trying to create an alternative reality is how i would describe it. and good day. i m andrea mitchell in washington where a controversial memo under review at the white house and the deputy fbi director s early exit are dominating the headlines ahead of donald trump s first state of the union address tonight. joining me now msnbc political analyst robert costa, national political reporter at the washington post. msnbc national security contributor as well as new york times washington correspondent michael schmidt, and national political reporter carroll lee. first to you, carroll lee, your reporting on the conversations with andrew mccabe when the president first complained to him after the firing of james comey. this is the backdrop for this forced exit, early exit of andrew mccabe. tell us what you know, what you reported. andrea, it s one of the first we know of.
and what the president s involved in. we just see the government operating in ways and people not agreeing on things we would never ever have seen before. and, carroll lee, we also have a deadline on russia sanctions that was imposed by congress in a bipartisan way. the administration kicking that can down the road making all kinds of excuses saying, well, there s a classified part of it. they basically came out with a list of russians to be sanctions at 11:50 last night and the list, we all looked at it overnight, were talking back and forth on twitter with michael mcfaul, he was at stanford, and people were saying why are these people on the list? they took the list of rich russians out of forbes rather than doing their own investigation on it. yeah, you know, andrea, this just feeds the serpgs this is an administration and a president who will be soft on russia. people who believe he is approaching it that way because there s something nefarious in
when the president knew that michael flynn lied to the fbi. and thanks to carroll and to kristin, joining me now nbc national security contribute ker frank fa glee zee. and justice and security analyst matt miller, former chief spokesman for attorney general eric holder. matt, the whole question of whether the president can be accuses of obstruction of justice, how can john dowd say that that can t even be leveled against a president of the united states? it is a really dangerous argument for the president s legal team to make. as you pointed out, there is this ongoing debate what the remedy for obstruction of justice would be. can the president be indicted while he s in office or is that a question left to congress? that is an open and ongoing debate. there s not been much debate whether the president himself is above the law. that s the argument you see dowd making saying whether the president committed these acts or not, and by the way, the fact
that he and president trump will not dignify any event that disrepresents 0 your soldiers, our flag or national anthem. president trump praised the move. joining me now is a former press secretary to vice president pence at the white house and now part of the expand from your perspective, was it always intended to leave that abruptly? he would have always had to have left before the end of the game. they can t stay for security reasons and with the crowd leaving. this was absolutely something on the vice president s calendar for a very long period of time. all words steve schmidt used this morning on morning joe i would say more apply to him because there was additional reporting saying the colts knew there was no additional security. it was a minimal footprint. no magnetometers for fans. they go through the normal
chaotic. so i think there s a point at which and i really do believe there s a tipping point here where countries are not going to take us seriously about anything. i think we re going to see that big-time as this is iran thing comes down the road. ambassador chris hill, thank you so much. michael steele, carroll lee, kristen welker and mark landler at the new york times who has this is great scoop today with the corker interview. thank you all very much. and coming up, walkout. critics slamming the vice president s decision to leave an nfl game over he ever anthem protests as a political stunt. the vice president s former spokesman joins me next right here on andrea mitchell reports. we ll discuss just what happened. s play. $700 off select mud spa packages for two. and up to $1,300 off family packs of venison. ( ) save on a world of possibilities with deals on select 2017 can-am vehicles.