best. just today retired navy add mir mike mullen, he served as joint chiefs chairman from 2007 to 2011, he penned an op-ed for the new york times saying i was on the national security, bannon doesn t belong there. he of course is speaking about stephen bannon and his elevated role in the trump white house. now, mike mullen s comments are not necessarily unique. throughout the campaign, we heard from dozens and dozens of national security experts that said the arguments that donald trump was campaigning on didn t hold water. he didn t have an understanding of the complicated issues we face in national security. so while mike mullen s piece is strong, do you think president trump will listen? i m not sure. i find it fascinating he s decided he s going to visit as his first major military command that he went to central command and will get briefed in by
reporter: indeed. he created some waves over the weekend when he effectively drew a moral equivalency between russian president vladimir putin and some of the leaders here in the united states. he was pressed by bill o reilly who said vladimir putin s a killer. he said, well, some people here aren t any better. so, a lot of people took exception to that. politically it was challenging for some members of his own party, republicans, senate majority leader, for example, mitch mcconnell, who distanced himself from those comments. ben sass also distanced himself. it s yet another instance of the president saying something that is controversial that republicans are then pressed on. today, though, in this speech, kate, he really tried to keep the focus on national security to turn the page on some of those weekend controversies. kristen welker down there in florida. thank you so much. for a closer look i want to bring in msnbc chief international security and diplomacy analyst, admiral
meet the press over the weekend. take a listen. it s very frustrating to the president, our whole administration, millions of americans who want to see judges that will uphold the law. the president of the united states has, urnds the constitution to manage who comes into this country. reporter: chuck pressed vice president pence on whether they should scrap this and try to get that ban issued legislatively. he did not indicate that they were planning to go that route at this point in time. that s the reaction from the white house. it is a heated one. meanwhile, president trump will be here in tampa later on today, steph. he s going to have his first major meeting with u.s. troops. he s going to get briefed by top defense officials and going to deliver a speech and try to put the focus on national security. steph? i want to bring in our panel for the hour. rick served as president of obama under public diplomacy and
campaigned differently. this after a war of words with bill clinton. bill clinton saying president-elect trump isn t very smart and saying the only thing he s good at is getting angry white men to vote for him. we saw a swift backlash from president-elect trump essentially saying it is bill clinton who s not very smart because he didn t remember the details of who called whom after election day. it was president clinton who called president-elect trump. but, look, this has republicans concerned. why is he tweeting again as he s holding the meetings. most relating to his transition. shouldn t he be focused on staffing up his administration, the fact he s going to be in office in about 30 days from now. the trump team saying, look, the tweets speak for themselves. they are not going to weigh in. this is how he operates. he is putting the focus on national security, meeting with
past intervene when major industries are on strikes going directly to ceos. this is not something in official power but it is something we have seen presidents in the past do. karen, i want to share gear. intelligence force confirmed to nbc news that donald trump has had two intelligence briefings since he won the election. that s a lower number than his predecesso predecessors, what does that say of anything that s committed to or focus on national security right now? well, i think a lot of people find it disturbing since this is an area where he had been critical of the intelligence community during the campaign and it is also interesting that vice president elect pence had been attending all of these briefings. it could say something both of their respective roles. it is a worrisome sign. this is something he has to get up to speed quickly. josh, right here with your