such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they have already well aware. here to share their reporting and their insights, michael sheerer of the new york times, abbey phillips of the washington post, and cnn s ryan lizza. and jim sciuto is here to talk about what s going on, the latest information you re getting from your sources with the situation, you spent a lot of time, you lived in asia, so you understand the complexities of this and the kind of nature of this very difficult diplomacy. what are you hearing? reporter: well, it seems to be a very public and very deliberate walk back or clarification you might say of the president s comments yesterday. military officials telling us that there are no plans for additional military steps or deployment of resources, for
credibility with this white house. olivia, what s the state of the white house s credibility? not great. the state of the union isn t great in that respect. they have a lot of problems and i think part of the problem is because they say so many inaccurate things on the record to us at briefings, it s much more easy for us to believe the leaks coming out on background. the white house doesn t really have a leg to stand on when they deny leaks on the record. that s interesting. i want to ask more about the leaks. one of the themes i have heard from conservative media outlets this week is all of the leaks are being contradicted by people on the record denying them. michael, why should people watching this program believe anonymous sources saying trump s furious, he did this because of the russia investigation, et cetera. you know, trump has not created a coherent white house structure. so what you have is several different teams operating around him and him often choosing to reach o
spicer saying it was the biggest inauguration day crowd ever. from day one they started out misleading us and lying to us. now i think they are paying for it. in the fact that we are inclined to not believe them when they say a story is wrong or they give us their version of events. why would we? michael, go ahead. many of the inaccuracies are because the president tells people to say these things. they are not inaccuracies on the part of sean spicer. he was instructed to go out and say false things about the inaugural crowds. the communication shop was told the reason for the comey firing only a day and a half later to say the president said the things he told them to say, they had letters released to the press weren t true and the president had a different motivation in hiring jim comey. there is a huge credibility problem. it is the case that the people around the president are responding to the president are literally carrying his message and it keeps changing day to day. thi
there is a weird dichotomy here. he s a gracious and charming host when you are in his company. very often he ll flip and, i think the last three or four times i talked to him he s put in a dig at some point about me as a reporter and the quality of my reporting, the quality of time magazine. but he s talking to me at the moment. i m invited back. i think he thinks for the most part what i report is exactly what he s saying and is accurate. but it all comes back to the idea that he can t get a fair shake. what s fundamental to the president and is a motivating force that helps explain a lot of decisions he s making. two very honest reporters, michael and olivia, thank you very much. thank you. up next, melissa mccarthy and alec baldwin returning to snl. mr. trump, i need to talk to you. have you ever told me to say things that aren t true? only since you started working here. what powers the digital world. communication.
challenge? i know kellyanne conway had a very uneven performance yesterday. anyone other than his press secretary defending this? we haven t seen this. kellyanne conway going on anderson cooper last night, she was not referencing the hillary clinton e-mails. she was referencing the last six weeks, james comey s relationship with the president, so they re not telling the same story over and over and this is adding to sort of that strife inside the white house. think about the markets. they re starting to pull away from president trump because his ability to get stuff done is not getting done. not so much. stephanie, thank you for running in here. we literally grabbed her from the hallway. vy a great panel here. first i m joined by michael sheerer, white house correspondent at the new york times, and michael mcfall, former ambassador to russia, now an msnbc contributor. micha michael, i want to start with you. take us through i followed along with nbc s incredible reporting, i