good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here at msnbc world headquarters in new york at the half hour. here's what we're watching for you. new reaction from the white house this morning trying to reassure americans that president trump is ready to take some sort of action in the wake of the florida school shooting. here's what one official said just moments ago. >> donald trump is more than the president of the united states. donald trump is a father, and he is a grandfather. and he wants what everyone else in this country wants, which is to keep our children safe. the partnership between the federal government and the local governments has to be strong in order to get things accomplished for the kids and keep them safe. that's what he wants to do.

and right now he is in a listening phase. he wants to hear from everybody. >> the white house dealing with the fallout over the latest guilty plea by a former trump campaign aide, rick gates. here's how house intel ranking member adam schiff say it is sending a message to paul manafort. >> the worst thing for rick gates would be to agree to cooperate and then be found to be less than forth coming. these very detailed charges involving manafort and gates i think also tell manafort just how much special counsel knows, just how much liability he faces. >> now, these charges came at the end of what has already been an unprecedented week in the russia investigation. robert mueller has brought dozens of felony charges against more than a dozen charges this week alone. three former members of the trump campaign have pleaded guilty. the charges against paul

manafort came just hours after former business partner rick gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators. gates has an agreement with mueller to cooperate on all matters prosecutors deem releva relevant. here to explain this is danny a savalis. gates is cooperating with mueller. how is that a key to all of these potential impending charges? >> for gates to even have the opportunity to cooperate with mueller's team, he must have demonstrated in advance truthfully to the team that he has information that is helpful to them. in fact, it is so helpful to them, that the government is willing to enter into an agreement with someone they know to be a criminal in exchange for going after somebody else. that is how valuable the information is in this and any time the government makes an agreement with somebody they have charged with a crime.

so that having been demonstrated, the government will hold off on his sentencing for many months, for however long it takes, to see if gates can hold up his part of the bargain. can he give him the other defendants that the government wants? and we can reasonably in fer that the next person up the chain is manafort. so then the next question is, does the government just want manafort ultimately, or is there somebody beyond manafort in the event that paul manafort decides the potential sentence under the sentencing guidelines in the federal system are incredibly tough? i don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison. even if i think i have a defensible case, perhaps i should consider cooperating just as gates did. this is a devastatingly effective technique that the u.s. attorneys use and it results in conspiracy cases in a race among co conspirators to

cooperate. you don't want to be the last one. >> so we'll see if these charges put pressure on manafort to cooperate. we know in recent weeks mueller's team met with former chief white house strategist steve bannon, jeff sessions, and also james comey. when you put all the pieces together, danny, do you think the investigation is now getting closer to an interview with the president himself? >> we can reasonably assume that this investigation will not be over unless and until there is at least a request or an actual interview with the president. and barring that, possibly a subpoena for grand jury testimony. any reasonable federal investigation of this scope would end, especially given the focus, which is russia collusion if it exists, would end with the person at the top. and in this case that is the president. how he reacts to a request is a totally different thing. in most cases, there isn't quite

so much bargaining power. we are talking about the chief executive here who is determining whether or not he will sit down for an informal interview. normally with your run of the mill defendant, it's a take it or leave it offer. the government says you can come in and talk to us. if you don't, you can expect the subpoena. >> all right. we'll see what happens next and bring you back to talk about that. danny, thank you so much. let's bring in zerlina maxwell, progressive media for the clinton campaign, director of programming for sirius kphpl. joe watkins, and political analyst rick tyler, former cruz campaign spokesman. joe with you, the rick gates plea deal, reaction to that by white house strategic director, mercedes schlapp, let's listen to that. >> this indictment has nothing to do with the white house or the president. as you know, we have been cooperative with special counsel and as we continue to see, there's no evidence of collusion, no evidence of

wrongdoing. >> so, joe, you worked in the white house. what do you think the response to this kind of news is behind closed doors? >> well, you've got to be concerned because special prosecutor mueller is taking his time but he is being very methodical about this. and one person after the other is being indicted and then cooperating with special counsel. the next one, i would imagine that would want to cooperate would be paul manafort. he is facing a stiff jail sentence. he doesn't have any choice. now that gates is cooperating with special counsel, i don't imagine paul manafort has any choice but to strike a deal to allow him to cooperate to lessen his prison sentence. gates is facing six years, manafort much stiffer sentence. >> rick, i know your audio is good to go. i'm going to ask about rick gates, who we know is the fifth

person to plead guilty in the special counsel investigation. how are republicans going to interpret all of this? does this ultimately reflect on the president and the way they see him? >> absolutely. i mean, the president said he is surrounding himself with the best people. his best people are getting indicted left and right. i also want to point out that jared kushner is the analog to paul manafort. and the reason is jared kushner is financially compromised. that's why he can't get a security clearance. it's not that it's taking too long. it's that he can't get one. and, you know, he's had to file -- he filed his papers three times because of a series of omissions. this is the reason we vet people. we vet people so they are not financially compromised. paul manafort got extensively involved in the trump campaign to leverage the access to get himself out of deep financial trouble. >> yeah. >> problem that paul has now is there may not be much left that

he can offer that gates hasn't already offered. so he is going to have a hard time cutting himself a deal if there is a deal to be had. >> you talked about jared's security clearance. i will get to that in a second. i want to ask about the special counsel and the latest moves wrapping up the pressure on paul manafort. he released a statement maintaining his innocence. so from your perspective, what is the significant of all of these developments? >> well, i think the significance is that any talking point that the white house put forward about the investigation wrapping up before christmas or the end of the year, that was clearly misguided. and i think that the president articulated that argument. he said lawyers had told him everything is going to be fine. it is clear what the president is getting in terms of information from his attorneys doesn't seem to jibe with what robert mueller is actually doing. and i think back to the enron case. one of the first prosecutors that robert mueller put on his team is a man named andrew

weissman. he charged andy fas tal's wife, cfo of enron, with tax fraud, to get the husband to flip on the higher-ups. i think back to that case because it is a good primer to look at what bob mueller and his team's strategy are in terms of going very methodically, like joe said, through the ranks and trying to get people to flip on the person above them. but i also think back to michael flynn's plea agreement because i don't think of anyone other than mike pence or donald trump who is above mike flynn in terms of the hierarchy here. so i think the the president has a number of different fronts legally where he is very exposed and so is ivanka and so is jared kushner. >> now i want to get back to the jared kushner issue with you, rick. let's play with what the president is saying about the delay getting his security clearance. here it is. >> it's a broken system. and it shouldn't take this long. you know how many people are on that list. people with not a problem in the

world. so that will be up to general kelly. general kelly respects jared a lot. and general kelly will make that call. i won't make that call. >> okay. is he really not going to make that call? is he warning john kelly, talks about kushner's respect in the white house. you know, ultimately, is john kelly stuck between a rock and a hard place? saying he wanted everybody's security to be cleared or they don't get access. except he hasn't been cleared yet. >> donald trump is wrong about what he said. jared kushner's problem is not a backlog with the security clearance. his security clearance is done. he didn't pass it. so move on to the next point. after that donald trump went on to say, not during that press conference with the prime minister, but he went on to say that jared kushner and kelly have a good relationship. kelly respects jared kushner. jared kushner is a good man. and he said i'm sure john kelly

will do the right thing, saying there is a right thing and a wrong thing. so we all know what the right thing is, and that is to give him the security clearance. he already has his answer, so we will see what happens. >> all right. so all three of you, thanks for that. do stay where you are. we will talk to you about a call for action, a call for courage. how congress will ultimately respond to the massacre at parkland. >> we are students. our teachers and our coaches. and they died because you failed. >> students demanding answers from washington. congresswoman debbie dingell will join us. after the shock, one of the surviving students of parkland talks about his personal mission as organizer of the never again movement.

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the second amendment or the tax cuts? go ahead. second amendment? tax cuts? second amendment. i'm going to leave it at the second amendment. i don't want to get into that battle, all right. >> well, that was just one of the headlines out of the president's c spak speech yesterday. let's bring in congresswoman debbie dingell, working on bipartisan legislation in the wake of the florida shooting which can be put ahead of congress ahead of next month's student rally on march 24th. welcome. it's always good to see you. i want to get to your efforts in just a moment. first your reaction to the president's comments at cpac. do you have a clear sense what he wants to see happen? >> good morning, alex. i don't have a clear sense. i've been watching him all week. i heard the clarifying comments from the white house this morning that he is just listening. i'm just doing that, listening too. but i think we've got to be careful and responsible in even the statements that we are making right now. i'm married to a man that is one

of the strongest supporters in this country of the second amendment. but i've also been in a real listening tour this week and doing townhalls with the kids. i've met with law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health, aclu, parents, kids, all kinds of people hearing what they're thinking, what's on their mind. i'm on that listening tour, and i'm being careful of what i'm saying. and i think the president needs to be careful too. i'm not playing to audiences. i'm listening. >> so you bring up you and your husband. and i'm just going to have to ask about dinner table conversation, pillow talk, whatever it is. do you two find common ground between you? you're right, this record is -- he's an advocate with the nra. he's even been a board member, if i'm not mistaken. so how do you guys come to an agreement? do you? or is it just constant battle as it seems to be elsewhere in this country? >> you know, we have a history.

we were probably more in a constant battle mode a little while ago. you know, i never really talked about what happened to me as a child until the last couple of years. you know, when i'm talking to these kids, i'm someone that had to hide in a closet, afraid she could die because of a gun. so i know where they're coming from. so what i think we've both gotten to a point is that i talk through with him what's happening. how do we protect? my father shouldn't have had a gun. he had a memory health issue. and that's why i met with the aclu. the mental health community is really, really concerned get st. because someone is suffering from anxiety doesn't make them a potential shooter. we have law enforcement officials that don't have the tools they need if they deem that someone is a threat to themselves or to the community that they can take that gun

away, which we need to be able to do. and i also will tell you as a family member we have issues in this country. how do you -- my baby sister i loved. i knew she was -- i knew that something could happen to her and she could hurt herself. i tried to make the laws work. our laws are such even when a family member, you don't know what that desperation is until you've been in it trying to make sure someone is not going to harm themselves. and my sister is not here today, and i tried to save her. so how do you work through those things? and john and i will talk about some of those things. you know, we're never going to get total common ground. but as i'm listen to go law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, parents, we're at least talking about how do you make the background check stronger. >> yeah. do you think we are going to get stronger background checks? what is it that holds that up? because it would seem to me that

the american public right now is almost universally in support of stronger background checks. it seems a bipartisan push for stronger background checks to avoid situations like you personally had to deal with. you are candid about your father and the things he suffered from from mental illness. in that regard, why is there even a question? >> well, you know why i think something is going to change? these kids are not republicans or democrats. not one more. and i want all of them out there. by the way, i think democrats and republicans should stay out of their way and not try to make this partisan. let the kids be the smokesmen and the advocates. there is the king-thompson bill. i think everybody is beginning to understand why the background checks aren't working. there is not enough money has been allocated to it. states aren't updating the information that needs to go in it. we have to define the mental

health issue. somebody said to me yesterday we need to get into it and know every medicine someone is on. that's not the the answer. i have one of the only bipartisan gun bills if someone has been convicted of domestic violence or stalking and it's a dating partner or something, shouldn't they be able to have access of a gun? if they've been convicted of a felony, they shouldn't have access. there's common-sense things that i think the mood is going to change. we've got problem-solvers, 26 republicans, 26 dems, some tough conversations. but i think people are trying not to go to the normal corners, and really talk about what can we get through. and what is law enforcement need? what does the school community need? listen and hear what can make a difference. >> i'm grateful that you're leading the charge, democratic congresswoman debby dingell of michigan, thanks so much.

is president trump ready to oppose the nra? what would happen if he did? you wouldn't accept an incomplete job

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i don't want to have 100 guards standing with rifles all over the school. you do a concealed carry permit. it's concealed. so this crazy man who walked in, wouldn't even know who it is that has it. that's good. and a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened. >> president trump there on his idea of arming ten to 20% of teachers or school officials to help combat school shootings. let's bring in selena maxwell. sirlena, i want to you go to you. the president has floated a couple of ways to address school shootings. he seems particularly interested in the idea of arming teachers and school officials.

where is this coming from? who do you think has his ear on this? >> i think one of the nra proposals of post sandy hook. one of the nra proposals that's always brought up after one of these mass shootings. a good guy with a gun. even though facts are presented like, las vegas for example, there were plenty of people who had concealed carry guns in the crowd. but what are you going to do, shoot at the mandelay bay hotel? that makes no sense. so i think the president has jumped on this idea because it's something that you know his allies and his staff in the white house, they definitely have an ear to what the nra wants. it's a completely illogical solution to an intractable problem that really requires adults in the room to say -- no, arming everyone is not the solution. we do not want to live in the wild west where we send our kids to school should not mimic and be like the wild west. we should actually try to prevent people who have domestic violence back grounds from

getting guns. we should try to tackle mental health issues. understanding that most people who have mental health issues do not act out violently. i think we need serious solutions to a serious problem. >> what do you think the chances are that the president would be willing to take on the nra if it refuses to budge on the issue of strengthening background checks, which he called for at cpac? >> it would be a good thing if he was willing to take them on. i don't know if he will. the idea of teachers having guns doesn't seem workable to me it may sound like a good idea until a teacher kills an innocent person and then it becomes a disaster of course for the country. so i think the debby dingell approach is much more reasonable. republicans and democrats working together to give the kids what they deserve. which is gun control. that works. for america so we avoid these shootings going forward. i hope the president listens. >> you agree with that, rick? >> i agree with parts of it. look, i don't think arming teachers is a panacea, as, and

as a concealed carry holder if i were a teacher, i would want to have my weapon in the classroom. i know that's not a popular idea. i don't think the idea isn't to arm everybody. i don't want everybody armed. but if people do have a concealed carry and they're allowed to carry, i would allow teachers to do that, yes. >> thank you so much, certificaserlena joe and rick. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job

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good morning, everyone, i'm alex witt here in new york, as msnbc world headquarters. here's what's happening right now. pleading guilty and now cooperating -- a former trump campaign aide flips while paul manafort faces a new indictment. this morning, new insight into where the russia investigation is headed.