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let me bring in nbc's leigh ann caldwell back with us from capitol hill. vice president is saying this, you know, in the very days after and as he's come under attack from his former boss for not having done that very thing. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. i mean, mike pence is in the most interesting and difficult state that any republican could be in at this point. so we're now talking about this and pence saying that president trump is wrong, meanwhile what just happened with liz cheney and adam kinzinger at the republican national committee is a stark contrast between what is happening in this party. so we also know as as far as the january 6th committee is concerned that just in the past week they spoke with two of mike pence's top aides, mark short his former chief of staff and greg jacob, his former white house counsel. we know that greg jacob was someone who was really pushing back against this claim that mike pence could overturn the election. so mike pence coming out and saying that is pretty significant, especially since he is perhaps plotting

>> joining me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent, leigh ann caldwell. n, good morning. all of this comes as florida senator marco rubio labeled the january 6th committee a complete partisan scam. what can we expect to hear from republican leadership on this? >> reporter: hey, jose. so, republican leadership has been -- there's been different views among republican leadership. for example, leader mcconnell has said that he's really interested to see what the january 6th select committee finds out, and that he's going to be watching it closely. but like kinzinger said, leader mccarthy over in the house, he has tried his best to stay out of all of this. he believes that bringing in all members of the republican party is essential to winning back the majority in the midterm elections, and also essential to making him speaker of the house. but it is true that the republican party is divided on the fact that the rnc said that it was legitimate political discourse. but i will say, most republicans up here, especially in the house of representatives, do say that

leigh ann caldwell, we are talking about unknowns, or not knowing what we can't know because there are documents that could be missing, and we have heard that be reported, and we heard today and you have reporting about this about gaps in trump's schedule on the day of the insurrection? >> when they received the documents from the archives what investigators have now learned is that there are hours of time on january 6th where there are no logs of phone calls by the president. that's from after the rally at the elipse for several hours. when we publicly know that there are phone calls that the president made that day. he spoke to gop leader, kevin mccarthy, and he spoke to alabama senator, and he mistakenly called senator mike lee looking for the alabama senator, and those phone calls are not in the logs that the committee has received, and so that is leading the committee to wonder is it because documents have been destroyed or was he using his cell phone and were they not turned over. the committee is waiting for more documents from the archives and maybe they have not received them

. >> i want to bring in nbc's leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, jake sherman is co-founder of punch bowl news and an nbc news political contributor. good to see you both. leigh ann, what are you hearing? how big would it be for the committee if giuliani cooperates with the subpoena? >> good morning, chris. well, rudy giuliani has been -- has had his hands on lots of these schemes that were contrived after the election day until january 6t including things like seizing voting machines. there were talks about fake electors, sending those to congress instead of the actual electors that show joe biden won. there were discussions with data officials to get them to overturn the election results. there's been reporting that rudy giuliani has been a part of many of these conversations. if rudy giuliani were actually to come before the committee and actually provide information, it would be extremely crucial for the committee. this would be a very good get. giuliani is theying there will be cooperation with the committee, but we don't know what cooperation means. does that mean he's going to

leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill.k you. >>> we're keeping a close eye on the white house as the first lady and president biden electrical speaking about, the cancer moonshot to work to reducing the rate of cancer and survival rates, obviously. joe biden and his family has been on the front lines of fighting cancer. >>> up next, as the olympics get under way in beijing, the spotlight on china is going to grow. nbc's pete williams has an exclusive interview with fbi director chuck wray on spying on the u.s. it's so vast that it even surprised the fbi director. you're watching "meet the press daily." g "meet the press daily. >>> welcome back. fbi director christopher wray is once again sounds the alarm on hacking and spying carried out by the chinese government, sat down with my colleague and justice correspondent pete williams for one-on-one on the growing changes of china and the u.s. countering the threat. told pete that the scale of the fbi projects have ramped up significantly. take a listen. >> i will say, it's the

jonathan allen, phil rucker and leigh ann caldwell, thank you so much.ead an nfl legend finally makes it official. why tom brady said he is stepping away from the game, and why didn't he mention the patriots in his good-bye? >>> and from florida to arizona the latest push by republican state lawmakers to restrict teaching about race and sexual identity in schools. ac re and sl identity in schools. if you have type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure... ...you're a target for... ...chronic kidney disease. you can already have it and not know it. if you have chronic kidney disease... ...your kidney health... ...could depend on what you do today. ♪far-xi-ga♪ farxiga is a pill that works... ...in the kidneys to help slow the progression of chronic kidney disease. farxiga can cause... ...serious side effects including dehydration,... ...urinary tract or genital yeast infections... ...in women and men,... ...and low blood sugar. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect... ...that may lead to death. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection... ...in the skin of t

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leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill. and former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. msnbc and international affairs analyst, richard, i'll go to you first. what we're hearing from mr. kirby there has been the first reaction officially and formally from the biden administration, to the speech in which the ukrainian president delivered to his people in which he referenced this date coming up, february, february 16th as the potential date that russia may invade. what are you hearing and what do you know? >> so, that speech has caused some confusion here in ukraine. so, let's just take a bit of a step back. for the last several days there's been a lot of speculation about when russia might attack. and in the media, wednesday, the 16th, was the date that had been floated everything times. there were articles in european newspapers, several news outlets pointing specifically to wednesday as the possibility. now, on record, u.s. officials never went that far, as far as i know. they were only highlighting that an attack could come at any stage, that it could come even before

of course a friend of the show along with our congressional correspondent leigh ann caldwell on the hill. it is your reporting from sources here of this new level, fairly granular detail from january 6th, but part of the timeline becoming more and more clear about what former president trump did and did not do on that day. >> reporter: yes, it is incremental and could seem insignificant but the january 6th select committee every single second is significant because it is a better understanding of what the former president did on that day. and, also, who he spoke to. we are told by sources that the former president tried to get mike pence on the phone. they were unable to connect. this was the morning of january 6th. eventually they did. they talked during an oval office meeting that was happening. pence joined by phone. during that meeting it has been well reported that was a very contentious meeting where general keith kellogg told the committee that the former president was telling mike pence he has to be more courageous, it is all coming down to him. but apparently mike pence resisted

. >> leigh ann caldwell, thank you so much. >>> and we are also learning more about the possible causesogical illnesses that were reported by hundreds of u.s. diplomatic workers around the world. after a cia assessment found that among the hundreds of reported cases of what's called a havana syndrome, an uncommon mix of hearing loss, pain, migraines, vertigo and nausea first identified in cuba back in 2016, two dozen cases could not be explained away by outside environmental or medical factors. a separate scientific panel on those unsolved medical mysteries has found cellular damage on the victims' nervous systems and they say it is most likely caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy from an external device. joining me now is former cia officer, he is the author of clarity in crisis, leadership lessons from the cia. as a greek i should have not mangled your name. so i apologize for that. let's talk about the results of this -- of this assessment by the cia. they have two groups, people that they say that they can explain away the symptoms and others they say that are not easily explaine

joining us new, leigh ann caldwell and "the washington post" piece, jackie ali, and a msnbc contributor. leigh an, let me start with you logs are important to the january 6 investigation and what do we know about them and the timing here. >> reporter: visitor logs, call logs, text message logs to piece together what the former president did leading up to and on january 6. all we know is that the january 6 select committee has asked for these call logs, that is the number of people who came into the white house complex on that day. especially to see the former president or his top aides. we know that the current president, joe biden, has cleared the way for those call logs to be released from the national archives to the january 6 select committee and so the national archives said that despite, if there is not a court order, they will do that on march 3rd. and so, this is more documents that is critical to the january 6 select committee. we know that there have been 700 pages of documents that have already been turned over from the national archives from the trump white house to the comm

let's bring in nbc's leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, neil cotay, msnbc legal analyst, tim miller, writer at large for "the bulwark," and yamiche alcindor, mold ray or the of "washington beat. "leigh ann, what is going on with the january 6th committee meeting right now? i mean, there's a lot that came out this week. >> reporter: good morning, stephanie. there sure was a lot of news this week regarding the january 6th committee including those hours-long gam like you mentioned on january 6th of no phone calls from the former president despite the fact we know he called at least two people. the committee also revealed this week that they have spoken to more than 500 people. so this is in addition to the people that they are subpoenaing. they are also getting lots of information from different places as well. as far as the select committee meeting this morning, they do this periodically, it will happen virtually, they talk about the status of the investigation because, remember, there's different groups of investigators who are covering different angles of this. so they come and the

leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill.we saw senator durbin, senator grassley, and now another new piece of information as i'm sure we will get new nuggets trickling out over the next month or so, that doug jones, long-time ally, friend of president biden, will be involved on this team. >> an important role, and it really helps when you are introducing a selection for the supreme court to senators, to have a former senator who knows the way around the chamber, knows personal relationships with members of the senate, and understands the process in a personal way. a former senator is ideal. the last time we had a pick, it was jon kyl, former senator of arizona, who did so for justice amy coney barrett and now it's doug jones who has a tremendous representation in the democratic party. he replaced jeff sessions when jeff sessions became attorney general and fought a very tough election and won that seat in alabama. it was tough to hang onto in very red state alabama, but has a good reputation in the party and has been talked

garrett haake, leigh ann caldwell and luke. thank you for your reporting. >>> we want to go to the other end of the 1600 pennsylvania avenue and next hour president biden will take another important step to find a replacement for retiring breyer. he'll meet to talk about the way forward. we caught up earlier today with senator patrick lahey who will be in the room for the meeting. >> i expect we'll have someone extremely qualified and i'll be -- >> the latest reporting hatz a dozen or so black women are described as being under consideration. with that i want to bring in my colleague mike memoli who has been working his sources around the clock and everything that relates to the president. mike, what do we know about this meeting how important is it and where is the president in this process? >> well, first of all, kristen, i think it's quite remarkable when you consider usual frenzy of speculation that surrounds a supreme court search like this has been overshadowed by some of the other major storylines that we've been coverin

leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill, charlie sikes, editor at large with the bulwark, and karen langet," which is about trump's final year in office, exactly when they took those 15 boxes. we haven't confirmed what is inside them, but your colleagues at the "washington post" report there are some let rs between trump and kim jong-un. if we don't have these documents, is this just about preserving history or is this a national security issue? and is it legal to take them? >> steph, it's absolutely not appropriate and potentially, depending on your intention, illegal to take them. what's inside these boxes has now been revealed thanks to and kudos to my colleagues at "the washington post," who got not only the scoop on this but also got the national archives to confirm what they reported. what's inside them are the so-called lovelletters as donald trump called them, from kim jong-un, who was writing to president trump as they tried to build a relationship and set up a summit. also inside these boxes are -- is a letter from president obama to then president-elect trump that he left behin

i want to bring in leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, ashley parker, bureau e chief at "the washington post," nbc reporter robin riley covering the justice department, and tom lo bianco, who wrote a book on mike pence called "piety and power." liz parker, let's talk about trump. he says that "hang mike pence" was just an expression. this is exactly how republicans build this alternate reality when they try to call january 6th legitimate political discourse. why does this help them? trump lost the last election. they lost power in congress when he was in office. he has lost support since the 2020 election. why is it that republicans continue to tie themselves to a stone cold loser? >> that's all true, but former president trump has not actually lost power within the republican party. and certainly not within the base of the republican party. that's what you're seeing with that legitimate political discourse, you have all these republicans following former president trump's lead and whitewashing what happened on january 6th since about january 6th for over a full year now. they understan

leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill for us this morning. and ben collins investigates disinformation and extremism. and phil rucker is deputy national editor for the "washington post" and co-author of "i alone can fix it." and geoff bennett is correspondent for the pbs news hour. a lot to talk about. few people know the machinations of politics and the republican party better than mitch mcconnell. is he statement a statement of principle that there is a red line, or is it a statement of political reality as in this does not help me take back control of the senate? or both? and does it prove there is growing discontent under the surface in the republican party? >> good morning. as far as mcconnell is concerned and his motivations for those forceful statements, i think it is both. we know that the leader has not spoken with the former president since december of last year, so it has been over a year. he called january 6th yesterday a violent insurrection, some things that many members of his party refuse to do. but he also knows the politics

with me now is leigh ann caldwell. mcconnell is making it very clear, right, something that seems to be probably something a lot of republicans agree with here, but it is interesting that we are hearing from him at all on this topic as he's not somebody who often goes out and makes news proactively unless he wants to. >> that's right, hallie. and he's making news about members who are not even in his conference. these are members of the house of representatives. it is rare that leader mcconnell talks about the house. he is devoted to the senate, of course, the senate minority leader. but he's echoing the statements of other members of his party. we were senator mitt romney yesterday on the sunday shows call gosar and marjorie taylor greene morons, saying it's unacceptable. i spoke with representative jim banks, head of the conservative republican committee in house of indiana and asked him about this and he also said that it is unacceptable that march ri taylor greene and paul gosar at that and no republican should eve

there's talk of potential ground routes, but our colleague, leigh ann caldwell and i have some reporting that in a briefing to congress on thursday, late afternoon, secretary austin, secretary blinken, and chairman of the joint chiefs, general mark milley, told members and staff that that's one of the big logistical issues right now is how are they able to get this stuff safely into the ukrainian military without either the russian military knowing about it and striking it, or trying to intercept it and steal it away. it's a big loeshsal hurdle, and because of that, and because of the operational security concerns, we don't exactly know how the u.s. is doing that or plans to do that in the coming days, katy. >> i wonder one other thing on that. would it be american troops or americans bringing it in? would that be a violation -- okay, no. tell me how it would be handed over? >> reporter: definitely not american troops. americans, possibly, contractors, possibly. you know, it's -- there's -- i've heard some speculation about ways they could do it but i really -- i take the u.s. at their w

joining us now, to talk about this, and so much more, nbc news capitol correspondent leigh ann caldwellident biden's strong suits but we've seen lawmakers use him on the campaign trail, if they were to follow president obama's strategy of empathizing with the american public. >> yes, it's a great question, and first messaging goal was for all of these members to feel people's pain which is also something that is difficult to do for some of these members, considering that it's a democratic congress, and a democratic president, and it still is acknowledging that things don't feel great, regarding the economy, regarding covid, and other things, so president obama, in a closed door meeting last week, he said that's what members need to do. they can't dismiss people's pain, they need to acknowledge it, and highlight the accomplishments like the bipartisan infrastructure bill, like the partisan covid relief bill that they were able to do, and just like you said, not focus on the things they haven't been able to accomplish. and that message has really taken off, for example, speaker pelosi was

i want to bring back mike memoli, matt bradley in ukraine, leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill and bendes, former deputy national security adviser in the obama administration. so, that's the speech, right, as you have reported. those close to president biden have been discussing when and whether and how he should deliver it for weeks now. this afternoon was the time. you heard those words. he was clear to russia about the potential consequences but he kept the door open to those off-ramps for vladimir putin. >> while it was so interesting listening to that speech because the president did check just about every box laid out as we've been reporting about the deliberations happening behind the scenes of what the goals and purpose of the speech would be, but also the reasons politically and for the american peoples understanding needed to be done. he laid out the exhaustive diplomacy, nonstop diplomacy as he put it, that the u.s. continues to engage in. there was an indication there that was interesting about russia's public comments and his willingness to move forward at this point, even

. >> leigh ann caldwell, thank you.an, let me go to you because i know you too have been working your sources overnight. what should we be looking for in the next four to six hours? >> i think we will be seeing more fighting unfortunately, more violence, more intense russian assault now, focusing on the three lines of attack, kyiv being perhaps the most important. that means that the democratic government of ukraine now is especially at risk and in growing danger and that also there's growing risk for civilians because as more russian forces flow in and as the tempo of their assault picks up, obviously civilians are in the line of fire more and more. i think the big question still is how much the ukraine forces can stop, disrupt, slow down the russian advance and disrupt their plans and objectives. we still don't really know. also, there's the question of how does the ukraine defense sort of shift from straight conventional tactics to more guerilla tactics where you have the government even telling people to prepare mol

let's bring in nbc's leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, neil cotay, msnbc legal analyst, tim miller,ter: good morning, stephanie.