that veterans suffered during the va scandals that were exposed a few years ago. veterans were put on secret wait lists, given the wrong medication, given the bad treatments, and ignored in moments of crisis for them. many veterans died waiting for a simple doctor's appointment. what happened was a national disgrace, and yet, some of the employees involved in these scandals remained on the payrolls. out dated laws kept the government from holding those who failed our veterans accountable. today we are finally changing those laws, it wasn't easy, but we did have some fantastic help. to make sure that the scandal of what we suffered so recently

never ever happens again. and that our veterans can get the care they so richly deserve. so you just heard from sergeant michael verardo. great. i didn't get to shake your hand, michael? huh? get up, michael. [ applause ] he gets up better than i do. thank you, michael. michael lost two limbs in defending our country, and yet, he had to wait 57 days to get his prosthetic leg repaired, it's long time, michael. and over three and a half years for modifications to make his house more accessible.

what happened to michael is happening to many. but it's rarely happening under our leadership and david's leadership anymore. that i can tell you. our wounded warriors have given everything they have to this nation. and we owe them everything we have in return and we're taking care of it. today, we are taking a very historic action to transform the va by enacting the va accountability and whistleblower protection act. this was not easy. this was not an easy one. and it's one that they've wanted to do, michael, you know, for a long time. for many years. couldn't get it done, we got it done. this is one of the largest reforms to the va in its history. it's a reform that i campaigned on and now i am thrilled to be

able to sign that promise into law. va accountability is essential to making sure that our veterans are treated with the respect they have so richly earned through their blood, sweat, and tears. this law will finally give the va secretary, who is, by the way, just doing some job and he's doing it with this and with the heart. [ applause ] it gives the secretary the authority to remove federal employees who fail and endanger our veterans and to do so quickly and effectively. it's been long time since you've heard those words. those entrusted with the sacred duty of serving our veterans

will be held accountable for the care they provide. it's a big statement. at the same time, this bill protects whistleblowers who do the right thing. we want to reward, cherish and promote the many dedicated employees at the va. this legislation also gives the va secretary the authority to appoint new medical directors at va hospitals, something which was almost impossible to do in the past. and these are going to be talented, talented people. i applaud chairman phil rowe and the members of congress here today, which we have many, who fought so hard for this legislation. and i want them up here when i sign. and i just want to thank the members of congress. they have been really dedicated to getting this done. it was not easy for them,

either. [ applause ] thank you. thank you. now, very sincere gratitude as well to the veteran's service organizations who have joined us for this tremendous occasion and for everything they do for the veterans and for so long. they've been fighting for this and other things so long. and, by the way, other things are happening. we've done a lot, this is a big one. we have a lot of good ones coming. i also want to express our appreciation for secretary shulkin, who is implementing the dramatic reform throughout the va. it's got to be implemented. if it's not properly implemented, it will never mean the same thing. but i have no doubt it will be properly implemented. right, david? better be, david.

[ applause ] we'll never have to use those words. never have to use those words on our david. we will never use those words on you, that's for sure. that one never fails, does it, tom? since my first day in office, we've taken one action after another to insure our veterans and make sure, have to make sure that they get world class care. and the kind of care that they've been promised by so many different people for so many years. we've created a new office of accountability at the va, which will empower and really has been empowered by this legislation. we've launched a new website that published wait times at

every va hospital. we've delivered same day mental health service at all 168 va medical centers. that's a big operation when you think of it. we've announced that the va will finally solve a problem that has plagued our government for decades. seamlessly transferring veterans' medical records from the department of defense to the department of veteran affairs. now -- [ applause ] that doesn't sound like such a big deal. it is. believe me. that was a big one. we thought this would be easy, but the people like david and all that have been here and understand the system, he said that's going to be a tough one. we got it done. that was a good one. but it is something we're very proud to have been able to do this quickly. i've signed the veteran's choice improvement act, so that more

veterans can see the doctor of their choice. already this year, using the choice program, veterans have received nearly double the number of approvals to see the doctor of their choosing. and this is only the beginning. we will not rest until the job is 100% complete for our great veterans. [ applause ] we could all be inspired by the story of a retired air force veteran named earl morris who served as a physician's assistant at the va centers in ohio and indiana. 13 years ago, earl began asking his patients if they planned to visit new world war ii memorial, which is beautiful, right here

in washington, d.c. nearly all said they planned to visit, but when he saw these patients at their next appointment, almost none of them had made the trip. one day, he had an idea. earl is a private pilot. he asked one of his patients who was a world war ii veteran if he could fly with him to the memorial. he was so honored to do it. the 80-year-old veteran wept, openly cried. he never imagined he would see that beautiful monument to his service. that is how first honor flight was born. honor flight. very beautiful thing. since then, over 100,000 veterans have been greeted with cheers of gratitude as they arrive in our nation's capital.

we want all american veterans, all of them, every one of them, to experience and to at least have the opportunity to experience that same gratitude every time they walk into the va. that's what today is all about. keeping our promises to those who have kept us free. kept us happy. saved our lives and saved our families. so i just want to thank you, our incredible veterans. we stand with you, we salute you. and with this new legislation, we strive to better support and serve you every single day. thank you, god bless you. god bless our veterans. and god bless america. thank you very much.

[ applause ] the president with the veteran's affairs secretary, joining me now to comment is vermont senator bernie sanders former chairman of the veteran's affairs committee in the senate. before we talk about healthcare, can we just talk about what the president is now signing? and how is this changing the way veterans' affairs was run before? >> well, we have got to do everything that we can to strengthen the va. i think andrea, if you talk to all of the veterans' organizations, what they will tell you is once veterans get into the va, it is some of the highest quality care in the united states of america. a recent study that was done by a medical organization pointed out that in most areas, the va actually out performs private hospitals. our job right now is to make sure that we fill the vacancies that exist in va staffing. that we expedite the process so

when veterans call up the va they get into the va in a prompt and efficient manner. >> do you think that there is a problem with dismissing people who have performed badly and in protecting whistleblowers? >> it goes without saying you have to dismiss people who have performed badly. like any organization, you can't just be arbitrary. people have a right to make their case and to defend themselves. but when we talk about veterans, let's take us right now to the healthcare bill that donald trump is supporting. the bill that was proposed just the other day in the senate, passed in the house, which would be disaster for veterans who are on medicaid. because it would cut some $800 billion over a ten year period from medicaid, which will impact not only veterans, it will impact children with disabilities. it will impact families who have loved ones in nursing homes, because about 60% of nursing home care is paid for by

veterans. and i have to tell you, andrea, that i have never seen a piece of legislation as bad as that bill that passed the house. and i think the senate bill is as bad. the idea that we would throw 23 million million americans off of health insurance, raise premiums, substantially for older workers, defund planned parenthood in order to do what? to give $200 billion in tax breaks to the top 2%. i think that as a nation we have got to ask ourselves, are those the priorities that we believe in? massive tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country who are already doing phenomenonal phenomenally well and going to war against the working class of this country, throwing 23 million people off of health insurance, including a lot of children. i don't think that that's what this country is supposed to be about. and i'm going to do everything i can to see that that terrible

legislation is defeated and move this country to where every other major nation on earth is, and that is guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a right, not a privilege. >> it's a very narrow margin, though, to try to stop this from going through. right now you've got a handful of moderate republicans who have objections to the medicaid cuts, the depth of those cuts, and also to the elimination of planned parenthood funding. at the same time, you have conservatives, four conservatives led by rand paul who say that it is not tough enough. they are fiscal conservatives, they think it's too generous. that said, they don't seem to be dead set against it. it looks as though they're trying to do some bargaining. what are the chances you can stop this from going through? >> well, i will be this weekend, i'm going to be in pittsburgh on saturday night. i'll be in ohio and west virginia on sunday. and i believe that all over the

country, what you're seeing -- you know it's not just what a handful of senators believe, it's what the american people believe. and poll after poll makes it very clear. that the american people do not believe that we throw millions of people off health insurance. let us be clear, andrea, and this is not trying to be overly dramatic. thousands of people will die. if you don't have any health insurance and you have a chronic disease, and you can't afford your prescription drugs, you know what? you'll die, you'll become much sicker. so our job right now is not just to worry about a handful of senators who are trying to get this or that from the republican leader. it's to make it clear to the american people that this is not what our country is about. you'll recall that when trump ran for president what he said, you know, and i'm paraphrasing, he said we're going to provide healthcare to everybody, everybody. it's going to be great. throwing 23 million people off of health insurance and raising premiums for older workers,

substantially, that's not providing healthcare to everybody. that's not great. that's a disaster. that's wrong. and the american people do not want to see this legislation passed. >> do you have enough time to try to make that case? democrats, most recently in the georgia sixth. democrats have had a hard time getting their points across to the american people. >> not quite so sure, you know, we can argue about where the democratic party should go. and as you know, my view has been that the democratic party needs a fundamental restructuring. in terms of how it does business and what its points of view are. i think at a time when we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality, when 52% of income is going to the top 1% whm when you have people in my state of vermont is working two or three jobs. kids can't afford to go to college when you have millions of workers trying to make it on $10 an hour.

the democratic party has got to be clear we stand with working families. we are prepared to take on wall street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel companies. and create a government which works for everybody and not just the 1%. so there are a lot of people out there who are very, very demoralized about the political process. democrats, republicans, independents. and what our goal has got to be is to say to those people we know that you're in pain. we know you're worried about your kids. we know you're worried about your parents. and we are prepared to stand up to the large multinational corporations, to the waeealthy the koch brothers who are doing so much to try to batter the middle class and working families while working overtime for the people on top. that has got to be the message and if we do that, i think you're going to get more people, young people, working people into the political process. and i think we cannot only transform the democratic party, but transform america.

>> i want to also ask you about russia and its hacking. there's new reporting in the washington post today about the role of putin, the direct role of vladmir putin in trying to hurt hillary clinton, help donald trump, in directing the hacking. a lot of this intelligence known, certainly known by late summer to the intelligence community. apparently a really big internal debate about what to do about it. you heard jeh johnson defending the process, saying that they did argue about it, but that they were concerned about appearing to be too political and jump into the race. what are your concerns about, if any, about the way they handled this? >> it's a difficult situation. i think, you know, of course, we have to understand what went on. but i think we have to look prospectively. and that is, what we have to understand and there is no more debate on this issue. russia, putin played an extraordinarily active role in terms of cyber attacks in trying

to elect donald trump as president of the united states. i don't think anybody disagrees with that. and i think it is not just the united states they played a role in france, they played a role in other countries. it's not acceptable for a nation to try to destabilize democracies. russia has got to be told that and there have to be very strong sanctions backing up that statement. so what our job right now is to make it clear to russia that they cannot destabilize democracies all over this country. there has to be a lot of teeth in those sanctions. >> but, senator, right now you've got the president of the united states sending the actual -- opposite signal to russia. and dismissing the reports even of the hacking. only reluctantly acknowledging it if that. >> he may dismiss it -- >> the administration is taking any action, including some of

these covert measures to follow up on what the russians are did. >> well, the american people, then, you know, are going to have to ask themselves a question. and that is, why is it that we have a president who is not concerned that russia is trying to destabilize american democracy and democracies all over this country. and in general, why do we have a president who seems to get into fights with leaders of democratic nations around the world, but has amazingly kind things to say about authtoritarian types, whether it's putin in russia, the monarchy in saudi arabia, or whether it is the leadership in turkey or in other countries. this country, andrea, has been the model for the world in terms

of what democracy should be about. we must continue to be that model. we have got to speak out against authoritarianism all over the country. i think it's a little bit concerning, to say the least, that we have a president who apparently seems not to be concerned about russia destabilizing democracies. >> bernie sanders, joining us today. thank you very much, senator. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, andrea. >> and joining me now with the very latest on where things stand in that senate healthcare bill is nbc's kasie hunt, been all over the story. thanks very much. you have the four conservatives i saw you chasing after republican senators and those -- there were a number of got away, a number didn't get away. what about the republican moderates? if the conservatives end up being drawn back in by mitch mcconnell, it's -- as you know, very well, it's susan collins

and maybe dean heller gets a pass. where do they stand when the role is called? >> reporter: i think it honestly depends on how far these conservatives are able to push on their priorities. ted cruz sounding something of a productive note, or at least that's how republican leaders are choosing to interpret what happened yesterday with these conservatives, they do want to be sitting at the table and working something out. there's an emerging sense -- i was on the house side this morning talking to republicans. they are currently muted about the bill. mark meadows was not willing to attack the senate bill. he said if senator cruz can get on board with this i think we would probably be fine. that's very telling here. i think they have kind of long ball in mind. we know ted cruz talks to the house conservatives that caused so much trouble over on the house side with this bill. i think there's a little bit of orchestrated theater going on on

that side. now, that said, the policy differences here are very real. and as you point out, those moderates, concerned very much about opioid funding for example. also concerned very much about medicaid. if this gets pushed too far they could be putting some of those people in an impossible position. i don't think mitch mcconnell wants to do that. one thing i do thing, everyone is saying that no matter where the vote count is there is going to be a vote next week. obviously, anything can happen, but that's what's being telegraphed right now. >> you've got your work cut out for you. thank you so much. kasie hunt on capitol hill in the middle of the debate. and senator susan collins is one of several senators who was questioning the healthcare bill as we just said. >> what is the personal level of i don't like the bill but i'll support it. what is the line for you as a republican?

don't be the last vote that kills this. we know you don't like half of it. what is your, you know, is it the planned parenthood amendment? what is your line in the sand? >> well, i can't support a bill that's going to greatly increase premiums for our older americans out of pocket costs for those who aren't quite old enough for medicare yet. i cannot support a bill that is going to result in tens of millions of people losing their health insurance. so it isn't any one factor, i do care also about funding of planned parenthood. but it's all of those factors put together that will influence my decision. >> joining me now, chuck todd, moderator from "meet the press." you of course saw him interviewing susan collins. who who is going to fold first, the

moderates or conservatives? >> i think some of those conservatives of the four there are more open than others. i think rand paul has set a pretty high bar for what it would take for him to support a bill that could get 50 republican votes. he would have to compromise on some things i think would make it look a tad hypocritical for him. he's less in play than the other three. i'll be honest with you, if you take susan collins at her word there and she is all about the congressional budget office. she said i'm waiting to see what they say on those items that she cares about. this bill is very similar to the house bill. right? there are some differences, but they're not that significant. i think we have an idea of what cbo is going to say, and cbo is going to say that, yes, while premiums growing to go down, out of pocket costs are going to go up. the idea of seniors or folks in

between 50 and 65 they're going to see their out of pocket costs go up and see their premiums rise due to certain aspects of the law that allow, for example, insurance companies instead of capping three times the amount of a younger person, it's five times they can charge that's older. i don't know how criteria is met to meet what susan collins said to me. i just don't see how they get on that front. but could i see more money for openo opioid abuse money to insure them from bailing? you could. maybe that's how you get ron johnson. i can see how they put this together on that front. and there's one other thing here, andrea i think matters. this is not a policy debate, it's a process debate for mitch mcconnell. i think he's going to be able to say, you know what, you'll have

one more shot at fixing this bill because guess what, there will be reconciliation, we'll have to vote on this bill again. maybe you'll have another shot. in the same way democrats at the very end strong armed a bunch of folks and said just vote for it now you'll have one more shot at fixing it later. and it turned out that wasn't true, but at the time it was how they got those last stragglers in. that's how i'm guessing mcconnell will get 50 votes. >> one question that comes to play here, is what about the president's approval numbers and disapproval numbers? and how much does that either free them up or to be independent or not? and looking at your new numbers last night, when you look at the internals of this, the independents, 63% disapproval, but the base is holding for him. >> well, that's the thing. that's where georgia played a huge role here. we would be having a different conversation if things had been different.

the tribal politics that have become here with the red and the blue, sticking to their bases essentially, you know, stick to your guns on this, but work with either side. essentially saying, no, stick to your guns on this, don't work with the other side. that is -- i think the decision republicans are making, there is a bigger penalty to buck the base than to appease independents. and look at -- all you have to do is look at georgia sixth. at the end of the day it was the base that bailed the republicans out, not the independents. the lesson they're taking away, for now it's a short term issue in their mind. i think they're solving a short term program. they're buying long term pain

here. by the time 2020 hits, the promises candidate donald trump made about medicaid cuts suddenly are front and center. since it would be him that would be on the ballot. i think they are borrowing money with a very high interest rate here. they may be able to appease the base, say they fulfilled a promise to deal with healthcare early. but the problems down the road that this is going to cause, and they're going to own it all on their own, the way the democrats did with obamacare. then that's going to be a political problem in 2020. i think many of these folks are only looking -- they're only thinking about 2018 at this point. >> or next week at this point. exactly. thanks so much. of course, much more on all of this today on mtp daily at 5:00 eastern. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press" on nbc news. intelligence bomb shell more on "the washington post" reporting on how president obama's team struggled to handle the kremlin's meddling in the 2016 election.

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explosive new information today about the extent of vladmir putin's personal involvement in the presidential election hack. "the washington post" reporting that president obama approved planting digital bombs in russia's infrastructure. the u.s. could detonate if tensions escalated. joining me now is congressman eric fallwell who sets on the judiciary committees. this reporting, if we had this abilities, why haven't we used these cyber tools against russia

to retaliate? >> good afternoon, andrea. it is a stirring read to go back and see just what russia was doing. you know, my assessment, andrea, is that there were smoke in the kitchen and the response was to open the windows when we needed a fire extinguisher. it was not just cyber tools that, you know, should be considered. it's also sanctions, but i think the president needed to go before the american people for an evening address behind the resolute desk and explain exactly what russia was doing so that there was a general awareness before people went to the polls. >> and the explanation is they didn't want to politicize this. is it basically that they thought hillary clinton was going to win, so why raise all these issues when you had donald trump claiming that the election was rigged already? >> donald trump's claim that there was going to be voter fraud, certainly complicated things. i'm sure it was considered that

you could be playing into that claim, that baseless claim, while you're talking about a legitimate exercise to interfere in the election. and i don't doubt they worked to address this. it certainly was not enough if we could do it all over again it would look night and day different. >> the president tweeted out yesterday that he does not have tape. is that good enough? does that answer the questions that your committee has raised? >> it certainly does not. because he's really screwed around with this question and it took 41 days for us to find out just what the truth was. now we're going to have to seek other sources and witnesses to see if that is true. but i think what is even more damaging here, is that if there were no tapes, then why did he say it? if he said it to try to intimidate james comey that backfired because james comey

came before the senate not knowing whether there were tapes and provided testimony under oath. his testimony is the only testimony that's on the record and it's uncontradicted. >> apparently, mike conaway who is taking this on as the counterpart to adam schiff, the republican who played devin nunez says he wants affirmation from the white house that there were no tapes, a tweet isn't good enough. >> a tweet certainly isn't good enough. we gave a deadline for today and hopefully we'll have a declaration. individuals may have to be called in. i would like to see, at least on the judiciary committee for individuals to be called in. >> you have the president questioning the independence of robert mueller, saying he's hired a bunch of lawyers who are clinton supporters. >> the president would be well-served to really get out of

the way. every time he has put himself into this investigation it has just disrupted it. so we want robert mueller's investigation to be an honest one that makes progress with the resources they need. we want the house investigation to proceed so we can report back to the marn peopamerican people. it was mentioned that an independent commission as john kerry advocated for is the best way to get to the bottom of this, declassify the facts and debunk what the president has put out there. we need to get back to work for the american people because this russia mess has brought the city to a halt. >> thank you very much, congressman, have a great weekend. thanks for coming up. and we'll be right back. 80 percent of recurrent ischemic strokes

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and north korea today denying that it cruelly treated or tortured otto warmbier blaming the obama administration never working to get him out. joining me is the former secretary of defense in the clinton administration who served in the senate and the house. currently leads his own consulting group. welcome, good to see you. we know from secretary kerry and other spokesmen from the administration they said they tried throughout the time that otto warmbier was in captivity, using ambassador joe young, the

person who was credited with talking to the north koreans once president trump took over. what do we make of north korea's claims today? >> we make little of north korea's claim. john mccain has said that they murdered him. well, we can't come to that conclusion except to say it's a murderous regime. this is not the only person that they have killed. including the relative of the present. it's a murderous regime and anything coming out of north korea is not to be bearing any semblance of the truth. this young man, they held him on phony charges. kept them there for a year and sent him home as a vegetable to receive him in that condition. it's unacceptable and the administration said we're going to hold them accountable. what does it mean? what does it mean to hold them accountable? it means we have to intensify sanctions against them. we have to put more and more

pressure on them to say we're not going to accept this. we're not going to say you're responsible. we're going to make sure that there are some penalties that go with it and right now there are no penalties. >> absent an autopsy, how do we find out what happened? what did they do with this boy? >> we won't find out. the family feels very strongly, that they don't want to see anymore harm done to the body of their child. you can understand that. but that makes it very unclear. but the fact is, he was a healthy young man when he went to north korea. he's a very unhealthy man when he's released. for them to say you didn't try hard enough. do we have to send a basketball player over to negotiate his release? this is ridiculous in deal ing with a regime that is murderous. >> should there be secondary sanctions on china? >> i think we have to impose secondary sanctions. now the north koreans and

chinese say there ought to be a freeze. we've been here or there before. they undertake measures to accelerate their testing of their missiles, their nuclear explosion and consolidate the gains and say let's talk for a while. they breach the agreements and then they start from a much higher plateau in terms of what they can do next. the time has come to say unless you're willing to change the direction of your regime, we got to do whatever we can to bring a new regime into power. that comes from within by intensifying the sanction. >> there are some signals from the white house that a military response is being considered against the missile and nuclear programs? >> the military response is something at the very far end of the spectrum of responses. i would not recommend any military response at this point and perhaps not at all. i think we can bring about a change from within. >> a quick question about the

saudis and quatar and a lot of these middle east -- issues that have come up now. we have a new saudi crown prince, but this is whatever the economic reforms he has proposed this is the same man that's been in charge of a war against yes, ma'am -- yemen. >> i met with the crown prince last week. general jones and i had a chance to meet with him in private for about an hour. i was impressed with him. i was impressed with his energy, his commitment to reform, to changing the way saudi arabia is doing business as he tries to modernize the economy. make it less oil dependent, et cetera. very tough times for him. you've got a population, 70% under the age of 30. very high unemployment rate. oil prices now dropping even lower. so big challenges. i'm impressed with the energy and the intelligence and the desire for him to reform his country. he has the support of the uae, a

strong ally of the united states. he has the support of the trump administration. i think with our help and with the help of the allies in the region he can be successful. it's going to be tough but he can do it. >> former defense secretary, good to see you. coming up, early morning phone rants and tweet storms, why president trump won't let frustrations over the russia investigation go. the details in our inside scoop coming up right here, stay with us. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing?

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president trump still obsessing over the russia investigation according to a new report in "the washington post." quote. let's get the inside scoop from "the washington post" white house reporter ashley parker, co-author of that story. and msnbc contributor, sam stein. >> hello. >> thank you both. is this for the lawyers to try to restrain him so he doesn't do more tajikistan damage damage o?

>> partially, yes. the goal in this was encouraged by some of the senior advisers within the west wing to help the president compartmentalize the rusch investigation. the thinking if he has a morning call and takes through strategy which he need to do legitimately and gets a chance to vent and get out his frustration. by the time he shows up for work oval office he is focusing on the day's agenda. sometimes it's not working and enhangs up a call and send out a tweet about the russia probe still occupying his mind. >> sometimes. let's just talk about yesterday. the senate republicans were unveiling health care with, you know, great fan fare, if not a whole lot of scrutiny. the tweet storm from the white house was all about russia because he was watching jeh johnson or something else. or cable news. and so one after another on the russia probe stand. >> yes. he seems obsessed over it,

perhaps rightly so, and impus e i impulsive what he is doing. they need to have a venting session to stop him from tweeting and not normally what we do with the president. but also self-damaging if, you think about. it. the comey tape tweets he put up facilitated to the appointment of bob mueller. he knew the answer, right? >> the republican in charge is saying today, not good enough. you can't deny there are tapes on twitter. we want something on letterhead from the white house officially informing this committee that there are no tapes and not in a lawyerly fashion. >> yeah. i just think, you know, at some point he will potentially recognize that he is his own worst enemy on this medium. he, obviously, loves twitter and stir a news cycle and it helps him vent, i imagine. there are real word consequences to this. you will launch probes. you will spark the creation of a

special prosecutor. you will keep russia hanging over your administration's head and at some point i do imagine he'll get, certainly his staff seems to get that. >> now the "the washington pow"" tools and covert weapons available under the obama administration, there are questions asked on the hill why aren't we in closed session retaliating? you've got the president of the united states not acknowledging that this each happened. >> right. it feels like the first step to retaliation would be admitting, for instance, that russia did, in fact, try to meddle with our elections and it wasn't a 400-pound person sitting in the station. that is the first hurdle. with "the post" story and additional questions, at sam said, the real issue is that the president maintains he did nothing wrong, there was no collusion but each time russias comes up, he tweets something out damaging. he says something in a

television interview damaging and that sort of creates this avalanche they can't step. what he should have done there is no collusion, i want the investigation to bear that out and just be silent is what his aides desperately want and so far it has not happened. >> sam, you've been reporting on the democratic nominee in virginia. now that the special elections are out of the way, that off-year election that could be a real bellwether. >> democrats will have a meltdown potentially if they do lose these gubernatorial elections. they are primed to win in new jersey and primed to win in v. which is a state trending if not blue already. it creates an immense amount of pressure on the democratic nominee for the governor's chair. not the most sort of barn-burner speech guy. he is very spokoft spoken. he had a bernie sanders/hillary clinton dynamic in the primary.

he is going to bring president obama off the sidelines and he'll make his first return to the campaign sometime this fall and stumping for ralph. >> president obama not wanting to become the magnet for the trump supporters, the democratic magnet rather, i guess let nancy pelosi suffer that. but he also, on facebook, came out on the health care bill so that was enough of a legacy hit for him to be very vocal yesterday. >> absolutely. and it felt sort of like classic obama. i mean, it was methodical and well reasoned and detailed. i believe it did not mention president trump by name once but it was very clear, of course, what he was talking about. >> ashley parker and sam stein. >> thanks, andrea. happy weekend. >> thank you for your inside scoop. we will be right back.

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in your heart, senator, have you ever been troubled by the fact you have a boyish appearance. >> no, i haven't been troubled by it. i feel a time i'll deal successfully with that. >> that was gabe pressman, the legendary correspondent for wnbc a fixture in new york tv news a pioneer for almost six decades who died today at the age of 93. he was one of the first local television reporters in the country and known for chasing breaking news and interview some

of the popular politicians. he will be missed by all of us at nbc news. that does it for us. follow the show online on facebook and on twitter at mitchell report. craig melvin is up next here on msnbc. craig? >> hey, there, andrea. have a good weekend. >> you too. >> craig melvin here. trump versus comey. brand-new nbc polls numbers just out showing who americans believe when it comes to the story about why the fbi director was fired. this is the president implies a new interview that he bluffed about having tapes of their conversations to keep comey honest. also this afternoon missed opportunity? new reporting calls into question whether president obama acted soon enough and forcefully enough when he learned russia was meddling in the election. did he let putin off the hook? trump care backlash. republicans leader trying to convince