decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the oval office. >> coming up, i'll talk to former secretary of defense and cia director leon panetta. back on the trail after sticking to his script last night, today the president is back on more familiar turf, a campaign style rally in arizona, where he's already feuding with both republican senators. >> we expect president trump to do the thing that is the first page in his playbook, which is to go and look for an opportunity to stoke his base and to get them fired up. and the way he does that, he throws the red meat that is controversial and toxic to a majority of americans. >> and tragedy at sea. the remains of some of the missing sailors have been found aboard the "uss john mccain" as the search effort continues. >> one tragedy like this is one too many.

while each of these four events is unique, they cannot be used -- they cannot be viewed in isolation. i welcome the broad comprehensive review announced by our chief of naval operations. and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump reversing his campaign call to withdraw all u.s. troops from afghanistan, but his riprimetime speech is short on details. >> conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on. america's enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out. i will not say when we are going to attack. but attack we will. >> and with breitbart and david duke, both attacking his speech, the president is heading to phoenix today for a campaign

style rally with his base. joining me now, nbc's national correspondent peter alexander live at the white house. nbc's national security and military reporter courtney cube here with me. thank you very much. peter, let's talk about afghanistan. i want to ask you a quick question about the north korean sanctions just announced. but starting with afghanistan, the president did not give details, didn't talk about the numbers of troops, didn't give an end date, timeline specifically. and general mattis today not filling in any details on a trip that he's on in iraq. how does the president now deal with the political reaction from his base and he'll be seeing them all tonight in arizona. >> yeah, i think that's exactly right. that's one of the challenges he faces right now, but be clear, the president recognizes as we can hear marine one in the background as he prepares to leave from the south lawn en route to joint base andrews to arizona within this next hour, the president does expect, and

this is what he really enjoys, to be greeted by a huge crowd at the phoenix convention center of his most loyal, hard core supporters. this will be the eighth campaign style rally he's held, last night being the first real primetime policy address that he's delivered. but one of the frustrations as articulated well by the folks at breitbart, back at the helm, steve bannon, who is running things as we hear the helicopter literally overhead as i speak to you is the frustration with reversing course. bannon articulated this vision, the president shared, this populous nationalist view that the president tried to capture in his remarks last night, but they did obviously align much more with the traditional national security policies that have preceded him. breitbart suggesting that the president was effectively doing the same thing that his predecessor barack obama had done, causing some serious frustrations as evidenced by the headlines suggesting this was a flip-flop. but about the lack of specifics,

this isn't just consistent with what we heard from the president before, this is also strategic. the president likes that tactical flexibility. his u.n. ambassador, nikki haley, saying one thing you won't get from us is the details. complaining about how the past administration basically articulated when , how and where they would be going forward. all we did hear with certitude from the president is we will fight to win. so what they're saying is trust us, we've got this. andrea? >> and one of the people speaking today, of course, was the vice president with matt lauer right there, you were there at white house today when matt lauer on "today" questioned the vice president about the lack of specifics. let's play that. >> a lot of the criticism i'm hearing this morning deals with specifics. for example, he says he's going to send more troops to afghanistan, but he didn't say how many and what timeline he would use for them being there. you were a key part of the

discussions that led to this new strategy. how many troops are going? >> well, the answer to that i think will be based on the conditions on the ground. which is the fundamental change in the approach that our president has taken to afghanistan. >> and general mattis was in baghdad today and asked by reporters about the troop numbers in particular. >> i prefer not to go into those numbers right now. the first thing i have to do is level the bubble and count for everybody on the ground there now. i've directed the chairman to put the plan together now, we obviously have been discussing this option for some time. when he brings that to me, i'll determine how many more we need to send in. >> secretary mattis in baghdad. courtney, translate please. >> this is something we have been asking the secretary about for some time now, for months, actually, just last week i asked him specifically about the number of troops in iraq, afghanistan and syria. and he said exactly what he said there, which is that there has been some unusual accounting, over the last several years

there, and what that basically comes down to is there are people who are deployed there for a short period of time, they don't count them in what they call the force management level, the fml. he said when he came in, he was going to change that. and he told us last week he actually had changed that accounting, he does know how many are on the ground now. so i think one of the things we were -- some people were surprised is that we didn't get a real number werbs didn, we di capability out of the president's speech. mattis doesn't like to talk about numbers. he says it puts the troops on the ground at risk, it lets the enemy know how many people are there, but for years we have known how many troops are in afghanistan, how many in iraq, and so that's been a real change in this administration. >> one thing that stuck out to to me in the speech last night, he said the president said he's already given them the commanders on the ground more flexibility but that he's going to lift some of the restrictions on the counterterror operations.

>> so that, i suspect, again, he didn't go into specifics on that, i suspect what he meant was that the u.s. military who are there will now have the authority to go more offensively against the taliban. and one of the reasons i think he's saying that is that he not only said terror networks, but talked about criminal networks as well. so, again, we don't know this for sure, there wasn't a lot of specificity in the speech last night, i suspect that means that we're going back to 2014, the pre2014, when the u.s. military was there on the ground, you know, as secretary panetta, your next guest can tell you, they were allowed to go after on these offensive, often night raids against the taliban. he talked about, i think there will be a change in the rules of engagement going forward. i got that out of the speech last night. i think we're going to see u.s. military embedding at lower levels with the afghan security forces, something that was also restriction that was imposed in the previous administration. but, again, we don't have a lot of specifics yet this is the take aways i got based en what

president trump said last night. >> the sanctions, how real are these new sanctions just announced against russian and chinese entities, business entities, who have been cheating on the sanctions again north korea? >> yeah, this announcement coming from the treasury secretary steve mnuchin in the last 90 minutes now, cracking down on 16 chinese and russian entities and individuals. some of those chinese companies that the administration said were responsible for importing about half a billion dollars worth of coal in russia, some individuals and agencies that have been involved in providing oil to the north koreans, the bottom line now, following up on the president's tough talk, the fire and fury warning that he provided within the last week or so, this is an effort by this administration to make sure that military action remains the last resort to do the best they can to basically starve north korea of the resources it needs for its nuclear program. >> peter alexander, courtney, thank you so much to both for launching us today. as courtney was saying, joining me now is leon panetta, former

secretary of defense, former director of cia during the obama administration, now the chairman of the panetta institute for public policy in california in beautiful monterey, california. welcome, thank you so much. thank you for being with us. >> nice to be with you, andrea. >> mr. secretary, what did you hear last night that is new in terms of the policy for trying to win the war in afghanistan? >> well, you know, he did talk about trying to base our strategy on conditions on the ground and i think that's kind of a different approach. but the words that concern me the most are that we are going to win this war. and i think the reality is that afghanistan is not a war that is going to be won in the traditional sense. the whole goal in afghanistan is

to establish an afghanistan that can secure and govern itself. that's always been the fundamental mission. and that, frankly, ought to be what the focus of this effort is all about. if we try to somehow tell the american people that there is going to be a military victory here, i think frankly that's going to mislead the american public. >> in fairness to the president, he says he inherited a bad hand. he did inherit a bad hand, didn't he, from two previous presidents including the fact that the taliban just in the last couple of years has gained control of more and more territory. >> well, there is no question, this is a -- it has been a very difficult challenge for presidents that have tried to deal with afghanistan. it is the longest war in our history. and so there is no question that

this is not going to be subject to a simple solution, there is no quick fix here. there is no silver bullet. it is going to take an awful lot of work and the one thing that i would have appreciated from the president, i mean, i'm glad he's not walking away from afghanistan, but i think what i would appreciated is a set of goals as to what -- what is it that we're trying to achieve in afghanistan. it would seem to me that it is important to reduce the level of violence to make sure there aren't car bombs aren't going off in kabul and that means that we have to strengthen our counterterrorism operations. it means that we have to regain the territory that has been lost to the taliban, 50% of that country is controlled by the taliban, it would seem to me a legitimate goal we try to regain that territory. thirdly, we have to eliminate the corruption in the afghan

government if we ever hope to have stability. and lastly, we got to seal the border with pakistan. and also deal with the influence of iran and russia as well. those are all the goals that we ought to be looking towards in terms of trying to achieve some degree of stability and security in afghanistan. >> well, this is what the president had to say about pakistan. and india as well last night. >> we can no longer be silent about pakistan, safe havens for terrorist organizations, the taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond. it is time for pakistan to demonstrate its commitment to civilization, order and to peace. another critical part of the south asia strategy for america is to further develop its strategic partnership with india, the world's largest

democracy, and a key security and economic partner of the united states. >> how is he going to carry out his challenge to pakistan, to crack down on the haqqani network and other terror groups? >> well, that's a fundamental challenge that has faced every past president and now faces president trump. you know, it is easier said than done. pakistan has resisted closing its border. it resisted dealing with terrorists, within its own country. and, you know, you can ask, you can say pretty please, but i don't think the pakistanis are necessarily going to respond. so i think the only key to that is to be able to develop an approach that in fact seals that border. not easy. it is mountain use territory. but the only way you're going to do it, frankly, is with the forces of both the united states and afghanistan trying to seal

the border. as for india, this always creates an inherent conflict because if you ask india to suddenly get involved with afghanistan, that makes pakistan even madder in terms of its position. so i think diplomatically they're going to have to walk some fine lines here if they're going to be able to achieve anything, both with pakistan as well as india. >> a lot of reporting that the afghan troops, other than the special ops forces, are not up to the task. what do we need to seal that border in terms of u.s. forces, and better trained afghan troops? >> well, that is, i think, what this is all about in the end, andrea. it is about whether or not we can train and develop a security force with the afghans that is able to secure their country. now, you know, we made some good

progress there. we have, in fact, given them the capability to engage in combat, to conduct counterterrorism operations. but they're not as good as they need to be. if they're going to try to secure the entire country. i mean, the taliban makes gains in these provinces, and very frankly the afghan security force is not able to regain that territory. that's unacceptable. so it seems to me that whatever force we're going to apply there has to really target training and advising the afghan forces so that ultimately they can become effective at providing security for their country. if we don't achieve that, then we will -- we will never achieve the goal of trying to establish a stable afghanistan, which is the fundamental goal that this is all about. >> did the president miss a beat in not talking about what russia and iran are up to, particularly russia in terms of now rearming

the taliban? >> i believe so because to really deal with afghanistan, you need a military strategy, you need a diplomatic strategic, and you need a regional strategy. the regional strategy is not only to deal with the impact from pakistan, it is also to deal with the support that is coming to the taliban from iran and the iranian border, and also from the russians. all of those are involved in destabilizing afghanistan. so you need to deal with all three, and i thought the president missed a beat here by not referring to the destabilization efforts that are going on both from iran and russia. >> can we do it without having enough diplomats deployed? >> well, again, that goes to the heart of what is happening at the state department. you got to have a diplomatic

strategy here. you cannot just do this militarily. you can't do it economically. you can't do it politically. you got to do it with our diplomatic force that is there and engaged. and that means that some -- a team of our best diplomats have to be assigned to that region in order not only to deal with afghanistan, particularly with regards to the efforts to reduce corruption, try to establish some kind of stable government there, and i know the president says, you know, we're not in the business of nation building. i got to tell you, you're not going to in any way achieve what our mission is in afghanistan unless afghanistan has the capability to govern itself. govern itself without corruption, be able to reach out to the tribes, to the warlords, to the others that are there. and that means that we need diplomats who are working with the afghan government in order to achieve those goals.

>> secretary panetta, thank you so much. thank you for being with us today. appreciate it. and moments ago, president trump boarded air force one at joint base andrews, he's on his way to yuma, arizona, where he will be touring the border with mexico. later this evening, the president will give a campaign style speech in phoenix. we're ahead on all of that right here on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. shawn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get.

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when one part of america hurts, we all hurt. and when one citizen suffers an injustice, we all suffer together. loyalty to our nation demands loyalty to one another. love for america requires love for all of its people. when we open our hearts to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry, and no tolerance for hate. >> well, you might have thought he was giving an address on afghanistan, but president trump opened his speech last night with a message of unity and tolerance after facing widespread condemnation for his defense of white separatists following the violence in charlottesville. joining me is ron klain, and

michael steele, republican adviser and former spokesman for house speaker john boehner. welcome to both of you. does that fix everything, ron? >> no. i mean, look, the fundamental problem is the president couldn't speak out against white supremacy, he didn't speak out against nazis, didn't speak out against racism. and a bunch of words at the top of the speech last night don't fix it. donald trump has to look into the camera and say to the american people, you know what, i was wrong, i apologize, i didn't speak out forcefully against these hateful forces in america. and until he does it, a bunch of just general stuff is not going to fix his problem. >> michael steele, were republicans whom you talked to relieved that he started this speech that way and nervous about tonight in arizona? >> i think absolutely. the speech last night, the opening remarks stopped the bleeding on the charlottesville issue. there was hope that with steve bannon gone, with the more moderate or rational views

prevailing inside the west wing that you're going to see more of this from the president, more control, more teleprompter speeches, more actual policy announcements, more doing the things that we expect from a commander in chief. at the same time, if last night was dr. jekyll, tonight could very well be mr. hyde with a sort of red meat attacks that we're so scared about. >> and, in fact, the governor, the republican governor is going to meet him on the tarmac, but not go to the rally. the two republican senators, one is ailing, the other is jeff flake, so they are -- they could possibly be targets of some of his asides? >> that's the concern there. jeff flake is smart. he's popular, he's conservative. he's one of two possibly endangered republican incumbents this year. if we make progress, we need the president to go after democrats in the senate in states he won in 2016, people who are potentially vulnerable to expand that republican majority in the senate, not picking fights with our own people. >> and flake's book, conscience

of a conservative, on the best-seller list now as well. how about breitbart being back in action? didn't take long for steve bannon to be back. by friday night, attending the editorial league. >> most americans sleep better at night knowing that steve bannon is not in the white house, but donald trump might sleep worse because he's on the outside now, has a powerful media weapon, he's coming after the president, to try to hold him accountable for the kinds of promises in the campaign, for the big reversal last night, saying we would take our troops out of afghanistan to saying last night there would be unlimited number of troops for unlimited period of time there. and that certainly is going to be an unpopular view with a lot of the people who voted for donald trump last november. >> michael steele, what happened to obj, i'm going to clean this one up, talking about keeping your enemies inside the tent rather than attacking you from outside the tent. >> as one breitbart person put it, the captain is back on the pirate ship, having lost the

internal debates, steve bannon is back on the outside and looking to try to do with the website what he couldn't do in a staff meeting. >> what about the way he, the president he, referred to john mccain in that news conference exactly a week ago? he clearly blames him for the loss of obamacare. >> yeah, i think that as you said before, it is ironic, he's going to arizona, he attacked jeff flake recently. he even attacked a national hero, someone dealing with a severe illness, john mccain, for not supporting the president's rollback of obamacare. i think that's why people like my friend michael here who are on edge, about what he's going to do in arizona. we don't know which donald trump will show up. even if somehow sthey keep him n track tonight, it is a matter of time before the donald trump, who is donald trump, is back on the stump causing trouble again. >> is that your worst nightmare, michael steele? >> i think my worst nightmare is he'll continue to veer back and forth, whiplash people, going from dr. jekyll to mr. hyde,

going from rational and giving a speech on afghanistan, outlining a policy that jeb bush or marco rubio or hillary clinton could have done a very similar speech, a very similar policy, a responsible rational policy. does that always have to be followed by lashing out in an irrational and unproductive way? >> michael steele, ron klain, stay tuned. >> absolutely. >> buckle your seat belts. and coming up, on the road again, donald trump heading to arizona. that doesn't necessarily mean it is friendly territory. that's next. we'll have a report from the scene. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. it's time for a getaway. the lincoln summer invitation is on. now get our best offers of the season. on the agile mkc. and the versatile midsize lincoln mkx. or go where summer takes you in the exhilarating mkz.

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president trump and his supporters aren't the only people getting ready for tonight's arizona rally. take a look at this. >> we are not there to cause any harm. we're there in a peaceful manner to make sure that -- let people know it is okay to protest, it is okay to make your voice heard. >> our concern is that he's coming to arizona for the wrong reason and he needs to be doing other things for the right

reason. >> msnbc's garrett haak is in phoenix. >> that's per southern pssoonii arpaio here. there is this persistent rumor that trump might pardon sheriff joe arpaio. that fueled this protest movement here. a lot of immigration activists banning together to make sure they bring a lot of folks out here tonight. want to give you a sense of what we're looking at on the ground here and why so many people are nervous. trump supporters starting to line up by the dozens out here today, some i talked to have been here since 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, here overnight. the capacity in this room, something like 19,000 people. the security folks here and the police, the secret service, have turned the area outside the convention center into sort of a fortress phoenix. if you have 15 to 20,000 trump supporters and 10,000 or more

counterprotesters who show up here tonight, those two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. there is a lot of concern that in the heat, the actual physical heat out here, over 100 degrees and the rhetorical heat around this immigration issue you could have combustible situation here tonight. they want to look more like boston over the weekend. but i was in boston over the weekend and you had in that case a fairly small event and enormous counterprotest. that's not going to be the case here tonight. so police and security folks really do have their work cut out for them tonight, even hours before the president arrives. the first protest is supposed to happen a few hours before the president gets here on site, the time he lands here in phoenix. we're watching a pretty combustible situation out here, andrea. >> garrett haak, setting the stage, thank you so much. and coming up, tough neighborhood. the president says in order to win in afghanistan, we need to reassess our relationship with pakistan. how likely is that?

senator chris murphy of the foreign relations committee will join me next. shawn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get.

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lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. fine for some. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™". no one denies that we have inherited a challenging and troubling situation in afghanistan. and south asia, but we do not have the luxury of going back in time and making different or better decisions. when i became president, i was

given a bad and very complex hand. one way or another these problems will be solved. i'm a problem solver. >> president trump taking i'm not very subtle shot at president obama's conduct of the war in afghanistan. connecticut democratic senator chris murphy joins me here. senator, welcome. thank you very much. your takeaway from the speech last night? >> well, there wasn't much new at all in that speech to the extent there was any change in policy. it was probably simply that future changes in policy won't be announced. there is going to be a secretiveness to afghanistan policy. but beyond that change it appears as if you'll have a small increase in troop size, you'll have a continuation of our policy to try to get pakistan to be more of a help rather than hindrance, but i think the news from last night is that there is very little news and i guess, you know, my main critique is that to the extent the strategies outlining

involves a heavy diplomatic commitment to try to get the pakistanis more involved to bring the indians into the equation, to try to continue to root out governance problems inside afghanistan, it is hard, when you're waging war and the department of state, taking 40% of their budget away, the strategy outlined last night, even though there is very little meat on the bones seems hard to effectuate. >> we don't have an ambassador in india. there is someone nominated for afghanistan, pakistan. we're short on diplomats. they have dissolved the office of the afghan/pakistan special envoy. >> and they have essentially outsourced the entire problem to the military. and what we know over the course of the last 15 years in afghanistan and in iraq is that the united states military is pretty miserable at solving complicated political problems in the middle east and around

the middle east. so to the extent that afghanistan remains a political problem, to the extent that the pakistanis coordination with the taliban is a political problem, you just have no one at the highest reaches of government who has that kind of diplomatic experience. you got a president with no government experience, who hires secretary of state with no diplomatic experience, who hasn't hired any personnel under him who has worked this particular book of business. afghanistan, pakistan, india. so there is really no one in place to actually put into effect the kind of policy he talked about. >> what would you like to hear about russia, which is becoming increasingly involved in rearming the taliban, in afghanistan. >> they got off scott free. you can't have a coherent afghanistan strategy without putting the screws to russia. so you heard last night the president be very serious about telling the pakistanis that they have to stop their assistance in direct or indirect to the taliban. you didn't hear him say that to the russians. and you continually have to ask

why the russians continue to get off the hook over and over again, whether it be in syria, or in afghanistan, where we know that they're playing a role to try to undermine u.s. efforts. >> at this stage, also, what is the incentive to pakistan to step up and crack down on the terror networks? >> if the president is truly serious about cutting off all military and economic assistance to pakistan, you know, then that may factor into pakistan's equation. the problem is we have always known is that the other side of that cutoff is particularly dangerous for the united states because pakistan is a nuclear weapons armed country, and so if we step completely away from any kind of bilateral relationship with pakistan, we really worry about what happens to those nuclear weapons. this is a devil's bargain here that we have always had difficulty with. >> how would you define victory? is the president correct in the

way he set the goals here? >> well, he didn't tell us what victory was last night. so it probably behooves the white house to put out a little bit more for the american public what victory looks like. president o he wasn't convinced there was an end to a seemingly perpetual war on extremism and terrorism in the way that there is an end to a more conventional war. i think we have to ask ourselves a really fundamental question here. afghanistan is probably not going to be a functional country anytime in the next ten to 20 years. you may be at a point where we have a permanent u.s. presence in that country, to just do enough to keep the taliban at bay, or we have to just walk away cold turkey and tell the afghans that they have to step up for themselves. i don't know whether there is ever going to be a moment where it is safe enough to leave. so we with a permanent occupier, or we take a big chance and leave and i don't think that any

president has been completely honest with us about that choice. >> is this something that any of your constituents raised with you on your walking tour? you just completed a walking tour of connecticut. >> i spent five days walking 110 miles from the rhode island border to the new york border. and the answer is no. i talked to mainly people who were totally apolitical. and they didn't raise afghanistan. the speech hadn't happened. but they also didn't talk to much about russia. they talked about health care, primarily, that was loud and clear, the most important issue to them, they talked about the quality of their kids' schools, how much money they were earning in their paycheck. it is important to remember that, you know, people that aren't paying attention to politics on a daily basis are still really focused on pocketbook issues and their economic lives which haven't gotten better. it was really grounding to do this walk. it doesn't mean afghanistan and russia aren't important topics, it means that's not what's

driving the kitchen table conversation in america. >> was that eye opening for you? you've been one of the strongest critics of the administration on the whole russia investigation, you've been, you know, leading the way on this. major player on foreign relations. but the lesson of the 2016 campaign is probably the pocketbook issues really are what matter to people. >> it is not surprising to me because this is the second year i've done that walk and i certainly do enough things in my state to understand that there is a disconnect sometimes between what we're focusing on but that doesn't mean the issues of war and peace don't necessitate our time. it doesn't mean that we should just give away foreign policy power to the -- to a growing imperial presidency just because it is not the first thing that people talk to us about back home. these things are still very important. if you get some of these complicated questions wrong, it will end up with thousands of

american soldiers dying needl s needlessly. you need to keep a focus on it. >> were you on your tour during or after charlottesville? >> i started the day after charlottesville. interestingly, people that were more politically plugged in wanted to talk about shart shas charlottesville. the people who weren't politically plugged in, they weren't even talking to me about charlottesville. they were focused on the perennial ever green issues. even in a week where it seemed like the whole country was focused on charlottesville, the people in connecticut not paying attention to politics were still focused on economic issues. that's important for all my colleagues to remember. >> thank you so much. thank you for being with us. coming up, caught off base, after the monday night's speech, is the president abandoning his america first platform? the inside scoop next on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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he likened america to our military personnel. and said that when one has patriotism in your heart, there is no room for bigotry or hatred. and that is the -- that's the value, that's the core the vice president with matt lauer on the today shohozan at the white house after the president tried once again last night to get past his damaging outburst about charlottesville at his news conference a week ago today tacking an unusual appeal for harmony on top of an afghan speech. welcome both of you. first of all, sam, let's talk about afghanistan and the whole pivot which was a pivot about the core principles of all the joint chiefs expressed after charlottesville, there's no place for bigotry, in fact, it is actionable.

you can be kicked out of the military for hate speech. >> it was a remarkable thing for him to address charlottesville at the beginning of a speech that was about war policy, of course his fourth effort at getting the right response to charlottesvil charlottesville. probably stirred up by his controversy he faced after the tough three. it's tough to swallow this after the unilateral banning of transjender troops. if this is about anti-bigotry, you have to weigh on this policy that istra transjernded troops. he has ground the make up. his sur fats arogates are havin difficult time. they ignore what he said the previous three times. >> you had david duke treating,

janish, about time will tell if president trump has also capitulated on his domestic agenda. without the wall and immigration reform, what's next? >> it's hard for the president. sam said he has a lot of ground to make up but i think in reality the president is realizing that he's in chaos, realizing that he has a domestic agenda and a foreign policy agenda that are kind of in some ways really overwhelming. i of talked to so many republicans trying to stick with the president even after all the chaos of charlottesville because they believe that the republicaninrepublica republicans need to pass something like infrastructure or tax reform or make another pass at health care. essentially the legacy of the party is tied to whether or not donald trump can do these things. if he's unsuccessful as a president and doesn't get anything done in office, that the u.s. just doesn't doom his presidency, it dooms the republican party for a long time to come. >> one of the tests is tonight, yamiche, does he take shots at

jeff flake and john mccain, two republicans whose votes he needs? >> the test of course is tonight and whether or not that speech, that where he'll be back in this raucous crowd, back kind of feeling this energy, people will probably be shouting lock her up, shouts things like you were right in charlottesville, i talked to a lot of supporters including an african-american man who told me the president was right to say some fine people would show up at a kkk rally, but they were base he was talking to at the raucous press conference. it's dangerous to be in arizona amongst this crowd of people who will be chanting his name, he'll be more prone to want to go off the teleprompter, more prone to walk back steps and of course as you know he tends to walk backs steps even if he has a great teleprompter speech one night. it's fair to say the president might go completely off his notes and say something that

will get him into more controversy. >> sam, this is a real challenge for the chief of staff who has shown that he can exert some discipline when it comes to, you know, banishing bannon and getting a speech pulled together on foreign policy, which was clearly contrary to the president's heart and soul. >> yes. and he acknowledged the reversal up top -- >> which was interesting. >> yeah, incredible, actually, reversal. right now we looked at it, there are six theaters in which donald trump has the escalated military activity since he's been elected office and he was elected in large part against, yamiche, shouldn't have foreign interventions, america first. it was a remarkable reversal. i am struck, though, at what we're talking about in sort of the meg sense of tonight's rally, which is essentially can trump control his inner usuals a urges and not incite violence. that's what this debate is about going into tonight's rally and it underscores the impossible

task john kelly has on him because no matter how many people he can ban, reince priebus, the mooch, whoever, no matter how many policies he can craft in the end the president's impulses are his enemies and john kelly cannot control the president's impulse p. >> the one thing that united most of the country yesterday, sam stein, is the eclipse. >> here we go. >> the president following his own urges and not the advice, let's take look at it. >> don't look! >> i mean, people were shouting from below, you know, put your glasses back on, don't look up. watch your eyes. yamiche, you showed us a picture of yourself, you know, clearly enjoying the moment as many of us did. there's yamiche. the awe, i mean, it was even with some clouds here in d.c., we went out on our front lawn at nbc and there we are, pete

williams, who would know. i love that picture. hadn't seen that before. are you the only person in america who didn't go out to see the eclipse? >> it's just a giant shadow. i don't really understand it. >> sam to stein! >> it's just a big shadow. what's the big deal? >> it was amazing is what it was. it was a very big deal. and i was in shock and awe and it was the break that i needed. that america needed. >> we'll leave it there. sam stein, shame, shame. more ahead. we'll be right back. aved money e insurance with geico. goin' up the country. later, gary' i have a motorcycle! wonderful. ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides.

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message sam stein at mitchell reports. take it away, craig melvin. >> sam stein, who hates an eclipse? >> not your mom. >> no. good to see you. good tuesday afternoon to you. craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york. campaigner in chief, donald trump headed to arizona for another campaign-style rally. will he rally republicans, go after the two republican senators there once again? pardon the controversial sheriff? or all of the above? tonight maybe a more tempered announcement since he's changed his position on afghanistan. how will his new