call with the leader of mexico. and i think we might have a page tear here, graphic to show. i just wanted to mention that when you talk about people coming across the border, because times will be tough and times will be good, that when times are tough, that is why we have a wall. because we do not want people to come across the border. we do not want them coming across. he said they are sending drugs to chicago, los angeles and new york. up in new hampshire, i won new hampshire because it's a drug-infest drug-infested den coming from the southern border. based on these transcripts from "the post" to these foreign leader. >> there is quite a lot to unpack here.

kristen welker say. president also seems to be on an island with his remarks that both sides were responsible for the violence in charlottesville, virginia. those comments energized the alt-right. the president learned that chief of staff john kelly was displayed and frustrated at the remarks and comments that were made there. not one republican lawmaker would go on tv to defend the president's statements. >> our booking team, and they're good, reached out to republicans of all stripes across the country today. we couldn't get anybody to come in here because we thought in balance someone should do that. >> we invited every single republican senator. we asked a dozen house republicans, and we asked half dozen former republican elected officials and none of them agreed to discuss this issue. >> reporter: it's being reported that staffers are looking for an exit strategy within the white house. however, we have not seen any mass resignations related to that. one aide, steve bannon, who is reportedly rumored

morning, that's where he wakes up to finish off his working vacation and that's where we find kristen welker. >> reporter: president trump is back in bedminster today on his working vacation, and the fallout is mounting after his controversial comments about those clashes in charlottesville. the president comparing white supremacists to those counterprotesters and now, business leaders are turning their backs on the president and that could hurt his agenda. in addition, more and more republicans are denouncing him, including two former presidents, but the question is, what will it all mean for tax reform and his broader legislative agenda? senior administration officials trying to hammer those details behind the scenes but some are still fuming after the president's comments. a sign his inner circle is getting smaller. hope hicks will serve as his interim communications director until a permanent replacement can be found. and looking ahead to friday, the president will head to camp david where he and his top advisers will discuss the strategy moving forward in afghanistan. back to you. >> al