that he is. >> and now he's being investigated by the department of justice because the special counsel under the regulations reports still to the department of justice, not an independent counsel. so he's being investigated for taking the action that the attorney general and deputy attorney general recommended him to take by the agency who recommended the termination. >> you stated some facts. first of all, you said he's being investigated -- >> no. >> you said -- >> he's not being investigated. >> you said he's being investigated. >> no, chris, i said -- let me be crystal clear so you completely understand. we have not received nor have we aware of any investigation of the president of the united states. >> sir, you just said two times that he's being investigated. >> no. the context of the tweet -- i gave you the legal theory of how the constitution works. if in fact it was correct, that the president was being investigated he would be investigating for taken action that an agency told him to take.

>> wow. now that he puts -- nobody puts chris wallace in the corner. one describe president trump to me as fixated on the situation at doj. while the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, who spoke publicly today for first time is beefing up the legal team. we start with nbc's kristen welker and a white house reporter for "the wall street journal" who is taking safe harbor from the rainstorm. eli, obviously a handful of folks, sean spicer, kellyanne conway and now jay sekulow have perfected the art of performing for the audience of one. >> i think that was this was. jay sekulow was brought in to be the public spokesperson for the legal team because the president wasn't happy with kasowitz's first public performance a couple of weeks ago. so you bring in sekulow and my reporting is that the president was fine with the interviews that he did yesterday. even though everybody else is looking at him getting twisted up in knots trying to say that they're not under investigation

after saying he is under investigation. i mean, they don't have a great hand to play here, but the president loves it when people go out there and answer and defend him emphatically. you know, he loved what jeff sessions did -- even though he's not thrilled with jeff sessions right now. he loved the sort o -- >> the performance. >> the tone of the performance. he loved when kellyanne conway went out and told people to buy ivanka trump's shoes. and she got in trouble for it. >> is there any concern at the white house that all of this sort of performance to the audience of one has them straining their credibility at a time when they just might need it with republicans on the hill? >> i think there's concern about mixed messaging. nicolle, that applies to people who work at the white house now who formerly worked at the white house. the concern that the people who are coming out in front of this podium are saying one thing and then the president tweets

something else. and that was on display this weekend in its clearest view that we have seen in quite some time. the president tweeting on friday of course i am under investigation and then as you're discussing right now his outside counsel jay sekulow saying something completely different. what was striking over the weekend is you had some of the president's top surrogates acknowledging that it's becoming a real problem. that this mixed messaging is undermining the president at a very critical time. his surrogates want him to be focused on his agenda. on things like health care. tax reform. today he held that meeting with a number of ceos to talk about american innovation and yet, this mixed messaging winds up putting top officials here quite frankly in a box a lot of times and forcing them to twist themselves into knots as you were discussing, nicolle. >> kristen, i wonder, nbc news has in fact -- just so we don't fall down the rabbit hole

ourselves, we have confirmed that the president is indeed under investigation, right? >> we have. nbc confirmed what "the washington post" first reported which is that special counsel robert mueller is in fact looking into whether president trump on strucked justice. look, he hasn't been informed of any investigation and in fact one of his attorneys said the same to me as well. last week. and that is likely the case. remember this investigation is still very much in its early stages so the president wouldn't necessarily be informed at this point if he were under investigation. but it's something that a number of news outlets including nbc news has confirmed. >> eli, i know this is a broken record, we have the conversations about how the president sabotages himself, he's a messenger who undermines the other messengers. he is doing that as a client in

some legal jeopardy as well. >> and kasowitz and the other attorneys have told him not to tweet about the investigation. there's a refrain you hear from the officials about the president is his own best messenger. well, in part if that's true it's only because it's almost impossible to be a messenger for him if you're not the president himself because nobody seems to know what he's saying. they're trying to streamline with the tech week or whatever it is. but the problem is that the overarching scandal, the fact that congress isn't getting anything done, the investigation -- that's what everybody is talking about. that's what the questions are about. that's why the white house today didn't even put the briefing on camera or allow people to take audio of it because they -- they know what the questions are going to be and they're trying to turn out the lights. >> in turning out the lights isn't going to keep their boss off twitter. i mean, what have all the efforts -- these rather

extraordinary efforts to shut down any other messengers from that white house briefing room? >> well, it was i think striking today that you saw sean spicer hold this off camera briefing. we couldn't use the audio and the last time we were able to use the audio that we had an on camera briefing was a week ago on monday. so there's a real attempt to control the messaging right now. and it comes at a pivotal moment for this president as there are a lot of key questions that reporters have for them. not only on the russian matter but on the other policy issues that we were asking. so the president's signalled though nicolle, he wanted to have fewer press briefings and we are seeing that take effect. >> he said it to jean pirro. he moves too fast at the time he said it was in reference to the press team and seems to include the legal team. you're staying with me, but

joining everyone is david frum, senior editor for the atlantic and stephen bril, founder of yale journalism initiative. and you were chuckling i think is a fair description. >> fair to say. >> when said that he is giving fodder to perhaps the legal case against him. i think everyone that works in communications is well aware of how he steps on his own message and undermines his paid spokespeople. is he also now hurting his own legal defense? >> well, probably. i think we may be failing to recognize two important things. the first is as everybody knows donald trump's message is donald trump. that's what he cares about. he doesn't understand health care policy. doesn't understand technology. and it really shouldn't surprise us that the message he wants to stay on is donald trump. now, then if you look at the legal case, i think one way to

think about the legal case is this may be the one instance where the crime is worse than the cover-up. we always tend to say, gee, the cover-up is what got this guy into trouble. if nixon hadn't covered up he'd be okay. that's probably right. it's certainly true that, you know, the clinton case was -- you know, the cover-up was worse in terms of, you know, a presidential crime than what the president did. here i think we at least have to consider the possibility that what he's trying to cover up, which he knows about, which none of us do and probably none of his staff is worse than anything he's risking with the cover-up or by jeopardizing his legal case. >> you're nodding, david frum. what do you think the crime is he's covering up, that could be worse than the mayhem that's passed as a 145 days of a presidency? >> i agree with steve that the

crime -- one can imagine are so serious that it's not -- >> like what? financial crimes? i mean, collusion. >> keep going. >> things being investigated. >> i don't think we want to go there. i mean, idle speculation what matters -- it's counterproductive. i don't i think you lightly toss out the words. because if they emerge to be true they're so disruptive to the stability of the country, to the integrity of the political institutions and to the national security. you want on the real careful. what i was struck by watching the exchanges as you will know, the vice president also lawyered up this week. he hired a chairman of mcguire woods, a former u.s. attorney, a former attorney general for the state of virginia. someone who is worked in many independent investigations. someone with a proper kind of resume for a vice president of the united states and the president of the united states has this guy who is the losing attorney from "my cousin vinnie." unbelievable. now, it's true the vice

president has a reputation for paying his bills. that may help. >> kasowitz has one distinction among all the lawyers in america which is he's a repeat lawyer for trump. no one else is a repeat lawyer because he never pays his bills. >> let me get a white house reporter back in this. eli, what does the white house say about the president's actions potentially making things -- i mean, his own son-in-law has the kinds of lawyers that i think david is talking about. lawyers with a pedigree. jamie gorelick who has been representing ivanka. what is the white house saying about the kinds of lawyers that the president was attracted to, being so fundamentally from the kinds of lawyers that pence and jared and everyone else was attracted to? >> well, they don't say a ton about that. i think even if -- i mean, whatever they're saying is less important than what they're doing. when you see the vice president, when you see the president's son-in-law lawyering up in the face of these growing

investigations, that tells you everything you need to know. it doesn't matter that jay sekulow has the temerity to go on television to say that there's no investigation when that's the sole reason that jay is working for and representing the president. it doesn't matter. you have to sort of step back, tune out the noise and take a look at what's happening. when you see the vice president and jared kushner lawyering up that speaks -- >> i want to get kristen to react on the other side. this is jason chaffetz, he really made -- some sweeping statements about how this administration is worse than the obama administration. >> the reality is that sadly i don't see much difference between the trump administration and the obama administration. i thought these floodgates would open up with all of the documents we wanted from the department of state, the department of justice, the pentagon, and in many ways it's

almost worse because we are getting nothing. that's terribly frustrating. with all due respect, the attorney general has not changed at all. i find him to be worse than what i saw with loretta lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available. >> kristen, all i thought when i saw that was did you not watch the debate during the campaign about donald trump's taxes? what made you think that anything would flow from this white house? does the white house have any response to congressman chaffetz today? >> no response yet. but it earn -- certainly is interesting that you have republicans saying there's a problem with the transparency with this administration and with the communications and it comes -- with the reports bubbling up that the president's potentially looking at replacing sean spicer. we have an official response from the white house to that. this is from our eamon jaifers. we are looking to expand our

communications operation as he did in the beginning sean spicer is managing the press office. the stories about spicer bubble up every couple of days and it's frankly unfair to sean. the bottom line is, nicolle, we are seeing some changes take place. you're seeing sarah huckabee sanders do more of the briefing and again seeing more briefings on camera. it appears as though they are already restructuring the way they get information out and that seeks to information sharing as well. >> it's strange that jason chaffetz would be saying that the white house is uncoming. this is a late career reinvention. the key republicans can look into important things. nunes until recently said that senator burr has done a better job. they were actively assisting the

white house to thwart the most important question everything. >> you're saying that jason chaffetz its rings hollow to you because he didn't effort -- >> you can't complain about not getting the documents if you didn't ask for them in the first place. >> we'll take a pause. kristen welker, thank you for being with us. jared kushner is known for his sprawling white house portfolio but today his legal defense team may be growing. one of the journalists behind a profile of fired national security adviser mike flynn reports even as he grew an impressive list of clients, he was growing closer and closer to the russian intelligence apparatus. the closing hours as voters in georgia's sixth congressional district go to the polls tomorrow. we'll ask jon ossoff how donald trump being in the white house has affected his odds. to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want.

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this is technology and we are proud to be kicking it off with your engagement and assistance as we work to modernize the government's technology infrastructure. our goal here is simple. we are here to improve the day to day lives of the average citizen. that's a core promise and we are keeping i. together, we will unleash the creativity of the private sector to provide citizen services in a way that has never happened before. >> jared kushner speaks. he's a powerful white house force, and is often seen but rarely heard from in public. but the president's senior adviser and son-in-law made

those remarks ahead of a technology summit set to begin in the next half hour. it comes as he readies for a crucial trip to the middle east later this week and amid reports he's arming himself with a team of criminal lawyers in the face of the expanding russia investigation. for more on this, i have brought in ashley parker. eli and the gang are still here at the table. ashley, i wonder what you think from jared's sort of team's world view what they think when they see a legal surrogate who's not working inside the government and who's not working inside the white house communications operation get tangled up on fox news of all places over whether there is an investigation or isn't an investigation. obviously, jared's team his legal team is taking it very seriously, there may be one and they have some of the toughest and most experienced defense lawyers on board. does this complicate things for them? >> i don't think so. i mean, you're exactly right

they already do have a very tough outside legal counsel, that they had retained i believe even before some of the russia probe and then as we have learned his team has taken steps to talk to other outside lawyers. i have been told they haven't made any decisions yet. but they're likely to bring someone else on. that's not someone who replaces current outside counsel jamie gorelick, but help, maybe someone with a bit more trial law experience. and just a possible addition because as you have seen he's sort of had to face the spate of stories in "the washington post" and other publications and he is bringing a very tough legal team to bear and help them battle those accusations. >> ashley, we should share with our viewers what sort of the back story is. so jamie gorelick who has been i think helped ivanka and jared with their background forms. i think that was the first way that jamie gorelick, a very well respected sort of veteran of --

a former democratic justice department is or was partners with bob mueller who's now gone in to run the special counsel probe. so i think your paper reports that abbe lowell is someone under consideration. can you talk about what's known about abbe lowell and i think you're talking about him as a possible candidate, someone with more trial experience. is that right? >> yes. that's exactly right. one of the reasons he has started to reach out to outside lawyers is i'm told by his team not because of any again dissatisfaction with jamie gorelick. but because she and robert mueller before he was appointed to the special counsel worked together at the same law firm and this is sort of standard operating procedure. she advised him you might want to seek the advice of outside counsel to see what to do. that's what they're doing. again they're likely to bring somebody else on who would work under gorelick, not replace her. at least not at this point. >> eli, it's hard to overstate the vastness of jared kushner's

portfolio. he's ready to go engage in talks as the top diplomat for the president. i know he serves as someone that the secretary of state sort of plugs in to in terms of his own diplomacy. i mean, i don't know there's a white house adviser in history with the bigger portfolio or more things that he's in charge of than jared kushner. >> no, i don't think so. that's why early on it was sort of a joke about going to jared to do everything. but i think it's no coincidence that he's stepping of it a little bit on the two things that he is. i mean, the reform in sgovt, back when this was called the strategic initiatives group it was jared's sort of satellite group bringing people in with the idea that they were going to fix and make government more like a business. a lot of people around the white house would laugh and say, you know, 36-year-old thinks he's going to fix government. also doing middle east peace. it was something they'd roll their eyes about, but this is what he wants to be identified

with. that's why they have him speaking today and the longer term prospects for peace in the middle east. whether there's some hubris there, it will take some meetings maybe it is. but he's putting expectations where they should be. saying, you know, these are early meetings but we're trying to put the steppingstones in place one after the other. i think this at a time when there's so much controversy around the white house makes sense for him politically to be associated with something sort of benign like improving government, technology, business. and then also with the middle east peace prospects. >> david frum, put jared kushner's ambitions on the audacity scale for me. he's going to get somewhere and achieve middle east peace as someone who has never been inside the government. he's going to transform the government. is that starry-eyed and offensive, or sort of charmingly optimistic? >> he doesn't know what he doesn't know. he doesn't know people who don't know what he doesn't know. i mean, the regress here is so

extreme. and one of the things that's -- in that clip you quoted, last week was infrastructure week. what does that even mean? is that i think english? there are nouns and verbs but there's no content. nothing happened last week. nothing happened. there was a meeting. in fact this is a republican administration that is actually realizing every conservative after dinner speaker's indictment of government. they have a meeting and think they have done something. now it's reforming government week. you know, the u.s. government is probably the largest purchaser of information technology on the planet. the government -- this is not a new idea that maybe computers to help. that's been going on for a while. the united states government employs fewer people than in 1962 because there were a lot of clerks at the social security administration and now there are hardly any. so he doesn't know what the problem is. how can you come up with the solution? on middle east peace, again, it is really kind of -- it's kind of amazing.

and especially when you think, you know, the united states is blundering right now into a shooting war in syria. the place where middle east peace is in danger is not between israelis and palestinians, but between the united states and a bunch of adversaries it's stumbling into without a plan and allies. up next, new reporting on some of mike flynn's controversial clients and the warning signs that were missed. isaac hou has mastered gravity defying moves to amaze his audience. great show. here you go. now he's added a new routine. making depositing a check seem so effortless. easy to use chase technology, for whatever you're trying to master. isaac, are you ready? yeah. chase. so you can.

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if i -- a guy who knows this business, if i did attempt -- a tenth of what she did, i would be in jail today. so -- so crooked hillary clinton, leave this race now. >> general michael flynn

campaigning for president trump almost a year ago and oh, have the tables have turned. flynn himself now in the middle of a criminal investigation. a new piece in "the new york times" traces how his disdain for limits and his drive to turn a profit led flynn to entangle with adversaries of the american government. i'm joined by ken delainian and one who co-authored that amazing piece. i read it last night and again this morning and it's a stunningly detailed sort of tick tock of this chapter in general flynn's life where he was basically rejected by the career that he i think probably thought he'd have, but became excited about making money. he describes himself as a great capitalist. talk about your piece. >> the point of this piece is to look back and see how this career officer, this decorated officer can end up in the middle

of a counterintelligence investigation and suspicion of foreign ties. i think he saw the consulting business being a beltway bandit as a kind of redemption. if the military -- you know, was going to push him out and not want his talents, he would take it to the private sector. but what happened there was the same qualities of, you know, kind of his disdain for limits and bureaucracy it is believed that he knew the right way forward on ties to russia i think kind of marred his career as a consultant. you know, there's this fascinating contradiction, nicolle. at the same time that he's hanging out a shingle as a cyber security consultant, he's consulting for a russian firm with ties to russia intelligence that tries to actually hack into our systems. and it's not clear exactly how he's saw his contradiction. his desires to form closer ties to russia got in the way or

there's no contradiction in his mind between the two activities. >> talk about where we know we have to go still in the flynn investigation. i think the last time we talked about where the flynn investigation stood, he had sought immunity from one of the congressional committees that had not been met with enthusiasm yet for legal reasons. we know that he's in legal hot water. what do we know about where the investigation into flynn stands today? >> we don't know a whole lot, nicolle, but this terrific story was a great reminder that while we have been talking about obstruction of justice, there's this other aspect of the investigation involving trump associates. by my count he's got four or five points of legal jeopardy. go through them. i mean, he had -- he failed to register as a lobbyist for turkey. if you willfully do that and they have to prove that he

willfully did it, that's punishable for up to five years in prison. he failed to get permission from the defense department where he was paid by the russian state television. there are questions about whether he told the truth to the fbi, questions about why he omitted some of the information on the security clearance forms. so he is clearly in legal jeopardy and as you said his lawyer and in a rather dramatic statement said my client has a story to tell and sought immunity from the congressional committees and they turned him down. what story does he have to tell? >> can you offer a legal theory on sort of -- >> that's where the action is. the action is with the director mueller. you know, who knows if there was bipartisan agreement about, you know, whether to turn down his request for immunity or if they couldn't decide. and they decided to punt on the issue. but the skilled prosecutors who do this every day will have him

and his lawyers in for an off the record session and they'll say, okay, what would you tell us if you got immunity? and if he really does have a story to tell and if there is any guilt associated with anyone in the trump campaign colluding with the russians he would be among the most likely who would know about it. so i think that's the thing to watch. the nondisclosure, all those things which sort of give him jeopardy are the chips that mueller can play. >> and david, you and i filled out background forms before we went to work in the white house. if we had lied about any of these things, we would have got thrown out of the bush west wing. how about the fact that they're small potatoes compared to what he might know about the bigger investigation into russia? >> the question i can never

think about michael flynn, campaigns attract people with visions of the world, big messages. and campaigns exist to point those people into the appropriate place for them. sometimes the people know things you need to know are rather daffy people and so you put them somewhere, make sure there are barriers -- >> i'm trying to think of the daffy category. >> you put barriers between them and the candidate and then the principals even if they're in the private sector are knowing they're going back to government so they say no to things that are legal but inappropriate. the idea that somebody like this became a leading foreign policy adviser to somebody who is president, i didn't know all of those details, but the main outline of the flynn story, the fact that he did go to the event where he was known to have been paid. we don't know how much, but we knew he took money. that should have been dispositive two years ago. >> right.

eli -- i'm sorry, go ahead, nick. >> mike flynn didn't think they'd win because he published this op-ed that was the turkish talking points on election day. he clearly was making a lot of money and didn't think that he was going have to give that up. >> that's by the way something to think about in terms of all of the conduct here. trump's conduct. did he collude, did he do something where the russians, everybody's conduct was none of them thought they were going to win. >> they were looking at the same polls we were. >> they were looking maybe to figure out how to maximize their profit from this campaign. >> eli, i want to read you a quote from this piece. in an interview long ago, mr. flynn expressed ride in his moe enike -- pride in his money making skills. i think it's the affinity for putin that brought trump and flynn together, but maybe it was the money making. i found their relationship weird

and trump's loyalty to flynn weird. he wasn't loyal to newt gingrich or rudy giuliani, but he can't quit mike flynn. do you think it's this business or the larger investigation? >> i think the business thing is a piece of it. but you see it with flynn and with cory lewan dusky. the two people trump has let go of who he's upset -- >> pining for. >> he's upset that he was put in a position to have to fire them or to get rid of them. i mean, it's not just that flynn was at the top surrogate or national security adviser on the campaign. >> he was on the short list for vp. >> in spite of -- >> he got asked about abortion. >> don't appoint this guy, trump -- >> well, when it came to lewandowski he didn't kick the attorney general out of the room and ask the fbi director to go easy on him. he did that with flynn. >> one point -- >> i want to give nick the last word here because it's his piece that got this conversation

going. where do you think the flynn story goes from here? >> a great question. i'm curious if there are consultants or consultancies or contracts or work that was pitched, but not accepted that we haven't heard about yet. what we see on that form presumably is all the business he actually got. and the question is is there business he pitched that was controversial or across system of the same lines? as for the tie with him and the president, i think it goes back to islam. i think that, you know, flynn saw in trump's rhetoric on muslims a validation of his own world view. got him thrown out of the obama administration, focus on isis as the greatest threat and i think that trump saw him as his own views reflected in this general and it gave him strength and some courage to go out there on the campaign trail and double down. i think that's where that affinity comes from. >> ken delainian, thank you for being with us. it's a wonderful piece. read it today. thank you.

the high stakes special election in georgia, the democrat hoping to flip this seat. jon ossoff joins us next. ♪ on the caribbean seas ♪ it's a champagne and models potpourri ♪ on my yacht made of cuban mahogany ♪ gany, gany, gany ♪ watch this that goes beyond assuming beingredients are safe...ood to knowing they are. going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food.

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some sad news to share with you. nbc news has learned that otto warmbier released by north korea last week has died that's according to the statement from his family. according to officials he had been inthe coma for more than a year. eli, we both reach out to our contacts at the white house and i know this is a heavy foreign policy and national security crisis day for them. >> nothing back from them yet. you can expect a statement. >> you hear anything we'll get right to that. we are going to make a turn to politics and to democrats looking for a victory in georgia tomorrow night. one of the last special elections of the season, very, very close race and i's -- in the closing hours, democrat jon ossoff from the district he hopes to represent right now.

we should note that msnbc invited your opponent karen handel and it remains open and we have 20 minutes left in the program. thank you for being with us. i wonder if you think you'd be in the situation you're in, which i understand to be -- i still believe in polls whether i should or shouldn't after the last presidential cycle, but you're neck and neck with your republican opponent. is that the case? >> that's right. it's a neck and neck race. it will come down to turnouts and if folks are here in georgia, they can find out where at electjon.com. >> do you think you'd be in this situation if there was anyone other than donald j. trump in the oval office? >> i think that virtually unprecedented level of chaos and dysfunction and the atmosphere of scandal in washington right now has raised everyone's attention to the need for leadership that's focused on accountability, on effective congressional oversight. and on breaking through that dysfunction and gridlock to deliver for home. the administration's performance has not inspired confidence in

anybody i think and concerns about the integrity and competence have grown over time, so too has the demand by the voters in the sixth district for leadership focus on working across the aisle to deliver results rather than getting trap and stuck in this chaos in d.c. that keeps anything from getting done. >> would you defy your own leadership and go down to the white house to meet with donald trump on the infrastructure project if it benefited your district? >> i hope to have the opportunity to work with the president on issues of mutual interest and i will not hesitate to stand up to the president if i think he threatens my constituents' interests or embarrasses us on the world stage. >> there's an ad that's been condemned by you and by your republican opponent that invokes the shooting of the gop whip, steve scalise. i wonder what you'd do to address the rancor and the an an a -- and the animus coming out

of boat sides of the aisle. >> well, we have been reaching out with humility and respect and we pointed out shortcomings in the opponent's record but we have done it in a civil way and focused on substance. i think this attack ad that's come out, that seems to try to exploit this tragic shooting is in extremely poor taste. a man is fighting for his life in the hospital right now. it's a disgrace to politicize it. this is exactly the kind of negative partisan fear mongering that people are so tired of. what it seems that career politics can't wrap their heads around is that voters are not interested in the political circus. they're interested in who can work to improve their daily quality of life. who can help grow the local economy here in metro atlanta. >> let me ask you, do you think samuel jackson, george takei and sam watterson and jessica lange and connie britton or any of the

celebrities who endorsed you understand the daily struggles of those in your district? do you think hillary clinton's failure with the biggest and brightest celebrities by her side and jay z and beyonce, do you think it's smart to have the celebrities on your side? >> i don't honestly think voters care which figures -- >> why have them campaign for you? why have them, sir? >> whether it's -- well, the campaign is focused on the issues of concern to voters here in the sixth district and whether it's politicians from washington or from celebrities across the country. that's not what animates people here in georgia. what keeps -- >> i don't disagree you, sir, but if it's not what animates people in georgia why associate your campaign with something that we know it failed for hillary clinton, why not learn one of the lessons of her failed candidacy and ask celebrities to stay away from your race? >> well, look, if folks want to help, they can come and help. but what voters are concerned with are who can deliver the health care and bring the

greatest focus on accountability and bipartisanship to washington. this kind of process stuff who's coming in or out it's not of interest to the voters in the sixth district. >> is there anything in trump's foreign policy? did you support his strike on the airfield in syria? >> yes, if u.s. intelligence confirmed that assad released the chemical weapons, i have said very clearly that we cannot get drawn in on the ground there. and that we need congress to pass a new authorization for the use of military force. that's appropriate to the requirements of u.s. national security policy today. >> all right. you sound a little bit like the trump administration there. good luck tonight and thank you for spending some of your last day campaigning with us. after the break, the panel weighs in on the race in georgia and steve kornacki heads to the big board on why it matters for

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we just heard from the candidate but to know what's really going on we turn to steve kornacki. what is jon ossoff up against in the race and why does it matter so much. >> he's up against a couple of thing, number one, expectations, look, we've had a couple of special elections. democrats can brag they made the gap narrower and they don't have a win yet and if you look at

this right now and average the polls together we've been getting out of this georgia 6th district. jon ossoff is probably ahead by a point or two somewhere in that range heading into this thing so for democrats, they need psychologically to put a win on the board and don't republicans to say another close but not close enough for them. but there's this. georgia 6th district is exactly the kind of district where that has the kind of voters that democrats are banking on for 2018 and then for 2020. what do we mean by this? the suburbs, you can barely see it, densely populated white collar suburbs, parts of three massive counties that are in this district. we talk to all last year about these college educated white voters who used to vote republican switching to the democrats in the era of trump, donald trump barely carried this district. in 2012 it was a 23-point win for mitt romney and came down to

a point for trump in 2016 in. era of the trump presidency we want to win a district and win voters like this, so you look at all the money they poured into it, the type of voter in this district, if the democrats can't win this one tomorrow, honestly that's going to be a little bit of explaining they'll have to do the. pressure is more on the democrats than the republican. >> take us to the table. is the white house doing any prespinning of the outcome saying that this was localized or the entire national democratic party got behind this candidate or what is the white house posture on this? >> the white house -- the president is tweeting about it. he sees it on t he's tweeting about it. vote for karen handel. the same thing during the montana race and everything else. i think if she's able to win they'll talk a lot more about it. >> what if she loses he'll blame her. >> they'll move on and pretend it didn't happen. what do you think? i have to say --

>> they're not going to move -- >> a special election and when you lose you always downplay it. >> if o wins this becomes an enormous story and although the president should keep quiet and should move on he should keep quiet and move on about a lot of things and doesn't and even though and then you'll have white house spinners explain he actually did keep quiet and did move on. >> steve, any evidence all of the scan darryl swirling around the president has had an effect in this race? >> the fact that we're talking about this race, the state of the trump presidency is reflected in these numbers, the democrats haven't won one of these special elections yet but kansas, it was a 20-point improvement. they lost the kansas special election but what had been a 27-point loss for the democrats last fall down to seven in montana, a 15-point improvement for the democrats and seen two big improvements in republicans districts, now you look at this one, again you probably won't

get a 15, 20-point improvement but one he won by a point and have donald trump at a 40% approval rating and all the negativity in the air and have the type of voter that's most likely to break on him that's a recipe and why the democrats, they're not going to say it out loud. >> all right. >> that's the narrative of what happens after tomorrow. november 2018 is a long way away but in terms of candidate recruitment will have an impact. >> in terms of the health care bill. this will affect what happens with the health care bill. >> we're just hitting pause. thank you to steve kornacki. we'll right back with more breaking news. tarted eating the. tarted eating the. the homeowner was outraged. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped her with homeowners insurance. she got all her shingles replaced. hansel and gretel were last seen eating their way through the candy cane forest.

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we're back with more on the breaking news that otto warmbier has died. he was the american student released last week. hans nichols is at the pentagon. you covered his release last week and obviously the story ending as tragically as it could. >> nicole, that's right he died at 2:20 surrounded by his family. otto warmbier, the american college student from the university of virginia who was sentenced to 15 years hard labor in north korea. he was brought home just last week. he had been in a coma for over a year. here's what the family is saying about it obviously they've been getting the best medical attention now that he's here in this country. we will like to thank the wonderful professionals at the university of cincinnati medical center who did everything for otto. unfortunately, the awful tortuous mitsubishi treatment our son received at the hands of the north koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today laying the

blame squarely at the north koreans for their son's loss and remember when you have that medical conference right after he was let out or last week, they seemed to suggest that his neurological ability would never be brought back. he had long-term permanent neurological loss. the kind of neurological loss that would not regenerate. that's what this family is saying, our thoughts and prayers and thanking everyone for thoughts and prayers being with them in this difficult time. >> it's worth noting his crime was taking down a poster. all you need to know about the heinousness. thanks so much for being with us. thank you to my panel. that does it for this hour of. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts with katy turren. >> advertise to see you. if it is monday even the president's legal team is trying to decipher his tweets. tonight, law and disorder. why the white house may actually not know whether the president

is in fact, under investigation for obstruction of justice. >> the president is not and has not been under investigation. >> plus, floor exercises as the gop health care bill comes together behind closed doors. democrats demand transparency. >> it's a very small group in the sense of seeing the bill. >> tammy duckworth as dems kick off a seven-hour talk-a-thon and the dollars and cents of the georgia 6th. >> we can't spend that money on every summer race. >> as voters head to the polls tomorrow who will get a return on the most expensive race in congressional history? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. good evening. i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." can the republican partyve