Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Kate Snow 20170216

Grievances. Here is president donald trump. We have to talk about it to find out whats going on because the press, honestly, is out of control. To be honest, i inherited a mess. Its a mess. At home and abroad. A mess. This administration is running like a finetuned machine. From a lastminute press conference to a new cabinet nomination, it has been a whirlwind, not just day, id say the last two hours at the white house. Our team is all in place to help us make sense of all of it and break it down. The obvious starting place is at the white house. My colleague Kelly Odonnell is is there for us this afternoon. Reporter it was a theater, it was emotion, there were facts in there as well and some news was made on a variety of policy subjects. Thing tas will probably get less attention. But as you pointed out, this began as a means to introduce a new nominee for department of labor. Yet he was not here. Which is also unusual. Alexander acosta, who will be the president s choice after the failure of the andy puzder nomination. The president went through a review of his first weeks in office. He aired a series of grievances, many aimed at the media. Saying he wasnt treated fairly or theres a sense of hatred, he described, a dislike towards him and his policies. He also talked about the leaking, which is its important to describe the distinctions. There are leaks where there are officials providing information to reporters in a very standard, transactional way. Then there are leaks that are unlawful, classified information, for example, would be an unlawful leak. Sometimes he uses those words interchangeably describing very different things. He was pressed on the issue of it came up during the Campaign Season with wikipedia where he was at times almost an advocate for the use of wikipedia to air things out. The same time as president , very concerned, very upset about leaks related to calls he made with foreign leaders, information about his now former National Security adviser and his contacts with russia. So, here is the president s response when he was pressed about his own advocacy for get out the information, get out the leaks. So in one case youre talking about highly classified information. In the other case youre talking about john podesta saying bad things. I will say this, if john podesta said that about me and he was working for me, i would have fired him so fast your head would have spun. He said terrible thins about her. But it wasnt classified information. Reporter so what he was dealing with there, we recall wikileaks effectively published the entire email account of john podesta, chairman of Hillary Clintons campaign, the contents of that email treasure trove was really stolen information. That was published through the campaign. There were some very personal and sort of behindthescenes business dealings about thenhillary clinton the candidate. So, today we again saw the president reaching back to the campaign atmosphere, the campaign circumstances, recounting his Electoral College win and previewing this saturday he will be holding a Campaign Event in orlando. When i say Campaign Event, i mean that specifically. That it will be paid for by campaign not white house. Some way his airing of concerns, grievances, his list of things he believes hes accomplished in the early weeks is probably a template for what that florida event this weekend will be like. He often talks about the fact that the public who voted for him sees these things very differently than often the media does or the reporters who cover him. He also at times sort of bashed the media on the head and at the same time tried to take questions and acknowledge he can handle a tough story if its truthful. He did talk about the big headline, of course. He said he does not direct michael flynn, former National Security adviser, to have conversations with the Russian Ambassador during the transition that related to sanctions imposed by president obama on the have same day. The firing, he says, was about not being truthful about that, not the underlying conduct. He also said he has no knowledge of any Campaign Staffers, aides, associates, who would have had ongoing contact with russia during the Campaign Season. Insisting he himself has not. Just on that one topic there was a lot there. He also said he would have his new executive order relating to the travel ban early next week and tailored to address concerns that came up from the courts. He talked about so many issues, but this is an hourplus with the president of the United States where you have to see it in terms of the spectacle that it was and imbedded within that information, sort of tension, correct facts, maybe not so correct facts. It was dense in its newsworthiness. And sort of Donald Trump Style of trying to be the one who can drive a message. And it really seems as this whole event today was a surprise even to senior staffers as he made the decision that he wanted to get out there, wanted to take questions and wanted to try to set the record straight in his own way. Kate . Thats interesting that it might have been a surprise to the senior staff, kel y thanks for that. Would you stay with us, please . Weve been showing our boxes here. We have a lot of people with us in hour. Thak goodness to help us break down. Im joined by karen fin y democratic strategist and former Senior Adviser for hillary clinton. Also ron n aflt ring, National Spokesman for the ted cruz campaign. Military analyst colonel jake jacobs and roland martin, editor of news one now. Thank you for being here. Im going to start with ron, you get the honors because im curious as a republican strategist, as somebody whos been in the room when a boss says, i want to go out there, i want to talk to the press, have you heard anything like this before and who do you think the audience was . This is a great question and a great topic. First thing, ive tried to make sense of all of this. The parameter i use when evaluating every step donald trump takes is, does this advance the conservative movement . Does this advance the cause of putting conservative Public Policy into action . If it does, then its good. And if it doesnt, then its bad or a distraction or neutral. In this case the new labor secretary appointees, thats good, a solid appointment, just like many other of his appointments have been. When donald trump its interesting. When donald trump picks these fights with the immediate, yeah which has been ongoing, what it really does is marginalizes the democrats. The democrats are like a third actor in the entire process. You have donald trump in the white,e hous you have versus the media, and tn the democrats are like sitting there, little minorities in the house and senate. Theres no National Leader of the democratic party. They do not speak with a single voice. Chuck schumer does not represent the mainstream of america. These are very conservative from urban centers. Donald trump is creating a political dynamic that works very well for him and is incredibly marginalized for his supporters, no . Thats what comes out of this for me. Ron, i dont know if you can hear me. I can hear you. I was just saying for his supporters, no . As you just described the people that cheer when he says these things about the media are the people who voted for him. I guess to, karen, what would be your response to that, that this simply makes democrats look small . We should be very clear about what the strategy was here today. That was, donald trump was trying to deflect from the question about what did he know and when did he know it and what are the nature of those conversations that we now know that general flynn had and potentially others in trumps inner circle over the course of the campaign may have had with whether it would be russian intelligence officials or others in putins inner circle . Clearly that was the strategy for today. It puts republicans in a box because, as you note, they dont necessarily want to have to answer questions about whether or not theyre going to be investigating when today were seeing they want to theyre saying theyre going to investigate the leakers but not actually investigate the content but the potential that National Security was compromised. I think this is a situation where democrats can help apply some pressure to republicans in congress where americans will have questions about whether what were the nature of these conversations and what is the nature of the information. Consider we have secretary of state tillerson today meeting at the g20 with his counterpart from russia, in part, talking about military cooperation in syria. We also know that flynn may have talked about the idea of cooperation with russia prior President Trump said today, asked four different ways and four different times, he at one point said he did not have any knowledge of anyone on his campaign having connections or contacts with russians. Just for clarity, that is what the president said. He also did suggest that, you know, he might have told flynn to go ahead and make have those conversation if and he said, if i didnt do that, i should have. It was somewhat vague, quite frankly, because there were questions about the nature of the content of the conversation and trump was trying to normalize those conversations and say, oh, though are calls he should have been making. Thats his job. More to russia. There was a lot of conversation today about russia. I want to play the sound when President Trump was asked specifically about recent acts by russia, things that were provocative and how would he respond. Take a listen. I dont want to be one of these guys that say, yes, heres what were going to do. I dont have to do that. There will be i dont have to tell you what im something to do in north korea. Wait a minute. I dont have to tell you what im going to do in north korea. And i dont have to tell you what im going to do with iran. You know why . Because they shouldnt know. Eventually you guys are going to get tired of asking that question. When you ask me, what am i going to do with the ship, with the russian ship, as an example, im not going to tell you. Colonel jack jacobs, that ship hes referring to, i believe s a subma reerngs isnt it, off the coast of long island, new york. But he was asked about a series of things. His point s why would i telegraph what im going to do. He also talked today about military restructuring and rebuilding the u. S. Military. Your response just in that vein, just to everything you heard him say about the military. Its true in the military, the first thing you want to do is tell the enemy what youre going to do because the element of surprise is one of the elements of war. Were not in the middle of a war. Were trying to make russia do things we would like them to do and keep them from doing things we dont want them to do. In that kind of circumstance, the best thing you can do is to telegraph, to say, im going to do this and then go ahead and do it. If you take a look at whats happened so far, we actually havent done anything. Different situation in the middle of a war. I want to bring in april ryan, a White House Correspondent and Washington Bureau chief for the american urban radio networks. If you were watching the press conference, you saw april stand and ask a question of the president about urban areas and inner cities and what would be his april, i think you had said, what would be your urban agenda, words to that effect. I dont know if we have the tape of that. Do we have tape . We do. Why dont we play it and then ill ask you more about it. Are you going to club the cbc, mr. President n your conversations with your urban agenda, your inner city agenda, as well include who . The Congressional Black Caucus and the congressional i would. I tell you what, you want to set up the meeting . Do you want to set up the meeting. No, no. Are they friends of yours. No, set up the meeting. I know some of them set up a meeting. I would love to meet with the black caucus. I think its great, the Congressional Black Caucus. I think its great. Were you surprised by that response . Yes. I am not a fa sill stater. I am a White House Correspondent, a reporter, a journalist. I can say this, many of the cbc members have contacted me since that question and answer. They are very eager to meet with this president on the issues. His urban agenda that they deal with on a daily basis. I was just talking to one Congress Person talking on the hill how they were dealing with issues of s. N. A. P. And how they had to figure out if kids would get sugary drinks anymore through s. N. A. P. There are a lot of issues going on. He talked about crime in chicago. He talked about housing. He talked about a lot of different issues that affect the urban community. Also theres a piece of the historically black colleges and universities, executive order expected to come out later this month this hour. No, later this month. An executive order coming out this month can i stop you . I thought he said he was going to sign something this afternoon no, that was a mistake. That was a mistake whats happening is there will be an executive order later this month on hbc use. Were hearing theyre going to take the Hbcu Initiative out of the purview of the department of the education and place it under the purview of the white house and build out some kind of Office Around that. Now, the cbc is very concerned about that. They feel theyve carried the ball on that for many years and they should be involved in these issues as well. So i would be very interested in watching the meeting and reporting on the meeting. If the president would like to have me in the meeting to report that, that would be good. As a reporter. As a reporter. I would like to sit there and see what theyre saying but i will not convene, facilitate, nothing. Let me bring in roland martin, whos champing to get in. Black republicans desperately want trump to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus because president obama did not meet with the black caucus for an entire year. For people that dont know what the cbc is, its a group of actually the Largest Group of Democratic Caucus in terms of 49 or so. Thats first. But theyre not all democrats either. Not all democrats. Mia love out of utah is a member, will hurd, tim scott. Butterfield, former chair, say they have discussed meeting with him, have not formalized the position. Congressman richmond is the new cbc chair after a swearingin ceremony, and Anna Roosevelt was at the swearingin and they had not made the decision yet. A lot of black republicans want him to meet with them because they want him to say he met with them sooner than president obama as part of their strategy. So, well see exactly what happens there. I dont know if he wants to take their questions, though. April . I think roland is right, but i think its more so about the issues on the table because ive talked to people like congressman cummings who President Trump did talk about in that meeting. The congressman was wanting to talk about the high price of prescription drugs and also talk about voter fraud that the president was talking about, but issues of Voter Suppression the black community has dealt with. There are so many issues on the table. There are so many concerns about the prior rhetoric before this president came into office. They want to work with him on issues that pertain to the black community. We are still a community. With the highest numbers of negatives in almost every category. So, it is important and imperative the voices are meeting with the president. Well, max ion waters has made it clear, she will not be at any meeting with donald trump. Out of principle she said that. Let me go back to ron and karen who are still with us. One is a moment i think may get a lot of attention over the next 24 hours. Two different moments in the press conference but well isolate one and play some sound. The president was asked about antisemitic incidents and a rise in the number being recorded by groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was asked about that. I think this clip of sound is where the question was not about the president himself. The reporter actually said, im not asking about you, sir, im asking about the rise of inciden incidence. Heres what he said. Number one, i am the least antisemitic person youve ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism, the least racist person. In fact, we did very well relative to other people running as a republican quiet, quiet, quiet. See, he lied about he was going to get up and ask a very straight, simple question. So, you know, welcome to the world of the media. But let me just tell you something, that i hate the charts. I find it repulses ive. I hate even the question because people that know me, and you heard the Prime Minister, you heard netanyahu yesterday, did you hear him, bibi, he said, ive known donald trump for a long fitime and then he said, forget it. You should take that instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that. Ron, so he takes issue with the question itself but, again, he was asked about incidents being on the rise in the country. Critics would say he made a mistake by not saying simply, you know, i reject antisemitism in all its forms. Yeah, i think that this is a case where the question that was asked and the question that was heard were two different things. Certainly we have seen online and social media provide a vector for some antisemitic groups to, you know, express their views, you know, as repulses ive as they are, as other groups have taken to social media as well. As for the question which the president was responding to, at least the one i think he heard, he was quick to point out his relationship with israel and netanyahu and the like. I dont think theres any question that President Trump has been a strong support of israel and he values his relationship with the Prime Minister and i think that should put any questions there to rest specifically. Karen, i want to take time to play one more piece of sound if we can. This is about the press and about the first amendment. Lets play that piece. Arent you concerned, sir, are you undermining the peoples faith in the first amendment, freedom of the press, the press in this country, when you call stories you dont like fake news . Why not just say its a story i dont like . When you call it fake news youre undermining confidence in our news media. Isnt that important. I understand that. Youre right about that except this. See, i know when i see get good and sometimes get bad. I say, wow, thats going to be a great story and i get killed. I know whats good and bad. Id be a pretty good reporter. Not as good as you. I know whats good and whats bad. Have you to be a little bit fair. Thats the way the public sees. They see its not fair. You take a look at some of your shows and you see the bias and the hatred and the public is smart. They not it. So, karen, to you the president , i know from people ive talked to in washington, he feels like hes not getting a fair shake from the press. He came out there today making sure the American People heard directly from him about his accomplishments and successful meetings hes had with foreign leaders, so what do you hear when you listen to him . Well, you know, i hear other politicians who, you know, dont always like the coverage they get but i think that answer was the most sorted of illustrative as thinskinned as weve always known donald trump has. The reality is, when youre the president , youll have good stories and bad stories and coverage you like and coverage you dont like. From that question he went on to say he just wanted some nice questions. You dont get to pick. You dont get to decide. He used a tactic there that he also used in a previous question, which was, he sort of flipped it around and decided to answer the question that he wanted to answer rather than what was actually being asked of him. This is something that makes him very effective. And the people who follow him on twitter and the people who he is clearly trying to speak very directly around the media to his supporters, to his followers, and continue to cast the media, you know, in this negative light look, i dont always agree having worked for other politicians, i dont always agree with the coverage we get either. But the point is, youre going to get good and youre going to get bad. Clearly, this president wants to have a lot more control over as a former ceo is used to having, a lot more control over the narrative and controlling his brand. And is not used to being accountable to answer questions he may not want to answer. For example, on the question about antisemitism, what about the nature of the tone . Were not talking about hatred. The nature of the tone that he set both during the campaign and certainly since with this muslim ban which is now resulted accord fog Southern Poverty Law Center in increase in antimuslim. We talk about the tone, the president should look in the mirror which is something hes not equipped to do. I want to give april the last word here because roland just handed me his phone and is sharing with me a tweet from the cbc, the Congressional Black Caucus. They right high real donald trump, were the cbc. We sent you a letter on january 19th. You never wrote us back. Sad. That just coming out just a few minutes ago. So, what happens next there, april . And what else do we expect this afternoon . Well, what happens next, you know, there are people here in the white house who are going through what he said and some people on the side actually writing in books what he was saying, so i believe theres going to be some type of followthrough, followup. He has people in place that can definitely make this meeting happen or at least some members or at least the heads, the leadership of the cbc to come meet. So, they will look for that letter. If not they will try to figure out some kind of way because he made a declaration he wanted to meet with them, be i facilitate or someone else, and im not going to fa sill state, im just saying that here. Thats roland. Roland, you can call him. You can do what you want, but i, april ryan, White House Correspondent, will not be facilitating this coming together of the cbc or lack thereof with the president of the United States. April ryan, thank you so much. Karen finney, ron naring, colonel jack jacobs, roland martin, Kelly Odonnell who started us off, thanks to all of you for being here. For more now i want to bring in democratic senator chris kuhns of delaware. Nice to have you with us. Nice to be with you, kate. Were you able to hear much of the president s press conference . I didnt hear much of the conference but ive certainly heard a lot about it just in the last few minutes on your show. Was hairragz, evising, even fo. I was left with one of the main things he said, which is he had no knowledge of any contacts between his Campaign Staff and russia and then he didnt direct general mike flynn to contact the Russian Ambassador but that he should have. That he did nothing wrong. I think those are very striking statements and deserve closer scrutiny by committees here in the senate. Let me just just to play devils advocate, what the president said about his administration and about democrats. He said, his white house is rung like a, quote, finetuned machine. He cant get his cabinet approved. He commented on how long it is taking and might be a record length of time to get everybody approved. He said the democrats are doing this to him. Youre all delaying. He said you have nothing going and you would be better served if you would let his cabinet members through to he could get a functional administration going more quickly. Sure, that would be great if we would simply let all of his cabinet members through without doing our job, which is advice and consent. I understand why President Trump may be frustrated that its taking us a few weeks to review the folks he nominated for his cabinet, but in the case of the several key and most contentious nominees, including his nominee for labor secretary, who withdrew because he couldnt get sufficient republican support, President Trump has nominated an unprecedented number of billionaires with very complex financial circumstances, potential conflicts of interest. Many have never served in government before so theyve never been vetted before. Clearing the fbi background check and the office of government ethics check took longer than has been the case in previous administrations. And last, a number of them had very contentious records. They had, for example, in the case of scott pruitt, nominated to run the epa, his previous experience is largely suing the epa, trying to undermine the clean water act, Clean Air Act and many of the proenvironment directives of the obama administration. In the case of miss devos, now secretary of education, a billionaire friend of President Trumps. She has no significant experience in public education. Shes never been a teacher, principal, superintendent, doesnt have a degree in public education. His sole involvement in education has been trying to undermine the Financial Stability of the Public Schools of the state of michigan. So, he may be upset that members of his cabinet are not yet confirmed, but in a few key cases thats because they are unprecedented nominations, fwoelgs limited experience and folks with significant wealth that has complicated their nominations. What about the newest nomination, the reason for this press conference in the beginning, Alexander Acosta picked as the new nominee for secretary of labor. Hes most recently the dean of the Florida International University College of law. Hes got a lot of credentials. What do you think . Well, all ive seen is his credentials but they are impressive. Harvard law degree, service on the third circuit, deanship of the law school and brief term on the nlrb. Thats quite a break from puzder, who was previous nominee who withdrew because of a significant amount of challenges, who had a record of facing a difficult allegations as a Business Leader of Sexual Harassment and assault amongst his employees and some very challenging allegations related to a previous divorce that he had gone through. So, i think President Trump is choosing someone more likely to be confirmed because hes previously been confirmed. Look, have i voted for several of President Trumps nominees. Secretary mattis, for example, and for the sba administrator, linda mcmahon, folks who i met with and after their confirmation hearings i viewed as qualified and competent but i havent hesitated to do my job and vote against those who were unqualified or had significant challenges, clearing ethics background or policy position i think are outside the mainstream. Im glad that hes moved quickly to nominate someone for secretary of labor but i dont apologize for one minute for standing up against some of his more extreme nominees for the cabinet. Senator chris coons of delaware. Appreciate it. Up next, much more on President Trump at times contentious lengthy press conference this afternoon. Well be right back. Their experience is coveted. Their leadership is instinctive. Theyre experts in things you havent heard of researchers of technologies that one day, you will. Some call them the best of the best. Some call them veterans. We call them our team. Ive been blind since birth. I go through periods where its hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. Learn about non24 by calling 8448442424. Or visit my24info. Com. Have you any wool . Eep, no sir, no sir, some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters, smart tv and gaming system. Luckily, the Geico Insurance agency recently helped baa baa with renters insurance. Everything stolen was replaced. And the hooligan who lives down the lane was caught selling the stolen goods online. Visit geico. Com and see how easy it is to switch and save on renters insurance. Im ricardo, a sales and Service Consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. Here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. Every situation is a little different. It could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. Sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. One of the great things about comcast, theres always room to move up. Of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. Michael flynn i asked for his resignation. He respectfully gave it. He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President pence, whos with us today, and i was not happy with the way that information was given. He didnt have to do that because what he did wasnt wrong. What he did in terms of the information. He saw what was wrong is the way that other people including yourselves in this room were given that information. Because that was classified information that was given illegally. Thats the real problem. That is President Trump, another section of the press conference that he held this afternoon. While that was going on, our friend Greta Van Susteren was int interviewing Prime Minister netanyahu. You picked quite a day to be in the room with netanyahu while the president spoke for more than an hour. I was looking at your snapchat during the commercial break, so i know you asked him about israeli settlements, which of course is a big concern. The president said yesterday he wanted israelis to hold back on settlements. He didnt want to talk about that. He was very dismisses ive of the settlement issue as though its not a problem. Its a big problem here in the United States. It has been to be president s obama, President Trump in terms of figuring out a way to get path to peace in the middle east. He was quite dismisses ive as an issue. He said theres a path to peace and that path is to rely on arab nations to sort of pitch in and get a more Regional Response in order to get the palestinians to recognize israels right to exist. But didnt want to talk about settlements at all with me. What did he say about his meetings yesterday and his relationship both with the white house and President Trump and i know he was up with speaker ryan last night. Did he talk about that . He repeated what hes often said, he has a strong relationship with the United States. Now, it was obvious when he was talking to me, he was telling me how much he liked working with the United States and President Trump. I picked up that he wasnt particularly fond of working all the time with president obama. They had a very, very chilly relationship. And i sort of took away from it that he saw this as, quote, a new beginning to try to get some sort of peace in the middle east. This is no easy task, as you so well know, to get peace in the middle east. I think he feels somewhat emboldened by the fact that he has President Trump with him this time and not president obama. But im not so sure what the two what difference its going to make because until in his mind the palestinians recognize israels right to exist, and their nose is way out of joint over these settlements, even though the Prime Minister didnt want to talk about it, i dont know how we get there. Although both President Trump yesterday and Prime Minister netanyahu to me today seemed to think theyre going to get the arab nations in the region to help with the palestinians. In part, because israel has a much better relationship with these arab nations. Theyve been sharing a lot of technology and also provided security, help in terms of getting isis. So, i dont know. We wish the best but it is an uphill battle. Did he get specific with you . Did he name which countries they might be thinking of reaching out to . I asked him that. Egypt . Saudi arabia . Kate, i asked him but he dodged that one. Look, hes you know, hes very smart. He knows what he wants to say and the message he wants with the American People and the one he doesnt. I asked him that very pointed question, which countries, and he wouldnt tell me. You know, hes hes one of the most skilled people and he cares deeply for the people of israel and he really wants to protect them, but he does come here with a strategic mission. And thats to get whatever all the backing he can out of the United States because his people, every single day of the week, are at high risk with missiles coming in from all different places. Of course, as he mentioned yesterday to President Trump and mentioned to me today, is that theres a missile that the iranians tested with in hebrew about death to israel or Something Like that. So you know, look, its a tiny country in a very dangerous region with a lot of neighbors that are seeking to destroy them. Youve got the palestinians who are incredibly unhappy and they want their right to exist. You know, maybe President Trump can throw a hail mary pass and change things but its going to be hard. An interesting conversation to hear. On your show tonight for gretas entire interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right here on msnbc. After the break ill be joined by congressman Chris Collins. He was sitting right next to the president today this morning at a Group Meeting with the president s earliest supporters. You see him on the right side of your screen. Well ask him what he learned at the white house this morning coming up. To folks everywhere whose diabetic. 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Find out how American Express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open. Com. We are continuing to follow a very busy day in the Trump Administration in washington. Before the president s News Conference, we saw the president meeting with republican members of congress. These are some who were the first to support his president ial campaign. Sitting to the president s left, to our right, is congressman Chris Collins of new york. And he joins me now from capitol hill. Congressman, thanks for being with us. Good to be with you. It was a great day. I want to start by asking about that meeting because this was prior to the press conference we all watched that went on for more than an hour. The president had a lot to say and really seemed to want to air some grievances and say, you know, this is what ive been accomplishing. Did he express that to you . Was he frustrated this morning . Yes. We certainly talked about that and he shared that frustration. But it was a great time for the 11 of us, the first 11 members of congress, i was certainly number one february 24th a year ago, to get together as kind of a reunion of what we call the trump caucus, where we were pretty small group there back in march a year ago. Certainly grew as Trumps Campaign gathered steam and ultimately he became a nominee. But it was his way of thanking us. He and i talked about it a week ago. We made it happen today. He took u into the oval office, which was a real treat for any of us, not just our meeting in the roosevelt room, and this was we talked about the campaign, where we are today, what were hearing in our 11 districts. He really likes to hear what real people at the home depot and the supermarket are saying and so we were able to share that with him. And talked about repeal and replace of obamacare, tax reform infrastructure. So, it was a very wideranging conversation for about an hour. And we were re honored to be there. 11 of you in there. I have to ask, congressman, because i saw you yesterday on capitol hill, its been a rocky couple of weeks, right . I mean, you had the court with the executive order on immigration. You had the flynn resignation. Yesterday you had the withdrawal of andy puzder for labor secretary. And i sense there is some republicans, your own party, who are frustrated and worried and concerned about the state of the white house. What do you say to them . I can assure you the 11 of us, who were the earliest supporters who he heard all the pundits saying all the things they said leading up to ultimately Donald Trumps election as president , we are just thrilled with what hes accomplished in less than four weeks, even standing in the face of all the objections of senator schumer and the like. I would say to other republicans, although im not hearing a lot of that, i would say, you know, chill out. Hes getting a lot done. All of his promises on securing the border, getting the wall built, moving forward. Were marking up the repeal and replace obamacare a week after next. Were making a lot of progress on fundamental tax reform. Hes got, i think, 12 or 13 of his 15 cabinet officials finally in place. Earlier today the wall street journal reported intelligence officials have withheld sensitive intelligence information from the president himself because theyre concerned that it could be leaked or compromised. The president in his press conference called that report false. We also learned today that the president from the white house we learned that hes asking billionaire businessman, who i dont know, you may know, steve feinberg, to sort of head up a look at intelligence and review the u. S. Intelligence agencies. Do you think thats necessary . Do you understand why the president s doing that . First of all, im not involved in any of those type of discussions and im on energy and commerce. Im not on the intel committee. It would be very disturbing if there was any truth to any Intelligence Group or committee withholding any information from the president of the United States and commander in chief. I can assure you, President Trump would not tolerate that for even one second. So, when he says he does not believe any of thats true, i will accept that. If it did turn up there was, i would say there were some heads that would be rolling for sure. He didnt mention to you all today this idea of having a review of the intelligence agencies . That didnt come up . No. We talked about a lot of things. That in particular did not. Does that i mean, democrats are saying, why would you need that . Youve got a director of national intelligence. Youve got a director of the cia. Why do you need to review and people inside the Intelligence Community, as you know, a lot of folks are expressing concerns to the media that they dont like the way President Trump is treating them. Well, if the president wants a review, the president will have a review. I dont that was not something that we talked about. Hes just now getting his team in place. Theres no question that Intelligence Community has, in fact, leaked confidential phone calls between the president and mexico, between the president and argentina, certainly between National Security adviser flynn and the Russian Ambassador. These were transcripts leaked to the New York Times and others. Now, thats a criminal offense that can put somebody in jail for ten years. And that is very concerning. Theres only one place that kind of information could have come from, and that is the Intelligence Community. You mentioned general flynn. I have to ask you one last thing, congressman. You were highlighted on the late show with Stephen Colbert on tuesday night. This happened because of an appearance you made on cnn that morning, on valentines day, and you were asked about speaker ryan and leader mcconnell and why they havent responded yet to flynns resignation. You said it was because they were having a valentines Day Breakfast with their wives. This is what the late show did with that. Let me play a little clip. This is congressman, happy voluntarilien tines day. Oh, is it valentines day . I hadnt noticed. So, did you and the congressman have voluntarilien tines Day Breakfast this morning . Well, that is what i was hoping for but he was gone before i woke up. Off to cnn. So, i had breakfast for one. Okay. Its obviously an actress playing the part of your wife. Two questions, is your wife how is your wife . Is she okay . And, secondly, do you think do you need to laugh at this stuff and maybe President Trump could take a lesson from you and laugh at the comedy instead of being angry at saturday night live . I certainly did laugh about it. My joke about Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan having breakfast with their wives. Everyone would know that was a valentines day lightheart comment. Yes, i did laugh. I will tell you, my wife was just impressed that Christine Baransky was playing her, famous actress. Everyone who says im fair game, they really should not have covered my wife in a parody, suggesting shes drinking wine breakfast, lunch and dinner. My wife did laugh, my daughter did laugh because we get up in the morning, laugh at ourselves and it was a very interesting parody they did. To some it was out of bounds, but, you know, we were on Stephen Colbert, so pretty cool. Theres that. Congressman Chris Collins of new york, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Much more on what we heard from the president today. Also, a factcheck that came from our own peter alexander. First, something different. This video of dads valentine ballet class. I love this, at philadelphia dance center. 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Now she sends invoices, sees when theyve been viewed andtadahpaid twice as fast for free. Visit quickbooksdotcom. Economic advisers for president obama. When we talk about 2008 2009, austin, you remember that inside out. You were living it. You were a part of it. Does the president have a leg to stand on when he says i have inherited an economic mess . No, of course not as ali said in the last seven years weve added 15 million jobs. I didnt know what planet the guy was speaking from. But i wont say i am surprised because he has said things like that before. He makes the point in the same press conference he was talking about his gigantic Electoral College victory, bigger than anyone since reagan, which isnt true either. He was simultaneously accusing the media of fake news while quoting statistics like that. Very strange. Were showing the numbers now. Peter alexander brought it up at the News Conference with the president. He was, indeed, not accurate, what the president said. Back to what you said a moment ago about jobs. Thats something weve heard again and again from this white house, this president , that we are losing american jobs. Here is a clip of something he said at the press conference. Do we have that . Let me read do i have i dont have the words in front of me. He essentially talked about the need to bring back jobs to america and the fact that Many Companies have moved overseas. He took credit for bringing jobs back. He took credit for a lot of the auto manufacturers who in recent weeks have said theyre going to bring production back here. Does he deserve some credit at least for those what he calls deals . My view was you had an mvp quarterback in for the whole season, for seven years. In the last 30 seconds of the super bowl they wanted to give the guy off the bench the ability to tell his grandkids i played in the super bowl. He comes in in the last 30 seconds, they win the game, he says, look, i won the super bowl. I kind of think donald trump is in that situation. We have had as ali said, 80something months of job growth. Maybe he deserves a little credit for one factory where he got 500 jobs to stay instead of moving in mexico. The numbers we should remember is that in the last year or so we have created about 180,000 jobs a months or in that area. Thats what the economy creates right now. And guys like austin, when he was in government, they are trying to up the number to 200, 250. Last month we saw 227,000 jobs. Its terrific for the families involved when you create 500 or a 1,000 jobs. President s get too much blame and too much credit for job creation. You need to create an environment. Its not up to the president to create the jobs individually. We have to leave it at that for this hour. Austin, thank you for being with us. Ali, thank you. Appreciate it. We will be right back after a quick break. Tech this mom didnt have time to worry about a cracked windshield. So she scheduled at safelite. Com and with safelites exclusive on my way text she knew exactly when id be there, so she didnt miss a single shot. I replaced her windshield giving her more time for what matters most. Tech howd ya do . Player we won tech nice thats another safelite advantage. Mom thank you so much team sing safelite repair, safelite replace. Introducing new depend real fit briefs. Now more breathable than ever. In situations like this, theres no time for distractions. Its not enough to think im ready. I need to know im ready. No matter what lies ahead. Get a free sample at depend. Com that will do it for me. Ill see you back here tomorrow afternoon at 3 00 eastern, noon pacific. Up next, Steve Kornacki takes over. Thanks. Good afternoon. I i im Steve Kornacki live in new york. This is where i usually tell you about all the different stories breaking in the political and news world today, tell you about how were going to talk about them during the show. You know what . There is really only one thing that anyone is talking about right now, donald trump and that press