do i still have hallie jackson? >> there has been concern expressed by press secretary sean spicer and by the national security adviser general h.r. mcmaster and i'll read you this quote here explaining mr. spicer was pointing to public reports, not endorsing any specific story. so essentially though, having to answer for what sean spicer said roughly 24 hours ago, a little less than that, craig, when he was reading that sort of list of news reports and the gch2 report came up. we don't know the word apology was used. there's no indication from our reporting that sean spicer said he was sorry, simply that they are backing way off any claim that they believe gchq was involved in this as the story that they said it claimed. the british intelligence agency? >> reporter: that's correct. >> i want to play a portion of what hallie talked about there, this is sean spicer thursday, this sparked this conundrum. the brits. >> president obama didn't use the nsa or the cia, didn't use the fbi and he didn't use the department of

hallie jackson, thank you to you as well. i will note for those of us who oftentimes did go on prompter, stayed on prompter and didn't tweet so much when he was under fire. this seems to be what is going on right now. somebody got in his ear, told him to stay on message and to not lash out on twitter. we will see how long that lasts and if it lasts. that's all for me this hour. i'm katy tur. kate snow picks things up right now in new york. >> nice to see you on a very busy news afternoon. i'm i'll pick up coverage on our breaking news. as we continue with the president this afternoon, voicing total confidence in his attorney general, jeff sessions. you just heard him say that again as some democrats call for his resignation. all of this after "the washington post" reported then-senator sessions met with russia's ambassador twice last year while sessions was a key adviser to the trump campaign pop a fast-moving day it request be hard to figure out what's going on. kasie hunt joins me live from capitol hill. give me the update

our coverage starts with nbc's hallie jackson. hallie, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. this was the president's signature issue as a candidate. and now president trump signaling he may be more open to negotiation than he was it's something that could earn him new allies and maybe new enemies on capitol hill as the president leaves for the last minute whether he will call for the compromise. tonight, reality show-style suspense as the president hints he may call on congress to work on an immigration reform bill. the time, right for one if both sides are willing to compromise. in what would be a dramatic reversal, he said he is open to legal status for undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes. that's not what the president proposed before. >> people will know that you can't just smuggle in, honker down and wait to be legalized. >> reporter: he's been clear about needing to fix a broken system which some lawmakers tried to do almost four years ago in a bipartisan comprehensive bill. the president

hallie jackson inside the room. this is what we were talking about at the t of last hour, whher -- never mind. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states and the chancellor of the federal republic of germany. >> thank you very much. chancellor merkel, it is a great honor to welcome you to the people's house, the white house. our two nations share much in common, including our desire for security, prosperity and peace. we just concluded a productive meeting with the german and american companies to discuss workforce development and vocational training. very important words. germany has done an incredible job training the employees and future employees and employing its manufacturing and industrial workforce. it's crucial that we provide our american workers with a really great employment outlook, and that includes making sure that we harness the full potential of women in our economy. my administration is in the process of rebuilding the american industrial base, a stronger america is in the interest

lester. >>> hallie jackson at the white house. thank you. tonight states of emergency have been declared in counties across several states as deadly wildfires rage spreading rapidly trapping people with no way out. including an awful tragedy in texas. nbc's kerry sanders is there. >> reporter: heartbreak in texas tonight. fast moving grass fires racing across more than 400,000 acres of prairie land in the state's panhandle. at least four killed. among the dead, three ranch hands including boyfriend and girlfriend cody crockett and sydney wallace. >> they were horseback and i guess they weren't aware of how bad the fire was and got trapped out there. >> reporter: in oklahoma another woman herding her cattle from wildfires there died from a heart attack. and in kansas, a trucker died of smoke inhalation. more than a million acres burning tonight across texas, oklahoma, colorado and kansas. especially hard hit, reno county, kansas, where residents had to evacuate. the fire burning for three days. winds at times gusting to 60 miles per hour. tot

>> hallie jackson, thank you. we want to bring in our political director, moderator of "meet the press," chuck todd. chuck, how big a setback is this for speaker paul ryan and where does it go from here? >> there is a setback if there is no vote tomorrow. if there is no vote through the weekend, then it's a tremendous setback. the president didn't follow his own rules for dealmaking in the art of the deal. he is the guy that desperately needs the deal. and guess what? house conservatives were willing to call his bluf. they were the ones willing to walk away. the president is desperate for a political deal. the people he is negotiating with have problems with the policy. the president wants a win. the conservatives want to shrink the size of government. they cannot get these two positions to somehow come together when you're essentially having two different arguments. one is a political argument and one is a policy argument. but the bigger picture here, lester, as hard as it is to get health care through the house,

lester. >> hallie jackson at the white house tonight. thanks. nicole wallace is an nbc news political analyst and former bush 43 communications director. we've seen this president walk away time and time again from evidence. is this one given the bipartisan nature of the rebuke that he can walk away from? >> there's two flashing yellow lights for him. one, i've been out covering trump voters. a lot of them are two-time president obama voters. he accused the former president of a serious crime and a big man someone worthy of the office, might be thinking about an apology tonight. number two, you now have the bipartisan republican led intel committee making the entire white house staff look profoundly weak and making clear that they don't have either the courage or the will to walk in and say to the president of the united states, mr. president, we've got your back but you got over your skis. we're going to stop defending this because it's indefensible. >> good to have you here. >>> now to a big fight brewing over money. president trump has unveil

hallie jackson though who is over at the white house. hallie, fox says they can't confirm that judge napolitano reporting the capitol hill can't confirm any of it either. there's no toefd support it. the former dni doesn't have evidence to support it, does the white house plan on coming out and producing any evidence? >> reporter: at this point, here's what we know. we know that the white house is looking ahead to fbi director james comey testifying on capitol hill monday. that will be public. that will be at 10:00 a.m. that is whaempb is looking to see. we know -- we think we have an idea of what james comey will likely say based on the briefings he has given to lawmakers. those lawmakers then coming out as you mentioned and publicly saying there is no evidence. no evidence that this happened, no evidence of a wiretap at trump tower ordered by president obama and in fact, as the leaders of the senate intel committee say, there is no evidence of any surveillance before or after election day of spying at trump tower ordered by the prior a

nbc news white house correspondent hallie jackson reports. >> hey there, good morning to you. this morning we do expect action from president trump on environmental regulations. one of the big stories, of course, here in washington continues to be what happened with congressman devin nunes and his secret meeting here on white house grounds last week. a new plot twist in the surveillance saga consuming congress and the white house. >> if this was a movie, you'd turn it off because you wouldn't believe it's believable. >> reporter: the latest bombshell coming from congressman devin nunes. he's the republican head of the house intelligence committee who first revealed u.s. spies may have scooped up communications involving the trump transition team. it's called incidental collections. while nunes has specifically said there's no evidence to back the president's claim trump tower was wiretapped by president obama, president trump said he felt vindicated anyway. >> i somewhat do, i must tell you, i swho do. i very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found. >> report

>> all right, hallie jackson, thank you. >>> also in washington, day three before the senate judiciary committee for supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. he promised to be independent of the president who nominated him and amid praise from republicans, gorsuch deflected attempts by frustrated democrats to get him to wade into certain legal and political issues. and with no stumbles in the hearings, gorsuch appears headed for confirmation in early april. >>> tonight, there's new information connected to the electronics ban affecting passengers on certain flights coming into the united states. tonight, nbc news is learning some of the reasons the new ban on board was put in place by the u.s. and then britain. as nbc's miguel almaguer reports, isis and al qaeda may be working together. >> reporter: tonight, a senior law enforcement official tells nbc news isis may be getting help from al qaeda. a disturbing development following the new electronics ban. it affects flights into the u.s. from eight majority muslim countries and was ordered after intelligence discovered isis operatives sought

nbc's hallie jackson has details. >> reporter: the art of this deal is more about the math and tonight it doesn't add up for the president as much as he might want it to. >> we had a great meeting. i think we're going to get a winner vote. >> reporter: even after he and his team stormed capitol hill, our analysis shows 27 house republicans oppose it or lean no. at least six of them would have to flip otherwise the bill will fail. a quick death for something republicans spent seven years promising to do. >> thursday is our chance to end obamacare. >> reporter: that's why, with just 48 hours left, the president's working the room with a warning. not backing the bill could infuriate voters, costing lawmakers their jobs. >> is that an implied threat from the president to the members who don't back this bill? >> no, i think it's a reality. republican congressman mark meadows understands the risk of rejecting it. >> it's a temporary job. i've known that from day one. >> reporter: leaders scramble to make changes overnight. like on funding for medicaid, which could end up covering fewer peopl

>> hallie jackson at the white house thank you. >>> president trump is on the road again appearing at a rally this evening to sell the gop plan to replace obamacare. days after a nonpartisan report projected it would result in 14 million more uninsured americans by next year, and the president also responding to the leak of his 2005 tax returns. nbc's peter alexander has more. >> reporter: tonight for the first time president trump making his pitch on health care, arriving in nashville to deliver a booster shot to the gop's obamacare replacement plan that one top republican says is mortally wounded. >> my whole life i have heard people say we need a businessman to run this country, and for crying out loud, here is our chance. >> reporter: tonight house speaker paul ryan says he and the white house are on the same page. >> we jointly drafted this legislation, house, senate and white house, so we are working on this together. the president's all-in on this. >> reporter: but the bill still faces fierce resistance from conservatives. here in music city, songwriter amanda paige cornett doe

>> hallie jackson at the white house. >>> now to an nbc news exclusive interview with a high-profile russian activist who says he survived not one, but two assassination attempts. the prominent critic of vladimir putin says he was once again poisoned with an unknown substance. and now in his first interview since emerging from his coma three weeks ago, he is speaking out to nbc's richard engel, revealing who he thinks targeted him. >> russian activist and outspoken putin critic, vladimir kara-murza is lucky to be alive. still recovering after someone about a month ago slipped him what his doctors describe as an unidentified toxic substance. in other words, poison. >> it was about 5:00 a.m. i woke up because my heart was racing. my heartbeat was just getting faster and faster. >> you woke up to this feeling. >> yeah. and then i started sweating really bad a i don't think there are words to describe this. you know to describe how you feel when you're trying to breathe and you cannot. and when you just slowly feel your whole body just giving up, one organ after another. you feel like yo

lester. >> hallie jackson, thanks. >>> elsewhere at the capitol, our cameras captured james comey leaving a private meeting with senators and members of the house intelligence committee. a congressional source says the director was there to provide an update on the subject of trump tower. it comes after president trump accused former president obama of having trump tower wiretapped. neither president trump or his white house team have provided any evidence that mr. obama has issued a denial. >>> president trump has been hit with another lawsuit over his business empire. this time a washington, d.c. restaurant claims his hotel operation unfairly competes for local customers because of its ties to the president. our justice correspondent pete williams has details. >> reporter: collin and diane say in a company town like washington where government is the big market, the new hotel owned by donald trump is competing unfairly, taking business away from them. >> there's been a decrease in the number of events that we've had at the restaurant. >> reporter: the two active in liberal causes are su

hallie jackson shows us. >> reporter: tonight, after two days long debates on changes that could effect millions of americans, the republican replacement for obamacare moves two steps closer to reality. >> this is the once in a lifetime opportunity. this is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing obamacare. >> reporter: the determined house speaker underscoring the urgency. today armed with charts aim add at an audience of skeptics inside his own party. the powerpoint pitch plastered all over tv with the perhaps watching tweeting at the same time, despite what you hear in the press, health care is coming along great. we're talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture. that picture looks grim for now as opposition builds. >> isn't that a sign not coming along great? >> i think anybody who has been in washington for a few days or longer recognizes any major piece of legislation takes explanation. >> reporter: the white house insists this bill will pass, but some are wondering why the rush. >> we have lots of time to get this right. i'd rather get it right

>> hallie jackson, thanks. >>> in the meantime there is fallout over the collapse of the gop's plan to repeal and replace obamacare. the white house says the president now wants to work with democrats and he may need to to make deals and get things through congress, but there are serious big fights ahead over taxes and the supreme court, just to name a couple. now the question is can the parties find common ground on anything? here is nbc's kristen welker. >> reporter: trying to reset after his stinging defeat over obamacare, president trump put the focus on back jobs today meeting with women in business. but behind the scenes mounting urgency for a win, the target now tax reform an already daunting task made more difficult after members of his own party the conservative freedom caucus defying the president refusing to back the health care bill. >> does the president still believe he can work with the freedom caucus on the legislation? >> i think it's going to depend on the legislation. >> not necessarily? >> it is that balance. >> so -- >> no, i don't think -- i think as he mentioned,

hallie jackson, nbc news, washington. >>> all of this brings us to the subject of president trump's credibility, which is one of the most important things a president has, especially when a national crisis arises and the country turns to its commander in chief. now after a string of unproven claims, will this president struggle to keep the trust of the american public? here's nbc's peter alexander. >> reporter: tonight, for a president who's often loose with the facts, a moment of truth. after being publicly rebuked by the fbi director for his latest unfounded claim. in mr. trump's insurgent campaign fueled by promises this one likely got lost. >> in this journey, i will never lie to you. i will never tell you something i do not believe. >> reporter: as president those beliefs threaten to undermine his credibility on issues big and small. a white house claim about record crowd size consuming his first day in office. >> the field was -- it looked like a million, million and a half people. >> reporter: assessment photographs disproved. this head-scratching comment last month -- >> you look at wha

>> hallie jackson taking us to this dramatic day. thanks. now to the fallout for the president and speaker ryan as the failure of their health care plan unsettles the republican party. the fierce internal battle now shifting to what a blame game behind closed doors, as thoughts now turn to the future of the president and the speaker's agenda. for that, let's turn to nbc white house correspondent kristen welker. >> publicly the president putting on a face of party unity. >> i want to thank paul ryan. he worked very, very hard, i will tell you that. he worked very, very hard. >> behind the scenes, the finger-pointing has begun. sources close to the white house tell nbc news the president wanted to pursue tax reform first. but chief of staff reince priebus, his vice president, and house speaker paul ryan pushed him toward a health care first strategy. early this morning, a top aide to the speaker insisting everyone was on the same page about pursuing health care reform. the president tonight. we'll probably be going right now for tax reform whi

we get details from nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: tonight the government scorecard is out on the new gop plan to repeal and replace obamacare. what it would cost and how many it would cover. the prediction? ending obamacare would mean 14 million more people would be uninsured next year. that's partly because many would decide to drop the coverage they're required to have now. the report also predicts individual premiums would spike about 15% before dropping in 2020. the analysis, worse than early estimates by health experts, giving ammunition to democrats. >> trumpcare means higher costs for less coverage. >> reporter: the numbers may make it harder for the president to pitch the plan after his promises on the campaign trail. >> so inexpensive for the people, so inexpensive for the country. i am going to take care of everybody. >> reporter: the administration's already dismissing these numbers. from the congressional budget office, a nonpartisan agency whose job is to figure out what any new piece of legislation would cost. health secretary tom price late today. >> we disagree st

hallie jackson is on capitol hill and apparently just ran into mark meadows, the chair of the house freedom caucus, that critical group of conservative republicans. let's listen to what he just had to say. >> reporter: can you tell us if there's any deal? this is d-day. >> i'm not making any comments. i would love to share, but i tell you, this is more about really our nation and it's serious so i don't want to make any more comments. i'm not making any comment. >> that was kind of a giant no comment, kelly o'donnell. let me ask, is there a plan "b"? if they decide not to go ahead with the vote, what happens? >> reporter: well, the latest update we have right now is that they're in speaker ryan's office. when i say they, i mean the leadership team. that's a couple hundred yards behind me up. know it well, kate. there's a throng of cameras outside that door as well. so, if there is any movement, we should be able to certain it pretty quickly. that's where the strategy is happening. what would they do? the president would say, turn the page in a big way and move to something that is political

nbc's hallie jackson has that story. >> reporter: for a white house built on winning, its first loss could be 24 hours away with the health care bill on life support. >> we believe we need to postpone the vote and get it right. >> reporter: republicans looking for symbolism, instead find themselveses scrambling to win over voters from the conservative freedom caucus, a bloc mostly against the bill. do you think you have enough to tank this thing? >> i don't think. >> reporter: you know? >> yeah. >> reporter: right now, our nbc news analysis shows 28 house republicans will probably vote "no." six would have to flip or the bill's dead since no democrats are on board. instead, led by the former vice president, they are rallying in resistance. >> i ain't going anywhere. this is not going to pass. >> reporter: for the gop, a delay could be embarrassing but failure altogether devastating. >> i think the better, smarter move would be to step back, reconfigure the playing field a little bit, crap that is in the way that is palatable to house conservatives and senate moderates. >> reporter: a

we will bring you those comments when they come. >> hallie jackson at the white house, thanks so much. we'll let you get back to it. let's head back to newport news, virginia, where the support just wrapped up that address on the uss gerald ford where hans nichols remains. let's talk about the message this after. aside from everything we've just been talking about and the comments he made as he took a tour, how about the message of the actual speech today? >> reporter: well, below deck the message was clear and that is donald trump wants a bigger navy and he wants to buy more ships. he wants to buy a lot more ships. he said that at several points. you know, kate, to the larger point here, you know, united states aircraft carrier should be the safest place in the world for united states president. but it was above deck where he tripped on his story. weighed in on what's happening on sessions and in some way may have drowned out what they meant to drive below deck. we're here in the hangar of this carrier. you got a lot of elevators going on when the president left. he actually ascended

nbc's hallie jackson has details. >> tonight, this 13-year-old photo op back in focus for the president. trying to turn the russia spotlight to democrats. with diversionary twitter tactics. blasting old pictures, senator chuck schumer with vladimir putin. nancy pelosi with the russian ambassador in 2010. official meetings that as senator schumer points out, happen in full public view. >> and he even enjoyed a krispy kreme doughnut. >> president demanding investigations, clearly frustrated with continued questions about his own advisers' talks with the russian ambassador. some only disclosed in the last 48 hours. like carter page, a former campaign adviser, now acknowledging he did talk with the ambassador at the republican convention. reversing what he said before. >> i'm not going to deny that i talked with them. >> then there's attorney general jeff sessions, who just recused himself from any campaign investigation by the justice department. after not disclosing his conversation as a senator with ambassador kislyak. >> i think it was hyped beyond reason. and i think it was unfair. and

we get more on the story from nbc's white house correspondent hallie jackson. >> reporter: tonight a new suggestion from the president that it wasn't simply a wiretap president obama had installed at trump tower, like he originally claimed, but maybe more surveillance, hinting at more to come. >> wiretap covers a lot of different things. i think you're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks. >> reporter: it's another interpretation of his explosive tweet 11 days ago, still providing no proof. >> now you have to decide are you going to take the tweets literally and if you are, then clearly the president was wrong. >> reporter: that's the house intelligence committee's top republican revealing he has seen no evidence of the president's claim. so he wants congress to keep investigating. so what's the president basing his accusation on? it's still not clear. but his attorney general says it didn't come from him. >> reporter: did you ever give him any reason to believe that he was wifetapped by the previous administration? >> look, uhm, m

>> hallie jackson in the briefing room there. thank you very much. let's bring in moderator of "meet the press" chuck todd. with two investigations going on, one into russia and one into trump's surveillance claims and this week both took unfortunate turns for administration, how do they get out of this and move past it? >> at some point they have to accept it exists. you have the president that doesn't want to accept the conclusion that russia tried to interfere in the election and that there is going to be an investigation in this and whether he likes it or not and ultimately, that's the problem here. the source of all of the current problems for this west wing right now for this presidency right now stems from the tweet where the president accused president obama of wiretapping him. since that time, this is all been self-inflicted. look, the russia cloud is dark enough by what is already been reported and what's being investigated. this sort of nunes keystone cop situation has made it that much worse and stems from the fact the president himself w

white house correspondent hallie jackson has been following the story. >> reporter: good morning, this all started with that tweet almost two weeks ago now, but the story has not ended. particularly now after the. president's press secretary says he stands by his claim that tweet that president obama ordered trump tower to be wiretapped prior to the election. a bomb shell statement triggering an explosive respo e response. >> hold on, i'm making a point. >> after the committee president trump wanted to investigate his accusation of spying found there's nothing there. becaused on the information available to us, we see no indications that trump tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the united states government either before or after election day 2016. no surveillance, not even a wiretap, according to the top democrat and republican on the senate intelligence committee. the president not convinced, not backing down. >> he stands by it, but you're mischaracterizing what happened. the investigation in the house and senate has not been provided all the information. >> repo

hallie jackson at the white house, kasie hunt, i know we'll get her, also bill, "weekly standard," joan walsh, charlie sykes, thank you for joining me for that quick ten minutes. that wraps things up for me. i'm katy tur. kate snow picks things up with a full hour, we promise. >> yes, thank you so much. hello to you. i'm kate snow. here are our top stories at this hour. it is full speed ahead for republicans on the hill. work has started now on modifying their obamacare replacement plan, but it is far from a sure thing. coming up, the faxes inside the gop, each fighting for their own si

let's go to hallie jackson at the white house. he mentioned late in the news conference that he had notified the white house counsel's office of his decision. but do we know rwas there any pressure from the white house itself to make this move? >> reporter: we don't know. we also don't know the timing. of when the attorney general's office notified the west wing that he would be recusing himself. it was only a couple of asked whether sessions should recuse himself and the president responded that he didn't think so. that is one of the questions we will try to run down. you heard the attorney general say in retrospect, i should have slowed down in answering that original question during the confirmation hearing, the one that has led now to the story that has been dominating the news really since last night when it broke. remember too that the president had said he was not aware of the conversations between the attorney general, then a senator, and the russian ambassador. that was reiterated by his press secretary just moments ago o

nbc's hallie jackson you can see in the briefing room, kasie hunt on capitol hill. also philip kline from the washington examiner, as well. everybody looking to the white house for leadership on health care. what's the game plan? >> keep up the hard sell, craig, the president has been talking about this, trying to convince skeptical republicans to get onboard, doing outreach to conservative groups, you saw paul ryan's ted talk on msnbc, but the president, too, trying to get out there and make sure people get onboard with this. the question is, what happens if they do not. you've seen them get online, on twitter, as well, in the last hour talking about how ultimately this will be a beautiful picture, although it's not clear what exactly he means by that. i expect the press secretary will get some questions on that any second when he comes out of the door behind me. >> kasie, let's talk about that presentation if we can for just a moment here, we saw paul ryan a short time ago giving this sleeves rolled up powerpoint presentation. it seemed as if he wasn't just trying

hallie jackson is here to break it down. hally, most of us have seen this headline all day today, talk about the >> hey, pat, sure. let's break it down. essentially what we saw from president trump over at the epa in washington was him trying to undo a lot of what former president obama put in place with his clean power plant. remember that? this was something that was intended to try to fight climate change. the current president ran on essentially rolling back a lot of those regulations and that is part of what today does. it does things like, for example, freeze -- trump called it ending the war on coal, if you will. he was surrounded by miners when he signed this executive order today. this is being celebrated in certain places like this west virginia, but as you might imagine, environmental groups are very upset about it. >> let's talk about jobs for a minute. there's a lot of back and forth about the coal industry and power plants. what's the potential impact from an economic perspective? >> reporter: it's still not cl

and all day long on twitter now hallie jackson. >> thank you, stephanie ruhle, my pick for one great woman. >> we won't really comment further until those findings are complete. >> we're also watching the scoreboard with republicans and the white house bracing for a new report on the new health care bill. will it show they can keep their promises? if not, what then? and a monster system is threatening millions in the northeast. a live report on the potentially historic late-season storm. doing our best to stay warm, pete williams conferrivering th justice department. on set, puffy jacket day, "washington post" reporter who a closely firing that wiretap investigation and new york city politics reporter and msnbc contributor jeremy peters. kellyanne conway was on the "today" show this morning. here's what she said when savannah asked her about this wiretapping claim. >> this is information he had, he tweeted about it, he brought it up so he has the power to cl clarify on it. why not? >> i can't comment on his private conversations he's having with the justice department. >> so what are

i have no doubt this will stand. >> and with nbc's hallie jackson reporting, in all more than half a dozen states are trying to stop the revised travel ban. >>> the republican plan to replace the o affordable care act just cleared a major hurdle. passed the house budget committee by 19-17. three republicans joined all democrats in opposition to it. it will now head to the rules committee where we could see changes to the bill. the alexandria city council is considering a property tax rate increase of 5.7 cents. according to the "washington post," the council is under pressure to raise money for school construction and maintenance. this hike could cost the average homeowner $356 more than what they currently play. the council is also considering higher fees for sewers and trash and new storm water >>> you have less than an hour to finish your brackets and tell us who you have winning it all? >> march madness gets under way in about an hour. we'll tell you your bracket is going to get busted but maybe one of the six times from our region will make it to the next round. check out all of

hallie jackson is joining us now. this is a strategy session with republicans. he knows he's facing united opposition from the democrats? >> reporter: that's exactly right. interestingly, we have learned in the last couple of minutes that after the lunch with leader in both the house and senate, republican leadership, they are heading back to capitol hill for a meeting specifically focused on health care reforms, specifically focused on the plan to repeal and replace and likely to include a discussion about this draft proposal that's been circulated on capitol hill a. proposal we have been asking the white house about, given that you're starting to see these divisions drawn within the gop, people who do support this draft plan, people who don't. the white house line is this. hey, listen, this is just a draft, just a conversation starter. it is opening the discussion. there is still more work to be done. that much is certainly clear, andrea, specifically after the president's speech last night, in which he really didn't provide very clear guidance or sort of nitt

hallie jackson, 1600 pennsylvania, thank you as well. let's go to capitol hill where we find nbc's kasie hunt. i know that you've been chasing lawmakers there all day doing what you do. what do republicans say they now expect president trump to do to follow up on the words we heard last night? >> well, he does have some herding of cats to do on capitol hill. there is already conservative opposition brewing to this repeal and replace plan that was a draft piece of legislation leaked last week and the people started going through and there was a realization among conservatives that this include as way to help americans pay for health care and it's too liberal, essentially. and so there's brewing, mounting concern, really, with republican leader who is want to push this plan forward as members of the so-called freedom caucus, a group of conservative members over here in the house. they gave john boehner plenty of headaches and it's been quieter lately but republican leaders hoping that president trump has the ability to corral them. i pushe

. >> hallie jackson pressed in today's off camera briefing. >> has the president spoken with the fbi director about the allegations he made saturday morning and does he have confidence in his fbi? >> to my knowledge i am almost 100% certain he has not. >> does he is confidence in his director? >> and then there is this, the former director of the nsa in this very studio on morning joe this very morning talking about the president and his possible motive. >> he is trying to distract attention from what was a very very bad news cycle. let me go very very dark on you. the president of the united states put his own reputation, the reputation of his at risk to get at least a draw out of the next 24 hours news. >> let's bring in our panel tonight. eli is here with us in new york. washington post reporter ashley parker and in philadelphia tonight our terrorism analyst, nance. it has advantages. you get to go first. how big is this? >> it could be huge. >> we are talking about the president's dwindling credibility. it's not something that we haven't seen before. it's not surprising coming fr

. >> hallie jackson is across the street from the white house. how are things looking? >> reporter: talking about the tweets from president trump and i think there's one that is particularly indicative of the mind set of the administration and where the republicans are. the president said must find leaker now. this is a part of what you have been hearing from the white house and from the administration really since the story started to develop. the concern more broadly is on how this information is getting out. what they believe are illegal leaks. you are hearing it reflected and the republicans on capitol hill who will be involved in the hearing. expect to see some of the questioning to focus on the leaks, to focus on the issue of the leaks, particularly from republicans who don't want to step afoul of the white house who want to walk the line between pressing director comey and not antagonizing president trump. >> hallie jackson, thanks. again, left hand side of the picture, we have this crush of people in the center of the room. you have the members of yet to come in