we have brian fallon, amanda carpenter, and matt lewis. matt, to you first on that.t's just -- what's happened to cpac here in two years, you saw the reception he got just a moment ago. that was the reception that he got two years ago. >> yeah, and it's pretty amazing. i think that video from two years ago really highlights how the conservative movement and the conservative entertainment wing were complicit in helping make donald trump be successful. he had that cpac speaking gig, that really did help launch him. softball interview there with sean hannity who really gave trump a lot of access to a pretty wide audience on his show. what we saw today was a speech that was not really a conservative speech. it was a lot of populist demagoguery, a lot of nationalism. it wasn't a speech about how we can lift people up to achieve the american dream. it wasn't a speech about defending the right to life of the unborn or anything like that. so there wasn't any pandering, like a normal republican politician would come to cpac and give a conservative speech, they would talk abou

with us, cnn washington correspondent brianna keilar, paul lewis and matt, i want to start with you. i watch you on tv. you've been seeing a risk for the trump white house is it doesn't have a lot of loyalty on capitol hill among republicans. when you see jason chaffetz, david nunez, none of them seem to be launching investigations into the substance of the reports. is president trump winning the first round, matt? >> i think the senate is very different. senators, for one thing, are elected every six years, so they're insulated from the republican base that still loves donald trump. they have more leeway, so i think the house may be a lagging indicator. having said that, i do think the members of the house who were worried about intel leaks have a point. they should also be worried about what's happening with donald trump and mike flynn. but the intel leaks are very serious. i think it's worrisome that we could have a shadow government or deep state that selectively leaks information and tarks down people that it doesn't like. so i think whether it's chaffetz or whoever and the hous

post reporter abby phillip and cnn political commentator and senior columnist for the daily beast matt lewis. what rule are we talking about here? rule 19. senators are not allowed to quote directly or indirectly by any form of words impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator. >> that clears it up. >> basically, here's the irony is that this rule was designed for a sense of decency in political discourse. >> the senate is known for more than the house. >> but it's been blown out of the water by the current toxic environment and matt lewis you have that paradox wrapped in the irony that the words of coretta scott king are not worthy to debate on the senate floor. that's what she did. she quoted the letter. is this the right call? >> mitch mcconnell knows senate rules better than anyone. she was violating that. it's put in place to have dec decorum. >> it guarentees she would get blown up with attention. >> as a public relations mistake. this would have worked a generation ago maybe before 24/7 cable news. in this case i think what mit

jackie, matt lewis, and david gregory. so david, is this payback?u heard him say i've never seen anything like this in all of my years. well, merit garland they didn't even want, they refused to vote on for 11 months. is this democratic pay back where they're boycotting these votes or what is happen somethi something. >> there's nothing harder to listen to than self-righteousness on capitol hill from one side or another. this is a real blood sport and leaves a lot of americans dis disgusted with washington and you see that played out on social media. democrats are in the middle of a strategic choice about how they want to handle the trump years. whether they want to imitate what republicans did which is really stand in the way, they argued on principle but they did obstruct the obama administration and now there's energy that wants democrats to respond in kind and play just as tough. there's limits to what they can do be it on a filibuster or denying nominees but i think they're in the middle of a battle of figuring out how far they want to go in th

matt lewis, you didn't get to talk much. just the opposite. that's okay.d star father spoke with cnn international and denying that this is a muslim ban. he called the president a coward for not having the courage to call it a muslim ban. >> it becomesy is maptices at some point. i don't think it is a muslim ban for two reasons. it's not holy or roman or an empire. it's fair to say it's a muslim ban because it doesn't impact people who are islamic who reside in other predominantly muslim countries. that's not a ban. it's a temporary ban or a pause. i don't meeb to be disagreeable, but i know donald trump used the terminology too and so did sean spicer. i think it's imprecise. >> you will need someone to get you out of that pretzel. you are like well, uh, uh. >> i don't think it's a muslim ban. >> it's not a muslim ban. that's not what it is. the fact that 56 muslim majority nations. what about the other nations? it's factually not a muslim ban. people distort the facts and twist it. that's what people do all along. they eliminate all the nuances and donald

matt lewis. >> well, first of all, there was no ban, okay?an argue that as a question of political semantics and what is slow but this bowling green massacre, is there anything other than these arrests we found of those two guys that arguably should not have gotten into the country but they never did anything here. >> they were charged with desiring to send weapons to iraq. >> back to iraq. >> so no there's nothing like this. it got obscured by the doubts about hillary clinton but nearly as many people over the last year and a half question whether donald trump is as honest and trustworthy and questioned hillary clinton's honesty and trustworthiness and this is an administration posing a great challenge for journalism in that it is willing to stretch the boundaries and sometimes barrel right past the boundaries of truth on a regular basis and you do have this polarization where a portion of trump's supporters are simply unwilling to accept any kind of correction but not all and the fact is that he is standing in approval rating today lower th

. >> i have matt lewis with us, and senior columnist at the daily beast. listening to sean's explanation, what did you think of that? >> are it doesn't make sense to me. clearly whether he ever there's a terror attack the media is all over it. i think you could even argue that the media overcovers these things and could stoke fear, i think it should be the media covers terror attacks when they happen and a week or two later sort of recedes from covering the war on terror and radical islam. but to say that the media doesn't cover these attacks is false. >> yes, so that's your point. dean, you wrote about this in the "daily beast." you called out the president's criticism but say it's inaccurate, you talk about the attack on christians that don't receive adequate -- they create an even more toxic anti-muslim climate by making my fellow americans believe there are more terrorist attacks by muslims. >> i don't call them radical christians, they're not. but at the end of the day donald trump is talking about this issue, a man named robert dada is on trial for a

bring in alan dershowitz, matt lewis -- good to have you all on. matt ask you about the "new york times" reporting. h.r. mcmaster breaking with president, not calling terrorists, radical islamists and signaling what might be more moderate approach to the islamic world. do you think so? >> i will be very interested to see how this plays out. does he walk the talk? is this reporting solid? because this is surprising. i mean i think that calling it radical islamism is the moderate position. don't want to accuse all muslims of being involved in something bad. but calling it radical, that qualifier, and islamism, i think is the accurate and even dare say politically correct term. but i have great respect for general mcmaster and the work he did in the counterinsurgency. if anybody has the credibility to say this is the wrong terminology, he would be one of the people. >> alan, i know you want to respond. i bring up a good point, this is "new york times" reporting, not cnn's, go on alan. >> first of all i think trump is right to call it radical islamic te

joining me now, join walsh, national affairs correspondent for "the nation" and matt lewis. th you. "do gop members of congress really lack the guts to push back against this dime store production?" >> i think he was not precise in what he said. it's not something i would support saying the president cannot be questioned. i think as it relates to the case law and to the constitution, the power of the executive, the power of the president is pretty clear as it relates to national security issues. and so i think that's probably the point he was trying to make. but he made it a little bit clumsily. we have three branches of government. they are all co-equal and check the balances of the other, which is the beauty of the system. >> the whole notion that the district judge is not about people in libya. it's about people in the u.s., is that constitutional due process affects everyone in the country, whether they are citizens or not. this is a very well settled precedence. >> right. >> it's about the people here in the country and whether they have to go or not. what is your sense

matt lewis and becard sells. tomorrow is the first big speech before congress. what to you expect? >> what i hope for and expect are different. i hope he would do what he should have done in his inaugural, which is a little more optimistic, more hope. obviously the joint session of congress is where the president laze out a laundry list of legislative priorities, but it doesn't mean he can't be optimistic. i don't think he'll do that. that's what i hope he'll do. >> they say the tone will be more positive. because you remember the inaugural speech, right? is this a chance to pivot away from the missteps that have plagued the administration. >> i think it is a chance to pivot away but you and i have been talking about this pivot for 24 months and we haven't seen it yet. and so i have a lot of hopes for his speech tomorrow night. i hope that he actually takes the time to look in the camera, address the anti-semitism running rampant in our country. we had kitssds across the count, many four, five, six holding hands due to bomb threats and more jewish cemeteries being desecrated. it wo

cnn political commentator and senior columnist for the daily beast, matt lewis. first look at what can happen going forward. all right paige, we can appeal to 11 judges, the full 9th circuit. they can do that and go back to the district court and try to have a hearing on the merits here and see how that goes. they can go to the supreme court and there's going to be some issues there i want you to tell us about in terms of whether the court would accept the appeal or redraft the order. how do you prioritize those? >> there's a lot of different options but there's only one smart option. i don't know if the white house is considering smart versus not so smart but the right legal move is to let the case go back to the district court and have a full proceeding and go through some limited discovery and really flush out these issues so that there can be a full opinion not just on the standing issue, not just on whether the court has a right to review an executive branch's decision in this area but also on the constitutional arguments. once you have a full district court

cnn political commentator matt lewis, and bakari sellers, great to have all of you on.nie, i'm going to start with you. what do you make of sean spicer's reports that he's checking the cell phones of his colleagues. i guess it is, because he called back and said, the president knew nothing about it, he's confirming the story. what do you make of this. >> i think the challenge is, what kind of environment is that creating at the white house. it's not unusual for washington to leak. washington leaks like a sieve. what is unusual is trying to out who the leaker is in this situation. >> well, there are leakers in every white house, right? >> have you ever seen this much? >> it's hard to say, but every white house has a share of leakers, absolutely. >> the leaking is rampant, is this the way to stop them from doing what they do? i mean, does this mean you just don't trust your colleagues? >> well, it -- i think it's a bit ironic, how the tables have turned during the 2016 presidential campaign. i think what lonnie said is true, it sounds as if the white house is a difficult

matt lewis. sean spicer comes out and he's talking to abc's jonathan carl. here's what happened. >> back in january, the president said that nobody in his campaign had been in touch with the russians. now, today can you still say definitively that nobody on the trump campaign, not even general flynn had any contact with the russians before the election. >> my understanding is that what general flynn now expressed is during the transition period he did speak with the ambassador. >> i'm talking about during campaign. how could that be true if the reporting from the new york time and our reporting with the rest of the team is true? >> right and i think mike pence was out further on that saying, he flatly denied there was no communication during the campaign. now of course reports indicate that in fact there was. that in and of itself. >> constant. >> it could be that he's not on top of all of what's happening with some of donald trump's other, the other wing. so look i think that in and of itself even that isn't, the end of the world. the real question though,

way, the bannon-miller method has also produced -- >> as part of the conservative establishment, matt lewis, does he need to steer clear of the bannon-miller message to get more conservative supporters onboard? >> donald trump is a populist nationalist, and what he needs to do is temper that with some mainstream conservative rhetoric, and maybe just a sprinkling of compassion to conservatives, and don't have to go crazy with it, and talk about lifting americans up and talk about things ronald reagan might have talked about, and that could go a long way. but there are problems when it comes to passing legislation, and that's what tonight's speech will be, and hopefully there will be optimism, and it's about laying out agenda, and he's got a real problem because not only does he have democrats lining up against him, but conservatives, he has a tax reform and a lot of conservatives don't like. if it's obamacare, you know, there's the gimmick to get around the band-aids is to give out tax rebates, and a lot of conservatives say that's an entitlement program. he has a lot of serious challenges,

and matt lewis at the daily beast. gloria, let's talk about political fallout.arting to see it. >> i think we are. it's how you interpret what this executive order is going to be. there are a lot of people including republican from states like florida and states like california who believe that people who shouldn't be caught in this will be caught in this wide net. there is a sense that we are not touching dreamers now. dreamers are not off limits forever. how are you going to pay for a law enforcement force. he wants 10,000 more people. where is the money going to come from? there are lots of questions that need to be answered. >> the most penitentiary thing for donald trump is fulfilling campaign promises, this was a major campaign theme and he's delivering on it. >> not terribly surprising and there is a question of how it is enforced because these are the things we will prioritize. there are two risks. a risk for many on the left to say you can't make the net this wide. for many regular voters to go if they are violating the law, that is a reasonable positio

let's bring in our expert panel and cnn political columnist at the daily beast, matt lewis. all right. you have like 19 degrees. one of them involves the law. when we look at this, you cross the border and you have committed a crime, you can be deported. it was about having different prior gattis and guy lines trump started in one direction and seemed to end up in that area. this new language let's put it on the board for you guys, forget about the first line. prioritize removal aliens convicted of my criminal offense. that's the way it's usually been. charged with a criminal offense. that has not been resolved which means there hasn't been complete due process. the argument on the other side would be they don't deserve due process. they're not citizens. or committed acts which constitute a chargeable criminal offense or otherwise pose a risk to public or national security. and it's not just about being convicted. it's not just about being arrested. you may be a risk of committing a crime and it enables them to get on with the business and you're going to stumble into a due

let's go to matt lewis. peter, you first. very nice people. they said, most of what they said was not true. that's their perception and opinion and i respect them for it, but they are not right on effect. how does that happen? >> there is a really wide network in the united states. groups like actions for america that are promoting this idea that sharia law is a threat to the united states and most muslims are adherent to it. this is actually only with donald trump are we seeing this come to light. the ground work has been laid and it is similar to experience theories. 100 years ago they believed they were loyal to the hope and a product of people's anxieties in the changes in the country. >> they said it's the same as president obama did and it's not. >> no. president obama increased the vetting and slowed down the number of iraqis coming in, but iraqis were still coming in in 2011. he never had a blanket prohibition from a single country. >> it's important to hear from trump reporters and conservatives and people who live in other parts of t

to discuss, the panel, mary catherine ham, amanda carpenter and matt lewis.layed with conservatives around the country? >> i think this is the first time i've heard something new from donald trump. what he laid out in this speech, if you take away the media critique, the bragging with his electoral prowess. safety, sovereignty and work. it was a departure from previous presidents, previous conservative leaders who talk about the free market, often approach their role in government through a judeo christian lens, those things are gone. and this is how donald trump is remaking the gop and the presidency. >> and do you think it's a message that conservatives will buy into? >> well, as long as it works for them. i think a lot of people -- listen, everyone in that room was excited to hear from the president. they're excited republicans won. but they expect him to deliver. i really think he has until august to start delivering on obamacare repeal and reform. if they can come back next year and say here's all we achieved together and everyone has something to celebr

we got david gregory and abby phillip and matt lewis.er gregory, you have covered white houses in the past the protocols, the intentionality, and this, how do you make sense of it? >> i think it's amateurish. i think they should be discreet. you're at a public place. he owns the country club for crying out loud. any number of places they can go to have some serious conversations to review documents, to have phone calls as necessary. you know, phil mudd was saying when this first came to light in talking about it yesterday, you don't want to create a crisis atmosphere. but you're the president of the united states. you're the prime minister of japan. use some discretion here. anyone else would be the subject of donald trump's criticism for being a disaster as he might said for doing all of this out in the open. >> matt, these pictures are incredible. they're just incredible. to look at. if you have never seen what goes on inside a situation room this image -- the flurry of activity captured here. using cell phones to illuminate to the mes

we have matt lewis, and senior column northwest at the daley beasts, and thank you to all of you. let's talk about the new national security adviser, general mcmaster, who has a highly regarded representation and history, but the big question is how much autonomy and power and access to the president will he have? the reason we wonder about that is because other candidates turned down the job because they felt that somehow they would be eclipsed by, say, steve bannon? >> i think this is a great pick, and this is a guy -- the stereotypes of guys that study war, either they are tough and macho guys that want to go in and break things and kill people, or intellectuals in ivory tower thinking of a theory, and he combines the two things, and he is a tough guy, and a smart guy when it comes to count counter insurgency. how does it fit in? you never know until you get a group of people together who will emerge as a leader and how it will shake out. i will say this, i am hardened by the fact that we are sending tough generals into the room to deal with steve bannon. if steve bannon can wa

i have alex burns for the "new york times", matt lewis senior columnist for the daily beast, and simone sanders who served as national press secretary for the bernie sanders presidential campaign. happy friday to all of you. welcome. and alex, let me turn to you first. a quick note on watching the president down in south carolina. this is his special place, right? stand anything front of crowds. this is the oxygen, the people, the enthusiasm. and also on this whole message, which is part of the reason why, one, hire american, buy american. this is great news. is it as simple as it seems? >> well, i think for a lot of folks who have watched him with apprehension the last month, this event today was sort of a glimpse of the road he hasn't taken so far, which is if he were to go back to the white house and focus basically exclusively on issues related to job creation and manufacturing and really sort of middle of the road national security rhetoric, i think democrats would be terrified. republicans would be enormously reassured. we haven't seen him approach that so far. if he were to back

begala, jen sake, jeffrey lord, jason miller, gloria borger, ryan lizza joins us, and finally, matt lewis. jason, let's start with you, since you're new on the panel tonight. i mean, why not -- to darrell issa's point about openness and transparency. if the white house has nothing to hide, why not just come forward and say there were these phone calls, this person may have spoke on the this person and say an investigation is fine and dandy? >> first, i have to say this is completely cooked up and there's nothing to this. i was glad to see the chairman say there's no "there there." but between attorney general sessions and chairman nunez and chairman burr will go through their process, and that's part of the oversight committee that we see from congress -- >> but the white house said there's no there there, but they haven't said paul maniafort may have spoken to this person -- >> anderson, there's been these nameless, faceless sources who still haven't come forward and shown any evidence, and even the four names that they threw out there, two of them have said this is ridiculous. the third

. >> the thing that struck me, matt lewis said this the last hour. it wasn't really a conservative speech. he was talking about spending money on a lot of different things, and that is something that -- that is a shift that we've seen in this new trump era where there is -- i don't know. congress is going to go along with this. that's going to be his biggest obstacle. there are fiscal conservatives there that are going to pump the brakes. a lot of the things he is talking about, not -- he is not going to address entitlements. he is going to increase the size of the military. all of these things cost mean. >> it was a campaign speech in a lot of ways. laid out all the things that he talked about he would do talking about everything from obliterating isis to making sure that the wall will be built soon on the border with mexico. >> also expensive. >> also very expensive and a lot of hurdles to get that done. >> before we get to that part, next year, the year after, though, if anybody at home is waiting to see it if this president made broad outreach to

and soft power which kls be said for cnn political analyst kirsten power who joins us along with matt lewis, ryan lizza and retired army lieutenant general mark hertling. you know general mcmaster. he's getting a lot of support among political and military figures. how do you see him steering the national security council? >> there is not going to be anyone that speaks ill of h.r. mcmaster, anderson. he's a brilliant guy, fine mind, as barbara just said. his book is a good one. i have it on my personal book shelf. it's one of the better ones. i expect to get some royalties from him for hawking it right now. what i will tell you, he's very good in terms of strategy and policy. he's been working the army futures for the last several years. he's got a good brain and the key thing is, will others in the national security council and national security team listen to some of the things he says, because he will organize it. he will command that organization well. he will pull people together, get the right thing on the ground and make forward advances. but the key thing that he has to do, h.r. is

jill dougherty, and matt lewis. good to have you on.eneral marks, where are we now, what's happening? >> the question we need to ask right now, it's difficult to get beyond the palace intrigue, and the faces that are involved in this, we need to ask the question, what now, less who now. we're going to try to figure out who the next national security adviser is going to be, and a number of faces are going to pop up, keith kellogg is an interim solution, is he the permanent solution, probably not. this town and a bunch of places have immense talent that could step into that role and provide some great leadership, the challenge, however, is what are the priorities for this administration, what -- how are we going to engage with russia? are we going to cooperate or compete. can we get our arms around type of cyber proto coals as a way to narrowly define how we're going to engage with russia, are we going to engage with china to help us with north korea. what are we going to do with isis, we've all described that as an he can step shall thre

. >> matt lewis, paul begala, trump supporters kayleigh mcenany and jeffrey lord. let me start with you. so many moving parts to this. where do you see this going? >> a couple things happened today. one-a lot of republicans especially on the senate side by the end of the day did concede this needs to be looked at. >> house side not so much. >> not so much. on the senate side it looks like they're moving towards a serious investigation of all of the allegations of russian hacking in the election and with respect to people around trump who had ties to russia and obviously flynn will be at the center of that. >> what i don't understand is if the white house said today clearly they don't think flynn did anything wrong in making that call or calls in talking about sanctions with the russian ambassador, if that is the case and flynn didn't think he did anything wrong, why is he lying to everybody in the white house? >> great question. this may be innocent. it was his right to talk to russian ambassador as incoming national security adviser. not unusual. but why did he de

maggie haberman, contributing editor, jeffrey lord, paul begala, and daily beast senior columnist matt lew lewis. maggie, the kellyanne conway thing, he has the full confidence of the president. can you explain? >> both statements could actually be true depending on who you're talking to. there appears to be a split within the trump white house over exactly what to do with michael flynn. there are some people who would like to see him hang on. there are many more people who think he has created an untenable situation for himself as jim just said. he is not in a good position. people close to mike pence in particular seem to be agitating for him to go. he has twice told hens something that turned out not to be true. >> and pence went on television and assured the country that flynn did not have this conversation with the shan shans. >> i think the longer you see this go on it suggests a potential weakness in terms of pence's position and his ability to push something within the white house. it's it tough to do this week if they're going to get rid of flynn given you have all these foreign leaders

worrying to a lot of conservatives, and i am sure bill crystal could speak to this, but i talked to matt lewishe was saying, can anybody tell me what milo's views are on tax policy or immigration? no. he's a renegade, a bomb thrower, and, oh, yeah, he's politically incorrect and that's all you need to be a conservative these days. >> matt schlep said something, and -- >> it's not because milo has different views on issues, but it's because he said things over the years over decency, and i think some should stand for decency. >> kasie, you will be back in our next hour. for our new poll on president trump's first month in office, plus -- >> in 2009, white house press secretary, robert gibbs, said i hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is the grassroots lobbying. >> that did not work out too well. >> president trump seems not to believe it now, and that's still to come on "morning joe." ♪ [dramatic ♪ ic begins] ready! charge! charge! (in chinese) charge! let your reign begin. evony, the mobile game. download now. z2a1fz zx9z y2a1fy yx9y looking for clear answers for your retirement plan

super bowl winning coach bill belichick and matt cane and huey lewis. >> what is not good is the rain. joe fonzi is in soggy pebble beach and did anybody get out there at all today, joe? >> yeah, some people did. we talked to one of the celebrities that you just mentioned and i understand that at one of the signature places and this is the world-famous par 5, 18 hole at pebble beach. one of the most beautiful places. and one of the the angry places when the weather is not so nice. the waves crashing on the fair way. what has it been about five years as the northern california winter and they wondered at this tournament will we get crosby weather that dates back to the days when bing crosby initiated the tournament and now the at&t pro am and no question about this year we are experiencing crosby weather. >>> it was a day suited for ducks, seagulls and very dedicated golfers. >> pebble beach officials decided it was too wet and windy for the scheduled five hole shoot out but they did a nice job of improvising. they brought everybody inside for the putting contests. that met the former

matt mobley for the win. wow. but hold on. the bonnies are called for a technical foul for storming the court. with less than a second on the clock lewis hits the free throw, sends the game into overtime. this scenario definitely fits into the school of never seen before. extra session belongs to the rams. they win >>> maryland-perdue. terps rolling mid-way through the second half. kevin herder gives the terps a nine-point lead. the boilermakers come all the way back and take the lead with three seconds left on this free throw. maryland has to launch a hail mary. isaac haas gets the steal but forgets to dribble. that's a travel. you can't do that. maryland gets one more shot. and it's kevin herder again. we know he can shoot. this for the win. no good. purdue wins 73-72. >>> georgetown also caught in a close game against st. peters. hoyas looking to win their fourth in a row. georgetown down double digits in the first half. pryor brings them to within one. georgetown down by one with time running out. rodney pryor. no good. the hoyas fall to seton hall in o.t. 68-66. >> game tied at 1 in the second. brett connelly finds andre berkousky