Breaking. I was really glad to see people on both sides of the aisle condemning what happened yesterday strongly. And stranger things. Barack obama with a big reference to the explosive events in finland, about the times were living in. And they are strange. And they are uncertain. Each days news cycles bringing more headspinning and disturbing headlines. Good day, im Chris Jansing for Andrea Mitchell who is on her way back from hills. An unprecedented level of condemnation for President Trump, including by normally reliable defenders. His stunning defense of Vladimir Putin in finland causing a ruckus, after suggesting all his critics are wrong. While i had a great meeting with nato, raising vast amounts of money, i had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way. The fake news is going crazy. Well, today new reports in the New York Times that the president was in a very bad mood on the way home on air force one. And in the last 90 minutes, after a statement from russian officials suggested trump reached some sort of agreement on International Security with putin, even his former president ial opponents, john mccain and mitt romney, called it disgraceful. House Speaker Paul Ryan tried to focus on keeping attention off trump and on to russia. Russia does not share our interests and does not share our values. Reporter have you talked to the president about his remarks . Do you think he needs to come out and clarify, retract, say exactly what he was trying to accomplish yesterday . I have not spoken to him. I put out a statement yesterday within minutes after that press conference, and i think that statement speaks for itself. Joining me now, nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander at the white house, nbcs Garrett Haake on capitol hill, jeffrey smith, former general counsel at the cia, and msnbc political analyst peter baker, chief White House Correspondent at the New York Times. Good to see all of you. Peter alexander, the mood of the senior staff at the white house today, are they in a bunker mentality . Are they trying to brush this off as just another controversy . Something you pointed out this morning, peter, the white house updating the president s schedule, they removed the daily intelligence briefing he normally starts his workday with. Reporter chris, the latter was interesting. The public schedule originally put out by the white house said that he would have an intelligence briefing today. This would have been significant because it would have been the first opportunity for leaders of the u. S. Intelligence agencies to, if they chose, confront the president personally about his comments, effectively putting equal weight on their word versus Vladimir Putins on russias interference in the election. But yesterday, as you noted, that was removed from the president s schedule, we cant say why, perhaps he was too tired or some other reason. But it was notable on this day. The mood in the west wing, i can peer down the driveway here as i speak to you and see that the president has yet to arrive in the oval office now after noon on his day back. Hes not effectively at work yet, largely spending his time in the residence where hes been likely watching television and coming up with the tweets pretty much in denial, frankly, of the criticism across the spectrum in terms of republicans. And frankly, from within his own west wing. Ive had a series of private conversations where i think you could best cast the views of those people who work with the president as embarrassed by his remarks yesterday, effectively acknowledging they were not defensible. Whether the president takes an opportunity today to publicly address them, he would have at least one chance at 2 00 today, he will be hosting seven republican lawmakers at an event thats supposed to be focused on taxes. Will the president invite reporters in . Right now that event remains closed. Weve asked the white house if they will open it up to reporters and so far, no reply. A few minutes ago, an unannounced visit from Rod Rosenstein. Reporter yes, Rod Rosenstein who is overseeing the mueller investigated was spotted, as you can see, by our slowmo camera departing the west wing after a half hour or so. The president hasnt been in the oval office today so its possible rosenstein was here for some separate meeting, that he didnt meet with President Trump himself. It is notable given the fact that four days ago rosenstein announced those 12 indictments of the Russian Foreign military officers, their interference in the u. S. Election, and given the president s own comments criticizing this as a phony witch hunt last night in an interview with fox news. Peter baker, i mentioned at the top of the show this note in your newspaper, that aides on air force one steered clear of the front of the plane to avoid being tapped for venting session. Literally minutes before that posted, i was in a meeting, talking with the shows staff, and i said, does anybody go to him after what happened yesterday and say to him, wow, we have ourselves a real problem here . Clearly hes seeing that, at least think morning, presumably on television, given his tweet storm as peter mentioned. But to our knowledge, does anybody attempt to give this president a reality check . Reporter yeah, no, its a great question. Apparently the mood was quite sour, quite unhappy on the plane on the way back. The president was stewing about all the negative coverage he had seen, you know, venting about the unfair fake news and so forth. No question, the aides understand the hole that he has dug for himself, and none of them wants to be the one to sit there and tell him how bad it is. You have people like john bolton and mike pompeo, the National Security adviser and the secretary of state, these are hawks on a russia. The president is surrounded by people who dont agree with him on russia. How candid they are to him, how capable they are of challenging him, we dont know. But it certainly puts them in an awkward position. The question a lot of people are asking today is how long will people stay in an administration if they feel like the president is so radically on a different page from them. Garrett haake, i want to play a little bit now of what youre hearing and what weve been hearing this morning as people are getting back to capitol hill, how theyre reacting. Lets take a listen. I think the president had a missed opportunity to come down strongly in a couple of areas. I think only the president can rein himself in. I think we can do a lot in progress by passing legislation. I remain astonished that the president would choose to believe the assertions by president putin over the unanimous conclusions of his own u. S. Intelligence leaders. Clearly people on the hill, on the republican side, particularly those having to run for reelection, understand the incredibly difficult position theyre in now. I understand nbc news have gotten some republican talking points about how they want to spin what is largely recorded as an unprecedented Foreign Policy disaster yesterday. Reporter yeah, chris, ill start with the talking points and work backwards. Theyre fascinating in part because of how few republicans are actually using them. The talking points distributed to republicans on the hill talk about the idea that this was just one meeting with muputin, its part of a process. Theyve cited comments in the past where the president said i think it was russia or anything where he may have supported the conclusions of the Intelligence Community that it was russia who attempted to meddle in our elections. It says in these talking points that the president discussed this at length with Vladimir Putin in their private meetings, not in front of the camera. Well, thats not what the American People saw. And those talking points are being, i would say, widely ignored by republican members of congress, at least those ive been talking to in both chambers this morning. What i have heard, and you heard a little bit of it there from chuck grassley, which i think is kind of interesting, is perhaps momentum among members of congress to find way to come up with additional sanctions on russia. The Republicancontrolled Congress does not want to get in a fight with donald trump. But if they can flex some muscle here, if they can push back on some of the ideas that the president espoused in that News Conference yesterday, by going after russia, russian operatives, the gru, the oligarchs close to putin, in a more significant way, thats an idea that may be getting some traction up here, chris. And jeffrey, weve heard the words stunning and unprecedented so often over the last 18 months, but i think it is absolutely true, as i just mentioned, this is an unpress didn unprecedented Foreign Policy debacle by the white house. Give us your impression about the impact when we saw the president stand next to Vladimir Putin and take his side over the Intelligence Community. Its just breathtaking. Its hard to know where to begin. The damage he did yesterday is profound and will be lasting. What concerns me equally this morning is his failure to understand why people are upset. The idea that somehow this is all fake news and that we should be rallying around his brilliant diplomacy is frightening. It will adversely affect the ability of the Intelligence Community to collect intelligence because our allies arent sure they can trust us. It will have a much broader impact on our position in the world with our allies. It is just a very, very bad day for the United States and a very good day for mr. Putin and for russia. And we also have this, i think, vague statement that came out of russia this morning saying that there will be some practical implementation of an agreement that we heard nothing about. What do you make of that . Again, its very disturbing. I know of no previous encounter between an american president and a head of state, the soviet union or the russian federation, anything remotely like this. Two hours by themselves, terrible preparation. I think the staff prepared but the president apparently ignored it. Just as an example, instead of playing golf on sunday, had he read the indictment, he cannot possibly, given the level of detail in there, have said publicly that he believes putin and not his own Intelligence Community. It really is disgraceful. Now we dont know what he agreed to, what he gave up, and what he got. And we have only whatever putin says about it and whatever the president chooses to tell his staff he said. And peter baker, another stunning moment came yesterday when Vladimir Putin sat down across from fox news chris wallace. I just want to play a little bit of a clip of that conversation. They say that these units were specifically involved in hacking into Democratic Party computers, stealing information, and spreading it to the world to try to disrupt the american election. May i give this to you to look at, sir . Interference with Domestic Affairs of the United States, do you really believe that someone acting from the russian territory could have influenced the United States and influenced the choice of millions of americans . Im not asking that. Im asking whether they tried. Peter baker, he wouldnt even touch those bakers, he had to put them down on the little end table there. You have a reporter doing what presumably the president s National Security team wanted him to do, right . Reporter i think thats exactly right. Whats fascinating about that indictment was the american Intelligence Community and the Justice Department and Robert Mueller decided to put on paper a lot of very specific details. The names of these officers, the specific dates and times and even google searches that they had made. They gave up a lot of information in that avoid because they wanted, i think, to say this is real. This is not just general abstracted accusations. Weve got you, we have the specifics here. And the russians, having clearly read that indictment, understand that the american Intelligence Community has the details and the evidence there. Youre right, putin didnt want to touch it. A former kgb officer himself, former head of the fsb, i think President Trump said he wasnt expecting a perry mason moment in which he said, youve got me, and he didnt give him one. He was asked by Jonathan Lemire did you support the president during the election, and he said, yes, i did, yes, i did, which contradicts what President Trump had previously said about that. Jeffrey smith, i want to end with a description by former cia director john brennan, a National Security analyst at nbc. He tweeted about the president , nothing short of treasonous. Do you think the president S Performance rises to that level . I dont think it was treason, treason is a legal term. But it was a betrayal of everything the american intelligence and Law Enforcement communities stand by and what theyve worked for. I think it demonstrates that the president is manifestly unfit to lead this country. Jeffrey, garrett, peter, and peter, thanks to all of you, appreciate your time today. This thursday youre going to want to watch a live interview with dan coats. Andrea will speak with the director of National Intelligence at the aspen security forum. The interview will be live at nbcnews. Com at 3 35 eastern time, then throughout the rest of the day here on msnbc. And coming up, secret agent . A russian woman charged in washington with carrying out a plot to influence american politics. The details next on Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. S were made for Better Things than psoriatic arthritis. As you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. Xeljanz xr is a oncedaily pill for psoriatic arthritis. Taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain, swelling, and significantly improve physical function. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma, and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts, and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. 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It gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. Its the ultimate wifi experience. Xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. New charges involving russian attempts to influence the u. S. The Justice Department has accused a former aide to a top russian Government Official with being an unregistered foreign agent. 29yearold maria butina, a Russian National who tried to broker a secret meeting in 2016 between thencandidate trump and Vladimir Putin, is accused of working with conservative lawmakers and the nra to carry out a covert russian effort to influence u. S. Politics. Joining me now, nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams and msnbc contributor joyce vance, a former u. S. Attorney. This is filed by department of justice prosecutors and not Robert Mueller, pete. What more can you tell us . Right. She was arrested and lives in washington, d. C. Shes accused of secretly acting under the direction of a russian Government Official joining the nra, hoping to influence american politicians, especially republicans. The charges say she hosted dinners, she attended conventions, she