hello, everyone, i'm richard lui in new york city, thanks for being with us on this sunday. millions of americans have some serious doubts about the president, a new poll shows donald trump with the lowest six-month approval rating of any president in the past 70 years, since polling started. his agenda overshadowed by the russia investigation with the focus now on his eldest son and today the president and his attorney are on the defense. >> my answer stands, and that is the president was not engaged in this, was not aware of it. >> to say there was only smoke and there's no fire, that's all been put to rest. this is clearly brings the investigation to a new level. plus, delayed again.

for the second time in three weeks, the vote on the health care bill gets postponed, this time it's because of the absence of senator john mccain recovering from surgery. the question now will be, will republicans have the votes to pass the bill when mccain returns? >> i believe as soon as we have a full contingent of senators, that we'll have that vote. it's important we do so. and after serving nine years behind bars, o.j. simpson could soon be a free man. first up for you on this sunday, president trump let one lawyer take all the questions today about russia and his son's meetings with russian nationals last year at trump tower. jay sukalow at times tried to distance the president's actions from his sons. he tried to shift the focus to ousted fbi director james comey, and called robert mueller's investigation a witch hunt. most of the interviews focused on the meeting that has dominated the headlines for a week now. take a look.

>> do you know for sure everyone that was at that meeting with donald trump jr.? >> no, i don't represent donald trump jr., and i do not know everyone for sure that was at that meeting, i can tell you the president wasn't aware of the meeting and did not attend it. >> when did the president become aware of this meeting? >> well, the president said he became aware of it very recently, right before this came out. >> is it possible as the president's lawyer to say the president knows of no other meetings with his campaign staff and russians? >> the -- obviously, the president has been very clear on that. he said he has no -- had no meetings, was aware of no meetings with russians, was not aware of this one until, really, right before it all broke. >> isn't it kind of important whether or not what donald trump jr. and manafort and kushner did, isn't it also important whether or not it's legal, whether or not it's wrong, whether or not it's ethical? >> you're conflating -- so, you're conflating, jake, three

perspectives here. the legality, was the meeting and what took place legal or not, of course, as almost every legal expert says it's not illegal, and then you're trying to put a moral/ethical aspect to it, and it's easy to do that in 20/20 hindsight, but not when you're in the middle of a campaign. >> but do you expect what we heard from the president's pick to run the fbi is the fbi should have been notified? >> well, i've wondered why the secret service, if this was nefarious, why the secret service allowed these people in. the president had secret service at that point. that raised a question with me. >> doesn't it show intent and willingness on the part of don junior and jared and paul manafort to collude with the russians? and natalia veselnitskaya had close ties to people in the kremlin. >> well, number one, the discussion was -- if it was going to be about russian

opposition research that a russian lawyer had, the fact is, you know that goes on in campaigns all the time. opposition research is a big part of campaigning. >> it doesn't go on with the russians all the time, jay. >> but look, here's what happened. first of all, nothing happened, no exchange of information. >> and then we turn to the polls. new out this sunday, one showing the president with the lowest approval rating nearing the six-month mark for any president going back 70 years. only 36% of americans in this abc news/"the washington post" survey back president trump's performance so far. but an nbc news/"the wall street journal" poll shows in american counties which fuelled trump's election win across the country, his support stands at 50%. when we break down the numbers in surge counties where the president did much better than mitt romney, the number goes even higher. in flip counties that once backed president obama, mr. trump's rating goes the other way. it dips to 44%. nbc's kelly o'donnell is in new

jersey, not far from the president's golf course retreat, where he is at this weekend. kelly, so much to digest today. main headline, we'll start with this, is the issue about what the white house is saying regarding the polls and as well as regarding russia. >> reporter: well, as we often say, richard, the white house is not talking about this, in the official capacity of the white house, they are focused on other things. and when we had a briefing today looking ahead for the week, they are talking about their domestic agenda, buy american, manufacturing, those kinds of things, so we have to separate the white house officially is not engaging in this, not even commenting on the polling numbers. what we did see, and you played clips of the president's personal lawyer hired outside the white house, who's been the chief spokesman on television for the president, we've not heard from the lawyers at least publicly for jared kushner and donald trump jr., who are, of course, involved in this, but each has a separate lawyer or teams of lawyers. so, for the president, this is kind of a quasi white house

fight, but it is separate from the white house. the president himself has used twitter, as he so often does, to sort of mix things up today, raising the issue of why his son is being, quote, scorned by the media. he raised that against hillary clinton, raising her, talking about deleted e-mails and that sort of thing, so he is defending his son. also, trying to discredit the media and the reporting on this. also talking about that new polling where the president says that the polling around the election time was certainly inaccurate, but in his view almost 40% isn't so bad. of course, it's 36%. so the white house has a lot of issues on its plate, trying to look ahead, take care of its own agenda, try to have something positive going forward. the president, who's in the middle of all of this, feeling the need to defend himself. legal advice was he not talk about these things, but he does it with feisty fighting spirit, especially defending his son and going after the news media.

that has some traction with some of his supporters who are also critical of the coverage, but as we heard through a number of those clips from the shows today, there are experts looking at this on the intelligence committees and are involved in the investigation who see real areas of concern that need to be pursued. it will take time for that to unfold, but this is a very difficult time for the trump white house now that there is an example of a meeting and a range of stories that go around it that only raises more questions and is not calming this down. richard? >> latest reporting there from nbc's kelly o'donnell, very close by to the president this afternoon. thank you, kelly. i want to bring in msnbc contributor and former fbi double agent, author of "how to catch a russian spy." also alan smith, politics writer, and sarah westwood, all three. let's start with you, allan. you heard all of the statements and we, of course, are taking excerpts from the five interviews that came from jay

sekolow. some of the defense he's made is this parallel to ukraine, right, and supposed aide of hillary clinton. >> yeah, absolutely. so, you know, first off we've seen in recent days that the trump defense teams defense is collusion, what laws are broken, it's gone from no collusion happened to collusion is not illegal, if this specific meeting took place, if what they are describing is what happened. and then the teams also trying to connect it to this politico story from january about how a dnc operative met with members of the ukrainian embassy to get information on paul manafort. they are saying this had an effect on what happened to paul manafort later in the campaign when he was eventually ousted based on that ukrainian ledger, so they are making an argument the dnc did this, they are falling again on the campaign and really trying to sort of muddy the waters on necessarily

what was wrong with this meeting with donald trump jr. >> are those two examples the same? >> no. i don't think they are. i mean, clearly, there's an attempt to put a moral equivalency here, which i don't think is going to pan out. taking a little bit of a turn here, let's focus for a second on what the russian intent was. i think that's an important part of this. it's clear to me someone who's worked with the russians that there was clearly a desire to try to make contact with the trump circle, trump orbit, but also a second thing. the types of people they are using. we've heard a lot of these weren't russian officials, they have perhaps ties to russia. that is a textbook example of what we would call a cutout. and it goes back to the other part of a russian intelligence operation. you have the mission objective, but you also want to make sure there's nonattribution, so to me this sounds like something the russians would do and that the russians were quite worried about being compromised and having attributions. certainly you can see that in

the fact they used people where the ties to russia were perhaps questionable. >> softer touches, if you will, and connections. >> absolutely. >> sarah, as you look at the response here and we heard there from kelly o'donnell nothing fir official, but there are tweets from the president from time to time, and one today, he said here with all the fraudulent reporting, fake news is distorting democracy in our country. there again eluding to the reporting coming out here. not seemingly that jay sekolow or any member of his team can keep the president from coming out with statements at some point could hurt him. >> absolutely. i think that's probably why they sought to keep the president isolated from this information for as long as possible. they didn't bring him into the circle until just a few days before this news was set to break, even though the reporting suggests that his legal team was aware of this meeting weeks, if not months before it emerged.

clearly president trump knows he's kind of winning every time he's hitting the media, at least in the eyes of his base. they love that. it's a political victory for him, it's easy, it's cost free, and he can blame his troubles on the media and in the eyes of his supporters, the information is coming from the media and it continues to buoy him, this fight that he's having, with the press even though it's not really taking on the allegations themselves head on, it's his way of coping, though, and it has helped him navigate previous controversies. >> there's been some movement in his legal team, intimating there. allan with ty cobb onboard, hits the ground running with a new week starting tomorrow, really today, but in terms a work day tomorrow, what's that mean in terms of what he brings to the party? >> it signals president trump is increasingly taking this seriously, this is another criminal defense attorney added to the team, the team's getting

beefed up. they know there's more coming here. >> he's the man, though, in the space? >> absolutely. he's highly respected, known as one of the top people in washington, and representing some of these issues. >> navid, when you see who was in the room with trump junior, and we've gone through the names before and understand there are six we're confirming here on msnbc news, put that together. it's certainly been said this is pretty critical of the steps by which have been used in other situations by the russians. this is part of the playbook. >> that's absolutely right. what we would call it is a dangle. in fact, while we don't know the names of the other people in the room, what would be a game changer if one of those people was, in fact, an official russian government employee, official, or connected directly to the russian government, but this is the standard, you know, operating procedure for them. they were clearly trying to probe and see if they could get into the campaign and see if there was a friendly port.

you know, i think the person on the americans, on the u.s. side that is perhaps in the biggest legal jeopardy is jared kushner, because what you see here, while this was a reactive action by the trump campaign, that is to say the russians came calling, they accepted the meeting, what you see is different, jared kushner trying to set up meetings with, in fact, kislyak and that is, perhaps, a trend that we will be hearing a lot more about. >> "new york times" mentioned very clearly laying out how this is not new stuff to him. he had gone through and is very aware of the dynamics of how to conduct a meeting and keeping it covert if need be. sarah, finally, these poll numbers when we look at the counties that were essential to president trump winning, and we look at what nbc news and "the wall street journal" found, this topic of russia and health care not resinating. >> right.

and that's something that democrats have some of them started to realize and been weary of diverting all of their energy into pushing these russian allegations because it doesn't necessarily resinate with some of the voters that democrats will need to flip in 2018 and in future presidential elections. the where you see president trump's numbers starting to fall, it's been a steady decline. it hasn't dropped sharply every time we've seen a russian-related controversy, but the steady decline can be attributed to the stagnation of his agenda, and you can more or less draw a straight line between that and the russian controversies, which are what's paralyzing his agenda, but folks are responding more to the fact that nothing is getting done than the fact that president trump looks like his administration may have been misleading about the russian allegations. >> what we're seeing so far, somewhat bullet proof for the most part in terms of these counties that we polled. sarah, allan, thank you all for

your great conversation. >> thank you. despite the polls showing historically low popularity, president trump still has a support of millions of americans. later we're going to visit one of the ohio counties where trump did extremely well last year to see what people there think today and what they think of him now. plus, acquitted of murder and convicted of robbery. after nine years behind bars, o.j. simpson is now up for parole. next, his chances of finally becoming, potentially, a free man. whoa! you're not taking these. hey, hey, hey! you're not taking those. whoa, whoa! you're not taking that. come with me. you're not taking that. you're not taking that. you're not taking that. mom, i'm taking the subaru. don't be late. even when we're not there to keep them safe, our subaru outback will be. (vo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. nitrites or artificial ham has preservatives.tes,

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i wasn't there to hurt anybody. i just wanted my personal things and i realize i was stupid and i'm sorry. i didn't mean to steal anything from anybody, and i didn't know i was doing anything illegal. i thought i was confronting friends and retrieving my

property. so i'm sorry. i'm sorry for all of it. >> yeah, back to 2008, o.j. simpson there pleading for mercy at his sentencing hearing then. his bungled attempt to retrieve memorabilia from a vegas hotel room ended in a conviction for armed robbery and a 33-year prison sentence. he's spent now nine years behind bars and now 70 years old, simpson will again make his case for leniency when he appears before the nevada parole board thursday. once a hero and actor, his star fell when he was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her best friend in 1994. simpson was acquitted but a civil jury found him liable and ordered him to pay $25 million in damages to the brown and goldman families. simpson claimed he was trying to get the memorabilia back to pay the civil judgment against him. joining me now, defense attorney and former prosecutor, karen de soto. good friend of the network,

certainly. karen, would that work as he goes forward to the parole hearing, that sort of approach? >> welt, he already went up for parole actually in 2013 and he got it, so, you know, there's certain factors that the parole board look for. obviously, the goldman and brown murders are not supposed to be considered. how that works unconsciously, though, richard, is another question. but they look at such factors like his age. we know simpson is now 70. it is actually a first conviction, right, so even though the goldman, that was a big deal, but he was not convicted, so that can't be considered, and his behavior. those are the factors that are going to be considered. he's been through the process in 2013, and i see no reason why in 2017 anything has changed. >> will he get it? >> yes. i believe that he'll get it, because he already got it once, and there are no behavior problems that i'm aware of. there could be, but lack of any behavior problems, i don't think he's going to have a problem whatsoever. >> now, he is one of those

quote, unquote, star inmates. is he going to get special treatment? >> well, of course he probably does get special treatment. however, the parole board has a certain set of guidelines. it's the same throughout the whole entire state of nevada. does he get special attention in prison? probably, he is o.j. simpson, so celebrity does need to be in consideration and his co-conspirator got out of prison on appeal, the appellate court feeling he was tainted by o.j.'s celebrity. >> when we look at what might happen next, if he does get out, what will happen with him? >> well, he could be a reality star. >> many folks have done it. >> we all know about the book he wrote in prison, which got a lot of, a lot of attention. would he be eligible for reality shows? sure. would a large portion of that money have to go back to the browns and the simpsons? yes, just like the proceeds of the book. >> what would happen with the browns and simpsons in that

case? no other chapter? >> well, there's lots of chapters left, because he did file bankruptcy court. when he got the $600,000 in advance for writing the book, the goldmans went back to court, got 90% of that, didn't see a lot of that money, unfortunately, and there's tens of millions still owed. so whatever he does do, just like he reportedly said to the judge during his sentences that he wanted the memorabilia back to pay the browns and the simpsons in the civil liability, a lot of people thought that was just for the judge, but again, those are the same things he's going to be saying now, but he's very popular. there was the mini series and, again, he has potential for another book and reality shows. >> and we have seen this happen before. >> we have. >> thank you so much. thursday is the day, right? >> yes. caring for the elderly and disabled. next, the extra help available for hawaiians taking care of a family member while still trying

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tylenol® the name of a new law to help residents of hawaii to care for an aging parent or relative. the kapuna act allows caregivers to earn up to $70 a day, even if they have another job. and this money is intended to help relieve the financial strain for caring for an elderly relative. caregivers use the cash vouchers they get toward health care, meals, transportation, and other home services for dependents over 60. hawaii is the first state in the country to pass this groundbreaking legislation and idea. joining me now, the governor of hawaii. governor, thanks for being with me. this would be quite amazing to not only the residents, the citizens of the great state of

hawaii, but also as an example for every other state in the union, as well as the territories. what brought this on? >> we have a long history of really caring for our kapuna. we know that they are such an integral part of our community, of our families, and this is really -- this caregivers bill is just an extension of our efforts to allow families to take care of their loved ones in the home. we do know that most families prefer to have their loved ones in their home, and this is our effort to give them the support that they need. >> you know, if you look at the numbers here, governor, half a trillion dollars in wages go towards care giving, but none of that is ever paid. in this case you have $70. is that enough, and how did you come up with that number? >> it's -- we know that it's

enough, not enough, to provide full care, but what we wanted to provide was support for a working caregiver. remember, these are people who are doing it on their own. they don't qualify for any other government support services, and it is taking care of a family member in the home, not in an institutional setting. >> and it's really resetting some of, if you will, the structures over the last 50 years of the way we think of care giving where institutions are more acceptable. you're focused on home care. why is home care so important when talking about care giving and talking about caring not only for elderly, but those part of your family? >> certainly, we know that the cost of institutional care is truly very, very expensive undertaking. it could be upwards of $150,000 per year, per individual, so we know that taking care of them in their home, where they prefer to be, is a more cost effective

solution. and we know that many families face the challenge of deciding whether one should give up their job to care for their loved ones or really continue to be working. and we want to support those that want to continue to be working, or have to continue to work. >> yeah, because the way it was in the past, if you got long-term health care insurance or care giving insurance, they would give you more money if they put you in an assisted care facility versus care giving at home. this is certainly consistent with what you're doing here. >> we feel that this is a win-win for everyone involved. it's a win for our entire community, because it keeps them out of a costly institutional setting. most of our families want their loved ones at home, and it really provides the support that allows them to do that. >> there are some 45 million

caregivers that do the job that you're trying to assist with. you hope your system will be used and the aid across the country. >> 150,000 of our community members currently are unpaid caregivers, you know, it's about just under 20% of our population, so almost 1 in 5 take this responsibility, and so certainly we believe that it can be a model for the rest of the country. >> some folks got to say, governor, you're crazy. where are you going to get the money for this? let me say that. governor, you're crazy. where are you going to get the money for this? >> you know, we believe that when you look at it on a system level, that we will be saving money. we know that for those who can support their loved ones at home, it actually keeps them out of an institutional setting and will save all of us money. >> all right, that's great,

governor. as a caregiver myself, i thank you for this idea and moving forward with something that potentially could be used in certain states across the country. hawaii governor david ige, have a very good sunday. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> you bet. next, the uncertainty of the senate health care bill. mitch mcconnell has more time now to try to draw support after senator's health problem causes a delay in the voting. why two republican senators say they still cannot vote for the bill. one more no and that means the bill is likely dead. we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we're gonna hit our launch date! (scream) thank you! goodbye! let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done.

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john mccain recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye. the senator is recuperating

well, which is good news, but most likely will be sidelined for up to a week, hence the delay of the vote in washington, d.c. the delay comes as the proposed republican bill continues to face increased doubt and scrutiny. both kentucky's rand paul, as well as susan collins this morning again remain opposed to the current bill. >> i don't know whether we'll pass, but i do know this, we should not be making fundamental changes in a vital safety net program that's been on the books for 50 years. the medicaid program. without having a single hearing to evaluate what the consequences are going to be. >> we'd have a clean repeal and then we'd have a spending bill, and they could actually be advanced simultaneously, really on the same day. moderates would get what they want, which is more debt for the country and more spending, conservatives would get what we want, a clean repeal, which is really the only thing we promised in the election, and we

promised it over and over again, so it kind of annoys me that republicans are going back on their word to repeal obamacare. >> all right, well, the congressional budget office, their analysis of the latest version of the bill that's due out later this week, while smo some have questioned the cbo score's methodology, it's still to have an impact on those undecided about the current obamacare replacement. you see some of the question marks there, that, of course, not all inclusive. joining us now, brad snyder from illinois. representative, thank you for being with us today. i hope you're having a great sunday. you recently hosted a health care forum with your constituents, and they've been quite heated as we have seen over recent months. what were you hearing from moderates and independents? >> well, this issue i hear about more than any other issue in my district. we've received more than 5,000 e-mails, letters, phone calls about health care. concerns about protecting the progress we've made. they don't want to see repeal going back to what we had.

they want to see us working together, and in particular working across party lines to build on the successes, address the problems, work on new solutions and that's what i'm hearing from everyone in the district. >> what are some of the ideas you're hearing from moderates there in your district? >> well, we're hearing a sense of, number one, making sure we protect issues like pre-existing conditions. in my district i met a woman named diane who after 30 years at the same job lost her job to outsourcing, but because of the affordable care act she was able to get health insurance for both her and her husband in spite of their pre-existing conditions. these are some of the concerns what we're seeing as far as ideas moving forward, looking at making reinsurance permanent. strengthening the cost sharing reductions. we introduced a piece of legislation that would just require terminating employees to be told or allow terminating employees to be told that in addition to cobra, there are

options on the market exchanges that might even be less expensive than cobra and more permanent. these are some of the things we want to do to move forward. >> you're summarizing what you've heard and certainly not an exhaustive list of what you did learn during your town hall there. what's an idea that you would support? one of them that's been floated based on what you said so far, is do focus on the private side of this question and then on the medicaid side leave that alone for now. would you support that? >> well, we've got to make sure that we protect medicaid. the republican bill that would cut medicaid by more than a quarter in the first ten years and more than a third in the second ten years puts the most -- people struggling the most at the most risk, which is just the absolute wrong way to go. what i support is trying to get more people access to health care, more people with insurance. that's where i think this idea of stronger cost sharing arrangements where people who are struggling, who are earning

significantly -- >> representative, is that a yes or no, again, saying leave the medicaid on the right, leave it alone, just focus on the private insurance part of this, including exchanges? >> well, we should leave the medicaid alone and focusing on trying to strengthen the exchanges, absolutely. >> okay, great. thank you so much. democratic congressman brad snyder from illinois, appreciate your time today. >> glad to be here. >> you bet. for more on the battle for health care, allan smith, politics writer, and sarah westwood, thank you both for sticking around. what do you think about that, allan? >> well, i think that's really the path for democrats to move forward. >> he seems to agree with that. >> they want to be saying, look, leave medicaid alone, but republicans have so far not expressed much willingness to do that. especially if you look at the legislation, it's not really geared toward that side. >> we're getting cbo scoring as we were talking about just as we introduced that segment, sarah,

any thought, are we going to be in the same numbers range that sort of the 20 plus million in terms of those not having insurance over the next ten years? your thought on that. and a question, a lot challenging the methodology. >> right. i think no matter what kind of changes republicans make to the bill once you repeal the individual mandate, inevitably millions are going to lose their insurance, whether by choice, whether they can't afford it, whatever the reason is, you're going to have millions of people come off of insurance if you repeal that individual mandate, republicans recognize that. that's why you see the steady campaign undermining the credibility of the cbo because they know the numbers are going to be difficult for them to sell in their districts, even though there are nuances to the numbers, even though republicans acknowledge that they want to structurally change the system. the consequences of that are difficult to sell to the public, and it's not great timing for john mccain to be absent from the senate for mitch mcconnell

to have to postpone the vote at the same time that the cbo score is coming out and then, you know, indefinitely we don't know when the vote is going to be because it gives the opposition more time to mobilize once they have the numbers in their hands. >> so the delay here, allan, help or hurt when cornyn, he's seemed fairly optimistic today, senator cornyn, the whip, he's seeming fairly optimistic, yeah, might not be so bad. >> the delay, it's definitely not a good thing. it has more time for the new cbo score to come out, which all that could do since you're going to have the number of people losing health care insurance blasted around, it's going to be talked about all day for the coming days after that comes out. you know, the people on the fence, the murkowskis, hellers, capitos. >> more alaska deals, though, to get the vote over the line? >> maybe. who knows? looks like susan collins is a definite no, rand paul, nothing can happen to get him to yes.

not a single other person that you can lose. proof of that is the fact mccain can't be there this week, they are going to postpone it, which is an acknowledgment collins or paul aren't going to be voting to advance the bill forward. so they've got minimal space to work with. it's not necessarily a great thing to have to delay it for another week. >> sarah, senator cornyn was saying if he gets the vote, he will have the vote to move this into debate. talking about moving into debate, right. when is the cut and run? what's the over/under when he decides it's only getting worse or getting better? how's he going to be deciding that, when to move to that vote? >> well, the unofficial deadline was going to be the start of the august recess. the fact that senator mitch mcconnell pushed it back by two weeks was an acknowledgment if they don't get it done, they were not going to get it done before the start of the august recess and it's crucial they do get it done before senators go home to their districts before

the august recess, because when they return, remember, they are going to have the budget fight. and the legislative calendar is coming to its end very rapidly. before you know it, there's not going to be any days left for lawmakers to get this done, so they know they have to do it soon and we're starting to witness the perils of leadership strategy, which seem to be negotiating mostly with conservatives, adding the ted cruz, mike lee amendment, or at least the spirit of it was included in the changes made to the revised senate bill. now they are having more trouble bringing the moderates on board because they took the route of negotiating mostly with conservatives, so it's going to be interesting to see if they can shuffle the funding around with deals like the alaska deal and maybe other changes to get some of those moderates onboard. >> more quote, unquote, alaska deals. so the president fairly quiet on this and the reporting coming out of the white house is they've moved on. they don't believe any version is going to work here. can the president do something?

they sort of put a little gas on the governor's meeting, didn't quite get what they wanted. what do you see in that? >> if you look back at the president's twitter feed, he's been tweeting the republicans, they have to do something. he's sitting at his desk with a pen ready to sign whatever gets to him, so he's still advocating for the bill to get through and get to him, but i'm not really sure there's much more that he can provide at this point, because, you know, clearly this is an inner party battle at the senate. there's the moderate side and conservative side, they want very different things out of this bill and doesn't seem to be much president trump can do to intervene. >> quickly, sarah. as you probably read political playbook, he's using the word "they" when talking about republicans in the senate, not "we." >> right, and i think president trump has already kind of distanced himself from leadership by taking a different approach to pushing republicans. if you recall, he's been advocating for a clean repeal if this bill fails. at the same time, leadership is trying to present this as a

binary choice to the members, either vote for this bill or you're essentially endorsing the status quo and president trump is offering a third option, clean repeal. they are not necessarily on the same page of how to move forward. >> health care is hard, i think, is what senator cornyn said today. they are definitely going through that lesson over and over again. thank you both. >> thank you. the state of nevada facing an unusual emergency, a shortage of marijuana. that's just two weeks after it became legal there. next, how the pot crisis is being resolved, quote, unquote. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening.

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>> reporter: in nevada, the pot pipeline is back up and running, slowly. some dispensaries restocking their shelves after what was shaping up to be a distribution disaster. >> all of these bins were filled. >> reporter: when nevada kicked off legal recreational marijuana sales this month, shops like las vegas relief could barely keep up with demand. edibles especially flying off shelves. >> it has been insane, actually. it's been more than we had anticipated. >> reporter: growing it wasn't the problem. there's plenty of wholesale weed. the trouble was moving it to dispensaries. unlike the four other states with legal recreational pot, nevada regulators require alcohol distributors to transport the drug, but none was licensed when sales began. >> because we passed the law so fast, implemented it so fast, we didn't have a distributor up and running, and it's a long story. >> reporter: or a cannabis conundrum. nevada's department of taxation issued a statement of emergency

warning the industry could grind to a halt, putting an expected $60 million in tax revenue over the next two years in jeopardy. >> that revenue is in the budget and we need to make sure the processes are in place to get it in. >> reporter: this week state officials med to try and hash out a solution. they passed emergency regulations to expand who can apply for distribution licenses. two alcohol wholesalers have been approved, though some worry that's still not enough. >> we have 40-plus dispensaries over town that were in the same position we were in, so from a business perspective, obviously, it's not a good place to be when you don't have the product to sell to customers. >> reporter: call it growing pains in a budding industry, as sin city goes to pot. gabe gutierrez, nbc news, las vegas. and next for you, the president's report card as he gets ready to mark six months in office. is he getting a passing or failing grade there? we'll ask the people in the part of ohio that was once obama

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well, six months in and a new poll shows president trump with a 36% approval rating. that is the lowest six-month approval rating of any president in polls dating back 70 years, when they started, but many of trump's most ardent supporters are still standing by. we have a new nbc news/"the wall street journal" poll and what it shows is trump counties, those areas that fuelled his 2016 victory, they give the president a 50% approval grade. msnbc traveled to youngstown, ohio, to find out where they stand. >> reporter: at this diner in youngstown, ohio, cinnabons and cream steaks are everybody's favorite, but that's all people here seem to agree on these days. >> we're the laughing stock of the nation.

>> reporter: six months into donald trump's presidency, locals remain as politically divided as they were on election day. >> he's doing what he's supposed to be doing, helping the country. >> the way that everything is getting trivialized in the news media, i don't think he's getting a fair shake. >> i feel like he's done nothing for us. >> reporter: back in 2012, 64% of this county backed president obama, but last year nearly half of voters went for trump. >> he's not a politician, you know what i mean? he's more of a businessman. >> reporter: trump campaigned hard in this blue collar region that never fully recovered from the collapse of the steel industry and population decline. >> i'm going to bring your industry back. >> reporter: he resinated with voters who voted for obama in 2012. >> obama just wanted to please people and trump's not about just making everyone be a friend and like him. >> we are supporting mr. trump for president! >> reporter: she even campaigned for trump online. >> making videos, you know,

posting how i felt about him and opinions. even though it made people upset. >> reporter: since taking office, trump has not returned to the county. >> it is time to put youngstown, ohio -- >> reporter: but in june he cited youngstown as a reason for withdrawing from the paris climate deal. >> my phone started ringing off the hook. >> reporter: came as a surprise for youngstown's mayor john mcnally. >> no evidence him pulling out of it is going to create any additional jobs in joenyoungstor the county. >> reporter: the mayor told me he hasn't seen much change here since inauguration day. what do you expect in the next six months of the trump presidency? >> i'm not sure i expect much more than what we've seen the first six months. >> reporter: so nothing, pretty much? >> i think pretty much the status quo. >> reporter: as donald trump begins his sixth month as president, job growth here in ohio for this year is about half

of what it was at the same time last year. earlier this year 3m factory workers in nearby olerio, ohio, made a youtube campaign asking the president to save their jobs. >> a message to president trump. >> reporter: with no response from the white house, the plant will close this summer. >> i've actually hired back four new people. four new people just in the last six months. >> reporter: still, trump supporters like business owner paul lighten say the president just needs more time. >> i think it's too soon to judge, you know. the man just got up to bat. hasn't even had a chance because of all this political muck, you know, with ridiculous news stories. >> reporter: one piece of advice you would give the president for the next six months? >> stay focused. be a bull. keep on charging, you know, don't stop. don't stop. we need as much help as we can

to keep our businesses as strong and vibrant in our american economy. we have to keep our american economy. americans first, jobs first, and we have to be focused. >> reporter: in youngstown, ohio, msnbc. >> mariano, thank you so much for that report. be sure to join us for our one-hour special "trump at six months," looking back at the trump presidency so far, the controversies, legislative battles and whether trump voters are sticking with him today. that's tonight, 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. don't miss that special. at the top of the hour, president trump is defending his son for taking the meeting at trump tower in 2016. his lawyer making rounds on the sunday morning talk shows. what he had to say about the meeting with the russians. we have that for you next. noo

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