>> mr. president, you signalled more bipartisanship? >> i think it does. yes. i think we will have a different relationship than you have been watching over the last number of years. i hope so. i think that's a great thing for our country. >> the president was so pleased with the coverage of his first official bipartisan accomplishment that he dialed up nancy pelosi and followed her instruction to reassure d.r.e.a.m.ers that they wouldn't deported. quote, for all those daca that are concerned about your status during this six month period, you have nothing to worry about. dash, no action. all of this set off a day of republican moping and venting more akin to breakup blues than bridge building back to the president who jilted them. >> the president sided on a fairly -- what i would say a smallish fiscal matter with democrats after you went public

and said that the proposal that the democrats had made was ridiculous. >> yeah, i sort of noticed that. >> let's get to our reporters covering the latest developments in washington. nbc's kasie hunt on capitol hill. over at the white house is phil rucker with "the washington post." robert costa, national political reporter also for "the post" and philip bump is here with some breaking news of his own. let me start with you, phil rucker, because it is amazing to me how easily donald trump is pleased and tickled by just a smidge of positive news coverage of something that he accomplished i guess it's fair to say. >> yeah. nicolle, he campaigned to be the ultimate deal maker, he would break through the stalemates in washington. and get stuff done and this is the first real deal that he has. and you know, there's a lot of moping as you said on capitol hill among republican leaders but there are other republicans

outside of washington who look at this and say you know what, here's a president who's able to cross the aisle and try to get something done here and save republicans from themselves because we have seen year after year house republicans in particular get into this stalemate over a debt ceiling and fiscal issues and he's potentially pushed that off for a few months. it's a verying turn for this -- very interesting turn for this president but see how it bans out. >> philip bump, you have a new piece out today, and sticking with the breakup theme, you write that part of this certainly was an attempt to stick his thumb in the eye of republican leaders in congress after their joint inability to get anything significant done in the legislative front, but it's worth wondering is trump thinking he can at last becoming to many sides politician that he promised to be. his approval numbers are terrible. why not start working with the democrats? it's a good point but do you think it's -- do you think it's more than a fling? >> not particularly.

i mean, i think the challenge that he's going to have, i mean, he ran as someone -- he's in at a republican, he's from the outside, he's not a politician. he'll get democrats to support him. he'll get the deals, the best deals. but the democratic base loathes trump. >> i mean they hate him over big stuff. >> oh, yeah. >> over "access hollywood," they think he's a misogynist. charlottesville response. they think he's a racist. i'm not sure this is fertile ground. >> that's right. i mean you can't brush that stuff away and the challenge is that the democratic leaders certainly want to get their stuff passed. they want to have policies move forward. they're very happy that donald trump took their side in the fight yesterday but over the long term their base is not going to ignore everything that donald trump did so that's going to limit donald trump at the same time all he's doing is making republicans more mad. >> let me bring you into this, robert costa. you have the piece that just dropped that's pretty stunning.

gingrich or santoro as speaker? mcconnell's job isn't safe either. is this an all out war now on the sort of establishment republican figures who have come up short in the eyes of trump and some of his allies? >> it's more than a one war, because as philip was talking about, you have the republicans in congress fighting the president. disagreeing about strategy. at the same time, the republican leaders are dealing with internal problems in the senate and the house. there's a lot of mounting frustration from some rank and file conservatives about the way this is playing out and the congressional leadership is getting some of that fire. not just president trump. even though it's trump who is striking the deals with democrats. >> kasie hunt, i'm going to go there, i'm going to say it. republicans, i told you so. i mean, what did they think getting in bed with this guy was

going to yield? is there anyone -- i mean, is jeff flake having the kind of day today or ben sasse the kind of guys that let character play into their decisions about not lining up behind donald trump? i mean, is there any sense on capitol hill that some of these guys got what they had coming to them? >> look, it's a very difficult position they're all in at this point. they kind -- >> of their open making, kasie. >> it is. you're right. >> i'm sorry to bring up -- i had a lot of dating mishaps in my 20s but everyone worn warned them about the guy. i'm no, the guy that changed the guy and the guy did -- he was the same bad boyfriend to them as he was to everybody else. what did they think was going to happen? >> sure. but the problem is that the people they need to vote for them wanted to go out with donald trump. and they just kind of had to accept that. i mean, you saw the -- >> well, they could have been

willing to lose their jobs to do the right thing. they could have saved their souls but now -- >> i think the question is what happens next here? two things. does the president continue this as a trend. i think look what happened with nancy pelosi and the tweet that you showed at the top of the show is some more evidence right now, pelosi and schumer having a moment in the sun and they can influence this president. perhaps more of an ability than the speaker and the majority leader. but the other question is going to be okay, what do republicans on capitol hill do? and the reality is they are still in that vise that the conservatives that bob costa was talking has hut put them that. that was john boehner's reality and it's mitch mcconnell's reality and he's so far unwilling to talk to schumer at the expense of the conservatives in his caucus. frankly i think this idea that republicans are going to be able to unite their own party is

starting to look more and more like a fantasy. and if they're going to go ahead with tax reform and try to do it with 50 republican votes in the senate i'm just not clear on how that happens given the way that the president has approached democrats lately and those frustrations within the caucus. yes, i don't know where that leaves them at the end of the day. right now they're cut out of the decision making. >> phil rucker, there has been so much incredible reporting in your paper and other places about all of the -- you know, sort of the tick tock and how everyone let this oval office rug meeting that was pulled out from under mitch mcconnell and paul ryan and talk a little bit about how the rest of that sort of played out and where, you know, paul ryan had come out forcefully on camera. had essentially rebuked the deal that the president ultimately reached with pelosi and schumer.

you have got this sort of couples photo for the ages of schumer and trump clutching one another by the arms like the old new york pals that they are. talk about the atmospherics, they're at the white house where they seem to -- there's some bounce in the president's step that he got a little bit of credit for a bipartisan deal. but talk about sort of the dynamics and the color. >> well, it's not just ryan and mcconnell who were surprised here. treasury secretary stephen mnuchin was advocating for a different deal and the president cut him off and said i agree with chuck and nancy. all they have to do is read art of the deal. he wants to surprise people. he wants people when they feel comfortable to get nervous again. this is his whole m.o. and it's been his style for business, it was his style on the campaign

and the style now as president. and you know ryan and mcconnell went into the meeting just assuming because he's the president of their own party that he would sort of follow their lead on this and side with what they wanted to do in resolving the fiscal issues and they were caught completely off guard. >> bob costa, let me play for you something that i think underscores the point that phil rucker is making. in a lot of ways donald trump has returned to who he is. let's watch. >> would president trump ban partial birth abortions? >> look, i'm pro-choice. i hate the concept of abortion. i hate everything it stands for. i cringe when i listen to people debating the subject but you still -- i just believe in choice. we have to take care of people that are sick. >> universal health coverage? >> i like universal. hillary clinton i think is a terrific woman. i'm biased because i have known her for years. i think she'll go down as a great senator. i think she's a great wife.

to a president. and i think bill clinton was a great president. it just seems that the economy does better under the democrats than the republicans. now it shouldn't be that way. but if you go back, i mean, it seems that the economy does better under the democrats. >> so bob costa, knower of all things, alt-right, extreme right, trump right, how does that file square with the new political reality and -- i mean, this is -- i ticked off all the things because those are new powers on the right. not establishment republican figures like ryan and mcconnell. >> that video you played it's so revealing about president trump and tim russert so good at fleshing out who trump was back in the late '90s as he was thinking of a presidential bid and who he remains which is this creature of new york. not tethered to any specific ideology. this is what the republican

party is grappling with. even the freedom caw cause and steve bannon and his allies as well. they can't be rely upon -- what can drift in a different direction. it's hard for even democrats to hold -- to smile too much about this turn by the president. because they know that he too could turn in a different direction in a few weeks or days. >> but bob, do you have a theory on why none of that sticks to him? i know that all of the republicans who ran against him used different pieces of the clips i just showed and tried to use that to disqualify him with the base of the republican party but they never left him. the positions where he doesn't -- when pressed by tim russert he doesn't even say that he -- i mean, he say he hates abortion but he's not even willing to say he opposes late term abortions. they don't seem to harm him with the hard core elements of his base. do you have a sense of how the freedom caucus, members who are very sensitive on all of these issues who show, you know,

really they have no flexibility on the kinds of things he was talking about, universal health care, democratic economic policies, jobs, how do they square the circle? >> when you talk to trump voters and you talk to the conservative lawmakers who are with the president, it's really striking to hear them articulate that the president channels their own grievance about the culture, about the political establishment and because at his core they see him as someone who shares their grievances about a vast number of issues. they're willing to forgive his missteps and his misstatements on so many other fronts because they believe he is at his center someone who really rails against the accomplishment. >> philip bump is that the ultimate trump fantasy what robert is talking about, he can appeal to everyone? in his mind he doesn't seem to have grappled with the fact that he has the lowest approval

ratings in the history of this country for someone seven months in. >> look, keep in mind he spent all of last year, the polls are wrong, the polls are wrong, he lost the popular vote and he won the presidency. i think he's sort of -- that reinforced this instinct in him that no one knows what they're talking about except for me. i think the thing that's fascinating about this moment for donald trump, that's an old political adage, you're familiar with it, there are no permanent lines only permanent interests. the only permanent interest for donald trump is donald trump. we see him making the deals. it's just how he operates and it is absolutely 180 degrees from politics as usual. >> we're simply hitting pause, and kasie, you're staying. i'm thank you for your contribution so far. steve bannon unshackled from the constraints of being a white house staffer and he declared war on all of trump's enemies. ahead, don jr. on capitol hill taking questions about that meeting with russians to get

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look what he did on daca the other day. okay, i don't agree with that daca decision. but i'm going to be his wingman outside the entire time. >> so you're not attacking donald trump in your -- >> no. our purpose is to support donald trump. by the way --

>> and destroy his enemies? >> to make sure his enemies know that there's no free shot on goal. >> former chief strategist steve bannon told cbs he'll be trump's wingman any time but look at huh his own publication described the deal with democrats the very day bannon made the comments. quote, meet the swamp, donald trump punts the agenda to december after meeting with congress. joining our table, msnbc national affairs analyst john heilemann and jonathan capehart, the president of the american action forum, a former director of the budget office and the former chief economist on the economic advisers. >> i know -- >> you need an editor. and kasie hunt is -- >> all the titles. >> is still being held hostage on capitol hill to try to put it diplom

diplomat diplomatically. >> i'm hoping to catch one of the titles. >> let me put you on the spot on bannon. i understand from "washington post" reporting they call it breitbart embassy and he's holding court there and literally advising members of congress on how and when to overthrow paul ryan. i can't imagine that these guys can be any more jolted but that must be a new and fresh jolt from the alt-right if you will. >> i mean, look it is and it isn't. right? you member all the problems that boehner had. paul ryan spends so much time and energy making sure that he's not running the place in the way that everybody criticized boehner for doing. which is to say he goes out of his way to make sure they know exactly what he's doing and to not put them on the spot with votes that might not have at least half of the republicans supporting them, but at the end of the day it might be an unwinnable war. and to a certain extent and to what we were talking about earlier, having bannon on the outside meeting with mark meadows and all the other guys

in the house, talking to people in the senate and encouraging them to revolt against the leaders, i mean all that does is push the president into the camp of chuck and nancy. >> we're laughing. you're laughing, capehart. give me your thoughts. >> the camp of chuck and nancy. >> is that a place? >> see how long that place lasts. >> is it a bar, i hope. >> because we are talking about president trump here, but i think you had chairman steel on yesterday, michael steel. i interviewed him immediately after the election for my podcast, i asked him what does this mean? he said we have the freest president. he's not a republican, he's not a conservative. he's pragmatic populist then he said, if he can't do a deal with paul and mitch he'll have no problem doing a dial with nancy and with chuck. and when i heard what happened in the oval, that -- what

michael steel told me leapt out at me because that's exactly what happened. what the president wants is to make a deal any deal. and now i hear he is gloating over all the great press coverage that he's getting of being with chuck and nancy. as much as this made me laugh, like joyously for first time since november 8th, from a political perspective, it was the right thing to do. if only president trump could behave that way all the time. >> let me press you, do you think that's why he did it? >> no. he didn't do it because it was the right thing to do. i think he wanted to strike a deal. and he likes senator schumer. they have -- as new yorkers they know each other. and senator schumer said no, i don't like the 18 month thing. we should go for three months and the president said let's go with chuck. >> do you think this is punitive to republicans and punish them for the summer that corker

called him up stable and do you think he understood what he was doing? >> i think that's a little bit of a false binary. the answer to the question, is it punitive, the answer is yes. he's trying to punish someone. pretty much there's always someone he's trying to punish, and no doubt he's upset and irritate and a frustrated with the members of the republican leadership. he has a lot less in common with them in terms of how he sees the world, in terms of what he's believed his whole life as opposed to the last year. he has nothing in common with those people but i don't -- i do think it also -- i think john is right. it was opportunistic and punitive and it's not going to last. it's not part of a long running strategy. and michael steel's point back around the time right after the election is now an antediluvian fantasy. like democrats are not going to

be in the business of making deals with donald trump. donald trump may in mismind well, maybe i'll do this again, but it will be the very rare moment when the democratic leadership is going to see it as being in their interest given their politics to make a deal with donald trump. they'll do it occasionally but most of the time now donald trump is going to find the back of the hand from nancy pelosi and chuck schumer if he tries to reach out to them because their attitude is we agree with you on nothing, our base hates you except on specific things, we have no interest in being in business with you, sir. they might have -- the world might have been different if he did this in a systematic way starting in january but it's september now, guys and a lot of water has flown -- flowed under the bridge. >> is it just water or toxic waste? i mean, how toxic is the relationship -- i mean, if you're paul ryan's adviser or mitch mcconnell's adviser, what do you tell them to do today? >> i think you saw paul ryan do it today which is to basically

say -- >> with his tail between his legs walk out and admit he was totally humiliated by the president that he's taken guff from for seven months? >> the president made a decision, we needed to show some unity. >> i don't respect that answer. why can't paul ryan be a man and say he's treated me like crap. he's cyber bullied me. you know, i bit my tongue when he did things that were racist and misogynist but i'm done with that. i'm going to speak my mind. why can't paul ryan and -- >> to what end? >> to what end? to save their dignity. why can't they do what chuck and nancy do, when they agree with him, and work with him, and when they don't don't. >> there's a good chance that nothing changes and i want to stipulate. that's the vast majority of it. but the only reason that nancy and chuck got invited to the meeting was because of the freedom caucus and the schism that was talked about on the republican side. this is the one moment that paul ryan can say, hey, you see what

happens? either you learn to govern on republican votes and this is that moment when the -- it's a last chance. >> here's the calendar. >> by the way he has in fact permanently empower schumer. they need 60 votes on everything in the senate. so it's not just the back of the hand. >> but the answer to your question though, the answer to your question is that paul ryan -- all the republicans are now looking at september. they have to run for re-election a little bit more than a year now. all that matters to them is tax cuts. or tax reform if you want to call it that and part of the reason they don't want to say those things if we get our vision of tax cuts done, we want to be on donald trump's side. if we don't get that done we'll have nothing to run on, so they're going to keep biting their tongues and putting their tails between their legs until that moment comes when tax reform/tax cuts are actually going to get done or not get done. >> kasie, weigh in. >> yeah, so two things.

first, the republicans -- remember how they have been treating the president. they have been patient while he tweeted things. they let him do his controversy of the day. while they sat here and thought to themselves we are actually the ones who know how to govern the country. we'll figure out how to do it and it turns out that i failed. they failed at health care. they were looking at potentially the long protracted fight over the debt ceiling and the president had decided he had enough and to a certain extent i think this proves look, he was able to step into that vacuum. but secondly, on democrats, i do think -- it hasn't started to happen yet. but i think that if we continue down this path you're going to start to see the liberal base bubbling up against this idea that the democratic leaders in congress are giving the president wins and they know that. while this may have given them some leverage to fight into the fall i think that there are some serious political limits on how far the democrats can go in

working with president trump. even if they want to be the ones who are making the policy decisions and running the country. at least as the second branch, they can only go so far before it's going to come back to bite them. >> see -- you have one minute. >> so the most important thing here, this isn't a big change in him showing he can govern. he changed something on how -- you have to raise the debt ceiling so and he changed the timing. if he's going to change what they decide to do, then he has shown that he's somehow better than the republican leadership at governing. >> let me show you something ted cruz said. cruz along with michael steel predicted something like this. let's watch. >> donald a couple of days ago drew the difference between me and him and he said, look, ted won't go along to get along. he won't cut a deal. so if as a voter you think what

we need is more republicans in washington to cut a deal with harry reid and nancy pelosi and chuck schumer then i get donald trump is your guy. >> i guess trump is their guy. >> look, as doug just said, the debt ceiling and the budget, especially the debt ceiling was a must do thing. if this were tax reform -- >> i'm sorry, so was daca. 800 -- >> look where we are with daca. he sent jeff sessions out there -- >> pulling strings. >> and then he sent out the tweet, i'll he visit and then he does this thing with nancy pelosi and if chuck and nancy can get theat to do their bidding on things like s-chip, flood insurance, all sorts of other things that are democratic priorities, i don't think you're going to see a whole lot of em thes rising -- of democrats rising up in anger and if he's the president, if you can get your priorities in front of him

to say yes i'll do it, that is to their benefit. >> still donald trump. he might be president, but he's donald trump. >> i know, you can't it until he signs. >> all right. kasie hunt, you're getting in the last word. when we come back, irony alert. donald trump jr. says he took that meeting with the russians because he was looking for dirt on hillary clinton that might call into question her fitness to serve. so well that is feels like he's a part of our team. with one phone call, he sets me up with tailored products and services. and when my advisor is focused on my tech, i can focus on my small business. ♪ a dell advisor can help you choose the right products with powerful intel® core™ processors. ♪

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you actually said at one point that hey, if it turns out to say what you say it is, of course, what did you think it might be? >> listen, i had been reading about scandals that people were probably underreporting for a long time so maybe it was something that had to do with one of those things. mine, this was her, perhaps involvement with the russian government. again, i didn't know if there was any credibility behind it. someone sent me an e-mail. i can't help what someone sends

me. i read it, i responded accordingly. >> at least he reads. that was donald trump jr. two months ago explaining why he met with the russian lawyer on the promise of information that would damage hillary clinton's campaign. today the president's son was meeting with senate investigators and nbc has obtained his opening testimony where he tried to explain why he took that meeting. quote to the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a presidential candidate, i believe that i should at least hear them out. depending on what if any information they had, i could then consult with counsel as to whether to give it further consideration. we have a former staffer for the house intel committee, mika. but they were russians. i'm sorry, i dealt with opo my whole career and it never came

from russia. >> that's right. it's shocking. it shows you how naive the trump organization -- >> naive -- i mean? were they naive or comfortable with russians? >> that's part of it too. but they were never in the national security establishment where you understand exactly how much russia is trying to undermine the united states. they didn't have any of that natural suspicion that you would have if you were going to have to defend the united states against foreign adversaries. they didn't see any trouble, it's really unbelievable. >> the real problem to me seems to be as it always is the cover-up. the story that they told, the conversations that they had. the president and his family aboard air force one with don jr. when "the new york times" first obtained the evidence of this. >> i think that's a problem and the more fundamental problem is

not the cover-up although it's bad and is a problem. he just admitted collusion. >> right. >> the statement he entered into the record today the part you read, i went there with a bunch of people who represented that they were part of a russian effort to undermine and take down hillary clinton. yeah, i'll take that meeting i took it to the extent that that conversation -- concerning the fitness and quality of hillary clinton i wanted to hear about it. yes, i had the intent to collude. i went in and i took the meeting which by definition is colluding. he's admitted to the crime. not in some legal sense but in fact. >> the act. >> to the fact itself. his intention he's made clear and if it was genuinely damaging and we don't know that what information -- what that information is, and it could be a lie, but he's implicitly saying at that point i would have gone to talk to my lawyer about how we could use it. well, again, i'm not sure how

much you more straightforwardly admit to colluding with the individuals, again we're not sure how connected they were to the russian government. >> but we know they were russians. but the -- >> and they were representing themselves to be part of an organized effort on behalf of the russian government. so i find the thing that he's admitting to in his written testimony to be extraordinarily damning on its own. >> so that's the collusion half of it. jonathan, weigh in on the cover-up half which is where we know that at least mueller's probe and in his interest now is in understanding how this lie was put together, this lie was assembled to say it was about russian adoptions. a lie told to explain the side bar meeting at nato with trump and putin and a cover story given to the press that fell apart in less than 24 hours. >> that was the one they crafted with the president on air force one. >> and aides.

so i think -- i don't think you have much more to say about collusion -- >> let's talk about the cover-up. i was saying they were trying to cover something up, they were, and now there's the cover-up. >> covering up collusion. >> if collusion is the like preschool five piece puzzle that you give your child -- your toddler to solve, the cover-up is the 1,000 piece puzzle that is of a forest. you just laid out three i think pieces of the cover-up. but as we saw with -- from the crafting of the statement on air force one coming back to the united states to the slow -- slow disclosures over the next few days over what exactly was the meeting, what was the meeting about? who was there? it was over three hours -- every three hours a new face popped up that was in the meeting. i think when don jr. goes bef e before -- i'm assuming he's going to go before the senators

in like public testimony -- >> right. that's what the democrats have asked for. >> i mean that's going to be incredible television but also incredible for the american people to see this person like defend himself against very harsh questioning from democrats and i would hope from republicans. we have to understand that this is not -- this should not be a partisan issue. this is an american issue. we had a foreign power interfere with the most solemn exercise of our american democracy. >> mika, let me ask you to put on the hat of the investigators specifically bob mueller. how will he tie it together what john heilemann laid out as plain collusion and what we have done a little messier job doing. sorry about that. the question about potential obstruction of justice? >> yeah, i think that mueller's got access to far more than what we see. i mean it's already damning what we see in the public but he's interviewing all of these other

participants in the meeting. don jr.'s testimony before congress if he's lying it's a crime to lie to congress. so mueller has many opportunities to fact check what don jr. said now, what don jr. said then, what other people in the room hear, what did other people in the room or on the plane crafting a statement here. he has the ability to go through, put the pieces together and point out all of the different instances where they're trying to deceive. and try to change the story. >> thank you so much. you always elevate and inform us. >> what mika said. >> thank you very much. up next, how facebook was allegedly weaponized by russian agents to spread false information during the 2016 presidential campaign and how the information we're learning may simply by the tip of the iceberg.

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now donald trump jr. isn't the only one with the russia problem today. facebook revealed yesterday that it sold approximately $100,000 of ads to accounts that likely operated out of russia. "washington post" reporter carol whennic described it this way. >> my sourcing suggests that this is the beginning of the tip of the iceberg of something much larger. this facebook incident which mostly started in 2015 and stretched all the way through 2016 was almost like a beta test. it was a way for this russian group to use phony robots if you will, people that weren't really people, to test voters in the u.s. who were susceptible to messaging. >> in brand-new reporting from "the new york times" this afternoon, scott shane writes this. quote the russian information attack on the election did not stop with the hacking and

leaking of democratic e-mails on -- or the fire hose of stories, true, false and in between that battered mrs. clinton on russian outlets like rk and sputnik. far more difficult to trace was russia's experimentation on facebook and twitter, the american companies that invented the tools of social media and did not stop them from being turned into engines of deception and propaganda. nbc news's keir simmons and, let me start with you. first on the news that american companies developed the very technologies that russians used to meddle in our elections. you have told me before that this is a tactic that the russians use all over the world. >> yeah, absolutely.

we're in vlad stock, so i'm talking to you on thursday, pretty good metaphors in the divisions between russia and i would say it's this way. you have to be in it to win it. so he's trying to be in everything. he is trying to be in the american elections he is trying to be in the syria war and in eastern europe and he's now trying to be here in the north korean crisis. he is battling on every front he the find and facebook and twitter are one example of that. you can have a conversation about whether it's legal, whether it's moral, about the outrage there is in the u.s. about the allegations of russian intervention in the u.s. elections but effectively what putin is doing is just taking to

every battlefield he can find. one to destabilize the west and on the other hand to make himself relevant to make russia relevant or make sure they're at the top table in terms of international politics. >> evelyn, you're well sourced at facebook. facebook must understand it has a larger problem as carol lentic said in the clip on "morning joe." they're not quick. >> yeah, they talk from the silicon valley kind of culture perspective when they talk about the greater public good in this kind of instance. i think going back to what keir was saying to explain what's going on here, people need to understand there are two things i think that are underlying all of this. one is like the precision information operation, the precision information weapon that they used with facebook. i think we'll find out that they

were targeting certain people in certain states so we don't know that yet. but there's a second thing -- >> you think facebook will be forthcoming with that information? >> well, they have to be -- >> will they be subpoenaed by congress? >> we have to find out when we find out. i would advise them to tell us sooner rather than later. the second thing is okay there's the precision information operation against our electorate, against the elections. but then that's also the prodder -- broader thing, remember the intelligence community said they were trying to make the u.s. weak and make us fight one another. those -- what we know those ads that they bought they were divisive. they were about race issues and remember what was going on around that time period from 2015 to 2017 when these ad buys were going on. we have black lives matter, we have the riots in baltimore, missouri. all of that was going on so we don't know enough about this. it would be good if facebook were more kort forthcoming. >> keir, tell us about vladimir putin's growing sphere of

influence there where you are. >> yeah. listen, let me just say one thing. think about this. i'm not saying it happened from here, but 14 time zones away from you here, i consider the computer and intervening in the politics in the u.s. look at some exclusive pictures of the north koreans walking openly around here, having met with the russian minister. that's how closely the russians are with the north koreans as putin tries to get involved in that crisis. so i don't think this is going away. i think this is going to get more and more difficult. the north koreans can do it, anyone can intervene from anywhere else in the world and how do you deal with it? maybe not how do you stop it? >> so you're talking about being 14 time zones away i'm sure nbc never lets you sleep. have you picked up from the russians about don jr. saying

that he basically admitted to colluding in congressional testimony? >> not so much. i think looking at that, those messages -- the e-mails a lot of that is about what don jr. thought he was getting as opposed to what the russians were really offering. i mean, you have to remember about the putin circle that, you know, it's kind of a court. it's not necessarily as organized as you might think. and so it's hard to tell exactly what the russians were thinking in relation to that meeting. >> it sounds like an american presidential campaign i covered. all right, keir simmons in russia, ellen vargas, thank you for joining us. florida is bracing for irma and parts of the state may be uninhabitable for weeks or months. the very latest on the forecast next.

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plowing over turks and caicos with 20-foot storm surge. imagine what that's doing to that small chain of islands. those winds are packing 175-mile-per-hour sustained winds, gusting even higher than that. the problem for all of us now, in addition to whether or not and exactly where it's going to wind up on the florida peninsula, is the fact that this storm isn't running into any significant land mass. >> to slow it down. >> to slow it down, to sheer it off, to break it up just a little bit. we saw a little bit of a wobble in the eye and some people said to me, is that good news? that's just eye replacement. now, could it lose a little bit of strength? yeah, it's possible. imagine running your car at full throttle for so many days. eventually it begins to kind of break down a little bit because you can't live your life at ten

forever. other than this guy. but with the exception of this nonmortal, you know, this will begin to lose a little bit of strength potentially. but remember how warm the waters are right by that florida coastline. >> let me ask you about how much damage it has done. what do we know about the people that have already suffered its wrath? >> on that small island of barbuda, 1,600 residents, it's basically december mated. tourist locations that so many of us go to but where people live and their lively hoods are based are dealing with extensive damage. in saint martin and anger will la and some -- leeward islands. this is just the beginning. the question is what will happen to florida. if the to remember is so big, let's just do the math. the storm is 400, 500 miles wide, ride, doesn't matter where this thing is going, they're going to see some damage. the worst of it will be if it runs up the spine of florida, we

have a very big problem. the reason for these watches and warnings is so people will heed them and get out. and you know what? i'd be very happy if this thing we want out and people said well, what about the forecast? that's okay by me. just heed the warnings and be safe. >> our thoughts and prayers are with everybody in the path. we thank you. our thoughts and prayers are with you because you literally have to sprint back over to the other newsroom. thank you so much. we're going to sneak in a quick break. we'll be right back. fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i'm glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. for some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. and improves function. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior,

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doug, i want to give you the last word and i want to go back to the facebook story. >> it makes me think about these things than the way i have

before. it's going to be a huge political and story. these are the american signature companies with global breath and this can damage them in deep ways. if people are thinking, gee, the russians are using facebook to do that to the u.s. >> central question for robert mueller, if these facebook ads were run in a targeted, precise way, how is that precision obtained and was there some collusion that drove that targeting? >> all right. we're going to stay on it. thank you. that does it for our hour. "mtp daily" starts right now. >> hi, nicolle. thank you much. if it's thursday, hurricane irma takes aim at florida. tonight, bracing for irma. >> look at the size of this storm of the it is wired than our entire state. this storm is powerful and deadly. >> we'll have the latest track and an update on the massive evacuation under way. >> regardless of which coast you live