this sunday, liberated or besieged? president trump attacking the media. >> they are the fake, fake, disgusting news. >> attacking the russia investigation. >> russia's very unhappy that trump won, that i can tell you. >> attacking the democrats. >> they'll do anything they can to really to obstruct or resist. >> is this a sign the president is feeling liberated in his job or besieged by the growing pressure of the mueller probe? plus, securing our elections. even after top u.s. security officials say this -- >> our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis.

>> our democracy itself is in the cross hairs. >> president trump says this. >> now, we're being hindered by the russian hoax. >> so hoax or threat, what does the trump administration want us to believe? my guests this morning, republican senator roy blunt of missouri. democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota and nbc news national security analyst clint watts. also, the trump loyalty test. hugging president trump has become the republican go-to strategy. >> then mr. trump said you're -- i love that part. >> it works great in the primaries, but will candidates pay a price in november? i'll ask long time republican adman mike murphy. joining me for insight and analysis are robert costa, moderator of washington week on pbs. helenen cooper. and al cars that and elia ya

johnson. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. one of the questions that emerged during the campaign was this. should we take donald trump seriously or literally? well, now he's president of the united states. so are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he says that the mueller investigation that his attorney general should stop what he calls this rigged witch-hunt right now. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when hours after his intelligence and security chiefs say that the u.s. election integrity for 2018 is still under attack from russia, the president tells a rally that the russia investigation is a hoax. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he calls journalism fake news and says that the press is the enemy of the people and can cause war? and what are we supposed to make of the ralliers devoted to the president who heckle reporters,

wear t-shirts that say "f" the media and are we supposed to dismiss them? or should we take their anger seriously? president trump supporters say don't take the rally seriously or literally. they're just "wrestlemania" like entertainment. the white house says don't take the president's tweets seriously or literally they're not policy. they're just the president's opinion. in other words the president supporters have resorted to excusing his behavior as opposed to attempting to defend it. it's hard to know whether we're supposed to take that seriously or literally. >> the russian witch hunt, a democrat inspired witch-hunt. >> at campaign rally in ohio last night, the president unleashed his latest series of attacks. >> maxine waters is leading the charge. a seriously low iq person. the fake news media. democrats are obstructionists.

the only thing they do well -- they're lousy politicians, they have horrible stupid policies and they are haters. >> a sign of a president who appears increasingly rattled. on wednesday, mr. trump made his most direct call yet to the end of the mueller investigation tweeting, attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch-hunt right now. his lawyer quickly claimed the tweet was not evidence of obstruction of justice but then argued he could obstruct justice if he wanted. >> if he wanted to obstruct it, he could end it. then you'd all battle whether he has the legal right to do that. but i don't think he will. >> reporter: his associates are facing mounting legal general arpy. when money when a friendly party dried up, paul manafort became desperate for cash. raising the question of why he agreed to an unpaid job with mr. trump's campaign in 2016.

at the time, manafort talked about the access that campaign offered. >> they're coming to me to get involved in the trump campaign. >> people want to get involved? >> people want to get involved, yes. wanted to before but didn't have a way in. >> reporter: one republican told "vanity fair" that it's spinning him into a frenzy and then a threat from his former lawyer michael cohen who signalled he might strike a deal with prosecutors and spill the president's secrets. and the special counsel is interviewing more associates of another long-time aide, roger stone. for months, mr. trump has had one relentless talking point. >> there was no collusion at all. no collusion whatsoever. no collusion. no collusion. absolutely no collusion. >> reporter: with mounting evidence of contacts between mr. trump's campaign and russia, this week the president's attorneys tried a new argument. >> collusion is not a crime. i'm not -- i don't know if it's a crime, colluding about russians. >> reporter: mr. trump said collusion is not a crime but

that doesn't matter because there was no collusion. in a pr clean-up attempt, the administration's top intelligence officials held a briefing thursday at the white house. vowing to combat russian interference in the midterms. now, just over 90 days away. >> this threat is not going away. >> we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election at the -- that the american people can have trust in. >> reporter: hours later -- >> we are being hindered by the russian hoax. >> joining me is roy blunt of missouri, who sits on the senate intelligence committee. so we we want to get into some election security issues. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be with you. >> before i get into that, sometimes i try to ignore his attacks on the press. but this morning he seemed to go a bit overboard with this tweet. i want you to get you to respond to it. the fake news hates he saying they are an enemy of tell people only because they know it's

true. i am providing a great service by explaining there to the american people. they are dangerous and sick. senator blunt, i know this is not your point of view. i'm not -- but at what point is this rhetoric to the point where it should stop in your mind? >> well, it's not my point of view. you know, i see the media -- the press every day in the capitol walking through -- to my office, to the floor, lots of questions. generally really good questions. i do think there's so much news out there it's harder to focus in if you're a part of the media than it may have been at one time. if you watch tv every day, you could find some things that y you -- on various news channels you found objectionable and probably not to be true. the president's rallies people seem to respond to that. i would say that. ive not been to one of -- i have not been to one of the rallies but i have watched them. that's something that a lot of americans identify with. i think all of us who try to communicate need to realize there's some real challenge out

there of who believes what we say and how we say it. whether that's you or me and, you know, the president communicates in a different way than -- >> but at some point, calling -- when you call a group of people you otherwise him the way he's doing with the press, calling them sick, sort of dehumanizing them, it makes violence against the press easier to rationalize for some. that's the concern that many news organizations have right now. >> yes, but you could certainly find people on the news saying things about the president that are not appropriate either in terms of the -- >> two wrongs make a right here? i mean the president of the united states is the leader of the free world. >> i don't think so, but there's a lot of in depth psychology that goes on on some news stations every day too. >> i'm -- i'm not condoning that. but i guess does -- so that's the -- so the president should go ahead -- because he doesn't

like a blogger that shows up on cable television that night. >> even the president and his daughter disagree on this topic, and, you know, it's not the way i would approach this. i think not the way you and i would approach it. >> i guess the question is how do you convince the president that this is bad rhetoric, that this is dangerous rhetoric, not just bad decorum? >> i think the president really believes that a lot of the news is not accurate. >> do you believe that? >> and you could certainly -- there's a vast variety of how the same news is reported. so somebody is not -- that middle of the road news that people my age grew up with is no longer the news. >> well, i would respectfully disagree there particularly on this show. but i want to ask you to respond to something else. pete waner, he tweeted this about the president and his constant attacks on african-american acts including athletes like lebron james.

trump's made the same criticism of black athletes, black journalists and black members of congress referring to maxine waters, he attacks their intelligence. the closest figure in modern national politics to trump -- george wallace. trump defines the gop. are you concerned that the president is defining the gop as anti-black? >> well, the gop is not anti-black and when you look at what's happening in the economy and lots of other places. you know, when he says things like low iq about somebody, maxine waters -- >> always with an african-american and intelligence. that's what makes a lot of people uncomfortable with what he's doing. >> i don't think always. i mean, look at what he said about his various opponents in the republican primary. it's not always, but it's -- i think you've got to be more careful in our society about what you say about people that are different than you. and, you know, a lot of things for instance you could say about maxine waters, but to indicate

she's not a bright person is not one of them. she is very smart. and very calculating. and grew up in st. louis, missouri, so i served with her in the house. i usually -- >> sounds like you embrace her though as a proud daughter of st. louis. >> i embrace her as someone who gave a lot of time to public service and who has a different view point than i do, but it's not based on her factual view of the world. >> let me go to the issue of election security. here was christopher wray and dan coats at the white house a couple of days ago. here it is. >> russia attempted to interfere with the last election and continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day. >> we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states. >> this threat is not going away. >> you're on the intelligence committee. i assume you have heard many of these same updates probably with

more specificity than we have. what's your level of concern about interference in the 2018 elections based on the briefings you have been receiving? >> i chair the rules committee, senator klobuchar is my ranking democrat. >> right. >> she and i work on that committee together, so those -- which is basically the committee that would have the legislation for election security at hearings that were public on this topic. i thought the most helpful thing in terms of thinking about this year's elections that director wray had to say was we're not seeing the level of activity trying to approach the election systems themselves in 2018 we saw in 2016. i think the one area where both the congress and local officials and the federal government and local officials need to be working together is to be sure that whatever happens on election day, there is confidence that that's what really happened. i think we are at that point. lots of cooperation between

homeland security. our cyber experts. state election officials. local election officials that part of the system i feel good about. >> we still need some paper ballots. we have some states that don't have a backup paper ballot system. i think it's langford and klobuchar together on this. where are you on this? >> i think we should have an audit trail. >> does the federal government help fund that? >> the federal government should actually -- i think we need to be more specific in the future about how we encourage states to spend money. we did $380 million basically based on the 2001 standard. i was not actively part of that discussion as it came -- until it got before the full appropriations committee. i wish we had been more specific on that, but that's money states will hopefully use to make that transition. >> why did you vote against the election securities bill that

was this here this week? >> there was no elections security bill this bill, but $250 million to go to the states. >> you want it more specified? >> more specified. i don't want this to be an annual entitlement. the distapt money and local money on how to spend it. $380 million was what we were told by homeland security and state officials they needed. it's barely out the door. they have five years to spend it. i want to have things like an audit trail that people have confidence in. the central thread of the fabric of democracy is people having confidence that what happened on election day is what really happened. another discussion about all of the information that may have led voters to that decision, that's where the russians appear to be more vigorous this time than last time. >> well, final question here. the sanctions bill from hell as lindsay graham likes to call it. are you on board?

>> i'm on board with sanctions the russians -- >> his is tougher. >> i haven't look at his bill yet. i asked the general who is the cyber command and nsa director in march do you have what you need to respond if we are attacked, you have an offensive strategy. in march he said no. his predecessor under president obama said no. this week, he said yes. >> i did notice that. >> that is a big step in the right direction and the russians, the chinese, the north koreans, any of the other seven actors that principally are doing this kind of activity should listen very carefully to what the general said this week on the topic. >> it was a striking comment from him. that we're prepared to go on offense. senator blunt, thank you. joining me from minnesota, on the other side of the aisle, amy klobuchar. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> let me stick to election security there. you heard senator blunt's

concerns about the bill this week. it was essentially unmarked money is sort of -- it sounded like that was many of the republicans there. what would you say in response to that? essentially he is saying, he'd support more money if it's specified for what it is rather than an annual semientitlement what do you say? the secretaries of state of the states said they needed more help and we think it's paramount we act quickly given we have the intelligence heads of the united states government all going to the white house and saying this is happening now. we have a common set of facts and that's why as we move forward i'm glad that we were able to get the $380 million out to the states, 47 states now have their funding for things like backup paper ballots but we need to get the secure elections act passed that's what my friend roy blunt was talking about

right there. we're voting on that bill finally in committee and that's going to allow us to require backup paper ballots of the 14 states that either have partial or don't have them at all. >> right. let me get you to respond to something the director of national intelligence dan coats said about this election. take a listen, senator. >> our focus here today is simply to tell the american people we acknowledge the threat, it is real. it is continuing. and we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that the american people can have trust in. >> senator, i have to say it's the last phrase that sent a little bit of a shiver down my spine. so that we can have a legitimate election. it wasn't a guarantee yet. how confident are you that the 2018 elections are going to be legitimate? >> i'm very concerned that you could have a hack that finally went through. you have 21 states that were hacked into.

they didn't find out about it for a year and that's one of the reasons that we want to pass or bill so that there's now a requirement that they tell the individual secretaries of state immediately so they can protect themselves and you have the fact that you have the president undermining this on national tv. still after his security people, they go in front of the world they say this is happening. he says that night at a rally in pennsylvania that it's a hoax. so that concerns me. but at the same time, there are some very good people working on it. i'd love to see this broadened out so we start to discuss also the threats to our power grid system. the threats to our financial system because the russians aren't just stopping at the election equipment. >> is the president's comments undermining national security when he does that? >> i think they do because you have got these people that are our security people. our intelligence people.

when he stood next to vladimir putin in front of the world and really sided with him over the intelligence people, it sent that same message to the world. so i wish he would listen to these people, but what we have right now is a common set of facts between at least democrats and republicans in the senate and a common purpose to protect our democracy. >> all right. i want to get a couple of political questions in here. i'm curious of your response to something cynthia nixon said at the net roots conference, a gathering of progressives. a lot of 2020 chatter there. but something she said about socialism. i'm curious of your reaction. >> the establishment is terrified of that word. socialism. but if we learned one thing from the obama years it's that republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do. so we might as well give them the real thing. >> what do you make of that? where do democratic socialists

fit in your democratic party, senator? >> i make of it that she's in a primary in new york state. and running for office. but what i have seen in our party is that yes, there are divides along certain issues but what unites us is so much stronger, chuck. we have a president in the white house where we need a check and balance. we have an administration that is actually down in texas undermining this protection so that people don't get thrown off their insurance if they have a pre-existing condition. that unites us. what unites us is doing something about pharmaceutical prices. so that instead of what the president did giving a speech and seeing their stock go up that we actually bring those prices down. and i sit in those leadership meetings with everyone from joe manchin to bernie sanders and i see a lot more unity than i do divide. >> elizabeth warren said something also yesterday. she said the criminal justice system from start to finish is essentially racist.

you were a part of the criminal justice system, a former county prosecutor. that's a large charge. i understand where she's going there. is that a fair hit? >> for people who have been victimized and have been a victim of crime, they need a criminal justice system that works for them. i have worked with a lot of very good prosecutors and police officers that do some of the hardest jobs every day. but we know that there is racism in this system that needs to be fixed. that's why we have started instituting body cameras, which is a great solution. doing things on eyewitness id. i think the solutions are there for us. we have to reform the system. >> senator klobuchar, thank you ♪ i was able to turn the aircraft around, and the mission around, and was able to save two men's lives that night. my first job helped me to grow up pretty quickly.

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welcome back. data download time. as we near the end of the primary season one story has been dominant in state after state. the democratic turnout surge. just this week the pew research center released numbers showing that through the june primaries, 13.6 million people had voted in democratic primaries. that was a whopping 84% increase over the 2014 midterms through the same period. while 10.4 million voted in republican primaries. by the way that's an increase over 2014 as well but only a 24% increase. to be clear, primary elections are very different animals from generals but the numbers do provide at least some understanding of how engaged the two political party bases are at this point in the cycle. the fact that more people voted in democratic than republican primaries so far in 2018 it flips the script from what we saw in 2014 which of course was that big wave year for republicans. but the national numbers don't tell the whole story. let's go state by state.

look at california. 2014 democratic primary voters were up 84% compared to 30% for republicans. and in nine out of the ten districts seen as battle grounds in california by the cook report, the increases were bigger than those on the republican side. but there is some good news for republicans in that stat. they still produce more overall votes in those battle ground districts. ohio, they paint a complicated picture as well. the democratic turnout increase was greater than the republicans but republicans still held the advantage in the raw number of votes cast in ohio. in fact, in four of that state's five battle ground congressional districts, democrats saw a bigger increase but in all five, it's the republicans that still had more votes cast overall. potential sort of buffer there for the gop. now, let's go to iowa. this may be the most interesting set of numbers we have seen. the democrats saw a massive increase in turnout.

152%, and republicans saw a steep drop, 35%. now republicans want to argue that this was because of a lack of contested races down the ballot. let me tell you, privately, some iowa republicans are muttering the word tariffs as the explanation for dampening rural turnout. look, all of which is to say this. the big bump for democrats is noteworthy, but still hard to know what it will mean for november. clearly there's enthusiasm, but is it enough to get them over the top? but at the very least these national numbers offer some evidence at this point the democrats do have an edge going into 2018 november. into 2018 november. when we come us. into 2018 november. when we come it's what this country is made of. but right now, our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps.

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panelists here. and also joining the panel, clint watts. welcome. we are going to divide this panel up a little bit of politics and a little bit of tech. these con gtradicting or denyin. the president is tweeting about the infamous trump tower meeting and he says here, fake news reporting, a complete fabric cation that i am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, donald had in trump tower. it went nowhere and i did not know about it. it is the president admitting

that his son had a meeting with russian operatives to get dirt on hillary clinton. >> we spent a week, my colleagues and i reporting inside the white house, talking to officials, the president's close friends and he may not be concerned about what happened at the meeting but he is concerned about the legal scrutiny coming close to home. his son in the spotlight. you have all of these forces coming together as the president is facing mueller making moves, possible subpoena if he declines the interview. >> what is going on with the president. >> we knew before that the president was concerned about the meeting, concerned enough to get white house staff involved in creating a response. >> something white house staff is happy about. >> now we know it is not true,

but we see the president was going crazy on twitter all week. he is behaving sort of like a commenter on a website rather than the president of the united states. and the excuse we get from the white house is these are just his opinions. he doesn't have the luxury of merely opining. his opinions have ramifications. these are things he doesn't have the luxury of simply blurting out. >> you are our designated lawyer on this panel. when you saw the tweets. should stop this witch hunt right now. bob mueller is totally conflicted. first of all, did you think he was tiptoeing to obstruction of

justice here? >> when i read that tweet, i looked back at the article for impeachment for nixon. it was all about obstruction of justice. lying or misleading to investigators. it had to do with trying to intimidate those in the justice department of the fbi, cia in participating in this. trying to get those in the justice department to support his point of view. that was the crux of the impeachment. when you look at these tweets, there is no doubt in my mind, bob mueller looking at these tweets. >> you know, it is fascinating, you now have a white house and his lawyers, and they are no

longer defending him, they are simply trying to explain him. this is how they handled the tweet this week. >> it is not an order. it is the president's opinion. >> he used the word should, not the word must. >> and the same thing i just saw. there is a lot of discomfort in defending him blanketing anymore. if you are not going to criticize him, you defend him. >> a president now re-defining what the presidency. in the past, that statement is taken as the united states. not taking it as policy, about you if the president said something in the past, that was in many ways a directive, as a government, you go out and do that. what you have now is the administration, that seems to be

in so many ways at war -- war is too strong a word, but at conflict. you saw that with that extraordinary press conference at the white house where you have his top national security advisors presenting what seems to be a reasoned case. sort of press conference that we have in the past where we have officials talking about interference in the election and presenting all of the evidence. and hours later, you see what president trump did. so this is not, you know, it feels like we are still using the ordinary definition of a presidency. >> that tweet was incredible in two ways. if our bosses tell us you should do something, you take it as an order. but jeff sessions didn't respond that way. it is amazing that subordinates don't take it as an order.

>> you heard dan coats, we want to have a legitimate election. what he didn't say is we are going to have an election that is legitimate. how big a concern is this threat. >> people don't trust institutions and elected officials. if there is just one state that can't audit and verify through a back up, it tells all of our adversaries, just hack in one data. >> how easy is it? >> very easy. go in and easily break into digital machines. and just creating this provocations, just hit a database. and the states can't defend on

this. >> you did it in the senate committee and it is the social media interference. a new phenomena this week that we had to explain to the public. q anon. in the dark recesses of social media. q anon takes one conspiracy and puts it all together. donald trump is this deep state super hero, or john f. kennedy jr., they don't believe he is dead. >> this is super cheap, and whether it is political interference or just social manipulation, this gives everybody the ability to push a false head. this idea that there is a secret source inside the intelligence community. now we are talking about them leaking information? this plays into the narrative

that you can't trust institutions. so what do you do? you amplify q anon. there is so much fake news in the u.s., they don't need to create mistruths. >> it is not just russia amplifying. you said you saw the president -- >> well -- >> just a minute. there are numerologist, too. q is the 17th letter, and it is a code word. you said you noticed another thing at the rally with the number 17. >> if you research this, it is absurd. and they have these numbers they come up with. the president himself has believed in conspiracies before. his political career was

launched when he came on to that birtherism with president obama. there is not expectation that the president is going to speak out on q anon. people inside the circle see the q signs, but they believe this is the republican base, this is the trump base and they have a deep suspicion of the republican base. >> are you concerned? >> i have lived in this group of people, we all remember also how everybody, our government kept place in nevada, where all the aliens were incarcerated. a lot of people now believe that these actual people in government, this is very different. now, it's people in government

undermining the country. and by not denying this at high levels of the administration, it gives a credibility that further feats t feats -- feeds the idea that government is not supposed to be trusted. >> we saw senator mccain before, he turned to the crowd -- >> he is not a muslim. >> and he shut that down. the leader of the country. >> thanks very much. when we come back, enter stage left, the progressive democrats line up to speak up. line up to speak up. just as oh! oh! ♪ ozempic®! ♪ (vo) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar

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presidential election. if you're curious which democrats are thinking of running in 2020, you might get a clue from looking at the lineup of speakers at this weekend's netroots nation conference in new orleans. it's billed as the largest annual meetup of progressives in the country. and it's seen this year as a bit of audition of sorts for democrats who are looking to shore up support from the liberal base. >> these past 18 months have demonstrated that the people in power are no match for the power of the people. >> it's time for us to let people know that what we're seeing in this country doesn't reflect our spirit. what we're seeing in this country doesn't reflect our potential. >> i'm not waiting, i'm running against donald trump today, every single day. >> i would say to these politicians if you don't think impeachment is a good idea, if it's too divisive, then what's your plan? >> a free and open internet is truly one of society's great

equalizers. >> don't waste a minute of your time feeling daunted that donald trump has a base of die hard supporters. so did richard nixon before he resigned. >> we've got to embrace the unshakeable tree that an attack on one of us is an attack of all of us. you bet. >> just as notable as what was said maybe who didn't show up in new orleans. former vice president joe biden, bernie sanders and my previous guest amy klobuchar were among those who skipped it. when we come back, "end game" and the one thing that republicans have learned what they have to do if they want to run for higher office. run for higher office. coming up, "end game" run for higher office. coming up, "end game" just another day on the farm. or is it? this farmer's morning starts in outer space. where satellites feed infrared images of his land

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continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. >> back now with "end game." if you're a republican running for office these days there seems to be one rule and a very simple one -- president trump, love him or lose. tennessee's diane black lost a bid for higher office. this is not a good year to be in the republican primary, but five others have won primaries for statewide office. the difference for them -- an endorsement from president trump a real one. other republican candidates have noticed the trend. that the closer you are to mr. trump, the closer you are to winning. here are some ads from those who got the message. >> i'll proudly stand with our president and mike pence. >> my friend, martha mcsally, she's the real deal. she's tough. >> supported by president trump. >> i call diane black, you came through, diane. >> i got a big truck, just in case i need to round up criminal

illegals and take them home myself. >> that last someone a nominee for governor of georgia. mike murphy is my ad guy for the week. good to see you, sir. >> good to be here. >> all right. i want to put up to two sets of primary ads. one is in florida. here's one that is frankly a traditional republican primary attack ad. take a look. >> washington is full of bad ideas and phony politicians. ron desantis and his huge tax increase fit right in. >> tax ad, that seems like a big one. here is desantis and the ad he is running right now in his primary. >> everyone knows my husband ron desantis is endorsed by president trump. but he's also an amazing dad. ron loves playing with the kids. >> build the wall. >> he reads stories. >> then mr. trump said you're fired. i love that part. >> look, i didn't cut out all the issue parts of that ad.

mike, trump trumps taxes. >> yes. in the old days when ideological issues drove the republican primary, the tax hit was -- it would be a devastating one in the republican primary but now because it's all trump all the time and issues have been pushed out for this cult of personality, think about this. you have a guy running in the republican primary for governor of florida, a state surrounded by oceans. talking about federally building a wall essentially in texas. and guess what? in the primary it's going to work. >> it's totally flipped the script. putnam, this was his moment and one trump tweet. i'm going to -- i want to go to michigan senate here. you love michigan. the home state of yours. so here is -- they're fighting over who's closer to trump. watch. here's ad number one from john james the canada. >> well, sandy pence her uses the same insults to disparage trump --

>> i can't speak at a fourth grade level like he does. >> john james supporters the commander in chief. >> sandy had to do a response ad on trump. here. >> john james was busted using deceptively edited photos of sandy penceler. >> he left out calling the president a smart and remarkable talent. i'm a conservative business man who stands with and voted for president trump. >> yeah. >> it's like a stalin trial now. you know? unbelievable. you know, what you wore -- a collectivist, tie, you're out of order. but the problem is when al and i were doing republican politics when you run the primary you want to line up the issue profile you can use in the general election. >> like you're the tax cut guy. you -- >> yeah. you're the small business guy, you're going to fix schools. you want to go at the swing

voters and now you come out of this thing from the trump church in the republican primary with a big trump halo. but in the general election democrats all hate trump and among independents he's mostly upside down. what is the magic light sword becomes an anchor around your neck in the general. >> but so much of this is stylistic. they want to be seen as pugilist like president trump but i'd logically they're talking about trade but not the hard-line on trade and immigration on the same way as president trump. they talk about build the wall, they know they need the enthusiasm, but not the same kind of republicans. >> trump has redefined what the party does. let me show you the endorsement tweets and it's sending a message of what trump's republican party is for. military, border security, vets, tough on crime. you don't hear taxes. don't hear national defense. not reagan like. you don't hear morality stuff

probably for obvious reasons. >> look, the dye is cast. they're the general, they're going to win or lose with him and moving along with the general in order to try to win the election. it's a high risk. high reward or a high punishment situation. and this election is going to be decided by donald trump. >> but mike, let me reverse -- let me defend the strategy here. which is that the president says, hey, look, it will be a referendum on him anyway. rather than run away from him, i'm going to saddled with him whether i like it or not. is this oddly maybe a way to at least minimize your losses? >> you know, i get that. the problem in swing states with trump is so big, there's no easy way out of it except building a time machine and finding a courage a year ago. that ain't going to happen. in the north dakotas of the world, this strategy will pretty much work. but in the swing states it's a lot tougher.

the funny thing, the great irony, if you look at who trump likes toencers likes to endorse with his tweets it's those who served in the military, so it's weird. he's kind of reaching to the persona better than his own with these endorsements. >> you want to jump in? >> previous presidents didn't jump into primaries in their own party, but trump has a strong record jumping into primaries which is why these primary candidates want his endorsement. i think he's 10-1 in republican primaries that he's -- 9-1 in the ten primaries that he's jumped into. i think mike is exactly right. republicans want his endorsement in primaries where the base likes trump but among independents, he -- democrats -- among independents 22 point advantage for democrats right now. which makes the trump endorsement in the primary a very vulnerable -- puts republicans in a vulnerable

position. >> we're talking about the republican divide. boy, did i learn something from netroots nation, helene. the democrats are about to their own little fight in the party. amy klobuchar didn't look like she was comfortable about answering the warren the criminal justice system is racist trump to bottom. they're about to go through their own trumpian like experience. >> they're going to have the same issue as with the republican party and -- the primary situation we are having right now. it's so fascinating because it feels as if we're seeing political science 101 the same stuff that gets you out of -- to gets you to win the primary when you have to go so far to the left or the right is what can you weigh you down in the general election that's amplified this year and the democrats are having the exact same issue. where you have this war and you have the progressive wing and the left -- you know, the left

of the left have been so pissed off ever since 2016 anyway. they're doubling down on the kamala harriss and the elizabeth warrens and cynthia nixon. you are seeing this clash right now. i mean, they were throwing spit wads at mark warner months ago. so it's going to be -- i think it's just going to be fun to watch. >> it's going to be fun. >> the left is so crowded. only summer '18. think of all the people competing for that progressive mantel. keep an eye on tim ryan, mitch landrieu, could someone from the center -- landrieu is right up the center in 2019, 2020. >> mike, i feel like we're headed to something you have trump and his base. you may have elizabeth warren and her base. here, this is who we are and you in the middle, hold your nose and pick a side. is that how the 2020 race is going to be? >> yeah, normally a card trick,

pick any card you don't want. there's no distribution system. we are not build for 7-up to be number one, it's coke or pepsi. that's the distribution. it's hard to run a third party candidate and then you end up in the electoral college where you have to ask the two parties to put themselves out of business. my bet is you'll have somebody trumpian, but look, i do think if we have a bumpy midterm the whole trump thing in '19 could be a whole new ball game. on the democratic side the muscles on the progressive side. >> i'm going to pause it there. we got to do real politics today. before i go, a quick programming note. tomorrow night, lester holt will sit down with director spike lee about his new film "black klans men". and we'll be speaking with ron stallworth. that's all for today. we'll be back next week. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." you can see more "end game" and "postgame" sponsored by

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. this morning we're getting new pictures and details surrounding over 80 deaths resulting from a powerfully devastating 7.0 earthquake at a popular destination. >> a weekend with multiple plane crashes including one at a los angeles shopping center and one in switzerland. >> one of the most powerful vortex. winds topping 143 miles per hour in the middle of a firestorm. >> demi lovato speaks out for the 50 time since her overdose and hospitalization. >> the connection between certain dogoo