and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan any time you want. so don't wait. call unitedhealthcare now to request your free decision guide. this sunday, the drip, drip, drip of team trump's meeti this sunday, the drip, drip, drip meeting of trump's team. all week long, revelations render the administrationadmini. >> these guys cannot come clean and it tells the country they have a lot to hide. >> it is not just democrats speaking out. >> what happened at that meeting? >> why is the white house reluctant to come clean? how much did trump know about the meeting before. i will ask president's trump

lawyer and bob warner. also, the republican healthcare bill. >> i'm siting in the oval office with a pen and hand waiting for our senators to give it to me. the vote is delayed because of the health scare for john mccain. will the delay help or hurt the bill's chances. i will talk to the man who counts the vote, republican senator, john cornyn of texas. what do voters and trump's country think of the president right now. joining me for inside analysis are tom brokaw, presidential historians doris goodwin and al calnen calnenas.

welcome to sunday, this is "meet the press." >> good sunday morning. to those who remember watergate, john dean told president nixon there was a cancel on the president. the russia's story has been p pesticides. the gap between what donald trump jr. , told and what we learned of the truth. in one week we moved from the white house to trump jr. denying having met with russians through a series of concessions involving explanations only after reporters uncovered new facts. trump jr. and manafort and the russians. is there more? >> was there collusion? aiding and abetting. simple researches that president trump was playing? was it illegal? to be sure, there are many unanswered questions.

here is what we know right now. trump's team is opened to get information from russian and willing to cover them. >> as far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. >> over the course of seven days a series of statements. story number one, there were no contacts with russians and the putin regime during the campaign. >> it is absurd and there is no base to it. >> i had nothing to do with russia to the best of my knowledge and no person that i deal with. >> saturday, the new york times report, there was a meeting on june 9th, 2016. story number two, a meeting did occur wi occ occur. >> it was a short meeting. after 20 minutes the meeting ended. >> later the sunday, new york times reports that donald trump, jr. took the meeting after being promised of damaging

information of hillary clinton. >> story number three. >> information of hillary clinton were vague and meaningness and others exited the meeting quickly. >> on tuesday of new york times e-mail exchange, donald trump jr. , tweeted himself including a june 3rd e-mail quote, "information that would in criminate hillary clinton and would be useful to your father." >> "this is part of russia and its government support for mr. trump." >> trump jr. responds, if it is what you say, i love it especially later in the summer. tuesday night, story number four. >> this is observation research. it is unreported for years and not just for the campaign. i want to hit it out. really, it went nowhere. >> in paris, president trump tried to justify the idea of

campaign meetings with russians and contact he has denied for r months. >> i think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. it is opposition research. >> donald trump jr. promises the whole story is now out. >> i am more than happy to be transparent about it and cooperate with everyone. >> as far as you know of this zepis everything? >> this is everything. >> it is not everything. over the next three days the number of participants in this meeting multiples. nbc learns in addition to the kremlin lawyer a former intelligent officer was also there and there was a translator present and some republicans in capitol hill are losing patie e patience. >> this is a serious situation and one that's long way over. joining me now is one of

president's trump lawyer, welcome back to "meet the press." >> lets start with this. do you know for sure everyone who's at the meeting at donald trump jr. ? >> i don't represent donald trump jr. and i do not know everyone for sure was at the meeting. the president was not aware of the meeting and he did not attend it. >> when did the president become aware of the meeting? >> the president said, he became aware of it recently and right before this came out and that was when he was notified and his lawyer talked to him about it right before. the president has been clear on that. >> when did you find out about it? >> about the same time. the president used the term recently relatively it was in days before leading up to this matter. >> why? >> is that a concern to you that

you are not getting all the information you need? >> we don't represent donald trump jr. , we represent the president. we did not have access to the information or control of that. the president does not have control of data like that, that was information that donald trump jr. had or campaign had. that one is not information that the president of the united states would have had. >> could you tell me of the report that the president was involved in the initial response that donald trump gave the new york times? >> so, i read those reports as well and the president wdid not draft the response. the response came from donald trump jr. that's where that statement andty think it it iso understand what this was. as the information became public, our understanding and my understanding is that the donald

trump jr. and his lawyer worked on a statement to make regarding the scope of the meeting and the scope of the meeting, what was discussed ended up being more f more -- the next after, the same lawyer that has russia affiliation was down in washington, d.c. pitching the review. >> now, i cannot say whether the president is saying it is coming from his son on that. the president, i want to be clear, the president was not involved of the drafting and did not issue the statement, it came from donald trump jr. that's what i can tell you because that's what we know. donald trump jr. said it was from him and i believe it was his lawyer of consultations.

>> you keep on saying you don't represent donald trump jr. could you explain why it is taking six days to continue to find out more people who are in this meeting and more discussions about those e-mails. why was all this trickled out like this it looks like a pattern of trying to at lea least -- if not, total cover up or misleading or deceive. >> you used the phrase "cover up," lets be realistic, you had lawyers on your broadcast and nbc and everybody is coming from the same conclusion of legality. cover up is a big word to use but there was nothing illegal to cover up. with regards to how information came out, that was information not controlled by my client, the president, it was controlled by donald trump jr. , and they made a decision on how to release that out. the president was not involved in that decision or i was not involved in that.

>> the president once again referred to this russia story as a hoax. how do you refer to something as a hoax when you had an e-mail like this with donald trump jr. saying, i love it when he finds out there is information coming from the russians. at this point, can reasonable conclude that this meeting is enough to begin an investigation? >> well, here mattthe problem w this and i appreciate the opportunity to be clear on this with you. how did this all start? that's important here. james comey had a meeting with the president of the united states where he took information of his private meeting and went to his government office and decided to leak a conversation he had with the president of the united states to a friend of his to then leak into reporters for what purpose? for the sole purpose of obtaining a special counsel which was appointed a few days later. this entire special counsel investigation is taken place is

based on what? leaked information that was a conversation of the president of the united states of the fbi director. that to me is a problematic from the out set and that lead to serious issues of what can take place. i go back to the other statement is that again, the meeting in of itself, not an illegal act. >> mr. sekulow, i did not ask you about james comey. i asked you about the specific e-mail. >> can people conclude because of what was said in the e-mail between donald trump and mr. gold stone and what he claim of this information coming from russia, can people say that's enough to trigger an investigation? there is no legal act there yet. is that a trigger for an investigation? >> well, here is the thing. donald trump jr. said that he will cooperate with everybody and he made it clear when he was on air talking about it and again as a lawyer, i look at

what would -- you say does this trigger an investigation. what law may have been violated here. again, the meeting and what took place at the meeting and based on all the information you said. is that a violation of any law or stature? i raise that question by the way with a former director comey because that's the bases of where all that started. it is important to have a full context. you asked a full question and i gave you the full context. >> why is the leak that james comey leaking the conversation, why does that make the president's actions any more honorable? >> what was the president that's not honorable. >> what did the president do in the context of this that was not honorable? >> well, he said he fired the fbi director and one of the motivations was the russian

investigation. >> james comey testified that he had the authority to fire him. >> it is not a significant matter. he has the authority to fire james comey and he did. this whole thing -- this russia investigation of allegation of obstructions and the position on that and i have been on your broadcast talking about this. the idea that p president of the united states fired james comeyen cann-- cannot raise the level of obstruction of justice. >> when you say in june that the president is not under investigation, is that still operative today? >> nothing has changed since james comey told the president that he was not under investigation on three different occasions and we have no indication of anything that's going on with the president of the united states >> what's your understanding of

special counsel of bob mueller is investigating if he's not investigating. >> i am not speculating of what he's investing. i have not discussed this issue with him. he has a mandate where everyone knows the mandate came from the department of justice to look at the campaigns hech. he will look at that. was there confirmations or mandates. what i laid out is as to the president, there is no indications or there is no special counsel or anyone else. >> jay sekulow. >> thank you. >> call me jay, you don't have to call me mr. sekulow. >> thank you, jay. >> i spoke with with senator mark warner. >> i am not going to say when he knew of this meeting.

a year ago senior members of the trump campaign knew if there is a russian government effort to try to intervene to help mr. trump hurt hillary clinton and so all these denials from the president himself and to manafort and all these denials were false because they knew about this effort and they just failed to reveal it. that's very significant. this is the first time that the public is now seeing in black and white. there is no efforts in the skies that there is a russian government effort and not only the trump senior campaign officials having this meeting but they were anxious to have it and anxious to get this information. >> i understand you say you did not want to get into it. there is two members of the intel committee giving conflicting statements whether you knew of the existence of this meeting.

knew the kpis existence of the meeting and roy blunt told me that he did not know about this meeting. can you clear this up? >> chuck, all i can tell you is we don't share what we know and when we knew it. the fact is this information is coming to light and all of these efforts to say there was only smoke and there is no fire, well, that's all put to rest. this is clearly and brings in the investigation to a new level and makes our effort all the more important >> how many other meetings because of updated forums of jush scribn jared kushner and others. do you want to know the details of? how many of those meetings are there? five, six, or ten or a couple? can you shed some lights on that? >> we don't really know because so far all of the trump officials have conveniently forgotten of any meetings of

russians until they see evidence of it. we have seen the results of that. national security adviser and general flynn was fired and the attorney general had to recuse himself. and jared kushner who said he had no meetings with the russians but now had three meetings. we want to talk to donald trump jr. and mr. manafort who had history of dealing with prorussian forces. the thing of this investigation, it feels like every week we find another thread that we have to pull and a matter of fact, we don't know for sure how many people are in this meeting that we have been talking about. there is at least six be you could be more. >> is the committee ready to talk to him now or do more evidence gathering jared kushner before the committee and donald trump jr. or paul manafort.

>> i wish we. >> reporter: -- >> i wish we were further alone. i could never predicted that the president would fire james comey. it is important that we get the documents first and get the background and made the request and reveal those documents so we can drill down and ask these individuals of the relevant chemical weapons to be a questions. >> this investigation feels like it is growing by the day and metasticize. are there parts of this investigation of the intel committee that does not have the reso sour resources to do? >> no, we have counter intelligence investigations. our job is to find the facts and our jobs are not to find criminal behaviors. that's the responsibility of special prosecutor mueller.

we believe that we have the resources and the charge to get all this information and trying to get it out. we are not trying to relitigate the 2016 election. we want to know what happened in 2016 but we want to make sure that we are prepared for when the russians will be back in 2018. one thing that's a real problem, chuck, the fact that the president of the united states still refuses to ambiguously acknowledge that the russians attacked us means that we have no hole of government approach on how we are going to deal with this problem. dhs indicated that 21 states were hacked and it is my understanding that most of the secretary of states have not been briefed on whether states were halved or not. >> is there a difference in your mind between collusion and coordination and if so, what is it? >> listen, i am going to leave the legal questions to bob mueller and his team. what we want to show collusion,

coordination, we want to show clearly the russians dealt with a number of individuals, senior officials and clearly people in the trump campaign welcomes that involvement, we want to see how extensive it is and we'll leave it up to the american people to draw the conclusion. >> do you believe the difference between collusion and simply coordination? >> i have learned that there is a wide break between what's called the us espionage business. that's something we'll try to reach a conclusion on. we are still early on, we are just starting to talk to individuals who are involved with the trump campaign who have had contacts with russians. we need to have those conversations. sorry about the voice this

morni morning. >> no worrieworries, go get somy in that tea. thank you for coming on this morning. >> thank you chuck. >> when we come back, of the time line of donald trump jr. meeting and then there is the battle of the healthcare, does it help or hurt the republican bill. years. i was in a coma. well, i still deserve appreciation. who was there for you when you had amnesia? you know i can't remember that. stop this madness. if it's appreciation you want you should both get snapshot from progressive. it rewards good drivers with big discounts on car insurance. i have news. i've used most of our cellular data. come on, susan lucci! ♪ fixodent plus adhesives. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening. just one application gives you superior hold even at the end of the day

fixodent. strong more like natural teeth.

tthat's why at comcast,t to be connected 24/7. we're always working to make our services more reliable. with technology that can update itself.

and advanced fiber network infrastructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. welcome back. former head of the american conservative union, al cardenas, welcome back, our panelists here. i want to sort of see this conversation with this following little comp that we put together that now seems totally in operative when it comes to the president. >> how many times do i have to

answer this question? >> there is no collusion and everybody has said and i think you will admit that, there is no collusion between me and my campaign. >> there is no collusion between me and myself and my campaign >> brokaw, we don't have the answer on clouollusions. if he continues to say that i wonder what his son and paul manafort were thinking at the time. there is a meeting that we ought to make you aware of and what is stunning to me that the president has not called all the principles, i want this out of the way right now. i want you to fess up to what happened and it is stopping everything we are trying to get done. i came here saying i was going to be a strong president. why he felt engaged by putin in the first place.

we have healthcare hanging zoou and this one keeps dripping out in a way that's detruktstructed him. >> danielle, his lawyer says i am not speaking for donald trump jr. >> i am not donald trump jr. , don't ask me about that. >> i think you used the keyword, i wonder what the president is thinking and what we are seeing is the president does not spend a lot of time thinking and the president does not spend a lot of time planning. what the president and his team do is they handle every little bit as it comes out. i am not persuading that there is a lot of collusion and coordination. one thing that we can persuade is they are liars. they won't stop lying about things. >> that's a strong thing. >> al, it seems like a lot of

conservatives, ross douthat, "as for the president himself anyone presuming his innocence at his point should have all the confidence of chris christie awaiting his cabinet appointment." >> the point is, it seems as if conservative writers trying to give the president the benefit of the doubt, this week seems loo i c like they cannot. >> there seems to be a disk disconnect of our feels and the motives and the white house is drained. we have officers in moscow and we represent global company.

one thing that we know there is no freelancing. that meeting was meant to be there. everything happening and the united states has a united states and a structure process, there is no freelancing. we know what russia's motivation. why is the white house reluctant -- holding a bunch of people. yet we got a nine-month narratives and russia have succeeded with respect to disruption that they caused and the white house. i am going to go with the executive branch legislature and say hey, there is not gob consequences and i want to consequences now and i want it spelled out. that voice got the conservative movement opened arms. >> whatever happens to the story

unfolds, there is no question and the lack of leadership and the tweets coming out is taking away the precious gift of a new leader coming in and their responsibility to set a tone for the country to bring us a common to action and to have androgen androgen -- an agenda. time have been loss and think of the time that we have lost and think of the time of monica lewinsky's allegations. we have lost six months now and showing anything ending. where is that special contact between the president and the leader that's going to lead them forward and it is gone. >> tom, where are we? >> is the comparison fair? what is it and where are we and what do we see today that looks the same? >> i am reluctant to do this. >> i get it. >> i thought watergate was unique and part of that uniqueness is that we have to

keep it in mind. it was a detailed process from a repertory point of view and a legal point of view how the case is built brick by brick. that's what the country deserves in i can is to go about it and not to entangle it. there this president is entangling himself in that kind of discussion they were having today when it is not in the interest of anyone and most of all, those countries when we have so many issues before us. >> jared kushner, should he leave the white house right now. his lawyers, are probably giving him advice to leave that it is not good time for him to be there. >> what does the american people dislike when they look at ivanka

and jared kushner and there are more. it is hurting the president more than i think he realizes. what people fail to appreciate enough about donald trump is one thing he cares about most is not the trump's name. that man loves his family and he protects them and even when he does not need protecting and complicates his life and not to speak of his leadership. >> take a pause here, i have russia coming up and healthcare coming up. senate healthcare 3.0. does it have the votes? >> will it get the vote? we'll talk to republican senator john cornyn of texas.

there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. visit booking.com. booking.yeah! tha...oh, burnt-on gravy?ie. ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. new cascade platinum powers through... even burnt-on gravy. nice. cascade. so, your new prescription does have oh, like what?ects. ♪ you're gonna have dizziness, nausea, and sweaty eyelids. ♪ ♪ and in certain cases chronic flatulence. ♪ no ♪ sooooo gassy girl. so gassy. if you're boyz ii men, you make anything sound good.

it's what you do. if you want to save 15% percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. next! ♪ next!

welcome back. the path to the passing the republican health care bill may run through state houses. the nation's governors met this weekend in rhode island, and welcome back, many of the democratic governors and many expressed strong on serious condition -- opposition to the bill. we learned last night that senator john mccain had surgery to remove blood clot of his eye and that has a result of him traveling to washington this week. senator john cornyn of texas is the republican there. he's the man of the job it is to find republicans voting yes.

senator cornyn, welcome back to the show, sir. >> thank you, chuck, great to be with you. >> lets start with the delay, one of the things that sort of raise a yellow flag in my eye was the fact that senator mcconnell did not commit that we are going to debate as soon as senator mccain is back. can you say with 100 percent conviction that you will begin the debate and get this bill on the floor when senator mccain returns to washington? >> yes, i believe as soon as we have a full contingent of senators that we'll have that vote. it is important that we do so. >> what does it say that you needed that one vote just simply to bring the bill to the floor, obviously, this bill is a tough bill for, i would say at least a dozen senators to vote for on your side of the isle. what does it say here that one

missing republicans could upset the entire bill? >> well, healthcare is hard and we know that. we have no choice to try to come to the rescue millions of people who are being failed as a result of problems of obamacare. and, yes, unfortunately, it is a partisan issue and our democratic friends are refusing to lift a finger to help constituents being hurt. republicans are making repeated promises in elections leading up to now that we would and could do better and i believe we'll do better. this bill actually gotten much better as a result of discussions we haddi among ourselves and something that once we agreed to that we cancel to the american people as a better choice than failures of obamaca obamacare. >> you got a lot of work to do. there is a new washington post abc's poll this morning, what would you prefer, keep obamacare

or the new republican healthcare bill. 2-1, keep obamacare. does the public's opinion of the healthcare bill? >> the republican bill -- >> they don't like what they heard so far. what do you say to that? >> well, all they hear is critics. we know millions of people are seeing sky high premiums of high deductibles. insurance companies keep on losing money. if we don't come to the rescue of our people that we'll be left with democratic -- what we are doing is offering a better alternatives. from my state alone, low income texas will get access to private insurance that don't currently have. this is hard and we need to make sure more people have access to medical care that people don't

have. >> one of the issues you have to get this to the floor to start debate is trust with republican ranking file. republican chairman, he conceded of suspicion what about can be accomplished during the vote-a-rama challenging le leadershi leaderships. do you accept the idea that there is a lot of suspicions among republican senators about this? >> i would call uncertainty. this is an unopened process where anybody on either side can

get a vote. it is uncertain of what the final outcome will be. it is inherent in the republican process. >> you said the following. americans have seen and rejected the way democrats bought their way to 60 votes of the senate and the political pay off and the louisiana purchase and billions of dollars on gator aid. this revised bill had senators from virginia and ohio wanted for opioids. some body on the other side could say that you guys are doing the same thing, waivering votes. do you accept that?

>> and that's the hard path ahead of us. i believe we are making great progress and as a result of good work and administration and v verma and people are understanding the benefits and better care plan in terms of bringing down the price of healthcare and making it available to more people as they can choose what they want and at a price they could afford. >> if this healthcare bill does not passed, what's next? senator mcconnell have said that it means that you will have to work with democrats, is that what happened? >> well, if you are not successful now, i assume that we'll keep on trying and at some point, democrats won't participate in the process then we are going to have to come up with a different plan. but, what i don't want to happen is for us to just do a multi billion dollars bail out

insurance company without any reforms. >> we are doing what we can to stabilize and make healthcare available now. we want reforms to go along with it and i don't think democrats want to change anything of obamacare and they want to throw money out of it. >> the president is tweeting this morning that the russian investigation is as hoax. you are involved in this investigation. is it a hoax? >> well, i think it is a mistake to personalize this to president trump or hillary clinton to anything else. this is russia so taking aggressive and sophisticated way of espionage and -- it is a serious matter that needs investigation and on behalf of the committee, i understand we need to get the bottom of it.

>> i understand the president's frustration, james comey said three times he's not the target of the investigation. this is about russia verses the united states, it is not about president trump. >> appreciate you coming on. . quick programming note. tonight on sunday night with megyn kelly talks about sexual harassments of adventure capitalist in the tech hindustr. that's tonight with megyn kelly at 7:00 p.m. after the break, the best way to figure out how significant the trump jr. meeting was or not, following the time line, that's what we are going to do next. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators,

that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma . it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. the risk is unknown in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. ask your doctor about anoro. ♪go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro.com. you're in the match app. now tap on the new missed connections feature. it says i've crossed paths with kate six times this week.

that is a lot of times. she's cute too! yea! how did i miss her? you didn't. match picked it up for you. check out new missed connections on match. start for free today!

and we are welcome back. >> a little twist this week. the time line of this past week. well, we rei'd like to look at time line of june and july of 2016, now that we know of the meeting that took place at trump tower. lets start with june 3rd, that's the first e-mail that's sent to donald trump jr. by goldstone. in that e-mail, dirt on clinton was promised. june 7th, the general election officially begins when both

hillary clinton and donald trump officially clinched their parties' nominations on the last primary day. also, june 7th, remember the meeting with the russian lawyer is on the books for two days later, the president says this in his victory speech. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week and we are going to be discussing all of the things that's taken place with the clinton's, i think you will find it informative and very, very interesting. [ applause ] >> june 9th, the meeting happens at trump tower. june 14th, five days later, no speech from the president by the way, we do get the first report that russian hackers penetrated the democratic national committee, the first time it is in public that we know about it. june 15th, it is russia linked hacker lucifer 2.0 who claims

credit for the hack. >> now, pass forward, july 18th, the first day of the republican convention, that's when we get the first report of the trump campaign essentially wants to water down or gut a republican party platform statement that was anti-russia when it comes to the issue of ukraine. >> the day after, wikileaks publishes its first dump of its stolen dnc e-mails. july 27th, five days later of what became his final conference as a presidential candidate and donald trump says this about hillary clinton's e-mail. >> russia, if you are listening, i hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> that's 56 days between that press conference and that first e-mail that we now know about from goldstone and from there

russia interference seems to continue. there you go. the time line is so important and not just to organize yourself but the timeline. when we come back, how do people in trump country feel about the president these days. one of the latest of a survey that we conducted, that's next. he got a recommendation for our best custom fit orthotic to relieve his foot, knee, or lower back pain, from being on his feet. by reducing shock and stress on his body with every step. so look out world, dad's taking charge. dr. scholl's. born to move. trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief.

why? we can't stay here! terrible toilet paper! i'll never get clean! way ahead of you. charmin ultra strong. it cleans better. it's four times stronger and... ...you can use less. enjoy the go with charmin. what in real time?stomer insights from the data wait, our data center and our clouds can't connect? michael, can we get this data to...? look at me...look at me... look at me... you used to be the "yes" guy. what happened to that guy? legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. so, you're saying we can cut delivery time? yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes.

back now with the panel. one of my goals with that last segment was simply to try to put some of this in context for us, because i think we all get -- we're so event driven even by

this russian investigation, where does it all fit in the big picture. >> there's no question that timelines are the foundation of what we to in history, so i think it's really important to understand that. then we can figure out were these events just facts or did they have a causal connection. is it coincidence or is it causal and then you'll get a story. the journalists are the first draft of history for all of us, and the story they're telling now is really important. people always argue we know so many facts in history. you need the facts because you have to know if this, then that. now it's up to us to interpret and figure out what's the connection between these facts. >> in other words, chuck, the most significant aspect of outcome is member schedules. if your schedule is filled up 60% of the time with interview requests and meetings regarding russia and other matters, how much time do you personally have to dedicate to trying to con sort and feet and revolve other issues like tax reform, health care and infrastructure.

we have so many issues of the day and that's why i said that russia has won. they have disrupted america's legislative process. >> doris sort of tries to pull the thread, i think, on this russia stuff. obviously journalists are writing the first draft of history. but the biggest problem with the trump administration is there isn't any thread. we're talking about leadership before. he can't drown out the russia story because he's not doing anything else. i don't have a sports analogy here for you, chuck. i know there is one but i just don't know what it is. but they keep just hitting at the balls that come at them rather than having a narrative, and they don't have an agenda. >> that's pretty good. that was a pretty good one. >> thank god. we did it. >> we also have to put this in a context. the president of the united states who's not responsible just for how his family behaves or what his last trip was, because of the health care debate and because of this russian situation, no one is raising once again north korea. there's an enormous concern in the national security and

foreign policy area about how that has just been set aside. it's a very complex issue. i'm told that the chinese don't know who they should be talking to in this administration. there is no context, there is no construct for dealing with north korea. it comes up, the president says, well, i'm going to deal with that and then it goes away in a hurry. >> let's just look at health care, al. the president, no speech about the bill. he's not done that. how about doing a rally in west virginia? that might put a little pressure on shelly moore capito. he's not done the things you do to get a bill passed. >> the president usually gets a list of people in his party whose districts he needs to visit and sell on a particular key matter. that's not happening. i mean we're talking about polls, we're talking about other issues when we go to a rally. where's the conversation about pushing the agenda and getting through the home stretch of health care. that's got to be an concerted effort. it always has been. those last five or six votes are so hard to get, man. you've got to work it hard, be resilient, you've got to go to

people's districts, you've got to get public opinion in that district to side with you. that's how you pressure a member how their voters think. what are we doing to convince those voters that that member needs to vote in a certain way. that's a critical part of this. >> on the contrary, he just said the other day, i'll be very angry with them if the senate doesn't come up with a bill. he's part of them. we, us. >> back in 45 seconds. end game. our latest numbers and what voters in trump country think about the president. s and what voters in trump country think about the president. i'm leaving you, wesley. but why? you haven't noticed me in two years. i was in a coma. well, i still deserve appreciation. who was there for you when you had amnesia? you know i can't remember that. stop this madness. if it's appreciation you want you should both get snapshot from progressive. it rewards good drivers with big discounts on car insurance. i have also awoken from my coma. ♪ it's called a nap, susan lucci. ♪

i wneverever wash my hair again now, i fuel it new pantene doesn't just wash your hair, it fuels it. with the first pro-v nutrient blend, making every strand stronger because strong is beautiful.

back now with end game. we did something a little bit different with our nbc news/wall street journal poll. we talked to voters in different areas who helped fuel donald trump's victory. first in what we're calling surge counties. these are places where donald trump improved dramatically on mitt romney's performance in 2012. the president right now, he's doing well in these areas, 56% in these surge counties. they approve of the president's performance. just 40% disapprove. if you're wondering where these counties are, in the state of florida, it's any county that doesn't touch saltwater. that's a good way of thinking about it. then there are the counties that flipped from president obama to donald trump. just 44% of these flip counties approve of the president. 51% disapprove. think mccomb in michigan, for instance. combine the two groups. 50% approve, 40% disapprove. in the places that helped get

donald trump elected he's doing better overall but i can argue 56% is not a good number in those areas. >> well, you can argue that. there are three things you need to do. look, to push this stuff in a congress that's so close in terms of votes, you need high public opinion numbers. you need those public opinion numbers high, especially in the areas where you've got to get the members to vote with you. and if you look at the electoral map, you look where these senators are, those numbers are not where they need to be and those are the -- those are the states where the numbers need to be up. >> the fact is, chuck, there's a burning fuse out there and it's health care and we don't know how that's going to turn out and it could blow up in donald trump's face and it could undermine a lot of the support you're seeing there. the fact is for seven years the republican party said obamacare is a disaster. get us in office, we'll improve it. and then they end up like kids in a bumper car. they're just banging around in

this arena of some kind slamming into each other. we don't know how it's going to turn out. at some point from a political point of view, however enthusiastic they may be about the man, that's going to catch up to them. >> the difference between those surge and flip voters, i think the surge voters will defend him. the flip voters, they were voting against hillary clinton and the establishment. >> and they're waiting. they're waiting for the republicans to do something. what's been the entire theme of our conversation? the lack of leadership. >> and you think about the fact that he hasn't expanded his base beyond these voters that were already for him and he hasn't gone to the states where they didn't vote for him. he doesn't reach out to them. he says we won, you lost. you can't lead like this. you have to heal this nation together. >> we are out of time. thanks to all of you for joining us. thank you for watching. and remember, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> you can see end game and postgame sponsored by boeing on the "meet the press" facebook page.

we are here because we have been covering the fight to drive isis from mosul. the fighting isn't entirely over yet. there are small and fierce pockets of resistance. there are still small but fierce pockets of resistance, but it is fair to say that isis, the best-armed, most dangerous terrorist group in the world has lost its biggest city, the self-declared caliphate, the so-called islamic state is no more. isis still holds some territory including the city of raqqah in syria, but that is not a state. and raqqah is now surrounded on all sides. defeating the islamic state is perhaps the biggest accomplishment of american foreign policy in years.