this s this sunday. the firing of james comey. why did president trump do it and why now? was it based on a justice department recommendation? the administration said this. >> because of the actions the deputy attorney general outlined. >> the president accepted the recommendation of his deputy attorney general. >> then president trump said this. >> regardless of recommendation i was going to fire comey. >> did it have to do with the russian investigation? the administration said this. >> you want this to be about russia when this is about quote restoring confidence. >> this absolutely has nothing to do with any investigation into russia. >> that's not what this is about. >> then president trump said this. >> this russia thing with trump

and russia is a made up story. >> so what's the real story? joining me this morning. secretary of state rex tillerson and senator lindsey graham and senator chuck schumer. and brand new numbers about what a very skeptical public is now thinking. west wing shake-up watch, a report this morning says frustrated president trump is considering firing many of his top white house aides. we'll get the latest. joining me for inside analysis are nbc news white house contemporary, hallie jackson. "washington post" columnist, and you -- eugene robinson. katty kay from bbc and math new, editor of the washington "free beacon". welcome to sunday. this is "meet the press". >> this is "meet the press" with chuck todd.

>> good sunday morning and happy mother's day to all the mom's out there. after the firing of the fbi director, james comey, conflicting administration explanations and what president trump and james comey said to each other at a dinner, what is like a per fek capstone to a whiplash week. tweeting james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversation before he starts leaking to the press. are there tapes? here's what the president later told fox news. >> that i can't talk about. i won't talk about that. all i want is for comey to be honest. >> just something else for congress to try to subpoena, all of which leads us to our brand new nbc news "wall street journal" poll just finished overnight. 29% of those we polled say they approve of president trump's decision to fire james comey, 38% say they disapprove. roughly a third say they don't know enough to say, that tells see the story hasn't quite penetrated the national consciousness when you have undecided that high.

and 6% say it gives them a more favorable impression of donald trump. 61% says it has no impact. finally the most troubling number, 46% say they agree president trump fired comey to slow down the russian investigation, while 38% buy the original explanation from the white house that it was done over legitimate concerns how comey handled the hillary clinton e-mail issue. new reports a frustrated president trump is considering firing many of his top white house aides. it all adds up to a week which at best the administration has a communications problem. or at worst, it is facing accusations of obstruction of justice. >> regardless of recommendation i was going to fire comey. >> donald trump contradicted his own white house aides and his vice president adding to questions about why the president chose to fire fbi director james comey when he did. >> no one from the white house.

that was a doj decision. >> he took the recommendation seriously and he made a decision based on that. >> president trump made the right decision at the right time. to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. >> but in an interview with lester holt on thursday, the president said not only had he already decided to fire comey before getting deputy attorney general rod rosenstein's recommendation, he had the russia investigation on his mind when he did. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story, an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election they should have won. >> reporter: mr. trump also said he pressed comey in a private dinner on january 27th to tell him if he was under investigation. the dinner was held three days after the fbi interviewed now former national security advisor mike flynn and one day after

acting attorney general sally yates briefed the white house, warning them flynn could be blackmailed by russian contacts. >> i think he asked for the dinner and wanted to stay on as the fbi head. i said, i'll consider. we'll see what happens. we had a very nice dinner, and at that time he told me you are not under investigation. >> in fact, sources close to comey say the president invited him to the white house in a last minute request, either on the day of or day before and asked comey if he would be loyal. comey refused to pledge loyalty but promised to be honest. >> did you ask that question? >> no, no, i didn't. i don't think it would be a bad question to ask. >> then on friday came the president's warning. james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. the second ranking democratic senator, dick durbin calls that a thinly veiled threat that could be a violation of federal law. democrats are asking the president to hand over any recordings.

>> president trump is dangerous. dangerous because he may be obstructing justice in terms of the investigation. >> joining me now is senator lindsey graham of south carolina. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> i assume it's dark comedy. >> why did i agree to do this? >> oh, because you're a glutton for punishment, sir. >> okay. >> welcome. let me start here. the president said that russia was on his mind when he was making this decision. how concerning is that to you when it comes to him admitting that was among the things in his mind when he made this decision to fire james comey? >> i think we need to have comey come before the judiciary committee and clear the air. did the president ever say anything to the director of the fbi that would be construed as trying to impede the investigation? the president called me about the firing and referenced the comey testimony last week and

the judiciary committee about how bad it was. it's time to call the fbi director before the country at large and have him explain to the country at large about the dinner. if there are any tapes they need to be turned over. i doubt if there are we need to clear the air also. >> let me put up that tweet where the president put the word tapes in quotes so we don't quite know what that means. did you think that constituted a threat to comey? >> i think it was inappropriate. i think it requires somebody like me, a republican to call comey before the judiciary committee to let him explain that conversation. right now, i do not believe president trump is a target or subject of any investigation regarding collusion with the russians. that's what i believe. but this tweet has to be answered. i would advise the president not to tweet or comment about the investigation as we go forward. the russians did interfere in our election. i don't think they changed the outcome. i have no evidence of collusion.

the president needs to back off and let the investigation go forward. we need to call comey and get to the bottom of all of this. i think it's time for an fbi agent to lead the fbi. you talk about a new person to lead the fbi, how about an fbi agent above reproach. >> why do you think it has to be an fbi agent at this point? why not a u.s. attorney, prosecutor, somebody like that? >> it could be. it could be a lot of people. how about the idea of an fbi agent leading the fbi, promoting within the ranks? there's so many good agents, men and women out there capable of leading the agency. this is up to the president. he has duty and obligation to pick somebody beyond reproach outside the political lane. i hope he'll do that, i'm ready to do that. i'm ready to move on and pick a flew fbi agent. i have no evidence the president colluded with the russians at all. nobody on the campaign i know of has colluded with the russians. we don't know all the evidence yet.

we need to continue forward and protect these investigations. >> while staying on the fbi director, eight people interviewed yesterday at the justice department, one of them a colleague of yours, senator john cornyn. two were women, could be the first woman to head the fbi. a former fbi agent and former member of congress. let me ask you this. in this political environment, do you think it's the right time to have the first ever fbi director who had a political -- elected political background which is what it would be if eats mike rogers or john cornyn were named? >> no. i think it's now time to pick somebody that comes from within the ranks or such a reputation that has no political background at all that can go into the job on day one. who does the fbi director work for? to me, it's like appointing a judge. the president actually appoints a judge but the judge is loyal to the law. the president appoints the fbi director but the fbi director has to be loyal to the law.

john cornyn is a wonderful man under normal circumstances would be a superb choice to be fbi director. these are not normal circumstances. we have a chance to reset as a nation, the president has a chance to clean up the mess he mostly created. he really did his staff a disservice by changing the explanation. i would encourage the president to pick somebody we can all rally around, including those who work in this fbi. >> let me ask you something about russian interference. later in the show i had a show with the secretary of state, rex tillerson. i conducted it yesterday. he would not give an explanation why the issue of russian interference wasn't even brought up during his meeting with foreign minister laverov. we go back and forth, and not once was it thought of as a top priority. can we move on in a relationship with russia if we don't confront them on this? >> absolutely not.

secretary tillerson did a masterful job talking about the threat of north korea in the u.n. security council. i understand wanting to engage the russians and syria because they're part of the solution if we ever find one. but here's what i believe. i'm 1,000% the russians interfered in our election and hacked into the doc e-mail and i do not believe we can go forward as a nation until we pudge -- punish russia for entinterfering in our election. russia didn't change the outcome of the election but they sure tried. and i hope the president will see their interference as a threat to our dmokty. -- democracy. >> i want to talk about the investigation. the nbc "wall street journal" poll i will read it to you. who should investigate russian

interference. only 15% think it should be you folks in congress, senator. 78%, a bipartisan group of people would like to see an independent commission or a special prosecutor. do you understand why the public doesn't trust now the politicians to do this? >> yeah. but here's what i think about the investigation. right now, it is a counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal investigation, so you don't need a special prosecutor. i trust deputy attorney general rothenstein to do this. if he gets to the point he can't do it and it becomes a criminal investigation, we will have a special prosecutor. an independent commission takes it outside of congress. i think the intel and judiciary committee, we're doing a good job. i want to keep it inside the congress. i'd like a select committee where we all work together. right now i see no need for a special prosecutor. it's not a criminal investigation and see no need for independent commission yet. >> you have called for a special council a number of times during

the obama years for the clinton e-mails, for the department of justice targeting reporters, leaks. >> that's true. >> white house leaks of investigation. the idea that joe sestak may have gotten a job offer in exchange -- my point is why did all those meet the test for special council but this one doesn't? >> this is a counterintelligence investigation. we're not investigating a crime yet. if it becomes a criminal investigation of the trump campaign colluding with the russians and mr. rothenstein doesn't believe he can do the job, then we'll have a special counsel. there is a process in place. i'm not worried about polling or anything other than getting the right answer. russians did it, need to be punished. trump is not a target of this investigation yet. leave this investigation alone. congress is doing a good job, in my view. if it gets to the point we can't we'll take it outside of congress. >> you have been looking at the president's finance, the president has made a big deal he sent you a certified letter from

his accountant, all that means is you signed for it. >> right. >> that's fine. in this case, shouldn't you want to see the tax returns from one of these llcs that run a golf course, there's a report from north carolina the trump national golf course may have been financed with russian money. that's not going to be in the president's tax return, that's going to be in that llc of trump national in charlotte that has that. are you going to be able to get your hands on those records? >> i have yet to find any evidence of improper business dealings between the trump organization and russia regarding the election or anything else. however, if you can show me there's reason for that, there's a suspicion of that we need to get financial documents. i can't just ask for documents unless i have a reason. the president should turn over his tax returns, he should do that. i don't have a reason to

subpoena them. if i get that reason, i'll do it. he should turn over his tax returns, do that now. >> all tax returns, not just personal but llcs? that's where this will be, not in his personal tax return if there's anything there. >> if you can show me a need to do that i will do it. i can't say on television based on your question that's a good idea. i'm open minded to all things russia. the bottom line is i think russia tried to affect our election and undermine our democracy. i want them to pay a price. i have yet to find collusion between the trump campaign and russia. there's a "washington post" story that comey went to burr to get more agents and more money. that's not true. there are a lot of things being said true or half-truths. let the process work. i promise the people of south carolina, the people of the united states i do care about this. i have nobody to punish or reward other than get to the facts. >> senator lindsey graham. i hope you don't regret coming on now. i appreciate it. >> happy mother's day.

>> that was the most important message to say. >> happy mother's day. >> appreciate it. to the other side of the aisle, senate democratic leader chuck schumer of new york. welcome book "meet the press." i hope you're a little more enthusiastic being on than senator graham was? >> i didn't see senator graham. i just want to join him in wishing all the moms of america, your family, chuck, happy mother's day. particularly to my mom, who god willing will turn 89 in three weeks. >> all right. let me go to the issue of a special prosecutor. why do you believe it needs to be done? as you know, senator ben sass indicated if you do that it is sending a message you don't trust the intel committee to do their work, a vote of no confidence there. shouldn't you let them do their job to see if they can do it without a special prosecutor? >> well, there are two separate lines of activity here. one is the oversight function of the intelligence committee,

they're doing their job. mark warner has done a very good job, i had some of differences with senator burr and in the last week some people tell me he was very upset with comey's firing and i hope it continues. they can't prosecute. a special prosecutor appointed by the justice department has the ability to actually prosecute people for violations of law. they go on in tandem. one shouldn't step on the other. i know they're talking to each other now, the fbi was with the intelligence committee to make sure no one's granted immunity. it's two separate issues. we very much need a special prosecutor, chuck, someone independent of the justice department to get to the bottom of this. i say one more thing. the silence of my republican colleagues on this issue is sort of deafening. this is not an issue of party, this is an issue of country, foreign interference in the elections is a very very serious serious thing and we should get to the bottom of it. where's the howard baker of

2017? we desperately need one. >> one of your democratic colleagues, sheldon whitehouse said the following why he's a little skeptical of a special counsel. take a listen. >> if you have something going like that, look at she special counsel rule, you have to bring in somebody new outside the department. they have the choice to make their own decision they want to start from fresh perhaps. >> his concern is that everything starts over. you're suddenly hitting a reset button and sets the investigation back. >> look, i love sheldon whitehouse. i have a great deal of respect for him. he's one of the great lawyers around. you can easily -- and there have been many instances where a special prosecutor comes in, they're in charge, they're the shield so there's no outside interference or direction at the same time, the same investigators who have been working on this continue to work on it. that's how i imagine it will work. let's remember, special prosecutor has four abilities an

internal justice department person doesn't. first, he or she makes the decisions day-to-day who to subpoena, who to examine, what questions to ask, no outside interference. second, can only be fired for cause. third, has the ability, if there's interference, someone's trying to thwart the investigation from up above, they can make sure that doesn't happen and investigate that. fourth, they have to report to congress. there are a lot of advantages over a special prosecutor. if you look at the department of justice guidelines, there's never a more important time, a more appropriate time for a special prosecutor than in this situation. >> senator warner, who's the vice chair, intel committee conducting the intel investigation, he said unless the deputy attorney rosenstein appoints a special prosecutor, do you think it will be difficult to get support for a new fbi director. do you plan on linking those two issues, not trying to tell the democratic senators withhold support until there's a special prosecutor named?

>> each democratic senator will make up his or her own mind, but i think the two are very much related. if you have an independent special prosecutor you really have the ability to get to the bottom of this, so it matters in terms of who the fbi director is. you need both of them to have courage to push back not to do the investigation, you need both to be very experienced, that's important as well. and i think both should be nonpartisan, not from either political party. those would be my criteria. i think the two are linked because they're both involved in one of the most serious investigations we've seen in a very long time. >> there's eight candidates interviewed yesterday. two have an electoral background, sitting senator, john cornyn, former member of congress, some have bipartisan backgrounds like a fran townsend served in a clinton and bush administration. anybody jump out as a favorite

of yours you could foresee supporting? >> you know, i've generally made it a practice, chuck, of not commenting on nominees publicly. let's see who they nominate. as i said, certainly somebody not of a partisan background, certainly somebody of great experience and certainly somebody of courage. >> what did you make of the merrick garland suggestion? >> not going to comment on any of them. i like him as a justice, though, he's very good on that d.c. circuit. i don't know if he'd want to leave. >> you think that was a little too cute at that point? >> no comment. smiling. >> senator chuck schumer, i will leave it there. thanks for coming on "meet the press" to share your views. when we come back, signs of a big white house shake-up. yet more reporting this morning that president trump may be prepared to do a little housecleaning in one part of the west wing. as we go to break, a moment from president trump's commencement address yesterday at liberty

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of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. welcome back, panelists eugene washington, our newly appointed white house contemporary, hallie jackson. bbc world news anchor, katty kay and from the washington "free beacon" and late breaking news, from founder of asios, he joins me. jim, you're going to sort of throw some more wood here on the fire. a whole shake-up you say is coming soon. walk us through it. i think we will put up the four positions that could be on the firing line including the chief of staff. >> you talk to the same people we do. you have a president so frustrated he's getting nothing done, he hates the coverage,

feels that he's being ill-served by his staff. he's been on the phone talking about getting rid of everyone from steve bannon to reince priebus to his white house lawyer, don mcgahn. he's even frustrated with his cabinet officials talked about getting upstaged with top officials including his friend, wilbur ross. i think this suggests that he's just angry and frustrated. the thing for the white house, he's the product and pitchman. he's the producer, firing the stage hands denies a fundamental -- >> we know this happens a lot. is there a timeline here? something he's moving quickly or like comey, could happen in a day or month? >> we never know. we had this three weeks ago, we know he wants steve bannon out and jared kushner wants steve bannon out. they're worried about the optics of when to do it. when he vents and get frustrated he really gets frustrated. you never know if he's blowing off steam, but something is coming.

>> it's clear to me the circle has shrunk around the president. this comports with that. >> i think you saw that with the comey decision. steve bannon was not in the loop with this. there's pushback with his allies. the point is this circle is shrinking. the president is frustrated. when he gets frustrated he vents and spitballs, how real is it as a question? since sean spicer's first press briefing i get a text every 10 days that says spicer is gone. this feels different and even those in spicer's corner say this is a different situation. i would not understate talking about timing the importance of this foreign trip. that keeps getting brought up again and again. the president has an extraordinarily busy week, four leaders this week and then heads to the west guard academy, then six countries in seven days. >> let me do a white house shakeup, maybe everybody will focus there, act two.

>> figuring out timing with president trump is impossible. look at the comey firing, right? awful, terrible timing, you ask for this report that's the cover story, you get it. the next day he's out or later that day he's out. the timing was awful. it created the appearance of all sorts of conflicts and then he schedules the lester holt interview and decides to blurt out what sounded like a confession to a lot of people to obstruction of justice. i think your point, jim, you have no idea when this is going to happen or might happen. it does feel different. it feels like something has to give in this white house. >> the other part the more somebody gets talked about getting fired the less the president wants to do it. >> the more we bring it up. matthew, you wrote a great column on friday that may summarize this whole thing best. you hear it all the time. president trump hasn't been tested or faced a real crisis. the events of the last few weeks made me want to turn that formulation around.

trump doesn't face crises so much as manufacture them. in a way he is the crisis and his presidency in danger of not being defined not by any legislative or diplomatic achievement but his handling of the multiplying obstacles he cites for himself. >> you have the most unpredictable president probably theodore roosevelt president before the 24 hour news cycle and the immense responsibilities of the executive office. a lot of republicans worry about his policies when he took office but thought, he's a businessman, he'll manage like a businessman. now we come to the reverse, many republicans are fine with president trump's policies, which remain the conservative policies. but you hear a lot of complaints about the management. >> i wrote this week perhaps it's the president's thin skin getting in the way of his presidency. there may be nothing behind the firing of jim comey and may have nothing to do with russia or hillary clinton's e-mails. it may be the psychology of the

president that cannot bear the idea this man was not loyal to him, went on television and hit the sweet spot of undermining somehow the president's electoral victory. the problem is without a straight story conspiracy theories will fill the vacuum. we're not getting the straight story and not getting the facts from the white house and leaving them wide open to the criticism this was somehow nefarious. >> on top of this, he thinks so small, for all the rage against the media he remains this past week obsessed with coverage, spends so much time critiquing sean spicer's performance and probably watching our performance. when you think small it's hard to do in life. >> that's something katty was implying. the worst thing comey said in his testimony, mildly nauseous. it came close to comey agreeing with the clinton narrative comey cost her the election. >> despite it not being james

comey's intention to make that. that was the day this kicked into another gear. he may have wanted to fire comey but when wednesday -- wednesday was it. >> he may never accept this investigation of russian meddling exists separate from any question of hillary clinton having lost the election and whether she ran a bad campaign or not. >> the question of whether that reaction gets in the way of his presidency is that it leads to a lack of competence in the white house. he can't overcome his personal feelings to run the white house. >> he called jim comey a showboat and grandstander. there's only one star of the show we're in. it's president trump. >> i will leave it there. >> a little breaking news this morning, appreciate you getting up. thank you. up next, president trump says the russia story is fake news and a witch hunt. does his secretary of state, rex tillerson agree? my interview after the break. but first, here's a moment from senator elizabeth warren's

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welcome back. when president trump fired james

comey a lot of democrats jumped to the thought that he was try to stymie the investigation with the russia and the trump campaign. i sat down with secretary of state rex tillerson and asked him whether he agrees with the president the russia story is fake news and witch-hunt? >> the president has made it clear he feels it's important we re-engage with russia, the relationship with russia, as he has described and i have described as well, i think at an all time low point since the end of the cold war, with a very low level of trust. i think the world and it's in the interests of the american people and russia and the rest of the world we do something to see if we cannot improve the relationship between the two greatest nuclear powers in the world. the president, i think, has committed to make an effort in that regard and asked me to make an effort as well. >> i understand that.

you look at what's happening in the western european nations, france and germany and italy and accusations of russian interested interference in their election process. what does id say to them that the president fired the man at the agency that was looking into the very problem they're dealing with, russian interference and the democracy? >> chuck, from what i hear from leaders of the other nations, europe and more broadly the subject of russia comes up in all of our conversations is all the other nations want the u.s. and russia to work towards improving our relationship as well for all the reasons i just mentioned. i think it is largely viewed it is not healthy for the world and not healthy for us for the american national security to remain at this low level. whether we can improve it

remains to be seen. it will take time and hard work. the president's committed, rightly so, and i'm committed with him as well to see if we cannot do something to put us on a better footing with our relationship with russia. >> can you get on a better footing if you don't address this issue of the russian interference? your counterpart, foreign minister, mr. lavrov said you guys didn't even talk about this issue of russian interference in our election because, as he put it, president trump himself says it's fake news so it's not an issue. why haven't you brought it up with him? >> chuck, i think we have 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. been well documented, pretty well understood the nature of that interference here and elsewhere. these are not new tactics on the part of the russian government directed not only at us but at others. again, i think we have to look at this relationship in its

broadest contours and there are many many important areas which require our attention if we are to bring it back to a relationship we believe is necessary for the security of the u.s. >> mr. secretary, this is fundamental, they interfered with our democracy. i just don't understand how this is not a top issue for you to deal with, with them, in order to essentially start with a clean slate. can't start with a clean slate until either they own up to what they did or we punish them in a way they won't do this again. >> chuck, i think it's important to understand we're not trying to start with a clean slate. terms like having a reset are overused. you cannot reset, you cannot erase the past. you cannot start with a clean slate and we're not trying to start with a clean slate. we're starting with the slate we have and all the problems on that slate. we don't dismiss any of them, we

don't give anyone a free pass on any one of them. they're part of the entire nature of the discussions we're having with the russians. there are a large number of issues we have to get around to addressing in order to put this relationship back together if that is indeed possible. >> during your confirmation hearings you made clear you -- obviously you hadn't been briefed on the intelligence reports, 17 different agencies that came to the conclusions that the russians did make an effort to interfere in this election. obviously, there's an investigation going along to see if there's any collusion in this interference. since you became secretary of state in february, have you seen this intelligence now? is it clear in your mind that it is a fact the russians interfered in our elections? >> i have seen the intelligence reports, chuck, yes, i don't think there's any question that the russians were playing around in our electoral processes. again, as those intelligence reports indicated it's inconclusive as to what if any effect it had. >> i understand about the

impact, but the fact that they got into it, what should the repercussions be now in your mind? >> they're just part of that broader landscape of conversations, chuck. the real impact it serves yet again to undermine the trust between the united states and russia. as i have said and the president has said, you know, we're at a very very low level of trust between our two countries right now. so what we're exploring is how do we begin the process of restoring that trust. ultimately, it will touch on all these issues. >> i want to give you a chance to respond to an op-ed senator john mccain wrote, where he invoked your name, sir. in a recent address to state department employees, secretary of state rex tillerson said conditioning our foreign policy too heavily on values creates obstacles to advance our national interests. with those words, secretary tillerson sent a message to oppressed people everywhere, don't look to the united states for hope. our values make us sympathetic to your plight and when it's convenient we might officially

express that sympathy. pretty tough words from senator mccain. what do you say in response? >> first, i would say if anyone has earned their right to express their views, senator mccain has. i have great respect to the senator. i think the point of the message to state department employees is an important one to understand. america's values of freedom, dignity, freedom of expression, throughout the world, those are our values. those are enduring values and part of everything we do. in fact, they serve as the guidepost and the boundaries as we develop our foreign policy approaches and diplomatic efforts. i make a distinction between values and policy. policy has to be tailored to the individual situation and country and its circumstances and broader issues in terms of advancing our national security interests, national economic interests. so policies have to be adaptable.

they have to change and adjust to conditions. our values can never change. our values can never be put in a position of having to be compromised. the values guide our policy. but if we put our values in front of our policies and say, this is our policy, we have no room to adapt to changing circumstances to achieve our ultimate objective. if we are successful in achieving our ultimate diplomatic and national security objectives, we will create the condition for advancement and freedom of countries all over the world. >> secretary tillerson, i know you're busy and have this big trip head of you. thank you for spending time with us. >> thanks, chuvenl thanks, chuc. i want to say happy mother's day to all the mothers of the world, my own mother and wife and two daughter laws, mothers of my grandchildren. >> thank you, sir. secretary tillerson indicated in our interview that any decision to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem would not

be made for some time. you can see a lot more of this interview on our website on meetthepress.com. coming up, could we see makings of a democratic wave next year? as we go to break, here's a lighter moment from will farrell's commencement address at usc. >> this is not my first commencement speech. the institutions to which i have spoken at previously include briman's school of nursing, hollywood d.j. academy and trump university. i'm still waiting to get paid from trump university. i final. oh yeah? ended up saving a ton of money on car insurance. i hear they have a really great mobile app. the interface is remarkably intuitive. that's so important. ♪

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welcome back. "data download" time. millennials have been putting their generational stamp on politics at the workplace. today's new mothers are just about all millennials. in 2015, 82% of all births in the united states were to mothers born between 1981 and 1997. that's generation y or the millennials. in the 10 years since there's a 5% of increase in number of new moms unmarried. now means more than a third of all new mothers are unmarried. 32% of millennial mothers had a bachelors degree or more and 5% increase since 2005. more than 60% of new moms are in the labor force.

that's a 6 point jump in 10 years. 2015 millennial moms are more racially and ethnically diverse. new moms were three points less likely to be white or nonhispanic. what does all this mean? as millennials start to dominate motherhood. it could change our politics. they were concerned about security moms focused on safety in a post 9/11 world. and those now may be focused on other issues as top priorities. perhaps childcare, family leave and equal pay. for now those are areas of strength for the democrats. bottom line, demographics of moms are changing radically before our eyes, we showed you that quick snapshot and along the way may change our politics. back in a moment. those town halls that might turn into a wave for the democrats next year. >> we need a bipartisan select committee to investigate this.

when are you going to open your eyes? when are you going to decide to be an american and not a politician? coming up, meet the "press end game." brought to you by boeing. always working to build something better.

back now with "endgame" and the panel.

town halls had been home to healthcare rants. now, special prosecutor ones. take a look, guys. >> we have oversight committees in the house and in the senate. >> are you about ready to call for an independent council and if not, what would it take? >> right now i don't think we need an independent council. there's been zero shred of evidence, zero shred of evidence that the president, there's been any collusion with russia. >> we need a bipartisan select committee to investigate this. when are you going to open your eyes? when are you going to decide to be an american and not a politician? >> the atmospherics right now, matthew, right now, to be a republican member of congress, going into a town hall. two weeks ago you were getting your head chopped off over healthcare, now, it's on this. the timing of all of this, this is when incumbents decide whether to run again or challenges decide whether to run or not. it's probably a good time to be a democrat and bad time to be a republican. >> not very encouraging. i would say the town halls have

been attracting the most partisan and motivated democrats. some numbers in your pollings suggest the comey firing may not have the political impact a lot of people think. one clip you didn't have i think summed up the weird politics this week when stephen colbert mentioned the comey firing and the crowd went into applause. he said, no, no, it's bad. many people have conflicting views of james comey including this president. it may not have the political value of the healthcare fight. >> we put up the president's job rate apology,in our poll even. disapproval at 54 now and 54 in the last poll. as charlie cook might say he trades in a narrow trading range on his job approval. that tells you the core hasn't left. >> one number we have seen shift what democrats are pointing to when they think there is a prospect perhaps wave coming up is the strongly disapprove

number. that number has increased significantly just in the last couple of weeks. that would suggest -- we don't have numbers yet for enthusiasm how likely people are to vote. that's the proxy number. if you strongly disapprove. 51%, strongly approve at 25% that suggests those people may turn out and vote in the mid-terms. >> even democratic operatives i've been talking about in the last 48 hours or so say nobody will go to the polls and vote based on comey. here's what goes on this week. number one, what you spoke to, chuck, mobilize and get more enthusiastic, not voters but people who could run, recruitment and candidates to run. the other part when you tally up incidents in democratic views like the comey firing and add that to whatever else might happen the next year pointing it as congress as rubber stamp on the president's actions that could affect them in 2018, not a specific incident but building up over time.

>> i think it's a better time to be a democratic political organizer out of the grassroots than republican political organizer at the grassroots. the question is how do you quantify that enthusiasm? do you find the right candidates? let's look again in three or four, six months and see where things stand. right now this is potential there? yeah. >> the other argument democrats are making mid-terms is the first time they have had a chance to do something about trump since the inauguration. even though you're seeing some enthusiasm decline in protests and numbers a bit smaller when you get to an actual election people feel they can take action that may drive people to the polls. >> trump's core is solid. the danger for the gop is it might not transfer to the republican party. donald trump won the presidency differentiating himself from the republican party and similar to his predecessor. barack obama always maintained that gut connection with his base, his constituency.

it didn't transfer to the democratic party, devastating over eight years. >> let's get the charlie sykes op-ed into the discussion and talks about discussion there ant there isn't conservative interelection wallism, just anti-trumpism. the real heart is the delight in the frustration and anger of his opponents if liberals like something. each controversy reinforces the divisions and mistrust and mr. trump counts on that. he's lamenting the fact, matthew, chime in on this first, that the conservatives have sort of lost what they -- what it means to be a conservative. >> i think many people come to conservatism for different reasons and a lot driven by the opposition to the left and why a lot of the conservative movement ended up supporting donald trump, because whatever his flaws as a candidate, they thought he would be kind of a battering ram against the left. there are others like charlie sykes who think it is more important to keep their

principles in tact than win political victories. >> to me, that's what's going to divide congress here. >> even like you heard lindsey graham on the russia question for example, even those most dedicated to sort of upholding what had been their prior principles and least connected with donald trump, are not ready to jump ship yet. lindsey graham is not calling for an independent commission or special prosecutor yet. there's distance yet to cover, i think, before you see any sort of mass defections. >> how that plays out we look ahead to 2018, particularly on the republican side with one gop operative saying you might see people re-distance themselves from donald trump the way you saw in 2016 if it continues the way it is. >> you have several congressman running less popular than the president. how do they run on something like healthcare when people don't want to necessarily distance themselves from donald trump?

>> a lot of unfinished business, healthcare, tax reform. >> i have unfinished business. i have to stop there. that's all we have for today. happy mother's day to all those mothers out there. mine, my wife, a great mother and katty. happy mother's day to you here. there you go. look at that. >> thank you. all four of my kids are home. >> all of washington is united behind one wall, john wall. good luck and see you tomorrow and we'll see you next sunday. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." you can see more end game and postgame on the facebook page. you can see more end game i count on my dell small business advisor

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