from our mrvsnbc headquarters i new york. this is the scene of the big meeting between president obama and bernie sanders at the white house. these are live pictures. we're told that senator sanders should be emerging from his vehicle and walking in any minute now. we were looking at the parking lot or a parking lot not very far from the white house at this meeting. president obama is expected to call for party unity and give senator sanders what has been described as a gentle nudge to get behind hillary clinton after that grueling primary fight. in an interview that will actually air tonight on the tonight show with jimmy fallon, the president praised senator sanders and gave a preview of the meeting today. >> sanders brought enormous energy and new ideas and he pushed the party and challenged them. i thought it made hillary a better candidate and the main role i'm going to be playing in

this process is to remind the american people that this is a serious job. you know, this is not reality tv. >> the president also gave a rough timeline for unifying the party. >> my hope is is that over the next couple of weeks we're able to pull things together and what happens during primary is you get a little ouchy. everybody does. >> as for hillary clinton, what is she saying now that she is now the presumptive nominee, in an interview with lester holt, she says that sanders will have a role in helping defeat donald trump. >> we are reaching out through our campaigns to his campaign and i've made it clear that i'm going to do everything that i can to make it possible for him to be a good partner in our joint efforts to, you know, pursue these goals that i mentioned and to defeat donald trump. >> now, today's meeting comes a

mid mounting pressure for senator sanders that publicly vowed to fight onto the convention to get out of the race. many democrats including vice president joe biden say sanders should be given time. >> mr. vice president, can i ask you, is it time for bernie sanders to drop out of the race? >> be a little graceful. let the man have his own pace. >> sanders will follow the meeting with the president with a trip to capitol hill where he will meet with senate minority leader harry reid. nbc's chris jansing and peter alexander following this for us. i know we're all juggling our different points of view. i'm looking at a camera at a parking lot adjacent to the parking lots. you're stationed at your locations. chris, i'll start with you. you were traveling with the senator as he stopped in vermont, now in washington d.c., describe to us the tone or the feel from the insiders who know him best. how are they describing how he feels. >> this is an emotional roller

coaster, this is someone who came out of nowhere essentially. no name recognition. absolutely no money and mounted a serious challenge to hillary clinton and there is an important distinction i want you to make. a lot of people are making the comparison between 2008 where in a matter of days hillary clinton came around and supported barack obama for president and what has happened to senator sanders. they're in very different places. first of all, hillary clinton had been a democratic insider for decades, bernie sanders had been an independent his whole political life and only recently became a democrat. hillary clinton was looking to run again in eight years, bernie sanders is 74. he is not likely to run again for president again, but also, having been on a number of campaigns, there is a trajectory, right? you're up here, you feel really positive, your campaign feels positive and then slowly you feel this decline. bernie sanders, even when he has lost, has never lost the support of his people. they have come out by the

thousands, by the tens of thousands, a million and a half people have come to rallies for bernie sanders even over the last couple of weeks and couple that she was going to have the number of delegates she needed to become the presumptive nominee. thousands of people came out. ten thousand at one rally a few days ago. 3,000, a couple of nights ago, all screaming his name and booing when he brings up hillary clinton. so, again, he has been on this emotional roller coaster, knowing in his head what the reality is of the delegate math. but also feeling really this a finity with the reports. a lot of this will be what he cares about and she feels about like the $15 minimum wage, tamron. >> we're getting record that bernie sanders is inside of the white house. peter alexander is standing by. peter, what can you tell us, shouhow long is this meeting expected to

last here snr. >> on the schedule for 40 minutes. restraining orders as we have the conversation. win of the things president obama's aides has been saying is he will do a lot of listening. give to one of the reporters just yesterday, give him the space that he needs here, but to keep one of the things that chris said that is so striking, you talk about the agilation sanders has enjoyed the the crescendo he has enjoyed. there were people cheering for him where he takes to the stage. one of the most poignant moments was the moment on stage during election night this week in california where we saw jane sanders whisper into her still with you. they're still with you. >> i was in that room and i can tell you, tamron, and i've said this before it is a little like

paul mccartney in 1964, not that i had the pleasure but he is a rock star to a lot of these young people and 74-year-old guy who has brought record numbers of people to the polls, to register in california, and so part of the delicate dance for bernie sanders around to how he can bring his supporters around. >> but to your point, the emotions involved in it going back without making too much of a comparison, peter, and chris, to 2008. imagine the emotions for hillary clinton being the first woman to get to that point. the 18 million cracks in the ceiling turned into this nomination this time around but we all were there and we saw the high stakes that went into fusing this relationship with hillary clinton and barack obama. both were on the verge of history. st so to compare this where bernie sanders i think is emotionally i think is fair. he is in his 70s. the what next certainly involves his role in the senate but this

movement, when you hear tens of thousands of people cheering on your agenda or your vision, you don't want to see that dissolve. chris? >> go ahead, sorry. >> you don't. and i think he feels, i have to say, having been with him a lot over the course of the last month and actually having known him a little bit when i was a local reporter in upstate new york and vermont was part of my coverage area, this is somebody who feels a real a finity with these folks. he gets into the crowd. he talks to them and i think even he has been astonished by the kind of support he has gotten. so he really also is somebody who, for 30 years has been talking about the same thing. when you go and talk and i've talked to hundreds of voters. they say how consistent he has been. they believe what he has to say and so finally after decades, literally decades of talking about the same thing, millions of people are listening to him and he feels like he needs to be

their voice inside of that room today in the white house, in the oval office, but also, i think you made a good point, tamron, when you talked about harry reid and his role in the senate. so what does his role become even beyond the convention. what can harry reid say to him, somebody he really admired, respects and a senior aide said to me, he often says i love harry reid. don't underestimate the power of this combination of meetings today. >> absolutely and peter, let me bring you back in on how the president can relate to bernie sanders and perhaps as the wording has been put to us, gently nudge him. again, barack obama was new to the senate, dove into this political freight, became a two term president but like bernie sanders was someone who closely associated with the community and this movement that can be compared when you look at the age group of people and the new faces that they both brought in. so in some ways, maybe barack

obama and harry reid are the two perfect creatures out of respect and ability to identify with what he is going through to bring him into the fold and let him know we won't forget what you've done. >> i think that word movement is a key one. we often talk about the obama coalition, recognized as president right now. polls are better than 50% approval rating. 51% in the most recent poll. he has kept a large coalition that has been behind him unswayed throughout the ups and downs of his presidency and there was in fact in time, obama for america, ofa which he turned into organizing for action. basically this group that is advocating on his behalf to try to get through the items that he was pushing as part of his campaign eight years ago and in effect, bernie sanders has a window where he can try to translate some of this support right now into a similar advocacy type role going forward where when he shows up in the

senate, he is not the old bernie sanders. this is a guy that carries a lot of weight behind his message. one he hopes to push forward into the platform obviously as he made itlearn topics like minimum wage objection trade, on universal healthcare as well, but it is not just a question of coming over and endorsing hillary clinton, he, more than anything, has been endorsing issues that benefit working class americans and that is one thing that both he and president obama share even if one became president and one may be approaching the end of the road. >> if i can get you to standby as we wait to hear more from the meeting. let me bring in congresswoman jackie spear standing by with us. thank you so much, congresswoman standing by with us. greatly appreciate it. let me get your thoughts as people try to handicap this meeting and talk about what sway obama might have. how do you make the case to bernie sanders that his ideas,

his movement won't be abandoned by the democrats? >> i think the president has done a good job both on late night talk shows last night and in public state statements, he is going to give mr. sanders all of the room he needs to make the decision. senator sanders has held a compelling campaign. all of us democrats want to make sure he is respected, that his views are represented at the convention, and that we will come together united, supporting hillary clinton to make sure that donald trump does not become president. and i think that is very clear. clearly been stated by senator sanders over and over again. >> when you say give him enough time, when you look at this week, when you contrast hillary clinton's week with donald trump, this victory speech, the embrace of making history compared to donald trump still defending racist remarks about a judge's ethnic background, it seems that the five weeks head start that he had were

squandered with this huge mistake. if the party is not united very soon, wherill you have not squandered the opening. >> i don't think we're squanderring the opening at all and the american people are taking back the veil and seeing what donald trump really is which is a fraud, which is a raciest and the combination is going to be unattendable and unthinkable. i don't think anything is being squandered here. bernie sanders has just come off of a very, very long campaign trail and he has the opportunity now to take some time and then to make a decision. we'll give him that to do him just that. >> i don't want to belabor the idea of a tick tock here. how do you see this playing out in your view. another two weeks or so? does the president wait to

endorse hillary clinton until -- wait for bernie sanders to bow out before he endorses hillary clinton? how do you see it playing out? >> i'm sure that was the topic of conversation in the meeting and the president probably indicated to the senator that are he was going to endorse relatively soon or was willing to wait a couple of days if senator sanders was going to make a decision sooner. i'm sure that was a topic of discussion. i think senator sanders has a couple of tweaks come to the realization that he is not going to be the nominee but that he has many opportunities to be heard and all of the people that have supported him have every optimistic reason to want to make sure that this convention brings together the values that we all share. >> and let me get your thoughts on some of the early conversation regarding who hillary clinton may select as her running mate here. you have elizabeth warren's name

picking up steam. she has taken on donald trump for the past several weeks on social media, his agenda, what he represents, do you see that as a possible ticket? >> i think it is a very viable ticket. i've actually thought that elizabeth warren should be the vice presidential pick for some weeks now. i've known senator warren for a number of years. she is incredibly effective, extremely confident, and competent and that combination i think would serve the presidential nominee hillary clinton very well. but we'll see. i mean, it is the presidential nominee's opportunity to pick whom they're most comfortable with. i'm sure she will pick who she feels confident could take over the reins of government should that be necessary. >> what about the line of thinking that she needs to bring in someone that can help her in certain parts of the country where donald trump has picked up steam, joe manche's name has been tossed around as well that

she some how needs the help of someone who can identify culturally with parts of that region where she has struggled, particularly with white working class americans who might gravitate to donald trump. >> she needs a compelling voice that americans will recognize as authentic and someone who they can count on. she needs someone who can help her make a very convincing team and she will pick the right person. i have no doubt that she will be very thoughtful in her selection process. she is incredibly capable and knowledgeable for what it takes to select a vice presidential nominee and what is going to help her the most. >> and i quickly want to ask you about your effort. you've commented on the stanford rape case that has gotten so much attention nationwide and as i understand it, you want to actually go to a special order next week on the house floor as a result of the attention this case has received and what many

see as a jail sentence unacceptable for the man convicted in that assault. >> there will be a special order on the house floor next wednesday in which we will read in its entirety the victim's statement which is incredibly compelling. i believe that the judge erred in offering up such a light sentence. he was the individual who committed the crime is getting six months. that will be reduced to probably three months and two years probation. it was a horrendous act. he did not show any effort to suggest that his conduct was wrong. he explained it away with the use of alcohol and i just think that the case cries out for more attention. i've introduced much legislation on sexual assault on college campuses and the kinds of accountability we need to expect from the universities and the kinds of services that must be

provided to victims and i'm hopeful we'll close this horrific chapter of one in five women being sexually assaulted on college campuses. >> it will be stunning to see and hear members of congress read the 7,000 words in the statement by the victim there. congresswoman thank you for joining me. i greatly appreciate it. >> thank you for the invitation. let's go back to chris jansing. she is standing by peter alexander. we know more on who is inside of the meeting. >> it will be just the president of the united states, barack obama and bernie sanders. we are learning from dannie freeman who has been chasing around with this campaign for months at this point, we know that as the secret service detail was arriving here at the white house, that bernie sanders and his wife jane hopped out across the street at pete's coffee. you've heard of coffee talk with linda richmond, the you may call this coffee talk with bernie sanders. he picked up a coffee at pete's and a scone according to our team on the ground there before

hopping back into the secret service vehicle and crossing just across the way here in washington d.c. and entering into the white house right now. so any sense that this was going to be some, you know, intense bernie sanders, even before you meet the president of the united states, you have your time to pick up your favorite goodie and drink. >> how different from last night. i was with him when we came back to vermont and there was sort of this tension, he came off of the plane last night in burlington and all of us were set-up, the local media in burlington were set-up with microphones, we thought he would come talk to us. he didn't, in fact, he was making a point that the media should be kept away. he quickly met with local supporters who came out but he went back to his house. then he called a kind of a late night meeting with his senior staffer, staying in local hotels, they went over there for more than an hour, many of the people who were with him and have been with him for a long name vermont went to the meeting and they said suddenly he was in a much better frame of mind, getting home, he wanted to be

home in vermont even for the one night. he spent time on the plane with his grandchildren playing with them as even other members of his staff and wife, jane, seemed to be in intense situatioconver about what had happened in california. he seemed to go into this meeting today so relaxed. he stopped by pete's. got a coffee and a scone and headed into the oval. >> you think about this, tamron, how in the last few months his life has changed. the last time they met was in january in iowa and how things have changed for breaking neern over the course of time how he returns to the white house. this is the prize for which he, hillary clinton and donald trump and all of the other candidates have been fighting. he comes with this massive support behind him to meet with the sitting president of the u.s. >> please hang on. let me fwlibring in david korn.

we had jackie speier on. he said give bernie sanders the time he needs. when you look at the clock and the kind of an orthodox race that we could all see in this general election, truly how much time does bernie sanders have given what a bad week the republicans and donald trump are having? >> yeah, well, he doesn't want to get in the way of the republican implosion. thats overstating it a bit. to me it is not a question of when bernie endorses hillary clinton and sort of moves to unify the party. it is really what he does before that happens. his campaign, the last statement still is that they'll try to sway super delegates to vote for him over her at the convention and they're going all the way to philadelphia. now, if he does that, that is going to be bad for the democrats and bad for hillary clinton's campaign against donald trump. there is no way about it. now, if he stays in the race, if

he still wants to have the vote in washington d.c., the primary next tuesday but does that without hitting up the super delegates and attacking hillary clinton and basically allows her to continue her campaign against donald trump it is not so bad. so he can take as much time as he wants, really, as long as he is not hoping or sort of moubt mounting a second campaign against hillary. >> even if he did, looking at the landscape, david, let's say president obama gets into this and now you have, right now, the president at a 52% approval rating, bernie sanders still wants to be effective and appreciated in the senate. it seems to me, even with the success he has had with his huge platform that he has earned, that he doesn't want to be, and i use this cautiously, but potentially the pariah, the person standing in the way. >> right and i think there is a fine balance i think. people will give him his space.

he has to bring his people around. some of them are still very angry and upset and disappointed and again, if it takes him time to do that, everybody will understand that as long as he is not taking shots at the nominee. he is a member of the democratic party. he wasn't for many decades and the party people care how he treats the presumptive nominee. they will give him his space. let him go through whatever grieving process he wants to as long as he is not getting in the way. >> is he in the way in the nature of not suspending. let me quote what donald trump said tuesday appealing to sanders supporters. to all of those bernie sanders supporters left out in the cold by a rigged system of super delegates, we welcome you with open arms, granted it is coming from donald trump, with that said, with that said, even if he is not taking pot shots as you said against hillary clinton or toward her, he is still, in my

many ways, in the way. >> you're right. but there are different ways of being in the way. some are more destructive and distractive than other ways so i think he has time and if he doesn't say anything until philadelphia, then the party will turn on him and be very upset, at least the party leaders, if he is serious about stopping trump, he is going have to give up his bid to sway the super delegates. the only way you can doing that is belittling and putting down hillary clinton. he has to make that fundamental decision to basically give up the ghost and, you know, move to unify at some . point in the next week or two -- at some point in the next week or two or not. >> is he stick in saying the super delegate process that is rigged. it is not directed at her. it is directed at the way the nomination process is put in place. >> right now, shae trying to use the super delegates to see win so he can't say they're rigged unless he is saying i'm going to win by rigging a rigged system.

listen, he can keep confronting hillary clinton or he can join the effort against donald trump. he can't do both. >> okay. >> and he has to make that fundamental decision in his mind in the next couple of days and then he has to take his time or decide how long it will take before he shares that with the rest of the world. >> and listen, monday and tuesday, hillary clinton set to make an appearance in ohio and in pennsylvania, we don't know, again, the president's timeline but monday, tuesday, that could be huge for her if the president decides to make his move then or if bernie sanders were to show up at, you know, the stage in ohio or pennsylvania. >> right now the republicans as you noted are having a circumstance lar firing squad. so the sooner the democrats can all get on the same page with the president, hillary clinton,

and bernie sanders who has won a seat at the table, the better off the party will be and their prospects for winning in the election. >> let me go -- let's go to chris jansing, i understand you have more details on what the sanders campaign sees as its lexs in the meeting that is happening right now with the president. >> well there, are a couple of things and the most obvious, you've been talking about it are all of the voters, i don't think there is any good, hard evidence about who would vote for hillary clinton and people tend to come around, having said that. here is my sense of it, the bernie or bust people, in other words, the people who would never in a million years vote for anyone but bernie, i think are relatively small part of his supporters. on the other end, you have people who have said to me, look, i don't necessarily love hillary clinton, i think it is the lesser of two evils but i'm a democrat and i'll vote for the democratic candidate. i think what is really at stake here is this vast middle, right? these are the people new to the

process. young people, including young women we would have thought would support hillary clinton and historic candidacy that have gone in overwhelming numbers for bernie sanders and independents in states where they had open primaries made the difference and brought him the win. that is the first part of the puzzle. the second part of the puzzle, 8.1 million plus individual donors who have given an average of $27. he has this 25-year-old wonder kid by the name of kenneth pennington and a group of people and i've been into the war room who are just sit tlaeg with the laptops -- sitting there with the laptops and are something that has never been done before in a campaign. they have raised a couple million dollars with no corporate sponsorships. they have done it with all of these small donations so they've got that list, there isn't a democrat and that includes hillary clinton's people, that includes harry reid who would love to take back control of the

senate for the democrats who don't want that list. he has been hold e-cigarette in. he has used it for progressive candidates where he has mailed out a plea for money from his supporters and those folks have gotten a big boost very quickly, so those are two key pieces of lex leverage, voter aes and money. >> on the other side hillary clinton supporters think their leverage is do you want donald trump in the white house and that is what they reply to bernie sanders supporters as a way to describe the consequences of holding out and when you talk about five months ago, chris, you and i with were in new hampshire talking to young, college aged women who did not at the time feel that they could support hillary clinton over bernie sanders. well, fast forward five months

later with all that has come out from the trump campaign. you have people like joe scarborough who said his brother was once a trump supporter and now can't think of voting for the guy. so so many things have happened in that span of time to potentially bring in some of the sanders supporters, whether male or female who may have been on the fence about hillary clinton because of trust issues, which show up in the polls all of the time but see, now, the contrast. it is not 17 other republicans. it is one republican and one democrat. >> and there is danger in trying to take a snap shot in time and then apply that to november, right so a lot is going to happen between now and then including a little thing called debates, so a lot could change, but clearly what the clinton campaign doesn't want and this has happened in past elections where you seem to have all of the enthusiasm and new voters come in and then they stay home. bernie sanders can ignite those people who has already proved he can get them excited in what

they p want him to do, obviously, is get them excited for hillary clinton. >> and a testament -- >> that is the challenge, though, peter, you can get in the same challenge the obama administration had with young people, the excitement is there but it is a grind to get those young people to turn out and vote, for example, 98% of african-american female vote years did turn out. that was the highest group. so there are some reliable groups and some enthusiastic groups, never the less, we know that hillary clinton will need those voters but it is a delicate balance when you focus in on the young people as we call them. >> this brings up a conversation that i had yesterday with a leading republican pollster who talked about the conventional wisdom because donald trump has touted it that all of the energy throughout the primary season has been on the republican side. that they've had more voters in the primaries than in the history that trump has more votes than any other candidate and republican candidate during the primary season but this leading republican pollster said to me this that is actually not

what the most interesting element of this is. he said back in december, the voter intensity as they describe it, the energy as it were, was heavily on the republican side, but he said if you test those numbers right now it is now heavily on the democratic side which is a testament to bernie sanders. it is driven by the liberal and moderate democrats right now who have been energized by this campaign. the strategist, this pollster said if they can harness and keep that energy they will succeed. the hope for a lot of republicans is that something goes wrong here and the pendulum swings back and that donald trump is able to reenergize folks if there is a flaw in the way they gel. >> and by the numbers, you may have them but donald trump got the most votes but he also got the most votes against him as well. >> yeah, that's right. there have been almost 30 million votes on the republican side. i think he got something like 14 million or so shy of that. he got about 44%.

that means more than 50% of republicans voted for someone other than donald trump right now. even last night, remember on tuesday, i was at donald trump's election night celebration. he referred to his opponent this fall as secretary clinton, but overnight, again, he was back to calling her crooked hillary saying if he didn't have 16 other folks to defeat, he would get a lot more votes than hillary clinton. >> we're waiting to update our audience on what is happening here. we know that bernie sanders is inside of the white house with president obama. we're now seeing just in, brand new video i'm told of the two men walking together going inside their meeting. obviously it is a high stakes meeting but the relationship has been described as one of great respect. you see them, big smiles on their face. probably channelling to all of us that the tension level is not what many would expect. it is an emotional journey for senator sanders as chris jansing, my colleague is standing by and peter both noted. bernie sanders probably never anticipated the great success he

would have in this election getting into this race against someone who is far more well known, had far more -- had more money and more support nationally and was the established candidate but fought to the very end which very well may be, at this point where he suspends his campaign but chris, you're standing by as well but looking at the body language, and that is part of what we do, you see both of these men slapping each other on the back, a big smile on their face, a sense of relief that this may not be this bitter meeting. it really may be the gentle nudge and conversation that democrats hope will happen. >> these things don't just happen. you don't just have cameras hanging out by the white house. so this did s -- >> you don't have to take that one. >> there are a lot of ways to glide down that area without giving the little, you know, bromance tap on the back and

arm. let's face it. >> there were conversations between the press and the white house and they wanted this to happen, obviously, we wanted to see these pictures, they know that the cameras are there. there was an agreement. they're both okay with that. they think that is fine. so they're sending a signal, right sng right? he is not patting him on the back because he heard a joke or because he wants to have a bromance. he is doing it because he knows the cameras are there. he is sending that signal. he is open to having a conversation and happy wants to have a good conversation and he wants to take this information that he gets in this meeting, he wants to take the information that he gets in the harry reid meeting back to vermont. he doesn't have a big entourage with him. we saw that jane and michael brinks went into the white house with him. it is just the two of them in the ov yam, but he has a lot of people who flew on the plane back to burlington with him last night. most of those senior staff members that had been with him

throughout the campaign, many of them have been with him for at least a decade. those folks have stayed back in vermont. they're doing a lot of strategic stuff. one of the things i was told is they're putting together a list who are the people. who are the organizations that bernie sanders wants to make a courtesy call to because thefy'e been so supportive. one is nina turner, the state senator of ohio who introduced him and is a fantastic speaker and rallied the crowds. it might be some of the organizations like the nurse's union who backed him and had a bus and showed up at so many of the rallies. they're waiting for him to return. he is not staying overnight tonight. he has a rally here in washington d.c. outside of rfk stadium but he is going back tonight. his key folks will be there and they're going to start talking about how these meetings went, what their options are, but the signal is very clear from bernie

sanders from watching that picture, he wants to hear what the president has to say and i think for both sides that is a good sign. >> all right. we see the first sign of perhaps good things to come for democrats and unifying the party. the meeting between senator sanders and president obama both with huge smiles on their faces, we'll continue to follow the very latest. bless you, chris, and also coming up, trump change? donald trump is looking for the money he will need to battle hillary clinton in the next hour. trump will be meeting with major party donors, plus members of the koch brother team scheduled to also meet with trump's team, but the ko considch brothers mae siding with the gop nominee. what he said about the koch brothers and what they said about him in the past. wait...is this where you typically shop?

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welcome back. of course, we're waiting to hear more regarding the meeting that is happening right now between president obama, bernie sanders, it is on the schedule for about 40 minutes. we believe it started at the top of the hour. we've seen the video and i think we can rerack of the two men walking inside the white house both smiling, we would say ear to ear as they went to discuss the future of the party and bernie sanders role as we move forward to this general election and speaking of the general election, it is of course in full swing and donald trump is in the hunt for cash. he is trailing hillary clinton in the money game. she has more than $30 million on hand while trump has a little more than 2 million. in a half hour, trump will meet with some of the republican party's biggest money men and women at the four seasons. katy to yo katy tur joins me outside of the meeting. how much of the money discussion will deal with this bad week that ted cruz has had? >> reporter: donald trump is going to be meeting with 70

donors here at the four seasons hotel. donors i'm told are interested in trump but not necessarily going to be signing on. i i've talked to money manager who told me he would be advising his clients to stay away until donald trump can prove he won't be harmful to the party or say something racist because many of the top donors are involved with publicly traded companies who can't have their names publicly tied to somebody who has been accused of racism, their names tied in public ways through fec filings, so that is where the attacks on judge curiel have come to harm donald trump. the campaign believes that they will be able to rectify that. they believe when donald trump gets in a room with people, he has a unique ability to charm them. we'll find out if this works today. so far, the trump campaign is well behind the hillary clinton

machine when it comes to financing, that is common knowledge, the campaign though doesn't necessarily believe in financing, they don't necessarily believe in going out and asking for money from top donors, so far this campaign season, donald trump has been able to get the nomination by self funding, that is what the campaign says. they haven't taken money from the big name donors, they have taken money from small donors, there is a donation tab on the website. he isn't entirely self funding. he is taking some money from regular american people. the folks send inning 20 or 70 or $250 to the campaign. this is a turn around, tamron, for him to be seen with these top donors, seen to be actively courting them, is this going to affect him on the campaign trail? it could potentially. one of the biggest things we hear from supporters is that he is not beholden to anybody and that is the why they like him. they don't feel like is a traditional politician.

they don't think it will be a problem because they will understand it is a different phase of the election. we'll see if it comes back to haunt him on the campaign trail. >> donald trump has also said, katy, that he doesn't believe he needs to raise the one billion dollar reportedly needed because of the free media he says he receives. the quote is i get so many invitations to be on tv and so many interviews, if i want them, so he is banking on the kind of attention that he received in the primary, but i want to go back to something you said, some of the money men and women as we call them who are concerned about the racist comments directed at judge curiel. are they also concerned about his proposed muslim ban? many of the people do international business with businesses that may have high muslim populations, are they also concerned about those things? >> absolutely, those are things that could potentially affect their business and those are things that they wouldn't necessarily want to be tied to. donald trump has gotten away

with saying these things until now, tamron because he has been speaking directly to voters who agree with that sentiment. he has been feeding off of them at the rallies but this is another phase of the election and these words not only matter to donors giving them to money but to the party in general and i'm told donald trump is just starting to realize that what he says has larger consequences than just his personal campaign, his day-to-day campaign. does he understand that? i'm not entirely sure, they say that he hears it but whether that message will get through to them, there is doubt with people working close to the campaign that he will be able to change on the front, the let trump be trump motto has worked for him and it is one that donald trump obviously believes in. >> thank you very much, katy, great reporting, one of the trump strategies to raise money may include smoothing over his relationship with billionaire koch brothers who were at one point considering launching a

campaign against him. in 2012, the brothers and their networks raised more than 400 million to elect mitt romney and have reportedly raised almost 9 900 million this cycle but refused to jump in. donald trump has said he doesn't need koch's money and called people who take it puppets. he has reached out to the koch brothers who a agree to have their officials meet with the campaign. what changed? danielle coleman joins us who has -- daniel coleman joins us. he is the writer of sons of wichita. how the koch brothers became a public and private dynasty. thank you for joining me. >> my pleasure. >> what do you know about the relationship of the relationship of the koch brothers or lack there of of a relationship? >> starting early in the trump campaign made back channel efforts to in to arrange a

meeting with the koch representatives. the kochs have not been big fans of donald trump and his rheto c rhetoric. basically i'm hearing that we really shouldn't expect too much from this meeting between the trump team and the koch team. it would really take a lot to convince the koch representatives that charles and david koch should throw their support behind donald trump. i mean, really, he -- his positions have been completely the opposite of the ones they would want to see a presidential campaign aspouse. >> he is quoted saying we are happy to talk to anybody and hope they understand where we're coming from and they will have more constructionive decisions than they have. >> this meeting is not between donald trump and the koch brothers. it is between the representatives. what does this tell us. >> it says a lot more about the trump campaign than the koch

side of the equation. trump has run an unconventional campaign as everyone knows but it is becoming completely apparent right now. he spent much of the campaign trashing big money donors, super pacs, but now it turns out, he needs a lot of money to fund his campaign but this is not just about money. the trump campaign is mainly trump and he lacks a lot of the infrastructure that he will need in the general election and that is where the kochs could come in because in addition to being able to raise a huge amount of money, they have a very robust political operation. get out the vote, a data operation, these sorts of things that could be extraordinary helpful to the trump campaign and they haven't been, trump doesn't have too much in this regard. >> i want to play what charles koch said on morning joe. this was november 3rd about where they stand. let's play it. >> are you about to get

discouraged and get out of politics again or do you think there are republicans that can carry you message or democrats or anybody? >> i don't care what party. i just want somebody who is going to advance these ideas, to take us away from this two tiered system, getting involved in unproductive things and all of this waste and like our total funded debt and unfunded liabilities are over 100 trillion now, and going up to the sky, so we're headed for disaster. >> do you see a candidate out there? >> not in great measure. >> not in great measure? >> i'm trying to be diplomatic. >> that is a very tactful way. >> i worked hard on that answer. >> so let's do some word association. i take it it is not donald trump. >> listen. i made a vow. i'm not going to publicly comment on any candidate.

>> so that is the interesting reaction to the question, but daniel, when you look at the history of the koch brothers and democrats and how they have been seen essentially as the enemy, if they don't get behind donald trump in this election cycle, how then would you describe the relationship the koch brothers have with liberals and democrats? >> i mean, i think that when we saw them in the 2012 campaign, they were just, they were demonized. the obama campaign almost ran against the koch brothers and you've seen them, you know, try to find a lot more common ground with liberals through criminal justice reform efforts, things of that nature over the past year. i mean, i think that, you know, the kochs would, and charles koch has said this that hillary clinton might be a better alternative to donald trump and

that really says a lot because the kochs are really, really, really no big fans of the clintons. in fact, during the clinton administration, the company experienced one of the most traumatic stretches in the history. they were under siege by a number of government regulators. i don't think they see clinton as a great alternative but perhaps better than trump. >> daniel schuleman i think a lot of republicans will follow the koch brothers. thank you very much, daniel, pleasure having you on. >> thank you. more on this morning's bernie sanders. senator bernie sanders meeting with president obama at the white house. they're discussing party unity and why our first team says this appears to be playing out exactly how the president and hillary clinton want it to. that is next. dad, you can just drop me off right here. oh no, i'll take you up to the front of the school. that's where your friends are. seriously, it's, it's reallfine. you don't want to be seen with your dad? no, it's..no.. this about a boy?

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we continue to follow the breaking news out of the white house. we have not receive new information but we know the meeting between president obama and bernie sanders is under way. now, our first political team, joining me now nbc's news carrie dan, what's the first thought of the unity gap. >> absolutely, tamron, this is a scenario where bernie sanders meeting the president today as much as the president said yesterday of the democratic primaries could have feelings that are ouchie or over my mild. the way this is playing out is sort of the way democratic officials would like to, it is an orderly process and traditional in the sense that bernie sanders is meeting with the president today. he was all smiles walking in with barack obama. sanders' surrogate who are lawmakers have been gracious hillary clinton and the

president saying they want him to take his time. joe biden used the phrase gracious when talking about this and president obama laid out a time line when talking about democratic unity. this seems to be playing out in the way that all officials would like to bring the party together after that primary compare that to republicans. republican lawmakers day in and day out after his comments of the "mexican heritage" of the judge overseeing the trump university case are being day in and day out whether or not they'll support their nominee. bernie sanders is ready to land this plain. >> last, let the fun begin, that's your headline. >> both parties are looking to which candidates their nominees are going to look to as their second in command. we are early in the process. a big question for hillary clinton as bernie sanders is

meeting the president is does she want to take a running mate who cater to the bernie sanders wing of the party and incorporates his policy proposals and embodies the language or looking from the swing states who could address her weaknesses. that's her question going forward >> carrie dan, thank you very much, we'll be right back. where thlargest solar gigafactory in the western hemisphere will soon energize the world. and in syracuse, where imagination is in production. let us help grow your company's tomorrow -today at business.ny.v you can y acss welcome town in minutes1 or across the globe in under an hour. whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. in less than a cenry, boeing took the world from seaplanes

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she's with andrea mitchell. >> tamron, thank you right now a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports," bernie sanders is meeting with president obama to discuss what comes next. the president telling jimmy fallon the democratic primary was good for his party and for clinton. >> i thought that bernie sanders brought enormous energy and new ideas to push the party. it thought it made hillary a better candidate. >> hillary clinton tells lester holts that she plans to work with her former rival. >> i have made it clear that i am going to do everything i can to make it possible for him to be a good partner in our joined efforts to pursue these goals that i mentioned and to defeat donald trump. >> and a very good day to you,

it kristin welker, in for andrea here at the white house a beautiful thursday. we are all eagerly waiting for details for the meeting happening behind me between bernie sanders and president obama. we are keeping our eye out for sn senate ersor sanders. kat katy tur and peter is with us. chris, i want to start with you, what are you anticipating coming out of this critical meeting. >> that's a good question and nobody knows. they want into this with one area of glecomplete agreement. they want to see donald trump defeated. it starts with that and the idea of bernie sanders settles along, i am going to do everything i can to defeat donald trump. having said that on the other