facebook, instagram @ali velshi on snapchat. deadline white house with nicolle wallace starts right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00. donald trump today returns to the place where it all began. phoenix, arizona, at a rally there tonight president trump is expected to wrap himself in the themes that animated his campaign from its infancy, a border wall with mexico. a hard-line on immigration, support for controversial sheriff joe arpaio. phoenix was one of the first official stops on donald trump's campaign. and the rally catapulted him to the top of the gop field where he remained. >> i don't blame the mexican government. i just wish our people were smart. they're really smart. they're sending them to us and we're either putting them in jails or letting them go free,

which is even worse. by the way, they're coming from all over the world. including the middle east. why not. come on. come on in. we're stupid. we'll take care of you. we'll pay. >> as the "washington post" chronicles in a new article this afternoon about the significance of the july 2015 rally in phoenix. quote, the rambling speech hit on immigration, the islamic state, the boycotts of his products. on celebrities, on the lying media, on how bad jeb bush is, and so on. trump reserved special attention for the republican establishment. sound familiar? including arizona's senior senator saying, i mean here in your own state you have john mccain. trump said, i just hate to see when people don't have common sense. don't have an understanding of what's going on or perhaps don't want to know. interesting choice of words for a man who, as president, is now of questionable stability and competence according to fellow republican bob corker.

today's rally comes on the heels of a seven-day controversy. after delivering scripted remarks last night on the way forward in afghanistan, trump's allies are holding their collective breaths in advance of today's familiar triggers, a massive friendly crowd, large-scale trump protest, and unfriendly home state senators and local officials. what could possibly go wrong? let's get to our reporters. nbc's kristen welker on the ground in phoenix. kimberly a kimber kimberly atkins. aides breathed a collective sigh of relief after last night's speech. how are they dealing with the fact that today in phoenix are all the dynamics that typically lead to the most off the rails performances from this donald trump? >> i think they're bracing for

the reality of that, nicolle. we saw teleprompter president trump last night, and i think they're expecting tonight to be the exact opposite. he will be in his element. campaign mode. this is his eighth campaign-style rally since taking office, and this is, as you pointed out, a chance for him to get back to all the campaign lines that swept him into the white house in the first place. i wouldn't be surprised if we heard him revive a lot of those lines, like building the wall. after all, prior to this stop he'll be stopping in yuma, arizona. he will be touring a u.s. border and customs patrol station there. this is obviously one of the key issues that allowed him to win the white house. he'll be hitting all his favorite notes tonight. you can feel the anticipation. the folks lined up behind me are largely supportive of president trump. and there is a pretty fraught political backdrop to this. the fact that you have two of the states -- the state's two republican senators not

attending tonight's rally. the governor will not be here. and the president has been warring openly with senator jeff flake who, of course, wrote the book essentially in opposition to president trump's values. president trump, in the wake of that, has been tweeting support for jeff flake's opponent, kelly ward. he has been taking on jeff flake directly. so i wouldn't be surprised if you heard him take a few shots at jeff flake tonight. and then, of course, the big question, which remains an open question at this hour, will he pardon controversy sheriff joe arpaio. the white house is not saying. a lot of protesters who are set to turn out tonight and say that would be a massive slap in the face. this is state, though, that president trump won handily and he'll try to capitalize on the momentum. >> jim, this idea of common triggers, that donald trump, when he is in a state where he is as popular and in some cases more popular among that trump

base than they are, he really likes to needle them. that certainly might be the case with jeff flake and senator mccain. you have seen the senate leadership and really most of the republican establishment line up behind jeff flake in that showdown between trump and arizona senator jeff flake. >> yeah. listen, donald trump is very predictable. teleprompter trump yesterday did exactly what we thought he would do. he did it in the speech before congress. when he is on twitter we know how he'll behave. at a rally, we've seen it for a year, he feeds off that energy. he'll hit immigration. i don't think he'll end up doing anything on the arpaio front. the paperwork is done. he could do it. the plan is not to do it. there is a big debate internally about whether or not he goes after senator jeff flake. right now they're saying that's not the plan. once he improvises and feeds off that energy, he is pretty angry at jeff flake. he hates it when anybody goes after him personally,

particularly in the republican party. again, he probably can't hep himself and will do what the crowd wants him to do. jeff flake is very unpopular in arizona. in the 30,000 people who might be at the stadium tonight, they'll love trump. trump loves people who love trump. >> take me behind the "they." who are the they who don't want him to go after jeff flake. who is urging him to try to have 12 straight hours of a controversy free media cycle. >> the remaining staff. you talked about for the last week. with bannon on the outside. steven miller aligning with jared kushner. you have a group of crentrists, many former democrats, now advising him. they liked what he did yesterday. they liked the response to charlottesville where he gave the response that everyone expected a president to give. they would have liked him to come out of yesterday's speech and not do something controversial tonight, that

stokes some kind of protest or violence in arizona. they know they cant do that. what they can do is, at different points in the presidency, they can apply pressure from all sides. they can do it from the military, the general, from the white house staff whom he listens to and they can occasionally get results like they got yesterday with that speech. mike allen wrote about this idea. when he talks he barks like bannon but he bites like mattis or gary cohn. when it comes to policy-making and big decisions. that's what's so disoriently. he talks one way, very radical and governs in a conventional way. which is why bannon likes to be on the outside now. he hated the speech yesterday. he believed during the campaign, let's get out of afghanistan.

stop putting our men and women at risk in a country that's almost impossible to pacify. how he has breitbart and they'll egg trump on. so the dynamic that you saw, the bannon versus the new yorkers is just on a different stage. it hasn't changed. >> kimberly, let me bring you into the conversation and ask you if any of it matters. the words don't seem to have any meaning because they're not tethered to a world view. the reason people likes the things he read from the teleprompter is because they probably wrote them for him. a serious question. how do you write words for someone whose set of beliefs you have to glean from twitter and from his rantings at rallies? >> that's a major frustration that republicans tell me all the time, is that they don't know, even after a relatively calm 24 hours with the president giving a scripted speech last night, being relatively calm on twitter today, seeming, you

know, presidential in some way, that people say, well, we don't know what he's going to do in the next hour or next day when he goes back to slootihooting f his gut. i think it does matter, particularly if tonight being at a crowd with a rally, knowing what the crowd wants more than just -- beyond just the talk about the wall, which we'll hear him say. if he does get revved up and start laying into jeff flake or endorsing his primary opponent or talking about sheriff arpaio or maybe, you know, going against some of the ground that he made last night, if there are, for example, some counter protests and they make him angry, if he goes back to the same line that he used at the infamous trump tower press conference, republicans will see that as retreating. going back and harming not only the party but himself in his message making him even less

credible. >> let me bring my table into the conversation. some of my favorite writers and voices in the portfolio spectrum. charlie sykes. former democratic congresswoman done 'edwards and peggy noonan. msnbc news analyst. welcome to our merry ship. thank you for being here. peggy, let me start with you. i have all your columns. i print them out and read them at night when i'm weeping about the state of our politics. my favorite from 2016. bob corker questioning openly donald trump's competence and stability. i went back and read this. you wrote on, look, he is a nut, donald trump. you know he's a nut. i go to battleground states and they all know donald trump is a nut. some of them vote for him anyway. nothing has changed. >> you know, i think that's kind of true. it was an interesting fact of the voting in november of 2016

that so many of those who voted for now president trump were people who also told pollsters when the pollsters would say, so you think he's really a totally great guy? and they'd go, oh, no. so you think he's really got the most stable thing going in his head? they'd go, well, no. so this has actually continued for a while. and in some ways it hasn't at all changed. i always wrote that trump's supporters, of whom there were many, were the least illusioned people about him. it was always a funny thing. they thought he could come forward, do certain things, accomplish certain things, be a bulldozer, not some things down, knock some heads together, but they didn't and illusions about his essential character and nature. >> kristen welker, the white house staff, i am sure you've

heard the same things i've heard, that they're disillusioned. did the white house staff in some ways end up being more disillusioned on some of his supporters. as peggy says, they knew what they were getting. i know from my reporting and i am sure you've heard the same thing, his staff was badly shaken after that performance a week ago today where he talked about both sides having good arguments in the deadly protest in charlottesville. >> there is no doubt about that, nicolle. you had some staffers who were even contemplating quitting. they were shaken to their core, some of them. so i think that it is a great point that the president's supporters knew what they were getting, whereas, you have staffers who were coming on board really to try to enact his broader policy agenda, and in those moments, particularly in the moments that you point out,

they felt let dun by the president. i spoke with one former staffer, nicolle, who compared this to a football analogy, sort of coming up with a game plan and having your running back run in the opposite end down the field. that's how it's been described at some of these moments that really matter. i think what you saw last night was an attempt to really reset that. that is general john kelly's stamp on this administration. the big question is, will he be able to keep that going. tonight could be a big test of that. again, we expect him to go off script. there is no doubt about that. there is a campaign-style rally. just how much, i think it will be a good barometer. >> why can't the republicans get theirs arms around the fact that he's never going to change? i talked to a trump adviser who says, this is who he is. as much as we think this was about race and we focused on the incredibly insensitive, tone-deaf alarming things he had

to say about race as they revealed something in him, it was also about him not walking back from his own comments, that he is incapable of walking off a cliff even when he propels himself to the ledge. >> donald trump is who he is. nothing is going to change there. everything that we are seeing now was apparent during 2015 and 2016. so republicans who voted for him, who walked into the voting booth without illusions knew what they were getting. they made the bargain that they're going to get the policy wins out of him, that he is going to say the right things that ultimately he'll move the country in the direction they want. >> like buying a used car. you're like, listen. i know it will break all the time. i love the color. >> also in a bad relationship. somebody has been abusive and abusive, you think he's going to change, get better. he's not going to do it. this is a political party that didn't draw the line after the "access hollywood" video. are we surprised that this is a political party that wouldn't draw the line after the charlottesville comments? they're in. >> paul ryan appeared last night

in a town hall in cnn. he had a hard time speaking as bluntly as you just did. why is he struggling so much to be one of the leaders of the republican party? >> he basically said, i am going to ignore a lot of things, i'm going to enable a lot of things because i really, really, really want to cut taxes. for paul ryan it's all about that agenda. he feels -- >> who cares if you get your tax bill if the country has been torn apart. >> that's the point. is it worth it. at some point do they say, okay, what is the price tag for all of this. i think ryan has become very narrow cast. he is the guy, everything is fine, moving ahead with the agenda. despite everything exploding and burning apart. this is the cornerstone of his career. he is trying to salvage this. but of course, the price is that he is not doing what other conservatives are doing. the fact that trump is in arizona today, this is where the republican party is going to decide where it's going. this is the state where you have

john mccain, jeff flake, doug ducey, the governor. and republicans have to decide, are you going to go with principled conservatives in the barry goldwater mold or trump and donald trumpism. >> they'll go with donald trump. >> do you find yourself in a weird position of rooting for conservative republicans like jeff flake and john mccain if for no other reason that they represent a more principled stand on some of these questions in american lives? >> i feel it's a ferrer fight when you're fighting real conservativism. what we have with donald trump is not that. i think tonight in phoenix will be like the church revival only not with the offering plate. the president will show up, and he feeds off of the crowd. and it is going to take him into another zone. i appreciate the distinction of the teleprompter trump versus the one that we get in realtime. i think that's the real donald

trump. >> you get the back lash, when he is controlled and says something he doesn't really want to say. the next day he goes on the trump binge. >> let me give kimberly the last word on that. you were together for the extraordinary live event one week ago today, the press conference in trump tower. i wonder if you can put these seven days in context in terms of what you expect tonight, thinking about this pattern, thinking about everything that phoenix signifies for donald trump and thinking about the pattern of scripted moments being followed by outbursts. >> i think you're right. charlie and donna are both right. i think the day we saw was take two of charlottesville when he read the scripted speech that he clearly seemed uncomfortable reading. my first thought which i tweeted, the real test is the first thing he says once the teleprompters are off. that's when we got the extraordinary press conference in new york. i feel like the eclipse set up

the same scenario to happen today, where you have this very measured statement last night, and then you're going to have a campaign rally at a place where the people who show up are wanting unscripted, from the gut donald trump. i don't see how he doesn't give it to them. >> perfectly said. when we come back, the phoenix mare who urged the president not to visit his centucity, saying america is hurting. the dossier that started it all. former fbi director james comey stayed behind at one of donald trump's early intel briefings to warn donald trump about its existence and embarrassingly unsubstantiated contents. back in the news today. count this as your free public relations tip. millionaires and their wives should never taunt "we the people" on social media,

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words matter. that's what law enforcements, white house staffers and the american people have been telling the president since his response to charlottesville sparked a national outcry. that message is at the center of phoenix mayor greg stanton's plea to the president to stay

home, skip the campaign rally he planned in his city and work toward uniting the country. he writes in the "washington post," quote, america is hurting. it is hurting largely because trump doused racial tensions with gasoline with his planned visit to phoenix on tuesday, i fear the president may be looking to light a match. that's why i asked the president to delay his visit. it's time to get cooler heads prevail and begin the healing process. he joins me now. thank you for being our guest, and thank you for starting this conversation off where it belongs. this idea that it's time for healing seven days after the president really ripped open a lot of old wounds. i wonder what you are prepared for as you, i think, are within hours of the president's arrival in your city. >> nicolle, thank you for having me on. it is the wrong time for a presidential visit, the wrong time for a campaign rally. so soon after the tragic murder of the young lady killed by a

neo-nazi. the failure of moral leadership to come here to phoenix, to do a campaign rally, openly talk about potentially pardoning joe arpaio. it's exactly the wrong time to do this kind of rally. that's why i asked him to stop. that being said, as mayor of the city, we are making sure we are as prepared as possible. we have a great police department locally. we are working with state and federal authorities, and we'll make sure that everyone has the opportunity to express their first amendment rights as safely as possible. we are as ready as we possibly can be for tonight's events. >> people like me sit in the cheap seats. people like you have to protect the citizens. we started off the show talking about the significance that phoenix plays in donald trump's rise, that it was really a rally in phoenix in 2015 that ig vietd his national movement, if you will. how do you govern a city with such intense passions on both sides? and have you adjusted any of your plans for today in light of

the tragic death of heather heyer a week ago last saturday? >> as we prepare for this campaign rally here in phoenix, and certainly there are passionate people on both sides of the issue. you'll see literally tens of thousands of people on the streets of phoenix, inside the convention center for the rally, outside people expressing their first amendment rights. it will be a very heated environment here in phoenix. and yes, of course, our police department, our law enforcement professionals follow everything that goes on around the country and around the world so that we can learn new ideas and concepts that keep people who are expressi expressing their first amendment rights as safe as possible. of course they've adjusted a little bit. they are not talking publicly about the public safety plans, but needless to say, we have a great phoenix police department that will be as ready as possible to keep people safe. >> did you work behind the scenes as well as your op-ed that you published in the "washington post"? did you call the white house and ask them not to come to phoenix

on the heels of the violence in charlottesville? >> after i put out the statement where i strongly called for the president to delay his visit, the timing could not be worse, shortly after the tragally of charlottesville, there was a white house official who did comment publicly that they were not going to follow my advice and continue down that path to a trip here to phoenix. look, i am not poly annish. i am not expecting the president to follow my advice, but i believe the position i took reflects the majority of people here locally and the majority of people nationally that said that this president failed us so horribly after the tragedy of charlottesville, just blew it after that tragic event, and now he wants to do a campaign rally in which he is openly discussing pardoning sheriff joe arpaio? as i said in the article in the "washington post," as i said there, after charlottesville, he doused racial tensions with gasoline. if he were to come here and pardon sheriff joe, that would

really light a match. i am hoping and praying he does not pardon sheriff joe tonight, and if he doesn't, we consider that a victory that he listened to people here who were demanding that he not follow through with the threat to pardon sheriff joe. >> talk about what sheriff joe signifies in the community. you used the word terror earlier in our chat. i want to understand how he has terrorized the residents there. even if he doesn't pardon him today, it's my understanding from the president's words and a televised interview on fox that he is very open to issuing a pardon. i understand from jim vandehei, who was on our program at the top of the hour that the paperwork is complete. what kind of reaction would you expect if an olive branch were extended or kind words were extended or even if it didn't happen tonight that the white house plans to ultimately pardon someone who you say has terrorized your community.

>> first, what does sheriff joe mean here locally. around the world he is a cartoon-like figure. he has had an international reputation, giving us a black eye locally in my opinion. here locally, he really did terrorize the lives of thousands and thousands of latino families. what he was facing here locally was a trial in which he was accused of and ultimately found guilty of systematically violating the civil rights of our latino residents. they couldn't go to the grocery store without fear of being pulled over under false pretenses and facing criminal action. they couldn't drop their kids off at school without fear of having their lives turned upside down. the court found he did that simply based on the color of people's skin, not based upon the merits. obviously he has been criminally convicted of contempt of court as part of that civil rights

trial. nationally, internationally, he might have a certain reputation. locally it's very different. he really did terrorize the lives of wonderful residents of the latino community here in phoenix. >> my last question, what is the sum total of president trump's account now, five attempts at addressing the violence in charlottesville? does he come to your city as someone who has began the work you described of bringing the country together, or has he still left an ambiguous sense, do you think, among his supporters about where he stands on protests and counterprotests. >> there has been bipartisan condemnation of the president's lack of moral leadership. paul ryan said himself that the president really messed up his response to charlottesville. the condemnation is across the board. he will never get that time back. unfortunately for the president, he has really, unfortunately, hurt not only his own reputation but, you know, really inflamed racial tension across the country as a result of this

failure of moral leadership. that being said, he should tonight, instead of trying to inflame passions, instead of threatening to pardon sheriff joe, instead of talking about republican party politics and who might run for senate, not run for senate, instead he ought to look at the people of phoenix, look at the american people and say, i am sorry for my failure of moral leadership after charlottesville. i blew it. and try to make right, try to be explicit in how he feels about white supremacy, white nationalism, the so-called alt-right, the neo-nazis. instead of being ambiguous about it or saying there was blame on both sides, instead be very specific about how you feel. people -- americans are willing to allow for someone to say that they messed up, that they are sorry for their mistakes. that's not been a characteristic of this president. he has a chance and he ought to take advantage of it tonight in

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people are anxious about tonight. >> yeah. i feel concerned. we both started talking about it. and suddenly we realized we all do. things are very hot in america right now. it's literally august. young people are out. there is a lot of division. we all know this. every cliche is true. but both sides, if you will, are kind of spinning themselves into

something that i am a little fearful might be a nerve might be pressed. >> what are you afraid of, though? you are afraid something -- >> here is what i would love to see. i would love to see the president. he was sober and serious last night in his afghanistan speech. whatever you think of the policy, that was a sober fellow speaking of sober things. i would love it if he could come forward in phoenix this evening and be a variation on that. look, it's a rally. rallies are raucous. they're electric. trump's people never know what he's going to say next, so they're on the balls of their feet. he doesn't know what he's going to say next, so he is probably on the balls of his feet. i would love it if it were, even though it's a rally, more sober, a bit more serious, even a little humble and marked by humor. good nature. these things we forget in politics. a little humor and a little wit,

and a little expressed good nature can take the air out of the other side. you get people laughing, all of a sudden they're doing something together. so that's what i would wish for. >> peggy -- >> the president doesn't laugh. he doesn't use humor. >> i know. >> he feeds off of a crowd to go the next step. i mean, my fear tonight, because i -- i looked at boston, folr example and thought, you had 40,000 people on the street and it was peaceful. this has every potential to be the same thing, people expressing their viewpoints. the danger is that the president says something that sends people over the top. and i don't think that we've had a president before who views it as his job to go to the next rung. and this president always does that. >> you get the sense that both sides are kind of cranking

themselves up into justifying something. you won't get the kinder and gentler donald trump. >> a little wit, a little humor. >> here is the problem he faces. the steve bannon departure doesn't change the presidency because the presidency is donald trump, but it does change trump world. there is the possibility of a crackup in trump world where at some point he has to look over his shoulder to the alt-right folks, the nativists and those folks and say, i am still with you guys, despite the speech last night. the only way to do that is to move back to his base, to the -- the trump nativist, wall, immigrants, red meat debate. >> he is not going to apologize because he never has. he is not going to use humor. peggy, he is not the president you worked for. this man has no humor in him. >> i know that. >> peggy is into a nice fantasy. jim vandehei is always one to bring me back down to earth.

donald trump not known for deprecating humor behind the scenes and he's not likely to display any on the stage tonight. >> the reason people are nervous is because there is a ton of dry kinned li kindling out there. nerves are raw. the possibility of deadly violence is real at any one of these rallies when you have racism pulsating through some of the topics. immigration, the pardon. the backdrop of charlottesville. that's a lot. that's a lot of emotion. the emotion gets brought into these rallies. that's where peggy is right. you almost have a constitutional duty as president to soothe when people are freaking out. like, that is your job. you can do that. that is the power of the presidency. we have seen it with presidents before. you can take an anxious nation, and you can calm things. or you can take an anxious nation and you can rev it up. and donald trump definitely has a tendency in these moments to

rev it up. that's why people should be worried or at least be aware. >> sarah huckabee sanders just confirmed that arpaio would not be pardoned today. do you think that's a step in the direction of the adults sort of taking over and trying to stifle the fiery instincts of this president? or do you think we're drawing too many fantasy conclusions? >> that's a big maybe because my understanding is he will be present at the rally. maybe he doesn't get pardoned. but all it takes is donald trump to sort of flick at the idea that the guy will get pardoned, which will get everyone electrified. you can see it in every rally he has done for a year. whenever the crowd starts to temper, he can't deal with it. he will always turn it up and light the match. he loves the crowd response. in all likelihood he will bring it up. does that therefore inflame riots? no, but it certainly leaves people to feeling, here we go again into one of these tricky

arguments. for the republican party, the other danger is arizona is not trump country, necessarily. he did worse than mitt romney. it's one of the states, like texas, like georgia, where the complexion of the state, the demographics of the state, is changing in ways that threaten the viability of the republican party long term, if you don't play it right on issues that a diverse nation cares about. and so, against that backdrop, it's an interesting dilemma for the republican party because it's not just about distancing themselves from donald trump, the rhetoric, it's often distancing themselves from the policies. it's hard to see the republican party thriving in these states unless they adapt. >> donna. >> jim makes a great point. i think this is precisely the reason that donald trump and others have used that kind of inflammatory rhetoric, because it's the only way they can gin up the crowd that's still prepared to vote for them, and

it's not a diverse set of folks. so i think, you know, tonight i really -- i really do worry. and i don't even know -- >> me too. >> whepj o'rourke. from american consequences magazine and contrintibuting edr of the weekly standard. author of "how the hell did this happen." we were on bill marr together. we can't use the fun words we used on his show. keep it pg. i want you to weigh in on the stakes tonight not just for the president but for the country. >> i think he'll use humor. he'll come out in a bed sheet with a tiki torch. >> god help us! listen -- >> or some rhetorical equivalent thereof. i mean, i tell you, it's like -- i didn't think my mind could be changed about trump because i detested him so much.

i knew he was a pig, but it wasn't really until this last week i realized he was a stupid pig. both sides. there were no both sides. in charlottesville there were -- people on the other side were bad people, nazis and ku klux klan members are bad people. they may technically have the right to say whatever they want because of the first amendment, but i might technically have the duty to whoop them up side the head for having said it. there was nothing he said/she said, nothing -- no polite disagreement like we might have about conservatives versus liberal, fiscal responsibility versus spending. no! no! nazis and klan members are bad people. period. >> you do make a good point about how perhaps asinine the debate around this whole last

week may be. because in your singular way, the blunt assessment that you give it is exactly what it deserves. i wonder if you have thoughts about where we go from here, the republican party, of which you were a member. are, were? what word do you use? >> i am ethnically republican. i am a country club republican except no country club will let me join. i'll put it that way. >> after your tiki club joke, i understand why. not writing you any letters. >> the poor company that makes tiki -- tiki torches. there was an article in the business section today about how furious they are. as well they might be. it's just going to get worse. i mean, power makes people worse. i mean, that's the origin of lord acton's quote about power corrupts and absolute power

corrupts. he wasn't speaking about evil criminals. he was speaking about a pope. and he was a devout catholic. he was speaking about pious x. power corrupts. this is just going to get worse. what the republicans need to do is -- is run for the hills is what they need to do. you know, that's certainly what i have done. fortunately i had a hill here in new hampshire to run to. >> all right, well, we're going to take a break. we are looking at air force one as it lands in yuma, arizona. jim vandehei, thank you for spending time with us. up next, one of the men behind the notorious trump dossier faces new questions in the russia investigation. we will be right back. of our f? what? no. how come you have cheese in your beard? because switching to geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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in the public domain is this question of the steele dossier. a document that has been around now for over a year. was the fbi able to confirm any criminal allegations contained in the steele document? >> mr. chairman, i don't think that's a question i can answer in an open setting because it goes into the details of the investigation. >> that was former fbi director james comey telling the senate intelligence committee back in june that he could not speak on the trump/russia dossier because of its involvement in an open investigation.

today glenn simpson, one of the men who helped to write the unsubstantiated dossier which claimed russia had compromising information on donald trump is speaking to senate judiciary committee investigators on the record to help explain to us why that is so important, why that is still going on and why any of it matters to bob mueller. we bring in ken dilanian. >> glenn simpson was still talking to investigators behind closed doors. it's been going on for hours. i find it significant because there are few people who know more about the connections between donald trump and russia than mr. simpson. he is a former "wall street journal" reporter who has, for years, been investigating russian corruption and russian politicians. he formed a private investigative firm and was hired in september 2015 by a never-trump republican, we don't know who, to investigate donald trump. and in a form of opposition

research. he quickly began focusing on ties between trump and russia. he ended up working with former intelligence officer christopher they turned some of this information over to the fbi, but nothing appeared to be happening until james comey got a coopy from john mccain after the election. that seemed to spark a further fbi investigation. the fbi talked to christopher steele about working for them. that never happened, but it's clear the fbi was taking the dossier very seriously. but it's only 35 pages. glen simpson knows more than what's contained in the 35 pages published by buzzfeed. so it's interesting what democrats may be asking simp oy now on the record behind closed doors in the senate judiciary committee. let's go to two things we know, when you get close to the

nerve with russia, donald trump let you know that you have done so. his reaction to the dossier and reaction to media outlets that cover the unsubstantiated d dossi dossier was one of the most vittvitt reon the being of interesting to mueller is of concern for the white house? >> it has to be. what gets a lot of attention are the very salacious sexual details we won't go into here. but the dossier actually allege add conspiracy between the trump campaign and russia. it went into a lot of details about alleged connections and talked about how the intelligence services were trying to cultivate trump for years, and how the russians met with several trump soeshlgts.

many allegations are unproven, but some things have been corroborated by the fbi and it's been used as a template by both the fbi and the committees and it is a significant set the allegations that form the base of this whole trump investigation. that's got to be one of the reasons it rattles -- so to you ignore the sex, follow the money. >> that's not a bad way to go when it comes to donald trump and russia. >> thanks for spending time with us. >> thank nic on. lle. four seconds on the clock, down by one. championship on the line. erin "the sharpshooter" shanahan fakes left. she's outside of the key, she shoots... ...she scores! uh... yes, erin, it is great time to score a deal. we need to make room for the 2018 models. relive the thrill of beating the clock. the volkswagen model year end event. hurry in for a $1,500 in available bonuses and 0% apr

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yet louise linton posted a picture, but what's getting attention is angry response. she wrote -- #defloral. louise responds by saying, did you think this was a personal trip? adorable. do you think the u.s. government? have you given more to the economy than me and my husband either as an individual earner or self-sacrifice. oh, my, peggy noonan. >> that's one way of announcing that you are very new to public life. >> how about totally -- she also hashtaged a bunch of expensive pants, shoes, eyeglasses, you know. >> well, two things. one is when you are young and

wealthy -- >> she's 36 years old. >> well, that's youngish. wealthy and beautiful, it might be good to keep the sarcasm to yourself, you know what i mean? >> they are plenty of examples of young women dealing with the glare of sudden political spotlight, with a lot more class and elegance than this young person. >> it's not that she's new at it, it's the snarky sense of entitlement, it's the marie antoine tte. >> she looks good by comparison. maybe it would make you look at historical parallels. a woman getting off a taxpayer-funded airplane, and maybe you all to pay for your own travel, especially when she's highlighting her hermes bag. i don't cut her any slack for

being new or young. that had a deep sense of arrogance entitle mement. >> as part of the american public who is the queen the outlet shopping, i was deeply offended. it was so intemperate and nasty and unnecessarily so. she had no idea who was on the other end of that, what kind of sacrifices her family made, you're in public life. people say stuff, you don't have to respond. p.j., get your response. >> it's a teachable moment. i have three teenagers. >> she's not a teenager. she might look like one, but she is 36 years old. she could about the the mother of a teenager. >> at my age she is a teenager, okay? but she was certainly acting like a teenager. anyway, i spent a lot of time saying to the kids, there are mind words and there are mouth words. not everything that goes through

your mind has to come out your mouth. >> some shocking wisdom. >> it's an important life lesson. >> p.j., happy to have you share wisdom with us. >> parenting wisdom, yes. >> on a more serious note, this is another instinct from someone close to the president. it doesn't exactly speak of a spirit of service or benevolence. >> i think it speaks of a mistake and possibly a sense of entitlement that ought to be nipped in the bud. i have a feeling that social media has been nipping it in the butt all day. >> you know, there's -- there's an awful lot of people out there who go on and on about their sense of public service. we all know most of them are lying. >> well, there's that. there's that. you guys were -- >> here's a poor woman who told the truth. >> there's something to that.

>> all right. a table for the ages. thank to you all of you charlie sikes, donna edwards, peggy noons and -- mtp daily starts right now #hermes scarf. and if it is tuesday, president trump did about to hold his first rally since charlottesville. tonight fired up in phoenix. after calling for unity last night -- >> we cannot remain a force for peace in the world if we are not at peace with each other. >> president trump is hinding into a tinderbox at tonight's rally. will he light a match? plus all about that base. why all that talk about calamity and could may be just that the. and political fallout from the about-f