welcome back to "inside politics." i'm nia-malika henderson. john king is off. the president today spent 33 minutes talking to reporters this morning. most of that was dedicated to his response to mass shootings in america. he said his influential over gun policy is stronger now than in past years, and he once again blamed mental health, not guns, for the horrific shootings that killed dozens of people just this past week.

>> the gun doesn't pull the trigger, a mind, a sick mind pulls the trigger. we want to take the guns out of the hands of crazy, demented, sick people. i don't want to have crazy people having guns. >> we begin the hour right there with a big and risky promise. the president says he can bend the big gun lobby to his will. >> i have a great relationship with the nra. they supported me very early. that's been a great decision they made. we'll see where the nra will be. but we have to have meaningful background checks. the nra, i've spoken to them numerous times. they're really good people. they're great patriots. they love our country. they love our country so much. and frankly i really think they're going to get there also. i think in the end wayne and the nra will either be there or maybe we'll be a little bit more neutral and that would be okay too.

look, look, the nra has over the years taken a very, very tough stance on everything, and i understand it. you know, it's a slippery slope. they think you approve one thing and that leads to a lot of bad things. i don't agree with that. >> president trump this morning on the white house lawn says tighter background checks now have tremendous support after two massacres put the country's gun problem back on front pages. this moment the president insists is different than all the others. after parkland, after las vegas, after sandy hook, after every other mass shooting that sparked the very same national conversation about guns. but what exactly the president wants remains quite murky. he didn't define what meaningful background checks actually looked like, but it is clear that the nra and his base will follow him wherever he goes. >> we are looking at toomey-manchin. if you look, there are many bills that have been put in over

a period of four or five years. they went nowhere. but there's never been a president like president trump. i think my base relies very much on common sense and they rely on me in terms of telling them what's happening. >> here with us to share their reporting and their insights, we've got manu raju, annie linski, john bren han and kathy lucie. mitch mcconnell talking about thl as well as other republicans. a lot of republicans are in the president's ear on this issue, manu. who ultimately wins out? >> well, it seems a lot like what we heard in the aftermath of the parkland massacre when the president made some very similar remarks. very strong on background checks, made those famous comments that they're going to -- he's willing to take on the nra, criticized some

republicans for not standing up to the nra and what happened ultimately? the president did not move forward the way that he did under pressure from the nra. so right now, yes, he's talking about doing something on background checks. the word that he's been qualifying what he wants to do, he says sensible background checks. >> and meaningful. >> what exactly does that mean? there are lots of different versions of background checks. the house version is a universal background checks bill. the white house already opposes that and republicans oppose that bill. the manchin-toomey bill is narrower than the house-passed bill because it deals with commercial transactions, not private transactions. that bill failed in the aftermath of the sandy hook massacre. >> you got four republicans to vote for it and two aren't even in the senate anymore. >> a lot of republicans still serve in the senate so that's very unlikely to pass. so what ultimately gets passed. it seems at the moment it's just talk. >> president trump here saying that he's got more influence, greater influence over gun

policy than he did in the past. >> on background checks, we have tremendous support for really common-sense, sensible, important background checks. i think with a lot of success that we have, i think i have a greater influence now over the senate and over the house. i think we can get something really good done. >> the idea of the president saying he can move his base on this, but in the past we've seen his base move him. >> i mean this will be a huge test for trump. think about where he's changed republican ideology on trade, on immigration. he's moved the party in a whole new direction. guns is another issue. i mean he noted in his remarks today that the nra supported him early. they dumped tens of millions of dollars into his election in 2016. now, they don't have the money

this time. >> right. >> so we'll see what happens. another point, our colleagues in florida reported today the trump campaign in florida is sending volunteers to gun shows to register republicans. that's the base he's going to go after here. so he's -- >> that's interesting. >> it's a tough place for him. >> and here was wayne la pierre, who is one of those voices in the president's ear. this is what he had to say of the the nra opposes any legislation that unfairly infringes upon the rights of law-abiding citizens. the inconvenient truth is this, the proposals being discussed by many would not have prevented the horrific tragedies in el paso and dayton. worse, they would make many law-abiding americans less safe and less able to defend themselves and their loved ones. >> that's exactly what we've heard from the nra in the past. it's almost a cookie-cutter statement from them. but what's changed here and this will be a test for the nra as well, this organization is not the nra it was two or three years ago.

they have had an enormous amount of internal turmoil. chris cox, their long-time top lobbyist is no longer part of this organization. we're having headline after headline over the problems that they're having. so i think it will be interesting to see if they really do have the muscle that they have had in the past or if they are internally distracted. you could see it playing either way, where does like this brings the organization back together again, but they saw real losses in 2018 in those midterm elections. >> in the suburban districts. >> absolutely receipt. the organization just is not as united ait's bes it's been in t. >> even though the president said he didn't talk this way after parkland, we'll pull up this clip after parkland sounding exactly like he sounds now. >> we're going to be very strong on background checks. we'll be doing very strong background checks. we want to be very powerful, very strong on background checks. we certainly have to strengthen

background checks, everybody agrees with that. we're really, i would think, have the support of the nra on background checks. very strong background checks. i think it's time. it's time that a president stepped up. i'm talking democrat and republican presidents, they have not stepped up. it's not going to be talk like it has been in the past. it's been going on too long. too many instances. and we're going to get it done. >> the similarity is remarkable. in many ways he sounds stronger back then than he does now, saying they're going to be strong background checks, for instance. >> and at that time he held a meeting with republican lawmakers at the white house, accused some of them are not being tough enough with the nra, insisted he would be tougher with the nra. then ultimately after some conversations with the nra kind of backed away from some of this. so the thing we have to watch is the specificity in what he will get behind with legislation because you have a lot of republican senators who aren't going to make any moves unless

they know they have cover from the president. we've seen this not just on guns, but on lots of issues where they are really waiting for a signal from the white house that the legislation that's moving along will have white house backing, that they're not going to walk out on something that he's not going to be with them on. >> and that's been the test for trump for so long. when he moderates on some of these issues, he gets blowback from the right and goes back to what his base ultimately wants. will he decide to moderate on this issue and risk the wrath from the right? i think that's still very much an open question. >> and we heard from senator mcconnell yesterday saying that there will be a debate, they will bring this up, and some saw this as a move from him just acknowledging there would be discussion and conversation on this and that he cited background checks and red flag laws as two things at the center of the conversation but he wasn't committing to anything specific either. so we need to see. >> we'll see where this goes. next, all eyes on mitch mcconnell.

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>> already mcconnell's office says there is a big disagreement over what totally onboard actually means, but both trump and mcconnell are now on record and agree on the at least one thing, that the senate can wait out these next three weeks. >> by the time you call them back, they're going to be back anyway. i don't think we'll need to call them back. i think we'll have a very good package by the time they come back and they can start debating and voting on it then, so i really don't think for the extra little time it matters. leadership is doing a really good job. >> manu, you've got some of the reporting from mitch mcconnell's office about where he is on any of this. obviously you saw donald trump there making the big claim that he is on board. >> the president has been trying to suggest there's serious movement when there actually is none at the moment. what mcconnell is open to is not any specific piece of legislation, his office made that clear after the president's

remarks that he was totally on board. they said he was open to broad policy ideas, a larger outline of what can be done. mcconnell has dispatched his chairmen to try to figure out what legislative solution can move ahead. what seems to be happening, mcconnell does not want to bring the senate back because if he did the republicans would be getting hammered every single day by democrats who go to the floor and demand they pass a bill. the republicans don't have a solution of their own. can they cobble something together the next few weeks to give them cover? potentially. this red flag legislation to empower localities to try to deny -- >> with graham and blumenthal and grant money to the different states to encourage them to implement these red flag laws. >> that's possible that could pass but it's going to take some time to play out. >> we heard mcconnell talking on a local radio station about whether or not the senate was going to come back. >> you're not calling people back in early to address this

gun legislation. >> well, i've we did that, we'd just have people scoring points and nothing would happen. there has to be a bipartisan discussion here of what we can agree on. if we do it prematurely, it will just be another frustrating experience for all of us and for the public where people are just trying to score political points and not trying to get an outcome. >> the delay probably works against anything getting done, i would imagine, because that's what we've seen time and time again. >> certainly democrats, advocates of doing something, would say that time is not their friend here. that the urgency of this moment after these two mass shootings is what's driving the conversation. and we've seen especially in president trump's white house when there is so much news and so many things happening that things can get pushed out of the headlines, they just can. so there's a big concern among advocates that three weeks blunts their momentum.

>> catherine, you mentioned mcconnell's language on front and center. i think a lot of people heard that and thought this was a different place that mitch mcconnell is. here's this quote around being front and center of the background checks. >> there's also been some discussion about background checks. that's an issue that's been around for a while. >> 90% of americans believe according to the most recent, i saw it in politico, poll. >> there's a lot of support for that. there's a bipartisan bill in the senate, pat toomey of pennsylvania, a republican, and joe manchin of west virginia, a democrat. so those are two items that for sure will be front and center as we see what we can come together on and pass. >> do you want to jump in here? >> he's talking about manchin-toomey. lindsey graham is on air force one today and gave a pool report speaking to reporters saying we're not for manchin-toomey. >> they all voted against it. >> yeah, they all voted against it. and tom brasso was in the senate

today because they were in a performance session. he said he's not for background checks or red flag. >> this is him. as for bipartisan background check legislation which he repeatedly voted against, he said i don't expect things have changed much. >> well, there's two points i want to make. trump will do whatever trump thinks he needs to do for his re-election and he won't care where the party goes. he'll do what he wants to do. you saw it for the 2018 election. he kept pushing the caravans and that was a disaster for house republicans. that was not the argument they needed to make going down the -- down to the election. >> right. >> the second part is look at the senate races in 2020. you have purdue in georgia, you have john cornyn in texas. these are not states -- these are really strong gun rights states. but then again, you have colorado and you have maine. mcconnell is in a different --

he's a different dynamic. >> i do want to say that's a good point. it is true that typically when you have more time, the sort of urgency to get anything done fades. the exception here may be all of these members of congress are back home and they may be -- if activists wanting to start a real momentum, this is when they can start getting into town hall meetings and really pushing these members. that's when members come back to washington and say, oh, my goodness, i've been hearing from my constituents and maybe we do have to do something. so i think the ball is very much in the activists' court. if they are more energized -- >> but that's why they don't have town halls anymore. >> no town halls. >> one direction it may go is in this red flags direction. you heard the president repeatedly talk about mental health, getting guns out of the hands of people with mental illness and so that could be a direction where there is something. >> we'll see how democrats feel about that because they said these red flag laws without

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welcome back. democrats running for president are being put on the spot this week, pushed to answer a stark question about the president. is he a white supremacist? about half a dozen candidates say yes, but most of the candidates aren't willing to quite go that far. president trump was asked this morning if there's any way his base can use this to their advantage in 2020. >> democrats call you and your supporters a white nationalist or white supremacist. does that help you? >> i don't think it helps. first of all, i don't like it when they do it because i am not any of those things. i think it's a disgrace. i think it shows how desperate the democrats are. for them to throw out the race word again, racist, racist, racist, that's all they use.

they call nancy pelosi a racist. she's not a racist. they call anybody a racist when they run out of cards. >> nearly every 2020 democrat getting ready to speak to voters at the iowa state fair and attend a key fund-raising dinner tonight. we've got ann's arlette saenz who joins me live from clear lake, iowa, where the famous democratic wing ding dinner takes place. arlette, tell us what to expect tonight at that dinner, the wing ding dinner. >> well, nia, we are still a few hours away from the wing ding dinner kicking off but there's already a lively scene here. the various campaigns and their organizers have been out here chanting. you have elizabeth warren, joe biden, pete buttigieg, kamala harris among others, cory booker as well. campaign staffers here getting ready for tonight's festivities. the wing ding has become a must-stop for these democratic

presidential candidates. back in 2007, barack obama was the keynote speaker here. in 2015 you had hillary clinton, bernie sanders and others. something that's different about tonight's dinner is there are going to be more democratic presidential candidates here than ever before. 22 of the 24 democrats running for president will be here in clear lake, iowa, at the legendary surf ballroom where the likes of buddy holly and ritchie val enz have played and they're going to give their boiled-down stump speeches making their pitches to iowa voters in just a few minutes. we'll see if the recent comments from the president regarding those shootings over the weekend and the democratic candidates who have started to label him as a white supremacist, we'll see if that comes up in their conversations. but really this weekend in iowa, it is the center of the political universe for democrats as these candidates are trying to make their pitch to voters. yesterday we had a poll showing kind of the way the race is shaking out with joe biden still holding on to his lead, but elizabeth warren rising. tonight all of those candidates

will get to make their pitch to iowans. >> thanks for that report and we'll look forward to your reporting from the wing ding dinner tonight. thanks. annie, i'm going to you on this because you covered warren and really all of the candidates. what does this get folks in terms of calling the president a white supremacist. a number of them have, elizabeth warren most recently yesterday in the pages of "the new york times." >> yeah. i mean i think this idea of whether or not the president is a white supremacist has become this litmus test now. yet another litmus test for this giant field of candidates where some can set themselves apart from others as bowieing the mos aggressive against trump. you see candidates like elizabeth warren, jay inslee also called him a white supremacist. it didn't get as much attention. when one of the top tier candidates says it, she's putting her position out there

but she's also speaking to her base, this massive base of support that she's got on the left. that's who's powering her campaign. >> and those are white liberals, right? >> yes. >> who are increasingly left on issues of race. >> they're increasingly left on issues of race. also she doesn't take money from big campaign donors, so she needs to keep activating these smaller donors to say, oh, wow, i really agree with that. i'm going to donate $10 right now. >> and the person who isn't willing to go this far is biden. here he was expressing some annoyance at the question of whether or not the president is a white supremacist. >> why are you so hooked on that? you just want me to say the words so i sound like everybody else. he is encouraging white supremacy. i know everybody wants somebody to call somebody a liar. when you say -- i don't call people liars, i say they don't tell the truth.

you want to put down biden calls someone a liar. that's not who i am. you got the wrong didn't i. >> biden not willing to go as far as warren on this. >> he's trying to make a nuanced point there. there's a good story about how he's centering his campaign more on the contrast with trump and attacking president trump than on any specific policy proposal. he is really framing his argument around what trump has done for this country, what has happened under his leadership, what kind of leader he is. as a result, he's going to be pushed on these kinds of questions. >> his brand is also very different. joe biden wants to be the guy who, look, we can all coming together as a country. i'm not going to talk about your motivation and be name calling the way trump is. it's just another example -- >> it speaks to the broader debate about how exactly to go after trump. do you get into the tit for tat

mud slinging contest with a president who calls people names. some democrats believe that is not the way to go after him, so it's interesting to see it play out on this level too. it's different when you call him a racist, though, because a majority of americans do believe the president -- >> and kamala harris is here talking about the idea of whether or not he is a white supremacist. >> do you believe as loeelizabe warren and beto o'rourke have said that he is a white supremacist? >> i think you should ask him that question. he is someone who empowers white supremacists and who condones their behavior. >> so she's taking the biden stance there. >> that goes to annie's point. biden and harris don't want to be into this name calling thing. they don't want to just get into

this tit for tat with trump. it's interesting because trump went after biden today and saying he's not playing with a full deck of cards and he would be very happy if biden got the nomination. but i do think style matters. style matters in this campaign. i do think there is a part of the democratic base that wants to see their candidate get into the gutter and roll around. if trump hits you below the belt, you hit him back. and i think biden and harris are sitting back and saying, you know, this is a long campaign. there's a long time if we're going to call him names, a long time to do that. >> we saw hillary clinton go up to the ledge in august of 2016 with that alt-right speech and probably i think go over the ledge when she made the speech about deplorables. i think the question for democrats and republicans, is the whole idea of the white supremacist, is it the new deplorables? >> i think that's right. the last thing a democrat wants to be doing is saying trump is a white supremacist --

>> and therefore his voters -- >> i talk to trump supporters who go ballistic at that. now these democrats are saying we're all racist, we're all supremacists. >> trump weaponized the deplorables so effectively. >> people wearing t-shirts. >> probably getting emails from people proudly declaring they're deplorables. this is a rallying cry. i think that's something you have to look out for. >> i guess the question is can biden and harris stick out this position where they're neither here nor there, basically saying he emboldens white supremacist but that he isn't quite one. so we'll see where this goes. as we go to break, a quick glimpse of life from the iowa state fair. i wish i was there. former congressman john delaney flipping pork burgers. a time-honored tradition for presidential candidates. it wouldn't be the iowa state fair without candidates gushing about the food. i know it's delicious. >> enjoy the butter cow. >> can't wait for the butter cow. >> i had the turkey leg. you know, i saw the butter cow

from afar. but i have not actually tried the fried butter or the fried o oreo. >> i think they're looking forward to the bumper cars and maybe the sky ride and that bacon that y'all sell on a stick. >> when can i buy you an ice cream. >> yes, you can buy me another ice cream. i already had one. but allstate helps you. with drivewise. feedback that helps you drive safer. and that can lower your cost now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? (momespecially these days. it's easy to shrink into your own little world. (dad) i think it's here. (mom vo) especially at this age. (big sister) where are we going?

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topping our political radar, joseph maguire, the national counterterrorism chief, is president trump's new pick for acting director of national intelligence. he'll be taking over for dni chief dan coats. sue gordon, the number two intel

official behind coats, resigned after being passed over for the top job. the president, he says he's in no rush to name a permanent replacement. a number of people are in the running. >> i want to get somebody that everybody can really come together with. i like pete a lot. that's a job everybody wants. dni. >> president trump is defending the large-scale i.c.e. raids in mississippi where nearly 700 undocumented immigrants were detained. the administration was criticized for not having a plan in place for the children of those who were rounded up, but the president said they couldn't let people know in advance or the raid wouldn't have been effective and added that people will see these raids for a long, long time. >> i want people to know that if they come into the united states illegally, they're getting out. they're going to be brought out. and this serves as a very good deterrent. when people see what they saw

yesterday, like they will see for a long time, they know that they're not staying here. call this nancy pelosi's line chart problem. as you can see, more than half of house democrats now support an impeachment inquiry. that number has grown steadily since about march an rose sharply after special counsel robert mueller's testimony to congress. but listen to house judiciary chairman jerry nadler, and he says the number actually doesn't matter because impeachment proceedings are already under way. >> this is formal impeachment proceedings. we are investigating all the evidence. we're gathering the evidence and we will at the conclusion of this, hopefully by the end of the year, vote articles of impeachment to the house floor or we won't. that's a decision we'll have to make. but that's exactly the process wee in right now. >> nadler's committee has a set

of hearings with key witnesses in the fall, a move that's being endorsed by house speaker nancy pelosi. manu, i want to go to you on this. you have nadler essentially saying impeachment proceedings are already under way. help us make sense -- >> there's been this semantics thing going on for some time about whether they're in an impeachment inquiry because they don't technically need to be in an impeachment inquiry to recommend articles of impeachment from the house judiciary committee to the full house. that's essentially what jerry nadler is saying. what they're doing right now is going on a process, a legal fight and have hearings, an investigation to determine whether or not to ultimately recommend articles of impeachment. so that's why he's saying impeachment proceedings are under way. they have cited this in two court filings so far, saying that the house judiciary committee is actively considering articles of impeachment. one, to make the case to the courts that they need this information because in their view it's of the utmost constitutional importance and, two, because they actually might go forward with this. what's been interesting to see

since the mueller hearing, pelosi's language has changed, her tone has changed a bit. she's not been throwing cold water on this as much as possible, perhaps because of rising support within the ranks, but also because this is where it seems to be going. ultimately they may decide to go this route. we'll see how it ends up. >> john, do you want to add anything on this? >> we'll have to see how august goes for these democrats. i think that we were talking about town halls before. i think members are going to come back and they're going to tell pelosi what they want. pelosi is going to do what she needs to do to defend her majority. mcconnell gets criticized for doing this on the senate side but pelosi is doing the same thing here. she is defending her majority. >> and thinking about those dems who won in those red districts. >> the moderates are the one who got her back into the speaker's chair, winning those races. if she thinks moving forward with impeachment will help them, she'll do it. if she doesn't, she won't. that hasn't changed for her. coming up, president trump says equinox owner stephen ross

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right now there's a high dollar fund-raiser going on in the hamptons for president trump. the host, owner of equinox and soulcycle and he's under fire for backing the president. but president trump on his way to the event said the controversy is actually good for stephen ross. take a listen.

>> and i understand the fund-raiser was totally sold out and it's very successful. the controversy makes steve ross hotter. he'll figure that out in about a week. >> joining me now, we've got cnn's vicki ward. vicki, you spoke with people who are close to stephen ross, and he has a very different point of view. what are you hearing about what he's thinking about this? >> right, nia. i think that the people around steve ross who i know pretty well, i've interviewed him many times, are very frustrated because the story that's being played out over the last 48 hours doesn't really reflect who steve ross really is. this is a man who has spent a great many years and a great many dollars, millions and millions of dollars dedicated to his chief passion, which is race and racial inequality. you know, he has known donald trump for a very long time.

he does not agree with him. he's talked with me often about where he doesn't agree with the president. he was asked to give this fund-raiser. he was given the guest list. i think they didn't anticipate that it would blow up like this. i mean the people around him have pointed out to me that his number two, jeff blough, gave a fund-raiser both for hillary clinton and for president obama. steve ross went to both of those. last week he was in washington on a bipartisan initiative for climate change. so i think that, yes, he is doing this. he knows the president. he's a big businessman. typically people like him have to play both sides of the political aisle. but this is, i think, frustrating. >> vicky ward, thanks for that reporting.

coming up, president trump makes a big deal out of joe biden's latest verbal slip-up on the campaign trail. what might seem like a small cough can be a big bad problem for your grandchildren. babies too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough are the most at risk for severe illness. help prevent this! talk to your doctor or pharmacist today about getting vaccinated against whooping cough.

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most pills only block one. flonase. critics are pouncing on joe biden after an apparent slip-up last night of the former vice president was speaking about education to voters in iowa when he said this. >> we have this notion that somehow if you're poor, you cannot do it. poor kids are just as bright as just as talented as white kids,

wealthy kids, black kids, asian kids. i really mean it. think how we think about it. we think now we're going to dumb it down. they can do anything anybody else can do given a shot. >> critics, including the trump campaign, are seizing that slight pause there before biden ed edits himself. the campaign writes donald trump is desperate to change the subject from his atrocious record of using racism to divide this country. vice president biden misspoke and immediately corrected himself during a refrain he often uses to make the point that all children deserve a fair shot, and children born into lower-income circumstances are just as smart as those born to wealthy parents. despite the explanation, president trump was still eager to pile on. >> he made that comment. i said, whoa, i saw it because i was on something. i had a television. i saw his comment. joe biden is not playing with a full deck.

this is not somebody you can have as your president. but if he got the nomination, i'd be thrilled. >> and annie, joe biden known for his gaffes. was it a gaffe? was it a misstatement? he obviously corrected right away but this is the joe biden you're going to get. >> this is the joe biden you're going to get. he's going to get more tired, he's going to have more appearances. one of the issues here is that this is getting to race. joe biden has a huge support with african-americans right now. but we've done interviews with a number of black voters in early states and that support is wide but it's not that deep. i think the more -- this kind of comment, comments he made earlier where he was talking about his working relationship with segregationists, they're going to start piling up and i think this is a very difficult issue for him and absolutely is a gaffe. >> catherine, you had the trump re-election campaign seize on this. andrew clark, the rammpid respoe

director tweeted an edited video saying, yikes, have fun mitigating that one. >> they're going to jump on any examples like this to drive this narrative that he's gaffe-prone, that he's not prepared. to annie's point, the campaign is only accelerating. he's doing multiple events in iowa. he's going to be very busy in the coming weeks. this comes at a moment where he continues to be the leader in the polls, but other candidates are really moving up as we see polls in these early states and that lead is not -- it's not unchangeable. so he's under pressure here. >> the president has the benefit of being graded too on a curve because he makes misstatements and false statements, he lies at a fairly regular basis. he's called dayton pletoledo th week while he was trying to comfort the nation after these massacres this weekend. so how it plays out in a general election remains to be seen.

but biden's rivals will make the point that he could say something at any given time that could change the narrative and you need someone to prosecute an effective argument against the president. >> biden did call ohio michigan too. >> which the trump campaign also made note of. >> if you've covered biden for a long time, and i have, he always said stupid things, he's got a history, because he likes to talk. he thinks as he's talking and that's where you get in trouble. >> for the next months here he's got this very busy schedule in september, so we'll see where this goes. we'll see if some of his support ends up kind of crumbling. we've seen him steady in the polls so far, annie. >> well, this gaffe, again, i say depogoes to race. that's what makes it particularly dangerous. it's one thing to be uncle joe and misspeak, but when he's talking about race, that is where a lot of his support comes from is black voters.

if they begin to question him, that lead he's been able to hold -- >> and that's the question, do they care. we have to endi it there. that's it for "inside politics." pamela brown is in for brianna keilar, and she starts now. i'm pamela brown live from cnn's washington headquarters. under way right now, six days after two mass shootings in america, the two top republicans in government signal a potential move involving gun control. as democrats call the president a white supremacist, does his campaign think it's helping him politically? plus disturbing new details about why the suspect in el paso decided to attack there instead of his hometown. and think about this for a moment, the top two positions in charge of america's intelligence are empty after another official resigns. but first, under