something about it, at least to show some solidarity with the victims. >> she almost said time's up. >> interesting to see if it happens tomorrow night. vivian, thank you. thank you for watching this special hour in d.c. of "velshi & ruhle." i'm ali velshi. i'll be back at 3:00 eastern. >> i'm stephanie ruhle. thrilled to hand off to our friend and colleague andrea mitchell for "andrea mitchell reports." >> and right now on "andrea mitchell reports", job security. a growing divide in the republican party over whether congress should pass legislation to prevent the white house or justice department from firing robert mueller. >> it's pretty clear to me that everybody in the white house knows it would be the end of president trump's presidency if he fired many mueller. >> he's cooperating right now. >> would you support legislation to protect mueller? >> i don't think there's a need for legislation to protect mueller. if there's an issue that arises, we'll take it up at that time. why create an issue when there isn't a place for it? >> state secrets. house republicans could vote

today to release that classified memo about the russia probe, despite warnings from the justice department it would be extraordinarily reckless. and republican charges of a deep-state conspiracy. a former cia director says it does not exist. >> i mean, the idea that you could have some kind of organization to control the government or have it not leak or somebody sell the story to the magazine or a book publisher, it doesn't comport with reality. >> and grammy gold. music's biggest night full of fire and fury, including the dramatic reading of that tell-all book everyone is talking about. >> fire and fury spoken word auditions, take one. >> trump won't read anything. he gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. >> cut! sorry, john. it's wonderful, it just feels a bit too smooth. i don't think it's going to

work. next! >> his combover: the product was called just for men. the longer it stayed on, the darker it got. >> he had a long-time fear of being poisoned, one reason he liked to eat at mcdonald's. nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade. >> that's it. we've got it. that's the one. >> you think so? >> oh, yeah. >> the grammy's in the bag? >> in the bag. and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. only 33 hours away from president trump's first state of the union address under the c t shadow of the continuing mueller investigation. today the president is ignoring pleas from his own justice department urging republican allies on the house intelligence committee to release a staff memo that contains classified information despite a warning that the release would be extraordinarily reckless. "the new york times" reports rod

rosenstein, the man overseeing that memo, has been complaining to associates. kristen, a lot to unpack here. take it away. just a day ahead of the state of the union address. >> that's right, andrea. this is one more topic that is looming large as president trump prepares to deliver his first state of the union address as president. in terms of this memo, it's setting up a big back and forth between the white house, lawmakers on capitol hill, and of course the justice department. what is in the memo? well, of course that depends on who you ask. the president, republicans say it shows that the russia probe was tainted from the start. it includes details about an order for more surveillance of carter page, of course a trump associate who did have contact with russian officials during the campaign. he's denied that there was any wrongdoing in any of those contacts, though, andrea. but democrats show that this memo was cherry picked, and they

believe that it essentially does not paint an entire picture and that it's biased in and of itself. so you have this big back and forth that's being set up here. there's going to be a vote on whether to release the memo later on today. the president's deputy press secretary saying that the president hasn't actually seen the memo, that he's busy working on his state of the union address. but this also comes against that other backdrop, andrea, reports that the president has privately been venting about the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. over the weekend, ty cobb, the president's attorney, who deals with all things related to russia, really dismissed those reports. he says, we do not find it to be a coincidence there's an onslaught of false stories in what appears to be a coordinated effort to distract about already reported revelations on bias and corruption. again, trying to assert there's some type of corruption going on within the very investigation itself.

so all of this looms very large, andrea, as the president prepares to deliver that all-important speech tomorrow night. >> and when we know about his plans, the preparations for the speech? >> well, wie know the preparations, the speech writing is ongoing. according to a senior administration official -- and you and i were in a briefing together, andrea. the theme of the speech is going to be building a safe, strong, and proud america. there are going to be four big bullet points in this speech. jobs and the economy, no surprise there. that's one of the president's big issues. he's going to tout his tax reform legislation that passed. and of course, this is his big legislative achievement. so he's going to talk about the ways in which he says it's helped the economy. and then he's going to look to the future, what he wants to get done in this second year. an infrastructure reform package, a trillion dollars he's going to ask from congress. then of course immigration reform as well as trade and national security. he's going to call for more funding for the military. he's also going to address the

critical issue of north korea. we pressed officials here about what his tone would be when it comes to north korea. it doesn't appear as though he's going to have that fire and fury tone that we've heard at various points in the past. instead, officials are signaling that he's going to be more measured. in terms of the tone of the speech overall, andrea, the president aiming to strike a bipartisan tone, but the big question, will he stick to the script. we won't know the answer to that until tomorrow night. >> thanks so much, kristen. thanks for all of that. >> absolutely. >> information about the state of the union and all this russia probe. ben carden now joins me. senator, thank you very much for being with us. you're hearing from kristen and from "the new york times" that the president's been really going after rod rosenstein in private, not only the past threats to have him fired along with mueller, but now thinking he's a thorn in the side of the president. you know rod rosenstein. you introduced him at his

confirmation hearing. he happens to be a republican, as though that would matter for a career justice official. what do you think would happen if he actually the did fire rod rosenstein? >> andrea, first, it's good to be with you. i think you're going to see more and more democrats and republicans join together to protect the department of justice. we saw that over the weekend with some of the comments made on the sunday talk shows. it's critically important that the department of justice be allowed to do its work independent of the president of the united states. there's already been too much interference, and i think the president's comments about rod rosenstein is part of that. we want to maintain the ability of mr. mueller to complete his investigation and see where it leads, and we want the department of justice to be able to carry out its important function without interference from the president. >> but do you think that the leadership in the house and the senate would rise up, or do you

think it would just be some of the more moderate republicans and lindsey graham and a couple others who have been insistent that this russia probe be carried out to its conclusion? >> well, i certainly have been disappointed by some of the leadership in the republican party as it relates to the independence of these investigations. chairman nunes has lost all credibility as it relates to being an independent voice as to what's happening. he just looks like he wants to protect the president of the united states. so no, i don't have confidence we'll hear from the republicans as strongly as we should, but i do believe the critical mass in the congress understands the importance of the mueller investigation and allowing it to have its independence. >> of course, nunes could only be restrained by the speaker of the house. and kevin mccarthy on "meet the press" was indicating to chuck todd that he sees no problem, which means the speaker sees no problem with the release of that memo. so it remains to be seen. i want to ask you about foreign policy because you're such an

expert on this. we've got the entire u.n. security council coming to the white house for lunch with the president today. we understand he really wants to tee up his desire to get out of the iran nuclear deal. there are possible ways that people in the state department are hoping to try to get around that or moderate it. but the bottom line is he's warned that a hundred some days from now, unless he gets action from the allies to modify the agreement, he wants out. >> well, this is a great opportunity for the president with his security councilmembers being with the president -- let me be clear, he's going to hear very strong support for the iran nuclear agreement provided that iran is in compliance, which they are at the present time. so i think he'll see reinforced the position that's critically important for the united states to stay in the agreement. but what the president can achieve at this lunch is get international support for action

against iran for its non-nuclear violations, for its ballistic missile tests, for its support of terrorism, for its human rights violations. here i think the president is in a strong position to get international support to say that we will not allow that type of conduct to go unchallenged. >> and it's been misreported by a lot of people, most recently prime minister netanyahu yesterday on cnn claiming there were military sites where iran could hide nuclear materials and would be off limits for inspection. that is absolutely not what the accord says. the agreement says they have access to all sites, including military sites, with notice. >> you're exactly right, andrea. there's a clear opportunity for the iaea, which is the inspecting arm, to be able to go wherever they want to within iran. to date, there's been no challenge to that ability and no reason to believe that there's violations of the commitments by iran. >> i want to ask you about

afghanistan because of the tragedies again today. this is the fourth attack in a week. we've had, you know, hundreds wounded, more than a hundred killed in kabul at the sbr intercontinental hotel, the police academy, the ambulance loaded with explosives. today's attack, isis is claiming responsibility. we don't know. the taliban has claimed responsibility for the others. we know great success has been achieved against isis, and the president will claim it tomorrow night. the fact is they've now spread to afghanistan as well, joining the taliban and the haqqani network there. pakistan has to be held responsible. what can the u.s. do? is this going to be a continual explosion against the afghanis, against the government there, and against our own personnel? >> well n th, in that region, including afghanistan, we've had great success in the territorial control, taking it away from isis. we've been successful in

afghanistan, iraq, in syria. but what still remains in afghanistan is that you need a central government that has the confidence of all of the ethnic communities. that requires a peace process in which we have not been successful in getting all the parties to the table. pakistan could be a lot more helpful than they have in dealing with the taliban. so we do have challenges moving forward for the future of afghanistan, and that requires us to accelerate the process of a more open government. >> and i think i should note, every time we have this conversation, i'm going to note it would help if we had ambassadors in pakistan and afghanistan. >> absolutely. there's no question that this administration has not shown a priority for diplomacy. they have not appointed key ambassadorships. they have not supported diplomatic efforts in a lot of the hot spots in the world.

we have ceded a good deal of our influence in the middle east to russia. that's not good. so yes, we need this administration to show that there's not a military solution to these problems. it requires diplomacy, and we need to surge in diplomacy. >> senator ben carden, thank you so much. >> thank you. and coming up, 99 problems. president trump and jay-z mixing it up. we'll tell you why next. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ey. i tried the patches. i was tired and i was fed up. i wanted to try something different. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke. compared to the nicotine patch, chantix helped significantly more people quit smoking. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems,

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so president trump going head to head with rap superstar jay-z who criticized the president on cnn for suggesting he should be praised for lowering black unemployment. watch. >> it's not about money at the end of the day. money doesn't equate to happiness. it doesn't. that's not -- you're missing the whole point. you treat people like human beings. you know, that's the main point. you can't treat someone like -- it goes back to the whole thing. you're going to treat me really bad and pay me really well. it's not going to lead to happiness. >> president trump firing back in a tweet, calling out the rapper and again taking credit for improving unemployment for african-americans. joining me now is ron clain and michael steele, former chairman of the republican party and msnbc political analyst. so ron, the whole controversy

over black unemployment between jay-z and the president, the president thinks he can call the entire continent of africa a foul name and yet take credit for black unemployment, which has been going down, and the economy is improving for everyone, particularly for african-americans and other minorities. but that is a process that started before he took office. >> right. i mean, i think the whole controversy shows both the failings and in some ways the genius of donald trump. the black unemployment rate was 16.5% when barack obama took office. it was 7.8% when he left. cut it in half. it's fallen just one more point under president trump. so most of the credit for this change goes to president obama. but what i will say is no one ever talked about that under president obama. by tweeting and attacking jay-z, donald trump has everyone in the country talking about the black unemployment rate. so ezra cline of vox has a great piece out today about how trump is winning. this is his point. by picking these fights, by doing this outrageous stuff, he's able to command mind share.

he's not fixing black unemployment, but he is making himself the topic of conversation. >> he is fixing it to the extent it's gone down a point. the obama administration didn't tout the success it had in bringing down the black unemployment. so, you know, don't criticize trump because he's taking advantage of a one-point drop. obama didn't take advantage of a nine-point drop. so that's the truth of it. you know, you may hate the messenger, but the message is an important one for the president on the eve of his state of the union, to give highlight to those things and the economy. yeah, you know, just as obama blamed bush for a lot of the problems he had, donald trump is going to take credit for a lot of stuff that may come out of the obama administration. >> and by mixing it up with jay-z, he amplifies that message because he reaches a greater audience. at the same time, we've got this controversy over whether the

president should, as he said, be happy and willing to be interviewed by robert mueller. the minute he said it, ty cobb and the other members of the staff and the legal staff were saying, wait, not so fast, we've been negotiating the terms of this, it isn't a done deal. they were sending all kinds of signals. and here's what newt gingrich had to say on fox this morning. >> my strongest advice to the president is to never be interviewed by mueller. the dangers inherent in having all of those high-priced lawyers who spent a year now digging up everything they could dig up and walking in and saying now, do you remember on january 3rd at 3:00 in the afternoon a meeting you were in over a year ago. the danger he has of giving them an answer which doesn't fit their other material is enormous. >> i hear you, mr. speaker. >> i hope his lawyers will talk him out of it. >> they may not have that choice because there's a supreme court precedent that goes back to

nixon and the tapes and bill clinton testifying. they really don't have that choice. you're the lawyer, i'm not. >> yeah, so i think you have president trump doesn't agree to a voluntary interview. i think bob mueller will go to a grand jury and get a subpoena. this is not like an optional activity. he is going to have to answer questions as part of this investigati investigation, as other presidents have in other investigations. it's only a perjury trap if you commit perjury. if he goes in there and tells the truth, you know, he's not going to commit perjury. i think the problem is that there are a lot of lies stacked up. and how he'll pick his way through that minefield of lies, that is the challenge for him, but it's a bed of his own making. >> and they're not high-priced lawyers. these are justice department lawyers. these are public servants who have done and have been doing the due diligence that you would expect. the only high-priced lawyers are the ones that will be coming in with donald trump. and they had just better prepare their client for a conversation with justice department attorneys. that's the truth of it. that's his reality.

>> now, one of the things, the phenomenon of the trump presidency so far, is there's a new nostalgia for george w. bush, can he saw captured in the cold open of "snl." >> i'm suddenly popular af. a lot of people are saying, man, i wish george w. bush was still our president right about now. so i just wanted to address my fellow americans tonight and remind you guys that i was really bad. like historically not good. so i get why you don't like this current guy. heck, i voted for jill stein all the way. but please, do not look back at my presidency and think this is how we do it. >> now, it was an off-the-record gathering, but i did see and hear the president, the former president, on saturday night when he was in town for this dinner, this annual gathering.

he was absolutely the star. john kerry spoke and mike bloomberg. this has all been reported. george w. bush was hilarious. >> yeah, i think the president finds himself in a very relaxed space. he's not engaged -- >> the former president. >> yeah. he's not engaged in any of what's going on in this administration, just as he didn't really in the obama administration. he's enjoying his post-presidency. he's painting. he's very happy with that. and i think he's got his zen and he's going to stay there. >> and he's working with former president clinton on hurricane relief, on puerto rico, and the other states that have been so badly hit. >> i obviously spent 36 days in florida trying to keep george w. bush from becoming president. >> there's a movie about that. and a book. >> not a fan of that. but what i will say, his decency and dedication to public service always shine through. we're about the mark the anniversary of the program which saved millions of lives in africa and around the world. this was a decent man. i disagreed with a lot of what he did, but i think we miss that

sense of public service and decency that president bush brought to the oval office. >> i should also point out laura bush and what she did in afghanistan with women and girls' education. there's a lasting legacy in terms of a lot of our foreign aid, especially as you point out. >> absolutely. the. >> the former president definitely left a mark on many continents around the globe, but particularly in africa, where to this day african leaders ask about how is former president bush. he left that much of an impression on their countries. that's a good thing. >> both of you, please stand by. we have major breaking news in our newsroom. pete williams in our newsroom with a big shake-up at the fbi. >> a big one but an expected one, andrea. this involves the deputy director andrew mccabe, who as you recall was acting director when james comey was fired. now he's back in his role as the deputy director with christopher wray in charge.

he's been the subject of repeated criticism by president trump because of the activities of his wife running for office and getting contributions from a political group associated with hillary clinton. there were questions about whether he was neutral in the investigation of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation and of course the fbi has always insisted the two are separate. nonetheless, this has made him a target of some criticism. backing into the news story here, andrea, the news is he's stepping down as the deputy director sooner than anticipated. he has made no secret of the fact for several years, in fact, well before president trump was elected, that he would leave the fbi when he was eligible for retirement, which in the fbi is a combination of age plus time in service to the bureau. he would be eligible for that in mid-march. his plan is to leave the fbi in

mid-march. that's always been his plan. but now the new thing here is that he is stepping down in his role as the deputy director. he has enough time in the bureau that he's acquired considerable amount of leave. he'll in essence go into a terminal leave posture here and continue on the fbi payroll as the original plan was until the time of his retirement. but for now, he has decided to step down in his role as the fbi deputy director. no reason second base given here. we can speculate on maybe why he wanted to do this, partly perhaps because of the criticism from the president and partly because, perhaps, he was anticipating the report from the inspector general, which is the justice department's inspector general, which was started well over a year ago, announced shortly after the inauguration that the ig would look at how

the fbi conducted the hillary clinton e-mail investigation, and undoubtedly, he perhaps is anticipating that his name will be prominent when that report coming out. in any event, andrea, he is moving forward his plan to step down as deputy director, always intended to do it here coming up shortly, but has moved it up by a month or so. >> and pete, you stand by because we're bringing in nbc news national security contributor, former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence, as well as j.d. maddox here in the studio, former cia officer and adviser to dhs secretaries, now a professor at george mason university. frank, first to you. you know andrew mccabe. he is leaving sooner, for all intents and purposes, he was planning to retire but certainly the investigations, the pressure and criticism from the white house, perhaps he's trying to remove one target of opportunity from the president and give the

fbi a little breathing room. >> this is not a surprise. if you know andy mccabe, he's truly a dedicated career special agent, 22 years. no fbi agent ever wants to become the story. it's all about the case, the investigation, the mission. andy's become a story, whether rightly or wrongly. my guess is that he's had a conversation with director chris wray. they've looked at the available leave, his eligibility date for retirement, and it's not unusual at all for folks to take what's called terminal leave, finish out your unused leave. you don't get many vacations at that level in the fbi. you just can't leave the office, literally, and so he's going to ride this out and allow some change to take place. not a huge surprise, but the timing is interesting. >> timing is interesting, and ron, as an attorney and someone who worked in the white house and on the hill as counsel, this follows relentless pressure and

all kinds of shot from the white house against him based on the fact that his wife had run in 2015 for state offices in virginia with money from the governor, who is associated with the hillary clinton fundraising operation. >> if congress is confident, they'll get chris wray up in front of them immediately and demand answers about this. this looks like radical politicization of the fbi since the nixon administration to force out a career civil servant before his time is up as a result of endless harassment by the president. and we know why. we know why. because the fbi has been on the job, looking at this russia thing. trump claims it's a witch hunt, but there's plenty of smoking guns around. to see this happen, to see someone run out of office like this, it's just -- it's just such a sad thing to see. >> j.d., you've worked with homeland security and cia and know how the professional

agencies have been under pressure. the political pressure has been pretty intense all around. >> it absolutely has. i'm sad to see this, just another reflection of this exodus from the government right now. i think there are two sides of this problem. on one side, you have the left describing the government as this sort of chavez-esque venezuelan government that's deeply corrupt. on the right, you have accusations of a deep state. somewhere in between these, the average bureaucrat is caught, and it's very difficult for them to conduct themselves as they should. >> and pete williams, you're the one who broke the story, or just reported it. any more details on andrew mccabe and the effect it will have on the fbi? do we know who will replace him? >> we don't. chris wray has been building his own tame. this -- team. this is something fbi directors generally do. he's bringing in his own staff,

general counsel. these are two steps that new incoming fbi directors routinely take. other thing here is i think this is not the first time that a deputy director of the fbi or somebody in a senior position, one of the senior assistant, executive directors have decided to do this, which is to basically go into terminal leave, take their acquired leave, and basically ride it out until the day of their retirement. this gives them time to look for another position in the government. he'd be required to step down at some point anyway under the law. so he knows it's coming, and he said for years that he was going to do this. so the only thing is this moves up by a month or so his plan to do this. he's not the first one to do it, but it's notable for all the reasons your guests have been saying, because he's not just your average deputy director. >> and in fact, frank, what was reported last week is when he was brought in initially to meet

with the president, he asked him who he voted for. that raised a lot of eyebrows. >> i found that really disturbing because it reflects a complete lack of understanding at the white house of what the fbi is supposed to be and the independence it's supposed to have. but let's talk about what the next steps are because that's really what we should be watching, not that a career fbi agent is exercising unused leave. but rather, let's keep an eye on his replacement. if we're talking about politicization, let's see who chris wray appoints. it should be a career, long-time, respected fbi agent. if we see some aberration there, if we see someone from outside serving as deputy director coming in, then we should all be very concerned. >> and j.d., when we talk about politicizing these agencies, you refer to what has been happening at other agencies as well.

we hear from inside cia and other organizations that they're doing their jobs, but there is a shadow hanging over them because they don't know what expect next. >> i think there is. identify been out for a few months now, but my sense is that there definitely is a shadow. it is very difficult to, you know, actively and passionately pursue the business of the day with all of these narratives swirling overhead. you know, i'm particularly worried that we need to make sure that they're able to do their jobs well. >> and pete, when we talk about a replacement, do we have any idea who might be next in line here? >> no, and i suppose we should have been. we should have been thinking about this because we all knew it was going to happen in march. but there's no real pattern here. it's not like whoever was the executive assistant in charge of counterterrorism automatically becomes the deputy director. there's no real pattern here.

so i just don't know who it might be. >> michael, when we talk about the mueller probe and whether or not there should be legislation protecting them, it was intriguing to see bob gates and the separation of powers there really is no legislative remedy to protect the probe from him being fired. that said, there is growing pressure from some republicans and certainly from democrats to pass legislation so he cannot be fired. i don't know if it would stand up in court. >> yeah, bob gates is right. there is no real mechanism for that. what you see happening is folks trying to find a, quote, political solution to the problem. and you see the battle lines have been drawn there. you've got folks like lindsey graham saying, yeah, we probably need to do that. then you've got the majority leader kevin mccarthy going, well, i don't see any need for that. within the party itself, there's some real deep fissures, andrea, about how far republicans will go to protect this president when mueller starts dropping

shoes around the city that very well could be problematic for the president himself. so you're seeing sort of an advanced guard, if you will, assaults on the fbi, and law enforcement components, as well as some political maneuvering to sort of stave that off. >> and with all the attacks against rod rosen sistein that we're reading want about, if rod rosenstein was fired, he's the overseer of the mueller probe. even though mueller's people have obviously created a vast record, we know how long they've been working, if you fire him and fire rod rosenstein and put somebody more political in that job, then the future of the probe really is in question. >> it is in question. i mean, look, obviously in the end if we go back to the one historical example we have, richard nixon, removed archibald

cox. i think in the end, the facts and evidence are there. i think they will be found out. but if donald trump tries to fire rod rosenstein, has rosen steen -- rosenstein's replacement fire bob mueller, there will be conflagration around that. i don't think in the end he can escape accountability for bhafr -- whatever is in those files in mueller's office. >> we'll have to leave it there. thank you all -- no, i'm sorry. i have one more question for frank. what happens now inside the fbi? what happens with the rank and file? >> well, i think they're going to want to know the answer to the question was andy forced out for political purposes, or was this a choice that andy decided to make for the good of the fbi. that's going to circulate quickly, starting on the seventh floor of the hoover building and getting out to the field offices. then the rank and file are going to look very closely at the next

pick. i would not be surprised if we see someone brought in, a major leader of a major field office, brought in as kind of an un-washington person, that isn't considered to be politicized. watch for someone to come in from a field office. that would be my prediction. >> and before i let you guys go, i want to ask you about the memo. we may have a vote in house intelligence this afternoon to release a memo that the trump justice department says would have classified information that the release against carter page would be extraordinarily reckless, and yet, frank, the president, without seeing the memo, has said, yeah, they should release it. kevin mccarthy says there's no problem with it, which means the speaker is in favor of releasing it. devin nunes has been completely discredited by most independent people as the supposedly recused head of the house intelligence committee when it comes to the subject of this probe is pushing

for the release. what's the impact of its release? frank? >> so look, you touched on the real motivation of the release of this memo just a few minutes ago when you talked about rod rosenstein. this memo is squarely focused on him. allegedly what we're hearing is that he's the one who actually renewed the fisa warrant for surveillance on carter page and therefore -- so here's the strategy. therefore, if there's a flaw in that application for electronic surveillance and it was signed off on by rosenstein, therefore something is wrong with rosenstein. he screwed up. he needs to go. that's what they're looking for. but here's the problem with this. realize that rosenstein signed off on a renewal of an existing warrant on carter page. all he said was the facts are still there, right, and by the way, to get a renewal, i've appeared in fisa court over 20 times. o to get a renewal, you must show productivity, the warrant is working, you're getting something off the wiretap,

there's continued contact with russian agents. all he did was say yes to that and thit's there and signed off on. we should be more concerned there was enough evidence to get a renewal for surveillance on carter page. >> and ron, you're familiar with these warrants. for them to try to go after rosenstein based on his involvement in this. as frank pointed out, it was a renewal. a judge was involved. >> i think they're going to regret this whole release the memo gambit. it is irresponsible to release it, for the reasons you talked about, but in the end, the core of this appears to be, based on reports, that the deputy attorney general, picked by donald trump, found probable cause that a trump associate was a russian agent and then went to a court and proved that a wiretap had produced evidence of that and got a court to renew it. that is not a good fact for donald trump and the people around donald trump. >> and ari mel bber joining us

now. to mess around with a fisa judge in public, this involves sources and methods. >> i think that's right. to echo what some of your analysts have been saying, we're seeing the collision of several different things. some are concerning, some relate to past reports about, as you've mentioned, the president's clearly unusual targeting of a current, up until today as pete williams is reporting, number two at the fbi, and then this wider maelstrom in the congress about what they perceive or allege are potential improprieties in surveillance. >> and just now, the president has been at a meeting with the u.n. security council on iran. let's listen. i think he was asked a question and did not answer a question. so we're going to let that go by. let me just explain. we've been waiting for a

playback of a photo opportunity with the entire u.n. security council meeting at the white house with nikki haley, rex tillerson, and others. this is part of the president's campaign to persuade them to take steps to blow up the ooiir nuclear deal in some 100 days. they were given a private tour of those missile parts that were allegedly iranian or produced through iran that were found in saudi arabia, fired from yemen, and this was supposed to help build up support for new sanctions against iran on ballistic missile proliferation, which they have been found guilty of, and also on counterterrorism. so that all said, the president's having lunch with them now. we'll wait to see. i believe he's going to be talking about it, gentlemen, at the state of the union tomorrow. ari, i interrupted you for the false alarm from the white house. >> well, we're always tracking when that is going to break. i was as interested as you were in what might come out. to continue the point for folks watching at moment saying, ekok,

number two fbi, what are we talking about here. we're talking about andrew mccabe, who's a 22-year veteran. he ran interrogation programs under the obama administration after the controversies about so-called enhance the interrogation. he ran cyber and terror units. he is kind of an agent's agent sen rose all the way up up through the bureau. he was appointed in 2016 by jim comey to his highest post here. that is part of why donald trump reportedly saw him as too close to comey and too close to democratic activities because of his wife's activity as a candidate. none of that, of course, to be clear, represents anything like wrongdoing or a problem. that is just normal activity. he was appointed by the then-head fbi director and has a wife in politics. many people in washington have some sort of such activities. i think what is notable is to echo some of pete williams' reports, this is different than

expected, an earlier departure. we don't at this hour know the stated reason or the public reason, but we would be remiss not to note the unusual campaign waged against him by the president on twitter and elsewhere. secondarily, these reports, which have not been confirmed in full by nbc news, but we have been able to confirm aspects of the report that first came out that donald trump's own fbi director threatened to resign when donald trump was allegedly trying to oust this very person, andy mccabe, who today is leaving his post early. all of that comes together in the wider context of what you and your panelists were just discussing, which is this concerted and ongoing effort from the white house and apparently some in congress to put pressure on what is remaining still an open criminal probe in america. we usually want those probes to continue without political pressure and find out what the facts are. >> and indeed i think a question was asked of the president. let's play a little bit of the tape from the white house lunch.

>> have you been told mccabe is resigning? >> thank you, thank you. >> as you can see, that did not result in any answers. peter alexander on the white house lawn. tell us about the arrival of the security council and the pressure now on the president. peter, the president being asked about andrew mccabe and what's going on at the fbi. >> yeah, the president speaking a short time ago, saying very little about andrew mccabe. we are hearing from some of those who were allies, long-time supporters, believed in andrew mccabe. the president obviously was not one of those. this is what eric holder wrote on twitter. on fbi director andrew mccabe has been a dedicated public servant who served this country well. bogus attacks on the fbi and doj

to distract attention from a legitimate criminal inquiry does long-term, unnecessary damage to these foundations of our government. those are the words of eric holder just moments after nbc news confirmed that the now-former deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe, would be stepping aside, using that terminal leave to fulfill the remaining time before his pension goes into effect in march. the press briefing will take place here at about 1:15 with sara sanders. we'll try to press her for more details, whether president trump had spoken to andrew mccabe in recent weeks to express any of his personal opinions about this matter. those among the likely questions we'll see a short time from now. >> and also, in fact, there's another tweet from former cia director brennan who wrote about the possibility of mueller being fired. he wrote earlier today, ample

basis exists to enact legislation to protect special counsel mueller from interference, irrespective of party in power, u.s. strength rests on ability to safeguard rule of law. that's from john brennan. so we had that, and now we have the stepping down, the early retirement f you will, of andrew mccabe after being under fire for months and months. >> yeah, that's right. and brennan is referring to a dispute that's unfolding among congressional republicans about whether to push this legislation to protect robert mueller. some senators have said yesterday, lindsey graham, susan collins, that they would be in favor of that legislation. these are republicans. but house republicans don't think that it's warranted. there's really a war going on here, including with republicans on both sides, about how hard to press this investigation and top assert that there is corruption at the heart of it and it's improper and the things that robert mueller is doing are just not right. there are a lot of senate

republicans not willing to go along with that. senator richard burr, who's the chairman of the senate intelligence committee running his own russia investigation, is just not there. i think with this decision by mccabe to step down, i think we need to answer a big question, which is, you know, was he pushed or was this his idea. is there any evidence that, you know, pressure from the white house led him to this path, andrea. >> and julia, what about the timing? julia joins us now, part of our justice department team. >> the timing is interesting. we already knew mccabe would have until mid-march to get the benefits of being a long-career servant at the fbi. this means there's something here that made him want to step down early. we're talking to our sources now, trying to figure out if it is because he was forced to do so. we don't have any indications of that so far. we also want to know if he's disagreeing with what's going on in the administration. the timing is curious because it's the day of the vote, of the committee in the house potentially voting to release

this very sensitive information about how the fisa process works. that's something that somebody in mccabe's position has depended on for years. to have that undermine him would be something that would really upset someone like mccabe. >> and j.d. maddox, you were at cia, but these fisa warrants are the most secret, sensitive issues that go before a judge. this is a special judge who only deals with these issues and has special training in that regard. and they're never released. >> yeah, andrea, that's right. it's pretty tragic to see this process being kind of raked through the mud like this. i would add that the great irony of all of this, that it's essentially feeding into this ongoing russian narrative of american corruption and american failure across the board. >> ron, when we look at the relationship between the justice department and the white house,

there's no law, there's no rule about it, but there has been a norm in republican as well as democratic administrations, certainly since watergate, that presidents of the united states do not pressure the justice department. here you have a president not only pressuring the justice department with these constant barrage of criticism of jeff sessions, i wish i hadn't picked him f i known he was going to recuse himself, i wouldn't have, even though his recusal was absolutely required under all legal procedures. he was part of the investigation, part of the transition. that said, this president also pressuring the fbi, firing comey, pressuring mccabe, criticizing rosenstein so it leaks out of the white house. these are norms that are not usually violated. >> no, again, there really is no parallel other than watergate, where the president tried to tamper with the justice department like this. it really is -- i mean, it's horrible on almost every level. first, it's a complete breach of the idea that we have a law

enforcement arm of our government that is independent and apolitical. secondly, it really weighs down hard on the career professionals there who are doing their jobs. these are men and women, they don't make a lot of money. they don't get a lot of glory. they money, don't get a lot of glory. they've devoted their lives to our country and making us safer. to have the president of the united states berating them on twitter and belittling them on twitter for his own personal political gain or to hopefully get himself out of trouble, i guess is what he's trying to do, there's very few things he's done as low as that. that's one of the lowest things the president has done. >> and, julia, you referenced the fact we don't know how and why mccabe's accelerated his departure but there are real questions, are there not, given what's happening today, what's happening in the house intelligence committee. lindsey graham over the weekend said if there needs to be evidence or some protection for

mueller that it would be one of the worst things if he were forced to step down or fired. >> exactly. this is someone who has gotten a lot of fresh frpressure from th president. we know the president asked mccabe who he voted for. so not only is it someone working in an environment completely unnew to him, a time where he has the executive branch coming down on the work of law enforcement, he's also in a position where he, himself, is being singled out and painted to be biased, which is something people in these positions spend their whole careers trying to refute any inclinations, any visions they may be biased. and so it's someone as he departs there will be a look at the fbi and why he's doing this. and i'm hoping, andrea, we have more information on the impetus for this decision as we continue to call our sources throughout the day. >> we're getting reaction now, congressman eric swallow, a democrat on the intelligence committee, house member on the phone. congressman?

>> good afternoon, andrea. i'm hearing this, too. he's a witness who's come before both committees on i'm, intelligence and also house judiciary. if he's leaving for any reason other than personal, this is going to be a problem because we know the president's desire to remove people who he perceives to stand in the way of him being cleared in the russia investigation. this is very concerning if it's true. >> we have a tweet from last year from the president against andrew mccabe. deputy director andrew mccabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go. he was getting personal reaching down into the fbi as he has before into the justice department. >> that's right, andrea. he also apparently has tried to lean on jeff sessions to push out andy mccabe. i would like to know what attorney general session's olro,

if any, deputy director mccabe is leaving. he has testified he's been a credible witness. he's a lifelong law enforcement official. he is not partisan. "the washington post" reported he didn't even vote in the 2016 election. so it was wholly inappropriate for the president to ask him who he voted for. mr. mccabe didn't even participate in the election. so i think a lot of unfair attacks have been volleyed at him by the president. i'm just afraid what this means for other career law enforcement officials who just want to put their head down and do their job without political interference. >> are you going to want him called in to be questioned by your committee or others? >> i believe it would be best if he was pushed out by the president or attorney general sessions that there would be individuals who should come before the judiciary committee including the attorney general and anyone else who would be a part of it and mr. mccabe.

i'm going to wait and reserve and hopefully it was because mr. mccabe found something else to do with his career and not because the president's continued interference in our investigation. >> as far as you know, is your committee going to be voting on releasing that memo today? >> andrea, we have a business meeting tonight. the democrats are proposing a counter memo that would give the house the full picture of what is going on. we hope that is passed because the house, of course, is responsible for holding the president accountable if he were to obstruct justice or if anything came before the house judiciary committee. the memo that has been released so far is at best a brainwashing memo. i think it really poisons the well of the body who may be called in the future to side on bob mueller or actions the president has taken against him. we hope the counter memo is passed and given to the full house.

>> well, does it also include classified information? wouldn't that just be throwing more into the fire? what is in that counter memo? >> we're trying to be careful not to have two wrongs make a right but they have put forward a number of inaccurate facts in their memo that touch on the work of the fbi and we believe in an effort to discredit bob mueller. we're trying to set the record straight but also mindful we do not want to release classified information yet to the public that would jeopardize what the department of justice is doing. >> but you don't have the votes? we have people who want to do the right thing because there are republicans on that committee who i think want to do the right thing and don't want to see this disgraceful effort to undermine bob mueller and just torch every floor of the fbi building to protect the

president. >> congressman, thanks so much for joining us. we'll have a lot more after the break. at 1:15 live coverage of sarah sanders and the white house briefing. stay with us. to their breeding grounds. except for these two fellows. this time next year, we're gonna be sitting on an egg. i think we're getting close! make a u-turn... u-turn? recalculating... man, we are never gonna breed. just give it a second. you will arrive in 92 days. nah, nuh-uh. nope, nope, nope. you know who i'm gonna follow? my instincts. as long as gps can still get you lost, you can count on geico saving folks money. i'm breeding, man. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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well, a busy news day with our big, breaking story from pete williams exclusively. and that does it for us. this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." craig melvin is up next here on msnbc. >> always good to see you. thanks for having me here in

washington. craig melvin here in washington, d.c. a lot going on on this monday. we're just a day away from president trump's first state of the union. we are about 15 minutes away from the daily white house briefing. and if that were not enough we're just a few minutes away from a one-on-one conversation with former press secretary sean spicer. the latest on the news that broke last hour, the fbi's deputy director stepping down. andrew mccabe the latest top justice department official to feel heat from republicans. also reportedly under fire deputy attorney general rod rosenstein in a controversial memo authored by house republicans that could be released today. we start with our reporters, pete williams, julia ainsley, national security and justice reporter, and an msnbc contributor, also a former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence and current coo. pete, let's start