Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20170303

In cleveland. That i may have met him possibly, might have been in cleveland. So many people having so many contacts and not remembering, it doesnt make sense. Theyre either the most forgetful team in political history or the most intimate with russia. Good day everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. As the political fallout continues over attorney general Jeff Sessions misleading answers about his meeting with the russian am was for. President trump remains steadfast in supporting his earliest senate endorser after the attorney generals selective memory of his september meeting with Sergey Kislyak. I dont remember a lot of it but i do remember saying i had gone to russia with a church group in 1991. We talked a little bit about terrorism as i recall and somehow the subject of the ukraine came up. He said something about inviting me to have lunch. I did not accept that. I dont recall any specific political discussion. The top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee adam schiff telling Rachel Maddow his Committee Briefing with fbi director comey did not go well. Were asking pertinent questions about that investigation, and the answers we got today from the director were i wont answer that, i wont answer that, i wont answer that. We cant become the fbi. We need to know what have they investigated, what leads have they chased down and not csed down, what more has to be done. Their priority is often developing the facts to prosecute someone and theyre concerned sometimes theyll jeopardize the prosecution of someone if they share information with congress, with the administration or anybody else. But our priority in congress frankly is the protection of the country. Joining me now is New York Times chief White House Correspondent peter baker, nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams and nbc senior Political Editor mark murray. Pete, first to you. Set the table here, as to what Jeff Sessions recused himself from and what he didnt, because the language of his statement yesterday seemed to be only the period up through the election or is it the continuing inquiry into anything that Campaign Officials who are now white house officials might have been involved in . What the fbi is looking at is what influence the russians tried to have over the election, thats the problem. If there is an improper attempt to influence the campaign, thats what the fbi wants to know. The question of after donald trump is elected, who is meeting who about what is subordinate to that. Its, it may not be relative at all Michael Flynn could be a separate issue. Theres no suggestion mike flynns meeting well, let me not get ahead of the facts. The main thrust of the fbis investigation is what did russia do to influence the election . I dont know enough about the, i dont think anybody outside the fbi knows enough about the investigation to know how much those contacts afterwards are of interest to that. They may be in the sense that they may reflect some sort of relationship that existed beforehand, but i didnt read his recusal yesterday as an attempt to be overly lawyerly and saying, well, anything that happens after this date im still fair game for. I think that would be a tough one to draw the lines on. I think he needs now to step aside and be a complete stranger to the fbis investigation of what the russians were up to. This would be taken over initially by the acting deputy. Right. But then assume he gets confirmed and you can bet that that confirmation hearing which is on tuesday for the nominated deputy is going to now be a much more intensive inquiry, because theyre going to want every, you know, every t crossed and every i dotted. Right. Interesting enough both have bipartis bipartisan credentials. Dana was appointed for the Eastern District of virginia by president obama and Rod Rosenstein the nominee to be the Deputy Attorney general served under george w. Bush and barack obama as the u. S. Attorney in maryland, just north of here. So they both have bipartisan background. And peter baker, theres a lot of questions about james comey, because you heard adam schiff, the democrats are really unhappy with that briefing yesterday and theyre even talking, hes even talking about subpoenaing the fbi director if they dont start getting the answers. Weve got a situation now where an fbi director uncomfortable no doubt finds himself really in the crosshairs of a real partisan fight. Theres a lot of bad blood among democrats for the fact that comey came out shortly before the election with his statement saying he was relooking at some emails to see whether or not Hillary Clinton her personal server was back at issue. He then put out another letter three days before the election saying no, turns out nothing here but democrats still believe that was one of the biggest causes of her defeat, and theyre not likely to accept sort of the kind of answers that congressman schiff talked about on your tape. Lets talk a bit about Sergey Kislyak the Russian Ambassador. The importance of him in the whole drama and the fact he met with all of these different people. Clearly he was looking for information, assuming nothing else was going on, he was looking for information about this man donald trump to send back to moscow. Thats what ambassadors do, and he seemed to beeeting with everyone. Well he di right, hes the man around town. Look, what we know about Sergey Kislyak hes been a preeminent networker in washington for nine years, not just with republicans. We report in our story today about him for instance about a dinner he held for mike mcfaul, appointed by president obama as the new ambassador to russia in 2011. Ambassador kislyak held a swank dinner sending him off. Many people from other countries were trying to figure out who donald trump is and who the people around him who are going to be important, not surprising he would try to meet with some of the people. What got some of the people in trouble they didnt give full answers about the context they had with them in the first place, general flynn not tell Vice President pence they had talked about sanctions, attorney general sessions not admitting they had a couple of meetings to begin with. In fact attorney general sessions, that meeting was right at the time that your newspaper, peter, the Washington Post, the networks were all filled with information about the allegations of russian influence on the election. The fact that that meeting was held and that there was no, you know, red warning red flag. That went off was extraordinary. Mark the political fallout here, sessions has the closest campaign adviser, the earliest senate endorse, should have realized that that is a memorable meeting and notes were taken. He should have been a lot more careful. Michael mcfaul, president obamas ambassador to russia, pointed out that if the russians wanted to meet with Jeff Sessions it had nothing to do with alabama. It had to do with his knowledge of donald trump world and maybe somebody who would turn out to be an official. As peter was mentioning you add up the different stories out there and its not uncommon to have an Incoming National security adviser mting with an ambassador to russia its not uncommon for a top aide Jared Kushner to do that. Whats raising the red flags is that, not getting all the information and people being up front with it. Michael flynn for example, not up front with his conversations about the sanctions. Jeff sessions not being entirely forthcoming in his Senate Confirmation hearing. You can quibble over whether he was talking about the campaign or his personal activity, but you add up all the different stories and there seems to be either, as Nicole Wallace put it very well an administration that is either the most forgetful in political history or one where there is a there there story. Not revealing until the press revealed that Jared Kushner had met with him in december, this he came in the back way at trump tower, they didnt announce that, wasnt on the schedule. They were not up front at all. What about the drip, drip, drip . I almost call it a firehouse of information, not a drip, drip, drip. We still dont have the full 100 story. If this were the story where wed look to see who is taking cookies from the cookie jar were starting to see crumbles in all the different rooms and a lot of pieces and were trying to now find out where they all lead to. Peter baker, would they be better off just going for a special prosecutor to get it away from congress and to get it into a secret, you know, a secret situation where there would be fewer leaks and where they could put it on the side for a while until the report came out, until the end of it . Yes, i dont think theres any white house out there that likes the term special the procuteor. Theres bad history view from someone sitting in the oval office you give somebody the power to investigate things. You almost ensure theyre going to find something. President reagan, clinton, bush, you saw that in a number of instances. So dont think tres any enthusiasm for that in the white house and rig now congress of course is under the control of the republicans from their point of view, obviously, you know, it would take a lot to get them to say lets give up control of that investigation. So you know, President Trump says theres no there there. This is a partisan witch hunt, the phrase he used. The same phrase we should point out that moscow used. It was in fact the same phrase that Sergey Lavrov the foreign minister used. These are democrats trying to explain away the fact she lost the election by creating a succespicion of something nefars that wasnt there. The answers trump team have given over time increased suspicions rather than doused them. Thats i think something they need to figure out how to handle. Pete, on a completely different subject horrible instances a wave of antisemitic attacks and threats as well as the cemetery vandalism, and theres been an arrest today. An arrest today but the very odd story here, according to the fbi. This is a man who saw these, this wave of threats being made against Jewish Community centers over the past several months and decided to use that as cover to get back at a woman who broke up with him. This say man named Juan Thompson from st. Louis. Hes 31, arrested today. Used to live in new york, used to date a woman who works for a social Service Agency there and according to the fbi, they broke up last year, he started sending her harassing emails and then starts calling Jewish Community centers saying shes making the threats, giving her name, then making the threats in his name and telling the authorities well shes doing this to me. So they say he made eight calls in all, eight threats to the adl in new york, to a Jewish Community center there, a school, a museum, another facility in dallas, one in Santa Barbara san diego and another in michigan, so theyve arrested him today but basically they say this is a copycat. Remember, these jcc threats have been going on for months now and they still havent broken that case. Pete william on top of everything, thank you very much. And to mark murray and peter baker, thank you. And coming up, more on who is Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador at the center of the alleged ties with the Trump Campaign. More on that next right here on Andrea Mitchell reports, only on msnbc. I know ambassador kislyak. Hes a veteran of russian diplomacy and hes a hard guy to forget if youve met with him. Then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. My doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. She also prescribed lyrica. 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Our goal, without a doubt, is that all customers are satisfied before they leave. Welcome back. Rush aya russias veteran ambassador Sergei Kislyak finds himself in the middle of a white house scandal. Joining me is andre kozirev, russians foreign minister during the yeltsin years. Thank you. Tell me about this veteran diplomat who seems to be everywhere in washington thats of course a matter of controversy now for the Trump White House. He is a good diplomat. I actually promoted him. He was my deputy once. When you were the foreign minister. Absolutely, yes, so like lavrov by the way. Current foreign minister lavrov. Absolutely. In that sense i think i made good pickups. Real professionals and Sergei Kislyak, both theyrer is gays lavrov and kislyak. They are both professionals. Its painful even for me to see what course they are now serving. Th their professionalism is devoted to the putin regime. Thats painful for me morally but professionally they are doing a great job. The fact that he would be meeting with senator sessions who was so close to donald trump, that would be, what would be the reason to go and set up that meeting . For ambassador, its definition of the job. The job definition. Meet as much people especially knowing he was a surrogate for donald trump especially in september, so i mean its just normal procedure. He would then be writing back. He would file a report as any ambassador would . Of course. To moscow. But you know what . I guess professionally that the first he would report that sessions apparently didnt tell him to stop the hacking, to stop the interference into american domestic policies, and sessions says that he does not remember even conversation then. He said oh, we discussed ukraine. I mean, it was in september as far as i understand. Exactly. And in september, there was already lots of reports also from American Security services that there was hacking from russian sites. And american, sorry, but the american representative, american congressman senator meeting especially from the Armed Service committee, thats the message kitlyiac being esonal would mention the first in his cable that in the Armed Service committee, i was not even, not even reproached for that matter, not to say put on work that you dont do these things. That america will retaliate with full force to interference into our process, and thats the point which is missing in all the responses. I mean every people who are court or whatever all of a sudden remember that yes, they met with kislyak. I thought that they should have started their remembrance saying i told him, stop it. I told him, we will pay back, you know, like john mccain. That is so interesting. You are saying that all of these people from trump world should have been in their very first conversations with the ambassador saying stop this hacking. This is an attack against america, youre going to be retaliated against. Before hello and shake hands. Before you say hello and shake hands. Thats what i would expect, if i go, i mean i was not ambassador to United States but if i was at that time on trip to the United States, as a foreign minister, for instance, and of course i will try to meet if i had time with Armed Services Committee People to discuss a variety of things but first thing i would remember to my president back home that they did not mention even that. We can get away from that. What would Vladimir Putin, sitting in the kremlin, think, when he gets this report back from his ambassad, they didnt even mention it . Thats the message, that i can get away from that, or maybe even have a sympathy on that side, even though it was not said that yes, yes, go on, but the very fact, just imagine, im behaving fancifully to you or to the network, right . So we meet. If you dont mention even that, that i insulted you or i did something wrong, i say whats my conclusion . Go on. Right . She probably likes that. As simple as that. Speaking to someone who understands the kremlin better than any of us, thank you very much. Thank you. Its great to see you and good to meet you. Thank you. Joining me now is richard stengel, former undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and now fellow at Harvard School and msnbc analyst. This was interesting insight of a foreign minister who left because of his rejection of putinism. No, i really think kozyrevs observation none of the people meeting with russian government figures the first thing they should have said is quit messing in our country and trying to mess up our election. Thats what president obama said to putin when he met him in europe during the time of the election and their silence speaks volumes and as cozyrev said the first report theyll get back in the kremlin is saying nobody has brought this up to us. I do think its a very,ery good point. In the larger context a lot of meetings within the range of normality what diplomats would do and campaigns would do. What is not in the range of normality is denying it and not remembering it. That is very, very curious to say the least. I want to ask you about the state department that you served until obviously very recently, because were told the first briefing on monday. Umhum. We dont know how often that will take place. Theres been no other communications, no undersecretary, no deputy secretary, the key jobs havent been filled. We knew that Elliott Abrams was vetoed because he couldnt sort of pass that loyalty test. And we also dont see the secretary of state at the table, visitors trudeau, abe, netanyahu, although he had dinner separately but at the meetings with the president of the United States, from theresa may, what is happening with what seems to be the downgrading of the diplomatic influence in National Security . By the way, secretary clinton and secretary kerry my old boss would be pounding the table to make sure they were absolutely at the meetings. Of course you are the representative of American Foreign policy when youre secretary of state. I can tell you theres a lot of anxiety at the state department. Theres a lot of feeling that perhaps secretary tillerson is setting up a separate Foreign Policy apparatus. When he was head of exxon, he was not somebody who was used to talking to the press, not dealing with the press, so that bias seems to be there. The state department famously briefs every day. Its probably the only Foreign Ministry in the world that does so, and the public affrs department, which reported to me was very, very proud of that, and the thing is, the importance of that is that it not only are clats poare a articulates policy it helps to explain policy. It helps to think about what it should be and i think it does a service not only to people around the world, it does a service to americans being transparent about what our Foreign Policy is. I wanted to share with our audience and you to get you to react to a photo opportunity, this is happening at the Photo Opportunities with visitors yesterday the visitor was the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency obviously they oversee and safeguard the compliance of iran with the Nuclear Agreement and other agreements around the world. This turned out to be a 15second photo opportunity with secretary tillerson. Lets play that. Mr. Secretary can you do your kind of job with the kind of cuts they proposed . What does it say about the diplomacy in the administration. Do you think youll have a deputy any time soon . When do you think you might have a deputy . Thank you, this way please. Come on, lets go. Andrea, come on, guys. This way. Well, its awkward and embarrassing but its a job, somebodys got to do it but seriously. And im glad that youre doing it, andrea. Hes kind of just getting used to the job. That didnt really happen to him when he was head of exxon. I think in a situation like that, rather than answer the question thank you, well get back to you on all of that and were beginning to make appointments and all of that but i agree it sends the wrong message when youre stonewalling and dont have anything to say and certainly look, i hope he develops the expertise to be able to do that and they need to nominate people for jobs including a spokesperson and an assistant secretary for public affairs. And the other point that was made by former secretary of state but also former chairman of the joint chiefs colin powell in his speech in long island last night, you have 120 former three and fourstar generals and admirals writing a letter opposing the proposed drastic budget cuts at the state department. Umhum. Saying it makes us less safe, that you need development and you need embassies to be secure. You need foreign aid. Right. That makes us safer, as much as what we do with the pentagon and colin powell making that point, and nobody is speaking up from the state department against these proposed budget cuts. Yes. In my experience, andrea, working so closely with the military, they understand better than anybody the importance of soft power, right . You know the military is hard power but the state department is soft power and i do think that is very powerful and my old realm of Public Diplomacy needs to have the full funding to be able to execute those soft power things which help america. Rick stengel, thank you so much for your insights. Coming up next, President Trumps visit to an orlando school. Next hour its hitting one of the biggest lightning rod issues of Public Education today, school choice. More on that next on Andrea Mitchell reports. Stay with us. 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Lot of people object to public funds going out of the traditional Public Schools into public Charter Schools, but theres even more of a flair when you talk about taking taxpayer dollars and putting it into Religious Schools. Some people dont object to the idea of it being a Catholic School such as the one that the president and his secretary of Education Betsy Devos is visiting today but if you support one Religious School youve got to support all Religious Schools from catholic to jewish to muslim et cetera. Thats going to be a controversial issue for many people. Some think it will be an uphill battle for congress to approve Something Like that, but the president is coming here to say that he is in support of it, and betsy devos is as well. And betsy devos, she was controversial choice because of her hearing. How has she gotten off the ground as shes begun to travel around the country . Its been rocky if you will. In washington, d. C. , she went to visit a Public School and she was met with so many protesters she was turned away from the front door of the school and had to be escorted with guards into the side door. She felt that that was extremely offensive, because people are saying they want to hear a variety of voices and hers and what she represents should be heard as well. Highly controversial though. We could certainly not argue with the point that people should be different points of view should be heard and they are not protesting education secretary from entering a school. This is a continuing saga thank you very much. Coming up the u. S. Launching a new wave of air strikes in yemen. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. Whats going on here . You know how Ge Technology allows us to fix problems before they. They slow production, yeah. Well, no more catchy business acronyms. Wait, we dont need to smooch . 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The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. Usaa gives me the and the security just like the marines did. The process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like youre a part of the family. I love that i can pass the membership to my children. Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. The u. S. In the last two days has been conducting the first air strikes since the death last month of ryan owens. More than 20 strikes we know of an aggressive new wave against the terror group previewed by the president in his address to congress. Joining me is david kohn, msnbc National Security contributor. Good to see but good to see you. The initial strike that went awry and the white house and presidt claiming it was highly successful, john mccn, senator reed saying otherwise, our own reporting saying we dont net know how much intelligence and that certainly you cant call a raid with so many civilian casualties the loss of an American Navy s. E. A. L. , loss of the osprey, cant call that a success. However one qualifies it. But how big a problem was it with the government there . How destructive was that . It was disruptive with the Yemeni Government. Initially after the raid they put out word they were no longer going to cooperate with the United States going after aqap which is a dangerous terrorist organization that still has designs on the United States and elsewhere. And so not having the cooperation of the Yemeni Government would significantly impede our ability to go after aqap. Ultimately the governments were reversed but that was a real problem. The way the raid was approved was raised a lot of eyebrows. Dinner meeting with yes, general mattis and the chairman of the joint chiefs, general dunford but also Jared Kushner, not in the situation room, doing it in 25 or 30 minutes at the most 45 minutes by some reports, not in the swax room, spending hours drilling down on the risks, the benefits. Describe what the process ought to be like. First of all that dinner with steve bannon and Jared Kushner and not the state department, not the Intelligence Community, not the cia, talking with the it the about the potential raid and ramifications and how it ought to be structured that itself is, you know, far different from the way a final decision would have been made in the obama administration. Even before that there was no process to speak of. The way before a raid like this would come up through the process and at a minimum presented to debate and discuss and refined at the deputies committee, the subcabinet level meeting in the situation room with the deputy National Security adviser presiding, and youd have obviously the Defense Department there, youd have the Intelligence Community, youd have the state department. Youd have the justice department. Youd have others who had something to offer in thinking through this particular raid. That so far has been reported and as far as i know never occurred. And so its impossible to say it would have turned out differently, but theres a reason that that sort of rigorous process is put in place. Its to maximize the chance that you have a successful operation. In fact, according to some details that he were in the Washington Post this week, there was a tribal leader we first reported that he was the target or one of the targets and he has perhaps dual loyalty so that is the kind of information that analysts from the agency, from the cia might have been able to provide, and the people of that village then rose up and took arms against the americans and the emirates who were attacking of tribal loyalties, not because they were necessarily antiamerican, and thats where we suffered the casualties. Right. Its a very complicated part of the world. Aqap terrorist organization is embedded in yemen in various places but also strong tribal loyalties, thats why when you launch a raid and consider there is operations in a place like yemen, its important to understand the ground truth and thats one of the values of the Intelligence Community is to help understand what youre getting yourself into. One more question which has been raised, we are hearing from the Trump White House and Trump White House officials they inherited this. This was handed to them, launched days after they took office. You are a witness to this, was this a green lighted finished mission when it was turned over to the trump people . The short answer is thats not true. This particular raid, this concept of operations presented apparently to the president in that dinner meeting was not approved in the obama administration. I was there. I was in all those meetings. This was never approved. Thank you so much, david kohn. Very complicated, not only a complicated part of the world but a really complicated issue for this new administration. And coming up, take two, senator chris coombs, the democrat on the Judiciary Committee calling for attorney general sessions to come back and answer more questions. He joins me next on Andrea Mitchell reports. Stay with us. 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Delaware democrat chris coombs is one of the senators asking for more testimony from his former colleague. Senator, welcome. Thank you so much. What can he say when he comes back to explain how he answered the questions the first time around . Andrea if you watch a section of that confirmation hearing it seems senator sessions lied to the senate and Judiciary Committee when he did not answer truthfully and fully the questions asked by senator franken whether he had contact with senior russian owe if fishls. Attorney general sessions tried to explain that in context. I frankly think it would strengthen his case and Public Confidence in his service as attorney general if he would not rely on brief written first responses but come back and under oath answer questions for fully has he given the committee any indication whether hell do that . I dont know thats in the hands of the Committee Chair and ranking member. It is an important way for the Judiciary Committee to contribute to Public Confidence. This is the most important issue, whether or not the investigation into russian assault on our last election will be conducted fairl and thoroughly. If there are ass allegations its stonewalled for covered up that will linger for years. If it is fully investigated and the conclusion there wasnt collusion between the Trump Campaign at the highest levels and russian intelligence that will resolve the issue but if we dont have a fair and thorough and open investigation of this we are failing to defend our democracy and the best way to give people the confidence attorney general sessions is in fact going to recuse himself effectively and was not misleading the committee intentionally to have him answer questions and not just one or two questions in right but to thoroughly answer questions from the Judiciary Committee. One of your house colleagues adam schiff who is ranking on intelligence complaining and saying that they are not getting even a fraction of what they need to know from the fbi director after a threehour private session on the house side yesterday. Is the fbi director being forthcoming enough with the intelligence committees or is it more important for him to keep his Counter Intelligence investigation secret even from congress . Its important the outcome be fully shared with the intelligence committees of the house and the senate. Whether or not the russian intelligence and Senior Leaders including Vladimir Putin were cluding with the Trump Campaign at the highest levels to influence the outcome of our election. If the election is stonewalled or hidden away and were not able to get that on the senate or House Intelligence Committee that has consequences for our democracy. I urge the fbi director to make sure that the Counter Intelligence investigation is completed, is taken to its furthest conclusion and then all the products of that investigation are appropriately shared with the intelligence committees. Let me just clear up very briefly, do such transcripts exist . Is that what youre saying . I have not seen them. I believe they exist. Wow, thats news. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator coombs. Much more ahead on Andrea Mitchell reports. Well be right back. Like a clo. That driverless car . I have seen it all. Intels driving. The future traffic lights, street lamps. Business runs on the cloud. And the cloud runs on intel. I wonder what the other 2 runs on. car horn a heart attack doesnt or how healthy you look. No matter who you are, a heart attack can happen without warning. A bayer aspirin regimen can help prevent another heart attack. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Bayer aspirin. [car[clicking of ignition]rt] uh wha woof h woof wuh [silence] [engine roars to life] [dog howls] dramatic opera music swells from radio [howling continues] [kids cheering] [kids screaming] call the clown parents arent perfect but then they make us Kraft Mac Cheese and everythings good again. How to win at business. Step one point decisively with the arm of your glasses. Abracadabra. The stage is yours. Step two choose la quinta. The only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free nightinstantly and win at business. Joining me now for our daily fix, Jeanne Cummings and jailie pace Associated Press White House Correspondent. Julie how is the white house going to get around this Jeff Sessions issue . Are they first of all going to get behind him, going back and testifying again, or is it going to be written answers to questions . And are they going to be dead set against the special prosecutor, which might take the sting out of this controversy which isover whelming Everything Else right now. Yes its really interesting. In a lot of ways if the white house did just come out and say we would support a special prosecutor. We have nothing to hide, it really could ease some of the pressure thats on them right now. Were not seeing them go in that direction at this point. They feel like this is a political witch hunt, to quote some of the president s aides, and i think Jeff Sessions probably did himself some favors by recusing himself yesterday, but it doesnt alleviate the whole problem. These are going to be questions that are going to surround Jeff Sessions but also other people around the president and his staff. When you have revelations that continue to trickle out that now Jared Kushner met with the Russian Ambassador. You wonder if theres a canvassing going on behind the scenes to get everybody who may have had any contact with the ambassador. You the it out on the table before they have to continue to deal with the slow leaks every day. And im told there is a new tweet from the president himself, and that he tweeted out a picture of chuck schumer, there you see it, with Vladimir Putin, and im not sure i can read it, we should start an investigation immediately into senator schumer and his ties to russia and putin. Total hypocrite Jeanne Cummings . Well it wasnt senator schumers Political Campaign that benefited from the actions of russia. It was the president s. But and it goes beyond just the election. Hes taken a very different posture towards russia than weve seen many republicans and certainly president ial candidates. His attitude towards russia, we have had white houses come in say i want to reset and renew better relations with russia. President obama did that. President bush did that. President clinton even in the 90s did some outreach to russia. So thats not a new thought. Whats unusual here is that we have policy and we have a mindset, a sense of globalism and nationalism and all of those things lining up as well so its a very different relationship. And julie, what about the new espresso machine tom hanks sent to the White House Press corps, a new espresso machine with a note from tom hanks to the White House Press corps keep up the good fight for truth, justice and the american way especially for the truth party or the truth part rather, signed tom hanks. Its quite a fancy i have not personally had one but i will tell you its very fancy. Its very shiny. Its the third espresso machine that tom hanks has sent the White House Press corps over the last several years and i think he might be overestimating our ability to get things done nicely. We leave things kind of a mess in that press area so he might need to get a new one in line in a year or so. Its a nice gift. Jeanne cummings, the whole turmoil in this white house seems as though they didnt do ethics people. They sent up nominees who had not been vetted, they seemed to think the rules and the practices were irrelevant or that they were above having to follow any of these guidelines . Well, they had no experience. There were too few of them. The one thing that went well was the rollout of the Supreme Court nominee. The white house didnt do that. The Federalist Society did it and they know what theyre doing. So yes, they did a disservice to their cabinet nominees in that they were not properly prepare r testifying. Sessions should have known and seen that question coming, and been ready for it. So there have been, you know, the president has a right to complain about some democratic stonewall on his nominees, but theres a lot of blame in that bhou white house, too. Jeanne cummings and jailie pace have an espresso on me for tom hanks. Thank you that does it for this report. Follow us online on facebook and on twitter mitchellreports. Craig melvin is up next here on msnbc. Good friday to you and a good friday to you as well. On another busy afternoon, what next . Attorney general Jeff Sessions says hell sit out the investigation to russias ties to the election and the Trump Campaign, but is that enough . And how does the investigation now move forward . Plus school choice. President trump visiting a Catholic School in orlando this hour to promote his education agenda focusing on school choice. Well go to florida in a moment and ready to roll. President obama reportedly eyeing a political comeback. Whats the next phase of his public life . Well get to that in a moment. We start with president trum