Advisors inside the Trump Campaign and russia. And democrats have elected former secretary of labor tom perez their new dnc chairman. Congressman Keith Ellison who came in second place was quickly named deputy chairman. Joining me now live from atlanta is msnbc political reporter alex sykes wall. Reporter hey, stephanie. A very dramatic end, stephanie, after a very heated race. It lasted four months since november. It really tore at the fabric of this party after a devastating loss that has seen the party come out of power more than they have been since the 1920s. This is the first competitive chairmanship race in over 30 years, so tom perez has won. He narrowly won. He only fell short by one vote on the first ballot. Then won by 17 on the second ballot, and immediately began working to heal that rift. Keith ellison, the runnerup, also working to do that. Theyre going to hold a joint press conference in about 15 or 20 minutes to try to reach out to their supporters. As you mentioned, Keith Ellison being named the deputy chairman. There are a lot of supporters here of Keith Ellison that are upset by the results of this election and a lot of people outside the dnc who are also feeling that way. To me a lot of work for tom perez who comes from the obama cabinet, who supported Hillary Clinton in the primary to bring those people into the party and make them feel welcome in this moment when the party needs all the help it can get. Yeah, alex. Its going to be a big job for him. Electing a dnc chair is just one of the stories you come out of this meeting. What has the dnc done in terms of the partys platform in trying to bring together the far left and establishment democrats . Right. This was another key moment during the democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and bernie sanders. It came at the end of the primary where both teams got together and sat down and produced what is unquestionably the most progressive platform in the partys history, and it was a platform that is symbolic in large effect. Theyre not law. They dont have for of policy, but it is a statement by the party and its something to try to bring these people into the party, and theyre going to continue to use that. Im sure youll hear a lot about that from Keith Ellison and tom perez to show these values, but, you know, a lot of this is going to be about fighting donald trump, trying to bring the grassroots uprising thats happened in the streets, these protesters into the party and turn them into voters so that the party can actually win elections and not just be expressing outrage at donald trump. All right. Thank you. Well be staying with alex throughout this hour. To washington now where there is an urgent call. A new call for an investigation into russia coming from one of Donald Trumps biggest supporters in congress, gop representative darryl issa. Were going to ask the intelligence committees of the house and senate to investigate within the special areas they oversee. An independent prosecutor . Youre right that you cannot have somebody, a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions, who was on the campaign and who was an appointee. Youre going to need to use the special prosecutors, statute an office. We have to work with them. We dont have to trust them. And we need to investigate their activities, and we need to do it because they are bad people. That call for a special prosecutor comes as an explosive new report rattles d. C. With the Washington Post saying officials in the west wing sought to enlist senior members of the Intelligence Community and congress in efforts to counter news stories about trump associate ties to russia. The post reporting in the calls were orchestrated by the white house and even included senators richard burr and nunez. He is the very same chairman charged with investigating russias involvement in the election and what if any ties the Trump Campaign had. Nbcs monica will ba joins us live from the white house. Monica, any reaction from the white house regarding congressman issas comments . No response yet, stephanie. This is a fairly quiet saturday here at the white house, which we really havent seen much of recently with the president traveling down to maralago for his recent weekends. We have learned he is working on his joint address to congress and had a lunch with the governors of florida and wisconsin, but no official events today and no official comment, but, of course, these this comment from congressman issa notable. He was a very early supporter of then candidate trump, campaigned with him, so the fact that he is now calling for this independent investigator and saying that attorney general Jeff Sessions would need to recuse himself is absolutely worth noting from somebody who was a very staunch trump ally so far to date. Thats for sure, monica. When it comes to that Washington Post report, why did the white house go to the effort of enlisting members of the Intelligence Community to refute these stories . Well, the white house certainly took issue with the way that a lot of these communications and the characterization of the contact between officials from the Trump Campaign and people in russia, so we should point out that nbcs own reporting does not show that there was any contact with russian intelligence officials and that is a very important distinction. Specifically, the intelligence official part. The white house has tried to reach out to allies who could help them knock down this story, but as we learned yesterday from sean spicer who said that the chief of staff, reince priebus, was in touch with the Deputy Director of the fbi over this, who did not want to go out and knock down this story, so its important to note also that the fbi says that the chief of staff did not cross a line, but democrats, of course, are seizing on this, and this is now a big easy target for them to go after as the continuing calls for investigations between the Trump Campaign and russia continue. Stephanie. All right, monica. Thats some pretty important context there. Thank you very much. Plenty to explore this weekend out of the Trump White House. Joining us here in new york, republican strategist in atlanta darren johnson, and from Washington National political reporter jonathan swan. Theron, i want to start with you right out of the gate. Tell me about this election of tom perez as dnc chair . Does he have any hope of bringing the Party Together . Absolutely. Listen, this is something that we all worked together to get to this day. I thought if you listen to former labor secretary perezs speech, it was a speech of unity. He was calling for people to unite and lets go out here and really take our message to the voters and start beginning to really find the resources and the talent to really be contested in the midterms. Now, the other thing thats really going on behind the scenes is that a lot of people from secretary perezs campaign, particularly emmy ruiz, the person who ran his campaign, theyre already reaching out to Keith Ellison supporters making sure that they are in the room as far as putting together the plan as we move forward. Evan, let me turn to you on this issue. You have compared the energy right now to the Democratic Party to likening it to the tea party. What are his chances of being able to coral that and point it in the right direction . Well, if he can get to the people that are the indivisible movement, the resistance, to harness it to the 2018 midterms, thats a big problem for republicans. I actually think republicans lost out in this race by not having Keith Ellison selected. Tom perez is much more willing to look at at the same time tom perez faces a huge challenge. Three of the last four elections at the federal level have been republican waves of seeing over 1,000 seats in the house, the senate, governorships, and state legislatures flip from democrat to republican. Theyve got to put a message out that resonates with the american people, and tom perez is now tasked with doing that. Its a huge job. I want to change topics just quickly here. Jonathan, i want to go to you. What do you make of congressman issas comments about a special prosecutor . The important and unwelcome for the white house. This is something that has been bubbling up for a number of weeks. We know the white house is intensely concerned about that, and they may have made a grave error in pressuring or at least asking officials who connected with the investigation or involved in the Intelligence Community to talk to reporters. I mean, its now raising really serious questions about independence. The fact that you have got a republican in the house tv darryl issas stature calling for this, its going to just add to the pressure, and i suspect you will have some senators republican senators in the next couple of days ek quoing that call. Well, same with you on that point, actually, for just a moment. What is your impression of that strategy of trying to enlist help . Clearly, the white house feels those reports on the conteacts with russia during the campaign were overblown. Did they go about it the right way . Well, the two parts to this are one is you have to sympathize with their position because if you have an fbi senior fbi official sort of theres real questions about whether this is appropriate in private saying to them that there are factual errors, that this is nonsense or whatever colorful language he used. The natural human reaction is obviously wanting to get that information out and to fight back, but there has to be sort of the overriding goal has to be independence, and it has to be not weighing in to something that is supposed to be, you know, chinese wall from the white house. My sense is that they are very uneasy about this inside the white house at the moment, and there are certainly some that think theyve made a big mistake. On that note, theron, can we expect democrats to hammer away at this idea of a special prosecutor . Absolutely. I mean, its something that shows that theres clearly no coordination with the white house and what other folks are doing, so this is a key issue. Especially coming off this dnc chairs race that democrats can really pound the republicans on this issue. I want to change topics again and turn to you, evan. Theres a report out that the new nsa for trump, mcmaster, held a meeting with his nsc staff, and he said that the label radical islamic terrorism is not helpful because terrorists are unislamic. This as President Trump seems to use that phrase repeatedly when he makes comments in public. Is this a difference of opinion thats a serious issue for them . I think it really is whether or not the president listens to his new National Security advisor. H. R. Mcmaster, he is unbelievably qualified, and both sides of the aisle have not disputed that. I believe he is absolutely correct. Anybody who is a terrorist is not an islamist. Thats against the fundamentals of islam, but will the president listen to him, and i think weve seen from him meeting with oer generals, be they present or former, he is willing to hear them out. When he met with defense secretary mattis in the transition, he got him to flip on torture in an hour, so hopefully mcmaster keeps the president s ear and stays away from using this language. Well, jonathan, let me ask you about that. He now has a number of members of cabinet that hold differing opinions to him. Weve seen that that creates some turmoil for leaders overseas trying to interpret this white house. What do you make of this . Really interesting yesterday. United nations Ambassador Nikki Haley put out what i thought was a comment you could never imagine donald trump making. It was saying that the russians have to decide whether they support chemical weapons or not. It was a very, very tough statement about russia in regards to syria, and it was just way out in front of what weave seen donald trump comfortable with making. Almost an ultimate mate imshe put out on her twitter account, and the real question that we have to ask is she reflecting some sort of an evolution of the administration, or is this just her own personal views that have little relation to Donald Trumps views . I think thats very much an open question. I think most of the International Community certainly foreign ambassadors that i speak to very much watch donald trump. I mean, they pay much less attention to the comments of some of these people that diverge. They want to hear it from the president s mouth, and we saw when the Vice President went overseas and made very reassuring remarks regarding the european union, there was a sense of hesitation because they want to hear donald trump himself say that. Theron, turning to you. Who are the democrats believing at this point . Well, we really dont know who to believe, but i think this is, again, clearly an illustration of this president s inability to really have a concise and comprehensive message that is united when he is communicating to the american people. I think the people who are suffering the most from this disconnect is the american people, and if you look at some of the some of the disorganization and the mixed messages that are coming out, want only does it confuse the american people, but it does not help with our world allies as far as building relationships with them. Again, i think that democrats were going to have a host of issues to run on and to really point out some of the inaccuracies and inabilities in this Trump Administration to really govern, but, again, weve got to take this momentum from today and have a platform and a message about job creation in this country. All right. Theron, jonathan, evan here in the studio, thank you, guys, very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Right now in austin, texas, the muslim and Latino Community speaking out against the Trump Administration immigration policies. Theyre calling it a no ban, no wall rally. What theyre saying next. And, later, planned parenthood, the target again of congressional republicans. This time in the retooling of obama care. Well talk to the head of planned parenthood coming up. Youre watching msnbc. We always were told we were german. We were in a german dance group. I wore lederhosen. So i just started poking around on ancestry. Then, i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. It turns out im scottish. So, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. Ways wins. Especially in my business. With slow internet from the phone company, you cant keep up. Youre stuck, watching spinning wheels and progress bars until someone else scoops your story. Switch to comcast business. With highspeed internet up to 10 gigabits per second. You wouldnt pick a slow race car. Then why settle for slow internet . Comcast business. Built for speed. Built for business. Zbliefrmt happening in texas where two meernt groups target bid donald trump are joining forces. Members of the muslim and lat anneee community are coming together for a no ban, no wall rally. It comes just days after the department of Homeland Security introduced new policies to crack down on illegal immigration, and days before the Trump Administration is expected to introduce a revised executive order on the immigration ban. Donald trump standing his ground during his cpac speech yesterday. You will see the action. I will never ever apologize for protecting the safety and security of the american people. I wont do it. Msnbcs mariana atensio is in austin, texas where the no ban no wall rally is just getting started. What sets this rally apart from the others weve seen this week. I covered one of the rallies last week, and what makes this one different is that it focuses on, you said it, uniting the latino and muslim communities here in texas. It also opposes sb4, Texas Senate Bill 4, which looks to end sanctuary policies in the state of texas, and im here with congressman juaqin castro who is about to take the stage any moment now. This is obviously a border state. What are your thoughts on the border wall, the reason why so many people are out here in this rally today . There are so many texans out here because we love our country. We know that its a nation that builds bridges and it doesnt build walls to separate people. Spending billions and billions of dollars on a border wall would be ineffective when we could spend it on schools and roads and so many other things. Thats why you see all of the energy and all of the passion from people of every background and every walk of life here. I mentioned sb4. Its hurt the city of austin. Funds are being blocked because the city has refused to comply with this bill. What extent should sanctuary cities not comply with federal immigration policy . Well, most of all i think what austin is saying is that Police Officers and courts and sheriffs cant be immigration officers failing to pass a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill to say who can stay and who has to go. Everybody agrees that if somebody is a violent criminal, if theyre dangerous to the community, that they should be gone. There are millions of people that are paying taxes and many of them like the dreamers that have only known do those folks have a pass to be able to stay. What do you hear from people here in the streets of texas . What are their concerns . Well, you know, the people of texas are concerned about what theyre hearing from the Trump Administration. Most folks are against the wall. People dont want to get into a trade war with mexico. Remember, o