for your insights. have a great weekend. >> you too. thank you. that does it for this hour. i'm kristen welker in for steve kornacki. "mtp daily" starts right now. if it's friday, the final countdown to the 100-day mark. tonight, promises, promises. >> just think about what we can accomplish in the first 100 days of a trump administration. >> the president today both ridiculing the 100-day marker and rushing to meet it. plus questions about that other white house. >> mar-a-lago. >> mar-a-lago. >> i like mar-a-lago. >> the mar-a-lago meeting. >> mar-a-lago. >> mar-a-lago. >> in mar-a-lago. >> sit down, everybody, please. i mean this is mar-a-lago. we give you seats. >> has the president's florida resort become an ethics loophole? and taking aim at a developing trend in political ads.

this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." right now the president is racing to find a legislative accomplishment ahead of a 100-day deadline that he today has called ridiculous. there are rumblings of a possible government shut down as the president looks for a win on health care, tax reform or the border wall. both the struggles and setbacks, confrontations, investigations and general chaos of the president's 100 days have consumed a ton of oxygen. but there's an issue that perhaps just as important if not more that has now been thrust back into the spotlight. the president's possible conflicts of interest. first of all, remember this. >> hillary clinton did government favors for those giving her family and her foundation massive amounts of

cash. >> hillary clinton's pay-for-play corruption during her tenure as secretary of state. >> if she were to win, it would create unprecedented constitutional crisis. >> when we win on november 8th, we are going to washington, d.c., and we are going to drain the swamp. >> how could you forget that phrase? but here's the strange thing. president trump might be hoping that we've become numb to the issue of conflicts of interest, and there are some signs that we have. but the controversies shouldn't and cannot be ignored. right now the white house is pushing back on reports that the president secretly met at mar-a-lago with two former colombian presidents, who are both staunch critics of a controversial peace deal between colombian rebels and their current elected government, a deal that the u.s. backed under president obama and has some

congressional strings attached to it -- that backing -- which would mean money to colombia. now, citing colombia media reports, "the miami herald," which says this meeting, which took place last weekend was arranged by florida senator marco rubio, who has been critical of that deal in colombia. the white house says former colombian presidents merely shared a handshake with mr. trump. but pass tra that publicly tweeted it was more than that. he thanked the president for a, quote, very frank conversation, unquote, about colombia's problems. folks, you can't just walk into mar-a-lago, which trump owns, to speak with the president. you've got to pay serious cash or know someone who did pay if you want to get in the door. by the way, the price tag is now $200,000 just to become a member. it used to be $100,000 before the election. in this case, it's a mystery who paid that fee and how exactly they got two foreign leaders access to the president. now, you might call this the mar-a-lago loophole, and it's just the tip of the iceberg in a recent flood of questions surrounding the president's

possible conflicts of interest. for example, you probably know that the president had a controversy phone call with the turkish president this week to congratulate him for essentially grabbing more power and making his country a bit less democratic. what you might not now is there's a trump tower in turkey. you might know the president ditched his attacks on china as a currency manipulation, but you might not know the comments came after ivanka's business was granted preliminary controversial for her brand of clothing and jewelry. there are reports that jared kushner is eyeing a $400 million dealt with a chinese person, you might have missed that the presidential campaign continues to funnel money back to trump's businesses. and the president's trust allows the president to pull money from his various business ventures whenever he wants. no one is saying any of this is proof of any quid pro quo, but it does end up raising serious

questions, and it does end up raising questions about whether anybody in congress or in washington is going to care about these conflicts of interest. i'm joined now by andrew sullivan, a contradiibutor to n york magazine. first, mr. sullivan, welcome. >> thank you, todd -- chuck. >> that's okay. i've been called my father and grandfather our whole lives. that's what happens when you have two first names, sullivan -- sully. this issue of conflicts of interest, there's a ton of them here. we've all talked about them. there doesn't seem to be concern in washington about them. why do you think that is? >> because we're overwhelmed, right? i mean it's like there used to be a moment in a presidency, say, one moment where you could say this looks fishy, or does this person have a conflict of interest here? is there some conflict with money coming in and so on and so forth? and we could focus on it. it happens every day. >> and he's not the only president where there have been questions of this, and we

focused very hard, whether it was dick chaeneycheney's secret task force or bill clinton in those coffee klatsches in the white house or selling of the lincoln bedroom. but there seemed to be accountability for those issues. >> i think washington has become numb. i think we're all numb on what is essentially an unprecedented attempt to use the presidency of the united states for his personal enrichment. that's what's happening. his brand is growing. he didn't actually properly separate himself from these interests, and we're all kind of just bewildered by it or maybe waiting for the moment when all this stuff comes out and something dramatic happens. >> well, there is a point where, you know, we got to remind people nobody cares about these things until they care. >> right. >> and all of a sudden, it becomes a flood of it. i wanted to have you on originally because you wrote this last week, and you wrote about how trying to decipher essentially -- trump still shows -- trying to decipher

trump. people that try to do it -- i don't have it in here. i'll admit it. trying to decipher him is a useless enterprise, that trying to figure out what is his foreign policy or what is this, don't strop trying to do it. >> well, we thought we did. he had a campaign. he had a message. he had a particular theme. he had a key adviser, and we thought we knew this was about. it turns out that every other day, there's some completely incoherent or completely contradictory policy that he's pursuing. every promise he's made has been reverses. i don't think there's any consistency here at all. after a while, i just gave up trying to understand. >> i could make an argument there is one consistency i've seen. it's that he has flipped from his campaign rhetoric to washington conventional wisdom. >> yes, but he can flip back. i don't think that there's an actual overwhelming sense that he's suddenly become a neoconservative again or an internationalist again. i think it's random. it seems to be entirely what he

just saw on television. he seems to watch cable news more than he does anything else. it doesn't seem to actually come from new strategy of any sort. and it has this impulse, i think, when things get rough to just drop a bomb somewhere or other. >> but look at him this week. he could have taken the bait. kim jong-un, is he mentally stable? he pulled back. he's now acknowledging there's a lot he's learning about the chinese-korean relationship. it's complicated. there's a long history there, and he's giving the chinese space. is he learning on the job? >> yes, he's learning on the job but -- >> isn't that a good thing? >> yes, except in a few weeks' time, we may find he's doing exactly the opposite. we have no reliable reason to think this man is thinking about anything except reacting to all the synapses. i don't really see this happening. i don't think he's being conventionalized. i think he's a random series of impulsive decisions. >> what does this mean -- look, at times you have been accused

of being a conservative hiding at a liberal publication. people trying to figure you out. it's been kind of fun. you're an accounting class. that's okay. but what does a conservative supposed to make of this? >> i think a conservative proper live speaking should be terrified that someone is this impulsive, that someone is this inconsistent, that someone is this incoherent, that someone runs on a strategy of keeping america out of the world and then governs immediately rather impulsively in embedding us in places like yemen, in extending these, and as someone as unstable as he is, the thought that he's actually going up in some serious way against kim jong-un is terrifying. i mean i -- i don't think conservatives properly speaking want to blow up the government of the united states, and i don't think they properly speaking want to blow up the korean peninsula. and i don't think we have any guarantee that this crazy,

reckless, inconsistent and um pulsive man can be call -- i think it's a huge mistake he's sitting in the white house, and i think we just hope that the last person he spoke to is smarter than the person before that. >> all right. now, if you're on the liberal wing, if you're in the democratic party, shouldn't you -- is there two ways to look at president trump? one is the way you just described him. the other is, well, he's flexible, and maybe i can convince him on my issue to work with me, and maybe that's a step in the right direction. what do you say to that? >> he would be, but he's not very flexible in the way he demonizes democrats and has demonized them from the get-go. he could have done an entirely different thing in his first 100 days. he could have started out by saying to the march that greeted him the next day, i want to prove you wrong. he could have said, i want to reach out to democrats on infrastructure and started to reposition himself in the

center. he could have been this benign father figure if he wanted to be. he didn't. from day to day -- >> but he didn't run as that. wouldn't that have been a -- if he had done that, wouldn't that have been essentially selling a bill of goods from the candidate that he was? >> yeah, but he's now trying to do that every other day, where every other day he's actually trying to fire up his base. it's just hard to make sense of anything that's going on in this town. i'm glad, you know, i don't have to really study every day because i think it would just make you completely crazy. >> all right. if you do look at this, though, from 30,000 feet and you do that, this is part of a larger trend that is more acute in europe, and i think for a long time -- i remember right after brexit, a lot of us, whoa, we're not europe. this isn't going to happen here. we don't have this harsh divide and this harsh sort of split view of globalization that you guys do in europe. yes, we're uncomfortable with it, but -- well, it turns out we're no different. >> not at all. the truth is we're living through a period of enormous

demographic change, of enormous mass immigration in lots of different places. >> it's not just here in america. we're talking all over europe too. >> all over europe. britain, in a year today, admits more people than it admitted from 1066 to 1950. it's adding 10,000 people a year to this island, many who don't speak english, come from all over the planet. you keep doing that to a country, it will eventually say, we're losing our sense of what we are. that's what's happening in france. this is our home, is the campaign slogan for le pen. this is what i think you saw happening in america. these forces are so big that unless we understand them better, unless we restrain them, we're going to look back on trump and be grateful. >> it looks like the right in all of these western democracies knows how to exploit this and win. the left seems to be clueless on how to handle it. >> the left doesn't know anymore how to talk about things like

our country, the nation, identity, culture, meaning. what it means to be an american. they're so busy splitting everybody's identities into these small racial, ethnic gender, whatever, they don't see what's lacking in this bewildering time is who am i as an american? what does this country stand for? what does it say to me? this gives people a sense of meaning and community. you trash that, make it completely bewildering, you have mass immigration over many years, which is also illegal, and you will get this response, especially when all over the western world, the economy is not doing so well. >> all right. in france, what happens? if le pen becomes president -- obviously we have the runoff. it would be a shock if she didn't make the runoff. what happens in france does elect le pen? >> i think the european union is on extremely thin ice. i think it is overreached. i think what it wants to happen is utopia, which anybody can go anywhere and that europe is one kind of massive country. without actually an accountable central government in europe is

crazy. it always was crazy. and, look, i like the european union. i would have voted, if i was still a british citizen, in favor of remaining in the eu. but i think ordinary people, they don't recognize the country they're living in, in all these places. and they're trying to tell people, please stop. >> give me some identity back. >> give me some meaning back. tell me what it means to be french again. tell me what it means to be an american. that was the core of trump. make america great again. it's defining this country. it's finding a new culture, a new unifying culture in an incredibly mixed, multi-racial, multi-cultural society that's never been -- it's important to remember this. never been in the history of the world a country this large with this many cultures and ethnicities in it. never. it's a challenge, and we're not living up to it right now. >> andrew sullivan, as always, this is why i like having you on. you'll probably make a lot of

people mad on twitter, but on both sides of the aisle. coming up, expectations versus reality with day 100 of the trump presidency on the horizon. we'll compare the president's campaign claims to the white house record and the big push he's making for a legislative win maybe even on health care. and this sunday on "meet the press," reince priebus joins me on the first 100 days. plus house minority leader nancy pelosi. and florida senator marco rubio will join me to discuss this week's foreign policy headlines including one he was involved in regarding that colombia story. stay tuned. and life's beautifu. flonase allergy relief delivers more complete relief. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause all your symptoms, including nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes. flonase is an allergy nasal spray that works even beyond the nose. so you can enjoy every beautiful moment to the fullest.

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but we've got the get tdigital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount french voters head to the polls on sunday. here at home, it aer pas we've got dueling near endorsements in that race from presidents trump and obama. in an interview today with the associated press, president trump said he believes the apparent terrorist attack in

paris last night will, quote, probably help far right candidate marine le pen. he said he's not explicitly endorsing her but said this, quote, le pen is the candidate who is strongest on borders, and she's the strongest on what's been going on in france. then there's former president obama's office, who yesterday put out word that the president spoke by phone with the centrist candidate, emmanuel macron. they said president obama isn't endorsing any candidate either, but said president obama remains deeply committed to france as a close u.s. ally and, quote, a leader on behalf of liberal values in europe and around the world. you can infer from that what you will, but it looks like we could have a proxy fight between trump and obama. folks, after brexit and president trump's surprise victory, this vote is being closely watched for signs of another populist uprising. whoever the next leader in france is, they're going to have deep implications about the future of europe and its relationship with the united states. we'll be back with more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds.

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just think about what we can accomplish in the first 100 days of a trump administration. > >> going to have the biggest tax cuts since ronald reagan. >> we will save and protect your social security and medicare. >> eliminate every unnecessary job-killing regulation. >> cancel every illegal obama executive order. >> save the second amendment, which is under siege. and appoint justices to the united states supreme court who will uphold and defend the constitution of the united states. >> welcome back to "mtp daily." that was president trump in the last few weeks of his campaign with a long string of promises for his first 100 days in office. but this morning on his 92nd day in office, the president tweeted that the 100-day mark is a, quote, ridiculous standard. well, folks, while he's dismissing it, he also seems to be racing to meet it.

here's what i said this afternoon at the treasury department. >> we'll be having a big announcement on wednesday having to do with tax reform. the process has begun long ago, but it formally begins on wednesday. >> but then just after that, he did say this. >> how are you going to accomplish all that? >> it's going to be great. it will happen. >> you're going to do health care and tax reform? >> it will happen. we'll see what happens. no particular rush, but we'll see what happens. but health care is coming along well. government is coming along really well. a lot of good things are happening. thank you, folks. it doesn't matter if it's next week. next week doesn't matter. >> it's possible the white house wants a win on funding for the border wall in the first 100 days so much that they could risk a government shut down to get it. in the president's defense, a lot of candidates make 100 days

promises. let me bring in chief correspondent washington post, and glenn thrush, a brand-new msnbc contributor. welcome to all. all right, dan. look, i have some empathy here. every new president about this time hates fdr. they get really mad about that. what do you mean this 100-day thing? but as candidates they certainly -- their campaign advisers certainly love it, and they certainly love to make campaign promises. does this matter next week? >> sure, it matters in part because it's going to dominate the conversation. it has been already. i mean i don't think i can recall a time in which the 100-day marker has gotten this much attention well before the 100 days. so it means there's going to be a lot of conversation. it's going to look like he hasn't done much. you know, he's right in another way. 100 days is an artificial marker. in all presidencies now when people begin to plan, they

certainly look for things they can do by the first 100 days, but they also plan out really to a second 100 days. the aust recs is a time when they really hope to get som things done. but his first 100 days has been berest of legislative accomplishments. >> there's some hints they want to bring health care back. there's been some chatter they might file a bill tonight even. that seemed like president trump who learned a lesson the first time on health care not to overpromise. >> i think that's completely true. he doesn't want to say this is going to happen next week. i'm going to have a vote next week. they learned their lesson when they said there was a vote and then there wasn't, that that was an epic failure and embarrassment. even while we talk about his supporters continuing to be holding on to him and him being teflon, health care is something that's so personal, that's so deep that the republicans have really won on so many levels with governorships and the house and the senate that they've made this promise to the american people, and it's something

people understand very easily. either you have health care or you don't. if you had cancer, you can get health care or you can't. i think that's something that's really sticking in his mind. >> throwing tax reform into this, it's going to -- i think what they're hoping is that wednesday we all do stories. look at all these major tax cuts. but, boy, reality check here on how hard it is to get a tax proposal from a white house introduction to even a committee hearing on capitol hill. >> i feel like i'm under siege here. no. the big mistake that the president made was not telling everybody that he was learning on the job. it's interesting what you were talking to andrew sullivan about, which is the notion that this guy is actually learning on the job. he has empowered someone in steve bannon, his chief strategist for the first couple months, who thought executive orders were a way to get things done. as we know, executive orders are things that you do when legislative attempts fail. >> it's called things that you do in year six or seven and you can't get anything done. >> he had no idea to work with

the legislative branch, and here's the other thing going on internally. reince priebus, his chief of staff, is the one who's pushing, who you're going to be talking to, is the guy i am told who has been pushing a lot of stuff, particularly health care, because he is besieged himself internally and wants to show some record of accomplishment too. >> there is that but there's a math reason why that health care and tax reform are connected. they can't do the tax cuts, those massive tax cuts that he's promising without repealing those obamacare taxes. >> no, and he's as much as said that the last few weeks ever since health care went down the first time. i mean he's made it clear that you need -- there is a process by which you have to get the health care bill done first. you know, it seems as though we'll find out next week whether they can actually get it through the house. we'll find out next week or the week after. if it doesn't in that amount of time, i don't know what they do. i don't know whether they throw it to the senate -- >> honestly i have no idea why they're still trying to negotiate the house alone. that's a part of this i've never

understood. you know the harder slog is the senate. let them at least be involved from the beginning. >> i think part of it is they simply did kind of toss it to the freedom caucus to try to see what they could work out. >> yeah. >> we know the history of presidents letting congress go ahead with things. >> good luck with that. >> they don't work very well. >> let me go to the border wall. mick mulvaney, the budget director, has this idea. let's do a little old-fashioned horse trading. you give us a little border wall. come on, democrats. what do you want? are democrats in a negotiating mood? >> democrats are not in a negotiating mood. every conversation i've had are them kind of going even further to the left. this idea that they're seeing that they can have leverage with this president mainly because he hasn't really accomplished much. because of that, they're saying let's work on getting our party a new fresh face. you see bernie sanders back on the campaign trail, kind of barnstorming the country -- >> has he become a democrat yet? >> i've asked, and apparently he's not really a democrat, and in his office, he's an independent. and he was elected as an

independent. but there's this idea that democrats are feeling this new energy, i think, after the fail of health care. they're saying, you know what, let's stick to our guns. also they're facing a base, of course, that doesn't want any parts of any deal-making at all. >> i know, but, glenn, there's a weird die cot mchotomy for the democrats. jon ossoff, who is going to be the canary in the coal mine for the democratic party in the next two weeks, the democrat in the runoff in georgia, he's trying to say, hey, i'm going to be the guy that works with all sides. you know, he knows he has to run kind of as a centrist to win that district. the messaging coming out of the democratic party is resistance at all cost. >> the other thing we're looking at here is the difference between the electorate and the donor base. the donor base has no patience whatsoever for democrats to be weak on this. and the other thing about it is you have a supine presidency. you have a guy who has the lowest approval rating of any president in our lifetime. >> this early. >> this early. woo wouldn't they go for the jugular? >> at some point, though, do democrats get it all?

is there any risk for them not to even -- would they own any part of the shut down or would the republican party own it all on their own? >> it depends on how the negotiations go. realistically they would probably own very little of it. it's trump in a republican congress. why shouldn't they be able to get that through? so we'll see. but i think the democrats feel that they're in a no-lose situation on these kinds of negotiations at this point. but as you point out, i mean the democrats are fine in opposition, but that's not all they need to be. and they're far from kind of addressing and coming to terms with that. >> quickly, speaker ryan. it seems like he's got oi complicated task next week. by the way, he's getting kicked around almost more so. there's some polling to suggest that he's now more unpopular than trump is. >> i thought it's because president trump in some ways almost made him own health care. they didn't want to call it trumpcare. it started getting called ryancare. he was the one that was giving the powerpoint speeches on this.

there's this idea, i think, that the failure is his. also there's this idea that he hasn't really been able to pull his party together, and that's mainly because the republican party, even though we call it the republican party, could really be almost two to three parties within itself. and ryan is trying to lead that, and people are thinking that he's not doing a very good job. >> glenn, it seems to me speaker ryan doesn't want any extra hurdles for a funding bill. he's not stupid. he knows that a shutdown is a republican problem. >> look, you know, there's a natural tension between ryan and this white house. again, the priebus-ryan relationship is something i think trump is pretty skeptical of. and i was told in the wake of the health care debacle, a lot of people in the white house blamed steve scalise, who is suppose ed to be handling the whin count for paul ryan. there was some accusations back and forth from the white house to the house that scalise got it wrong and gave them an overly optimistic count. >> the one guy in house leadership that doesn't get stained in this white house is a guy named mccarthy. coming up, lay out your lab

coats and bring on the beakers. there's another major march on washington that is set for tomorrow, and this one is a bit different than we've seen before. stay tuned. last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. at&t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. remote moisture sensors use a reliable network to tell them when and where to water. so that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. china. oh ... he got there. that's the power of and.

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welcome back. after weeks of controversy, the house intelligence committee announced today it's trying to move ahead with its investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. they've now scheduled two more hearings that will take place in the coming weeks. fbi director james comey and nsa director admiral mike rogers

have been invited to testify as a closed-door hearing on may 2nd. the committee also reached out to former acting attorney general sally yates, former cia director john brennan and james clapper, inviting them to testify in an open hearing sometime after may 2nd. both hearings were originally scheduled for march but were canceled by devin nunes. nunes has since stepped down from the investigation amid criticism regarding his conduct. up next, we've got a real rocket scientist here who used to be a member of congress to talk about the idea of scientists marching on washington this weekend. but first, deirdre bosa. >> thank you, chuck. stocks closing lower today as wall street looks to the elections in france. the dow finished lower by 30 points. the s&p off seven, and the nasdaq fell six points in today's session. united airlines ceo oscar munoz will not be chairman as planned following that ugly incident in which a passenger was dragged

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welcome back. first the women's march. then the tax day march. now the next large-scale seemingly anti-trump administration march will be tomorrow's march for science. tens of thousands are exampled to participate in over 500 events across the nation. activists and scientists are packing up their poster boards and beakers and coming right here to d.c. with the largest march is expected. tomorrow is also earth day. planners have speakers and a teach-in on tap for the gathering on the national mall. the march for science organizers say it's not a partisan event, but there will certainly be politics in the air. you can expect to find a lot of anti-trump signs among the crowd. the scientific community slammed trump's 2018 fist year budget

proposal for taking an ax to scientific research grants, the epa and the national institutes for health among other things. rush holt is a former common and now chief executive officer of the american association for the advancement of science. he said of the with white house plan, quote, the administration's propose the cuts would threaten our nation's ability to advance cures for disease, maintain our technological leadership, ensure a more prosperous energy future and train the next generations of scientists and innovators. the person behind that quote joins me now, rush holt, former member of congress. how are you, sir? >> good to be with you. >> i think you were -- correct me if i'm wrong, your background is a physicist. >> i'm a physicist, and then i did something 20 years ago that most of my science colleagues thought was crazy. i ran for congress, spent eight terms, 16 years. >> my guess is they still think you're crazy on that front. let me start with sort of this idea, where did it come from and why do you think it's necessary? >> the march for science?

>> yes, sir. >> there were three young sients, a graduate student, a post-doc, a newly mindm.d., who hadn't met. they met on social media, and they noticed that at the women's march on the 21st of january, science was breaking out spontaneously. people were carrying signs. what was supposed to be a political march about science. things like got polio? me neither. thanks, science. or science is real, whether you believe it or not. and they realized there was a lot of energy and a lot of concern. and so they said, well, let's give people a place to direct that energy. they called for a march. within hours, it turned international. you said 400 or 500 sites in the country. no, it's worldwide. every nent except antarctica tomorrow is having marches, open houses at museums you, children's science festivals, and demonstrations expressing

concern about the place of science in our society and in our government. >> look, a lot of this, you could say basically boils down to one big debate inside washington, and that is over climate change. is it manmade or not? that ultimately science essentially overwhelming says manmade, guys. this has become a partisan issue, particularly inside parts of the republican party. so i guess my question, is that -- is that the nut of this, and what do you say to folks that say, you know what? all of this scientific research pushing us on climate change is only taking away my livelihood? >> it's not that simple. what the march is about is more than that. this is an example of something that has been troubling scientists for years, that we've seen and you've seen it too, where in public policy, in public debates, the evidence is being pushed aside by ideology and opinion and wishful

thinking. and scientists, who build their careers -- we build our careers on a reverence for science, hate to see that. we hate to see anybody use phrases like alternate facts without blushing. and climate change is one example, but there are many examples in economics, in evolution and biology, in vaccination. >> you bring up evolution. this isn't the first time we've had a partisan fight over science. i mean, you know, go read -- we can go read the stoeps trial. >> but in gm o's, the sides are flipped there generally. >> right, where the left is the ones not being the science on food versus those on the right. >> in all of those cases, scientists are saying you're not making policy on the basis of evidence. >> where is the disconnect? where do you think the disconnect is? i say it this way because, look, there is a war on facts, and there's a war on trust sort of overall.

so we're skeptical of everything. people skeptical of me, whatever i say, because i work for a news organization. people skeptical of you. you're a member of congress. you're a member of a political party. how can you be trusted? science now has been thrown into that. how should scientists fight back? one thing is a march, but how should they fight back to say, hey, we're totally evidence-based. we swear. >> for generations, scientists have stayed in the lab. >> right. >> it's a big deal for thousands and thousands of scientists to come out into the public square now. they never do that. in fact, when this was suggested, lots of the professional science societies said, oh, that's not something scientists do. >> they're probably afraid to be politicized. i get it. >> they've got it backwards. you don't want science to be politicized, but the converse of that is not necessarily true. in fact, the converse, that you want to take your science public, is really an obligation that scientists have avoided for generations. >> all right. what's the end game? what do you want president trump

to take away from this? he watches these things. what do you hope he takes away? >> that science actually is his friend. science is society's friend. if you base your policies on the best understanding of how things actually are rather than how you wish they were or how your ideology tells you they are, you'll have more successful policies. >> all right. >> and, you know, if you want to deal with a crisis, you'd better have some people who appreciate science around you. >> all right. well, former congressman rush holt, requeyou'll be out there marching tomorrow? >> at my organization, we have a number of activities at the same type. >> we'll be following it. thanks for coming in. appreciate it. up next, the history behind everyone's obsession with the president's first 100 days in office. stay tuned. ♪ a lot of people have vertical blinds. well, if a lot of people jumped off a bridge, would you? you hungry? i'm okay right -- i'm...

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welcome back. tonight many of my colleagues are going to be obsessed with the first 100 days. what's so special about the first 100 days? yes, it's the honeymoon period, but trust me there's plenty of stuff that happens after the first 100 days. geez, think lewinsky, watergate, 9/11, the a-bomb. all right. you get the picture. still, this is when presidents get their first report card, and for that, they can thank this man, franklin delano roosevelt, who in a fire side chat referred to, quote, the crowding events

of the 100 days which had been devod to the starting of the wheels of the new deal. fdr had done a lot in those first 100 days. 15 major pieces of legislation, including the tennessee valley authority, the fdic, relief for the poor, and bank regulation just for starters. jfk was so unnerved by possible comparisons to fdr that he said in his inaugural, quote, all this will not be finished in the first 100 days, unquote. president-elect obama said, we may not get there in one year or even one term. but like it or not, the 100-day report card is here to stay, even as trump both embraces it and runs away from it. this might be a good time to note that on "meet the press" this sunday, we'll have a brand-new poll numbers, just what the people think of the new president roughly 100 days in. we'll be right back.

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disunity. i'm talking about the democratic national committee's come together and fight back tour which kicked off monday, headlined by tom perez and bernie sanders. perez is getting dinged by sanders folks for not supporting universal health care getting d bernie krats. john ossoff is not a progressive. something had he to clean up today in a statement. we sort of touched on this before, but, dan, it's been weird to watch this unity tour between the chairman of the democratic party and a guy who is not a member of the democratic party. >> yeah, it's curious as to why tom perez decided this was the way to start his tenure as dnc chair. he's got a lot of work that he has to do internally at the dnc to get it ready. capitol hill can deal with kind of the message and looking forward. the progressive base is revved up already. to bring senator sanders along, who as we have seen for the last

two years, marches to his own drummer is not part of any establishment, doesn't feel any relationship with the dnc. i mean, i understand symbolically why they did it, but what we are seeing in practice is the very reason why it doesn't seem like a good idea. >> i guess that you could make an argument that the reason to do it is bernie can draw a crowd. so, you can go -- if you're trying to build a 50-state party, you go to kansas, whole bunch of people show up to see bernie. and maybe if you're tom perez of the dnc chair, maybe you can get volunteers to sign up for the democratic party. that is a rationale. >> i think that is the rationale. i don't think it is a rationale. when i worked for bernie sanders, i would say there are women crying in the crowd. this is like a rock and roll concert. to be at a bernie sanders rally is to really witness somebody kind of riding high on this progressive message. he's not dumbing it down to these millennials. he is talking at length about

the b policy. that's what the democratic party wants. they want a base interested in policy. that's why tom perez feels like he wants to go on this unity tour. the fact there needs to be a unity tour when donald trump is in the white house also tells you the state of the democratic party. >> i go back to it is -- if democrats win the house, they're going to win it through the south. and these suburban southern districts, and again, you know, you're going to have this tension between bernie krats and the john ossoffs of the world. >> look, i think the other thing perez needs to do is clean things up after the bitter chairmanship fight with keith he will i son. >> he's co-chair. that's one way to do it. >> you're absolutely right about that. i think they're going to wind up following the same play book the republicans did, be the party of no. he didn't pay any political price. his goal was to make sure barack obama wasn't elected.

>> the most popular elected politician in this country is bernie sanders. >> yes. >> hard stop. >> yes. >> i mean, did you ever think that would ever be the case? >> no. >> yeah. i mean, no. [ laughter ] >> he's a member of no party. >> that's the point. >> and i think that is -- adds to his popularity. that's the irony. i know there are some democrats that wish bernie would act like a democrat. give your list to the democrat. part of his popularity is he's not. >> he's had spectacular success being bernie sanders over the last two years. he didn't win the democratic nomination, but who gave him any chance of even making it a competition? >> he lost the election, he won the campaign. >> yes, that's exactly right. and he's continuing to try to push that brand forward. but what that does for the democratic party at large, i don't know. >> let me ask the question in reverse. what does bernie sanders want? >> it's really -- i mean, it's very interesting, but i think it's what he's been saying for years and years and years. i mean, he's laid out pretty

clear policies. he wants the democratic party to really turn into what he's been wanting which is universal health care, single payer system which is this idea of free college for all. i think his policies are really what he wants. as someone who went to hundreds of rallies with him, has interviewed him several times, i think he literally lays out what he's wanted for almost 30 years. and i think the fact that he's now getting people to listen to his speech that he's given since the '80s is flabbergasting him. but i think that's what he wants. he wants the democratic party to change completely and not be at all a centrist party. >> what do the donors want? you brought up the donors earlier. what the donors want is antagonism towards trump. do they want bernie progressivism or what? >> the thing about democratic donors, you can get the coke brothers in jane mayor's book to contribute money for power building and power accumulation. democratic donors go issue by issue. the biggest thing is probably motivating them now is pruitt at the epa.

that is a huge draw. back to bernie for a second. you know, trump is essentially someone who invaded the host organism of the republican party and bernie sanders whole goal is to purge the party of clintism. >> i think he's on his way to doing that. thank you all, dan, yamish, glenn. appreciate it. after the break, the campaign ad prop candidates hope is a sure shot for success. stay tuned. where's jack? he's on holiday. what do you need? i need the temperature for pipe five.

ask the new guy. the new guy? jack trained him. jack's guidance would be to maintain the temperature at negative 160 degrees celsius. that doesn't sound like jack. actually, jack would say, hey mate, i can't meesh oh yeah. that's jack.

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well, in case you missed it,

politicians on both sides of the aisle have been sticking to their guns in campaign ads for sometime now. it's sort of a six to eight year old trend like this one with west virginia joe manchin cap and trade bill. or this one featuring joni ernst taking aim at democratic policies. or this one making something blow up in the distance. the montana special house election are locked and loaded in their tv ads. democrat robb quist shoots a suber pack ad in this one. and he blows away a computer screen displaying a registry in his ad. both sides run these ads for different reasons. republicans want to show off bone a fieds and democrats want to show they are not like the other democrats. bottom line it's performance art like many things are in politics these datz. he's going to chick fill a for

lunch, posts a gift from hamilton. as long as it works with your base, it's going to keep hang. do we really need to see all these candidates showing off their shooting skills at this point? it's starting to get a bit absurd. you know? that's it for tonight. we'll be back with monday with more mtp daily. catch meet the press sunday. for the record starts with greta right now. it's all yours. >> chuck, big sunday, i never miss meet the press. tonight president obama resurfaces. we'll tell you about that. meanwhile, president trump denies it, but it sure looks like he's put himself in a race against the clock. president trump today signing three new executive orders and then dropping this bomb about what he is doing this coming wednesday. >> we'll be having big announcement on wednesday having to do wouith tax reform. the process has begun long ago, but it really formally begins on wednesday. >> and next week shaping up to be a big one for president