make sure you go to twitter, or check out my facebook page. i put a lot of video from the trip to liberia. so go to my facebook page and see that video. and there's also behind the scenes and so much more posted there. "hardball" starts right now. no roman holiday. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews. in washington. the former director of the cia testified today that the russians interfered in the 2016 election and set an investigation into whether trump associates colluded with the russians. john brennan told the amount of contact between russian agents and people linked to trump raises questions. >> i encountered and am aware of

information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between russian officials and u.s. persons involved in the trump campaign. by the time i left office on january 20th, i had unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the russians had been successful in getting u.s. persons involved in theampaign or not to work on their behalf, again, easter in a witting or o unwitting fashion. >> did you see evidence of collusion, coordination, conspiracy between donald trump and russian state actors? >> i saw information and intelligence that was worthy of investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not such cooperation or collusion was taking place. >> brennan's testimony in fact, it's the testimony of a clear patriot comes the day after another report in "the washington post" that the president asked two top intelligence officials this

march to say there was nothing linking his campaign to the russian meddling. according to "the post" -- >> testifying before the senate arm services committee again today, daniel coats refused to answer a question about that report. watch and listen how interestingly he answers this. >> i have always believed that given the nature of my position and the information in which we share, it's not appropriate for me to comment publicly on any of that. so on this topic, as well as other topics, i don't feel it's appropriate to characterize discussions and conversations with the president. >> what was said there is what wasn't said. he didn't deny that the

president ask him to say there's nothing there in this investigation. "the washington post" story adds a growing list of recent reports that payment a picture of a president trying to kill the investigation into his campaign's dealings. the president asked coats and rogers to push back publicly against comey's case for an investigation. he asked comey to state that trump was not personally you believed investigation. he asked him to kill the flynn probe and fired him, citing the russian thing. a few days later, he told the russians firing comey relieved the pressure on him. "the washington post" adam enis co-wrote the article yesterday. i want to start with the congressman. where do you think this is going? i'm looking at this pattern by the president to quash this investigation, to silence it, and then publicly being caught

saying how great he felt, because he basically stopped comey in his tracks. what more do we need for obstruction? >> i think what you see is a pattern where there's initially deception, and a pattern that moves toward evidence of obstruction. clearly, we have to understand what the intent was of the president of the united states. but when the leader of the free world asks the director of the fbi not to investigate, it seems pretty obvious what his intentions are. where do we go? look, we have to prove these things out. we have to get tapes and the memorandums, and probably in closed sessions, listen to the people involve themselves. >> let me go to adam. it seems to me that we have senior white house officials going to top intelligence officials saying leave flynn alone. >> right. so yeah, no, you basically have a case where you can tell the president, for whatever reason, we don't really understand his motivations there. does he feel a sense of loyalty to flynn? is he worried what flynn might

say under fbi questioning. >> that's my question, is he worried about the guy ratting him out. wouldn't he be worried about that because he is facing all kinds of problems now with his failure to honestly answer government forms, denying that he ever took money from the russians, when he was sit thing with putin. somebody paid for that plane trip over there. he said american business paid for that. that's not true. so he's caught. and if he's caught, he's got to rat out somebody or he goes to prison. that would look like a motive for trump. >> flynn is a military man. is he going to turn on, you know, trump who basically really incorporated him whole heartedly into his campaign and somebody that was there from the start? i don't know the answer to that. is it loyalty or is he worried about -- >> trump's been holding his hand. have you noticed? what does that tell you, the fact that he tries to keep the guy warm and cuddly.

>> you make a good point. >> let me go to clint watts on this. what do you see here in this pattern of the president yesterday, it's reported that he went to the two top intelligence people, the head of nsa and national intelligence asking both of them to say there's nothing there. >> who hasn't he pressured to try to get rid of this russian investigation? he went directly to comey. he sent his envoys to the fbi and throughout the intel committee telling them to investigate leaks over the russian story. you've seen him go to rogers. and what we saw with the brennan testimony, there was three levels to ssian meddling. we knew about the hacks. the overt pushing for trump from putin was seen in the media. now we see that brennan last summer also knew of physical contacts between trump campaign members and the russian government. so it's multi-tier. the more you see president trump deny this, the more you have to believe there's got to be something there. >> this constantly going to the

east to russia, i mean, i have never come across any american who has so many contacts through his people with russia. it seems to be -- i went back through history. i don't know whether it's psychic or whatever it is. why does trump have so many people, carter, page, manafort, roger stone, and of course flynn and his son-in-law, jared kushner. everybody is holding hands with the russians. what do you make of it, clint, these constant -- this constant pattern of what do you got to get out of the russians, what are you worried they will do, what have they done for you? you would like to reciprocate. >> it's full spectrum russian active measures. they're hitting on the financial front, they're hitting on the political front, sending ambassadors to meet with these people. having flynn come over to russia. you look at it in terms of influence part. they've got stone appearing on state sponsored television. kushner, whos surfacing in

these meetings. everpoint of contact around, president trump has been touched by the russians. that is a classic way to do influence. which brennan brought up today. witting or unwittingly, these people were doing the kremlin's work and putin got what he was seeking. >> congressman, i know people with patriotic feelings, i was so taken with what brennan said today. there's a straight arrow guy, a public servant, talking about we have to do something to make sure nobody ever again helps the russians meddle with our elections, that is a patriotic cause here. i think that's the kind of things the democrats and republicanks free on, we don't want anyone messing with our democracy. we sort of invented it. here he is testifying today about the nature of this russian effort to undermine our american democracy. here he is. >> it should be clear to everyone that russia brazenly interfered in our 2016

presidential election process, in that they undertook these activities despite our strong protests and explicit warning that they not do so. >> brennan testified he personally warned the head of russia's head of intelligence service last year about interference and told the committee russia's goal was to get donald trump elected president. >> what was donald trump going to do for them now, or they just didn't like hillary? >> ihink they felt that mr. trump, being a bit of an outsider, that they have, in the past, had some good relations with businessmen who happened to elevate into positions of government authority. >> asked why americans should care about russia's actions, let's watch this. >> our ability to choose our elected leaders as we see fit, is, i believe, an inalienable right we must protect with all our authority and power. the fact that the russians tried

to influence that election so that the will of the american people was not going to be realized by that election, i find outrageous and something that we need to, with every last ounce of devotion to this country, resist. >> congressman quigley, before we get to the emotion of that, i want to ask you about the history. historically, russian leaders, communist leaders over the years, have loved to meet up with american business types because they believe they're the ones calling the shots over here. they don't like socialists or liberals, but they like capitalists because they think they're the boss. so that follows the pattern that vladamir putin would like meeting with someone like donald trump. let's get back to this question here, when your constituents ask why you're investigating trump, do they get to the gravity of this? that somebody came over and tried to poach away our democracy. >> i think that's true. let's go pack to the campaign and understand what the kremlin's aim has been, to lift

sanctions on russia involving ukraine. to discredit western institutions like the u.n., like the eu, like nato. let's just remember, those are almost exactly the tactics and stances that candidate trump took. so this seems to be a natural continuation of that plan by both leaders. >> let me go back to clint watts about this. what do we know about what the russian's ambitions are to this country, do they want to hurt us, to benefit from us? >> they want to sew divisions within our ranks. if they can make it such that we're fomenting chaos, we can't focus on the foreign policy objectives overseas. and just right now, with us continuing this discussion almost six months after the election, they've achieved their goal. they continue to win, even when they lose in the sense of some of these sanctions that they

want released. so that's disruption that they caused will continue on. the next battleground is germany. if they can sway germany that it breaks up the eu and nato, they have achieved their goal. >> one thing i noticed in the old cold war days, all the communist warsaw cameras were there. they love showing our capitalist system as a terrible system and they love making us look bad in the world. are they trying to do that about our elections? are they going after us now on democracy? >> when my colleagues and i were watch thing over the last three years when they were trying to do their influence operations, we would see them attack the left and the right. if it was occupy movement or anti-government protests, they would be there trying to push propaganda, making sure that they were expanding their influence. they did that through their state sponsored outlets, but

also through these gray ouetoutlets and covert personas. they would go anyone that wants to see the breakup of the union, if they want to push corruption of the dnc on one side or that republicans don't support trump, they'll appear in each of those circles. they find all cracks and they double down in that direction and they'll keep doing that from now until we come up with a countermeasure. >> thank you so much to all of you. you guys are the heroes of our hand right now. print reporters covering this story. in the next block, we'll emerge into the emerging pattern of behavior that's been going on since he got into the office. every day there's another story from trump telling james comey to let the flynn investigation die to firing comey because he didn't do it. or asking intel chiefs to push

back against the fbi's russian investigation. does all this constitute obstruction of justice? we'll find out in the coming weeks. let's look at that mounting evidence and look at the law. plus, the latest from manchester, england. new details tonight after that deadly terror attack killed more than 20 people at a pop concert. and president trump calls for huge cuts to the social safety net in his first budget. his team says those budgets redefi redefine compassion in favor of taxpayers. this is "hardball," where the action is. ♪ you might not ever just stand there, looking at it. you may never even sit in the back seat. yeah, but maybe you should. ♪

(laughter) ♪ excuse me, are you aware of what's happening right now? we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks... actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that. can we do that? we can do that. a former clinton campaign manager john podesta says he doesn't think president trump will face impeachment. here's what he said earlier today at "washington post" forum.

>> i see no sign that there's -- that there's any likelihood that he'll be impeached. i think the republican leadership has decided, you know, we're in the boat with him and the boat is going to sink and we're going to sink with hit. we can't really throw him out of the boat. i think that's no chance that the house would mount the kind of serious investigation that would lead to impeachment. >> that's the weirdest kind of partisan statement. he's saying it's not that trump doesn't deserve impeachment, but the republicans aren't good enough to do it. we'll be right back.

"how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. at bp's cooper river plant, employees take safety personally - down to each piece of equipment, so they can protect their teammates and the surrounding wetlands, too. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better.

welcome back to "hardball." numerous contacts between trump and james comey have been revealed in the past two weeks alone. they show a pattern of behavior

that raises serious questions about whether the president might have obstructed skrus 'tis. here's what we now know. in january, president trump reportedly asked comey to pledge his loyalty to him personally, which the director declined to do. he said i'll be honest. in that conversation, according to the president, trump asked whether he was under fbi investigation. in february, the president asked comey to stop the investigation into michael flynn. shortly thereafter, he asked when they would announce he was not under investigation. that same month, the white house contacted intelligence officials to ask them to shut down the investigation of michael flynn. in may, the president fired comey saying the russian thing factored into his decision.

according to richard russell -- or richard blumenthal, all those contacts are evidence of the president's intent. here he is yesterday. >> donald trump's defendants have said he didn't mean any harm or didn't mean what he said. but this repeated attempt to stifle investigative work, stop the truth from coming out, eventually becomes evidence of intent. >> that was a smart interview with him the other day. i'm joined by robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst. let's try to distinguish what the president was up to. when he tried to kill this story by going to the national security agency head and going to the head of national intelligence, was he trying to kill the story or trying to stop the investigation? what is he up to? can you parse that? can you figure that out? >> it's an important distinction. at times he seems to be trying

to stop the narrative about russia. at other times, there are allegations he may be trying to obstruct justice. >> when he says, kill the investigation of anyonflynn, is because he likes flynn or flynn has stuff on him? >> trump allies say they're friends. but a lot of reporters and republicans and democrats in washington say it's about more than friendship with general flynn, that the president's actions mean he's trying to, in some way, protect the white house, protect his presidency, for whatever reason. >> what's the general thrust of the president's defense right now? he's overseas with the pope and the vatican, he's been with benjamin netanyahu, the leaders of saudi arabia. but when he is back here, what is his plan to save himself? >> within the white house, there's a sense that they can avoid any kind of smoking gun on collusion when it comes to russia. the problem they have, and they're hearing whispers from

their friends on capitol hill, the problem isn't the smoking gun anymore with russia, it's the accusations of obstruction of justice. >> can they shut trump down? he's the one making the phone calls and calling people in. can't they get him off the phone? >> so true. you nailed it, chris. a lot of people around the president say they have told him, you've got to stop with the tweets and stop with some of these public comments. but he is doing a lot of this on his own. who can guide prident trump? that's an open question within the west wing. >> there's a jimmy hoffa aspect to this guy. he can't stand the fact of an open, fair verdict on him. >> he's also a lone operator. he was telling people to go out of the room when he was talking with the russians. >> two examples of this. let's bring in two legal experts. okay.

thank you both of you. if a guy asks other people to leave the room or to follow up, going after federal intelligence people saying shut this down, is that evidence of obstruction more than just impulse? >> yes, it's consciousness of guilt evidence. we have this whole body of evidence that we look for that we want to know, did the person know what they were doing was really wrong, and that's called consciousness of guilt. asking people to leave the room. anything that he did for -- >> maybe senior white house officials -- >> making up a story why he fired comey. forcing people to write memos that he didn't need. that's all consciousness of guilt evidence and very important in this investigation. >> paul, don't we have evidence of a contradiction ther because he said initially that heired comey because he was unfair to hillary clinton last july. then he says oh, no, it's the

russian thing when he is talking to lester holt. i don't know what perjury laws are, but my god, his defense is wobbly. >> you know, his defenders have said the president is naive, clueless about washington ways, but there's a pattern of conduct that tells a different story. he goes to the directors of the national intelligence agencies and says can you stop this investigation? they say no, we can't do that. then he goes to the fbi director and says go easy and mike flynn. and by the way, can i have your loyalty? he says no, i can't do that. then he fires the fbi director. at some point he has to realize his conduct is unorthodox to say the least, and nevertheless he insists. i've seen obstruction of justice cases convicted on less evidence than this. >> in 1974, obstruction of justice was the first article drafted against richard nixon.

the evidence in that case was the smoking gun tape, which revealed that nixon revealed that -- let's listen in. >> when the tape of that conversation was made pub rick to us, nixon's support among republicans collapsed and he resigned three days later. how do you pleasure that conversation where he's call in the cia saying get off the case, and compared to all this other evidence, lineage we have connecting trump with other coverup efforts? >> we're a long way away frommen

obstruction of justice charge. but comparing the nixon and trump investigation at the earlier stages, as a prosecutor, i like the trump case better. nixon used go betweens. president trump, he doesn't have a problem going to the fbi director, the director of the national security agency and saying can you help me out? so we're a long way away, there was a smoking gun, tape in the nixon case. you know, trump has bragged about there being tapes. those tames might being as unhelpful to trump as they were to nixon. >> nixon sat on the skillet for a year and a half. sources tell nbc news that president trump is expected to retain a private attorney on matters related to the russian matters. let's talk about michael flynn. michael flip said things that were directly untrue, like i didn't get any money from

foreign sources, when he got $34,000 from the russians. we got pictures of him sitting in moscow with jill stein. but he's sit thing with the head of the soviet union. turns out he got the money from him. he's vulnerable to prison time for lying to the fbi. >> and trump knows this, and he knows his old buddy is the guy sitting there on prison time saying this guy might try to free himself by saying something true about me. >> he got payments from other russian entities. he's got a big problem and trump knows he has to keep him closed in. that's why he is sending him messages like stay strong. if flynn flips on him, he's got a problem. >> flynn asked for immunity. >> he's never going to get it, because it will mess up the prosecution case. you know that's how oliver north got off. i don't think he'll get it, and i think bob mueller h do a very

efficient workman-like job on prosecuting flynn and we'll go from there. >> how will they get flynn to talk? the prosecutor? >> you just close the vice. you keep coming at him and getting all of the evidence. and there will be a lot of it. there will be the payments, the ones you mention. there's at least two more. there will be all kinds of money transfers and a lot of evidence. if we can just slow down and not get so excited in this town -- >> you're scary. i'm thinking of the movie "casino" where the guy has the vice around the guy's head. what is the vice around the head of general flynn right now? paul? >> yeah, so, again, i think at some point mueller is got to be thinking about immunity if flynn can deliver a bigger fish. a bigger fish would be the president, the vice president, or one of those higher-ups in

the oval office. it's a pyramid prosecution. you start from the bottom, go to the top. the president of the united states is the top. >> and he's being threatened with double digit years in prison with these various forms he didn't fill out accurately. >> and they have a case against him right you nnow. he lied to the fbi. >> any way, robert costa, as always, cynthia, your daughter is our intern now. >> he's very excited. >> and paul butler, thank you. up next, the latest on the terror attack in manchester, england. the death toll is 22 and isis has claimed responsibility. but that claim has yet to be verified. and now the threat level at the uk has been raised to its highest level. this is "hardball," where the action is. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing.

and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? hey, need fast try cool mint zantac. it releases a cooling sensation in your mouth and throat. zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. try cool mint zantac. no pill relieves heartburn faster.

what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

it is now concluded on the basis of today's investigations, that the threat level should be increased from the time being from severe to critical. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was british prime minister theresmay, announcing that the terror threat level in the uk had been raised for the first time in a decade to critical. that means an attack is expected imminently, another attack. this comes 24 hours after 22 people, many children as young

as 8, were murdered at the end of a ariana grande concert at manchester arena. 59 remained injured, and 12 children under the age of 16 are among those wounded. police identified the suspected bomber as salman abedi, british born, his parents came from libya. government sources tell nbc news that he was known to british authorities as trouble. isis has claimed responsibility for the attack, but so far there's no evidence to support that claim. earlier today, in the day today, prime minister may called the attack defenseless. >> all acts of terrorism are cowardly attacks on innocent people. but this attack stands out, for its appalling, sickening coward es, deliberately targeting innocent, defenseless chirp and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives. >> the prime minister spent the

afternoon in manchester, paying her respects to the victims and meeting with the wounded. queenzabeth also held a moment ofilence today outside of buckingham balance.demned the attacks. >> i won't call them monsters, because they would like that term. they would think that's a great name. i will call them from now on losers because that's what they are. they're losers. >> for more now, i'm joined by matt bradley. give us a sense from what we know from a point of view who this guy was, what was his possible motive, i assume it was political, and how they found out who he was. >> reporter: we're starting to learn more about salman abedi,

this 22-year-old who has been implicated in this attack, this heinous attack that killed 22 people at the arena behind me last night. now, we're starting to learn from british media mainly who have been going around and talking to people in the community here. he grew up only about 3 1/2 miles away from here, and he attended local schools, local universities. and there's a thriving libyan community here in manchester. really, chris, this is the heart of multicultural britain. that is what he was striking against. he grew up in this tight knit libyan community here, where a lot of people knew each other. the guardian in one of their articles said he was actually quite devoiudevout. we've seep a lot of these young men that don't have a history of piety, but a history of petty crime, of drug and alcohol abuse. well, this salman abedi, it

turns out he was quite devout growing up, and he went to college and he was seen as somewhat quiet. an imman at a local mosque said he became furious when the imman spoke out against islamic state and against al qaeda. so it's clear that he was sort of -- had these jihadi sympathies for several years before he committed this attack. so this picture is starting to emerge of a very angry young man, and one with connections here in birmingham and manchester, excuse me, among some of the -- maybe some of the jihadi elements. some of the people helping these young men to ferry them back and forth to places like libya or syria and iraq. it's a very dangerous mix here and the kind of thing that caused theresa may to raise that threat level to critical to make it so that there would be actual troops on the ground. this is one of the most threatening developments, one of the most startling developments

is that there could be as many as 5,000 armed soldiers, wearing where fatigues deployed throughout britain helping police. chris? >> thanks so much for that reporting. up next, president trump's first budget hits the poor, disabled and sick. do trump voters stand to be hit the hard snes some of them. you're watching "hardball," where the action is. about your brokerage fees. fees? what did you have in mind? you're watching "hardball," where the action is. snes some o. you're watching "hardball," where the action is. uhhh. and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee? where we can get our fees and commissions back if we're not happy. so can you offer me what schwab is offering? what's with all the questions? ask your broker if they're offering $4.95 onlinequity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab.

dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say: if you love something... set it free. see you around, giulia ♪

oscar mawe went back toig the drawing board... and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of hot dogs.

we looked at this budget through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the bills. compassion needs to be on both sides of that equation. yes, you have to have equation for folks receiving the federal funds, but also for folks who are paying it. >> in other words, the wealthy people. welcome back to "hardball." the critics say the president's budget proposal is anything but compassionate. it targets the poor and most

vulnerable of americans with massive cuts to government assistance programs. over the next ten years, trump wants to cut more than $8 m00 billion for medicaid. and $191 billion from food stamps. how can you be against food stamps? nearly $73 billion from social security disability, from disabled people. and $22 billion from welfare. i didn't know we still had welfare. another stark contrast from candidate trump, who said he was a different kind of republican, who promised to protect entitlements. let's watch him do it. >> save medicare, medicaid, and social security without cuts. have to do it. get rid of the fraud. get rid of the waste and abuse. but save it. every republican wants to do a big number on social security. they want to do it on medicare

and medicaid. and we can't do that. it's not fair to the people that have been paying in for years, and now all of a sudden they want to be cut. >> we're going to take care of social security and medicaid and medicare. we're going to take care of all of the things that frankly right now we can't do. >> for more on trump's budget cuts, let's bring in the roundtable. michael, you're in the barrel. let me ask you this. the republican party, i think knows that medicare supports -- is for every middle class retiree. you don't mess with that stuff. i don't think trump knew that medicaid was for poor people and he could go for it like a bandit. when he had the hat on, he didn't do it. >> that's right, and it's consistent with where paul ryan and his budgets have gone in the past. so there is the completion of the arc there. the reality is --

>> this a trump budget or a paul ryan budget? >> it is a hybrid. the consul tratation of the wes wing and the hill where they want to go with these numbers. the thing to keep in mind before we get to the narrative is the fact that this is not a cut necessarily in programs but a cut in the rate of increase over ten years to those programs. >> our society is increasing. >> again, if you graph it out, you'll see a lot of these programs still go up, just not by as much. but the most important point in my view is how do you then go out to the american people with a narrative that says basically what we're all talking about here, you're cutting programs like c.h.i.p. that impact kids. programs that will have an impact on these families. even if you cut at the rate of increase, so it's not 7% increase in the budget but 3 1/2% -- >> let's talk about food stamp programs. jonathan, your thoughts? who is this going to hit pl

political politically? >> trump supporters. these are people who are angry, who feel they've been left behind by washington, that washington doesn't care about them. and if they needed any proof, this budget is that budget. the idea that the republican party, the party that is supposed to be of morality and lecturing everyone how to treat people, has produced a budget that throws people into the streets, takes -- >> let's not be hypocritical. you know the republican party has been running welfare for years. [ overlapping speakers ] >> you asked me about the president. and who this budget would hurt. it would hurt the president's supporters. >> but it also might hit harder people that didn't vote for him. >> look, if we know that disproportionately this budget is going to hit the people who support him, and certainly the people who are part of that

die-hard 36, 37% -- >> i think some of them will. if they have parents on medicaid because of long-term care or people on disability, job training kids working to be apprentices with their unions -- [ overlapping speakers ] republicans love to cut welfare. they love it. [ overlapping speakers ] >> this is also -- this budget is dead on arrival in congress. you have republican leaders saying -- >> whose budget is going to survive? >> they're going to have to come one their own budget. paul ryan will come up with a budget and -- >> maybe this is academic, what we think is the president's budget. there's bipartisan disapproval of the president's budget from senators on capitol hill. let's listen to this. >> this is a budget which says if you are a member of the trump family, you may receive a tax break of up to $4 billion, but if you are a child of a working

class family, you could well lose the health insurance you currently have through the children's health insurance program and massive cuts to medicaid. >> this budget, if fully implemented, would require us to retreat from the world diplomatically or put people at risk. >> this budget exists somewhere over the rainbow, where the dreams of mick mulvaney, paul ryan and the cokoch brothers dreams really do come true. >> is the president's budget dead on arrival? >> yes. [ overlapping speakers ] >> constitutionally, it's congress' job to appropriate money and spend it. but the >> a philosophical question. how come conservatives believe

the best way to incentivize rich people is to cut their taxes, but to invecentivize poor peopl is to cut their programs? >> it really is the idea of incentivizing the middle class. how do you have money flow into the middle class? who are the job creators and raise up the opportunities downstream? so those who have the wealth create the jobs. >> can you please define middle class? because there are middle class viewers watching right now who are a paycheck away from having to be on food stamps. >> who are the wealthy? [ overlapping speakers ] >> the middle class is a broad swath of individuals -- >> he's cutting pay for soldiers.

he's reducing pay for soldiers -- >> understood. i'm not here to defend this budget. i'm not trying to defend it, i'm trying to explain what it is. you said the operative thing, it's d.o.a. and you want to know what's behind it. it is not the sort of partisan we hate poor people and we want to kill people. this is the narrative people of the gop. >> do they -- can the republican congress get away with a big tax cut for the wealthy without cutting programs? >> i think they can. i think there is a way to do it, yes. >> i think they want a tax cut more than anything. up next, they'll tell me something i don't know. this is "hardball," where the action is. i am totally blind.

and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com. bp uses flir cameras - a new thermal imagining technology - to inspect difficult-to-reach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans can see them. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better.

tomorrow, president trump will be the pope francis. the holy father said he'll withhold judgment until he meets trump in person. during the primary, the pope said anyone who wants to build a wall is not a christian, prompting trump saying the pope lives behind an awfully big wall. we'll be watching what happens tomorrow. we'll be right back. ♪

♪ i'm dr. kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. ♪ energy lives here. ayou don't have to choose just one thing. choose your trio with any 3 of 9 selections for $15.99. like new creamy lobster pasta toasted parmesan shrimp and southern-style crab cakes. come create your trio before it ends. in the mirror everyday. when i look when i look in the mirror everyday. everyday, i think how fortunate i am. i think is today going to be the day, that we find a cure? i ink how much i can do to help change people's lives. i may not benefit from those breakthroughs, but i'm sure going to... i'm bringing forward a treatment for alzheimer's disease, yes, in my lifetime, i will make sure.

oscar mawe went back toig the drawing board... and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of hot dogs. ♪"my friends know me so well. they can tell what i'm thinking, just by looking in my eyes. but what they didn't know was that i had dry, itchy eyes. i used artificial tears from the moment i woke up... ...to the moment i went to bed. so i finally decided to show my eyes some love,... ...some eyelove. eyelove means having a chat with your eye doctor about your dry eyes because if you're using artificial tears often and still have symptoms, it could be chronic dry eye. it's all about eyelove, my friends. back with the round table. jay, tell me something i didn't know.

>> ariana grande, who was the person whose concert was bombe in mancster, has a big washington connection. her aunt, judy grande, was the first female italian head of the national press club and correspondent for the cleveland plain dealer until she died in 2008 of cancer. but her career in her life was an inspiration for ariana grande. >> go ahead. >> what was that big guy that was killed in italy a couple of years ago? >> versace? >> never heard of him either. >> the sacred site in israel, it's must-see for world leaders. well, president obama has been there, donald trump has now been there. on the left, you will see donald trump's signature and what he left to say, which reads more like a yearbook. on the right is president obama,

the last time he was there as you can see, a very thoughtful -- >> thank you. they identify all 6 million people killed by hitler. >> the "i" word has been floating around washington, impeachment. so you have heightened securities, which provides political research and analyst for their investors convened a call to talk about their clients -- to their clients and what they may mean to their business. >> do they have a number? >> yeah, they already have the call. >> what's the percentage, chance? >> they laid out the concern about the prospect of the president being booted out of office and they want to know what will this mean to our investments. >> when we return, let me finish with tonight, the trump watch. you're watching "hardball."

hey dad, come meet the new guy. the new guy? what new guy? i hired some help. he really knows his wine. this is the new guy? hello, my name is watson. you know wine, huh? i know that you should check vineyard block 12. block 12? my analysis of satellite imagery shows it would benefit from decreased irrigation. i was wondering about that. easy boy. nice doggy. what do you think? not bad. for patients like lynn, advanced genomic testing may lead to other treatment options that can work.

learn how genomic testing is changing the way we fight cancer at cancercenter.com/genomics wheyou wantve somto protect it.e, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. legal help is here. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah.

♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every y mcdonaldelps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

trump watch tuesday, may 23rd, 2017. as he visits the eternal city, one has to ask about donald trump's presidential life expectancy. he asked the fbi director for a pledge of yalty. the director offers a pledge of honesty. he then asked the fbi director to make a public statement clearing him of any role in the moscow scheme. when he rejects that offer, trump asks the director to drop the investigation of the

national security adviser all together. trump then asks the directors of national intelligence to clear him of any guilt in the matter. when that fails, he fires the fbi director saying he wanted to rid himself of the russian thing. he then shared with the russian ambassador his relief having gotten rid of the fbi director. that's a lot of obstructing, not to be obstruction. that's "hardball" for now. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> what is the nature of what you saw in >> i saw interaction that raised questions. >> the russia plot thickens. >> it raised questions in my mind again, whether or not the russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals. >> a former cia director goes further than ever in describing what he saw, as the current director of national intelligence won't