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when i gain a little weight, they cut me under there, so leave me -- you never know how much margin there, but see if you can't leave me about an inch from where the zipper ends around under the back of my bung hole. >> you're awake now. i bet you're awake now. good morning. is it the right time to say happy mother's day? happy mother's day. what you just heard was president lyndon johnson ordering pants on the phone in the second most popular taped conversation in the white house. tapes from the oval office began long before water gate and long before lbj imagined fitted into presidential pants. back in 1939 when franklin delnor roosevelt wanted to

record news briefings where he felt "the new york times" misquoted him. "the new york times" included a microphone hidden in a lamp connected to a recording device in the white house basement. the practice of recording conversations continued in the eisenhower, kennedy and johnson administrations and finally with nixon, for whom the taping of conversations backfired and the practice came to a halt. that was almost 45 years ago. yet on friday many wondered if trump had revived the practice of wiring the oval office when he threatened his former fbi director, tweeting james comey better hope floor no tapes of our conversations between he starts leaking to the press. and joining me now is elijah cummings of maryland. congressman, good morning to you. >> good morning. and happy mother's day to all. >> happy mother's day to all the moms in your life as well. you were the co-author of a letter that you yourself, as well as the ranking member on

judiciary, congressman john wrote to the white house legal counsel requesting any tapes or communications between trump and comey. and this is part of that letter. it says under normal circumstances we would not consider credible any taped conversations of meetings with the president. however, because of the many false statements made, we're compelled to ask whether any recording exist. if so, we request all copies. as we just established, there's been taping in the white house going back more than 50 years. so do you have at this point a definitive answer as to whether or not donald trump tapes conversations in the oval office? >> no, we don't. we have not found out yet. hopefully we will know very shortly. and if there are tapes, clearly they would come under the presidential records act. that's an act passed by congress right after the water gate episode that basically said that

when you have recordings like this, you have to preserve them and they become a part of the presidential records. and we should have access to them as the congress. >> and the national security reporter here at nbc news, he tweeted on friday that a source close to jim comey, who is now a civilian, former fbi director, said he hopes there are tapes. would it be possible to subpoena jim comey and get him, short of having tapes of the conversation, to simply recount his conversation with the president? do you foresee that happening in the open testimony? >> i'm sure that's quite probable. the question becomes, you know, mr. comey, director comey said that he was willing to testify in the senate, but he would only do it in open session and hopefully that will happen -- that will happen in the senate and perhaps also in the house. but, joy, we've got to get to the bottom of this. the president basically has

nobody holding him accountable for anything. remember back in the election during the election time he said he could walk down fifth avenue, shoot somebody and he would still lose no voters. that appears to be the way it is simply because we're not getting any cooperation or no significant cooperation from the republican side. >> yesterday on this program we had john dean, the former white house counsel to richard nixon. this is what he said when he asked him if it was likely the oval office still has a taping system operating. >> what happened at that dinner in january that trump now says he taped or hinted he taped, i don't believe that. but if he did, i think it was something he had done on a smartphone. and i think comey would like that tape out. >> congressman cummings, if donald trump taped a conversation with the former fbi director using his smartphone, in theory, could the congress, could the house judiciary

committee or the senate intelligence committee or either of the intelligence committees sub the president's phone? >> yes. it becomes a part of the presidential records. and so, yeah. and, joy, we are going to do everything in our power, if there is a tape, if there is a tape, to get that tape. this whole situation with regard to this conversation is very significant with regard to the investigation, with regard to russia, to collusion and things of that nature. so we need to know and we need to know who's telling the truth and who's lying. >> i guess finally the question is and we're going to have a panel that includes some folks that have written about this matter, explain to us if you will what you are hearing behind the scenes. it does seem they have an incredibly high threshold for scandal. they don't seem to be moved by a lot. the speaker of the house, paul ryan, said he isn't going to respond to things trump tweets. do you defect outrage from your

republican colleagues? >> i think there is some outrage, but i think there are two things happening. one, many of them are afraid that trump will run somebody from their right against them and they will lose their seats. the others think that this thing will just blow over and is not such a big deal. but i told them over and over again that this is a fight for the soul of our democracy. and, so, i even told jason. i said the question is going to become when all of this is over, what kind of country are we going to have. >> yeah. >> and that's a good question. >> it is indeed. and we appreciate you being here to help us try to get to the bottom of the answer to that question. >> oh, we will. i promise you. >> all right. we will definitely hold you to it and we'll have you back on. >> let's bring in our panel now. joining us a senior fellow and a former defense advisor. jennifer rue bin of the washington post. jack rice criminal defense attorney and former cia special agent and former cia analyst.

thank you all for being here. you just heard the congressman say that if the president used his smartphone in order to tape a conversation with jim comey, they could sub that phone. do you foresee the congress as it is currently constituted. you wrote a piece skeptical of republicans having a lot of integrity on this matter and putting country before party. do you foresee the house or senate intelligence committee subbing the president's phone? >> i don't because the republicans in congress have been pretty supine before donald trump's transgressions and i am shocked to see the extent to which. i mean, joy, i mean, this is stunning to me baz -- okay, you have had presidents in the past that have obstructed justice, but few of them have gone on tv to brag about what they were doing. he is not hiding this. he is saying i fired comey because i want to stop the russia investigation. that's it.

that's obstruction of justice and i'm stunned republicans are basically taking it. they're not demanding impeachment but they're not even demanding a special counsel. they're not demanding an independent commission. they're supporting him on all of this. this is stunning. they're placing their desire for tax cuts over their devotion to the rule of law, which is the bedrock of american domsy. >> you have written column after column saying the same thing. you do have now -- yesterday we read from the impeachment articles against bill clinton, which included the accusation he attempted to obstruct the investigation against him, that he intervened to obstruct justice. you do have here a president admitting openly to our own lester holt that, yeah, he fired the fbi director to stop the investigation into russia-gate. >> well, i'm with max on this one. i think it's first of all an

abomination they have done nothing. but i don't see them weakening, at least not yet. not only did this president confess to obstruction of justice. he followed up with a treat to the former fbi director. white house aids were sent out to cover up the reason why he fired jim comey. this is obvious. it is blatant. it is inescapable. i do think that if there is any movement it will be in the senate intelligence committee, not the house and it will depend upon richard burr and mark warner and perhaps they could sub things. >> we did have lindsey graham on and he did say if there are tapes he and the other members of the senate want to see them, so that's at least some movement. we'll have that tape later in the show. back to the subject of recording. we did hear the congressman say

whether it was on the phone or whether he has a taping system. those things should be turned over as public records to congress. donald trump has a history of taping people. okay? there is a piece in the chicago tribune that talked about his long history of recording phone calls. "the new york times" has been covering trump back since he was a reporter has said a periodic reminder reporting that trump aids feared their offices in trump tower were bugged by higher ups. this is a man who has a history of taping people. >> and the bottom line, though, is donald trump is fearless right now. he's not afraid. he has no problem with saying, oh, yeah, i fired that guy because of the russians. here's what's happening. the republicans are conspireing with the president. i don't mean this from paranoia. i mean in the sense they are not willing to stand up and say you can't do this. and so at this point we're not seeing any push back from the republicans in the house or in

the senate and as a result what we're finding is president trump can do what he wants. he says it. he holds it out there and then he laughs. i think the pivot point comes when the members on the republican side are fearing for their jobs. if they feel like they're going to be undercut or they're going to be beaten by the left, that's the only time they're going to stand up and say i'm more than willing to separate myself from this president because he costs me more than he helps me. that's going to be the pivot point. that's the line. >> so that point, he does seem to have a certain fearlessness. he knows congress is with him 100%. donald trump was on his favorite network on fox. this is what he said about not communicating with the public by the press anymore if he doesn't want to. take a look. >> are you moving so quickly that your communications department cannot keep up with you? >> yes. that's true. >> so what do we do about that? >> we don't have press conferences and we do --

>> you don't mean that. >> we just don't have them unless i have one every two weeks and i do them myself. we don't have them. i think it's a good idea. >> have we reached the president to the united states has placed himself beyond the reach not only of law, but potentially out of the reach of even being held accountable by the press? >> well, i think in his mind that's possible. but back to what the rest of the panel is discussing, unless the gop also helps hold him accountable, i don't see where he is going to be forced to do anything different. at this point in my experience i was working with the bush administration on pushing back on some iraq war intelligence, but we had healthy institutions that were working and functioning. we had impartial and objective people in place in director positions. we're losing some of that law, especially when we lost comey. so i am very concerned at this point if congress doesn't step up, you know, where are we? >> yeah.

really quickly, we are out of time, but at what point did people start leaking because they don't feel the institutions are working? really quickly to you, jack. people in the intelligence community. >> no question about it. we're going to see this from the law enforcement side and the intelligence side. he's been bashing on the intelligence side since before he was elected and then afterward. he will pay a price for that because they don't forget. these people have risked their lives. they are not going to forget. they're coming back. >> are we going to start seeing the intelligence community leaking? >> at this point if they feel like the rule of law is being obvious kated, i can't imagine they won't start talking at this point. >> thank you. up next congressman max seen waters. >> your moment of maxine is next. unlike ordinary diapers, pampers stay up to three times drier,

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[ applause ] >> yeah. okay. i will take this moment to go off script and say congresswoman, maxine waters, thank you. thank you for your work. thank you for your voice and how you use it and thank you for being an extraordinary example for all of us, especially in these times. >> yes. even the stars know we need our moment of maxine, especially in times like these. joining me now to discuss the unbelievable week that was in trump land is congresswoman maxine waters. congratulations on that shout-out and happy mother's day. >> and a happy mother's day to you and thank you so very much. >> absolutely. so let's get right to it,

congresswoman. >> yes. >> you have been consistently a voice demanding to know what the trump relationship is with russia. we finally got donald trump to directly address that verbally this week. i want to play you a little bit of this video in which he denies his connections to russia. >> i have no investments in russia. i don't have property in russia. a lot of people thought i owned office buildings in moscow. i don't have property in russia. i am not involved in russian loans. >> donald trump sent a certified letter from his law firm, which was law firm of the year according to the russian government for a while, attesting he has no investments in russia. how can congress verify that short of subbing his tax returns? >> well, i'm not so sure it's about his investments in russia. first of all, if he has no connection, not involved in collusion, he ought to cooperate

with the investigation. he ought not to simply keep saying, why are you doing this? this is a witch hunt. the fact of the matter is there is enough going on to have many of us believe that there is a connection. there is some involvement and that his campaign and some of his campaign operatives and allies have been involved in collusion. and so he should stop simply saying i have no connection. cooperate with the investigation. let's get to the bottom of it and let's find out whether or not there was collusion because if there has been collusion, undermining our democracy, undermining our elections system, i maintain that he ought to be impeached. if it's not, then let's clear it up. let's get to the bottom of it all. let's see if the dots connect. and i think he should just stop saying it and say let's get to it.

let's investigate. and i will do everything that i can to help with this investigation. >> well, and i want to come back to impeachment because i think it is an important question as to why this does not seem to be on the table. but i want to put up the list of people. you have called them the kremlin clan on your twitter feed. but it is a lot of people that have direct ties in some way to russia. jeff sessions who did not tell the truth about meeting with ambassador kislyak. you have manafort, kushner and tillerson. yet, despite all of that circumstantial evidence, if there is at least some connection or some huge coincidences here, why do you suppose that having impeached bill clinton for lying about a sexual affair that the same body, the house of representatives, does not seem to have any interest in even, you know, considering impeachment for this president. >> well, i think that the congress of the united states ought to be ashamed of the fact that we have not been able to

move forward with this investigation. i think the actions of mr. nunes with the house intelligence committee is shameful. i also had more confidence for a while that the senate intelligence committee was going to do better, but they have not hired the staff. of course the republicans are in charge. the democrats are not able to basically lead these committees and have the power to do what some of us would like to have done. i just think the republicans had better be aware that if these dots are connected and they have stood with this president for this long no matter his lies, no matter his deceptions, no matter in ways that he's tried to distract us, they're going to pay a price for it. they claim to be patriotic. well, i tell you. patriotism means you are going to defend this democracy and not allow this president to wrap his arms and putin and the kremlin and be in collusion with them

because you love this country more. you care about america and you care about the democracy. i believe that the republicans had better be aware and they better know that people are watching and no matter the support that he seems to have now, they better step up to the plate because in the final analysis, they're not going to be able to say to their constituents why they allowed it to continue to go this far without aligning themselves with our democracy and supporting it. >> and very quickly i want to play for you rex tillerson, who seemed to at least move in the direction of part of the administration accepting russia was behind the attack on our election. >> well, chuck, i think we have souch such a broad range of important issues that have to be addressed in the u.s.-russia relationship. obviously the interference in the election is one of those. i think it's been well documented and pretty well understood the nature of that

interference here and elsewhere. >> if the secretary of state, who is a friend of vladimir putin is admitting that russia interfered in the election, what do you think would stop donald trump from admitting the same? >> let me say this. what he just said is well known by everybody. our intelligence agencies have documented that they interfered in the election. so that's no new information. i want you to know, don't forget, he is the one that negotiated the multibillion deal with putin to drill in the arctic. what putin wants is this president and this cabinet to support the fact that he wants these sanctions lifted and that's what this is all about, lifting the sanctions so that putin can drill oil in the arctic and have trillions of dollars benefitting him and all that he want to do to continue to expand into the ukraine and

other areas of the old soviet union. i want to watch tillerson. i want to know whether or not tillerson is simply saying what sounds like the right things or whether or not he's on it because exxon wants the sanctions lifted also. >> we will be following -- >> the ceo of exxon. >> absolutely. we appreciate the opportunity to talk with you. congresswoman maxine waters, thank you very much. >> thank you, joy. >> if you want to follow the congresswoman on tweeter, you can check her out @maxine waters. coming up, melissa mccarthy makes hur return to "saturday night live." >> i am filling in for shawn duty. he is fulfilling his duty as an officer in the thnaval reserve. >> i'm pretty sure i can see him hiding in those bushes.

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sglrchlts last night me lis sha mccarthy returned to snl and gave us all we have been waiting for, the reprieve of her role as sean spicer. >> there is no russian thing. the only russian thing here is my little dolly. bring him out! got to spell it out for you people. okay. here's the deal. see if you can follow. okay. first of all, here's trump. okay? he's the biggest one and he's the most beautiful. and he wasn't happy with the performance of the fbi director, boom, this guy, comey. okay? because comey wasn't being nice to our friend, boom, hillary. okay? okay. this dude -- wait. son of a -- okay. that's not.

don't look at him. don't look at him. if you did this, glen, i swear to god, i'll rip you to shreds. so trump conferred with his good friend, there you go, steve bannon. okay? and the decision to fire comey was even confirmed by trump's tiniest little buddy, come on out, you little buddy, jeff sessions. there we go. it's jeff sessions. >> alex baldwin also made a comeback as donald trump and michael cha as lester holt. >> i fired him because of russia. i thought he is investigating russia. i don't like that. i should fire him. >> then you're just admitting that. >> uh-huh. >> but that's obstruction of justice. >> sure, okay. >> wait. so did i get him? is this all over? oh. no, i didn't? nothing matters.

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you, though, have called for a special counsel a number of times during the clinton years, for the e-mails for the department of justice targeting reporters. >> that's true. >> the idea that joe may have gotten a job offer in exchange. >> right. >> my point is, why did all of these meet the test for a special counsel, but this one doesn't. >> this is a counter terrorist investigation. let the process work. i promise the people of south carolina, the people of the united states i do care about this. i've got nobody to punish and nobody to reward other than get to the facts. >> senator lindsey graham, who many expected to stand up to this president still doesn't believe in the need for a special counsel.

meanwhile on saturday graham joked that trump calls me when i go to sleep and he calls me when i go to bed. i wish he would rest more. joining me now is a democrat from missouri. wasn't lindsey graham that donald trump released his cell phone number during the campaign? i feel like i remember that happening. i want to talk about senator graham and other members of congress attitude towards the president. but i have to segue into anotherling that senator graham said. there was an article in which he was asked about the way that trump is being treated and about him calling when he's asleep. and he said, quote, he's under siege unlike any other president i've seen my entire life. they don't believe he won. i do. now obama was somewhat hard for us, but i thought we were somewhat respectful. i could not resist asking you about that. do you believe that the republicans were somewhat

respectful toward president obama? >> usually i think senator graham tries to walk down the middle and tries to be straight. that statement is laughable. you know, now maybe they were respectful when they met at a hotel on the night of the inauguration to plan ways in which they could cause the president to have an unsuccessful presidency or maybe it was when joe wilson interrupted the president at the state of the union or maybe it was when one of the members of congress -- the senator probably should say he misspoke in trying to communicate something else. but don't say that they were respectful. that's just not the word. that's not the appropriate word here. >> and i bring it up because the different compoporcomportment w

seen, as opposed to the way they reacted about anything, any executive order by president obama, anything he did and also the talk of the pre-impeachment of hillary clinton had she won. there were already people that were saying they would pursue impeachment even before the election had happened. meanwhile, here is senator graham this morning talking about the question of whether the president of the united states taped a conversation with the fbi director that he subsequently threatened. this is lindsey graham talking about those tapes this morning on "meet the press." >> if there are any tapes they have to be turned over. you can't be cute about tapes. if there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over. i doubt if there are. >> let me put up that tweet where the president put the word tapes in quotes. >> yeah. >> so we don't know quite what that means. but did you think that

constituted a threat to comey? >> i think it was inappropriate. >> congressman, you know, senator lindsey graham was among those that characterized hillary clinton as a criminal for having a private e-mail server, but his statement about potentially threatening the former fbi director is inappropriate. what do you think about this? >> well, look. lindsay graham is an attorney. he knows that was not only inappropriate, it probably was borderline lie and it was not a true statement. but i think all of these blithe actions on the part of republicans in the face of a bizarre presidency is baffling to me and probably to millions of other people. you know, we usually expect lindsey graham to hand up. he's a stand-up guy. has been in the past. but he beat up on president

obama like almost all of the other republicans. but at a time like this, this is not about republicans and democrats. it's not about super conservatives or way out liberalism. it is about a nation, an enemy of the united states interfering with our democracy. and i think that under those circumstances, lindsey graham and other members of the republican party ought to stand up and speak out about what's going on. this is a danger to us, our children and even their children. and for people to say i don't care. this is not a big deal, we all want to know everything we can find out about what's happened with donald trump and the russians, whom he allowed to come into the oval office without the american press, which is just unbelievable. every day i wake up and i think what unbelievable thing is he going to say or do today, and

i'm never disappointed. >> very quickly before we are out of time with you. your colleague in the house on the other side of the aisle tweeted my staff and i are reviewing legislation for an investigation on russia. >> absolutely. we need an independent commission because we are not at our best. when the nation is at its worse, it needs a congress at its best and we're not at our best when one whole side of congress has already decided that the president is just being beaten up unfairly and it is rather sick. >> congressman, thank you very much, sir. we really appreciate your time and happy mother's day to all the mothers in your life. thank you. >> thank you. >> back with me, max, i referred earlier to the op ed you wrote in "the new york times." it's quite good. one little quote of it is you said isn't it in the view of republicans worth overlooking a few crazy tweets in return for

conservative policy nirvana. if that's all that mr. trump demanded and if he actually delivered results, the answer might be question. but the events of this week have made clear the price of accomodation with mr. trump is much, much higher. most elected republicans don't seem to agree with you on that. >> i know. that's why i'm no longer republican. i can't be a part of this party which has basically sold its soul to trump and now they're finding that the cost of that sale is a lot harder than they imagined because it is not just overlooking some embarrassing behavior. >> sure. >> it is overlooking a demolition job on the rule of law. >> jennifer, there is a new poll out on who the public believes should investigate the ties between donald trump and russia. it's pretty definitive. 78% of people in this poll supported independent commission or a special prosecutor. against that side of public opinion, how does this congress and quite frankly how does mr.

rosenstein continue to resist this call for independent investigation? >> well, i think there are actually two investigations that have to go on. one is the existing russia investigation and we're going to have to see whatever mr. rosenstein's excuse is for continuing to oversee that. of course he was involved in the termination of the investigator. so that's a little odd. i have confidence in the fbi, in mr. rosenstein we're going to have to see. i don't know if the senate intelligence committee is up to this. again, we'll have to see. but that's only half of it. we now need an investigation as to whether the president of the united states committed obstruction of justice. that's a separate investigation. they overlap of course. but that's plain on its face. mr. rosenstein can't possible investigate that. the congress can't possible oversee that. so i think we need a parallel operation that is completely independent of congress, completely independent of the

president that will determine whether in fact he did in fact obstruct justice, what he's been saying to mr. comey, what he's been telling aids to say about mr. comey. and then i think we need an outside commission to determine some steps going forward. so i think it is important that we do both. but i don't think there is any choice whatsoever when the president is arguably confessed to cob trux of justice on national television not to begin a truly independent investigation. >> mathe other elephant in the room among many is that the american again of the united states is both himself tainted by his own past meetings with sergei kislyak, and that he also has the power to quash any prosecution, if there were crimes committed, not presuming that there were. but he is in the position to stop any investigation. and now the only really independent person, mr. comey, is gone and the remaining deputy said he doesn't see a need for

an independent prosecutor. >> and jeff sessions supposedly recused himself from all matters involving the russian investigation. how is he recusing himself if he's firing the guy in charge of that investigation? sessions himself has to be investigated into the obstruction of justice which is going on and then rod rosenstein. i mean, basically anybody who comes into trump's orbit is humiliated and stripped of all integrity. this guy who was a career prosecutor, sterling record, liked by all sides has become this patsy to enable trump to fire comey on a false pretext. why is rob rosenstein not resigning or why is he not appointing a special counsel? he has to do one of those two thin things. and the same is true of other office holders. how is it, i ask you, and i'm shocked by it. how is it there has not been a

single resignation in the trump administration to protest what has happened to jim comey. where is richardson? where are the people of integrity remaining in this administration. i know they're not all completely compromised. none of them is willing to act on what we all know is the right thing to do. just as there are almost no republican members of congress willing to stand up for what they know is right. imagine if this was hillary clinton doing this. >> i think he all know what would be happening if it were hillary clinton. thank you both. coming up in our next hour, the full scale attack on voting rights is already working for republicans and a professor lawrence tribe explains how one could, in theory, impeach trump. more a.m. joy after the break. i have asthma...

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demanding that the statue of robert e. lee not be removed from a city park. a reporter for a local paper reported that the group chanted, you will not replace us. and the nazi slogan blood and soil as well as this. >> russia is our friend! russia is our friend? >> police quickly broke up the rally. white nationalist richard spencer led a similar protest at stonewall jackson park. the city's mayor and the chairman of the local republican party condemned the display. up next the new texas immigration law that may be the worst in the nation.

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this week, texas governor greg abbott signed the single most hostile state law targeting undocumented immigrants yet. the law bans so-called sanctuary

cities and threatens law enforcement officials with jail time if they fail to cooperate with federal immigration officials and allows police officers to question a person's immigration status during any stop, including a routine traffic stop. at least one texas town and county has already sued to block the law from taking effect in september. the aclu issued a travel advisory warning to visitors to texas that they may be threatened unfairly by police. joining me is an immigration policy strategist at the aclu. this sounds like almost an apartheid era law. any person can be stopped for any reason and asked to show their papers? >> that's right. what this law does is authorize the law enforcement agencies and sheriffs to inquire about once a person is legally detained. >> if a police officer does a

traffic stop and doesn't ask and their partner tells on them and says they didn't ask about the person's immigration status, what can happen to that police officer? >> this law requires them what prohibits local agencies to actually prevent them from asking. so local police chiefs and sheriffs lose control of their jails. they cannot prevent any officers from inquiring any status. >> and so we've had a couple of reactions to this bill. there's an article that is running right now about governor be a bit threatening to cut county funding because the sheriff said she would reduce cooperation with federal immigration authorities and this is what they are calling a sanctuary site. respond to that part of what the aclu is doing now? >> so this is a broader issue. we know that greg abbott's show

your papers now law is targeting agencies who put communities first. this is like sheriff hernandez is caring for her community and wants to have a trusting relationship with immigrant community and this bill punishes those agencies for trying to do that. >> and we're starting to get other reactions from that. apparently texas police have told the state senate in march that they have reservations about the anti-sanctuary city bill and many police worry that the law will make their job more difficult and liable for profiling. can you talk more about those concerns? >> that's right. police chiefs from san antonio, houston, dallas, ft. worth, all made clear that this law was going to hurt and harm the relations that they have with the communities because you're singling out people who look

foreign, people who -- latino communities and people of color. and the fact that they cannot say to the agencies that you can't ask about immigration status. justin houston, crime rates went down more than 40%. >> and we know now that the attorney general of texas is threatening to sue or file lawsuits against officials who are hostile towards this law. i presume the aclu will be weighing in on that as well? >> well, we'll fight this law on the streets and in the courts. >> thank you very much. we really do appreciate your time. >> thank you, joy. >> thank you. up next, alarming numbers of african-americans are voting. more "a.m. joy" after the break. in the middle of the night. hold on dad...

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the midterm elections are so important. let me give you two words why they are important. subpoena power. if democrats control the house, we can control the subpoenas. that means we can do a real investigation and demand you documents and have witnesses come and testify. that's why the midterm elections are so important at a year and a half. >> good morning. welcome back to "a.m. joy." new voter data has republicans holding on to their seats and democrats looking to take them. a new research analysis shows that the rate of black voters fell for the first time in 20 years. while white and asian turnout increased "the washington post" concluded that without that shift in turnout, the states of michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania might have gone not to trump but to clinton giving clinton an electoral college

victory. none of this happens in a vacuum. the 2016 election was the first in 50 years without the full protections of the voting rights act. 14 states had new restrictions in effect for the first time. we can expect more of the same in 2018 because this week trump created a commission to investigate, quote, vulnerabilities in the voting system. the guy that trump put in charge has a record of restricting voting rights so long that the aclu has pronounced him the king of voter suppression. and joining me now, janay nelson, ari berman, greg pallist, krystal ball and robby jone jones. a mega panel to talk about voting. i want to biforcate this and talk about it in part a and part b. part a, there is this historic

reduction in african-american turnout in the 2016 presidential election, starting with you, greg, then ari and then janay. was this voter suppression? >> it was the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the voting rights acts. there were new restrictions on voting for a long time and i read a study about wisconsin. it found that 200,000 votes and by that state voter i.d. law. and that study said that in states with voter i.d. laws, the black vote decreased by up to 5% and a lot of different reasons why turnout was done. voter suppression was definitely part of this and i'm very

concerned because trump has started this voter fraud and it's going to get worse and we're not talking about the real problem in american elections, which is voter suppression. the problem is that thousands of people tried to vote and weren't able to because of voter suppression laws. >> greg, you've written very critically about kris kobach. you were also critical "the washington post" story that talked about the decline in voting by african-americans and the change by white and african-american voters. we can show that chart which shows in which direction. white turnout went way up and african turnout went way down. talk a little bit about kris kobach, the guy that is supposedly going to investigate voter fraud. in your view, you believe that the decline in african-american voting was about suppression? >> well, yeah. first of all, putting kris kobach in charge of investigating that is like putting al capone in charge of

investigating the mob. this is the vote suppresser in chief for donald trump. kris kobach, secretary of state of kansas. and one of the key parts and reasons why trump is sitting in the oval office is that kris kobach created a list of 7 million names to remove from the voter roles about 1.1 million overwhelmingly minority voters. how did he do that? trump said 3 million people were voting twice. it's not a crazy statement unless you think he's crazy like a fox. that accusation that people voting twice was actually used to remove 1.1 million voters based on a list of alleged double voters created by this guy kris kobach. he literally had a list of 7 million names that he claimed 3.5 million people potentially voting twice, they didn't arrest anyone but they removed 1.1

million voters in swing states, including michigan. i was there in michigan, talked to the voting officials. they said that of the half million suspected double voters or double registered voters that kobach gave them, that they aggressively removed tens of thousands. in other words, i would say that we lost 50,000 voters. trump's margin was 10,700. and this happened in 30 republican-controlled states. that's one of kris kobach's tricks and the one trick that may have cost clinton the white house. so it's not that black voters are too lazy to come out to vote, it's that they are trying to vote and their names have disappeared from the voter roles. >> janay, kris kobach has a long history. back when he was the kansas secretary of state, he initiated nine different voter fraud investigations. he claimed there are 1.8 million

people registered illegally in his state. this is him talking on fox news about his obsession, which is that there is massive, massive voter fraud. >> look, voter fraud can affect any part of the country and we don't go in with an assumption about what we are going to find. let's just find what the facts are and what the numbers are and put them on the table. >> i misstated that number a little bit. he convicted nine people of voter fraud out of 1.8 million people. let's talk about this issue. is there a real issue of voter fraud or is this a myth in minds of people like kris kobach? >> it's a myth that's been debunked over and over again. when you look at the vast number of active voters and the number of convictions or instances of voter fraud, you see that this entire farce of election

integrity is just pretext for a road toward increased voter suppression. and it's incredibly unfortunate that people are trying to lay the blame of this past election at the feet of african-american voters who have consistently tried to turn out to vote time and time again and, of course, were thwarted this election because of the loss of the voting rights act. many people don't realize that the democracy we've enjoyed for the past 50 years has now been taken away. and we see that states and localities have run amok. they have instituted strict voter i.d. laws, limited early voting, they have taken eligible voters off the voter rolls and changed polling sites. the list goes on and on. we've been compiling them on our website, all of the changes that have been unleashed since 2013,

since losing section 5 of the voting rights act and we have a published report called "democracy diminished" which chronicles all of the changes that have occurred. >> and meanwhile, krystal, if the election had a push and a pull, a push of voters that were sort of not allowed to go into the polls, particularly voters of color, there was this poll that donald trump exerted on white voters. if we're talking about myths, you and i talked about this a bit. one of the other myths is that the poll was only to white working class voters and not to the white middle class. there was a great piece in the atlantic that talked about cultural anxiety, driving white working class voters to go to trump. and also -- it dug into fear of cultural displacement, aversions to college education, identification with the republican party. but what's been left out of that is the middle class voters

pulled towards donald trump, right? >> that's right. it's not exclusive to the white working class and not exclusive to poor white people. it also exists very much in the suburbs and was capped in to by donald trump. it's a complicated mix. new studies showed the percentage of how impactful that anxiety was versus economic factors and it's so hard to pull them apart because it's all mixed together, the sentiment that things are changing and we can't control them is tied into what is the future going to look like for me and my children and grandchildren. but to sort of demonize the white working class and say it's your fault and you're all a bunch of racists, this article and research shows that that is not the case. so what i think we've got to do, though, focusing as a party moving forward, is we've got to think about how do we address

the real economic pieces, which is something that our party has always stood for, standing by working people in every community of every race and creed and religion. how do we make sure that we're doing that and then the more complicated pieces, how do we have a better conversation about race because, as you know, it's too simple to say there's a bright line here and you're either a racist on this side or not on that side and there are people in all of our lives who hold some views when they come out and we say, well, that's not really okay. but we wouldn't say that they are bad-hearted people or that they are out and out racists. so how do we do that education process to start to pull people back in and really value every citizen in this country? >> and with that i come to robby jones because we really live in these numbers. and in this data, which is the data that i cited that talked

about the displacement among the white working class, the years of cultural displacement. are we getting the terminology wrong? a lot of these are police officers and firemen and plumbers and people with businesses. these are sort of middle class people that are trump people. >> well, it's a little of both. what we set out to do is to look at white voters who were paid by the job and this is the group that we tried to look at. mostly because there's a big debate about this. i want to say from the beginning, the cultural anxieties bleed all the way up into the middle class. we were looking here at the white working class because there's been a lot of angst about economic anxiety and what we found, actually, is that cultural anxiety, particularly the idea that i sometimes feel like i'm a stranger in my own country, that the u.s. needs

protection from foreign influences and we need to deport those in the country illegally, even if controlled for partisanship and controlled for religion and demographic traits, even controlling all of these things, these stood up as the most independent predictors of support for trump and we really wanted to get that out there. there's no doubt about it that the economic anxieties aggravate the cultural anxieties mbut the statistical analysis suggestses that the economic and cultural are on two separate vectors and interplay but the cultural ones are more powerful. >> and to bring us full circle, you wind up with that voter being very supportive of the idea of voter i.d. because those cultural anxieties lead to that vote who is either working class to say we should restrict voting which impacts not only

african-americans and latinos but in a lot of cases poor whites. >> it really is. strict voter i.d. laws affect the elderly and students and young people. they affect all sorts of marginalized populations and should be interrogated by the american public. they are not serving our democracy. we should be moving toward democracy, expanding measures, voter registration and i'm not really sure that you can fully decouple cultural and economic anxiety because part of the culture of thinking of white privilege includes economic dominance. i think some of these concerns are really all wrapped up together and the idea that we're losing something, that this increasingly diverse electorate is a threat to white america at large really needs to be impact. >> ari, you write about this a lot. these things are so intertwined,

the anxiety produces support for these measures. kris kobach is going to have support out there for this idea of voting fraud. where do you see the energy, particularly to shore up the right to vote because it's working for one party right now. >> absolutely. all of these issues have been intertwined. the idea that you believe that millions of people are here illegally means that you're saying millions of people are not only here illegally but voting illegally. they are not just stealing american jobs, they are stealing american votes. anxiety about immigration becomes intertwined with voter fraud. it's interesting, whenever trump is in a pickle, he goes back to voter fraud as his major issue. when he loses a popular vote, he starts talking about voter fraud and we have the largest marches in american history with the women marches. he starts talking about voter fraud. when he's in the middle of firing. fbi director, he's talking about voter fraud even though there's no fraud. i think there's a lot we can be doing to make it easier to vote.

congress to restore the voting rights act. in states like oregon where they've implemented automatic registration, we've seen increases in registration among voters of color, very significant increases among young voters. if you look at the data and say that black vote -- the black vote is down, the hispanic vote hasn't moved, young voters aren't turning out at the rate they would like, you have to put in policies that make it easier to vote as well. when you do that, more people will turn out. >> the irony is that the more young voters, the more people become anxious about those taking over and it's a sickle and the reason why we blended this together. this is a great panel. we'll have to bring you all back. thank you all for being here. and up next, trump's war on the media hits a new level. stay with us. mom,

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a trip down memory lane, i was on your show last fall talking about michigan and how we were going to do it. so that was fun. >> you get lost in the process. >> that's what you want it to be. i get that. >> you want it to be real. >> no. what i want is the truth. >> you said today and again yesterday that you personally felt helpless since this happened. >> correct. >> i mean, really? >> i mean -- >> between like e-mail, text messages, absolutely. >> 50, 60, 70? >> if journalists seem more frustrated than normal, there's

good reason. nothing about this week was normal. not trump's decision to handle the firing of comey or the way to handle it and sean spicer hiding in the bushes. i'm sorry. among the bushes. to his deputy press secretary saying this with a straight face. >> our story is consistent. the president is the only person that can fire the director of the fbi. he serves at the pleasure of the president. the president made the decision. it was the right decision. >> not normal. when administration flirts with constitutional crisis to explain it away by telling you not to believe your lying eyes. sometimes the correct responses is to roll those eyes because this is not business as usual and it will never be normal. joining us now is contributor and national affairs editor and nbc contributor cultural columnist at "the washington post" and ceo of free press and

the free press action fund. i want to play one more bit of sarah huckabee sanders. this is her pushing back and trying to question what the press is doing when they are doing their jobs. take a listen. >> would you say, based on the experience that you and sean and his communications office had tuesday and wednesday, that you were given all of the best information to relate to the american public through us and your job is to relay that information to the american public, we're only intermediaries about what happened with this firing? >> you take a much more proactive approach but i'll go with intermediaries today. >> so there is this attitude -- and i think in most administrations, no presidential administration likes the media because they are questioning them and not just giving them praise. this white house seems to be particularly contentious when it comes to their view that the press should be praising donald

trump. >> yeah. >> and is somehow shirking our duties. >> i've been thinking about this a lot this week. this is the week we really saw the difference between donald trump as a candidate and donald trump as the president. because during the campaign, the press could call him out but there were no stakes because it was just comments from the stump speech. now that he's the president, we can evaluate, he has a record, we can hold him accountable and that doesn't compute. i think the same formula that helped him get elected does not work as a governing philosophy. >> he seems to -- first of all, he'll spend hours with maggie haberman and wants to sit down with editorial boards and talk and talk and talk. what is this about? >> it's about a symbiotic relationship. donald trump, remember, is a reality tv star. without the attention, without tv cameras and all the press, there is no there there.

he needs it. but at the same time, in donald trump's mind, his idea of a free press or vigorous press is something that we would see as more along the lines of a state-run propaganda machine which wants nothing but praise for donald trump and the thing that i think that we forget, when we watch scenes like this press conference playing out with hostility, there's a large part of america, they like that. that wins with trumps space. when she goes after journalists that way, they like it. >> and they also like to -- if you're a trump supporter, he's lopely talked about fox news this is what they put on their banner. it's a study, three networks say 62% of comey coverage pushing russia conspiracy theory.

so rather than a huscandal, whi it is. >> what they are seeking to understand is which camp do we fall into. i think that's true with churches and with civic organizations. there's not an understanding that the press doesn't fit neatly. when it comes to fox news specifically, they are spending time debunking conspiracy theories and i think there is an opportunity and people speculating wildly about the president's connections to russia and there may be things here that are not great and it's worthwhile to have an investigation with full integrity and instead they've chosen a partisan side.

and to be honest, that's part of the reason why they are successful. they a it's good for business and bad for the civic role of the press and united states. >> they are doing a very good job of it. you now, craig, have "the new york times" trying to figure out its role in this. this is donald trump arguing his favorite paper, the one that he covets their attention and respect and praise the most. "the new york times" has launched a column that got a lot of attention and it's called the upside of presidential twitter, i guess, and this is one of the things when trump knows enough to stay home, there's a caption at the bottom of these articles that says the president's flaws are well known to readers of many mainstream media outlets. the purpose of this feature which will appear regularly in sunday review is to present things that the president has said or done that are

praiseworthy. any suggestions? >> i think it got him the reaction he got on twitter. it's silly on its face. what we need are reporters going out and finding out the things that donald trump doesn't want us to know. if he does something praiseworthy, that he'll be sure to tell us about it. oftentimes, though, the media and media institutions like "the times" and "npr" get caught in the middle because they're so worried about accusations of bias that they almost reach all the way over to the other side to say, no, no, no. see, look, we're also looking for good news. fortunately, they have reporters out there digging around and trying to figure out, you know, are we in a serious constitutional crisis? what's actually happening here? i don't know how long that feature is going to run but if the administration keeps it up, there's not going to be a lot of space. there's not going to be a lot of room to print things because there's so much other news

that's not praiseworthy. >> gabe, i feel like that's the tricky, ethical place to be. this is not on the op-ed page in a newspaper that is in a role. this is an unprecedented presidency and there seems to be a dear leader feel to it. >> they say that we are fair and balanced and i think it's absurd. cover the news as you see it and don't try to score political points with people who will never want to agree with you anyway. >> it's a sign that their narrative of this fake news and a free press that's out to get this president, that "the new york times" feels compelled to offer up this ongoing feature about quote/unquote nice things that people could say about donald trump and it speaks to a larger sense that the mainstream media has bought into this false

equivalency notion because whatever you talk to, trump people say the things unfolding with russia and comey, what you hear back is hillary clinton's e-mail and benghazi. >> or fast and furious. >> alyssa, you have at the same time a stand up of the media conglomerate. they would like to acquire tribunes broadcast station and sinclair has asked station to run a short segment in which the vice president accused the national news media of publishing fake news stories. this is an entity with huge national reach. if you combine sinclair and tribune together, you'd have a huge company that leans to the right and in the past has supported the donald trump view of things. what would that mean if customers across this country are now getting news from an

entity like sinclair? >> it's an interesting comparison to fox news. when people turn to fox or are watching the network as a whole, they know what they are getting, they are there deliberately for that ideological leaning, sinclair is different. they are presenting these segments which they say are must-runs and are neutral. this is not the fox version. this is not the fair and balanced version. this is your supposedly unbiased news and yet they are distributing news about a documentary like john kerry's supposed war record or a segment that argued that the democratic party had historically supported slavery. so these are things that i think anyone who watches fox or reads conservative media regularly recognizes the spin but the way that sinclair works is not to bring you into the ideological bubble, it's to press out things that they say are neutral that are, in fact, the obvious talking points and, you know,

that's a pattern in conservative media. you'll see these movies, for example, that are aimed at conservative audiences like god's not dead and then see someone like pete berg who has conservative ideas that is, you know, sort of presented as a nonideological project. and, you know, whether that works for business is the record on that is a little bit mixed. something like 13 hours is not a huge hit. >> yep. >> something like god's not dead may not reach a large audience but has deep impact. >> i wish we had more time. this is an important discussion. thank you guys. up next, betsy devos goes back to school. stay with us.

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you're going to be hanging out in here. so if you need anything, text me. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. look at this photo. kellyanne conway looking so comfy in the oval office as trump posed with presidents from the black colleges.

that photo didn't go so well. folks were talking about her etiquette. ultimately, despite big promises, the photo op was all that the schools got. trump signed an executive order and then proposed a budget that would slash funding for hbcus. this week, it was the students' turn to come face-to-face with the trump administration in daytona, florida. education secretary betsy devos said that hbcus are real pioneers when it comes to school choices they misspelled the name and could destroy public education as we know it. when she faced the auditorium,

they turned their backs and sent a message. >> board of trustees, thank you so much for this great honor and privilege. i am honored to become a wildcat and it's a real honor and privilege to be with you as we celebrate the university class of 2017. congratulations to all of you. >> if this behavior continues, this will continue. >> despite that threat, they also perhaps set in motion to cancel the commencement speech of john cornyn to head the fbi. up next, lawrence tribe says trump must be impeached.

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some congressional democrats have been using the "i" word in the decision to fire james comey. an op-ed in the "washington post" says "the time has come for congress to launch an i peachment investigation of president trump for obstruction of justice." lawrence tribe joins me now. you say trump must be impeached. please explain. >> from the very start of his presidency, he has blazenly defied the constitution's protection against getting money from foreign governments in your business when you're president. now, that politically didn't have enough oomph.

but now he has gone the extra mile. he's shown that whatever the truth may be and i do think we need to get to the bottom of it, but his entanglements with russia, he feels empowered to act like a king or dictator. he demands loyalty from the very people we're counting on to investigate them and in this case it's the director of the fbi that unless they assure them that they're not going to get too close for comfort, he will not reappoint them. he uses the powers of the presidency to defy the system of checks and balances so sitting -- letting him just sit out the time while we try to get to the bottom of a bottomless money pit is too dangerous for the country. we have to start an impeachment investigation into the house of representatives judiciary committee while the fbi

continues to do its work despite trump's efforts to decapitate it and while the independent council is named by the deputy attorney general now serving as right under jeff sessions begins to do his or her work and while the senate and house intelligence committees continue with their work. letting him exercise power when he is now demonstrated that when push comes to shove he will try to push through all of our checks and balances is just not a safe thing for this country to do. and that's what impeachment was designed for. >> and you've mentioned -- >> sorry. go ahead. >> you mentioned rob rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees the fbi, among other things. he wrote the memo that was the pretext to fire jim comey. he doesn't think an independent

special prosecutor is necessary. >> of course it is. because among other things, rosenstein and sessions were in the meeting with the president, by everyone's account, when the decision was made to come up with a justification to fire comey. it's all part of the obstruction of justice and, therefore, rod rosenstein and jeff sessions will have to be witnesses into the firing of james comey and the obstruction of justice. everyone knows, even first year law student, that you cannot be the prosecutor in the case where you're going to have to be called as a witness. that's a no-brainer. he can't do it himself. he, therefore, has to appoint a special counsel under the procedures that the justice department now has in place. >> james clapper, the former director of national intelligence, had strong words earlier on cnn about our institutions and the state of them. take a listen.

>> i think in many ways our institutions are under assault, both externally and that's the big news here, is russian interference in our election system. and i think as well our institutions are under assault internally. >> from the president? >> exactly. >> do you concur with that? >> i concur completely. it is for moments like this when the institutional system of checks and balances, that the framers so wisely constructed in the late 18th century is under assault by someone who simply recognizes no limits, believes that he has boundless power and we should all bow down to him and not to the law and the constitution. it's for moments like that that we really have to step up to the plate. and i hope that members of congress will finally realize before their re-election is

essentially out of the question, they will realize that they owe their loyalty more to the country than to their party or own power. >> we hope that they have heard you, sir, and we will see what they do. lawrence tribe, always a pleasure to talk to you. thank you. >> thank you, joy. >> thank you. in our next hour, the secretary of state explains why he hasn't brought up the election interference with the russians. but first, our new segment, "flip this house." stay tuned. think again.

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the 2018 midterm elections are still more than a year away but the democrats are already hoping to flip this house. to do that, they need to take 24 seats from the republican majority. midterm elections historically have not gone well for the president's party. in 2006 and 2010 and 2014. these losses can be even more big league with presidents with low approval ratings. a poll finds 54% would prefer a democratic controlled house and 38% want republicans in charge. this the largest margin quinnipiac has recorded. one of the seats they are targeting is in the seventh congressional district, a district hillary clinton won narrowly in 2016. joining us for first installment

of a new segment we call flip this house, a banking executive and democrat who is looking to take the seat. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me, joy. >> let's talk about your district. we have a time line of your district going from 2008 to 2016. one thing that viewers will notice as we go through the time line, republicans have won it every time although the margin is varied, as much as by 59.46, the big shellacking they took there in 2014. it's ticking down in democrats' favor. what makes you think you can close about a ten-point gap this next year? >> a few things are happening in the district that are important, one is that the district is moving from more republican registrations that used to be a plus six district and closer to a plus 1 district. we're seeing a lot of turnover and a lot of more immigrants moving into the district. we're also seeing that the mill lenni lennialout number, we're seeing

demographic shifts in the district that are important. in addition, you know, november 8th was tough. that was a tough day for many of us. i was shocked and angry and what makes is worse and more dangerous, leonard lance, representative lance, currently the representative in the seventh and house republicans -- all congressional republicans are refusing to hold donald trump accountable. and if we -- in the country where the leader is unaccountable, it's not a democracy. >> leonard lance, who is the sitting incumbent congressman, he's positioned himself in an interesting way. never heard headlines but did vote against the ahca, their version of the health care bill which is incredibly unpopular across the country. he was one of the small number of republicans to vote against it. does that make it harder to make a case against him? >> i don't think so. he voted it out of committee. it wouldn't have made its way on the floor if he hadn't voted it

out of committee. he voted to repeal and replace over 60 times. people know this, as i listen to people, they know and health care is one of the number one issues, last night i was at the relay for life in my town and all i heard from people i was speaking with were concerns about losing the ban on lifetime caps and losing the ban on preexisting conditions. those are two very big concerns that people with either chronic illnesses or acute illnesses like cancer. >> is the issue of russia-gate resonating and something that could move votes? >> i think so, yes. people are just devastated that comey was fired at this point in the process and the lines between comey and yates and barar ra, it's very clear and people see it. people are seeing it. trump overplayed his hand on this one. >> hillary clinton won the 7th district but it is republican in terms of congressional representation, but one of the

big knocks on hillary clinton was the closeness to wall street issue. you come from the banking industry, they see anything from banking from being from the dark side. >> two ways, number one, i have a lot of progressive positions, $15 minimum wage is something i believe strongly in. debt free state and community colleges is something i feel strongly about and will support and fight for. in addition, i work for a small bank, not a big bank. i'm not an investment banker. i've done technology in banking so i i'm not a big tweeter but have done a lot of technology in my life. i think that that is some of the way i'll overcome it. i wasn't part of the investment banking problem that we have that led to the recession. >> if you were in congress and democrats took control of the house of representatives and there was a move to impeach president donald trump, would you support it? >> absolutely 100%. >> based on what? >> based on listening the other day on msnbc to someone read the

articles of i mpeachment agains bill clinton and said every one could apply to donald trump, he lies exhibitsly, i don't go for the word untruths, these are lies in my opinion. what he is doing to literally tear apart the republic, we're in a constitutional crisis. and no leader should be allowed to do what he has done and get away with it. >> what do you make of the current leadership of the house of representatives, paul ryan and other republican leaders? why do you suppose they are note standing up more to donald trump? >> i honestly can't figure that out. paul ryan professes to be a christian yet supports the legislation and pushes the legislation he does. i don't understand it at all. there seems to have been a movement over the last few years of really moving towards party over country in the republican party. >> well, we will see how you do. linda weber, when is the

primary? >> next june. >> we'll see if you can flip that house district. that is our show for today. be sure to join us next weekend. up next, the latest fallout from trump's decision to fire his fbi director. stay here on msnbc. you! imagine if the things you bought every day earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes... priority boarding... and 50,000 bonus miles. everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. the united mileageplus explorer card. imagine where it will take you. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently.

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but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo is specifically designed to open up airways to improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid.

do not take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. learn more about better breathing at mybreo.com. >> good day, everyone, i'm alex witt. it is high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west and it is day 115 of the trump administration. new polls, the latest gauge on how the public views the president and some of the latest moves. >> i'm not sure how this president makes lots of decisions so i honestly don't know but i do know we are in the midst of a civilization warping crisis of public trust. >> including some high profile republicans asking whether james comey should have been fired the way he was. you're going to hear more of that plus -- >> it's the line between service