Bankers he would not talk to will be byists. If you can buy what he said at whats happening at the epa across the entire administration, this is a Corruption Administration that talked about the president , draining the swamp. This administration is the swamp. And french kiss. The french president on the hill today after being wined and dined at the trumps first state dinner. A lot of public displays of affection. With thanks to our friends at the 11th hour who put that together. G good day im Andrea Mitchell. Ronnie jackson add mant he will become secretary of affairs. John tester saying that 20 military staffers have now come forward to complain about the president s position. Alleging a toxic work environment, drinking on duty, improperly prescribing drugs to staff under President Trump and obama. Jerry moran tells reporters dr. Jackson is denying allegations of a hostile workplace or drinking on the job. Despite a broods hiad hint from president giving jackson an exit strategy, the white house is still calling his record impeccable. I dont want to put man through a process like this. Its too ugly and too disgusting, so, well see what happens. Hell make a decision. Are you saying that you will stand behind him . I would definitely stand behind him. Hes a fine man. Ill always stand behind him. Joining me now Kristen Welker who was at that News Conference and robert costa, National Political reporter and moderator of Washington Week on pbs and msnbc political analyst, former chief of staff to george w. Wuswus bush. Welcome all. That endorsement last evening even after that News Conference with the president was basically making it possible for him to gracefully withdraw but when they met in the oval office they doubled down on trying to fight for him. Reporter they did. I got details about what took place. According to a white house official, President Trump asked Ronnie Jackson how he was doing. Jackson denied the allegations against him. Said he wants to fight and then President Trump said, look, i stand behind you. Ill help you do that. I asked an Administration Official if there was any indication that jackson does, in fact, want to bow out. This person said nothing has changed since last night to this persons knowledge. Bottom line, i think youre seeing Ronnie Jackson did this for a fact and i think youre seeing the administration rae try to move forward in a more robust way in terms of protecting and defending him. The administration getting a lot of criticism for not having a smooth roll out of the jackson confirmation process and as a part of that potentially not doing a thorough enough vetting job here. They dismiss these allegations against jackson as just a Political Smear Campaign and they expect the confirmation process to pick up again in midmay provided there are no other big stumbles or big hurdles that they come across. Important to point out, i have been talking to some tomorrower obama Administration Officials, they say theyre not aware of these allegations, excessive drinking on the job, handing ou pills in excess. They say he doesnt have experience managing a large agency and the v. A. Is the governments second largest agency. Bob costa, theres a real experience gap here. Theres no question. The president acknowledging that. This seem to have been poorly vetted, impulsive decision to no, ma nominate him for a job hes not experienced. Theres not the support from veterans groups and senators, democratic as well as republican. That said, in his defense, from my experience, from a number of our white house correspondents, past and present, theres a habit, no pun intended on these overnight flights where the white house physician does hand out ambien and other pills for sleep aid and also for getting back up the next day to cover the job. Its not unheard of. Thats why these hearings will be revealing if they actually happen. That dr. Jackson will detail his side of the story about these allegations for now. They remain allegations that have been repeated by several lawmakers. The white house has to know that if dr. Jackson does appear before congress, you cannot lie before congress. Dr. Jackson will be pressed about how his dispense medication, how he handle defenda different issues inside the white house. Thats the process. Apparently john tester is speaking again about all these allegations. John tester is a tough reelection fight but hes not alone at all. The fundamental question is this mans lack of experience and the way he was not properly vetted which is a problem for this white house starting with mike flynn and going 15, 16 months in. Lets listen to what tester just had to say. Do you have anymore accusations brought dwroyour offices . I would have to go back and talk to my staff. Theres been coming up and talk to people like you that we werent aware of. Can you understand any of these allegations from yesterday . Weve been talking to the folks. The facts are there was a dispute within the office. There was an inspector generals review. I dont know if it was a formal report. He denied there was a report from the ig but theres an inspector generals assessment, which was very negative about his conduct there when he was having internal friction with another captain. He was a captain at the time and accused of really bad management. There was a recommendation that he may be should be replaced. I start off with thinking the president should have the right to get who he wants in his cabinet. On the side of confirming him or saying if thats who the president want, well hold the president accountable. Theres been a problem at the white house been exposed. Its up to chief of staff john kelly to speak candidly with dr. Jackson and say do you want to go through this. Do you want to put the president through this is this were willing to stand with krou if you want to take the heat. This comes down to a decision that dr. Jackson has to make with the advice and counsel of the chief of staff. I think the president is doing the right thing to say if is who i wants. Hold the president accountable. The chief of staff since the portman firing and several of the other firings close aides to the president , he has lost out altitude here. He wasnt in on the putin phone call. He hasnt been in on key meetings. He didnt go to maralago. There does seem to be a john kelly problem as well. Chief of staff serves a t the pleasure of the president. Hes patriot. The president needs a strong chief of staff. This is not a strong chief of staff. I think hes still pretty strong inside the white house. He may not be as involved as i think he should be. Thats up to the president and the chief of staff to decide on their own. Its not going to be external forces that say whether the chief of staff is up to doing the job. I hope the president respects how he does the job. This is where the chief of staff should stand up and say to dr. Jackson, this is situation that you know more about than anybody else. If youre willing to go through the challenge, the president said well stand with you but you have to make that decision. Bob costa, when i heard that answer from the president at the News Conference that if there was a gentle push. I understand his affection for dr. Jackson and so were the obamas and others who were telling us and kristens reporting on all of this. That said, they certainly gave him way out of this and hes not taking it. He decided to not take it. He was on capitol hill when the president made those comments. He came later to the oval office and told the president he wants to move forward. Based on my conversation with several officials this morning, that is still fluid. Dr. Jackson wants to move forward. There are plans to continue to have him be the nominee for v. A. Wu th but that doesnt mean the door is still shut. Democrats continue to ramp up the pressure. The white house saying to reporters today, they are standing stand ing by drmt dr. Jackson. The decision remains his. That sounds fluid is a good way of putting it. I will not bet on this becoming a confirmed cabinet post. Theres broad acknowledgement that the hurdles are high. In addition to these allegations dr. Jackson is facing skepticism from the Veterans Community about his lack of experience. Ive spoken to advocates for the Veterans Community who say we want someone there who does have experience and adding to that they say the instability is not helping. Not helping to solve the problems at the v. A. That so dear lly need to be addressed. That continues to be a significant hurdle and the late e allegations only compoundsing what is a very rocky path to confirmation. Bob, andy and kristen thank you so much. That tees up what were talking about. Is the experience factor. President trump pushing back on that other criticism. Dr. Jacksons lack of experience and running a major organization. Its a critical flaw. Ive gotten to know him pretty well. Hes a great doctor. It was a suggestion. I know theres an experience problem was a lack of experience. A admiral jackson is a wonderful man. I say what do you need it for. As far as experience is concerned, the Veterans Administration is so big, you could run the biggest Hospital System in the world and its small time compared to the Veterans Administration. Nobody has the experience. What he is is a leader and a good man. Joining me now, Melissa Bryant is the chief policy office for iraq and afghanistan veterans of america and joins me here. Thank you for being with us. What about the experience factor . What is your position on Ronnie Jackson to take this job . Before any of these scandal news hit, our members were hit. Rerepresent 425,000 members and supporters for the post 9 11 generation. They were concerned about his ability to lead such a massive bureaucracy. Over 3040,000 employees. They have held a staff of about 40 million now. One argument is he has the support and affection of the president which is a big deal in this cabinet to get your budget to get what you want. Absolutely. He has no Management Experience handling this and the one office he did help run back in 2012, there was a negative inspector generals review of the way he handled personnel decisions. Absolutely. Thats troubling. Were appreciative of senator tuser who is digging into this and vetting this candidate. Its troubling to see any one come into this job in a sense that 20 veterans are dying by suicide per day. Theres massive concerns about the reform. Legislation hanging in the balance. This is a big job for anyone to step into. We knew it was going to be a steep learning curve but the senate v. A. Committee was willing to give him fair shake. Now they are doing due diligence. We wish the white house would have done the same. The military, as you know better than i, is so by the books. How could he be where i think drinking on the job, running sw into a secret Service Issue in that regard and reported by the New York Times and other News Organizations, not by us, how could there be no record of that . Thats whats most troubling. Maybe its not true is my point. It could not be true. They are serious allegations that warrant looking into. Thats something that we want to see the Committee Really dig into. It would be troubling. Theres always the concern of those who are in ranks, especially flag officers, we hear enough in the news about folks getting promoted and you hear the different spanks for different ranks. Thats something we hope is not the truth here. We appreciate they are digging into it and ensuring they are over it. Youre going to be all over it. Absolutely. Great to see you. Coming up, third time around. The trump travel ban reaching the issSupreme Court after bein knocked down twice before. Pete williams will be here. Stay with us on msnbc. You know whats awesome . Gigspeed internet. You know whats not awesome . When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. A long awaited critical test for President Trumps travel ban at the Supreme Court after his original muslim ban was rewritten and kept getting knocked down. This third version banning from a handle of muslim countries. The justices have to decide whether its legally acceptable or just another version of muslim ban. Pete williams is at the Supreme Court. Pete, what can you gather from the oral arguments, and i know thats always risky, as to which way this might go . Reporter for the president it seemed the president will have a bare majority of five here. The challengers say this is illegal, first of all because they say congress has banned restricting travel from everyone in a certain country, nationality wide. Secondly they raise the constitutional religious claim its a muslim ban. The lawyer for the Justice Department, Knoll Francisco said no, its not illegal and majority of the justices both seem concerned about reining in too much of the president s sdib ability. If its a muslim ban, he said i dont see how you can call this a muslim ban when it only applies to 5 of the worlds muslim population. Based on those comments, it would seem, this third time will be different. The administrations argument is this one should be different was a unlike the first two, this one was imposed last september only after a worldwide review of how other countries do in terms of vetting the backgrounds of people who apply for visas to come to the United States and how well they do it resisting terrorism within their own borders and sharing terrorism intelligence with the u. S. They are narrowing it to those countries they say dont do a good job on the vetting. Reporter correct. Let me ask you about daca was a there was a federal court ruling on daca that seems to be pretty important. Reporter right, applying to many of our people, certainly those in the United States. Weve had two Court Decisions already saying that the government was wrong to stop daca and had to at least allow people already in the program to keep reapplying every two years. This opinion was different. Last night a judge here in washington said, i agree with those previous rulings but the government must allow new applications to daca. He said that the Justice Department did not have an adequate basis for saying that the program was illegal. He ordered the government to start accepting new daca applications, wu he put his own rule on hold until late july saying he wanted to give the government another chance to try to justify legally why they think its illegal. An unusual ruling saying i dont think youve got it but ill give you another chance. Try again. Perhaps because of the fact this would be so much sweeping than the earlierandrea. Wow, a lot happening on that front. Thank you. Coming up now joining us is congressman jojoaquin castro. Your reaction on the daca ruling. A court has given daca applicants a chance to remain part of the program and be in the United States. Were talking about the futures of 800,000 young people who came to the United States who no fault of their own and find themselves in legal limbo. Aisle ill be anxious to see what reason they come up with for closing down the program and kicking these kids out of country. I want to ask you about some of the other Foreign Policy developments. North korea, the president yesterday during his meeting with Emmanuel Macron had this to say about kim jongun looking forward to the north korea summit. Kim jongun was he really has been very open, and i think very honorable from everything were seeing. A lot of promises have been made by north korea over the years but theyve never been in this position. Theres been a lot of reaction around the world here and here at home to the president calling this dictator honorable. What is your reaction . I was stunned to hear that. That the president of the United States could call somebody like kim jongun, a dictator who has repressed his people and killed his own family members an honorable guy especially considering what hes called fellow americans like john mccain. That aside, im hopeful even though we have been here a few times in the last dozen years or so where north korea has made promises, theres been negotiations and things have fallen apart, i think as a nation, we have to hope this president and his administration are successful in helping the denuclearize north korea. I gather were you at the meeting, the joint meeting of Congress Just now when president macron was addressing the congress because that speech drew standing ovations. It seems a strong line on iran. Theyre not going to let iran get Nuclear Weapons, but at the same Time Offering a proposal for an add on agreement. What do you think about that . Well, first, youre right. It was a plea from the president of france to the United States and to Presid