spider-man's alter-ego, peter parker, struck a chord with comic books fans everywhere. "it's easy for people to emphathize with spider-man. i mean he has the same worries as most people. how does he make a living?" "he worries about his health. he's as apt to get an allergy attack or sinus attack, an in- grown toenail as anybody else." spider-man had the benefit of being intensely ordinary. a teen navigating the trials and tribulations of adolescence while at the same time, having a unique spark of super-human power. it's a formula that would lead spider-man straight to the top of the marvel empire. "people knew that spider-man would be a popular character and great at the movies but they didn't know how great." "spider-man's web isn't just snaring bad guys." "i want to go see it because it looks really cool." "or comic book junkies." "he does a lot of things that i like to do." "but a new army of arachnid afficionados. it's all about peter parker and it's about a movie that could make a billion dollars, a first." "spidey and friends have given marvel enterprises a stor

spidey senses were tingleing over peter parker's latest identity crisis. >> i love the spiderman homecomingas great, adorable. like a cool, new, perspective of the story of spiderman. >> and the best super film was the one that seemed to have everyone cheering. >> "wonder woman." i saw that. >> i loved "wonder woman." >> this was such a high point, i think. and a year that felt really fraught for women. >> i think the reason why "wonder woman" made so much money was -- >> finally we got to see women kicking butt on the screen. >> the "star wars" franchise once again sailed into our galaxy. action and crime movies made a run. "skull island" and "fate and the furious" on a roll. but the best car chasing came from "baby driver." the story was goofy but wow. >> insane. >> agreed i'm not normally into those types of movies, but i really enjoyed it. >> the they know i'm black? >> should they? "get out" was a kind of crime flick, kind of odd, but a smash. >> get out! >> i loved it. >> did i like it? >> no. >> i thought it was fantastic. great, great film. >> it was creepy. >> i like the way it end

jeremy peter, political reporter for "the new york times." ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post," and robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post" and moderator of "washington week" on pbs. ashley parker, let me start with you, because you and i started this conversation earlier today. and i want to ask you two things. one, what other details have emerged since we last talked? and what is the white house's current posture on someone who was indisputed -- is beyond dispute that steve bannon was for a very long period of time not only an ideological soul mate of this president's, but one of the closest advisers, someone that donald trump didn't dare subject to reporting to a chief of staff. when donald trump became president, reince priebus was given a rather extraordinary title in that he was named basically an equal to then chief of staff reince priebus. >> i'll answer your second question first, which is the white house's posture is basically steve who? he is but a mere staffer. don't know the guy. can't real

with me now, retired navy captain william parker, and back with us peter brooks. ain parker, let me start with you. we did a story not long ago that for the first time perhaps since century, there was not a single british warship out of port. we see what's happening with germany's latest navy effort and we know that america, our navy has been stretched very thin. >> first of all, nato and the united states in particular are still the most competent war force to go to sea and to deploy in our lifetime and maybe in history. that said, russia and china in particular are closing the gap. and in particular when you look at the united states navy, for example, 340 years ago we had about 600 ships on an average day we had 100 dea employed. today we have 280 ships and on an average day we have 100 deployed. while the number of ships have gone into half, the number of ships deployed remains the same. we're stretched thin. at the same time the russians and the chinese are developing hyper sonic weapons. they're increasing their nuclear capabilities. it's something to watch c

we've cover it all with jeremy peters of "the new york times." anthony parker of politico and manu raju of cnn. >> celebrating 50 years, this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> their leader shism is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today and research the technologies to have tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> on a cruise with historic cruiselines, you can experience historic destinationings across the nips river, the columbia river and across the united states. american cruiselines' fleet of small ships, explore american landmarks, local cultures and calm waterways. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of "washington week." >> additional funding is provided by -- newman's own fun to depation. donating all profits from nusmen's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the excellence in -- foundation. the cooperation for public broadcasting and by contributions from your pbs stations from viewers like you. thank you. >> once again from washington, moderateor robert costa. robert:

peter alexander, garrett haake, ashley stokols -- ashley parker, sorry, and eli stokols. didn't mean to marry you, sorry. michael caputo. good to see you. >> good to see you, katy. >> let's talk about the president and what he understands and doesn't understand about policy. daca, fisa, he says one thing then says another. you had the white house scrubbing the transcript from the dreamers meeting with both members of congress saying that he never agreed with dianne feinste feinstein. we all watched as he did. we have donald trump today saying one thing about fisa and walking it back a few hours later. what do you make of that? >> well, i think the president comes to this job without a depth of government experience and even though i found him to be really, you know, having deep understanding of the issues of the day that we were talking about on the campaign trail, some of these more, you know, granular issues, i think, are a challenge to anyone that's new to politics. however, in this fisa tweet, nowhere in there did he say anything about the bill that was being consider

with us from "the washington post," white house reporter ashley parker and at the table, chief white house correspondent peter baker, politic editor for the root jason johnson, donny deutsch is back and david jolly. ashley parker, let me start with you. your reporting from the weekend really encapsulates and gives some context to the developments that i just went through. but i want to ask you, as a reporter, these are questions that are among the most sensitive kinds of questions. and other than questions i fielded about sarah palin's pregnancy when i worked for her in '08, i can't imagine a more sensitive kind of topic for a reporter to broach with the president or politician and their staff than their mental stability. i wonder what the effect has been of donald trump tweeting half a dozen tweets on the topic and now making public statements about the topic. has he wittingly or unwittingly thrust this issue to into the limelight for those who cover him? >> that's a great question. i should say we're reporters, not psychiatrists. it's not our job to diagnose anyone's mental stability or lack thereof. but th

jeremy peters, political reporter for "the new york times," ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post," and robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post" and moderator of washington week on pbs. ashley parker, let me start with you because you and i started this conversation earlier today. and i want to ask you two things. one, what other details have emerged since we last talked and what is the white house's current posture on someone who was it is beyond dispute steve bannon was for a very long period of time not only an ideological soulmate of this president but someone donald trump didn't dare reject to reporting as the chief of staff. reince priebus was given an extraordinary title in that he was named basically an equal to then chief of staff reince priebus? >> i'll answer your second question first, which is basically steve who? don't know the guy, can't really remember the guy, was he ever really in the white house that much, and the answer of course is he was. he was an integral player during the campaign and in president trump's white

"washington post" and white house reporter ashley parker and msnbc political analyst and nbc national correspondent peterlexander at the white house. peter, first to you, they're prepping, planning, he's rehearsing. it's all choreographed. we'll see the pomp and circumstance but a lot of things can go wrong with any president's speech. >> i think that's exactly right, andrea. a lot of conversation about whether this president sticks to the script as evidenced by what he did in the joint address to congress and the speech in davos last week. when asked to do that he generally does a pretty good job at it. new details about the speech tonight, that it's expected to be without applause, roughly an hour long that the president has been meticulously involved in the process that he over the course of the last several months has been handwriting ideas, excerpts, lines he would like to see used that this will be his voice as it's described. there's certainly a lot of other voices involved in this process. h.r. mcmaster, gary cohn, the head of his economic team here at the white house, and the vice president as w

with me is nbc political analyst, ashley parker, nbc political analyst, and anita dunn, white house communications director for president obama. peterto you. what is the real story here? >> well, i have to say, i have never heard a president say he wasn't going to visit another country, much less our closest ally, because he was concerned about real estate. this is a really creative reason to cancel a trip that was problematic on so many other fronts. it was problematic because, as you said, there is a running rift. we had the mayor of london who is muslim who the president has gone after repeatedly. there are repeated episodes where he has criticized the british or exposed intelligence questions. at one point his white house suggested that the british had been spying on him during last year's election which the british adamantly denied and were very upset about. so hethere's a real danger, in s mind, of going because he would see protests in the streets. it would be embarrassing, he thinks, if he had to be protested like that. i think he's looking for a reason to basically call off a visit that neither side frankly wanted anymore.

peters. white house reporter for "the washington post," ashley parker.olumnist at "the washington post" and msnbc contributor eugene robinson. and former chief of staff for the cia and department of defense and msnbc national security analyst jeremy bash. thanks to all of you for coming in on a sunday night. eugene, i have to start with you. because the questions all morning this morning have been, is this president a racist or not? >> that was certainly horrendously racist thing he's said. it's not the first racist thing he's said. he's got a long history of saying and doing racist things. so you don't have to try to get to the existential core of a person because in the end, that's an unanswerable question. you can judge and assess what he says and what he does and what he says and what he does is racist. >> ashley, is this out of line with behavior we've seen from the president before? does it stand apart worse than some of the other examples eugene referenced? >> it's not out of line at all. if you look back on this president, a lot of people think t