i got the white supremacists, the neo-nazis. i got them all in there. what did they say? right? it should have been sooner. he's a racist. these are really, really dishonest people. and they're bad people. was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? he should have had a jury, but, you know what, i'll make a prediction, i think i'll be just fine, okay. we're building a wall on the southern border which is absolutely necessary. we have to close down our government, we're building that wall. >> what happened? hillary clinton reading from her new book, in excerpts obtained by morning joe. looking back at how she might have handled that moment, the moment when donald trump moved behind her in the second presidential debate. >> what would you do?

do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, back up, you creep, get away from me? >> and unfriendly fire, the president attacking mitch mcconnell and both of arizona's republican senators. even as john mccain is battling brain cancer. >> and for our friends in the senate, oh, boy, we have to speak to mitch and speak to everybody, please, please, mr. president, don't mention any names. so i won't. one vote away, i will not mention any names. and nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who is weak on borders, weak on crime. so i won't talk about him.

>> good day. it is 2016 all over again. president trump reverting to campaign mode tuesday night in phoenix, railing against congress, against democrats, even federal republicans. but especially his favorite target, the press. >> for the most part, honestly, these are really, really dishonest people. and they're bad people. and i really think they don't like our country. you would think they would want to make our country great again. and i honestly believe they don't. i honestly believe it. >> the president's other favorite foil, hillary clinton, telling her side of the 2016 story in a new book. the first audio excerpt released exclusively to "morning joe," recalling a nightmare moment from the second presidential debate. >> donald trump was looming behind me. two days before, the world heard

him brag about groping women. now we were on a small stage and no matter where i walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. it was incredibly uncomfortable. he was literally breathing down my neck. my skin crawled. maybe i have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue, digging my fingernails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while, determined to present a composed face to the world. >> hillary clinton reading from how it happened, joining me now msnbc senior national correspondent chris jansing at the white house, nbc's katie tur, host of the 2:00 hour here on msnbc, of course, covered the entire trump campaign, she's in new york, and washington post correspondent ann gearen. i guess it is what happened is the title. but, boy, what a release. let's talk about donald trump in

arizona. katie, the president not only in cam poi campaign mode, but revising recent history by lashing out his opponents, let's show the first response to charlottesville, in new jersey, and the way he replayed it last night. >> we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence, on many sides, on many sides. so here's what i said really fast, here's what i said on saturday. we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. that's me speaking on saturday. right after the event. so i'm condemning the strongest

possible terms egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. i think you can't do much better, right? >> he conveniently left out, you know, on many sides, on many sides. he can't seem to leave this alone. coming after his reasonably delivered praised afghanistan speech, carefully scripted, no ad libs. this was, you know, full campaign mode, but the difference is he's the president of the united states. >> he has a selective memory. he said a number of things last night on the stage that were verifiably false, including that "snl" w cnn was turning off the cameras and not taking it live as he was saying it on television. he's not campaigning any longer but this could have been a speech you could have plopped down to june 2016 or july 2015 and would have felt right at home. this is a man who is not

president. he's not president for the republican party. you saw him go after the senators of that state. he didn't name them, but we all know who he was talking about, who he was talking about. he went after senate majority leader as well. he's not a president for them. he's a president for the 30% of people in this country who voted for him. he's a president trying to protect his base. and make no mistake. when given the option of staying on message, staying on prompter, doing what his advisers may want him to do or the republican party may want him to do, donald trump will always favor hearing the roar of the crowd and that is never more true than when he is arizona. think about last year, he had that relatively measured meeting with mexican leaders, in mexico, flew directly to arizona, and had what was one of the rowdiest and most divisive campaign speeches of his entire campaign. and that is saying a lot. and while aides may look to last night, and those who are real trump supporters, those who

whisper in his ear, still, even though they're not there, and say that is exactly the trump who won, that is exactly the trump you need to be, the reality is, andrea, he is not running for anything right now. he is president. and he's failing to rise to the roll, failing to rise to the office, he's once again cowering to his base. >> and chris jansing, i want to play for all of us, what michael steele, former aide, republican aide to john boehner, had to say yesterday when we were reviewing how he handled the afghanistan speech. this is what michael steele said yesterday on this program. >> i think my worst nightmare is that he'll continue to veer back and forth to whiplash people, going from dr. jekyll to mr. hyde. a responsible, rational policy, does that always have to be followed by lashing out in an irrational and unproductive way? >> so true to form, chris jansing, the president last

night, as katie was saying, and it is true that arizona, that arizona moment after the mexico trip, was just one of the worst examples. again last night, foreign policy followed by a rowdy campaign moment. and even, even after his press secretary on air force one had told the press he was not going to mention sheriff arpaio, you saw what he did. >> and at one point, andrea, he said where is john kelly, looking for his chief of staff, brought in specifically to sort of corral him from his worst instincts when he goes out there, veers off script, and pulls his speech out of his pocket and starts doing things like that. not only mentioning joe arpaio, but talking about building the wall,ny think of the things he packed into that speech. he threatened to shut down the government. he said that the media was responsible for the divisions in the country and said in fact he doesn't think they love their

country. we should mention that joe arpaio is somebody who was convicted of a crime who had to do with the case involving racial profiling, and he went after unprecedented, i don't know if you can remember this ever happening, i certainly can't, you go after two sitting senators when you're facing a fall where you're going to need senators to get anything through in your legislative agenda. and you surround yourself with the crowd, who are going back again to the campaign, you know, shouting about hillary clinton, one of them even suggesting that john mccain should die. and then his daughter, meghan mccain, has to put that -- going to be in reno today talking to the american legion. if i can, andrea, really quickly, in an excerpt from this speech, he's about to give, he's going to say it is time to heal the wounds that have divided us. and yet last night, for more than an hour, he opened up those

wounds even further. >> and then we have the contrast, of course, with hillary clinton's memoir. here she is, talking about that incredible debate when donald trump was circling around her, we asked her about that on the plane, coming home from st. l louis. >> could you tell? >> i could tell, yes. >> it was a small space. and i tried to give him space when he was talking to people. i would go back and, you know, lean up against my stool. but he was very present. >> very present indeed. you were at that debate. and let's set the stage here this was two days after access hollywood, the campaign, i believe it was david bossy, and steve bannon, had brought out all of the women who had been

accusers of bill clinton, paula jones and others, they had done a facebook live before. then they delayed the debate because the trump campaign was demanding that these women be seated in the front row in the family section. the presidential debate commission said not fair, that would have been right in the line of sight of hillary clinton at this town hall. they were brought out and put in the front row of the bleachers. that was the drama surrounding all of this. then she has him circling and circling around her. >> breathing, as she said, actually breathing on her neck. it was bizarre to watch, it -- in the room, it was bizarre to watch on television. and she's describing it in a really visceral way, what had actually felt like, she couldn't see him much of the time to kind of have him moving around behind her and the things that were going through her head. i'm struck by the personal tone she is taking at least in this excerpt. and the sense that she actually is willing to review things that

went right and things that didn't go right for her during the campaign. and clearly she's going to be willing to take some shots at trump in a personal and readable way. this may make it a more readable book than some of her critics have said her previous memoirs are. >> and, in fact, what she's reviewing here is a moment where she was very controlled, she's relating it to the way women put up with stuff like this, with the way she put up with rick lazio back in october of 2000, in buffalo, tim russert moderating a debate, we were all there, and he, you know, waves a page, a piece of paper in her face and says, you know, sign this, sign this pledge, not to take political action. and it was really -- we see it there? it was offensive. a lot of people, a lot of women voters reacted to that, that was her first big victory. i want to play the current parody from "snl" after this st.

louis debate. because kate mckinnon and, of course, alex baldwin really captured it with the music from jaws. >> number one, insurance companies can't deny you coverage because of a previous condition. number two, no lifetime limits which, you know, is a big deal if you have serious health problems. and number three -- sorry. i thought i -- and number three, women can't be charged more than -- >> that is obviously wildly funny, humorous rendition of something which was really a terrible moment for her. >> yeah, i mean, i think we're looking here though at her -- her looking at the -- something that is really a very old tension. is it better to be sort of

masterfully in control and to show herself as tough, as able to handle anything, or is it better to really react in a more human way? this is something that has been an issue for her and her political career, all the way through. and she has almost always opted for tough. and she almost always has gotten better press when she opted for human. and i think she's examining that herself. >> ann, what a great guest to have today. all of you. katie tur and chris jansing, thank you so much. speaking of perfect guest, joining me by phone, jennifer palmieri, for hillary clinton's presidential campaign. jen, let's talk about what happened when she walked off stage, because i'm told that she really was overcome a bit by that moment where he was looming over her and she said, you know, it always -- it is tough. this is really hard.

that was really hard. >> it was a hard debate in general. the -- it was set up to, you know, you talked about the facebook live press conference, that trump did ahead of time. it was the whole setup with the debate was to intimidate her. and coming on the heels of the access hollywood tape, that had been released two days before, we were very concerned, we knew that trump could be unhinged, that he would try to make it very uncomfortable for her in any way he can. so, she did doubt, you know, in the moment, and then she did share with us later if that had been the right thing to do, to not call him out on it. and i think it is a -- i think of it as a riptide that she has constantly been caught in, in her adult life, where, you know, as a woman on the national stage, in a leadership position,

whether you should show your emotion, or you should show your strength. and i think at the time where she was coming up, she was always in this position of needing to show her strength. and that's the call that she made in real time there. >> and have you talked to her about the book, read the book or how she is second guessing herself now? >> i haven't read it. i have talked to her about it. she was doing it. and i think that i'm very interested to see -- to see it. i'm excited for her that she did choose to go ahead and put herself out there and explain the decisions that she made, how she felt in real time. and see what happens. i got to tell you, the reaction normally is a -- i do disagree with ann gearen on one point. it is not true that when hillary shows her true emotion, she gets good press. i wish it were.

again, i think that i hope that women in leadership positions in the future are in a different position. i think they will be. having watched what she went through, and having all of us watch what hillary went through. but i've never worked for a politician who when they show -- when they reveal how they really think about something faces as much backlash as she has. and i do think it is because she was a very, you know, challenging figure culturely as a baby boomer woman who was the breadwinner in her family, the first lady, that was also a lawyer, she always challenged how we thought about women in leadership roles. and sometimes the public doesn't know what to make of that. i feel like that's -- that has been her lot to some degree and why we chose, when she was the first woman running to be president, the first woman that was going to actually be the nominee of a party, that she always needed to choose strength and we knew going into that debate, trump was just going to try to intimidate her, and that was her guidance going in.

this doesn't bother you. what he did, the facebook live interview, that didn't bother you. he tried to throw you off your game, he didn't do it, go. and that's what she delivered on. and i think -- sad to say, i think that was the right call. i wish she could be able to show her emotions more, but i don't think that was the space to do it in. >> just probably inferring from what ann was suggesting, i guess we're thinking about new hampshire, and the coffee shop back in 2008, when she teared up a little bit and the voters reacted very positively. >> voters reacted positively to that. a surprise at other moments in 2016, small things even talking about how she liked hot sauce, which is true, you know that from a traveling with her, and just got destroyed for saying that. it was odd. i think at the point in 2016, when she was revealing personal

things about herself, for whatever reason, people -- a lot of the public wasn't willing to accept it. and so i'm glad that she is doing -- has the courage to do this now, because she knows that how people can react to her, even when she's being very forth right about how she feels about something. but, she's made a decision to do it. and i hope people see that with an open mind and appreciate a little more. i mean, she's as baffled as anyone often about the reaction to her. and maybe this will help people to comprehend the person she is a little better. >> thank you for that. it is complicated. the book is, of course, "what happened". to be continued. thank you for jumping in there today. >> thank you, andrea. coming up, pardon me. the president talking about what he might do for a sheriff convicted of contempt. during our made to move 2017 clearance event,

you can do endless online research. or, you can take advantage of our best offer ever on an xt5. don't wait. our 2017 models will be moving fast. you can drive a car... or you can drive a cadillac. come in now before the end of our made to move 2017 clearance event and leave with the perfect cadillac xt5 for your next adventure. choose a low mileage lease on this xt5 for around $339 per month. edible arrangements for summer. order in store or online.

yet up 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more. add one a day 50+ a complete multi-vitamin with 100% daily value of more than 15 key nutrients. one a day 50+.

track your pack. set a curfew, or two. make dinner-time device free. [ music stops ] [ music plays again ] a smarter way to wifi is awesome. introducing xfinity xfi. amazing speed, coverage and control. change the way you wifi. xfinity. the future of awesome.

was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? he should have had a jury, but you know what, i'll make a prediction, i think he'll be just fine. but i won't do it tonight because i don't want to cause any controversy. is that okay? but, sheriff joe can feel good.

>> well, he was convicted for doing his job. donald trump hinting last night he would pardon sheriff joe arpaio. white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders en route to phoenix last night, on air force one, said there would be no discussion about sheriff joe arpaio. well, you could hear what happened. joining me now, maria theresa and michael gerson. phoenix was just -- it was red meat for the base. the difference was, as we were discussing earlier with the other guests, he's president of the united states, no longer a candidate. >> exactly right. and instead of trying to use this opportunity to unite the nation, he goes back to ground zero where last year in 2015 as you and katie mentioned where he provided one of the most divisive political speeches of

our recent memory and went back and doubled down on it, the fact that he's considering partnering arpaio is testament he's trying to, again, send red meat to the base but does not care about the fact that joe arpaio in fact basically threw out a judge's order asking him not to racially profile people based on what he thought might be undocumented immigrants. he's famously known for his tent cities that were also basically asked to be shut down by the eighth amendment for cruel and unusual punishment. he said, you know what, my back is against the wall, i'll continue providing my base, what i believe is what they want. >> and, michael, he also went after the republicans, he went after john mccain, flake, after mitch mcconnell, these are votes he's going to need if he wants to get any of his agenda through. and he said he would close down

the government if it is necessary to build the wall. to close down the government, that's the debt ceiling. >> clear now we don't have republicans in charge of these three elected branches. we have republicans in the house and senate, we have a right wing populous in charge of the president who views the republican leadership as an enemy in many ways. i think that was very self-destructive. he's going to need mcconnell in many ways including maybe if the there is an investigation. who knows. >> former head of national intelligence dni head james clapper, former general, was cnn last night and right after the speech and he was really alarmed by the speech, by the quality of the speech. let's watch this. >> having some understanding of the levers that president can

exercise, i worry about, frankly, you know, the access to nuclear codes. the fitted peek, he decides to do something about kim jong-un. there is actually very little to stop him. >> we -- people like to think that the generals around him, mattis and mcmaster and kelly are a break on his temper or whatever else is going on here. >> whether he's really in contact with reality. he talked about his being the most accomplished presidency in seven months, talked about the north koreans now having renewed respect for the united states. there is no evidence for this. the question is not whether he's deceptive, maybe he's delusional. you have a deluded man in charge of the nuclear codes, our conduct or policy with north korea. that's what i think would be

scary in this circumstance. >> maria theresa? >> i think the challenge also is the signal he is sending to the world and that is that he definite there not on the level when it comes to traditional american politics on the national -- on the international scale. michael today, i believe he wrote a piece that, i think hits it dead on, he's seeming to violate human rights violations at home, what are we giving up in return when it comes to ensuring america is once again being straightforward and telling people they can't do that in dictatorship. we're on a slippery slope. the concern that every single american mayor is he is someone that cannot be controlled, the idea that kelly was going to come in and really provide discipline into the white house has been proven the opposite. if anything, it has demonstrated that just like kelly was not able to bring the command under ice agents that have run rogue, same thing is happening in the

administration. >> we'll have to leave it there. maria theresa, thank you very much, michael gerson as well. coming up, the keystone connection. is it a key to the election? what pennsylvania meant for 2016. now the last 12 days of the campaign were so critical. mark murray's exclusive reporting coming up next. ♪ ♪ hey, is this our turn? honey...our turn? yeah, we go left right here. (woman vo) great adventures are still out there. we'll find them in our subaru outback. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. get 0% apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 subaru outback models. now through august 31.

this timyou haveis turn. 4.3 minutes to yourself. this calls for a taste of cheesecake. new philadelphia cheesecake cups. rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. find them with the refrigerated desserts.

walter? hmm? is that the rest of our food? what? no. how come you have cheese in your beard? because switching to geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. oh! ok. geico. because saving 15% or more on car insurance is always a great answer. whoa!

every day that i was a candidate for president, i knew that millions of people were counting on me, and i couldn't bear the idea of letting them down. but i did. i couldn't get the job done. and i'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. hillary clinton opening up in the first excerpts from her campaign memoir obtained exclusively by morning joe today. entitled what happened. dealing with the after shocks of having gone from what she thought was a comfortable lead 12 days out to a crushing defeat because the results in three pivotal states. joining me is nbc news senior political editor mark murray who has written the detailed analysis of what went wrong for the democrats, 12 days that stunned a nation. how hillary clinton lost. and former democratic governor ed rendell from pennsylvania. one of the three states, a state that really shocked clinton with an unexpected margin for trump

with 40,000 votes. governor, let me go to mark first, to lay out what his reporting shows and you from ground zero there in pennsylvania. mark? >> andrea, what the 2016 election, how donald trump ended up winning and hillary clinton ended up losing underscored what occurred in last 12 days is so crucial. we ended up finding out from my reporting, chatting with top clinton and trump strategists, this was an unstable race. you had two unpopular candidates, and if a candidate got into trouble or got a lot of scrutiny, we saw their poll numbers go down. what happened in the last 12 days you had donald trump, some of his best days of the general, he was on message, you had them seizing on the comey issue, you had them seizing on rising obama care premiums and the best 12 days. you can argue that hillary clinton had her worst 12 days of the general election the last two week stretch, not only james

comey's intervention in that last two week, but also a campaign that almost seemed like they had high polls after the debate, after the access hollywood tape, but nothing else to really kind of give them momentum, particularly when they found themselves playing defense. >> and governor rendell, from my observations, part of it was scheduling. we didn't go to michigan on friday. we kept saying why are we going to michigan on friday. stops were headed in michigan and for the first time on monday, the day before the election, she went to grand rapids. and then pennsylvania we had an initial stop on monday before the election and pittsburgh, but you called it. you were on this show, on tuesday, on election day, and said i don't think we'll win pennsylvania. and i said, what? you saw it coming. >> well, first of all, i knew there was a hidden trump vote. the reason the polls were unstable, there was a hidden trump vote, very much the same as frank rizzo always polled,

four or five points worse than he did on election day. people just didn't want to tell a stranger -- >> controversial mayor of philadelphia, who was -- >> philadelphia. >> accused of racial divisiveness in the city. >> and so i think people didn't tell the pollsters the truth, number one. and number two, in pennsylvania, the evidence is absolutely clear that comey's announcement turned the campaign. the day before comey's announcement, a very respected state poll had hillary up by 22 points in the four suburban philadelphia counties. on election day, she won those four counties by 11 points. margin of 180,000. had she own won by 20 or 19 points, she would have won by an extra 160,000, carried the state by 120,000 votes. comey's decision to go public resonated in the suburbs, made people worry about four more years of clinton investigations. it was a game changer in

pennsylvania. i don't know about anywhere else. but it was a game changer for us. >> even the bus trip coming out of the convention in philadelphia, i was on that bus tour and it was so different from the clinton/gore bus tour, same kind of route, back in '92, when there weren't enough stops and there wasn't enough intermingling with voters. >> no, absolutely. and the great irony of it is, where hillary did her best was in town meetings. where she could face voters questions directly and talk to them directly. i would have done a ton of that all over the place, and out of taking those town meetings into hostile territory. i thought in the primary campaign when she went into west virginia, and had that dialogue with the coal miners, it didn't move the needle much. but she showed honesty and truth and those coal miners came away with a grudging respect for her. i think that would have worked, we stayed away from hostile areas. we decided we were going to win

by just rolling out the vote in areas that were good for us, big mistake. >> and, mark murray, looking back and forward, how does the party recalibrate and come up with an economic message. that was another big part of it. >> that's right, andrea. you can look to a whole host of thins where she ended up losing. the biggest take away was how a race that seemed almost out of reach on october 27th, with her leading the polls, 6 to 8 points according to the real clear average, and then all of a sudden, it ended up getting tighter and gave donald trump ability to almost pull off the biggest upset in american political history. and you could go over was there not enough economic message, but what was fascinating from my own reporting is that both the trump and the clinton folks, their polling still had hillary clinton in the driver's seat, even on election day. >> mark murray, thanks so much for your reporting and, of course, as always, ed rendell, great to see you. and coming up next, the

tangled web. what would it mean if the president were charged with obstructing a congressional investigation. the former ethics chief explains next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. surprise! (vo) living with ammonia odor? not a pretty picture. (vo) luckily, tidy cats lightweight with new ammonia blocker tackles tough odor, even ammonia. so long stankface! (vo) ammonia like that? there's a tidy cats for that. i mwell, what are youe to take care odoing tomorrow -10am? staff meeting. noon? eating. 3:45?

uh, compliance training. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. 8:30? tai chi. yeah, so sounds relaxing. alright, 9:53? i usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios. the automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life. you're searching for something. whoooo. like the perfect deal... ...on the perfect hotel. so wouldn't it be perfect if... ....there was a single site... ...where you could find the... ...right hotel for you at the best price? there is. because tripadvisor now compares... ...prices from over 200 booking... ...sites ...to save you up to 30%... ...on the hotel you want. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices.

welcome back. housing secretary ben carson was front and center at the president's campaign speech in phoenix. the question now is was he violating a law? the hatch act. joining me now is attorney

walter schwab who recently resigned after clashing with white house over ethics issues. a senior director of ethics at the campaign legal center. so, first of all, this was a campaign event, paid for by republican party funds. not a presidential event. the housing secretary ben carson was introduced by the announcer. what is wrong with that? >> so, it is well known among officials who run campaign events you're not supposed to use the title of a government official. and they announced that we're now introducing secretary of the department of housing ben carson and he comes out to applause. you simply can't do that. and they should have taken precautions to not let that happen. because the hatch act prevents you from using your position in connection with a campaign event. the office of special council, osc, which is not to be confused with mueller's -- the special counsel, investigates hatch act

violations and shortly before the end of the obama administration, they came down on julian castro for endorsing candidate clinton while sitting in -- >> housing secretary. >> that's right. so -- >> but is it like you get a parking ticket, you know, pay a fine? is it -- a minor deal? >> with regard to career federal employees, the office of special counsel can actually initiate a preceding in front of the protection board to take disciplinary action, but when it comes to a presidential appointee confirmed by the senate, the constitution only lets two people get rid of him, two things. one is the president can fire a presidential appointee and the other is the congress can impeach a presidential appointee. but the special council won't have the authority to take disciplinary action, him or herself. >> now, more interestingly, and perhaps more ominously for the president, his threatening phone call, his eruption with mitch mcconnell that happened back on

august 9th, golf resort in new jersey, according to many sources talking to the new york times, he chewed him out for, among other things, not stopping the investigation -- the -- not the mueller investigation, not stopping the congressional committee investigations. and you're an attorney. i'm not. but there are former prosecutors who say that there is actually an obstruction charge which can be a felony charge for interfering with the congressional investigation. it depends what the testimony would show if it is investigated, what happened on that phone call, only two people know the president and the majority leader. >> right. so it is going to be very hard to ultimately prove an obstruction of justice charge in any case, but what you have is a series of incidents where you have the president firing the fbi director, and then contradicting his own press

people saying he was thinking about russia when he did it. and now you have him chewing out the majority leader in the senate for investigating him. the biggest concern is, even if they can't prove a charge, it is wildly inappropriate and a constitutional threat for the president of the united states to be going after people for investigating him. and so just as people are concerned about him interviewing -- intervening in mueller's work, they should be equally concerned about him intervening in congress' work. difference is congress is going to have more tools at its disposal to fight back than mueller will. >> and this is not the same as what would be normal hard ball politics. yelling at him for losing the health care vote. pressuring murkowski, not nice perhaps but that happens, that's politics. the difference is to pressure someone to stop an investigation by a congressional committee, that's when you get into bad

legal territory. >> right. what's even worse, it is an investigation of him. so -- and his presidential campaign. and so to intervene in that way and say you should not be investigating me and my campaign is the definition of corruption. which is abuse of entrusted authorities. so the president needs to stop, and if he doesn't, mitch mcconnell is going to need to take a very strong stand in response to this. this will be the beginning if he doesn't. >> walter schwab, great to see you. thank you so much. >> thanks. >> nice to see you. and coming up, playing defense, the president's slamming his critics in phoenix which donald trump will show up at his speech today to the american legion. we'll get the inside scoop next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ry 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. there's nothing more important than your health. so if you're on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b here's why. medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you.

you might want to consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any medicare supplement insurance plan, these help pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and, these plans let you choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. you could stay with the doctor or specialist you trust... or go with someone new. you're not stuck in a network... because there aren't any. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide and find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. there's a range to choose from, depending on your needs and your budget. rates are competitive. and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. like any of these types of plans,

they let you apply whenever you want. there's no enrollment window... no waiting to apply. so call now. remember, medicare supplement plans help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. you'll be able to choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. whether you're on medicare now or turning 65 soon, it's a good time to get your ducks in a row. duck: quack! call to request your free decision guide now. because the time to think about tomorrow is today.

welcome back. with the president about to give another speech today in reno, nevada, let's get the inside scoop on the fallout from his speech in phoenix with politico senior writer, jake sherman, coauthor of "the political playbook" and jonathan capehart, pulitzer prize winning journalist and "washington post" opinion writer. jake, first to you. what are you hearing about the

fallout so far as going after mcconnell, mccain and flake. >> the question i have about this whole dustup, ask a lot of people were texting me this morning about this, the white house said it was going to lean in, and get tax reform done. a lot of reporters wrote those stories that the white house is now very focused on tax reform. i didn't hear any full-throated case about tax reform yesterday. paul ryan is speaking at corporations across the country, ways and means chairman kevin brady is giving stump speeches everywhere he goes. and donald trump is deciding that he's going to focus on several members of his very narrow senate majority, which this is not a complicated equation here. he needs votes to pass his agenda. there's 52 republicans in the senate. if you anger three or four of them, you're not going to get things done. this isn't rocket science. so i don't exactly understand what the strategy is here. and frankly, people on capitol hill are very angry. and are telling us behind the scenes that they're worried his

legislative agenda is just going up in smoke after he rails against people like mccain and mcconnell. >> and it does raise questions, because he was all over the place last night in that speech. it raises questions, jonathan, about what's going on there. particularly revisiting charlottesville. you know, he spoke, then he fixed it. then he unfixed it. then he fixed it again by attacking on the racial harmony language on the top of the afghanistan speech, which was not -- you know -- organic, as we say. but it worked. and then the very next day, 24 hours later, to come out and just go ballistic and misstate his own -- his own words. >> andrea, this was all predictable. all of it was predictable. he gave the speech in -- at ft. meyer, was supposed to talk about his afghanistan plan. any normal president of the united states would deliver that

speech with reverence and carry that message through for the rest of the week. this is america's longest war. you're sending america's sons and daughters to war. less than 1% of the american population is active duty military. and so the president of the united states should at a minimum carry that message through. but then he goes to arizona. he goes to a campaign rally. campaign rallies, those cheering crowds, that's fuel for the donald trump that his administration is trying to rein in. the donald trump that congress can't seem to work with, and an administration that is desperately trying to get -- push the president into a frame of mind or at least into a way of being that allows whatever agenda they're trying to get through to get through. but as we saw with health care, andrea, the president did that victory rally over, you know, one bit in the process to get trumpcare through. and then weeks later said the

bill is mean. they can't trust him. and so if he is -- the president is saying he wants to go for tax reform now, you think people on capitol hill actually believe him when they don't see him doing anything that's demonstrable that he is actually going to follow through on this. >> and jake, the real problem also is that any time he's off teleprompter, he reverts to this kind of meandering, but angry rhetoric. >> yeah. i was getting e-mails and texts last night from members of congress who were just simply confused, befuddled, had no idea what the president was aiming for. like forget tax reform. jonathan is completely right about that. we're about a month away from the government shutting down. we are about a month away from the debt ceiling needing to be raised. if you antagonize people, this is a lesson that a lot of us learned a lot earlier in life. if you antagonize people,

they're not going to do what you want. and members of congress, as you guys know, are at times petty. they act out of spite. they act out of personal relationships, in both directions when they do favors for presidents or when they slight presidents. so if you have the president in arizona stoking a primary challenge, it's difficult to get anything done. >> well, we're going to see what happens tonight. reno, nevada. which trump will show up? thanks so much. jake sherman, jonathan capehart. more ahead. stay with us. thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes!

we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we're gonna hit our launch date! (scream) thank you! goodbye! let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open.

that does it for today. follow us at mitchell reports. my colleague, craig melvin, is up next. >> hey, andrea, good to see you. coming up here on msnbc, craig melvin, msnbc headquarters in new york. the great divider. president trump scheduled to speak at the american legion in reno, nevada, just about an hour from now. he is expected to call for a new unity based on america's common values. will it be a carefully scripted and delivered message, or more of what we saw last night? also, rewriting history, president trump igniting his base last night with that revised version of the actual comments he made immediately following the charlottesville violence. but he didn't stop there. he blamed the media for twisting what he said. and the obstructionist democrats for his stalled agenda. how much longer will his core supporters, will the gop and the country ignore his alternative