that the policies that are already in existence are actually being informed. but he is going to take a hard look at hbv-1 visas and make sure they're not taking high paying jobs away from american workers. he is going to try to mandate when it's publicly funded projects, that the products that are used are american built steel and things like that. so it will sound good. but there is 200 or so days before the review comes back. and as far as what the voters that nicoolle is out there talking about, what they're going to have to show for this 100 days of presidency, i don't know what that is. that probably goes a long way towards explaining some of the president's poll numbers, that as well as the whiplash we've documented when it comes to policy. >> our thanks to eli stokols whose latest piece of work for "the wall street journal" has been posted this evening and is available for your perusal. and nicolle wallace, i happen to know there are a lot of flights from detroit to new york. i take them all the time. get on one of them. i miss you here in the studio.

>> i'm on my way. >> i know you're out with the constituents. appreciate you joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> we'll take your next break with thanks to both of our guests. you knew what i meant. coming up, a member of congress who has more reason than most to be following this threat from north korea very closely, when "the 11th hour" continues. this is how i dress to get a mortgage. i just go to lendingtree. i calculate how much home i can afford. i get multiple offers to compare side by side. and the best part is... the banks come crawling to me. everything you need to get a better mortgage. clothing optional. lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. okay! ...awkward.

welcome back to "the 11th hour." at this point we want to bring congressman adam smith into our

conversation. he is a democrat from washington state who represents an area between seattle and tacoma. and he is notably the ranking member of the house armed service ises committee. congressman, thank you very much for joining us. i want to start on north korea. >> absolutely. >> obviously enough to give us all great concerns. a failed state which is a nuclear state, as someone pointed out. an economy about the size of the city of dayton, ohio. yet look at how much money they have siphoned off to develop an arsenal. do you have concerns about the team on this end dealing with it? >> i do. and north korea, they're not actually a failed state. they are very -- >> they got to be very close. >> well, the thing is they're focused on their military. yes, they have millions of people starving, but they don't really care. their leadership and the people close to the leadership is all

they care about. and they continue to build nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that are a threat to the immediate region. and i am concerned about what president trump and the military leaders are going to do about it. i'm concerned about miscalculation. i heard some of your earlier guests talking about part of the president's strategy seeming to be unpredictable. and the problem with that is when you have somebody like kim jong un who is not a very intelligent leader, who is just trying to prop himself up by looking strong is a huge risk of miscalculation that could lead to a catastrophic war. so i hope we have some calmer heads in terms of how we deal with north korea going forward. because the threat is very, very real. >> i was watching the white house briefing today. sean spicer was asked a question about political officials in hawaii reviewing security plans having to do with north korea's capability by air. there you are in seattle.

that begins a kind of west coast metropolitan area that ends up los angeles, san diego and the mexican border. without too much time and trouble, it's been theorized they can combine nuclear technology with their ability to make a missile that works. i suppose it takes on a little bit more urgency on the west coast of the u.s. >> it does. and it's even more simple than that. they have nuclear weapons without a question. and if they wanted to hit us with a nuclear weapon that. >> could put it on a freighter and send it over here. maybe we detect it. maybe we don't. i mean, we have anti-ballistic missile technology. so maybe we could shoot down a missile. look, if north korea wanted to inflict harm on us in south korea, they have the capability right now. the question is how do we deter them? and i think the way we deter them, the one thing kim jong un is suicidal. homicidal, yes. particularly to those around him

who he distrusts. but he does not want his regime to fail. we have to make it absolutely clear that if he attacks us, if he attacks south korea, if he attacks any of our al lie, his regime will cease to exist. and that has to be the point of deterrence. i am worried that we will think we need to do some preemptive strike to try to get at his capabilities. i don't see any way that we can take out the number of nuclear weapons that he has in some preemptive strike. and if we were to miscalculate and he miscalculates, that's how you wind up in a very dangerous situation. so i hope some diplomacy and some calmer heads will prevail within the white house, within the pentagon. and i hope we remember that we do have a state department that we ought to use and we ought to fund by the way because diplomacy is one of the best ways we can advance u.s. interests. not just military policy. >> and i bet somewhere in that building is a veteran north korean desk officer who knows everything there is to know about north korea. congressman, thank you so much

for finding the time to be with us tonight. congressman adam smith, democrat of the state of washington. we appreciate your time. >> thanks. another break for us. and coming up more, fiery town hall moments just today as members of congress meet their constituents. that's ahead when "the 11th hour" continues. [rock music] with the lighter feel... of this. [classical music] for a whole mouth clean with a less intense taste... ahhh. try listerine® zero alcohol™. also try listerine® pocketpaks for fresh breath on the go.

i'm wondering if you'll take the initiative to have him release those returns so that we can see what kind of connection he has with different countries around the world. >> as far as i'm aware, the president says he is still under audit. [ booing ] >> hillary clinton and her campaign -- >> interesting to see the stuff that won't fly at a town hall meeting. arkansas senator tom cotton at a joint town hall with congressman french hill in little rock.

let's talk about what it's like on that stage, what it's like out there in general with two former members of congress. harold ford jr. from the state of tennessee and david jolly, republican from florida who joins us from florida tonight. congressman ford, should town hall meetings be mandatory, go out and meet the customers, meet your bosses? >> you know, you have no choice these days. not only do you have to stand in front of your constituencies like the young senator from arkansas, but you a technology overlay that really forces you whether you choose or not to not only be confronted but to have to answer these questions. i think every senator, and for that matter congressman ought to be on record. should this president release his tax returns. there is legislation in congress to mandate that nominees of both parties for president have to release their tax returns, which i think is something that congress should act on. wouldn't it be great if senator schumer and senator mcconnell could come together in a bipartisan way and say we should do this. if they don't do it, you imagine

that perhaps senator warner and the senator of north carolina, the chair and vice chair of the intelligence committee perhaps as part of the russian investigation in this matter will arise and perhaps ask for it. short of, that i don't know what will compel this president to do that. i saw john carl earlier when spicer couldn't answer the question and basically admitted this president won't release them unless he is forced to. so something will have to be a catalyst to make that happen. >> congressman jolly, while it doesn't look like fun, i interviewed congressman donovan from new york a week ago. he said he has stopped doing town halls. he has teletown halls. and he'll meet with small numbers of constituents. he blamed organized protesters several of whom got in touch with us and said we're just constituents. and, you know, chris collins up in upstate new york, the first member of congress on the trump train is open about it. doesn't do town halls. he'll meet with small groups. i imagine, though, the pressure is going to grow and grow.

and i imagine everyone is finding out -- >> sure. >> -- how reluctantly popular obamacare was. >> and the pressure should grow, right? and the bucket of things that harold and i don't miss are town halls when you have a historically unpopular president. and to the memberious spoke of, if you're blaming, you're not campaigning, right? look. we have had unpopular presidents before. we have had bad presidents before. and you have republican members of congress trying to defend a historically unpopular president with low credibility to their own constituents. now here is the important thing. and here is what i would suggest to my colleagues, and frankly what i did when i was in congress. concede the points where you can, right? it's the art of war. president trump should release his taxes and be a republican that says that because if there is nothing to hide, then it only strengthens your party and strengthens the president. there should be an independent council for russia because if will is nothing to hide, it

allows the president to get back to an agenda of governing. so at times in washington you fall into the posture that republicans have to defend republicans. well, sometimes just defend what is right and politically for members of congress in the heat of the moment in these town halls, they'll come out ahead if they do that. >> congressman jolly, prediction. what one signature piece of legislation is donald trump going to get through congress and sign before the end of this year? >> he blew it by not starting with bipartisan infrastructure led by john delaney of maryland with the signoff of the chamber of commerce to create an infrastructure bank for shovel ready jobs that were paid for by repatriating offshore corporate income. he could have done it. he could have had a trump-schumer moment that looked like reagan-o'neal. i don't know how he recovers after the health care debacle. >> same question. >> it's amazing.

both president obama and president trump started with health care. the identity of the republican party the last eight or nine years has been to undo it or repeal the obamacare or some sort of health care act. and they both did it in ways that hurt themselves. i recall being with you shortly after obama care was released and there was a problem around a tech overlay and a tech outlay and they probably should have stopped then to try to fix it. trump now finds himself in a similar bind. david couldn't be more right. he needs to shift to infrastructure. this is perhaps the only thing that could bring republicans and democrats together. his political identity is one that transcends party. whether you like him or not, i think nicolle said it best early. someone who is going to solve thing and offer a different kind of politics in washington. thus far he has failed to do that. perhaps he needs a little change in the west wing. it looks like that may be coming and start fresh and start by bringing both mcconnell and schumer to the white house along with the congressional leaders and say let's do something different. let's do something now.

>> we're going to take a hold here. go to a break. when we come back, the extra special special election that is taking place tomorrow and has president trump taking to twitter tonight when "the 11th hour" continues.

all eyes on georgia tomorrow when democrat jon ossoff, candidate in a special election in the sixth congressional district. he has raised $8 million. even hollywood is pitching in big-time as democrats hope to flip the republican seat. the stakes are high. president trump went on twitter tonight, quote, with 11 republican candidates running in georgia on tuesday for congress, a runoff will be a win. vote r for lower taxes and safety. a total of 18 people are vying for the seat left vacant by tom price, who left to be hhs secretary, including 11 republicans, five democrats, a runoff election will take place

if the winner does not cross the 50% threshold. all of that perfectly easy for voters to understand. back with us former members of congress harold ford jr. and david jolly. harold ford, do you agree? do you go along with the hype that this is waterloo, this is every bit as important to both parties in the media as we have said it is? >> he is less than 100 days in. you have a win in kansas for the republicans. if the democrats win this seat, it's no doubt it sends a chilling message to the president. here is a district that he won by only 1.5 points. so republicans will counter that way. the other soft candidacy is interesting to me from another regard, though. here is a serious young guy who is exuding competence. i've watched him and watched him tonight on chris's show and matthew's show. and he answered the questions with a level of competence, and for that matter, a level of thoughtfulness that i think a lot of voters probably see missing or absent in washington,

particularly in the white house. so if he does win, i think it could not only mean democrats shouldn't overread it. we ought to put forth competent, serious, thoughtful sober candidates who aren't partisan and strident about how they go about doing their work. and this ossoff kid certainly represents that. >> congressman jolly, same question. >> look, he is riding the wave. the numbers are obvious in kansas. i think the congressional democrat underperformed trump by about 20 points. clearly, the republicans taken as a whole will underperform what tom price had done. but it's also important to realize, and i was elected in a special election shortly after the roll-out of obamacare in a district that president obama won twice. and my opponent, a democrat who had won statewide, was forced to try to justify the foibles of president obama's roll-out. at the time a very unpopular obamacare roll-out. and it was easy for me as a

republican to point out what was wrong about it. i think ossoff is in a similar position. a president without credibility who has failed in his first 88 days. he gets to just highlight that whereas republicans are left with an identity crisis. who is the leader of the party? are you going to defend president trump? are you going to defend paul ryan? where do you fit in this? and this is what we're all trying to figure out as republicans right now. >> 30 second each. do people these days have to watch who supports them? the rap on ossoff is he has half of hollywood having written him a check. david? >> all politics are local. and don't forget the big money. listen, ossoff is not even running his campaign right now. there is so many millions of dollars coming in that are defining him and defining the republicans that are out of his control. i lived through it by the grace of god. >> harold? >> these elections like david said are reactions to the moment. ossoff could find himself riding a moment and benefit frigate. if he is elected, he's got to come back to being from georgia.

i've listened to him, though. and here is a young man that understands as much as the money is coming in from out of town, he is only going to win by the people voting in town. >> gentlemen, thank you both. a pleasure to have two former members of congress who lived to tell the tale. >> jolly, good to see you. >> on live television tonight. another break for us. coming up, you have to watch fast. and the first lady was forced to think fast to prevent an awkward moment at the white house today when "the 11th hour" continues. ♪ ♪

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last thing before we go here tonight, a relatively rare public appearance for the new first lady, who still lives here in new york while son baron trump completes his school year. melania trump hosted the 139th white house easter egg roll on the south lawn today, calling the event a wonderful tradition. the moment we have to show you was very subtle but no less interesting. watch as the national anthem begins and then her discreet nudge to her husband. ♪ that was right there. as you might imagine, the clip of that moment has repeated all day into tonight. it was instantly politicized, of course as our slovenian born first lady delivering a subtle reminder to her husband the american president and commander in chief of all u.s. military forces to place hand over heart

during the star spangled banner. we'll go out on that note that is our broadcast for tonight. we start off a new week. thank you for being here with us. good night from new york. >> "all in" starts right now. >> now, for the first time in over four years, the president is poised to keep his taxes a secret from the american public.