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 party survive a president under criminal

investigation? or deeply unpop health care overall or toxic political climate? we're going to start to get answers tomorrow when voters head to the polls for a surprising nail-biter special election in deep red georgia. georgia 6th has become a senate spectacle because of what it might tell us about the current political climate. the president is tweeting up a storm on this context right now. we'll dive into the race in just a moment. we're also going to dive into the big issues that are shaking up the race including health care and the rancid political atmosphere but begin with perhaps the biggest story nationally. the president's legal crisis. things have taken a bizarre turn as the president's outside counsel twists itself into knots to explain the president's statements. after the president said he was being investigated for firing the fbi director a lawyer from his outside counsel jay sekulow flooded the air waves to say the

opposite. >> i want to be very clear here and very direct. the president last not been and is not under investigation. >> the president has not been and is not under investigation. >> the president is not under investigation. >> and i've been crystal clear that the president is not and has not been under investigation. >> those statements raise a lot of questions, perhaps the biggest is how was he so sure? here's three more from those interviews. >> the president is not and has not been under investigation. >> how do you know? >> because we've receive nod notice of investigation. >> you don't know that he isn't under investigation now, do you? >> well, no one has notified he is so i can't read people's minds. >> and those answers raise another big question which sekulow addressed today. >> we've not been notied. no, the president is not under investigation. >> is there any duty for them to tell you? >> no duty to tell in the sense of an obligation to tell but you know how it works in washington. purpose a target or being investigated you would be told

really quickly into the investigation. >> that was quite a pause. special counsel bob mueller has no obligation to tell the president he is under investigation especially for an inquiry in its early stages like this one. because of that the fact that special counsel has told them nothing doesn't prove anything. sekulow had more to tell us about the president's twitter statement. >> here's what you have, the president issued that tweet, that social media statement, based on a fake report, a report with no documented sources from "the washington post." i want to be crystal clear, the president's response was as it related to "the washington post" report. he cannot in a twitter statement include all of that in there but "the washington post" statement came out that morning. >> "the washington post" story he's referring to came out wednesday night, not sunday. the president's statement came out excuse me friday morning, that's what i meant, ultimately here's what the president's lawyer is seemingly telling us.

when the president says he is being investigated for firing the fbi director he actually means the opposite and by never mentioning a "washington post" report from two days earlier the president's statement confirming the story is actually his way of pointing out how wrong it is. confused yet? i'm joined by nbc's intelligence and national security reporter ken delay anyone and white house correspondent kristen welker. ken, help us. let's put this to rest. is the president under investigation? >> katy, nbc news reported he is and we base our report on our source, a former senior intelligence official familiar with the matter who is aware that bob mueller, the special counsel is planning to interview two senior intelligence officials, dni dan coats and mike rogers the head of the nsa about conversations donald trump had with them seeking to get them to say there was no inclusion with russia and he's doing that in the context of obstruction of justice inquiry and by the way our report was

confirming the "washington post" story you mentioned with many more sources. it's not in dispute and in fact there is no obligation and no standard practice for the justice department to notify somebody that they're under investigation until they're about to be indicted then they may get a target letter but that's way down the line, not where we are right now but no doubt donald trump is under investigation. >> in addition to coats and rogers what else will robert mueller do to investigate this? >> well, so he's looking at obstruction of justice and already had from james comey and his testimony a textbook example. comey laid out all the elements of obstruction of justice in public. now, bob mueller has to go and corroborate his story so presumably he'll want to interview numerous people and the fbi, anyone who was in a meeting with donald trump he's going to want to interview, the coats and rogers and anyone else that donald trump talked to about the investigation. he's going to look at documents and at the end of the day they'll decide do they have a

provable case. >> sometimes the forest gets lost for the trees but the larger issue at hand, ken, the russia investigation and what this country is doing to stop russia from trying to interfere in our election so what's going on with that? >> precious little, account aty. it's an important question and doing rorting on it and there's going to be hearings on it in congress this week. the is no whole of government initiative from the trump administration to deal with this problem. there are two front, one is has russia paid a price? has russia been deterred to not want to hack the u.s. again? the answer to that appears to be no. secondly what are we doing to shore up the state election systems and look at how fake news traverses our social media platforms. dhs is doing a few things. the state election officials are resisting because they don't want federal interference in their elections and sometimes it breaks down along partisan lines but a really interesting question and not much is happening. >> does the white house think

the president is under investigation? i ask because they're lawyering up like it sounds like they do think he is. >> he's got a legal team of four different lawyers, so there's no doubt he's preparing for a protected legal issue. the white house will not answer questions about the russia matter at all. they refer all questions to the president's outside counsel but there's no doubt, katy, this is looming over the white house. it is something that is impacting not only their messaging but, of course, the agenda that the president wants to carry out and creating a lot of mixed messaging. as you pointed out it's creating more difficulties. the press secretary today held an off camera briefing with no audio so we were able to ask him questions but none of that, of course, was broadcast out live to the american public. i can tell you, though, that he didn't answer a whole lot of questions about that. what he did say, though is that the president continues to have

confidence in his entire administration when asked specifically about deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and he also allowed that everyone here serves at the pleasure of the president so sort of leaving that opening, that potential caveat. if president trump does in fact at some point think that it's time to dismiss another top official here. but, again, this is creating a real messaging challenge for this white house and entire administration. >> the fact they did an off camera briefing with audio only but audio that cannot be broadcast in effect is in itself quite remarkable and some reference it to stonewalling. tonight's panel, beth is our senior politics author and rick tyler is an msnbc political analyst and former communications director for the ted cruz campaign. guys, the president's lawyering up. it seems like they may not want

to say yes he is under investigation. but they're erring on the side of caution. >> they should. four lawyers is a remarkable number of lawyers, not just a protective measure. vice president pence when he was asked about getting his lawyer he said it was purely procedural or something he's done it all the time. jared has a lawyer and may getting a new lawyer more aggressive criminal defense lawyer than jamie gorelick the one he has and nervous and girding their loins and getting ready for battle and makes sense for jay sulow t mix it up on the shows and perhaps they haven't been formally notified but that doesn't mean the investigation isn't under way. >> donald trump's personal lawyer michael cohen has gotten a lawyer. let's talk about jay sekulow and his twisting himself into a press toll try to explain away donald trump's tweets. who do we trust here?

if he is saying you can't trust the president and what the prix says it feels like both their credibility is getting in the way. >> yeah, i mean sekulow on sunday did what we call the full ginsburg. this is an old washington expression that relates to monica lewinsky's lawyer back in the day when bill clinton was under impeachment and means you go on all of the sunday shows and spin on every one of them and just because you do it over and over again doesn't make the more effective. the fact that he hasn't been notified that he's being under investigation does not mean he's not under investigation. and the wheels of justice griped slowly. these investigations take time and mueller is so experienced at this he's doing it in a methodical way. we may not hear much. he's not a leaker and might be weeks if not months before we learn much more substantive.

>> can you argue this is an effective political strategy. muddying the waters saying this is all about leaks and saying people are out to get my client, donald trump tweeting about, you know, referring to a deep state, is this -- does this work for his base and is that enough? >> i think it does work for his base but i don't think it's enough. mike pence may have been right. it's not unusual to hire a lawyer when you're under investigation and one thing that the president wanted jay sekulow to say on every single show he wasn't under investigation but jay sekulow ran into what every single person tried to go out and speak for the white house or for donald trump in particular, is donald trump is going to contradict you -- if he didn't want people to know he's under investigation why did he tweet it? some trump supporters have told me they knew what he meant. >> what de mean? >> i don't know -- that he

didn't mean that. to vote for karen handel tomorrow. what did he mean. he gets confusing. these words mean things. >> two things in the tweet that were lies. i mean he said, you know, i'm under investigation from the man, rod rosenstein, who first recommended that i fire comey. well, first of all rosenstein is not conducting the investigation so that's untrue and didn't recommend that he fire comey because he decided to fire comey by his own admission. >> he may have recommended comey but donald trump's mind was already made up. >> so he didn't fire him at his behest and that was just a memo to kind of cover them. >> do you think he could be baiting mueller to come out and say something publicly? >> perhaps. there's been very little sign that donald trump is all about particularly strategic and certainly knowing his reputation he doesn't do that he's quite methodical and everyone says he's just going to plow ahead based on everything he's ever

done in his past career. your point to rick i've been out in the field talking to trump vote and other voters as well. when i talk to trump voters what you hear is a distylation of the message they're getting from trump on twitter. everything would be going great, health care would be moving along, tax reform, getting the economy back in shape if for not this russia investigation that are sick over losing over last november. >> what he says in his tweets. >> a foundation he laid effectively during the campaign. don't listen to anybody. they're just out to get me because i will change things in washington and they're going to fight like hell to stop me from doing that. >> for it to work he has to undermine mueller and mueller has the best reputation of any law enforcement official in this country in the last 40 or 50 years. >> donald trump has gone in and wiped the floor with everyone. he's attacked anyone. it doesn't matter who it is.

he called john mccain not a war hero. john mccain. >> it'll work for 20%, maybe 30 drs -- in it worked in the election. why are so sure now it's not working and needs more and his base is not enough? all the same thicks that people were saying, you know, on november 7th. >> hillary clintons with a terrible candidate. it's enough to hole the base and i think he will hold his base but i think he has to expand his blaise to be the next democrat that's going to come along and run for 2020 and listen, i've said over and over for independent candidates to run it's a disaster. they always lose. this is an actually unique time and feel like what macron has done in france, who is not hyper partisan and say let's get rid of all these guys. >> interesting. >> tomorrow is a big day. >> we'll talk about that. don't blow our lid. rick tyler, john alter, beth

fouhy, stay with us. why tuesday's special congressional election could be the biggest political test yet of the trump presidency but the supreme court takes up a case that could have a major impact on future elections. we'll have the details for you next. art. it can be sculpted, bringing to life beautiful detail. or painted in luxurious strokes. and in rare cases... both. ♪ (baby crying) ♪ fly ♪ me to the moon

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welcome back. the supreme court decided to consider whether the long-standing political position of gerrymandering violates the constitution and justice correspondent pete williams has more from the supreme court. >> reporter: it's a case that could change the face of politics that comes from wisconsin where the republicans gain control of all the machinery of state government and both houses of the legislature and governorary office and begin to redraw the maps for state legislative districts. some democrats sued and said it was basically an unconstitutional political gerrymander and a federal

appeals court agreed for the first time in decades a court reached a ruling like that coming to the supreme court where the justices in the past have been very skeptical of claims about political gerrymandering and have had cases in the past where congressional districts and legislative districts are struck down because they're racial gerrymanders. what is the test? how do you know when a state has gone too far. the challengers here say easy, look at something they call the efficiency gap and whether so many members of minority party are jammed into one district that they're more than they need to effect the candidates in their choice or broken up and spread out in the other districts that they have no power. the court will hear the case in the fall. katy. >> thank you, pete. the supreme court's decision to take this case comes as democrats are ramping their effort to propose for 2020 when states will redraw the boundaries of their legislative and congressional districts for the first time in a decade. former attorney general eric holder is leading the effort at

the request of former president obama. holder joked that his job is to, quote, make redistricting sexy. we'll be back with more "mtp daily" in just 60 seconds. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours.

if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. welcome back. tomorrow could be the biggest political test of the trump presidency and it's happening far away from washington in georgia's 6th congressional district. tomorrow's special congressional runoff pits republican karen handel against democrat jon ossoff for the seat vacated by hhs secretary tom price. the latest polls show it is a tossup. democrats must win in districts like this or republicans won the house seat, but the president struggled if they're going to take back the house. the stakes could not be higher. if ossoff wins it gives democrats a tangible victory. it would be a warning shot to senate republicans on health care which has been a big issue in the race and it would give democrats momentum heading into

the 2018 midterms. if handel holes the seat for republicans it gives the gop confidence their candidates can win even in a challenging environment. a green light to push on with health care. and a demoralizing employee to the democrats. regardless if it is all costing a fortune more than $50 million according to "the atlanta journal constitution," the most expensive house race ever. joining me is the expert when it comes to the house race, david wasserman at the cook political report so, david, you are the expert. what are you hearing down on the ground? what's your since of things? where is this going to go? not only the most expensive house race but you'll see a h historic turnout. we're looking at probably 250,000 votes being cast in the district by tomorrow night when recall is said and done and that would be a higher turnout than

we're likely to see in the 2018 midterm elections and high turnout may be keeping karen handel in the ball game because republicans are the ones who are less angry with what's happening in washington and the fact that they're turning out in greater numbers than in the first round when ossoff got 48% really keeps the race pretty close and i still think ossoff is the favorite by a point or two. but it's a tossup. >> so if democrats don't win it how bad is it for him? what happens to their narrative? >> well, if democrats fall short here, you know, they'll still have a good shot at the house in 2018 because this district is right at about the center of the types of districts they would need to win to win the house. hillary clinton got a higher share of the vote in 26 districts held by republicans so this is right kind of at the median of house control. but still it would be embarrassing for democrats because they've poured so much money into this election and

they came so close in the first round and donald trump's approval rating is in the mid to high 30s. >> the question is if they can't win in this environment what environment can they win and will they be able to raise much money if they can't prove themselves here? >> well, it's a great question, look, they've poured so much money that jon ossoff has been able to afford i think four spanish language ads in a district where the electorate is likely to be less than 5% latino and they're not going to be able to do that in every district in 2018 but for every action there tends to be an equal and opposite reaction and democrats may have generated some ossoff fatigue in georgia 6 and that could explain why this election is still very, very close or could potentially explain if karen handel pulls it out why she's able to win but i think you'll see democrats with an even wider enthusiasm edge in house races in 2018 when turnout

is a little bit lower than it is in the special. >> i wouldn't normally ask this but since there is a truly revolting ad out that revokes it but do you think the scalise shooting will affect the race any way? i don't want to show the ad, it's frankly too terrible but do you think that that is going to somehow affect voters? >> i don't see it having an impact and voters already had pretty firm ideas of who they would support before this last minute ad. everyone agrees that this is a tragic event and i think if there's one thing driving the race that's not in ads in this race, it's donald trump. you're not seeing his name come up in paid communication in the district. but he is on the minds of voters more so than nancy pelosi is. and even though republicans are trying to make her the issue, democrats' biggest advantage when it comes to congressional races right now is that they don't have a clearly

identifiable leader as a port for republicans to uses a foil and knows donald trump does well when he can beat up on one opponent. >> talking about health care, jon ossoff has been focusing on it in the race, karen handel on the other hand told breitbart it hasn't been that much of an issue. the biggest issue is that jon ossoff is from outside the district. the president himself has been tweeting about that very same thing. but give us some reality. how much does health care matter in georgia 6 right now? >> it's a big reason why democrats are fired up. beth in terms of pre-existing condition, lifetime caps. you know, democrats around the country are really animated because they feel under threat. and at the same time, you're seeing health care come up very little in the race. democrats have tried to attack karen handel's stewardship of the susan komen foundation as it relates to her position on

planned parenthood. that's barely moved the needle but democrats haven't hammered home the ahca as i might have expected they would have several months ago. >> the house race expert david wasserman, thank you very much. >> thanks so much, katy. still ahead all talk, no action. any moment now senate democrats will take to the floor to try and stall the gop's health care plan. just imagine if all the machines at work were constantly thinking. always on the lookout for patterns and connections to make everything work better. i call it the internet of everything, but it's really the internet of everyday life. ♪ the partnership between dell technologies and sap helps make the promise of the internet of things a reality for our customers. we know how powerful live data can be. we use sap at dell to run everything from finance

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effective immediately i am canceling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with cuba. >> welcome back. president trump's announcement on friday rolling back some of the obama administration's cuba policies crafted in large part by senator marco rubio and comes despite the bitter rivalry between cade trump and rubio during the 2016 campaign and also as at least 5 asenators from both parties are calling on the white house to remove all travel restrictions to cuba. chuck spoke to senator rubio on sunday from "meet the press." here a part of their conversation on cuba you didn't get to see. >> i want to ask you about the president's decision on cuba, a lot of reporting indicated you were very much involved in the writing of the policy. senator jeff flake a republican from arizona came on my show earlier and said if it -- you

know there's a majority in the senate, perhaps a supermajority that would vote to lift all sanctions, to lift the travel -- lift that travel ban for americans going to cuba. why not put your policy here that you pushed for up for a vote in the u.s. senate to see if it has the support of the united states senate. >> any senator has a right to offer that sort of amendment. here's what i would say, you are an lying this change in the wrong way. not a punitive measure against cuba as much as it is and has a punitive aspect. this is about empowering individual cubans. everybody including the people you just mentioned who advocate for the opening have all said one of the best by-products was this growing private sector. there's dispute about whether it's growing. that's fine, americans can continue to travel to cuba and misreporting they have to do so as part of a group and go through the category of support for the people. the only thing you can't spend

money at military facilities. you have to spend money primarily with individual cubans and stay at airbnb and eat at the private restaurants they are running. up to the cuban government to allow individual cubans to do more of that activity. this is about empowering individual cubans to be free from government economic control of their lives. that's the purpose at the core of this measure. all it says is no more money for the cuban military run entity, why should americans be funding and supporting the cubening military who is behind enormous amounts of instability in the region including what we see in venezuela. >> up next senator tammy duckworth joins me to discuss what, if anything, democrats can do to shape the senate health care bill but first we have the cnbc market update. >> the dow closed at record highs, dow jumped 144 surpassing the all-time high and s&p gained 20 while the nasdaq added 897

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welco back. mocrats in the senate have had it with the secrecy surrounding the republican health care bill. tonight they are staging an hour's long talk-a-thon in protest. the bill is being crafted behind closed doors and without any public hearing scheduled but we could still be speeding toward a vote. nbc's capitol hill team says we could see an outline of the bill as soon as this wednesday with a marathon of votes starting next week. democrats are now trying to do whatever they can to slow the process including planning to use procedural tactics to stall senate business but the fact

remains republicans control the house, white house and senate and democrats don't have any seats at the negotiations and they let consensus over what changes if any they would be open to make on obamacare. joining me is tammy duckworth of illinois. senator, thank you for joining us. what have you heard, if anything, about what is in the senate health care bill? >> i have not heard a single thing about what's in the senate health care bill. all i can do is base on what came out of the house and if anything, it's going to be tragic for so many american, as many as 23 million americans will lose health insurance sm you know, we asked this of every democrat that comes on and get to the bottom of what they believe needs to be fixed about the affordable care ago, what in particular would you want to fix if give than opportunity. >> if i were given the opportunity i would want to make sure that we can keep more

insurers in the marketplace, there are parts of the country where there is a single insurer. i think we need to make sure we make it easier for people to have options within the marketplace and greater competition. i do know that, you know, i voted against a medical device tax, for example and that temporary fix is coming back, the medical device tax actually would be a tax that would have passed costs onto congressmans so there are things we can do to fix it but certainly scrapping it and getting rid of health insurance for 23 million americans which is what the republicans are trying to do is not the fix. >> what about those who want universal health care. are they wasting their time by suggesting that? >> you know, i think that we're not going to be any place in the near term to pass universal health care. i die think one thing we could look at is a buy-in to medicare, some version of option that would put someone in the marketplace that would make it

more accessible to americans, but a bottom line, the solution is not to put 13 men in a room and not allow anybody to look at what they're drafting and by the way they're so secret tiff about it they won't tell us what room they're meeting in. >> let's get realistic, what power do democrats have on their own to craft legislation? >> well, the pow their we have is a power of the people. not just on our own. the american people are making their voices heard. that's why you see people -- >> what about in the senate specifically. what power do you have to craft your own legislation. >> we can certainly delay. that's what we're trying to do to force them to come to the table and show the american people wha is in this bill. their needs to be a committee hearing and bring it to the floor without a vote so we don't know what's in it. from everything that i see they're going to be bringing it to the floor just within hours of forcing us to vote on

something that no one will have had a chance to read and delay and force them to have a time crump and exchange we'll bring it out and let the public take a look. >> is the best strategy for democrats obstruction? is that the only strategy you have. >> the strategy is to pressure them to bring this out into the light of day and certainly slowing things down, forcing them to be open about the process is important. allowing the american people to rise up which they did with the mouse bill in the first version and as i travel around illinois i hear it from everyone, tell us what's in it. this is what i'm asking mr. mcconnell, tell us what's in it. >> sounds like obstruction, senator. >> well, it is but it's one of the misdemeanor things we're trying to do. the obstruction is make sure they bring it out into the light of day. we're not going to let them fast track this thing onto the floor with no votes, with no discussion, so that they're

going to have people vote on something that will haunt the american people. talking about 23 million who will be thrown out on the streets without insurance and tax increase on vetraerans, as many as 7 million. this is a bill that takes health care away from the working to give tax cuts to the rich. >> most democrats like you are passionate about this subject. but if the republicans do come to an agreement they do come forward with a bill and send to the house and house signs it and goes and passes it on to the president. what can democrats do to stop it? is there any path whatsoever? any strategy? >> well, i don't think there's much we can do to stop it but can make it clear to the american people what has happened to them and we will see that all those americans who will lose health insurance like myself with a pre-existing conditions who can no longer

afford health care and people will die without it. we will see children who will suffer and elderly will be thrown out of their nursing homes because of cuts to medicaid and make sure they understand what is happening. >> bernie sanders was at a progressive people's summit gathering in chicago the other day and he was talking about the democratic strategy saying the current model and current strategy of the democratic party is an absolute failure. do you agree? well, you know, i just got elected to the senate and all i can say is i'm doing everything i possibly can. i don't know that there is an outright strategy that the party is crafting to move forward. all i can tell you is that every tool at my disposal i will use and protect the people of my state and i will protect people who are a part of the working poor who need health insurance and protect them with

pre-existing conditions and veterans and the elderly and make sure i do everything i can and whatever tool i have left in my toolbox i'm going to use to it make sure serve the people of illinois and the people of this country and not going to le republicans do this to the american people. >> do you want the party to be more moderate or progressive. >> look, i voted against the medical device tax. i'm a pretty moderate democrat but progressive when it comes to things such at making sure that working american, hard-working folks have access to health insurance. you don't get rid of something before you have a fix for it and that's what we're faced here and, you know, i'm open to allowing them to buy into medicare to get more folks covered and that's certainly an option more progressive but more realistic and we're actually offering real solutions to the issues we're facing as opposed to pushing something through. >> some of your colleagues down in the house some democratic colleagues are bringing up the

word impeachment. do you think it's helpful to be talking about impeaching the president of the united states. >> i personally don't think it's helpful. i'm focused on the fact that russia attacked this nation, this nation that i wore the uniform to protect and defend for 23 years of my adult life. we were attacked in cyberspace and stole the entire voting file for the state of i willinois an have yet to be punished. i want to know what connects the people in the white house have to russia that are doing this and still haven't punished russia and should allow the independent investigation to move forward and whatever they find out, they find out. let's let former director mueller do his job. he may find there's nothing there. if not it's great but if he does we have to hold those people accountable. >> senator tammy duckworth, appreciate your time.

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it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. welcome back. the heightened tensions between the u.s. and russia are playing out in the skies over syria. russia is warning the u.s. military that russian forces will shoot down planes and drones operated by u.s.-led coalition forces spotted west of the u faeuphrates.

it comes a day after the u.s. military shot down a syrian air force jet after the aircraft dropped bombs near u.s. backed coalition forces on the ground. it's the first time american forces have downed a syrian aircraft since the start of the country's civil war back in 2011. general so dunford, chairman of the chairman joint chiefs of staffs says it was done in self-defense and the u.s. will work diplomatically and militarily to re-establish deconflict. we're back with the lid after this. and you have the determination to keep going. humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for nearly 10 years. humira works inside the body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. in clinical trials, most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance

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or new, over-the-top lobster and shrimp overboard. but it can't last, so hurry in. ♪ art. it can be sculpted, bringing to life beautiful detail. or painted in luxurious strokes. and in rare cases... both. ♪ time for the lid. the panel is back. beth, rick, jonathan. is georgia 6 going to be the canary in the coal mine, beth? >> i'm out of the predictions business. i will say -- i was there for a few days over the weekend and what we reported and what i saw

was a huge amount of enthusiasm for jon ossoff, the democrat. 12,000 volunteers, all these suburban moms who had never been involved in politics before out there doing their thing wanting to flip that campaign and wanting to flip that seat. very little enthusiasm for the other candidate. it is a very republican district, and it's going to be very, very, very close. >> are the voters excited? are these people from that district who can vote in that district? >> i found on both sides that each -- republicans didn't even know that much about karen. but those who come out and vote were going to pull the republican lever and keep that seat in republican hands. on the other side, it was very much, we're going to fight back at what we we see happened in november. we're not going to let that happen again. and john is our vessel to make sure to change things. >> focusing on donald trump, moving away from that, and talking more about health care, getting into the substance of an

issue rather than painting trump as the devil, as some democrats and liberals have been doing. do you think that is going to be an effective strategy for him? >> yes, he's pursuing the right strategy. if you watched his debate, he's not about trump, he doesn't want to be a referendum on trump. he's trying not to make the mistake that hillary clinton made just running against trump. he's speaking up on health care. what's amazing about this kid -- >> yeah, he's young. >> -- he doesn't live in the district, he was a documentary filmmaker and a congressional aide. he didn't really have any experience in politics. but he's played error-free ball for month after month. which is really hard in the glare of this publicity, and not make mistakes. other democratic candidates have a lot to learn from him, whether he wins or loses. >> remarkable discipline. donald trump is making that same point that he doesn't live in the district.

he's been tweeting about it for the past -- during the past hour. initially he spelled karen handel's name wrong. but they fixed it. how much of an issue is that he doesn't live there? she's not really focusing on health care. she told breitbart that's the biggest issue. >> well, it doesn't make sense "doesn't live there." i've heard his excuse which is pretty pathetic. but in the end i don't think it will make that much difference. the thing with oshof, he fits the district. progress i was have to take someone like that to win those kind of seats. will it be a bellwether? only in that those are the kind of seats democrats have to win in order to get the majority in 2018. if he wins, they can show, yes, we can pick off these kind of republican seats. this is not a trump district. it's a republican district -- >> but they weren't enthusiastic for trump in this district.

>> trump won it by two percentage points. and tom price won it by 22, or 24 points. so you have a lot of people who are in the district who are like -- who were the progress i was, excited to work for oshoff, but then you have people like -- it may be a referendum on trump. >> say the democrats lose by just a point. it's very close. oshoff loses. does that stop them cold? >> you know, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. the democrats have to win one of these things if they're going to keep their momentum for 2018. so it's a very, very important election for democrats. it is not like this is being nationalized by oshoff and his people. the obnoxious fund-raising emails that the democrats around the country are getting, they're not getting that inside the district. >> how interesting.

>> they're kind of running two campaigns, raising money in the rest of the country. in the district it's run by locals. they're very conscious of not having a lot of the people coming down to help, you know, out campaigning as much as i think people assume. it's very skillfully run campaign. if he loses, i think it will be because it's been so nationalized that republicans who normally would have stayed home in an off-year special election, they're not mobilized. they're like, hey, what is this all about? if they show up in some numbers they could get upset. >> final thought? >> yeah, it's a huge, huge turnout. something like twice the number of people have already voted, than did in the first go-around in april. projecting yet another huge turnout tomorrow. we're going to see sort of an outcome that is as large as a normal congressional race would be, instead of a special election. i think there is some -- if oshoff loses there would be a

significant demoralization. >> that's your cell phone right there right now. >> guys, appreciate it. beth, john, rick. thanks so much for being here. john, i hope that's a call from somebody interesting. update on a member of the white house you might have missed lately. stay tuned. (dance music) (large boat honking) ♪ i'm living that yacht life life life life ♪ top speed fifty knots life ♪ on the caribbean seas ♪ it's a champagne and models potpourri

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in case you missed it, you probably haven't seen much of the white house press secretary lately. that's not because he's gone anywhere. despite another round of rumors

today. sean spicer still has his job. it's because in case you missed it, there hasn't been an oncamera white house briefing since last monday. here are a couple of things you may have missed from today's off-camera white house briefing. spicer told the white house press corps he still has not had a chance to ask the president if he thinks climate change is man-made. he had the same answer when asked by a reporter earlier in the month. and rumored white house tapes of conversations between president trump and james comey, spicer said it's possible the white house would have an answer on their existence later in the week. the president recently said, you're going to be very disappointed by that announcement. we will be even more disappointed if the answer is, no matter what it is, isn't on camera either. that will do it for me tonight. we'll be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." greta, i'm giving it to you, 19 seconds early today. >> thank you, ka.

it's good, because we do have deeply heartbreaking in us to report tonight. and i'd love to get as much time as possible. the breaking news that otto warmbier of ohio held in a prison of north korea under the most unthinkable conditions for more than a year has died. we will have more details ahead, including comments from president trump. but indeed, it is a heart breaker for the entire nation, not to mention his family. in the meantime, we turn to vladimir putin and president trump. is putin trying to check mate president trump? a threat from putin today, and there is more, an important hotline between russia and u.s. military, suspended by russia. we'll bring you that story. and this russia news is coming as we might learn more about the possible tapes of the president's conversations with former fbi director james comey. sean spicer telling reporters in an off-camera briefing, quote, it is possible that we have a