how he interacts with reince priebus. this will be an illuminating conversation. >> we'll, of course, have live coverage. we'll be anxious to hear what steve bannon and reince priebus have to say. stand by for that. thanks very much, phil. >>> i want to continue to watch live pictures also coming in from mexico city where the secretary of state rex tillerson has been meeting with mexican leaders. he's meeting with luis videgaray, the foreign minister. they'll be speaking and making statements in mexico city. i don't know if they'll be answering reporters questions but we'll have live coverage of that. just moments ago, president trump addressed the mexican visit by the secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security john kelly. he told business leaders that tillerson's visit to mexico, and i'm quoting the president now, is going to be a tough trip. his words. a tough trip. we'll, of course, have live coverage of that news conference. the statements that will be made by the secretary of state and the mexican fore

dana, so interesting to see steve bannon and reince priebus side by side.alk about division in the white house, chaos in the white house, what did you make of what you saw? >> they were trying very hard to tamp down on that but coming out. the symbolism of just the -- whacked us by a 2 x 4 on the head. doesn't take a lot to read into that. we get along. got it. they called each other partner a lot. i know this is not new, the concept of the two of them trying to say they work well together, and for example, steve bannon told me last week that he was livid that his former publication breitbart did really big hit job, splashing front of the website on reince priebus saying that he was done. now, that very well could be that he needs reince priebus as a partner, not that they truly have a lot of love for one another ideally. this is kind of an arranged marriage. reince priebus has the trains running on time and bannon made very clear he sees himself and is the foundation for the trump brand. >> what is so interesting about that foundation is that it's not trad

the white house pushing back hard against new reporting that reince priebus, you heard me right, reince priebus asked the fbi to knock down stories about the russia investigation. brand-new reporting breaking right now. while center stage, president trump with a big speech this morning in front of a giant conservative conference after this rare appearance by steve bannon. >> if you think they are going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. >> an arms race. the president in a new interview vows to build up america's nuclear arsenal. >> if countries are going to have nukes, we are going to be at the top of the pack. >> put your seatbelt on. we have a lot to cover starting with that brand-new reporting about conversations between the president's chief of staff and fbi officials regarding reports about russian contacts in the trump campaign. we have the best team in the business to break it down. let's start with kristen welker live at the white house. help me. you just got out of a briefing on this, what did you hear? >> reporter: it was a 40-minute briefin

reince priebus saying eight years, not four. when we heard bannon talking about, have our backs but hold us accountable. a month into this administration they're already looking to build the support to keep a coalition behind donald trump to try to excite these conservatives, to stay with them against the headwinds of the larger political conversation where there have been protests against the president, where there have been questions about how smoothly this new administration is running. not so much from conservatives, although there have been questions from conservatives who are looking for that competency piece. you have these two top leaders in the white house, she's right, it used to be the white house chief of staff had no equals. in this case, putting the two men side by side, it shows a partnership. it allows us to see that they acknowledge they have different styles. they acknowledge that they might approach things differently but try to convey to everyone they can manage their own kind of working disagreements, hot an

reince priebus says can you fix it, is there some way to fix it. can we get the truth out it. is that how you read that? >> yes, the way i read it parts of it were garage, reince priebus is saying you can correct part of it. we confirming story about classified information -- >> i would want something false about me corrected too. it's a big difference, is it t not, if the "new york times" says contact with russia, that's not a small mistake, that's a glaring one, right. >> i agree with you. we're in a world of national intelligence i agree with you. it's an important question to ask. >> at no time, in your reporting was the white house asking the fbi to do something wrong. we have reince priebus was asking to correct the story that the fbi after the fbi told them they were mistakes? >> that's correct. the democrats would say the fact talk about this and talking about how to deal with stories in the press is improper. the fbi is supposed to be independent. >> for me, on the other hand do we want incorrect stories or exzag rated out there. fbi does not want to jeopardize their

trump administration officials acknowledging the white house chief of staff reince priebus asked a top push back publicly against a news story about context between trump aids during the campaign and russia. the white house says priebus did nothing wrong, senior law enforcement officials telling nbc news that fbi officials do not believe any lines had been crossed. >>> and how about this one? a blast from the past. former president barack obama making a public appearance in new york city today. it is still unclear what exactly the former president was up to in the big apple, but this is one of his first public appearances since leaving office on january 20th. take a look at that. >>> and malaysian police meanwhile say that a banned chemical weapon was used to kill kim jong nam. he was the half brother of kim jong-un. police say that the traces of the vx nerve agent were found in his body. kim jong nam died after two women put a substance on his face at the airport in kuala lumpur. >>> and the company building the controversial dakota access pipeline says oil could begin flowing through

obviously reince priebus wasn't going to tell cnn.ike it when the fbi was leaking about hillary clinton? >> well, how does the president like it the fact that when reince priebus is naming unknown sources and he doesn't want -- the newspapers and the media to report unknown sources. there is a huge hypocrisy. >> chris: wait. you are duc ducking the question. what do you think about the fbi leaking it. >> look, the fbi and others, there are so many leaks in this white house and in the intelligence organization because there is not a credible investigation that's going on people quote investigators. we need jason chaffetz. >> come on. >> chris: ed, you get the final word here. >> i think we have the fbi on the shot seat and rightsly so. the fbi works for the president. weave ought to have some protects on letting things go go forward. it sounds like reince was hung tout drive on mccabe a story a chief of staff's job is to manage all of the government, including law enforcement and he has to do that. he has to ask for law enforcement to

and you saw reince priebus represent it that the establishment gop represented by reince priebus, theether is suppose the to create harmony in the white house and outside of it. describing bannon as a conservative movement is a papering over what's going on here. a few years ago steve bannon was not not vieted to cpac because he was so far out of the even the activist stream. he represents something more combative and more aggressive and their unity is more important for the white house functioning and as an institution but it remains an open question how long can this last and continue to work. >> it's interesting that at the start of the conversation that reince priebus had and steve bannon and matt schlapp was the chairman. we heard him joke about he used to be the uninvited. meaning he was never invited to these kinds of events and he is there and donald trump wasn't there last year as a presidential candidate and he's going to be well-received tomorrow. >> they've taken over. the establishment doesn't have a big presence. >> i think there is one senator speaking and it's senator

and reince priebus said something telling. he was fond of bannon's loyalty to donald trump's agenda. who is run aring things in the white house more? >> the only person running things in the white house is the president of the united states. and everyone else supports his agenda. and reince, steve bannon wears seven collars at a time. i don't know if he thinks it is cold. i thought it was comical if you know steve and his dress code. honestly, there is one person running the white house. the man in the oval office and the american people voted to put in there and he's making sure his agenda is moving forward. it is important to understand in order for the president to be successful, you have to have people putting their egos aside and work together not for their agenda but the president's agenda wlaefr their agenda may have been before or now, it doesn't matter they are serving the president of the united states and his agenda. >> we don't see him speak pacifically very often and find the last time he stepped up to the mi coph

steve bannon, reince priebus the white house chief of staff expected to speak any moment. leaders of the democrat national party will be picking their chair in the next couple of days. more about that on the other side of this break. nosy neighbor with a keen sense of smell... glad bag, full of trash. what happens next? nothing. only glad has febreze to neutralize odors for 5 days. guaranteed. even the most perceptive noses won't notice the trash. be happy. it's glad. there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. hey, it's the phillips' lady! try these delicious phillips' fiber good gummies, a good source of fiber to help support regularity. mmm...these are great! my work here is done. phillips', the tasty side of fiber. >>> receipt now a live look there, mexico city. we are expecting to hear from the secretary of state any moment now. also the secretary of homeland security as well. they are in mexico city for a series of meetings. we were expecting a debrief a short time ago. that has not happened just yet. when it does, we will take you there live. >>> we will also ta

so they say only after that contact from the deputy director of the fbi that reince priebus asked for the fbi to try to intervene, refute the stories. because according to them they were getting crushed. it was their way of explaining these contacts which as we described last night, go counter to the rules supposed to reduce the contacts between the white house and the fbi don. >> and just to be clear, multiple conversations between the white house and fbi. >> that's right. one of the things they were focusing on is they say andrew mccabe reached out and initiated contact but after that initial contact they kept calling the fbi, trying to in essence pressure to try to refute the stories. and didn't stop with the deputy director of the fbi. they also had contact with the director of the fbi, james comey, and burning up the phones here in washington, calling intelligence agencies, trying to get their help to try to refute these stories. trying to get these people to talk to journalists at least on background to tell them to say the stories were false. >> interesting. sara, you have new

>> much of what you hear about chief of staff reince priebus, there's no love loss. i don't know it's necessarily people close to priebus helping to circle the wagons for him. of the people on thin ice michael flynn is the top of this list. steve bannon and reince priebus have gone on a public bromance tour talking about how they get along and there's not friction in the white house. some outside critics shows maybe there is bad blood. based on our conversations with people inside the west wing, both are staying out of each other's way at this point. much of what you heard about reince priebus is maybe a lot of talk and not so much meat and substance. sean spicer has been dogged by rumors. the expectation at some point he'll give up the press secretary or director of communications jobs. when you talk to people in past administrations it's untenable, too much to do jo two-jobs in one. >> a number of the people who know the comings and goings are expressing surprise at steven miller. they didn't know who he was. lot of people got their first look at the white house se

>> i cannot tell you that. >> chris: wait a minute, reince priebus.ou are complaining about unnamed sources, you are using an unnamed source. >> i did not ask for approval to use their name. when i say top-level people, i mean top level people. >> chris: so no disclosure whatsoever. anybody involved in trump or russia in the 2016 campaign? >> no. and if you look at the union says comments in the actual paper -- >> chris: in the intelligence committee? >> he was briefed on the fbi, and then he went on the record and said that this story is complete garbage. >> chris: here's the problem. i do not have any problem with you complaining about an individual story. they got it wrong, sometimes you get it wrong. i don't have any problem with you complaining about bias, but you went a lot further than that. to the president went a lot further than that. he said that the fake media, not stories, but the fake media are enemies to the country. we do not have a state run media in the country. that's what they have in dictatorships. >> okay, listen, chris. it is no

white house chief of staff reince priebus denied that story. week ago on fox news. >> "new york times" last week put out article with no direct sources that said the trump campaign had constant contacts with russian spies. basically treasonous accusations, all kinds of people looking into this. i can assure you, been approved to say this, top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that that story is not only inaccurate but grossly overstated and it was wrong. there's nothing to it. >> and jim the investigation is still ongoing correct? >> listen, to say there's nothing to it is at minimum premature. we know the fbi is still investigating the communications. several members of the house and senate intelligence kmeets tell us. starting to collect records and documents and will call witnesses to testify to these questions. still open question what the contacts were and what the significance and meaning were. >> criticizing sources on background and that's what they're asking allegedly the fbi to do. evan why is this not typical back

so much as the doing around reince priebus and when priebus stepped in, there's been an attempt to dial that back and come up with a pecking order. i do know this reflects the fact that there are folks who don't want to see mr. priebus as chief of staff. it may not reflect precisely what's going on. >> stephen miller is in the middle of all this, whether there's a discussion about the executive orders, he's in the middle of it. yesterday mixing it up on the issue of alleged voter fraud, unsubstantiated claims without evidence. he made more of them. let's listen. >> president trump again suggested in a meeting with senators that thousands of illegal voters were bused from massachusetts to new hampshire. do you have that evidence? >> i actually have worked before on a campaign in new hampshire, i can tell you this issue of busing voters into new hampshire is widely known by anyone who has worked in new hampshire politics. it's very real, very serious. this morning, on this show is not the venue to lay out the evidence. i can tell you this, voter fraud is the serious issue in this country.

the white house official says mccabe said reince priebus said the story was joioverstated abo the white mccabe did not discuss the aspects of the case and we don't know what he told priebus. a white house official says priebus did reach out to mccabe and james comey asking for the fbi to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. the fooibi refused to comment o the story. the kpun indicaticommunication e house and fbi request would appear to violate procedures that limit the communications with the fbi on pending investigations. the white house says mccabe initiated the conversations. asking the white house to help refute the stories runs contrary to the justice department procedure memos issued in 2007 and 2009 that are supposed to limit direct communications on pending investigations with the white house and fbi. christine. dave. >> evan, thank you. >>> donald trump addresses the conservatives who put him in office. the president speaks at the conservative political action conference. cnn's tal kopan will be covering the digital stories for us at cpac. what do we expect?

reince priebus was involved in that campaign.ultiple other people in the white use, obvious including the president himself were involved i the campaign so in no way should the fbi ever talk to the subjects of an investigation about where the investigation stands. i can think of no other case foreign investigating a bank, if you were investigating someone for fraud you would never, ever come to them and say "oh, yeah, there was a story that ran and by the way, we don't think that story is true." it does not happen and it's completely inappropriate. >> right. so the point here as i understand it is let's assume the set of facts -- that the reports were wrong and that, you know, this did emanate from the fbi. it still strikes me even in the most charitable set of circumstances as a totally improper communication. >> yeah. that's right. there is no other way to look at it. it's hard to know what mccabe was thinking when he had that conversation with reince priebus. and it's hard to know what he was thinking when he had the follow-up

i think reince priebus, good guy, well intentioned. but he clearly doesn't know how the federal agencies work and i think the president is not goating the backup he needs in the operation of white house. and sometimes the pushback that he needs, which you would have with a stronger white house counsel. -- white house chief of staff. >> ranee, you know rhines well. let me add in some of our reporting is that reince priebus is having to follow the president around be part of his conversations, linen stead of actually doing his chief of staff duties. is there a risk of reince priebus not then getting to do his job? >> i don't think so at all. i think rhines is actually doing a pretty phenomenal job. it reminds me so much, brooke of the first hundred days whenever speaker gingrich took over in 1995. which is it's a lot. first of alling you have got three dynamics at play. one is you have the peter principle, which is everybody wants the bring their people up. but congressional staffers don't always work so well in the speaker's office and

according to associated press, reince priebus asked deputy director andrew mccab to publicly dispute a reports. the fbi represented that request. tonight, democrats are foul. they say the communication between priebus and the fbi is violation of justice department rules and may even be illegal. now they're calling for an investigation. >> here's seth wax man former federal prosecutor. how bad is this? >> it's an interesting question. really two parts to it. one is whether there's some sort of illegality that went on or policy or procedures, on the illegality side, there does not seem to be any cause of action criminally for the chief of staff's conduct. i'm reaching out to the fbi. does not cause or violate a criminal rule or statute. these are executive department employees talking to each other. on the other hand, there's been a longstanding policy going backing decades that prevent or call for these types of conversations not to take place circumstances to avoid the appearance of impropriety. >> you're talking about the law where, i guess, technically only four people in the white

the president and his aids are also hitting back an reports that chief of staff reince priebus calledn the fbi to throw cold water on a new story which linked the campaign to russians. this story is getting hotter. reached tight pressure them to kill this story in the new york times that the fbi had transcripts of contacts between campaign officials last year and people with intelligence. sayish it was an intelligence committee. came up to the chief of staff and said can i get five minutes of your time during which he said this whole story was a bunch of b. s., and that's a direct quote. the reaction was well, can we do anything to correct the record? mccabe said let me take you back to the office and think about it apparently told him the fbi doesn't get into commenting on stories, nunez from the house intelligence committee after an fbi briefing said he didn't have any information to suggest anything in the report was true. talked to james comey the fbi director and said we can't comment, priebus said do you mind if i do, and comey said yeah, go ahead. priebus went to fox and friend

do you think if reince priebus did what is being reported that he should resign? >> yeah, he has to go. this is a white house -- karl rove in the bush administration suggested some u.s. attorneys be replaced. he did it through proper channels, talked to the white house counsel about it and it was a huge scandal that led to the attorney general being replaced. for reince priebus to go ten steps further and ask the fbi himself, he has to go. he has to answer questions from the press, talk to congress, explain what he talked about, what he told them. and we have to remember what he said, the clip you just showed, he said he was briefed by the fbi. if that's true it's a question for the fbi. why were they briefing the white house on an investigation into the president's campaign? that in itself would be inappropriate. >> i want to be clear because this seems an important thing for folks to understand. everything you're talking about is guiding by essentially norms. there's departmental policy on this. the constitution -- there's nothing that clear, red letter that say

mccabe, the deputy director pulled reince priebus aside and essentially told mr. priebus, according to these administration officials, that the story in "the new york times" as relates to constant contacts involving the russians was, quote, bs. the response from reince priebus, according to the accounting we got today, he told them -- told mccabe in one word or another, well, what can we do about it? and the message back to mr. priebus was the fbi cannot get engaged in responding to every news story because that's essentially all the fbi would be doing. after a series of additional conversations, it was determined that it would be okay for reince priebus to say that he had been briefed by fbi officials or words to that effect and that they had told him the story in "the new york times" was not true. the white house strongly denies trying to apply influence or pressure on the fbi and also takes issue on the question of whether they were trying to influence an investigation at all. they say they weren't trying to influence an investigation. they were simply trying to

reince priebus denied the reports. >> know what they were told. i have talked to the fbi. i know what they are saying.g. i would not be on your show telling you we have been assured there is nothing to the story if i did not actually have clearance to make this comment. allegations of white house communications with the fbi during t the investigation have raised questions as to whether the trump administration has violated ethics restrictitions meant to protect such investigations from political influence. they have also drawn comparisons to former president richard nixon's 1972 discussion with aides who used the cia to push the fbi away from investigating the watergate burglary that later led to his resignation. will thehe constant chaos, confusioion, and conflicts of interest in the trump administration lead to president trump's impeachment? for more, we go to someone at the center of the unraveling of a presidency. whiteent richard nixon's house counsel, john dean. he is the author of several books including, "the nixon defense: what he knew and when he knew it" and "co

reince priebus tried to knock down the report, i think he was trying correct the word.here do you stand on this reince priebus and white house talking to people to get truth out to the american people? >> the fbi should not be talk to the white house. they are regulations about it, there's no criminal statutes about it. they are regulations. and this is not richard nixon, this is not trying to get cia to cover for criminal conduct. this is four on a scale of 10. politically and 0 on scale. -- let's not turn it into partisan attack by the democrats or republicans. the american people are entitled to compare, full and complete investigation. let's us use our judgment to decide who to vote for in future elections. >> i assume when you are -- would you chair this commission? >> i'm too old to do that. i would serve on any commission. if my country called for me to serve, i would serve. people from none party, people with defense experience, people to get to the bottom of this, and tell american people the truth. we're entitled to know the truth. >> thank you. >>>till ahead

. >> what about this back and forth between reince priebus and the fbi? >> it was a story in "the new york times" that there were intercepts of the trump campaign last year and people connected to russian intelligence. turns out the initial tip-off on all that came from deputy director of the fbi who approached the chief of staff in a meeting last week. he was there as part of a group of intelligence people that were briefing white house staff. andrew mccabe came up to reince priebus and said can i have five minutes of your time. he said i want to tell you this story in "the new york times" is b.s., using the actual words. reince priebus said is there something we can do about it. correct the record. priebus called him back when he was at the fbi. he said no, there's nothing the fbi can do. we don't get into calling balls and strikes here. priebus talked to the director of the fbi, james comey who said the same thing. so priebus said can i go out and said what you told me? comey said we'll sign off on that. here's what reince priebus said on "fox and frie

help us understand reince priebus and steve bannon. on camera they have a good working relationship, but some have been saying just the fact they have to appear together suggests something else. >> reporter: ayman, i don't quite want to call it a buddy comedy routine, but i almost think there were ways they were going for it, or at least reince priebus was. he was asked, what is the biggest misconception of the trump administration in the immediate gentleman media, and he said, actually, steve bannon and i get along pretty well. and if anybody embodies what was the accomplishment of the republican party, it's probably reince priebus. he was running the party. he was somebody close to a lot of the other people who ran against trump and lost in the primary. and even the way he talked about donald trump and the conservative movement yesterday. it had echoes of coming out of that world. take a look at how priebus kind of focused in on donald trump. >> president trump brought together the party and the conservative movement. and i have to t

on the left the president at the super bowl party at mar-a-lago, flanked by his wife and reince priebus the right, that would be our former president at richard branson's private island in the caribbean, where he spent part of the weekend kiteboarding. the burdens of office are real and often visible. it's serious business, it has sent grown men to an early grave, but there is a life after the presidency, and barack obama appears to be trying to live it. many people posited on social media that he already looks younger ins picture. while in office he complained to staff he wasn't allowed to take part in any water sports for safety reasons. when you hail from hawaii, that hurts. it appears he may be making up for lost time. as for that super bowl party, the president left with the falcons comfortably ahead 28-3, lopsided game, what could go wrong? that is our broadcast for tonight. thank you for being here with us. we'll see you tomorrow evening. >>> tonight on "all in" --. you know, this is a very >>> tonight on "all in" --. you know, this is a very dangerous period of time. >> the fear

the president says chief of staff reince priebus is doing a great job. that's after a member of trump's inner circle chris ruddy questions whether priebus is up to the job. chris ruddy is here tonight, we'll talk to him about that, plus, what's wrong with this picture? president trump confers with aids right in the middle of saturday night dinner on the patio at mar-a-lago. the white house says it was all about logistics for a press conference. but was there more going on? there's a whole lot to discuss tonight, and the plot is thickening. as the president left the oval office tonight, he was asked about flynn. >> do you have confidence in flynn. >> what will you be evaluating -- >> you can see the president smile but didn't answer as he walked out. let's discuss this and much much more. cnn's jim acosta and david gergen. we have new reporting about what the white house knew about general michael flynn's contacts with the russian ambassador and when they 234u it. >> we're just getting this information a justice department official did warrant white house

reince priebus at that point, there is a gift to reince priebus, yes, but he has to say go talk to don, go down the hall to talk to the counsel then. please. i have to walk away because this is inappropriate. it's hard. it's a new white house. of all people in the white house, the chief of staff has to know the rules, especially he is the former party chairman. he has to understand the politics. >> the deputy fbi director mccabe should have known that as well. >> right. >> he should not have brought this up to priebus saying that he did not believe the "new york times" reporting or that it was overstated. we don't know exactly what mccabe said to priebus, but this is the white house's account of what mccabe said, but even if he did suggest that, that is a potential problematic thing for him. >> the deputy director skewed up. two wrongs don't make a right, and we have to understand the sensitivity of this. >> the chief of staff has to walk away and say, whoa, not me. that's the counsel's office. please. >> i do think this has been a communications challenge for this new bhous, though, b

it's been a very interesting day here in the white house, they have been denying the notion that reince priebus has done anything wrong. but there is a little bit of consternation, a little bit of heartburn about these communications between priebus and senior officials over at the fbi. this person said this is the kind of distraction the president really does not need right now, he wants to be focused on his top line agenda items and he's grown frustrated with these staff stories. now in reality, this played out in sort of an odd fashion at the white house today, where white house press secretary sean spicer opted to hold a gaggle this afternoon with some reporters, but rather than just having a pool, a small group of reporters, the white house decided to just cherry pick the news organizations they wanted to let in, they chose news outlets that have more favorable coverage of the president and excluded cnn, the "new york times," politico and others, no response to my question to why they felt the need to cherry pick those reporters. >> the former senior official and cnn political analyst, car

>> first of all, reince priebus i've known him since he was elected chair of the rnc, he -- the post mortem after mitt romney's loss which was to be about growing in the tent, bringing in gays, hispanics, and all the minorities not part of the traditional republican base the last few years and what i saw him and heard him do today is adopt trump's words, superlatives talk about the walls things reince would not have talked about before. the other thing obvious to me is that they are there trying to make a conservative movement their movement. trump is not a conservative. he is a populists he's a trumpist, there were something like eight members of the trump administration showing up at c pack, an enormous amount of administration presence, they are trying to court that base, keep them in their corner tell them it's us against them, us against the media, it's us against the world, against our enemy, and you are our army. >> does it work? >> well, it works with that base. >> during the campaign. >> does it a work in a general spectrum? no, his numbers are lower and getting lower, he's

now reince priebus is at the same situation.job is to say whoa, the white house counsel's office is down the hall. take it up with the counsel, not with me. i'm the political gatekeeper, not the person who should be involved in that conversation. >> president trump tweeted today, said the fbi's totally unable to stop the national security leakers who have have on u.s., find now. not only is it his prerogative, but the obama administration was very aggressive in prosecuting leakers, why shouldn't he be as well. . >> if there are leaks that gener jeopardize national security or operations in the field, that is true. i'm not sure the chief of staff calling the fbi calling to quash stories classifies as a classified matter or national security. we have seen since the president took office a systematic effort to impeach all kinds of institutions. whether it's the courts, whether it's the news media, or in this case, the fbi, when he sees stories that displease him. and it is, you know, this very same organization, the fbi, the intell

it's one of the reasons you saw chief of staff reince priebus make an effort to knock down the reports. but the fact there's communication between priebus and the fbi on a matter that the fbi is investigating is alarming to a lot of democratic critics. we saw nancy pelosi come out with a statement today about it. we also have seen a lot of democrats urging the attorney general, jeff sessions, to recuse himself from this investigation because he has personal connections, of course, to the trump campaign. he was one of the top trump campaign sure gates throughout the general election and could be compromised because of that. >> what a difference a year makes. donald trump didn't go to cpac last year. came this year. what was the reception like? >> reporter: sort of a victory lap. he opened with this diatribe against the press. he talked about cpac starting in 2011. this is a crowd he has spoken to before. there were protests threatened last time around and a lot of his primary rivals took the stage here. a lot of people in this room are people who have been committed to the conservative

>> you have to remember what reince priebus was supposed to do for the trump white house. was supposed to be the more professional, more experienced politician. so it's -- when ruddy says that, you wonder, priebus compared to whom? it's almost like trump is saying i tried the more standard person who they told me i needed. maybe i should just go with my instincts, with my own people. that's the concern, not that priebus is -- that trump wants to really replace him with somebody more professional. he was supposed to be that professional. >> you know, the individual comparisons are not precise but there is a certain similarity to what we saw under ronald reagan where you had jim baker, the professional, as amy said, kind of the liaison had the professional traditional party. ed mease, who was the true believer in the steve bannon roll and michael dever who was there for the president. the jim baker was such an unparalleled political operator who was able to pull this all together and point it in one direction. that was the first white house i covered. you worked in that admi

reince priebus also reached out to the director of the cia.s has happened i'm sure in the past, these sort of off-channel conversations, in the midst of what's going on and the questions about russia, this is not good. >> i should say for the record, the fbi says the assistant director reached out to him first. i'll clear that up. i want to squeeze in another topic, trump's controversial senior adviser, you guys know steve bannon, made a rare appearance at cpac and offered his view on how government should work. let's listen to a piece of that. >> if you look at the lines of work, i kind of break it out into three verticals or three buckets. the first is kind of national security and sovereignty. the second line of work is what i refer to as economic nationalism. the third broadly line of work is what is deconstruction of the administrative state. >> elise, how should we interpret that? what is he saying? >> i think he's saying they're bringing in a wrecking ball to washington and this is what president trump had promised to do while he campai

fake. >> trump administration officials acknowledge on friday that white house chief of staff reince priebus did ask deputy director andrew mccabe to push back on news stories about contacts between trump aides and russians during the campaign. days earlier priebus had said this on "meet the press". >> i've talked to the top levels of the intelligence community, and they've assured me that that new york times story was grossly overstated and inaccurate and totally wrong. later on friday the washington post quoted both house and senate intelligence committee chairman saying that administration officials also enlisted them in conversations with reporters. conversations that priebus also mentioned on "meet the press qwest qwepress". >> and in fact, devin nunez who is on the house intelligence committee went on the record after he was informed by the fbi as to that story, and what did he say? he said it was total garbage. >> the drip, drip, drip is making even some republicans in congress wary. on friday republican congressman darryl issa who was narrowly reelected said he was open to a special

if donald trump wants people to know how he feels about reince priebus, he doesn't need to go through me. he'll go through directly on twitter or through the press. i gave some criticisms. i did not ask for reince to be fired. some people are implying that. reince, to his credit, quickly called me and said look, here are the things i'm doing, we're making changes, we're going to be doing, you'll see in the next 30 to 60 days some dramatic improvements. i think everybody agrees there's been some real problems here, but i personally think the biggest problem is the media attacks on the president just in the past 20 minutes listening to this show on msnbc, we get the feeling the president is not appointing women, which is not true. two major cabinet appointments. ivanka herself ran the trump business, so you know, the idea that somehow he doesn't like women running things, and then the mass deportation, he's not doing mass deportation. he is removing criminal aliens, which i think everybody in this country thinks should be done. so many good things he's done are not getting out to the am

reince priebus committed breach of the fbi's independent.king told associated press the white house is not permitted to -- joined by nbc news investigative reporter, ken. >> there's something there. nbc news confirmed that fbi did obtain there was contact between certain aides over the summer designed to favor donald trump in the election. the question was did some of the stories over step and describe contact it's with contact with russian intelligence officials. u.s. doesn't know whether there was russian officials. they don't know significant of this information. there's there there. this is not go to go away. fbi is investigating the contacts. question is whether collusion is open question. >> how rare would it be for the president to have chief of staff call up top officials to say put out word there's nothing to the story. >> the white house account is opposite of that. white house went to deputy staff to say the story is wrong. is there a way to correct it. no, we're not in the business of correcting record. the fbi did not want to be

>> well, it tells me that the agenda is not going to change, that it's steve bannon and reince priebusre united in their efforts to get the president's agenda through. and the way they describe their relationship is that priebus is the one who makes the trains run on time and bannon is the one who reminds him of the campaign and what the president's promises were and how they are supposed to deliver. i think that bannon is clearly the visionary here. i don't think donald trump would like him to be called donald trump's brain, but he is the visionary. and from listening to him today, he is not changing or relenting at all one bit, even if some members of the republican establishment want him to, and including stop attacking the media, but he's not going to stop doing that either. this is who he is. this is how they won. and they're going to continue. >> you know, mark, bannon doesn't make a lot of public appearances. i think this may have been his first public appearance. why now? why at this specific conference? >> well, cpac is certainly a very friendly venue for steve bannon and for

reince priebus and steve bannon on the stage today. we'll be right back.ople confuse nice and kind but they're different. it's nice to remove artificial ingredients. kind never had to. we've used real ingredients, whole nuts, and natural flavors from the very beginning. give kind a try. we asked people to write down the things they love to do most on these balloons. travel with my daughter. roller derby. ♪ now give up half of 'em. do i have to? this is a tough financial choice we could face when we retire. but, if we start saving even just 1% more of our annual income... we could keep doing all the things we love. prudential. bring your challenges. for millions of baby boomers there's a virus out there. a virus that's serious, like hiv, but it hasn't been talked about much. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. that's because hep c can hide in your body silently for years, even decades, without symptoms and it's not tested for in routine blood work. if left untreated, hep c can cau

they say when that "new york times" story broke, chief of staff reince priebus had a separate meeting with top officials at the fbi on a separate matter here at the white house and then deputy director andrew mccabe asked for a pull-aside with mr. priebus after that meeting. during that pull-aside, according to the white house deputy director mccabe said that "new york times" story is, quote unquote, garbage. and then according to the white house, priebus said what do we do about it and let it be known the reporting is not accurate. ultimately the fbi told the white house they're not going to do anything about it, they're not in the business of calling balls and strikes. the question becomes was it inappropriate for the white house and fbi to have any sort of conversation about the "new york times" report? senior administration official when i asked about that called that notion insane, saying that, look, t bottom line is they never discussed an actual investigatio instead they just discussed the "new york times" report. they say that conversation was perfectly acceptable, legal and w

what reince priebus did is questionable. other people are uncomfortable. white house officials are talking to the press about it. this is completely within trump's control. and he should look at himself. yes, i understand why he's questioning the leaks publicly, to try to distract from his own failings. >> again, we're waiting for the president to speak. i tend to think he'll address this at the top of his remarks at cpac, but we'll watch. brian fallon, to you, i can't help but think about the campaign and the comments from the trump team and other opponents of yours, obviously you worked with hillary clinton's team, about, you know, that moment when former president bill clinton walked on the plane on the tarmac in arizona and spoke with loretta lynch and she had to recuse herself from anything having to do with the fbi investigation of hillary clinton and the server. they were very critical of that. now this is a conversation, they're not saying the conversation didn't take place between reince priebus and the deputy at the fbi. >> that's right, poppy. a

they don't like things reince priebus stands for. it's an odd collection. they tend genuinely to get along, good actors, but there has to be long-term tension between the establishment and the anti-establishment. >> woodruff: what is your sense of that, phil rucker? you say they seem to be working together better in the last few weeks, but is there a fear? is there a concern about bannon having too much influence over the president? how does the rest of the white house staff read him? >> you know, there is some concern about that, but people have to remember, it's not just bannon. i mean, bannon is espousing trump's views. so if you're going to war with bannon, you're going to war with the president, too, and i think more traditional republicans in the white house, even if they have been schooled to think differently about these issues ideologically and even if they personally might feel something different, this is trump's belief. it's his agenda, it's his world view. it's the things he is trying toism pent as president, and bannon is guiding him, and lead