joining us from the "washington post" phil rutger.att miller, former chief spo spokesman for the justice department. do folks at the white house know how bad this is? >> well, they know how bad the media coverage has been. they certainly acknowledge that it's been a pretty difficult story for them publicly, but they're digging in and they're defending this, not only publicly but privately. i was over at the white house this morning talking to a few senior officials who said there's really very little unease inside that building about what's playing out. they feel like it's being mischaracterized. they feel like the facts are on their side. secretary nielson yesterday had a lot of misleading and untrue facts. nevertheless, they feel confident in what the administration is doing and they feel like it's up to congress to try to fix this problem. in private, they're just simply echoing what president trump has been saying in public. >> it's stunning that they view this as a story. these are babies being ripped from the arms of their paren

washington post white house bureau chief phil rutger with me here in singapore. you were at the news conference with the president and asked one of the critical questions. we'll get to that a bit later. just the fact ofning an agreement and putting so much stock in it and then teeing it up, promoting it and when we read the actual text, it was no there there. >> yeah. andrea, there was such a build up to find out what the deteals were -- details were. they signed it and wouldn't reveal what they signed. is this a peace treaty or really detail agreement to denuclearize the peninsula or something more vague. there wasn't a lot of meat on the bones but trumpee it's a step forward and something he's eager to claim victory over. >> victor, let's talk about the what iss in this several pages that were signed with such ceremony. what are the hard facts of it? what did we win? >> i think going into this, what we wanted was a clear statement of declaration commitment to a declaration by the north koreans of all the weapons that they have. a time line in terms of trying to

joining me is kristen welker and phil rutger. welcome both. kristen, you're awaiting now the arrival of the japanese prime minister. you see the soldiers who are ready on guard, the flags are out. the president will come out on the west wing door right there. shinzo abe coming because he's worried about the kim jong-un summit. kneels left out. they will get through theg 7 and the president does not want to go. >> that's right. the president had a lot of concerns about going for a couple of reasons. there's going to be a number of tensions. he's not afraid of the tensions as much as the optics heading into the criminal summit. it's real allies on the issue of trade pulling out of iran nuclear deal. recent days there's been some difficult phone conversations with those leaders who will be there. it's not going to be necessarily positive headlines for the president may not even come to an agreement on a final joint statement known as a commitment. that still very much up in the air and that can sort of set the stage. the prime minister of japan h

. >> but, in fact, phil rutger, there's been some reporting that the white house staff is cherry pickinges and giving him really upbeat reports on what's happening at the border. >> yes, andrea, we reported that last night at the post that the president, his staff have been showing him images that are somewhat more positive than the ones we've been showing in the media, showing these kids smiling, having a good time, going outside. perhaps in a way to try to influence his thinking about this policy. i've talked to senior officials this morning as well and reiterate what kristen said, which is the president is not going to be pulling the plug on his policy. he's digging in. he sees it as entirely a problem for congress to deal with, not his administration. >> and here's the president speaking again about the children. >> we're stopping them all the time, by the thousands. but they still get through. we have no wall. we have no border security. without a border, you don't have a country. you don't have a country. [ applause ] under current law, we have only two policy options to respond to

from the "washington post," white house bureau chief phil rutger joins us. harry litman. former just attorney and former deputy attorney general is here. paul butler, a former federal prosecutor. and john hilemon is back. national affairs analyst. let me start with you, phil rucker. quite a display. a spectacle is the word that comes to mind. >> yeah. >> the president holding court on everything. but really, i want to show you something he said about andrew weismann, one of the prosecutors who i believe has his name on all the charging documents as they pertain to paul manafort. president trump may have known this was coming. let's watch. >> the problem with the mueller investigation is everybody has massive conflicts. you have weismann who was at hillary clinton's funeral, meaning her party that turned into a funeral. and they were screaming and cry -- they were going crazy. how can you have people like this? i all the them the 13 angry democrats. you have a tremendous animosity. >> tremendous animosity. what he chalks everything up to, facts be damned? >> that's right. i

the "washington post" phil rutgers reporting that president trump was angry because he felt the media was cherry-picking pictures, like focusing on only the negative. and thereforetrying to make the story look worse. let me remind you, mr. president, and also the dhs secretary might want to know this as well, that these pictures are being actually disseminated and handed out by the government. so we would also like to follow up on the question as to where the girls are and you know, more pictures of toddlers and babies, we want to see them. we want to know what their status is, where are the girls? where are they being housed? and why didn't, i'm confused as to why we can't actually see that part. these are your pictures. and your little pr stunt. trying to look strong, it's failing miserably. it is so cruel to see what is happening in your pictures. that you gave to the press, about what is happening at the border. gosh if we could take our own pictures and we could walk in there a little more freely like it is america, and really see what's going on -- maybe we would see more babies