fight. president trump ups the stakes saying he may release migrants to sanctuary cities. >> they always say they have open arms. let's see if they have open arms. >> taunting states like california that oppose his immigration policy. >> we can give them an unlimited supply. >> and reportedl urging homeland security to close the border even as he publicly said he wouldn't. >> it's just another notion that is unworthy of the presidency of the united states. >> plus, spy games. when attorney general bill barr makes this claim without offering evidence -- >> you are not suggesting though that spying occurred?

>> spying did occur, yes, i think spying did occur. >> he pleases his new boss. >> i think what he said was absolutely true. there was absolutely spying into my campaign. >> and infuriates some law enforcement professionals. >> i really don't know what he is talking about when he talks about spying on the campaign. >> and democrats. >> when barr opened his mouths, trump's words same tumbling out. >> my guest white house counselor kellyanne conway. also, the candidate confronting climate change. >> this is our moment to put the greatest threat to our existence at the very top of the nation's agenda. >> this morning i'll interview democratic presidential hopeful governor jay inslee of washington. joining me for inside and analysis are nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, "washington post" column anonymous eugene robinson, daniel let ka and "new york times" column anonymous david brooks. welcome to sunday, it's "meet

the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. when donald trump was elected many people expected or hoped perhaps that the presidency would change him. it didn't. instead, he is changing the presidency. two examples this week of mr. trump flouting convention. one, unhappy his first attorney general jeff sessions did not protect him from the mueller investigation. mr. trump fired him and replaced him with bill barr, wednesday gave him what sessions never would. legitimacy on the russian interference investigation that his campaign had been, quote, spied on. two, unhappy that the department of homeland security has often resisted his get tough and sometimes illegal border proposals, mr. trump sacked dhs's leadership, axing four top officials, then said he was considering sending migrants at the border to so-called sanctuary cities where his

immigration policies are most unpopular. what is clear is mr. trump is trying to change his presidency and reshape it in his own image. what is less clear, if he wants to change the situation the border or leverage it for his own political gain. >> bringing out what's happening with our border. >> reporter: for president trump an asylum crisis on the southern border has become a political opportunity. >> i think that they are greg to pay a very big price in 2020 for all the things, whether it's the fake witch hunt they start up or whether it's a situation like this. >> reporter: in a month, dominated by the fight over how much of robert mueller's report will be released the public, the president has leaned into the border crisis. friday he tweeted, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing illegal immigration in sanctuary cities only. >> they want more people in their sanctuary cities, well, we'll give them more people. we can give them a lot. we can give them an unlimited supply. let's see if they are happy. >> reporter: the president's threat came hours after

administration officials said the plan was rejected back in february because it was, in the words of one former official, so illegal. >> it sent just another notion that is unworthy of the presidency of the united states and disrespectful of the challenges that we face as a country, as a people to address who we are, a nation of immigrants. >> reporter: the number of apprehensions on the southern border hit a 12 year high in march dominated by families. over 53,000 parents and children. immigration courts have a backlog of 800,000 cases. each one takes an average of 700 days to process. instead of dressing t addressin problem -- >> it doesn't work and, frankly, we should get rid of judges. >> reporter: this week those attacks got a rare public rebuke from a federal judge. >> when politicians attack the courts it's dangerous, political, and guilty of egregious overreach. you can hear the it across the

south. >> reporter: the state department announced it would be ending foreign aid to the three central american countries where most of these immigrants come from. this week mr. trump fired his i.c.e. director and homeland security secretary. >> frankly, there is only one person that's running it. you know who that is? it's me. >> reporter: the firings are the latest departures from a government the president is molding in his own image. >> i'm concerned. i'm concerned of a growing void of leadership within the department of homeland security. >> reporter: according to the new york sometimes, last week mr. trump urged kevin mcaleenan now acting secretary of homeland security to close the border entirely. >> we're full. >> reporter: and on tuesday trump's national security advisors gathered at the white house to discuss whether the military could be used to build tent city detention camps for migrants. >> i'm going to have to call up more military. but our military, don't forget, can't act like a military would

act because if they got a little rough, everybody would go crazy. >> and joining me now is counselor to president trump kellyanne conway. miss conway, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you, chuck. >> i want to start with this crisis at the southern border in this respect. does the president see this as an immigration crisis or as a refugee crisis where we are an asylum system, is underresourced, overstressed, overtaxed due to what is a central american refugee crisis. >> thanks for acknowledging it is a crisis. not so long ago we had members of the main dream media and democratic party denying that word should be used. no less a person than president obama's homeland security director, secretary, excuse me, jeh johnson, has referred to as a crisis several times. you can't look at the numbers and deny that we have a crisis. in our view it's a security crisis and a humanitarian crisis. we have 103,000 migrants either

being apprehended or unable to come across the border just last month alone, and the flow is so different. for years it was single males from mexico who could be returned safely to their country of origin. now we have families, increasingly family from these three companies and unaccompanied children. can you and i assure each other and everybody who is watching today we know what happens to the minors once they are released into this country? congress can fix this easily. all the time that they spend reacting to every single donald trump tweet or the president's statements, they can sit down and do three things. they can fix tv pra, which is a trafficking victims act where it becomes a magnet for young children to be taken by the arm by an adult and they know it's easier to come here. number two, fix flores. it's a judicial decision that's holding hostage our ability as a nation to have a little bit more time to process the asylum

claims. after 20 days we must release children into the interior of this country. number three, fix the asylum law so those who actually have a credible claim of asylum can have that process faster. we just have too many people. and that's why the president is looking for more money, more resources, more technology, and help from some of these cities. >> everything you have said, i have not heard from the president. you have said he is not -- >> i'm here on his behalf. >> i understand that. he said he wants to get rid of asylum law, get rid of judges. >> that's not -- we just had new judges in our package. 75 new immigration judges. >> he said get rid of the judges. >> the president is saying let's stop having one or two judges in this country make immigration law for the entire country. that's's congress's job. >> i'm not talking about the federal judges. i'm talking about immigration judges to deal with the asylum backlog. he wanted to get -- that is the implication, saying get rid of those judges.

does he not want to have asylum judges? >> we need more. in fact his 70-point immigration pla plan he presented to congress in october of 2017 includes more judges. i believe even what congress is willing to pass or did pass included 75 new immigration judges and all the support that would go with that. the support staff and the like, in addition to new technologies at the border. so those who slovote for that, those who voted for hr 6, the largest one piece of legislation to combat the drug crisis, every democrat in the house voted for it. they admitted we have a drug crisis at the border. that's where the meth, cocaine, fentanyl are pouring over. we have an unserious congress not coming to the table. the republicans failed to do their job when they were in charge and the democrats are failing to come together in the house. >> how is the president playing a constructive role? he this is david french this has to

do with how his critics respond to him. you talked about the tweets. they are not alarmed. they mock him. his threats and tweets undermine his ability to make the deals he needs to make. he is testing the political utility of the opposite of teddy roosevelt's admonition, speak softly and carry a big stick. let's look at what the last four months have given us. shut down the government, national energy, shut the border, sending migrants to sanctuary city. we want to sit down, solve this, the president doesn't sound like somebody who wants to solve the crisis. >> for him it's everything you just said. he asked for congress to do everything from end the visa lottery system to chain migration. he was willing to do a deal on the dreamers. it's false when everybody says there was $25 billion on the table by the dems but the president walked away. that was allocated not appropriated and they know it. in addition to that, the president has looked at many

different options. administratively from the executive branch of the government we have done a great deal of work. we need the legislature to step in and we need the courts to do something like the ninth circuit did on friday, chuck, which is at least give us some latitude on this remain in mexico policy. so many of the liberals want the illegal immigrants to remain in america. why not remain in mexico while your climbs of asylum are being processed? this is something that our secretaries, cabinet and the president brokered with mexico. it's safe passage for those families and unaccompanied minors to remain in mexico while their claims of asylum are being processed. but i think, look -- >> but how is -- >> this week, you know, respectfully, from the other side you have this anti-semitic congre congresswoman -- >> whoa, whoa, whoa. no, no, no. i know what you are trying to do here. the president is trying to brow beat democrats. the president is trying to brow beat them to come over.

that's no way to get a compromise. mitch mcconnell is saying enough already. the president keeps -- >> we will meet them this afternoon if they would like to come to the white house to talk about -- the offer stands. the invitation is open. they were there several times, the leadership, as you know, to avert a government shutdown and then during it. all on this issue. >> it's his way or the highway. he never is sitting here saying -- >> i disagree. >> okay. what part of shutting down the government, i'll do this, that's not how anybody would be coerced to saying, yeah, let's sit down and see if we can come and reach common ground. >> they are willing -- they are welcome to come. i will tell you the problem sofrs caucus did come. there is a great frustration against the raij ank and file members who represent districts that president trump won in 2016, they have been to the white house, talked to people like me quietly saying they wish that the radical it freshmen who get the magazine covers and all

the ink and air time, i guess they are upset with the leadership today though because overnight or yesterday congresswoman rashida tlaib tweeted they are tired of being used because the party is diverse, can't get a seat at the table, something it was re-tweeted by ilhan omar. i think there is trouble in pelosi paradise. if she wants to fix immigration, she can come. >> i want to go back to how the president is perhaps making this -- here is "the new york times." the president's anti-immigrant rhetoric has super charged the pipeline of immigrantsfrom honduras, guatemala, and el salvador. if you ever wanted to go to the united states, they say go now. the president's words, they sort of cataclysmic words is shut down the border is being used to encourage more people.

by smugglers and coyotes. >> yes. will somebody tell the president he is doing this? will somebody tell the president that his words are encouraging these coyotes to make money off of desperate people? >> the coyotes and smugglers do that anyway. you know that. >> why give them more material? why help them? >> by lying to people, you know daughters are being pumped with birth control before they come here. we are forced to give them pregnancy tests w he know how pair le per laos that journey could be. don't come. it's a treacherous perilous journey. >> do you mow whknow what happe honduras? in 2017, 41% of women and girls killed in honduras showed signs of mutilation, disfigurement and cruelty beyond what was needed to kill them. and in this story there was some graphic descriptions that are a thousand times worse that are

not appropriate for sunday morning. this is what they're escaping. this is why they are seeking asylum in the united states. how do you turn them away? >> when they present their claims of asylum as they did in past administrations those claims are evaluated. they are granted asylum for credible asylum claims. what's happening, chuck, is you have those who are claiming asylum and should not be -- back to my point. fix flores, fix tpra and the asylum system so the credible claims can be processed expeditiously and fairly. we need everybody's help. congress cannot turn a blind eye. they are still obsessed with the 2016 campaign and investigating it -- >> but cutting back and presenting himself as somebody that wants to actually make a deal? >> he made this a top issue. i guarantee -- >> he talks through the prism of 2020. he doesn't seem to be a guy who wants a solution. >> he is willing to have them come to the table. the president doesn't make the

laws, he executes the laws. congress has to give the fix to flores. they can fix it, fix tpr, fix the asylum laws. they need to get back to washington, work as hard as the people who they represent work. >> let me ask through a foreign policy pris much. why is the president concerned about the humanitarian crisis in vinz and not honduras and guatemaland a el salvador? >> we are. >> we are giving more money to try to help with humanitarian efforts in venezuela and you just cut off aid almost completely to the three, to honduras, guatemala and el salvador sal. >> everybody sees what is happen in venezuela. maduro must go. >> i just told you what is happening in honduras. >> it's awful. it is. what's happening here, young girls are coming through, can we say we know who happens to them? we ask like they are released into the interior of the u.s. and they have a family member or

sponsor or way of life and safety and safe passage. they don't. so many are trafficked. some are murdered. some are -- some are treated -- are mistreated wherever they go. we don't know what happens. should we have a system we who is here and where they are. >> everybody agrees to something like that. let me ask this way. can you treat this sort of as a temporary like emergency? for instance, the president is threatening to ship migrants -- >> yes, the president -- >> but believe it or not -- i grew up in miami. i'm well aware of this. if he actually asked for help from cities and states, the cities would say, sure, if you need to temporarily relocate people here to wait for their day with an asylum judge, what's wrong with that? >> it wasn't a brow beat. it was taken that way -- >> how did he present it? >> excuse me. they could have come forward and said -- >> i assume they could. >> isn't the point of a

sanctuary city to offer sanctuary to illegal. >> are you asking for mayors to call the white house to say, yes -- >> sure, or they are welcome to visit. i recently daesed the conference of mayors. i know others from the administration have. this issue was raised, how can we work on many crises of the day. immigration is one of them. opioids is another one, criminal justice reform, workforce development. so certainly we want to work with the nation's mayors. but if you look at a city like philadelphia, you have a mayor there who won't share information with i.c.e. anymore. that means that we don't know who is there, why they are there, how long they are there -- >> there is a circular logic. if the president believes we are full, why does he want to help basically create a permanent way for people to stay in america? >> what i'm saying is 103,000 came. these are unprecedented numbers. three months when the president addressed the nation you had a

response from leader schumer and speaker pelosi said it's a lie that it's a crisis. people like you, jeh johnson, are admitting it is a crisis. what are the solutions? i laid out simple solutions for congress to work on. i think the person rounding for the nomination who comes up with an immigration plan rather than a government takeover health care like medicare, green new deal, that person is going to distinguish themselves because the two front runners for the democrats are the two old white male career politicians. somebody who comes out with a plan on immigration wants to work with the president ahead of time and not kick it into 2020 will prevail. >> was the president informed in advance of what was going to happen to julian assange. >> not to my knowledge. >> he did not know in advance whatever deal was made with the u.k. and any of that stuff -- >> i don't know -- sorry. i don't know. that's a state department. the department of justice. the department of justice -- >> you don't believe the president was briefed in

advance? >> i don't know and i don't think so. i just want to say one more thing. having discussed this after the fact several times, the president believes those who publish classified information should not do that. in other words, that goes for -- >> he thinks he should criminalize -- >> no, not saying that. remember, julian assange is not being indicted because he was a journalist. he hacked. same thing with private manning. so anybody who is publishing classified information in our view should think thrice before they do that. you can imperil folks. it's part of why some of the redactions will come out in the mueller report. you are protecting sources and methods. protecting grand jury information. protecting third parties who haven't been indicted. i know they want to embarrass and impeach the president where they couldn't impeach and indict him. we will see what happens with that. >> i will have to leave it there. nice to have you. >> i will see the democrats at the white house later today. >> when we come back -- >> you are not suggesting though

that spying occurred? >> well, i guess you could -- i think there was spying that did occur, yes. i think spying did occur. >> what exactly did the attorney general bill barr mean when he said spying on the trump said spying on the trump mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz xr a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe

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it's real-time insights and information, in your own customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology, for smarter trading decisions. and it's only from fidelity. open an account with no minimums today. panelists hiroo gene robinson, danielle plekta, host of kcdc kasie hunt, and david brooks, author of the new book the second mountain. i think it's going to take a third, fourth, or fifth mountain if we figure out the immigration solution. you wrote about that this week, david, in the way of just like i felt i guess it's a version of enough is enough, you know. you are samuel l. jackson snakes on a plane moment, you know? i am not sure what conversation i just had.

that was a very -- kellyanne conway represented an administration that looks like they want to do something, wants to do a deal. her boss doesn't sound like somebody that wants to do a deal. >> we have a magical fantasy land of a president who wants to solve problems. we would vet kids in -- >> we would ask mayors to take in kids. >> we do what any mayor and governor would do. there is a problem. let's fix the problem. unfortunately, president trump sees every problem as a chance for his own performative narcissism, to show what a man he is. and so everything becomes not a solution. everything just becomes a pose, show business. the upshot is he tried to deter immigration through cruelty, and that has been a miserable failure. that's why we have this problem. >> it seems as if, and you wonder, boy, when the senate republicans, are they going to get upset, nervous, but the sacking of the entire echelon of

the homeland security department -- by the way, the listing of actings that we have going in this administration right now and how many are actually connected to some form of border security or the border issue, especially at dhs. do you get a sense, you know, with senate republicans like even when mitch mcconnell says we have to have an adult conversation, something is afoot? >> mitch mcconnell said, okay, i'm open to this. if anything, that puts a little more heat on democrats to try to come to the table or it's designed to. i think there is an increased amount of nervousness. clearly, the white house wants to do whatever the president wants to do regardless of kind of some of the guardrails that congress has put in place around these questions. it seems like that's a big part of the reason why the homeland security secretary in particular was sacked. but i think the absolute root of the problem here is that this president, every time he goes to congress and says i want to solve x problem by doing y thing, whatever y is changes

five or six times during the course of the negotiations. so republicans have learned this lesson several times. democrats then had to learn it again, even though the republicans tried to say, hey, like watch out, this guy is not a reliable negotiator. how do you solve the problem if that's the case? >> would you accept any of the parameters kellyanne conway laid out today? >> you could have that conversation and make a deal. but not with donald trump. not a president who says let's get rid of judges, you know? as david said, it is performative, it is showing what a tough guy he is. it is not finding solutions to problems. this is -- we are a country of 330 million people, you know, richest, most powerful country on earth. yes, we can deal with 50,000 families, you know, people on the border. it's not that big a deal for us to handle that if we choose to handle that, and handle it properly. we have laws that provide for

asylum. let's follow the law. let's build the facilities and put the people in place and let's get it done. >> i'm not sure i agree with you about the fact that we can handle this. i think this is a genuine crisis. that's all the more reason we need to adapt the laws, update, why we need to move ahead with some of the changes that kellyanne conway laid out very normally, i thought. i want to talk about the president. i think we reached a turning point in the last week in which fural marketing reality tv guy donald trump actually widened the kchash between him and governance. we see an administration struggling, running to keep up with him, to execute the increasingly random things that he is saying. that is also a crisis, in my opinion, because if this gets worse, we are looking at another

year and a half of mismanagement, of lack of governance and genuine democratic crisis. >> here is the other part of it, and this was a part of this that i don't -- why take away the money from the central american countries? like there is no -- we have no consistency in our foreign policy. what we are doing in venezuela. i mean, it's -- now, there is political ramifications for venezuela. it's called florida's electoral votes. >> indeed. chuck, i think is this about policy or politics? do they really want to solve the crisis? our system has functioned that way. we have solved big problems in t past. we don't have the greatest immediate track record. that doesn't mean we couldn't do that. but the trust has broken down because the sense is, i mean, why? the best point is, why are you to take that money away when we know that it helps stem the root of the problem if you are the president. it indicates to others this is a

political thing for him. >> could we not let the democrats off the hook here on this one? a lot of saying there is no crisis and they are strangely mute on what to do. the court problem is they don't know where their base is on immigration. are we zero open borders party? where they don't want to be on the wrong side of the twitter mobs, so lay low, lay low, lay low, or be abstract. >> eugene? >> i don't think it is an open borders position to say, to question the use of the word crisis. maybe you could use that word, could not use that word. it's a lot of people who are coming in, but we are able to handle it. you know, this is -- it's not hoards and hoards invading in the way that the president describes the chair van. in fact, there is a process and people get to apply for asylum. we can look at the asylum laws if you want to look at that, but we have laws and we ought to follow them.

>> there are seven hundred -- 2021 until they get a hearing. >> this is a crisis in every sense of the word. we shouldn't get into semantics about this. but the president gets -- this is a sanctuary city play. he gets that the democrats are in a very, very inindividualious position here. >> i ahead to do this. the level of distrust you talked about it. the level of distrust between congressional democrats and bill barr now and what does that mean for mueller this week? are we going to debate more of what's redacted or more of what we see? >> the trust that democrats have in bill barr is nil. brian shat said in the hearing what you just told us is going to cause everybody to freak out. >> everybody freaked out. >> i think there is still a chance that what bill barr presents to us will feel as though it is a complete or semi mostly complete accounting and he could get some forgiveness from moderate democrats, chris coons, for example, on the senate judiciary committee. if it looks like a bunch of

classified material covered in black ink, forget it. >> if they redact all the grand jury material that, would be a huge chunk of the report. that would be a problem. >> thanks. whether we come back, the presidential candidate who is making clayton kersh making climate change issue of his campaign. governor jay inslee of washington state. i am going to ask about sanctuar ♪ can i get some help. watch his head. ♪ i'm so happy. ♪ whatever they went through, they went through together. welcome guys. life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you.

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welcome back. up next is another candidate from washington. washington state that is. not washington, d.c. there are now 15 major candidates who have announced or filed paperwork for the democratic nomination. our list of boxes up there does not include joe biden. separating yourself from that large a field is a challenge. washington governor jay inslee is trying to meet by focusing on one major issue. confronting climate change. he is the governor of a state that has many sanctuary cities. here is the map of it. just the kind of places to which president trump is suggesting sending migrants crossing the u.s./mexican brother. welcome. >> thank you. >> let me start before he get to other topics. i know the seattle mayor wrote an op-ed for "the washington

post" that basically condemned the president's weaponization. he said, fine, send them, take them. is that your attitude? and should this -- regardless of the president's tone, should this be part of the temporary solution? >> this is yet another bombastic chaos that is simply not going to work for this ineffective president for several reasons. number one, you can't threaten somebody with something they are not afraid of. we are not afraid of diversity in the state of washington. it is the basis of our economic and cultural success. we are built as a state of immigrants. we have welcomed refugees as we did the vietnamese refugees with the republican governor back in the day, and we continue to welcome -- that's why i was the first governor to say our state was the first to take syrian refugees. the first governor to come out against the muslim ban. we have sued donald trump and won 18 times in a row. this is not going to work for him. we are happy to take refugees

and proud of mayor durkan for what she has said. it's simply based on a matter of these are humans. these are people. >> tell me what you would do right now. look, if you are elected president, there might be a republican senate, democratic house. a quick legislative fix is not there. tell me what you do right now. >> number one, i would attack climate change. a lot of these people are climate refugees. not all, but a lot of them. the fact that donald trump has waved the white surrender to climate change is wrong. >> that doesn't deal with the migrants. >> it's clear. we have to be solution based rather than sort of trolling on the internet based. if you are solution based, we have got to make the asylum process work. and that means we have to have more channels, more hearing officers to simply be able to process these cases. look, you don't change the law just because you got more cases in the federal court system or go get r get rid of judges as he suggested.

we need more processing f facilities to help these folks. while they are waiting for hearings, we welcome them to the state of washington because we have found these folks frequently become till pillars of our community. >> you are going to hear many republicans say democrats are for open borders. if somebody accuses you of being for open borders, what would you say? >> that is inaccurate, as happens very frequently in this business. what i do believe is we need to change our policies. number one, we have to respond to the american character of a nation based on immigration. i believe that the spirit of the statue of liberty is alive not only in america, but elliott bay in washington state. we should increase the number of refugees we are taking. this is cruel we have reduced the number of refugees america stakes at the same time the world is aflame in climate change refugees and civil war. and that's why i came out as one of the first to say we would take syrian refugees. that's one of the things i would do. >> do you think our immigration

law should be more restrictive or less restrictive as it stands right now? our laws of how it become citizen, a resident, should be less or more restrictive? >> number one, given the 11 million plus that are our neighbors that are some of the hardest working people in the country, we need to give them a path to citizenship. we need comprehensive immigration reform. number two, we need to protect our dreamers. the fact that donald trump is holding the dreamers as extortion bait, if you will, is just criminal. these people are in our universities. they are going to be engineers, business people. we have to find a solution to the dreamers as i have done. i got a college education for our dreamers. three, have an asylum process that works, which means we have to have more processing facilities. and four, as i have indicated, we have to have an american style of acceptance of refugees because we're a humane nation. we ought to have a humane policy. >> you have said this clearly. the centerpiece of your candidacy is combatting climate change and everything is a derivative of that.

it is a good way to get people to pay attention to you on day one of your candidacy. >> right. >> as you know, health care is the number one issue among many democratic primary voters. for instance, where do you stand on health care? is it medicare for all ala bernie sanders or obamacare plus? >> hopefully, washington state will be the first in the country to offer a public option. we have been one of the most successful in implementing obamacare. when you govern, you don't just give speeches. you actually make things work. we have had one of the more successful efforts. we are integrating physical and mental health. then on the federal level we have to have more access to medicare on the road to universal access. i believe we need to reduce the age. i think we need to allow people to opt into medicare when they want it. and this is the way to what we need and have to have, which is universal health care in the country. >> you said the word access. use the obamacare framework and build upon it versus scrapping the whole thing and starting

over? >> yeah. i think we can build by increasing accessibility to medicare and i believe that will lead to universal health care. i believe that's where we need to go. i think we have to find way to reduce these drug prices by allowing bargaining for drug prices. >> spevgss on climate change, pricing carbon. we have seen the yellow vest movement in france. you seem to be -- you have tried to get taxing carbon passed. you seem to be like the voters have spoken, the people are speaking and taxing pricing carbon isn't the answer. what is the answer? >> there are many answers. what we have learned is the most important renewable fuel in this battle against climate change is the fuel of perseverance. we have to look at multiple ways of moving forward. so we're moving forward in my state. we wind a $6 billion wind turbine industry, we are electrifying our transportation system. we have one of the highest uses of electric cars and buses. we hope to build an electric

ferry boat. we passed a 100% clean electrical grid where we will not have fossil actuafuels on t grid. so we need -- >> that means you are for nuclear energy. not everybody is for nuclear energy. you are open to nuclear energy? >> open to research and development to find out whether it could be cost effective, could be safe, and could deal with the waste stream. those things would have to be resolved before it would become a part of the mix. i don't think we should shut off options given the urgency. we have one chance here. the in the president, one chance. i am the candidate who is saying it has to be job one or it won't get done. >> are you running for president to force the democratic party to take this as number one, or do you believe this truly is the best path to the democratic nomination for you? >> i believe it is the best pat because people are coming to realize the urgency of this. it's tied with health care, is the number one priority of voters in iowa, and for good

run. i was in hamburg, iowa, a little town that's been there since 1858. never been flooded before. now it's underwater. i was in seminole springs, saw a community burn down. miami beach, the roads have to build up. people are getting this. what used to be a graph on a chart is reality. it's ash on the hood of your car. people are ready for this. they understand the economic potential of this, as i have for a long time. it's happening. >> running from the west coast. we know that the, whatever it is, there is an east coast bias in this country. how high is that hurdle sometimes, simply the time zone? >> i think it's a benefit. i think the west coast is on the cutting-edge of ideas frequently. in my state we have legalized marijuana. i offered pardons to thousands of people with marijuana convictions. i have done the best family paid leave in america. i have done the best or led an effort to get the best minimum

wage in america. i did the first net neutrality bill. i like being from the west. >> the time issue isn't a problem i can -- >> i can get up earlier than usual. >> governor jay inslee, democrat from washington state, stay safe on the trail. >> thanks for your climate change piece as well. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? ♪

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>> announcer: "meet the press" data download brought to you by pfizer. welcome back. data download time. not surprisingly whites and minority groups in the united states see the world through different lenses. a new pew research survey looks at different attitudes about racial equality in america. on the surface predictable splits along racial lights. 78% of african americans say the country has not gone far enough in making sure blacks have equal rights with whites. on the legacy of slavery, 84% of blacks say slavery had a great deal or fair amount of impact on the position of african americans in society today. lower numbers but majorities of

asians, hispanics and whites agree. as great as the differences of races are on these questions, the real story is the differences between whites. when you look at this through the prism of political parties. white democrats 64% say the country has not gone far enough in giving african-americans equal rights. white republicans 15% hold that view. on the legacy of slavery, 80% of white democrats say it's had a big impact compared to 40% of white republicans. neerds, white democrats look a lot like of a of respondents than they look like white republicans. and we see the same kinds of differences when you look at how people view racial equality in realen had li realen-life circumstances. a majority of african-americans say they believe they are treated less fairly dealing with police, in the workplace voting in elections and applying for mortgages. except on the issue of policing, a majority of white respondents did not agree.

but those numbers shift when we look at these questions through a red/blue filter. white democrats again tracked more closely with how african americans respondents felt on these questions while white republicans feel differently. bottom line, there is relative unity among minority groups on these questions of racial equality. the bigger split seems to be among whites on political lines and that's what makes the issues so complicated to deal with in washington? when we come back end game. a lot of people have been called the democratic frontrunner. you could take the treatment of your ulcerative colitis in a different direction. talk to your doctor about xeljanz, a pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. xeljanz is the first and only fda-approved pill for moderate to severe uc. it can reduce symptoms in as early as two weeks, improve the appearance of the intestinal lining, and provide lasting steroid-free remission.

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back now with "end game." if it's a weekend, someone is announcing for president. we had one yesterday and one today. here's cory booker from yesterday. >> we will end the system of mass incarceration in america. we won't wait to legalize mar n marijuana at the federal level. we will pass universal background checks. we will ban assault weapons. i will fight for medicare for all. >> it's interesting that the former mayor of newark, eugene, announced yesterday. and the hottest candidate that's not named biden or bernie is a

current mayor of a smaller city, south bend, pete buttigieg who throws in today. the cory booker was the reminder that cory booker would feel like a bigger presence in this campaign than he's been. why? >> because he's been running for a while. >> feels like it. >> he just announced, but he's actually been running. it's been clear he was running. it doesn't seem to -- he just haven't caught fire. he hasn't caught fire with either the donor base or the voters thus far. and he's not -- i mean, you can't say he's a top tier candidate right now and sitting senator, impressive guy. >> i wonder if he could run as newark mayor, not as former newark mayor. >> i think it's a good time to buy booker stock. >> do you? >> looking at the emotional primary. there are lovers and fighters and the lovers are beto, buttigieg. i think a lot of democrats are

finally going to say, let's put an end to all that what we've been through with trump. >> i completely disagree. >> that's why we're here. >> let me throw something up here. look at the front-runners. everybody's been a front-runner. "vanity fair," kamala harris is the new front-runner. "the wall street journal," beto oh he o'rourke is the front runner. >> i think there is a question as to why cory booker is not currently in the top tier. i do think, though, that there is something to be said about peaking at the right time. how many of us -- i certainly didn't peak in high school and here we are on the set of "meet the press," right? same goes for an election. you know, i mean, it's a long -- we have a long way to go to iowa. >> does that mean this is the peak? >> by the way, let me point out, in fact, to prove this point and to hammer it home, both iowa and

new hampshire poll this week that had, by the way, identical order of candidates. biden, one, followed closely by bernie and beauuttigieg was the surprise third. our way back machine, here was mid-may poll in iowa in 2015. hillary clinton was winning by 40 points and iowa ended up being decided by basically a margin of error. >> if you talk to bernie people, they'll say they won iowa. >> polls are meaningless. >> i'm going to use another baseball analogy. 2012 and 2016 for the republicans, right, basically you were just waiting to get to the top of the batting order. it was literally just this nonstop, you know, go from the bottom to the top, bottom to the top. one lesson that i think is pretty sad for all of us is what big mistake did cory booker made? he ran for senate. the senate is like that -- the sucking sounds for everybody's political career.

it's true. >> well, as pete buttigieg said, i haven't been corrupted by washington. i don't have the stain of washington. >> he's right. >> conventional wisdom, if you're a democrat, you ran for president, you've got to present your positive agenda. you can't be just anti-trurp. i'm waiting for somebody to come stout and say, you know, i'm the anti-trump candidate. i'm running to beat donald trump. and, you know -- >> isn't that terry mcauliffe? isn't that the alligator picture? >> bernie sanders is making that point. it's unusual because it's different from what he did last time around. >> i think there's subtraction there. this is a national emergency, i have to beat donald trump. >> having you here, i found buttigieg/pence back and forth a debate over who gets to define christianity. >> that's the thing i wish the mike pences of the world understands, if you have a problem who i am, your problem is not with me.

your quarrel, sir, is with my creator. >> he said some things that are critical of my christian faith and about me personally. he knows better. >> i'm not critical of christian faith. i'm critical of bad policy. >> pete has his convictions, i have mine. >> there are so many jimmy carter, to me, comparisons to buttigieg right now between the '75-'76 era and today for so many reasons. this retrying to have a conversation about christianity in the democratic party is part of it. >> taking in the stranger, as i understand a reasonably large part of christianity and that's what we're talking about with immigrants and all that, there's a natural play for the religious left, someone who can talk honestly in the language of the gospel. i think it was a mistake to go after pence. buttigieg gives you left wing policies without left wing culture war. >> he seemed to want to pull back slightly from that. >> i think it's risky to see -- to -- for anyone of faith to go

after somebody else's personal -- like that's the line that -- in the sand he didn't seem to want to draw. but i do think mike pence is so far on one side of the culture war that, you know, he can, to a certain extent, kind of set up that contrast. you know, chuck, you know democrats are constantly debating even if we impeach trump we would end up with mike pence. is that better or worse? i think some people see his policies are more far right than even the president. >> i think he really set up a strawman argument. there wasn't actually a fight between pence and pete buttigieg. i said it right. and that's really risky, i think. >> and i think that will be a fascinating debate going forward. that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. i appreciate it. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." everyone's got to listen to mom.

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