breaking news as it happens. "meet the press" is next. have a great night, everyone. this sunday, whose party is it anyway? first, the republicans. president trump's reversal on immigration has conservatives furious. >> imagine if he called out to the crowd, we're going to build samples of the wall! >> is he this tone deaf? is he this ignorant? does he not know what got him elected? >> on immigration. on working with democrats. on taxes. are we looking at a fundamental change or at a president who just wants to put points on the board? i'll ask republican senator tom cotton. next, the democrats. bernie sanders' proposal for single payer health care. >> health care in america must

be a right, not a privilege. >> thrills the base but not the democratic leadership. >> there are many different bills out there. we want to move the issue forward. we're looking at all of these. >> senator bernie sanders joins me this morning. plus, where hurricane irma hit the hardest, the u.s. virgin islands. >> we lost one of the victims here, took him right out of the building. >> my trip to the virgin islands. >> there's your couch. there's your television. >> with former new york city mayor michael bloomberg who is raising awareness and money for the area. >> people have lost everything and don't have insurance. they've got to start again. >> joining me for insight and analysis are presidential historian doris kearns goodwin, al cardenas, former chairman of the american conservative union, nbc news correspondent katy tur, and david brody. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in

washington, the longest running show in television history, celebrating its 70th year. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. it was hard not to get the sense this week that both political parties were itching for a fight, with themselves. senator bernie sanders of vermont managed to drive a wedge into a party he doesn't even belong to with his proposal for single payer health care. the left loves it. the democratic leaders and vulnerable senators in red states aren't quite so sure. senator sanders will join me in a moment on that issue. meanwhile, president trump pleased some moderates while enraging the right by attempting to strike a deal with democrats to protect so-called d.r.e.a.m.ers, the young people who were brought here illegally as children, from deportation. that deal would not include reportedly funding for his border wall. the reaction from parts of the republican right, unrestrained fury with some "i told you so" smugness thrown in. still the dealmaker president's latest deal making has many asking, does donald trump still plan to be a conservative president or not? does he want to cut taxes on the wealthy or not?

does he want a deal on immigration or not? even, does he really want to build a wall or not? president trump's first eight months in office have been largely defined by shiny object unpredictability. but his latest moves have conservatives worried that this is more than just another zig in a zigzag presidency. >> you have 800,000 young people brought here, no fault of their own. >> president trump frustrated with a stalled legislative agenda and annoyed at a lack of loyalty from republican leaders is now flirting with the democrats, and some of his most loyal supporters are outraged. on wednesday night, breitbart news, led by former trump chief strategist steve bannon, dubbed the president "amnesty don." mr. trump fired back. >> the wall will come later. we're right now renovating large sections of wall, massive sections. we're building four different samples of the wall to see which one we're going to choose. >> but conservative talk radio

is lashing out. >> imagine if he had called out to the crowd, we're going to build samples of the wall! samples of the wall, and we're going to make the american taxpayers pay for it. >> is he this tone deaf? is he this ignorant? does he not know what got him elected? >> ann coulter tweeted, at this point, who doesn't want trump impeached? no promise was more central to mr. trump's campaign than his pledge to build a border wall. >> that wall will go up so fast your head will spin, and you'll say, you know, he meant it. >> he attacked democrats for pushing what he called amnesty. >> why do our leaders spend so much time talking about how to help people here illegally? they're here illegally. >> and candidate trump went even further. >> you want to get rid of birth right citizenship? >> you have to get rid of it, yes. you have to. what they're doing, they're having a baby.

>> now top republicans are doing their best to play down any framework of an agreement. >> sonds like a deal to make a deal. >> there's a deal on the table. i think it's unfair to say it's a done deal. i know there's no done deal. >> all i can say is there's a deal to be made. >> it's not clear whether trump voters will punish the president. ultimately, it's a test of who has more sway with trump's insurgent conservative base. his critics in conservative media or mr. trump himself, who already has his defenders. >> he can either wait around for republicans to get their act together, or he can try to forge ahead on his own, and that means even reaching out to democrats. >> for now, though democratic activists are uncomfortable, democratic leaders are enjoying the president's flirtation with bipartisanship. >> he likes us. he likes me anyway. >> joining me now is republican senator tom cotton of arkansas. senator cotton, welcome back. >> good morning, chuck. >> the president struck a deal on the debt ceiling with democrats. republicans weren't in the room.

he apparently seems to strike at least the outlines of what a deal on daca will look like, which apparently is no funding for the wall, without republican leaders in the room. are you concerned about this? >> no. i think the president has said publicly that there's not a deal, but he wants to see a deal. in fact, he called me a couple nights ago to say there's no deal. he wants to make sure we protect the interest of american workers, in particular by ending unlimited chain migration, which is why we have so many unskilled workers coming in the country. he asked me to sit down with senator schumer and some of the other democrats. they want to focus on a package of benefits for illegal democrats. we want to put our american workers' interests first and we'll do that. but there's no deal right now. >> do you think the president gave up his leverage by allowing the border wall to be not part of this deal? democrats made that as part of the insistence. do you think that was wise by him or not? >> i don't think he gave up that leverage. the wall is really a funding matter. we'll have the government funding debate later this year.

if you want to give legal status to these 700,000 or so people who are in their 20s and 30s now who came here illegally as children, that's a permanent and irreversible change. you need to make a permanent and irreversible change in response to protect american workers. the way to do that is my legislation, which will stop unlimited chain migration and reorient our green card system to high-skill workers. that's the real core of the deal. >> you say if you do codify daca into law that it's a permanent change in this system. do you believe there is a way to just do it for these approximately 800,000 to 1 million folks, or do you think this is -- it will be model legislation to deal with this problem going forward? >> no, i think it has to be very tailored and incremental. congress has shown over the last 11 years, three times, that it can't pass a major comprehensive immigration bill. >> and you acknowledge that? >> well, i helped stop it in 2013 because the deal was so bad at the end. the problem was it gave amnesty

first and enforcement later. which meant amnesty now and enforcement never. it also dramatically increased the number of unskilled and low skilled workers coming in this country at a time when blue collar americans are still seeing their wages undercut. you need a targeted incremental deal that solves this problem of the 700,000 but also mitigates the negative side effects of it. >> can you give me a definition of amnesty because it's in the eye of the beholder, it feels, particularly when it comes to this debate on the right side of the spectrum here. what is your definition of amnesty? >> amnesty is giving legal status to people who came here illegally. but the core debate is not over -- >> you believe this is amnesty for daca? >> well, if you pass the so-called d.r.e.a.m. act, it will be the single biggest amnesty in the history of the united states, evener bigger than the 1986 amnesty which ronald reagan said was his biggest mistake in evidence. the core debate has never been about legal status. it's been, how are we going to control the negative side effects of that, which is undercutting american jobs and

wages. my legislation would do that. and deterring more illegal immigration. put yourself in the shoes of a parent in el salvador. if you had the promise of american citizenship for your child, trying to get away from the poverty and violence in that country and we pass a straight amnesty with no effort to increase enforcement or change our green cards, wouldn't you take a very dangerous risk to get your child to the united states for the next amnesty? that's why we can't simply codify daca. we also have to deal with the negative side effects. >> i want to talk about the atmosphere overall among some conservatives. i had a very animated, never-trump conservative radio talk show host on my "meet the press" daily earlier this week. take a listen. >> when i was never trump, they told me if i didn't vote for trump, we'd have amnesty, record debt and obamacare. and guess what, they were right. >> it's obviously filled with a bit of hyperbole, but there is a growing chorus on the right, a

little bit of "i told you so." do you still trust him to be a conservative president? >> i always want to support the president when he's right. when he's wrong, i'll try to change his mind. if he doesn't, i'll have to oppose him and support what's best for arkansas. i think that's the most constructive approach for trying to work with mr. trump or any president. >> is his frustration with mitch mcconnell warranted in your mind? >> i think his frustration is with congress as a whole. the president doesn't have so much of a leadership problem at times. it's more of a membership prospect. that's not uncommon. you've seen that in the democratic party. just this week, bernie sanders introduced his single payer health care bill. i'm glad he finally recognizes that we need to repeal obamacare, and that's divided the democratic party. that's the nature of congress, but it's also the nature of our separated system of government. >> do you still have trust in mitch mcconnell? he's become a divisive figure in this republican runoff in alabama's senate, and there is this sense of the grassroots not so happy with mcconnell. what do you tell your constituents who complain about him? >> i work very well with senator mcconnell. i think he does a difficult job

very well, and he's encouraged me as well to sit down with our democratic colleagues and try to reform a green card system in a way that serves the interests of american workers. >> i want to touch on a few other topics. north korea, it seems it's always sound and fury. it's always sanctions. nothing seems to work. it does appear the administration's looking for a credible military options that at least somehow makes kim jong-un blink, but he's not blinking. what should the next step be? should the next step be continuing to try to sanction north korea or putting pressure not just on china but russia too? >> i believe you'll see president trump sitting down with world leaders trying to build stronger consensus on north korea. there's still areas of their economy we can sanction. we should especially put more pressure on china. china can do more. china forced us to water down sanctions at the united nations a couple weeks ago relating to oil imports into north korea. china right now would rather have a nuclear north korea than a denuclearized north korea

because why? what did you just ask me? you asked me about north korea. you didn't ask china's economic warfare on the united states or militarizing new islands in the south china sea. or their attitude toward taiwan. we have to put pressure on china to achieve our objective, which is a denuclearized north korea that can no longer threaten america. >> one other topic. i've not seen you weigh in on the proposed transgender ban. you are a recent veteran of these wars of the early 21st century. where are you on this issue? >> waiting for jim mattis' report that's going to come out early next year. he has since said no one serving in the military will be removed from the military. he's going to make the assessment. i think it's worth while. just like bob gates went through more than a year of analysis in 2009, 2010, rather than making a precipitous change. >> did you have a problem serving with a transgender? >> well, i may have. i don't know. i didn't go around asking that just like i may have served with a gay or lesbian soldier as

well. we have to focus on the readiness of our forces and individual sources to make sure they are prepared to fight. >> do you have any sense that they're not? >> i think we have to wait for jim mattis' report. just like bob gates went through a very thorough affair. i want to make sure that the focus in our military is preparing our soldiers to fight and win our wars. >> senator tom cotton, thanks for coming on. >> thanks, chuck. now for the democrats. as you just heard senator cotton talk about, there's a divide on that side of the aisle, too. it wasn't too long ago that proposing a single payer health care would have considered too toxic for democrats to do. apparently not anymore. senator bernie sanders of vermont did that just this week, and he may have split left-leaning democrats from the party. and for many seeking re-election. joining me now is the independent senator, bernie sanders of vermont. senator, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> great to be with you, chuck. >> let me start with this. why was this week the right time to propose a solution that, in your mind, would replace obamacare over time? the reason i ask it that way is republicans are still trying to

repeal and replace obamacare on their terms. did you just add sort of more chum to the waters by proposing an alternative that would be a version of repealing and replacing obamacare? >> no. i think the immediate concern is to beat back these disastrous republican proposals that would throw millions and millions of people off of the health insurance that they have, raise premiums for older workers very substantially, cut medicaid by hundreds of billions. that is the immediate concern. but, chuck, there comes a time when we have got to ask ourselves, why are we, the united states of america, our great nation, the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a right? second of all, why are we spending twice as much per capita on health care as any other major country, all of whom guarantee health care to all of

their people? and our health care outcomes are not necessarily better. third, why do we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs? and in my view, a medicare for all single payer program will address those issues and guarantee health care to all people in a cost effective way. that's the direction we've got to go. it's not going to happen tomorrow. i totally admit that. but we need to put the benchmark down there and go forward. >> i want to ask you about the cost issue because, as you know, some of your friends on the right -- i put friends in quotes here -- are referring back to an old conversation of yours having to do with the cost of expanding the health care system. let me play it and get your reaction on the other side. >> you want to guarantee that all people have access to health care as you do in canada. but i think what we understand is that unless we change the funding system and the control mechanisms in this country to do that, for example, if we expanded medicaid, everybody --

we would be spending such an astronomical sum of money that, you know, we would bankrupt the nation. >> obviously, senator, the issue of this is there's the idea of health care for all is something that has majority support. then when you remind people how much it could cost, how much taxes go up, then people get concerned, and obviously you were concerned about the finances there. explain what you mean and how you can change the funding system to not make this so astronomical. >> okay. very good question, chuck. but here is my hope. you and i are going to discuss this within five minutes. i would hope very much that nbc and cbs and abc allow us some serious discussion time to explain to people in our country why we are spending so much more than other countries. but very briefly -- and i would hope that we can have an hour discussion at some point on this issue. very briefly, this is what we're going to do.

number one, private insurance companies in this country spend between 12% and 18% on administration costs, and they're administering hundreds of different private insurance plans. you have a deductible of $5,000. i have one of $8,000. it is incredibly complicated and very costly to administer. the cost of administering the medicare program, a very popular program that works well for our seniors, is 2%. we can save approximately $500 billion a year just in administration costs. second of all, because we pay so much more per capita for our prescription drugs, by having medicare negotiate drug prices, we can save over $100 billion there. so that's a lot of savings. thirdly, and here is the important point. my republican friends say, well, bernie wants to raise your taxes. they forget to conveniently mention that bernie wants to do

away with the private insurance premiums that you're now paying. for example, chuck, the average employer who has a worker who makes $50,000 a year is spending $13,000 a year on health insurance for that worker. the worker himself or herself is spending $5,000. $18,000. now, if our plan goes into effect, that $13,000 private insurance premium disappears for the employer. it goes down. the amount of money that the worker is now spending, that $5,000, goes down. we replace private insurance premiums with medicare premiums. the average middle class worker saves money. >> well, i guess the question i have for you, though, is how do you convince some 80% of americans who do get health care from their employer that it is worth rejiggering the system again? that seems to be the other challenge here because, as you know, people that get employer-based private insurance are basically happy with their insurance.

the people that are not happy are those in that other 20%. >> well, yes and no. in fact, we are going to need a lot of discussion. again, i would hope that on nbc, cbs, abc, we can begin to have that kind of discussion in a serious way. but here is the truth. you know, gallup does a lot of polling on this issue, and what they find out is that the most popular health insurance program in this country is medicare. >> right. >> seniors feel really good. veterans administration ranks very high. in fact, private insurance company is not all that popular. what we have to tell the average worker, the only thing that is changing in this program -- this is not, quote/unquote, a government takeover. the only thing that's changing is the color of your insurance card from a blue cross/blue shield card, a united health card, to a medicare for all card. you're still going to go to the doctor you want. it's the same structure. >> i'm going to move on, but i do promise you some longer time on this topic. >> i'd love to do that. >> it's a fair point.

as you know, your former primary rival, hillary clinton, is on a book tour. she wrote a lot about you in this book. i just want to play one quick excerpt and get you to respond on the other side, sir. >> i was arguing with my supporters at the denver convention in 2008 about why they had to quit complaining that i didn't win and get out and support barack obama. and i didn't get that respect from him and support. >> as you know, you've probably seen at least some excerpts of the book. i don't know if you've fully read it yet. this is a consistent theme. she believes you didn't work hard enough to bring your supporters to the fold the way she did in '08, which is what she was pointing out there. if anything, your supporters may have undermined her candidacy in the general election. do you accept that criticism? >> wow. no, i really don't. look, chuck, right now we're focusing on health care. we're focusing on the daca issue. we're focusing on infrastructure, high cost of prescription drugs. i don't think it's useful to go backwards.

i think we've got to go forward. let me say i worked as hard as i could after endorsing hillary clinton. i went all over this country, and i would remind people. you know, people say not everybody who voted for bernie ended up voting for hillary. no kidding. that's what happens in politics. if my memory is correct, in 2008, something like 24% of the people who voted for hillary clinton in the primaries ended up voting for john mccain. that's the nature of politics. most people, you know, are not rigidly democrats or republicans. they vote where they want. i worked as hard as i could to see that hillary clinton would be elected president. >> speaking of the democratic party, you're in some ways the most influential member of it, yet you're not technically a member of it. the filing deadline to file as a democrat for the united states senate in vermont in 2018 is about three months earlier than it is for you to file as an independent. it's in may. do you plan to file as a democrat or as an independent when you run for re-election in 2018? >> well, i will do what i have

done in the past. let me just say something about this. the current model of the democratic party obviously is not working. republicans control the house, the senate. they control the white house. they control two-thirds of the governors' offices throughout this country. in my view, we need to reach out to independents. there are a heck of a lot more independents in this country than republicans or democrats. i am an independent. i've always been a democrat. i've worked within the democratic caucus in the house and the senate for over 25 years. i'll continue to do that. >> so you'll become a member of the democratic party when you think it's finally open enough for independents? >> actually, in vermont -- it's not a question of a litmus test. i think the democratic party has got to reach out to working people. it's got to reach out to young people. it's got to come up with a progressive agenda. by the way, that agenda is gaining momentum. $15 an hour minimum wage. >> okay. >> putting $1 trillion into our infrastructure, transforming our energy system. that's the agenda we've got to

fight on. >> i'm going to leave it there. i look forward to our more extensive conversation on how to do single payer health care, how to pay for it because there's a lot of details that we need to get to. thank you, sir, for coming on. >> thank you very much. coming up, shining a light on the area hardest hit by hurricane irma, the u.s. virgin islands. my trip this week with former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. ents. switch to flonase allergy relief. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. when we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. flonase helps block 6. most allergy pills only block one and 6 is greater than 1. with more complete relief you can enjoy every beautiful moment to the fullest. flonase. 6 is greater than 1 changes everything. you don't let anything lkeep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals...

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xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. welcome back. the panel is here. al cardenas, the former head of the american conservative union. nbc news correspondent katy tur, author of the new book "unbelievable." and doris kearns goodwin and david brody. chief political correspondent for the christian broadcasting network. welcome all. doris, i'm going to start with you. donald trump -- what do you see from your historian's eyes that he's up to? >> it seems to me it all began when things started falling apart over the last eight months. he lost his mojo. he always talks about losers are

the worst people in the world, and he was losing. so he had to do something to get it back. he goes to harvey. it seems good for him to be looking empathetic, and people feel good about it. then he comes back, and he announces the daca thing. then people get outraged at the idea again, so he loses that sense of positive momentum. then he calls in chuck and nancy, and he makes the deal for the debt funding to get the flood relief to texas. then he feels good again. whoa, this is feeling good. so impulse takes over, and he does the next thing to talk to them about daca. so i think the question is, can an impulse become a strategy over time because it feeds that sense of himself. without that confidence -- he once said his best temperament -- the reason he was better than any president ever was because he always, always won. he has to blame himself. even if the strategy works and it produces more people liking him and the base stays with him because they like the fact that he's a winner again, which is what i think they always liked about him, then his unforced errors will still be there. the temperament, the tweets.

>> al, what do you think? >> i think we're seeing stage two. we're not paying enough attention to john kelly's influence on what's going on in the white house. i think that it's a product of the input they receive because they're drinking water by a fire hose every single day. i think in this case there's a lot of intramural infighting that was taking up a lot of time. a lot of in-house intrigue. i think that steve bannon frankly and some of his viewpoints were not in keeping with anything you could get done in congress. i think john kelly came in. you know, he's cleared the deck, and now it's an organized process where the input is more positive. i think kelly is not a policy driven person. but he's a let's get things done general. i think some of what we're seeing is a result of his being in the house. >> some never-trump conservatives, david, are doing -- i think we used the phrase, i told you so smugness.

jonah goldberg writes this. what really matters to him, referring to president trump, is praise. it was only a matter of time before the moth flew to the glow of public opinion. basically confirming doris' take here. >> you know, i see it a bit differently. i think this is strategy. donald trump is not one to twiddle his thumbs while mitch mcconnell and paul ryan get their act together. his dna is in deal making, and he's not going to sit around and wait for that. why not go and talk to chuck and nancy and all of that? i think the big narrative that's been missed here is that donald trump's base that we hear so much about is not a constitutionally conservative tea party base. it just isn't. and it goes across party lines. i know we talk about independents and democrats but it's more than that. it's blue collar. a lot these voters want to punch politicians in the face, and here's donald trump doing it. so if it's chuck and nancy or mitch and paul, who cares? he's been talking about this bipartisanship for a while here.

>> katy, i saved you for last on this. >> david's right about that. the trump voters are not conservative voters. they're not independent voters. they're not breitbart voters. they are donald trump voters, and he has a keen sense of that. but you also have to look in whatever room donald trump happens to be in. if he's in a room where he's going to get a roar for talking about the second amendment or talking about the wall or talking about hillary clinton, then he will do that. if he's in a room with chuck and nancy, who is he going to try to befriend in that room or try to make happy in that room? chuck and nancy more than mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell is a master of his own silence. donald trump does not work with those people in the same way that he does somebody like a new york senator. and don't discount the value of being the senator from new york. is this a strategy? i don't think it's a strategy. i think this is gut impulse for him, and he will go whichever the wind takes him, wherever he feels he can see a win or feels he can hear the loudest roar.

>> but i have to say, is he risking more than he realizes here when he messes with immigration? only because if there was one issue that animated him in those primaries, it was immigration. >> you know, i think if he risks himself and he loses his confidence and he's not feeling good, he risks everything that people voted for him for, that he was a fighter and he's going to stand up for things. i'm not sure that one issue is going to break the -- we always keep thinking a bridge too far. >> right. >> but if he loses -- and i think he was losing himself. he didn't appear happy. he didn't have any sense of humor, and he didn't feel good. and then who is he if he doesn't feel good and he doesn't get the applause? if you lose yourself, you lose everything. >> and daca is the easiest of the puzzles. comprehensive immigration reform. if you're going to take on immigration, daca is the safest bay to play in, and i think that's what's going on. >> if you line up eight to ten evangelicals in the street, they're all for the d.r.e.a.m.ers. this should be a relative slam dunk for him. the wall is the issue clearly. in 2020, when he starts to campaign again, he's going to

need to come with an 8 1/2 by 11 glossies of here's some blueprints and here's some pictures. >> i'm not sure that's true. i think at those rallies when people would come in and yell build the wall, yes, mexico was going to pay for it, a lot of sense was this was part of the show of the rally. this is what we do. but when you would talk to people about their support for donald trump, holding steadfast to any one of his positions wasn't mandatory for them, not even the wall. there was a time in the campaign where the wall looked a little cloudy, like they were talking about having it be a cyber wall or fencing around the border rather than a concrete wall that donald trump had been proposing. and when i asked his supporters whether or not they would feel undercut by that or duped by that, they would generally say no. they would just trust donald trump's judgment. >> guess what. let me throw up mark short. he's the chief legislative aide for the president. here's what he said in an interview this week.

i think that what the definition of a wall is something that we all need to have a serious conversation about. it is a myriad of different structures along the wall that we expect to be secure to make that america -- to make sure that america is safe. so it can be a fence. but, you know, that's not what dr. laura ingraham is not going to accept a fence. >> but trump voters are not listening to laura ingraham or even breitbart the way they're listening to donald trump. remember, they were anti-trump for a while, and they had to turn and become pro donald trump when they realized that's where the movement was going and that's where the base was going. >> i'll say this. i think it was well said. trump is the brand now. all these commentators that orbit around the brand are going to find out that they're going to have a miserable day if they think they're going to be able to -- >> in fact, they're going to seem like the establishment now in a certain sense, the critics going after him. i think the problem is the brand still is going to suffer from whatever is going on with the russia investigation, and then that old temperament is going to come out.

stevenson once said the problem is not how to win an election, but how to win an election without proving you're unworthy to win. if that starts to ratchet up, then the old trump is going to come floating right back. >> i'm going to pause it here. we've got an even longer segment coming up where we can finish this discussion. up next, hurricane irma cost lives, cost untold damage in florida. still no power for many schools in miami, believe it or not, and they're trying to open schools monday. but as bad as that was, the devastation is even worse in the u.s. virgin islands. i went down there with former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. we're going to show you what we saw when we come back. been trying to prepare for this day... and i'm still not ready. the reason i'm telling you this is that there will be moments in your life that... you'll never be ready for. your little girl getting married being one of them. ♪ ♪

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welcome back. florida is only now beginning to recover from last week's onslaught by hurricane irma. more than a million people remain without power in five southeastern states. it's been awhile since irma hit. the misery there is real. but if you want to know what an area looks like when it takes a

direct hit from a category 5 storm, just see what's happened to the u.s. virgin islands. in st. john, 80% of structures have extensive damage. four people are known to have died, and others are still missing. residents say the area has turned from green to brown as all the leaves on the trees have been blown off. when a local pointed this out to me, you realize and it's like oh, my god, it's as if it got scorched. i traveled to the virgin islands this week with former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. he wants americans to focus on their fellow american citizens in the caribbean and says his experience helping new york recover from hurricane sandy can help the u.s. virgin islands recover as well. the aftermath of hurricane irma on the u.s. virgin islands. most residents left with nothing. on st. thomas, just the frame of a government-built housing project still stands. >> i mean, you can just see people's living rooms literally just blown and all the remnants. there's your couch. there's your television.

there's your fan. there's all the things when you think about it. it's all there. the majority of the power lines on the island are destroyed. on st. thomas and st. john, officials are still assessing damage without any sense of when power will be back on. >> michael bloomberg. nice to see you. >> so why are you here? what got you here? >> one of my partners has a house here, called, said there's a real problem. you read about it in the paper, but unless you're on the ground, you don't really understand it. he marshalled some of our people. >> we lost one of the victims here. took him right out of the building. but folks stayed in here five, six hours with that wind and survived it. >> and, yes, that's island native and 15-time nba all-star tim duncan on the left. bloomberg's team arrived with supplies and their expertise. >> now we know that we're going

to work on changing the building codes and strengthening them. >> one of the things we did in new york when we were recovering from sandy is we started focusing on long-term how do you prevent it at exactly the same time. we got a lot of criticism. they said, you've got to get it going. at the beginning, when people see the destruction, that's when you can get some support and make a long-term investment. once you get six months later, nobody wants to do it. they're on to the next problem. >> the island of st. john got the brunt of the storm. >> that looks like ghost town in there. >> an estimated 80% of the island's structures suffered extensive damage. >> we just pulled into st. john's. of the three main virgin islands, st. john's is the one with the smallest population. approximately 4,000 residents, and this is the most -- they're hurting the most. the most destruction is here. the most dire situations are here. mayor bloomberg brought all the supplies specifically for the needs here in st. john.

it's hard to look at. it's hard to see. look at this destruction. doesn't look as if anything -- there's another power pole down. not a single structure escaped damage. even the most basic necessities, including vital medications, are slow to arrive. what is the medicine you're running out of the most? what is the biggest need? >> our biggest need has been insulin, tetanus, saline for i.v. drugs. >> we're seeing a lot of traumatic injuries, brains and strains, lacerations. you know, things that you would expect from this environment. also people who are having problems with their chronic medication. >> i was going to say running out of prescriptions. >> absolutely. >> president trump who visited florida last week also plans to come here. and bloomberg thinks that is a good idea in order to bring attention to the dire situation. >> but just saying, look, the u.s. virgin islands are part of america. we care about you.

it gives everybody that lives here more confidence and pride and a belief that help will come. and, number two, it does increase the help because people say, oh, i didn't know they needed that. i'll give some money. i'll volunteer. they're going to need hundreds of crews, electricians to put up all the cables. >> money is not going to be the issue here. it's going to be the people. >> that's exactly right. >> they're trying to lock it up because everybody is mass evacuating. >> what does success look like here? >> success will look like here six months from now all the corrugated metal that blew off, all the wrecked cars, they'll all be gone. unfortunately, there will still be lots of people who had a real job in tourism, and they've got to bring tourism back. people who have lost everything and don't have insurance, they have to start again. >> unfortunately, the story may not end there. there are three storms brewing in the atlantic, and one of them, maria, may be headed to the caribbean and the virgin islands this week. coming up, what sounds like

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welcome back. data download time. diversity and culture continue to be major fault lines in american politics. that's what we learned in our latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll that examines social trends in america. we learned something else, too. there's increasing evidence we're no longer talking about two parties when it comes to the way these issues break down. we're talking about three -- democrats, republicans, and the party of donald trump. let me explain. the true trump voter is one who told us that their vote was solely for donald trump and not some vote that was against hillary clinton. yes, we asked that difference. these voters stand apart from fellow republicans in some key ways. let's start with immigration. does it add or strengthen the united states, or does it detract and weaken? 16% of democrats say it detracts and weakens. 43% of republicans answered the same way. but a majority, 55% of true

trump voters, say immigration detracts from and weakens the united states. another issue, gay marriage. 77% of democrats are in favor. 42% of republicans are, too. but only 31% of true trump voters agree. it's a big gap between the gop as a whole and the true trump voter. how about the news media? does the news media pay too little attention to the issues of working americans? 48% of democrats said that bothered them. 65% of republicans. among true trump voters, that number was an astounding 76%. finally, does it make you comfortable or uneasy that the nation is becoming more diverse and tolerant of different lifestyles? only 10% of democrats said they were uneasy. 44% of republicans said the same. but over half of true trump voters, 56%, answered the same way. so the true trump voter is starting to look like its own distinct arm of the republican party, if not quite a separate party in and of itself. how will these voters react to the president entertaining a deal with the democratic

leadership on daca? the majority of them believe immigration weakens the country. our data shows this is not a group looking for compromise or moderation. so will they continue to stick and trust the president trump they got to know as a candidate? we're going to soon find out. when we come back, ever since president trump made his fire and fury statement, north korea has moved closer to becoming a genuine nuclear threat to the united states. does america have any options left beyond more tough talk? >> announcer: coming up, end game, brought to you by boeing. continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore, and inspire. ♪ ♪ wow! nice outfit. when i grow up, i'm going to mars. we're working on that. some people know how far they want to go. a personalized financial strategy can help you get them there.

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so don't wait. call unitedhealthcare now to request your free decision guide. back now with end game. i want to begin because the week is going t it seems as if we are running in place on north korea. putting together a montage of four presidents, including this one, on all of their north korea promises. take a listen. >> all americans should know that as a result of this achievement on korea, our nation will be safer and the future of our people more secure. >> we look forward to the day when we can end the korean war, but that will happen when kim jong-il verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons. >> north korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose a grave threat to the peace and security of the world, and i

strongly condemn their reckless action. >> and obviously, north korea is a big, big problem, and we will deal with that very strongly. >> each president has had this on their plate. each one has been flummoxed on what to do. >> yes, and i think this week at the u.n., i think the white house is going in with a sober approach. they understand they want to see what sanctions will do, but let's remember, we have a wild card president here this time, and he might be a different clip in your montage afterwards because, look, senior administration officials early on in this administration were talking to me and others about how this is a major, major problem to the point where military action indeed may come to fruition at some point. and if any president is going to do it, i think a lot of people know in their gut that it's going to be potentially this president. >> ironically here, doris, and i've heard this actually from the left and the right, they wish they had a credible military option, because it

seems that kim jong-un doesn't believe us. >> well, the fact that no previous administration has been able to crack this code means that it doesn't make sense to just call them all weak. he's got to figure out why have we not been able to. and maybe a military option has to be considered, but you can't allow -- this is where you need kelly again. you can't allow some spontaneous comment about fire and fury to even mobilize him even further as they did to have more missile tests. you need a clear process within that, just like the cuban missile crisis was a much better situation, the decision-making, than the bay of pigs had been. we have to make sure that decision-making is rational options, using every diplomacy possible, figuring out what is there still. you can't allow spontaneous tweets to have anything to do with north korea from now on. >> we're a logical country, and most of us expect people at some point in time to behave logically, but as doris mentioned, i lived the cuba missile crisis. there was a mad man who put 11 million lives at risk and gladly did so. korb chev, if you read -- gorbachev was even amazed that

he was willing to be so, you know, so risk-taking that he would put all these people at risk. in this case, unfortunately, it looks like you're going to have those military options in place, the diplomatic options in place. but it's a kind of case where you almost have to get close to having to press a button for something to happen. >> you're missing two pieces of the puzzle, russia and china, and what happens with them, and how do you have a military option if we can't get china on board for that, if you can't get south korea on board for that, if you can't get japan on board for that. remember, the place that's in the most danger would be seoul, south korea. and if we have a military option, are we willing to essentially sacrifice the south korean capital? and that's really difficult. >> i've got a potpourri of quick issues i want to discuss and i'm not going to let you answer each of them. you'll each have it individually. doris, what do you make of bernie sanders and are they making a rush to single-payer, and is it goes to expose the moderate -- >> well, i think they're thinking of the party and it's

not done well in local areas as much as the national government and they need a soul back and this is maybe a symbol of their soul. >> is bernie the soul of the democratic party? >> i'm not saying he's the soul. >> some democrats say he is. >> but i think the idea that people don't identify with parties the way they used to. this is why your other thing was so interesting. they don't feel, i'm a democrat, i'm a republican, i'm an independent! so, parties have to begin to build on issues and on policies that people care about, whether this is the one to do it or not, i don't know. >> david, your beat in many ways is the intersection of religion and politics. i've got to ask you this poll question that came this week, asking a politician who commits an immoral act, can they still behave ethically? evangelicals in 2011, only 30% thought that was the case. in 2016, it was 72%. essentially, it's clear why evangelicals are giving donald trump a pass on his moral behavior. why this change? >> well, if you look at it, 2011-2016, what happened in between? barack obama's second term. and i think a lot of white

evangelicals believe that it is time from a moral perspective to fight for a new supreme court justice or whatever you have. the point is, is that donald trump has become this culture warrior for evangelicals. it's fascinating. talk about god having a sense of humor. he's a cultural warrior for evangelicals. pro-life leaders are calling him the most pro-life president there's ever been. >> could this hurt them long term if he sells them out? >> well, if he sells them out. >> hurt the movement, that they won't be taken seriously on moral issues. >> let's be clear, the chuck and nancy show, so to speak, on dead issues and deficit and all that, that's fine. when i say that's fine, that's going to be okay in non evangelical world, but evangelical world, different, if he crosses them, got to be careful. >> katie and i did an event at 92nd street wine this week and

it made a great podcast. "1947" is the latest podcast. you're going to be signing those books. congratulations. >> thank you, chuck. >> that's all we have for today. until next week, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: you can see more "end game" in "postgame" on the mtp facebook page. day 13. if only this were as easy as saving $600 when you switch to progressive. winds stirring. too treacherous for a selfie. [ camera shutter clicks ] sure, i've taken discounts to new heights with safe driver and paperless billing. but the prize at the top is worth every last breath.

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