And it was a picture of president obama and Angela Merkel and a picture of President Trump and Angela Merkel. On the front page talking about how darcht these two men are and how different theyre perceived here in europe. The other big Sticking Point is what happens with Climate Change here and specifically what kind of language will come out of the g 7 when it ends tomorrow. Will it be the tough talk that the european leaders want to see or is it going to be a nod to President Trump, something a little less aggressive given that this is air n area they dot see eye to eye. He wont decide what to do until after he gets back. Let me mention one final point. Gary doan cousin asked today about russian sanctions as well, whether that would continue under President Trump. Cohn declined to answer. Well expect to hear from him in a couple of hours for another briefing and well bring that news to you when we get it. Extraordinary. Just give me a sense, is hope lost at all in terms of other g7 leaders. When you look at the president s conduct, his ease when he was in places like saw day arabia where he said im not going to lecture anyone and then clearly he did among nato allies yesterday. Theres a lot riding on this g7 meeting in sicily, specifically around climate or around trade and the economy. Is there any hope lost after yesterday . Reporte you know, im not sure based on our repoing, i dont know that folks would go to say hope a lost. But i dont think all of their concerns were alleviated. You had specifically over these last 48 hours here leaders hoping that the president would come out forcefully on, for example, the article 5 commitment to nato, that an attack on one is an attack on all. The president declined that do that. Hes not making these overtures that leaders hear wanted to see as opposed to what we saw from him earlier in the week when he said were not going to lecture and he did that in brussels. Some of the body language here, we walked as President Trump walked into the g7 with lang a merkel, tw two of them laughing, smiling and talking, youre not seeing the body language you expect to see if a chill had descended and frozen the relationship. Were waiting to report how the meetings are going. The president is going to head to this theater, this sort of stunning spot and well see both him and First Lady Melania Trump there as well. Were keeping on eye on the developments here in sicily. Peter alexander at the white house, fill us in on whats going on around Jared Kushner and what it means for the investigation. Because its very important to delineate the difference between jared himself being investigated or theyre just having more questions. Because its to be expected jared would know a lot. Hes been standing next to the president for the last 18 month as hes the guy that was close to Michael Flynn. Jared met with the head of the Russian Ambassador with flynn in tow at trump tower during the transition. Reporter what we do know is multiple u. S. Officials are telling nbc news that investigators believe that Jared Kushner has significant information relative to their inquiry. Hes under fbi scrutiny right now. It does not mea tha think suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him. Why its significant is this investigation is now reaching right next to the president. Kushner is the only kurnt white house official that we know to be under scrutiny. The Officials Say his situation is different from the situation that former trump aides Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn are facing. Theyre both formerly considered subjects of the investigation. Whats important to know here is it is not clear precisely what about kushners investigations has drawn the fbis interest. You were talking about the contacts with russians. In december he met in new york with sergey kislyak. We know last year that he met with a man by the name of sergey go gore kof. Hes been the subject of u. S. Sanctions following the annexation of crimea. We heard yesterday from Jared Kushners lawyer who tells nbc that he has previously volunteered to share with congress what he knows about the meetings. They say hell do the same if hes contacted in connection with any other inquiry. I have spoken to the white house. They are not commenting further. Theyre deferring all comment right now to Jared Kushners attorney. Jared himself im told is back here in washington, d. C. After traveling with the president on the first legs of that foreign trip. I want to bring my panel in. Former yurnd secretary for Public Affairs rick stangel, shelby holiday from the wall street journal and nick from the the New York Times. Nick, i want to share what sean spicer said back in march specifically about Jared Kushners role. Take a look. Throughout the campaign and the transition jared served as the official primary point of contact with foreign governments and officials until we had state Department Officials up. Youre acting as though theres something nefarious about doing what he was tasked to do. Doing what he was actually tasked to do. Jared kushner has been tasked with leading the office of innovation, peace in the middle east and leading all things between the u. S. And china. Hes tasked with a lot. But jareds job is to talk with foreign governments. Now that hes part of this fbi inquiry, can he conduct his day job . Well, he has a lot of conflicts like everybody in the trump allah gar ki orbit. I know that im going to escape answering your question. Now that theres an investigation we should let the investigation take its course. But the idea that you would have the president s soninlaw dealing with foreign leaders, thats something that the saudis would understand and the sunni sats and all of these autocratic governments. Its unusual for american democracy that thats happening. Is this when the paradigm could become complicated . The the New York Times reported saying jared being in the white house is going to cause serious conflicts and distractions. We know that the president is not going to go bad or distance himself in his own family. But weve seen people close to the president get burned time and time again when its lewandowski losing his job, Paul Manafort, chris christie, Rudy Giuliani lost credibility in defending the president in the way he did. What does this mean for the white house and jared in a leadership position when the questions are being asked . It probably elevates the bannon faction a small amount if jared has to spend time prepping for interviews with the fbi. I think it helping the bannon faction. This is the world that they bought into by keeping their business relationships and their fortunes and not really divesting, not unwinding those investments and changing those Family Businesses. This is politics and Family Business which is not how it works well in america if you try to do both things at the same time. We have a lot of questions about Jared Kushners financial background. He has his hands in a lot of differenbuckets. He had issues not disclosing a stake in a tech company th. He also disdisclose a billion dollars in loans from 20 different lenders. There are questions about his business relationshipans and th meeting he had in december. We dont know if he was talking about sanctions or if it was a kmoetly innocent conversation. He was tasked with meeting with world leaders. There will be a huge problem in the white house in the sense this will be a time suck. We already hear that steve bannon and Reince Priebus have come back to washington setting up a war room and theyre going to spend a lot of time trying to pushback. But right now theyre all on their heels. Talk to us about the palace intrigue that could be returning with the president. Im guessing that the administration with you in europe would say this has been a huge win for them. But before you all embarked on this foreign trip it was a difficult situation. There was talk there was going to be a shakeup, the president was barely speaking to many members of his senior staff following firing james comey. And now when they return and guys like gary cohn who want to get down to business, talk economy, talk tax reform, are they ever going to get to the republican agenda . If you remember last thursday when the market took a dip, it was the fear thinking are we ever going to get to this thing. Reporter right. So let me take that in a couple of parts. First on the palace intrigue. I think our guidance with the white house unit for msnbc news is that if anything was going to happen it was going to be after the trip if at all. On the communications said we have reporting from multiple sources that the president was considering maybe changing that day to day face, having Sara Huckabee sanders take on a larger rule. When the president gets back from this trip, hes diving back into the domestic crises that consumed him. Thgs that Peter Alexander just talked about, the Russian Investigation from the fbi, james comey, his fired fbi director is going to be testifying on capitol hill at some point after the president lands at joint base andrews. Those are the issues that are going to confront him when he gets back. This has been a time for him to perhaps lead in a little bit of a different way. I imagine his advisers are saying this is what happening he was getting good headlines earlier in the trip when you dont tweet, stay off of twitter and you dont have is the shadows hanging over the administration when hes overse overseas. I think its interesting to see what shakes out when we get back. As far as the other side of it, the agenda, the white house would respond saying were implementing the president s agenda. Were working on the budget that was just rolled out. We want to hit tax reform. What ive heard from sources on the hill they want to do something before the august rece recess. Theyll talk about health care, letting that marinate over on the senate side. But there are some questions about what this summer is going to hold, whether its a summer shakeup, a push ahead on some of the agenda items as well. Still though the president has another day to get through in sicily. And as hes holding these meetings we expect to get more information about what exactly is shaking out here. You know the president well and you have just said well you know theyre limiting his screen time, hes staying off of twitter. Its been possible because on that overseas trips hes busy. Now that jared is firmly in this center of these headlines and youve got a leaky white house, do you believe that the president can maintain that level of self control . We know that he does not like to get hit where it hits were his own name, his own family. Do you think the president will come home and return to the trump that we know and simply let it rip . Reporter so i sadly steph did not bring my crystal ball on this particular trip with me. I saw one in saudi arabia. Reporter wasnt mine, girl. I will say that based on what weve seen from the president in the past, when it comes to the way tha he receives information, negative headlines, for example, h attacks the media. So i wonder and again, this is just based on what weve seen and his pattern of behavior before when difficult headlines come out it could be problematic for the administration. The response is to go after the publications that came out with the head line, not necessarily the issue itself but the coverage surrounding that. We know that the white house is very frustrated with the attention being place odden the russia investigation. Heres the thing, in june thats what were going to be talking about because thats whats going to be happening on capitol hill a hill. Whether its jared now in the headlines, the president s very tough talk at nato, the president seeming to be very warm when he met when he was in saudi arabia or having a relatively a positive meeting with erdogan saying nothing when erdogans body men attacked peaceful protesters. What could the foreign leaders be thinking right now and especially ifs as as it relate if jared is the person theyre supposed to interact with. Putin is thinking right now, baby. But the rest of the world. Putin is thinking all i was bargaining on was somebody to reduce sanctions. When youre president of the United States there are lots of things that are optional. Its optional to do the sword dance in saudi arabia. It is not optional to go to brussels and not endorse article 5. Nato created, the greatest alliance in all of history to protect against russian aggressi aggression. It is popgs noptional to nott and defend the United States constitution. Whats the fallout . The jalofallout is the people looking at ms. Merkel and other places, theyre looking at china where the Investment Bank is going to dwarf anything they were going to do in asia was we withdrew from tpp. Theyre looking at a world order where the United States is not at the center. Guess who wanted world order, steve bannon who has said lets tear it apart. Could steve bannon be sitting in the white house going yep, this is what we were looking for. Absolutely. Look. I think the handling of the president s trip to nato is certainly an expression of the world view. Weve seen steve bannon elaborate and talk about. The destruction of the Atlantic Alliance. The end of the rules based International Order and a return to what russia and china want which is spheres of influence. To me i just think that the cost of the american alliance, the Atlantic Alliance to us which the president is harping on is very tiny. We pay a small price to be the dominant super power in the entire world and im not sure why the president feels its important to unwind that but clearly he wants to. Weve got to take a break. Dang. Thank you. Hallie, were going to talk to you later in the hour. Nick and shelby are going to be with me throughout the hour. Next, President Trumps response to republican Greg Gianfortes win in Montana SpecialCongressional Election and he wasnt even being asked about it. Plus, why his victory may not be a vikt fi for the republican party, you know the party of family values Going Forward. Im dr. Kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. Energy lives here. Is to always keep track of your employees. R micromanage them. Make sure theyre producing. Woo employee of the month you really shouldnt leave their side. Vita coco coconut water, hydration comes naturally. You need one of these. You wouldnt put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day . Aleve, live whole not part. Tell you what, ill give it to you for half off. Great win in montana. President trump of course a couple of hours ago during a photo op at the g7 summit in sicily. Hes talking about last nights closely watched special election in montana won by republican Greg Gianforte. The win came one day after gianforte was charged for manhandling a body slam is what it was, a reporter who asked him a question about health care. Nbcs garrett haik is working overtime. Steve kornacki joins the table and were back with the panel. Its extremely unusual for a victory speech to come with an apology for throwing someone down on the ground with your bare hands. Reporter well that was the second unusual response to this incident. A tale of two responses. First the campaign put out a statement saying this is all the reporters fault, he got aggressive and the candidate had no choice. Then after the victory, minutes after the race was called, gianforte came out and had a completely different tone. Im not proud of what happened and i should not have responded the way that i did. Im sorry. Youre forgiven. Reporter offering a public apology for the incident that threatened to redial his campaign. I should not have treated that reporter that way. And for that im sorry, mr. Ben jacobs. Reporter the hotly contested campaign between geeian forday and rob kwis blew up last wednesday when a reporters question to gianforte about the House Health Care bill landed the report in the hospital and the candidate in political hot water. He immediately got defensive, i tried to follow up one time and next thing i went i went from not being vertical to horizontal. Reporter gianfortes campaign originally offered a different version of the altercation saying its unfortunate that this aggressive behavior created this seen. After the sheriff charged gianforte with misdemeanor assault, Speaker Paul Ryan said that he should apologize but hell welcome to the white house. The choice will be made by the people of montana. Reporter in the end, gianfortes supporters rallied behind him, his campaign taking in 100,000 a day after the incident. So that apology might make the political issue go away at least for the time being but he still has a legal issue to deal with sometime between now and when he gets sworn in june 6th, hes got to appear before a judge here and face that misdemeanor assault charge which is not going away. I cant say ive got to state it one more time. After the incident. After he threw the reporter down he raised a quick